Dem Sen. Merkley on Iran: ‘Imminent Threat’ an ‘After-the-Fact Argument’

On Tuesday’s “New Day” on CNN, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) commented on President Donald Trump’s reasoning for ordering airstrikes to kill former Iranian Quds force commander Gen. Qasem Soleimani due to the “imminent threat” he posed.

Merkley argued the “imminent threat” statement was “an after-the-fact argument” by Trump and his administration, likening it to the “corrupted” intelligence that was out on Saddam Hussein.

“It’s just further evidence — the whole argument of imminent threat was [an] after-the-fact argument,” Merkley told host John Berman. “When you have no identifiable target or actor or time schedule or place you don’t have an imminent threat. It was an effort to place it into a stronger construction of international law. The administration has stumbled all over itself. It reminds me of how intelligence was corrupted during the war against Saddam Hussein.”

“I’m very concerned our intelligence community in this case with Gina Haspel at the top is bending their presentations rather than giving us a full straight out accountability of the facts,” he added.

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