A recap of what has been going on today.
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Tucker weighs in on these events.
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Beanie Man weighs in on these events.
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Rose McGowan sparked outrage on Friday by apologizing to the country of Iran on Twitter after its top military general was killed in an airstrike ordered by President Trump.
www.foxnews.com
archived 3 Jan 2020 16:21:07 UTC
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Rose McGowan and John Cusack took to Twitter late Thursday and early Friday with harsh reactions to President Trump's order of the airstrike that killed Iran's top general, Qassem Soleimani.
Cusack, 53, spared no time blasting Trump on Thursday night, letting his 1.6 million followers know that he deemed the president clueless for putting United States citizens in danger.
McGowan, 46, known for regularly making lewd remarks against Trump on social media, sent out her own series of tweets early Friday attacking the United States and leaving some followers questioning her sanity.
"Dear #Iran, The USA has disrespected your country, your flag, your people. 52% of us humbly apologize. We want peace with your nation. We are being held hostage by a terrorist regime. We do not know how to escape. Please do not kill us. #Soleimani," she wrote.
The Pentagon confirmed Thursday evening that Trump had ordered the attack that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani. The top military commander was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American and coalition members and the wounding of thousands more, the U.S. State Department said.
McGowan's followers accused the actress of doing drugs and pleaded with her to take down the tweet or delete her account as a whole. McGowan responded to the outcry with another slew of verbal attacks against America and Trump.
"Thanks a lot, d--khead," McGowan wrote to Trump in another tweet.
McGowan's rage-filled Twitter spree continued into the early morning hours on Friday. When one follower simply requested she delete the apologetic tweet, McGowan responded, "eat s--t."
While the actress pointed out that Soleimani was an "evil, evil man," she continued to argue that the United States has no morals.
"Of course #Soleimani was an evil evil man who did evil evil things. But that at this moment is not the f--king point. The United States is morally corrupt and acts illegally. It is only logical to appeal to Iran’s pride by apologizing. I’m taking one for the team. #TeamStayAlive," she continued.
McGowan was labeled a "traitor" as others outraged by her rant instructed her to "move out of the US!"
On early Friday, President of Iran Hassan Rouhani promised to "take revenge for this heinous crime," leading to the U.S. State Department to urge all U.S. citizens to "depart Iraq immediately."
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Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., called on members of Congress late Thursday to join her in putting a stop to President Trump from starting war in Iran following the U.S. airstrike that killed the notorious Gen. Qassim Soleimani.
www.foxnews.com
archived 4 Jan 2020 02:34:52 UTC
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Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., called on members of Congress late Thursday to join her in putting a stop to President Trump from starting a war as a "distraction" in Iran following the U.S. airstrike that killed the notorious Gen. Qassim Soleimani.
“So what if Trump wants war, knows this leads to war and needs the distraction?” the Democrat freshman "Squad" member said. “Real question is, will those with congressional authority step in and stop him? I know I will.”
The Pentagon confirmed earlier Thursday evening that Trump had ordered the attack that killed Soleimani, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' elite Quds Force, among other military officials at Baghdad International Airport in Iraq. Iran’s top “shadow commander” was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American and coalition service members and the wounding of thousands more, the State Department said.
Omar responded to a tweet from Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who questioned whether Trump acted within his right as Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces to authorize the attack. The U.S. Constitution divides war powers between the Executive and Legislative branches. Congress can declare war and raise support for the armed forces.
“Soleimani was an enemy of the United States. That’s not a question,” Murphy affirmed. “The question is this - as reports suggest, did America just assassinate, without any congressional authorization, the second most powerful person in Iran, knowingly setting off a potential massive regional war?”
Murphy, a member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, said that while the justification for the attack is to “deter future Iranian attacks,” the U.S. usually doesn’t assassinate foreign officials because it could potentially cause more Americans to be killed.
“That should be our real, pressing and grave worry tonight,” he said.
He added that while no one knows what will happen next, “the neocons thumping their chest tonight should recall that the worst mistakes global powers make are when they strike militarily in complicated places with few friends, with no consideration of the consequences.”
Many Democrats admitted that no Americans would mourn Soleimani's death but also raised concern that the escalation will put the U.S. on a crash course for a new conflict in the Mideast. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi released a statement saying that Trump ordered the airstrike “without the consultation of Congress.”
The State Department said the airstrike “was aimed at deterring future Iranian attack plans."
"The United States will continue to take all necessary action to protect our people and our interests wherever they are around the world," the agency said.
Soleimani is suspected of directing a mob of hundreds of Iranian-backed militants to storm the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad this week, triggering a two-day faceoff with American forces at the most heavily fortified U.S. diplomatic mission in the world. On Tuesday, Trump vowed retaliation against the militia groups. He tweeted an American flag Thursday evening after Soleimani’s death was confirmed.
In April 2019, the State Department announced that Iranian and Iranian-backed forces led by Soleimani were responsible for killing 608 U.S. troops during the Iraq War.
