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Donald Trump's reasoning that he had no choice but to start a war with Iran because Iranian missiles could hit the American mainland “soon” was undercut by a report from MS NOW’s Jackie Alemany on Thursday morning.During a military medal ceremony on Monday at the White House, the president told the audience, “The regime already had missiles capable of hitting Europe and our bases, both local and overseas, and would soon have had missiles capable of reaching our beautiful America.”Alemany, the co-host of MS NOW’s “The Weekend,” broke the news on “Morning Joe” that one of her sources in the White House claimed Trump has been champing at the bit to get the war started for some time.Speaking with the “Morning Joe” co-hosts, she swerved away from a question from Joe Scarborough to state, “I do want to address something that Jonathan [Lemire] said, because I've had this reporting that just came to me. But the personal nature of Trump's position on Iran: I have a source who had lunch with Trump at Mar-a-Lago a month and a half ago, who said essentially that Trump was itching to strike Iran.”"And I think it does really get to this idea that so little of this is based on actual substance and primarily on settling a score against Iran, wanting to legacy build and, again, a lack of a real justification here,” she pointed out. “And there are lots of members of Congress in a bipartisan manner who are taking issue with this, although not enough for this to pass in the Senate and likely to fail in the House today.” - YouTube youtu.be

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed that Spain has already agreed to cooperate with the United States on any war with Iran — but almost immediately, the Spanish government contradicted this.As CNBC noted, when Leavitt was pressed by reporters on Wednesday about Spain's refusal to allow U.S. use of its military bases for staging such an operation, she replied, “With respect to Spain, I think they heard the president’s message yesterday loud and clear, and it’s my understanding, over the past several hours, they’ve agreed to cooperate with the U.S. military. The president expects all of our European allies, of course, to cooperate in this long sought-after mission, not just for the United States but also for Europe, to crush the rogue Iranian regime.”However, Madrid swiftly disagreed, with Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares telling a local outlet that, “The Spanish government’s position on the war in the Middle East ... and the use of our bases has not changed at all.”Spain is one of the member states of the NATO alliance, which would compel the Spanish government to protect the United States if it were attacked; but they aren't obliged to give unlimited cooperation to the U.S. to help them invade another country.Already, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has condemned President Donald Trump's move to strike Iran, saying, “You can’t play Russian roulette with the destiny of millions ... Nobody knows for sure what will happen now. Even the objectives of those who launched the first attack are unclear. But we must be prepared, as the proponents say, for the possibility that this will be a long war, with numerous casualties and, therefore, with serious economic consequences on a global scale.”Trump, for his part, has threatened to "cut off all dealings" with Spain if they do not commit to stand behind U.S. military objectives.

Conservative Anglican leaders have overhauled Gafcon’s leadership and signal a sharper break from the historic Anglican Communion

A Democratic Party representative who served in the Iraq war has issued a statement denouncing the rhetoric around the ongoing strikes on Iran. Donald Trump approved a bombing campaign against Iran earlier this week, with veterans now serving in government airing their concerns. New York Democrat Rep. Pat Ryan, a veteran who twice served in Iraq, issued a statement to CNN expressing his concern over the current Iran situation. He said, "If I hear one more chicken hawk who’s never served a single day in uniform sitting in a gold-plated office in DC or Mar-a-Lago or anywhere else, try to talk tough having never seen what war is about, I’m going to lose my mind."Fellow representatives backed Ryan's comments, with Rep. Eugene Vindman calling the conflict with Iran an unnecessary use of US resources. He said, "I will not be shedding a tear for the Iranian regime and the Ayatollah. I understand the threat but I also understand that wars are easy to start and hard to finish. "This is a commitment of American blood and treasure to a conflict that we didn’t need to be engaged in." Donald Trump has said the U.S. will stay in the fight for as long as it takes to achieve the country's objectives, although his administration has not yet laid out a compelling case for the operation, according to some lawmakers on Capitol Hill.John Bolton, the president's national security advisor during his first administration, told Joanna Coles on a new episode of "The Daily Beast Podcast" on Wednesday that he is concerned that Trump hasn't thought through the implications of the strikes. He added that the president's lack of a decision-making process "magnifies the risk" that something could go wrong.“As long as things are going successfully, he’ll stick with it," Bolton said. "If we run into real difficulty, and I hope we don’t, and we shouldn’t at this point, but if we do, because anything is possible, that would be the testing time to see whether he was able to stick it out."

