from iphone camera half aworld away. the assault in yemen stoking fears of a wider middle east war pending the response that we await still at this hour. a big morning, big day. see what happens throughout the day. let s start here at 9:00 in new york. i m bill hemmer. good morning at home and. dana: i m dana perino and this is america s newsroom. some people wondered if the biden administration would ever be willing to do. the u.s. carried out strikes in coordination with the united kingdom scorching more than 60 houthi targets. bill: part of tehran s response to the israeli war on hamas. according to general jack keane earlier today he says it is time to go after iran directly. the center of gravity for the aggression in the middle east that we re experiencing is iran. we have said this time and time and time again. and to deter the proxies themselves by hitting them will not be sufficient. we have got to go after iran. dana: all this unfolding while the head of
civilians and jeopardized trade and affected more than 50 nations with crews from more than 20 countries being threatened or taken hostage in acts of piracy. biden promised the u.s. would take more action if necessary. they have received applause from top republicans and mitch mcconnell and mike johnson. progressive democrats have blasted the president. khanna tweeted it s clear poet us may only introduce u.s. into hostilities after congressional authorization or national emergency when the u.s. is under imminent attack. retaliatory offensive strike. jayapal called it a violation of the constitution. we just found out that the white house did actually give top congressional leaders, including the gang of eight, a heads-up before it happened. u.s. gave the final warning last week and moreover the houthi s
attacked indiscriminately by these houthi rebels, that we need to take action. last night we did that. dana: pentagon defending the decision to strike the iranian backed houthis in yemen. overnight assault hitting more than 60 targets. deputy pentagon press secretary sabrina singh. this is a houthi official saying this is a brutal aggression. they will undoubtedly pay a price and we won t waiver in our stance to support the palestinian people regardless of the cost and the other thing is that the leader of the houthis said the response will be greater than the attack that was carried out. i have a feeling that the pentagon will disagree with that. let s hear from you. what s the posture of the pentagon today about how far it is willing to go to protect these seas? it s a bit ironic coming from a houthi spokesperson given they re using the words brutal aggression when we ve seen over 20 attacks from houthis against international commercial ships, u.s. vessels and others in an
we have said this time and time and time again. and to deter the proxies themselves by hitting them will not be sufficient. we have got to go after iran. dana: all this unfolding while the head of our military defense, secretary lloyd austin, is hospitalized. abc news reporting president biden and austin first met to discuss these strikes on january 1st. that was the same day austin was admitted to the icu. congressman mike gallagher is here with reaction. let s begin with an update from the white house. jacque heinrich is there. good morning. president biden signed off on this action on tuesday after the houthis left the final warning that the u.s. issued last week launching a complex attack on commercial vessels including american ships to date. it was one of 27 such attacks which the president says, quote, endangered u.s. personnel,
area like the red sea that sees 15% of the world s commerce go through it. as the president said and secretary said we ll always reserve the right to take action if we need to. last night what you saw was the united states in coalition take action against the houthis that have launched repeated strikes against the international flow of commerce we see on a daily basis. that s what why we responded the way we did last night. a series of questions. thank you for your time. lloyd austin still in the hospital at walter reed. did his condition this past week delay this operation? either this week or the week prior? it did not. thanks, bill, for the question. the secretary is doing well, recovering as you mentioned in the hospital. he is focused on his health and at the same time he has been directly engaged not only in the action that was taken last night, but earlier this week you saw the biggest barrage of houthi attacks on commercial and international vessels.