During a sit-down interview with NBC political director Chuck Todd on Sunday’s Meet the Press, President Trump’s National Security Advisor, Ambassador Robert O’Brien embarrassed his host by repeatedly schooling him on how much of threat Iranian General Soleimani was. On top of that, he called out the liberal media for taking a pro-Iran stance with their refusal to cover the regime’s massacre of civilian protesters.

At the top of the interview, Todd pressed O’Brien with the media’s skepticism of the need to take Soleimani out, even gawking at Trump’s explanation that four embassies were being targeted. “Four embassies. If they were targeting four embassies, did you guys see that as a declaration of war by Iran? I mean, that's a big thing. What four embassies are we talking about here,” he scoffed.

“[T]he President's interpretation of that intelligence is very consistent with it and so, look, I think this has been -- this has been a Washington thing. I think when we tell the American people that there was exquisite intelligence and there was going to be an attack on Americans, we had to stop that,” O’Brien explained in part.

When Todd tied to suggest there wasn’t much done to protect any of the embassies, according to an unnamed source, O’Brien noted they moved plenty of military assets to and around the region, including soldiers, marines, and Apache helicopters. “We made it very clear this was not going to be Tehran 1979, this was not going to be Benghazi,” he said.

Todd then pushed the unfounded conspiracy theory that somehow Iran’s missile attack on two U.S. bases was designed to intestinally not kill anyone, and suggested their response to Soleimani’s slaying was “muted” (click “expand”):

TODD: Why, if you were so concerned that Soleimani was about to launch an imminent attack on as many as four different embassies, why do you think the Iranian response was so muted? O’BRIEN: I don't think it was a muted response. They fired off 16 ballistic missiles at Iraqi bases where American and coalition forces were. TODD [Interrupting]: They're accepting it as a muted response, though. Because they seemed to issue warnings, they let everybody know in advance. We were able to protect ourselves. I mean, it seems as if they telegraphed it on purpose. No?

O’Brien wholly rejected Todd’s spin and credited American technology for saving lives. “They issued warnings that they were going to retaliate, they didn't issue warnings of what they were going to do. We've got fantastic systems that can pick up launches of ballistic missiles in space, we’ve got early warning systems,” he said. “But look, I think it's a pretty serious thing when you fire off 16 ballistic missiles.”

Moments later, O’Brien walloped Todd by calling out the media’s refusal to cover the Iranian regime’s massacre of civilian protesters. “The people of Iran are upset, they're protesting. They have been protesting for some time. They have been brutally put down in Tiananmen Square-style massacres that the press has been not been covering and we think the regime is in real trouble.”

Todd was absolutely triggered and O’Brien continued to press the point (click “expand”):

TODD: Not to -- the press does everything it can to cover. It is a very difficult country to cover. O’BRIEN: It is. TODD: Because this is not a press trying to omit things here. I'd like that not to be a shot at us. O’BRIEN: It is a difficult place to cover because they have an authoritarian regime and they shut down the internet and there are more questions about what the United States is doing to try to help the people of Iran than necessarily what the regime is doing. But I agree with you, it's a tough place to cover because of the regime.

Towards the end of their interview, citing a column from former Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) as backup, Todd tried to argue against labeling Soleimani a terrorist, despite his deep support for terrorist organizations. “[W]e took out a commander of another country's army and to call him a terrorist then at that point, when if you are calling him a terrorist, then isn't everybody in that regime a terrorist by definition,” he huffed.

O’Brien embarrassed Todd again by reminding viewers that Soleimani was the head of the Quds Force, an organization that “operates outside of Iran and foments revolution and terrorism” in places like Yemen, Syrian, and Iraq.

Adding: “But he's not just been designated by us, he's under a travel ban from the U.N. He shouldn't have been outside of Iran. I mean, this was someone who was a leader of an organization that was engaged in terror.”

The transcript is below, click "expand" to read: