Stephen K. Bannon talks about the latest Israeli strike on Iran and the possible need for boots on the ground, and what it means for the future of the Middle East peace process. Stephen also discusses the latest in the Venezuela situation, and why he thinks the president should go all in on regime change.
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00:16:22.120War Room. Here's your host, Stephen K. Bannon.
00:16:27.380Okay, welcome back. Brian Glenn's going to join me right now. Brian, thank you for coming,
00:16:31.860for stepping in here. I want to break down this game film. We did Pete Hexas this morning,
00:16:36.740and I want to do, I want to break down for the audience, General Raisin Cain, who is really the
00:16:43.360chief, obviously the chief military advisor, but I will tell you, someone that President Trump puts
00:16:48.140a lot of trust in, given his track record against ISIS, his track record in the 12-day war, and also
00:16:53.720in the Venezuelan situation. Let's go and play the rest of his briefing, and I think he also throws in
00:16:58.840a question. Let's go and hear it. So let me start with a few details. First, to be clear, as the
00:17:05.440Secretary said, this is not a single overnight operation. The military objectives that CENTCOM
00:17:11.860and the Joint Force have been tasked with will take some time to achieve, and in some cases will be
00:17:18.100difficult and gritty work. We expect to take additional losses, and as always, we will work to
00:17:25.320minimize U.S. losses, but as the Secretary said, this is major combat operations. So let me talk about
00:17:33.080the preparation and the planning. On February 28th, the full strength of America's armed forces came
00:17:39.460together in a unified purpose against a capable and determined adversary. The United States Army, Navy,
00:17:47.620Marine Corps, Air Force, Space Force, Coast Guard, and our reserve components integrated across
00:17:53.720our combatant commands and began coordinated operations with the Israeli armed forces of an
00:18:00.360unprecedented scale. As the Secretary laid out, our military objectives are clear. Our mission is to
00:18:07.020protect and defend ourselves, and together with our regional partners, prevent Iran from the ability0.99
00:18:13.920to project power outside of its borders, and be ready for follow-on actions as appropriate. Across every
00:18:21.700domain, land, air, sea, cyber, the U.S. Joint Force delivered synchronized and layered effects designed
00:18:28.560to disrupt, degrade, deny, and destroy Iran's ability to conduct and sustain combat operations.
00:18:37.180On the U.S. side, this marked the culmination of months, and in some cases years, of deliberate planning
00:18:45.000and refinement against this particular target set. From precision strikes against key military
00:18:51.340infrastructure, to persistent intelligence and targeting integration, to the close coordination
00:18:57.720of the components across vast distances, this operation again demonstrated America's reach,
00:19:05.640readiness, and professionalism, and that of our joint united force. It was historic not only in the
00:19:12.320operational scope, but in the level of joint integration displayed across every element of
00:19:19.100the joint force, and as I said earlier, this work is just beginning and will continue.
00:19:24.700So now to talk a little bit about setting the force and setting the theater. On the order of the
00:19:30.860Secretary of War over the last 30 days to reinforce deterrence and provide the President with credible
00:19:37.280options should action be required, the joint force began to systematically reposition assets and
00:19:44.200personnel across the region. These movements ensured that U.S. forces remained postured, protected,
00:19:52.520and ready to respond decisively for any emerging threat. This deployment included thousands of service
00:19:59.940members from all branches, hundreds of advanced fourth and fifth generation fighters, dozens of refueling
00:20:06.400tankers, the Lincoln and Ford carrier strike group, and their embarked air wings, sustained flow of
00:20:13.320munitions, fuel, supplies, all supported with command and control, intelligence, surveillance, and
00:20:18.920reconnaissance network. And the flow of forces continues today. In fact, Admiral Cooper will receive
00:20:25.560additional forces even today. This rapid buildup of forces demonstrated the joint forces ability to adapt and
00:20:34.540project power at the time and place of our nation's choosing.
00:20:38.260So Brian Glenn, there you saw, and that was a very big overview of what they've set in place. It was not
00:20:45.240a Schwarzkopf type briefing with, you know, grainy gun camera video blowing up some stuff. You don't have big
00:20:54.740maps of where the deployments are, don't have charts. They've been very limited in what they've give
00:21:00.180reporters because of operation security. Do you think it's some time to get the American people more to
00:21:05.940understand what's going on, the briefings? And they talk about Admiral Cooper. AOR means area of responsibility.
00:21:15.620That's kind of the combatant commander. I think the naval forces are under Admiral Cooper. Maybe he does it
00:21:20.980tomorrow or the next day. Do you think we're getting on the clock that we've got to cut to the chase and make sure
00:21:26.860people understand what's going on? Yes, sir. Steve, I think we really do need to
00:21:32.380update the American people, not only why we're doing this, but a little bit of the thought process
00:21:39.720in building up to this. I do believe, and he said it, that this has been planned for months, if not
00:21:46.260years. And I'll go back, and maybe this is going down a rabbit hole here, but I think when we changed it from
00:21:52.360Secretary of Defense to Secretary of War, Department of Defense, Department of War, that was proactively
00:21:59.360getting the American mindset in the right frame of mind, rather, that we are going to be proactive
00:22:07.380in defending this country. We're going to go to war. So maybe there's nothing there. I don't know.
00:22:14.220But I do think, however, this was planned for months. I think the negotiation obviously was still
00:22:20.800being, you know, in the process. They still wanted to maybe find an alternative to taking kinetic
00:22:26.660action. But I think today's press conference, and Secretary of War, Pete Hedseff, did an amazing job
00:22:34.220as well. Look, he's very articulate. He's a good-looking guy. He's charismatic, comes from Fox News.
