that can attack the president this way. why not? >> you will will have to rise more money for biden. >> paraphrase that. bloomberg money versus republican campaign fund. kristina: last word to robert. melissa: stocks across the board, soaring, hitting record close. president trump signaling de-escalation. calling on nato to get more involved in the solutions in the middle east. the president also warning that new economic sanctions are coming, making it clear that the u.s. is ready to embrace peace with all those who seek it. president trump also saying that iran appears to be standing down after launching missiles last night at two bases in iraq, housing american troops. however tonight there are reports that several missiles were fired a short time ago into the green zone in baghdad. we'll bring you breaking development. to the political battle over

impeachment. republicans and democrats clashing over the rules even though the articles have yet to arrive at the senate. plus attorney general bill barr meeting next week with officials in mexico to talk security amid that country's worsening epidemic of narco violence. i'm melissa francis in for elizabeth macdonald. "the evening edit" starts right now. ♪. melissa: we have every angle covered for you tonight. hillary vaughn with latest from the white house on iran. gerri willis at new york stock exchange with today's big rally. kick it off with hillary at the white house. hillary? >> melissa, all senate democrats and two senate republicans left the closed-door briefing with the trump administration's foreign policy team today unsatisfied. some of them were outraged after one administration official asked congress not to take up

any war powers resolution debating the limitation of any further action against iran over concerns it would send iran the wrong message. >> to come in and tell us that we can't debate an discuss appropriateness of military intervention against iran. it is un-american. it's unconstitutional. and it's wrong. >> we have 97 senators there. 15 got to ask questions. as questions began to get tough, they walked out. reporter: house speaker nancy pelosi left her briefing with secretary of state mike pompeo and defense secretary mark esper and cia director gina haspel ready to bring the house resolution tomorrow. that her concerns were not addressed in the briefing. secretary of defense mark esper responding to criticism from some in congress that the briefing was insufficient. he said this, quote, most members of congress do not have access to the intelligence i think that is most compelling.

that is nature of intelligence and rye stricted the "gang of eight." in reporters last hour, esper and general mark bilely they believe iran was trying to kill americans with targeted missiles. 16 short-range ballistic missiles fired at two military bases if iraq. it managed to mitt u.s. personnel, hit tax -- taxi way as parking lot and helicopter. saying they will roll out more sanctions again the country and senior administration official tells fox news they expect that announcement could come as soon as tomorrow. melissa. melissa: thank you, hillary. stocks rising amid rising mideast tensions. gerri willis joins us from the new york stock exchange with more. >> melissa, dow shy of record territory. up 280 points. now down 161 points after news

of explosions rocking baghdad caused the index to lose about 100 points in the final minutes of trade. stocks had been on a tear following the president's address to the nation this morning. meanwhile, still strong day for stocks. the s&p, nasdaq, finishing in record territory. and the big loser of the day, walgreens. that stock reporting disappointing earnings, weighing on all three major indexes. the stock down 6% on news that it had weakness in its pharmacy business. meanwhile grubhub, soaring. that stock on fire, up 12% on news it is considering its strategic options t could get married or acquired by father competitor in the field. the stock lost 40% of its value last year. melissa, back to you. >> gerri, thank you for that. president trump is ready to embrace peace with all who seek it. is that possible with iran? joining us fox news military analyst, retired u.s. army colonel david hunt. colonel hunt. thanks for joining us.

seems like there's a golden opportunity in this moment as both sides pull back. what, do you think that is true? what could be achieve? >> well it is absolutely true. we were, if we had retaliated last night, we were in a shooting war. so we came up to the line. iran pulled back. we did not retaliate after killing soleimani. so yes, it, politically, would seem to me, not my expertise. would seem to me after that, some back channels have to happen. some intermediaries. try to get us and iran talking. don't care who does it. but the two countries have to get represented as quickly as possible. melissa: we've already heard that there was some back and forth that went through switzerland. but you know, today, when the president came out, he addressed the nation, he seemed to lay out a doctrine for what he wants to do going forward.

