just heard from our reporter on the ground there. you're going to hear more from her, about what they're experiencing agency she tas shet it being terrifying. "smerconish" is with you next. i'm michael smerconish in philadelphia. presidential candidate pete buttigieg is being hammered for seemingly blaming president trump for the downing of ukraine international flight 752 that killed all 176 on board. iran just admitted that it mistakenly shot down the plane on wednesday january 8th, just hours after iran fired more than a dozen missiles at u.s. forces in iraq. five days after u.s. drones took out general qassem soleimani. the missiles fired into iraq were sent in the middle of the night about 2:00 a.m. local time. plane was shot down after it took off from tehran at 6:12 a.m. buttigieg tweeted this, innocent

civilians are now dead because they were caught in the middle of an unnecessary and unwanted military tit for tat. high thoughts are with the families and loved ones of all 176 souls left aboard this flight. well, here's the head line that generated from new york post, buttigieg scorched for saying u.s. tit for tat with iran doomed ukrainian ailerliner. there were a number who tweeted, uh, pete, they weren't caught in the middle. they were shot down by iran, military incompetence by the leading state sponsor of terrorism. just because dems hate trump accident justify equivalent with iran. the this in a tweet, innocent civilians are now dead because of iran. full stop. then conserve david trench who

tweeted nope, nope, nope. here's what i'm wondering what if we apply a limit ationlimita causation. in general injure actions, jurors are given instructions by judges. in my home state of pennsylvania the standard jury instruction begins this way, quote, negligent conduct is a factual cause of harm if the conduct played an actual, real role in harming the plaintiff. the connection between the conduct and the harm can not be image nairy or signature. and multiple events can contribute to a single injury. that does not mean that everyone is at equal fault. the tradition tort question is did the event substantial contribute to the injury.

it doesn't mean multiple factors can contribute to a bad result even if they're not equally responsible. it's what the law calls proximal cause. and one more thing, a superseding factor that is so extraordinary that is unforeseeable to break the causal chain. in this case, the u.s. killed soleimani on january 3rd. on january 8th, iran retaliated by sending missiles into iraq. and on january 8th, iran mistakenly shot the ukrainian airliner out of the sky, presumably sinking it was a hostile force and not an aircraft. so what the action of soleimani a substantial factor cause the iranians to shoot count airliners five days later? or was the iranian downing the aircraft so supersedable that it was a superseding cause of the action? it's a jury question. and in this case, the jury sits

in the court of public opinion. i want to know what you think. go to my website at smerconish.com and answer this question, do you agree with pete buttigieg's tweet that innocent civilians are dead because they were caught in a quote tit for tat. joining me now karen greenberg, director of national security at fordham law. the most recent book is "rogue justice the making of a security state." professor, what do you think of the question? >> i think it's very complicaecd but i'm plaid you put it out there. in terms of proximate cause if you had it in front of a jury, it would be tough to argue the proximate cause. but in specifics,ing in iran th

the proximate cause and how they ramped up against general soleimani, i would say you have a case. but i think it would be incredibly complicated to argue this because of all of the pressures that would be on either sigh of the courtroom. >> it would be nearly impossible to find a fair and impartial jury is what i think you're saying, hey, tulsi gabbard, congresswoman gabbarders was on fox yesterday with bill hemmer addressing this subject. here's a short snippet. >> the inference here is that iran is responsible for this. >> this tit for tat? >> no, no. this is the consequence of this escalation of war that we need -- that further points to why we need to de-escalate these tensions now. >> if i played the full cut, you'll see that she uses the word consequence" or consequences multiple times, sounds like she agrees with mayor pete. >> i think part of it lies in the article.

it is a consequence. it is not necessarily the consequence. and it's a compilation of events that are happening of tensions and passions. and, you know, there have been another downed planes that have been by mistake in conflict zones. for example, in ukraine. and we know what happened there which is there were a number of attempts to bring suit. it's very hard to bring these suits. but you're right. a lot of it would depend on the jury. there's no question that this is a consequence of what's happening in the region and of the tensions that have escalated. and, who knows, when they say it was a mistake, you know, part of that mistake may actually have been a kind of panic. that can happen, even in forces that are trained to operate in military situations. and in combat situations. the consequences of creating a situation where people and countries expect to be attacked to lead to mistakes like this.

