By most accounts this guy was a very bad hombre, likely responsible for the deaths of hundreds of u. S. Troops, and he probably deserved it. But was this legal . According to republicans oh hell yes. I cannot imagine a someone in the military that we would have to in the middle of these potential strikes with the intelligence coming together, and the decisionmaking of the commanderinchief that we would have to go to 435 other people in the moments in order to protect americans. This strike was clearly authorized, soleimani was an evil man, he was a terrorist leader, it was legitimate lawful target. B5 democrats singing a different tune or looking at putting a scandal on the president. Chuck schumer and bob menendez are saying its critical to the National Security matters are shared with the American People in a timely manner. An entirely classified notification is simply not appropriate in a democratic society. And there appears to be no legitimate justification for classifying this notification. And House Speaker nancy polsky went one step further show is us and said Trump Administration conducted april pocketed and disproportionate strike targeting officials and iran. And then the plot thickens as former democratic senator and vice principal real Joe Lieberman tried to break the tie. Joe. The American People are not going to vote for a president who did i dont think is going to use American Force to protect their security. Kennedy so was this airstrike justified . And what does that mean for the president politically . Heres my china party panel we have Senior Analyst attorney and the federalist contributor desmond is here along with democrat strategist michael hopkins, and editor and host of the awardwinning podcast it is matt welch. Welcome everyone. Morgan start with most twos most excited his lease excited noel break the tie. I think this was a good decision on the part of the president. Kennedy wasnt a bad decision . Its a decision for him to make trade this is a fight between the president and the congress and who has the abilities. I would going all the way back that a century, and so none of this is new. This debate between congress and the president over who has the power to do what and between the powers of the commanderinchief and the power to declare war. I know libertarians will go back and say every word they have not had this kind of escalation its unconstitutional. But this is not new. Fundamentally this is not a new power for the president. Kennedy no but the question is where to be go from here . Because democrats will automatically say world war iii. Republicans are like now he ends the war what really happens. I mean this is a scary situation we have the United States killing the secondincommand and iran and the president did not notify leadership . B5 but he was so bad, so bad. But we dont know the plan is moving forward. Bush and going to baghdad because he knew the devastating impacts that would have. The second bush 1 inch iraq, went into baghdad and we are still there. So whats the plan . I have no problem with killing soleimani i just have it issue with not having a plan. Kennedy and i agree you have to make foresight when you make boot big moves like this. When you make big moves you have to build a step in with an answer. But what it looks like heres this president is more like george h. W. And less like george w. He does not want a long Protracted Mission war, it looks like he enjoys the short videogame, shortterm millennial satisfying missile strike. Its like a side of war crimes if you get away with that. Kennedy its like war crimes are target things. It would be were crimes. Kennedy if he did it but he didnt do it should he be arrested by Sequel Service . If he tries to make another joke he should be. Hes a person he said he does not win a regime change. He said that in a statement on friday. He said i dont want to have a regime change and theres a big difference in George W Bush in terms of what he did with curtis tan. But he is always said i will take the gloves off and let our troops do whatever they need to do if you mess with us. I will kill the families of terrorists on the campaign trail he said that. He said he would torture about dipping bullets in pigs blood that is totally made up. Its a category difference when you spend a lot of time you get confused. We just killed a guy, but its going to potentially have a lot of instability associated with it he obviously did not plan this out at all. Kennedy no but i agree with that i dont know that there is a lot of internal strife within the dod meaning there were a lot of general saying no dont do it and some people saying it would be a great idea. Theres a lot of cya in the press saying there was a set of these options are not those options. For the thing that bothers me right now is nancy pelosi, i go ahead and challenge the powers. Do that, but where were you in libya . Libya have less justification far than this action. Libya. Kennedy theres also the greater potential for becoming a vacuum then iran does. Actually not to some degree i think this president is pursuing a jacksonian Foreign Policy. Its not the george w. Bush. [inaudible] notes neither george w. Bush policy about regime change its more about if somebody hits americans are american targets were going to hit back ten times harder. Now this president came into office where a situation where america has support and assets all over the world. What there could be a discussion on whether we can have a discussion if thats right. Kennedy you can make the case that iran is done a lot have been very provocative without getting any kind of smacked down and killing soleimani is the ultimate