Alex Wong/Getty Images Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth took the podium for the first time after Donald Trump launched his war in Iran to serve up a speech full of scripted lines and petty outbursts. If the goal were to provide clarity and understanding on the U.S. objectives for its full-scale assault and what Americans should expect, the former Fox News personality came up miserably short on all fronts. He contradicted himself. He contradicted the president. He became defensive when pressed by his own hand-picked Pentagon Press Corps to provide basic information, spouted partisan politics, and lacked empathy for the dead. Read more at The Daily Beast.