Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard struck back at the mainstream media after President Donald Trump said she was wrong about how close Iran is to developing nuclear weapons.
The president flatly rejected the notion that Iran was not seeking nuclear weapons or was not close to developing them when he took questions from reporters on Friday.
‘The dishonest media is intentionally taking my testimony out of context and spreading fake news as a way to manufacture division.’
“What intelligence do you have that Iran is building a nuclear weapon?” asked a reporter. “Your intelligence community has said that they have no evidence that they are at this point.”
“Well, then my intelligence community is wrong,” he responded. “Who in the intelligence community said that?”
“Your director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard,” he answered.
“She’s wrong,” Trump said.
Hours later, Gabbard blamed the media for the rift and posted video of her testimony to back her claim that her comments were mischaracterized.
“The dishonest media is intentionally taking my testimony out of context and spreading fake news as a way to manufacture division,” she wrote on social media.
“America has intelligence that Iran is at the point that it can produce a nuclear weapon within weeks to months, if they decide to finalize the assembly,” she added. “President Trump has been clear that can’t happen, and I agree.”
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However, the testimony she posted included the following statement:
“The [intelligence community] continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003.”
This is not the first time Trump cast doubt on Gabbard’s assessment when asked by the media. On Tuesday, he was asked the same question about her testimony while he talked to reporters on Air Force One.
“I don’t care what she said,” Trump responded. “I think they were very close to having a weapon.”
Trump had announced on Thursday that he would decide whether to strike at Iran within two weeks in order to allow the Iranian regime more time to come to an agreement on a nuke deal.
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