NBC’s Peter Alexander Confronts Mike Pompeo Over Controversial Iran Briefing: ‘Senators are Lying?’

NBC News White House correspondent Peter Alexander grilled Secretary of State Mike Pompeo over allegations from members of Congress that briefings on the Iran situation did not include threats to U.S. embassies, asking Pompeo if “Senators are lying?”

President Donald Trump has twice claimed that now-deceased Iranian Quds Force leader Qasem Soleimani was planning to destroy U.S. embassies, even though members of Congress claim no such threat was included in their classified briefings.

At a White House briefing Friday, Pompeo backed up Trump’s claim, which caused Alexander to question him aggressively.

“Here today at the podium, you said that the imminent threat was a threat to U.S. embassies, you didn’t know precisely when or where, last night The president said it was a threat to our embassies including our Baghdad embassy,” Alexandr said, and asked “Why is it that you can say that here, and the President can say that in a rally in Toledo, but no one said it to lawmakers behind closed doors, in a classified setting, as multiple senators have said?”

“We did,” Pompeo claimed.

“You said so? The senators are lying when they said…” Alexander said.

“Yes, we told them about the imminent threat, all of the intelligence that we have briefed, that you have heard today, I assure you in an unclassified setting we’ve provided in a classified setting as well,” Pompeo said.

“To be clear you told them that embassies were to be targeted, that was the imminent threat,” Alexander said.

“I am not going to talk about the details of what we shared in the classified setting, but make no mistake about it, those leaders, those members of Congress who want to go access the same intelligence can see that very same intelligence that will reflect what I’ve described to you and what the president said last night as well,” Pompeo said.

Watch the clip above via CNN.