Gabbard blasts 'fake news' of split with Trump, insists Iran can make a nuke within weeks

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Friday excoriated the media for mischaracterizing her March testimony to Congress to suggest she and President Donald Trump disagreed on Iran's ability to create a nuclear weapon in the near future.

Gabbard's known disinclination toward foreign interventions has led to considerable speculation that she may be at odds with the administration as it mulls military intervention in the Israel-Iran conflict. Thus far, however, no conclusive reports or statements from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence or the White House suggest any such rift.

"The dishonest media is intentionally taking my testimony out of context and spreading fake news as a way to manufacture division," Gabbard said. "America has intelligence that Iran is at the point that it can produce a nuclear weapon within weeks to months, if they decide to finalize the assembly. President Trump has been clear that can’t happen, and I agree."

Her remarks follow a viral clip of Trump speaking to a Fox News reporter, who referenced Gabbard's testimony and suggested that Trump's assertion Iran was close to developing a nuclear weapon contradicted his own intelligence community. Trump, in that exchange, stated that Gabbard was "wrong" based on what Gabbard herself called "fake news."

Gabbard's March testimony saw her state that "[t]he IC continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme leader Khomeini has not authorized the nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003."

"We continue to monitor closely if Tehran decides to reauthorize its nuclear weapons program. In the past year, we've seen an erosion of a decades long taboo in Iran on discussing nuclear weapons in public likely emboldening nuclear weapons advocates within Iran's decision-making apparatus," she went on. "Iran's enriched uranium stockpile is at its highest levels and is unprecedented for a state without nuclear weapons."