Democrats applaud the killing of an american enemy, but warn of the consequences. Donald trump seems to have no plan. He seems to have no strategy. And take on each other. Bernie sanders hits joe biden for his baggage and biden responses. Ill take to elizabeth warren. And imeachment fight, the senate two leaders clash over the senate trial to come. Theyve done enough damage. It is the senate turn now to render sober judgment. 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. Well, a good sunday morning and happy new year to everyone. President trump begins 2020 facing three challenges, impeachment, an emboldened north korea and most urgently iran where a week of hostilities that included iranianbacked militants laying siege to the u. S. Embassy in baghdad ended with the u. S. Killing iranes chief security and intelligence commander, general Qasem Soleimani. This has been the deepest crisis with iran since the seizure of 52 american hostages in 1979. Iran has promised a harsh revenge at a time and place of its choosing. The u. S. Is sending even more troops into the region, while urging american citizens to get out of iraq. And President Trump is warning that the u. S. Has targeted 52 iranian sites in case iran does retaliate. U. S. Officials are warning an attack in the homeland may come with little or no warning. Less immediate is the impact in a number of other areas for President Trump. In 2012 he accused then president obama of then somehow seeking war with iran as a way to help his reelection chances. Well, thursdays strike could be seen as an effort to overshadow impeachment. It has. And help the president in november. We dont know. In the democratic race, could this now mean joe bidens Foreign Policy experience becomes a bigger asset or could Bernie Sanders benefit from his consistent opposition to overseas conflicts. How will voters react to President Trump escalating tensions in the middle east given that he as a candidate promised to pull america out of endless middle east conflicts. We begin our coverage in iraq with our chief Foreign CorrespondentRichard Engle who is in the Northern City of irbil. Youre in iraq but i want to go to the other side of that border, to iran. From our reporting what youve gathered, the mood in iran two weeks ago, they had domestic political issues. They were divided in that country. How divided do they seem today . Reporter a lot less divided. A couple of weeks ago there were violent protests in the streets of tehran and many other cities with people saying the government should change, should even be overthrown. Now young people in tehran, old people in tehran are uniting behind the government in a way that they havent been in a very long time. If the u. S. Wanted to isolate the regime, if President Trump wanted to put the regime on the ropes, it seems to have done just the opposite. The Immediate Impact could be an iraq we know the parliament in iraq is meeting today and the future of u. S. Forces in iraq could be at stake here. Is it possible that taking out soleimani while something that Many American leaders have wanted to see happen, is the cost going to be america getting kicked out of iraq . Reporter its possible. There are many particularly shiite leaders in this country who plan to ask for just that. They will say that the u. S. Presence is no longer constructive, its no longer helpful and its time for the americans to leave. But that comes with an enormous cost. The last time that iraq effectively kicked out the United States and made it impossible for u. S. Troops to stay here with the status of forces agreement, the country basically collapsed into civil war. Based on your reporting and assessments, what does an iranian retaliation look like . Is it conventional . Is it asymmetrical . Reporter most likely asymmetrical. Why Qasem Soleimani is so popular is he built an outer layer of armor that protected the iranian homeland. A network of shia militia groups, hezbollah in lebanon, shia militias in iraq, also alliances in syria, and that outer network is now angry, mobilized and could be directed to carry out attacks. Could those attacks be in the persian gulf against shipping lanes . Already the uk is sending two more warships to protect british shipping interests in the persian gulf. So i think you would likely see some sort of asymmetrical attack through these proxies. But the problem is the u. S. Doesnt fight with proxies. The u. S. Would likely see this kind of attack and respond with conventional weapons and then were in a shooting war. Very quickly reporter we will see. But there is a lot of risk right now if iran responds. Youve covered a lot of problems in the middle east. How much deja vu are you having . Reporter when i saw the 82nd airborne getting the packs and heading back to the region and there was a rocket attack into the green zone. Im once again here on a rooftop in iraq talking about militias and troops coming into the region, i thought, wow, we are back in 2007 at the peak of the violence when the u. S. Was fighting on multiple fronts against isis. It was al qaeda then, now its isis and against shia militias and iran and iraq back in play. Who knew we wanted those days to come back. Richard engle reporting for us in iraq. Richard, thank you very much. Joining me now is the secretary of state, mike pompeo. Secretary pompeo, welcome back to meet the press, sir. Good morning, chuck, its good to be with you this morning. Let me start with the shooting the strike against soleimani, the killing of him. Hes been a threat to the United States, to u. S. Interests for years. Why now . Why was it urgent this week . Chuck, youve captured it. Weve all known about Qasem Soleimani for a long time. Hes been a terrorist. Hes a designated terrorist. Hes someone