Allies reject Trump’s call for Strait of Hormuz escorts

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If Iran, as I said, totally obliterated, got the missiles, got the first two rounds of leadership,

Air Force gun maybe gone. Can we wrap this war up this week?

Yeah, sure. Well, I don't think so, but it'll be said. Won't be alone.

And we're going to have a much safer world when it's wrapped up. It'll be wrapped up soon.

We're going to have a much safer world.

President Trump yesterday admitted that he could end the war with Iran. He's just not ready to do so.

It comes as the president continues to call out NATO allies for not helping to reopen the

straight of war moves, but also claiming the U.S. doesn't need their assistance. Meanwhile,

here at home, the partial government shutdown has DHS employees going without paychecks,

forcing some to pick up second jobs all while travelers and spring breakers are now going through

security lines at airports. And the Democrats have proposed repeatedly

to refine TSA, to refine the Coast Guard, to refine FEMA, and every one of those efforts

over the past week or so have been killed by Republicans on the Senate floor. Every one of those

proposals they could have had unanimous consent. And it's Republicans that are killing unanimous

consent. So you'll see this showdown with John Kornin and Congressman, well, you know,

with all due respect to Senator Kornin, all he has to do is get his Republicans to say yes,

and TSA will be funded, and the Coast Guard will be funded, and FEMA will be funded. But they don't

want to do that if that means that there have to be any reforms with ICE. So that's where we are

right now, because they are so dedicated to ICE continuing operations as is, that they are making TSA

lines horrible, and they're not paying to get this right. Republicans are not paying TSA. It's

ridiculous. And that is where we start on this Tuesday, March 17th, St. Patrick's Day.

With us, we have the co-host of our 9 AM hour staff writer at the Atlantic, Jonathan Lamir,

co-host of the rest is politics podcast, the BBC's Caddy Kay. MSNOW, National Affairs

Analyst John Hylman, he's partner and chief political columnist at Puck, and politics bureau

chief and senior political columnist at Politico, Jonathan Martin, a lot to get to this moment.

A lot to get to. I've got to say something called my eye, Jonathan Lamir this morning, and it caught

my eye. Vince Smith actually pointed this out. We're going to be talking a lot of chaos going on

across the Middle East, a lot of chaos going on in international markets. But Vince Smith said,

actually, there's one person who believes that this war is actually going well for the United

States, and it's actually a writer for Al Jazeera. Let me just read the first couple of paragraphs.

Fascinating two weeks in Operation Epic Fury, the dominant narrative is settled into a

comfortable groove. The United States and Israel stumbled into a war without a plan,

Iran's retaliating across the region. Oil prices are surging, and the world is facing

another Middle Eastern quagmire. The US Senators have called it a blunder, cable news,

as telling the crises commentators have warned of a long war. The course is loud in some respects

understandable. But this narrative is wrong, not because the costs are imaginary, but because

the critics are measuring the wrong things, they are cataloging the price of the campaign while

ignoring the strategic ledger. When you look at what's actually happened to Iran's principal

instruments of power, it's ballistic missile arsenal, it's nuclear infrastructure, it's air

defenses, it's navy and proxy command architecture. The picture is not one of US failure, it is one

of systematic phased degradation of a threat that previous administrations allowed to grow

for four decades. Why do I wind up with that very long pitch? Because everything he says is right.

Militarially, there's been extraordinarily extraordinary success, but as with Vietnam,

as with Iraq, and now, well, as with Afghanistan, here we are in Iran, and again, militarily,

nearly perfect. It's extraordinary what our men and women in uniform are doing and what their

leaders are doing. And yet, here we find ourselves again in a situation where we could actually

win every single battle and still lose the war. And that, Jonathan, is what the White House is

grappling with. We're going to talk about a lot of chaos in the region. It's important to keep it

in perspective, though. We are doing extraordinarily well, hitting a lot of military targets. And yet,

Iran doesn't have to fight us on level plan grounds, asymmetric attacks, which we've all been saying

from the very beginning could actually win this war despite the fact our militaries doing an

extraordinary job. What's so interesting about this take this piece in Al Jazeera? And when I woke

up this morning, I also saw Ben Smith's tweet. I started looking at it and then was struck by

that same article was then posted by President Trump on true social in the last hour, which I think

is probably the first time Trump has ever posted something. Yeah, first time he's probably ever

posted something from Al Jazeera. But more than that, I think there is a compelling argument he

made. This is one of those classic Joe and we do this all the time. Two things can be true at once

because you're right. And the article med does a good job explaining how Iran as a sort of a state,

that government has really been weakened. Its ability to wage war and threaten its neighbors

long term has been weakened. Yes, of course. It's still firing off rockets. Yes, of course. We're

seeing some of the damage to its Gulf states and they have the drone supply. But their ballistic

capability, their military all badly degraded. The US and Israel's military are checking off.

There's going down the list, like wiping out targets to the point where they're going to run out

of targets at some point. And that's a success at the same time. As you just rightly point out,

Iran has other ways to hit back. It's asymmetric warfare. They can close the straight

of Hormuz. They can drive up oil prices. There is, of course, the lingering fear of a terror attack

somewhere in the West. Those are cards, Iran still has to play. And we don't know what the

regime will look like in its future. But this is a complicated moment where there's an overwhelming

military success, Joe Amika, but it's unclear what the day after looks like and whether Iran might

even in a diminished capacity be just as dangerous. And what we're going to see now is as we go through

the news, attacks in Iraq, attacks in Dubai, attacks all across the region, Amika, again, asymmetrical

warfare that the Iranians and I would just like Iraqi leaders know back in the early 2000s,

even if they lose to the United States, overwhelming military force, there's a possibility they

can win the war politically. So at the Vietnamese said all the way back in the 60s and early 70s.

