Just hours before the vice-presidential debate, GOP presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump addressed a crowd at his Wisconsin campaign rally. They blasted the Biden-Harris administration over Iran’s historic attack on Israel.
“A short time ago, Iran launched 181 ballistic missiles at Israel … I’ve been talking about World War III for a long time, and I don’t want to make predictions because the predictions always come true. We’re not going to make [predictions] … but they are very close to global catastrophe,” said Trump. “We have a non-existent president and a non-existent vice president who should be in charge, but nobody knows what’s going on.”
The former president’s comments come after Israel said Iran launched 181 ballistic missiles at the Jewish nation, marking the largest attack in history using ballistic missiles.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said the attack was conducted in retaliation for the killing of Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah leader, in Beirut, Lebanon, in an Israeli airstrike late last week and the killing of Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas leader, in July in Tehran.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard warned in a statement Iranian media released that if Israel responded to the barrage of missiles, “it will face crushing attacks.”
Former President Trump accused President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris of weak international leadership.
“That’s why Israel was under attack just a little while ago. Because they don’t respect our country anymore. The so-called enemy doesn’t respect our country any longer,” said Trump.
Trump also claimed Harris and Biden made Iran rich in a short amount of time.
“They have $300 billion now. They’re rich. I mean, they pay 6 billion every time they have somebody that was kidnapped, it’s always $6 billion,” said Trump.
“Iran was on the verge of bankruptcy. They had no money left. They had no money for Hamas. They had no money, Hezbollah. The people they’re fighting now would have been willing to make any deal. You could have made any deal. But Kamala flooded them with American cash and everything. Now, I mean, they’re flooding them with cash. It’s honestly not even believable,” continued Trump.
Sullivan: Iranian missile strike was “defeated and ineffective”
Jake Sullivan, National Security Adviser, said the Iranian missile attack on Israel was “defeated and ineffective” and that the U.S. military cooperated with the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) to counter the strikes.
“U.S. naval destroyers joined Israeli Air Defense units firing interceptors to shoot down inbound missiles. President Biden and Vice President Harris monitored the attack and the response from the White House Situation Room, joined in person and remotely by their national security team,” said Sullivan.
While speaking Tuesday at a White House briefing, Sullivan depicted the attack as a “significant escalation.”
Sullivan stated no deaths were reported in Israel, although the WH is continuing to monitor the reported death of a Palestinian civilian in the West Bank town of Jericho.
“We do not know of any damage to aircraft or strategic military assets in Israel. In short, based on what we know at this point, this attack appears to have been defeated and ineffective. The word fog of war was invented for a situation like this. This is a fluid situation,” said Sullivan.
Israel’s missile defense systems intercepted numerous missiles, although others did hit the ground.
According to the Pentagon, the U.S. fired around 12 interceptors against Iranian missiles.
