‘The mission was accomplished’: Senate Republicans push back against leaked report on Iran strikes
Senate Republicans pushed back against a leaked report that President Donald Trump’s strikes on Iran did not obliterate the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, but still wanted more information on the full extent of the damage done to the key facilities.
A widely reported “low confidence” assessment from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) suggested that the weekend strikes, dubbed Operation Midnight Hammer, did not completely destroy Iran’s nuclear capabilities.
Trump has remained firm that the sites were “totally obliterated,” and the White House has strongly pushed back against the report. And both the Israeli and Iranian governments agree that the sites were badly damaged.
Members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Senate Armed Services Committee told Fox News Digital that they were confident in the president’s assessment and pushed back against the DIA’s findings.
“First of all, one of the things I’d consider is the DIA said that Ukraine would be wiped out in three days,” Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., told Fox News Digital. “And second, whatever the damage to Fordow is, the damage to the [nuclear] capabilities of Iran are devastating.”
Cramer said that the effectiveness of the bombing, which was carried out by several B-2 bombers armed with bunker-busting bombs, could not be “overstated,” and warned that lingering questions surrounding the effectiveness of the operation were just “fodder for political discussion.”
“I think the mission was accomplished,” he said.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker, R-Miss., had not yet read the report, but called the DIA’s finding and subsequent news reports “bogus.” Wicker’s sentiment came just after Senate Republicans met behind closed doors with Israeli Ambassador Yechiel Leiter.
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News’ Alex Miller