Chris Wallace pressed national security adviser Robert O’Brien on President Trump’s claim that Iran was planning to attack four U.S. embassies and the administration’s briefing for lawmakers on the strike that took out Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
The host kicked off this week’s Fox News Sunday with an interview with O’Brien, during which he called the president’s claim of embassy threats a “contradiction” from what members of Congress learned during a briefing by administration officials.
“Members of Congress who attended a 75-minute briefing with the secretaries of state, defense, the CIA directors, say there was not a single mention during those 75 minutes … about imminent threats to U.S. embassies,” Wallace said. “So, why is he saying it on television, but top officials didn’t tell members of Congress?”
“I’ve seen the intelligence on this, Chris, and it was very strong, and, look, in some ways, I would love to release the intelligence and show the American people, and I can tell you they can trust the administration on this,” O’Brien responded. “Unfortunately, we don’t want to lose that valuable stream of intelligence that will allow us to protect Americans going forward.”
He continued, “What we’ve always said, and what I’ve said from day one, is that there were severe threats to American diplomats, to American soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, and to American facilities in the region — Iraq, likely Syria, and potentially other countries that I won’t name now. So, I think what the president said is consistent with what we’ve been saying since day one.”
“It does seem to be a contradiction,” Wallace pushed back. “He’s telling Laura Ingraham, our esteemed colleague, but in a 75-minute classified briefing, your top national security people never mention this to members of Congress. Why not?”
“I wasn’t at the briefing, and I don’t know how the Q&A went back and forth,” O’Brien said. “I don’t know; I wasn’t there. All I can tell you is we’ve been clear from the start that there were very significant threats to American facilities in the region and to American military officials, … and I think that’s consistent with what the president is saying.”
“Would you agree with what the president said that there were specific imminent threats to four U.S. embassies?” Wallace then asked.
“It is always difficult, even with the exquisite intelligence that we have, to know exactly what the targets are, but it certainly is consistent with the intelligence to assume they would have hit embassies and least four countries,” the national security adviser said. “I think the president is absolutely right when he talks about the threats to America that came from Soleimani, that came from the Quds Force, and that came from their proxies.”
On Friday, Trump told Fox’s Ingraham that the United States conducted an airstrike that killed Soleimani in part because the country was planning to attack four American embassies. Republican Rep. Mike Lee of Utah, however, said Sunday that the administration’s briefing on the strike did not include mentions of the plots. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper further added on Sunday that he “didn’t see” any specific evidence of the four pending attacks.
