Stephanie Grisham Slams Media, Democrats for 'Unhinged' Tactics Following Soleimani Strike
White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham on Friday scolded congressional Democrats and the news media for the tone of their responses to the death of Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who led the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force.
Soleimani, who the White House said was planning future attacks on Americans, was killed on Thursday by a U.S. drone strike as he was leaving the Baghdad airport.
Grisham appeared the next day on Fox Business Network’s “Lou Dobbs Tonight.” Dobbs opened the segment by making his feelings clear.
“The president is to be congratulated, the administration, and the national security team in particular for taking out a man who is responsible for hundreds and hundreds of American lives being lost in Iraq and the spread of state-sponsored terrorism from Iran,” he said.
Grisham replied by calling the event “a great day for our country.”
“Because of the president’s decisive action thousands more American lives and other lives will be saved,” she said
“This man, this terrorist was brutal, and not only was he responsible for hundreds of deaths of Americans, but thousands of horrible injuries to Americans and others. He wasn’t going to stop targeting Americans. That’s something to think about,” she said.
Grisham said Trump needed to act, and did.
“The president, you know, he knew there was imminent danger. We had good intel that there was imminent danger and that Americans were going to be killed and so he took the bold and oftentimes hard action that he had to as president knowing that he was going to save lives and save lives then and in the future, too,” she said.
Dobbs replied by castigating the Democratic response to the attack. “It’s as if they are completely unhinged.”
“Well, they are,” Grisham replied.
“You know, I continue to be so disappointed by these Democrats. No matter what this president does, it is not good enough,” she said.
“The Democrats should be happy along with the rest of this country that American lives were saved, and instead they were complaining that they weren’t notified. You know, time is of the essence when things like this are going down and the president does have constitutional authority to protect Americans when they are in danger.”
Grisham that responded to the stream of complaints from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York.
“Also, I would say that, you know, Schumer was complaining that he wasn’t briefed, and then when he got briefed today, he was complaining that it wasn’t good enough and he still had questions,” she said.
Dobbs then added his two cents about briefing Democrats.
“I think a good case could be built, it would be utterly irrational of the Trump administration to brief the very people who are trying to unseat him, remove him from power, to overthrow his presidency and who have done everything in their power to do so,” Dobbs said, wishing that a neutral voice in the media would emerge to call out Democrats on their reactions.
“Well, I’m going to say because there is no mutual voice in the media right now. You know, The Washington Post talked about Soleimani as ‘the most revered military leader,'” Grisham said.
She said the media is peddling fear.
“Again, we’re getting into, you know, he was a terrorist. He was a murderer. I felt watching cable news today, it was like they were hoping for retaliation. You know, they are, like, scaring the American public for ratings. I don’t understand why, again, the media and the Democrats aren’t happy along with the rest of this country that our president took the bold action to kill a murderer.
“We should all be very proud today, and we should all be very happy that American lives were saved,” she said.
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