The White House has rejected a CNN report claiming that a leaked classified U.S. intelligence assessment concluded that last weekend’s military strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities only set back the country’s program by a few months.
In a statement issued on June 24, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the alleged early Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) assessment cited by CNN was “flat-out wrong,” and accused the outlet of relying on a “low-level loser in the intelligence community” to undermine President Donald Trump and discredit U.S. fighter pilots.
“The leaking of this alleged assessment is a clear attempt to demean President Trump and discredit the brave fighter pilots who conducted a perfectly executed mission to obliterate Iran’s nuclear program,” Leavitt said. “Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000-pound bombs perfectly on their targets—total obliteration.”
Likewise, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth dismissed the notion that the strikes were anything less than a total success.
“Based on everything we have seen—and I’ve seen it all—our bombing campaign obliterated Iran’s ability to create nuclear weapons,” Hegseth said in a statement. “Our massive bombs hit exactly the right spot at each target—and worked perfectly. The impact of those bombs is buried under a mountain of rubble in Iran; so anyone who says the bombs were not devastating is just trying to undermine the President and the successful mission.”
CNN reported on Tuesday that an early battle damage assessment produced by the Pentagon’s intelligence arm concluded that the strikes had not destroyed Iran’s centrifuges or its stockpile of enriched uranium. Citing four unnamed sources briefed on the findings, the report said the damage was limited primarily to aboveground infrastructure and that Iran’s nuclear program may only have been set back by at most several months.
The report appeared to contradict Trump’s televised statement on Saturday night that the strikes “completely and totally obliterated” Iran’s nuclear capabilities. On Tuesday morning, Trump doubled down on that assessment, saying, “I think it’s been completely demolished.”
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine offered a more cautious tone on Sunday, telling reporters that it was “way too early” to determine whether Iran retained any nuclear capability.
“I know that battle damage is of great interest. Final battle damage will take some time, but initial battle damage assessments indicate that all three sites sustained extremely severe damage and destruction,” Caine told reporters.
“I think BDA [battle damage assessment] is still pending and way too early to comment on what may or may not be there.”
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi also offered a cautious assessment, though he remarked that he expects “very significant damage” at Iran’s Fordow nuclear site.
“At this time, no one, including the IAEA, is in a position to have fully assessed the underground damage at Fordow,” he told the agency’s Board of Governors. “Given the explosive payload utilized and the extreme(ly) vibration-sensitive nature of centrifuges, very significant damage is expected to have occurred.”
In a statement, Grossi said that “the degree of damage inside the uranium enrichment halls can’t be determined with certainty.”
Intelligence assessments are ongoing, and a classified briefing for lawmakers—originally scheduled for June 24—has been postponed until June 27, according to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).
Meanwhile, top House Democrats have raised concerns that the briefing was postponed, delaying what they say is a necessary opportunity to evaluate the Trump administration’s actions in Iran and assess the situation in the Middle East.
“The American people deserve to know the facts and the truth,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) told reporters on Tuesday, adding that the Trump administration had not yet presented evidence supporting claims that Iran’s nuclear program was neutralized.
Once again, all the Democrat manipulating media has to offer is that when they cannot win the argument, or have no argument at all, they just attack the person, this time AGAIN it’s Trump and all our accomplished, brave military men who personify his workable solutions to the problems the Democrats have birthed, allowed, and enabled. Treason is their obvious reason, and we need look no further for the hidden Iranian bought and paid for sleeper cells bent on destroying American power, just arrest and jail the CNN and MSDNC media traitors for aiding and comforting our enemies, and follow the money from Iran into the pockets of their devious reporters and imitation journalists, currently being educated by our own subverted socialist taken over Universities who canvass our enemy countries for dupes they can sneak across the borders into positions to be socially indoctrinated to hate America and destroy us from within. Their ability to cripple sane American conventional military responses, will force Trump and the USA into a Truman Solution on how to eradicate the resistance into total irreversible submission,,, one Hiroshima at a time.
One must remember that CNN is nothing but a grocery store news rag. Nothing it prints has any credibility or truth.
One can not be very intelligent to read and believe anything from CNN.
CNN is a lying, treasonous, destructive Democrat Party’s political propaganda outlet and will print anything that it thinks will sell support.
“White House Dismisses Report That Iran’s Nuclear Program Was Only Temporarily Set Back”
But there may be some truth to this: Even if Iran’s Nuclear production and research sites were completely destroyed. If Iran is bound and determined to develop nuclear weapons, Iran will just start all over. Remember Iran has wanted to destroy Israel for thousands of years and have not given up on its intensions to do so.
I’d rather believe the “Weekly world news” than CNN.
“The leaking of this alleged assessment is a clear attempt to demean President Trump and discredit the brave fighter pilots who conducted a perfectly executed mission to obliterate Iran’s nuclear program,” Leavitt said. “Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000-pound bombs perfectly on their targets—total obliteration.”
Clearly the Liberal Media has learned nothing since DJT’s monumental win. Is it any wonder they have lost the trust of the American people and have been relegated to nothing more than being the Propaganda Wing of the Dem Party.
One wonders, how many jewish dems will STILL VOTE DEM come november, in NY!
As you all have seen some black leaders comments on the Israeli tragedy shows how a lot of black Americans supported the attack on the Jewish and made excuses for HamasAs you all have seen some black leaders comments on the Israeli tragedy shows how a lot of black Americans supported the attack on the Jewish and made excuses for Hamas and by connection IRAN – If you are White, Asians, Hispanic, and even middle eastern and anybody who is not black – you ARE justified to feel discriminated by Blacks Americans because you are – and you have every reason not to like black America – As shown for all of us to see and experience its A VERY RACIST BLACK AMERICA pushing a very racist black supremacism and socialism that is influencing the behavior of the black culture in general and putting on display for all of us to see a culture that has been taught for the past 50 years in their homes and neighborhoods, hate and racism towards the white population – I have experienced racism and abuse from blacks Americans and im not the only one experiencing this abuse – people stop taking their abuse and its time to start calling it out and start calling out the racism’s’ coming from the black community hell bent at hate against the white, Asian and Hispanic while excusing rampant crime by mostly blacks while trying to sell everyone having been victimized by history to excuse not taking accountability and to continue the rampant abuse on the rest of us.