to look no further to the days that led up to the strike against soleimani. >> there were a series of imminent attacks being plotted by soleimani. we don't know when or where but it was real. >> good morning and welcome to a.m. joy. so which is it? was it super secret imminent but so secret we can't tell you imminent or backwards imminent because the bad thing already happened which really isn't what imminent means or the imminent imminent because it's not cloea from that migrating answer field that you have a justification for killing one of iran's top military officials and making america less safe. you are the secretary of state so you're supposed to like, know the answer right? not that your boss is doing any better at keeping the whole just fi occasion story straight. >> soleimani was actively planning new attacks and he was looking very seriously at our

embassy and not just the embassy in baghdad. >> did he large scale attacks if other embassies and if those were planned why can't we reveal that to the american people? >> i can reveal that i believe it would have been four embassi embassies. >> for those that have been following along did you catch pompeo's attempt to make it sound like it's all business as usual? it was revealed in a classified setting as per the norm. >> last night the president said it was a threat to 'em bah sis why can you say that here and a president could say it at a rally in toledo but no one said it behind closed doors as multiple senators have since said. >> we did. >> except they didn't. intermike lee who usually falls right in line with whatever trump wants and says but who walked out of the classified briefing with lawmakers, you know, the one where the administration can pay

everything to the people who pay the bills, lee walked out of that meeting and said his feelings. >> we never got to the details. every time we got close they'd say, well, we can't discuss that here because it's really sensitive. we're in a skiff. we're in a secure underground bunker where all electronic devices have to be checked at the door and they still refuse to tell us. i find that really upsetting. >> oops. and that actually lined up with what other lawmakers heard too, that the briefing made no mention of threats to american embassies and even when lee snapped back into trump formation like 24 hours later on fox news, no, no, no, wait, trump is the best president invented by god's own hand, it was too late but truth had already outed. iran confirmed it accidentally shot down a passenger plane enroute from teheran to ukraine.

a horrifying mistake that killed 176 people. and the tragedy of those deaths was not just kbleetly awful for the families of those who died. the it was deeply ironic. it was a fresh hit to ukraine. another awful aspect of russia's occupation of crimea and war against that country and it was deeply ironic for iran. >> a civilian passenger plane with 290 people on board was shot down by a u.s. navy ship as it took its normal route over iranian air space in the persian gulf. that was also an accident, one that had its roots in american policy. the downing came toward the end of the iran/iraq war which had begun in 1980.

undoing america's 1953 removal of iran's democratically elected president and his replacement with a compliant brutal king. throughout the iran/iraq war which claimed one million lives before it was all over the u.s. supported the iraqi leader saddam hue sane and we kept supporting him until we didn't and we overthrew him in regime change 2003. war, irony, it never seems to end. donald trump would lake you to believe he has some secret intel that justifies him pushing the u.s. to yet another war in that exact same part of the middle east. trump's decision to kill a senior iranian military leader is the reason iran was on a war footing near its civilian airport. and why iranian officials noted the accident was the result of a human error caused by u.s.

adventurism. in other words, that it was ultimately donald trump's actions that led to the tragedy that killed those 176 people. and no, donald trump, we do not believe your rationalee for starting all of this. you've given us no reason to believe you over the last three years and we just don't although the dune youness of the evidence has stopped this country from going to war before. joining us now colonel wilkerson. thank you for being here. the tragedy of that airliner, you know, going down now and all of those lost lives just compounds what already has been -- what seems to be just a senseless new round of military adventurism by the united states, this time at the hands of donald trump. your thoughts? >> joy, you know, i was in the united states pacific command in hawaii in 1988. i was one of the planners for

the force provision package. at that time central command really was nothing. pacific command provided all the forces so we were monitoring that mission and the tragic shootdown of the iranian air bus that you recounted. but you also recounted the sordid history of this relationship since 1979 arguably for iranians since 1953 and i would point out that the resent shootdown is a product of that sordid history. when you create maximum tensions as pompeo is so glib in saying, between two states like iran and the united states, you are going to have that sort of thing happen. it's a tragic death of innocence if you will that accompanies this kind of really stupid relationship between states in the world. >> the mike pompeo has been

trying to explain how we go here and he hasn't really exactly been consistent in the way that he's explained why we are where we are. let me play you a little bit of him this week trying to make sense of what he has said. >> we had specific information on an imminent threat and those threats included attacks on u.s. embassi embassies. >> you were mistaken when you said you didn't know precisely when and you didn't know precisely where. >> no, completely true. i don't know exactly which minute. we don't know exactly which day it would have been executed but it was clear, soleimani was plotting a broad scale attack against american interests. >> against an embassy? >> against american facilities including embassies and military facilities throughout the region. >> here is a spokesman for the white house trying to also make sense of what they've done and

this is a tweet by hogan didley. he was planning attacks. >> president obama by the way, did not kill gaddafi. they don't seem to really know the history but they're trying to make sense of it. what do you make of their justifications? >> this group is the most incompetent bunch of liars i eissa ever encountered. i served an administration that had skillful liars in it like cheney and so forth but this administration gets caught every day in its lies and in the aftermath of those lies. i think what you played earlier about the republican senator from utah saying in his nine

years in the senate he never had such a bad briefing. i think he's absolutely right. they don't know what they're talking about. mike pompeo and es per were planing a strike on soleimani for at least a month. how about that for imminence? and the statement he was planning attacks on u.s. forces around the world, i would dare say that probably applies to every commander in iran and probably half the commanders in iraq now. so this is utterly ridiculous in the face of international law and indeed our own executive order against assassinations. these people are caught in their lies every day and it seems like it has no impact on the people who are supporting them, the americans who compose president trump's base. i hope i'm wrong. i hope it's slowly eroding that base because any person out there can see that they're lying. >> what they're doing is they're trying to back pedal because they haven't been able to find -- to show us any imminence

and they haven't been able to show mike lee who's on their side that they had some sort of imminence they can point to in a closed hearing where earn was allowed to say the truth to the point that mike lee went against them. but here's mike pence on the "today" show and here is also attempting to explain. >> if we were to share all of the intelligence and in fact, some of the most compelling evidence that qassem soleimani was preparing an imminent attack against american personnel also represents some of the most sensitive intelligence that we have. it could compromise those sources and methods. >> so i mean, they don't -- they err saying that they can't share, why wouldn't that share it with members of congress such that republicans wouldn't come out and blast them? >> well, the main thrust of the protests was the disdain that the briefers showed for the

senate. that's unparallel. i don't think that's ever -- i don't think a senator has ever said anything like that about the pentagon and the state department since 1945. i'd have to check but i really don't think. let's look at other aspects of this. soleimani was a kuds force commander. this is a war, we started it. we are waging economic warfare against iran. international law allows for a state that is under siege by another state to do these sorts of things. i'm not excusing it. i'm just saying that it is to be expected and let's wash away all the lies and all the cheating and all the stupidity and incompetence with pompeo and the others. let's look at what we did. the act we performed bespite the

