On Monday, while taking questions on Iran in the Oval Office, President Trump, following a question from CNN's Kaitlan Collins, attacked the media, specifically calling out CNN as "fake news", and accusing them and others, of not wanting to see the U.S. win the war. When the presser ended, CNN's Jake Tapper referenced what the President had said, calling it "lies", but if you were tuned into the network Tuesday for NewsNight with Abby Phillip, you might have thought otherwise.
Phillip began a segment on the Iran War, by attacking Trump.
PHILLIP: Tonight, with the cease fire in tatters, Donald Trump is all over the place on Iran, relying on familiar threats and old tactics.... The President's end game for the war remains entirely unclear.
Why would the President disclose his end game for the war publicly? Phillip then introduced a clip of Trey Yingst's interview with Trump from Fox News conducted Tuesday, "In an interview tonight, Trump again threatened to bomb Iran to submission if they don't negotiate."
TRUMP CLIP: We're going to hit them very hard tomorrow night. We're going to hit them very hard the night after. And then next week it gets really bad for them because next week comes the power plants. Next week comes the bridges. We're going to knock out all their power plants. We're going to knock out all their bridges unless they get to the table and negotiate.
Phillip then mischaracterized another Trump threat.
Phillip: Trump again threatened the apocalyptic.
TRUMP: You better make a deal....You're not going to have anybody left. We're being very careful with the civilian population, as you know. But I said, you better make a deal. You're not going to have anything left.
Phillip introduced Max Boot, Sr. Fellow on The Council on Foreign Relations, who went on to blame Trump for where things stand with Iran.
BOOT: It's really hard to take seriously anything that Trump says. Yesterday he says, I'm going to start charging a 20% toll on traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. Today, he says, never mind. I mean, no wonder it's so hard to negotiate with him. No wonder that they're we're having so much trouble getting an agreement with the Iranians this late, because he changes his mind basically every day. He throws things out there. He takes them back.
Boot then gave a short lived equivocation, before unleashing more on Trump.
BOOT: Obviously, the Iranians are no better. They're no more sincere in their negotiating style. So you have two very duplicitous, untrustworthy parties trying to negotiate an agreement. No wonder that the agreement ....Trump is back to recycling golden oldies. His threats against Iran.... Now he's back to once again threatening to kill lots Iranians, blow up infrastructure, destroy power plants and so forth. Is he serious this time? Nobody knows.
Of course that's the point, but his presenting Trump as the evil one in the U.S.-Iran relationship was vile, and Scott Jennings would soon call him out.
JENNINGS: I disagree with Max. I don't think there's any equivalence between the United States and Iran when it comes to our credibility, our military power, our values, and what we stand for on the world stage. To say that there's some equivalence between these two countries, I think, is ridiculous.
BOOT: As usual, you're mischaracterizing what I said, Scott. I wasn't saying there was --
JENNINGS: You said they were the same.
BOOT: No, I did not say there was any moral --
JENNINGS: We'll roll the tape later Max...You said equally duplicitous.
BOOT: I did not say there was any kind of moral equivalence between the United States and Iran. Iran is an abhorrent regime. What I suggested is that the leaders of both countries are duplicitous in their negotiating styles and can't be trusted, which is why it's so hard for them to reach a peace treaty.
JENNINGS: Thank you for restating my correct argument.
Then Philip weighed in -- on Boot's side, of course.
PHILLIP: Trump is, every day, changing his mind about what the objectives are, what the goalposts are, what his red lines are, and Iran, presumptively, is doing the same. So, how do you get two parties to the table where nobody's really sure if anybody is really on the up and up?
The segment continued, with the focus on the U.S. and Trump.
Is it any wonder that President Trump said what he said about CNN?
