White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt slammed CNN on Monday for spreading what she called “fake news” about the Iran strikes. Her comments came after CNN was forced to correct a report claiming Democrats in Congress weren’t notified ahead of time.
The U.S. military struck Iranian nuclear facilities early Sunday morning. Targets included Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. Up to 14 GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators were reportedly used in the coordinated attack.
Speaking to Fox and Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade, Leavitt said congressional Democrats were indeed contacted. “The White House made calls to congressional leadership, they were bipartisan calls,” she said. “In fact, Hakeem Jeffries couldn’t be reached, we tried him before the strike and he did not pick up the phone, but he was briefed after, as well as Chuck Schumer was briefed before prior to the strike.”
Leavitt didn’t hold back. “So this notion that CNN ran with — that the White House did not give a heads-up to Democrats — is just completely false,” she said. “In fact, both Senator Schumer’s office and CNN had to retract that story last night, because it was a blatant lie and we showed them the timestamps from those phone calls.”
CNN eventually updated the story. A correction now appears at the top of the article. Leavitt had already called them out on X the night before.
“This is Fake News,” she posted Sunday. “The White House made bipartisan courtesy calls to Congressional Leadership and spoke to @SenSchumer before the strike. @RepJeffries could not be reached until after, but he was briefed. @CNN please retract.”
The strikes come as tensions with Iran remain high. Ten days earlier, Israel had launched its own operation against Iranian nuclear infrastructure.
Iran has fired back since, launching missiles at Israeli cities and refusing to resume nuclear negotiations. The pressure continues to build — and so do the political battles at home.