pack tick was a strategic disaster. we are now going to have to occupy iraq. good luck with doing that. so good luck with that wchl' gore back to 2004 and 2005 and maybe mark esper will say it's not an insurgency but it will be sunnis and other. so are you ready for another deploy to iraq? i don't think trump's base is. so this is a catastrophe largely created by us. >> donald trump is not exactly built himself up into a character that's that trustworthy when it comes to the things that he does. we know that soleimani had posted memes antagonizing trump on social media that likely got

to trump. and here is trump on fox news speaking to his base about what he thinks the next step is. here he is. >> and then they say he left troops in syria. i left troops to take the oil. the only troops i have taking the oil. they're protecting the oil. >> they're not taking the oil. >> maybe we will, maybe we won't. >> they're protecting the faciliti facilities. maybe we should take it. >> if you have laura ingram trying to help him out of the mess he's put himself in. our leadership is not trustworthy. he says what he thinks and you have fox news trying to fix it. >> and a few days later you have donald trump saying we don't need that oil anymore. we don't need it anymore even in 2018 19% of our oil came from the persian gulf region. so you can't have both stories.

the tragic thing here, joy, with regard to this specific situation with iran, i think donald trump does not want war with iran. but he has people around him now sycophantic in their relationship with him like mike pompeo but dedicated to bringing about a war with iran. john bolton on the outside. lindsay graham in the senate. they are all dedicated to a war with iran and donald trump is trapped by them right now. >> and to that very point the wall street journal has a piece out, the 29th paragraph is quite revealing. mr. tump trump told associates he was under pressure to deal with soleimani from gop senators. donald trump has -- he says the story is fake and he says they made it up but there is the worry that donald trump felt he needed to do this for the war

hawks that he needs the support from politically. >> there might be a burst of truth coming forth from the trumpster in that regard. i see him trapped. he's taken apart his national security apparatus. he has no process and in the consequence of that, he has gotten people who are dedicated to this war like posture and in particular, a war like posture towards iran, they want that regime gone from iran and they're willing to die to do it. that is to say they're willing for american troops to die to do it. none of them are going to serve, that's for sure, nor any of their children are going to serve. so he's trapped by the very swamp that he supposedly came to washington to drain. he has nowhere to go as long as these people are his principle advisors and they're putting things up before him like the maximum option of killing

soleimani. that's the perfect example of what they've trapped him into. >> it's a blue plate special now because he's in political trouble. thank you. coming up. the brand new des moines register poll has a new front runner. that is next. we made usaa insurance for members like martin. an air force veteran made of doing what's right, not what's easy. so when a hailstorm 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 - with hassle-free claims, he got paid before his neighbor even got started. because doing right by our members, that's what's right. usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. usaa

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>> jimmy williams political consultant and former top aide to senate democratic whip. this is like a pals panel so i'm going to come to you first on this. does the poll -- i'm trying to think if the polls are saying anything or explaining anything.

that's element one for the friends here. 45% of the people say they could be persuaded to support someone else so it's not like decisive but the only thing that's deskiesive about it is the kind of democrat that's available first. >> i think it's a fascinating poll and it does say a lot. any four of these guys could win it. it really is just -- it's kind of a jump ball in that way. but it's a good poll for bernie sanders. because he's now the front runner in iowa. it's a good poll for elizabeth warren who people have said she's dead in the polls. she's very much alive in iowa. you think about joe biden when before he announced he was at 32% and now look where he is and he's been out there spending a lot of time there, hanging out with a pop you former governor.

45% people are saying they could be sppersuaded to vote for somee else and 13% said they don't have a favorite yet. there is so much movement in this poll, we didn't see a movement like this in 2016 or in 2008. this is fascinating numbers. we do not know, i think anybody who knows what this outcome is going to be in particular in iowa and new hampshire i would say they're lying and i do think whoever wins iowa could potentially lsh will probably win new hampshire. i think it will be a one two in that way. >> do you see a coherent message in the poll? it does feel like there are some duplicative elements that you wonder how much longer can the two similar, you know, candidates keep burgeing up with each other and not crowd one another out, right? do you see anything in this poll that is coherent to you?

>> i do, joy. the most important number that i see in this des moines register poll which i will be the first to admit as a pollster, this is the gold standard poll in iowa and there may be one more that comes out before the actual caucuses but this one is ill lus strative for one main reason. 15%, and why is that because we know when the iowa caucuses strans py transpire, any campaign that does not reach that is not viable and they need to distribute themselves amongst the other candidates that are 15%. and we've got four candidates in a fourway log jam for first place. biden all the way toup sanders at 20%. warren nipping at sanders' hills. so those are the numbers that i'm looking for. what's the other thing about

iowa over the years? the race is fluid, but we know and i know as a veteran of several presidential campaigns where iowa was determinative of the organization, who has the best organization right now on the ground? a lot of people suggest it's between warren's campaign and sanders and back to that 15% viability threshold for those campaigns that don't get there who are the voters by the second choice? by all accounts in iowa, second choice with a bullet is elizabeth warren. she's also got the highest favorability so she's still in this race. >> and jimmy, i guess the question would be how much longer can the elizabeth warren sanders nonaggression pact last in a situation like this? it feels like one of them has to break out and one of them has to fall back. they can't both be the front runner. right? i mean, can they keep that going

forever in this situation? i'll give you the date. the date will be the date after the iowa caucuses. that's when the solidarity pact is null and void and the knives come out. i agree 1,000 percent. either the people of iowa are schizophrenic or they just aren't convinced. they remain skeptical and i don't think the people of iowa are schizophrenic. this poll is not an outliar this is in fact the gold standard. when it came out last night at 7:00 or whatever time it came out eastern time i looked at it and said no way in hell is this right but it has to be right. so i mean, i just don't see this -- i think a lot can change between now and the day of those caucuses and i don't -- these numbers, they tell me something

at 30,000, they tell me nothing on the ground in des moines or anywhere else. >> there doesn't seem to be a coherent message. you had buttgieg doing well and now he's not. did something change? did something happen to make this electorate move from being -- because he's in that moderate camp to move all the way to sanders. did something change? >> i thatink what's happened is they have so many staff on the ground and the members are there. the senators are there and mayor pete is there quite a bit so either they aren't liking his mage and they liked it a month ago or something's off in the poll. and i don't know what that means. i mean, it's not like he's changed his message. he just wept up on tv down here in south carolina. it was a damn good ad. i assume he's on tv in iowa. if he's not perhaps that's why he's down 9 points but i think

