CNN Senior Political Analyst Nia-Malika Henderson hit President Donald Trump over his series of deadlines and ultimatums, saying it’s “easier to believe Iran” than Trump on the status of talks.

Trump made the latest in a series of time-sensitive threats on Tuesday morning when he wrote a post that said, in part, that “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.”

The post builds on the threat he made on Sunday, when he posted a message to Truth Social that read “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the F*ckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah.”

Below is the full exchange from Tuesday’s edition of CNN’s Inside Politics:

CNN ANCHOR DANA BASH: The Vice President is in Hungary today, which we’ll talk about more later in the program. But with regard to Iran, here’s what he said about the conflict.

VICE PRESIDENT JD VANCE: I hope that they’re smart. The president has set a deadline for about 12 hours from now in the United States. We’re going to find out, but there’s going to be a lot of negotiation between now and then, and I’m hopeful that it gets to a good resolution.

CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON: Well, he apparently isn’t part of that negotiation because he’s in Hungary and he’s rallying there for the nation’s prime minister.

So we’ve heard a lot about this negotiation from the president and every time he talks about it the Iranians come back and say, you know, there is no deal, the Strait of Hormuz is going to remain closed.

He wants to portray it like the folks who are there in power are much more lenient and reasonable and smarter than the people who the Americans wiped out, but they’re much more entrenched, much more hard-line at this point.

Partly because (LAUGHS) the father was killed, all of the leaders, the mother.

And so we’re in this position where it’s hard to believe what the American president says oftentimes with this. There have been several rounds of these, negotiations are going well, extension of deadlines. Is that what we’re looking at tonight, right?

So we’re just in uncharted, unprecedented territory where in many ways it’s easier to believe what the Iranians have to say about the negotiations, essentially that there is no negotiation and that there no sort of forward movement at this point.

But we’ll see in a number of hours.

Watch above via CNN’s Inside Politics.

The post CNN Analyst Hits Trump Over Blown Deadlines — Says It’s ‘Easier To Believe’ Iran Than Trump first appeared on Mediaite.

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Gamifying boring but necessary life tasks has been a thing for a while, and perhaps the most well-known option for fitness in recent years is Fitbit. Since Google owns Fitbit, they've been making fitness smartwatches, bringing the same idea for kids with the Fitbit Ace LTE. This kid-friendly smartwatch is massively discounted, currently $99.95 (originally $229.95 at launch in 2024)—the lowest price yet, according to price-checking tools.

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If you don't pay for the subscription, you'll only have access to basic movement and step tracking, but at that point you might as well get a Fitbit Ace 3 for $75.99.

President Donald Trump was asked point-blank by a reporter, on Monday, why it wouldn’t be a war crime if the U.S. military were to carry out the commander-in-chief’s latest threats against Iran.

Speaking with a reporter outside the White House during the annual Easter Egg hunt, the president fielded a blunt question about his threat that he plans to target bridges and power plants in Iran if the Strait of Hormuz is not reopened by Tuesday.

“Mr. President, how would it not be a war crime to strike Iran’s bridges and power plants?” A reporter asked.

Trump did not address the potential impact that attacks on infrastructure would have on civilians — instead focusing his response on the Iranian regime.

“Because they killed 45,000 people in the last month, more than that,” Trump said. “It could be as much as 60. They killed protesters, they’re animals. And we have to stop them and we can’t let them have a nuclear weapon. Very simple. They want a nuclear weapons, they’ve been trying for a long time. I stopped them with the Obama horrible Iran nuclear deal. I stopped him in a lot of different ways. The President is back. We got Soleimani. Evil genius, he was an evil genius. We got rid of him. And then we stopped them with the B-2 bombers not so long ago. And if we didn’t do it, Israel and the Middle East would have been extinguished.”

Many international law experts have said that attacks in Iranian power plants and bridges would constitute a war crime.

“International law protects from attack objects indispensable to the survival of civilians, and the attacks threatened by Trump, if implemented, could entail war crimes,” said a group of 100 international law experts in an open letter published Thursday by Just Security.

Watch above, via PBS.

The post ‘How Would it Not Be a War Crime?’ Trump Bluntly Confronted On His Iran Threats first appeared on Mediaite.

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ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos asked the same question multiple times to try to get Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) to answer whether ground troops would be needed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday. 

On This Week, Stephanopoulos asked, “The president suggested that the Straits of Hormuz could open ‘naturally.’ Is that realistic or is it going to take ground troops?”

Turner, who sits on the Armed Forces Committee, answered:

In any conflict, certainly, Iran is going to have some things that they’re going to be able to do during the conflict. But if you don’t undertake the conflict, if you just step back and watch as the Obama administration was going to do while Iran became a nuclear power and they became North Korea, we wouldn’t be looking at the Strait of Hormuz, we’d be looking at what’s, you know…having Europe be at risk, you’d have the United States being at risk, you’d have all of our allies. And ultimately the continental United States at risk from Iran and the whole world being held hostage by a terrorist state. In this, as they in their last throes, you know, begin to do whatever they have left as a state militarily, they still are being significantly diminished and their ability to be able to be marching toward a nuclear state is being eliminated.

