In this episode of "CNN... the Most Trusted Name in News™"...

As the debate continues, mostly politically-driven, over U.S. strikes against Iran, and the degree of damage done to Iran's three key nuclear sites — the Fordow fuel enrichment plant, the Natanz enrichment complex, and the Isfahan nuclear technology center — as well as how far back the attack set the Islamist nation's nuclear program, our pals at CNN did what they always do with anything related to President Donald Trump: 

The network did everything it could do, it seems, to minimize the damage done by the Trump-ordered strike. I'll even go further: CNN's on-air "talent" appeared to eagerly embrace — if not celebrate —the notion that U.S. strikes did little damage to Iran's nuclear program.

On Wednesday, under the headline "Exclusive: Early US intel assessment suggests strikes on Iran did not destroy nuclear sites, sources say," CNN reported:

The US military strikes on three of Iran’s nuclear facilities last weekend did not destroy the core components of the country’s nuclear program and likely only set it back by months, according to an early US intelligence assessment that was described by seven people briefed on it.

The assessment, which has not been previously reported, was produced by the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon’s intelligence arm. It is based on a battle damage assessment conducted by US Central Command in the aftermath of the US strikes, one of the sources said.

Two of the people familiar with the assessment said Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium was not destroyed. One of the people said the centrifuges are largely “intact.” Another source said that the intelligence assessed enriched uranium was moved out of the sites prior to the US strikes.

“So the (DIA) assessment is that the US set them back maybe a few months, tops,” this person added.

Uh-huh. Just one problem.

As RedState reported on Wednesday, the latest damage assessments, from both Iran and Israel, appeared to prove Trump's claim that the strikes "obliterated" the sites, including the targeted centrifuges, which were used by Iran to enrich uranium to a nuclear-weapons-grade level.

READ MORE: CNN Hardest Hit: Latest Intelligence Shows Trump Was Right Again About Iran

Ahh, but it gets even better.

Brett McGurk, former White House Coordinator for Middle East/North Africa, who also served in senior national security positions under presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden, delivered "devastating" news to the no-doubt crestfallen hacks of CNN during a Wednesday appearance on the network:

What we now know from that briefing ... is that as it was designed — as these massive ordnances penetrated, with significant software engineering, went directly down those ... shafts specifically as designed, and until you actually do it, you never know if it's going to work. It worked. It seemed to have worked, flawlessly. 

As I come out of this briefing, I now know: BDA [Bomb Damage Assessment] Level Two, as I mentioned — BDA Level One, first 24 hours, looking at imagery. Level Two, did the ordnance work? Did everything go as we had wanted? The answer now is "yes." We're now at the stage of Level Three; collecting all sources of information, and then putting that together with nuclear experts to determine ... could they [the Iranians] reconstitute them. 

McGurk then went bottom line, as he sees it:

I think from what I've seen, the 20,000 centrifuges ... they are all completely destroyed. I am very confident those centrifuges are gone.

[...]

If you add it all up, from what we're seeing, a massive, catastrophic setback for Iran's program. 

[...] 

Fordow is rendered inoperable for the foreseeable future, probably forever.

Yep,  oops, indeed — with CNN being almost the hardest hit, right behind Iran's Islamist regime.

In related news, Trump on Thursday responded to earlier reports that Iran might have removed uranium and other nuclear materials from Fordow prior to the U.S. strikes, based on satellite images of vehicles moving to and away from the strategic site over the 24 hours prior to the attack. 

Trump wrote on Truth Social:

The cars and small trucks at the site were those of concrete workers trying to cover up the top of the shafts. Nothing was taken out of facility. Would take too long, too dangerous, and very heavy and hard to move!

Meanwhile, no word on if CNN has called in grief counselors to help its on-air "talent" cope with the devastating news that it appears the U.S. strikes on Iran were "totally," as Trump might say, successful.

Editor's Note: The mainstream media continues to deflect, gaslight, spin, and lie.  

Help us continue exposing their grift by reading news you can trust. Join RedState VIP and use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your membership.