Transcripts For MSNBCW Morning Joe 20200108

Killed its top general five days ago. Firing more than a dozen missiles at two Iraqi Air Bases Housing u. S. Military and coalition forces. Iranian state tv says this is video of one of the attacks. Its not been verified by u. S. Officials, but the pentagon says the strikes were undoubtedly from iran. They began around 5 30 p. M. Eastern time yesterday, targeting alAsad Air Base as well as an air base in erbil located in kurdistan in the middle part of the country. Right now there are no corps of casualties, the pentagon says it is still assessing the damage, sza bad zarif said iran took and concluded proportionate measures in selfdefense and you article 51 of u. N. Charter targeting base from which cowardly armed attack against our citizens and senior officials were launched. Iran warned if there are retaliation for their air strike they will wipe out u. S. Bases in the region. Nbc news chief Foreign Affairs correspondent Richard Engel tweeted, quote, iran making threats of mass escalation to attack more bases in iraq, to unleash hezbollah, to unleash shiite militias in iraq, to attack israel and dubai, making it clear it is ready for a Widespread Campaign if this escalates further with a u. S. Response. President trump who as we showed you visited Asad Air Base in 2018 tweeted at 9 45 last night, quote, all is well. Missiles launched from iran at two military bases located in iraq. Assessment of casualties and damages taking place now. So far, so good. We have the most powerful and wellequipped military anywhere in the world by far. Adding that he will be making a statement this morning. So weve got a lot going on today. We have it all covered with a big show ahead including senator Elizabeth Warren who will be our guest live in a little bit on this show. But to start things off along with joe, willie and me we have the president of the council on Foreign Relations and the author of the book a world in disarray Richard Haass. Columnist and associate editor for the Washington Post david ignatius. Historian, author of the soul of america and rodgers professor of the presidency at Vanderbilt University jon meachum, he is an nbc news and msnbc contributor. Former nato stream commander admiral james stiff rid dis is with us, and Nbc News National Security and military correspondent Courtney Kube is with us and nbc news correspondent hans nichols at the white house. So, david ignatius, for several hours last night it certainly appeared that the United States and iran were on a pathway, an inescapable pathway to war, a widespread war where retaliation would meet retaliation, air strike would meet air strike. And yet we wake up this morning and certainly this seemed obvious when donald trump decided not to address the nation last night that the United States did not respond and, in fact, irans response was indeed calculated, proportional and if you believe that they intentionally struck the base but did what they could to limit the loss of life, it was actually remarkably restrained. We wake up this morning with both sides saying no mas. Certainly, joe, the initial feeling is one of relief that we didnt go into a second spasm of retaliation, counterretaliation. Military strategists often talk in crises like this about linkages and how tight the linkages are between action and reaction and what we saw sensibly from President Trump was that the linkages were loosened. That there was no Immediate Reaction from the white house. And then when it came, it was the tweet that you read in terms of casualties, so far, so good. All is well. Reassuring words, not the kind of words that typically proceed a sharp additional escalation. So i think by opening up the tight linkages they gave themselves some time to think and look. We will have to see what the president says today. I think this is still a crisis that could quickly get back into the action reaction cycle. I think what we should all think about is this crisis has been building for 40 years, since the iranian revolution of 1979. We have talked about war, how close we were to war. Over all those four decades, now its really here and, yes, we want to see deescalation but i think people should focus on the diplomatic question. How do we get off the path weve been on so that this crisis could have happened in the first place and begin a process of bending towards some relationship where were talking to iran about mutual problems and hopefully solving them. This cold war has gotten hotter obviously over the past six months to a year, willie. But last night the iranians saying we do not seek escalation. Donald trump seeming to back away from possible retaliatory strikes as well. For now what appeared to be a hot war has cooled down. Yeah, the worstCase Scenario so far, and i do emphasize so far, has not played out. Last night we know that the United States had some warning because of its detection systems that Ballistic Missiles were inbound from iran, perhaps giving our military personnel and those we fight with from other countries time to seek cover. So our first thoughts are with those men and women who serve overseas and their families back here and hoping that the reports of no casualties hold up this morning. Richard, you and i were talking before we came on the air and my question to you is who is the person around donald trump who either walked in the room last night or can walk in the room again this morning and say to him, mr. President , enough. We have achieved our objective here. We took general soleimani offer the battlefield, the price if there are no casualties here is relatively small, we hope. Stop now. Who is saying that to him and do you think he continues the tone and posture he had last night in that tweet when he speaks to the country later this morning . Short answer is we dont know and my own experience in government it was often the military leadership that would be more likely to do that or civilians had a more ideological approach to the use of military force. At the end of the day its soldiers who have to do it and are on the receiving end. They have often be more careful and they have also been someone from the outside from mr. Trumps Political Base. What was to odd about the last few days is everything he was doing was inconsistent with his idea of getting out of the middle east, of america first. He was going down a path that was something he had campaigned against. So its possible he had been reminded of that. But i want to come back to something david was alluding to, none of the underlying causes or factors has been eliminated and i think whats so interesting about the speech were going to hear this morning is whether the president begins to move this away from a confrontation, and we got lucky last night, iran may have threaded the needle, done something but not caused enough harm, but are we going to say, for example, that we accept the Iranian Regime, our goals are not regime change. Are we going to say that the time has come to have something, put a different dynamic in place. We are prepared to consider an end to a reduction in Economic Warfare in exchange for iran doing this on nuclear, this on missiles, this on its regional behavior, essentially can we compete with the military dynamic by introducing a diplomatic dynamic. Thats one of the things im looking for. Admiral, there was something especially as i woke up this morning and replayed the events in my mind, and, by the way, i hope this is the case, there seemed to be something very choreographed about everything that happened last night. You had the president , the Vice President , members of his cabinet sitting in the white house in the Late Afternoon knowing an attack was coming. The iranians launched those attacks, they struck an american base, so they are seen as the winner by their people, announced incorrectly that 30 americans had been killed immediately, but reports, initial reports, again, suggest no americans were killed. They then came out and we do not seek escalation, they said we seek no escalation. This is done. Donald trump responded likewise. I just it does seem very choreographed and i just wonder if a third party got involved and may have called the president or someone else. You know, thats an interesting speculation, joe, and of course, there was a meeting with the saudi official yesterday. There have been flickers of that kind of mediation over time. I think frankly we just got lucky. Always in a choice between a very clever move and things just work out, the simplest answer is also the right one, my sense is the iranians launched a big relatively dumb cruise missiles, these are not precision guided, they didnt zone in to go after the mess hall right at dinner. This was the minimum they could do and, therefore, i think we kind of are at last exit before the tunnel on this round, but as both david and my good friend richard have said, the longer term process here has got to resolve this lingering bitterness and hatred between the United States and iran. So here is what im hoping and watching for, a, that the iranians do not take another bite at the apple. I dont think they will, but watch watch the arabian gulf, watch our ships at sea. Number two can i stop you there, admiral . Can i stop you on number one because you just said something that, again, for americans that have not followed iran as closely as you have since 1979 the thing that has always struck me and im sure it struck you, yes, theyve been the epicenter of terrorism since 1979. Yes, we consider them for good reason to be a terrorist regime who considers the United States and israel an enemy. At the same time like the old soviet union, they, too, have been conservative with a small sea. They do not swing wildly like al qaeda. They do not swing wildly like isis. There is a reason why this regime has survived since 1979, is there not . And in part its because they know when to say when. Thats right. Another way to put it, joe, is they have ideology, they have religion, they have goals, but they are not reckless and they are definitely not suicidal. So watch what happens in the arabian gulf to see if they take another bite at the apple. I dont think they will. Watch cyber, that shoe has yet to drop. And let us hope that this will be a moment where someone can come in and maybe negotiate this. And i will close by saying this is where the your means who have been kind of on the fence in some ways could step up, look for someone like ursul ursula vanderlei, she could lead an effort, we could get into mediation. I think this is a cautiously hopeful moment. We will know a lot more as the day unfolds. Lets get a sense of what were hearing from the white hous house. Hans nichols is there. What do we know . Reporter only echoes from the white house. We have retweets, some idea of what Lindsey Graham thinks. Whats clear is that the president is preserving his ability to make a decision this morning. He looks like he slept on t i would note that the lights are on in the residence upstairs. In the National Security Advisers Office in the west wing the lights are not on. Sometimes when we had crisis moments you see all the lights on in the west wing this early in the morning. And the president is really caught between his rhetoric here, right . On the one hand he has laid out this test if any civilians or military members or assets are harmed, that will merit a response. That was the saturday night message. But then he has this different message and that is one of proportionality and thats when he pulled back the strikes back in june when the iranians downed that american drone. So the president is caught a little bit between his own rhetoric. We will see which advisers he is listening to because Lindsey Graham is talking about this being an act of war and Lindsey Graham as we know was brought in very close at maralago to this entire strategy, the planning on all of this. If hes listening to Lindsey Graham that gives us an indication of one direction, if hes listening to those who are more dovish or maybe even his own Campaign Rallies then he made decide to deescalate and take this signal from the iranians as a time to reset and rethink this entire relationship. Senator graham was on fox news last night threatening iran, looking into the camera and doing that. Courtney kube, you covered the pentagon, lets get an update overnight as weve been talking about these hopeful statistics that hopefully no americans, no iraqis were killed on either of the bases that were attacked last night by iran, do those numbers hold up overnight and what is the Damage Assessment right now from the pentagon . So now that its daytime there were expecting to get a better sense of exactly what was hit at both locations. So far there are still no reports of any casualties, its become very clear that the u. S. Military wants the president to be the one to announce that and thats why as soon as President Trump tweeted overnight that he would be speaking this morning, everything kind of shut down. They stopped talking to us, even giving us any sense of what the latest was. They should now know for the past several hours they have had a chance to look at both locations in the daylight and get a sense of exactly what was hit. Its looking now like these were shortrange Ballistic Missiles fired from western iran. Iran has this capability, its not a surprise. In fact, they have even been able to refine it just in recent years, some of these shortrange Ballistic Missiles, a lot of people have been pointing to the saudi aramco attack as their ability to use guidance systems and more precision, but we have actually seen it in the fight against isis, at least twice in 2017 and 2018 they used these shortrange Ballistic Missiles, fired them from western iran into syria with relatively good precision to take out locations and strike at isis. They have some newer shortrange missiles that theyve been able to perfect in some cases removing not to totally geek out here, but redo moving the tail if i know which gives them greater accuracy that may be according to some very early reporting that were getting that may be what we saw here. It also has the added ability of being able to be less detectable by the radar, but we know in this case that the u. S. Military had been tracking and had been preparing for some kind of a launch. They were looking at something happening yesterday. Everyone was extremely at a heightened state of readiness at the pentagon and in iraq. The military officials we were speaking to, they were expecting something to happen and we know that the u. S. Military at alasad had enough of a lead time that by the time the first barrage started coming in around 5 30 p. M. Eastern time the u. S. Troops there were hunkered down, they were in bunkers and they were prepared for it, willie. You know, jon meachum, this is a fog of war last night, certainly felt like we were moving into that weather pattern where you have a fog of war that leads to incidents like the bay of tonkin incident. Tell me what were your thoughts last night and where do you see us this morning . At the risk of total selfparity there were two narratives running through my head, there was august 1914 when a series of events took on their own momentum and led to cataclysm, and then there was october 1962 when arthur slazinger called the most dangerous hour in Human History when we came as close as arguably we ever did to Nuclear Armageddon because of the issues in cuba and the deployment of soviet missiles there. In both those cases the human factor was absolutely essential and that remains true at this hour. One of the things we think about sometimes when were talking about these things in the moment is and richard i think would appreciate this and the admiral, too is in political life president s, National Security teams, arent acting in a vacuum. They are in the flow of time as well. This is not simply a story, this is not simply a series of events thats about iran in this particular moment. This is also about this president , this policy such as it is toward the middle east. Im fascinated to know what the president of russia has been finding out, knowing, saying, thinking over the last 72, 96 hours. Thats a hugely important question. So there are these calculations that are going on that are really not simply about the next five minutes, but about everything thats unfolding. And this is a president who is under impeachment, this is a president who has a Political Base that is below 50 and we cant separate those factors and his fundamental personality from whats unfolding now. Are we really dependent on the kindness of iran . Are we really dependent on their capacity to be rational and proportionate . Thats a risky proposition. It is. It is interesting you brought up Vladimir Putin because when i said i suspected that the president spoke to a third party, Richard Haass, it would be hard to believe that donald trump would launch attacks into iran without speaking first to Vladimir Putin considering that he has deferred to the russian president on syria, he has deferred to the russian president on removing troops from that area, he has deferred to the russian president on ukraine, he has deferred to the russian president on most geopolitical questions that impacted the