Attacked the American Embassy on new years eve said to be reacting to air strikes on outposts in iraq and syria which they said were responsible for the death of an american contractor. He was asked about iran as he was about to walk into his new years party at maralago. Mr. President i dont think it would be a good idea for iran. I like peace and iran should want peace more than anybody. It would go very quickly. Before we begin our discussion lets get the latest on tonights developments from ali who joins us from london. Thank you for joining us. Obviously this caught a lot of folks in the media off guard. This news tonight trying to play catch up. Take us through what we know at this hour about this killing. They have confirmed that he was killed in iraq on the way to the airport. He is a revered figure in iran and it wouldnt be an exaggeration to say that he is the second most powerful person in iran after ayatollah khomeini, the Supreme Leader and developed a huge network of militias throughout the region and fiercely loyal to him. So this is going to have reverberations all through the region and iran is taking this very seriously at this moment. The former head of the revolutionary guard just sent out a message saying that iran will take a very strong revenge against the United States for the killing of him. A Security Council in iran is holding an emergency meeting and the lines that are coming out of tehran right now are that this is a declaration of war by the United States on iran and they are going to strike back forcefully. Now, how or where theyre going to do that is obviously unknown to us. But have this huge network and powerful army in iran and have a huge missile program. If iran is threatened all bases in the u. S. Are within striking distance. The United States will strike back and we are going to be in some sort of conflict that will spread across the region so the situation extraordinarily serious. He is a very revered figure in iran by all these people that follow him. I have seen him travel in the region and can travel from tehr tehr tehran unimpeded. He doesnt usually travel in military fatigues. He doesnt carry a weapon with him, which shows how confident he is about traveling in the area. When you see him visiting these militias that were fighting isis or whoever else on the front lines, he would go there. He would kiss one of them on the head. They would act as if they have been kissed by god. Thats how important he was to them. So this is going to make those people that were very loyal to him extraordinarily angry. And those people are outside of iran. So i think this has opened a pandoras box. In the past, soleimani had been in the crosshairs of the United States, and they had decided not to hit him because of what might unravel. I think were going to see whats going to unravel now, steve. You mentioned too the range of possible responses from iran in terms of the United States anticipating any of those responses and being prepared to counter them or to prevent them from happening, what do you know about american capabilities, american preparation for that . Well, america has a lot of bases in the region. They have a lot of naval vessels in the region. They have some huge bases in kuwait, in doha. So america could strike very seriously. But dont forget, theyre playing in irans backyard. That is where iran is armed to the teeth. Iran has a huge missile program. Iran has a massive army, and its twofold. They have an army and they have the irgc. Together that puts in about 400,000 troops. They also have militias spread over there. So this is a lot of firepower against a lot of firepower. Obviously the u. S. Firepower is a lot more serious than what iran has, but that is going to make a very dangerous situation in iran. If we do get into a shooting match between tehran and washington in that region, i think iran is going to throw everything it has towards u. S. Troops and possibly other u. S. Allies in the region as weve seen in the past. So we have to see exactly what irans next move is, how they decide that they are going to take what they call revenge for Qassim Soleimanis death. What scale of reprisal they are going to launch and what the United States response to that will be. Let me just ask you, you may be answering the question here in your commentary so far, your reporting so far. But the question of how confident we can be that iran will launch some kind of attack in response to this. Let me ask you from this standpoint. You mentioned the confidence with which soleimani was Walking Around pretty much in broad daylight, did not expect Something Like this was going to happen. I expect the iranian leadership did not expect Something Like this. Did the fact that something so unexpected, so traumatic happened to somebody so high up in the iranian food chain, does that perhaps alter their thinking when it comes to a response that, hey, if the United States is willing to do this, do we really want to go down this road . Is it possible that thinking enters into this at all . It is a possibility that that thinking comes into it, but i dont think the iranians are thinking that way right now. Their whole new strategy since President Trump pulled out of the nuclear deal was to show strength. Not to negotiate from a position of weakness. And right now when their most powerful military leader and the second most powerful man in the country has been killed, they want to show strength. The irgc want to show from a position that they havent been weakened by this, that they can close ranks. They are still a very Strong Organization that can respond to these sort of things. And even though their main figurehead has been assassinated, this is not going to affect irgc operations, and i think theyre going to be very keen to get that message across very quickly. Ali arouzi joining us again from london. Ali, we appreciate that. Thank you very