Soleimani took over the external operations wing of the IRGC in 1998 and was known as one of the most powerful military leaders in the Middle East. The State Department believes he was the masterminded behind the major military operations, bombings and assassinations that accounted for at least 17 percent of all U.S. personnel deaths in Iraq between 2003 and 2011.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Friday warned that a "harsh retaliation is waiting" for the U.S. after the airstrike that killed Soleimani.
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Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., mocked Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, on Friday after the senator suggested that she and other Democrats were "outraged" over the death of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
www.foxnews.com
archived 4 Jan 2020 02:35:02 UTC
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Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., mocked Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, on Friday after the senator suggested that she and other Democrats were "outraged" over the death of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
Cruz was responding to a tweet in which Omar called on members of Congress to step in and prevent President Trump from engaging in armed conflict with Iran.
Cruz tweeted: "According the the [sic] Obama Department of Defense, Qasem Soleimani was a terrorist directly responsible for the murder of over 500 US service men [sic] & women. Why are congressional Dems outraged that he’s finally dead?"
In response, Omar suggested that Cruz was purposefully overlooking the actual nature of her criticism.
"We are outraged the president would assassinate a foreign official, possibly setting off another war without Congressional authorization and has zero plan to deal with the consequences," she responded. "But of course you know that."
She also tweeted a quote in which Cruz, President Trump's former opponent in the 2016 Republican primaries, cast doubt on Trump's ability to lead.
Omar also criticized Trump, indicating that he was doing what he predicted former President Obama would do with Iran: start a war.
"This reckless mind is now leading us to war!" she tweeted, alongside screenshots of Trump's previous tweets.
Both Cruz and Omar sit on the Senate and House foreign relations committees, respectively. While it's unclear how Congress will proceed, the president would need the legislative branch's approval for a formal declaration of war.
Cruz also defended Trump from rhetorical attacks by former Obama administration official Ben Rhodes.
"Trump may have just started a war with no congressional debate," Rhodes tweeted.
Cruz responded by mocking the Iranian nuclear deal set up under Rhodes and the former president., tweeting: "Perhaps it would have been a better idea to send him $1.7 billion in unmarked bills, in pallets on planes in the dead of night, so he could kill more Americans?"
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Ramadan Sharif cried on live television upon acknowledging the death of Qasem Soleimani, the Iranian commander killed by a U.S. airstrike.
www.breitbart.com
Iranian Revolutionary Guards spokesman Ramadan Sharif burst into tears on live television upon acknowledging the death of Gen. Qasem Soleimani, the Iranian terror chief by a U.S. airstrike at Baghdad airport on Friday.
“The joy of the Americans and the Zionists will now turn to their condolences,” Sharif said of the strike, according to Lebanese media, before adding that Soleimani was one of the most “experienced, brave, revolutionary and loyal leaders of the state who achieved during his blessed life for 41 years.”
The video, broadcast on Iranian state television, was verified by Al-Arabiya, a Saudi news network.
The reporter and spokesman then embraced one another with a hug and kiss on the cheek.
The Pentagon said Thursday that the U.S. military eliminated Gen. Qassem Soleimani – the head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force, a unite that organizes terrorist attacks in the region – at the direction of President Donald Trump.
The airstrike occurred at Baghdad’s international airport Friday, Iranian state television and three Iraqi officials said.
The Defense Department said Soleimani “was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region.” It also accused Soleimani of approving the attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad earlier this week.
A statement released late Thursday by the Pentagon said the strike on Soleimani “was aimed at deterring future Iranian attack plans.”
The strike also killed Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy commander of the Popular Mobilization Forces, or PMF, Iraqi officials said. The PMF media arm said the two were killed in an American airstrike that targeted their vehicle on the road to the airport.
The PMF is a coalition of pro-Iran, mostly Shiite militias and terror organizations that united to fight the Sunni Islamic State terrorist group. Iraq legalized them as a formal wing of the Iraqi military.
Speaking to CNN Friday morning, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the strike came in response to intelligence that Soleimani was planning to imminently attack U.S. citizens.
“He was actively plotting in the region to take actions — a big action, as he described it — that would have put dozens if not hundreds of American lives at risk,” Pompeo stated. “We know it was imminent. This was an intelligence-based assessment that drove our decision-making process.”
Shortly after Pompeo’s remarks, President Trump broke his silence on Soleimani’s killing, saying the Iranian general was “directly and indirectly responsible for the death of millions of people” and that he should have been eliminated years prior.
“General Qassem Soleimani has killed or badly wounded thousands of Americans over an extended period of time, and was plotting to kill many more … but got caught!” the president posted on Twitter. “He was directly and indirectly responsible for the death of millions of people, including the recent large number of PROTESTERS killed in Iran itself.”
“While Iran will never be able to properly admit it, Soleimani was both hated and feared within the country. They are not nearly as saddened as the leaders will let the outside world believe. He should have been taken out many years ago!” he concluded.
