Karoline Leavitt has been accused of contradicting herself by claiming ‘No such threat from Iran to our homeland exists’ before calling similar claims ‘false’ just days later
Leavitt was called out for contradicting herself (Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Karoline Leavitt has been called out for flip-flopping on whether Iran posed an “imminent threat” to the US before Donald Trump launched joint strikes with Israel against the Middle Eastern nation.
On Thursday, the White House Press Secretary said “No such threat from Iran to our homeland exists, and it never did,” as she hit out at ABC News on X. Leavitt was referring to an article from the outlet that stated the FBI had warned California that Iran wants to launch drones at the West Coast in retaliation to US attacks.
“This post and story should be immediately retracted by ABC News for providing false information to intentionally alarm the American people,” Leavitt wrote on X. “TO BE CLEAR: No such threat from Iran to our homeland exists, and it never did,” she continued.
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But in another X post just days later, the press secretary appeared to backtrack, describing claims that “Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation” as “false.” Leavitt’s post came in response to Director of the National Counterterrorism Center Joe Kent’s resignation.
Sharing his resignation letter on X, Kent said that he “cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran,” and claimed that “it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.”
“There are many false claims in this letter but let me address one specifically: that ‘Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation.’ This is the same false claim that Democrats and some in the liberal media have been repeating over and over,” Leavitt wrote as she sharked Kent’s post.
“As President Trump has clearly and explicitly stated, he had strong and compelling evidence that Iran was going to attack the United States first. This evidence was compiled from many sources and factors. President Trump would never make the decision to deploy military assets against a foreign adversary in a vacuum,” Leavitt added.
The White House Press Secretary continued to defend Trump’s decision to attack Iran, calling the Iranian regime “evil” and claiming they “openly threatened us all the way up to the launch of Operation Epic Fury.”
“Iran was aggressively expanding their short-range ballistic missiles to combine with their naval assets to give themselves immunity – meaning they would have a degree of a capabilities that would give them immunity to hold us and the rest of the world hostage,” Leavitt said in a lengthy post.
She added: “President Trump ultimately made the determination that a joint attack with Israel would greatly reduce the risk to American lives that would come from a first strike by the terrorist Iranian regime and address this imminent threat to America’s national security interests.
“All of this led to President Trump arriving at the determination that this military operation was necessary for U.S. national security, which is why he launched the massively successful Operation Epic Fury.”
X users quickly noted that the press secretary appeared to have contradicted herself. “If you’re going to lie today you should probably first delete your post from two days ago where you told the truth,” one wrote.
“Listen lady, 5 days ago you wrote that there is no threat from Iran to the United States. Today you’re saying the complete opposite. Pathological liar,” a second commented.
“So either you lied a few days ago or you’re lying now. Which is it?” a third asked. “You literally claimed the exact opposite…” another noted.
