On Tuesday Reuters reported that The U.S. has used "virtually all" of its long range precision missiles during the war with Iran, which drew a harsh response from President Trump on Truth Social on Thursday, which included a promise that, "The leakers of these treasonous statements are being hunted down." Other outlets are also pushing this news, because anti-Trump news is their favorite news.
Naturally, many in the the left wing media, used this as an opportunity to trumpet that the U.S. is in big trouble militarily, without concern over the message that this sends to Iran and our other enemies, and that was the case Thursday night on CNN's NewsNight With Abby Phillip.
Phillip began the segment by apparently misstating Trump's evaluation of our ability to fight this war and future conflicts.
PHILLIP: Is the U.S. equipped to fight this war with Iran and any future war for that matter? President Trump publicly says no, but behind the scenes, concerns are growing.
There is no such statement from the President where he says we are not equipped to fight, now, or in the future. After referencing a CNN report that claims senior military commanders are warning that the Pentagon's munitions stockpiles are dangerously low, and claiming CNN has been told that Trump is complaining about these reports, and that they make America look weak, she led into a clip of the President from earlier in the day at the White House, this way, "And then he appeared to admit that some of the reports were, in fact, accurate."
TRUMP: We have certain types of munitions that are very powerful, that we have unlimited, virtually unlimited supply. We have others where it's a little bit tighter, but we have certain types of munitions which, they may not be as accurate....they're not as elite. We have elite too, but we're we're watching that very closely. But we have certain types which are very powerful and very good. And we have an unlimited supply. With that being said, we always want more. We have to have more. We're in very good shape. We have literally massive amounts of ammunition.
Describing our various munitions supplies as, unlimited, virtually unlimited, a little bit tighter, being watched very closely, unlimited supply, and massive amounts, and stating we are in very good shape, hardly sounds like Trump, appeared to admit, the accuracy of some of the reports. Why would he, even it they are true? Later Sarah Matthews, former Deputy Press Secretary in the first Trump term turned Trump critic, expressed happiness at these reports! First, she claimed these stories must be true if Trump is "posting about it being treasonous," and then turned to the glee:
MATTHEWS: And I'm happy that the information is out there though, even though it is concerning, because now the Iranians know just how weak we are. And so I, am worried about that, that they're going to be even more emboldened than they are in this war. I think that they feel like they have the upper hand right now.
Wow! She is glad that the information is public even though it emboldens Iran, our enemy? After more debate on whether or not the story stories are true, Horace Cooper, Senior Fellow at the National Center for Public Policy Research, brought the counterpoint to Phillip, who seemed disturbed by the fact that Trump used the word treasonous and said he would go after the leakers .
COOPER: If I were in the middle of a major conflict and some other entity was attempting to undermine my ability to threaten my enemy, that would be enough--
PHILLIP: How does it undermine our ability to threaten Iran if it's not true? It only undermines our ability to threaten Iran if it's true.
After Cooper made a World War II analogy, Phillip pressed him..
PHILLIP: You're not answering my question.
COOPER: The same thing happened during the time of the Cold War.
PHILLIP: We have the missiles, our ability to prosecute the war isn't changed. If we can prosecute the war because we have everything that we need, we're good to go. It sounds like you're concerned that it's true.
Then Cooper hit it out of the park.
COOPER: It's not true at all. If I operated a bank and I had state of the art security, and people were going around saying that bank doesn't have any protection, guess what? Just because I have state of the art protection doesn't mean my bank might not get attacked. It is the exact opposite from a national security perspective--Surely you understand that.
Point well made, and Phillip did not further pursue that line of questioning. All in all, a very disturbing segment, even by CNN standards.
