The Daily Signal - Trump Administration Fights CNN on Faulty Iran Leak, Biden Aide Refuses to Testify | June 26, 2025

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Starting point is 00:00:25 We'd love to talk, business. The Trump administration fights with CNN over a low-confidence leaked intelligence report on the U.S. Iran strike. Former Biden aides refused to testify on the Biden cover-up scandal before the House Oversight Committee, subpoenas to follow. I'm Tony Kinnett, host of the Daily Signals Tony Kinnett cast, syndicated nationally at 7 p.m. Eastern. It is Thursday, June 26, 2025. This is the Daily Signals top news in 10. A lot of chaos in the American political and media spheres yesterday after CNN reporter Natasha Bertrand released her report on a leaked source claiming that Iran was not set very far back by the U.S. strikes by the Trump administration the other day.

Starting point is 00:01:16 Check it out. It was produced by the Defense Intelligence Agency, which is the Pentagon's intelligence arm. And it is worth noting that it is a very early assessment. The strikes were only a matter of days ago. And the intelligence community is still gathering intelligence. They are still working to come up with a full comprehensive paper. picture of what exactly happened here. But based on a battle damage assessment that was carried out by U.S. Central Command, essentially looking at the images and looking at what was actually

Starting point is 00:01:42 damaged, the Defense Intelligence Agency has assessed that the core components of Iran's nuclear program are largely intact and that Iran's nuclear program has essentially only been set back by months. The Trump administration was not particularly thrilled about this. Hegseth elaborated on stage later in response to a CNN question. Secretary. Yeah. There's a reason the president calls out fake news for what it is. These pilots, these refuelers, these fighters, these air defenders,

Starting point is 00:02:14 the skill and the courage it took to go into enemy territory flying 36 hours on behalf of the American people in the world to take out a nuclear program is beyond what anyone in this audience can fathom. And then the instinct, the instinct of CNN, the instinct of the New York Times is to try to find a way to spin it for their own political reasons to try to hurt President Trump or our country. They don't care what the troops think. They don't care what the world thinks. They want to spin it to try to make him look bad based on a leak. Of course, we've all seen plenty of leakers. And what do leakers do? They have agendas. And what do they do? Do they share

Starting point is 00:02:51 the whole information or just the part that they want to introduce? And when they introduce that preliminary report that's deemed to be low a low assessment you know what a low assessment means low confidence in the data in that report and why is there low confidence because all of the evidence of what was just bombed by 1230,000 pound bombs is buried under a mountain devastated and obliterated so if you want to make an assessment of what happened at fordough you better get a big shovel and go really deep because Iran's nuclear program is obliterated. And somebody somewhere is trying to leak something to say, oh, with low confidence, we think

Starting point is 00:03:35 maybe it's moderate. Those that dropped the bombs precisely in the right place know exactly what happened when that exploded. And you know who else knows? Iran. That's why they came to the table right away because their nuclear capabilities have been set back beyond what they thought were possible because of the courage of a commander and chief who led our troops, despite what the fake news wants to say.

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Starting point is 00:04:33 Quote, Natasha Bertrand should be fired from CNN. I watched her for three days doing fake news. She should be immediately reprimanded and then thrown out like a dog. She lied on the laptop from hell story. That's the Hunter Biden laptop disinformation story right before the 2020 election. And now she lied on the nuclear site story, attempting to destroy our Patriot pilots by making them look bad when, in fact, they did a gun. great job and hit pay dirt, total obliteration. She should not be allowed to work at fake news

Starting point is 00:05:02 CNN. It's people like her who destroyed the reputation of a once great network. Her slant was so obviously negative. Besides, she doesn't have what it takes to be an on-camera correspondent, not even close. Fire Natasha. CNN released the following statement about Natasha Bertrand. We stand 100% behind Natasha Bertrand's journalism and specifically her and her colleagues' reporting of the early intelligence assessment of the U.S. attack on Iran's nuclear facilities. CNN's reporting made clear that it was an initial finding that could change with additional intelligence. We have extensively covered President Trump's own deep skepticism about it. However, we do not believe it is reasonable to criticize CNN reporters for accurately reporting

Starting point is 00:05:43 the existence of the assessment and accurately characterizing its findings, which are in the public interest. Of note, Natasha did not originally report that this was a low confidence estimate by intelligence sources. She is also not disclosed who it was that leaked this information to her. White House Press Secretary Carolyn Levitt also said that the Federal Bureau of Investigation would be looking into the individual who might have leaked this information to the press. They took bits and pieces from a leaked top secret intelligence report. And by the way, I understand the FBI is investigating who was the source of that leak because it's an illegal leak to CNN. And this is the same fake news CNN reporter who wrote the story alleging that the Hunter

