CBS News Chief White House Correspondent Nancy Cordes straight-up asked White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt if President Donald Trump was “making” up reasons to justify the U.S. attacks on Iran.
During a press briefing on Tuesday (March 10), Cordes asked Leavitt about Trump’s statements, in which he claimed, “Within a week, [Iran] were going to attack us, 100 percent. They were ready.”
“The president said yesterday for the first time that he had to strike Iran because he believes that Iran was going to strike U.S. targets within seven days, and then he bumped that down later to three days. Where is he getting that?” Cordes said, per Mediaite.
Leavitt replied that she’d addressed this already in the last briefing, noting that this was “a feeling the president had based on facts… provided to him by his top negotiators who had been engaged with the Iranian regime in a good-faith effort.”
She continued, “The Iranian regime was lying, deceiving the United States of America, clearly trying to continue their nuclear program to create a bomb that would, of course, threaten the United States of America.”
Leavitt said the president was “not going to sit back and allow the Iranian regime to threaten or to attack the United States of America any longer.”
Nancy Cordes attends the 46th Kennedy Center Honors at The Kennedy Center; Paul Morigi/Getty Images
Cordes continued to press Leavitt, following up, “But there are no U.S. leaders or Israeli leaders who are making those same claims. So is he making this up to justify his decision to go to war now?”
“The president is not making anything up, Nancy,” Leavitt fired back. “He is looking at this every single day based on intelligence, based on facts, and based on intelligence that he himself and his negotiators have consumed based on their, again, negotiations with the rogue Iranian regime over the past year.”
Leavitt claimed Trump and his team “tried in a good-faith way” to reach a peaceful deal with the Iranian regime.
“Iran chose this path of death and destruction. Iran wanted to attack the United States of America, and the president was not going to sit back and allow that to happen,” she added. “He was not going to sit back and allow it to happen, and everyone in this room should be grateful for it.”
This isn’t the first time Cordes has got under the skin of the Trump administration. In November 2025, the CBS News reporter irked the president when she asked about the vetting of Afghan nationals following the Washington, D.C., shooting on November 26.
“Your DOJ IG just reported this year that there was thorough vetting by DHS and by the FBI of these Afghans who were brought into the U.S., so why do you blame the Biden administration?” Cordes asked, disputing Trump’s claims that the Afghans weren’t properly vetted.
Trump hit back at Cordes, saying, “Because they let ’em in. Are you stupid? Are you a stupid person? Because they came in on a plane along with thousands of other people that shouldn’t be here, and you’re just asking questions because you’re a stupid person.”
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