Democratic senator claims Trump 'deliberately misled public' over Iran strikes

After Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth led a briefing on the U.S. strikes in Iran, a Democratic senator blasted U.S. President Donald Trump for ‘misleading’ the public about the success of the strikes.

Senator Murphy emerged from the briefing to say that it "still appears that we have only set back the Iranian nuclear program by a handful of months" He also remarked: "There's no doubt there was damage done to the program, but the allegations that we have obliterated their program just don't seem to stand up to reason."

While he couldn't divulge specifics from the briefing, Murphy expressed his doubts about the president's assertions, saying: "I just do not think the president was telling the truth when he said this program was obliterated."

• Donald Trump dementia fears as strange bulge spotted in his pants
• Former CNN star under fire for joke about Donald Trump's dead ex-wife

He further stated: "I walk away from that briefing still under the belief that we have not obliterated the programs," and accused the president of deliberately misleading the public.

This comes after a US intelligence report suggested that Iran's nuclear program was only temporarily set back by months following a US strike, which is at odds with Trump's claim that it was "completely and fully obliterated."

The Defense Intelligence Agency's recent report challenges both Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's statements about the condition of Iran's nuclear infrastructure. Confidential sources have indicated that the weekend attacks on Fordo, Natanz, and Isfahan nuclear sites caused considerable damage.

The White House firmly denied a recent assessment, insisting it was inaccurate.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt criticized the alleged leak of a report, calling it an attempt to undermine President Trump and downplay the achievements of the military strike. "The leaking of this alleged assessment is a clear attempt to demean President Trump and discredit the brave fighter pilots who conducted a perfectly executed mission to obliterate Iran's nuclear program," she stated emphatically.

She continued: "Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000-pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration."

While neither the CIA nor the Office of the Director of National Intelligence has commented on the findings of the Defense Intelligence Agency, the ODNI, which coordinates the efforts of the nation's 18 intelligence services, including the DIA, has remained silent.

CNN was the first to report the intelligence evaluation on Tuesday.

Trump responded by calling on CNN to fire Bertrand over the report. "She should be IMMEDIATELY reprimanded, and then thrown out 'like a dog.' She lied on the Laptop from Hell Story, and now she lied on the Nuclear Sites Story, attempting to destroy our Patriot Pilots by making them look bad when, in fact, they did a GREAT job and hit "pay dirt" - TOTAL OBLITERATION!" he wrote on Truth Social.

"She should not be allowed to work at Fake News CNN. It's people like her who destroyed the reputation of a once great Network. Her slant was so obviously negative, besides, she doesn't have what it takes to be an on camera correspondent, not even close. FIRE NATASHA!"

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei acknowledged on Wednesday that the country's nuclear sites sustained "badly damaged" due to American strikes over the weekend, amid conflicting reports on the effectiveness of the operations against Tehran's nuclear program.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Baghaei admitted, without providing details, that the Sunday strikes by American B-2 bombers, which deployed bunker-buster bombs, had a major impact.

"Our nuclear installations have been badly damaged, that's for sure," he stated.