Sunday shows – Administration officials grilled on Trump’s Iran claims

Top administration officials were questioned on Sunday about President Trump’s comments that the U.S. killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani to avert an imminent attack on four U.S. embassies, a claim lawmakers say was never mentioned in a briefing.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi also discussed the latest on the Democrats’ impeachment effort against President Trump. She said late last week that she would transfer the House-passed articles impeachment to the Senate this week ahead of a trial.

Read The Hill’s complete coverage below.

Pentagon chief says he ‘didn’t see’ intelligence suggesting Iran planned to attack four US embassies By REBECCA KLAR   Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said on Sunday that he did not see intelligence that supported President Trump’s comments that the Iranian commander killed in a U.S. drone strike was plotting attacks against four U.S. embassies. Read the full story here

Esper: Gang of 8 ‘did not think’ further intelligence on Iranian threat should be shared with Congress By REBECCA KLAR   Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Sunday that the top congressional intelligence committee members did not think that information shared with them about a potential Iranian plot to attack the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad should be shared with other members of Congress.  Read the full story here

Fox’s Wallace presses O’Brien on contradiction between Trump embassy threat claims and administration briefing By ZACK BUDRYK   Fox News’s Chris Wallace on Sunday grilled White House national security adviser  Robert O’Brien on President Trump’s claims that the U.S. killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani to avert an imminent attack on four U.S. embassies, which lawmakers say was never mentioned in a briefing by representatives of the Trump administration. Read the full story here

O’Brien defends ‘exquisite’ intelligence justifying Soleimani killing By ZACK BUDRYK   “We had exquisite intelligence and the intelligence showed that they were looking at U.S. facilities throughout the region and that they wanted to inflict casualties on American soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, as well as diplomats,” White House national security adviser Robert O’Brien told NBC’s Chuck Todd on “Meet the Press.” Read the full story here

National security adviser: US embassies not evacuated because ‘we’re not going to cut and run every time somebody threatens us’ By JUSTINE COLEMAN   National security adviser Robert O’Brien said Sunday that U.S. embassies were not alerted or evacuated due to the “imminent threat” of an attack because “we’re not going to cut and run every time somebody threatens us.” Read the full story here

Democratic senator: Trump told Laura Ingraham more about Soleimani killing than we heard in briefing By ZACK BUDRYK   Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, on Sunday decried what he called a lack of meaningful information presented to members of Congress about the killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, saying President Trump provided more detail in an interview with Fox’s Laura Ingraham. Read the full story here

Paul: US ‘drifting away from’ founders’ desire that it be ‘difficult to go to war’ By ZACK BUDRYK    Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said Sunday that Congress must re-assert its authority over whether or not the U.S. engages in acts of war in the wake of the killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, saying the authority had slowly been usurped over several decades dating back to the Korean War. Read the full story here

Pelosi: No ‘second thoughts’ on delaying transmission of articles of impeachment to Senate By JUSTINE COLEMAN   Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said she did not regret her decision to delay sending the articles of impeachment against President Trump to the Senate. Read the full story here

Dismissing impeachment case would be a ‘cover up,’ Pelosi says By JUSTINE COLEMAN   Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said the Senate dismissing the impeachment case against President Trump would amount to “a cover up.” Read the full story here

Pelosi: Every ‘knock’ from Trump is a ‘boost’ By JUSTINE COLEMAN   Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Sunday responded to President Trump’s recent attacks on her by saying “every knock from him is a boost.” Read the full story here

Bennet: ‘Many people would say’ Iraq War support was not Biden’s ‘finest hour’ By ZACK BUDRYK    Sen.  Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) said Sunday that his fellow presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden’s support for the war in Iraq was “not his finest hour” in the eyes of some voters. Read the full story here

Steyer says ‘grassroots organizing’ in Nevada, South Carolina got him on debate stage By REBECCA KLAR    Democratic presidential candidate Tom Steyer pointed to his grassroots organizing efforts to explain how he made it onto next week’s debate stage amid accusations that the billionaire philanthropist is buying his way into the event.  Read the full story here