President Donald Trump called CNN and MSNBC “gutless losers” on Tuesday over their reporting on the bombing of Iran while taking questions about the conflict on the south lawn of the White House.
CNN and MSNBC both raised questions about whether the B-2 bombs “completely and totally obliterated” the three nuclear facilities located outside of Tehran. Trump said that the outlets, which he referred to as “scum,” owed the B-2 pilots who put their lives on the line an apology.
“I think it’s been completely demolished. I think that the reason we’re here is because those pilots, those B-2 pilots, did an unbelievable job,” Trump said while being aired by CNN. “And the fake news, CNN in particular, they’re trying to say ‘well, I agree that it was destroyed but maybe not that destroyed.’ You know what they’re doing? They’re hurting great pilots who put their lives on the line. CNN is scum, and so is MSDNC. And frankly, the networks aren’t much better. It’s all fake news, but they should not have done that … The B-2 pilots did their job, they did it better than anybody could have ever imagined. They hit late in the evening, it was dark with no moon, and they hit that target with every one of those things.”
“When I see CNN, all night long they’re trying to say ‘well, maybe it wasn’t really as demolished as we thought’ … I will say, I think CNN ought to apologize to the pilots of the B-2’s, I think that MSDNC ought to apologize. I think these guys, these networks and these cable networks are real losers. You really are, you’re real losers,” Trump continued.
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In one article, CNN quoted Jeffrey Lewis, a weapons expert and professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, to dispute or downplay the success of the bombings in Iran. Lewis told CNN that the B-2 bombers only caused “restricted” damage to the facilities because the B-2 bombers did not drop “bunker-buster” bombs, calling the attack “an incomplete strike.”
“Even if the US was successful in destroying Iran’s facility at Fordow — another underground site that housed centrifuges needed to enrich uranium, which the US hit with 12 bunker busters — the obvious survival of Isfahan has raised questions about whether Trump achieved his stated goal of ‘a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world’s No. 1 state sponsor of terror,’” CNN wrote.
The network’s host, Abby Phillip, raised the question of whether the facilities were truly “obliterated,” arguing that it is “too early” to assess the damage during a Monday segment of “News Night.”
MSNBC noted in an article that the “reliability” of Trump’s claim immediately came into question by quoting General Dan Caine, who said it was “way too early” to make a “meaningful assessment” of how much damage was done.
Trump announced the “very successful attack” on the nuclear sites on Saturday and warned during an address to the nation that Iran will face “far greater” attacks if the country does not seek peace. Current and former Republicans who have opposed Trump’s actions, including John Bolton, Bill Kristol and former Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, praised Trump’s action against Iran.
Iran retaliated against the U.S. by launching “powerful and destructive” missile attacks on American bases located in Iraq and Qatar. The president announced that Iran and Israel had reached a ceasefire agreement on Monday, though he expressed frustration the following day when the two nations broke the deal.
“We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard, that they don’t know what the fuck they are doing,” Trump said.
CNN and MSNBC did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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