Chris Wallace: Trump Has ‘Himself to Blame’ for Iran ‘Skepticism’

Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace doesn’t think President Donald Trump or anyone else in his administration should be surprised that Congress and the American people are not taking their claims about an “imminent” threat from Iran at face value. 

Speaking to Fox News’ Bret Baier on Friday afternoon, Wallace said, “I think to a certain degree, the administration has itself to blame. Because right away the president and Mike Pompeo, when he was doing all five Sunday shows this last week, was saying ‘imminent, imminent, imminent.’” He said that “understandably” people want to know what “imminent” actually meant in this case. 

As the host laid it out, Trump first said Gen. Qassem Soleimani was targeting an American embassy and is now claiming there were plots against four embassies. “I think if they had been a little more forthcoming right from the start, they might not have allowed this skepticism to build.” 

“And look, to a certain degree, I think the president has himself to blame, because who has been more critical and less sort of just trusting of the intelligence agencies than Donald Trump over the last three years?” Wallace asked. “So, you know, why shouldn’t we be skeptical too?”

All of that being said, Wallace agreed with Baier that this entire episode has been a “political win” for Trump if the conflict with Iran does not escalate any further. “But we don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow,” he said. “And if they strike again, whether it’s directly or through a proxy and you begin to see tensions ratchet up, then some people are going to say, are we really safer or not?”