whos inflicted many deaths on americans, over 600 in iraq and countless other places. He was even connected to what happened in beirut so many years ago. You would know this too, chuck. This was different. Weve seen recent deaths, recent killing. On december 27th a strike, an operation conducted by hezbollah, orchestrated by soleimani himself killed an american. We could see he was continuing down this path, that there were in fact plots that he was working on that were aimed directly at significant harm to american interests throughout the region, not just in iraq. President trump made the decision this was the time to stop this rain of terror from the sky, who was the glue, who put this all together, who was the irgc leader for a couple of decades and put so much pain and suffering on the American People and frankly the people in the region too. Hundreds of thousands of deaths in syria, millions displaced in syria. A bad guy, it was time to take him out. Why are you confident that they have already promoted his deputy, the ayatollah has already basically, you know, pumped this guy up, his replacement. Why are you convinced if there is an imminent operational attack getting put together against american interests, why are you convinced that taken out soleimani has done anything to stop it . We would have been culpably negligent had we not taken this action. The American People would have said we werent doing the right thing to protect and defend american lives . Is it that imminent . Was it so imminent and so big it would have been seen as that kind of negligence . We made the right decision. Theres lots of intelligence. Some of it is out in the public. The death of the american december 27th. We had intelligence on a go forward basis of risk as well. The president made the right decision. We will reduce risk. Is there still risk of attack . Of course there is. Were doing everything we can to make sure we take that down and protect american lives. When the president laid out his National Security strategy three years ago, this is all in the context of a larger american strategy to create peace and stability in the middle east. A key element is taking down Qasem Soleimani who has been a destabilizing force in the region for so long. Okay. So was the justification that hes been this destabilizing force in the region or was the justification this imminent threat . Chuck, its never one thing. Youve been at this a long time. Its never one thing, one instance. Its a collective. Its a full Situational Awareness of risk and analysis. I am confident and the Intelligence Community presented us a set of facts that made clear that the risk from doing nothing exceeded the risk of taking the action that we took. And we made the right decision. We protected and defended the American People. President trump has said repeatedly as he tweeted again last night we will take all actions necessary to preserve and protect america. Can you confidently say america is safer today . Absolutely. How do you square that statement with the fact that were bringing youre advising american citizens essentially to leave the region, particularly iraq. We have the Homeland Security department bracing americans for cyber attacks, saying that we know the iranians have been through our infrastructure. It is likely to happen and there wont be a warning from it. It doesnt sound like were safer today after this. Yeah, chuck, were definitely safer today. 100 certainty that america is safer today. Then why did we put out that warning after the soleimani we do expect retaliations against american citizens now, correct . Chuck, youre concentrating on the second and the moment. President trump is focused deeply on keeping americans safe over the long haul. Preserving and protecting, defending america is the mission that we have. It may be that theres a little noise here in the interim that the iranians make the choice to respond. I hope that they dont. President trump has made clear what we will do in response if they do, that our response will be decisive and vigorous just as it has been so far. But were going to take all actions necessary, not only in iraq but throughout the region to protect americans, american citizens as well as my diplomats and Service Members who are serving overseas. Were always going to do the right thing to protect america. I am confident that the decision we made to take down this terrorist, this designated terrorist who had inflicted so much harm over such an extended period was the right course of action to reduce risk to america. During the state Department Briefing on friday, the aides there was a lot of confidence being expressed without a lot of evidence that you thought the iranians arent going to they likely wont retaliate. Why do you think they wont . Why do you have this potential confidence they may not retaliate . Chuck, were prepared for everything. Im not going to get in the game of predictions. We have intelligence, lots of reconnaissance, good observation of whats taking place. What were doing is preparing for all possible courses of actions that the Iranian Regime may take and we are driving, we are driving a strategy that we have had in place now for three years diplomatic, economic, now military, to convince the Iranian Regime to simply behave like a normal nation and to raise the cost if they inflict harm on america if they do. You just went through what weve been going through the last three years. The fact that youve had to go to military, doesnt that tell you that sanctions havent worked and the maximum Pressure Campaign is not working . Just the opposite, chuck. We suffered from eight years of iranian support from america. We gave them billions of dollars. We gave them resources. We allowed countries to trade