CNN’s Bash: Trump Says Iran Should Make A Deal Now That “Hardliners” Are Dead; “They Didn’t Die Of Covid”
CNN’s Dana Bash reports on a “brief conversation” this morning with President Trump about Israel’s strikes on Iran last night. “They should now come to the table to make a deal before it’s too late,” Trump said. “It will be too late for them. The people I was dealing with are dead-the hardliners.” “So Israel got them?” Bash asked Trump. “Yeah, they didn’t die of the flu. They didn’t die of COVID,” Trump said.
DANA BASH, CNN: My first question was about the Secretary of State’s remarks last night. His statement, which you cited at the top of the show, explicitly said that the U.S. was notified about the Israeli strikes shortly before they happened and certainly warned Iran not to retaliate against U.S. assets. But the boilerplate language we’ve seen for so many years-that the U.S. supports Israel’s right to defend itself, that the U.S. supports Israel’s action-was absent from that statement. So I began my discussion with the President by asking, What does this mean about U.S. support for what Israel has done and support for Israel? He jumped in and said, We, of course, support Israel, obviously, and support it like no one has ever supported it. It was a very successful attack. Iran should have listened to me when I said-I gave them a 60-day warning, and today is day 61. He went on: They should now come to the table to make a deal before it’s too late. It will be too late for them. The people I was dealing with are dead-the hardliners. I said, So Israel got them? and he replied, Well, they were the hardliners. I said, Yes-they’re dead. Then I added, Just to put a fine point on it, they were killed in last night’s attack? And he said very sarcastically, Yeah, they didn’t die of the flu. They didn’t die of COVID. Now, we know from Oren’s reporting and others that some of the people eliminated last night include the head of the IRGC and the commander of Iran’s air force-who would perhaps have directed retaliation by air against Israel. So that is something we now know. WOLF BLITZER: And it’s interesting, because you correctly point out that what the President was saying to you this morning had a different tone than what Secretary Rubio said in his official statement yesterday. The first Trump administration statement read: Israel took unilateral action against Iran. We are not involved in strikes against Iran, and our top priority is protecting American forces in the region. Iran should not target U.S. interests or personnel. That was Secretary Rubio-but you correctly point out he avoided any mention of support for Israel. If Israel is fighting an Arab or a Muslim enemy in the region right now and is at war for all practical purposes, the U.S. normally expresses support, right? DANA BASH: That’s boilerplate, right? It always happens. It was striking. Now, I want to say the President did not contradict Rubio in any way-he didn’t say the U.S. was involved; he didn’t suggest Rubio was wrong. But the glaring omission of support for Israel-that is something he added on. I’m not saying there weren’t very complicated discussions leading up to this; our reporting indicates there likely were intense negotiations between the United States-between the President and his top negotiators and diplomats-and Israel. But right now, his push is to say: the United States, I-the U.S. President-support Israel.