people aren't convinced yet and as we get closer and closer they will make a decision. >> i just want to add, the thing we have to remember is bernie sanders is a known quantity in iowa. he ran in 2016 and in 2016 one of the things he did really well was caucuses. he did better in caucuses than the primary. bernie sanders has been spending a lot of time in iowa as well as warren so i think we have to remember they tend to be more liberal. we saw this in 2016 but i do want to really highlight what annan said about that first and second choice. this is a cause kwus. if your candidate doesn't reach the threshold they are going to have to decide who else to go to and that is something to watch. i just key in that poll. >> is it still true that iowa bounces you anywhere? because we've seen situations where the ultimate nominee and whoever comes in second split

iowa and new hampshire. it's not necessarily indick tat and they're demographically so similar that it's not clear to me that south carolinians are going to look to iowa and new hampshire with a lead where a black guy did well in iowa. >> doubt that iowa nor new hampshire does not represent the broad diversity that is the democratic electorate. there is a momentum effect that m cos out particularly if you can win those first two contests. let's think of of it this way. if bernie sanders wins iowa he's going to be the favorite to win new hampshire. i think the same rule would apply to elizabeth warren as well. you get a candidate like warren that picks up a big head of steam that's going to have a devastating effect for other campaigns. one other thing that i think is the wild card here and it applies to the two leaders in this des moines register iowa

poll, sanders and warren. if this senate impeachment trial goes forward and there are hints that may happen, that's going to take the two leaders physically off the playing field in iowa. warren has said she will be at trial, she will uphold her constitutional responsibilities. we have yet to hear what sanders and klobuchar have to say but it would leave buttgieg all of iowa to campaign while this trial is going on. so that has to be a factor in these last 23 days before they vote. stick around. more a.m. joy after the break. a.

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>> reporter: hi, i am in san juan this is the northern part of the island and we felt the 6.0 quake this morning and last night we also had a 5.2 followed by a 4.8. in the past few days i think we've had 21 quakes exceeding a magnitude of 4.0 so this is a constant moving plate in the southern part of the island south of the town and the folks that are out in the south are really, really scared. >> is there a sense that you can do evacuations in the sense where you don't know where another aftershock is going to hit? >> reporter: that's exactly right. people including myself, i live in an apartment building 8th floor apartment and whenever there is a quake i want to head out, but i'm surrounded by apartment buildings and of

course a lot of buildings with glass and so there's a sense of helplessness as to what it is that you can do. folks that are close to the beach just grab their stuff and head out because of their fears of a tsunami and so it's this constant level of stress and anxiety because everybody expects to have a smaller aftershock and activity to fade away but that's not what's happening at all. >> is there a visible response from the federal government so far? >> i am going to tell you that it's been slow. i understand that the local government is working with fema and that there was a request to have the southern part of the island identified as a disaster zone, but the request was not -- it did not include help for individuals. it was only a request for pickup of structures that had fallen and assistance to the government but what we really need to do is

to expand that assistance to include the folks that have been left homeless or the folks that have structural damages to their property. >> indeed. hopefully somebody that can do something about it. thank you very much. really appreciate you. more a.m. joy next. ppreciate yo. more a.m. joy next promise. trump repeatedly tried to undermine coverage for 134 million americans with pre-existing conditions. mike: "he just doesn't care if you have a pre-existing condition he wants to deny you access to coverage. if he is re-elected, he'll keep trying to do that and i think we can't let that happen." vo: as president, mike will lower costs, and protect americans with pre-existing conditions. mike: i'm mike bloomberg and i approve this message.

what feedback have you gotten back from your colleagues? >> absolutely total cooperation.

it cracks me up to see you on tv oh, the pressure. >> no. >> i have news for them. you don't have a story. >> house speaker is proving that once again she is in charge dismissing democratic division. she plans to send the articles of impeachment to the senate next week ending a nearly month long standoff with republicans. if the house sends impeachment managers to the senate by tuesday donald trump's trial only the third presidential impeachment trial in u.s. history could begin as early as wednesday and back with me, is our panel. gymn gym jimmy, i'll go to you first with the senate staff background. first let me play donald trump talking to laura ingram, his friend. he talks with his friends on fox and he talks about the witnesses that he'd like to see called at his impeachment trial. this is classic. here it is and you're welcome. >> i would love to ask a couple

of their people some questions like schiff. why did he lie? i'd love to have sleepy joe biden. i'd love to have his son. i've changed his first name to where. where's hunter? >> i don't -- i mean, peachless. >> leieberman reborn. you're president of the united states but you got to do a jock? >> that's a joke that's for damn sure just being played on the american people. i think this whole speaker ploy seholding the articles of impeachment thing at the house is a big huge like it doesn't mean anything. in 1875 the u.s. house of representatives impeached a drunk judge, and they never sent the articles of impeachment over to the senate. i'm pretty sure i'm on tv in

2020 talking about the same thing and the pe rr republic di blow up. nancy pelosi controls the house. i don't care and would not have cared and if i were sitting in the senate as a staffer today i don't give a damn what the house does. the senate is a different chamber. i like pelosi, i think she's smart i'm glad she's on my side but her job and the house democrats job as the majority is to send over articles of impeachment or not. the senate will continue to go about its business. the sad part is the senate's not legislating. the senate is not passing bills. the senate is not taking a lot of right wing judges to put them on the bench for years to come and that's all they're doing so either they send them over and we have a trial or we don't or we keep passing biggoted judges. that's what the senate is going

to do until january of next year. so the strategy of pelosi doing this, it's fine, she can do whatever she wants with those articles of impeachment. she owns those articles of impeachment as speaker of the house but once it comes to the senate it's noun of their business. that is very controversial and i'll stand by it. >> okay. one of the ideas is that she could keep working on the second one and keep calling witnesses and extend the agony and make it a two parter. >> i endorse it 100%. i think senate republicans are counting on the good faith of democrats that they can continue acting in bad faith. they've continued to be uncompromising warriors, the democrats led by speaker pelosi need to accept the mantle of being uncompromising warriors for constitutional democracy and it's time to play hard ball. i think by holding one of those articles back it means she's saving one reserve.

