BREAKING: Reporter Libbey Dean Stands Her Ground in Oval Office, Presses Trump Until He Rules Out Nuclear Weapons Against Iran
Libbey Dean walked into the Oval Office with two questions. Trump made sure she never got to ask the second one.
The NewsNation White House correspondent asked Trump directly whether he had ruled out using a nuclear weapon on Iran, before she could move on to her actual planned question about Flock cameras. Trump snapped.
“I would never say that, but yes, there’s no reason for it,” he said. “What a stupid question that is, actually. Here they are, they’re totally defeated militarily. So now I defeat ’em and now I should use a nuclear weapon on top of ’em? What a stupid question!”
He then thanked the assembled press and told them to leave. Dean’s follow-up question never happened.
The question wasn’t a stunt. Dean asked it hours after Trump vowed to hit Iran “hard” in retaliation for Iranian missile strikes on U.S. bases in Jordan, and after the U.S. struck Iran for the first time in weeks. Later that same day, Trump told Fox News he launched military action because Iran was “on the verge” of obtaining a nuclear weapon and using it against Israel, adding, “we would probably be next.” Given the stakes he himself was describing, whether nuclear weapons were on the table for the U.S. side was exactly the question that needed asking, on the record, in that room.
Dean didn’t back down or soften the question to avoid his temper. She asked it plainly, took the insult, and got the answer anyway. That’s the part that mattered.