Bret Baier Presses Pompeo on Soleimani Strike: Did Admin Say ‘Imminent’ Because ‘It Pleased the Lawyers’?

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo continued to defend the strike that took out Qasem Soleimani on Fox News tonight as Bret Baier pressed him on the imminent threat they have pointed to.

Baier showed video of one Democratic senator saying, “There is not specific information about the attack and there was little justification for an imminent threat and the president characterized it as such, and now the intelligence community is trying to justify with the president.”

Additionally, over the weekend Defense Secretary Mark Esper said he did not see specific intelligence with respect to what the president said about threats to four embassies.

Baier asked, “I guess the question is did the administration use imminent because it pleased the lawyers or why?”

“I don’t know who used it first, but it reflects what we saw,” Pompeo said. “We can dance around the maypole on the word ‘imminent,’ I can assure you of this. The intelligence picture that was painted not only in those days but in all of the history that built up to this… what we could see was there was an increasing threat from the activities from Qasem Soleimani.”

At one point Baier noted some Republicans’ criticisms about Congress not being consulted on military action, bringing up comments Pompeo himself made a few years ago as a congressman criticizing the “lack of leadership and congressional consultation exhibited by President Obama” with respect to Libya.

You can watch Pompeo’s response in the clip above, via Fox News.