Starting point is 00:06:25 Biden laptop was Russian disinformation, which we know is one of the greatest political hoaxes this country and the American public have ever seen. And that CNN story does not change the facts. There was a total and complete obliteration of Iran's nuclear facilities. And because of the president's strike, because of the precision of our United States military in this perfectly executed mission, Iran no longer has the capability to produce a nuclear weapon as imminently as they did prior to the strike. The American people in the world should be grateful for that. and it's disgusting that CNN and the New York Times are disparaging, not just the president, but are brave men and women who helped conduct this highly successful operation.

Starting point is 00:06:59 What kind of consequence could the leaker face? They should go to jail. Just one more note here because I think the situation and its irony are particularly potent. CNN's Jake Tapper took to the airwaves yesterday to defend not just Natasha Bertrand, but the standards of CNN in investigative journalism. But here's the thing. Today, President Trump and his administration are going after shooting the messengers in an increasingly ugly way. They're calling journalists fake news for true stories.

Starting point is 00:07:34 They're calling for an excellent CNN reporter, Natasha Bertrand, to be fired, which is preposterous. And to which a CNN statement today reads, we stand 100% behind Natasha Bertrand's journalism, as they should. The Trump administration is also accusing any news media who reports on this Intel assessment as not being patriotic. Asking questions is literally our job demanding facts and answers instead of just taking a president's word for it. Of course, the rather awkward elephant in the room is that Jake Tapper just wrote an entire book with Alex Thompson over from Axios about the media, including CNN, complicity in taking everything the Biden administration said as gospel, so much so that he says even members of the Biden administration were shocked that journalists were taking everything they said at face value. Jill Biden, former First Lady's longtime aide Anthony Bernal, has defied Congress

Starting point is 00:08:37 and is refusing to testify today about former President Joe Biden's cognitive decline after the White House waived his executive privilege. This is according to, a post from the House Oversight Committee. According to a statement from Chairman James Comer, now that the White House has waived executive privilege, it's abundantly clear that Anthony Bernal, Jill Biden's so-called work husband, never intended to be transparent about Joe Biden's cognitive decline and the ensuing cover-up. With no privilege left to hide behind, Mr. Bernal is now running scared, desperate to bury the truth. The American people deserve answers and accountability, and the Oversight Committee will not tolerate this obstruction. I will promptly,

Starting point is 00:09:17 issue a subpoena to compel Anthony Bernal's testimony before the committee. Just yesterday we heard from our first witness, Nira Tandon, the former staff secretary who controlled the Biden Autopenn. Ms. Tandon testified that she had minimal interaction with President Biden despite wielding tremendous authority. She explained that to obtain approval for Autopen signatures, she would send decision memos to members of the president's inner circle and had no visibility of what occurred between sending the memo and receiving it back with approval. Her testimony raises serious questions about who was really calling the shots in the Biden White House amid the president's obvious decline.

Starting point is 00:09:54 We will continue to pursue the truth for the American people, end quote. Two notes to wrap up here. Regarding Anthony Bernal, this is the individual that former DNC vice chair David Hogg said was running a lot of the show during the Biden administration. Also, according to Axios Alexios Alexe Thompson, he said, quote, an update yesterday at 5.42 p.m. A person familiar with Bernal's interactions with the committee told Axios, quote, calling this a refusal is misleading when there was simply a request to reschedule the interview, end quote.

Starting point is 00:10:27 I found this to be a touch ambiguous and asked for clarification familiar how. Is this something that you received from the committee side of communications or the Bernal side of communications? I received no response, so I can't necessarily suggest that there is any. merit yet to the claim that this was simply a rescheduling as opposed to the refusal the House Oversight Committee painted it as. Either way, the hearing today promises to be very interesting indeed. So head down to the description and make sure you're subscribed to the Tony Kinnettcast so you can join us this evening at 7 p.m. Eastern and dig through all of the clips I'm sure are going to be just as chaotic as they usually are in the House committee.

Starting point is 00:11:13 I'm trying to get clarification. Order, order. I'm trying to get clarification. Look at, calm down. Calm down. No, no, no, no, because this is what I'll do. I'm trying to get clarification. You're not recognized.

Starting point is 00:11:24 Ms. Croquet. I'm Tony Kinnett, and this has been the Daily Signals. Top News in 10. Take care.

The Daily Signal - Trump Administration Fights CNN on Faulty Iran Leak, Biden Aide Refuses to Testify | June 26, 2025

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