The first question of the vice-presidential debate on Tuesday night was whether the candidates would support or oppose a pre-emptive strike on Iran by Israel. It framed the issue for Gov. Tim Walz and Senator JD Vance as urgent to consider because Tehran has “drastically reduced the time it would take to develop a nuclear weapon,” cutting its acquisition time to “one or two weeks.”
The premise behind the question from Margaret Brennan of CBS News, one of the debate’s moderators, highlights a popular confusion over what it takes to build a usable nuclear bomb.
Nuclear experts said on Wednesday that it would take Iran not weeks to make a nuclear weapon, but months and possibly as long as a year. Ms. Brennan’s question, they added, began the debate on a false note.