russians. This would obviously lie at the heart of Vladimir Putins interests since iran has long been seen by putin as a client state of russia. So jon meachum bringing us the cuban missile crisis i dont think is melodramatic. The stakes may not have been quite as high last night but if things had gone badly last night and, again, they still can today as were all saying it could have led to catastrophic consequences. Two reactions to what jon said and you said, joe. The russians have not just reentered the middle east militarily in places like syria, but they have reentered it diplomatically. They are now the only country that talks to saudi arabia, iran, israel, syria. Putin has basically positioned himself in a unique space diplomatically. Whether we spoke to him or not, quite possible we did, i think its just important to remember no one else has the access to all the parties to tamp down a crisis if indeed thats what he did, and the other point is that in all these crises and the other thing that came to mind to me was also the gulf war, when something happens then it was the iraqi invasion of kuwait what you want to do is slow down the pace of decisionmaking, you want to build some time into the loop between one sides action and the other sides reaction. And to me the most promising take away from the last 24 hours is just that, that a little bit of time seems to have been built into the loop to slow down the action reaction cycle so you clarify what exactly happened, what was the fog of war as opposed to what actually did. To give the other side a little bit of chance to reassess, to think through. Everybody has multiple constituencies here, their own public, other publix. So to me the one promising sign was we slightly turned down the speed of this crisis and that to me has got to be one of the goals to not to allow it to speed up. So, courtney, if were lucky the worstCase Scenario was avoided last night, but in the eyes of iran this is hardly the end of t the Supreme Leader in an address to the country last night said incremental military action is not uft. He went on to say what matters is that the presence of america which is a source of corruption in this region should come to an end. So that was a very public statesponsor hit of Ballistic Missiles last night, but the proxy attacks likely will continue as they have for years. Exactly. I mean, i think we cant underscore the significance of the fact that this attack was done by the conventional Iranian Military, thats really uncommon. Usually iran responds through proxy forces in the region. There were indications primarily from the ayatollah that he wanted to respond in kind and that would mean a conventional Iranian Military attack on the conventional u. S. Military, but its very significant that that was actually what they carried out here last night. That part may be over, but we shouldnt discount the fact that there are still these widespread proxy forces throughout the region. Whats what we need to watch in the coming days is how will they respond to this . Will they see this as sufficient for the killing of Qassem Soleimani and will they lash out . Either with iranian backing and support and even potentially direction, or will they be angry at how the Iranian Regime responded to this. There were no at this point no american kashlgts, will they see this as a sufficient response . Remember a number of those proxy forces who answered to Qassem Soleimani and the quds force he didnt necessarily have a lot of control over some of them, they acted sometimes outside without necessarily his direction. Some of them may be frustrated by the way this has played out not thinking it was enough and we may see them lashing out. I can also underscore the admirals point about the potential for cyber, we may see more of that. More of these asymmetric attacks that iran is known for in the region and the world, those are the ones we need to be watching for Going Forward here. Admiral, if the president this morning when he speaks to the nation does take that off ramp that you talked about and deescalates and says, okay, enough on this round here, whats the next play . Whats the next move in this conflict between our two countries . It will be a period of extreme watchfulness. So look for the pentagon to up its intelligence collection, that unblinking eye, the unmanned vehicles, the satellite systems, the highly classified intercept capability. Were going to want to do everything we can to get advanced notice on what comes next and that is often the hardest part. Back to jon meachums excellent comment, the good news is that in 1914 there was literally no intelligence capability and there was also no transparency, to Richard Haass point, you want to slow things down, you want to get out of that acceleration. The good news is that transparency of a cnn, msnbc, our ability to see that those leaders talking to each other, so theres going to be a lot of listening, a lot of defensive activity maintained and, again, lets be cautiously optimistic we can take that last exit before the tunnel. All right. Admiral James Stavridis and Courtney Kube thank you both. Still ahead on morning joe, joe bidens Foreign Policy message, plus senator Elizabeth Warren joins the conversation. We will talk about her president ial campaign and the emerging ad war between President Trump and Michael Bloomberg. Youre watching morning joe. We will be right back. Ill be ri. Trump obamacare is a complete and total disaster. Let obamacare implode. Nurse these wild attacks on healthcare hurt the patients i care for. Ive been a nurse in new york for thirty years. I know the difference leadership can make because i saw what Mike Bloomberg did as mayor. 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Jon meachum, ive been trying to get my arms around soleimanis position in iran and trying to draw a historical parallel with, lets say, an assassination of an american figure that would be equal. Certainly not mike pence, he does whatever Donald Trump Tells him to do down to like putting Water Bottles on the floor. Wouldnt be even the chairman of the joint chiefs. I may have stumbled upon something in reading last night. I wonder if you would agree that he would be the equivalent in terms of position and power as a military man of like George Marshall post 45 when he really was the indispensable figure in trumans white house as secretary of state, secretary of defense, he was a military man but at the same time he was also the person that had the respect not only of everybody in washington, but across the country and the world. Yeah, i think thats the equivalent zip code were in. I might countersuggest that because of his combat experience and the nature of combat in the 21st century it might be closer to eisenhower, a Supreme Commander of an effort to project force in irans case often through asymmetrical means, but marshall was a big, as you say, of diplomacy and the chief of staff who built that mighty war machine, but it was ike who was on the field in the field. But its that scale. And i think its a great point to remind its one of the reasons honestly i certainly hope the admiral is right, i believe in being cautiously optimist optimistic, but the man who was taken out is an enormously important figure and i think youre right to try to figure out how to explain to people what an equivalent occupant of that kind of mind space in the west. Its really its critically important for americans to understand what was done last friday, for no other reasons than so we can understand what our adversary is thinking right now. David ignatius, there is a reason why jon meachum won a Pulitzer Prize and i won the 1971 dixie youth baseball t Ball Championship in meridian, mississippi. And he is on your show. But can i tell you, though, i mean, i was better off the tee to right field than anybody else. Do you know what actually that is eisenhower is a much better parallel, everybody was talking about eisenhower ascending to the presidency in 46, 47, 48, 49 before he final a announced it and ran in 52, we basically killed in effect the iranian version of dwight d. Eisenhower and thats something we can never forget as were walking through this process understanding, again, what our adversary how our adversary is viewing this event. Joe, my reaction to that is that im reminded as i look back to the events of last thursday night that began this extraordinary crisis that there really have been a cascade of what are widely viewed as mistakes on the part of the United States. Not listening to intelligence analysts who warned first maximum pressure on iran would not produce the desired effect of bringing iran to the negotiating table, who warned second killing Qassem Soleimani would have knock on effects that would not be in americas strategic interest, who warned, three, be careful about your relationships with iraq which is very fragile, which is strategically important. So we end up this morning, i think, with a sense, proper sense of relief, that the president rather than immediately acting, taking us up another few rungs on the ladder, decided to pause and in that pause we think maybe there is a way to now deescalate. We shouldnt forget that we got here because of decisions that were made that really require a second look. Weve been acting here without our key allies. When you have a situation where britain and germany say we are concerned about the actions of both the United States and iran and urge restraint on both, wow, i never thought i would see that moment. Yeah. In balancing this we need to think not just about the next few hours, but coming weeks and months to try to figure out something that really addresses the fundamentals here. And of course, willie, when were trying to find historical parallels to try to understand our adversary and our adversarys next move, eisenhower obviously helped liberate a continent, win a world war, but for the iranians soleimani was the indispensable man, the indispensable military man and as others said he was irreplaceable, but also for iran and actually the region probably the most influential military force over the past 30 years. And has, yeah, for 20, 30 years. You said the key, its not just iran but it is across the region as we directs these proxy groups that we may hear from again coming up shortly. Richard, best Case Scenario this morning for President Trump to come out and say what . To calm tensions or to signal his next move . What do you want to hear where from this president in a few hours . What we dont want to hear and what we want to hear. What we dont want to hear is a victory lap on killing general soleimani. Not to say things that will force the iranians to say or do things themselves and probably lay out something, again, acceptance of the Iranian Regime, may not agree with it but we accept it, and some hopes that we can move away from a cycle of military confrontation towards one of diplomatic en traction. Obviously he will point out where iran needs to change its ways on nuclear missiles, what have you, but at least lays out a path, a different kind of action reaction than we saw in the last 24 hours. All right. So with iran threatening more attacks against the u. S. , targets in the middle east if the u. S. Retaliates its worth noting where american troops are in the region. There are between 45,000 and 65,000 American Military personnel now deployed in saudi arabia and other persian gulf nations including more than 5,000 troops in iraq and 600 in syria, nearby roughly 2,000 american troops are based in turkey. By the way, look at that map and you will note that irans borders touch every one of those countries. As you can see roughly 12,000 to 13,000 troops remain in afghanistan. Late last week the pentagon also directed 4,500 additional u. S. Troops to the middle east in addition to the roughly 50,000 already there. Roughly 4,000 troops based out of ft. Bragg, north carolina, have started deploying to kuwait. They are part of the 82nd Airborne Divisions Global Response force kept on stand by for particular emergencies. Lets bring in someone who knows that division well, democratic cobs man jason crowe of colorado served as a paratrooper in iraq with the 82nd Airborne Division in 2003, the former army ranger also served two additional tours in afghanistan. He is a member of the House Committee on Armed Services and he joins us now. Thank you very much for being on the show and thank you for your service. With no press secretary, the information is so limited and you have a letter to the white house demanding information on the iran strategy. What are you hoping to hear from them and do you expect to get the answers youre looking for . Yeah, youre absolutely right, mika. This morning along with about 35 of my colleagues in the house we are sending a letter to President Trump, secretary esper and other members of the defense and Intelligence Community requesting really Important Information that not only do we need, but were constitutionally entitled to. Really the first thing we want to hear is what measures are being taken to protect our troops. Dozens of Iranian Missiles struck u. S. Bases last night, we are gravely concerned about the status of the security of those forces. You mentioned just a moment ago all of the Rapid Reaction forces that have been sent to that region. The fact that we have activated most of our immediate Rapid Reaction forces in our military, 82nd airborne, 173rd airborne, elements of the 75th Ranger Regiment and others tells me we werent ready for this. Tells me we had to send all of our Emergency Forces there. We need to get our arms around very quickly what the status of our bases are. The second is whats the Long Term Plan here . Whats the end game . What is he trying to achieve, he being the president . We have spent over 4 trillion in the last 20 years on these wars, thousands of american soldiers and air men and sailors and marines have been killed. Tens of thousands wounded. It is time for us to have a National Conversation about what were trying to achieve in this region. Congressman crow, its willie geist. Good to see you this morning. You obviously have served three tours in iraq and afghanistan, you earned a bronze star. I will ask you is it good news that general soleimani is dead and no longer controlling proxy forces throughout that region . Well, undoubtedly general soleimani was a very bad man that did a lot of damage both to the u. S. And to our allies in the region, but, you know, there is a lot of bad people everywhere throughout the world and there is a reason why we dont go around shooting missiles at all of the bad people, because there are consequences when we do that. Prior administrations, you know, they weighed the benefits versus the risks of killing general soleimani and other people like him, theyve determined that the risks of doing so outweighed the benefits. This Administration Made a different determination, we have not yet received the classified briefing about why they made that determination, with he hope to get that information today, but, you know, we always have to look at the big picture here. General soleimani spent the last two decades trying to do one thing, drive u. S. Forces from iraq because iran knows that if they drive u. S. Forces from iraq that they can be the unchecked power in the region. So if through his death, you know, public sentiment and will in iraq has turned against the u. S. And we are expelled from iraq, they actually end up achieving their goals and iran can be unchecked in the region and israel and all of our other partners in iraq are in a worse position than they were a week ago. That is the risk of all of this. Were seeing some of that happening and we need to get our arms around what is the overall strategy here. What do you read into irans response, Ballistic Missiles fired last night into two air bases, american air bases inside iraq. It looks for now were still waiting for the sunlight and the Damage Assessments to come officially from the pentagon, were hearing no american casualties, no iraqi casualties, again, thats for now. What do you read into the way that iran responded to our killing of general soleimani . Well, a lot of what iran does, this he do through their own domestic political lens. So much of this has to do with how the hard line regime in iran needs to consolidate their own power. We gave them a big gift last week by providing this external enemy, this foil that the hard line regime needed to consolidate their power, to get public will and sentiment on their side in iran and unfortunately were seeing that happening as tens of thousands of people turn out in support of the regime in tehran and other places. The other thing is its too early to really tell exactly what happened with the missile strike, but the fact that some of these missiles hit so far off mark early indications report some of them hitting in fields outside of the bases, these are actually very accurate Ballistic Missiles. In iran wanted to hit directly where they wanted to in some of these bases they probably had the capability of doing that. So it is possible that they shot these missiles off in a very public display of retaliation, but did so in a manner that they were trying to avoid major damage to the u. S. Forces, which