There are multiple pieces of information that come before us. We have presented that to him and all the broad detail. We have evaluated the risks and the opportunity we thought might present itself at some point. We could see clearly. Not only had soleimani done all the things we had recounted, hundreds of thousands of massacre in syria, enormous destruction of countries like lebanon and iraq. We watched as he was continuing the Terror Campaign in the region. If youre looking for evidence, you need to look no further than the days that led up to the strike. Trace complete coverage as we wait for the defense secretary to get started. Lets begin with team fox coverage. Trey yingst is on the ground in baghdad but first of Benjamin Hall in oman jordan. Good evening. Irans parliament voted to classify the u. S. Military and u. S. Department of defense as a terrorist organization and they said the attack that killed soleimani was not only an act of terror but also an act of war. Here is the foreign minister. This is an active aggression against iraq and it amounts to an armed attack against iran. We would respond. We would respond proportionately, not disproportionately. We are committed to law. We are lawabiding people. We are not wallace, like President Trump. Claiming soleimani had been in iraq on a peace mission, Diplomatic Mission bringing a letter from the saudis to the and he was there to try to open up a Peace Initiative to which secretary pompeo said was fundamentally false, that he was there to do anything but bring peace. In iran, during soleimanis funeral, there was a mass stampede. 56 people were killed. 200 wounded. Many people turning out, some people saying this has brought the country together. Soleimani is hailed as a hero at the moment but it wasnt always like that and during the protest, two months ago, there were images of being turn down. Reckless spending when the people of iran had very little. Those protests are always simmering under the surface. The country seems to be brought together by this now. The regime will be worried about it and they will take it into consideration. Harris the question becomes when they retaliate, what are you hearing on the ground . Are there threats being made, all out responses . We have heard nothing but threats. Ever since the attack took pla place. Attacking the u. S. Mainland, the white house, ships and the persian gulf, facilities, oil facilities, even President Trump has an 80 million bounty on his head. The iranians are threatening everything. They havent given a timeline for when they might respond but the ball is in their court. Trace will point out, defense secretary mark esper will get a litany of questions. Some of the Big Questions in the region they will be talking about. The intelligence. Are they talking about the intelligence where you are right now that led to the strike against Qassem Soleimani . Secretary pompeo has been very clear the Intelligence Services do not lay everything out. To protect their own sources and to protect the way they discovered what they know. They have said that a number of senior congressmen have seen the evidence and they certainly have no objections to the strike taking place. We are hearing opposition from people on the left. Trace defense secretary mark esper. We moved up the timeline. I was cognizant of the snow when im told you are the brave few who decided to stay around. Good afternoon, everyone. I would like to begin by offering my deepest condolences to the families of the three americans lost their lives on sunday in kenya. An attack by al qaeda affiliate alshabaab resulted in the death of a u. S. Service member and two department of defense contractors and wounding two other american personnel. On behalf of the entire department, our thoughts are with the family and friends of Army Specialist henry mayfiel mayfield jr. He was in kenya and supportive an operation working to protect american interests in the region and improve security and stability. We honor him and his colleagues who lost their lives and assure you that the perpetrators of this attack will be brought to justice. The United States conducted over 60 air strikes against alshabaab safe havens and assets last year and our forces continue to provide training and counterterrorism support to our east african partners. Moving to iran, at this time, our Top Priorities remain the safety and security of american personnel and our partners and second, the readiness to conduct operations to respond to iranian aggression. Since the strike, i have spoken with commanders on the ground to make sure they have the resources they need to protect their people and prepare for any contingencies. As a result, we have increased our force protection postures across the region and will continue to reposition and bolster our forces is necessary to protect our people, our interests, and our facilities. As i mentioned to you yesterday, we have received widespread support for our actions from our allies and partners in the region and we will continue to work with them to protect our aims against isis. Ive been in constant communication with my counterparts and have called on them to stand with us i in the defense of Coalition Forces in iraq. Working through nato, the defeat isis coalition, and with partners on the ground, we continue to bolster iraqi institutions to ensure the lasting defeat of isis. As we defend our people and interests, let me reiterate the United States is not seeking a war with iran. We are prepared to finish one. We are seeking a diplomatic solution but first, this will require iran to deescalate. It will require the regime to come to the table with the goal of preventing further bloodshed. And it will require them to cease their maligned activities throughout the region. As i have said, we are open to having this discussion with them but we are just as prepared to deliver a forceful response to defend our interests. Finally, the American People should know that know that they are safeties in the hands of the strongest, most Capable Military and the world. The men and women of our armed forces should know that we are standing with them and