Pro-Trump Journo on CNN Rips ‘Mixed Messaging’ on War: ‘Still Don’t Have a Clear Strategy’ After a Month

Pro-Trump New York Post writer Lydia Moynihan ripped the “mixed messaging” about President Donald Trump’s war with Iran, and noted that “we are a month into it and still don’t have a clear strategy.”

As the Iran war enters its second month, even some of the president’s most fervent supporters have begun to question the conflicting messages that have been a consistent feature of the mission known as Operation Epic Fury.

On Monday’s edition of CNN NewsNight, anchor Abby Phillip hosted Moynihan along with Marc Short, Ana Navarro, Charles Blow, and former Iran political prisoner Kian Tajbakhsh. During one segment, Moynihan doubled back to rip what she sees as as signs of “mission creep”:

LYDIA MOYNIHAN: I mean, it is interesting, Charles, though, there’s reporting that the Gulf allies actually are pushing Trump now to potentially oust the government, which, frankly, I think is a new thing. This kind of chatter about regime change is not something that I think the base is supportive of or wants to get behind.

And I think back to your original question, Abby, we heard initially that it was going to be weeks, not months, with this war and we are a month into it and still don’t have a clear strategy. And that mixed messaging is confusing to the base who has been supportive, if you look at the polling of what Trump wants to do. But as the narrative changes, that seems like an early indication potentially of mission creep.

KIAN TAJBAKHSH: But I have something to say about regime change. I think one of the things we have to avoid is assuming that it’s a one-sided game. This is a two-person game. That is to say, the decision for regime change — and, by the way, I don’t think at the beginning there was a claim for regime change.

ANA NAVARRO: I know there was.

TAJBAKHSH: Well, it’s very clear that what the United States wants is a change of behavior of the regime. Frankly, they don’t particularly care, and I don’t particularly care as an Iranian democracy activist, who is in power in Iran, you know, just so that they stop killing the people inside Iran.

Watch above via CNN NewsNight.

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