tells me there might be an opportunity right now for a tactical pause, for both sides to take a step back, to say lets reevaluate this, lets come to the table and figure out a better way to resolve this crisis. Congressman crow, this is david ignatius, i just want to ask you a basic question. What do you think the appropriate posture now is for democrats as they look at this crisis . What are the kinds of things you would like to hear from your democratic colleagues . Yeah, first off, we need to protect our troops. That is priority number one. We have to make sure that the men and women who we represent, the sons and daughters of america are being protected, that were getting the resources and the personnel in place to make sure that if there are additional attacks that we are protecting people. Thats priority number one. Number two we need to engage with our allies. We have continued to tarnish ourselves with our nato allies, they werent aware of this attack, and the problem is not just our obligation to keep them in the fold, but we actually put them in danger, too. They are there with iraq, fighting alongside us, they are at our bases and by doing this without them knowing about it we put them at risk so we need to bring them back in the fold and show our allies that were going to be a steadfast reliable partner. And third we need to be very clear about diplomatic efforts. I served in the military, our military can do an awful lot but i also realized the inherent limitations of military power. That at some Point Military power ends and diplomacy and engagement has to begin. We are at a point where we have to use all of the tools in our toolbox, diplomacy, economic sanctions, our moral authority, our military power, we have to bring all of those to bear in a very smart way to achieve our goals. Congressman, you obviously fought in iraq and understand the region well, better than most. There will continue to be a debate over whether donald trump made the right decision this past week in the killing of general soleimani. Im curious, though, knowing what you know about iraq when you were there and now, are you as soldiers safer with general soleimani taken off the battlefield because of last weeks strike . I dont have the information yet to make that decision. You know, i have been very clear that Congress Needs to be engaged in the process, were going to receive a classified briefing later today. Weve asked for the intelligence that led to that attack. We want to know, you know, why did they think that was imminent. Thats what i need to see, thats what congress should have seen days ago. Hopefully we get that information today. Looking at it from my perspective now but, congressman, you do have the information that general soleimani was responsible for the death of hundreds of u. S. Soldiers in iraq. So my question is not really to the purposes of the attack or whether donald trump should have actually launched that strike against general soleimani, the question is are u. S. Troops in the region safer today because general soleimani was taken off the battlefield . Yeah, you know, standing here today i dont think so. You know, he is undoubtedly a bad man, but you have to look at the Bigger Picture here. You have to look at the fact that security in our strategic and tactical goals have to do with a lot of things. They have to do with the status of our relationship with our allies and partners, the security situation in baghdad, our engagement with the baghdad government, our engagement with all the other allies in the region. There is a reason why two prior administrations democrat and republican decided that the risks were too high, that the results of the killing of general soleimani would be, you know, course than the benefits of killing general soleimani and that was a very, i think, wise decision. So standing here right now we have missiles raining down on american air bases, were sending 7,000 Rapid Reaction forces to the region, you know, the response actually indicates whether or not were safer and the fact that were having to send all of our Rapid Reaction forces to the region throughout the world tells me that we are in a very dangerous position right now. Indeed we are. Final question, some democrats over the past four or five days have had a hard time answering the question of who general soleimani was. Do you consider did you consider him to be a terrorist . The United States government considered his organization to be a terrorist organization. Do you consider general soleimani to be a terrorist . You know, i disagreed with the administrations determination that the revolutionary guard corps should have been discriminated a terrorist organization. I disagreed obviously with their means. I thought they wreaked a lot of havoc. This is a very dangerous precedent thats set in designating a foreign State Government military units as terrorists because, you know, i could have told you that they were going to do what they did. They turned around and they designated the u. S. Military a terrorist organization, too, and that sets off a cascading effect where then everybody does that, you know, the rules get set aside and people can do whatever they want to do. So, again, you know, there is a reason why we have exercised restraint and have not done these things in the past and were seeing that has set off a cascading effect thats going to be very hard to control right now. Its time for the tactical pause, for every side to step back and say how can we resolve this without going to war. I completely understand everything you said just to get an answer, though, so you did not consider general soleimani to be a, quote, terrorist . General soleimani was the general and actual Government Official of the republic of iran. Thats very different from al baghdadi, osama bin laden. Its one of the things that makes this killing unprecedented. This was not a stateless individual who was roaming around the region attacking anybody and everybody. This was a high ranking foreign Government Official that was killed in the capital of one of our partners and allies. A very different situation here. So that answer is no. Yeah, i think designating both the quds force and the revolutionary guard corps as a terrorist organization and all of the members of those organizations as terrorists, i think that was a very misplaced move. All right. Congressman, thank you so much. Very enlightening conversation. We greatly appreciate you being here and all of us thank you for your service to america. Absolutely. Coming up, we will hear from a republican member of congress and veteran who is defending last weeks u. S. Air strike that killed general soleimani. Plus, senator and 2020 candidate Elizabeth Warren will be our guest. Morning joe is back in a moment. Be our guest morning joe is back in a moment whistling whistling this melting pot of impacted species. Everywhere is going to get touched by Climate Change. 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Sorry hes a baby . Depend® silhouette™ briefs feature maximum absorbency, with trusted protection for all out confidence. Beautiful colors and an improved fit for a sleek design and personal style. Lifes better when youre in it. Be there with depend®. Haphazard decisionmaking process that led up to it, the failure to consult with our allies or congress and the reckless disregard for the consequences that would surely follow was in my view dangerously incompetent. A president says he wants to end endless wars in the middle east is bringing us dangerously close to starting a brandnew one. A president who says he wants out of the region sends an additional 18,000 plus troops to deal with the crisis of his own making. An administration that claims its actions made america safer in the same breath urges our citizens to leave iraq, puts americans throughout the region on notice because of the increased danger that now exists. Former Vice President and president ial candidate joe biden speaking in new york city yesterday and still with joe, willie and me, we have the president of the president of the council on Foreign Relations, Richard Haass, david ignati ignatius, historian and author of the soul of america jon meachum and joining the conversation msnbc contributor mike barnicle, now an nbc news andes in political analyst claire mccaskill. And chief White House Correspondent for the New York Times peter baker. Willie, there are times where we follow up with questions until we get the answers we want, weve done it with a certain former president ial candidate on whether he was a capitalist or not. Mike i know followed up with libertarian candidate four years ago about aleppo. These are usually uncomfortable. What is aleppo . What . These are usually uncomfortable times but continuing those questions are illuminating until you get an answer. I thought jason crow and his responses to the questions i thought were very im lum nagt especially the part about declaring the quds force and soleimani terrorists. He said, well, i didnt want them to do that because in return they would declare our troops terrorists and our military leaders terrorists and would not have to afford the regular protections that you afford to troops who are captured on the battlefield. Yeah, i think you asked him three or four times whether or not soleimani is a terrorist and he held his ground and said, no, i dont think we should designate his group or anyone in the group a terrorist, which is interesting because you even had people like senator Elizabeth Warren who will be with us an hour from now saying, yesterday, of course soleimani is a terrorist. So i put stock a little extra stock perhaps in what someone like congressman crow has to say on these matters as someone who has served, who has been in iraq and afghanistan on the battlefield, who has been with the 82nd airborne, who has been a captain with the army rangers, served three tours and won a bronze star. He knows of what he speaks. That was an interesting perspective from him. You know, peter baker, the president promised in 2016 to get us out of the middle east, to end the endless wars in the middle east and afghanistan, obviously last fridays strike took america in a radically different direction than that. What can you tell us about where the white house is after the standoff last night ended with both the iranians and the president of the United States at least for the moment seeming to take a step back from all out war . Yeah, you want to be careful about overinterpreting but it did look at the end of the evening like it was possible that this did not spiral out of control as many of the critics had feared. That, in fact, iran would take its pound of flesh and say it had upheld its honor and the United States would look at that and say, well, there are no casualties and, therefore, fine, with he will let it go at that, maybe somehow this wont turn into the larger shooting war that everybody has been afraid of, but you dont know, of course, this is a president who has prided himself on being unpredictable, who has veered back and forth between, you know, threats of annihilation and expansive offers of diplomacy with no preconditions and you never quite know which donald trump is going to be president at any given time. This has been one of the challenges, i think, for the administration in the days since the strike. The strike was executed with brutal efficiency but the aftermath has been muddled by conflicting messages and mixed signals. I think what we will be looking for this morning when the president makes a statement is a clearer sense of where he wants to take the country when it comes to the middle east. Is he, in fact the president who wants to end endless wars or is he the president who is so assertive in defending american interests that hes willing to send more troops, hes willing to escalate, if necessary. Willing even to hit targets that are ruled out by international law. Thats what we will be watching to see when the statement is made this morning. All right. Last night iran retaliated for the u. S. Drone strike that killed its top general five days ago, firing more than a dozen missiles at two Iraqi Air Bases Housing u. S. Military and coalition forces. Iranian state tv says this is video of one of the attacks, its not been verified by u. S. Officials but the pentagon says the strikes were undoubtedly from iran. They began around 5 30 p. M. Eastern time yesterday targeting alAsad Air Base in western iraq as well as an air base in erbil located in the center of Iraqi Kurdistan in the northern part of the country. Right now there are no reports of casualties, the pentagon says it is still assessing the damage. Iranian foreign minister javad zarif tweeted, quote, iran took and concluded proportionate measures in selfdefense under article 51 of u. N. Charter targeting base from which cowardly armed attack against our citizens and senior officials were launched. We do not seek escalation or war, but will defend ourselves against any aggression. President trump tweeted at 9 45 last night, quote, all is well. Missiles launched from iran at two military bases located in iraq. Assessment of casualties and damages taking place now. So far, so good. We have the most powerful and wellequipped military anywhere in the world by far, adding that he will be making a statement this morning. Mike barnicle. Thank you, joe. You know, richard, you know as well as anyone that iran has very specific military capabilities and the idea that these missiles landed where they landed when iran could drop a missile on the head of a pin, is that telling us anything from iran . Absolutely. My hunch is that they wanted to kill americans or try to kill americans they would have. Theyve got much more accurate missiles, they have all sorts of other tools. So i took yesterdays attack as one largely meant for domestic and regional consumption that iran was not a pitiful helpless country, this he could do things. It was uncharacteristic because it was explicit. They didnt deny the fact that they did it. If anything they talked about it, but thats where zarifs comment is interesting, he said weve concluded what were doing. My hunch is weve seen the end of the part of iranian retaliation to the Soleimani Killing that they own up to. What i do not believe weve seen for a second is the part of iranian retaliation for soleimani thats more traditional, be it cyber, be it using proxies around the region, the stuff thats under the surface that is yet to come. None of us should think this is over, but the uncharacteristic over, yes, were doing this phase of the action that might be over and thats important because that might make it easier for us not to do something also over in public. Again, it gives us a little bit of space. Clair, as we heard a minute ago from congressman crow the white house is going to brief some members of Congress Today about the decision to go after and kill general soleimani, the justification for that theyve said there was an imminent threat. If you are sitting in the United States senate what do you want to know from the white house today . I want to know about the calculation into the aftermath. What this hit on soleimani has done and what has always made other commanders in chief pause is its united all the shia factions and thats really important. Keep in mind that the only two majority countries that are shia majority are, in fact, iran and iraq, and within those countries the shia factions were fighting each other. We had a populist in iraq who was trying to convince everyone that the thing to do is to get iran out of iraq. That the iranian influence in iraq was unhealthy. Well now hes converted to completely going into the fold with other shias saying the only bad guys left in iraq are the americans. So what they have done longterm, i think richard is right, i dont think well see the army of iran responding, but the proxy groups and the hate that they have foe meanted by this within the proxy groups, these are the extremists. I think you will see a strengthening of iran, exactly what iran wanted, a strengthening of iran both in iraq and in syria as a result of this. David ignatius, i think it was i think Richard Haass said earlier iran is not suicidal, perhaps that was you. This is a threehour show after all, its hard to keep my pieces straight on the bingo card. But at the same time they are not suicidal and they know, the world knows they are in a weakened state right now economically. I do wonder how aggressive they will be in the coming months. Is it not best for the iranians to find a way out of this corner, to find a way back to the table, to find a way back with the United States if donald trump really does want to renegotiate this nuclear deal so their economy can get moving again . The internal dissent that theyre going to have when this Soleimani Killing the aftermath of that goes down, its going to be even more pronounced because the economy is going to be in even worse shape. Joe, the maximum Pressure Campaign that the Trump Administration has been waging, the economic war in effect on iran has had an effect starting in midnovember there were riots in the streets, iranians by the thousands, estimates are as many as 1,000 iranians might have been killed as the regime tried