and we're not out of this situation yet. so, i think it's a good question that you raise. >> the president was interviewed by laura ingraham, i'm going to show you a snippet of what was aired on fox last night. am i right when i show you that this issue is one of anticipate defense. whether we were -- in fact, let me show you the clip now and you can respond to what the president said last night. roll it. >> don't the american people have a right to know specifically what was targeted without reviewing methods and sources? >> well, i don't think so, but we will tell you that probably it was going to the embassy in baghdad. >> so, they have large-scale attacks planned for other embassies. and if those were planned, why can't we reveal that to the american people? wouldn't that help your case? >> i can reveal that i believe it would have been four embassies. >> i believe that it would have been four embassies. final question, professor, does

that meet the threshold for utilization of anticipatory self-defense? >> no, because what you need is the evidence behind it. what exactly led to that conclusion -- we don't need a belief. we need knowledge, we need conclusions, we need thought-based reasoning. once we have that, we know exactly what is about to happen. the real word is imminent was this planned, mentioned or was this something that was planned within specifics in a time frame that was recognizable within the time frame of what we mean by im234e7bi immine imminent. >> thank you for your perspective. what are your thoughts, tweet me @smerconish. from facebook, vince says, what do you mean seems to blame the president for the downing of the airliner in iran? that's exactly what he did.

vince, i was hedging only because he did not mention him by name. i think that's the implication.tweet. innocent civilians are now dead because of this tit for tat. i want to know what vince thinks and what you all think. go to my website @smerconish.com right now. up ahead, the latest stock market, job, and unemployment numbers are good news for president trump's 2020 campaign. it can be sustained? i'll ask the president's adviser peter navarro. plus, by swapping the airwaves with an unprecedented amount of spending, michael bloomberg and why it may work. plus, the duke and duchess of sussex shocked the world in their attempts to redefine the world with royals.

i'll ask princess diana's chief of staff whether he thinks diana's son harry is doing the right thing. if you live with diabetes,

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uncertainty with increased tensions and an impending impeachment trial set to make eye its way to the senate. but it appears thatthy chaotic feel in washington is having little negative impact on the economy. a strong jobs report was released on friday showing the u.s. economy added 145,000 jobs in december. the unemployment rate remained at the historic rate of 3.5%. economists do say that wages are not growing as fast as they should be. in december, wages rose 0. 1%.

with me not, policy adviser to president trump, peter navarro, peter, congrats on the numbers. i want to ask this question, you would think there would be more competition for employees for driving up wages, why not? >> wages are going up, wages are doing great. in fact, what we love about the wage structure is that wages for workers are going up faster than managers. wages for high school graduates are going up faster than college graduates. and what president trump has done is turned the republican party of the party of the working class. so blue collar workers are doing great. looking ahead to 2020, michael, we're hitting on all cylinders. if you look at the gdp growth evasion, consumption investment and government spending and net exports, all of them are going to be strong in 2020. we're going to get closer to 3% than 2%. i predicted 9 stock market, the dow will be over 32,000. end i have some street cred on

that because the day after the election, i predicted the dow 25,000. so, all good here in trump land. the difference, michael, is the culture of the trump administration is every single day we think about creating jobs for america. particularly for people who work with their hands. we do it at the macrolevel with things like tax cuts, deregulation and fair trade. we do it at the micro level by helping ship yards and combat vehicle production facilities and every across this great land. >> okay, question, not to be a debbie downer. >> sure. >> i'm thrilled about the job numbers. >> sure. and the wage numbers. we're at a record right now. that's kitchen table good news. >> how about this, how about what the folks at the petersen foundation say, you know they remain alarmed about the nature of the federal debt and deficit. those numbers continue to escalate. what about that? i was born, peters of an age

