MANCHESTER, N.H. —
WMUR’s partners at PolitiFact provided live fact-checking coverage of the Granite State Debates featuring the U.S. Senate candidates Wednesday, and chief correspondent Lou Jacobson joined WMUR in the studio to discuss how the candidates sparred over their records on the war in Iran.
Republican candidate John E. Sununu said the attack on Iran without a clear plan for the Strait of Hormuz was a mistake.
“This is a position I took here on CloseUp months and months ago that it was a mistake to attack Iran without a clear decision and a clear plan for keeping the Strait open,” Sununu said.
Democratic candidate Chris Pappas responded, saying Sununu had supported the operation in Iran.
“Well, you did support that operation at the beginning, and it was very clear from the outset that Donald Trump didn’t have a plan to keep the Strait open and to keep costs low for Granite Staters,” Pappas said.
Jacobson and his fact-checking colleagues looked back at the comments made around the start of the war in Iran in February and found no statement from Sununu early on that it was a mistake to attack without a plan to keep the Strait open.
“A few days after the war started, Sununu called the military action a “pivotal moment” for the region in the world,” Jacobson said. “In early March, Sununu called the war ‘very effective’ and said, ‘I do think (Trump’s) objectives are clear.'”
Jacobson said that while Sununu’s claim had evolved over time, he has been more critical of the wars as time passed.
“In August, Sununu said it was ‘a tactical mistake’ to go to war ‘without having a plan for protecting the Strait of Hormuz,'” Jacobson said. “And in late October, Sununu once again said something similar.”
To see Politifact’s fact-check of the U.S. Senate debate, click here.