So a lot of moving parts here, a lot of potentials, but let's get you up to date and what has happened.

Attacks continue across the Middle East this morning, now 18 days into the war with Iran.

Rockets and drones were launched at the US Embassy in Baghdad early today with the Iraqi security

sources describing the strikes to Reuters as the most intense since the start of the conflict.

A witness telling the paper, an explosion was heard in the Iraqi capital,

as fire and smoke can be seen rising from the area. Iraq's interior ministry also said,

earlier a drone hit a hotel in the green zone which houses government and buildings and the US

embassy. No injuries were reported. The UAE meanwhile briefly shut down its airspace this morning

as its military said it was responding to missile and drone threats from Iran.

Flights later resumed, but shortly after authorities sent a missile warning alert to the people

in Dubai as explosions were heard in the city. In Israel, the military says it launched new

attacks across Tehran in addition to expanding its ground operation in Lebanon. Israel also claims

to have killed two top Iranian leaders in a post on social media. The Israeli military said it

killed the commander of the Basiz unit, the country's most powerful security militia,

that's part of the revolutionary guard. Israel also claimed to have killed Iran's top security

official in an overnight strike. Ali Larajani has emerged as a leading figure in the regime since

the Ayatollah's death late last month. Meanwhile President Trump is angry at US allies who have

refused his call to help escort ships through the strait of war mues. Germany, Japan,

Italy and Australia all say they will not send naval forces while others have stopped short of

committing. Germany's defense minister saying bluntly quote this is not our war. Meanwhile Britain

says it wants to avoid a wider conflict. Trump who did not consult allies before last month strikes

over Iran is framing their response as a test of loyalty.

numerous countries have told me they're on the way. Some are very enthusiastic about it and

some are in some countries that we've helped for many many years. We've protected them

from horrible outside sources and they weren't that enthusiastic

and the level of enthusiasm matters to me. We have some countries where we have 45,000

soldiers, great soldiers protecting them from harm's way and we have done a great job

and well we want to know do you have any minesweepers? Well, would rather not get involved, sir.

I said for you mean for 40 years we're protecting you and you don't want to get involved in

something that is very minor. My attitude is we don't need anybody. We're the strongest nation

in the world. We have the strongest military by far in the world. We don't need them but

it's interesting. I'm almost doing it in some cases not because we need them but because I want

to find out how they react because I've been saying for years that if we ever did need them they

won't be there. So the Wall Street Journal editorial board has a new piece about the

battle for the Strait of Hormoons which reads in part, quote, Mr. Trump is rallying a coalition

and allies can help reopen the strait with anti-mind vessels and more. Good thing the president

hasn't antagonized allies with tariffs or threats to invade Greenland. This is a reminder that

treating allies well is wise. So they are more likely to help you when you really need them.

This is no easy mission and militarily manageable risk won't be comforting to Americans or energy

markets if this goes sideways but Iran doesn't hold all the cards. Its actions in Hormuz could force

Mr. Trump to see the war through which is bad news for the regime. Imagine how the regime would

block mail the world and get away with it if it were left to amass twice or three times the

missiles or nuclear weapons. Jonathan O'Mear, it continues. Again, the insulting of allies and

it just doesn't work. Yeah, we're seeing the consequences here. We're seeing it is both the

trade war that President Trump has launched against America's friends threatening to back out of

NATO repeatedly and of course the Greenland expedition from earlier this year which really

alienated Europe and Cadi K. That I feel like was a crystallizing moment for many in that

on that continent who felt that, yes, Trump had sort of spent a year insulting them and mocking

them and raising trade their tariffs. But that was the moment where like, well, we can't even

count on the US. Frankly, they might even be an aggressor and I think we're seeing here

that the chickens come home to roost is that now when President Trump and look over the weekend,

the tone of those posts asking for help from the allies was striking and as people,

Republicans on the hill sort of noted to me almost desperate and I know he walked away from

me yesterday. It's sort of blustered through it and said, hey, we don't actually need them. It's

more of a loyalty test. I'm not sure that's true and I think right now he's seeing occasionally

you do need friends. Jonathan, I remember when I was at the World Economic Forum in Davos

speaking to you about when would the moment come where America actually found out it needed its

allies. We all thought maybe it would be around China and something to do with Chinese trade

or Chinese competition. It turns out to have come much sooner than we thought and this is the test

that we're seeing right now. At the beginning of this war, it was interesting. You actually had

quite a lot of splits. We spoke about this a couple of weeks ago. You had splits amongst the Europeans

with some Germany, for example, being much more supportive of the military action against Iran

than say Spain. But now that we see the allies being asked to help with the Straits of

Hormuz, even the Germans are saying, well, actually, this is not our war. I mean, much more of a

blank statement you can't get than that. This is America's war. This is not Germany's war.

And one of the things I think that has really irritated the Europeans was Donald Trump

lifting sanctions on Russian oil so that they could sell their oil to India. The European

sea, Ukraine is the existential fight. They don't see Iran as the existential fight. And there's still

a lot of criticism amongst European nations about why the Americans doing this anyway

and fears when they see the planning of this or the lack of planning of this, that this may not

have been the best sought out strategy when it comes to dealing with Iran.

