On Wednesday, ABC News came out and said that the “FBI has warned police departments in California in recent days that Iran could retaliate for the United States attacks on its regime by launching drones at the West Coast.”
BREAKING: The FBI has warned police departments in California that Iran wants to retaliate for American attacks by launching offensive drones against the West Coast, according to an alert reviewed by @ABC News.
Read more: https://t.co/LNR2dkGK8T pic.twitter.com/gMwi9Xbtyc
— ABC News (@ABC) March 11, 2026
It claimed it had actually read the alert, which it claimed said, “We recently acquired information that as of early February 2026, Iran allegedly aspired to conduct a surprise attack using unmanned aerial vehicles from an unidentified vessel off the coast of the United State Homeland, specifically against unspecified targets in California, in the event that the U.S. conducted strikes against Iran. We have no additional information on the timing, method, target, or perpetrators of this alleged attack.”
Everyone in the world reported on it, including PJ Media and some of our sister sites. Turns out, it was sort of fake news. Shocking, I know.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt came out on Thursday morning and not only confirmed that it was fake news, but went off on ABC for leaving out a critical element of the alert: the word “unverified.”
“This post and story should be immediately retracted by ABC News for providing false information to intentionally alarm the American people,” Leavitt posted on her X account. “They wrote this based on one email that was sent to local law enforcement in California about a single, unverified tip. The email even states the tip was based on *unverified* intelligence. Yet ABC News left out this critical fact in their story! WHY? TO BE CLEAR: No such threat from Iran to our homeland exists, and it never did.”
This post and story should be immediately retracted by ABC News for providing false information to intentionally alarm the American people.
They wrote this based on one email that was sent to local law enforcement in California about a single, unverified tip. The email even… https://t.co/jKey9ahsNk
— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) March 12, 2026
Ben Williamson, the assistant director for public affairs at the FBI, posted a side-by-side image of the ABC article with the actual alert that he said went out to Joint Terrorism Task Force partners.
The actual alert reads (emphasis mine):
JTTF Partners,
(U//LES) We recently acquired unverified information that as of early February 2026, Iran allegedly aspired to conduct a surprise attack using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) from an unidentified vessel off the coast of the United States homeland, specifically against unspecified targets in California, in the event the U.S. conducted strikes against Iran. We have no additional information on the timing, method, target, or perpetrators of this alleged attack.
On the left is the way ABC (or their source) reported the FBI alert.
On the right is the actual FBI alert that went to JTFF partners.
You will notice the word left out —“Unverified.” https://t.co/zSBHObisAI pic.twitter.com/XEZPeNKmDA
— Ben Williamson (@_WilliamsonBen) March 12, 2026
What a difference a single word makes, right? ABC acted as if the attacks were imminent. The FBI is simply saying be aware, just in case.
You can’t hate the MSM enough.
Related: Díaz-Balart Sets the Record Straight on Rumors About Cuba
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