Thread by @Nick_L_Miller

Everyone is (rightly) focusing on the portion of @NPRKelly's interview with Pompeo that focused on Ukraine, but she also held his feet to the fire on Iran policy more effectively than I've seen from any journalist. npr.org/2020/01/24/798…

Some highlights below.

@NPRKelly "You use the word pressure. This is the maximum pressure campaign that President Trump put into place a year and a half ago when he pulled out of the nuclear deal. But in that year and a half, Iran has behaved more provocatively, not less. So is maximum pressure working?"

@NPRKelly "Since the president came to office, Iran has moved closer to a nuclear weapons capability...If the plan is to keep Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, how do you do that when they're not abiding by the limits of the old deal and there's no new deal in sight?"

@NPRKelly "But again, you say you're determined to prevent them. How do you stop them? I was in Tehran two weeks ago. I sat down with your counterpart there, Javad Zarif, and he told me, quote, 'All limits on our centrifuge program are now suspended.'"

@NPRKelly "But my question again, how do you stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon?"

Pompeo: We'll stop them.

"How? Sanctions?"

Pompeo: We'll stop them.

@NPRKelly "Is there any new deal being developed? A new nuclear deal, something that would rein in Iran, something that they would agree to."

Pompeo: The Iranian leadership will have to make the decision about what its behavior is going to be.