will continue to support them as they meet and overcome todays threats from maligned actors, including iran and its proxy militias. Our partner should know we remain committed to our Strategic Priorities in the middle east. Deterring iranian bad behavior, sustaining the enduring defeat devices, and supporting iraq as it becomes a strong and independent nation. The architects of terror should know we will not tolerate attacks against americas people and interests. We will exercise our right for selfdefense should it become necessary once again. With that, i will open it up for questions. Thank you. Reporter mr. Secretary, i wanted to clarify you said earlier that the u. S. Continues to engage isis in syria. Has the antiisis campaign in syria been affected by this and there seems to be continued confusion among iraqi officials about the draft letter. There was a televised appearance earlier today. Laying out what he said was a sign letter that the iraqis got. Those were his words. He suggested that another letter should be sent. What have you done and are you continuing to do to clear up what you said yesterday was a mistake . Our policy has not changed. We are not leaving iraq. A draft unsigned letter does not constitute a policy change. There is no sign letter, to the best of my knowledge. I have asked the question. There may be people trying to create confusion but we should focus on what ive said a few times now. Our policy has not changed. We are in iraq and we are there to support iraqi forces and the Iraqi Government become a strong, independent and prosperous country. Ive gotten no report from a commanders thing weve had a Material Impact on our ability to engage isis along with our partners. Reporter what if the iraqis dont want you to stay . The Prime Minister says you need to go, well u. S. Troops pull out . And the nato allies pulling out. We will take those one step at a time. Theres a few procedural mechanisms that the Iraqi Government would need to go through. We remain in Constant Contact with them. Its fair to say many iraqis recognize the strategic importance of our partnership with them, whether its training and advising their military to become more effective on the field of battle or working with them to defeat isis coalitions. The vote the other day shows the support of most iraqis for our presence in the country. Most kurds and most sunnis did not show, and those shias who did vote voted at the threat of their own lives by militia groups. Even in the last few days, we see iraqis on the streets protesting the government due to corruption in the maligned influence of iran. Those sentiments, those feelings have not gone away. I think at the end of the day, working with the iraqi people, you will find our presence is important to their country and ours. You asked about partners. Ive talked to many partners in iraq part of the coalition, many europeans, they are supportive of us and fully with us. Ive been told by them that the moves are simply with regard to force protection. We are doing some of that as well. It does not signal any withdrawal from iraq or the mission writ large. Reporter and i follow up on that. Reporter could you speak to the options under consideration. Do you have any sense how many other options were under consideration. Did you support any other ones . Was one option to not take the strike inside iraq which would have clearly made im not going to speak to any options or anything we present to the president. The options we presented were options that we supported and believe we could deliver on and it would be effective and anytime we deliver an option we always list pros and cons. Thats how we approach it. Thats my duty and obligation to the commander in chief. Reporter where there are multiple options you wouldve considered and supported. Im not try understand the question. Reporter were there other options you supported . Theres always a wide range of options. The duties to narrow them down to the ones consistent with the presence guidance or expectati expectation. We had a full panoply of options available and we presented them and portray them as we do. Reporter about allies moving their troops. Does it mean you couldnt guarantee their security especially with air protection . Or did you ask them to move . I dont think so. I know in one case in particular it was a matter of us being able to move Additional Forces into a confined space being occupied by some of the International Trainers and partners on the ground. It was a logistical issue. Reporter can you clarify the attack soleimani was planning, was it days or weeks away . Its more fair to say days. Reporter is the u. S. Legally obliged if told by the Iraqi Government to go . Im not going to speculate. We are not there yet. If it unfolds, we will address it. Reporter mr. Secretary, you said the u. S. Is not seeking war with iran. I think the question most people want an answer to is how close are we to war with iran . Specifically how would you characterize Iranian Military movements over the past several days . Its true we are not seeking war with iran. What happens next depends on them. I think we should expect they will retaliate in some way, shape, or form, either through their proxies as they have been doing know for how many years. Or and or by their own hand. We take it one step at a time and we are prepared for any contingency. We will respond appropriately to whatever they do. Reporter how do you characterize their military movements so far . We watch them very closely. We see their movements. I dont want to go get more into that because he gets into intelligence issues. I will leave it at that. Reporter mr. Secretary, he talked about being ready for a potential conflict in case iran retaliates. If they dont retaliate against american targets or interests in the middle east but instead target our partners in the region, is that enough to warrant a u. S. Response . Im not going to comment, not going to hypothesize or comment, speculate. We are standing there to defend not only our interests but those of our allies and partners. I want to reassure them we are with them as well. Reporter two points