Fair shake . Hes going to join me live as well. Plus, the media Storm Brewing around buckingham palace. How the british tabloids perhaps pushed prince harry and Meghan Markle out of their duties. Picking up where fareed left off. Our top story. President trump supporting press freedom, not in the United States but in iran. Weighing in on twitter about the recent protests. Hes tweeting this, among other things, turn your internet back on in iran. Let reporters roam free. Dont kill and arrest the protesters that have taken to the street. All of these have been in response to iran admitting to the accidental shootdown of ukrainian flight 752. Of course iran denied for days and days that it was responsible for the crash and then finally admitted it, it fessed up under the pressure. These are sundays front pages. Many of them in shades of black trying to hold the government accountable describing the suspected coverup as unforgivable and a catastrophe, offering apologies and paying tribute to victims and telling senior officials to apologize and resign. This is all notable because irans media is incredibly tightly controlled by the state. When you see criticism of iran in iranian media its usually with the approval or the permission of the government so it is striking to see a front page like this in the shape of an airplane with the names of the victims. The Washington Post says zion was jailed for doing their job. This is a make or break moment for the iran regime. Trump is right about press restrictions in the country. Hes right reporters arent always allowed to roam free. Lets put up the top ten most censored countries list. Iran is one of the top ten most censored countries citing hacking, trolling campaigns. Journalists in the country are frequently arrested, jailed. When you are trying to report in iran, you have typically freedom of movement in tehran, the capital, but you have to get permission to go to other parts of the country. Those are some of the reasons why the u. S. President is urging tehran to let them roam free. The president clearly hearing the voices of the protesters there. How does this fit into the larger picture, the larger story thats unfolding in the long growing con between the u. S. And iran. With me to discuss is james fallows. Retired rear admirable john kirby and in london is media and Business Reporter hadas gold in london. Thank you all for being here. Let me set the table first. What weve seen from the president on twitter all weekend long supporting these protesters in iran and also, you know, continuing to Pay Attention to the subject. We talked a week ago about twitter war. Now are we seeing twitter diplomacy on the social media platform, kirby . Is that whats going on here . Twitter has really become the public place of diplomacy in a way that i dont think weve seen it in recent years. We talk about normal channels of diplomacy. We talk about the back channels of diplomacy. We certainly hope the back channels are being used between the United States and iran. Twitter is something of a front channel. It allows leaders to communicate when they dont have any other vehicles to do it. It lacks nuance and context. I get that. I thought it was notable in the night of the al assad air attack that the president and mr. Zsa reek used twitter to try to deescalate tension. That was interesting. It was. Some were saying twitter played a role in helping cooler heads prevail. James, what was your reaction of the u. S. And iran conflict . Youve written in the past about just how dreadful, how devastating all out war between the two countries would be. I think one of the ongoing challenges for the u. S. News media and that of the world is having what ive often written about is a tragic imagination of the consequences of war. Weve seen in the last couple of days nobody would have predicted these protests in iran, the way that newspapers there are speaking out. This is one of the unexpected consequences of the strike a little bit more than a week ago ordered by donald trump. I think the idea that you dont know what you are starting when you initiate military action is something that is has become distant from the American Public as in the generations without a draft, in the generations without Congress Taking accountability for the war powers and the difficulty for news media saying if this step happens, what might happen . X, y, z. Thats whats on my mind at the moment. How is this being covered across the pond or in europe . I notice in america you turn on the television commercials, theres a lot of sensitivity or discomfort suggesting that flight 752 and the deaths of all of those passengers had anything to do with the United States, but its different in europe, isnt it . It is different here. I mean, to be honest, this is seen i think in a lot of countries in europe as something thats between the between iran, the United States, canada and ukraine and they are covering it, of course, from all of these angles to be honest. I think a lot of the attention has been on the royals which i know we will be talking about later. Oh, yeah. Its also interesting though to see kind of the conversation sometimes focusing on how much at fault is the United States involvement in shooting down the airliner. Of course, everybody is saying its not the u. S. Who shot down the airliner, but i have been listening to some of the top programs here and its interesting to have on guests who suggest that because of the tensions amping up that has something to do with it. There is a british iranian woman imprisoned and her husband came out and he is blaming it squarely on donald trump. Its harder for him to bring his wife home. Another thing i found interesting, brian, is this reticence perhaps to take on the government line, the u. S. Government line. I think thats not just because of Donald Trumps own history that weve seen with making false statements and of course the wavering stories weve seen about maybe how many embassies were targeted by soleimani. I think its this historical look. Look at whats been happening for years whether its the iraq war, benghazi, the news media is becoming much more policy gives