he said, america's in a position where we're very prosperous. we're energy independent. we used to be beholden to the middle east for oil when something like this happened. that was the big concern, is that the price of oil and gasoline economies would shutter. that is not the case now at least for us. you know, we export energy at this point. he invited nato to get more involved, and to try to solve this problem because it is europe that is really dependent on the strait of hormuz in this area, for energy. do you think that's possible? because iran is saying we want you guys to get out. president trump seemed like he was saying we don't really want to be policing this region anyway? what are your thoughts? >> my thoughts are, after, the backdrop of this has to be the last 19 years of war. we've been fighting war on terror for that long. and, people with thousands of people killed, thousands wounded that we have a chance.

i have always thought that we could absolutely pull out of iraq and afghanistan leaving a force in the area to do what they did thursday, kill terrorists and when we killed the head of isis. so that to me is the war on terror. the rest of this nation-building has not worked. we have 60,000 service members within range of iran right now. that 60,000 too many. and again, the war on terror business is not what we've been doing majority of this time. we're doing nation-building which has failed. i have no issue coming back out of iraq. we have bases we would have to neutralize we spent billions of dollars on, but, the presence of u.s. soldiers there and these other country, we could approximately back from, still fight the war on terror. melissa: now there is a threat to the strait of hormuz. you have this flight that went down last night in the area.

nobody really knows what happened. the iranians don't want to let obvious anyone from america nearby to look at black boxes to try to figure out what happened. who comes in to sort of, i don't know, make the area safer for international travel? or does it not become that way for a while? >> well, we're not flying over iraq an iran right now. i think answer is the latter. it would be up safe for travel over those either of those two countries. the plane being dropped, there is two or three different theories on this i think there was a mistake made by the iranian civil defense like we did 25 years ago when the navy shot down iranian civilian plane. it happens. they were on heightened alert. others want a conspiracy theory. a lot of people are dead. from the u.s. iranian standpoint we avert ad war.

we do not need another war in the middle east. iran is four times size of iraq. they have much more capable rocket force, half a million to go to million 1/2. melissa: do you think we're safer or less safer tonight? if you listen to the democratic candidates we have somebody at our helm hurdling us at war. other the look at iran, say maybe they have been, put in their place for a moment. what are your thoughts? >> iraq is on their knees with the embargoes. we can crush them if we turn screws one more inch or put naval blockade on iran. soleimani being dead is absolutely a better, safer for the united states and the world. he just didn't kill americans. he tortured and killed a lot, thousands of other people, very, very bad guy. with him out of the picture doesn't guarranty us safety. it makes us a bit safer. it was a high-wire act as we saw last night a lot of us didn't know which way this would go.

so, it is a plus for us, but we have to keep working on this, and not use the military as all our solutions. melissa: colonel hunt, thank you. >> you're welcome. melissa: we'll ask republican senator james lankford of the armed services committee. why he says there is no need for congress to debate whether the president has the authority to go to war. plus, president trump says soleimani was the world's top terrorist. we'll ask a former delta force member, who is the new number one threat now? your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. wow. thanks, zoltar. how can i ever repay you? maybe you could free zoltar? thanks, lady. taxi!

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♪. melissa: for more on the developing situation with iran, let's get to amman, jordan and fox news's benjamin hall. benjamin, what is the update? reporter: last couple of hours we had reports of couple rockets landing in the green zone. appears those are katyusha rockets. those are short-range than the ballistic missiles we saw yesterday. they would be fired by iranian backed militias. unlikely they would be directed by iran that is the hope at this point. so many people are praising president trump's decision to de-escalate, while at the same

time heavily criticizing iran's attack. that praise from across the region, across the world, starting with one country often under threat with iran, israel. here is benjamin netanyahu speaking and praising president trump earlier on. >> president trump should be congratulated for acting swiftly, bold did i, and resolutely against this terrorist entity. [applause] reporter: turkish president erdogan and president putin also weighing in. meeting today, saying that they could now act as intermediaries between iran and the u.s. if they so wanted. wanting a further use of force, would quote lead to new cycle of instability that would damage everyone's interest. uk government also standing firmly behind the u.s. the defense minister there saying british troops had been on the al-asad base. they refused to rule out a strike against iran if it warranted it. british helicopters and warships have been also placed on standby

