Newsweek doesn’t get explicit about this, but the “story” is based on a statement by a person who apparently was not in the room where it supposedly happened.
On the one hand, “Newsweek has found no independent corroboration,” sure, but on the other hand, is this the kind of story where you could reasonably expect to get any corroboration? I wouldn’t think so.
Newsweek goes on to point out that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff doesn’t officially have any authority to prevent the president from nuking stuff. What a comfort.
Newsweek expresses reasons to doubt.
Newsweek doesn’t get explicit about this, but the “story” is based on a statement by a person who apparently was not in the room where it supposedly happened.
On the one hand, “Newsweek has found no independent corroboration,” sure, but on the other hand, is this the kind of story where you could reasonably expect to get any corroboration? I wouldn’t think so.
Newsweek goes on to point out that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff doesn’t officially have any authority to prevent the president from nuking stuff. What a comfort.
More importantly, no one corroborated the story. Usually it’s “multiple senior officials”.