The White House is pushing back on a report citing Democrats who claimed President Donald Trump did not update them ahead of time about a three-target attack on Iran over the weekend.
Trump’s spokesperson Karoline Leavitt was furious over a CNN article with sources claiming Democratic lawmakers were blindsided by the strikes while their Republican counterparts were kept in the loop.
Leavitt demanded that CNN take down the report.
‘This is Fake News,’ the White House press secretary wrote on X Monday morning.
‘The White House made bipartisan courtesy calls to Congressional Leadership and spoke to Sen. Schumer before the strike,’ she added, before admitting: ‘Rep. Jeffries could not be reached until after, but he was briefed.’
‘Please retract,’ she directed towards the news agency’s X account.
CNN’s report was picked up by multiple outlets repeating the claims Democrat members of Congress made about being left in the dark about the attack carried out on Saturday.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt demanded CNN take down its report claiming Democrat lawmakers were not informed of the impending Iran strikes
Leavitt said that the White House did speak with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer before the strikes and the House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries could not be reached until afterwards
After Leavitt’s post on Sunday evening, CNN added an update to its report – but did not take it down like she requested.
‘Correction: This story has been updated to make clear Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was called before the strike, not after as initially reported,’ a note reads at the top of the article.
Sources familiar with the plans initially told CNN that Democratic leaders – including Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries – were not aware the strikes were happening until after the bombs were dropped.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune were notified ahead of time that the U.S. planned to carry out strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. GOP sources confirmed to multiple outlets that this happened.
Leavitt said in her X post that Schumer spoke with the White House ahead of the bombings. She admitted that they were unable to reach Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries until afterwards and that he was given a full brief of the events.
After Leavitt disputed the report, CNN added to its article an acknowledgement that a source said that Schumer was called around 6:00 p.m., which was an hour before the strikes began.
The source, according to the updated report, claims that Schumer was told of the impending military action, though the name of the country was not included in the call.
A source confirmed to CNN after Leavitt’s post to X that Schumer was contacted and spoke with the White House an hour before the strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities
Sen. Mark Warner (D- Va.) and Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), who are respectively the top Democrats on the Senate and House intelligence committees, were not told about the strikes until afterwards, the sources in the report confirmed.
Republicans were quick to line-up behind Trump after the strikes and back his decision to get involved in the conflict between Israel and Iran.
Meanwhile, Democrats condemned his decision to launch without congressional approval – though they stopped short of comparing the action to a declaration of war, which does require an act of Congress.
Democrats are demanding a classified briefing on the strike.
‘Leaders in Congress were aware of the urgency of this situation and the Commander-in-Chief evaluated that the imminent danger outweighed the time it would take for Congress to act,’ Johnson wrote on X in defending Trump’s decision to move unilaterally.
‘The President fully respects the Article I power of Congress, and tonight’s necessary, limited, and targeted strike follows the history and tradition of similar military actions under presidents of both parties.’
Dozens of other GOP lawmakers posted their support.
