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Top Senator: ‘Very Clear Strategy’ With Iran, They’ll Be ‘Very, Very Sorry’ If They Escalate

   DailyWire.com
WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 25: Senate Select Committee on Intelligence member Sen. James Risch (R-ID) arrives for a closed-door meeting in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill April 25, 2017 in Washington, DC. The committee has entered the third month of its investigation into allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
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Sen. James Risch (R-ID), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told Fox News on Friday night that if Iran decides to further escalate tensions in the region in response to U.S. forces killing Iranian terrorist leader Qassem Soleimani that Iran will be “very, very, sorry.”

Risch told Fox News host Martha MacCallum: “The president acted on very specific information that he had that came from the intelligence agencies. That information was rock-solid, it’s good information. I can’t imagine us having this interview if the president had not acted on it and indeed Soleimani would’ve been able to complete the attacks he had in mind that he was attempting to pursue and Americans would’ve gotten killed and the Democrats would say that the president knew about it and didn’t do anything about it.”

“Look, there is a very clear strategy of going forward,” Risch later added. “This message is a clear message to Iran that this escalation that they are doing perhaps on the belief that America’s are weak, perhaps on the belief the president is weak simply because he took what I considered a very reasonable forbearance on some of the things that have happened previously. The Iranians have been mistaken. The miscalculated, as they are notorious for doing and one would hope they step back, take a breath and realize that if they escalate, they are going to be very, very sorry, if they do that.”

WATCH:

Transcript of Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman James Risch’s interview on Fox News:

MacCallum: Do you know more about this attack that we mentioned at the very top of the show? The developments and news coming in, looks like there has been another attack on vehicles holding some of these Iranian officials.

Risch: I do. I’m really not comfortable until they actually declassify what they are going to declassify to comment on it. The news was released 24 minutes ago. The actual attack took place an hour and 45 minutes ago. But — look, the president acted on very specific information that he had that came from the intelligence agencies. That information was rock-solid, it’s good information. I can’t imagine us having this interview if the president had not acted on it and indeed Soleimani would’ve been able to complete the attacks he had in mind that he was attempting to pursue and Americans would’ve gotten killed and the Democrats would say that the president knew about it and didn’t do anything about it.

This president hates doing this sort of thing. He doesn’t like doing like doing Connecticut tax. But put in the position he’s been placed in with this, plus with information that we had, he did what he had to do and we hope that the Iranians will step back, take a breath, and understand they have been escalating this for a long time.

MacCallum: That’s clear. We pointed it out with the reminder at the top of the show the escalating attacks that have happened on oil interest of our allies and the American citizen and on the U.S. Embassy, it makes it pretty hard to understand how you could not have some sort of retaliation. Let me go back and ask one more question about these attacks with the additional attacks we are seeing tonight. What we’ve heard is that there were plans underway to attack U.S. interests and that’s what prompted the hit on Soleimani that killed him at the Baghdad airport. So, the question was who replaces him? Are the attacks still going to be carried out or even escalated in response to his death?

So, the attacks we just saw an hour and 40 minutes ago, were they aimed at some of these individuals who may have continued to carry out these attacks?

Risch: You know, Martha, again, I’ve been briefed on this but I do not want to be the one that releases this. I think the question, the declassification of how this came about should be with the president and with the national Security Council.

MacCallum: One last question — are American safer because of the second attack?

Senator: I don’t think there’s any question about that. It doesn’t take a lot of imagination when we watch what’s unfolded over the last 24 hours to understand how they are going to pursue this to continue to make Americans safer in the job they have to do overseas.

MacCallum: I want to hit on a little bit of what was in the introduction with regard to the reaction in some media circles to what happened. I thought it’s pretty striking to hear Jonathan Alter say it’s the right move but the wrong president. What’s your reaction to that?

Risch: Martha, you know, you operate in the same bubble I do back there. The hate and the vitriol amongst most of the Democrats and, for that matter, some — not all of the national media. There is no bounds to this. They are deranged when it comes to the president and can’t give them credit for anything. A good example of that is the economy. We are coming off the best year in 50 years and you never hear them acknowledge that President Trump has given this to the American people.

MacCallum: I know you said back in June the president considered an attack after the attack on the Saudi oil of facilities and that he agonized over that, so the suggestion I think here that it’s the right act, wrong president is that he won’t be able to do with necessary next or he doesn’t have a strategy for what happens next. A quick thought before let you go on that?

Risch: Sure. Look, there is a very clear strategy of going forward. This message is a clear message to Iran that this escalation that they are doing perhaps on the belief that America’s are weak, perhaps on the belief the president is weakfo simply because he took what I considered a very reasonable forbearance on some of the things that have happened previously. The Iranians have been mistaken. The miscalculated, as they are notorious for doing and one would hope they step back, take a breath and realize that if they escalate, they are going to be very, very sorry, if they do that.

 

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