Former Obama Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson spoke to Chuck Todd on Meet the Press and he said some things that if they had known in advance, he would never have been on the show.
He said that whether you describe Soleimani a terrorist or a high placed official of a sovereign government, he was a legitimate target as he was attacking US servicemen and women, having been responsible for the killing of 608 and the wounding of thousands more.
Johnson served as Obama’s chief of the DHS and before that he worked as the general counsel at the Pentagon.
So, he is fully aware of the laws governing military action and can give an educated opinion of Trump’s actions.
Johnson has been surprisingly non partisan in his opinions since leaving office and even agreed with some of the tough border measures Trump put into place, including declaring a state of emergency.
This morning, Obama DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson debunked Democrats' claim that Congress needed to approve Soleimani strike
Johnson: Soleimani was a "lawful military objective" & the President had "ample domestic legal authority to take him out" pic.twitter.com/1LUqYAwm9j
— Zach Parkinson (@AZachParkinson) January 5, 2020
Here is a partial transcript:
CHUCK TODD:
Jeh, before you were Homeland Security Secretary, you were counselor at the Defense Department.
JEH JOHNSON:
Correct.
CHUCK TODD:
So explain for viewers, why does Mike Pompeo keep saying terrorist? There is a legal reason he keeps saying the word terrorist, isn’t there?
JEH JOHNSON:
No, not necessarily. If you believe everything that our government is saying about General Soleimani, he was a lawful military objective, and the president, under his constitutional authority as commander in chief, had ample domestic legal authority to take him out without an additional congressional authorization. Whether he was a terrorist or a general in a military force that was engaged in armed attacks against our people, he was a lawful military objective. But that’s not the only question here. For a very long time, the Bush administration, the Obama administration, had been engaged in what we refer to now as shadow warfare with the Iranian government. And last Thursday night was what we refer to as a decapitation strike, where we’ve taken out a very high profile member of the Iranian government. That is a provocative, in your face act, where you kill a senior member of the Iranian government and you say, “Yes, I did it.” And I hope that this administration has carefully considered the second and third order of effects of that one very plain second order effect, which any foreign officer could predict is the reaction in Iraq. With the growing Shia political influence in that country —
CHUCK TODD:
Right.
JEH JOHNSON:
— we face the very real prospect that the Iraqi government will want us out of that country.
Johnson also spoke about a new DHS advisory:
CHUCK TODD: Well, we know what happened the last time. Jeh Johnson, very quickly, your former department put out a very alarming alert last night.
JEH JOHNSON: It was very candid.
CHUCK TODD: Very candid. The Iranians ability to cyber-attack us, could they — could they temporarily cripple cities?
JEH JOHNSON: We have to prepare for that very distinct possibility. The National Threat Advisory put out last night said that the Iranian government could strike with little or no notice, on a moment’s notice, and that Hezbollah has demonstrated the capability and intent to strike the homeland. That’s a very candid statement.