to suppress dissent. It does appear that in the aftermath of the killing of this iconic military leaders iranians have come back together first, and second i just would come back, joe, to what has been consistently the assessment of our intelligence analysts about this issue of maximum pressure and will it work to drive iran into a negotiation and theyve consistently said no, its likely to enhance the power of the hardliners, as long as Ayatollah Khomeini is the Supreme Leader he is not likely to be pressured into this negotiation. I think some process that backs away from lets just squeeze them until they pop, which is basically the idea, is going to have to be part of this strategy. Our european allies would be eager to sponsor some dialogue with iran about the basic security issues, getting back into the nuclear agreement, doing something about Ballistic Missiles. Weve seen how threatening the Ballistic Missiles are, some of them just landed on our air base. And, three, the regional meddling. We know how serious that is. If those three issues are brought into a discussion and the europeans provide some Financial Relief so that iran isnt right at the edge of a cliff, that may be the shape of where a negotiation would go. But, Richard Haass, isnt a cornered iran a dangerous iran if you are saudi arabia . They saw that firsthand a month or two ago. And the israelis may say one thing publicly but the israelis understand as well they dont want iran backed into these corners this corner where this Regional Power has no choice but no strike back and strike back hard. Isnt it in our allies best interest and our best interest to find a way for iran to get out of that corner and back to the table . Oh, absolutely. Which is in large part why the saudis among others have begun a process of reaching out to iran over the last couple of weeks and months. The saudis have deescalated the war this yemen which in some ways with a proxy war between saudi arabia and iran. There have been other diplomatic feelers that both they and the United Arab Emirates have started. I think the saudis were shaken by the american nonresponse to the response on their refinery. It sent a real message that unless americans were killed, americas traditional partners in the region might be on their own, which is why also i think they might be nervous looking forward because we were just talking about around the set, i dont see any sign that iran is going to suddenly become a status quo country. One of the lessons of the last 24, 48 hours is iran sees a real difference between attacking americans directly and attacking others. So i dont think there is any reason to believe that they become a status quo country thats not going to put pressure on saudi arabia or have hezbollah put pressure on israel, which then gets back to the point about why we need some kind of an off ramp. We do need to begin to structure the outlines of a comprehensive negotiation where we trade we are prepared to dial down sanctions relief if we see demonstrable changes in iranian behavior towards their neighbors or towards missiles or towards their own nuclear program. That is what again i think its really important the president puts out on the table today. And, mika, you know, richard brings up a great point. While u. S. Soldiers, u. S. Troops across the region are at risk, i dont think anybody after the Soleimani Killing is at a greater risk than americas allies in that region, be it the saudis, be it the israelis, be it even our allies in iraq, simply because they understand after that saudi attack when the United States didnt respond, donald trump will not launch any military action against the iranians unless american civilians are killed. And as we hear from david and richard about all the potential positive ways forward to try to dial this back down, the question remains, as you posed in your Washington Post column, you know, does trump have the capacity to do that or does he only have the capacity to ratchet things up . And there is a backdrop, two back drops, actually, impeachment and also the president ial primaries that are coming. Claire mccaskill, how does this impact the race for 2020 . Well, i think its a moment for our candidates to try to be calm and the opposite of chaos. What this incident has highlighted is how chaotic this administration is when it comes to the most crucial moments. Are we hitting cultural sites . No, we would never do that, president says yes we would. Are we pulling out of iraq . Yes, we are says the military and then the military says, oh, no. No. Were not. This has just reminded the American People that this is not an administration that has its act together when it comes to coherent and cohesive unified front at times of a national crisis. So i think the more that our candidates kind of and i think that joe biden this plays to his strength, a familiar face, someone who knows Foreign Policy, who understands the value of diplomacy, who understands that rhetoric matters at moments like this, i think it helps him, but it also helps somebody like mayor pete who has got some military background and i think frankly it helps all of our candidates because i think it really shows the weakness of this president at moments of crisis. So, peter baker, i will put to you the question i asked Richard Haass earlier this morning which is who is the person in the white house who walks into the oval office and tells President Trump that weve done the job . We took out general soleimani, so far anyway from what we know iran has responded with a limited attack that we hope those numbers hold up that no americans or iraqis were killed. Who is the american who can tell him before he goes out in front of the cameras today who says, just dial it down. Mission accomplished here anyway. We dont need to escalate any further. Or is that a moot question because all the people previously whether its general mattis or general kelly who were supposed to be the guardrails may have attempted to do that and then the president goes out and tweets whatever he wants . Yeah, thats a great question, right . The one voice weve seen be most dominant in the last few days has been mike pompeo, the secretary of state, hawk on iran going back many years, clearly an advocate of the strike that took out general soleimani and yet we dont know whether there are other voices this that National Security team who have any kind of countervailing impact on the president. I think right now the voice that matters the most is the president s because he himself has shown hes able to one thing about the unpredictable hes able to whipsaw back and forth, able to declare things are satisfied and hes able to move on. He is not worried so much about being hit from his flank on this if he were to decide, okay, weve maintain our honor and havent, you know, backed down from a fight and we can move on from here and turn to diplomacy, as odd as that might be as difficult as it might be for other president s to make that pivot, he has shown hes able to do it in an instant, you know. So i think that what really matters is his own instinct, what hes seeing on fox news, what hes seeing on his twitter feed, how is he being portrayed from the outside world, can he, you know, turn the corner on this. Does he want to turn the corner on this toward a different type of approach . We dont know. There is i think in him an instinct against all out combat for all the bluster, i do think his instinct is not to want to have the kind of war that he has blamed on president george w. Bush for the 2003 invasion, the question is can he get himself out of a cycle that might have seemed headed in that direction in previous days . Jon meachum, there seems to be a growing school of thought in this country that donald trump through his behavior also changed the country what happens unalter blee and one of the questions thats raised is what is the point now of having a congress if this congress of the United States of america cannot get a simple answer from a very simple question from the executive branch, what now . Yeah. One of the fundamental insights of the entire american experiment was that we are going to divide power because you couldnt trust any one person or any one body whether it was judiciary or the legislature or the executive with power. As madison said, ambition must be made to counteract ambition. There has been a gradual but undeniable growth of executive power really since world war ii, you can argue its from the civil war, but the nuclear age changed everything. Once a commander in chief had that immense authority and power things began to shift almost inexorably. The issue you raise is a terrific test for our fidelity to that insight. Do we still believe that, in fact, checks and balances matter . Who are have we become a reflexively partisan monarchist country where if youre king or your queen gets in, by god you are for them come what may. The point of america was that we werent supposed to do come what may anymore, we were supposed to use reason, we were supposed to use the enlightenment values to assess evidence and changing circumstance and then make up our minds about what this polidy should do. Its a huge test for that and, you know, i think we are on the broader question of 2020 and what happens next. Look, donald trump is president so nobody knows anything. Lets just i will take that one all day long. Were entering what i would think of as the daniel silva phase of the conflict, the great novelist who writes about the mesad agent. Those tend to and i hate to say this, but more chaos historically historically, not always, but by and large tends to favor the incumbent and i think thats something to keep in mind because people see chaos and they want stability and order and even in Donald Trumps case the fact that he has the trappings of power he does tend to communicate that to a lot of folks. Jon meacham, thank you very much. And peter baker, thank you as well. You know, before we go to break i just got this over the phone from the wall street journal, u. S. Cancer death rate drops by largest amount on record and the American Cancer Society says advances in treating lung and skin cancer contributed to a 2. 2 drop. Thats great. The decline has been really precipitous, especially in the areas of lung cancer and skin cancer over the past 15, 20 years. Thats good news. Still ahead on morning joe, how would a president Elizabeth Warren handle all of this . Well ask the white house contender straight ahead. Shes going to be on our show. Plus senator tim kaine of virginia who filed a resolution to prevent war with iran. But first, how the Global Markets are reacting to the overnight strikes in iraq. Steph ruhle joins the conversation. Youre watching morning joe. J conversation youre watching morning joe. janine ghostbusters . Of course id love to take an informal poll. I used to be a little cranky. Dealing with our finances really haunted me. Thankfully, i got quickbooks, and a live bookkeepers helping customize it for our business. live bookkeeper youre all set up janine great hey you got the burnt marshmallow out delivery man he slimed me. janine tissue . vo get set up right with a live bookkeeper with intuit quickbooks. The easy way to a happier business. Apps except work. Rywhere. Why is that . Is it because people love filling out forms . Maybe they like checking with their supervisor to see how much Vacation Time they have. Or sending corporate their expense reports. Ill let you in on a little secret. They dont. By empowering employees to manage their own tasks, paycom frees you to focus on the business of business. To learn more, visit paycom. Com it was an act of war by a regime for the last 40 years, its been a cancer in the middle east. When they say they want to destroy israel, they are not kidding. Let me say tonight if youre watching television in iran, i just got off the phone to the president. Your fate is in your own hands in terms of the regimes economic viability. You continue this crap, youre going to wake up one day out of the oil business. Okay. Speaking of oil, i guess, u. S. Stock futures tumbled and oil prices saw a rise late after irans missile strikes. Dow futures fell more than 400 points after the attack, but are not just about even. S p 500 and nasdaq futures also fell, they are now in positive territory. Brent crude oil added 1. 4 to over 69 a barrel after reaching as high as 71 a barrel. And safe haven investments during times of conflict such as the japanese yen and gold saw spikes with gold reaching a nearly sevenyear highrising 2. 2 . Joining us now former treasury official and morning joe economic analyst Steve Rattner and nbc news Senior Business correspondent, congratulations. Thank you. Msnbc anchor stephanie ruhle. Lets start with steph. What was the impact on the markets and what are we going to be looking for moving forward as this conflict plays out . You know, we saw the predictable response last night after the strike. We saw markets drop, we saw safe havens spike, but now weve come to the morning and all of those losses have been recovered because from the standpoint that we are now moving into a deescalatory mode, eurasia put it this morning iran gave iraq warning, u. S. Had trial to prepare, this is sort of a bullish off ramp. If that is the case thats a positive. This thought that the president isnt going to respond militarily. And if you look at oil, from an oil dependency, we are less Oil Dependent today than we have been previously, so youre actually seeing as far as gas prices increase more of a muted response and Oil Producers here in the u. S. Are going to be hiring more, are going to be doing more so that huge response people are worried about, even the president would be worried about as far as gas prices going up, its more muted today than it has been during previous conflicts. It does look like the markets have taken heart in the limited response from iran and putting some faith in the president that today he wont come out in the oval office or wherever he addresses the country and escalate in some way. Yeah, i think as steffy said the Immediate Reaction of markets in situations like this when something happens unexpectedly in the middle of the night is to pull back and is to get scared, then it steps back and says, okay, now, what does this really mean . I think as stephanie said for the moment the market has concluded that we are not going to do anything stupid, hopefully they are not going to do anything stupid and there will be this tit for tat kind of response, but nothing the biggest risk i think is on oil. Oil is a global commodity, we are much better off than we used to to be in terms of how much we produce but that doesnt insulate us from what goes on in the world and you did see the spike in oil prices when soleimani was killed and they have stayed at the elevated levels. Iran is still a modest producer of oil but also has the power to disrupt oil which all go through the straits of hormuz. Also just Pay Attention, the president is laser beam focused on the economy as it relates to the election. He doesnt want to have a huge disruption. The driver of the Strong Economy has been consumer spending. We didnt see any of that change since there was this unrest in the middle east. The president doesnt want to change that. If he can ride a Strong Economy, thats a huge win for him. All right. So we are talking here about the United States economy. Steve your charts are looking at the iranian economy and why thats significant into this whole conversation. David ignatius made a are erchs to this i think at the top of the hour. We have had these sanctions in place and these sanctions have had a very Significant Impact on irans economy which we can show you in a couple of graphs. If you actually go back to the irs round an earlier round of sanctions that the u. S. And eu put on oil exports from iran, you can see what it did to the iranian economy immediately thereafter. It essentially turned down in a recession. Then it crept its way back and now we have these new sanctions sorry, we had the relief that came from the jcpoa and the removal of sanctions and you can see the iranian economy spiked upward and then lastly you can see the trump sanctions and what its done to iran. So gdp this year in 2019 is estimated to have fallen by as much as 10 , obviously a huge fall and that has sent unemployment youth unemployment, for example, is well over 25 . There have been riots in streets, over 200 people killed. You can see partly why when you take a look at the inflation rate in iran which before trump acted was fairly stable in this below 10 range, and then you can see it spiked way up when the sanctions went in place to 50 and its still very elevated levels, food prices have nearly doubled, theres racks thing, shortages of many things, there have been these riots in the street. The key question is do sanctions work . There is a long history of sanctions around the world, we have had sanctions on cuba for 60 years, hasnt had much of an effect, north korea, you can debate that, barnicle and i can go all the way back to the rodesian sanctions and how long it took for them to have an affect. The sanctions are clearly creating havoc in the economy, where that would have led absent this is anybodys go he is. The revocation of the luke clear deal we have european allies, french, great britain, dying to trade with iran. Dying to trade with iran. This administration is as you know unilateral its not multilateral so we go it alone. We control the world Financial System basically. It is impossible to conduct business without operating through a u. S. Financial institution and, therefore, we can effectively impose these unilaterally, say to the europeans, tough luck, you are not going to get to trade with iran and they honestly dont have much choice. Thats what a go it alone strategy looks like in this administration. Go back to the early rounds of saungss they were multilateral, carefully negotiated you saw the ones on oil that i mentioned among all the nations, the western nations that are influenti influential. Today its a different game. The president would say this is america first, stick it. Wow. Thank you, stephanie, for summing it up so well. Theres concerns about the economy, you hear it here and there and everywhere, how does this impact the election moving forward, steph . Listen, right now the economy is strong, without a doubt there are pockets, things arent going well in certain areas, but consumer confident is very high. If the president can ride this through november its a big positive for him and its proven to be a tricky argument for democrats. Quite so. Stephanie ruhle, thank you so much. We will be handing off the coverage to you at 9 00 a. M. Eastern time. Thank you. And coming up last nights Iranian Missile attack complicates democrats plans to push a measure limiting President Trumps war powers. A member of the Armed Service committee senator tim kaine is standing by. He joins the conversation next on morning joe. We will be right back. Onversatit on morning joe. We will be right back. 