Welcome to the beat, everyone. I'm Ari Melbert. As we come on the air, we are two hours out from President Trump's asserted deadline to reach some kind of Iran deal or get back to status quo or an energy baseline that the U.S. can live with as he's demanded they reopen the Strait of Ramos.

Now, that part you may have heard about,

and that part might sound like normal times. But I just have to tell you, as we deal with this and

report the facts in the news, there is nothing normal or potentially even lawful about the way

the president is carrying this out. He has threatened apocalyptic measures. He has talked about actions that if

the U.S. were to take them would clearly be war crimes against the civilian population.

And these are assertions that made by any major power, let alone the United States, would expect to shock

the conscience of the world. And even though people in the United States sometimes say, well,

you can't give him too much attention, or you tune it out, or is he serious this time? Nobody really

has that luxury in the Middle East. This is a war, life and death. The bombings continue.

There have been great losses of life, and we have the president issuing threats, saying a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.

In Trumpian fashion, this post says that he doesn't want that to happen,

and then he says, but it probably will. This even by the serious standards of war, where people

are killed, where countries take lethal actions against opponents, against their enemies, against the

military structure. Even by these standards, this is an ultimatum that has drawn condemnation at home

and abroad. And really, you have to keep in mind reality and where the lines are, even if Trump

wishes they weren't. Our strongest allies shaken by not only

this threat, but what looks like erratic behavior by President Trump.

Experts warn that such actions are war crimes and that even the ongoing threat against civilian

population violates laws of war.

Secretary of State Rubio peppered with questions about this today.

All right, thank you.

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