to follow up on. Youve talked about iran needs to deescalate. My first question is, does the u. S. Have any obligation to deescalate or is that solely in irans court . My second question, youve said several times in the past couple days that he will follow International Law confidential war crimes. Let me set it aside. I think everyone would expect you to do exactly that. My question is not hypothetical. The president is out there with his position. If you get an order, would you resign from Office Rather than violate the law . Barbara, im not going to get into some hypothetical you are portraying. Im fully confident the commander in chief will not give us an illegal order. The United States military will, as it always has, obey the laws of armed conflict. Reporter is the u. S. Have any obligation to deescalate or is that in your view solely in irans court . We are not the ones who have escalated this over the past 40 years and certainly the past several months. Its been iran through its proxies. Its consistently escalated this in terms of the size, scale, scope of their attacks. We have reached the point where we had to act in selfdefense. We had to take appropriate action. At this point as ive said a few times now, the ball is in their court. What they do next will determine what happens in the subsequent moves. Reporter thank you. Mr. Secretary, i would like to ask, before the attack against Qassem Soleimani, had you been in consultations with your partners in the region . The gcc countries or israel . If you had informed them this operation is going to take place today at this moment . Speak im not going to get into the details of our consultations on any matter with other countries. Obviously weve been talking about our force posture in iraq for sometimes, concerns about iranian actions or the actions they are inspiring. Im not going to get into any details. Reporter your remarks about the polar mentoring vote. You raise questions about the kind of people who did vote and didnt vote. Do you believe that vote was legitimate . The resolution calling u. S. Forces till he was legitimate . Separately on the issue of you said you expect enron to retaliate. Are there any off ramps expect iran to retaliate. Do you expect we are headed towards a military confrontation . I want characterize in any differently than what many other people have. Its nonbinding. There are mechanisms by which they would have to act. I am not an expert on the Iraqi Government so i characterized it the way i did with you, its nonbinding. With regard to the off ramps, theres a big offramp sitting in front of tehran right now and that is to deescalate. If they want to sit down and talk without precondition to the United States about a better way forward, way forward which would constitute a new mode of behavior by iran where they behave more like a normal country and one could presume it would free them up from economic sanctions and allow the iranian people the life they want to live. Freedom and prosperity in all those things most human beings want. Reporter thank you for doing this, sir. After pressure from iran, has the Iraqi Government presented the u. S. Military from using certain capabilities within the country, hampering operations in any way . They have taken some actions in the past that had hampered some operations with regard to airspace and things like that. Nothing we werent eventually able to work through. Reporter is it happening currently . There is nothing they are doing right now that is hampering our operations, to the best of my knowledge. Reporter i want to followup, what would constitute a binding order from the Iraqi Government . There seems to be a disconnect from what the Prime Minister is telling the ambassador and other heads of state from europe about implementing the resolution, Iraqi Parliament and what the pentagon says has or hasnt been communicated. Its a great question for the iraqi Prime Minister. Reporter i does that mean youre not taking the communication about the parliamentary resolution on its face in terms of what he saying . To the best of my knowledge, i havent received any communication from him or the Iraqi Government about the legislation or about an order or request to withdraw u. S. Forces. Reporter thank you. Mr. Secretary, could you expand how the killing of one of irans top generals would contribute to the case of deescalation. Youre asking iran to deescalate. With the u. S. Respond in such a manner if one of your top generals was killed in a third country . Lets take a look at history. Soleimani was a terrorist leader of a u. S. Designated foreign terrorist organization. Hes been conducting terrorist activities against us, our Coalition Partners for over 20 years. He has the blood of hundreds of americans on his hands and wounded thousands more. And we could talk about the mayhem he has caused against the syrian people, the people of lebanon, even his own people in iran. He is responsible in the quds force for the killing of iranian people. The sense that somehow taking somebody who over the last few months had planned, orchestrated and or resourced attacks against the United States there resulted in the killing of an american and the siege of the embassy in baghdad and was in baghdad to coordinate additional attacks to somehow suggest that he wasnt a legitimate target i think is fanciful. He was clearly on the battlefield. He was conducting or preparing, planning military operations. He was a legitimate target in his time was due. Reporter one final question. Reporter can you give a preview of what youre going to Tell Congress tomorrow in terms of how much detail are you willing to give members that you havent thus far told the public in terms of the size, scope, and immanence. You are aware of how skeptical people are of the imminent threat issue. Temper expectations. What are you prepared to disclose . Much of my messaging to congress will be the same as what i was delivering to you in terms of my views on the policy, the broader regional situation. Obviously with members of congress, we can go into a classified will be in a classified setting and be able to share more about