Bongino vs. Rivera: A Debate Turns Angry as the Left Continues to Obsess over 'Imminence' of Soleimani Threat

President Trump made exactly the right call when he ordered the airstrike which killed Quds Force General Qassem Soleimani earlier this month, a move two previous U.S. presidents were unwilling to make for fear of political and military consequences. So, this murderous monster was allowed to continue his life’s work, leaving behind a trail of death and chaos throughout the Middle East.

Days before his death, Soleimani directed one of his Iraqi proxy groups, Kaitaib Hezbollah, to storm the U.S. embassy in Iraq. If Trump had not sent marines and helicopters, the embassy staff would have been killed.

Soleimani arrived in Baghdad shortly after midnight, on January 3rd, for a reason. Although we don’t have access to the classified intelligence Trump and his team were privy to, those who have seen it said he had come to direct a second attack on the U.S. embassy. Even CIA Director Gina Haspel agreed with Trump’s decision to hit Soleimani before he could act.

Several days ago, during an interview with Fox News‘ Laura Ingraham, President Trump claimed that four U.S. embassies were in danger of being attacked. Again, without access to the intelligence, it cannot be proven or disproven. The mainstream media has taken this claim and run with it like rabid dogs.

Does it really matter if Soleimani had planned to bomb just one U.S. embassy or four?

If it were only one, then we shouldn’t kill him. But if four embassies were being targeted, it would be okay to kill him. Is that the idea?

What would the left have us do, evacuate all personnel from the embassy and allow Soleimani and his proxies to blow up the building so we didn’t have to kill him?

The Washington Examiner’s Dan Hannon, who is not a Trump supporter, made an excellent point in a Monday op-ed. He wrote, “If the commanding officer of a hostile force is not a legitimate target, I don’t know who is.”

There is no doubt Soleimani was the commanding office of a hostile force. Therefore, he was a legitimate target. Sorry, libs.

Those, such as Nancy Pelosi, who claim that killing Soleimani was tantamount to another country killing our Vice President are missing something. I don’t need to go through Soleimani’s resume, but we all know what he’s been up to in the Middle East over the last twenty years.

Still, because they have nothing else, and can’t even blame Trump for blundering us into war with Iran, they obsess over the number of embassies Soleimani was really targeting on the night he was killed. Terrorists just love attacking U.S. embassies, don’t they?

CNN’s Jake Tapper interviewed Secretary of Defense Mark Esper on Sunday and asked him no less than five times if he had seen an intelligence report that indicated four embassies would be targeted.

Finally, exasperated, Esper said, “Jake, I’m glad we’re having this discussion today, because I’d rather be here discussing this topic with you than going up to Dover Air Force Base and standing there while flag-draped coffins come home, and I have to explain to husbands and wives, sons and daughters why their service member died, when I had information that could have prevented that from happening.”

That was a great response. What is the question here? Soleimani was in Baghdad to kill people. Esper was absolutely right. Can you imagine if Trump had not acted and Americans inside the embassy had been killed?

Trump made exactly the right move. He prevented at least one embassy from being attacked and Soleimani will never be able to plan another attack. That’s a very good thing.

Although Fox News contributor Geraldo Rivera is conservative on some issues, on others he is ridiculously liberal.

Last week, fellow Fox News contributor and investigator Dan Bongino got into a heated debate with Rivera on “Hannity” over whether or not Trump should have ordered the killing of Soleimani. Rivera was opposed.

Rivera believes President Trump picked an unnecessary fight and argued, “We had already retaliated against the Iranians. We killed 25 of them after they killed the American contractor.”

Bongino shot back, “Unnecessary? Geraldo, let me ask you a very serious question. How many bodies — do you have an exact body count? Was Soleimani’s 600 dead Americans not enough? Is it like do we have to reach 1,000 first? I mean, what did you think this guy did? He was guilty of ethnic cleansing.”

He asks Bongino, “Is that going to be the new normal, Dan? Is this the new normal that we assassinate the people we don’t like?…He is the number two guy in the Iranian government. He’s like the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.”

“People we don’t like?” replied Bongino. “Geraldo, he sent 600 Americans home in body bags. It’s not like he showed up late for a birthday party. I mean, get your head out of your butt. Are you kidding me? People we don’t like?”

Bongino, understandably, was incensed by Rivera’s remarks and fired back. “He sent 600 Americans home in body bags, it’s not like he showed up late for a birthday party…He killed Americans. Geraldo, he wasn’t there, Soleimani, picking up cheesecakes. He was in Iraq.”

“Soleimani was one of the world’s leading terrorists,” said Bongino. “This was an unabashedly good thing not just for the United States but for the world.”

Hannity clearly took Bongino’s side of the argument pointing out that “Trump didn’t fire after drones were shot down and didn’t fire when tanks were taken hostage, didn’t fire when they hit the Saudi oil fields impacting oil prices. Killed Americans, that’s his redline. And then he gave the Iranians an out. An off-ramp. I would say he is keeping his campaign promise.”

Later, he asked Rivera, “What do you think he was doing in Baghdad?” and then answered his own question. “He was there to help Hezbollah kill Americans at the embassy. That’s what they were up to…Soleimani killed Americans when he was in Baghdad and leading the Hezbollah effort against our embassy. That’s American souls at risk and that is our territory and that’s our sovereignty. And we are going to disagree.”

One embassy. Four embassies. What difference does it make? He and his lieutenants would have hit them all eventually. It’s this same Geraldo Rivera mindset that allowed Soleimani’s power to grow along with his body count.

Keep on mourning the loss of this terrorist though. It should go over big with voters in November.

Watch the video below.