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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 ability
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 a
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,
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 more
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?
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.
00:26:05.880Imagine a year from now. So that had to happen. Obviously, we were aware of Israeli intentions
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.
00:28:11.000The world is getting more unstable and chaotic every day. It seems like everyone, everywhere you
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