The White House blasted media outlets on Wednesday for “intellectual dishonesty” in their coverage of why President Donald Trump launched Operation Epic Fury in Iran.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt ripped news outlets in the opening remarks of a press briefing, before stating the Iranian regime was steadfast in efforts to rebuild its nuclear program.
“There’s been a lot of misreporting and intellectual dishonesty from the American media on why President Trump decided to launch this operation. So let me remind you,” she said.
“Operation Midnight Hammer, which took place last June, obliterated Iran’s three major nuclear sites. Yet the terrorist Iranian regime has remained fully committed to rebuilding its nuclear program,” she added. “How do we know this? Because Iran pursued this path of war and violence despite President Trump dispatching two of his top and most trusted negotiators to engage in exhaustive and good faith negotiations to try and reach a deal.”
She added that the regime was attempting to “string the United States along” so it could build more ballistic missiles and pursue “nuclear ambitions.”
“President Trump made the determination, a courageous determination and decision, that the path the United States was on with Iran had only one outcome: massive death and destruction at the hands of a nuclear-armed terroristic regime,” the press secretary said.
Leavitt emphasized that the United States has struck over 2,000 targets, destroyed over 20 Iranian naval ships, and killed 49 senior Iranian regime leaders since the operation began last weekend. She also stressed that the Pentagon expects “to have complete and total dominance over Iranian airspace in the coming hours.”
When asked about boots on the ground, she said, “They’re not part of the plan for this operation at this time,” but noted, “I certainly will never take away military options on behalf of the president of the United States.”
Leavitt also shared that Trump plans to attend the dignified transfer of the six U.S. servicemembers who have been killed in Operation Epic Fury.
“President Trump intends to attend the dignified transfer of these American heroes to stand in grief alongside their families,” she added. “I understand the Department of War is working on scheduling this transfer, and we will provide updates at the appropriate time.
