What legislation has them literally running from the law . Welcome to the lead. We begin this friday with breaking news in our world lead and a stunning about face by the commander in chief, President Trump ordering a retaliatory strike against iran for shooting down an unmanned surveillance drone yesterday. The pentagon had targeted three different sites but then just minutes before the strikes were carried out, President Trump changed his mind. He says he did this because he was concerned about civilian casualties be p the president casualties. The president tweeted we were co cocked and loaded. Ten minutes before the strike i stopped it. 10 minutes is now 30 and it remains unclear in the jets were in the air President Trump says they were not. The New York Times says they we were. The comments raise the question until President Trump didnt know about that moment until the death toll. Reporter lawmakers have been expressing confuse because when youre making a decision on this scale, such a grave decision, thats something that the president would be briefed on very early on by his National Security officials. Instead the president says that was a last minute question he had and that was the factor that changed the president s mind. Jake, weve been doing reporting behind the scenes all day and this is president who was hesitant about carrying out this strike in the first place. I didnt think it was proportional. Reporter today President Trump explaining his last minute decision to call of his planned strike on iran. Nothing is green lighted until the very end because things change. Reporter telling nbc news he stopped the retaliatory attack in the 11th hour after being told 150 people would likely die. They said wooeed like a decision. How many people will be killed. Reporter its information the commander in chief would get when being presented with military options. I didnt like it. I didnt think it was proportional. Reporter the president denied it was so last minute that planes were already in the air. No, but they would have been pretty soon. Things would have happened to a point where you wouldnt turn back or couldnt turn back. Reporter its a decision that pits the president against his top advisers. Sources tell cnn secretary of state mike pompeo and National Security adviser john bolton favored striking iran while outside advisers reminded him of his promise to get the u. S. Out of wars, not in them. In tend, trump opted for restranr restraint over retaliation. What those sanctions will look like or when they will go into effect is still unclear. Some republicans are against trumps retreat. It will send the message that the redline may not be so red. Reporter while democrats are praising the move. I dont think people should be jumping down the president s throat for wanting to think this through and make sure that neither side miscalculates and we dont end up in a war with iran. Reporter others said pulling back is a sign of the indecision in the west wing. They should not be saying stuff like that publicly because it gives a level of indecision that i dont think is helpful to us. Reporter in his tweet the president said that new sanctions were added against iran last night but that is not true. The Treasury Department hasnt announced any new sanctions against iran. Today in a speech the treasury secretary did say that additional counter pressures will be imposed. We asked why did the white house make the claim about more sanctions being imposed and they have not gotten back to us. President said a red line do this. Im going to take military action and many president s find it difficult to jump over to the other side of that red line. At the pentagon, they were ready to go and the call came that the strike was not going to happen. Todays president ial statement that he found it not to be a proportional strike because the estimate was 150 iranians might get killed. Its pretty interesting because the military has to have strikes be signed off as being legally sufficient and one of the things that has to happen for their to be a u. S. Military strike anywhere in the world there has to be proportional use of force. Thats a very clear legal standards. The president has his opinion that 150 iranians was not proportional force but he is not going to have options in front of him from the pentagon that are not legally sufficient. It was sufficient. He decided against it. Now where we are is the pentagon continues to have ships and aircraft very much after the ready in the middle east. They are always on a state of alert and if the iranians were to engage in another provocati n provocation, we could be right back here. The president has to do what he wants to do. The president could even if the iranians dont want to do anything new, launch a strike with fewer or no civilian casualties. Any other plans being drawn up . Its the cliche but true that the u. S. Military alwayss h has plans. One of the things the pentagon has cautioned the state department about is its very difficult to estimate an iranian reaction if the u. S. Was to strike. How do you have a limited military strike option and be somewhat sure that the iranians will not take it. Thats always a very significant worry. All right. Thanks so much. Obama said that Bashar Al Asad using chemical weapons would be a red line and he did and president obama ultimately did not take military action. He did not cross the red line, so to speak. Are you surprised that President Trump also felt a similar reluctance to take military action that could cast peoples lives. The se nacenarios are differ. President obama set through hours and hours of meetings in the situation roothe swa situation room as had his team. I think even those of us who are mot not supporters of President Trump should be relieved he didnt take military action. We dont need to hold him to saying he would when not doing it is the right thing or i think its the right thing. In this case, my concern is if you look at the National Security team thats supporting him thats hes consulting with, its like they are playing a game of battleship. That little kids game. Like they are proving their masculinity by more aggressive language and threats. Thats not the way anybody should be advising the president. Im happy to see he pulled the team back but im still concerned about where i want goes from here. I find it hard to believe that the first time the casualty number was presented to President Trump was at the end when he asked about it. He nigmight not have heard it o internalized it but thats like one of first things that would be presented, i would think. It may have been but he may have gone back to it again. Hes saying wait a minute, read this back again. What are the human casualties going to be. I appreciate jens comments saying this was the right thing to do. Im waiting for the trump critics to think hes chaotic and sometimes question his mental capacities and all the things they say about the president. Here he was as the commander in chief with a lot of things on the line and very serious decisions to make and he made a decision that people are saying is the right decision. I think its the most important thing for us to focus on. Hes not trying to get into this conflict. Hes trying to put the Iranian Regime under sanctions and have a different Foreign Policy with them without going to war with them. He just demonstrated that with this decision here. If something does happen further down the road, well know he was reluctant to do it. Senior republican source told cnn our adversaries are far