Fox News host Jesse Watters accused CNN of “spewing enemy propaganda” this week after the outlet reported on a leaked Pentagon report suggesting that the U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear sites did not completely destroy their targets, particularly the Fordow enrichment site, which is deep underground.
“So, Jesse, it almost seems like CNN and the New York Times are using this leaked report, whatever it is, to cheer triumphantly that perhaps the bunker buster bomber strike wasn’t quite as effective as the administration is claiming. What do you make of that? And will the president get credit if he did, in fact, dismantle Iran’s nuclear program?” asked guest host Kennedy on Wednesday’s episode of The Five.
“Of course, if there’s one thing America can make, it’s a bomb. Ask the Japanese. Ask the Germans. I’ve never heard of an American bomb not working. Have you? If this didn’t work and it was a dud, Netanyahu would have been on the phone with Trump saying, let’s do another run. If it didn’t, the Iranians wouldn’t have had a ceasefire. This was such a precise strike. They put these bombs down the mountain’s ventilation shaft,” replied Watters, adding:
OK, this didn’t have to explode and bore into the mountain. They put these things untouched and it slid down the ventilation shaft and exploded in the main hall, and
then collapsed the roof of the cavern and caused a fire. You could even see the discoloration at the top of the mountain. This wasn’t like carpet bombing the North Vietnamese jungles. This was as precise a strike as you can get. They compared the target to something the size of a refrigerator and they did it from thirteen thousand feet.The woman is the same reporter who said the laptop was Russian, and now she says our bombs don’t work. You’d think she would have been fired for getting hoodwinked by the deep state couple years ago but she actually got promoted. She got promoted for being wrong. She got a raise for being wrong. Now she’s on CNN getting hoodwinked all over again, because that’s the point. She’s not there to be right. She’s just there to hurt Donald Trump. And I don’t understand CNN’s reporting because CNN said before the strike they were years away from getting a nuke and then after the strike, they’re two months. So you’re closer to getting a nuclear weapon after being bombed. Doesn’t make any sense.The Israeli intelligence team, Petraeus, Rubio, the CIA, the IAEA, everybody says direct hit, years to come back from it. And then there’s CNN alone in the corner in last place, spewing enemy propaganda. I don’t thinkthey can come back from it.
Trump himself has also repeatedly slammed CNN over its recent reporting on the leaked Pentagon assessment that the U.S. strikes on Fordow did not “destroy the core components of the country’s nuclear program and likely only set it back by months.”
CNN’s Natasha Bertrand, citing sources with knowledge of the report, added that “The assessment, which has not been previously reported, was produced by the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon’s intelligence arm. It is based on a battle damage assessment conducted by US Central Command in the aftermath of the US strikes.”
Trump cast doubt on the U.S. assessment when asked by reporters during the Q&A at Wednesday’s NATO summit, saying, “The intelligence was very inconclusive. The intelligence says we don’t know. It could’ve been very severe. That’s what the intelligence suggests.”
Kennedy followed up, “Do you think they’re getting it from some sort of nefarious Iranian sources and it’s wishful thinking?”
Watters replied by making clear the CNN report did indeed cite a verified report from the U.S. military, “A hater in the Pentagon leaked an early report that had no confidence and just relied on some camera up in the sky. That’s it. It’s not like there’s some Israeli spy down there in the rubble with a phone. Yep, we killed this thing. Can you guys send some food? You&
Trump has called for CNN to fire Bertrand, writing on his Truth Social platform, “She should be IMMEDIATELY reprimanded, and then thrown out ‘like a dog.’”
Watch the clip above via Fox News.