White House slams CNN for 'fake news' about Trump's Iran strike briefings
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Fox News senior congressional correspondent Chad Pergram has the latest on reactions from Capitol Hill on the Trump administration's decision to strike Iranian nuclear sites on 'America Reports.'
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt demanded CNN retract a story on Sunday that claimed Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries were not briefed on President Donald Trump's strike on Iran.
Trump launched "Operation: Midnight Hammer" on Saturday and struck three of Iran's key nuclear facilities in a surprise attack. The White House announced the success of the attack later that night.
CNN reported that House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, both Republicans, were briefed on the strikes ahead of time, with Schumer and Jeffries, both Democrats, receiving notifications only before the public announcement and well after the attack.
Leavitt called the report "fake news" on X.
"This is Fake News. The White House made bipartisan courtesy calls to Congressional Leadership and spoke to @SenSchumer before the strike. @RepJeffries could not be reached until after, but he was briefed. @CNN please retract," Leavitt wrote.
Fox News Digital reached out to Schumer and Jeffries' offices for comment.
The CNN report added that Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Rep. Jim Himes, D-Ct., who are members of the intelligence committees in the Senate and House respectively, were not told until after the strikes.
CNN didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Both Schumer and Jeffries released statements over the weekend condemning Trump for the strikes on Iran.
Although both criticized Trump for not seeking congressional authorization for the attack, neither claimed that they were not briefed or notified before the actual strike.
In his statement, Schumer called on Thune to enforce the War Powers Act.
"No president should be allowed to unilaterally march this nation into something as consequential as war with erratic threats and no strategy," Schumer said.
Lindsay Kornick is an associate editor for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to lindsay.kornick@fox.com and on Twitter: @lmkornick.
Tags
Who is online
138 visitors
They lied again and got caught again.
This doesn’t actually establish that at all. “Karoline Leavitt said so…” is not great evidence.
Please READ post 2
I don’t see how that helps, but if you want to make the argument that it does, go ahead.
Don't listen to them Tacos.
It wasn't only CNN. ABC News was reporting the same thing. The same reporting popped up briefly on Deutsche Welle (DW News). The PBS Newshour reported the same thing in first reporting on the bombing mission.
Most of the broadcast reporting I have seen has been biased toward a dark spin on everything. Doom, gloom, World War III, End of the World. Seems the press is more concerned with disseminating the proper political narrative rather than reporting the news.