the "washington post" yesterday, send the obstruction charge to mitch mcconnell. let everyone debate what everyone has said before them and hold the ukraine article in reserve. unfortunately if speaker pelosi sends both of the articles i think it's a bad thing for the democrats. >> at the same time i -- underestimating speaker pelosi has been a mistake that a lot of people have made and that lady is not going to send those articles over because she don't have anything. >> i agree. >> nancy pelosi is playing chess while donald trump is eating the checkers off of the board. i mean that -- i mean, that is -- >> spoken like the mother of a five-year-old. >> yeah. >> which is sort of the same thing. >> i've seen many things. look, i think that you should not underestimate nancy pelosi. she knows exactly what she's doing while she's held these

articles of impeachment, we have seen multiple things happen. dod. we saw the e-mails of the dod holding the aid. we've seen mitch mcconnell colluding with the president. we've learned that john bolton wants to testify, there are things that are coming out in these last what, 20 some odd days that have be key and important and nancy pelosi is playing chess. >> can i ask this question? >> go ahead quickly. >> can i ask this question really quick? does any of that change what mitch mcconnell and the super majority is going to do? the answer is no. >> all i'm going to say is that it -- unfortunately it also depends on the strategic democratic leadership but it's not is tame sort of strategic plan, but i would presume that a deal with witnesses has to be out there. if she's sending it over there expect that some witness is coming forward.

that's all i'm saying. that would be my guess is that some witness because otherwise why are the white house laying it down saying they will try to stop bolton from testifying? something is up. >> don't be surprised if they've already started making that deal. that's all i'm saying. >> public opinion matters. >> they've got something. i'm just saying. thank you, friends. appreciate it. more a.m. joy after the break. . apps are used everywhere... except work. why is that? is it because people love filling out forms? maybe they like checking with their supervisor to see how much vacation time they have. or sending corporate their expense reports. i'll let you in on a little secret. they don't. by empowering employees to manage their own tasks, paycom frees you to focus on the business of business.

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tonight. no one is happier, no one is prouder to put this birth certificate matter to rest than the donald. that's because he can finally get back to focussing on the issues that matter. like did we fake the moon landing. what really happened in roswell, and where are biggy and tupac. >> memories. good morning, and welcome back to "a.m. joy." if you believe people who know trump, that moment of public humiliation that donald trump experienced in 2011 when he became the butt of president obama's jokes at the dinner,

solidified his determination to run for president. while we didn't know what barack obama was roasting trump, the navy s.e.a.l.s will execute his orders to take down one of the most infamous terrorists in the world. and he had one of the biggest moments of his presidency. >> tonight i can report to the american people and the world that the united states has conducted an operation that killed osama bin laden. >> immediately following his announcement, hundreds of people poured into the streets hailing the news of bin laden's death. it was a usa rally around the flag moments that donald trump, our narcissist in chief, desperately craves and probably expected after killing one of iran's top military generals, qassem soleimani. instead he got the opposite and

people are freaked out that trump is going to get us into a war for no reason. so, of course, trump is blaming obama for his mistakes. so many places i can go to come you first, tara, because donald trump's id seems to be obama is living inside of his mind rent free. like he has rent space in his m head. and he needs to undo everything barack obama did and place trump's stamp on it and make it a better version for himself. in the case of killing qassem soleimani, which 99.9% of americans had no idea who that was, let's be honest, he didn't get the reaction he wanted, which was a reaction that president obama wanted. >> the adulation. >> he didn't get it.

what do you think that is doing to trump's interior monologue? >> it's reverberating across the globe. i think there are three things that drive donald trump and that allow you to figure out where he's coming from. yes, self-interest is number one we talked about that extensively, but everything should be viewed through that prism. number two is obama envy. then there's projection. when he tweeted that obama was going to start a war with iran and did the exact opposite, that's because that's something trump would do. while obama envy plays a role in everything he does, self-interest plays a role. but remember projection, every time he says someone else is going to do something, it is exactly what he would do or is planning to do. i think iran, part of it was, he's trying to create that

distraction too. so i think there's a number of factors that came together but we shouldn't neglect the fact he exposed himself with that tweet. >> he has repeatedly said and repeatedly said that president obama would start a war with iran. let's place one of donald trump's false claims in which he's trying to blame president obama for what he has now unleashed in terms of iran. take a listen. >> iran's hostilities substantially increased after the foolish iran nuclear deal was signed in 2013. and they were given $150 billion, not to mention $1.8 billion in cash. the missiles fired last night at us and our allies were paid for with the funds made available by the last administration. >> actually, before i go to a guest, let me play -- sorry to jump around, but this is john kerry directly responding to donald trump's false claim.

remember he was the secretary of state who negotiated the iran deal. here's john kerry on "the last word" this week. >> the president is so fixated on undoing anything barack obama did he's running the risk of war to fulfill his fantasy about this region and his presidency. it is an outright lie. an outright lie by the president of the united states that they were given $158 billion, they did not. the money they did receive was their money because they sued the united states of america and won in court and were being paid interest. so american citizens were paying interest every single day that was accruing, more and more billions of dollars that were going to go to iran. we sut that short. we negotiated a deal that greatly reduced the amount of

money they were, in fact, supposed to receive. >> i'm going to jonathan on this, i want to quickly for the audience read a fact check from the associated press. >> there was no $158 billion payout. the $1.8 billion, is a separate matter, a payoff of roughly that amount did come from the treasury to pay an old iou. iran paid the u.s. $400 million for military equipment that was never delivered in the '70s because the government was ov overthrown. after the nuclear deal they announced they settled the matter. so john kerry correct, donald trump wrong. jonathan you wrote a piece this week called "trump loves to blame the black guy". that's why i'm going to you next. >> what's the question? >> i don't have a question. i'm going to let you talk. >> look, president trump always

likes to blame president obama for everything. and we're so used to hearing it that i had to do a google search to find the most ridiculous claims president trump has blamed president obama for. and i burst out laughing because i had forgotten about this. trump blamed obama for the air conditioning system in the white house making the white house sometimes too cold. that's how petty this man is. boo-hoo the white house is too cold. i can't sell fighter jets to turkey because according to u.s. law it's illegal to sell weapons systems to a country that's bought missiles from russia. so now we see him blaming once again president obama for the iran nuclear deal which we're in this mess one, because trump blew up soleimani. but he junked the nuclear deal. the iranians say we're going to

fire up our weapons system because you walked away from it, killed the equivalent of our cia director, and trump circles around and says because they're doing this we're going to do these things against them. president trump, to tara's point, he's the master of projection. when he projects on other people what he would do himself, what he's doing also is magnifying his insecurities. i think three years into this presidency, almost five years into him coming down that escalator and into our lives in a major way, we are now hip to the fact that everything that comes out of his mouth. everything that comes through on his twitter feed is projection. but it's also, hey, world here are my insecurities right out there for you to see and ponder. and in a certain way, i'm sure a lot of people watching have gotten to the point like me, where a lot of what he says and

does has become, no pun intended, white noise. where we're so used to it and don't believe what he says. and actually because he keeps inundating us with lies, mistruths, false statements, we kind of -- we sort of have become -- i'm going to speak for myself. i've become more grounded in reality that the man who is in the white house, the person who is in the oval office, the person who has his hands on the nuclear codes is living in some sort of fantasy world where he wants to stand with generals behind him after he comes -- you played the clip of him coming out of the blue room of the white house to the glow of light and there to talk about whatever it was he was talking about there in the grand foyer. this is all theatre. this is all made-for-tv production. and as much as i'm -- based in

