Screenshot/Fox News
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
- Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said during a Thursday night interview that the administration didn't know "precisely where" and "when" an allegedly imminent Iranian attack would occur.
- This came just hours after the president claimed - without offering evidence - the Iranian leader the US assassinated last week was plotting to bomb the US Embassy in Iraq.
- "There is no doubt that there were a series of imminent attacks that were being plotted by Qassem Soleimani and we don't know precisely when and we don't know precisely where, but it was real," Pompeo said.
On Thursday, the House voted to approve a war-powers resolution, which would bar Trump from taking any new military actions against Iran without congressional authorization.
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During an interview with Fox News on Thursday night, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the Trump administration didn't know "precisely when" or "where" an allegedly imminent Iranian attack would occur.
This came just hours after the president claimed - without offering any evidence - the Iranian leader the US assassinated last week was plotting to bomb the US Embassy in Iraq.
"There is no doubt that there were a series of imminent attacks that were being plotted by Qassem Soleimani and we don't know precisely when and we don't know precisely where, but it was real," Pompeo said.
He sidestepped a question about the accuracy of Trump's claim about the embassy attack plot, pointing to the Iranian-backed Iraqi militia members who'd surrounded and "penetrated" the embassy in the days leading up to the US strike on Iran.
"I don't think there's any doubt that Soleimani had intentions, not only to take action against our forces and our diplomats in Iraq, but in other countries and regions around the world as well," Pompeo went on.
Defense Secretary Mark Esper insisted on Tuesday that the government was forced to "act in self-defense" by killing Soleimani to prevent an attack on the US within "days," but has not made public any information regarding a specific threat.
Democratic - and a few Republican - lawmakers were infuriated by a classified briefing they received from the Trump administration on Wednesday concerning the US strike that killed Soleimani and a top Iraqi militant leader.
The lawmakers said they weren't provided any evidence of an imminent and specific threat posed by Soleimani - evidence of which is required to legally launch an attack without prior congressional authorization.
Republican Sen. Mike Lee called the briefing, which Pompeo helped lead, "probably the worst briefing, at least on a military issue, I've seen in nine years I've been here."
Pompeo insisted that he and other administration officials "did a dynamite job" and "our level best" in informing lawmakers.
On Thursday, the House voted to approve a war-powers resolution, which would bar Trump from taking any new military actions against Iran without congressional authorization. The Senate has yet to vote on the concurrent resolution.
"There were a series of imminent attacks that were being plotted by Qasem Soleimani," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says. "We don't know precisely when, and we don't know precisely where."
That last part seems significant.
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- David Gura (@davidgura) January 10, 2020