MEET THE PRESS, 1-5-20 - General Qasem Soleimani a lawful military objective

CHUCK TODD:

So explain for viewers, why does Mike Pompeo keep saying terrorist? There is a legal reason he keeps saying the word terrorist, isn't there?

JEH JOHNSON:

No, not necessarily. If you believe everything that our government is saying about General Soleimani, he was a lawful military objective, and the president, under his constitutional authority as commander in chief, had ample domestic legal authority to take him out without an additional congressional authorization. Whether he was a terrorist or a general in a military force that was engaged in armed attacks against our people, he was a lawful military objective. But that's not the only question here. For a very long time, the Bush administration, the Obama administration, had been engaged in what we refer to now as shadow warfare with the Iranian government. And last Thursday night was what we refer to as a decapitation strike, where we've taken out a very high profile member of the Iranian government. That is a provocative, in your face act, where you kill a senior member of the Iranian government and you say, "Yes, I did it." And I hope that this administration has carefully considered the second and third order of effects of that one very plain second order effect, which any foreign officer could predict is the reaction in Iraq. With the growing Shia political influence in that country --

CHUCK TODD:

Right.

JEH JOHNSON:

-- we face the very real prospect that the Iraqi government will want us out of that country.

PAT MCCRORY:

You know, one piece of feedback I got at the Charlotte Airport last night, outside the beltway, from some citizens, and they said, "What took us so long?" Because this guy was only 15 miles, only 15 miles from the embassy that was attacked just days earlier. And I think people are now going, "Wait a minute, this guy was," they keep using the term "proxy." "This guy was running proxy." No, that means he was running terrorist groups, under, again, being protected by the flag of Iran. And I think he, this general was walking a fine line, and I think a rather arrogant line --

KASIE HUNT:

Nobody's arguing that this guy was, you know, nobody's arguing that this man was a good actor on the world stage. I think --

PAT MCCRORY:

No, I'm arguing that he --

KASIE HUNT:

-- the question is --

PAT MCCRORY:

-- wasn't just Iranian.

KASIE HUNT:

-- was the risk of taking him out worth it for Americans?

JEH JOHNSON:

What are the implications?

PAT MCCRORY:

That's a fair question, and we don't know the answer to that, and won't know for maybe a long time.

BETSY WOODRUFF SWAN:

We might know pretty fast though, because the response from the Iraqis is currently underway --

CHUCK TODD:

Right.

BETSY WOODRUFF SWAN:

-- in parliament, in Baghdad. And I can tell you, it's front of mind to American intel and defense officials, exactly what's happening in this 24 hour period. When they gave a briefing, it was classified behind doors to Senate staff on Friday, there was an extensive discussion, according to my sources familiar with the briefing --

CHUCK TODD:

Yeah.