much. And here now for our leadoff discussion on a thursday night, clint watts, former fbi special agent, author of messing with the enemy and a distinguished Research Fellow at the Foreign Policy institute. Anita kumar, associate editor for politico, and robert costa, National Political reporter for the Washington Post and moderator of Washington Week on pbs. Thanks to all of you for being with us. Anita, let me begin with you again. This was a Surprise Development to most folks tonight. In terms of what has been playing out behind the scenes around the president , what do we now know . Well, the president s been in maralago in florida for the last couple of weeks, and obviously, he has been asked some questions about iran as things have escalated over recent days. We didnt know what was going to happen obviously. We did see the National Security adviser Robert Obrien was down there in florida with him and had left and returned today, probably to brief him on what was about to happen or what was happening. But, you know, the president has given some hints here and there about iran, but we didnt we didnt know what was going to happen. And there is some talk at the white house and talk at the national Security Council about how prepared the United States. What we havent seen is what we generally have seen in past white houses, which is a briefing coming out of the white house right now or the pentagon where they would explain what has happened. But more importantly, how theyre going to move ahead, how they are prepared to assure americans that they are. We havent seen that. We saw the president s statement from the pentagon. One u. S. Official told my colleagues at politico that this was not something that had been talked about for a long time and was a surprise even to u. S. Officials. Robert costa, again, in terms of the reaction in washington to this, we have some members of congress, some senators who have tweeted some reactions here. What are you hearing from democrats and republicans about this decision by the president . I just got off the phone with senator blumenthal of connecticut, a democrat, and he said for many americans, but particularly those who are serving in congress and dealing with this tonight, its a sleepless night for them, and he is alarmed, among other democrats and sources on the democratic side of mine who say the administration in their view has taken hostile military action in iraq against iran without communicating with congress, without seeing if they needed congressional approval. So the red flag is in the air tonight, and theyre going press the administration to come to congress to provide answers about what action was actually taken and what was the intelligence that led to this action being taken, and to do it under oath in testimony in the house potentially. On the republican side, a flurry of statements tonight. More muted but embracing the president s position, not surprising this is a Republican Party that on every issue almost is in lockstep with President Trump, and they say soleimani is someone who theyre glad to see killed. A the same time, calling around my republican sources tonight, many of them top sources, people at highranking positions feel like they were caught off guard by this news, that republicans too do not feel like they have been briefed. But so far no reporting on any kind of break from the president on the gop side. And just to follow up on that, to make clear to folks here, your reporting here, there has been no communication to the white house to members of congress at all on this topic tonight . Well, thats not entirely the case because some of my sources as you might imagine have relationships inside of the administration, whether its at the white house, the pentagon, or the state department. So there are members of congress who are being informed about what is happening. But in terms of formal briefings between these branches of our government, little detail at this moment. All right. Clint watts, in terms of the potential here for an iranian response to this, some kind of Iranian Military response, some kind of iranian proxy response to this, what can and should the United States be doing right now . So the idea that general soleimani was killed, americans should not shed a tear for him. He was a ruthless commander and a killer. Many u. S. Soldiers have suffered due to his backing of shia militias. At the same point, this is something that could have been done as you talked about at the beginning here, this is a person that walked out in the open in iraq for years. This attack could have been carried out at any time. So the reason is why. What is the calculation for why do it now and what are you trying to achieve. What this could bring, what the scenario is and why we didnt do this before is it could lead to regional terrorist attacks against americans, u. S. Personnel. If you are a u. S. Service member anywhere in the gulf right now or iraq, if you are the marines that just landed there at the embassy, you could be under a much direr threat in the coming days and months. The shia militias in iraq are very loyal to soleimani and the quds force. Even beyond this in the region, when we talk about proxies, hezbollah, they are referred to as the a team of terrorist groups. This is a vertically organized terrorist group with lethal capability, strategic intentions, very sharp decision making, and they prepare their responses. So would they attack out in the region . These are the scenarios weve always worried about. This could be something that would trigger it. What can realistically the United States be doing right now with that possibility looming . The first thing would be to immediately harden all facilities in and around the region, particularly embassy, soft targets. If youre looking at Western Hotel chains, for example, or places where westerners congregate, those would be things that