Exclusive: Inside Hegseth’s push to showcase a dramatic Iran rescue on ‘60 Minutes’
A view of wreckage of the downed F-15 fighter jet is seen in Iran on April 5. Both crew members were rescued
By Zachary Cohen, Brian Stelter, CNN
(CNN) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and political appointees in his department pushed for the two crew members of an F-15 who were shot down over Iran in April to participate in Sunday’s highly publicized “60 Minutes” report about the ensuing rescue operation, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.
Both airmen initially expressed reservations about doing the interview, with one even raising concerns about the prospect of being potentially ordered to take part in the segment, while military officials were also wary of revealing classified details of the rescue effort, according to three of the sources.
Political appointees in Hegseth’s office were adamant that both crew members sit for interviews, two of the sources said.
But after the two survivors voiced concerns, Hegseth met privately with them and asked whether they wanted to participate rather than forcing their cooperation, the sources said. As a result, one of the pilots, dubbed “Bravo,” agreed to sit for an on-camera interview and discuss his experience, while the other, “Alpha,” declined to take part in the “60 Minutes” report.
The two crew members have not been publicly identified by the Pentagon, and CNN could not independently identify them to seek comment.
The episode underscores how Hegseth’s office is working to craft the narrative around the Iran war, which has become increasingly unpopular and put pressure on Hegseth to claim victory.
It also shows how Hegseth has played an unusually hands-on role in that effort – engaging in the planning process for the “60 Minutes” interview far more than is typical for a Defense Secretary.
“This entire story is a complete lie,” Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell said when asked about CNN’s reporting on plans for the segment.
“The decision to participate in the interview was each pilot’s alone – because it is their story,” he added. “As CNN notes, one pilot decided to participate and one did not. Additionally, the Department took great care to ensure operational security, sources, and methods were protected. To suggest otherwise is to denigrate every member of our military who participated in and supported the interview.”
Many major news outlets, including CNN, were eager to interview the pilots last spring, and the media competition was intense. At CBS, producer Keith Sharman, a 25-year veteran of “60 Minutes,” reached out to longtime US military contacts on the day of the rescue to start pursuing an interview.
The lobbying effort went all the way to the top. Soon after the rescue, CBS News editor in chief Bari Weiss told journalists in her newsroom that the bookings of the crew members were “top priorities,” and she personally lobbied Hegseth to give CBS exclusive access, three sources at the network said. Weiss also reached out to other Trump administration officials.
Hegseth and members of his staff were very enthusiastic to broadcast a dramatic retelling of the incident with both crew members, three of the sources familiar with the production of the episode said.
But the process still took several months. Sharman and correspondent Norah O’Donnell, who ultimately secured the interview, originally pitched a story for the previous season of “60 Minutes,” which ended in May.
Then CBS was consumed by internal strife. Weiss forced out several “60 Minutes” correspondents and producers and installed a new executive producer, Nick Bilton, prompting weeks of critical news coverage.
With Weiss and Bilton under pressure to prove that the new iteration of “60 Minutes” would still deliver exclusive and impactful reports, the sit-down with the crew members was even more valuable to CBS.
A CBS spokesperson declined to comment for this story.
Officials raised concerns
The Pentagon, regardless of political party in power, has historically worked to frame retelling of incidents of military heroism – there’s even an office set up specifically to work with Hollywood productions. But the push for detail during an ongoing campaign concerned military officials, according to three sources.
Sunday’s show has been previewed as the inside story of the US rescue operation that extracted the two F-15 crew members from Iran.
The pilot of the plane was found in the immediate hours after the plane was shot down by Iranian forces. But the second crew member, a weapons system officer, spent more than a day evading capture by encroaching Iranian forces. At one point, he scaled the rugged terrain to a ridgeline 7,000 feet above sea level, equipped with little more than a pistol, a communication device and a tracking beacon.
The airman was rescued by a team of American commandos, accompanied by US aircraft dropping bombs to clear the area.
That crew member decided to sit for an interview after Hegseth gave the two the choice of participating or not. The pilot declined.
Uniformed service members have voiced concern that the “60 Minutes” presentation is an effort by Hegseth’s office to use the heroism demonstrated by US troops as part of a successful rescue operation for political purposes, two of the sources said.
In addition to concerns that the aircrew was hesitant about taking part in the CBS report, members of the military were also wary about potentially revealing classified specifics of the rescue mission itself — particularly while US forces are still engaged in active combat operations against Iran, multiple sources added.
But political appointees within Hegseth’s office insisted that the interview go forward despite reservations voiced by the military the chain of command, the sources told CNN.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Dan Caine, shared some concerns about the possibility that the “60 Minutes” interview could, even inadvertently, disclose military tactics to the enemy but decided to participate in the segment nonetheless, according to one of the sources familiar with the production process.
A spokesman for Caine, Joseph Holstead, said that he would not “comment on agenda-driven sources, anonymous sources’ characterizations, other than to reiterate the story here remains that the Joint Force will do everything possible to ensure no one gets left behind.”
CBS mounted months-long push
A key part of Weiss and the CBS team’s pitch to the Pentagon involved the huge platform of “60 Minutes,” the most-watched news program on US television.
After the shock of the summertime firings wore off, Bilton and the remaining staffers faced a deadline of September 13, the date of the first scheduled episode of the new “60 Minutes” season.
Weiss and Bilton hoped to have the Iran rescue story for the season premiere. But inside CBS, the interview with the pilot was not confirmed until mid-July, and even then, there was a chance it would fall through. The sit-down was taped in mid-August.
Early in the pursuit of the interview, Weiss leaned on a past connection she had with Hegseth, whom she personally booked for a CBS interview on the January day that the ex-Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife were seized by US forces.
One of the CBS sources said Weiss sought to build on her relationship with Hegseth last spring in pursuit of the airmen story. Bilton also spoke to Hegseth and Washington sources in an effort to land the interview.
She remained in touch with Hegseth as the episode came together, two sources said.
Inside the Pentagon, Tami Radabaugh, who worked as Hegseth’s TV producer at Fox News before moving with him to the Defense Department as a senior adviser, was primarily responsible for orchestrating the “60 Minutes” presentation, the sources said.
Hegseth, himself, granted a rare interview for the “60 Minutes” broadcast, according to a preview clip released by CBS.
The network’s first sneak peek of the segment showed “Bravo” sitting silently while O’Donnell asked him, “Did you ever have any doubt that the US military was coming for you?”
Then the narrator intoned, “Dude 44 Bravo. For the first time. 60 Minutes, new season, CBS Sunday.”
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