But you are alright, especially, Caddy, when it comes to Germany. You, of course, had Donald

Trump lecturing the Germans for years about being too dependent on Russian oil and helping the

Russians out too much. And here, of course, you have the Trump administration lifting sanctions

on Russian oil, which, of course, they know will help out Vladimir Putin at a critical time

when negotiations going on between Ukraine and the Russians. But Jonathan Moore and the contrast

between how Europe responded to the first goal for and the second goal for, even though two

bushes were running both course, comes down to the different presidents. Bush 41 obsessed over

building alliances. He knew how to build alliances. He had spent his entire life building alliances

across a variety of jobs. Bush 43 did not. And we saw very quickly, you had on one side, you had

the largest coalition that had been put together by 41 since World War II. And we fought the

Iraq War with both the leaders of Germany and France, basically pushing back against this from

the very start. And it made a difference, just like this is making a difference.

Right, there's no, there's no Bush 41 and James A. Baker the third riding to the rescue here.

Joe, these days, the whole point of having allies is not so you can have, you know, nice tea parties

and, you know, bilateral sessions in which you talk about shared interest and, you know, the

rules-based order and nice things like that. It's because you need friends when you have difficult

moments like this when you're trying to find a force multiplier at a critical moment when

you're, you're, you know, gambling with a war that wasn't terribly thought through. And you're

hitting a bit of a rough patch and you got to rely on your friends and allies and you call

and they don't pick up the phone, all right. There's something Trump's straight to voicemail.

They're screening his calls. It's just, that is the challenge right now. And he can say yesterday,

guys, well, actually, I'm just testing them to see if they'd be there for us. We don't actually

need them. Everybody knows that's not the case because I want to be saying over the weekend because

all of us know about what's happening in the straits. So this, this is the chickens coming home to

ruse for somebody who's never invested time in building these relationships and frankly has always

treated strong men better than he's treated our democratic allies. Absolutely. And again,

talk about friendship and trust and allies. What is nature for? What was the premise it was

built upon? I don't think it was built for Trump to decide where he wants to go and blow things up.

It's not as simple as that. You need your allies, but it's also defending each other.

Well, and, and we all remember, just a couple of months ago, the president going to Europe and

telling everybody, I believe his Europe, telling everybody he didn't need them. And talking about

tariffs and mocking and ridiculing micron and belittling him for a couple of minutes straight and

doing the same thing on Greenland. And it was just again, it was the president mocking and ridiculing

every one of these allies saying that none of them would be successful without the United States of

America. So alliances make a huge, huge difference. But let's, let's, let's, let's go from

issues with Europe with issues here in America politically in John Hylman.

The Iranians are in a position that Vietnamese were in in the 60s and 70s that the Iraqis were in

from 2003 to 2010. They understood they were going to lose on the battlefield. They understood

they were going to lose just about every single firefight they had with US troops, but they also

understood that they could win politically with the Vietnamese. It was people in the streets protesting

with the Iraqis. It was George W. Bush's approval ratings just collapsing, Democrats taking control

of Congress in those six. Here, it's oil. Here, it's a struggling middle class, falling

further and further behind on affordability issues. And then you have the straits, you have,

you have this crisis. And the Iranians understand there's, there's a limited timeline for us to

achieve our military objectives and our political objectives before we have to come home. So oil

doesn't stay over 100 for the next six months. I mean, just talk about those realities and really

how it requires the Trump administration to thread the needle and figure out all the political

and all the military tasks they have to perform over the next three to four weeks.

Right. When you're talking before about the holding two things in your mind at the same time,

it made me think about the Vietnam analogy, partly because of the fact that the North Vietnamese

and the Viet Cong lost that war. And the United States also lost that war, even though there

were adversaries in the war, because that war dragged out over the course of more than a decade

in a classic example of, there's this political scientist at University of Chicago who talks about

horizontal escalation, right, where it's about widening the war and extending its duration. And that

we talk about the widening war a lot, but that duration piece is so important. And if there's one

piece of evidence that tells you how little planning and how little the president

and his team anticipated what was happening right now in the straight, it's that this timing

could not have been more suicidal politically. Who would, if you had anticipated the possibility that

you would have this impact of the energy markets going out for potentially weeks or months,

you would not have decided to start it in the march before a midterm election, where the president's

party was already in trouble, already in trouble over particular issues of prices and affordability.

And when the president had made one of his key promises in the campaign was that he was going to

lower the price of gas. So if you really had seen all this coming, Lamir, you would have known,

if you had any sense of that to anticipate that this was going to happen, you might have maybe

started this war of choice earlier, or may you would have started it later, again, the absence of

an imminent threat, but the politics of this are terrible. And that is why because Iran is,

because you can talk about their degraded military all day long, they're still striking things,

they still hold the straight. And that ability to drag this thing out raises the political

costs for Donald Trump to what will almost certainly become an intolerable level at some point

in the next few weeks or months. I keep thinking about the state of the

inch to a couple of weeks ago, his largest audience of the year, barely mentioned Iran,

just a passing reference near the end of a very lengthy speech, spent a long time talking about

gas prices. That, of course, no longer the case. There's the political incoherence of this

certainly remains puzzling. All right, still ahead of here on Morning Joe. President Trump is

also ramping up his rhetoric against Cuba. We'll show you what he said yesterday about taking

that island nation. Plus, Michael Schmidt of the New York Times will join us with his latest

reporting on the Department of Justice's failed efforts to go after the president's perceived

political enemies. We're back in just a moment. This June hope becomes action.