the reality-based community, i just -- watching america at home and abroad just -- i -- i am sort of bereft of words. but our reputation abroad is in tatters. who we think we are as a people every day of this presidency is in tatters as well. >> i'm going to go to you on this, because it feels like what the trump presidency is is an attempt to dismantlepiece by piece the obama presidency. president obama does a deal to try to step iran back from the nuclear threshold, i have to get rid of that. the british ambassador said literally their understanding was the u.s. got out of the iran nuclear deal that involved all of europe as well, just because obama's name is on it. that's all he needs. to get out of anything obama

did, health care in red states with millions of people that voted for him, this seems to be the basis for president trump's reaction. >> he campaigned on it. >> he did. he campaigned on undoing obamacare, the jopca. barack obama took a diplomatic track, i don't think it's the track i would have taken with iran, they've caused more american deaths -- >> iran has? >> sure. iran caused more american deaths since 1980 if you count their proxies, than any other country. >> saudi arabia provided 15 of 19 hijackers. i think we can go to lots of countries. i'm sure the united states is -- >> the problem with the jcpoa -- >> go on. >> the problem with the jcpoa was the expiration date. during that interim time iran was able to have their markets

open to sell oil. so they were going to have more money, which they used a lot to fund hezbollah, the proxies. i understand going the diplomatic track but when i hear people defend the deal, there were a lot of problems with the deal. >> is iran closer today to getting nuclear than when the deal was there? they say now we're out of this deal, and before we had ten years -- >> i think they were closer after the deal because they were allowed to buy icbms from russia. >> based on what? >> they were allowed to buy icbms from russia. >> you're the only one that thinks it in america. >> i'm the only one on the panel that thinks it. >> no. >> there were sites that they wouldn't let investigators to go through it. i followed the deal closely. >> so did i.

>> dig chenck cheney's company doing business -- >> i'm not a defender of dick cheney. >> no. the deal that john kerry put in place had a ten-year time line, donald trump junked it for no other reason that president obama's name was on it. >> that wasn't the sole reason. >> we have committed what essential essentially is an act of war against them. >> they committed acts of war against us, including most recently attacking our embassy. >> did the -- we just assassinated one of the top leaders in iran -- >> we should have done it a long time ago. >> previous presidents, including republicans ones, found it insane to do. >> you know when they conducted a joint operation in 2007, they could not blow him up if he was

next to anybody else. the cia would not allow -- you can read this in "the washington post." i'm not making it up. the cia would not let israel blow up mogdai, who was behind the bombing of the embassy, when he was next to mr. soleimani. mr. soleimani came from lebanon to iraq -- >> into iraq. >> iraq. okay. >> i'm just saying if you pronounce it -- >> he was the head of the militia that -- >> i'm questioning your expertise if you don't pronounce it correctly. >> let's go to tom, i think we got you back. we had trouble with your audio earlier. you're not on my end of the spectrum, in your view, did getting rid of the iran nuclear deal, capriciously as donald trump did, and according to the former u.s. ambassador, doing it

because it had president obama's name on it, did it have less effect? >> the fact is, i was against the iran deal, but once we were in it, it was the only game in town. i wish we hadn't negotiated it and pursued it the way we did. but i also think once we were in it, dropping out was more damage and national security risk than staying in it and toughing it out. i was also in -- i am shedding no tears for soleimani, i'm not sure it was the right thing or the prudent thing -- i think the right thing is that -- taking him off the battlefield. was it prudent to do it right now? i'm still waiting to see the evidence and i want to see how this plays out. but it was a high-risk maneuver. i think in both cases this is driven by the president and his needs.

his personal needs. there is no policy here. there's no actual strategic sense behind all of this. he did rip up the iran deal was it was obama's deal. he has said he wants to do the same thing with the new start agreement, which is a good agreement -- even putin wants to stay in the start agreement -- >> the climate change deal -- >> because obama signed it. anything. if the president ordered a cheese burger he'd send it back and get a filet-o-fish because that's how he is. >> the other thing is whether or not donald trump had the legal authority to bring us to the brink of war with another country without being even able to explain to members of congress in a way that mike lee and other right wing republicans could understand why he did it. >> and mike lee has signed on to bernie sanders bill in order to curb donald trump from going around congress yet again as we've seen him do many times. back to sam's point.

i think sam is making a lot of points where we have not had the transparency, and nor has congress, to make the assessment about whether or not it was something that at least made sense or had a plan. so the question of war powers is a complicated one. it's a grey area and it would be wrong to suggest that there aren't presidents of both parties that had fights with congress around what the authority is. i would pull it back to impeachment. this is the first national security impeachment of a president we have had. and part of the issue is how far -- donald trump is essentially claiming absolute foreign policy power, that's not what the constitution says. it parses out different amounts of power between the executive branch and congress. so at a time we're debating whether to have witnesses about whether donald trump's foreign policy is corrupt and for person gain, and we now see without

apparently a plan that he has done the same thing around iran and we have not had sufficient transparency into why or whether or not it was legitimate and serves our national security interests. we really should be calling for a full trial, but also for a full public transparent airing about whether or not there was a plan, what he knew, whether it was urgent and whether this is another example of abuse of power. the only thing i say on race is he has spent a long time building a mountain to stake a flag in racism and racial division. this is one of the examples on obama is he's unravelled fair housing. he's unravelled death penalty. >> vieenvironmental. >> environmental, death penalty but so many things that make us come together or be divided based on race. >> there's a lot of things that

donald trump does things other than obama. he's obsessed with him. i compared him in the book i did to joker's attitude towards batman. here he is complaining about the nobel peace prize, need, need, need. he did, i want. >> i made a deal, saved the country. i heard the head of that country is getting the nobel peace prize for saving the country. did i have something to do with it? yeah. that's the way it is. as long as we know, that's all that matters. >> what's with the marilyn monroe breathy voice? a leaked memo, donald trump wants partial credit for the prime minister of ethiopia getting the nobel peace prize. that's what he's talking about.

somehow in his head he saved ethiopia and that's mine. >> that's why it's so hard to trust what he said about iran. >> i wanted to make counter points to things sam said earlier. back to my point, everything he does is self-interest, obama envy and the strategy is the projection. are americans comfortable with the president of the united states making foreign policy decisions, making decisions about our health care, making decisions about our environment, to your point he's rolled back environmental standards so our air is more polluted. our water is less clean. food inspections aren't happening. boeing right now, speaking of ethiopia, where you know i'm there once a year, speaking of ethiopia, those people died because we had lax oversight over the faa, which was a direct result of trump administration policies. and regarding iran, you can make the case that taking this, you

know, this terrible person out who's attacked americans was the right thing to do. let's look at the repercussions. the reason i mention i know people in iran is because they were in the streets protesting their own government. there was massive unrest in iran -- >> prop-democracy unrest. >> yes. the country is more unified now because f of our actions. and this terrible person was helping us with isis. then when you look at saudi arabia. saudi arabia was responsible for 9/11. what are we doing right now? the death of khashoggi, what are we doing right is now sending more troops to saudi arabia. supporting them in a war that's the largest public humanitarian crisis. they're coming to ethiopia, these people are starving. babies being burned with chemical weapons. and we're backing that.