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He is a member of the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees and is leading the democrats efforts in the senate to advance a new war powers resolution to prevent President Trump from further escalating hostilities with iran. Good to have you on the show. I guess id thank you, mika. Like to hear your assessment of irans statement after the attacks last night. They seem to be offering perhaps at least a period of quiet if President Trump doesnt respond. How did you take it . Well, the attack was very, very unfortunate, very unfortunate. At least the initial reports that there arent casualties, thats positive, but its really hard to read what iran will do. Mika, as you know because weve talked about this before, i believe that the that the cure to unnecessary escalation is deliberation. Youve got members of Congress Sitting around waiting to see what comes up on their news feed about what iran does today and what President Trump does tomorrow. We shouldnt just be passive spectator spectators. The way we stop escalation and we need to stop the escalating hostilities between the United States and iran is for congress to actually deliberate what should be the posture of the United States toward iran. Should we be engaged in these back and forth military hostilities with iran . I dont think we should, some of my colleagues think we should, but lets actually have that debate in front of the entire American People and we will more likely to get to a deliberative and smart decision than just letting the president and the Iranian Military go back and forth against each other. Well, that would be wonderful, but in this specific case we have a president , you know, who is in the middle of an impeachment process for not listening to not even his own advisories, let alone congress. Right. How do you think what youre asking for, hoping for, calling for is possible under this presidency . Well, its tough. I mean, i acknowledge i dont think the president cares very much about congress. He doesnt care very much about what constitutional powers we have, but i do know he cares about this, he does care about his own popularity and he cares about what the American Public thinks. My public in virginia which i think is pretty representative, we do not want to be in another war in the middle east after 19 years. When our men and women in uniform were home for the holidays and theyre getting surprise notices they have to deploy again to the middle east after they have done it repeatedly over the course of the last 19 years, they dont want that. They want adults in the room who can figure out how to deescalate tension. So while the president doesnt care about congress, if congress has this debate i suspect we will reach a point in the debate that will be sort of in accord with what the American Public thinks. I do believe that President Trump there Pay Attention to that. Senator rand paul told Chris Matthews last night on hard ball that he was going to be looking at your resolution and would be considering joining your efforts. Are there any other republicans who are actually considering stepping up and reclaiming article i powers that our Founding Fathers gave to the United States congress . Joe, in the last year there have been two different votes where weve had about seven republicans in these two different contexts, one dealing with iran and one dealing with the civil war in yemen say to the president you shouldnt do this on your own without us. And im spending time with those republicans as well as the republicans on the Foreign Relations committee. Its interesting that war votes dont go through the Armed Services committee they go through the Foreign Relations committee. Im spending time with the members to try to get them to join me. Again, whether or not we agree on what the right strategy is about iran, we ought to be able to agree that it should be debated in front of the American Public and congress in a deliberative way before we take action. Senator kaine, its willie geist. Good to see you this morning. Yeah, which will. He. This is obviously something youve been concerned about for a long time, written pieces about pulling out of the nuclear deal, about the president blund ring his way to a bar with iran, that was a year and a half ago. Youve also been concerned about the openended authorization of use of military force which of course was there to fight terrorism after 9 11. Is there a way, is there concern, is there an impetus for congress to draw up a new aumf so its not as openended and cant be used about i any president republican or democrat to justify any military action . Willie, as you know, i was raising this same concern and opposing president obama who is a friend of mine with respect to libya and the battle against isis saying you have a good rationale, but you have to have a congressional authorization. So i pushed president s of either party and congresses of either party on this. There is a need to take the 2001 authorization which authorizes activity against the perpetrators of the 9 11 attack and put it into a more narrow form. I think everybody agrees that that authorization does not allow war against iran, its about nonstate terrorist groups, its not about the nation state of iran and the administration isnt even claiming that the attack that killed 25 iranians on bases a few weeks ago and then the attack on soleimani and the Iraqi Parliamentarian they are not even claiming that that authorization does it. We do need to more carefully craft and limit that openended authorization, but we also have to do something specific with respect to iran, a nation state, and not allow the president just to go back and forth and escalate tensions. For the last 18 months since the president decided to abandon diplomacy we predicted three things, one, you would put us on the brink of war in time, thats come to pass. Two, you would raise the threat level to american troops in the middle east through the escalating maximum Pressure Campaign, and three you would make it much harder to get a nuclear deal with north korea because north korea would say, hold on a second, you did a deal with iran and it was being complied with and then you backed out of it. All three of those predictions have sadly come to pass, but thats water under the bridge. The question is what do we do right now to deescalate and congressional deliberation is what the framers of the constitution viewed as the best check against unnecessary escalation. Tim, listen, first of all, i love you for your doggedness on this. Thanks, clair. You are obnoxious how long you have been going after this and you wont give up. You get it that this is a principled position that Congress Need to take, however, i see two major problems right now for you, one is jim rich, we have no job corker at Foreign Relations now, weve got a guy who would never vary from whatever trump tells him to do, and then the bigger problem, Mitch Mcconnell. Have you had any conversations with Mitch Mcconnell that give you any glimmer of hope that he would ever allow a debate on this in light of how the Trump White House would see it as somehow limiting his view of his monarchy . Clair, excellent question. Youre right, the faces and the Committee Chairs dont necessarily love what im doing, but thats why i have used this very unusual privileged provision in the war powers act. The war powers act says this, if a president engages in hostilities without getting a congressional authorization, then any member can file a resolution and within ten days seek to have it discharged from the committee. We will have a floor vote on this. It doesnt it doesnt get bottled up in committee. It doesnt get bottled up on the no floor. I get to have a floor debate and vote on this and i get to do it by a simple majority. Will i get a simple majority . I dont know. There may be a majority that says we want to let the president do whatever he wants, but i will get a floor vote on the question of whether we should allow the president to escalate a war against iran on his own and im going to put every one of the 100 members on the record on that proposition. And that will likely happen sometime in the next two weeks. Senator kaine, this is david ignatius, i want to ask you about one other issue involving the senates powers and thats the impeachment trial that is likely ahead. Senator Mitch Mcconnell, the republican leader, said yesterday he has enough votes, he thinks, to go forward with a process that doesnt include witnesses and i just want to ask you straight up do you think there is any way the democrats can still peel off enough republicans or in some way get witnesses into this picture . Yeah, david, youve asked it in a very careful way. Senator mcconnell apparently has the votes to initiate the trial without an agreement on witnesses or documents, but we have the ability to file a motion, we want to subpoena john bolton. He says he has relevant information that he has not disclosed and he is willing to testify and when we file that motion every senator has to vote on it, recorded vote. We have the belief that even if senator mcconnell can start the trial without an agreement, when we make the motion, produce the actual transcript of the phone call with president zelensky that you hid in the super secret server, its going to be very hard for all republicans to say, well, weve taken an oath to do impartial justice but we do not want to hear from john bolton has to say, we do not want to see what the actual transcript says. You know, senator, even the republicans, somebody like mitt romney who has said he wants to hear what john bolton has to say has also said, well, we can do it like we did the clinton impeachment where the articles were sent over to us and then as we were moving through we decided when we wanted to hear witnesses, when the republicans wanted to hear witnesses. Right. Since that was the way the clinton impeachment moved forward in the senate, do you agree with chris murphy from connecticut that now is the time for Nancy Nancy Pelosi to go ahead and send the articles of impeachment, the report, over to the senate and let you all begin the process . Joe, as you know, in the clinton impeachment the witnesses had already all testified, either before the house or before grand juries and their testimony was public. So the issue in that case was not theres information out there that we dont have. In this instance the four witnesses who have direct firsthand knowledge were ordered by the president not to participate and chose not to, so thats why we need to hear from them. But back to your question, i dont need to tell the speaker what to do, but i will tell you this, my intuition is we will be in a trial soon and my intuition is also when the republicans are faced with the motion why wouldnt you want to have john bolton come . You have to have Mick Mulvaney come. Youve got to produce the transcript from the super secret server and when they have to vote on that they may start with no agreement on witnesses and documents, its going to be very hard for them to live up to the oath of impartial justice and turn a blind eye to evidence thats out there that bears on the questions in this trial. I mean, the only way they can do that is if they decide, mike marco rubio said yesterday, its not my responsibility for people who voted for me to know the truth. Its not my responsibility to seek transparency. Its not my responsibility to seek the facts. Lets hope that marco rubio and the other republicans arent that cynical and we can actually have sunlight be the best disinfectant and finally know what happened in this case. Senator tim kaine, thank you so much. Thank you, senator. For being with us. We greatly appreciate it. Good luck on your resolution. Do you know what, article i not a bad thing. No. Not at all. They knew what they were doing. Thank you, senator. Yes, they did. Still ahead, if it seems that the nfc and the afc wont be the only ones facing off during this years super bowl. Michael bloomberg and donald trump are going head to head in the battle for ad space. We will talk about the significance of that. Plus, senator and 2020 candidate Elizabeth Warren joins us at the top of the hour. Morning joe will be right back. He hour. Morning joe will be right back just between us, you know whats better than mopping . Anything at the end of a long day, its the last thing i want to do. Well i switched to swiffer wet jet and its awesome. Its an allinone so its ready to go when i am. The cleaning solution actually breaks down dirt and grime. And the pad absorbs it deep inside. So, it prevents streaks and haze better than my old mop. Plus, its safe to use on all my floors, even wood. Glad i got that off my chest and the day off my floor. Try wet jet with a moneyback guarantee do you want that to happen again . I want progress. I want hope. Hey, democrats. Its time to Pay Attention. We need to wake up. In michigan, the only one campaigning here is donald trump. As pennsylvania, i understand theres a caucus in iowa, but what about here . Trump is running unopposed in every state that will actually decide the general election. Wow. That was a portion of one of Michael Bloombergs campaign ads. And the country will apparently see more from bloomberg during the super bowl. Yesterday, the Bloomberg Campaign announced secured a 62nd spot during this years super bowl airing on fox. Hours later, the trump cam Campaign Announced a 60second pot. They say they bought the ad time first and that bloomberg was acting in response to their plans. Its unclear when the ads will air during the game and fox executives said they were seeking north of 5 million per a 30second ad. The Trump Campaign entered 2020 with 102 million in cash on hand. And bloomberg has already spent nearly 170 million of his own money on television and digital ads, according to advertising analytics. And has pledged to send 100 million on ads specifically criticizing the president. The super bowl is regularly the mostviewed televised event. Last year, drawing in more than 98 million viewers. And this years game is the day before the Iowa Caucuses and two days before trumps state of the uni union address. And joe, you have always said take a look at bloomberg. Whats he doing sitting there above a lot of these candidates who have been out there pounding the pavement for months . Hes not doing bad in the polls. If you look at the numbers from yesterdays poll, he is at 7 . Doing much better than just about everybody else in the race. And only one point behind mayor pete nationwide. And really, hes doing something actually, i think, for democrats even more important, hes focusing on the five states that are going to make the decision on who is going to be the next president while everybodys campaigning in iowa and New Hampshire and south carolina. Thought that was very effective ad. But also, to lure donald trump into this fight when Michael Bloomberg can find enough money in a sock drawer, in the back of a sock drawer that he forgot he had to run a super bowl ad. I mean, every dime donald trump spends responding to Michael Bloomberg and this years super bowl is money he wont have to target whoever the eventual democratic nominee is next year. Its an extraordinary twoman arms race if you just look at these two. The numbers that theyre putting up. The president s money comes from campaign funds. 