By Isabella Torregiani
1:25pm PDT, Jun 26, 2025
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Fox News contributor
Charlie Hurt didn't hold back when reacting to the recent leak of U.S. intelligence related to the Iran strikes — calling it an act of "treason." Hurt said that if the source behind the leak is uncovered, the White House should pursue the death penalty for releasing the secret documents.
Keep reading for more on his remarks…MORE:
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Appearing on Jesse Watters Primetime, Charlie Hurt claimed the leak was proof that the "deep state" isn't just a conspiracy theory — it's real: "If you don't believe in the deep state after this, then you have lost your mind," he said on Wednesday, June 25. "This is the definition of the deep state. A wartime leak of very sensitive confidential information — it is treason. The punishment for treason is the death penalty. This is not a joke."
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Charlie Hurt, who co-hosts Fox and Friends Weekend, urged the government to go all in on finding and punishing the person responsible: "I pray that they do not back down on this, that they get to the bottom of who it is and they can find who leaked this information. It is treason," he said. He went on to condemn the CNN reporter who first broke the story, calling Natasha Bertrand "a moron" — though he acknowledged she was doing her job as a journalist. "I get why a reporter tries to get this stuff, whatever, and she's a moron, she doesn't know what she's talking about," he said. While Hurt is calling for prosecution, he admitted the full extent of the damage remains unclear: "We don't know, it's going to take time to find out, I can't wait to find out what the damage actually was," he said.
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President Donald Trump also criticized the CNN reporter, writing on Truth Social, "Natasha Bertrand should be FIRED from CNN! I watched her for three days doing Fake News. She should be IMMEDIATELY reprimanded, and then thrown out 'like a dog.'" CNN, meanwhile, has defended Bertrand's reporting, saying they "stand 100 percent behind" her work. "CNN's reporting made clear that this was an initial finding that could change with additional intelligence. We have extensively covered President Trump's own deep skepticism about it," the network said in a statement.