>> we had a pilot shoot american soldiers in florida. and the president sent more soldiers to saudi arabia that week. >> and he promised to get us out of entanglements in the middle east. and what's he doing? he's escalating the troop presence in multiple countries, including saudi arabia, which has tons of money and doesn't need our help to carry out their atrocities. >> is there anything to donald trump's foreign policy other than hate obama? >> i don't want to get between sam and tara here. >> sam just agreed with me. >> but with -- >> i think it's a very bad region. >> first of all, i think it's a mistake to attribute too much consciousness to donald trump of anything happening around his administration. most of the regulatory stuff is done by people he was told to put in there to take regular

lags apart to make more money. i think when it comes to policies like this, it is -- he has a tremendous case of obama-envy. that's part of a general insecuritity and narcissism that rules him every day. he cannot imagine that other people have been lauded and praised in some way that he hasn't. especially the black president, which really drives him crazy. it makes him nuts. i think the country is just in this terrible -- we are in this terrible danger in national security because of a little boy whose father didn't love him enough. >> really quickly -- >> it's a losing proposition for the president to compare himself to barack obama. barack obama is, if not more, just as popular as the president. we saw it with the gallup poll. i had the discussion with him when i was working for him. he thought hillary clinton would be a better candidate than barack obama.

i said you're rcrazy. he has a field much weaker than barack obama. >> you confirm he's obsessed z with barack obama? he's obsessed with president obama? >> he didn't decide to run for president because of the 2011 correspondent's dinner. that was a pr stunt for him to negotiate against msnbc. but he decided to run and he was obsessed with the fact that barack obama was able to beat mitt romney. >> donald trump is the angry archie bunker without the anger or humility of bunker. he hates being bested by the black man. and he knows what policy is unraveling because in 1973 he was sued for housing discrimination. he unravelled housing discrimination. he new and took a public stand on the exonerated five going to the death penalty and he's trying to reinstate the death

penalty in federal courts. i could go on and on, but this man is not someone who likes black people. >> the consequences are very real. a plane was shot down with 170 people, innocent lives on it, that never would have happened but for a conflict that donald trump started on his own. it was given as the crazy option and he took it. >> right. and the lead story in "the washington post" today, if people haven't had a chance to read it. the headline, u.s. tried to kill senior iranian official in yemen. this is a second person. the lead of the story says on the day the u.s. military killed a top iranian leader in baghdad, they carried out another secret mission in yemen. so all the explanations that the president and his administration have given are kind of, pardon the expression, blown up by this story. it highlight gs what tara was

talking about and what everyone around the table has been talking about. the president is a national security threat. >> yeah. tara, sam, maya, tom, thank you very much. coming up, we have thoughts on what we just talked about. keep it right there. t we just tt keep it right there. whatever happens out there today, remember, you have the hilton app. can the hilton app help us win? hey, hey-we're all winners with the hilton price match guarantee, alright? man, you guys are adorable! alright, let's go find your coach, come on! book with the hilton app. expect better. expect hilton. doprevagen is the number oneild mempharmacist-recommendeding? memory support brand. you can find it in the vitamin aisle in stores everywhere.

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the president made a very

bold decision today to allow things to calm down. this speech will be talked about long after his second term. this is on par with tear down this wall mr. gorbachev. this is resetting the relationship with the world and iran, not just the united states. the president said there's an evil empire in iran destroying the world, killing the people in israel and coming after us and i will not tolerate it. >> you don't believe that, senator graham. donald trump's memorable trump speech this week might cost him his presidency. the historian who has predicted every presidential election since 1984 said this week, that trump's move may backfire on him in the 2020 election. i'm going to go through quickly your 13 keys to predict

elections. you go through them, party manda mandate, contest, encouple besi. you get to foreign military failure and success and then charisma. you think this strike on the iranian leader hurts trump in those two keys? >> absolutely. it is certainly not a success by any measure. and trump's rationale that this makes america safer in the poll that i have seen was resoundingly rejected by nearly a 2 to 1 margin by the american people. >> let's put that up. that's the poll you're talking about the usa "today" poll, has the killing of soleimani made the united states more or less safe? less safe 55%.

is that because soleimani was known to people who were iran experts but most people didn't know who he is, but know there are more threats because he's dead. >> the american people have no idea who he is. he was not osama bin laden, a household name, not someone associated with the deaths of thousands of americans. but here's the thing. use your common sense. if there was an imminent threat, a threat which was about to unfold, how would the killing of soleimani stop that threat? obviously the second in command would just step in and the operation that was under way could continue. use your common sense. the president has said that soleimani was plotting to blow up four of our embassies. if that was so, why were none of those embassies warned, why were none of those embassies reinforced? in other words, trump's pervasive lying and deception

have come back to haunt him. people just don't believe what he says, and his own internal contradictions, and utter disregard for common sense i think are being perceived by the american people. >> and the challenge is that he couldn'tan even convince republicans. all of whom have taken the knee, anything he says, yes, sir. you had mike lee say that is not convincing. when your own lap dogs are saying no, it's hard for the rest of the country that was already dubious to believe one, right? >> absolutely. here's the real reason why most republicans, no matter what, line up behind trump, even though as senator lee said, this was the worst briefing he's ever heard. trump has trashed every principle that the republicans have professed to stand for, personal morality, responsibility, limited government, fiscal responsibility, state's rights, respect for traditional

institutions. all gone under trump. so republicans have nothing to fall back upon, except for donald trump himself. that's why -- almost irrepresentatii irrespective of their position within the party republicans are so lock step behind the president. they have no other choice now. >> it's taken on a cult sort of vibe. this is in a wall street journal story. mr. trump after the strike told associates he was under pressure to deal with general soleimani from gop senators he views are important supporters in his impeachment trial in the senate. that is in the wall street journal. sit a problem for trump that it's coming out that he needed this because hawks in had his government wanted it and they're going to vote on his conviction or acquittal? >> absolutely.