100 million. But when you consider mayor bloomberg got in the race about five minutes ago and has already spent 170 million on ads and as you point out, that is only the very beginning of what hes capable of doing here. So a 5 million ad on the super bowl is big bucks for a lot of people but not for mayor bloomberg. It will be interesting to see his theory, which i can sit out these four early states, let the candidates slug it out and here ill be sitting on supertuesday with all those delegates out will and available to me. Having spent time and money for months now trying to win the votes in that state. I dont know if its going to work. But i think its smart that hes going after trump in these ads. That kind of makes democrats hearts warm and fuzzy about bloomberg because hes focusing on going after trump. And thats not a bad thing in terms of how democrats view him. But eventually, were going oh g to get to how big is the slurpy you can buy and new york billionaire. And then it gets much rougher for him in states like pennsylvania and iowa and wisconsin and so forth. Its for the record, its a big gulp, claire. Whatever. It was not something that played well in the midwest. Steve, i dont want you to violate any privileged information here. I know that please. Large part of mayor bloombergs money on a privacy basis. But here we have two candidates with virtually unlimited resources. Except one, Michael Bloomberg, has more unlimited resources than does donald j. Trump. And to joes critical point, every dollar trump is spending right now is a dollar that he wont be able to spend after july against the democratic candidate. How far do you think Mike Bloomberg is willing to go in terms of cash expenditures to keep this arms race, dollars race going . Hell do whatever it takes. And i think hes been very public about that. He thinks, one, that trump is an existential threat to this country. And so part of why hes spending so much of his money right now attacking trump as opposed to trying to build his own candidacy, hes doing that too, is because he really wants trump gone. He will spend money not just on his own campaign but even after his own campaign of whatever it takes to deal with trump. And that is the strategy. Look. I as far as the four early states, i it depends what happens. I think if you have a frontrunner come out of those states, it makes it harder for mike. I think thats certainly our feeling. If it ends up being fragmented, mayor pete wins one, biden wins won, warren wins won. Bernie wins won. And hes the only one out in these states pretty much. In the supertuesday states. The expensive supertuesday states. He was in l. A. Yesterday spending money, opening offices, running these ads. So supertuesday, as you know is three days after south carolina. He will be ready for supertuesday. Its going to be interesting. Up next yes, it will. And someone who might have something to say about all thats going on, president ial candidate and senator Elizabeth Warren is standing by. She joins the conversation on a very busy day of news. Morning joe is back in just 90 seconds. Hey, saved you a seat. This rounds on me. Hey, can you spot me . Come on in. Find your place today, with silversneakers. Included in most Medicare Advantage plans. Enroll today by calling the number on your screen or visit getsilversneakers. Com all right. Welcome back to morning joe. It is the top of the hour on this wednesday, january 8th. Senator Elizabeth Warren is standing by. But first, lets frame the conversation with the latest overnight developments from the middle east. Last night, iran retaliated for the u. S. Drone strike that killed its top general five days ago. Firing more than a dozen missiles at two Iraqi Air Bases Housing u. S. Military and coalition forces. Iranian state tv says this is video of one of the attacks. Its not been verified by u. S. Officials. But the pentagon says the strikes were undoubtedly from iran. They began around 5 30 p. M. Eastern time yesterday. Targeting an al asad airbase in western iraq, as well as an air base in erbil. Located in the center of Iraqi Kurdistan in the northern part of the country. Right now, there are no reports of casualties. The pentagon says it will still assessing the damage. Iranian foreign minister javad zarif tweeted, quote, iran took and concluded proportionate measures in selfdefense under article 51 of u. N. Charter targeting base from which cowardly armed attack against our citizens and senior officials were launched. We do not seek escalation or war but will defend ourselves against any aggression. President trump tweeted at 9 45 last night, quote, all is well. Missiles launched from iran at two military bases located in iraq. Assessment of casualties and damages taking place now. So far, so good. We have the most powerful and wellequipped military anywhere in the world, by far. Adding that he will be making a statement this morning. And so lets bring in democratic president ial candidate senator Elizabeth Warren of massachusetts. She serves on the Arms Services committee. So first, your response, senator, to the events of last night. Well, you know, it is a reminder where donald trump has taken us. And that is right to the edge of war. The first responsibility of the president of the United States is to keep america safe. And donald trump has a very different strategy. And that is to keep escalating, escalating, escalating against iran until the world is more dangerous for america, the world is more dangerous for the middle east. The world is just more dangerous and thats not a good thing. So Vice President joe biden, former Vice President , gave a Foreign Policy speech yesterday. And he is, in many ways, the frontrunner. So my question to you would be why would you consider yourself more competent and more prepared to handle a crisis just like this . Well, you know, i see this as a question of judgment. And it my concern about donald trump is not just when he took out soleimani, although that was a really, really dangerous act. Its the way donald trump has handled this from the very beginning. The Obama Administration had negotiated an arrangement with iran, as you know. Had gotten our allies together to get iran to the negotiating table. And iran had agreed to suspend its nuclear arms program. And look. Iran was not a good actor. But we had proven that diplomacy could work and iran was not moving forward on a nuclear weapon. And then donald trump comes in and says hes just going to tear that deal up. And our taallies asked us not t. Iran was fully in compliance with the deal. And thats been Donald Trumps strategy ever since. Tear the deal up and take more aggressive actions. A president has to be someone who understands that this is not only about military action. We have the finest military in the world. All three of my brothers served in the military. They will make any sacrifice we ask them to make. But not all problems can be solved militarily. And we should not ask our military to try to solve problems that they cannot, alone, solve. We should be using ba back channels. We should be using negotiation. We should deescalate here and try to get iran back to the negotiating table. So, senator, thats the next question. If you were president today, inheriting everything that happened last night, over the past week, over the past month, what would you be doing this morning to get iran back to the negotiating table . You know, this is one of those places where you remember we got a lot of back channels. Weve got a lot of allies around the world. And we have have a lot of tools other than just military tools. We have diplomatic tools. We have economic tools. We should be working with our allies. We should be deescalating. We dont need more inflamed rhetoric. We dont need a president whos tweeting. We need to calm this down. We need to back away from the edge of war. We need to move back the rhetoric. And we need to work with our allies to get iran back to the negotiating table. Now but i do want to say it again. Wouldnt be in this situation if donald trump hadnt started here years ago. Trying to move us toward an everescalating conflict with iran. Its interesting that even the saudis and the uae, who have been sworn enemies of iran for quite some time, are even urging a deescalation. Yes. Would those countries be two of the first countries you would go to, to try to seek back channels with the iranians . Would you go to our european allies instead . Who, specifically, should the president of the United States go to this morning . And who would you go to were you commanderinchief . I think thats exactly the answer is all of the above. When youre back channeling, reach out. Figure out whos got the best ties at any given moment. You know, theres theres a lot of turmoil right now in iran. You want to find the ways into iran to be able to talk, back channel, where people can save face about how can we just dial this back . Thats because thats what weve got to be willing to look for. And, like i said, we got to be willing to use all the tools. Its the job of the president to keep us safe. And the reminder, this isnt just about america. You know, its america but its also whats happened in the middle east. Weve been at war there for 20 years. And millions of people have lost their lives. Have been injured. Have been displaced. Its no surprise that other countries in the region are saying can everybody back up here . Because war is not good for anyone. You know, its interesting. In this tribal political era that we live in, what miki and i have always found, republicans and democrats alike, not that many people want to see this forever war continue. That said, there were costs to us leaving abruptly in iran iraq back in 2011. There the president announcing that he was going to leave syria. Also, had its costs. So im im im curious with chaos, once again, welling up in iraq. If you were commanderinchief, do you keep a number of troops there to check irans Movement Across the middle east . Just like the syrian troops did. Or do you work to bring them home . So, look. Work to bring them home because heres the thing. If youre going to do the backward look, lets do the real backward look. And that is, whats been the cost of going to war in iraq . How much have we paid in the United States in terms of lives lost . The cost we made domestically. The costs weve paid internationally. And then how much cost has been borne in the middle east . The loss of lives. The displacement of people. The injury of people. This you know, when you when you look back, you just look at a series of failures. One leading to the next leading to the next. The United States should not be at war in the middle east. It is not in our interest. It is not in the interests of the middle east. And it is not in the interest of the security of the world. Senator, picking up on that, the first decision to go to war happened in 2002 with a vote in the senate. Your Senate Colleague and fellow democratic candidate, bernie sanders, has been critical in recent days of joe biden for his vote on the iraq war. Do you think joe bidens vote for the iraq war, where we still are today and still are suffering the consequences, does that show a lack of judgment from Vice President biden . Well, the iraq war was a terrible mistake. And the United States has paid a huge cost and so has much of the rest of the world. Do you think it was a mistake for joe biden to vote for the war . I think the war was a mistake and i think it was a mistake for anyone to vote for that war. Including joe biden. Everyone. So if you had general soleimani in your sights, youve said yesterday that he is a terrorist. But you also said this morning that it was dangerous to kill him. If your advisors walked into the room and said he just flew into the baghdad airport. Weve got eyes on him. We can take him out. This is somebody whos has blood on his hands of american soldiers. What would you have said to your advisors in that moment . You know, i think you have to remember that when donald trump made the decision to take out soleimani, i dont think anyone argued its because thats the first time they saw him. Right. Or were able to do it. The question is after this escalating series donald trump has been engaged in that keep pushing us closer and closer to the brink of war. When were looking for a response in the next back and forth in this, what is the range of responses available to us . And whats the judgment of the president of the United States . If the strategy is to try to push us toward war, which certainly seems to be Donald Trumps strategy, then the answer is pick the biggest, most incendiary, you know, move the whole thing forward. And that was taking out soleimani. But if the strategy is to try to find another response that dials down the tension, to work the back channels, to try to get iran back to the negotiating table, then you want to be in a very different place on that spectrum. This is all playing out in iran against the backdrop of impeachment. There will be a trial at some point. Majority leader mcconnell says hes ready to go to trial now without introducing new witnesses. Have you and your campaign thought about the prospect of your sitting on that trial in the next couple of weeks as youre campaigning in iowa, in New Hampshire, and places you obviously need to do well . What will that look like for you as a senator who also needs to be at that trial . There are some things that are more important than politics. I took an oath of office to uphold the constitution. Not to be there to support a particular president or a particular Political Party or to advance my own political interests, i will be there if there is an impeachment trial because it is my responsibility to be there. Does it concern you that joe biden will have the benefit of being out on the trail and you wont be . Some things are more important than politics. Ill be where im supposed to be and that is in the peachlimpea trial. I took an oath. Lets talk about the state of play right now. As we turn to the new year, i think a lot of people for a couple weeks with their families tuned out of this long race. Now, tuning back in. We got our first polling of the new year in both New Hampshire and iowa. You were right near the top in iowa. Cluster of four or five of you up there. In New Hampshire, your numbers are down. Im not telling you anything you dont know that youve seen in the last couple months, your support has slipped. What do you attribute that to . A lot of people say its from the introduction of your medicare for all plan when they saw the nitty gritty details. I should start out by saying i just dont comment on polls and i actually dont really look at them. But ill tell you this. The best part of this whole year has been doing what i do, which is getting out and doing town halls. Its reaching out to people. Its reaching out to voters in New Hampshire and iowa. But all across this country. Because i dont spend time at closeddoor fundraisers. I dont spend a lot of time with billionaires and millionaires and corporate executives. It means ive had time to go all around the country. So ive been to 29 states and puerto rico. Im closing in on 200 town halls. Weve already shot past 100,000 selfies. And what that means is about reaching out to people, face to face, talking about the issues that matter to them. What i see over and over from folks is the word i hear the most is hope. And actually, first kind of surprised me because im not a grand orator. But i talk about whats broken. I talk about how to fix it. And im out there building a Grassroots Movement to get it done and im loving every minute of it. When you explain, though, your medicare for all plan at first and people went, wow, 20. 5 trillion in spending. Later, you morphed and said were going to introduce this over time. Perhaps because of some of the reaction you got to it. Do you recognize that your plan to eliminate private Health Insurance may offend some voters . And may be responsible for some of the slip in your polling . You know, let me start by saying remember what this was about is how were going to pay for this. And i showed how we can pay for this without raising taxes on middle class families by one thin dime. We can ask the top 1 to pay a little more. We can ask big corporations, like amazon, that reported 10 billion in profits last year and paid how much in taxes . Zero. To pay. And we can also crack down on the tax cheats at the top. And thats going to give us enough revenue to be able to offer healthcare to all of our people. All of the medicare for all plans, the original medicare for all plan, has a transition in it. For me, what this is about is ill give you one example. 36 million americans, last year, didnt have a prescription filled because they couldnt afford it. Think about that. Went to the doctor. Doctor wrote a prescription. And they just simply couldnt afford to have it filled. That is a problem for people all across this country. So my approach is to say lets get the most help to the most people as quickly as possible. Ill do what a president can do all by herself on the first day. Im going to defend the Affordable Care act. And im going to bring down the cost of commonly used prescription drugs, like epipens and insulin and hiv aids drugs. Thats going to save families hundreds of millions of dollars. And because ive got to pay for, the next place we can go is offer full healthcare coverage to millions of americans. 