Pres. Trump insists the intelligence he and other top officials say justified the killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani has been 'totally consistent' despite shifting explanations.
But the president and his administration's accounts of the intelligence behind the threats have been far from consistent.
President Donald Trump talks to reporters before departing from the South Lawn of the White House, Jan. 13, 2020. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, said three days after the strike that the intelligence did not say"exactly... who, what, when, where" any attack would take place, although"it was imminent." Similarly, Secretary of Statetold Fox News on Thursday the United States did not"know precisely when and we don't know precisely where, but it was real.
Later on Friday, during an interview with Fox News, Trump got more specific than any other official had in public, sayingBut on Sunday, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said in an interview with CBS News that he"didn't see" specific evidence of an attack"with regard to four embassies" being threatened.
Trump did not elaborate, speaking to reporters as he departed the White House en route to a college championship football game in New Orleans, but he did note that Soleimani had"killed a lot of Americans, killed a lot of people" and that he was"the number one terrorist in the world."His look into the rear-view mirror squared up with the revelation Monday that, according to an official familiar with the situation, the U.S.
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