when the republican party was the party of fiscal prudence. >> sure, well, elections do have consequences, michael. and we had to negotiate with the democratic house on this last budget go-round. and we spent more than we otherwise would have. but i'll tell you this, the national defense authorization act and the appropriates bill that was passed two weeks ago is really the sleeper that terms of keeping the economy really robust in 2020, because it puts a beautiful fiscal policy floor underneath this economy. i think until the bond market starts worrying about the deficit, everything will be just fine. >> but that sounds like you're laying it off on the ds, even though it's that tax cut, right, that ended up causing more than it was bringing in? >> well, here's the thing. again, the culture of the trump administration, if we want to balance the budget, the best way

to do that is grow at 3% or 3.5%, instead of 2%. that generates trillions of dollars of tax revenues. that's what our focus is. in 2019, if the federal reserve hadn't raised rates too fast, too far, and molded them too slowly, we probably wouldn't have had the growth. viewers here, it's a great year in 2020 with the economy. wages are going to continue to rise. and the stock market is going to continue to rise. and this is all about president trump doing that, again, both at the macrolevel, and at the micro level, one job at a time. >> before you leave me, make some news, what's going to happen this week vis-a-vis china? >> oh, that's great. we're going to sign in the building behind me historic phase one trade deal with china. and there is a window of opportunity, michael, to pass

usmca in the senate before nancy pelosi does her thing. and you have two of the biggest trade deals in history signed within days of one another. great news for farmers, ranchers and manufacturers. and workers. and so, it's going to be a wild great week for trade in washington here. >> it's remarkable to me, as a political animal, just how much of the political, i'll use the word, chaos doesn't seem to impact the numbers, the economy, what transpires on wall street. >> well, the smart money sees through the noise. i mean, listen to the signal, ignore noise. the signal of the trump administration is a focus, like a laser beam, on creating a strong economy. a strong manufacturing base. defending american workers against unfair trade. and president trump has performed beautifully on this. his jobs plans speech, seven

promises june of 2016, he fulfilled every single one of those. and we're seeing that in the job numbers. so, that's our focus. that's what i do every day. i'm just trying to help this president create jobs. particularly for the working class people, americans, and the philly shipyard right near you is like one of my projects for 2020. >> yeah, i know that. >> to get that moving. i'd love to come back on the show and talk about how we do that. that's the kind of thing how president trump is doing, with all of the stuff going on, listen to the signal and ignore the noise. >> peter, thank you. >> one last thing, buttigieg, piety without wisdom is not doing this country very good. >> i'm going to take that as your vote on the question of the day, piety without wisdom. >> yes, please. >> social media reaction.

what do we have, kathryn, i think this comes from facebook. most americans do not own stocks. doesn't affect majority of americans. veronica, i think in the mid-'50s, a percent of americans do own stock. regardless, i'll say this, you heard his point when i asked about the lack of wage growth, saying wages are growing faster among educated working class than they are among those who are financially more prosperous. my point is if your implication is that doesn't affect working men and women, his answer to that would be working men and women are actually doing better in wage growth than those at the top of the economic spectrum. up ahead, many criticize michael bloomberg for entering the 2020 race late skipping the crucial primer that states in all of the debate but is this a flaw in his candidacy or a

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the conventional view is that mike bloomberg's late entry in the 2020 race will hamper his ability to win the democratic nomination because after all, he's not competing in the first four states. i see something different that maybe he's made a wise political calculation and that the dominos are falling as he needs them to. i said on my sirius xm radio show this week, if you could but

bloomberg in a time machine and let hill start the race sooner, i don't think he'd take that deal. to assure it's meant with skepticism, there's a way that people generally run for president and whatever mr. bloomberg is doing, lacking past iowa and new mexico in that new hampshire to focus on the delegate-rimpf progressive while the fors that follow. the times piece explicitly criticized bloomberg using those deep pockets to buy a laud of ads while skipping the gunt work. the ads while posing for selfies. maybe it's notes indifference or unwillingness to engage in retail politics that kept him