135 million americans can do this at no cost if thats what they choose. Others can do it for a modest cost. Lets let people experience what healthcare is like if its just you, and your doctor, your nurse practitioner, your Mental Health professional, your physical therapist, without some Insurance Company in the middle saying, no, no, no, no. Joes itching to get in. Just got to follow up with one more question which is that a lot of people hear that and say, yeah, there are too many people in this country who dont have Health Insurance. But there are also people who have private Health Insurance who would lose it under your plan. And they say, wait a minute, why cant why cant the public be an option . Why cant that be an option instead of a mandate . In other words, the pete buttigieg, joe biden plan which is to say medicare for all who want it. Yes, cover all those people. Do that. But dont force me into that plan. So lets keep in mind. When i talked about 36 million americans who couldnt get a prescription filled, that include people with Health Insurance. Keep in mind the average american last year spent 12,000 out of pocket. And i dont know about you but the folks i talk to in these selfie lines tell me every year their premiums go up, their deductibles go up, their copays go up. And whats covered shrinks. People are struggling to pay their medical bills all across this country. And what we need to do, as a country, is we need to find a way to make sure that everyone gets the healthcare they need. So those people could hop into your plan. But why couldnt the people who enjoy their private plan keep it, is the question . Thats what i propose is that were going to offer healthcare coverage at no cost to 135 million americans. They can try it. And at a modest cost to the rest of america. Let people try it and then well vote whether to make that transition to medicare for all. I think people are going to love it. And im going to be out there fighting for it. But i want to see lots of allies. And ill tell you how we get those allies. Let people try it. And you have to be willing to put in the money to make that happen and be willing to get out there and have that fight. Open it up. Why stop by saying the Insurance Companies are always going to be in there getting their profits . Lets let people try it out and then lets have a vote on it. Okay, joe, all yours. Senator, you brought up how the largest corporations in the world, many paid nothing in taxes this past year. I remember hearing the story of don reagan going to ronald reagan, it was probably in 84, 85 before the 86 tax reform bill where reagan told reagan, his chief of staff or treasure secretary, i forget which, then told reagan did you know that General Electric or some other Major Corporation paid less in taxes than your secretary . And reagan couldnt believe it. Decided to give the go ahead for tax reform. Now, we move forward and we could list farmers, clerical workers, ditch diggers, plumbers, you name it. We could name Workers Assembly line people across america who paid more in taxes than the largest multinational corporations based out of america. What do you do to fix that . What does that reform look like . And how do you get these corporations to pay their fair share without driving away business . Without, in the end, hurting their own workers . Okay. So can we actually add one more question to your list at the end . And, that is to say because this is the heart of it. This is exactly how were going to win in november of 2020. You know, i got three brothers. One is a democrat. Two are republicans. There are a lot of things that we argue with each other over. But, man, talk to them about amazon reporting 10 billion in profits and paying nothing in taxes and one corporation after another for whom thats true. And all of a sudden, were all in the same place because we all get it. And, that is, somebody is going to have to pay to keep the roads paved and the kids in school and for our defense. And the guys at the top, the rich folks, the giant corporations, they just dont want to pay a fair share. And that means it falls on everyone else. You know, when that happens, that is corruption. It didnt happen by accident. It didnt happen because of gravity. It happened because those giant corporations have so much influence in washington. Theyve lobbied, lobbied, lobbied. So i got plans for that. One of the plans for that is for corporations to say when you make that public report of your profits, which as you know, the publicly traded corporations do. And they love keeping that number up on their profits. Why . Because ceo compensation is based, in part, on that. And because they want to make their stock look good and keep their stock prices up. When you make that public declaration, you got to pay a 7 flat across the top into the federal government. However else you want to finagle your tax loopholes through the rest of the system, and im all for closing up those loopholes, we need a tax in which corporations have to pay a portion of their publiclyreported profits. We do that across the top, you make it flat. You dont give a lot of room for all of these exceptions. And we can produce money to make Real Investments in this country. To make the investments in housing and in childcare. To make the investments in fighting the opioid crisis. So make the investments in an economy that grows, not through the pretend trickle down. But one that really grows from the bottom up. I think this is just a a really clear example of the kind of difference that we can show between what business as usual has been like in washington and the kind of change i want to make as president of the United States. Whats the first move you would make as president of the United States to change the tide of of u. S. Policy on the issue of Climate Change . So, first, ill do everything a president can do all by herself. That is, the things you dont have to do by going to con depress. Stop a congress. Stop all new drilling on federal lands and offshore. There is a place you can make a big difference all by itself. Oh and i got another one. How about not having a coal lobbyist as the head of the Environmental Protection agency . But there are also things were going to have to fight. Weve got through our agencies. You know, Climate Change threatens every living thing on this planet. And what scares me is every time you go back to the scientists, they tell you two things. Its worse than we thought and we have less time. That means weve got to be willing to do things, for example, like regulation. By 2028, no new buildings, no new houses, zero without zero Carbon Footprint. By 2030, light duty trucks and cars, zero Carbon Footprint. By 2035, all production of electricity, zero Carbon Footprint. We do three regulations. We can cut our Carbon Footprint by 70 . We also need to make Environmental Justice really at the heart of our climate plan. You know, for for decades now, we have located toxic waste dumps, polluting industries near black and brown communities. It has destroyed value in the area and badly impacted the health of families, particularly children and seniors. People who are most vulnerable. Weve got to be willing, as part of thinking through our climate man, plan, to make a real commitment that were going to clean up the areas that we have so badly polluted for decades and decades now. So a central part of the plan for me is i want to put a trillion dollars into cleaning up the places that collectively we have destroyed as a nation and bringing them back. The senators, i saw this firsthand in congress. The senator is so right that the the communities that are disproportionately impacted by toxic waste, by by horrible environmental decisions, are the truly disadvantaged. Usually, black and brown communities, who are the last people who are able to shoulder the burden that comes with that. Yes. Well, and a lot of this has to do, though, with maintaining or perhaps getting again our place in the world. Being trusted by our allies. Being respected. Having strategic relationships that are functional as opposed to what we are seeing right now with President Trump, which i know you could say a lot about. But i want to go back to my first question where i never got an answer. I want to know how joe bidens Foreign Policy judgment differs from yours. And i ask this because i think a lot of people, during a crisis like were seeing right now, are going to turn to him for comfort given the fact that things are theres so much upheaval right now. Uhhuh. I cant speak to joe biden. All i can tell you about is myself. And what i can tell you about myself is i believe this is about judgment. I believe this is about being willing to use military force to protect the United States. But recognizing right upfront the job of the president is to keep america safe. And we cannot solve nonmilitary problems using the military. We have to understand the full range of tools, the diplomatic tools, the economic tools, the importance of using our allies. The importance of using back channels. We have to be willing to be part of that. You know, as part of senate Armed Services committee, its not just getting the briefings from the generals and from our Intelligence Community. Its actually about going to these places. I i remember being in afghanistan. I remember being in iraq. Afghanistan with john mccain on what i think was his last trip. Iraq with Lindsey Graham. Its the opportunity to talk to people in the government, talk to people in the military, talk to other power leaders in the area because we have to have a sophisticated approach to the rest of the world. And it means things like honoring our word. It means that people have to believe that our First Response is not going to be to try to move us toward war. That is not who we are as a nation. That we want to be able to work with other nations and that we will honor our commitments. Honor our commitments to our allies. Honor our commitments when we sign an agreement with someone like the iranians that if they wont pursue nuclear programs, that were going to open up Economic Opportunities for them. We need to be a nation that follows through and that the rest of the world can trust. Senator Elizabeth Warren, thank you so much for being with us. And you know, the old i like altar calls too much. I know you dealt with baptists in oklahoma quite a lot. I want to ask you right now. We wont play just as i am as i ask you the question but if somebody watched you today, and we do this with other candidates, if somebody watched you today in iowa or New Hampshire, south carolina, anywhere in america, and they want to help your campaign, they want to become part of the cause, what do they do . So they go to elizabethwarren. Com and be part of this fight. Pitch in five bucks. Volunteer an hour. Offer to do some phone banking or knocking on doors because here is how i see this. This is our moment in history. 2020 is not 2016. Its not 2008. This is our moment in history. When people have come off the sidelines. Theyve had enough of a government that just keeps working better and better and better for those at the top. This is our chance to turn it around and make this government, make this country work for people all across america. Elizabethwarren. Com is a place you can go and you can be part of that fight. Im not doing this with millionaires and billionaires. Im doing this with people who pitch in five bucks and 25 bucks. And heres the best part. When i do call time, i call people who contributed five bucks and 25 bucks because were building a Grassroots Movement together. This is so, so the right thing to do. So at know your value, we have something called unstoppable women. And that is Elizabeth Warren. If you see her on instagram or on twitter or all day long, shes on her phone. Shes calling people. Shes hugging people. Shes doing selfies. She never stops. Very good to have you on the show. Thank you so much. Please, come back. So good to be here this morning. Joy to watch your campaign. Thank you. So President Trump hasnt tweeted yet this morning. But his last thank god. Post yesterday teased a president ial statement sometime today. Well bring you those details as soon as we get them. Less is more, mr. President. Less is more. Morning joe is back in three minutes. Joe is back in three minutes. Trump obamacare is a complete and total disaster. Let obamacare implode. Nurse these wild attacks on healthcare hurt the patients i care for. Ive been a nurse in new york for thirty years. I know the difference leadership can make because i saw what Mike Bloomberg did as mayor. Vo mayor bloomberg helped lower the number of uninsured by 40 , covering 700,000 more new yorkers, Life Expectancy increased. He helped expand Health Coverage to 200,000 more kids and upgraded pediatric care infant mortality rates dropped to record lows. And as mayor, Mike Bloomberg always championed Reproductive Health for women. So when you hear Mike Bloomberg on health care. Mrb this is america. We can certainly afford to make sure that everybody that needs to see a doctor can see a doctor, everybody that needs medicines to stay healthy can get those medicines. Nurse you should know, he did it as mayor, hell get it done as president. Mrb im Mike Bloomberg and i approve this message. Great riches will find you when Liberty Mutual customizes your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. Wow. Thanks, zoltar. How can i ever repay you . Maybe you could free zoltar . Thanks, lady. Taxi only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. All right. Welcome back to morning joe. 34 past the hour. We are back now with msnbc contributor mike barnicle. Former u. S. Senator, now political analyst claire mccaskill. And former treasure official and morning joe economic analyst steve ratner. And back to the big issue of the day with iran. Joining us now, member of the house arm services committee, republican congressman Mike Gallagher of wisconsin. He served for seven years as active duty as a counterintelligence officer in the u. S. Marine corps and deployed twice to iraq as commander of intelligence teams. Also with us, msnbc senior Foreign Affairs analyst brett mcgurk. He recently served as special president ial envoy for the Global Coalition to defeat isis at the state department. He is now a distinguished lecturer at stanford. Congressman, thank you so much for being here. But especially, thank you for your service to america. Absolutely. In the marines. We are so grateful for that. Let me ask you about the events of last night. How things ended up. And where you would like the president to go this morning and any statement, any speech that he makes regarding iran. Well, first of all, i think we should all be grateful that no americans, it appears, were harmed in this attack. I spent seven months on the base that was bombed last night. I was grateful last night, as ive been grateful over the holidays, that we have such dedicated professionals not only in the military but in the diplomatic corps that are on the front lines every day protecting our interests and keeping the country safe. Second, while the dust is still settling and were still getting the battle Damage Assessment, if this is all there is and if indeed we can take foreign minister zarifs tweets at face value that he doesnt want to escalate further, i think thats a positive sign and a sign that the iranians have gotten the message. They know the red line is you cannot kill americans and weve taken meaningful steps to restore our deterrent posture in the middle east. So its hard for me to interpret this. If the dust settles and we have taken out their top terrorist mastermind and all they would have done is lob in rockets in the desert is anything other than a big win for trumps National Security team and for america and our allies in the region. Do you agree, though, that the president of the United States should be a bit more circumspect this morning in any statements that he makes if, in fact, it was a big win for the United States . For the National Security team. Is it is it best to to let iran get out of the corner and not provoke them with any unnecessarily harsh statements this morning . Well, i think it would be wise to take the win. To use this as an opportunity to enhance our economic pressure on the Iranian Regime. To bring the europeans closer to our position with respect to that economic pressure and solidify our allies on the ground in iraq. And we do have allies on the ground in iraq that do not want us to leave. That do not want iran to dominate that country. And for evidence of that, you need only look at the protests weve seen since october. People being gunned down by iranianbacked militias just for saying we dont want a corrupt government and we dont want to be dominated by a foreign power. So i think this is a big opportunity for the president to not respond kin etically but to continue to put pressure on the Iranian Regime and ultimately drive a weng betwedge between t iranian regem and its own people. Brett mcgurk, 41 years ago next thursday, january 16th, 1979, the shah of iran left iran. So for 41 years, we have been involved in one way or another, often contentiously, with iran. So let me ask you. Youre an expert on the region. You have been in the region for several years. You have thoughts on the region. How do we go about extricating ourselves from this 41year commitment . Well, mike, first, i just very much concur with congressman gallagher. Im very grateful for the news that there were no casualties. I spent a lot of time on al asad airbase as well. And that is very welcome news. Look. I i do not think we can take, for a moment here, and believe that this is going to stop. I think iran did an extraordinary thing last night. 