Known for her alignment with MAGA views, Fox News anchor Maria Bartiromo raised a crucial question regarding Iran’s ability to attack American service members, despite President Trump’s past claims of having ‘obliterated’ the Iranian military forces.
On her Sunday show, Bartiromo discussed the issue with Victoria Coates, a former national security advisor. This came after a deadly Iranian missile strike hit a military base in Jordan on Friday, resulting in the deaths of two American soldiers. In a separate incident on Saturday, a third American soldier lost his life to shrapnel during the controlled detonation of an Iranian drone in Iraq.
Bartiromo expressed her confusion, stating, ‘CENTCOM has indicated that there will be significant retaliation, but I am puzzled by Iran’s ability to execute such attacks and continue to provoke both American and Gulf country military installations.
‘This is particularly perplexing since the US has been said to have obliterated Iran’s military power, a point the president frequently emphasizes.’
In response, Coates admitted that while Iran’s military is significantly weakened, they have reduced their missile launches from a hundred per day to merely ten, indicating a serious degradation of their capabilities.
She said: ‘There have been a number of days where they haven’t fired off anything, and they haven’t targeted Israel for months now.
‘So I think their capabilities are lessened, but they’re not zero, and that’s the important thing. They are a nuisance.’
The anchor was speaking with Trump’s former national security adviser Victoria Coates on Sunday when she made the remarks
Trump is seen here in New Jersey following the FIFA World Cup Final on Sunday night
US Central Command announced on Sunday night that forces began firing at Iran at 7pm EST, after a soldier was confirmed killed at a base in Northern Iraq.
CENTCOM vowed to ‘continue degrading Iranian military capabilities used to attack commercial vessels and civilian mariners transiting the Strait of Hormuz.’
Speaking with reporters on Sunday night, Trump said he feels ‘very badly’ about the American fatalities.
‘But you know, those great patriots were out there fighting [so] that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,’ he said.
‘Iran has been very, very badly damaged,’ the commander-in-chief continued. ‘They’ve lost everything almost militarily… We control the Strait; they don’t control anything.
‘So we’ll see what happens, but we hit them very hard again tonight, and we did that in honor of the… three great patriots.’
American forces have already devastated Iranian missile depots, drones and air defenses in a barrage of airstrikes over the weekend, as the US military promised ‘swift punishment’ for the deaths of two service members.
Those US strikes concluded at 11.30pm on Saturday and were targeted at the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) forces responsible for the fatal attack on US assets in Jordan on Friday.
Smoke rises from an explosion at an unknown location in what CENTCOM said was a strike on Iran
But on Sunday, CENTCOM announced that a third service member was then killed during a ‘controlled detonation of unexploded ordnance from a downed Iranian one-way attack drone’ in Northern Iraq during action on Saturday.
On Monday those killed in the attack in Jordan were identified as Lt. Tyler James Feehan, 25, of Ewa Beach, Hawaii, and Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Carrollton, Texas.
In addition to the two fatalities, one service member is missing in action, and four others were medically evacuated to Jordanian hospitals in the attack.
The troops have since been discharged, CENTCOM said in a statement on Saturday. The U.S. military has said the total number of deaths in the war with Iran is 17.
Iranian authorities said at least 50 people have been killed and more than 500 wounded in US strikes in the past three weeks, including eight killed in a strike on a bridge on Friday.
People working on ships, as well as foreign workers and others in Gulf nations, Israel and Lebanon have also perished in the conflict.