Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin announced new sanctions against Iran and its economy, including on eight individuals the officials said were involved in missile strikes on Iraqi bases housing U.S. personnel on Tuesday night.
"We will continue to apply economic sanctions until Iran stops its terrorist activities and commit[s] that it will never have nuclear weapons," Mnuchin said.
Adding details to President Donald Trump's announcement Wednesday that he intended to further sanction Iran, whose goods are already heavily sanctioned, Mnuchin said the president will sign an executive order authorizing new sanctions including 17 against the nation's economy and sanctions against individuals he asserted, "advance Iran's destabilizing activities and were involved in Tuesday's ballistic missile strike." Mnuchin, who last announced sanctions against the Middle Eastern nation in September 2019 after suspected attacks on Saudi Arabian oil facilities, said the administration has "100 percent confidence" that "the economic sanctions are working."
"We want Iran to behave simply like a normal nation," Pompeo told reporters in a White House briefing, saying he believed sanctions will help accomplish that goal. He added, "We're striking at the heart of the Islamic Republic's inner security apparatus."
Pompeo was pressed by reporters on the timing of attacks the president initially said were "imminent." The administration has been inconsistent in justification for the drone strike on Jan. 3 that killed Iranian top military commander Gen. Qassem Soleimani. In the past 24 hours, Trump said "they were looking to blow up our embassy," which the administration later explained he was referencing the storming of the Baghdad embassy on New Year's Eve. Though the Department of Defense had stated that the general had been "actively developing plans" to attack Americans in the region, Pompeo told Fox last night "we don't know precisely when and we don't know precisely where."
On Friday morning, Pompeo attempted to clarify the differing accounts, saying "we had specific information on an imminent threat and those included attacks on U.S. embassies. Period. Full stop."
Justification for the drone strike has had lawmakers up in arms for days, exacerbated by the five days it took the White House to brief Congressional leaders, a meeting two Republican Senators had excoriated as unacceptable and had them saying they would vote with Democrats in a war powers resolution.
Pompeo repeated this morning that Soleimani had been planning "a broad, large-scale attack against American interests," including U.S. embassies and bases in the region, and reiterated reports from the U.S. and its allies that the Ukrainian passenger jet that crashed after its takeoff in Iran, just hours after Iran had sent a retaliatory missile barrage at Americans housed in Iraqi bases, was "likely" shot down by an Iranian missile.
"When we get the results of that investigation, I am confident we and the rest of the world will take appropriate action," Pompeo said.
After 40 years of tension came to a head last month with the death of an American contractor, storming of the American embassy in Baghdad, and the killing of Soleimani, lawmakers worried the president had taken the U.S. to the brink of war with the Iran. On Jan. 8, Trump said Iran appeared to "be standing down" after its missile attack response.
Elon Musk asked Twitter if he should sell about $20 billion worth of his Tesla stock and about 58 percent of those who answered said yes. The Tesla CEO pledged to abide by the results of the poll, whichever way it went. Arun Sundararajan, NYU Stern professor & author of "The Sharing Economy: The End of Employment and the Rise of Crowd-Based Capitalism," joined Cheddar to discuss what the Twitter poll says about America's attitude towards billionaires and the nation's tax system.
Dr. Nasia Safdar, Doctor at UW Madison, joined Wake Up With Cheddar to discuss the implications of Merck sharing its antiviral pill, which has been shown in early trials to cut hospitalizations and deaths by half, with poorer nations around the globe.
The Federal Reserve finally announced its taper plan on Wednesday saying that it planned to scale back on bond purchases as growth slows, and would not rush to raise interest rates. Ross Mayfield, Investment Strategy Analyst at Baird spoke on whether or not a decrease in inflation could be in the country’s future amidst comments made by Fed chairman Jerome Powell. Baird also broke down ADP jobs numbers ahead of the Labor Department's October jobs report.
Going into election day on Tuesday, many of us had an inkling it might not be a great day for Democrats. History tells us the president's party tends to lose congressional seats, governorships and state legislature seats in off-year and midterm elections. Tuesday turned out to be a big wake-up call for democrats. Not only did Terry McAuliffe lose in the Virginia governor's race, Gov. Phil Murphy won re-election by an incredibly slim margin. Both races saw continued Democratic losses in rural areas and a shift of suburban voters back to the GOP. Liz Landers, chief political correspondent at Vice News, joins Cheddar Politics to discuss.
Week one of UN climate summit is coming to an end, world leaders made a number of promises to save the planet. President Biden attended the first two days of the meeting.
Alan Neuhauser, vice president of Silverline Communications, joined Cheddar Politics to talk more about the pledges that came out from the summit and their significance.
It's been a busy week for the Supreme Court. It heard arguments on three of the most watched cases in the docket for this term. The court heard arguments in two cases challenging the Texas abortion law on Monday - one filed by abortion providers and the other by the justice department. Instead of weighing in on the constitutionality of the matter itself, justices focused on the unusual structure of the law that enables citizens to enforce the law, not the state government.
On Wednesday, the court heard arguments in the biggest Second Amendment case in more than a decade. The dispute is over a New York gun law that requires people seeking a license to carry a handgun in public to show a "proper cause." The challengers in this case claim the law inhibits their constitutional Second Amendment rights.
Amy Howe, co-founder of SCOTUSBlog, joined Cheddar Politics to break the cases down.
This is the first installment of Cheddar Changemakers, where we spotlight young activists making a difference in the world and speaking up on issues regarding mental health, voting, and climate change.
Republicans are considered, and often act like, the party opposed to action on climate change. They've made a point of fighting even modest regulations on businesses related to stemming the worst effects of climate change. But Republicans aren't a monolith on climate change, and our next guest reminds us that "conservation" and "conservative" have the same word root.
Quill Robinson, VP of government affairs at the American Conservation Coalition, joins Cheddar Politics to discuss.
The mayor of Portland, Oregon, Ted Wheeler joined Cheddar News Wrap to discuss his plans to get an increase in the city's police budget for more personnel, changes to public safety response, and more body cameras. The Democratic mayor addressed the growth in violent crimes amid the pandemic, but noted the need for officers who take their roles seriously. We want officers who understand that policing is an important responsibility, it's a high calling," he said. "We also want a police bureau that is accountable and responsible to the public it serves."