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Welcome back. It's time for sports. Two of the first four playing games of the

men's NCAA tournament tip off tonight in Dayton, Ohio. The fight for a spot in the field of 64

begins with UMBC and Howard playing to advance as the number 16 seed in the Midwest region and

win a shot at number one Michigan in the first round of the actual tournament. It'll be followed

by a battle for the 11th seed in the West region between NC State and Texas. The winner there

will get a match up with six seeded BYU. Joining us now to break down the bracket,

ESPN College Basketball Analyst Jay Billis. So happy to have him. MSNOT Contributor Mike

Barnacle joins the discussion as well. Welcome, gentlemen. Jay, thank you so much. So give us some,

we'll save your final four pick for a minute or two. Right now, just give us some story lines.

There are, I mean, you live and breathe this. There are plenty of Americans, though, who kind of

just tune into college basketball right about now. Maybe they catch the conference championship

weekend, but now they've got their brackets. They're getting excited. We're a couple teams

they should be watching. Well, they should certainly be watching the number one seeds.

Last year, Jonathan, as you know, all four number one seeds made it to the final four, which

has only happened once in history since seeding began in 1979. That was in 2008.

And this year is a different year. The number one seeds performed the best during the regular

season. Doesn't mean they're going to make the final four. It's a difficult path. But yeah,

Michigan, Arizona, Florida, and Yukon are the number one seeds. But Duke has a really difficult

path and they're dealing with some injuries. Two of their starters didn't play in the ACC

tournament last weekend. And it's unclear whether both of them will be available early in the

tournament. And the East region, I think most observers would agree, is the most difficult. I

mean, seven of the top eight seeds of one national championships in the past. It's a loaded region.

Not that any region is easy, but some are more difficult than others. And I think the East region

is the most difficult. And I think this year, Jonathan, we're going to see more upsets.

Last year, it was, I don't want to say devoid of upsets, but it seems like almost every year,

there are these jaw dropping upsets that nobody really saw coming. And I think we're going to

get back to a little more of that because there are some really good teams. And, you know, that first

four Miami, Ohio had an amazing year this year. They only lost one game and it happened to be in

their conference tournament. And they were one of the last teams that wound up making the field

because they didn't play a particularly challenging schedule. But they're really good. And they're

going to come in with something to prove in this. Most teams are, they all want to prove they can

play. But Miami, Ohio has a little bit more motivation because I think they've been overlooked

after having an amazing season going unbeaten in the regular season, only losing in their

conference tournament. So today's been a lot of talk this year about how talented the group of

players are. And like, for instance, like this upcoming NBA draft class, people say,

oh, there's going to be five, six, seven, maybe stars, you know, coming out. So talk to us,

though, who give us a couple players? You're going to be watching next couple of weeks.

Well, if you're going to the NBA green room, this freshman class is as deep and as talented as I

can remember, we've had some great freshman classes in the past. Last year had Cooper flag at

the top of the group and look what he's doing in the NBA this year. But this class goes about 20

deep and it starts with AJ DeBonza of BYU, you know, six, eight long arms and has NBA shopmaking

ability right now had two games over 40 points during the year. The only issue that BYU is

facing is they lost one of their best players to an ACL injury a few weeks ago, Richie Saunders.

And that certainly limits their ceiling. Darren Peterson at Kansas is the presumptive number one

pick. I don't think any of that's really decided yet. But Peterson is the most effortless, smooth

shopmaker I've seen in college basketball since Kevin Durant. He's had some in and out issues with

cramping and yet a hamstring thing. So he's only played 22, 23 games out of the season.

But just a magnificent score. One of the ones to really keep an eye on is Dary St. Cuff Jr.

at Arkansas. He is a he led the southeastern conference and scoring an assist.

He in SEC play. He's he averaged over 24 points and over six and a half assists. And he's the first

to do that in the southeastern conference since Pistol P. Maravitch. And that's quite a while ago

and that's a lofty lofty name to have matched. So there's there's and then Cameron Booser at Duke

who's going to be the national player of the year. After having Cooper Flag last year,

you know, John Shire, the head coach at Duke now has Cameron Booser. And there has not been a more

productive and consistent at the highest level player in the country. I mean, his worst game this year

was 14 points, five rebounds and two assists. And a game against Niagara where only plays 20

minutes because Duke, you know, blitz them. And the consistency that he's shown is really remarkable.

The maturity at that age, it's it's kind of hard to fath. I couldn't find my shoes at 18 and

he's doing that. It's ridiculous. Jay, we want to thank you for your appearance today based upon

just one thing you've already said Pistol Pete Maravitch. One of the greats, one of the greats,

and it's great just to think of the memory of Pistol Pete. But my issue when it comes to the

final four each spring is I always have a soft spot for certain schools. One of them this year,

as always, is Gonzaga. What's the story? Where are they going to go? How far are they going to go?

You know, my Gonzaga has been one of the most amazing stories in sports, not just basketball.

In the late 90s, Gonzaga was considering they were talking about, are we going to need to close

our doors as a university because of financial issues and all that. And they wound up going to

the elite eight in 1999 under Dan Munson. And Mark Few, the current head coach, was an assistant

then. And because of the success that they had and some of the money that came in, they've been

able to, you know, they've gone to the sweet 16 for like nine straight years. I mean, it's

ridiculous. And people say, well, they played a small conference. Of course, they're going to be

successful. That's that's crazy. Once they get into the tournament, they perform as well or

better than all these power five conferences. They're really good again. And I think they're a

sweet 16 team. Again, the only problem that Gonzaga has this year is they lost one of their best

players to injury, Braden Huff. But they've got a big man, Graham EK, a lefty that transferred

it a couple years ago from Wyoming, who's a double, double machine. He doesn't get any easy shots

because he gets so many, he gets so much defensive attention. But that's Gonzaga's going to be a

factor. I don't think they've got the same kind of team that they had in, you know, 2022 or

whatever 2017 when they went to the national finals and the NCAA championship game. But they're

legit again. And it's it's remarkable what Mark view has done there. And he's a finalist for

the naysmith and moral basketball all the fame. And he'll get in there just a, I can't say enough

about Gonzaga and what they've done. They, you know, it's really funny. Like they've got

their, their players are incredibly nice, nice young men. And they go to class, they do their

homework. And then the game starts and they're a motorcycle gang that'll cut your heart out and

watch you bleed. They're just amazing competitors. For those filling out your brackets at home,

my best advice. Do what Jay does for the record. Here's his final four. Michigan State Illinois,

