Democratic republic of congo. You are watching cnn, im brooke baldwin, thank you for being here. We begin this hour with those internal conversations between the white house and the pentagon. The conversations that led the president to call off a pending military strike against iran, after a massive u. S. Drone was shot down in the region just one day ago. First, the president s own candid explanation on why he pulled the plug with only 10 minutes to spare. They came and said, sir, were ready to go, wed like a decision. I said i want to know something before you go. How many people will be killed . In this case, iranians. I said, how many people are going to be killed . Sir, id like to get back to you on that. Great people these generals. They said, came back, said, sir, approximately 150. And i thought about it for a second. I said, you know what, they shot down an unmanned drone, plane, whatever you want to call it, and here we are sitting with 150 dead people that would have taken place probably within a half hour after i said go ahead. And i didnt like it. I didnt think it was proportionate. So thats the president s perspective, but a source tells cnn, just because the white house doesnt follow through with that, it doesnt mean the talks to execute a response are over. Just as the president is navigating his greatest diplomatic challenge yet, he will officially nominate his acting secretary of defense, mark esper. This is happening as iran continues to broadcast imagery of the drones wreckage on its state run media, a commander in its air force says, the situation could have been worse. Iran refrained from shooting down a u. S. Navy plane with 35 crew members on board. Mike bender is the White House Reporter for the wall street journal. Welcome welcome. It seems every hour, were getting more and more detail, you know, what went into last nights decision. What are your sources telling you. Well, my sources are telling me that really tracking a lot with what President Trump said, this was a decision right at the almost the last minute here, but whats important to remember is that as the night grew on and as they got closer to the decision point. It really crystallized in the president s mind, this was an attack on u. S. Technology, this drone and not on u. S. Troops. Its important to remember that a lot of this escalation started, can be traced back to intel reports from about a month ago, that showed iran was considering attacks on u. S. Troops in iraq. That is a dramatically different thing than shooting down a drone. Thats where the president s thinking was, right at the last minute. The other remarkable thing to know about this moment last night inside the white house, was that trump was President Trump was largely on an island here. All of his National Security advisers, his National Security team were supportive of a military strike, it was being driven by john bolton. Secretary of state mike pompeo was behind it, but showed a little more understanding of some at least some reluctance from the pentagon and his own Vice President , mike pence was very much in support of military strikes. Although im told pence came around afterwards and supported the president s decision to hold off. These are a lot of hawkish voices for the president who made the decision to hold off here. And theyre also a number of hawkish voices down the road from you on capitol hill. A senior republican source tells cnn they arent happy with what was ultimately the commander in chiefs decision. They support a strike in the region. How will trump respond to members of his own party, mike if he sticks by his decision to stand down . I think what well see is how hes handled this situation for 2 1 2 years as president. I mean, for as much as trump has this reputation of being a provocateur when it comes to domestic politics, hes really shown a lot of hesitancy and caution when it comes to military matters. Hes had much more aggressive options on the table in venezuela that hes shied away from, hes had military options on the table for him in north korea, and hes not wanted to do that. So this kind of falls right in line with how hes his approach all along. He tells his advisers that if we start a military conflict we have to be willing to finish it. From the inside he doesnt see much in the middle east that is worth that gamble. He has the caution militarily, hes on the island with all this great color and sourcing. Thank you very much from the white house, lets go to christopher harmar, hes a retired navy commander. Kathy gillson a staff writer for the atlantic. She wrote a lot about this today. Commander im starting with you, the president says this strike was not proportional to shooting down an unmanned drone. Do you agree with that . Well, i dont know exactly what the strike consisted of, im seen a lot of different reporting on it, lets assume the civilian casualties were roughly realistic, around 150. I think that is disproportionate, in some cases, you do want a disproportionate response in order to provide future doe terrence. Right now what i think the leadership wants is a disproportionate response. Keep in mind the peak of popularity for the leadership regime for the Islamic Republic was in 1988 when the United States navy shot down an iranian airbus. Right now, the iranian public does not trust, does not respect, does not want the current leadership to continue. So the Islamic Republic of iran leadership is hoping to insight a disproportionate response. So they want it . I think thats what they want. They want it. I think they want a disproportionate response. Back in washington, kathy, were listening to mike bender, what hes saying, what weve been hearing from our sources here at cnn, he mentioned hawkish john bolton and its the National Security advisers, who unanimously believed that striking military strikes would be appropriate, but then on the flip side, the president s military advisers warn it would lead to a larger escalation, conflicting between the two. What do you make of that . I make of that the fact that john bolton has spent a long career in public life talking about the iranian threat and advocating even as recently as a few years ago for a specific policy of regime change in iran. The military leaders are understand perhaps better than john bolton what the cost of that might be. And so our behaving cautiously in order to highlight what those potential risks are. What about, though, you, of course, everyone knows about john boltons hawkish ways on iran. In the atlantic, you profile a man whose name maybe not everyone knows who is also playing a prominent role in shaping the policy. Tell me more about general mckenzie. Hes the new head of centcon. I want to distinguish between the military buildup and a possibility of a strike in the region. John bolton got a lot of flack for saying, a Carrier Strike was destined for the region in the face of this credible reporting. But that request for forces and two subsequent request for forces came from gin mckenzie, who is in the region, monitoring the intel, who is see iing the Defense Department to shift to other theaters. I dont know if i have enough resources to meet what i think are these threats. The military is at a moment of at least in central command, the command that is in charge of that region. They are portraying these moves as defensive moves. Clearly there