During an interview aired on Thursday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Hannity,” President Donald Trump said that retrieving Iran’s enriched uranium isn’t needed “except from a public relations standpoint.” And “I’d just feel better if I got it…it’s more for public relations than it is for anything else.”
Trump said, [relevant remarks begin around 5:45] “[I]t would take a while. It would take a week and a half. That’s a long time to be in enemy territory.”
He added, “I don’t think it’s necessary, except from a public relations standpoint. I think it’s important for the fake news that we get it. I’m the one that said we’re going to get it, and we’re going to get it. We have our eye on it.”
Host Sean Hannity then asked, “So, it can be entombed?”
Trump answered, “It can be. But I’d rather get it, to be honest with you. It can be — a lot of things can happen. But — and even despite the statement that they can’t get it, they are — first of all, if we left right now, it would take Iran 25 years to rebuild, and it can never be like it was. It would take 25 years. I would rather get it. But we have our eyes on it. We know exactly what’s happening there.”
Trump added that Iran has been warned that the U.S. will just bomb if someone tries to retrieve the uranium, but “I’d still rather have it. I’d rather get it. I’d just feel better if I got it, actually. But it’s — I think it’s more for public relations than it is for anything else. The other thing we could do is bomb it again, just make it absolute. But I would feel better getting it, so, and we will get it.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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