The CNN anchor desk quickly jumped in to address Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s attacks on the press as he ended a news conference during which he went off on the network and cheered the takeover effort of Trump ally David Ellison.

Hegseth held a joint press conference on Tuesday morning alongside Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine to update the Pentagon press corps as the Iran war closes out its second week.

Hegseth lashed out at the press to start the presser, singling out CNN and saying, “The sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better!”

As Hegseth left the podium at the end of the presser during Friday’s edition of CNN News Central, co-anchor John Berman immediately noted the attacks on the press — without mentioning Ellison or CNN:

CNN ANCHOR JOHN BERMAN: Very notable press briefing from the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, and the chair of the Joint Chiefs, Dan Caine.

I would say the most defensive we have seen Pete Hegseth in any of these briefings. He led off, not with mentioning the four airmen lost over Iraq and the refueling tanker, although he did get to that ultimately. Dan Cain led with that.

But the secretary led with an attack on the press. I think most notably in terms of where things stand in the conflict, the secretary was talking a great deal about the Strait of Hormuz and the fact that there is really almost no shipping passing through.

In the reports that the United States, I think, may be behind in dealing with this, The secretary said that Iran is operating with desperation in the strait. He said the United States is dealing with it. The United States has been dealing with. And most notably, the secretary says we don’t need to worry about it.

CNN ANCHOR KATE BOLDUAN: But also on the strait of Hormuz, because the Joint Chiefs Chairman was asked about it as well. And General Dan Caine said very clearly, describe Hormuz as a tactically complex environment. And he says, before, I think we want to take anything through there at scale we want to make sure we do the work pursuant to our current military objectives to do that safely and smartly.

Just on the heels of President Trump saying in a new interview with Fox News telling tankers that they should show some guts and just start moving through because he says the strait is safe

CNN ANCHOR JOHN BERMAN: I think also responding very notably to the Secretary of Energy’s interview with you yesterday, Kate, where the secretary said, we are not yet ready to escort the tankers through.

Neither the secretary nor the chair did anything to dispute that. The chair quite the opposite, noting that Iran still very much has capability in the strait there.

CNN ANCHOR KATE BOLDUAN: So there’s a lot to work through here.

UPDATE: A CNN spokesperson reached out to Mediaite following the presser to say “We stand by our reporting.”

Watch above via CNN News Central.

Correction (3/13/2026): An earlier version of this story mischaracterized a reaction of laughter in the CNN studio. We regret the error.

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