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 because obviously you are a military man, but you've also been in these briefings," Cornish said. "Answer the question from Nancy Mace: Do you see a plan or do you see a protracted war?"
"Well, I don't see a war for sure," Mills replied. "That's not what the president's objective has been from the very beginning. I mean, if you think back, for example, to 2011 in Libya, one of the primary reasons that we went there, we didn't declare it a war, but a hostility, as the Department of Justice had clarified, under UN regulations, is that there was no boots on the ground. It was about trying to protect innocent lives of civilians there, and I think with 40,000-plus people being completely just massacred within the streets by trying to do what we would call the First Amendment. I think that the president looked at this, looked at the overall nuclear threat, and I think that when we saw the fact that recently they were even launching hypersonic ballistic missiles."
"Let me stop you there," Cornish interjected, as Mills continued talking. "No, no, here's the thing."
"You're calling it a war, but it's not actually a war," Mills insisted.
"Okay, so you're saying that, I think by most average people's understanding of seeing bombings every day, they think they'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 has talked about taking Kharg Island and 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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