Paul. Plus impeachment trial. After a month of jockeying between Senate LeaderMitch Mcconnell im going to take my cues from the president s lawyers. And Speaker Nancy Pelosi ill send them over when im ready. Pelosi finally moves to send articles of impeachment to the senate having won no republican concessions. She should have sent them a long time ago. What will the senate trial look like . Ill talk to one of the jurors, Democrat Michael bennet of colorado. And 22 days to iowa. Iowa. Iowa. Iowa caucuses. Will the impeachment trial hamstring the senators running as a new iowa poll shows what now looks like a fourway sprint. Joining me for insight and analysis are nbc news chief correspondent Andrea Mitchell, david french, Yamiche Alcindor and stevinskeep, host of morning edition. Welcome to sunday, its meet the press. Announcer from nbc news in washington, the longest running show in television history, this is meet the press with chuck todd. Good sunday morning. Think of this as a three i morning, iran, impeachment and iowa. You could article President Trumps killing of castle so castle soleimani was reckless and bold. But now did he pose an imminent threat . Antigovernment protests broke out in cities across iran after officials there admitted it was the Iranian Military that shot down a ukrainian passenger jet killing 176 people. Next theres impeachment. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi moved finally to send over articles of impeachment for a isnt the trial that could begin as early as this week. That was a victory for Mitch Mcconnell who resisted pelosis delay tactics and refuses to allowing new witnesses or the introduction of new evidence. And on iowa, a Des Moines Register poll released this weekend shows one more reshuffling at the top of the caucus race, now just three weeks away. Bernie sanders has jumped to the lead for the first time in this poll with Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg and joe biden all still within striking distance. No one else really that close. By the way, each of those top four candidates has now led the Des Moines Registers poll at least once at some point in the last year. That gap between first and fourth, as you saw there, is well within the margin of error. Typically iowa would be our lead sunday story three weeks before the caucuses but this race has been overshadowed by events in washington and oversees. After a threeweek delay and grumbling from some democrats, pelosi signalled she will send articles of impeachment to the senate this week. We are concerned that the senators will not be able to live up to the oath that they must take to have an impartial trial. And she denied democrats were divided over her delay. Absolutely, total cooperation. There will be no haggling with the house over senate procedure. We will not cede our authority to try this impeachment. But several republican senators are joining with democrats, pressing mcconnell to allow some witnesses to testify. At this stage id like to hear from john bolton and other witnesses with direct information. I am working with a group of republican senators and our leaders to see if we can come to an agreement. President trump is promising to block boltons testimony, now tying impeachment to iran tensions. After the killing of iranian general soleimani. Weve got to take this guy out, were not going to have another shot at him maybe ever again. But i cant make it now because im trying to impeach trump. Highlighting new protests in iran, praising its brave, longsuffering people after irans admission saturday that human error brought down a ukrainian plane while the country was on high alert for a possible american counterattack. Thats after shifting explanations from the Trump Administration to justify the soleimani killing. We did it because they were looking to blow up our embassy. He was looking very seriously at our embassies and not just the embassy in baghdad. I can reveal that i believe it would have been four embassies. That claim contradicts many of secretary of state mike pompeos explanations. There were a series of imminent attacks that were being plotted by caqassem soleimani. We dont know precisely when and we dont know precisely where. We had specific information on an imminent threat and those threats included attacks on u. S. Embassies, period, full stop. You were mistaken when you said you didnt know precisely when and you didnt know precisely where . No, completely true. Those are completely consistent thoughts. But on capitol hill where senators were briefed by top military and intelligence officials not one word of that was mentioned. Proebably the worst briefing ive seen at least on a military issue on the nine years ive served in the United States senate. And the president s democratic opponents have been energized by the Foreign Policy contrast. This is a moment that requires strong, steady, stable leadership. President trumps actions represent a dangerous escalation that brings us closer to yet another disastrous war in the middle east. And joining me now is the National Security advisor, Robert Obrien. Ambassador obrien, welcome back to meet the press. Great to be with you, chuck. Let me start with the imminent threat situation, because no one in the administration talked about specific embassies at all. It was a very vague explanation that we got from various officials, whether it was yourself, secretary pompeo, secretary esper, but heres what the president said on friday evening. I want to play it and get some information on the other side. Here it is. I believe it would have been