President Donald Trump is repeatedly condemning CNN and The New York Times for reports that call into question the damage caused by last weekend's U.S. strikes of Iran - and downplaying his own intelligence analysts in the process.
Trump on Wednesday called on CNN to throw out "like a dog" a reporter who has worked on the story and suggested Times reporters were "bad and sick people" who were attempting to demean American pilots involved in the strikes.
Both news outlets defended their reporting.
The president is angry about stories that a preliminary assessment by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency had said Saturday's strike of three nuclear sites had set back Iran's nuclear program by a few months. The assessment 'suggests that President Trump's claim that Iran's nuclear facilities were 'obliterated' was overstated," The Times said in a six-bylined story on Tuesday night.
Shortly after the reports began circulating, Trump disputed them, saying in a social media post that the nuclear sites were completely destroyed, and he doubled down on Wednesday.