Kaitlan Collins Asks Markwayne Mullin Why He’s ‘Worried’ About Iranian Nuclear Program That Trump Said Was ‘Obliterated’

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins asked Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) to explain “the urgency in the administration’s posture” on Iranian nuclear capabilities if President Donald Trump claimed the program had been “obliterated” just months earlier.

Mullin joined Wednesday’s edition of The Source to discuss the recent buildup of U.S. military forces around Iran. The senator claimed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his government were “obviously trying to rebuild” nuclear capabilities.

“As long as the ayatollah is going to continue to try to rebuild the system that he said he wasn’t going to do, that’s why we ended the 12-day war, because they said they were done trying to build a nuclear weapon, yet they’re obviously trying to rebuild it,” he said. “We’re not going to let that happen.”

Collins pressed Mullin on the issue, asking Mullin to clarify why the administration was focused on rebuilding if the nuclear program had recently been demolished.

“If we obliterated it – we being the United States last summer – then why are you worried about it right now?” she asked.

Mullin continued to reiterate that Iran working to rebuild the program was cause enough, while Collins doubled down on questions surrounding the timing of the administration’s focus. Read their exchange below:

MULLIN: Because they’re rebuilding it, and you can see them rebuilding it. They’re not enriching–

COLLINS: But it was obliterated.

MULLIN: But that doesn’t mean you can’t rebuild. I mean, people have car accidents and obliterate their bones and their legs, and yet they can still put you know, they can still put metal back in them and walk again.

COLLINS: But I think if it was obliterated in June, how is it February and we’re now, as Steve Witkoff put it, a week away from Iran having this.

MULLIN: I don’t know, I can’t speak for Steve. I haven’t got those reports, and you know, I’ve been read in on some of these programs. And so I don’t know what Steve is looking at. I’m not saying he’s wrong or right, I just haven’t seen those reports.

[…]

COLLINS: I think people see the risks for sure. Obviously, a nuclear armed Iran. I think it’s just hard sometimes to get your head around that we were told last summer it was obliterated, and now we’re saying a strike might be necessary if the talks don’t work.

MULLIN: But obliterating is much different than they’re rebuilding it. They are perfectly trying to rebuild it. Why do you think China and Russia are silent on this?

COLLINS: But how can you rebuild it if it was obliterated?

MULLINS: But I’m just saying but why do you think China and Russia–

COLLINS: But how can you rebuild it if it was obliterated?

MULLINS: Just like– I’ve already explained that. How do you rebuild your legs after you shatter them? How do you rebuild a house after it’s been knocked down by a tornado or a hurricane? You can rebuild things. The foundation may still be there. You can build a lot back on a foundation once the top of it is removed. And so the structure, if the structure of the foundation is there, they can start rebuilding.

Watch above via CNN.

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