Jennifer Griffin's Bias Against Pete Hegseth Is Reaching Parodic Levels

As attacks on the Houthis have escalated, you'd think the more hawkish among us would be cheering on Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. After all, what's not to like about restoring freedom of navigation to one of the world's most important shipping lanes?

Bias is a heck of a thing, though, and instead of doing what she's typically done in the past, which is offer nearly universal support for everything the Pentagon does, Fox News' Jennifer Griffin is now taking a different approach.

In a series of posts beginning on Thursday, she trumpeted the shooting down of a MQ-9 Reaper drone, detailing how much they cost.

NEW: Houthis shoot down 3rd MQ9 Reaper drone since March 3rd; 2nd since March 15th airstrike campaign began.

Another U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone was shot down by the Houthis in Yemen, sources tell Fox News. This is the third MQ-9 Reaper drone shot down by the Houthis in the last…
— Jennifer Griffin (@JenGriffinFNC) April 3, 2025

That struck me as odd because I sure can't remember Griffin ever expressing deep concern over the Biden administration regarding the monetary costs of its military losses. In the past few months, though, she's repeatedly reported on the dollar amounts of various Pentagon expenditures under the Trump administration. Why did that suddenly become relevant?

Even taking her post at face value, it comes across as crass. If a drone costs $30 million, what's the cost of a pilot's life? Because that's the alternative to having a Reaper flying low and slow with limited countermeasures and no SEAD support. The entire point of a drone is that it is expendable, which allows you to get closer to the enemy than you might otherwise deem worth the operational risk.

As to the cost, each Reaper flying is not technically worth $30 million. The turbine engine it has, as well as every other component onboard do depreciate. What was the age of this drone? Are older ones being used in more high-risk situations? Those are questions that would provide a lot of context to Griffin's parroting of numbers.

With that said, I was ready to ignore that post and just chalk it up to Griffin continuing to be a stenographer for DOD careerists, many of whom are hostile to the Trump administration. But on Friday, she kept beating the drum in a way that deserved a response.

Hegseth named the open ended Houthi military operation “Rough Rider” as a nod to the troops Teddy Roosevelt led in Cuba during the Spanish American War, according to @NYT “But Houthi fighters, known for their resiliency, have reinforced many of their bunkers and other targeted… https://t.co/0e5hntxjfy
— Jennifer Griffin (@JenGriffinFNC) April 4, 2025

GRIFFIN: Hegseth named the open ended Houthi military operation “Rough Rider” as a nod to the troops Teddy Roosevelt led in Cuba during the Spanish American War, according to @NYT “But Houthi fighters, known for their resiliency, have reinforced many of their bunkers and other targeted sites, frustrating the Americans’ ability to disrupt the militia’s missile attacks against commercial ships in the Red Sea, according to three congressional and allied officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters."

The US military is burning through high end weapons and munitions that could be needed in the Pacific. Cost to soon hit $1 billion after just three weeks, and two downed MQ9 Reaper drones. Hegseth will soon need to ask for more money from Congress for a bombing campaign in the Middle East against a resilient terrorist enemy with underground bunkers. Sound familiar? Saudi Arabia bombed the Houthis for 6 years, an estimated 25,000 airstrikes, untold civilian casualties, and the Houthis survived.

I'm sorry, what? I can't find a single story from Griffin during the Afghanistan withdrawal where she was giving dollar estimates on what the evacuation would cost or the monetary value of the equipment we were leaving behind. I also can't find any reports from her noting the resilience of the Houthis when it was the Biden administration bombing them.

Heck, it seems like Griffin is actually suggesting we surrender in this fight with her "Sound familiar" quip, citing Saudi Arabia's lack of success against the Houthis. That's quite the heel turn for someone who, in my experience, has never met a war she didn't want others to fight.

Is this all a coincidence? Color me skeptical. Griffin was very critical, passively and directly, of Hegseth's appointment to lead the Pentagon, and her sources are no doubt filled with people who despise the current Secretary of Defense. At this point, I can only assume bias is driving her reporting.

Editor's Note: Thanks to President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's leadership, the warrior ethos is coming back to America's military.

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