the exquisite intelligence that we are talking about that led to the decision, i would say it was one of the factors that led to the decision to strike at soleimani is only shared with a handful of members, the socalled gang of eight. They are getting that briefing this afternoon and they will have access to that but most members will not have access to it. Reporter you talked about increasing force posture. What about force protection levels . Have you gone up to the highest level . Commanders in the region and globally are taking all appropriate force Protection Measures relevant to their situation, the threat they are receiving, the readiness of their troops. I am confident our commanders are going to do the right thing on the ground. Thank you all very much. Trace defense secretary mark esper giving a News Conference lasting about 18 minutes. He hit on some salient points. He was asked how close to war are we with iran and he said he fully expects iran to retaliate either by their proxies or by their own hand. He was asked how close was the attack that soleimani was planning to take on u. S. Assets . Days or weeks . He said he believed it was days. He said he was asked if he had other options and he said of course we had other options. We chose the one we thought was the most effective. He went on at length about the Iraqi Parliament voting to expel u. S. Troops from iraq, saying he believes this was a partisan vote, mostly shia. He believes the shia were under dress and he says he does not believe its a binding resolution. He didnt know very much about iraqi law. Lets get to trey yingst on the ground reporting live in baghdad with more. Good afternoon. I think what we heard was a shocking lack of understanding from americas top defense official about whats actually happening on the ground here in iraq. Just yesterday, u. S. Ambassador to iraq, met to her, met with the iraqi Prime Minister at length discussing the decision by the Iraqi Parliament to ask america to remove troops from iraq, that message delivered die american rep as admin baghdad. You just for the defense secretary say he wasnt aware of any message delivered. The defense secretary saying there was no signed letter. The iraqis, including the prime Prime Minister say one exists. The gap between what the u. S. Wants and what the iraqis want continues to widen. Everything the defense secretary just said is going to be questioned tomorrow in baghdad, as many politicians wonder about what this means moving forward if there are continued iranian threats. United states has helped the Iraqi Security forces extensively in the fight against the islamic state. Defense secretary noted there are many iraqis who have been pushing their government to stop close ties with the iranians. But his comments about the number of protesters also in baghdad dont match up to the realities on the ground. He said the past few days iraqis have been protesting in the streets, continuously pressuring their government to cut ties with the iranians. That was happening weeks ago. In the past few days, theres been less than 500 protesters behind me calling on the perimeter to stop these ties with the iranians. As the defense secretary here painting and not so accurate picture about the realities on the ground and thats something thats only going to widen the gap between the Trump Administration and the administration of abdul mahdi here in baghdad moving forward as these two sides try to hammer out details about whether or not american troops will be allowed to continue their operations on the ground within iraqi territory. The bottom line here, iraq is a sovereign country. If the Prime Minister says get out, the u. S. Will have very few options to decide from. Trace trey yingst on the ground in baghdad. We should note President Trump right now is talking about Qassem Soleimani and the mission. Thats going to be played back. As soon as it comes in and the next few minutes, we will roll it back for you. In the meantime, lets bring in stephen hayes, fox news contributor. You hear the reporting on the ground in baghdad from trey yingst and you hear mark esper saying look, as far as expelling u. S. Troops from baghdad, we dont think its a binding resolution. We think it was a partisan vote, says esper. The shia came in and they were under duress and the sunnis didnt show up in trey yingst saying the Prime Ministers sees it differently and these troops might be on their way out. I think secretary esper makes a fair point when he points out the composition of the Iraqi Parliament that made them vote. I think trey is right. The problem with what we heard from secretary esper is that in many ways he added to the confusion rather than cleared it up. We still dont know much about the provenance of the letter and there are multiple conflicting reports about whether there was one letter or two letters, whether the letter was signed, whether it wasnt signed. We reported at the dispatch this morning that there was word was sent to capitol hill yesterday in the midst of this chaos that the letter was active disinformation and probably a fake. Theres a lot we need to learn about this letter. If its the case that the letter was sent somehow, that it was a draft letter and somehow sent is a mistake, we need more answers about how exactly that happen. Trace want to play the sound bite from the Iranian Foreign minister and get your take on it if i can. Hold on. His threats will not frighten us. He is showing to the International Community he has no respect for International Law, that hes prepared to commit war crimes because attacking cultural sites is a war crime. It doesnt he doesnt care, it seems come about International Law. Do americans feel more secure . Are americans welcomed today in this region . Do they feel welcome . Trace you have mark esper saying americans should feel more secure because this attack that soleimani was planning on u. S. Assets wasnt weeks away. It was days away and we prevented that from happening by taking this action against him. Its a little rich to listen to foreign minister zarif talking about adhering to International Law. I think secretary esper makes