ABC’s Jon Karl Confronts Trump Official on Iran War After the Killing of 2 US Troops: ‘How Does it End? When Does it End?’

ABC’s Jonathan Karl confronted Energy Secretary Chris Wright about the Iran War following the killing of two U.S. service members from Iranian strikes in Jordan.

In a probing interview on ABC’s This Week Sunday, Karl pressed Wright for details on how President Donald Trump plans to respond to the killing of the two service members.

“We saw U.S. forces struck Iran for the eighth night in a row last night,” Karl said. “Is the president planning any further retaliation for the killing of those two U. S. Service members?”

“Look, the president’s mission is essential for peace in the Middle East and peace in the world,” Wright replied. “And that is to prevent Iran from achieving nuclear weapons and to degrade their ability to terrorize their neighbors and the world, and global commerce. So, yes, this mission will go on until the mission is done.”

Karl followed up.

“But I’m asking you: Does he plan retaliation for the killing of those U.S. service members?” Karl asked.

“It’s tragic to lose American lives, but this is a mission that will save countless lives going forward,” Wright said. “His focus is on degrading the Iranian ability to terrorize the world, to hold world commerce hostage as they are doing right now, and to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons. That is unchanged.”

Karl then threw to a clip of Wright on This Week back in March saying, “I think that this conflict will certainly come to the end in the next few weeks, could be sooner than that.”

Having already missed that estimate by months with the conflict still ongoing, Karl sought answers on an exit strategy.

“We are now nearly five months into this war,” Karl said. “How does it end? When does it end?”

Wright offered scant details.

“We needed four to six weeks for military actions,” Wright said. “They went for five-and-a-half weeks. We did a pause to try to get an agreement with the Iranian people to allow oil to flow without them attacking it. They’ve proven unwilling to do that, and we’ve pivoted. Now what we’re doing is assuring that oil and gas and other products can flow through the Strait of Hormuz with or without Iranian cooperation. And we’ve continued to degrade their offensive military capabilities. The president is always looking for the diplomatic off-ramp. President Trump wants to end it with a peaceful agreement with Iran, but it takes two parties to do that. If they’re ready to do, that’s the way it’ll end. If not, we will continue to assure flow of traffic through the strait without Iran’s cooperation.”

Watch above, via ABC.

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