A classified intelligence briefing for lawmakers on Thursday failed to bridge a deepening partisan rift over the success of US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, with prominent Democrats still questioning their effectiveness.
The presentation in line with common government practice was made by CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Dan Caine.
“The briefing raised more questions than it answered," Democratic Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said baldly.
Democratic Senator Chris Murphy said he left the briefing unsure about whether the US President Donald Trump was telling the truth and urged talks.
"Ultimately, the only way to truly constrain Iran's nuclear program is diplomacy. You cannot bomb knowledge out of existence. No matter how many scientists you kill, there are still people in Iran who know how to work centrifuges," he told reporters.
"To me, it still appears that we have only set back the Iranian nuclear program by a handful of months," the Connecticut lawmaker added.
"I just do not think the President was telling the truth when he said this program was obliterated. There's certainly damage done to the program, but there is still significant remaining capability."
Rallying to Trump's defense, Arkansas Republican and Iran hawk Senator Tom Cotton said the president's detractors must be mentally ill.
"Some Democrats, some in the media, seem that's such a case of Trump derangement syndrome that they're rooting for the survival of Iran's nuclear program versus celebrating the success of our pilots and their crews," Cotton said.
"I think we've caused catastrophic damage to Iran's nuclear program," Cotton insisted.
"If you look at the whole span of what happened over 12 days, the targeting of Iran's nuclear scientists, the underground bunkers, the centrifuges, the centrifuge manufacturing sites, the gas to metal conversion sites, that's why we're confident - since all of those are single points of failure in an effort to get a nuclear weapon - that we have had an extraordinary success," he added.
