CNN Reporter Trashes 'Operation Midnight Hammer,' But Her Story Just Fell Apart

Late Tuesday, CNN rolled out what could easily be mistaken for its favorite scoop since Elon Musk stopped playing footsie with the corporate press.

“Exclusive: Early US intel assessment suggests strikes on Iran did not destroy nuclear sites, sources say.”

Cue the champagne and barely suppressed glee in the CNN newsroom. The network all but celebrated the idea that President Donald J. Trump’s monumental military success—Operation Midnight Hammer—might have come up short. That the mission, which mirrored the precision of 1998’s “Operation Desert Fox” but with greater efficiency and no U.S. losses, may not have “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear facilities as Trump had claimed.

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The “exclusive” cited a so-called Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) report relayed by seven anonymous sources, who suggested that the airstrikes might have set back Iran’s nuclear program by “a few months, tops.” One source even claimed, “Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile and centrifuges were mostly ‘intact.’”

The White House wasn’t having it.

“This alleged assessment is flat-out wrong and was classified as ‘top secret’ but was still leaked to CNN by an anonymous, low-level loser in the intelligence community,” said press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

“The leaking of this alleged assessment is a clear attempt to demean President Trump, and discredit the brave fighter pilots who conducted a perfectly executed mission to obliterate Iran’s nuclear program. Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000 pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration.”

Leavitt’s blunt and unapologetic response highlighted what the media chose to omit: that the DIA report was reportedly labeled “low confidence.” In intelligence parlance, that means the assessment is speculative at best—a fact CNN and the New York Times conveniently failed to mention.

And that’s not the only credibility gap.

CNN’s byline included Natasha Bertrand, a name that should raise immediate red flags for anyone following media ethics. Bertrand was the author of the infamous Politico article that published the now-debunked “Russian disinformation” letter from 51 former intel officials—just weeks before the 2020 election—aimed at suppressing the Hunter Biden laptop story. That deception arguably tipped the race in Joe Biden’s favor.

As a reward for helping mislead the American electorate, Bertrand landed a spot on Forbes’ “30 Under 30” list in 2021. And now, here she is again, shaping a narrative designed to undermine President Trump and whitewash his success against Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

Meanwhile, more credible reporting quickly discredited CNN’s spin. The New York Post highlighted how newly available satellite imagery showed more destruction than initially believed.

David Albright, founder of the Institute for Science and International Security and a top expert on Iran’s nuclear program, wrote Tuesday:

“One change today, after the completion of the DIA report, is intelligence evidence that more enriched uranium stocks are in the rubble than believed just yesterday.”

Albright also shredded the DIA’s centrifuge claim:

“Iran has likely lost close to 20,000 centrifuges at Natanz and Fordow… Moreover, there has been considerable damage to Iran’s ability to build the nuclear weapon itself.”

His conclusion? Reconstituting Iran’s weapons program would require “significant time, investment, and energy.”

Even leftist firebrand Cenk Uygur dismissed the intel leak, suggesting it was likely “fake intelligence from Israel or a neocon leaking speculative evidence.”

“There’s a new bulls* leak about how we didn’t destroy Iran’s facilities enough. That means Israel is not done with this war,”** Uygur raged.

Megyn Kelly chimed in too, backing Leavitt’s position and speculating the leak may have come from a disgruntled anti-Trump insider.

But perhaps the clearest insight came from Seth Mandel of Commentary:

“The only way it is correct to say that Iran would be able now to sprint to a bomb in six months is if nothing else changes… That would mean Israel would be rolling up its spy network in Iran, would not be patrolling the skies... and the U.S. satellites wouldn’t be watching.”

Mandel’s point is simple: Iran isn’t sprinting toward a bomb, it’s crawling from the ruins. Operation Midnight Hammer did what it was designed to do.

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Iran is now reeling—its defenses shredded, its proxies silenced, and its regime leadership reduced to hiding in bunkers. Its last bargaining chip—nuclear leverage—is gone. Meanwhile, Israel is safer, the "12 Days War" has (for now) concluded, Russia and China are scrambling, and President Trump once again reshaped global power dynamics with boldness and precision.

Which explains exactly why CNN, the New York Times, and their Deep State leakers are desperate to declare the mission a failure. They’re not angry because Trump missed; they’re angry because he didn’t.

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