CNN host snaps as MAGA lawmaker tries to convince her US not at war
CNN's Audie Cornish clashed with a Republican congressman over his characterization of President Donald Trump's war in Iran.
Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL) appeared Thursday on "CNN This Morning," where Cornish asked him comment on a vow to oppose further funding for the Iran war by Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), who had asked House GOP leadership four months ago to strip Mills of his committee assignments over domestic assault allegations.
"I wanted to talk to you becauseobviously you are a militaryman, but you've also been in these briefings," Cornish said. "Answer thequestion from Nancy Mace: Do yousee a plan or do you see aprotracted war?"
"Well, I don't see a war forsure," Mills replied. "That's not what thepresident's objective has beenfrom the very beginning. I mean,if you think back, for example,to 2011 in Libya, one of theprimary reasons that we wentthere, we didn't declare it awar, but a hostility, as the Department of Justice hadclarified, under UN regulations,is that there was no boots onthe ground. It was about tryingto protect innocent lives ofcivilians there, and I thinkwith 40,000-plus people beingcompletely just massacred withinthe streets by trying to do whatwe would call the First Amendment. I think that thepresident looked at this, lookedat the overall nuclear threat, and I think that when we saw thefact that recently they wereeven launching hypersonicballistic missiles."
"Let me stop you there," Cornish interjected, as Mills continued talking. "No, no, here'sthe thing."
"You're calling it a war, butit's not actually a war," Mills insisted.
"Okay, so you're saying that,I think by most averagepeople's understanding of seeingbombings every day, they thinkthey're looking at a war," Cornish said.
"Then why wasn't it a war in Libya?" Mills asked.
"Then when they hear someone like," Cornish continued, "Lindsey Graham hastalked about taking Kharg Islandand compared it to Iwo Jima."
Graham called for U.S. Marines to take control of the Persian Gulf island, where 90 percent of Iran's crude oil exports are processed, and compared the operation to one of the bloodiest battles of World War II, during which nearly 6,000 Marines were killed, and Mills argued that the senator doesn't speak for the Republican Party.
"He speaks a lot for the White House," Cornish pointed out.
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