NEWSSenator Chris Murphy Slams Donald Trump: 'Deliberately Misleading the Public' After Classified Briefing on Iran Strikes
Senator Chris Murphy said Donald Trump deliberately misled the public after a classified Iran briefing.
July 11 2025, Published 8:11 p.m. ET
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) emerged from a classified briefing accusing President Donald Trump of "deliberately misleading the public" regarding the impact of recent U.S. airstrikes on Iran's nuclear capabilities.
Murphy attended the briefing alongside other members of Congress, where high-ranking officials from the Trump administration outlined the damage inflicted on Iranian nuclear facilities during last weekend's military strikes.
These actions aimed to thwart Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons.
Sen. Chris Murphy accused President Donald Trump of misleading the public about the effects of U.S. airstrikes on Iran.
Sen. Chris Murphy told Nicolle Wallace that Trump exaggerated the success of U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear program.
However, preliminary intelligence reported by CNN suggested the airstrikes only postponed Iran's nuclear ambitions by a few months. The Trump administration quickly dismissed these findings, insisting the facilities had been entirely destroyed.
CNN reported the strikes only delayed Iran's nuclear program by months, but the Trump administration claims full destruction.
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After the briefing, Murphy shared his skepticism with reporters about Trump's bold claim that the Iranian nuclear program had been "obliterated."
Sen. Murphy questioned Trump's claim that he 'obliterated' Iran’s nuclear program after the briefing.
"To me, it still appears that we have only set back the Iranian nuclear program by a handful of months," Murphy stated.
He added, "There's no doubt there was damage done to the program, but the allegations that we have obliterated their program just don't seem to stand up to reason. I just do not think the president was telling the truth when he said this program was obliterated. There was certainly damage done to the program, but there's still significant remaining capability. I walk away from that briefing still under the belief that we have not obliterated the program. The president was deliberately misleading the public."
The controversy persists over the strikes' effectiveness and the transparency of public information.
The controversy continues as both sides debate the effectiveness of the military action and the transparency of the information provided to the public.
Murphy previously slammed Trump's first 100 days in office this past year.
“This is not normal. None of this is normal. This is outlandish, this is illegal, this is unconstitutional, brazen corruption, and this is only the first 100 days. I just detailed 40 instances of mind-blowing corruption in just 40 days, capped off by an attempt to just sell access to the White House to people who put money in the pocket of Donald Trump's personal businesses. Donald Trump wants to numb this country into believing that this is just how government works. That he's owed this. That every president is owed this. That government has always been corrupt, and he's just doing it out in the open. But this is not how government works. This has been the story of his first 100 days, but it's our choice as a nation to allow it to be the story of the rest of his term. We need to expose what he is doing. We need to rally everybody, from the left to the right. Nobody in this country, whether you’re a hardened conservative or a hardened progressive, should root for the president of the United States to be enriching himself off of this position. We need to rally this nation against this corruption and bring it to an end, because if Donald Trump gets what he wants, and we just start allowing our government's leaders to openly steal from us during the first 100 days or for the rest of his term, then I am telling you, American democracy is not going to survive," he wrote on his website.
