consequences. last night, there were consequences. also this hour, the iowa caucus campaign blitz with haley and desantis battling for second place. if the latest polls are correct, donald trump has a 30-point lead. kristin welker joins me live from des moines to break it all down. former president trump refocusing on iowa after his fireworks during closing arguments at his civil fraud trial in manhattan. the judge promising his decision on how much to fine the former president and his adult sons before the end of the month. good day, everyone. i m andrea mitchell back in washington. while u.s. forces in the wider middle east are bracing for retaliation after they struck back at houthi rebel forces in defiance of the ultimatums keeping up their attacks. the pentagon and british allies bombed more than 60 targets inside yemen overnight that they say were used by the rebels to plan and launch dozens of attacks against commercial shipping routes vital to the world econo
the pentagon and british allies bombed more than 60 targets inside yemen overnight that they say were used by the rebels to plan and launch dozens of attacks against commercial shipping routes vital to the world economy. the u.s. says the strikes were self-defense, using more than 100 precision guided munitions, including tomahawk missiles launched from warships, submarines and fighter jets. thousands of houthi supporters are protesting in yemen. they threaten revenge. they vowed to continue attacks in the red sea until israel ends its war in gaza. the saudis are calling for restraint. they fear it could jeopardize the fragile truce with the houthis reached after ten years of a brutal civil war.
chief, with president biden. the defense secretary is going to stay in office. the president has full faith and confidence in him. reporter: so one of the other things that s taken more time to refine here is exactly what they wanted to go after with these strikes. there s two real goals here. one is to be able to deter the houthis ability to continue to carry out these very dangerous and threatening attacks against ships in the red sea. they did that last night by going after warehouses, places where the houthis are storing or even assembling things like these one-way drones, where they store anti-ship cruise missiles and ballistic missiles. also going after radar sites that they use for targeting, launchers that they launch these things from. the goal to degrade their ability to stop the attacks. in addition to that, the hope is that this will deter. as we heard from richard and we have been hearing ever since last night is the houthis have
vowed already to strike back, to retaliate from these strikes. the reality here is if they do strike back in a very serious way, continuing with large-scale attacks against shipping, we could see follow-on attacks by the alliance against more houthi targets in yemen. admiral, i was traveling with secretary blinken. at every stop he is saying we are not seeking a wider conflict and that international shipping has to be protected. it s 40% of the shipping goes through those lanes and that it could affect it is affecting the worldwide economy as ships have to divert. indeed. there s no question that the houthis will bluster a lot. whether they continue to attack
consequences. last night, there were consequences. also this hour, the iowa caucus campaign blitz with haley and desantis battling for second place. if the latest polls are correct, donald trump has a 30-point lead. kristin welker joins me live from des moines to break it all down. former president trump refocusing on iowa after his fireworks during closing arguments at his civil fraud trial in manhattan. the judge promising his decision on how much to fine the former president and his adult sons before the end of the month. good day, everyone. i m andrea mitchell back in washington. while u.s. forces in the wider middle east are bracing for retaliation after they struck back at houthi rebel forces in defiance of the ultimatums keeping up their attacks.