you would start to want to be putting in a counterterrorism or antiterrorism defensive positions around. If you look back at hezbollah and the way they have striked before, how they interact with things like the quds force and the irgc, they might prepare those sporadic attacks around the perimeter as a retaliatory sort of measure to go at u. S. Personnel to send a message back to the United States government. The other thing we would do is maybe see troop deployments, regional troop deployments or beefing up of forces. Would the u. S. Navy send in carrier groups . Will we see missile defenses deployed into the region . One of the thing the quds force is particularly known for as we talked about at the beginning of the hour is missiles. They have very extensive missile forces. Would they launch an attack either sea, air, ground against u. S. Forces in the region. You would expect this sort of a buildup, this sort of protection shield if youre going to go ahead and make one of these strikes. Maybe a lot of this has been happening and weve not been paying attention. There has been a lot of things going on around the world. I have not seen the significant announcements that would normally accompany this movement of personnel around the world or even preparatory talks about this. And we dont even have an announcement coming out really from the pentagon or the white house today about what is going on. We have an American Flag tweet as sort of this is something we maybe we did. Its very elusive at this point. Anita, you were talking about this. Let me follow up for the sake of clarity here. What communications have we received publicly from the administration on this . And has there been any suggestion, any coordination behind the scenes about when we might hear more . Well, we havent heard when were going to hear more. You just showed the president s tweet earlier, which was just the American Flag with no commentary. We assumed that meant confirmation. The pentagon followed up very quickly with a statement saying that this was, you know, an american the United States did do this. And actually had sort of a justification there and said that there was they were trying to prevent an attack. So i think thats a legal justification as members of congress, as bob had mentioned, members of congress are going to be coming and saying, why are you doing this . The pentagon is saying they were trying to prevent attack on americans. But we havent heard a briefing as i mentioned before. There hasnt been that interaction you would normally expect. I checked in with the official white house, press office and other people over there. They dont expect anything else to come out of there. So what we have is the president down in his resort in florida, and well wait to see what else he says. You can bet hell probably tweet some more. He does have a Campaign Event tomorrow, and hell probably speak about it at that time. And again, this is a decision that was a surprise to many folks tonight. Were still getting plenty of reaction just coming in. This was handed to me moments ago, a statement from former Vice President joe biden. Obviously the democratic frontrunner for president. An extensive statement, but let me read part of it to folks here. Biden says im not privy to the intelligence and much remains unknown, but iran will surely respond. We could be on the brink of a major conflict across the middle east. I hope the administration has thought through the second and third order consequences of the path they have chosen, but i fear this administration has not demonstrated at any turn the discipline or longterm vision necessary and the stakes could not be higher. That again a statement just coming in from joe biden, former Vice President president , democratic president ial candidate. And, robert costa, i think that potentially echoes a lot of what youre hearing from democrats on capitol hill tonight. It does echo what im hearing from democrats because democrats look at the situation and they have very serious questions about President Trump, his judgment. But they also worry about oversight of this administration. This attack comes amid the impeachment inquiry. And it doesnt happen in a vacuum. This administration they tell me tonight the democrats has been opposing them at every step about information, about its conduct, about what officials have done in terms of enacting Foreign Policy on the impeachment front. And because of that, the way thats played out, they do worry tonight. Thats why blumenthal said sleepless night, because if the administration is blocking all information on impeachment, whats to say theyre suddenly going to offer all sorts of information about the intelligence and decisionmaking process that led to this. And it comes back to the Bigger Picture issue of the aumf, the authorization of the use of military force. Congress used to be the institution, the branch of government that decided to go to war along with the executive branch, but congress would approve it. But weve seen over the last two decades a removal of that power in many respects towards the executive branch. And thats the dynamic tonight. Impeachment and that long pull away from congress on war. Thats all combining tonight in this situation. Clinton, again, in terms of irans reaction to all of this, we had some of that reporting up top from ali arouzi here, the former Vice President here not the only one tonight saying it is almost certain there will be some kind of response here from iran. But, again, the idea that this was from the iranian standpoint a surprise, this guy Walking Around in broad daylight, not expecting this, how would Something Like this be received inside iran . Would they reassess it all their sense of what this administration, what this country might do to them and how it might treat them . I think they would. Something we havent really touched on is how this is playing