as a reason for action like these. The shifting purpose is something were going to talk about in the next segment. Its remarkable hearing the president saying he believes something was going to happen without citing the intelligence. This relates to broader access of u. S. Government officials, and that involves press briefings. Admiral kirby, you were one of 13 former press secretaries from the white house, pentagon, state department. Come out with an open letter, why America Needs to hear from its government. Why did you feel this needed to be written now . What are the benefits of briefings that are being lost right now . I think press briefings, we wrote about this in the letter, provide a measure of accountability and scrutiny of the decisions they are making, but it also helps makes better decisions. It helps the policy making process when you have the ideas churned out there in the free press every single day. When i was the pents gone press secretary, i briefed twice a week. When i went to the state and realized there was a daily press briefing, i asked the staff do we need to do this every day . I was glad we kept it going. Theres so much going on. More critically i found that we as a state department made better decisions because we were getting the constant scrutiny from the press. When you ask why now, where are we visavis iran, it doesnt appear that the decisionmaking process was in fact very robust. It needs to be challenged because the tensions with iran arent getting any lower right now and i think we need to i think the American People have a right to know that the kind of decisions that their elected leaders are making have been informed by context and deeper understanding. Were not getting any of that, no daily briefing, how these decisions are being processed. The white house responded by saying these are a lot of d. C. Swamp creatures. How offended were you . No, i wasnt. Hogan knows better than to say that kind of crap . It was sophomoric. I have a thick skin. You cant be at two podiums without thick skin. Thats true. I do think it was important for us to lay this marker down. They talk about how accessible the president is, brian. Not an either or. The president should be accessible and there should be briefings, all of the above. The briefings give you accountability. Its not just about access, its about accountability. Thats whats lacking. What do you make of this briefing debate . Admirable kirby was an exemplary representative of the government at the pent gone and the government. Theres more than the d. C. Swamp creatures, quote, unquote. In a democracy the information comes out. Eventually the American Public knew that the gulf of tonkan resolution was put together on phony premises. Eventually they learned about the false premises for the iraq war. Just within the last week weve learned about the ever shifting rationalizations for the imminent threat in this case including in the last few hours that the secretary of state said donald trump believed something was true. Democracies eventually learn the truth. Better for the administration, military, public if we shorten the time that it takes to learn that truth because people on our side, the other side will be killed. Money will be spent. History will be changed. We deserve to know the truth. James, youve said in the past if this president were any other person, if he was the ceo of a bank or if he was, know, the leader of some other institution, that the board would have removed him by now. Do you feel thats true on a day like today when you see these tweets from the president calling nancy pelosi crazy . All of the stuff thats become normal . I will propose a thought experiment for your audience. Try to think of a personality like the one thats currently in the white house in any other position of responsibility as the pilot of your airplane, as the principle of your childrens school, as the boss you have of a company, as a doctor you go to. Somebody driving a school bus. Would you want somebody with this kind of temperament to be in a position where other peoples welfare depends on him or her . My guess is no. To you is that what impeachment is fundamentally about, not ukraine but this fitness question . So i think that the crafters of the constitution of impeachment, they had a broad mandate in mind. They thought the president should have very serious powers but there should be some check. There was some fail safe as in the federalist papers they wrote with eloquence. To me theres not that much new in what donald trump has shown in office as when he was campaigning. I wrote in the daily chronical when he was running. I think of tangible misuses of public power, which is the contention especially of the ukraine case and of this not completely unsealed refusal to acknowledge congresss constitutional right to call witnesses, to have executive officials come there. To me they justify the constitutional check and balance that the drafters provided for. So, yes, impeachment. And impeachment is going to be back in the news this week as pelosi hands the articles off to the senate. Its been over shadowed by iran for the past two weeks but coming back. Gentlemen, thank you. The trump edition. My he is yeah about the president s beliefs and the reality. Bill welsh has his thoughts after the debate. Bare my skin yeah thats all me. Nothing and me go hand in hand nothing on my skin thats my new plan. Nothing is everything. Keep your skin clearer with skyrizi. 