White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said "we'd probably be in a bloody war with Iran right now over our sailors" if the White House had listened to GOP advice. | AP Photo White House: GOP was fixing for a 'bloody war' with Iran over detained sailors

The White House on Friday predicted that "we'd probably be in a bloody war" if U.S. officials had followed Republicans' lead in engaging in escalating rhetoric over the 10 U.S. sailors who were apprehended in Iran on Tuesday.

“We've been pretty transparent about this, and we've been transparent about the fact if we followed the advice of some of the Republican critics of the administration we'd probably be in a bloody war with Iran right now over our sailors,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Friday. “The fact is our sailors right now are out of harms way, their boats were released and there was no loss of life.”


When news emerged on Tuesday that the sailors had been detained after their vessels drifted into Iranian territorial waters, Republicans seized on the incident, calling for Obama to postpone part of its nuclear agreement with Iran and demanding that Iran immediately return the "hostages." The sailors — nine men and one woman — were ultimately released in less than 24 hours after Secretary of State John Kerry personally negotiated with Iranian leaders. But Iran stoked further controversy by releasing photos and videos of the arrest and a clip of one sailor apologizing.

Earnest continued on Friday, “It’s unclear to me, by the way, exactly how the safety and security of the United States or our men and women in uniform is advanced by starting a war with a nation like Iran that has an advanced military."

But not everyone agreed with Earnest. Multiple GOP candidates brought up the capture during Thursday night's debate, with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz kicking off the primetime event by addressing the sailors' detention, which called "heartbreaking."

"We were horrified to see the sight of ten American sailors on their knees with their hands on their heads. In that State of the Union, President Obama didn’t so much as mention the ten sailors that had been captured by Iran," Cruz said. "And I give you my word, if I am elected president, no serviceman or servicewoman will be forced to be on their knees in any nation that captures our fighting men and women. We’ll field the full force and fury of the United States of America," he promised.

Donald Trump said he had watched the capture with construction workers who "had tears pouring down their face" while they watched "the humiliation of our young 10 sailors" kneeling with their hands up and with "Iranian wiseguys having guns to their heads."

"It was a terrible sight, a terrible sight," Trump said. "And the only reason we got them back was because we owed them with a stupid deal, $150 billion."

And Chris Christie promised a different outcome in his administration. "Tin pot dictators like the mullahs in Iran are taking our Navy ships," Christie fumed. "If Chris Christie was president they would know better than to do that."