everything trump is involved in comes back to one thing, trump. and this is absolutely of a piece with the ukraine scandal. that is, in the ukraine he was willing to put aside national security in order to foster his own personal political purposes. and now, as you say, rupert murdoch's wall street journal is coming out with a story that once again consistently he is willing to put our national security in yjeopardy. even play with war and peace in order to advance his own political objectives in the impeachment trial. >> let me -- go ahead. >> it's incredible. >> let me play you laura ingram, another person friendly to trump and him admitting something made he didn't want to admit. >> one thing, i moved our troops out on the border between turkey and syria. that turned out to be such a successful move, look what happened. i left troops to take the oil, i

took the oil. >> donald trump is admitting, which is essentially a war crime, that his actions are to take another country's oil. helpful or not helpful for his re-elect? >> i don't think any of this is helpful for his re-election. again, those two critical keys, foreign policy success and foreign policy failure, have been put in jeopardy by trump's own reckless acts. there's a saying from shakespea shakespeare, they tell of the engineer who was hoist by his own explosives. well, trump, while trying to use the power of the presidency to advance himself politically, might be doing just the opposite, blowing up his chances for 2020. although, i have to tell you, joy, i've not made a final prediction yet. >> we will be listening when you do. all allen lichtman. the book is called "the case for

impeachment". thank you so much. appreciate you being here. >> my pleasure. >> more "a.m. joy" after the break. y pleasure. >> more "a.m. joy" after the break. ulse control, is about to become your problem. ahh no, come on. i saw you eating poop earlier. hey! my focus is on the road, and that's saving me cash with drivewise. who's the dummy now? whoof! whoof! so get allstate where good drivers save 40% for avoiding mayhem, like me. sorry! he's a baby! our retirement plan with voya gives us confidence. they help us with achievable steps along the way... so we can spend a bit today, knowing we're prepared for tomorrow. wow dad, do you think you overdid it maybe? i don't think so... what do you think, peanut? nope! honey, do you think we overdid it? overdid what? see? we don't think so, son. technically, grandparents can't overdo it. it's impossible. well planned, well invested, well protected.

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talk to your doctor about chantix. after several days of international panic over escalating tensions between the u.s. and iran. the iraqi parliament voted to expel u.s. forces from iraq. officials in baghdad wanted to send the message that iraq would not be the battleground that the u.s. and iran engage in a proxy war. but here's how secretary of

state mike pompeo reacted to baghdad's decision. >> we are happy to continue the conversation with the iraqis about what the right structure set is. we've been there to perform a training mission to help the iraqi security forces be successful and continue the campaign against isis. we're going to continue that mission but as times change and we get to a place we can deliver upon what i believe and the president believes is our right structure with fewer resources dedicated to that mission woil do so. >> so if a sovereign government such as iraq votes to expel u.s. forces from their country and we refuse to adhere to their order, isn't that occupation? joining me is the executive vice president of the think tank and author, also with us is kim gadis, author of "black wave".

thank you both for being here. what that sounded like to me was that the government of iraq has no right to tell the united states to leave their country. that sounds to me like an occupation. your thoughts? >> it will turn into an occupation because the legal basis for the united states being there is that the iraqi government requested american assistance in defeating isis in 2014. what you're seeing now is that the iraqi government is essentially rescinding that and saying enough is enough because now the presence of u.s. troops in iraq has become a headache for the iraqis because of the fact that they, quite understandably, do not want to be the arena which the united states and iran fight their proxy war. they have suffered enough warfare in the last 40 years they don't want more when it comes to a fight that has little to do with them. what is fascinating is trump has said he wants to leave iraq all along, now when he has the opportunity he is moving in the exact opposite direction. >> indeed. it seems to me, kim, that the

reason iraq and iran, which fought a war after the iran revolution in 1979, in which we took sides, the reason they're now on the same side is us, right -- excuse me. is it we brought war and brought them together. >> i wouldn't necessarily say -- i would not say that iran and iraq are necessarily on the same side. i think there's a lot of posturing happening in iraq at the moment from the parliament with this non-binding request for the u.s. troops to leave. i think there are also private conversations happening between iraqi officials and american officials. i think, although i agree with trita that iraqis do not want to be the arena for another confrontation, they don't necessarily want to hand over their country to iran, that's how a lot of iraqis feel, their country has been taken over by

iran. if you look at the pr protests taking place in the country over the last few months they have a very strong anti-iran sentiment. they've called for iran to back off, in essence. and think eve faced the consequences. more than 500 protesters have been killed. and the crack down, as far as we can tell, was partly orchestrated by qassem soleimani who is now gone. so there is also relief in iraq that qassem soleimani is no longer. i wouldn't quite say iran and iraq are on the same side, standing against the united states. i think it is fair to say that iraq does not want to be the arena for the standoff and iraqis who have resumed their protests over the last two days are now saying, to both iran and the united states, to leave them alone. >> yeah, they've had enough, i'm quite sure. let's talk about the justifications that the u.s. -- the trump administration is trying to use for having done this in the first place, for taking this action that previous administrations have declined to

do. here's vice president mike pence still refusing to give the proof to the american people of the justification for having killed soleimani. take a listen. >> if we were to share all of the intelligence -- and, in fact, some of the most compelling evidence that qassem soleimani was preparing an imminent attack against american forces and american personnel, also represents some of the most sensitive intelligence that we have. it could compromise those sources and methods. >> does that make sense to you that they would say that both to the cameras, but also inside the skiff? the security intelligence protocol, they wouldn't even tell members of congress what this supposed secret intelligence is, does it make you dubious that they have a justification they can point to for having killed this senior leader in iran. >> it certainly does not make a

lot of sense. and it doesn't make a lot of sense to the senators who were frustrated, including republican senators because this could have, at the end of the day, sparked a major war. and without being able to provide any evidence, is an understa insult to the congress and the system of checks and balance the united states has. and at the same time the things he's been saying to his friends in mar-a-lago, that he was under pressure by more hawkish members of the senate that in order to get their support on impeachment he needed to do this, does jive with the larger picture in july of this past year the trump administration ordered the attack on iran after the iranians shot down an american drone and in the last ten minutes trump changed his mind, which is an extraordinary thing he did and decided not to do it. the main reason he decided not

to do it seemed to be electoral, in which he realized starting a war could be bad for him when it came to re-election. then in december we have a different picture. and the only significant thing that has changed between july and december and the attitude of trump seems to be impeachment. >> that's the scariest possibility that this was political. we now have the president of iran admitting his government was responsible -- armed forces internal investigations has concluded that missiles fired due to human error caused the horrific crash of the ukrainian plane and death of 176 innocent people. so they've admitted that is what happened. the irony of that, kim, is that in 1988, this happened to an iranian airliner that was brought down by an american -- you know, another sort of horrifying accident of conflict. the irony has got to be

incredibly deep, not just for iran but, you know, for ukraine to be involved, et cetera, your thoughts? >> it is a tragic and very eerie parallel. it's a terrible twist of fate to have this happen at this moment. what iran did right, at least, is to very quickly admit responsibility and say that it was a tragic mistake and offer its condolences, which is farther than the u.s. went at the time in 1988, but it is tragic because for the last 30 years iran has continuously slammed the u.s. for that downing of the iranian airliner and saying, you know -- just reminding the u.s. recently, president rouhani reminded the u.s. of that, saying remember the 290 victims. now iran itself has unintentionally accidentally brought down a civilian plane

full of iranians. and the anger on the streets of iran erupting tonight is a sight. people are at indignation at the competence of their leaders at what happened, and they're screaming death to the dictator and enough to the lies. >> and the tragedy is going to continue on this side. we're hearing yet another version of the travel ban, which can affect more families. it gets worse and worse. i wish we had more time. thank you both very much. more "a.m. joy" after the break. h more "a.m. joy" after the break.

