President Trump was wrong to claim that former President Obama's nuclear deal effectively paid for the rockets Iran used in Tuesday's attack on Iraqi airbases that house U.S. troops, two former White House officials argued Wednesday.
"To say that that money funded the attack on our personnel and on our base is just the most disgraceful kind of lie -- of the sort that unfortunately President Trump tells every day," former National Security Adviser Susan Rice told MSNBC on Wednesday.
Former Director of National Intelligence Jim Clapper similarly called Trump's argument "specious" during a CNN appearance.
Their comments came after President Trump urged European powers to abandon the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, which Trump said released billions of dollars for the Middle Eastern nation to use on a "terrorist spree."
TRUMP: IRAN MISSILES FIRED AT US WERE PAID FOR WITH MONEY RELEASED BY THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION
"The $150 billion, as you pointed out, was Iranian money that was unfrozen as a result of the nuclear deal, and they have been complying with the nuclear deal," Rice told MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell. "That's not America giving Iran $150 billion, quite the contrary.
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"And Iran has had these sophisticated missiles," Rice added. "They've been developing their capacity for many, many years."
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Clapper told CNN anchor Brooke Baldwin that the "actual evidence doesn't make [Trump's] case."
"It is not as though we provided taxpayer money to the Iranians," he added. "What we did ... was unfreeze assets that were actually the Iranians." Clapper also claimed to have seen intelligence that indicated Iran didn't use much of the money to support their "nefarious activities."
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