out inside iraq. As much as we think its iran versus the United States, remember, this is occurring in iraq, and there is some interesting dynamics going on there right now. Over the past several years, youre seeing iran really step up its role in iraq, really back a lot of these iranianbacked militias that have actually pushed into other sectors of iraq in ways the entire nation is not totally on board with. If you went and looked right now, there is mixed reception. Many people in iraq are actually very excited that soleimani was killed. On the other side, you have others that are probably trying to decide which particular in the Shia Coalition inside the government, which way to sort of go. Should they lean towards iran or thud they lean towards the United States. And there are key religious fixtures in country, shia religious fixtures that will actually help determine the tide that goes back and forth on this. While were talking about it mostly in the context of u. S. Versus iran, i think there will definitely be a response by some form in iran. They almost have to in order to stand their ground against the United States, this will play out in a very intricate way. So this might have been a strategic move by the u. S. To test conditions on the ground in iraq and try and really reassert their interests. Remember, this started with the u. S. Contractor being killed. We then retaliated against essentially a local iranianbacked militia. We then see the embassy have people storming it. According to the d. O. D. , it was basically on soleimanis word they were going to do this. And now we see this strike. Its probably a way to sort of test the waters to see what we can get through and what our interests are in iraq. Whats not clear, when you just watch this picture from the outside, as we sit here, what are our intentions in iraq . When you listen to the president say were going to withdraw from the middle east, were going pull back from syria, what are our Strategic Outcomes in iran, and how does this support that . Its really difficult to figure out how all these pieces fit together, and maybe they dont because there may not be a plan at all. Clinton watts, anita kumar, robert costa, thank you. Coming up more on the escalating violence in baghdad. One critic warns the president has no strategy for dousing the flames. And later, how tonights developments in iraq could impact the other critical issue facing this president , his pending impeachment trial in the senate. The 11th hour just Getting Started on a thursday night. Some things are too important to do yourself. Get customized security with 24 7 monitoring from xfinity home. Awarded the best professionally installed system by cnet. Simple. Easy. Awesome. Call, click or visit a store today. For several months now, particularly in the last couple, weve had these iranian sponsored Militia Groups, in this case Khatib Hizbollah that has been attacking our personnel and our bases. Enough is enough. This is part of irans malign behavior that theyve been spreading across the region. As we have been discussing tonight, the commander of an elite unit of irans revolutionary guard was killed near the Baghdad Airport tonight. An Iraqi Militia leader was also reportedly killed. Tonight the pentagon says the air strike was aimed at deterring future iranian attack plans. Officials warn it has the potential to spark a massive escalation of regional tensions. Joining us is fred kaplan. He is the author of the forthcoming book the bomb president s, generals, and the secret history of nuclear war. Fred, thank you for joining us. Were talking so much about how significant this death, how this will be taken by iran, the possibility, maybe the likelihood that they see this as an act of war. To put in some perspective in the iranian political hierarchy who soleimani was, what would you say . Well, it would be as if in the early stage of the iraq war after an air strike of ours the iranians were to have killed general petraeus, general mattis, Vice President cheney and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, and also assuming that all of these people were imbued with a certain religious charisma as well. I mean, there is actually no one quite like him in america or even most western political context. Its an enormous deal. This is a name that i think to most americans is probably new. To iranians, this is a household name. Yeah. And also to American Military officers. I mean, mattis has some comments in his book that he kind of dreamed about this guy sometimes and figured that he was dreaming about him too. You dont kill someone like this unless youre at war with the country. So were basically at war with iran with this act. Iranians will certainly look at it that way. And the only question as to whether we think this, trump thinks this, which is more reckless, that he did this without thinking that this was an act of war or doing it knowing that it was an act of war . In terms of how iran is taking it, we can show you this too. This tweet went up 10 58 p. M. Eastern time. Basically a half hour ago. This is from the foreign minister of iraq, javad zarif. The u. S. Act of International Terrorism targeting and assassinating general soleimani, the most effective force fighting al nusrah, al qaeda is extremely dangerous and a foolish escalation. The u. S. Bears responsibility for all consequences of its rogue adventurism. This an official response from iran here. I think the attack also killed the head of Khatib Hizbollah who is an iraqi in charge of the militia that stormed the embassy the other day. So you have a u. S. Air strike killing the most prominent iranian in the region, which has incredible influence on Iraqi Military and politics as well as the head of a very large militia in iraq on iraqi soil. Almost certainly without the clearance of iraqi political leadership. Its you know, its an act of war. There