Pompeo Defends U.S. Killing of Iranian as Democrats Ask ‘Why Now?’

Secretary of State 👤Mike Pompeo on Sunday defended President 👤Donald Trump’s decision to kill Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani, as Democratic lawmakers questioned whether the action was justified and the United States braced for retaliation.

Democrats in Congress said it was not clear why the Iranian military leader, long seen as a threat by U.S. authorities, had to be killed now. They said Trump does not have the authority to go to war without congressional approval, and that his actions put the country at greater risk.

Trump’s fellow Republicans in Congress have generally backed his decision.

Pompeo, Trump’s top diplomat and a trusted adviser, made the administration’s case during multiple television interviews on Sunday, saying there was “no skepticism” among senior U.S. leaders who had access to all the intelligence on Friday’s targeted killing.

He deflected questions about the “imminent attack” he had cited on Friday as justification for the strike, and described the threat posed by Soleimani as long-term and wide-ranging.

“We would have been culpably negligent had we not taken this action,” Pompeo said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“It’s never one thing. … It’s never one moment. It’s never one instance,” he said. “It’s a full situational awareness of risk and analysis.”

U.S. Representative Adam Schiff, the Democratic chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said Soleimani had been plotting against the United States for decades and that lawmakers had not received enough information on the alleged threat to convince him the killing was warranted.