Vice President Mike Pence said on Thursday the Trump administration could not provide Congress with the “most compelling” intelligence behind the decision to kill Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani because it could “compromise sources and methods.” On NBC’s Today show, Pence responded to lawmakers, including Republicans, who have criticized the the scarce information that the administration provided during classified congressional briefings on the missile strike that killed Soleimani last week. Pence said that “those of us” who were aware of the intelligence “in real time know President Trump made the right decision,” adding that Iran’s top general “was planning imminent attacks against American forces.”
The Trump administration has not released information that could back up the claim that Soleimani was planning “imminent” attacks on the U.S. Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) called the briefing on Wednesday “probably the worst briefing I’ve seen at least on a military issue in the nine years I’ve served in the United States Senate.”