cspan opened the doors to washington pl making for all to see. bringing you unfiltered content from congress and beyond. in the age of power to the people, this was true people power. in the 40 years since the landscape has clearly changed. there is no month lithic media, broadcasting has given way to narrow casting. youtube stars are a thing. but cspan's big idea is more relevant today than ever. no government money supports cspan. et cetera its non-partisan coverage of government is funded as a public service by your cable or satellite provider. on television and online cspan is your unfiltered view of government. so you can make up your own mind. >> members of congress received a closed briefing on iran today from secretary of state mike pompeo and acting defense secretary patrick shanahan. afterwards house armed services committee adam committing and

foreign affairs member michael mccaul addressed reporters. >> i'm sorry someone askeding. >> what are the initial reactions coming out of the briefing. >> we still don't have a clear idea what the dmrngs's object he was are thp they have said over and over again the regime change is not the objective. what are the maximum -- what are the -- what the maximum pressure campaign trying to achieve? what do we want iran to do and how have we calculated that what our behavior is and their reactions gets to that point. that's concern. there was a lot of talk in the briefing about now there is a rouge risk of iran miscalculating striking in a way that gets response they didn't anticipate. i think there is risk for misconsolidation on both sides. that is my biggest concern. >> is there any means for the united states and iran to communicate in a way that you think would help to reduce that kind of error? >> my understanding is there are some but not enough. i think you know the president is saying he would like to talk

to iran. of course iran has to be willing to talk to us. but there are a variety of other back channels that be used i hope are being used to reduce that risk in this miscalculation. >> do you get the sense that. >> based on in increased pressure. >> we are told that they have some. i can't get into specifics. but we are told that iran is less threatening from what we have seen as a result of our actions. >> you do you get the sense the situation is deescalating from here? >> yeah, that's a difficult thing to calculate. there is a lot going on and a lot of different places. so i would hesitate to say it's declated. >> do you know nag about the military build up in the gulf with the bombers in qatar and the queerier appointment. >> i think putting ourselves in position that iran knows if they strike our troops they face response is appropriate. i don't have a problem with that. >> do we flow anything more about the rocket attack? >> no. >> what are the next steps from here? what's the administration's overall strategy with how to deal with iran now that tensions

have escalate zbrad. >> >> that we don't know the big question is we want iran changing their behavior in a variety of ways we are familiar with who hour are actions bringing about that? but the only thing that's changed is iran seems more willing to pursue a nuclear weapons program than they did before we stepped out of the jcpo, still active in syria. still active in hezbollah. still spouting supporting the hougtis in yemen. then propped up in assad in syria. what our maximum pressure campaign in terms of achieving oblt he was i have not seen and it was into the very enlightening from what they said in fl in terms of how it's going to progress how they are going to make -- how our actions force the changes we look for. >> do you anticipate the user of military force. >> i don't anticipate the use of the military force. i think the president is -- i take him at his word he doesn't want to get into a war. but that doesn't mean that there is not a risk of it. and we need to manage that risk. i got to vote one more.

>> the nature of the briefing did you feel it was straightforward and facts driven. >> no that's one big thing. two things i was concerned about. one secretary pompeo made a linky political argument. argued here are all the terrible thing iran has done spent ten minutes until i cut him off making it -- and as every member stood up said we know iran is bad. being oh was what is theless going forward. >> there wasn't enough information on that. second when they were asked why did it take you so long to brief congress? we have had a number of briefs in the last i don't know ten days but a lot of the -- the aircraft carrier strike group was sent, the b-s sent there all this stuff happened and when we he rebuffed us on the briefing. secretary pompeo said baitsically pepper o we were busy. had to coordinate with allies. i get that. we're all busy. but when you troy to put together a policy like this the

co-equal branch of ghost, the united states congress should be far enough up on the list that it doesn't take you a week to get to us it's not an assemble answer for the secretary of state fos to congress sorry we didn't brief you earlier but we were busy. that doesn't fly. now i will say. >> a different outcome like a different situational -- >> it seems like -- let me just secretary shanahan has personally reached out to me a number of occasions and he said yes we need to do better. secretary shanahan kple uncle lir felt they need to brief earlier. secretary pompeo said nahh not a big deal. i disgrew with him i got to go. >> you say the briefing fell short of what you wanted to hear. >> mike michael mike mclegal lead republican on the foreign affairs for me. it was a specific threat briefing we married from iran.

they have launched several attacks through proxies including a rocket attack near our embassy in baghdad. ships and persian gulf and drone attacks in saudi arabia. there was an escalation by iran in its proxies. this is a response to deescalate and provide a deterrent strategy so that iran does not become aggressive. it was made very chlorthe administration -- i've talked to secretary pompeo and ambassador bolton, there is no intention to go to war in the region. this is -- this is a deterrent operation to stop iran's escalation and aggression in the region. >> was there any talk of a new uamf any falk of linking iran to al qaeda. you said there was no discussion of war. but what was discussed >> this is purely iranian and

proxy-based threat at this point in time. that was discussed. the secretary said he complied with the law. and yeah, i think it's premature though to be talking about an aumf when we are in a mode of deterrence. we are not in a mode of aggression. we are protecting if our soldiers are attacked we will respond in full force. >> you know, the iranian say they see it differently they don't view it as deterrence they view it as aggression. isn't that important, too how the iranianens view it. >> i think it's always important inside the head of your enemy. but the facts is they are the ones being aggressive. they are the ones launching the attacks and the vessels and the persian gulf. they are the ones firing a rocket in the green zone. near our embassy. we cannot sit back and allow those attacks to occur without a proper defense and deterrent strategy. >> you say you are not going to where. does that exclude strategic military strike, i-e-just attack

in certain points where the militia in iraq or somewhere else. >> it's purely defensive and deterrence in nature. of course with any -- the military always has to be prepared for all options. we're obviously concerned, our military soldiers threatened by iran. and a potential attack on them in iraq. >> congressman. >> sfoeskly. >> >> are you saying the rocket attack op the u.s. embassy was done by iran. >> i can't comment on that. >> but you did -- said -- that hasn't been officially confirmed. >> cspan's washington journal live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. coming up wednesday morning, connecticut democratic congressman jim heinz will talk about texts are iran and other u.s. foreign policy clalgs abdan caldwell of veterans for america and will talk about veteran issues and collaboration on changes to war authorization

measures in congress. be sure to watch cspan's washington journal on wednesday morning at 7 eastern. join the discussion. cspan's newest book, the presidents noted historians rank america's best and worst chief executives, provides insights into the lives of the 44 american presidents, through stories gathered by interviews with noted presidential historians. explore the life events that shaped our leaders, challenges they faced, and the legacies they have left behind. order your copy today. cspan's the presidents is now available as a hard cover or e-book at cspan.org/the presidents. . more now from the road to the white house with montana governor steve bullock, the dppt democrat candidate met with votes in iowa at an event at a brewing company.