with them, to build up their economy. What we are now having to correct for is the Enormous Economic activity that took place during that Iranian Nuclear deal that President Trump rightly got out of in may of 2018. Its taken a little time and will continue to take time but we are going to restore deterrents. We had seen hundreds of thousands killed in syria, millions had to depart the region. Weve seen lebanese hezbollah, hamas, the pij in gaza strip, all of these terror organizations, the shia militias which we are challenged to push back against, all underwritten by american policy in the Obama Administration. Weve filmed the switch. Were draining those resources and going to protect america and keep American People safe. Im curious, how do we get out of a cycle of escalating violence. The president tweeted we have targeted 52 iranian sites representing the 52 american hostages taken back in 1979. And he said to iran those targets and iran itself well hit very fast, very hard, even noted there were cultural sites being targeted. Is that is that already being lined up at the pentagon . We have our response ready for whatever iran we have target sites here, these 52 target sites . Can you confirm that . Chuck, the American People should know that we have prepared for this, that we are ready. Were going to target cultural that our responses are lawful and that the president will take every action necessary to respond should iran decide to escalate. We hope that they dont. Weve communicated clearly and crisply as to what we have as an expectation and communicated clearly and chris crisply what we will do if they do so. What do you tell the families that have americans held hostage by this Iranian Regime. What do you tell americans who have been working with you at the state department, those families who probably look at this and think, okay, whatever progress we were making, no more progress. Is that what these families have to prepare for, that maybe their loved ones will be there longer, not shorter . I love these families. They are suffering greatly. Theyre suffering from the very Iranian Regime were seeking to counter. Most of these folks were taken during the previous administration. It was a policy that was designed to guarantee that the Iranian Regime would have power, authority, capacity to take americans and other westerners too. Those families should know that we built out a coalition, were patrolling the straits of hormuz with that coalition, theres an air Defense Strategy attached to the coalition and we have multiple countries now to sanction them. We have built a strategy to put america in place where the Iranian Regime will no longer threaten american hostages. We have worked diligently to get those held in iran back. We had one returned just within the last several weeks. We continue to work on that process, to get every american held anywhere in the world, including by the kleptocrats in iran to returning our hostages. We will never give up on that mission. Last question. If targeting soleimani is not regime change, then what are we advocating, if not regime change . As i said before, we clearly stated our strategy for three years. We want the regime to change its behavior. Ultimately the leadership in iran will be determined by the iranian people. We saw the protests. I am confident we will continue to see protests. They werent protesting against america. They werent protesting saying death to america. They were demanding that the i iranian leadership behaves in a way to take care of the iranian people. I am confident that well continue to support the iranian people in their quest for freedom. Secretary pompeo, i have to leave it there. Thank you for coming on. I appreciate it. Joining me now is the vice chair. Senate intelligence committee, democrat mark warner of virginia. Senator warner, welcome back to meet the press. Thank you, chuck. Youre one of the few democratic lawmakers that has been briefed after the fact. After the fact. Nobody other than Lindsey Graham may have gotten a briefing before the fact. I want to focus on this threat. You heard what the secretary of state said there. Youve been briefed about what this threat was. How imminent does it seem and is it any different than what soleimani has been doing over the last decade . I accept the notion there was a real threat. The question of how imminent is something that i need more information on. Lets step back for a moment and look at whats happened. America always has to be strong, but also smart. Strong in the sense that we always need to protect our people and our interests and soleimani was a bad guy, theres no question about that. But we also have to be smart. Theres three things that i didnt hear from the secretary and i have not heard from the administration. First, over the last month, weve seen across the region great pushback against iran, not only in iran itself from the people protesting against the regime, in lebanon where people were on the streets saying too much iranian influence, in iraq even where people were protesting against the iranianbacked militias. That antiiranian effort now seems to have transformed as weve seen the images over the last 24 hours into antiamerican. Its a rallying force not only within iran but even in iraq where we may be now asked to leave. By the way, theres breaking news. The Prime Minister of iraq is recommending that. Again, how does that make us stronger . Secondly, there is usually a congressional consulting process. Its both constitutionally required, but its also important because, one, you potentially get members of congress to buy in ahead of time and, two, they may ask that hard question thats not asked in an insular group. Three, you consult your allies, because we dont want to g