in the gulf. uk reiterating america's right to defend itself. in iraq, protesting against the iranian strike, calling for the government to push back against iranian influence. many protest against that they are afraid their country will become a battleground between the u.s. and iran. also in the last hour we're hearing from defense secretary esper who said it is now clear to them, based on intelligence the iranians were aiming to shed american blood. there have been records that iran didn't want to escalate it into all-out war or may purposelies missed. last hour we're hearing from defense secretary esper. that is not the case. their intention was to kill americans. melissa: definitely contradicting that. benjamin hall, thank you for your terrific reporting. we appreciate it. james lankford, from oklahoma, member of the homeland security committee. we heard a lot about the briefing earlier today. is there anything you can tell us about what you have heard? >> it was exceptionally helpful

to go through the intelligence, that they have gathered over the last several years, especially in the last several months, to walk through what has led to this moment. obviously the number of attacks and level of attacks that soleimani and the iranians and shia militias brought to our forces and patience the president really has had. there has been over 90 attacks on americans just in this area in the last month 1/2. the iranians and shia militias have done. 90 attacks. a lot of folks are focused on the last big missile attack this has been an ongoing process of rocket attacks, improvised explosive device on supply lines, over and over trying to attack. end of december an american was killed. that is always been the red line for the president, you're playing with fire as you try to attack us over and over again. if someone is killed or injured we'll respond and we have. melissa: some of your colleagues come out of the meetings today said almost the exact opposite. they didn't get nearly enough

information to justify what has happened, that they weren't sat satisfied with the briefing at all. what did they hear? >> it is interesting i seen some colleagues came out made comments. one of my colleagues said the whole group was doing a briefing with us, when the questions got hard and they left and ran off. that is obsas a resultly postively false. that did not occur. they were not running away. we started 2:30 and finished at four. they had meetings at white house at 4:00. everyone knew they had to leave at 4:00, everyone accused once we got to heart questions and they ran away, is completely which twisting off. one of the things they want to get into during the same conversation about the iraq war about rules of engagement. some folks want to tell our troops when someone firing at you the first time you can respond. other rules of engagement said no, if you know they're about to fire at you, they're preparing to fire you can respond first, rather than have to have one of your friends killed before you can actually respond back. that is the real argument. some folks said, hey, we didn't feel like imminent enough

because someone is not getting shot at time. there is not immediate declared declaration right now, go do the attack. we knew very well this attack was coming. intelligence was very clear. they were in the process of this. it was entirely appropriate. while soleimani and the other terrorist leader that was with him, from iraq while the would of them were together in area where there were no other civilians and isolated at 4:00 in the morning it was exactly moment to strike those in the process of preparing the next strike on americans. melissa: do your colleagues at mid that at all? one of the things you don't hear a lot of people saying was how surgical this was. there wasn't the collateral damage. that normally when there is volley back and forth, there are other people who get injured, other targets, other collateral damage. there was so much precision to say that the president, sort of flew off the handle or try to as jibe -- ascribe motives to him that were rash, what physically

happened so precise is contradictory. what do they say about that. >> they don't want to talk about that. this was precise and patient attack when we tracked soleimani and his movements whether in syria, meeting with all the leaders in damascus and meeting with hezbollah, as he does lebanon and stir up lebanon against israel and united states. stirring up the shia militias, leading hezbollah there in iraq as well. he is coordinating all these type events and traveling around and preparing another attack, to add to the 90 additional attacks that have been brought to americans over the past month 1/2. so at some point we have to be able to step up and say, for someone in that spot, we know we can get the shot, we know leading attacks against us, he is declared terrorist leader after declared terrorist organization, we have the ability to take shot and should. melissa: what happens with the hearing in the house and war powers act, war powers act? >> i don't want to predict the house. i'm not good predicting the house to say the least on this they go through their own