four embassies, and i think that probably baghdad already started. Baghdad certainly would have been the lead, but i think it would have been four embassies. It could have been military bases, it could have been a lot of other things too. Four embassies. If they were targeting four embassies, did you guys see that as a declaration of war by iran . Thats a big thing. What four embassies are we talking about here . We were very concerned about the situation. We had exquisite intelligence. They were looking at u. S. Facilities throughout the region and they wanted to inflict casualties on american soldiers, sailors and marines as well as diplomats. The threat was imminent. I saw the intelligence. Theres been a lot of discussion of the intelligence and i know everyone would like to see it. Id love to have the intelligence out there. Unfortunately, if we declassified it, we could lose that stream of intelligence that will allow us to protect americans Going Forward so we cant. But the president s interpretation of that intelligence is very consistent with it and so, look, i think this has been this has been a washington thing. I think when we tell the American People that there was exquisite intelligence and there was going to be an attack on americans, we had to stop that. This is what the Washington Post is reporting. The embassy in baghdad did not receive an alert commensurate to the threat that President Trump described, said a person familiar with the situation who was not authorized to comment publicly. When the u. S. Government has specific information about threats to embassies, warnings or alerts, they are often sent to Embassy Personnel to be vigilant. No one in baghdad was told. Why was that . This was a very fast situation. Soleimani was traveling around the region plotting against the United States. As soon as it looked like there was going to be some sort of action against a u. S. Embassy, the president was decisive and bold in his action. We moved an army platoon in and put apache helicopters in the air. We made it very clear this was not going to be 1979 or benghazi. That was one embassy. What did you do for the other three embassies . We took measures with respect to other embassies in the region. Im not going to get into the pl details and give our playbook to the other side. We were very concerned about other embassies in the region. There seems to be a disconnect here. Is it the definition of imminent . Do you guys see the is imminent months, not weeks . Are people misinterpreting that word . I think imminent generally means soon, quickly, in process. Okay. So i think those threats were imminent. I dont want to get into the definition further than that, but we took the measures necessary to protect american diploma diplomats. I think what you see because of the prompt action that we took both with respect to the embassy in baghdad, which they would have attempted to overrun and storm, and with respect to our military bases that were hit by the iranians with their Ballistic Missiles, there was no loss of American Life in either case. I think thats a credit to the president of the United States. If you were so concerned soleimani was about to launch an imminent attack on as many as four different embassies, why do you think the iranian response was so muted . I dont think it was a muted response. They fired off 16 Ballistic Missiles at iraqi bases where american and Coalition Forces were. Theyre accepting it as a muted response. They issued warnings, they let everybody know in advance. We were able to protect ourselves. It seems as if they telegraphed it on paragraph. They issued warnings they were going to retaliate, they didnt issue warnings what they were going to do. Weve got fantastic systems that can pick up launches of Ballistic Missiles in space, Early Warning systems. Because of our diligence and vigilance, we were able to make sure that the american soldiers in those areas were dispersed. Look, i think its a pretty serious thing when you fire off 16 Ballistic Missiles. Now, because no americans were killed, the president showed great restraint in responding. The iranians appear to be standing down. Were putting additional economic sanctions on the iranians and they will continue to receive the maximum Pressure Campaign. What is our posture . The u. S. Government and the Trump Administrations posture. If iran it looks like theyre trying to expand their nuclear capabilities. The president said no Nuclear Weapon. What does that mean if hes saying that . Because i know some senators have asked if youre going if stopping them from getting a Nuclear Weapon is a top priority, then dont you need to go to congress to essentially get authority to do that . There are a number of ways to stop them from getting a Nuclear Weapon. The president made it very clear when he walked out and gave his speech, which i thought was a great speech the morning after the missile attack. The first thing he said before saying good morning was iran will never of a Nuclear Weapon. That is u. S. Policy. Right now weve got a maximum Pressure Campaign that is strangling the regime, their economy is contracting dramatically. The people of iran are upset, theyre protesting. They have been protesting for some time. They have been brutally put down in ways the press has been not been covering and we think the regime is in real trouble. Not to the press does everything it can to cover. It is a very difficult country to cover. It is. Because this is not a press trying to omit things here. Id like that not to be a shot at us. Its a difficult place to cover because they have an authoritarian regime and they shut down the internet and there are more questions about what the United States is doing to try to help the people of iran than what the regime is doing. But i agree with you, its a tough place to cover because of the regime. Let me ask you to respond to something. Former senator jim webb, who was also a reagan secretary of navy and you know hes got very, very interesting views when it comes to war and peace and the constitution. He writes this. It is legally and logically impossible to define one part of a National Government as an International Terrorist organization without applying the term to that entire government. The revolutionary guards are part of the iranian government. If they are attacking us, they are not a terrorist organization, theyre an attacking army. He was basic we took out a commander of another countrys army. To call him a terrorist then at that point, if you are calling him a terrorist, then isnt everybody in that regime a terrorist by definition . In this case the quds force which operates outside of iran and foments revolution and terrorism in yemen, in syria where 500,000 people have been killed, in lebanon with hezbollah, in iraq, that organization has been designated legally as a terrorist organization. Soleimani was the head of it. Hes not just been designated by us, hes under a travel ban from the u. N. He shouldnt have been outside of iran. This was someone who was a leader of an organization that was engaged in terror. He was involved in plotting imminent attacks against the United States. The president made a very difficult decision but a Bold Decision to remove him from the battlefield. If he had not been designated officially as a terrorist, would he have been targeted on the battlefield . Thats a hypothetical. But what i will say and what the president has said is if there are folks out there that are planning to kill, maim and harm americans, thats a red line for us. Youve got to be very careful. If youre out trying to attack the United States of america, you better be careful. Let me ask you one final question on the issue of troops in iraq. Heres what President Trump said on friday to a fairly provocative question by laura ingraham, why not leave . Heres what he said. Why not leave . Im not so bad with it. When i heard that, i said, hmm, you know, i have it down to 5,000 troops. We had many, many troops there in iraq. And we train them. But if they want us to leave but they speak different publicly than they do privately. There is a bit of confusion sometimes. President trump seems like somebody that wants to leave iraq sooner rather than later. Secretary of state pompeo and some others in the National Security team are concerned about the strategic vacuum that that could leave and seem to push back. Is our official policy that were trying to get out of iraq or not . Look, wed like to get out of a lot of countries if we could. We want to bring american sailors, soldiers, airmen, marines home. Eventually wed like to get out of iraq. Weve been there for 17, 18 years now. I think it would be great and i think the president believes it would be great to get folks home, but we want to do it in a way that preserves the victory that we had against the caliphate. When President Trump came into the office, the caliphate was as big as great britain. Weve destroyed the physical caliphate and working with the iraqis so they can defend themselves against daesh but maintain a sovereign country visavis iran. Are you concerned in the four years President Trump has been in office weve sent more troops to the middle east than weve removed . I think our goal is to have a middle east thats stable, secure, with independent countries that their sovereignty is respected and americans can come home to the extent possible and thats what were working on. By the way, curtailing irans terrorist activities and proxy activities around the region will allow us to bring more troops home from all of those countries. Ambassador Robert Obrien, good to see you. Thank you for coming on and sharing your views. I appreciate it. Great to be with you. Joining me now from bowling green, kentucky, is senator rand paul. Senator paul, welcome back to meet the press, sir. Good morning. Let me start with what you have heard from the administration. You heard from the ambassador, i think, just now. Youve had other briefings. Do you feel as if you have got enough information to make you feel comfortable with what President Trump did . You know, i think weve heard contradictory information. Weve heard from the secretary of state that they dont know where or when but it was imminent. That to me does seem inconsistent. He thinks he can square the circle but to me it seems pretty inconsistent. To me theres a bigger question too, though, and this is what infuriated me about the briefing is they maintain both in private and in public that a vote by congress in 2003 or 2002 to go after Saddam Hussein was a vote that allows them to still be in iraq and do whatever they want, including killing a foreign general from iran. And i dont think thats what congress meant in 2002 nor do i think one generation can bind another generation. So my point in being for this war powers debate is that we really need to have a debate about whether we should still be in iraq or afghanistan, and there needs to be authorization from congress. I do want to get your reaction to something President Trump said, because he makes no apologies for not informing congress. Let me give you read play for you the explanation he gave. I a