As the military conflict with Iran escalated quickly, Heritage Foundation experts dominated the airwaves, offering clear and concise conservative analysis. Heritage experts appeared in more than 80 television and radio interviews over 30 print news publications to discuss the Iranian attacks and the Trump administration's response.
“We’re constantly working together to achieve policy wins for the conservative movement and for the American people,” said John Cooper, Heritage’s senior communications manager for the Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy. “That means a lot of collaboration with our Heritage experts to create our messaging, hundreds of emails and phone calls with the media to place our experts, and lots of work after the fact to promote their efforts to our amazing members around the globe.”
In 2019, Heritage experts appeared in more than 5,000 broadcast media interviews and the think tank had over 8,000 media mentions.
Here are just some of the interviews from Heritage experts on the recent situation with Iran.
Following the embassy attack in Baghdad, senior research fellow Dakota Wood appeared on Fox News to discuss how U.S. airstrikes against Iranian proxies a strong message to Iran. His segment is one of Heritage’s most-viewed media clips with almost 80,000 views on YouTube
James Carafano, vice president of the Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy and E.W. Richardson fellow, was quick to commend America’s military action that killed Gen. Qassem Suleimani, saying that the “U.S. took out the world’s leading terrorist.”
Heritage senior legal fellow Cully Stimson, who appeared as a guest host on Fox News’ “Outnumbered,” said that “This was not an assassination, this was a lawful killing of a combatant.”
On Jan. 7, Iran struck back by firing rockets at the Al-Assad and Erbil air bases. Heritage senior research fellow Peter Brookes appeared on Fox Business, stating that Iran “threw the first punch” and has victimized its own people.
Tom Spoehr, director of Heritage’s Center for National Defense, appeared on Fox News to echo that same sentiment, stating that Iran was “lucky” it didn’t hit American troops in Iraq.
Carafano and Nile Gardiner, director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, each appeared on Fox News to discuss the world’s reaction to the recent conflict. Carafano stated that the world is looking at the Iranian regime as a “reckless and dangerous power.”
Gardiner discussed Europe’s strategy on Iran which contributed to the regime’s success and response.
The Daily Signal, Heritage’s multimedia news organization, has also been keeping the public up to date on the situation in the Middle East. They have published numerous articles on the topic, including “It’s Iranian Regime, Not US, That Threatens Persian Culture, Pompeo Says.” The Daily Signal also produced a special podcast episode with Carafano, “Iran's Top General Is Dead. What You Need to Know,” and another episode, “What’s Next for the US and Iran,” with Luke Coffey, director of Heritage’s Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies.