Arizona, Iowa State with Arizona emerging as champion. ESPN's Jay Villas. Thank you so much for

joining us this morning. We really appreciate it. Guarantee to be wrong on all those tricks.

There it is. You heard it there. All right. Thanks again, Jay. President Trump's effort to punish

his perceived enemies is facing yet another setback. And as our next guest points out, the Justice

Department struggled to take even the most basic steps in targeting Trump's rivals. As reported

yesterday, a federal judge has blocked the DOJ's criminal investigation of Federal Reserve

Chair Jerome Powell. Noting the US attorney, Janine Piro's team had not met the incredibly

low threshold they needed to even issue grand jury sippiness. Joining us now, investigative reporter

for the New York Times, our friend Michael Schmidt. Michael, thank you for being here. We heard

from the Miss Piro in a pretty angry news conference the other day about this. But tell us more here

about what was a pretty faltering campaign against Jerome Powell. So look, the significance here is

that Trump's retribution campaign starts out with the desire to jail his enemies. They should

be subjected to everything he was subjected to and they should be behind bars. Those are his own

words. The Justice Department goes out and they try to do this. And last fall, they really ramp it

up. They indict Comey and James. They move forward with other cases. Those indictments are thrown

out by judges. Grand juries are then rejecting the case against the six lawmakers that Trump had

accused of sedition. Now, this federal judge is basically saying, prosecutors, you cannot use your

most fundamental power of subpoena to ask questions and require people to answer them. You are not

meeting the incredibly low standard that you need to get to actually use that power. This is like

essentially like detectives out there with notepads asking questions and a judge coming in and

saying, no, you don't have the ability to do that. And in terms of the larger arc of the retribution

campaign, where we start out with Trump wanting to put people behind bars. And now we're at a point

where Trump wants to just determine targeting the Fed chair, but the Justice Department is being

told you cannot get the Fed to answer basic questions that you have. That is not a strong place

for the retribution campaign today. Well, Mike, I think it's fair to say that this is on the

Judge Bozberg is the most of the latest example. And the earliest, cutting off the ability to

do subpoenas for our grand jury is like very, very early. But of course, we've seen in other cases,

the thing that these various attempts fail at the grand jury level fail to get in indictment.

Of course, they also sometimes failed actually in court to get convictions. It feels like

this retribution campaign, we all wonder, would the article three branch of government turn

out to be a reliable bulwark against Trump, at least at this level that retribution campaign,

the attempt to jail his enemies. It has so far pretty much worked.

You're saying that the judicial branch has worked as a check against Trump?

Yeah. I think in a way, starting at different phases, it's put a stop to this campaign thus far.

The judicial branch has moved on the criminal side more swiftly than anything else that we have

seen. Right. On the civil side, it moves slower. It is more ponderous. It's not as clear.

And it doesn't seem like the Trump administration respects it nearly as much.

On the criminal side, they have been shut down time and time again.

And this has only come in the past few months because they only really ramped up that campaign

starting in the fall. And in the sort of, because I think a lot of people were saying last year,

like, okay, where are the checks on Trump's power? You don't have Congress. Congress is clearly

not a check. The Justice Department, which has, you know, typically would look at an administration,

even their own administration, was clearly not going to be a check against Trump.

The courts seem to have no way of really dealing with Trump's executive orders or actions

in an efficient way that was able to stop him in real time. He was able to use his power

without the courts really holding him back. But on the criminal side, time and time again,

they have not just moved quickly, but they've moved against Trump. And that has made this

retribution campaign in a point where, look, a judge, Judge Bozberg is basically saying,

you have not met the, like, the lowest of low standards to ask questions and force people to

answer them. Sipinas are rarely quashed. And when they're quashed, it's for, for very inside

baseball reasons, about attorney, client privilege and stuff like that. It's not because the government

has barely met the level of what criminality is. So, Jay, Mark, we spend a lot of time talking

about the president's priorities and Republicans in the last couple of weeks. Obviously, the

warning wrong. There are many of them are like, why is this happening now? This is going to drive

up prices. We're seeing it at the gas pump. It's going to go into other fields soon enough.

This is going to make our life that much more complicated in November. This is another example

of that. His retribution campaign, this is not, it is impossible for Republicans to then sell

this to voters and say, yeah, this right here, this targeting of Jerome Powell, this is making your

lives better, right? Yeah. And John, you know, of all the stuff that he's done that has humiliated

members of Congress on his side at his own party, going after Powell is up there with Greenland.

