Politico Draws Heat for Report Claiming Trump Would Say Iran War ‘Winding Down’ in Address to Nation: ‘Nothing of That Happened’

AP Photo/Alex Brandon

Politico was slapped with criticism on Wednesday after its report that President Donald Trump intended to announce that the war in Iran would be “winding down” turned out to be far from true.

Hours before Trump’s presidential address on Wednesday evening, Politico’s Eli Stokols, Megan Messerly, and Dasha Burns reported that Trump would use his speech to announce “that the month-long war in Iran is winding down.”

The report ended up being far from true, with Trump ramping up his war rhetoric and announcing that there would be at least “two to three weeks” more of “extremely hard” attacks against Iran, which would send the country “back to the Stone Age.”

“We’re going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks. We’re going to bring them back to the Stone Ages [sic], where they belong,” he declared.

Following the address, Politico was hit with criticism over its far-from-accurate report.

“Great job with the news everybody,” wrote Fox News host and Daily Wire opinion editor Ben Domenech, while CNN analyst and Axios global affairs correspondent Barak Ravid observed, “Nothing of that happened in the speech…”

“Three bylines and not a single prediction landed,” weighed in columnist T. Becket Adams, while conservative commentator Stephen L. Miller wrote, “I don’t really care about the speech but you should probably address how you guys got this one wrong.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also criticized the report, writing, “This story was based on ‘six people familiar with the planning,’ and I am sure none of them actually read the President’s speech before it was delivered.”

“Politico did not even reach out to the White House for comment,” she continued. “Another example of why you should not blindly trust what you read from the legacy media. This is what they do – call up random sources who just make things up, and then they report it as fact.”

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!