out of the early contests but game theory. a bit of history, like donald trump before him, mike bloomberg long flirted with running for president before actually becoming an candidate. and like donald trump he's never had a devotion to any particular party blp before running against hillary in 2016, donald trump had been a contributor of hers. bloomberg had been a democrat before switching with her in 2001 as a republican. in 2007, he announced that he was no longer affiliated with either party, a move that many thought was a prelude to an independent run for president. and that suspicion lasted nearly a decade. then in march 2016, he ended speculation that he would run as an independent by writing this editorial, the risk i would not take, an independent candidacy could split the electoral college and allow congress to elect an extremist. yet, he also attacked donald trump set saying he has run the

most divisive and demagogic presidential campaign i can remember. then he delivered a fiery speech at the 2016 democratic convention. in 2018, he switched his affiliation back to democrat, and donated millions to candidates launching speculation that he would run as a democrad. mike bloomberg has been about the numbers. in fact, his current slogan is, in god we trust, everybody else bring data. and that was his view of the presidential race as an independent one year ago, when he released a statement saying this, the data was very clear and very consistent, given the strong pull of partisanship and the realities of the electoral college system there is no way an independent can win. that is truer today than ever before. in 2020, the great likelihood is that an independent would split

the anti-trump vote ande end up re-electing the president. that's a risk i refused to run in 2016 and we can't afford it run it now. by now, everybody else was getting into the race and the debates were about to begin. but then on november 7th, "the new york times" broke the news that bloomberg, quote,y weighin weeks and has not made a final decision to run. and mike bloomberg 77, initially bowed out of the 2020 race because of mr. biden's apparent strength but he has since grown skeptical that mr. biden is on track to win the general election. but he does not see the two leading liberals in the race, elizabeth warren of massachusetts and bernie sanders of vermont as strong candidates.

he filed paper work before the deadline which is the earliest in the nation. he finally announced his candidacy on november 24th. some say his bid is all about the money. that he's buying his way in. i say if he didn't have credibility, that alone wouldn't work. it's not just the money. he's a qualified guy with a record of accomplishment behind him. yes, he risks alienating the voters in the early contests that he has skipped. but his response to those democrats is to say that he's opening his wallet in nationwide advertising including in their states to take down donald trump. consider that bloomberg just committed to run an ad during the super bowl at a cost of $10 million. the only other candidate to make that kind of buy? donald trump. so, here is bloomberg's play. we're less than a month from iowa with no clear front-runner, then comes new hampshire, equally competitive, followed by nevada and south carolina, where

joe biden, due to his standing among people of scocolor is in lead. of course, there could be a momentum shift depending on who wins new hampshire and iowa. but it's entirely possible that the first three states could yield three different winners and that the picture will be muddled. on march 3rd, when we have super tuesday, a day on which 14 states will vote, including california and texas, at the end of which roughly 40% of delegates will be selected. and that's the day that mike bloomberg enters the fray. he's currently spending at a rate that by super tuesday could equal the $400 million that president barack obama's spent on advertising over the course of the entire general election in 2012. could it work? well, a hill/harris poll showed him tied for the race with

senator elizabeth warren. and on friday, reported on its betting odds, soon moving ahead of third place ahead of warren. i'm not predicting that mike bloomberg wins the democratic nomination. but i do believe he's about to have a significant impact on this race. i want to remind to you answer the survey questi question @smerconish.com. do you agree with pete buttigieg's tweet that innocent civilians are dead because they were caught in a tit for tat? and still to come, what do swing voterses in pennsylvania think about the killing of qassem soleimani? sand plplus, will the duke duchess of sussex survive their fallout to remove themselves from the royal family? my next guest, as princess diian

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try 5 pairs for free at warbyparker.com it was the instagram announcement that caught the world by surprise as well as britain's royal family. prince harry and meghan markle, the duke and duchess of sussex announced they were stepping back as members of the royal family. and they've been secretly developing the website royal sussex tour monfor months. reportedly, his father, prince charles wants to cut off their funding, even to charge them rent for their uk home. my next guest who is princess diana's private secretary and chief of staff wrote these prescient words in his 2018 book about meghan, quote the one

really key skill meghan absolutely must perfect is how to avoid being seen as a kind of a destabilizing danger to the established royal order. patrick jephson joins me now. writing this for the daily people the hrh egos have landed. patrick, what role has race played in all of this? >> that's an interesting question, michael. it's a serious one, i've been thinking about it quite hard. interestingly, i covered harry and meghan's wedding for cnn on the christiane amanpour show. this is one of the things we covered. there's no doubt the evidence at the end of the day, and the british royal family welcomes meghan with open arms. for them, the addition of somebody with mixed race ancestry is a win-win.