is no other way to look at it. To take a step back here and put this in context of the u. S. Relationship with iran and the trajectory that has been on the last three years, the trump presidency, you think back to what trump inherited there was that Iranian Nuclear deal that the Obama Administration had worked out. That was in place when trump came in. Three years later, that deal has been torn up. Now this. What has been happening that precipitated this . There is a direct link. This iran nuclear deal, keep in mind, remember, this wasnt just obama. It was obama, six other countries, the European Union and codified in a u. N. Security council resolution. And it was working out. Every few months the International AtomicEnergy Agency inspectors would go in, see if the iranians were complying. They were in full compliance. Trump tore it up against the advice of all of his advisers, many of whom were very suspicious and distrustful of iran basically because he didnt like it. Mainly because he didnt like anything that barack obama had been associated with. This was obamas probably signal diplomatic achievement. If this if he had not scuttled the deal not only did he scuttle the deal and reimpose sanctions, but he also put secondary sanctions on any country that continued to do business with iraq iran, im sorry, which was another violation of the deal by the way. And so iran is hurting. Theyre scrambling. And so theyre striking back. If the Iranian Nuclear deal were still in place, none of this would have happened, absolutely none of it. Fred kaplan, thank you for taking a few minutes. Appreciate that and coming up, were going to continue to keep an eye on tonights breaking news out of the pentagon. Were going to have an update from there coming up. There is also another important story that we are following tonight concerning the pentagon, ukraine, and impeachment. We will have more on that when the 11th hour continues. Eye s eye were also following important developments related to impeachment tonight. There is new reporting that reveals never before reported concerns within the pentagon over withholding aid to ukraine. The details come in the form of unredacted emails between defense and budget officials obtained by the just security blog. That blog is associated with the New York University school of law. One notable email was sent by michael duffey, who works for the office of management and budget to the acting pentagon comptroller saying this, quote, clear direction from potus to continue to hold. That hold seemingly referring to the aid to ukraine. Kate brannen also reports, quote, what is clear is that it all came down to the president and what he wanted. No one else appears to have supported his position. We should note that nbc news has not viewed the emails and cannot verify their authenticity. Nbc news has asked to be shown the documents, but the reporter has declined. Here with us, john harris, Founding Editor of politico and victoria francesca desoto. Professor at the lbj school of Public Affairs at the university of texas. Thank you to both you have for being with us. John, ill start with you. You are somebody who covered every sort of twist and turn of the bill clinton presidency. I mention that because there have been a number of key plot points in this impeachment that have matched up on the timeline with bill clintons, the house vote to impeach bill clinton is almost the exact same day to vote to impeach donald trump. Here is another parallel tonight. At the height of bill clintons impeachment in 1998 as the house was getting ready to vote, he launched military action in iraq. And now as were talking about what the senate may do with the donald trump and impeachment trial, here comes military action involving iran. You know, thats a very good point, steve. And now, as then, the fact of a political context domestically i think is the prism through which many people are viewing it. In other words, can a president and his commander in chief role be taken at face value. Does he deserve the benefit of the doubt when in every context, or every other context his credibility is being challenged. That was true in 98, and i think its true now. Victoria, we mentioned that new reporting that was prior to a few hours ago getting a fair amount of attention might be eclipsed at least momentarily by this news. But in terms of the political calculation that democrats have been making here, withholding the formal transmission of these articles to the senate, trying to gain leverage there, hoping there would be new reporting, new developments that might change the politics, do you see this new reporting playing that role at all, or is this just another development that comes and goes without the politics changing . Steve, im going to say it comes and goes. I really see the impasse in terms of the impeachment strategy on the part of the democrats. Its a losing strategy. I mean nationally we see a tie in terms of folks supporting and opposing the impeachment of the president. But when you dig down deeper, you see that the removal of the president has less support, less than 50 . And one number i always fixate on is independents. Only four out of ten independents want to see trump removed from office. So that boils down not a wave of support. And then in terms of the base, for trump, this is a core rallying point. This is highlighting the swamp and the politicos that are out to get me. And among democrats, yes, it was important. The democratic principle of it. But at the same time, democrats care about bread and butter issues. And as of tonight, the guns and butter issues that were dealing with in. And impeachment just doesnt have that same hold. And i think we risk apathy and frustration by the part of democrats. So this, again, this is a risky proposition. John, its an interesting assessment there from victoria. Im curious what your sense is of the politics