process. they didn't make a decision by rules of engagement. do we have to be shot at before we respond or like 9/11 all over again, we make the decision if we know someone bringing the attack to us, we first respond to defend ourselves. the last three presidents that has been the policy, if we know attack is coming to us we can respond to make sure americans are not killed. i don't want to go back to the days we have to have american blood before we can defend americans. melissa: afterwards they say, why didn't our government know something and do something? senator, thanks for coming on tonight. we appreciate your time. >> thank you. melissa: mounting questions tonight why the boeing 737 operated by ukraine international airlines crashed, shortly after takeoff from tehran. all 176 people on board died in that crash. fox news's dan springer with more from seattle. dan? reporter: the wreckage of the ukraine international airlines flight bound for kiev was six miles from the tehran airport. tracker data shows it climbed to

8,000 feet at normal speeds. then lost all contact. crashing in a field killing everyone on board. it happened at 6:00 in the morning, four hours after iran fired missiles at iraqi airbases. while there is no evidence the two events are connected ukraine's embassy took down an early statement dismissing any link, replacing it with another saying it was too early to tell. a former top general in the uk is discounting a missile strike. >> the track of the aircraft would have taken it well away from the flight path of ballistic missiles in almost all cases. so it is much more likely this aircraft crashed as result of some technical failure. reporter: iran is blaming an engine fire. there are reports that western intelligence agencies believe a technical malfunction caused one engine to overheat. some aviation experts believe it could be something else. there was no communication from the pilots to the tower. they say even if one engine did go out the boeing 737-8 can

still fly. >> they were at high alert waiting for american missiles to come in, american airplanes to come in, something like that. very likely screwed up as they are, they could have shot down the airliner by mistake. >> iranian officials said they would not allow boeing to examine the plane's back box, while the u.s. state department is calling for complete cooperation with any investigation. boeing is also ready to assist but right now is being shut out. melissa? melissa: dan, thank you. defiant carlos ghosn former chief of nissan declaring he did not escape justice in japan. he escaped injustice. susan li with this story for us. susan of the. reporter: extensive 2 1/2 press conference from carlos ghosn former nissan chief first time we heard from him since his escape from japan. justifying why he jumped bail, saying he would not leave japan

he would die there. listen. >> i did not escape justice. i fled injustice an persecution, political persecution. reporter: also in the press conference carlos ghosn outlining mistreatment he suffered being arrested since 2018 saying he only had access to showers twice a week, interrogated sometimes eight hours a day without lawyer present, not contacting his wife for nine months or access to prescription drugs. despite all of that, carlos ghosn did not tell us how he escaped from japan. >> there is many stories how i escaped, i heard things contradictory i'm not coming back to it. reporter: new video emerged showed his private jet starts off in osaka airport landing in turkish airport. also going on to beirut. casual lows gone said he

unlikely going back to japan to stand for the charges. he said he was a systemic plot, tokyo executives, be prosecutors, a law firm and toyota board member. a lot to hear in this press conference today. melissa, back to you. melissa: thank you. more 2020 dems amping up attack on president trump over his iran policy. we'll tell you what they're saying now. later in the show, latest shocking display in assassins asking his coconspirator to actually film a very public execution of another driver south of the u.s. border. we're going to talk to former i.c.e. acting director about it. ♪. m hit, usaa reached out before he could even inspect the damage. that's how you do it right. usaa insurance is made just the way martin's family needs it -

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melissa: 2020 dems slamming president trump after iranian missile launched at two military bases housing u.s. troops last

night. fox news peter doocy in minnesota with moore. peter. reporter: whole point of michael bloomberg's three-state swing to talk about jobs and the economy but at his first event in chicago on his way to minnesota he had a new lead line the way president trump is handling iran. >> it is imperative that the commander-in-chief think through all of the implications of his actions or her actions, with the help of her or his top advisors not act rationally or recklessly, i certainly hope the president does that. as we all know, that is not just in his nature. reporter: joe biden claims all this could have been avoided if the president trump would not have walked away from obama joint nuclear deal with iran. as news broke about missiles landing in iraq at airbases last night, biden told donors what is happening in iraq and iran is predictable. not exactly what is happening but the chaos ensuing. pete buttigieg is arguing that some diplomatic ties that have

