On Tuesday, the American Embassy in Yemen was shuttered and all personnel ordered out of the country for their personal safety.
Fox News was on it Wednesday night with their "military expert" from the Koch-funded veterans' organization Concerned Veterans for America, Pete Hegseth. Hegseth appeared with a terrible story to tell and who better to lead it in than Megyn Kelly, with her breathless introduction about how Marines were "ordered to leave their weapons behind" when they evacuated.
Hegseth was on hand to really stir up those Fox viewers with some hard-core insider observations.
“So, we’re surrendering around the world, we’re surrendering our embassy, and now we’re asking U.S. Marines to surrender their dignity, give up oaths that they made, creeds that they live by, and surrender their rifle,” Hegseth said.
Hegseth wondered who thought it was right to have Marines hand over their weapons to Yemeni officials before evacuating the country.
“Someone botched the plan,” he said.
Hegseth said this is about the signals and optics presented to the world.
“It is maddening how naive this administration is,” he said.
Oh, wait. That was their original report, the one where they pulled a story out of their butt to make it seem like we'd left taxpayer-funded weapons of death behind, reported solely to outrage viewers.
They were just wrong. Totally, completely wrong, as Megyn Kelly was forced to explain with as much spin as she could later in the broadcast.
The Marine Corps has clarified what Marines did under State Department orders in Yemen following the evacuation of the U.S. embassy.
Crew served weapons were destroyed at the embassy, while Marines’ personal weapons were “rendered inoperable” at the airport, and their destroyed components were left behind.
The Marine Corps does not dispute the reporting that CENTCOM is outraged over weapons being rendered inoperable.
The Marine Corps isn't authorized to speak for CENTCOM, so that last sentence is completely useless nonsensical spin which translates to "We desperately need to be right about something."
Here's the statement issued by the Marines:
The Marine Security Force left the American embassy in Yemen for the movement to the airfield as part of the "ordered departure" with only personal weapons. All crew served weapons were destroyed at the embassy prior to movement. None of them were 'handed over' in any way to anyone. The destruction of weapons at the embassy and the airport was carried out in accordance with an approved destruction plan.
Upon arrival at the airfield, all personal weapons were rendered inoperable in accordance with advance planning. Specifically, each bolt was removed from its weapons body and rendered inoperable by smashing with sledgehammers. The weapons bodies, minus the bolts, were then separately smashed with sledgehammers. All of these destroyed components were left at the airport -- and components were scattered; no usable weapon was taken from any Marine at Sana'a airport.
To be clear: No Marine handed a weapon to a Houthi, or had one taken from him.
To be clearer: Pete Hegseth and Fox editors invented a bullshit story out of thin air which they were then forced to retract.
That's the second retraction in less than a month. Be still, my beating heart.
Megyn Kelly's "update" is below.