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) lashed out at several of her Republican colleagues for opposing a motion that would require Congress to release information on payouts that silence victims of congressional sex scandals.During a House Oversight Committee hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) moved to release information about payouts for sexual misconduct. Boebert spoke out in support of Mace's motion in committee after a majority of Republicans in the full House voted down a similar effort."And I want to thank Congresswoman Nancy Mace for introducing this privileged motion," the Colorado Republican said. "I think at this point, this is something that should be introduced on a weekly basis. I am absolutely disgusted that we could even get to 50 members of Congress who want immediate transparency. Don't we all campaign on transparency? Don't we all go out and tell the American voters that we are leaders and that we are going to get justice for them, that we are going to do right by them?""And then we hire their daughters to come work for us," she continued. "And your tax dollars, millions and millions of dollars, has been used in this slush fund as hush money to silence victims who have been sexually harassed, sexually abused by members of Congress."Boebert noted that attention had been focused on sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, but the misconduct was "happening right here in our nation's capital.""And to every member who voted to send this to committee, where you know this was sent to die on the House floor just moments ago," she remarked. "I hope you have a darn good reason to tell your constituents why you were not going to stand up for the victims.""And I'm glad that we are doing something about it here in the Oversight Committee," the lawmaker added. "And to the members who voted against this, go home and tell your daughters what you did today! Go home and tell your daughters what happens in the workplace, no matter where it is, in your hometown, in your nation's capital, and tell them what you did to help continue to cover up decades of corruption!"

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt directly attacked CNN's Kaitlan Collins on Wednesday during the first press briefing since the United States and its ally Israel launched military strikes against Iran. Leavitt had made several comments criticizing media coverage of the Trump administration and went after reporters at the White House, specifically Collins and CNN. The Trump administration has presented several different objectives since launching its military operation five days ago — with Cabinet members and even President Donald Trump giving conflicting information over what prompted the attacks and led to the regional conflict that has now left six American troops dead. "Is it the position of this administration that the press should not prominently cover the deaths of U.S. service members?" Collins asked Leavitt. "No, it's the position of this administration that the press in this room and the press across this country should report on the success of Operation Epic Fury and the damage it is doing to the rogue Iranian regime that has threatened the lives of every single American in this room," Leavitt said. "If the Iranian regime had their choice, they would kill every single person in this room, and so we can all be very grateful that we have an administration, that we have men and women in our armed forces who are willing to sacrifice their own lives for the rest of us in this room and for every American across the country, and for every troop that is based in the Middle East."Collins pushed back on what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had said earlier Wednesday. When Leavitt started to clash with her, things became personal. "But Secretary Hegseth was complaining that it was front-page news about these six service members who were killed," Collins said. "That's not what the secretary said, and that's not what he meant, and you know it!" Leavitt said, appearing visibly upset by Collins' statement. "You are being disingenuous. There is not — we've never had a secretary of defense who cares more..." Collins then interjected and read the statement directly from Hegseth, who had claimed that the press had purposefully tried to speak badly about Trump."The press only wants to make the president look bad," Leavitt said. As you know, the press, the deaths of U.S. service members under every president. The press does only want to make the president look bad. That's a fact. Especially, you know, listen to me, especially you, and especially CNN, and the secretary of defense cares deeply about our warfighters and our men and women in uniform. He travels all across this country to meet with them, to connect with them. And your network has hardly ever probably reported on that." Collins responded again to Leavitt's attacks — pointing out that covering the slain military members was not an attempt to attack Trump."That's not making the president look bad, that's showcasing that," Collins said. "And I just told you that the president of the United States will be attending their dignified transfer. So please. So, please," Leavitt said. "We expect you to cover that as you should, Kaitlan. But you and your network know that you take every single thing this administration says and tries to use it to make the president look bad. That is an objective fact."Collins pushed back again. "I don't think covering troop deaths is trying to make the president look bad," Collins said."If you're trying to argue right now that CNN's overwhelming coverage is not negative of President Donald Trump, I think the American people would tend to agree, and your ratings would tend to disagree with that as well," Leavitt said.

Frigate goes down off Sri Lanka as Washington and Israel step up their offensive and promise to hit ‘deeper’ targets in IranMiddle East crisis – live updatesA torpedo fired by a US submarine sank an Iranian warship off the south coast of Sri Lanka as the Trump administration followed through on its threats to destroy Tehran’s military and political leadership.At least 87 Iranian sailors were killed in the attack on the Iris Dena. The frigate was sailing in international waters as it returned from a naval exercise organised by India in the Bay of Bengal. The torpedo strike prompted questions from former US officials about whether Washington’s aim of eliminating all of Iran’s military breached international law. Continue reading...

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt delivered an attack on the media on Wednesday during the first press briefing since the U.S. launched its military operation against Iran five days ago. NBC News senior White House correspondent Garrett Haake asked Leavitt why President Donald Trump, just days after his State of the Union address, had not laid out the case for why the U.S. had planned with its ally Israel to launch military strikes on Iran. Leavitt blamed the press for conflicting reports over the Trump administration's objectives in the military action, and what prompted the attacks. "Does the president believe the country supports the actions that he's taken so far in Iran?" Haake asked.Leavitt responded to the question with a swipe at the media, including the reporters at the briefing. "I think he does. And I think the president knows the country is smart enough to read past many of the fake news headlines produced by people in this room, that this action was unjustifiable," Leavitt said. "Again, this is a rogue terrorist regime that has been threatening the United States, our allies and our people for 47 years," Leavitt argued. "And the American people are smart enough to know that. And they've also been smart enough to listen to the president himself, not just over the past year in this second term, but during his first term as president and also for the past 40 years of his life. This is a president who has been remarkably consistent on this issue, that Iran can never obtain a nuclear weapon. And the president tried peace through diplomacy exhaustively and extensively. He and his team gave it their best go."