within the United States senate. Weve made a lot of conversation here over the number four. Four republicans would need to break with mitch mcconnells, side with the democrats procedurally to get the democrats the kind of trial theyre talking about. Susan collins made some noise over the last couple of days. She is not happy with mcconnells public posture on this. Do you see a realistic scenario where there are four republicans who do that . We havent heard their voices publicly yet. I think in the background conversations we do hear even from republicans discomfort with sort of blind deference that the republicans are giving generally to the president. But i guess i based on available evidence, no, i dont see it, steve. Okay. We are going to have another update for you on the breaking news overseas tonight, but we also have some other news we want to bring you from the campaign trail as one candidate bows out, others rake in millions, and one frontrunner takes a big shot at a chief rival. Were going to tally it all up and see where we stand with just 32 days to go until the Iowa Caucuses when the 11th hour continues. If you have medicare, listen up. Medicare alone only covers 80 of your costs, leaving you to pay the rest. With so many changes, do you know if your plan is still the right fit . 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Sanders telling the Washington Post robert costa, quote, its just a lot of baggage that joe takes into a campaign, which isnt going to create energy and excitement. He brings into this campaign a record which is so weak that it just cannot create the kind of excitement and energy that is going to be needed to defeat donald trump. Sanders comments come as we learn he is leading the Fourth Quarter fundraising race with more than 34 million brought in in the last three months. That is almost 10 million more than pete buttigieg, nearly 12 million more than joe biden. President trump, meanwhile, raked in 46 million and has more than 100 million on hand right now. Still with us, john harris and victoria defrancesco soto. Victoria, i think the attack here from sanders on biden is interesting in that somebody is now attacking joe biden. This has been something i think folks have been asking for months. Whos going to go after biden. He is sitting there in the lead. There were a couple of shots taken at him in debates, but mainly, the gloves have been kept on by the candidates until now. The gloves have come off. And as my College Students would say, bernie is throwing mad shade at joe biden. And i dont get it. I just do not get where these attacks come from, steve, in that what is the population of folks who are undecided between Bernie Sanders and joe biden . Im not going to say its zero, but its probably not more than a couple of dozen people. So i get why you might want to come at joe biden. But Bernie Sanders, the real person that he needs to be focusing on and throwing shade on is Elizabeth Warren. Because he is not going to be fighting voters from joe biden. Its Elizabeth Warren. Its folks who might be further on his left, Julian Castro is out of the race. So he doesnt have to worry about that. So im scratching my head. I just dont see the point of attacking joe biden. Hes already in the headlines. He is raking in money. When is he going to attack Elizabeth Warren . Thats what i want to know. John, im wondering how you assess joe biden standing in the race. It seems there are two very different ways of looking at it. On the one hand, he has led the National Polls all the way through, about a tenpoint lead, despite all the scrutiny of his past record, those sorts of things. On the other hand, we just put those numbers up. This is not the first time he has not been at the top of the fundraising game. He is in third place in fundraising for this quarter. The polls in iowa and New Hampshire have been a lot shakier for him than they have been nationally. Theres one version of the story where joe biden is a pretty solid consistent frontrunner. There is another where he is poised on the brink of disaster. How do you look at it . You know, it is the mona lisa, is she smiling or frowning . Historically, all you can say is that historically candidates who have not done well in those early states even if they have High National standing, they lose that rather rapidly. So it seems to me that i look at bidens standing and i would say its rather precarious, because if he doesnt come strong in iowa and New Hampshire, the assumption of his campaign is that they would recover that ground in south carolina. But that may be problematic. Incidentally, i didnt hear it as a terrible attack that sanders made on biden. I suppose maybe calling his record weak is an attack. I heard him saying something you hear from lots of people across the ideological spectrum, including a lot of washington operatives, which is they are worried about that enthusiasm gap. Biden doesnt attract large crowds on the stump. He is not attracting a lot of grassroots fundraising. So sanders was identifying a genuine concern. That is true, victoria, when you look at polling among democrats, you see that idea of electability, however you want to define it, just the idea of finding a candidate who can defeat donald trump, it seems much more prominent on democratic voters minds than in the past youve had going into these things. There is a lot more apprehension understanding trumps political strength and how to counter it. There is a lot of apprehension. Trump being the target for democrats, but also looking at the size of the democratic field i think is another thing that is making democrats very nervous, because they want to beat trump. They absolutely want to beat trump. But at the same time they dont want to fight it out so much that folks become apathetic and frustrated and they get angry, and they dont want to turn out. Lets think back to 2016. Hillary clinton, Bernie