NBC’s Garrett Haake Spars With Karoline Leavitt Over Whether Trump Is Pushing for ‘Regime Change’ in Iran

Things got a little bit testy when NBC’s Garrett Haake pressed White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on President Donald Trump saying he should be involved in picking Iran’s supreme leader, with Haake asking how that was not the “definition of a regime change war.”

Leavitt and Haake went back-and-forth on it during a press briefing on Tuesday afternoon.

NBC’s senior White House correspondent started off by asking Leavitt:

The president said to Fox earlier today that he doesn’t believe the new ayatollah can live in peace. He made a variety of comments suggesting that he should be involved in picking the new Iranian leader.

Is the ending of this war also contingent on Iran selecting a leader that the president finds acceptable? And if so, how is that not the definition of a regime change war?

Haake was referring to comments Trump made to Fox News chief international correspondent Trey Yingst, where he said he was “not happy” with the son of recently-eliminated Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei being named the new ayatollah.

Leavitt responded by saying the war was “clearly in the best interest” of America because wiping out Iran’s nukes would make the USA much more safe.

She continued:

This was a regime that chanted — still chants — “death to America!” We look at the way that they are holding the entire world hostage with the restricting of the free flow of energy through the Strait of Hormuz. So the president, I think, is making quite an obvious comment.

Again, as for the timeline of the military operations with respect to Iran, we have objectives that we have laid out that the commander in chief wants to see achieved. When they are achieved, then it will ultimately be up to the president to end this operation.

“You’re not exactly addressing my question, though. Is that political objective also necessary for the president to decide to end this war?,” Haake followed up.

“Again, I just told you the objectives of Operation Epic Fury,” Leavitt shot back sternly. “When those objectives are met, the president will dictate the end of these operations, when he deems that Iran no longer poses a credible threat to the United States of America.”

Leavitt had listed a handful of objectives about five minutes earlier. Those were: destroying Iran’s missiles and their ability to manufacture them, to destroy Iran’s Navy, to “permanently deny them nuclear weapons,” and to weaken their “evil terrorist proxies in the region.”

Her press briefing comes a day after Trump said the war was “pretty much” complete and would be wrapping up “soon.”

Watch above via MS NOW.

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