Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) sharply criticized the Trump administration on MSNBC Wednesday, accusing officials of deliberately misleading the public about the effectiveness of the recent U.S. military operation targeting Iran’s nuclear infrastructure.
During his appearance on Deadline: White House, Murphy took aim at administration claims that the strikes had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program. The operation, which lasted 37 hours and involved seven B-2A Spirit bombers deploying up to 14 GBU-57 bunker-busting bombs, targeted key sites at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan.
“There is always going to be low confidence in assessing a strike in a foreign country designed to destroy something underground,” Murphy said. “We don’t have cameras underneath there. We don’t know exactly what we hit or what we didn’t hit.”
He went on to accuse the Trump administration of knowingly making false statements. “They knew they were lying when they said it. They got caught in the lie,” Murphy asserted. “That’s super embarrassing. And they’re trying to cover up that lie with this righteous indignation, blaming everybody but themselves.”
🤦🏻♂️ because military flights and civilian flights are exactly the same with the midair refueling and all…. Plus they took off from Missouri and not Boston, which you used in your example…. That could be the larger issue. So quick to dispute you forgot common sense. https://t.co/vEyb4LExbl
— Angry Cops (@AngryCops) June 26, 2025
Murphy argued that overstating the success of a military strike carries dangerous implications. “They fudged intelligence about our national security,” he said. “That’s what gets us into unnecessary wars of choice… that’s what gets thousands of Americans killed.”
However, Murphy’s statements directly contradict findings from multiple intelligence agencies, including the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and even admissions from the Iranian government itself. All have acknowledged substantial damage from the U.S. operation, undermining the initial claims made in a controversial CNN report suggesting limited impact.
A senior DIA official, in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation, reaffirmed that the leaked assessment cited by CNN was both “preliminary” and of “low confidence,” emphasizing that further intelligence gathering was ongoing. The official also confirmed that an investigation into the unauthorized leak of the classified report is underway.
Adding to the growing pushback against the narrative of a failed strike, U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff appeared on The Ingraham Angle, where he provided detailed analysis of the operation’s consequences. Witkoff explained that the destruction of Iran’s conversion facilities—not just enrichment centrifuges—inflicted long-term setbacks to the country’s nuclear ambitions.
“Without conversion, you can’t begin enrichment, and you can’t end enrichment in a successful weaponization,” Witkoff stated. “That was taken out.”
Witkoff emphasized that the destroyed facilities were vital both at the start and end of the nuclear fuel cycle, making recovery significantly more difficult for Iran. He called it “almost impossible” for Iran to rebuild the targeted aspects of its nuclear weapons program in the short term.