been severed in the last couple years can't be put back together again the same way. telling donors at his fund-raiser about the iran deal, quote. i don't think we'll be able to return to the deal as we knew it this is a turning point. it can either be a turning point toward war or it can be a turning point toward a different framework in our relationships around the middle east and our posture towards iran. for most of the cycle so far the big issues for democrats running for president have been trump and health care. but at least for a few days in the final sprint towards the iowa caucuses big issues are trump and iran. back to you. melissa: peter doocy, thank you for that. bring in my next guest, conservative commentator, author, the liberal invasion of red state america, kristin tate. kristin, the way the candidates jumped out there on this, i will add to some of peter's reporting. joe biden saying president trump has no strategy here. he has no endgame. here is the hardest truth of all. his constant mistakes and poor

vision making left the united states with limited options. do you think that voters on the left look at what is happening right now and see the folly in what democrats said about this, or do they just hate the president so much that they believe those candidates? >> well the far lefties certainly hate the president so much they believe these candidates. i did notice though during the strikes last night the democrats were trying to take a more measured tone at least on twitter. so they could try to appear above partisanship. but these same democrats acted flagrantly partisan over the last week. they have been constantly criticized trump since he authorized the strike at that took out soleimani. but the same presidential candidates didn't say anything for eight years during the obama administration as obama launched his covert drone war. joe biden himself, melissa, sat in the white house for two terms, didn't say anything as the obama administration thor

authorized 563 strikes, responsible for killing up to 800 citizens and civilians. so democrats, they clearly have one agenda and one agenda only. to resist trump and say that they believe in the opposite of whatever he does but they're acting flagrantly partisan, like such hypocrites, most voters i hope can see exactly what is going on. melissa: this is interesting position for joe biden in particular. one thing, everybody on the far left is sort of opposed morally opposed to any use of the military at all, seems like. so they can sit in that lane and, you know, be confident there. joe biden though, as you said, you know has been involved in a lot of things in the past. this was his opportunity to sort of try to play that moderate game, if that is what he thinks would win the election. you know, a lot of democrats who think that is the lane that would win. why do you think he didn't choose to do that? and, to say you know, maybe there is some middle ground, i

don't know, something along the way of supporting some sort of action? >> because unfortunately, when you're running in a primary you have to play to the most far left-wing of your base. so that is exactly what joe biden is trying to do. if you really want to see just how toxic the partisanship is, look how democrats responded when the obama administration assassinated osama bin laden versus now how they are reacting to trump's actions iran. when obama got bin laden he was roundly applauded by both sides of the aisle. nobody used the mission to take out the 9/11 mastermind toker. >> the obama administration or score political points. now the same democrats who stood up and cheered for obama, criticizing trump for going after a known butcher who is responsible for the death of up to 600 u.s. soldiers, reportedly had plans to launch more attacks on the u.s. this is all about politics. but you know the election is

still 11 months away. this could all be ancient history by then. the news cycle moves so fast in the trump era. who knows if this will even influence voters by the time election day is here. melissa: it is true. the president's nation to the address, his address to the nation made a lot of points wanting to get out middle east. that we're energy independent, others need to get involved here. will democrats spin their position on that, when they have said, oh the president is getting us into another endless war. said he would get us out. now, looks like he does want to get us out, will they say he is cutting and running? >> probably. today, elizabeth warren said we don't want to go to war with iran. she is right nobody wants to go to war with iran. including president trump made it very clear during the address today. meanwhile iranian government said they don't want to see any further escalation either this is all very good news. as you mentioned, president trump ran and campaigned on

ending these pointless, endless, costly wars. so right now we need de-escalation. we need diplomacy. it was great seeing president urging allies to pressure iran to renegotiate a better deal. right now we all need to come together to try to advocate for peace, to try to put partisan politics aside. melissa: kristin tate, thank you. >> thank you, melissa. melissa: still ahead, republicans and democrats ramping up the fight just how president trump's impeachment should play out. we'll talk to a key member of the house judiciary committee about this one. plus general soleimani is dead but the terror threat remains high from iran and beyond. we've got a former army special-ops soldier to spell out where it is, and what we can do about it. he sidewalk ♪ ♪ all around the wind blows

