Former Biden National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told MS NOW’s “Morning Joe” that “faulty assumptions” are driving the Trump administration’s policy on Iran. < blockquote>JAKE SULLIVAN: The reports that you guys were just discussing put a very fine point on it: their ability to retain 70% of both their missiles and their missile launch capability, 90% of access to their underground facilities, and 30 out of 33 of their missile sites along the Strait of Hormuz are now operational once again. And there’s always been this big gap between the administration asserting that Iran’s military has been rendered combat ineffective and the reality that Iran continues to keep the Strait of Hormuz closed. The ships are voting with their feet, to mix metaphors. They’re not going through because they know Iran hasn’t been rendered combat ineffective. They can continue to threaten with missiles and drones this vital waterway that has 20% of the world’s oil going through it. And when you take a step back and look at this, we got into this war on completely faulty assumptions, and now we’re fighting it on faulty assertions – the assertion that we have somehow decimated Iran, when in fact the opposite is the case. And this has put Trump in a very difficult position right as he walks into this high-stakes meeting in China. HOST, MS NOW: So, Katty Kay, the concept of Iran’s military capability being decimated sounds a little bit like something which is something we heard more of on Capitol Hill yesterday, which is a complete exaggeration of reality. KATTY KAY, MS NOW: Yeah. And I think we’ve been hearing that from the secretary of defense right from the beginning of the war. And as journalists, I think, and observers of this, like Joe says, we’ve all got to the stage now where we pretty much discount the number of missiles that have been shot by Americans, because actually, what we want to know is the reality of the damage on the ground. Jake, we were talking yesterday on the show a lot about Bob Kagan’s piece in The Atlantic, where he’s a famous Iran hawk, but basically saying it’s time to cut and run. This is going to get worse before it gets better. What’s the downside, apart from an element of humiliation for the president, perhaps – and I’m sure he would never phrase it like this – but what’s the downside of just saying, This didn’t work out. We’re going to pull out, get the straits back open, and accept that we didn’t achieve our objectives? JAKE SULLIVAN: Well, beyond the cost in American lives, to the American at the gas pump that has already been paid, doing that at this point is basically saying Iran will retain meaningful control over the Strait of Hormuz indefinitely for the future, and that any time they want to flip the switch and close it, they have proven they can do so. And this, I think, is costly to the United States. It’s costly to the global economy, and it’s a huge boon to Iran. Now, President Trump may have no other choice because of the way he’s fought this war. And to have someone like Bob Kagan, who, as you say, is the ultimate Iran hawk, making this case in this way, it shows you just how badly this has gone for President Trump.

Here’s more from the interview:
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