Sanders, the fight got so ugly, a lot of bernie folks said, im going to sit it out. All right, victoria defrancesco soto, thanks for being with us. Coming up, we have much more on tonights breaking news, that u. S. Strike killing one of irans top commanders when the 11th hour continues. More now on that breaking news out of iraq tonight, the pentagon confirms a top Iranian Military commander was killed in an air strike near baghdad. D. O. D. Officials say general Qassim Soleimani was actively planning attacks against u. S. Service members in iraq. With us is courtney kubi covering National Security in the pentagon following everything thats been going on joins us now. Courtney, thanks for joining us. Again, we have been talking about this in terms of the limited communication we have received here from the administration. What do you know about what has been going on inside this administration with this decision and with the fallout from it . So, youre right. The only thing weve heard on the record is this written statement from secretary of defense mark esper. What we know from that, of course, is that President Trump directed the u. S. Military to take this action to target Qassim Soleimani, the head of the quds force but dont know detail about how they did it. Was it a drone . Theres some reports it was a drone, a strike. We dont know who else was with him and may have been killed. Theres plenty of reporting coming out of the region and rumors but nothing thats actually been confirmed from the u. S. Military or the u. S. Government yet. We do know as you mentioned that the u. S. Is saying that he was planning future attacks. The reality is Qassim Soleimani is behind dozens, if not hundreds of attacks across iraq, in syria in the region over the years. If you talk to u. S. Military officials, they say unequivocally he has u. S. And iraqi blood on his hands over the years from planning these attacks. Secretary of defense mark esper spoke to the Progress Press corps earlier off camera and spoke a little bit about some of the more recent rocket attacks and specifically said that they were being directed by the iranian government. The fact that kataib hezbollah, an iranian backed Militia Group were carries it out would indicate esper was saying and the u. S. Government is saying that in fact Qassim Soleimani and the quds force, they are the ones who are directing the attacks. The u. S. Was laying out the plan here. Now in retrospect we can see that the u. S. Government, the pentagon was laying out in fact they were blaming soleimani for these more recent attacks for being complicit in them. Just quickly here, courtney, again, theres a written statement. Do you have a sense if and when there will be more communication about all of these questions that youre sort of raising here . We dont. I mean at this point the most what would seem to be the most likely next step would be for President Trump to speak bit. You know, we know that he was the one who ordered this action, so his he is down in maralago still. We know from our colleagues at the white house that in fact he has free time tomorrow with nothing on his schedule so its plausible he would make some sort of statement. But we at this point there is no additional plans to hear from the u. S. Military in iraq or from the pentagon. We as i said heard from secretary esper and chairman of the joint chiefs direct mark millie for the first time to talk about the situation in iraq. But, of course, they didnt tell us anything about this. This was a complete surprise to the reporters all there today, steve. Courtney, thank you very much for the update. Appreciate that. There is much more of msnbcs continuing coverage of the air strike. The top of the hour. 11th hour continues after this. 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So call now for free information. And youll also get this free beneficiary planner, and its yours just for calling. So call now. That is our broadcast for tonight but our coverage does not stop here. A live special edition of the Rachel Maddow show begins right now. Thank you very much. Up appreciated. I want to thank you at home for joining us as we do continue our ongoing coverage of this startling news tonight. That according to the pentagon a u. S. Military strike has assassinated the effectively top military leader in iran. General Qassim Soleimani was a very, very powerful figure in iran. He was revered. He was very, very well known and immensely powerful. As news has been confirmed over the course of tonight of his killing, outside the airport in baghdad, iraq, soleimani has been described tonight as effectively the second most powerful figure in iran after the Supreme Leader. So lets talk about what we know happened here but also about the potential implications. In terms of how we got here and what we know of the actual killing, it has really been a short, sharp escalation over just a period of days that has brought us tonight to, you know, fears of this potentially kicking off a war. Just last week friday of last week there was a rocket attack in iraq on an Iraqi Military base in kirkuk in the north of iraq, north of baghdad. U. S. Officials in iraq said that they believed that that rocket attack was launched by iranianbacked militias inside iraq. This rocket attack on this base in kirkuk on this base killed one american contractor. Several other americans and several reportedly wounded. In terms of the time frame all im asking is one week. That attack was on friday. The u. S. Military then responded attacking a number of sights linked today iran backed. Sights in iraq and syria. About 25 fighters were reportedly killed in the retaliatory strikes. And as these things go, there had to be a response to that as well. Thats when we saw proiranian demonstrators attack and set fires at the massive fortified u. S. Embassy complex in baghdad. That was earlier this week o