Esper appears to backtrack on Beirut explosion cause after White House pushback
Source: CNN
Esper appears to backtrack on Beirut explosion cause after White House pushback
By Ryan Browne, CNN
Updated 3:21 PM ET, Sun August 9, 2020
Washington (CNN) -- Defense Secretary Mark Esper is downplaying any differences he had with the White House's assessment as to what caused the deadly explosion in Beirut after his speculation that the blast was likely the result of an accident drew push back from the White House.
"The bottom line is we still don't know" what caused the explosion, Esper told Fox News in an interview that aired this weekend.
"On the first day, as President Trump rightly said, we thought it might have been an attack, some of us speculated it could have been, for example, a Hezbollah arms shipment that blew up, maybe a Hezbollah bomb making facility, who knows?" Esper said, adding that the media was trying to stoke division between himself and President Donald Trump.
Despite his comments that some were speculating that the explosion may have involved an attack, several defense officials told CNN on Tuesday the US military did not have any information pointing to an attack, an assessment echoed by Esper on Wednesday when he said most believed it to be an accident.
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Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/09/politics/mark-esper-beirut-lebanon-explosion-explanation/index.html
What we have here is a failure to kiss ass.
Marie Marie
(9,999 posts)Jeebus, can this man ever admit that he is wrong?
mr_lebowski
(33,643 posts)Agitated that his toadies weren't properly shoring up the supports on his little stick-boy fantasy world?
Gosh that whole f***ing routine isn't getting old or anything
bluestarone
(16,906 posts)Does putin own ALL THESE FUCKERS????
Miguelito Loveless
(4,460 posts)This has been the latest edition of Simple Answers to Easy Questions.
Putin has files on all of the.
Leghorn21
(13,524 posts)standards, values, grit, and chutzpah, eh
Give me a Dr. Fiona Hill/Marie Yovanovitch/Sally Yates any day of the week, you pathetic sad weenie LOSERS
Nexus2
(1,261 posts)When many of us looked at North Korea and their fawning and/or fearful adoration for a Dear Leader that asserted he was infallible, even divine and his will over rode reality with pity, but knew it couldn't here?
Well, like the punchline to several 90s jokes came to life when Trump won the Oval Office, its happened and for extra HTF sauce he's become Dear Leader to a significant portion of the population including most of the GOP.
Iliyah
(25,111 posts)Majority of the countries have no respect for the USA with IC's and or anything else. The USA is "dangerous" no more an ally except for Russia and other communist countries who are using the ignorance of the present USA's government and the republican party.
We are no longer a power house, but a laughing stock, while thousands of Americans die from this hideous virus.
riversedge
(70,187 posts)regnaD kciN
(26,044 posts)...of the "concerned" Republican Congresscritters who back Cheetolini when it counts anyway.
nuxvomica
(12,421 posts)If he's fired, what kind of freakish monster would Trump replace him with? This is a critical post cuz of all the, y'know, weaponry. If Esper has any decency left he's keeping it in reserve to disobey orders made closer to the end.
DallasNE
(7,402 posts)"We thought it might have been an attack, some of us speculated it could have been, for example, a Hezbollah arms shipment that blew up, maybe a Hezbollah bomb making facility, who knows?"
While those two things could have happened, the sheer size of this explosion said it was something else as the damage was a hundreds of times greater than what either of the Hezbollah scenarios would have produced. With this kind of brain power in action we have to hope that we don't face a real situation.