Video: Vance slams media over negative coverage of US military strikes on Iran

Vice President J.D. Vance slammed the news media on Wednesday for reporting on a “low confidence” and “incomplete” intelligence report leaked to the media that suggested President Donald Trump’s military strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities did not result in as much damage as the president claimed. Vance warned that while there is an “interesting story” regarding the intelligence leaks, the media “won’t investigate” it.

Sharing a video of a press conference featuring the president, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio addressing the report that the strikes against Iran only did limited damage and only set the country’s nuclear program back by a matter of months, Vance said, “This is such a revealing clip.”

“The American media is full of the least curious, least insightful people in our country. To recap, an out of context, ‘low confidence’ and incomplete intelligence report was selectively leaked to the media,” Vance said. “The media reported on the findings without any real effort to figure out whether they represent any part of (much less the full) truth.”

In his post, Vance explained that the media’s report has been “contradicted” by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Trump administration’s political and defense leadership, by the Iranians, and by “common sense.”

The vice president noted that no one has disputed that the “30,000-pound bunker busters” hit the nuclear facility targets in Iran, the “destructive power” of the bombs, or the fact that Iran has been prevented from assembling a nuclear weapon when they “could have easily” assembled on just a week ago.

READ MORE: Iran ‘much farther away’ from nuclear weapon, top Trump official says

Vance claimed that even if the media’s “dishonest framing” was accepted, the debate is only about how much the Iranians would have to rebuild their nuclear program to develop a nuclear weapon. The vice president suggested that despite the “wildly successful military operation,” the media is “trying to blame Donald Trump for the existence of facilities *that haven’t even been built yet.*”

“There is actually an interesting story here, if the media was interested in telling it,” Vance said. “Why are members of the intelligence community leaking incomplete reports against the elected leadership of the country? Why have the same reporters who have gotten so much wrong learned so little? What is the purpose of these leaks — who is behind them, and what are they trying to achieve? The media won’t investigate that story, though it would be in the public interest to do so.”

“So pay attention to the reporters who are laundering talking points from junior careerists in the intelligence community,” Vance added. “President Trump has obliterated the Iranian nuclear program. The American media seems destined to obliterate their own credibility on this fake story.”