CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Calls Trump Out for ‘Declaring Victory’ Amid ‘Oil Tankers Exploding Into Huge Fireballs in the Night Sky’

CNN anchor and senior White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins called out President Donald Trump for “declaring victory” in Iran even as oil tankers are “exploding” into the night sky.

Trump and his administration have taken heavy criticism over a series of conflicting messages on the Iran war that have dogged the effort — in some cases emanating solely from Trump and in the same sentence.

On Wednesday night’s edition of CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins, Collins opened her show by sorting through Trump’s latest declarations of victory while noting that attacks on oil tankers continue:

KAITLAN COLLINS: 12 days after launching a war with Iran, President Trump today claimed victory.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: We’ve won. Let me tell you, we’ve won. You know, you never like to say too early you won. We won. We won the bet — in the first hour, it was over.

We did an excursion. You know what an excursion is? We had to take a little trip to get rid of some evil, very evil people.

They’re very strong. You know, they’re going to try and take over the whole Middle East.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: That was the president, this afternoon.

And tonight, there are scenes like this unfolding in the Middle East. Oil tankers exploding into huge fireballs in the night sky, as Iran claims that it blew up the tankers using an underwater drone. You can see the flames in the water surrounding the tankers. That’s likely the result of an oil spill. And we know tonight, as we come on the air, at least one crew member is dead, and dozens more had to be rescued because of this scene.

In the Strait of Hormuz, it has now become a battlefield of its own making, with at least three ships coming under attack just today alone. And as we’ve been reporting, this strait is incredibly important because it connects the Persian Gulf and its oil to the rest of the world. About 20 percent of the global oil supply actually passes through that stretch of water that you can see there.

Iran is actually getting more oil onto tankers now than it was even before this war started. That’s according to research analysts that track crude oil. And while the rest of the world’s oil is stuck on tankers, essentially that are being held hostage in the Gulf.

President Trump said this today about this battle on the high seas.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We knocked out their Navy, OK? Let’s put it that way. But they also knocked out the mine layers. They call them mine layers. They put mines in the water.

They’ll all be gone. By the time I’m finished speaking, they’ll be gone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: For the rest of the world, this is what shipping traffic has looked like over the last three days. All those dots that you see there are ships waiting on either side of the Strait, unable, or unwilling in many cases, to sail into the clear danger there. Normally, more than 60 ships a day would be crisscrossing your screen.

And if you’ve been filling up your gas tank this week, you know how that traffic jam that you see there is driving up prices here in the United States. That led the President today to highlight the largest ever release of strategic oil reserves earlier, including the release of a 172 millions of barrels from the American reserves.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I’m pleased to report that earlier today, the International Energy Agency agreed to coordinate the release of a record 400 million barrels of oil from various national petroleum reserves around the world. (CHEERING)

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Which will substantially reduce the oil prices as we end this threat to America and this threat to the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: And as all of this is continuing, we are hearing from sources tonight that the Pentagon told Congress, in a private briefing, that the preliminary cost of the Iran war was at least $11 billion, over the first six days. A $11 billion over the first six days.

Obviously, we are now on day 12. The fighting has continued. This is what it looks in Lebanon this hour, where Israel was bombing in the suburbs of Beirut earlier. According to the IDF, they were targeting Hezbollah there. And late tonight, a barrage of rockets were fired from Lebanon into northern Israel. And Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said that it carried out a joint operation with its proxy, Hezbollah, to attack more than 50 targets across Israel.

And despite what the president said earlier, declaring victory and saying that he believes the United States has won this war, here’s what he said just five minutes later.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We don’t want to leave early, do we? We got to finish the job, right?

(CHEERING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: And then about two and a half hours after that, shortly before we came on air tonight, the President told reporters this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I think we’re in very good — we’re in very good shape. The main thing is we have to win this thing, win it quickly, but win it. And there are many people, I’m just watching some of the news, most people say it’s already been won. It’s just a question of when, when do we stop? We don’t want to let it regrow, and ideally would like to see somebody in there that knows what they’re doing. In other words, they can build a country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Watch above via CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins.

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