Questions are Raised About the “Imminent Threat” Soleimani Posed to the U.S.
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We ran the numbers: There are 2713 news articles covering this topic. 48% (1299) are left leaning, 37% (1005) center, 15% (409) right leaning.
In recent days, President Trump and his administration have downplayed the significance of the “imminent threat” to the U.S. before Trump ordered the strike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani. While left-leaning articles trace a history of vague statements from the administration regarding the justification for the killing, right-leaning articles commend Trump’s actions.
A left-leaning article by The New York Times reports that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo downplayed the importance of an “imminent attack” in the decision to kill Soleimani on “Meet the Press,” by saying that “It’s never one thing...It’s a collective.” In a news conference last week, the administration also continued to make emphatic but vague assertions of intelligence information, emphasizing the previous actions that were connected to Soleimani, as opposed to “imminent threats” he presented.
A centrist article by The Hill reports that top officials have oscillated between suggesting the strike was in retaliation for Iran’s escalatory behavior in the region and pointing to an “imminent” threat to American lives. While Pompeo and others have acknowledged that the timing and place of the planned attack were not fully known, Trump told Fox News in an interview Friday that four embassies were being targeted, which is a detail lawmakers said was left out of a recent classified briefing.
A right-leaning article by Fox News reports on an interview with Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), who said that Soleimani was a “sadistic terrorist mastermind, and there is no country in the Middle East whose citizens have not suffered from his depredations.” Cotton commended the President for killing Soleimani and stated that the United States should have done it a long time ago.
From the left
The Trump Administration’s fluctuating explanations for the Suleimani strike
New York Times
From the right
Sen. Tom Cotton: Gassem Soleimani has the blood of hundreds of Americans on his hands
Fox News