WATCH: NBC’s Kristen Welker Confronts GOP Senator With Clips of Trump Saying US Has Already ‘Won’ Iran War

NBC News’s Kristen Welker confronted Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) Sunday with clips of President Donald Trump claiming that the U.S. has already won the war with Iran, even as more U.S. troops head to the region.

“President Trump continues to insist that the United States is winning,” Welker said before telling Lankford, “Take a listen to what he said this week.”

TRUMP: “Let me say, we’ve won. You know, you never like to say too early you’ve won — We’ve won, in the first hour it was over. But we won.
…
I think we’ve won. We knocked out their navy, their air force, we’ve knocked out their anti-aircraft. We’ve knocked out everything.
…
This war has been won.

“Senator Lankford, do you agree with President Trump that the United States has, in fact, won the war?” Welker asked.

“We are won — or winning — there is no question about that,” Lankford said. “The major features of this was to be able to stop their production of ballistic missiles, of one-way attack drones, to be able to take out their capability to attack Americans and our allies in the region, to be able to stop their nuclear program development to be abe to halt that, and to be able to take down their navy so they can’t endlessly shut down the Strait of Hormuz over and over again.

Lankford added, “Obviously, there’s still work to be done. It’s not over by any means, but if you you want to talk about the military objectives, just about every one of those objectives have been hit, and have been hit early.”

Lankford agreed with Secretary of State Marco Rubio that the U.S. should be able to meet its objectives without putting U.S. boots on the ground.

He continued:

But I will tell you, the president’s actually bringing ground troops. He’s got 5,000 marines coming in, he has the folks from the 82nd airborne. He’s creating contingencies to put pressure on Iran to finish the negotiation, to say, “We are capable of doing more and doing what the United States military alone in the world can actually do.” So, I don’t fault the president for being able to put additional pressure on Iran saying, ‘Come to the table, let’s get this done.’

No one wants a war and you certainly don’t want to battle against the United States of America, the strongest, most moral fighting force in the world. The president’s right to be able to put troops in the area and to be able to ratchet up the pressure on Iran to make a deal.

Watch the clip above via NBC News’s Meet The Press.

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