a very good point about the history of Qassem Soleimani and mike pompeo, secretary of state, made the same case earlier today. There is a fair question because the administration relied on an eminence argument or included an eminence argument in making the case for why it took out Qassem Soleimani, journalists are justified in asking for the supporting evidence of those imminent attacks. Its also the case, as secretary esper made clear, Qassem Soleimani has been doing this for decades. Theres no question about his involvement in killing and targeting americans. Not only dating back to the hot war during the bush of administration and throughout many of the obama years but also in the weeks and months leading up to his killing by the u. S. Drone strike. He was someone who has come as people have pointed out many times before, blood on his hands, american blood on his hands. Its inconceivable to me to believe that that would have somehow stopped had we not taking this course of action. Trace and the reporting we should note and its notable that when these reports come out saying that the intelligence was very thin going into this attack on soleimani, you know, the siding isnt top military officials. Theres nobody citing top pentagon officials in this. Its citing top military unnamed officials. That becomes the question, was the intelligence, and as we know intelligence is always a little bit on the thin side. I want to bring this conversation back stateside because joe biden just held a speech talking about Foreign Policy. Thats his strength in this campaign. Lets go can we play the sound bite from joe biden . Lets play it. Six months ago here in new york city, i made the case that donald trump was dangerously incompetent and incapable of leadership. In the past few days in the wake of the killing of the iranian general soleimani, i think donald trump has proven beyond proven that beyond dispute. Trace joe biden leading by some 34 . What do you take away from it . I think you have to divide what we saw with the actual strike taking out Qassem Soleimani and what we have seen in the aftermath. I think joe biden has an argument that donald trump on his administration havent handled the aftermath of the targeting of Qassem Soleimani very well. You have the president call for strikes against irans cultural sites. You had a number of different stories put out by the administration both to justify what happened and to explain the confusion with respect to the Iraqi Government and whether the United States would be staying or leaving in iraq. You do need a steady hand at the wheel during times like this. I think it is a fair indictment of the administration that they havent done that. But separate that from what the Obama Administration did with respect to around over the course of its eight years in office. The Obama Administration treated the Iranian Regime as if it were sort of a friend and waiting, and ally to be. The concessions i think we made, including and especially with respect to Qassem Soleimani, they were not positive. Trace dont forget Qassem Soleimani was also the proxies leading hezbollah in lebanon and hamas in the palestinian territories. And the houthi in yemen. Nefarious activity going on even when the money was dropped off in saudi arabia. Lets bring in Jennifer Griffin who is at the pentagon. We just got a preview from defense secretary mark esper of what he will be telling capitol hill, the senate and the house and classified briefings tomorrow about the strike against Qassem Soleimani. Most notably he said he will only be sharing classified information. The intelligence that led to this strike, with the gang of eight. He said he would not be able to talk about it further with a larger group on capitol hill but the gang of eight will be brief. He did characterize the intelligence and said it was designed to prevent attacks that wouldve happened within days. He had previously said within days or weeks. Now they are narrowing it down to imminent attacks planned by Qassem Soleimani according to the u. S. Official that were days away. He said any talk of the was pulling out of iraq was premature. He sd he has not received any direct guidance from the iraqi Prime Minister calling for u. S. Forces to leave despite some of the confusion in the last 24 hours about the letter that was sent by a Brigadier General in iraq which im told was basically designed to alert iraqis that u. S. Forces would be moving around by helicopter, repositioning. Force protection is at issue but that they were not necessarily pulling out of iraq. The iraqi Prime Minister held a press conference in which he suggested otherwise. Mark esper said moments ago at the pentagon that the vote in the Iraqi Parliament was not binding and that the sunnis and kurds did not take part. The shias were voting, this is according to mark esper, with a gun to their heads. We finished up that briefing here at the pentagon. He said u. S. Troops are not pulling out but he also offered an olive branch to iran. He said they can deescalate the situation. He provided an offramp if you will to this military escalation we are seeing occur in the middle east. He said the iranians can come back to the negotiating table and stop what he called their maligned activities in the middle east. Trace fascinating when he was asked how close to war are we and he said we fully expect iran to retaliate. Previous to that, he said they had been in contact, he has been in contact with commanders on the ground. In your experience, how does it work . They dont know what might be coming. They think something might be coming. What is the protocol to commanders on the ground . What you are seeing right now is a scramble by u. S. Forces and nato forces to protect themselves. Its all about force protection at this point. That means that any small outpost of u. S. Forces, they are going to be consolidating on to bigger bases that can be defended. You saw the b52s sent to the region, they were sent not very close to iraq or iran. They did not go to their normal base in qatar. They are in diego garcia because its easier to protect those planes. The b52 bombers were sent to