Pompeo backs up Trump’s claim that Soleimani planned attacks on U.S. embassies  

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo doubled down on President Trump’s claim that multiple embassies were under threat, which is why he ordered a drone strike last week on Iranian general Qassem Soleimani. 

‘We had specific information on an imminent threat and those threats included attacks on U.S. embassies. Period. Full stop,’ Pompeo told reporters during a White House briefing Friday. 

He said the information the U.S. didn’t have was where or when the attacks would occur.  

Pompeo said that lawmakers were wrong when they said they hadn’t been briefed on potential embassy attacks.   

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said President Trump was accurate when he said Iranian general Qassem Soleimani was threatening multiple U.S. embassies

For example, Sen. Bernie Sanders – a top Democratic 2020 candidate – said Friday that when officials including Pompeo briefed lawmakers Wednesday no one claimed the Iranian terror leader was planning to attack American embassies overseas.    

The president told reporters Thursday in the Oval Office that Soleimani became a target because he aimed to ‘blow up’ the embassy in Baghdad, Iraq. He expanded that claim hours later at a political rally crowd in Toledo, Ohio, saying the Iranian Quds Force leader had more than one embassy on his hit list.

‘Soleimani was actively planning new attacks and he was looking very seriously at our embassies, and not just the embassy in Baghdad,’ Trump said. ‘But we stopped him, and we stopped him quickly and we stopped him cold.’ 

Sanders, on the TODAY show, brushed it off as bluster with little likely basis in truth.

‘I sat in a intelligence briefing, [a] classified briefing, the day before. We had all of the top ranking intelligence people, military people. Not one word of that was mentioned,’ the Vermont senator and presidential candidate said.

Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said Friday that classified intelligence briefings about the drone attack that killed Qassem Soleimani didn't mention anything about the Iranian general plotting to blow up U.S. embassies

Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said Friday that classified intelligence briefings about the drone attack that killed Qassem Soleimani didn’t mention anything about the Iranian general plotting to blow up U.S. embassies

President Donald Trump claimed during a Thursday night rally in Toledo, Ohio that Soleimani aimed to attack more than one embassy

President Donald Trump claimed during a Thursday night rally in Toledo, Ohio that Soleimani aimed to attack more than one embassy

Suleimani (right, pictured with Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei), was killed by an American drone strike that Trump orded last weekPre

Suleimani (right, pictured with Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei), was killed by an American drone strike that Trump orded last week

‘So is it true? I don’t know. But we didn’t hear it in the classified intelligence briefing,’ the senator said.

Sanders called the president ‘a pathological liar’ and warned that ‘people don’t believe much of what Trump says.’

‘And when you lie all the time, the problem is sometimes maybe you’re telling the truth and people are not going to believe you,’ he said. 

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo conceded in an interview that aired just hours after Trump wrapped up in Toledo that the best U.S. intelligence on Soleimani was less specific than what the president suggested.   

‘There is no doubt that there were a series of imminent attacks being plotted by Qasem Soleimani,’ he told Fox News host Laura Ingraham. 

‘We don’t know precisely when and we don’t know precisely where, but it was real.’ 

The attack led to a media frenzy and social media speculation that the world would spiral into World War III as tensions continued to rise. 

President Trump appeared to let the cat out of the bag Thursday afternoon, telling reporters in the Oval Office that Soleimani was targeted because of imminent attack threats against the American embassy in Baghdad, Iraq

President Trump appeared to let the cat out of the bag Thursday afternoon, telling reporters in the Oval Office that Soleimani was targeted because of imminent attack threats against the American embassy in Baghdad, Iraq

Sanders, a Vermont senator on the Democratic Prety's far left fringe, spoke to the TODAY show on Friday

Sanders, a Vermont senator on the Democratic Prety’s far left fringe, spoke to the TODAY show on Friday

Democrats insist the move was hasty and claim there wasn’t adequate intelligence to justify killing Soleimani, but Trump says they should be happy he’s dead.

‘Now I see the radical left Democrats have expressed outrage over the termination of this horrible terrorist. And you know what? Instead they should be outraged by Soleimani’s savage crimes, and that fact that his countless victims were denied justice for so long,’ Trump said.

‘Bernie Sanders, crazy Bernie, has condemned the U.S. military strike on Soleimani – the world’s top terrorist. Think of it, the world’s top terrorist and we’re having people like Nancy Pelosi⁠—oh, that’s a real genius. You believe that one? Nancy, Nancy, Nervous Nancy,’ he continued.

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