Reporting begins now. Ten minutes, ten minutes before a planned strike on iran, the president asked how many people would die. He called it off. Thats the president s explanation for why he decided not to retaliate for the iranian take down of an american drone. The president spoke with chuck todd from nbc. They said came back, said, sir, approximately 150. 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. Here we are sitting with 150 dead people that would have taken place probably within a half hour after i said goahead. I didnt like it. I didnt think it was proportionate. Shepard the president said he never gave a final order for the operation and u. S. Military planes were not yet in the air but that they would have been pretty soon. President trump appears to have softened his tone towards iran and tehran in the latest round of escalation between the two countries. Iranian officials claim that they gave several warnings before shooting down the u. S. Drone, which they say was in their airspace. Pentagon Officials Say that is not true. They report it was an unprovoked attack and that the drones at least 20 miles from iranian airspace when it went down. Pentagon Officials Say this was a deliberate act from tehran. We have team fox coverage. Hillary vaughn reporting from capitol hill with lawmakers reaction. First, to rich edson reporting live from the white house. Rich . Shep, its unclear how, when or if the administration will respond to this attack on a u. S. Drone yesterday. What the Administration Says is international waters. More on that conversation that the president has on nbc news in which he details a little bit more about the hesitation he had about Going Forward with this attack. Never gave a final warn something. No, no, no. We had something ready to go subject to my approval. They came in about a half an hour before and said were about ready to go. I said i want a planes in the air . No. About ready to go. No, but they would have been pretty soon. Things would have happened to a point where you wouldnt turn back or couldnt turn back. The administration is stressing this all happened over international waters. So the iranian government said the aircraft did breach their territory, shep. Shepard the administration is coordinating with the saudis. Thats right. The white house says that President Trump spoke with the Saudi Crown Prince about this, mohammed bin salman. This is while the United States iran envoy, brian hook, is traveling in saudi arabia today. He says the u. S. Will maintain their Pressure Campaign and diplomacy has to met with diplomacy. Last month, the Trump Administration with drew from the 2015 iran nuclear agreement, restored sanctions, targeting their top experts in particular oil. Since then the u. S. Has really seen an uptick the last couple months, 1 1 2 months or so, according to u. S. Officials in iranian threats and activity in the region. Iran says theyre less than a week away from stockpiling enough uranium to violate the limits included in the 2015 nuclear deal. This is on going as the United States is seeing this increase in tension in the region. The iranian government claims the u. S. Maximum pressure and sanctions campaign is an assault against them and that response is happening across the region. Theres also a movement at the u. N. Security council according to a diplomat there that the United States has requested a meeting at the council on monday closed doors to discuss this. Shep . Shepard rich edson, thank you. Nancy pelosi, the second in line to the presidency, was not made aware of the u. S. Plans to strike iran so says her spoke person. Hillary vaughn continues team fox coverage on capitol hill. Hillary . Democrats on capitol hill are breathing a sigh of relief that the president decided not to go through with these attacks at the last minute. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants the president to take a deep breath and deescalate the situation with iran. Pelosi releasing this statement. She said Democratic Leaders emphasize that hostilities must not be initiated without the a approval of congress. Adam smith says the president s decision to ditch the strike at the last minute and then tweet a play by play about it sends the message to our adversaries that the president is indecisive. Its not the kind of thing you should say publicly when youre trying to show if you have a clear path, a clear plan and the result to followthrough. You had to know this is how iran would react. Once they reacted, what were you planning on doing . The answer is they werent sure. Thats problematic. The one thing that democrats in the house and senate want to make sure the president knows that congress ultimately has the decision if theres any military action taken against iran. Three Democratic Senators on the Senate ForeignAffairs Committee stood on the senate floor yesterday pushing for an amendment to the natural Defense Authorization act that would stop the president specifically from using any money for any military action against iran without congress signing off on it first, shep. Shepard what are you hearing from republicans . Have they one voice today or are there differing opinions . There are differing opinions. Kevin mccarthy on fox and friends this morning saying hes not judging the president for his lastminute decision to call off the strikes. He said he thinks the president has a larger goal in mind. I think the instance of what i saw yesterday, theyre wellprepared, composed of what theyre going to do, it will be measured but its all in the basis of getting the ultimate goal that iran can never achieve a nuclear weapon. Not every republican agrees. Adam kinsinger in a fox news radio interview says hes not happy about the decision by the administration to make a last minute change of plan. He says that he thinks it could potentially make the president look weak. He also said that if theres no u. S. Response to iran hitting this drone down, he thinks that will ultimately be a hit on the president s credibility. Shepard . Shepard Hillary Vaughn with team fox coverage. Thanks. More on the back and forth ahead and the explanation for what happened here with Chris Wallace next. Plus, a Hollywood Star might not be off the hook after all. Major developments in the case of the fox show empire and jussie smollett. Now he could end up back in court. 