Lawmakers and journalists expressed skepticism Friday about President Donald Trump’s claim on Fox News that assassinated Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani was planning an attack on four U.S. embassies.

The previous day, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said, also on Fox News, that the U.S. didn’t have information about specific targets, only that attacks were imminent. “We don’t know when, we don’t know where,” he said.

Trump told reporters Thursday that Soleimani was planning to “blow up” a single embassy — in Baghdad.

Then the president told Fox News host Laura Ingraham: “I can reveal that I believe it probably would’ve been four embassies.”

But two unnamed senior officials, including one in the Defense Department, told The Washington Post that they were aware only of vague intelligence about a plot — not fully formed — against the embassy in Baghdad. Neither mentioned any threats against other embassies.

In addition, the Baghdad embassy was never given a warning “commensurate” with the kind of threat described by Trump, a source told the Post, which would have been standard procedure.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) noted that nothing about planned attacks on four embassies was revealed to Congress and essentially accused the president of making up the planned attacks.

“Let’s be clear — if there was evidence of imminent attacks on four embassies, the Administration would have said so at our Wednesday briefing,” he tweeted. “They didn’t. So either Fox News gets higher level briefings than Congress ... or ... wait for it... there was no such imminent threat.”

Murphy said he has issued a request with the director of national intelligence for a new briefing concerning Trump’s revelations and an explanation of why they weren’t mentioned in Wednesday’s closed-door briefing.

Let's be clear - if there was evidence of imminent attacks on four embassies, the Administration would have said so at our Wednesday briefing. They didn't.



So either Fox News gets higher level briefings than Congress...



or...wait for it...



there was no such imminent threat. — Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) January 10, 2020

I have placed a request with the Director of National Intelligence for a briefing on the new intelligence surrounding the imminent attacks on U.S. embassies that the President referred to today, but somehow didn’t come up in the full Senate briefing on Wednesday. — Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) January 10, 2020

Key question senators are asking today: If Trump can tell Fox News that Iranian attacks were planned on four US embassies without compromising sources and methods, why couldn't Pompeo, Esper et al mention them in classified briefing for lawmakers in a SCIF? — Josh Lederman (@JoshNBCNews) January 10, 2020

So Donald Trump just told @IngrahamAngle that four embassies were being imminently targeted by Soleimani — not three or five, but four. Isn’t it horrible that we have NO REASON AT ALL to believe the American president about this? None at all. — Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) January 10, 2020

4 embassies targeted: how is that a threat stream that *wasn’t* appropriate to brief to the US senate?



If true, the WH would’ve briefed everyone, given a full-court press briefing and given high-fives to everyone in the USG. A massive PR win for the White House. — Aki Peritz (@AkiPeritz) January 10, 2020

If Quds force was truly planning attacks on 4 US embassies, Iran was essentially preparing for war with the United States.



If not, Trump is fabricating peril to US diplomats in effort to prop up rationale for Soleimani strike. https://t.co/3uq3m1uqqV — Greg Miller (@gregpmiller) January 11, 2020

Pres. Trump now says Soleimani was targeting four embassies. But The Washington Post’s Ashley Parker points out, "You really don't know what to believe out of this administration... There's not a lot of reliable narrators." https://t.co/cL0eLTPwcU — MSNBC (@MSNBC) January 11, 2020

Iran is launching missiles at U.S. bases.



American troops are being asked to leave Iraq.



The fight against ISIS is on hold.



And Iran has restarted their nuclear program.



The president must now know his policy has failed. It’s time to pursue diplomacy and de-escalation. https://t.co/2kCLf4GMYT — Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) January 11, 2020