3 out of 4 people achieved 90 clearer skin at 4 months. Of those, nearly 9 out of 10 sustained it through 1 year. And skyrizi is 4 doses a year, after 2 starter doses. I see nothing in a different way and its my moment so i just gotta say nothing is everything skyrizi may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. Before treatment your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis. Tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms such as fevers, sweats, chills, muscle aches or coughs, or if you plan to or recently received a vaccine. Nothing is everything ask your dermatologist about skyrizi. I am totally blind. And non24 can throw my days and nights out of sync, keeping me from the things i love to do. Talk to your doctor, and call 8442142424. Wyou can see relationships. Gy, connections. Patterns. You can see what others cant. Welcome back to reliable sources. We all know the saying the fog of war. With time and distance the truth emerges but with the killing of iranian general Qassem Soleimani the story is getting foggier, foggier overtime. The president lacks credibility. He is known for his constant lies and misleading claims. In the context of the u. S. iran conflict, theyre coming up with new and existing rationalizations for the soleimani strike. They said the iranians wanted to blow up the embassy in baghdad. Perhaps that was the imminent threat. Hours later he said soleimani was targeting other u. S. Embassies. Intelligence has not been provided to others. Today a large scale attacks planned for other embassies. Thats a smart question. Bringing up an important point, was the threat broader. Heres how trump reacted. I believe it would have been four embassies and i think that probably baghdad already started. So there we go. Hes talking about the protests outside the baghdad embassy. He said that was underway. He spirited a new benghazi. Four embassies. He says it again later on. Listen. But i think it would have been four embassies. Could have been military bases. Now he says it could have been military bases. This is big news. Laura ingram is going to follow up, right . Right . Why is nancy pelosi no, no followup there. Hes moving onto the democrats instead. Shes missing the story right in front of her but this comment from trump, four embassies, it was all over the place even though he hedged it with phrases like i believe, it could have, it would have been. Hes easing these kind of weasel words. He says i believe sometimes in order to promote an idea that doesnt actually have backing but the press, many networks, this idea was repeated and repeated. Watch. Qassem soleimani was planning to blow up the embassy in baghdad and three other embassies. Four embassies. Four embassies. Four, four, four. This goes on and on. Members of congress were not briefed on this four embassies threat. They dont know what trump was talking about. Aides have been telling newspapers, New York Times, Washington Post, et cetera, that they dont know where trump was getting this four embassies line. These shifting answers, these claims, they cant be called lies. We dont know if trump is lying, but theres this possibility that hes just making it up as he gees along, the scary possibility that he just makes it up. What is notable about that is that he claims the media makes things up. He likes to say the media makes up sources, invents anonymous sources. Is he projecting . Heres what he said later on. The wall street journal is reporting today that after the strike mr. Trump told associates he was under pressure to deal with general soleimani, being take him out, from gop senators he views as important supporters in the coming impeachment trial in the senate, associates said. Sounds like youve got a leaker in the white house or someone. They just made it up. Its fake news. Wall street journal . Leakers. They make it up. Theyre all very dishonest. Most of them i mean, 80 ever dishonest, really dishonest. They made that story up. There he is making up a percentage about whos dishonest. Listen, ingram focused on leakers instead of asking him about the core part of the reporting. It was not just the wall street journal, impeachment was on his mind talking about the strike. The New York Times is out with the same reporting. This is out there from multiple news sources and the most obvious explanation is that the times, the journal, other news outlets have reliable sources telling him this information. Its like akems razor. They have sources, they rely on them, they publish the reporting. Theyre not making it up. The president , his reputation, his credibility suggests otherwise. Lets talk more about this with gop president ial candidate bill weld. Thank you for being here. Pleasure. This soleimani strike, do you think the president is the projector in chief . Does he make up things like four embassies were targeted . I think he projects constantly. Whenever hes accused, he goes back and accuses them as being guilty of the same thing. Its a recognizable trope. Does seem like he makes some of these things up. I dont think anybody is trying to suggest soleimani was a good guy. There are all kinds of lies out there. And trying to excuse this terroristic behavior. Its about this is not about that. This is about anything whether the United States is making decisions based on accurate intelligence, which is something i thought trump cared about. Right. Well, i think the president has a loose grasp on the truth and on facts, and i agree with you. I think he does make things up as he goes along. Hes like one of these people who will say anything to get out of a conversation. When the press asks him a question he doesnt know the answer, he doesnt care what he says. Hell say the first thing that comes into his head. Whats it been like for you in recent months on the campaign trail . Do you feel like youre not just running against trump but the pro trump media as well . People say what about fox news . Ive been on there plenty. This is about donald j. Trump who demands exclusive loyalty from everybody. One bit of good news today, we know he wants reporters to roam free in iran, but the only problem is he doesnt want them to roam free in the United States because he says to us, a free press is the enemy of the people. And, you know, starting with jim comey, as far as i can tell, this president has demanded not only loyalty but exclusive loyalty from everybody. And, you know, not only have to be loyal to him, youve got to not be loyal to the truth. We saw that not only with comey but when he instructed the director of national intelligence, former senator dan coates to lie for him in connection with the Mueller Probe and three other people. Told them to create phony documents. He said, we cant do that. That would be a lie. He said, whats your point . He says, unless people are