Senator Accuses Trump of 'Deliberately Misleading the Public' With Claims of Iran's Nuclear Program Being 'Obliterated'

Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy accused President Donald Trump of "deliberately misleading the public" by claiming that U.S. airstrikes over the weekend "obliterated" Iran's nuclear program.

The White House held a classified intelligence briefing with U.S. senators on Thursday amid conflicting reports about the strike's impact. A similar briefing for House members is scheduled for Friday, PBS reported.

Murphy refused to share information from the briefing but told the media he walked away from it "still under the belief that we have not obliterated the program."

"The president was deliberately misleading the public when he said the program was obliterated," Murphy continued. "It is certain that there is still significant capability, significant equipment that remain," he added.

Murphy criticized the Trump administration immediately following the surprise strikes on three of Iran's nuclear facilities on June 22. He wrote in an X post that he was briefed on the same intelligence that led to the strikes, and "Iran posed no imminent threat of attack to the United States."

"Iran was not close to building a deliverable nuclear weapon. The negotiations Israel scuttled with their strikes held the potential for success," Murphy wrote.