WASHINGTON POST REPORTERS FALSIFY A TRUMP QUOTE TO MANUFACTURE AN ANTI-ISRAEL NARRATIVE
In a July 2 article at The Washington Post (“U.S. warned Iran about Israel’s aims to assassinate leaders”), a falsified quote is used to advance a narrative of strain between the Trump administration and Israel. Authors John Hudson and Ellen Nakashima reported that the United States feared that Israel might assassinate senior Iranian leaders Abbas Araghchi and Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who have been involved in ceasefire negotiations with the U.S.
The report portrays the United States as having to restrain an out-of-control Israel. Citing “current and former officials familiar with the matter,” “a diplomat” and “analysts,” the reporting purport to show that Israeli efforts to kill Iran’s leadership undermined the Trump administration’s efforts to reach a peace deal with Iran. They attempt to support their thinly supported thesis with a few tactics.
But a key piece of evidence is, in fact, a doctored quote. The authors claim:
In March, President Donald Trump suggested publicly that Israel’s assassination campaign was complicating efforts to negotiate with the regime. “You know it’s a little tough,” he told reporters at the time. “They’ve wiped out everybody. I don’t want them to be killed.’’ (Emphasis added)
Trump did, indeed, utter those words, but not together. The authors spliced together two sentences uttered by President Trump in response to two separate questions as if they were part of one cohesive statement. Worse, they omit words in between that entirely contradicted the narrative they advanced.
Here’s what President Trump actually said. In response to a question as to who Steve Witkoff, the administration’s special envoy, was talking to in Iran, President Trump responded:
A top — a top person. Don’t forget, we’ve wiped out the leadership phase one, phase two, and largely phase three. But we’re dealing with a man who I believe is the most respected and the leader. You know, it’s a little tough. They’ve wiped out — we’ve wiped out everybody. (Emphasis added.)
In an apparent attempt to falsify the quote to suggest President Trump was talking only about Israel, The Washington Post omitted the words “we’ve wiped out” from the middle of the first sentence. Rather than showing American frustration with Israel, the full sentence suggests U.S. and Israeli interests were aligned.
The authors then portray the second sentence, “I don’t want them to be killed,” as if it was uttered immediately after the first (clipped) sentence. In fact, that remark came in response to a different question that came after another entire question and answer exchange.
After answering a question about the status of the Iranian supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, Trump was then asked whether he could say where the discussions are taking place. The president responded:
I can’t. I can’t, because I don’t want them to be killed. OK? I don’t want them to be killed. (Emphasis added.)
Hudson and Nakashima effectively doctored a quote, cutting out separate parts and mashing them together to create a Frankenstein’s Monster quote.
The poor journalism didn’t end there. To further support the preferred narrative, The Washington Post reporters carefully picked out only convenient remarks while ignoring contradictory ones. For example, the article states:
As far back as March, when the Trump administration began to explore diplomatic options for ending the war, U.S. officials told Israeli counterparts not to continue killing Iran’s political leadership, said a diplomat.
But, as reported by the Wall Street Journal, the two sides appear far less in conflict than Hudson and Nakashima depict:
The U.S. and Israel have temporarily removed two senior Iranian officials from their list of officials to eliminate as they explore possible peace talks, U.S. officials said. Iranian parliamentary speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi have been removed from the target list for up to four or five days as President Trump opens the door to high-level negotiations for ending the war, the officials said.
According to the Journal, rather than unilaterally asking Israel to refrain from attacking Iranian diplomats, it was both Israel and the U.S. agreeing to hold back. A quote from President Trump at the end of the Journal article also shows a much different perspective than the Post’s reporting:
“We killed all their leadership, And (sic) then they met to choose new leaders, and we killed all of them,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday. “And now we have a new group, and we can easily do that, but let’s see how they turn out.”
The Post’s reporting portrays an administration concerned about Israel killing Iranian leadership. But these quotes from President Trump, made around the same time, show the U.S. wasn’t that averse to killing more of the Iranian leadership, either.
Through fabricated quotes and selective quotation, Hudson and Nakashima are deceiving The Washington Post’s audience and shredding journalistic standards and ethics.
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