It's really embarrassing because they know that Powell is a serious person and maybe you don't like

how he's handled some of his choices at the Fed, but he's an adult. And I think he's one of

advantage you view adults in DC and especially in the Senate, you know, that targeting just cross

the line. And that's why they're now in a position, by the way, where they're not going to be able

to get washed confirmed because Tillus is going to sit on that until he gets assurances that DOJ

is not pursuing these charges any longer. But John, you make a really good point. It goes to the

heart of priorities. What are your priorities? Because, you know, trying to get a legacy is

clearly the president's top priority, along with, you know, the physical playing of the White House

and a rehab at the Kennedy Center. So he goes for these big, you know, big moves and places like

Venezuela and Iran because he wants to have a big legacy of his own. He wants to be a consequential

figure. Well, that's for him. That's not for his party. His party is the one holding the bag now.

When gas is going to be five bucks a gallon. It's the same with the Retribution campaigns.

That's about his own grievances and vanity. It's not about his party's fate in the midterms.

Why is he targeting a sitting Senator Bill Cassidy in Louisiana? It's not for the good of the party.

That's for his vengeance. Why is he going after nine Indiana State Senators? Not exactly top

of the priority list for Mike Johnson and John Thune, the fate of the Indiana State Senate,

because they defied his ass John on redrawing their congressional lines.

The through line on all of this is a president more focused on himself, his impulses,

than the good of the party. And at some point the Republicans are going to wake up and realize that

probably that they have to the midterms. Yeah, Jamie, I was making the right point. I mean,

it's also why is he not endorsing John Corden because John Corden came out against more investigations

into the 2020 elections. One of the best things that Donald Trump could do right now to ensure

his own political future is make sure Republicans win the Senate. If he were to endorse John Corden,

the sooner he could get his head round to doing that, the sooner it is that John Corden could get

in a position to beat Ken Paxton, the more likely it is that Republicans hold onto that Senate seat

in Texas. I mean, there's no warning effects of this, but he won't do it because he's impatient

and because he doesn't like the fact that John Corden defied him. And yet he keeps, for somebody

we've always said, has very strong political instincts. At some points he gets in his own way.

Yeah, and I think this time around, we're seeing him even more in a bubble.

Oh, every president is in something of a bubble. This one in particular. And he is certainly not

showing any inclination to make choices to help his party. Investigative reporter at the

New York Times, Michael Schmidt, thank you for being with us. But if it goes to Jonathan Martin,

thank you as well. Jay, Mark, we appreciate it. Now, finding a doctor is a little less challenging.

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Because he took such good care when redoing our basement that we knew we could trust him to

care for our kids. We only met a month ago. Angie, then when you trust to find the ones you trust,

find pros for all your home projects at Angie.com. We now return to our coverage of the Iran war.

Rockets and drones were launched at the US Embassy in Baghdad early today as the war continues

to spread across the region. Iraqi security sources describing today's strikes to Reuters as the

most intense since the start of the conflict. Iraq's interior ministry also said earlier that a

drone hit a hotel in the green zone, which houses government buildings and the US Embassy.

No injuries were reported. The UAE, meanwhile, briefly shut down its airspace this morning as

its military said it was responding to missile and drone threats from Iran.

Flights later resumed, but shortly after that, authorities sent a missile warning alert to

the people in Dubai as explosions were heard in that city. Over in Israel, the military says it

launched new attacks across Tehran in addition to its expanding ground operations in Lebanon.

Meanwhile, the Red Cross says that civilians in Iran are paying a heavy price with the head of

the delegation in that country. Telling the AP quote, the heavy loss of life is alarming.

Daily life in Tehran has been profoundly disrupted, Cathy.

Yeah, I mean, we have to keep thinking about the number of casualties that there are in this war.

And sometimes we don't always know the final answer. President Trump, meanwhile, yesterday

claimed that nobody could have predicted the way that Iran would respond to US attacks. Take a look.

So they hit color, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait. Nobody expected that. We were shot.

Are you surprised that nobody freaked you ahead? I looked at my feet. They were telling you.

Nobody, nobody. No, no, no. No, the greatest actress. Nobody thought they were going to hit.

They were, I wouldn't say friendly countries. They were like neutral. They lived with them for years.

Peter, they were going to take over the Middle East. They were going to knock out Israel with a

nuclear weapon. Okay, the problem with the president's claim there is that just last month,

Tehran's late Supreme Leader issued a direct warning that any US attack would result in a regional

war. Joining us live now from Jerusalem, MSNOW International reporter Inez de la Quaterra,

Inez, what are you learning about claims today from Israel that two more top Iranian officials

are being killed as well? Hey, good morning. Yeah, we just found out moments ago that the Israelis

carried out a strike overnight that took out Erie Laurie-Johnny, who was a top security official

within the Iranian regime. So we knew that the IDF was carrying out a fresh wave of strikes

on Iran, specifically on Tehran, that they were going after ballistic missile production facilities.

Then we found out that they had carried out a strike targeting Erie Laurie-Johnny. Specifically,

we were waiting for the results of that strike. It was the Israeli Defense Minister who came out

to announce that the strike had been successful. So Laurie-Johnny, a really key figure,

becomes the second highest-ranking Iranian official to be taken out in these strikes,

of course, after the late Supreme Leader, who was taken out in the first day of the war. He was

someone who had actually been sanctioned by the US for the role he played in coordinating the

response to the protests. We know those protests, of course, resulted in tens of thousands of people

being killed or detained. Worth pointing out that Iranian state media has not confirmed the death,

they actually published a handwritten note that they say was written by Laurie-Johnny that commemorates

the deaths of the Iranian sailors that were killed in that US attack earlier this month. So we'll

see if they come out to confirm the death, but a really significant turn of events there. And

it's not just Laurie-Johnny, it is also the head of the besiege force that was taken out. So the

besiege force, say, kind of paramilitary volunteer militia that is also responsible for cracking down

on protests. And this comes, of course, as the Israelis have said time and time again that they

want to see regime change in Iran. They've said that they are creating the right conditions

for the people of Iran to topple the regime because they say that regime change can only come

from within. And certainly with these two strikes, it does seem like they are creating the right

conditions for it because these these two officials that were taken out overnight would have been

key in trying to suppress any kind of potential uprising. I must now international reporter Ines

