On Capitol Hill, Secretary of State Marco Rubio joined top generals and intelligence officials in a classified briefing for select members of Congress on Monday. After the closed-door briefing, Rubio told reporters the president had opted to join Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s planned war on Iran, rather than trying to stop the Israeli assault or even to avoid getting involved.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio: “The president made the very wise decision. We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action. We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces. And we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties.”

Meanwhile, MS NOW is reporting that when FBI Director Kash Patel fired a dozen FBI personnel last week because they were part of the investigation into Donald Trump’s mishandling of classified documents, Patel targeted an elite counterespionage unit that investigates threats from foreign adversaries and specializes in Iran.