Iran Accuses U.S. of Lying; Bolton Open To Negotiations; U.S. Targeted Key Iran Proxy Group.
KING: President Trump responding with strong words today to what he calls an ignorant and insulting statement from Iran. In a series of late morning tweets, the president warning, quote, any attack by Iran on anything American will be met with great and overwhelming force. In some areas, the president goes on to say, overwhelming will mean obliteration. Those tweets were a response to Iran's president, Hassan Rouhani, who earlier today used highly personal and insulting language and saying Iran had no interest in negotiate with this president or his team.</s>HASSAN ROUHANI, IRANIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): They have become frustrated and confused. They do not know what to do. They do strange things that no sane person in the history of world politics has done, or at least I don't remember. This is because of their total confusion. They have become mentally disabled. The White House is suffering from mental disability.</s>KING: The president angered because he thinks he did a nice and compassionate thing, as he suggests in his tweets. He called off military strikes that were recommended by his advisers and then that -- that is highly -- whatever you think of President Trump, for a president of another nation to use that kind of language about a president of the United States, you can understand why the president's upset. That doesn't necessarily mean you go to Twitter and vent it. Where are we now?</s>PHILLIP: I mean I think that this is clearly something the president took very personally, which is why he responded. This administration does not always respond to what Rouhani has to say. Rouhani says things all the time. They don't always respond this way. And just a few minutes ago, John Bolton tweeted that he spoke to President Trump a few minutes before Trump sent those tweets and Trump told him, he said, to get the message out to Iran that they would face overwhelming force. So the president is clearly anchored by this. And in his -- in his rhetoric he's changing his strategy. But, again, we are still where we have been all the whole time. Iran did use force against a U.S. asset and they threatened to use force against another U.S. asset that had American personnel on it. The president decided in that moment not to use force against Iran. That's the decision that is on the table that everyone is looking at saying, well, is President Trump just using this rhetoric and unwilling to actually carry it out? I think that's where the world is right now as they try to decide how much bite is behind a lot of these words that are coming from the president.</s>KING: Right. And the president, his view of this, is, I decided no. I decided it wasn't proportional to bomb radar and missile installations. Said he was told maybe 150 people would die. And he decided, I'm not going to do that because they shot down a drone. He thinks that is an act of de-escalation. And so now he's anchored that Iran's response is essentially to tell him, go away.</s>TARINI PARTI, NATIONAL POLITICS REPORTER, "THE WALL STREET JOURNAL": Right, but he's gone from that to now obliteration very quickly and he was clearly provoked by what Rouhani said today. And that sort of quick switch is, you know, is going to send the rest of our allies, who have been watching this situation very closely in somewhat of a panic or confusion and it kind of also reminds me of what happened with North Korea, where we saw the president kind of switch off from taking a very tough, you know, rocket man approach to then trying to go on a more diplomatic tactic.</s>KING: And you mentioned John Bolton and the president speaking to John Bolton today. John Bolton is in the Middle East on a very difficult mission. The Israeli government, the United States government trying to get the Russian government, they're in a three-way conference, to join them in a posture against Iran, which is a very steep hill to climb. But this is an interesting moment. You listen to John Bolton here. The Iranians' mistrust of John Bolton goes way back to the George W. Bush administration. It's not unique to the Trump administration. But he is the public front-man in the region saying this.</s>JOHN BOLTON, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: We convene at a particularly critical moment in the Middle East as the radical regime in Iran and its terrorist surrogates engage in yet more rounds of violent provocations abroad. All around the Middle East, we see Iran as the source of belligerence and aggression. At the same time, the president has held the door open to real negotiations. All that Iran needs to do is to walk through that open door.</s>KING: The Iranians see Bolton and they say, no, because they don't think there's anything productive on the other side of that door. Whether that -- whether that's true or real or whatever, the president says he makes the decisions. But that's what the Iranians say, there's no reason to walk through that door because that guy's going to be there.</s>SHEAR: Right. And not only do they see Bolton on the other side, but they also see Trump. And they -- and as we've sort of already said here, they don't know what to believe about Trump. I mean part of what you have to understand about the way he reacts to things is that President Trump's reaction is about what he -- what the -- what the response is going the be to what he did in the next five seconds, not the next, you know, five weeks or five years. I mean he doesn't think long term. So to the extent that he was happy that, you know, at the response that he got when he pulled back on the strikes, that made him happy for that moment. But now, you know, he's looking at a different response and he sees the -- what the Iranians have said about him and so he's -- he goes all the way over to obliteration. But from the Iranian perspective, or for that matter our allies, they don't know which to believe. Where is the president's line when it comes to dealing with Iran? Is it obliteration or is it, you know, kind of concern for 150 Iranians that, you know, he said made him pull back. Nobody quite knows. And that's confusing. And it makes for a lot of --</s>KING: In part because you look at the president's words today. You read them on Twitter. And then you compare them, again, let's go back, this is Saturday outside the White House, and then in an interview with "The Hill," where the president talks about his views and he sounds more, shall we say, moderated.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: John Bolton is doing a very good job. But he takes it -- generally a tough posture. But I have other people that don't take that posture. But the only one that matters is me. I like the idea of keeping Congress abreast, but I wouldn't have to do that. I do like keeping them -- they have ideas. They're intelligent people. They'll come up with some thoughts. I actually learned a couple of things the other day when we had our meeting with Congress, which were, I think, helpful to me. But I do like keeping them abreast, but I don't have to do it legally.</s>KING: It's a just much more calmer tone there than Bolton. Yes, Bolton's a hawk, but I make the decisions, the president's saying. And, Congress, I want them at the table. I want to talk to them about it. I think I have the legal authority to retaliate, if I so choose. But the tone there very different than obliteration.</s>CAYGLE: And, you know, there's a fear on The Hill that Trump is going to be provoked by something like the comments we saw overnight. And he will do something rash egged on by John Bolton. I mean there was a wave of relief on Friday that he called off this military strike, but also alarm that no one had bothered to tell Speaker Pelosi ahead of time. And we saw her come out after that and say, in no uncertain terms, you have to have permission from us if you want to engage in military conflict. And he, you know, Trump disputes that, but that's her way of trying to nudge him into at least keeping them in the loop and talking to them before making these decisions.</s>KING: Right. The other side of that coin, I would only argue, though, is a lot of Democrats, even some Republicans, blame Trump for the poison atmosphere right now. But, Iran did shoot down a drone. Iran did mine those ships. If Iran does something else, the question is, what then? Right now it's tough rhetoric. We will keep an eye. Up next, Elizabeth Warren drops yet another signature policy plan. Can she hold her grounds as the policy candidate to beat?