De La Quaterrath reporting live from Jerusalem Ines. Thank you so much for joining us. I mean,

that's going to be the question now, John. These are two very significant figures Ali-Larangani

who had run for president several times been on the scene for decades close to the IRGC

and also been involved in the negotiations last summer, but have become a fierce critic of the

war. What does it actually mean now in terms of the stability of the regime and the potential

longevity of this regime if he has gone and another senior figure has gone as well? As we said at

the beginning of the program, the military side of this seems to be running successfully and

achieving the aims that the military is going after and hear the aims that the Israelis are

going after. The bigger question is what's the end game and what's the strategy for getting out of

this war now that we've got this far? And can President Trump declare a victory if the Iranian

regime is largely still in place? There are questions about the new Supreme Leader, his health,

another message went out from yesterday, but we've yet to see him on camera. The US officials

believe he has been wounded perhaps somewhat seriously, right though, even if he's sidelined,

the regime still seems to be running along. We'll see, though, if these loss of other leaders like

this may play a role. I also, President Trump claimed yesterday that US forces destroyed 30

mind-laying ships in the Strait of Hormuz. After making that statement, Trump was asked why the

crucial waterway could not be immediately reopened. Well, we could, but it takes two to tango. We

have to get people to take their billion-dollar ship and drive it up. When Pepe has his big

sugar ships coming around and they cost a billion dollars, and we say, I think it's okay now,

Pepe. Take your ship, drive it through the Strait of Hormuz. He may say, let me wait a little while,

because it takes ship owners and the, you know, these ships are very expensive.

They can cost up to two billion dollars. So they don't want to take a chance at,

I think you'll be okay. They got to know it. So they don't have to say, you know,

we don't know if they even set any minds, but the thought that they may have is enough to keep

people from saying, we don't need it. Well, the president said that it's not known if Iran

has actually laid minds the Strait of Hormuz. The New York Times spoke to US officials last week

who said that Iran was using smaller boats for a mind-laying operation. It's also the risk posed

by boats laden with explosives or drones in that narrow waterway. Let's now bring an MS now reporter

Josh Einerger, live from Dubai. Josh, good to see you. What's the latest on the ground there as

Iran continues to widen its attacks on its neighbors? Well, John, the Dubai woke up this morning

to louder booms in the sky than it had heard in actually quite some time here in the downtown

district elsewhere across the city. The airspace was closed yet again for a period of time. You know,

the interesting question that people are asking here in the UAE with this news out of Israel that

two Iranian officials, those two officials were killed by Israel and they'll, you know, the last day.

What's the retaliation going to be like from Iran? Iran seems to be retaliating for each thing

that Israel and the US does here in the UAE. They're going after energy infrastructure. They're going

after the airport in particular, the airport, which is the economic driver that led to this scene you

see behind me, this booming city of Dubai, has been targeted over and over and over again by the

Iranians. It happened again this morning to no effect. There was a brief interruption in the

airspace and then things got back to normal. Yesterday, though, it was a much different story.

There was an attack on the fuel facility at Dubai International Airport and that really is perhaps

the most effective way. If you want to cripple an airport, go after the refueling facility. These

are holding tanks for jet fuel and then there is very intricate infrastructure that pumps the fuel

out to the gates so that planes can be fueled. That fire burned. We drove past it. It was a towering

in Ferno. It burned for about 15 hours before they were finally able to put it out. And then for

maybe another 12 to 15 hours, flights leaving Dubai on Emirates were all stopping at other

regional airports here in a manner that indicates they were refueling at those locations.

And that raised a lot of questions about the state of the infrastructure, the assessment of the

damage after the air strike at the airport. In the last few hours, according to flight radar

tracking, it does appear that flights are leaving Dubai directly for their long haul destination.

So perhaps whatever that was has been resolved. Of course, there's very little information from

the government, from the airport authority, from Emirates, the airline about the state of play

at the airport itself. Things do seem to be somewhat back to normal. But of course, it's all very

tenuous and very fragile. Every time there's a new volley of drones or missiles headed in this direction,

they invariably, some of them head toward the airport and that throws the whole system into chaos

all over again. John. Josh, whenever you talk to Americans who have recently been to Dubai,

or perhaps been to Dubai for the first time, many of them return and say it was like going to

Los Angeles, given the nature of Dubai and the access to everything American in Dubai. Can you

give us any sense? Since Dubai has come under attack from Iran, a neighbor, any sense of the

feelings about the neighbors Iran and what's going on in Dubai, what's happening to people on the

streets of Dubai? Yeah, it's a great question, Mike, because we've been living this sort of duality

here. You say LA, I say it's very much like Vegas. It's very familiar to an American. You've got

these skyscrapers behind me. Every big ticket restaurant, retail brand you've ever heard of.

And in all of it, what's so interesting, Mike, is that it's all still functioning and the government

has taken great pains to make things seem normal. Everything is open. You can go to a luxury store and

buy a piece of jewelry. You can go to the movies. You can go to the food court. You can do everything

you could have done before. The difference here today is that there are almost no people at all

those locations. The government has told people that they need to work from home, schooling is being

done remotely. But importantly, tourism is way down. That airport, as I said earlier, is the

engine that drives this whole city, right? In many cases, as through traffic from maybe North

America to Southeast Asia, Emirates has turned Dubai into a legitimate and desirable place to connect

and people leave the airport maybe for a couple days and they experience Dubai and they are not here.