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He spent some time on the phone and that during the 6 00 hour or whenever it was, ten minutes before go, he called it off. Because of the 150 that he just learned about. Something is wrong there. Yeah, i talked to a former top National Security official earlier Republican Administration who says this just doesnt add up. That if when the president meets with his top pentagon people, they give him a very thorough list, a menu of targets saying you can hit this target, hit that target. If you do, heres the possible casualties. They run through the whole thing. This is a routine thing that the military does in these kinds of situations. Its at that point that a president would have been fully briefed by the generals as to if you hit target a, heres the dangers or heres the possible collateral damage. So the idea that the president ten minutes before the actual go again, the New York Times is reporting that the ships were in place, the war planes were in the air, ten minutes before youre learning for the first time that there was going to be 150 casualties seems unlikely and certainly not the way its been done in the past. Shepard how is this different from president obama pulling back from the red line in syria . Its a question you have to ask yourself. First, you ask yourself, if what happened yesterday had happened under president obama where the president gives the order to strike, that the planes are in the air and ten minutes before he pulls them back, what would have been the reaction from republicans and probably democrats as well . You dont have to entirely guess because we know. It wasnt nearly this much of a hair trigger where the president , president obama, set the red line back in 2012 and said if Bashar Alassad had another chemical weapons attack that that would be the red line, the trigger for military action. Before he had ordered it, he pulled back. He got hammered. President obama got hammered. One of the people he got hammered by was donald trump who was recently in 2017 as president said this sent a signal of weakness not only to syria but around the world about what american resolve is and about what the word of the president meant. Now we have this happening by President Trump on his watch. Shepard does this impact the United States ability to deter iran . Well, i think it depends. First of all, we dont know there might be a strike tomorrow or when ever. The u. S. Obviously still has enormous capabilities. But you dont have to think to yourself that the president had talked about getting tough. A lot of people talked, not the president , about taking action after the mining of those two tankers in the gulf of oman last week. Heres a u. S. Asset, a u. S. Drone, 130 billion plane that is shot down. You know, you dont have to level tehran. According to the New York Times, you can take out radar batteries, take out missile installations in the middle of the night. I couldnt imagine there would have been 150 people around them. The president at the last minute decided not to do that. It does send a signal. The u. S. Is still the u. S. And still has enormous assets in the region. I dont think the mullahs in iran think that they have a green light to do what they want. Shepard a pattern here with north korea, with venezuela and now in continuing the pattern with iran. He uses the military as a negotiating chip and then the adversary waits him out. You have a real conflict here between the president. The president does talk tough and he has used force. He has used cruise missiles twice to go after syria and Bashar Alassad after the use of chemical weapons. First time he did it in april of 2017. The point was made. He was going to enforce the red line that barack obama did not. But on the other hand for all of the talk about it, the president campaigned on and seems to not want to get the u. S. In more endless wars. I dont know if it would be endless but a serious arms conflict with iran would be a really ugly and prolonged battle. Theres no way to get out of that easily. The other hand as we saw with Ronald Reagan in the 80s with cue kuwaity tankers, that doesnt mean anything. Shepard anybody heard from john bolton today . I havent. Have you . Shepard no. I wonder if he will keep working there. I dont know. I would think he wouldnt be especially happy about this. Shepard hes been dreaming about hitting the iranians since fluff was a kitten. Shes a full grown cat. Is that a mississippi expression . Shepard i think its mine. The fact is its one of his primary objectives since long before he worked here. Thats a top of the john bolton list, strike iran. Lets just talk about this sensibly. On the one hand, a lot of us are saying why didnt you strike . If he had struck, in people would say should he have done that. Shepard im not passing judgment on anything he did or didnt do. Only pointing out that the explanation as you said doesnt make sense. Doesnt hold together. The timeline for when he learned information and when he decided to act. Doesnt make a lot of sense. In a sense, maybe thats the biggest problem. You can argue if you dont want to strike, dont strike. If you want to strike, strike. Dont send mixed messages no and tweet it out. Well shepard an observation, not a critique. Looking forward to the program, chris. I am, too. Were going to have tom cotton on. Senator from arkansas. A real hardliner on iran. Even after the tankers, he said they needed a military response. Curious to hear what he has to say. We dont know in 48 hours, perhaps we have taken military action. Well talk to tom cotton about that. Shepard all right, chris. Have a great weekend. Same to you. Shepard thank you. Scientists say they found a way to genetically modify the salmon so they grow nearly twice as fast as regular salmon. With salmon like that becomes like that. There you do. Franken food. It could be on your plate soon, the big huge salmon. You might not know it because they cut them in small pieces before they serve it to you and dont put the sign in there that says franken food. The university of California School system rolling out rules after the College Admission scandal. Pdq. ding hey, who are you . Oh, hey jeff, im a car thief. What . im here to steal your car because, well, thats my job. What . What . . What . laughing what . . What . what . [crash] what . haha, it happens. 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