Mike Lawler and MS NOW’s Katy Tur Throw Down in Marathon Slugfest Over Trump’s War in Iran

MS NOW anchor Katy Tur and Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) got into a lengthy spat Tuesday over President Donald Trump’s war in Iran.

Roughly two minutes into the interview, Tur referenced Iran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz and its impact on the global economy. Because of Iran possessing such leverage, Tur asked if Lawler agreed with the assessment that Trump appears to be the “more desperate” party in the peace negotiations. Lawler began his response by referencing the administration of former President Barack Obama, setting up a tense exchange:

LAWLER: Well, let’s look back. Barack Obama engaged in a seven-month conflict in Libya that resulted in a civil–

TUR: We don’t need to go back to Barack Obama. We can stick– no, let’s stick with President Trump. No, we don’t.

LAWLER: Excuse me, Katy. Yes, we do–

TUR: I wanna live in the moment and I don’t want to do a 10-minute detour for President Obama.

LAWLER: Excuse me. It’s not a detour. It’s not a detour. It’s a relevant fact, OK? We were in a seven-month war in Libya that resulted in a civil war. Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi fully endorsed it, fully embraced it, said everything was great and the president–

TUR: How does that make this war OK or better?

LAWLER: –was well within his authority. If you look at– excuse me.

TUR: Do we have to justify what happened then in order to ensure now? I’m talking about this president who promised no foreign wars.

LAWLER: I know you just want to spew out the talking points for the left here, but the fact is this: this was a just war that the president engaged in to stop this regime from possessing a nuclear weapon; and ultimately, you can say that over the past eight weeks — in your opinion, seemingly — nothing has been done, but the fact is their leadership is gone, the Ayatollah is dead, the clerics are dead, the leadership of the IRGC is dead. The remnants are what we are dealing with right now. And yes, if you think they’re using the Strait of Hormuz as leverage is a problem, what do you think it would have been if they actually had a nuclear weapon? What do you think they would have done using a nuclear weapon to extort the rest of the world?

Later in the interview, Lawler asked Tur if she was glad the war wiped out dozens of key members of Iran’s leadership. When she argued that Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei was even more “hardline” than his father, Lawler wasn’t buying it.

The conversation continued:

LAWLER: You say that–

TUR: There’s a new Ayatollah who might be much more hardline.

LAWLER: It’s amazing, Katy. Based on what? Based on what? The guy has not even been seen in eight weeks. Based on what?

TUR: Based on the reporting that we have, the best reporting that we have about him. Do you have better reporting?

LAWLER: Yeah, the best reporting. You all repeat the same–

TUR: Do you have better intelligence that says that this guy is more–

LAWLER: You all repeat the same talking point. You all repeat the same talking point–

TUR: You’re on the Foreign Affairs Committee. Do you have better intelligence that you can relay to us about who this Ayatollah is?

LAWLER: This is the problem. I am on the Foreign Affairs Committee, and I am the chair of the Middle East, and I actually do sit down and engage on these issues. You’re literally repeating the same nonsensical talking point that every member of the media does, and every far left Democrat does, that “this is now a much more hardline Ayatollah.” Give me a break!

Watch above via MS NOW

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