britain is a multicultural society and it's high time the royal family had a multiracial member in it. interesting to dynasty, now there's african-american dna in the thousand-year old diynasty. and by and large british people don't see racism there. but the media, well, it's been accused of racism, but actually that might be confused with its tendency to criticize, to snide to snieometimes be cruel. but actual racism is a crime and would be prosecuted but what you're talking about is online racism that you get anywhere. it can be very unpleasant and hurtful but my guess is you will find that in any country, even in the united states. >> is the oroyal family like

prison, or can one leave? >> it's not like prison. and indeed, anybody who didn't want to be there shouldn't be there. it's a family, offer alafter al. it's a very human organization with all of the strength and weaknesses that entails. my guess is that nobody wants to keep harry and meghan in the royal family against their will. but like so much else in the royal business, it's not what you do, it's how you do it that really counts. and by almost any angle. the way that harry and meghan have gone about this transition, as they call it to a different kind of royalty seems to have gotten everybody else worked up, and understandably so. >> i big of how big of acrisis is it, patrick? >> it's a big crisis. michael, i see on the cnn website today, you filed this under entertainment. it's not entertainment. harry and meghan are not celebrities. they're not politicians.

nobody voted for them. they're part of a very delicate, very ancient, you might say antique constitutional phenomenon which is the british monarchy. every all, it's the british monarchy that patriotic brits sing. they don't sing god bless britain, they sing god save the queen. it's published in royal realms around the world all feel they have skin in the game. and a lot of them, too, their taxes are subsidizing. >> it's interesting on the cnn website, when i did my read-in at 4:30 a.m. today, the number one story then at the "washington post" wasn't iran. wasn't the 2020 election. wasn't the impeachment trial next week, it was this. a final quick answer, if you can. how does it end? >> huh, well, nobody knows right now. the queen wants matters settled

very quickly. sources close to harry have said not so fast. this will be worth watching for quite a few days yet. >> well, i hope you'll come back and continue to discuss it with us. thank you, patrick jephson, i appreciate it. your book was very prescient. we'll check in on your tweets and facebook comments. ca kathryn, from twitter. smerconish, we fought a bloody war to giet rid of the monarchy. why should we care? you know, don't be a debbie downer. we're in the middle of an election less than a month to go from the iowa caucus, i'm telling you, at least at 4:30 this morning, the number one story at the "washington post" was all about this. still to come, how did america's killing of an iranian general sit with a group of key swing voters in pennsylvania?

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everything is installed in as little as a day by a kohler-certified installer. and it's made by kohler- america's leading plumbing brand. we need this bath. yes. yes you do. a kohler walk-in bath provides independence with peace of mind. what do key swing voters in battleground states thinking about the killing of iranian general qassem soleimani? this week a "usa today" ipsos poll found nationally, less safe by 55% to 24%. and yet in the same poll, a plurality of americans, 42% supported the move to kill

general soleimani. where do the swing voters stand? throughout the campaign, we've been checking with rich towel. he's been conducting specific focus groups on people who flipped from obama to trump or romney to clinton. this week took us to my backyard in wilkes-barre, pennsylvania. hey, rich, let me set the stage and tell the national odd dense by luzerne county. the president won luzerne county by more than 20 points. ben bradley jr. wrote a great book "per gotten" that said this was the county that elected trump. what did you find about swing voters connected to iran? >> they're generally support of him, but there are three caveats, one is they're concerned about a short term engagement that escalates and becomes a longer in-depth

