Welcome to Wednesday, January 15th, gym and dress shoes...

Was Soleimani's attack imminent? Does it matter?

For more than a week, President Donald Trump and his team asserted that Gen. Qasem Soleimani posed an “imminent” threat to Americans when he was killed by a U.S. drone strike.

"Why is that important?" House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel (D-NY), asked at a hearing on the strike Tuesday. "Because in the case of an imminent threat, the president has authority under Article 2 of the Constitution to protect Americans."

While initially claiming there was an “imminent” threat, Trump officials have since offered shifting justifications for the strike, including Trump recently claiming that "it doesn't matter."

"The Fake News Media and their Democrat Partners are working hard to determine whether or not the future attack by terrorist Soleimani was “imminent” or not, & was my team in agreement," Trump tweeted. "The answer to both is a strong YES., but it doesn’t really matter because of his horrible past!"

Do you agree with Trump that it “doesn’t really matter” if Soleimani posed an imminent threat?

On the Radar

On a Woman’s Electability & Iran

It's a case of she said he said shes couldn't be president.

During Tuesday's Democratic debate in Iowa, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) strongly denied reports that during a 2018 meeting, he told Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) that he did not think a woman could win the presidency.

It was one of the most-talked-about topics heading into the debate.

When the subject was broached, Sanders denied the sentence.

"I didn't say it," Sanders said. "Anybody knows me knows that it's incomprehensible that I would think that a woman cannot be president of the United States. Go to YouTube today. There's a video of me 30 years ago talking about how a woman could become president of the United States."

Warren was then asked by a moderator how she felt when Sanders said the alleged remark.

“I disagreed,” Warren said. “Bernie is my friend, and I’m not here to try to fight with Bernie… the question has been raised, and it’s time for us to attack it head-on.”

We take a look at what each debater said here, which includes:

Buttigieg: “If he keeps trying to use religion, if a guy like Donald trump keeps trying to use religion to somehow recruit Christianity into the GOP, I will be standing there not afraid to talk about a different way to answer the call of faith. And insist that God does not belong to a political party.”
Klobuchar on impeachment: “This is a decency check on our government. This is a patriotism check. Not only is this trial that, but also this election. And no matter if you agree with everyone on the stage, I say this to Americans, you know this is a decency check on this president."

What do you think of the 2020 Democratic contenders?

What You're Saying

Here's how you're answering Should Anti-Discrimination Protections for Older Workers Be Strengthened?

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Also Worth a Click

Pelosi Says House Will Send Trump Impeachment Articles to the Senate Wednesday

And, in the End...

On this date in 1953, Harry Truman became the first U.S. president to use radio and TV to deliver his farewell address:

PIC-END

I don't care if everyone else in my family hates it, I'm celebrating National Booch Day with a big overpriced bottle of GT's Gingerade kombucha, extra SCOBY,

—Josh Herman

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