The White House strongly rejected a CNN report claiming that key members of Congress were not informed before President Donald Trump authorized the deployment of a dozen “bunker buster” bombs on Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated on Sunday that the operation, dubbed “Midnight Hammer,” was conducted after advance notice was provided to U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). Both Democrats were briefed prior to the bombs striking the three targeted facilities in Iran.
CNN reported Sunday that while House Majority Leader Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) were informed about the strike, their Democratic counterparts were not.
Leavitt dismissed the report as “fake news” in a social media post on Sunday. “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.
CNN also reported that Democratic Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) and Representative Jim Himes (D-CT), the ranking members of the Senate and House intelligence committees, respectively, were not consulted prior to the strike.
None of the Democratic leaders named in the CNN report confirmed to Fox News whether they had been briefed by the White House before the operation. In a social media post, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called on Congress to enforce the War Powers Act and accused President Trump of acting “unilaterally.”
“No president should be allowed to unilaterally march this nation into something as consequential as war with erratic threats and no strategy,” Schumer-who never complained about Democratic presidents taking similar actions-said.
Appearing on Fox Monday morning, Leavitt credited Trump with doing “what other presidents dreamed about” by taking Iran’s nuclear weapons program off the table.
“This is an operation that presidents of the past have dreamed about, but no president had the guts to actually do it, but President Trump did, not just to the state of Israel, but to the United States and the rest of the world,” she said.
Leavitt said Monday that the White House is confident the three Iranian nuclear sites were “completely and totally obliterated.” She noted: “We are confident, yes, that Iran’s nuclear sites were completely and totally obliterated, as the president said in his address to the nation on Saturday night, and we have a high degree of confidence that where those strikes took place is where Iran’s enriched uranium was stored.”
