Trump’s Director of the National Economic Council Kevin Hassett doesn’t want to piss off Dear Leader and contradict his latest lie, so he did his best to weasel out of answering the question when asked about the blockade in the Strait of Hormuz.
As we discussed here, and as former Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes made clear this Friday, a blockade is an act of war, so Trump’s argument that somehow we’re not at war because of the so-called ceasefire is laughable.
Hassett made an appearance on this Sunday’s Face the Nation on CBS, and was asked by host Margaret Brennan whether or not we’re still at war with Iran given the fact that the blockade is in place, and rather than admit his boss is a liar, Hassett pretended he didn’t know what the definition of war is.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So, you said the blockade is still on. A blockade is an act of war. Are we at war with Iran?
KEVIN HASSETT: Iran shut down the straits. Iran shut down the straits, and the only ones they were letting through were Iranian ships, and President Trump didn’t think that was acceptable.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So, we are still at war with Iran?
KEVIN HASSETT: You know what- I don’t know what the definition of war is when we’re not shooting and we’re negotiating and they’re under a lot of pressure. There’s no reason, I think, right now, to do anything other than what we’re doing. The fact is that that regime has destroyed the country. Let me put it in perspective. In 1978 before the Ayatollah came in, then the per capita GDP in Iran was about the same as for Japan and Italy. Now it’s about the same as for Honduras. So they’ve run that country into the ground, and that’s before the straits were closed. So it’s really, really a country that’s on the rocks.
Pathetic. Brennan, of course, let him off the hook and moved onto gas prices with the strait closed.
These people really don’t mind insulting their voters, do they?
