Mattis Question News Today

Shan wu. lets get to white lawyers instructing a witness not to answer any question because of executive privilege. >> its like qualified immunity, if theyre acting in the scope of their jobs. its testing the boundary here, theyre being very aggressive. theres a three-tier defense, one is absolute, meaning they cant be compelled to talk, period. second, they can go to the more traditional executive privilege. and third is hope hicks saying i dont remember. the last quote you just played from her...

A vat of butane, were told, exploded. you could feel it in southern new jersey, delaware county, pennsylvania. another kind of reminder of the global nature of the oil market and this refinery clearly adding to some of the worries here, jim. >> no question. christine romans, thanks very much. were start to get some reaction from republicans on the presidents decision to pull back with minutes to go on the strike in iranian. cnn correspondent jamie gangel is getting more details. comparisons to...

The other possibility is, if youre told there are going to be a lot of deaths, one senior republican who has worked in past administrations in situations like this said to me, so go back and lets ask for a target where there would be fewer potential, you know, fatalities. >> thats the thing, typically theres a menu of options ranging from more to less aggressive. >> exactly. >> tell us about this administration here, who to your understanding is pushing for a more aggressive stance -- folks are ...

That can shoot cruise missiles in the vicinity, and they were in the vicinity, as always, last night. there are aircraft capable of dropping bombs always on station. so, you know, the military would have in fact been ready to go, awaiting that final presidential thumbs up, because thats basically how they operate. they dont go from a cold start. they have everything in place, ready to go, ready to execute any time any president gives the final thumbs-up. the interesting question is did the presi...

And im assuming that the pentagon was on the same page, but we dont know exactly that. but what do we know about the pentagon? acting secretary of defense. a new acting secretary of defense. when you dont have a figure like mattis who is a strong figure, it is a point, and some republicans have said to me that theyre concerned that iran took this opportunity because they see that this is a vulnerable point in time, because of all of these actings throughout the administration. >> understood. jam...