CNN’s Brianna Keilar Spars With GOP Rep. Over Soldiers’ Deaths During Trump Administration

A conversation between CNN anchor Brianna Keilar and Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) got testy on Monday when Keilar pointed out servicemember deaths that occurred during the administration of former President Donald Trump.

While discussing the potential U.S. response to Sunday’s drone strike in Jordan that killed three members of the U.S. Army and wounded 30 more. The strike was the work of Iran-backed militants, but which specific group is not known.

Waltz, a critic of President Joe Biden, said the administration’s Middle East policy is “failing and deterrence has failed when it comes to Iran.” He continued:

All roads, whether it’s Hezbollah, whether it’s the Houthis, whether it’s Hamas, or whether it sees militias in Iraq, all roads lead back to Tehran. The appeasement strategy has failed. This de-escalation attempt has actually only invited escalation from the Iranian regime. The president said Friday, Iran’s gotten the message. Clearly, they have not. And now we have three service members dead because of it.

He also went on to praise what Biden’s predecessor accomplished in the region, saying that “literally we had peace breaking out in the Middle East with the Abraham Accords under President Trump.”

But Keilar knew there were also servicemembers killed by Iranian proxies while Trump was president:

[H]ow should the U.S. respond when even former President Trump, I mean, you said “peace broke out,” but his very direct and controversial action, like taking out [Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassim] Soleimani, did not stop the deadly attacks on U.S. troops.

This caused a reaction in Waltz, who immediately interrupted Keilar to defend Trump’s order to kill Soleimani, which was deemed by the United Nations to be a violation of international law. In March 2020, two months after that order was carried out, two U.S. service members were killed in a retaliatory strike by an Iranian-backed militia.

Waltz: Wait, wait, wait, wait! Brianna, I mean, I’m sorry… Our ships were attacked, Saudi Aramco was attacked, one of our drones was shot down. And then it was, once they actually stormed our embassy and killed an American, President Trump gave the order to take out Iran’s field general–

Keilar: Sir, I hear you, I’m talking–

Waltz: –that was plotting, plotting more attacks.

Keilar: Listen, I let you speak–

Waltz: And then what happened? They launched some missiles, no, they launched some missiles, and that was it.

Keilar: Wait, no, servicemembers died.

Waltz: That base that was attacked–

Keilar: Servicemembers died.

Waltz: Post-Soleimani strike. Who died post-Soleimani strike?

Keilar: March 20–

Waltz: I’m sorry, deterrence was restored post-Soleimani.

Keilar: March 2020, U.S. servicemembers died. You had Iranian-backed proxies, you had al-Assad, which we all remember because former President Trump downplayed the TBIs, which you certainly know and I certainly know are a big deal. You had an attack in Kirkuk in February, which looked like it might have been Iran.

But the one in March was determined that it very likely was, or that it was. And you had service members, two Americans and one Brit who were killed. So you still had, this is the drumbeat of these proxy attacks that we have had. So if we’re talking realistically about what actually deters and does not deter the proxies, and let’s use those facts to talk about what might actually be the way to thread the needle here, to get them to stop, to get Iran to stop.

Watch the video above via CNN.