the middle east to send a message. Right now you have everyone hunkering down. Youve heard hundreds of nato troops are pulling out of iraq. The british, the germans, the canadians have hundreds of troops and they have announced they are pulling forces back, not necessarily permanently but they are repositioning so that forces can be protected because as the defense secretary just said, they do expect Iranian Proxy Forces to respond to the attack on soleimani. They expect that but they expect they can weather it and they expect that eventually iran is going to want to go back to the negotiating table. No evidence of that as of yet, however. Trace Jennifer Griffin, great insight. Thank you. We are waiting to hear from the president. Also congressional leaders are set to get briefed on iran. Lets bring in chief Congressional Correspondent mike emanuel live on capitol hill with more. The key leaders getting a classified explanation from the Trump Administration on this recent drone attack by key leaders, the gang of eight, top leadership of the senate, Mitch Mcconnell and chuck schumer. Top leaders of the house, nancy pelosi and kevin mccarthy. And the key figures on the intelligence committees, richard burr and mark warner in the senate and adam schiff and devin nunes in the house. Today mcconnell noted top iranian general led a Violent Campaign in the middle east. While they have taken pains to avoid direct conflict, irans authoritarian regime has shown no compunction about kidnapping, torturing, and killing americans since its earliest days. For iraqis, or fellow iranians for that matter. Democrats counter saying they dont believe President Trump has a plan. The president s Decision Making has been erratic. Its been impulsive. Without regard for the longterm consequences of americas actions abroad. He prefers reality show diplomacy and photo ops with foreign leaders to substantive progress. As a result, the president s Foreign Policy has been dangerously incompetent. Schumer and other leading democrats have been pushing the white house to declassify the explanation for why the commanderinchief made the decision to take out this highprofile target target in the middle east. The bottom line, it all comes ahead of all the house and all the Senate Members receiving a briefing from Top Administration officials tomorrow afternoon. Senior Administration Officials say it was the right move to take him out. Trace mike emanuel live on capitol hill. Weve been telling you we are waiting for the President Trump on the way it works is its not live coming out of the white house. They go in and shoot it to tape and then they have to run it back to the truck and played back in his image that starts playing back, we will play that for you. This was a meeting with the greek Prime Minister but in that meeting, we have been told the president did address the takedown, the killing of Qassem Soleimani. We will have it. Up next, breaking news coming from our political panel. Ari fleischer and jehmu greene on these key details. However, since 2000, the buying power of the dollar has dropped by over 31 that means the dollar is only worth about 68¢ now compared to 2000. Had you owned gold, your value would have increased over 400 and owning gold is easy. With Rosland Capital a trusted leader in helping people acquire precious metals. Gold bullion, lady liberty gold and silver proofs, and our premium coins, can help you preserve your wealth. Call Rosland Capital at 8006308900 to receive your free rosland guide to gold, Gold Precious Metals ira and silver brochures. With rosland, there are no hassles, no gimmicks, and we have the fastest shipping around. Dollar down. Gold up. Pretty clear. Make gold your new standard. Call Rosland Capital today at 8006308900. 8006308900. Thats 8006308900. Its an honor to tell you that [ applause ]. Thank you. Liberty mutual customizes your Car Insurance so you only pay for what you need. I love you only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Trace they have left the oval office and they are running to the truck and we should hear from President Trump and he did speak about Qassem Soleimani and we will bring back to you as soon as it happens. We will breakin. For now, lets bring Ari Fleischer, former White House Press secretary for george w. Bush, fox news contributor. Jehmu greene, also a fox news contributor. Democrats making a stand saying Congress Needs to green light any use of military force. Thats pretty much without precedent. Congress never green lights the use of American Military force. Congress greatest strength is secondguessing the use of military force. If it goes well, they are for it. If it goes wrong, they are against it. There is no clear card president clearcut precedent where congress has played that type of decisive role. Its why we have a chief executive, for better or worse, who has the authority to make military decisions. The only way it can work. You can have 535 commanders in chief. Trace i want to play this from ro khanna. He said this morning. I want to make it clear the president should not have funding for offensive strikes against iran or iranian officials without having authorization for congress. The entire middle east economy is 3. 5 of the world economy. We are at 21 . Our competition is china. They are at 15 . I want us to be focused on winning that battle, not getting bogged down in another war in the middle east. The President Campaign on that. Trace taking that eye off the ball of whether or not this was a valid strike. Jehmu, your thoughts. I think anyone with any sort of common sense knows that the president , in making this decision, was also looking at the political reality of how it would affect the impeachment trial, how it would affect the 2020 elections. Its also very hard to trust an administration on the reasons behind the strike when they have lied to the American People thousands, literally thousands of times. I agree with ari. There should not be 535 commanders in chief. The critical reality we are facing now is there doesnt seem to be any strategy from the Trump Administration about how to deal with the consequences from this strike