MS NOW host Lawrence O’Donnell on Wednesday praised one senior MAGA official for “defying” President Donald Trump and his purported rationale for the Iran struggle — earlier than skewering her over one egregious declare that O’Donnell condemned as “perjury.”
“There was obviously no imminent threat to the United States coming from Iran that justified Donald Trump starting a war,” mentioned O’Donnell, citing Tuesday’s resignation letter from Joe Kent, the now-former director of the National Counterterrorism Center.
O’Donnell devoted the remainder of his “Last Word” monologue to Trump’s director of nationwide intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, who testified Wednesday in ready remarks for the Senate Intelligence Committee that U.S. strikes in June had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear capabilities.
Gabbard was merely echoing Trump’s personal claims concerning the “Operation Midnight Hammer” strikes final 12 months, which appeared to finish hostilities earlier than he accused Iran of rebuilding their amenities and took America to struggle in February over these “imminent threats.”
“It would have been so easy for Tulsi Gabbard to say, ‘I agree with the president’s judgment that there was an imminent threat,’” O’Donnell famous Wednesday. “She refused to do that, refused to tell that lie for Donald Trump.”
He added, “And in refusing to do that, she is actually defying Donald Trump, not protecting Donald Trump. And of course, she is also lying when she said that the only person who can determine what is and isn’t an imminent threat is the president. That is simply perjury.”
Gabbard mentioned as a lot throughout her testimony Wednesday.
When requested by Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) if the intelligence group had made the identical evaluation as Trump that Iran posed an “imminent nuclear threat,” Gabbard mentioned, “Senator, the only person who can determine what is and is not an imminent threat is the president.”
Ossoff reminded Gabbard that she had testified that the U.S. “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear amenities and that Iran made “no efforts since then to try to rebuild their enrichment,” earlier than asking if the intelligence group had nonetheless assessed Iran was an “imminent threat.”
“It is not the intelligence community’s responsibility to determine what is and is not an imminent threat,” mentioned Gabbard, the highest-ranking intelligence official within the United States. “That is up to the president based on a volume of information that he receives.”
O’Donnell expressed frustration after enjoying varied clips of her testimony.
“In the written version of Tulsi Gabbard’s opening statement to the committee, she said, ‘As a result of Operation Midnight Hammer, Iran’s nuclear enrichment program was obliterated. There has been no efforts since then to try to rebuild their enrichment capabilities,’” he mentioned.
O’Donnell continued, “So that was Tulsi Gabbard saying of course Iran had no nuclear capability whatsoever when Donald Trump launched his war, but for some reason she left that line out of her opening statement when she spoke her statement to the committee.”
When requested Wednesday if she omitted that half as a result of Trump lately reiterated his declare of an “imminent threat,” Gabbard mentioned she “skipped through some of the portions” of her oral remarks — as a result of “the time was running long.”
Watch the total “Last Word” section on MS NOW’s YouTube account.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/lawrence-odonnell-tulsi-gabbard-testimony-iran-war_n_69bbccfde4b04fe25a48dfe9