smack down. But this is a problem when you have a president that lies all the time. Now you have this chest bumping and nobody knows what to believe. Yet pompeo saying one thing. You have trump sing another and correcting tweets. You have trump sending out tweets saying this is our notification for the war powers act. The president is acting like this is a joke and troops are going over seed and argot a diet he should take it seriously. Kennedy absolutely because a justification for killing soleimani if you cant kill any more americans. But plenty of americans can die and you make more gold star families if you hastily transact their a lot of bad people at of killed american troops that we are not going after because of the cost that will happen later. This isnt just about whats can happen now but its white about to happen tomorrow and a week from now and so on. Kennedy but what kind of provocation for my ron would it take to get a measured response. May be shutting down the straight. These are measured approaches. The expert seemed to be the ones to tell the president what to do. At this. And i take your. , but who is an expert . The expert who let us hear . The one who let us into iraq in the first place . But the president damns for election for the people this is acrosstheboard. We have a lot of quote unquote experts and government that makes decisions that are normatively impacts american and the American People and they have been wrong about a lot of people. Kennedy having people died because of Robert Mcnamaras kid and stroking expertise. It was very, very cold analysis that didnt take into account the human factor which comes out to be the most critical one. We are gonna talk more but with the panel but trump and i iran officials announcing they now so they will not abide by the 2015 nuclear deal, like they were. Weapons with uranium in a matter of months. But policy experts believe were ironic at italic in a number of ways including attacks on u. S. Military abroad and other u. S. Embassies, and u. S. Allies like israel, saudi arabia, maybe jordan, a disruption of oil shipping, taking citizens hostage that is oldschool, or executing a cyber attack on u. S. Of depositories. That is a massive buffet of options. Meanwhile president tweets a pair of contingency plan saying quote let this serve as a warning that if iran strikes any americans or assets we have. Targeted 52 iranian sites represent the 52 hostages taken by iran many years ago. So at a very high level it is important so iran and the iranian culture, and those targets will be hit very fast and very hard. The usa once no more threats. So what on earth can be expected next . Joining me now cm former cia officer it is mike baker welcome back baker. Thank you very much. And happy holidays. And happy new year end all those things that we should say. Kennedy we certainly do. So lets talk about this because the big unknown is what happens next. There are supporters of the president who say everything is good, soleimani is dead nothing to see here, we are going to move on. An older progressive say there we go, another war on the horizon that we cannot afford. So what really could happen . Well to know that i always turn to twitter because you cannot swing a dead kat on twitter without finding another eye iranian expert. Ive been really impressed by how many iranian experts we have in this country and they are all on social media. So thats where i recommend all the listeners go to. Kennedy rose mcgowan is apologizing for the death of soleimani. Oh my god that was a fastmoving crazy train that was. Look heres the thing. I think that first of all i would like to make one comment is that there is a narrative that develops, that this was done without any thought. Look i have spent a long time and operations and these things have all been gamed out to a fairly well. Whether we are talking about what might happen with my ron, we go through a lot of scenarios. We go through a lot of exercises and then there are a lot of targets put on the table for contingency planning. The idea that somehow President Trump walked to the white house one day and said hey lets blow up soleimani, how about that . And thats what they did. Now soleimanis been on the radar screen for a long, long time. Kennedy so you have experts and past administration saying we had a shot at him, and we passed. But then i am also hearing that there are International Allies saying thank you very much because that guy sucked. So which is it . Is the latter. The european allies are not going to come out because theyre all worried about the retaliation so they are playing this very close to the chest. But theres nobody out there and you can see it on the hard left too. They are having a hard time. Because they have the criticism of trumps move here by saying one not saying he didnt deserve it, then they go to the next step of but i think theres no plan. And what i am saying is military games these things out constantly. Kennedy how are they getting game it to keep us out of a war . Well you get to this. That is a good question. But you are looking at probably what will be a this is gonna sound odd given the past two days good morning and all the people out of the streets, and by the way the eye iranians could put more people out of the streets. Tran one saw the killing of 1500 of those people when they oversaw the regime. Boulder looking at is a measured response for my ron going forward. In its probably going to be a mixed bag. It wont just be a cyber issue but over the last eight or nine years theyve developed very strong capability. They have no one near nowhere near our capabilities and cyber warfare but the iranians have