“Right, but what I asked you about was the Straits of Hormuz. The Straits of Hormuz are still closed to most traffic right now. Can it be reopened without American ground troops?” Stephanopoulos asked again.

“Well, I think, you know, certainly you’re seeing that even as this conflict evolves, that that is being put in place. And I don’t think U.S. ground troops are going to be necessary in any direct conflict,” Turner said before focusing on eliminating Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

“And that was the goal,” Turner said. “And that is an incredibly important goal for the safety of the United States.”

Stephanopoulos said, “So, I guess, are you saying that as long as the nuclear capability is diminished, it doesn’t matter whether we open up the Straits of Hormuz?”

“No, the Straits of Hormuz are going to be open, and it’s it certainly is important to occur, but you can’t say, well, as long as the straits are open, we don’t, we can let them continue to be a power that marches toward being a nuclear power that continues to develop missile technology that can threaten the United States and threaten Europe and continue to perfect long-range missile technology.”

Stephanopoulos bluntly asked one last time: “Will it take ground troops or not to open up the straits?”

“I don’t believe so,” Turner said. “I think that certainly that this is going to be, again, a diminishing regime as as it’s ongoing.”

Watch the clip above via ABC News’s This Week.

The post House Republican Waffles Under Pointed Questioning from ABC’s Stephanopoulos On Next Steps In Iran first appeared on Mediaite.

NBC News’s Kristen Welker pressed Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) on which party is to blame for the partial government shutdown that’s left some government workers without paychecks for more than 40 days.

Despite the Senate passing a funding bill last week, the House did not vote on it before recessing for Easter break.

On Sunday’s Meet The Press, Welker said, “The Senate did pass a bill. Now it appears as though House Speaker Mike Johnson is on board with trying to get that passed. But Congress is not back until April 14th, Congressman. Is that acceptable to wait that long to fully fund the government? Or should House Speaker Mike Johnson call everyone back this week and get the government reopened?”

Instead of answering the question, Lawler said, “Kristen, what’s not acceptable is that for this fiscal year, Democrats have shut down the Department of Homeland Security for over 90 days, not paying FEMA, not paying the Coast Guard, not paying the Secret Service, and not paying critical operations within the Department of Homeland Security. The fact is, Democrats made a very calculated decision to shut down the department because they do not want to enforce our immigration laws.”

Lawler went on to tell the tragic story of 18-year-old college student Sheridan Gorman who was allegedly killed by an undocumented migrant in Chicago last month, and to accuse Democrats of allowing criminals like the suspect into the country.

“Let me just get back to the question though,” Welker said. “Republicans are in charge of all three branches of government. House Speaker Mike Johnson has the capacity to call everyone back. Does he have a responsibility to do so, to bring everyone back to get the government reopened? Does this not fall to Republicans to do this?”

LAWLER: No, Kristen, we have passed Homeland Security funding four times in the last few weeks. And every Democrat —

KRISTEN WELKER: But the Senate passed a bill unanimously —

LAWLER: — has voted against it.

WELKER: Congressman, but the Senate passed —

LAWLER: Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer —

WELKER: — the bill unanimously.

LAWLER: Hakeem Jeffries —

WELKER: But the Senate passed the bill unanimously.

LAWLER: Kristen, they’re not funding the full Department of Homeland Security. They’re not funding ICE. They’re not funding Customs and Border Patrol. They say that, “Oh, we passed funding during reconciliation.” And we did for much of the operations. But many people within ICE and Customs and Border Patrol, civilians, are not being paid.

Watch the clip above via NBC News’s Meet The Press.

The post NBC’s Welker Pushes Back On House Republican Blaming Dems for DHS Shutdown: ‘Republicans Are In Charge Of All Three Branches’ first appeared on Mediaite.

Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Bill Stepian defended the president’s profane Easter Sunday Truth Social post where he threatened to send the Iranians to “hell” if they don’t open the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump’s post read, “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP.”

CNN’s Jake Tapper asked Stepian, “So you heard [diplomat] Brett McGurk earlier saying that he sees this as President Trump trying to escalate the language so as to get a deal, but he doesn’t know that it will work necessarily. What’s your take?”

“I think that could be the case,” Stepian said. “Do I agree with the language or the deadline setting? Not necessarily. But if we’re going to do this, let’s do this. Like, let’s not be here for a long time. Let’s not prolong this. We see polling is not in the favor of a prolonged conflict. We’re seeing, to your point, shooting down our airmen. This is not a place we want to be. If we’re going to do this, do this, offer the same threat to Venezuela. That was a successful incursion. Let’s make the threat. Let’s get out as soon as possible.”

Later in the interview, a visibly skeptical Tapper told Stepian, “So you you’ve always been someone who speaks softly and carries a big stick. This is not how you negotiate things, in my experience covering you.”

“Yeah, and that’s my personal — But this is also the first cold war fought in this age of social media with this president,” Stepian said. “I think he does things very differently. I think he does things in his own way, different than Biden, different than Obama. And I think we’re seeing this playing out this morning.”

Watch the clip above via CNN.

The post WATCH: Trump’s Former Campaign Manager Defends President’s ‘Open the F*ckin Strait’ Post to a Skeptical Jake Tapper first appeared on Mediaite.