00:22:40.140He is the point person you want in the Department of War to convey messages to the media. I think he's
00:22:47.620perfect with that. And then I think General Raisin Kane is the perfect person to explain just what
00:22:53.600he laid out, kind of strategically, what's going to happen next. This needs to happen more than often
00:23:00.220right now, because, Steve, when you get on social media, and I know social media a lot of times is
00:23:05.680not the real world, but right now it's not good as far as getting the public to support what we just
00:23:13.640got involved. Yeah, I think you got to explain. You just got to put a little more detail on this and
00:23:18.320explain to folks what's going on, what the target package was, all that. I'm sure that's going to
00:23:22.200be in the next 20, 24 hours. Rubio took a crack at this day, a little bit about the effort here, the
00:23:27.740focus, the objective. So let's go and put, we're going to break it down twice as we go to commercial
00:23:31.020break. Let's go and do Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Brian Glenn will come back in.
00:23:35.620Drones that they also have. They've been doing this for a very long time. And by the way, they've been doing
00:23:39.640it under sanction. You see the attacks they're conducting right now? They're attacking airports.
00:23:44.500They're attacking hotels. They're hitting not just military bases. They're attacking our embassies
00:23:49.240directly. They're attacking facilities that have nothing to do with war or with military. And that's
00:23:53.860a weakened Iran. That's in Iran despite years of sanction. Imagine a year from now or a year and a0.75
00:23:59.320half from now the capabilities they would have to inflict damage on us. It's an unacceptable risk,
00:24:04.120especially in the hands of a regime that's run by radical clerics. The Ayatollah is a
00:24:09.460radical was a radical cleric. That entire regime is led by radical clerics who don't make geopolitical
00:24:16.840decisions. They make decisions on the basis of theology, their view of theology, which is
00:24:21.300an apocalyptic one that has to be taken very seriously as well. So that was the purpose for
00:24:26.180what this operation is all about. That's what it's focused on. As the president said earlier today,
00:24:30.660it is on or ahead of schedule. I will defer to the Department of War to discuss the progress being
00:24:35.700made at a tactical level, but it was the right decision and an important decision for the safety
00:24:39.860and security of the world. Does Congress have to weigh in? Does Congress have to weigh in? Is the
00:24:51.800president a current war and does Congress have to weigh in? And was there an imminent threat? Did you tell lawmakers that there was an imminent threat?
00:24:58.300There absolutely was an imminent threat. And the imminent threat was that we knew that if Iran was attacked,0.56
00:25:02.700and we believe they would be attacked, that they would immediately come after us.
00:25:06.440And we were not going to sit there and absorb a blow before we responded. Because the Department of War
00:25:12.520assessed that if we did that, if we waited for them to hit us first after they were attacked, and by someone
00:25:17.240else, Israel attacked them, they hit us first, and we waited for them to hit us, we would suffer more0.71
00:25:22.120casualties and more deaths. We went proactively in a defensive way to prevent them from inflicting
00:25:27.080higher damage. Had we not done so, there would have been hearings on Capitol Hill about how we knew that this
00:25:32.280was going to happen, and we didn't act preemptively to prevent more casualties and more loss of life.
00:25:36.360Mr. President, why would you say the U.S. was forced to strike because of an inventing Israeli action?0.88
00:25:44.200No, first of all, let me, two things I would say. Number one is, no matter what, ultimately,
00:25:47.400this operation needed to happen. That's the question of why now. But this operation needed to happen,
00:25:52.120because Iran in about a year or a year and a half would cross the line of immunity, meaning they would have
00:25:56.520so many short-range missiles, so many drones, that no one could do anything about it, because they could
00:26:00.920hold the whole world hostage. Look at the damage they're doing now, and this is a weakened Iran.1.00
00:26:05.880Imagine a year from now. So that had to happen. Obviously, we were aware of Israeli intentions0.99
00:26:10.440and understood what that would mean for us, and we had to be prepared to act as a result of it,
00:26:14.200but this had to happen no matter what.
00:26:15.720Mr. Secretary, President Trump said overnight that his top choices to now run Iran were killed in the strikes.
00:26:25.000Does the United States have a firm plan for how they intend to handle this tower vacuum in Iran
00:26:30.440to ensure that an IRC hardliner does not take back?
00:26:32.680So two things, and two things can be true. Number one is, our mission and our focus
00:26:36.600is the destruction of their ballistic missile capabilities and their ability to manufacture them,
00:26:40.840as well as the threat posed by their navy to global shipping. That's our objective.
00:26:45.000That said, we would not mind, we would not be heartbroken, and we hope that the Iranian people
00:26:50.040can overthrow this government and establish a new future for that country. We would love for that to be
00:26:54.120possible. But the objective of this mission is the destruction of their ballistic missile
00:26:58.120capabilities and of their naval capabilities.
00:27:00.040Mr. Secretary, so are you saying, based on that, are you saying that there is no response?
00:27:08.360Okay, I'm going to come back to that. Now I'm kind of confused, Ms. Brian Glenn. Now it's the
00:27:15.000destruction of the ballistic missile and their naval capabilities. And I think he said Israel is going to
00:27:20.680be first mover. It's fine, but I think there has to be a sense of consistency here in kind of lining
00:27:28.440everything up because they've got many enemies on Capitol Hill that are coming for them with the
00:27:33.320knives out. That's these Democrats. Of course, we have huge primaries tomorrow in Texas and North
00:27:39.480Carolina. Brian Glenn, give me 30 seconds before we go to break.
00:27:42.520Well, I think Marco Rubio laid it out that if we didn't proactively do it now, I heard someone say,
00:27:50.440can you imagine five, six, seven years from now when we, God forbid, get a really liberal,
00:27:57.880left-leaning president and get a congressional and Senate, and then if Iran was to all of a sudden
00:28:06.680think they've got the military needs to do it, they go make an attack and we're sitting on our heels.
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