CNN’s Abby Phillip Hits Trump With Video Receipts After Planes Shot Down

CNN anchor Abby Phillip dropped a blizzard of video receipts on President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth after at least U.S. aircraft took fire or were shot down.

News broke Friday that two U.S. warplanes — an F-15 and an F-35 — were shot down by Iranian missiles and two other aircraft were hit by Iranian fire during rescue operations. One member of the F-15 crew is still missing.

On Friday’s edition of CNN NewsNight, Phillip opened her show with a pile of clips showing Trump and Hegseth pouring on the hyperbole as they claimed Iran’s defenses were completely obliterated:

ABBY PHILLIP:  Tonight, a desperate search and rescue effort is underway for one of the two pilots of an F-15 that was shot down in Iran. It was one of three military aircraft hit by Iranian ground fire today. The second plane was struck shortly after, but the pilot was able to navigate out of Iranian airspace before ejecting. And now The New York Times is reporting that a Black Hawk helicopter was hit while trying to rescue the crew of one of those downed jets.

Fortunately, the Black Hawk did manage to fly to safety, but this is the debris from that F-15. It was the first American warplane taken down by Iranian air fire since the fighting began. State media is telling Iranians that if they capture the enemy alive and hand them over to authorities, they’ll receive a valuable reward and prize. And we’ve learned that that reward amounts to about $76,000.

And just last night, CNN reported that sources told us that roughly half of Iran’s missile launchers, they’re still intact and thousands of drones remain in the arsenal, which is a much more nuanced picture of the Iranian missile launching capabilities than what the Trump administration has been saying for days and weeks. And that comes after weeks of the Trump administration downplaying Iranian air defenses all together.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: They have no air detection. That’s been knocked out. Their radar has been knocked out.

PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: It’s in under a week, the two most powerful air forces in the world will have complete control of Iranian skies, uncontested airspace.

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We expect to have complete and total dominance over Iranian airspace in the coming hours.

TRUMP: Their anti-aircraft weapons are gone, so they have no air force, they have no air defense.

HEGSETH: We’re hunting and striking death and destruction from above. Iran’s air defenses flattened.

TRUMP: They have no anti-aircraft equipment. Their radar is 100 percent annihilated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Watch above via CNN NewsNight.

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