and you layer on the chaos and confusion over the letter. We are less safe because of this strike. I dont think theres any average everyday american out there feeling more safe. We look to the president to provide that and hes doing the exact opposite. Trace jehmu is making the same argument Elizabeth Warren made, he did this because he wanted to take the focus off impeachment. What impeachment . Nothing has happened for weeks. The same argument was used against bill clinton in the middle of his impeachment trial when he went after Saddam Hussein and limited strikes. Sorry, that was against al qaeda. Either Saddam Hussein or al qaeda with some limited strikes and i never excepted it then i dont accept it now. President s do have duties when it involves national security, whether other factors are underway or not. When it comes to this impeachment, we know the outcome. There is nothing you doubt and theres nothing the president can do to change it. This is the president doing what the constitution gives him the authority to do. The bigger point here and this is why i support with the president did, we havent had an embassy taken over. We had an embassy attacked and benghazi. We had the embassy in iraq get attacked. If they had did it again and you connect the dots and think about what they were trying to do, how vulnerable would america be . What would be like now if the Iraqi Embassy hadnt been taken over . The president took action against the planner of attacks and i am for that. Its called deterrence and its part of americas bipartisan strength and i wish he had bipartisan support instead of bipartisan opposition. Trace can you stand by for one second. The tape is apparently being wracked. Its a great tease. The tape is being wracked and we are about to hear from the president speaking about customm soleimani. Lets bring in chad pergram, live with more on the whole impeachment thing and where its going. In the past couple minutes, Mitch Mcconnell announced he has the votes if the house of representatives sends over articles of impeachment, to go ahead and start a trial without an agreement on witnesses. I pose the question to Mitch Mcconnell i said wasnt that the deal in 1999 were all 100 senators came to an agreement. Mcconnell is doing is talking about going with 52r53 votes in what they would have. If you look at the clinton alignment, they had 16 hours total of questions submitted through the chief justice of the United States by senators. Senators dont actually ask questions. 24 hours on both sides for the prosecution, the house impeachment managers and for the defense. In this case, the president s attorneys to deliver their side. People think thats the problem. If youre going to have a vote with 52 or 53 people and not 1000, thats a question i directed to Mitch Mcconnell. Here is Mitch Mcconnell a few minutes ago. We have the votes once the impeachment trial has begun to pass a resolution essentially saying very similar to the 1000 vote in the clinton trial which sets up as you may recall what could best be described as maybe a phase one. It would include the arguments for the prosecution, arguments from the defense, and a period of written questions. Keep in mind mcconnell cant do anything until he asked the articles of impeachment. The house of representatives is coming back later today for the first time in earnest since they sent the articles of impeachment over, since they voted just before christmas time. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is keeping her own counsel on this and when we say the speaker keeps her own counsel, she is keeping her own counsel when you drill down with a lot of senior aides and a lot of people on the democratic side of the aisles were close to the speaker, they really dont know what the gambit is. She will have a Leadership Meeting this afternoon and she will have a meeting with the House Democratic caucus tomorrow and we are told that conversation is mostly going to be about iran. Thats the interesting issue, iran has almost eclipsed impeachment and knocked it off the front pages. I spoke with dianne feinstein, Top Senate Democrats on the judiciary committee, and she indicated iran was kind of creeping into some of the calculus on the democratic side of the island impeachment. Heres what she said. This falls right into impeachment, this assassination, puts it into a different category. Feinstein noted she had not made up her mind how to vote on impeachment but indicated because this was something she thought went outside the bounds, consulting with congress and doing the way she thought it should be done, carrying out the assassination of a top journal of another country, she said even though its not an articlef impeachment, could play into the calculus as senators think about how they would vote on impeachment. Trace standby. We have gotten the twominute warning, 20 seconds ago, a minute and 30 before we hear from the president and they want to bring in Ari Fleischer and jehmu greene. Youve heard chad pergram say no agreement on witnesses and Mitch Mcconnells argument has been over and over again if the democrats wanted more witnesses, they shouldve called them when they had the chance in the hou house. [laughs] come on, trace. We know senator mcconnell has never met a situation of process he couldnt cheat his way through. Hes going to do the same thing and find a way to cheat his way through it. He said its not going to be a fair trial. He has already gone against the oath senators take to uphold it. We are on the way for the impeachment trial to be a complete farce because unfortunately republicans are in control in the senate and dont understand that this threat to our democracy. It should be taken seriously. Trace we have 25 seconds. Do you want to jump in, ari . If the founders wanted it to go through court of law, it wouldve gone through a court of law. They put it in the senate, a political body. Thats how the system is designed. Its a political impeachment. The house impeachment politically in the senate will acquit him politically. Trace we have to jump in. Reporter a lot of questions being asked in washington and across america