‘That Was a Misspoke’: GOP Senator Tussles With Reporters Over Whether Or Not US Is at ‘War’

Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) walked back his characterization of the Trump administration’s ongoing military operation against Iran on Tuesday when reporters pushed him on calling it a “war.”

Mullin took questions from reporters on Capitol Hill and was asked about who might next lead Iran, “Are there measures being taken not to eliminate other possible alternatives to leadership?”

“This is war, and we’re taking out the threat. And if you’re part of the threat, then you’re a target. What we call not all the arrows, but going after the archers,” Mullin replied.

“You will concede this is war,” pressed CNN’s Manu Raju.

“We haven’t declared war. They declared war on us, but we haven’t,” Mullin shot back.

“The president called it war, and Secretary Hegseth,” Raju pressed as Mulling repeated, “We haven’t declared it.”

“Just now you said, ‘This is war.’ You called it war,” pressed another reporter.

“They’ve called it war,” Mullin repeated as a reporter added, “You just said—”

“Okay, well, that was a misspoke,” Mullin replied, adding, “But I was saying that they’ve declared war on us. But war is ugly. It always has been ugly. But we’re, you know, we’ve taken out a regime that’s been trying to attack us for quite some time.”

“You’re not conceding this is war,” Raju pressed again.

“We haven’t declared war. So if we haven’t declared war, then I don’t see that. The president hasn’t asked us to declare war yet, but they have declared war on us. We’re simply fighting the threat that’s been at our door for 47 years,” Mullin replied.

Watch the clip above via C-SPAN.

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