White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt blasted CNN Monday after the network had to issue a correction to a report that Democratic leaders in Congress were not informed of a strike on Iranian nuclear facilities.
The United States struck sites in Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan related to Iran’s efforts to develop nuclear weapons early Sunday morning local time, using as many as 14 GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators in the operation. Leavitt told “Fox and Friends” co-host Brian Kilmeade that the White House had reached out to congressional Democrats.
WATCH:
“The White House made calls to congressional leadership, they were bipartisan calls. In fact, Hakeem Jeffries couldn’t be reached, we tried him before the strike and he did not pick up the phone, but he was briefed after, as well as Chuck Schumer was briefed before prior to the strike,” Leavitt said. “So this notion that CNN ran with that the White House did not give a heads-up to Democrats is just completely false. In fact, both Senator Schumer’s office and CNN had to retract that story last night, because it was a blatant lie and we showed them the timestamps from those phone calls.”
CNN’s web page ,where the article initially reported that Democrats had not been informed of the strike, shows a correction at the top of the story. Leavitt had called for a correction in a Sunday post on X.
“This is Fake News,” Leavitt posted. “The White House made bipartisan courtesy calls to Congressional Leadership and spoke to @SenSchumer before the strike. @RepJeffries could not be reached until after, but he was briefed. @CNN please retract.”
This is Fake News.
The White House made bipartisan courtesy calls to Congressional Leadership and spoke to @SenSchumer before the strike. @RepJeffries could not be reached until after, but he was briefed.
@CNN please retract. https://t.co/4VCgjkznKH
— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) June 22, 2025
The American strikes came ten days after Israel launched a military operation targeting the Iranian nuclear program. Iran has responded with repeated missile attacks on Israeli cities and a refusal to resume negotiations over its efforts to pursue nuclear weapons.
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