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♪. melissa: lou dobbs joining us now with a preview of what's coming up on his show. lou, i was thinking of you today. >> thank you. melissa: when the president was addressing the country, what a different place we're in now, having stood up to iran, we're energy independent. sounds like he is trying to make good on his promise to get out of these regions. what are your thoughts? >> the president made it clear as you suggest, melissa, that he wants our troops home. he wants the endless wars to end, and he is, as a matter of fact, yesterday he could hear national left-wing media just harping against the president. and today they're singing, many of them at least for a change, are singing his praises because of not only his strength and his outright resolve, but constraint, that is making it possible, possible, for the iranians to choose a path toward peace. we'll take that up tonight, melissa, at the top of the hour.

the secretary of state special representative for iran, ambassador brian hook, will be joining us. we'll take that up, fox national security and foreign policy analyst, dr. walid phares, former national deputy security advisor to president trump, kt mcfarland. award-winning journalist, laura logan will talk about the southern border, sex trafficking we're where headed to our neighbor to the south, government of mexico. best-selling author lee smith to take up, "spygate." you remember "spygate"? melissa: lara logan's new series on "fox nation" is outstanding. viewers will love preview. i look forward to the show. thank you. >> thank you very much, melissa. melissa: it has been three weeks since president trump's impeachment in the house. nancy pelosi still has not delivered articles to the senate. i welcome my next guest,

congressman steve chabot on this one. i'm startled it has gone on this long, she hasn't delivered them and what is she up to and are you surprised this is how it turned out at least for now? >> really incredible, melissa, not unexpected when we're dealing with the games the speaker has been playing here. that is what it is. it is a big game. democrats controlled everything in the house. they were very unfair in various committees, and on the floor. the president didn't get treat the fairly. what she is trying to do after ridiculous impeachment of the president in the house, she is trying to control the process to the extent possible in the senate. she will fail at that miserably. all it is doing is delaying process. majority in the senate, it will rule. right now republicans are in the majority. mitch mcconnell, i think is working with the democrats but the bottom line is, her holding the articles of impeachment, just going to delay the process. i think it is pretty inevitable. most people realize the president will not be convicted of these trumped up charges.

he will be found not guilty. and, it will be over. but we wasted a lot of time, a lot of effort, a lot of money. we should have have been working on other more important things. melissa: so interesting, because speaker pelosi didn't want to take the time to slow down, go to the courts in order to force the witnesses that she wanted to hear from to come. and now, she said, we have to go so fast because we don't know what he is going to do, he is a loose cannon, we have to rush along. now she want to put the onus on republicans to, to this situation, have those witnesses. but obviously republicans have no incentive to do that. why would they want to? >> yeah. melissa: so it doesn't, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. is she hoping i guess to make a statement to the public to say, republicans we're telling them to call witnesses and they won't? so it makes it look like it is not fair or a sham trial as they said? is that the goal?

>> it is hypocrisy clearly. they would not allow republicans to call witnesses we wanted to call here in the house, for example, hunter biden. after all his activities over, you know, that started this whole thing, but he couldn't be called as a witness. or anybody else that the republicans wanted to call. now, you know, democrats over in the senate are screaming that they want witnesses. that is up to the majority to make that decision. and, at this point, you know, she is trying to get her way. it isn't going to happen. waste of time, effort, money. >> congressman, thank you. >> thank you very much. melissa: coming up later in the show, a teen assassin south of the border asked a friend to film him committing a murder in broad daylight on a road just south of the border. only pay for what you need...

