Defense Secretary Mark Esper Speaks on Iran
DoD photo/Lisa Ferdinando
We ran the numbers: There are 3950 news articles covering this topic. 47% (1860) are left leaning, 41% (1601) center, 12% (489) right leaning.
Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper spoke with various news sources about Trump’s order to kill Iranian Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani on Jan. 3. While left-leaning articles question Trump’s rationale for his decision to kill Soleimani and believe Esper contradicted the president, right-leaning articles state that Esper shared Trump’s beliefs.
The Washington Post published a left-leaning article emphasizing that at a campaign rally in Ohio, President Trump claimed the Iranians were planning to attack not only the U.S. Embassy in Iraq but also an undisclosed number of embassies, which he later revealed to be “probably” “four.” However, Esper acknowledged Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that he had not reviewed any evidence of a plot of attack these four U.S. embassies. The article also notes there was skepticism about the president’s claim inside the Pentagon and elsewhere in the government.
A centrist article by NPR releases a transcript of Esper’s interview with NPR’s All Things Considered host Ari Shapiro. In this interview, Esper emphasized that the United States is safer today than it was a few weeks ago, due to the elimination of Soleimani. When asked about the intelligence behind the attack, Esper refuted the claim that the U.S. hasn’t been able to offer one consistent explanation for why the attack as necessary, stating there is “very exquisite information” at stake.
A right-leaning article by The Washington Examiner reports that in interviews with CBS and CNN, Esper said he shared Trump’s belief that Soleimani was likely to attack more U.S. embassies than just the one in Baghdad, but admitted that he was unaware of any specific intelligence to back up the president’s claim. Esper also insisted that the bipartisan group of congressional leaders known as the “Gang of Eight” was briefed on intelligence about the imminent threat to the U.S. embassy in Baghdad.
From the right
Defense chief Esper backs Trumps belief that multiple embassies were targeted by Iran’s top general
Washington Examiner