Donald Trump has again threatened with media on the coverage he does not like, this time the New York Times and the CNN for their reports on a preliminary intelligence assessment which raised doubts that the United States on Iran has destroyed its nuclear program.
The White House was on the way to the war against journalists for their reports, even if the press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, recognized the existence of the intelligence assessment. Trump and his allies went so far as to accuse CNN and the time to denigrate the members of the military who carried out strikes, even if their report was not critical of how the mission was carried out.
Trump insisted that Iran’s nuclear capacities were “erased”.
According to The Times, Trump demanded a retraction and apology, while his lawyer, Alejandro Brito, described the report as “false”, “defamatory” and “non -patriotic”.
David McCraw, main vice-president and assistant general lawyer for Times, “no retraction is necessary. No excuse will be to come.”
McGraw wrote to Brito: “While the Trump administration protests that the assessments were only preliminary – which, by the way, were the second word of our article – and that subsequent evaluations can draw different conclusions, no one in administrative disputes that the first assessments declared exactly what the article said: the destruction caused by the raid was not as significant as the remarks of the president.”
He added that “the American public has the right to know if the attack on Iran – funded by taxes and enormous consequences for each citizen – was a success. We are counting on our intelligence services to provide the type of impartial evaluation that we all need in a democracy to judge the foreign policy of our country and the quality of our leaders. More irresponsible for a president to use the threat of defamation disputes to try to silence a publication which dared to point out that the intelligence experts trained, professional and patriotic employed by the American government thought that the president can be mistaken in his initial remarks in the country. »»
CNN has also received a legal threat. A spokesman said, “We can confirm that we have received a letter and responded, rejecting complaints in the letter.”
Trump called journalists on the stories to fire, but distinguished Natasha Bertrand from CNN. On Thursday, during the press briefing, Leavitt attacked the past reports of Bertrand. The network said they were behind “100% behind” Bertrand and his work.
The president’s legal threat is not unusual. He has already continued the Times and CNN, but the various proceedings have been rejected. He continued CBS on how a 60 minutes The interview with Kamala Harris was published. The network said that the trial is without merit, as are a number of legal specialists, but its lawyers are in settlement talks with the Trump team. CBS Parent Paramount Global seeks the approval of the administration for its merger with Skydance Media.
Earlier Thursday, Trump’s defense secretary Pete Hegseth held a press conference during which he also struck the media for reporting on the intelligence report.
“You applaud against Trump so loudly, in your DNA and in your blood, applaud against Trump because you want it not to succeed, you should applaud the effectiveness of these strikes,” HegSeth told Pentagon journalists.
He said that he “urged caution with regard to the premature of whole stories on biased leaks to biased publications so that something bad. And if we take a beat, first recognize the success of our warriors, the Maincons, tell their stories, celebrate that, wave an American flag, be proud of what we have accomplished. “