are democrats on the hill, for example, who worry that about the security dilemma, essentially. Youre adversary isnt necessarily seeing moves that you see as defensive, as in fact defensive, they may see it as offen offensive. Important to differentiate. I want you to feel free to weighin. I want to quote peter baker. In part he wrote, mr. Trump, he says, has always been a commander in chief of contradictions, he talks like a war monger, but acts like a peace nick. He will reign down fire and fury on them, while striving to avoid more of the foreign wars he blames his predecessors for waging. I cant help but think what will espers challenges be reporting to a boss who is so unpredictable on so many issues. From a strategic perspective, the United States has been involved in four wars over the last 18 years in the middle east. I understand some of your viewers were in support of them, some were opposed. Nobody can claim we have an acceptable outcome, combat continues in all of those locations, i think the military is skeptical right now about opening up a fifth front war in the middle east. Especially given the fact that iran is by far and away the most military capable opponent we will have faced off on since saddam hussein. I think the military is skeptical of taking what we think or what may be portrayed as a limited strike that could escalate out of control. Christopher, kathy, thank you so much. Great to have both of you on. I want to get to this breaking news on immigration raids that are set to begin this weekend. Ice agents are expected to target as many as 2,000 migrants starting on sunday. The operation was fast tracked after a tweet from President Trump. Ma ro ria santana is helping br the story today. Were learning that ice is set to start immigration raised targeting primarily families. This operation is striking for several reasons. Striking because we know the timing and the scope pretty much of it, and we know that not because yes we have great sources, but because the president was the first one to announce this. And ice almost never gives plans that are so specific or wants them to be published. And for safety reasons, the safety of their agents. The other thing thats striking about this is that part of this operation will target families and others like criminals and worksite enforcement going on at the same time. This is the first time that ice focuses on families, and it has been a lot of reservations by many people in the administration, within these agencies to do that. Acting dhs secretary. We have learned kevin mcilandny has been very hesitant about this, expressed many concerns, and apparently the agency ice is going on to do this. Despite those concerns. Isnt to your point about families and there hasnt been this desire to separate families yet, i cant help but think, if theyre going into these ten domestic u. S. Cities and one member of the family may be a citizen and one may not be. That was one of the concerns that officials according to our sources were trying to debate. How to do this. What we have learned is that when there is a mixed status family, the parents may be undocumented but the children are citizens. What would happen is that at least one parent would be fitted with an ankle bracelet, to allow them to be with the u. S. Citizen child. Ice cant legally hold a u. S. Citizen child in custody. So they would allow this parent to be with that child to get their affairs in order, and the rest of the family will stay in custody. Theres a lot of variables that go into this, according to one of my sources, theres one mom and one undocumented child. And then another child thats a u. S. Citizen. What happens there . Does the mom take both of them with her. Is one of the children going to stay in custody. The acting ice director held a press call on the record with the press this week. The purpose was not to separate families. A lot of people have been concerned thats the appearance this has, but he said thats not the goal, even though sources are telling us that some family separations are going to be inevitable. And its starting sunday, 10 u. S. Cities, well be covering it. Maria santana, thank you very much for sharing all of that with us. A stunning twist in the murder trial of eddie gallagher. A prosecution witness testifies to everyones surprise that he was actually the one to kill that suspected isis fighter. Where does this case go from here . Well talk to our lawyers. And one of speaker Nancy Pelosis long time allies in the house, goes on the record in favor of impeaching President Trump. Ill ask her why. 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Now you have to convince a jury not only did the guy you charge do it, but the guy who tried to take the fall on the stand was lying. Why would he do that . Now here they may have some ways to argue that. The argument is, hes trying to protect someone else, and he has immunity. The guy said, i suffocated the victim. It complicates the job, but its doable, its not fatal to the case. Is the medic, the person who sat up there and said, i did it, is he credible . How has this not come out in previous questioning . Well, exactly, just to clarify, this did not come out on direct examination. This came out on crossexamination, which is a prosecutors worst nightmare. That just eviscerates all of their credibility in front of the jury. Juries do not like it when they feel like prosecutors have done a shoddy investigation. Dont know the facts of the case well. This is repeating the narrative of the defense. Theyre saying, this was a rush to judgment, you didnt get all your facts straight. This actually could be the nail in the coffin, even though there are other charges here. I think if a jury feels like the prosecutors arent shooting straight with them, it could eviscerate their entire argument. I think the prosecutors have a shot, though. I think the argument you have to make to a jury is, this guy sandbagged up. He went up there with an agenda, he never mentioned this in his prior sworn statements. It does make life harder, no doubt. What about the immunity point . Immunity does not mean that the medic has a permanent get out of jail free card, there is some risk to him. You can be charged with perjury. If a witness gets immunity, you can charge that person with perjury, if you can prove it. Could he be prosecuted for murder . He could. It means you cant use his testimony in that trial against him. If they end up charging the medic for murder, they cant say you testified in gallaghers trial that you did it, thats out the window. If they go find other evidence. If there was a cell phone video of the medic choking the victim, yes, you can charge him for murder. This prosecution has been plagued from the start. The head prosecutor in this case was taken off the case for unethical conduct. He inserted tracking software into emails he sent. The case is moving forward without the lead prosecutor there, and i think youre seeing it crumble before our eyes. Its absolutely i cant impress upon you enough how bad of a move this is. I got you. Thank you very much on that. Well keep watching it. Coming up next, this congresswoman who served for 20 years with nancy pelosi, is publicly breaking with the speaker of the house over an inquiry of the president. Ill ask her what her Tipping Point was. And why this weekend is a big one for the 2020 candi