Sen. Tim Kaine says Trump likely exaggerated damage done to Iran's nuclear program
(snip)
Interview highlights
Steve Inskeep: There is a Defense Intelligence Agency report that said, with low confidence, as they put it, that the military hit Fordo, that they did some damage, but that the Iranians might have moved uranium elsewhere just in time. Is that report that the White House has criticized, in fact, a decent bottom line for what the government knows at this point?
Sen. Tim Kaine: That report is classified. I read it in a classified setting, and I don't really want to talk about it. But let me just put it in this kind of a context: If the president on Saturday night had said, 'We have taken this action and we've caused severe and significant damage to the Iranian nuclear program,' you wouldn't have seen all this damage control for the last few days.
The president overstated it, in all likelihood. He compared it to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He put up an insulting and juvenile musical video on his Truth Social account with a 'bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, Iran' song. And now you've had the Pentagon try to scramble to assuage his ego — yelling at reporters. They had to postpone the briefing that they gave the senators from Tuesday to Thursday. They had to disinvite Tulsi Gabbard from coming because apparently they didn't like what she might have said. They're scrambling because the president has kind of dislocated his own shoulder by patting himself on the back in some ways that are unrealistic.
(snip)
Kaine: There's two things I would have done differently. First, this war really is sort of on Trump's shoulders because he tore up a nuclear deal that was working, that was limiting Iran's nuclear program even more than these bombs have limited it. This was a program that was working not only in the eyes of our allies and the [International Atomic Energy Agency] but also working in the eyes of Trump's Term One Cabinet — national security team — that said, 'Don't tear up this deal.' It's limiting Iranian centrifuges, limiting enrichment and limiting nuclear research. We had deep inspections into what Iran was doing. But when President Trump tore that up, Iran raced forward. So number one, prefer diplomacy over bombs. And number two, if Israel wants to start a war with Iran, we will help defend Israel. But we didn't need to join this war.
https://www.npr.org/2025/06/27/nx-s1-5443659/trump-iran-nuclear-program
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