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♪. >> at my direction, the united states military eliminated the world's top terrorist kassem qassem soleimani. as the head of the quds force, soleimani was responsible for absolutely worse atrocities. he trained terrorist armies,

including hezbollah, launching terror strikes against civilian targets. he fueled bloody civil wars all across the region. he viciously wounded and murdered thousands of u.s. troops including the planting of roadside bombs that maim and dismember their victims. melissa: if iran soleimani world's top terrorist, somebody else, is the new number one threat. for this we turn to former army special operations soldier, bret. you're advisor to white fox defense full disclosure. white fox hired a law firm for lobbying activities. getting that out of the way, who do you think the biggest threat now. >> in my opinion it is still iran. a number of irg quds force officers are on my list. individuals who definitely have

american blood on their hands just as bad as soleimani. there is definitely confirmed evidence that they were responsible for many american soldiers deaths. i know they're on the u.s. governments radar. these are the same guys spreading terrorism in many other parts of the world but the fact is, that i can tell you in general the iranian threat has been virtually reduced almost overnight because of the president's decisive actions. you know, their calculus essentially had to change. they're really going to have to start weighing serious strategic consequences if they continue to start conducting attacks against american forces in the future. that is very, very important. you know, but that is not to say we've heard the last from the iranians in terms of their attacks. you got to understand iranian terrorism apparatus is like a business conglomerate. they have their fingers in everything. a business like that doesn't close up overnight because of the loss of their ceo. in which case we're talking about soleimani here. the iranians perfected art of assassination. they have been assassinating

israeli diplomat for years now. you just never really hear about it. they have gotten so good bit. i am concerned starting to pivot and turn attention on u.s. diplomats. only time will tell if that is the case. melissa: is this future of warfare? i know that obviously the obama administration used drones quite a bit, didn't receive the same criticism as president trump seems to be doing right now. if you look how the strike was executed. >> there wasn't collateral damage. was this, is it usually this precise, or was this a particularly fortuitous kind of set-up in order to take out an enemy? >> no, this was a perfect operation. it was flawlessly executed, and anyone that is criticizing the president needs to look at obama's record of conducting strikes within iraq. he conducted over 2800 strikes but yet did not get the same flak president trump has done for taking out an individual who

clearly was getting ready to kill more americans and go after diplomats and servicemembers. that is the key thing here. obama actually put into place criteria for drone strikes to include the imminent threat. that is what we had, an imminent threat. melissa: so ironic are that now this president is getting criticized. bret thank you for coming on. wish we had more time. >> thank you. melissa: deadly crisis south of the border a teenager tells his friend to film him as he shoot as passenger in broad daylight.

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melissa: the continuing crisis at the border. attorney general william barr is going to mexico next week to talk about security, according to mexico's foirn minister. joining me is tom homan. we have attorney general barr going down there. and at the same time we see reports of shock violence at the bordered. we are watching this video of this criminal take video of him while he's shooting a driver and passenger. what do you think is william barr's message? >> hopefully that the president of mexico will take president trump up on his offer to let

america go in there and handle this. the reason this young man in broad daylight. they know cartels are running that country. they arrested el chapo's son. mexican law enforcement was forced to release him along with other members of the cartel. that wouldn't happen in the united states ever. melissa: i remember when the president said why don't we designate these cartel members as terrorists. was he offering drone assistance in terms of the drug cartel to the mexican government and is that a legal possibility? >> yes, it's a possibility. i think the president pushed the mexican government to let him

help them. the cartels are more opportunity to work internationally. the down side is when you declare a faction inside terrorists, then of course they will say mexico is no longer safe to our country. you have to stop sending central americans back to mexico. melissa: do you think they would take the president up on that offer ever? >> they are going to have to. the violence is continuing to climb. the thousands of murder everies every month down there. the criminal cartels don't respect the border. cross-border crime is at an all-time high right now.

i appreciate their respect tore sovereignty -- respect their sovereignty. but the cartels are running the country. melissa: now here is lou dobbs. [♪] lou: good evening, everybody. president trump center stage as the leader of the freed world, confounding america's enemies, confusing his detractors and leading the nation through a complex confrontation in the middle east, and doing so with intelligent leadership and constraint. '. the president presented a clear declaration that iran will never have a nuclear weapon while he is president. with that