The clip circulating from The Rubin Report captured something the mainstream media hates: a guest who actually did her homework and calmly dismantled the left’s favorite narrative. Dave Rubin, Winston Marshall, and Sean Spicer highlighted the moment CNN’s Abby Phillip grew visibly uncomfortable as Batya Ungar-Sargon laid out inconvenient facts about the so-called “war crimes” story pushed by Democrats and legacy outlets. Conservatives should celebrate any instance where facts, not theatrics, puncture the media’s preferred storyline.
The whole controversy traces back to a dramatic Washington Post piece that claimed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered crews to “kill everybody” aboard a suspected narco-boat and that a follow-up strike killed two survivors. That explosive allegation set off predictable howls from the left and calls for witch-hunts in Congress, despite the story’s reliance on unnamed sources and framing that presumed guilt before evidence. Americans deserve clarity, not cable-driven character assassination.
Hegseth and other administration officials pushed back hard, calling the reporting false and stressing the chaos of combat operations — what Hegseth himself called the “fog of war.” The defense secretary has maintained he did not personally see survivors after the first strike and that commanders in the field had authority to make split-second decisions to stop deadly drug shipments that are killing Americans at home. Patriots should respect commanders who act to protect the homeland, while still demanding that any investigation be fair and unpoliticized.
Even as administration officials defended the strikes as lawful and necessary, Democratic lawmakers quickly weaponized the story, warning of potential war crimes and demanding broad investigations. Predictably, this chorus treated allegations as fact and tried to turn a national-security operation into another partisan cudgel — the same playbook used whenever Republicans act decisively. If Congress wants answers, it should pursue them with seriousness, not theatrical posturing for camera-friendly outrage.
For all the calls to “release the video,” the Pentagon has balked at making unedited footage public, citing intelligence and operational concerns while offering classified briefings to armed services committees. That’s not secrecy for secrecy’s sake; it’s a sober recognition that adversaries exploit raw intelligence and that the safety of sources and methods matters. The left’s demand to stream sensitive military footage on cable news is reckless and reveals their preference for spectacle over security.
So why did Abby Phillip go quiet? Because Batya Ungar-Sargon didn’t scream or grandstand — she presented context the anchors had ignored: the pattern of narco-trafficking, the legal thresholds being asserted by the administration, and the messy realities of operations at sea. When conservatives bring facts and nuance to the table, the media’s theater falls apart, and that humiliation explains their sudden discomfort. The real story here is media malpractice: pushing a narrative built on emotion while dismissing sober explanations that complicate a politically useful scandal.
At the end of the day, Americans want two things: a secure border and accountability for how their military is used. We should back efforts to dismantle narco-terror networks that flood our country with poison, while insisting on transparent, nonpartisan oversight when questions arise. But let us not be naïve — the press and partisan Democrats will try to weaponize any incident to score political points, and it’s up to conservatives to fight back with facts, courage, and a refusal to let Washington’s swamp dictate the truth.