program for them. the other problem, the second one is they don't want to have a commitment that goes on indefinitely. they would want something that is short term. because if there's a problem, they're war wary and they don't want us to be in that situation indefinitely. the third thing we heard, one respondent but he's the only one who said that. >> i'm fascinated by voters who went for one cycle for barack obama and president trump in the next. i'm fascinated by your practice of saying if i could give you any one in the 2021 election, which would you choose? >> we asked that question. we had 9 out of 11 say if it was obama versus president trump, it

would say president trump. >> pretty impressive for president trump that 9-11 were hanging with him, although i guess someone could say the margin was so thin, 70,000 votes in 3 states, that trump needs to win them all. what's your thought on that? >> he does need to win an awful lot of them. we don't know exactly how many he needs to win and, of course, there's the question of voters who didn't vote in 2016 voting in 2020 and what the turnout rate is going to be. that said, it's an indication of how much people support the president or his democratic challenger based upon where the swing voters go. if the swing voters are going in one direction, i'm not totally sure a surge of voters on the other side can overwhelm with where the tighter swing voters might be going. we just don't know yet. we will be able to know right after the election. >> good point. and parscale would say we had 10 million who didn't come out and would be for donald trump. because it's luzerne county and

i'm thinking scranton, i need to ask you this, did you sound out of these folks for their affinity on the so-called son justin bieber? >> -- joe biden. ? i did and i was surprised. there was not a lot of feelings towards joe biden. they said he only lived here a few years and moved to delaware. from that perspective it wasn't that much of a move case to vote for joe biden blaecause he was working joe from this part of p.a. >> from pennsylvania to iowa, what is the one big takeaway you found from swing voters in those states? >> big takeaway is this, swing voters feel about president trump the way the royal family feels about prince harry. that is they love him, support him but if he goes totally off the rails, they'll leave him there.

>> leave him in canada, if he goes totally off the rails. >> not partially, totally. >> totally, i get it. has to go totally off the reservation. otherwise they're hanging with him. >> that's right. it's the last debate before the first vote and it's only on cnn. the top democrats head to iowa for a live cnn debate in partnership with the des moines register. this tuesday, 9:00 p.m. eastern, only on cnn. coming up, the final vote, did you vote on "smerconish".com? do you agree with pete "big bang theory's" tweet that and innocent civilians are dead because they were caught in a tit for tat? the pro goes. go with align, the pros in digestive health. a lot will happen in your life. wrinkles just won't.

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time to see how you responded to the survey question this hour at smerconish.com. do you agree with pete "big bang theory's" tweet that innocent civilians are dead because they were caught in a tit for tat? survey says -- whoa! 86 -- i'm always stunned. if you watch every week, you know i'm always stunned with the result. 86% say, yes, i'm more taken with the number, which is like 17,000 and change, who took the time to vote. i'll leave the question up. i'm stunned by the lopsided nature of that. here's some of the reaction that came in during the course of the program. what do we have, katherine?

totally absurd, iran shot down a plane taking off from their own airport. the idea that u.s. has responsibility in the mindset is to always blake america first, ridiculous. edward, first of all, i'm not blaming america for this. but i heard the debate play itself out. i as a trial attorney, if we were to litigate this, what would the causation standard look like? what comes next, what else do we have? of course mayor pete is correct. if trump had not started off this chain of events, the plane would not have been shot down. was it intentional murder? no. but the outcome was there. and i can argue with if general soleimani wasn't a terrorist with blood on his hands, we would not have needed to kill him. and that plane would not have been shot out of the sky by the iranians. go vote for the survey question.

i will leave it up. and join me for "my american life" tour. i'm soon to be in pittsburgh, manchester, st. louis and raleigh. thank you for watching. see you next week. good morning. it's saturday, january 11th. we're so glad to have you here. ice christi paul. >> i'm victor blackwell. you're in the "cnn newsroom." we have breaking news out of louisiana. at least three people have been killed because of the severe storms making their way through the southern u.s. this morning. >> police say one man was killed when a tree fell on to his house. an elderly couple is found dead at their demolished home. we'll get you the latest forecast in a minute. but we're also following breaking news on the iran passenger jet, and iran admitting it accidently shot that plane down but putting the blame back, in part, on the united states. >> this morning we learn