‘Ungrateful!’ Noah Rothman and Adam Mockler Throw Down Over American Soldiers’ Sacrifices in CNN NewsNight Skirmish

National Review writer Noah Rothman accused anti-Trump influencer Adam Mockler of being “immensely ungrateful” to U.S. service members in a heated throwdown on CNN’s NewsNight after the liberal pundit likened the president’s “failing” war in Iran to the “two failed wars” in Iraq and Afghanistan.

During Tuesday’s show, host Abby Phillip asked Mockler about polls showing a “generational divide” over the Iran conflict when he warned that he did not “trust the process line” coming from lawmakers who promoted past wars that he said turned into “a grinding counterinsurgency” and cost trillions of dollars.

He argued that millennials “grew up” in the 2000s reading “headlines” that promoted the wars’ success but claimed that they had left the world “less safe.” Gen Z voters, he said, were experiencing the same distrust over the Iran conflict.

Responding, Rothman said: “Yeah, I don’t think so. I think honestly, Adam, that’s immensely ungrateful to American service personnel and the people who keep us safe every day.”

Revisiting the wars that took place after 9/11, Rothman argued that Mockler’s view was “frankly dismissive” of personnel he said were working to “stop” adversaries “executing attacks on Americans and their allies.”

“And I just think it’s just ungrateful to say that service personnel are not keeping you safe when they are,” he added.

Mockler replied: “No, I feel less safe due to the actions of our leaders. I’m incredibly grateful for our servicemen.”

Co-panelist Hal Lambert cut in to lambast Mockler’s point, to which he shot back: “Hold up! Let me finish, he was talking to me!”

After an intervention from Phillip, Mockler rounded on Rothman: “You are doing the exact same thing that I just laid out in the opening. You’re telling young people they shouldn’t be asking questions, they shouldn’t be questioning the people in power –”

“I would love for you to ask questions about-” Rothman started.

“What was ungrateful about what I said? I said the leaders are making us less safe, and I can prove that,” Mockler said. “Right now Iran has control over the Strait of Hormuz, and that is a weapon they didn’t have control of two months ago.”

“Of course they did!” Rothman countered. “They shut down the Strait of Hormuz in the 80s, and we opened it up in the 80s!”

Lambert cut in, warning Iran would “blackmail the world” if it had a nuclear weapon and gas prices would be “unlimitedly high.”

Mockler pushed back, pointing out reports that Iran’s previously tracked enriched uranium stockpile was now unaccounted for.

Grilling Lambert, Mockler repeated: “Where is the enriched uranium right now?”

His co-panelist said it was “buried” in Iran as Mockler pushed for specifics, as Lambert grew irate and predicted that by the end of the conflict, the Strait of Hormuz would be “open” and that the regime would not “be able to control it.”

“In two weeks?” Mockler asked, jibing on the president’s original timeline for the campaign.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s two weeks or two months!” Lambert said.

Mockler replied: “It does actually matter because economists are saying if it’s closed for a few more months then we’re going to go into a recession. So it does matter.”

Lambert denied it, claiming markets were at “an all-time high” and that inflation was down, before Phillip cut in to fact-check that inflation had, in fact, “ticked up.”

After canvassing other panelists on their view, Phillip returned to Rothman and presented him with polling charts that showed half of Americans shared Mockler’s view on Iraq and Afghanistan being a “mistake” after initial net support for the conflicts.

“I mean, are all of these Americans ungrateful?” she asked. “I imagine many of them have they ended up tasting the consequences of the war, including the impacts on their lives, people that they knew, people who may not have even lost their lives in theater, but came back forever scarred by it.”

“To clarify what I had said previously is that it is, in my view, ungrateful to American service personnel to say that they have not kept us safe, when we do not –” Rothman began.

Mockler interrupted: “That’s not what I said.”

“But he didn’t say that,” Phillip agreed.

Watch above via CNN.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!