So it's very muted, I guess, as the best way to put it. All that said, we haven't spoken to a

single person who lives here who says they feel unsafe. They have great confidence in the government,

which has objectively done a very, very good job knocking down this barrage that's come at them.

I mean, they've gotten more hardware sent from Iran than any other GCC country by a lot,

and by some measures more than Israel. And yet, the toll of casualties and the damage is very,

very low. And I think the sense here is that people feel confident in the government decision-making,

but it's hard to ignore that it's not the Dubai that it was before all this started.

Yeah, UAE officials rightly pleased with their ability to intercept those attacks, hoping it can

continue. MSNOW reporter Josh Oniger, live from Dubai. Josh, thank you so much. John Hammond,

I want to go back to you about something you said about an hour back about the President Trump

special for paying here, political pain, right? Because it's a few on two different levels.

On one hand, we have, we should keep this first and foremost, 13 American soldiers have died.

Sure. In this conflict so far, the longer it goes on, particularly if ground troops even in a

limited fashion are interjected in this, that number, of course, is only going to go up.

There's also the political pain at home with gas prices first and foremost, but in other ways,

too. And that seems to be the question here, is the Trump at some point is going to declare some

sort of win? We don't know exactly what it'll be, but it feels like the timing of that is going

to be when he hits that pain threshold. I mean, we focus a lot for obvious reasons on the splits,

the perceived splits and fractures in the mega base, right? And we see these high profile media

figures, whether it's Meghan Kelley or Tucker Carlson speaking out and everyone kind of goes to

that, like, like, like, like, moss to the flame, right? The real story of the politics of this is

in swing voters, because those are the voters are going to determine what happens in the midterms.

And this war is overwhelmingly unpopular with independent voters. It's sitting at like a 30%

or so support level among independents right now. Soft Republicans and independents are against the

war. So non-magger Republicans are about split about 50-50. Magger Republicans are still with

Trump about 90% of the war, but where do you win the midterms? Where do you lose the midterms?

You lose them with soft Republicans and with independent voters. And those voters eat this war.

And so I think the quite, this is the question, John. And I think the, I keep saying that people

don't understand how short this year is. You know, the midterms seem like they're a long

type way off still to a lot of people in November. I about June were going to be past the point

where legislating is going to be happening on Capitol Hill. You've got only a few months here

to really alter the political dynamics that Republicans are going to have to run on.

And that gives you a sense of where the window is. If this war drags out into the early part of

the summer, the consequences, the political consequences for Republicans can be, are going to be

calamitous, I think. Yeah. And GOP getting very nervous about exactly that.

Another significant story we're following, an island-wide blackout hit Cuba yesterday

amid that country's deepening energy and economic crisis. All 11 million residents of the island

were without power after energy officials reported complete disconnection of the national

electrical grid. Only about 5% of the island's power was restored by late last night

with officials warning the fragile grid could fail again. The blackout is Cuba's third major

outage in just four months as the government lacks proper funding for repairs as well as the

needed spare parts. Cuba's president recently acknowledged that island has not received oil in

three months and blamed the outages on the Trump administration's halting of Venezuela's

wailin oil shipments after the capture of Nicolas Maduro. President Trump was asked about Cuba

yesterday in the White House. But I think Cuba is the end. You know, all my life I've been hearing

about the United States and Cuba. When will the United States do it? I do believe I'll be the

honor of having the honor of taking Cuba to be good on. That's a big honor. Taking Cuba.

Taking Cuba in some form. Yeah. Taking Cuba. I mean, whether I free it, take it,

I think I could do anything I want with it. You want another trip? They're a very

weak intonation right now.

Soon after those remarks, the New York Times reported the Trump administration is seeking to push

Cuba's current president from power. It's according to four people familiar with the talks. As the

Times notes, the removal would be largely seen as a symbolic move since Cuba's president is widely

considered a figurehead who lacks true political or economic control. The Cuban government declined

to comment on the reporting. So, Caddy, a couple things here. First of all, I reported a month or

so back that Trump was really looking at his foreign policy legacy as toppling three regimes.

Venezuela, Iran, and then Cuba. And then we have President Trump's remarks yesterday. I mean,

they're worth repeating. He says, quote, I'd have the honor of taking Cuba. And then when pressed,

he said, well, free it, take it. It doesn't really matter. That's an extraordinary sentiment

from a President of the United States about a sovereign nation.

Well, particularly when that President of the United States is embroiled in a war that he's

finding it difficult to go out of and that seems to be causing him several headaches. I mean,

to still have his eye on Cuba and what he might do in Cuba and this reporting that what he's

thinking of doing is getting rid of the current President, yes, Canal, but not necessarily

inditing any of the Castro's. It sounds like it would just be a sort of figurehead move. And it's

I know that he has said to allies that what he would like to do before he leaves office is not just

get rid of those leaders, but actually visit Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela as kind of putting his

metaphysical, if you like, stamp of approval on those countries. But what I find startling is that

he is still saying that whilst we are still focused on Iran, I don't know if that is a distraction.

I don't know if he still thinks he's going to do that. If he thinks that the cutoff of the energy

just makes it easy for him to do that. And anyway, if this is just a ceremonial move, you move one

President and you keep the regime in place, how much does actually change? And how does that go down

with his Cuban supporters in Florida who actually want something much more substantial than just

taking out one person and putting another person in that place? Certainly a storyline will be

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