Tamara Keith

I'm Tamara Keith.

I cover the White House.

Polarization is one hell of a drug.

And I know we say that a lot, but that's what's happening here.

Republicans are backing the president.

They are giving him the benefit of the doubt.

And also, if you listen to the way the president talks about this war, he's not talking about a forever war.

On Air Force One, he was asked about boots on the ground, which is another thing that he said was a mistake that had been made by prior administrations.

And he said,

One, it's not an appropriate question, but two, that if it happened, it would have to be for very good reasons.

In essence, he is trying to minimize this war.

There were multiple days where administration officials weren't even calling it a war.

Members of Congress were like, oh, this isn't a war.

Don't call it a war.

Why are you calling it a war?

And now he is both at the same time saying we are winning.

We will only accept unconditional surrender from

And then at the same time, sort of distancing from it.

It is explicitly what he has called for.

He has said that the Iranian people should rise up and take out the regime.