White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt snapped at CBS correspondent Nancy Cordes and insisted President Donald Trump wasn't "making anything up" when it came to the war with Iran.
"The president said yesterday for the first time that he had to strike Iran because he believed Iran was going to strike U.S. targets within seven days," Cordes explained during a Tuesday briefing. "He then bumped that down later to three days. Where is he getting that?"
"That's not the first time the president has said that he chose to launch Operation Epic Fury because he felt as though Iran was going to strike the United States and our assets," Leavitt insisted. "And he has said, was not going to sit back and allow the Iranian regime to threaten or to attack the United States of America any longer."
"So is he making this up to justify his decision to go to war now?" Cordes wondered.
"The president is not making anything up, Nancy," Leavitt shot back. "He is looking at this every single day based on intelligence, based on facts, and based on intelligence that he himself and his negotiators have consumed based on their, again, negotiations with the rogue Iranian regime over the past year."
"And Iran chose this path to death and destruction," she added. "Iran wanted to attack the United States of America, and the president was not going to sit back and allow that to happen. He was not going to sit back and allow that to happen ever. Everyone in this room should be grateful for it."