soleimani was our hero. they killed him. why? are we human or not? what should we do? you tell us. >> what is your message to america? >> we love americans. >> this week leaders of the poor people's campaign called on the united nations to intervene to stop a u.s. war with iran saying, quote, we will not be silent as our president announces willingness to commit a minimum of 52 violations of

international law and war crimes. joining me is bishop barber, author, and phyllis bennett, director of the internationalism project, and reverend dr. liz theo harris. co-director of the cairo center. bishop bipartisarber the letter wrote referenced dr. king and talked about the enemy of the poor. talk about what that letter say. >> over 6,000 faith leaders. >> activists have signed this letter saying president trump and his allies have made these violent acts that have engaged in this act of war, and they didn't even choose to lie to the congress, he just bypassed the congress, violated the constitution, violated international law and then brazenly bragged that he's willing to commit 52 acts of war

crimes. and what do we know about war? the poor get hurt the most. the poor of either country. they are the ones who suffer. dr. king knew that. he also knew, joy, how dangerous it is in this time of nuclear weaponry, he said it's not just whether we can have war but whether we can exist. we are close the other night to a beginning of a world war. it took one assassination to start world war i and now we have a rogue delusional president that brags about killing someone that is willing to violate. we need the un, the international community to honor its charter and step in. that's why we asked for this meeting with the high commissioners and others and we have nearly 6,000 people sign. >> in talking about the impact on the poor, it's the poor on both sides of the aisle because a lot of people join the military for economic reasons. it is not their choice to go to

war against a country that in their mind they have no direct connection to anything done to them, that's the risk on this side of the world as well. >> it's absolutely right, joy. on the one hand we have the poor whether it's in iran, iraq, syria, afghanistan, in these places it's the poorest most vulnerable in the times of war, women and children more than anyone else. here at home it's by far more likely for poor communities, who go into the military in larger opportunities because we have a poverty draft, a no job draft, we have these forces that push people into the military for economic reasons. where the people gaining from this -- it's never true to say no one wants war, there are people profiting from this war. if we look at the assassination, the assassination of general

qassem soleimani in iran, the action in iraq that night when he was assassinated was using a hell fire missile that's made by one of the -- the major military contractors in this country. and the ceos of that company are looking at a 3.6% rise within 24 hours after that strike. the ceo of general atomics. the company that makes the drone used to fire that missile, he's worth over $4 billion. and these are the people who have an interest in going to war, continuing for the united states to use our tax money. right now more than half of our tax money, 53 cents out of every federal dollar is used for the military. and half of that goes directly to military corporations. it doesn't go to the troops. 23,000 u.s. troops qualify for

food stamps because they're not paid enough. we look at a situation where the are richest of the rich are the ones who profit from war and the ones who are poor pay the biggest price. >> a quote from the letter that you guys were signatories too, the lives of people hang in the ambulance, the lives of those we represent among the 1,450 million poor and low wealth in the united states, 43% of the u.s. population, also hang in the balance. we know there were reports in "vanity fair" that people were shorting the markets for defense stocks. money is on the table for people to earn. but this could be devastating if the u.s. were to wind up at war with iran. >> indeed. thanks, joy. as has been said war is an enemy of the poor, a cruel manipulation of the poor and people in iran, iraq, the middle east, and the united states are already suffering. the sanctions that have been

imposed and increased are parallel to cuts that trump made to food stamps and other food programs that, as the poor are manipulated across the world, people are suffering. and as we move closer and closer to war, it was an act of war, that assassination, it was a war crime and the pardoning of war criminals and sets up a dangerous precedent. we can't have a ruler of a very powerful nation willing to bypass congress, willing to bypass international law and for us to stand silent about it. that's why we're calling on the united nations. that's why people all across the country are participating in anti-war demonstrations. and that's why people are continuing to organize and say no to war. >> very quickly before we go. the other thing is dehumanization of iran as this specter of islam and not looking into who the people are on the

other side of the bombs. there's a lack, even in the media, to humanize the people on that side. >> this is precedent of you can just kill some people in rogue ways, this president who's delusional and for thnarcissist saying i took the shot. and even democrats saying no one should mourn a tier of general soleimani, that's not the issue. the issue is should a president abide by the national law. we should be making our voices heard that a narcissistic rogue president can do this, get away with it and put us at risk. i don't have time to deal with it, but remember our hands are not totally clean on our end. the history of what we have done and what the country did to destabilize the country and put

shaws on the throne all over money and who gets hurt, the poor and the poorest among us around the world. >> absolutely. thank you all so much. we really appreciate you. before we go, we want to turn to a happier note and more hopeful note. we want to say a huge congratulations to "a.m. joy" producer natalie lotty, who this week welcomed a daughter. valentina, natalie, joe we love you guys. we're so happy for you. look at that baby. that's a great note to end up on.

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that is our show for today. "a.m. joy" will be back tomorrow. up next, alex witt has the latest. i'm happy we had a baby on my show. >> that was happy. >> i needed that. >> then i come to the studio and talk about the air conditioning here, but that's another story. my friend, i'll talk to you in a bit. thanks so much. a good day to all of you. high noon in the east just about. welcome to "weekends with alex witt" disastrous mistake. iran admitting it unintentionally shot down a iranian airliner, why there's a caveat and the reaction inside iran. more details about what may have motivated president trump to order the air strike that killed the general.

a new poll with a new front runner in iowa. royal unraveling. how harry and meghan's big decision is playing with the common folk. we begin this hour with the breaking news from iran. that is where crowds are gathering once again on the streets of tehran, this time protesting against the iranian government for its role in shooting down a passenger airplane, killing all 176 people on board. iranian officials made that surprise announcement over night taking responsibilities for accidentally shooting down that ukrainian plane. meanwhile, president trump saying four embassies were under attack. joining me is kelly o'donnell and ali oruzi. not the same numbers protesting in