about what evidence you had Qassem Soleimani was planning attacks against american targets. What can you tell us about what you knew prior to ordering the attack . President trump his past was horrible. He was a terrorist, so designated by president obama, as you know. He wasnt even supposed to be outside of his own country. He was. So right there. In the way, thats the least of it. We had an attack very recently that he was in charge of where we have people horribly wounded. One dead. The number now as of this morning i believe is t two dead. He was traveling with the head of hezbollah. They werent there to discuss a vacation. They werent there to go to a nice resort someplace in baghdad. They were there to discuss bad business. We saved a lot of lives by terminating his life. A lot of lives saved. They were planning something. Youre going to be hearing about it or at least various people in congress are going to be hearing about it tomorrow. Secretary of state covered it very well a little while ago. Sis News Conference, mike. If you want to mention a couple things in addition to what i just said but we had tremendous information. We have been following him for a long time. We followed his path for those three days. They were not good stops. We didnt like where he was stopping. They were not good stops. We saved a lot of lives. Reporter intelligence indicating there was active plotting to put american lives at risk and im confident, i think the president is confident that the actions the president took saved american lives and saved the lives of iraqi muslims as well. It was the right thing to do. The department of defense did an excellent job executing the mission. President trump as you know, he killed at least 600. He very much roadside bombs and they were books was if you see, he was a big believer and sent them everywhere. He was somebody, we did a lot of countries a big favor. Ive been hearing from countries. They were extremely happy with what we did. If you look inside iran, plenty of those leaders there were happy. They didnt like him in many cases. Can you clear up whether iranian cultural sites would be in future targets. President trump they are allowed to kill our people. They are allowed to maim our people, nothing to stop them. We are supposed to be very careful with their Cultural Heritage and you know, if thats what the law is, i like to obey the law. Think of it, the killer people. They blow up our people and then we have to be very gentle with their cultural institutions. Im okay with it. Its okay with me. I will say this. If iran does anything they shouldnt be doing, they should be suffering the consequences very strongly. Reporter eminent retaliation . President trump in our case it was retaliation because they were there first. I dont have to talk about him for 18 to 20 years. He was a monster. In a short period of time, people dead, people badly injured. Before that there were other attacks. Look at what he was planning. It will be discussed tomorrow. Right now its classified. He will be discussed tomorrow with mike pompeo and the joint chiefs of staff. We are totally prepared. We are prepared to attack if we have to as retribution. Irans letter said any response to the Soleimani Killing would be proportional. What with the United States do in the event of any iranian President Trump again, if you look at whats going on, ours was an attack based on what they did. We werent the first one out. He killed an american. No two people are dead from the same attack and some people very badly wounded. That was one of his smaller endeavors. You look over his past. His past, he has been called a monster and he was a monster. Hes no longer a monster. Hes dead. Thats a good thing for a lot of countries. He was planning a very big attack and a very bad attack for us and other people and we stopped him. I dont think anybody can complain about it. I dont hear too many people other than politicians who are trying to win the presidency, those are the ones complaining. I dont hear anyone else complaining. Reporter [indistinct question] President Trump to each his own. I disagree 100 and im sure he does too but he has a public to take care of and i guess thats for his own reason but im actually surprised to hear it but its okay. Reporter [indistinct question] President Trump say it. Reporter making a deal with greece. President trump they brought a lot of great representatives that weve been dealing with. We have a tremendous greek population. Over 3 Million People as i understand, its fantastic. I feel i know most of them. I think i know all of them, come to think of it but its a great population in the United States. We are going to be meeting. We are going to be talking and negotiating and we are going to be making a lot of deals. We have a really great relationship. Let me add, greece is interested in participating in the program, we are already upgrading f16s and the program will be completed and we are very much interested in participating in the program after that and im sure the u. S. Will take into consideration the fact that this country is coming out of an economic crisis in terms of structuring the progr program. In the best possible way for my country. President trump thats true. They signed a very big renovation of existing aircraft. They have great aircraft. But its gotten a little bit tired. They have done a reservation thats going to bring it up brandnew. We look forward to doing that. A couple Great Companies are doing President Trump well, it is something that i want to. Eventually, they have to be able to defend themselves and take care of themselves. It is something ultimately that i want to see. We dont want to be there forever, i didnt want to be there in the first place to be honest. That was when i was a civilian, i said it. But we were there, i made a decision. Very strongly, but we are there job, we have gotten rid of a hundred percent of the caliphate is go gone. , which is isis. We have thousands of isis prisoners that we are keeping right now under lock and key, and we want europe to take many of these prisoners because they came from germany, france, and other places