12 Ballistic Missiles theyre taking credit for an direct attack on americans on iraqi basis. Whether or not they intentionally missed us, i think well learn over the coming days. But where i think this returns now is into the shadows and into the kind of prokxy war. Khamenei said today it is his objective to get americans out of the region. I agree with congressman gallagher, i think that would be a mistake. We have to stand up to that pressure. But the the attacks against our allies in the gulf. Since may, the iranians have attacked shipping, the attack in saudi arabia. They havent taken account for any of that. This gets to your question, mike. There is a big issue here. I mean, what is the best approach with iran . Is it to really try to suffocate their economy unilaterally and believe that is going to bring them back to the table . Or is there now kind of another approach where you actually put some incentives on the table to try to get a diplomatic process going . We have no diplomatic openings with iran right now. I think that increases risk of miscalculation on both sides and this might be a moment, an opportunity, for the president to try to find a way back to the negotiating table. But well have to give a little bit to get there. I think the iranians will not just come simply because of pressure. Brett and congressman, both, either one of you take this. Im curious. We know that there were demonstrations, congressman, in iraq by some of the populist elements of the shia over irans involvement in iraq. We know that was the case before soleimani. Now, it appears that all these shiite factions have unified by virtue of the vote they took in parliament the other day. I know the kurds are with us. I know that primarily the sunnis have been with us, in some ways, us staying there. But how do we deal with the fact that now the shia government, which they control the government, is now giving a green light to iraq to come after the United States in their country. And they appear to be very united right now. It seems to me, thats a breeding ground for isis to reemerge. Am i wrong about that . Well, i disagree with the idea that theyve given a green light to go after the United States. I disagree that the shiite factions, which are always disparate, are suddenly united on anything right now. Though, many of them are indeed trying to save face. I just would say that you can interpret the vote in the Iraqi Parliament in precisely the opposite direction. The fact that they were able ba able to muster a quorum. The fact that it was a nonbinding resolution suggests theyre in an isolated position in the country. And we have a fleeting opportunity. Our position is tenuous because we have ignored irans militia building in iraq for the better part of the last decade. But its not just iraq. Its protests in lebanon and as i mentioned before, its protests within iran. Remember, soleimanis death squads recently gunned down 1,200 iranian citizens. This was their moment because they fear their own citizens. They shut down the internet for ten days and cost them hundreds of millions of dollars they dont have because they fear their own citizens. They are in a weak position. And if we have a strong and patient strategy, i think we can further isolate them. I think khameneis number one objective is regime survival and consolidation. He will try to use this. Thats what he is doing now. I think theyll use this to really crack down on protestors internally in iran. In iraq, there are a lot of fissures. We reentered into a very different way in the iraq war. Very limited presence. Sustainable. Were not fighting. Not taking casualties. We have a huge coalition with nato and 20 other western powers. And we put into that exchange of diplomatic notes. Oneyear cancellation clause. So the point is theres no reason here to make irreverse able decisions on either side and i think we have a very good ambassador in baghdad. Mat tooler. I hope the administration really empowers him so that we avoid irreversib irreversible decisions in the midst of this crisis and passion. The iraqi shia, he is like one of the arch rivals of the entire system in iran. He is totally he does not believe in the supreme rule by a cleric. Basically, everything the iranian system is based upon has no basis in shia islam. This is where things get complex. This is where with some smart diplomacy and maneuvering, we can really kind of plan those divisions. So we want to really try to strengthen the iraqi shia moderates. But we need to stay smart. We shouldnt be taking casualties. We shouldnt be overinvesting. But i think theres an opportunity here. And the real tragedy would be if somehow were forced out of iraq out of this crisis. And im hopeful now that we can buy ourselves some time and make sure we dont come to that outcome because its not just iran. Its also isis will resurge. If we leave and nato leaves and the powers leave, russia will come immediately fill the space. It would be almost an irretrievable setback. Congressman, you suggested or implied. Im not trying to put words in your mouth but i thought what i heard you say earlier was that the iranian response to the killing of soleimani was pretty weak. A few missiles fired into the desert. Et cetera. Et cetera. And implied that you think theres a reasonable chance the iranians will now just take a breath, step back, however you want to think about that. But meanwhile, were sending more troops there. Thousands and thousands more troops there. And so my question is how does that movie end . We have a president whos committed to getting our troops out of these kinds of places the moment theyre going into it. How do we get them out . And when do you think that happens . Well, my view is that we have a very light footprint in the region. That it is a footprint worth maintaining. I agree with brett on that very subject. And for a very light footprint, we can actually have an extraordinarily high impact if we work by, with, and through our local allies. And if you are interested over the longterm in reducing our forc force presence in the middle east, i think thats the west w best way to do it. Uniting allies around a common goal. Resisting irans malign influence. Working with partners on the ground that do the majority of fighting but we provide them with sintelligence, air support et cetera, allows us to reduce exquisite assets in the region and reposition those. So strategically, i think there is an opportunity to actually implement the National Security strategy and National Defense strategy but it requires us to have a credible military deterrent in the region. And my argument is that killing soleimani enhanced our military deterrent in the middle east. So, congressman, really quickly and then to the final question. Really quickly, you talk about light footprints in the region. And of course, syria came to mind because what was so extraordinary about our light footprint in syria before the president of the United States retreated. We not only were holding the syrians in check and the iranians in check but also the turks in check. And and other malign forces in check. First of all, was it a mistake for us to retreat out of syria in that light footprint that was accomplishing so much . And and are you hopeful that we may actually move back in with a small number of troops that were able to do so much . Well, i disagree with the decision at the time. I told esper and milley as such when they came to meet with us on the Armed Services committee because again, i think through a very painful process of trial and error, weve actually stumbled on a sustainable approach if you dont want to be overinvested in the middle east but still want to push back on our enemies. And shia proxy terrorist organizations on the other. So i actually think we had arrived at the right approach. President trump and his team working with brave iraqis have been incredibly effective in decimating isis. I give brett credit for being part of that as well. So my hope is this is an opportunity to really change our direction, to send a signal to our enemies that we will not be pushed around and certainly unite everybody around the shared goal that if you kill americans, we will not stand idly by. And i give President Trump credit for enforcing that red line. Let me underline a word you used before. Sustainable. It was a sustainable footprint. It took us 18 years to get there. But we found that sustainable footprint, unfortunately, our troops were removed really quickly. Congressman, sunday night, the seahawks come to lambo field. Whats that going to look like . Its going to look like revenge for the worst loss of my lifetime, which i watched from jerusalem actually when the seahawks. Go pack go. Congressman Mike Gallagher, thank you very much for being on. We appreciate your coming on the show this morning. And brett mcgurk, thank you as well. So weve obviously been talking about iran all morning. But next, we turn to china which also still looms large on the world stage. The new yorkers evan joins us with his sweeping new piece on that conflict. Alexa tell me about neptunes sorrow. Its a master stroke of heartache and redemption. The lexus nx. Modern utility for modern obstacles. Lease the 2020 nx 300 for 359 a month for 36 months. Experience amazing at your lexus dealer. 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Usaa insurance is made just the way martins family needs it with hasslefree claims, he got paid before his neighbor even got started. Because doing right by our members, thats whats right. Usaa. What youre made of, were made for. Usaa looking to get your business off to a fast start in the new year . Its go time switch to comcast business and get fast internet on the nations largest gigspeed network. Plus, complete reliability with 4g lte backup. And, cloudbased security to help protect the devices on your network. Greenlight your business in 2020 with fast internet and voice for 99. 99 per month. Act now, and get 1 year free of wifi pro. Call today. Comcast business. Beyond fast. Welcome back to morning joe live picture of times square in new york city. Joining us staff writer for the new yorker evan osnos, he has a new piece on the future of ameri americas contest with china. Ill read one line from it. You say the relationship right now between china and the giais, more dangerous. You lived in beijing for eight years, you know it well, know the relationship between china and the u. S. Very well. What do you see as the principle dangers right now . What we have is, as one senior white house official told me, a relationship thats in free fall. Thats because its not just around trade. We heard about the trade war the last few years but it extends to a issues, for example, in the south china sea, collisions with craft, and espionage, the americans arresting chinese spies in europe and extraditing them to the United States. This is a kind of conflict that has been brewing and has now come to the surface. And the real risk here. The core of the problem is that you have a mirroring effect. The more that United States feels hostile towards china, the more china feels hostile towards us and it gets into a downward spiral. Thats the risk. Evan, its steve, i agree with willys assessment about the piece, its an amazing piece. But i think it lays out clearly both sides of the argument how we should approach china from a pole point of view, but im not sure what the conclusion is. My personal view is we are at least at an economic war with china and you laid out all of their bad behavior over many years economically, as well as espionage and things like that, and so the question is how do you get to a normal place with them, when they have to date, refused to play by the rules and have acted as independent warriors . You raise the right point, which is were at a point now that was talking about something that was in hushed tones for a number of years, which was the growing frustration in the American Business community, politics, about china not following the rules it signed onto at the wto and other institutions. What we have to do now is the hard problem. This is where it takes great leadership. We have to identify what do we care about . What is most important for us . We care about protecting ip, we dont want china ripping off intellectual property, hacking into american institutions. But over the last couple years we made choices about the trade war, going into a tit for tat battle over tariffs, we have to ask was that serving american interests or was it not . Ultimately we have to come to a view about the fact that china is here. Doesnt mean we accept it, blandly. Doesnt mean we concede to the changes they want. It means we have to rise to that challenge, fortify our alliance and relationships, particularly in asia and say we represent a strong alternative voice to china, even if it believes its time as arrived. Your piece raises issues of major concern to the United States and china. Trade we talked about, we talked about espionage, but in terms of a flash point where would you rank the chinese building man made islands in the pacific in International Waters . Its a huge, huge risk for us. At this point remember, go back to 2015 and chinese president xi jingping, stood in the rose garden and promised not to militarize these man made islands. They never stopped construction, they never stopped militarizing them. The United States has made progress in the last couple years making clear to the chinese it is simply not going to go along with this process without interruption. What we have not done, however, is made clear that we are willing to allow china to achieve prosperity. Thats a hard balance to strike. The piece is in the issue of the new yorker thank you very much. Time for final thoughts this morning. Joe, why dont you start . Well, its i think were all in a waiting position to see whats going to happen. So much the president is going to say. So much depends on what the president of the United States says this morning. If he gloats, then you can expect tensions to ramp back up. But if this is a president who wants ultimately to get american troops out of the middle east, it seems to me that saying less will help him move towards that goal more than gloating. We have 70,000 and counting troops in the middle east right now. And it is going up, not down, and that is directly contrary to trumps pledge during the campaign. Thats something hes going to have to deal with between now and november, to say nothing of the impeachment battle looming. Ill make a prediction today, there will be republican votes for witnesses. It may not happen at the beginning of the impeachment trial but there will be a vote. I predict there will be enough republican votes that bolton will be called. Im going back to your conversation this morning with congressman jason crowe and the concern raised during that conversation with the idea do we have in congress a coequal branch of government . Thats a great question. Ill go back to the question we had with the admiral a couple segments ago, off ramp, iran has given the president an off ramp, the question is will he take it . Yeah, i think even if he does not retaliate over the Ballistic Missiles, the iranians feel like they got something in retaliation. Im not sure the iranians are really done here. So claire mccaskill, the question we have to ask you is, will the pain of kansas citys past losses in the playoffs be erased . Could this be the year . I believe it is. I think this is andy reeds year. Mahomes has overcome an injury. We will beat houston on sunday and go on to take the title of the division and go to the super bowl. Willy, what say you . I agree with claire, but that quarterback matchup, when you have Deshaun Watson and the other game, lamar jackson, whos better than all of them. You have incredible quarterbacks playing. Its going to be fun to watch. Then we go to iowa. That does it for us this morning, Stephanie Rhule picks up coverage right now. I am Stephanie Rhule, it is wednesday, january 8th, and this morning the world is watching and waiting to see what the United States does next. After iran retaliated last night for the killing of general Qassem Soleimani, firing at least a dozen Ballistic Missiles at two iraqi bases that house u. S. Troops. The missiles launched at the exact time general soleimani was struck days earlier. This morning Officials Say there were no casualties in the attack. Iran is also putting the ball in President Trumps court, the foreign minister saying that the country has, quote, concluded its attacks and does not seek escalation or war, but would defend itself against anymore aggression