more likely to attack our interests if they think they wont have to pay a price for that. That is, obviously, one of the things that President Trump is being told by people on his National Security team, lindsey graham, more hawkish people. You have to do something or the iranians think they will get away with it. He did do something that a republican critic said this is the most human thing ive ever seen President Trump do, meaning it as a compliment. For people who worried, and there were many that he would be erratic or emotional in a situation like this and fire off missiles to prove his masculinity. That didnt happen and is reassuring. There are other parts that are incredibly disturbing. There fact there was no process. We dont have an acting secretary of defense. We dont even have an acting deputy secretary of defense. Theres no acting secretary of the air force. The pentagon should have been front and center. Its still technically acting. But hes on his way out. The locust was all about trump. It should have come from the pentagon. Pe pentagon should have been front and center. The president is erratically start of switching sides and making changing his mind suddenly. Were told that bolton, pence, pompeo, all of them were in favor of launching the strikes. Ultimately the president went against it. I think we get in trouble when we start trying to think of donald trump making decisions the way most politicians make decisions. What i wonder about, i dont know this, but what i wonder is if you look at the way he behaved with north korea, with an mexico around tariffs. He likes to start a forest fire, threaten everys fire and be the only guy around with hoses to put out the house. What hes been doing is getting iran to the point where they would do something that would be provocative so he could be the one to save that. Weve been told he went to the omanis to get a deal and get conversations started. The iranians said no thank you. Is it possible they said if you want to start a fight and they started a fight and he pulled back. Sgh intere interesting. Children sleeping on concrete floors, wearing dirty clothes, being forced to take care of toddlers. These are the horrifying conditions some children are dealing with along the border. Stay with us. Terflies arent actually in the room . Hey, that baker ladys on tv again. Shes not a baker. She wears that apron to sell insurance. Nobody knows why. Shes the progressive insurance lady. They cover pets if your owner gets into a car accident. Covers us with what . You got me. [ scoffs ] shes an insurance lady. And i suppose this baker sells insurance, too . Progressive protects your pets like you do. 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Somewhere with a million troops guarding nearly the size of texas. In iraq, shiaa militias could go of troops and contractors still there. Hezbollah supported by ie roon and considered a terrorist group could turn on american outposts there. Theres only few hundred troops left but those numbers could make them vulnerable. In lebanon, hezbollahagainst is which is an important u. S. Ally. The conflict in yemen could be another flash point with rebels staging attacks on u. S. And saudi forces in saudi arabia and a united ar d a rad arab emirat afghanistan, iran has fighters that could turn on u. S. Troops with renewed fury if the iranian homeland were attacked. They could try to shut down the strait of hormuz through which onefifth of the worlds Petroleum Supply passes. The missiles would have the range to hit u. S. Military basis throughout the region. None of this has to happen if the u. S. Strikes iran. Jake, military and political analysts know all of it could. All right. Thanks so much. I want to bring in democratic congressman elliot angel. You were briefed on the situation with iran yesterday. Were you told about any plans for if a strike. Have you heard more . Yesterday i left the meeting with the president and other members of the house and senate with the definite feeling we were going to strike iran. I was very surprised when i heard the news to the contrary earlier this morning. The president didnt go into details but gave strong feelings we were going to retaliate. It seems rather unlikely ta any military plan would be presented to the president without a casualty assessment as one of the first two or three bullet points. Im being told by pentagon sources that yes they did. Do you understand the idea about President Trump being told not towards the end or not understanding or asking about towards the end what the casualty assessment was. I dont know what the story was there but it is logical. Just take logic. This would be one of the first questions, if not the first question that the president of the United States would ask his people. Find it difficult to believe that he waited until the very end to do it. Perhaps he had some mixed feelings about it and that was plausible after the meeting we had. I was shocked this morning when i heard he had done an about face. Do you think he made a mistake by doing the about face . Do you think he should have carried out the strike . Whats your feelings about the ultimate final decision . I hope that perhaps this will lead to calmer heads prevailing. We dont want confrontation with iran. I dont wliek thlike what they. The leading state sponsor of terrorism in the world but i dont think that a war with iran given all we know about what happened in iraq and other places is something we should strive for. Quite the opposite. We should make sure that we work with our allies. We have our allies. France, the uk, germany. We need to work with them. Do you have any concerns that the president making this about face, pulling back from the strike will emboellden iran at l all . Its hard to say. I dont know what went on behind the scenes once the president made a decision to not do it. I would hope we could use this an an opportunity to try to calm the situation. By the way, as you know, president s have been using the 2001 aumf. Authorization of military force against afghanistan. They used it as a catch all for everything. We reject that in terms of using it for the situation now. You think the president needs to come to congress to get the authority to strike iran if he wants to . Absolutely. I think he needs to come to congress. Individual strike, in terms of going to war, were a coequal branch of government. Its very important that congress have a say in it. Weve not had a declared war where congress has declared war since world war ii. We dragged into war in iraq. We dragged into other wars and each president impunity. The Foreign Affairs committee dont want the see that and we want to make sure theyre not using any kind of excuse to drag us into war with 2001 aumf which is irrelevant when it comes to this situation with iran. Youre right. President s bush and obama, before trump, used it to do whatever they wanted to do. Yes. Thanks so much for joining us. Thanks. Joe bidens controversial remarks could come to a head tonight. Thats next. In my line of work, i come facetoface with a lot of behinds. So i know theres a big need for new gasx maximum strength. It relieves pressure, bloating and discomfort fast. So no one needs to know youve got gas. Gasx. Wouldnt it be great to get a phone too . Et a wireless plan, so no one needs to know youve got gas. Switch to sprint and get an unlimited plan with the Samsung Galaxy s10e included. For just 35 a month. Its a big deal. For people with hearing loss, visit sprintrelay. 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