developed some very good capabilities. But it will be a combination of that, but more importantly they will be looking to do something that will have this will again sound weird, but a pr factor. Because they have to show a strong response. The problem with cyber warfare is its murky, doesnt necessarily lead back to only iranians did this, so they will be looking at again, something that they have already gamed out. For the past several years, and soleimani was probably the architect of that game plan. He was that in the whole region. Kennedy i heard he invented ticktock. I would like to say i have enough to know about ticktock but i dont. Thats exactly right, scooter was talking about the other day. He actually made a ticktock video and i just stared at him and he walked away and actually muttered okay boomer. [laughter] Kennedy Baker we have to go, whenever youre back in new york, by we will save a seat for you. Uy will do that you have the best refreshments in the business. Kennedy think you may mention a cookie tonight. Coming up what would a war with iran mean . Heres the 2020 race and how as democrats handle things if he or she win . The panels going to react to that plus Lincoln Chafee look he has been a republican senator a democratic governor, and a libertarian independent. And now is trying to run for president as a libertarian. Does he have what it takes to pull it off . And by its i will ask him why. This is the Epson Ecotank color printer. No more buying cartridges. Big ink tanks. Lots of ink. Print about. This many pages. The Epson Ecotank. Just fill and chill. I am totally blind. And non24 can make me show up too early. Or too late. 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How can i ever repay you . Maybe you could free zoltar . Thanks, lady. Taxi only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Kennedy over the past 20 years our next guest has gone from republican to democrat to democrat pratt and now he is just filed paperwork to run for president as a libertarian. Because its about time americans had a president whom knew how to make up his mind. Oh sure he might map, but if he knows where aleppo is hes way ahead of the last nominee. Joining me tonight former rhode island in dependent and democratic republican senator and current libertarian president ial hopeful Lincoln Chafee is back on the program. Thanks or have me back and i have always been close to Libertarian Partys. Kennedy is that it that is the mistake bill weld made last time he tried to define libertarians by his narrow store of new england lane. He said im fiscally conservative and fiscally liberal. It turns out theres much more to liberty than that. So are you the next bill will . I am much more antiwar than governor weld. I voted against the iraqi war and now its happening in iraq and iran is so alarming for our children and the next generation. This never ending 17yearold war is going to go on now for more and more years. Iraqi Parliament Attorney against us, its the Biggest Issue of the day. Kennedy alright so i put together a few questions for you and i do really love her yes or no answer to these. I want to find out because i believe in you. I loved you in the 2016 race, i felt like you got out too early i thought you are railroaded by debbie and now might be your time. But in order to get my stab of approval you have to answer yes or no to these questions. There is always gray area kennedy so fire away. Kennedy is that hot freedom or cold hell some and ask this should all drugs be legal for adult yes or no. No. Kennedy should all between consenting adults be legal if there is cash involved. Yes. [laughter] what he doing later . Kennedy should taxes become by 50 or more . Now without cutting spending. Im. Kennedy im good with cutting spending will you get away with half of those agencies. Yes the tenth in them it is very clear whats named in the constitution is reserved for the states. Thats the tenth amendment paid the federal government has gotten very far involved in state issues. Kennedy are you against the draft . Yes. Kennedy should citizens be able to carry ar15s . Were getting into issues that i think, the important issues of the day kennedy are the war in iraq loss of Civil Liberties the war on iran. [inaudible] the deficit is a trillion dollars we are totaling 22 trillion in all we are paying 400 billion and interest on that debt, these are the big issues thats why im running as a libertarian those are all libertarian issues. So answer some your yes or no questions but the reason i am running, the reason i am involved in public. [inaudible] kennedy i want to make this clear because i love libertarian im a libertarian but im not a member of the Libertarian Party. I will say this i feel the Libertarian Party for a lot of politicians it is a barfly. So you have gone to various clubs and restaurants and you havent settled on anyone, and so the Libertarian Party is like a two. In the sea of sixes and juergen settle for the two because she couldnt make it with the democrats or the republican seven. 2020 is a different year we have donald trump, he is the most controversial president ever. The democrats have a field they cant seem to settle on any one candidate theres a lot of different issues with the progress is going its the moderates can be very different year. [inaudible] its the war with iran. Kennedy so what differentiation Bernie Sanders who voted against for the iraq war in 2002 . We will see if he wins the nomination but of course we ran together in 2016 and i had his vote against the iraq war. But they were not that many of us. Certainly the establishment where the war in iraq and 6 trillion4000 dead americans