“Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker faces backlash Sunday after she ignored reports from several major outlets, including hers at NBC News, that linked the United States to the deadly attack on an Iranian girls’ school.

Welker, in an interview with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, asked whether President Donald Trump blamed Iran for the attack, while refusing to mention Reuters and CNN investigations that found the United States was likely responsible for the attack. A separate initial analysis by The New York Times found that the school was “severely damaged” in a US attack that occurred around the same time as one on a nearby Iranian naval base.

“President Trump said Iran is responsible for that attack. What is his response?” Welker said in a clip about X highlighted by independent outlet Drop Sites News.

More than 170 people, most of whom were schoolchildren, were killed in the school attack in the southern Iranian city of Minab, according to Iranian health officials, which would make it the deadliest attack on Iran since the start of the US-Israel war in the country.

NBC News, citing sources familiar with the matter, also reported that “it appears increasingly likely that a US munition was responsible for the hit” at the school.

The school’s location is wedged between two points plotted on a strike map shown by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at a recent Pentagon briefing, according to journalist Chris Osieck.

When Trump was asked on Saturday whether the United States was responsible for the attack, he responded: “No, my opinion, based on what I’ve seen, was made by Iran.”

He later continued: “We believe it was done by Iran… because, as you know, they are very inaccurate with their munitions. They are not accurate at all.”

Mourners dig graves for the victims, mostly schoolchildren, of an attack on a girls' primary school in Minab, Iran.
Mourners dig graves for the victims, mostly schoolchildren, of an attack on a girls’ primary school in Minab, Iran.

Iran Foreign Media Department via AP via News

In Araghchi’s interview with Welker, he stated that “all evidence” points to the United States using a “fighter jet” for the deadly attack.

Welker responded: “Where is the Iranian evidence that this was an American attack? A fighter plane, as you say. Will you provide it to me?”

Araghchi responded: “If it wasn’t the United States, who was it? Maybe Israelis. But it’s obvious who else is attacking us.”

Welker quickly moved on to the next question.

Critics on social media criticized Welker for the timing of the interview, with one X user calling her “truly pathetic” and another criticizing her “atrocious work.”

MeidasTouch Network, in a separate post on X, shared the Drop Site News clip with the caption: “Trump knows that when he lies, the media will repeat his lies as the truth.”

News themezone has reached out to representatives from NBC News/Meet the Press for comment.