Joy Behar slammed President Donald Trump’s surprise strike on Iran’s nuclear sites during Monday’s episode of The View. Her issue? Trump didn’t wait the full two weeks he said he would — and didn’t warn Iran first.
“So on Thursday, the White House said that Trump was going to make a decision on Iran in the next two weeks, that’s what he said, remember that?” Behar began. “Okay, he was going to give diplomatic negotiations more time to play out. And then less than 48 hours later, this attack was underway. So what changed and what was he actually trying to accomplish here?”
ABC News chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl pushed back. “Look, the two weeks measure was clearly a little bit of a head fake,” he explained. “I mean, not entirely. I wouldn’t say the decision was finally made. All indications are he didn’t actually make the decision to so-called pull the trigger until Saturday … and then the attack commenced.”
Karl said Trump was hoping for a dramatic turnaround. “I really think he wanted a Kim Jong Un moment,” Karl said, referencing the North Korean leader’s unexpected talks with Trump in 2018 and 2019. “But when it became clear that wasn’t going to happen, he acted.”
Behar wasn’t satisfied. “So, why did he keep it a secret — a surprise version?” she asked. She appeared shocked that Trump hadn’t warned Iran ahead of time.
Karl had a blunt answer. “It was absolutely a diversion,” he said. He added that U.S. military flight paths had led many to believe the B-2 bombers were heading toward Guam, not Iran.
“All indications were that the B-2s were flying towards Guam,” Karl said. “Everybody thought, okay, we’re getting in position to be ready. They wanted to have some element of surprise.”
Behar clearly disagreed with the strategy. But Karl insisted the element of surprise was intentional — and critical to the mission.