Jon Stewart in a Thursday podcast questioned the Trump administration’s response to a leaked internal U.S. intelligence assessment suggesting strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities did not “obliterate” the three sites — in contradiction to President Trump’s account of the attack.
Stewart said if the mission was successful, “it shouldn’t be that hard to not be so defensive and angry all the time,” during “The Weekly Show” Thursday podcast episode.
He criticized White House officials for repeatedly lashing out on the press who inquired about the report.
“Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt comes out, and they ask her, ‘was it obliterated?’ And she says…‘Everybody knows what happens when you have a precision strike with these kinds of weapons,’” Stewart said.
“These weapons have never been used before in the history of the planet! But everybody knows what happened,” he added.
“It’s just beyond the silliness. And if anybody pushes back, they demand 100 percent fealty and anything beyond that sets off anger and frustration because of the fragility.”
The Trump administration has ripped the news media over reports about the strikes.
“The sites that we hit in Iran were totally destroyed, and everyone knows it,” Trump posted on Truth Social on Monday, after reporting that the three struck sites were “obliterated.”
Later in the week, he said “sleazebag” journalists who reported on the preliminary intelligence report that said Iran’s nuclear functions were set back by a month were “scum” while Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the media was reporting “fake news.”
Stewart’s concerns about the administration’s reports on the effectiveness of Sunday’s strikes were also echoed by Democratic lawmakers.
“There’s zero evidence that I’ve seen that the nuclear program was completely and totally obliterated as Donald Trump has claimed,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) told reporters Monday in the Capitol. “No evidence that has been presented to Congress to suggest that that has occurred.”
However, the GOP largely backed Trump for engaging in the Middle Eastern conflict.
“The military operations in Iran should serve as a clear reminder to our adversaries and allies that President Trump means what he says,” Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) wrote in a statement on X.
“The President gave Iran’s leader every opportunity to make a deal, but Iran refused to commit to a nuclear disarmament agreement. President Trump has been consistent and clear that a nuclear-armed Iran will not be tolerated. That posture has now been enforced with strength, precision, and clarity.”
“The President’s decisive action prevents the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism, which chants ‘Death to America,’ from obtaining the most lethal weapon on the planet,” he added. “This is America First policy in action. God bless our brave men and women in uniform – the most lethal fighting force on the planet – as we pray for their safe return home. May God bless America.”