00:04:27.000As of 930 Eastern Time, March 1st, three U.S. service members have been killed in action, and five are seriously wounded as part of Operation Epic Fury.
00:04:36.000Several others sustained minor shrapnel injuries and concussions and are in the process of being returned to duty.
00:04:41.000Major combat operations continue, and our response effort is ongoing.
00:04:45.000The situation is fluid, so out of respect for the families, we will withhold additional information, including the identities of our fallen warriors, until 24 hours after next of kin have been notified.
00:04:55.000So again, CENTCOM there reporting three American service members have been killed.
00:05:00.000That is a major development here, something that President Trump also warned of when he first announced that the strike was going on.
00:05:07.000He told the American people that there was a chance that service members would be killed in pursuit of a safer United States.
00:05:15.000And now we know, according to CENTCOM, as of 930 AM, at least three U.S. service members have been killed.
00:05:22.000We're also now getting new details on the strikes yesterday that killed the Ayatollah and roughly 50 other senior advisors.
00:05:30.000First, numerous reports say that the latest round of nuclear negotiations, which took place in Geneva, were essentially a ruse to keep Iran believing that a diplomatic solution was still on the table.
00:05:40.000The U.S. wanted to avoid arousing suspicion that a strike was coming, so they kept the negotiations going.
00:05:45.000The president had decided reportedly that the Iranians were simply stalling, that they never intended to make a deal or give up their nuclear ambitions, and that ultimately is what led to this decision.
00:05:54.000Senior White House officials are now saying there were also credible intelligence reports from within Iran that the Supreme Leader knew he was running out of time and also running out of options, and that he planned to launch a preemptive strike on U.S. service members in the region.
00:06:09.000So the administration is essentially saying they had no choice but to strike first to ensure that that Iranian response would be more muted.
00:06:16.000Now, there are plenty of skeptics, especially those on the left, who do not believe that assessment.
00:06:21.000They have drawn parallels to President Bush, assuring the American people there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and that warranted an invasion.
00:06:28.000So do not be surprised if we hear from President Trump and others in the White House in the coming days as they look to assure the American people that this was the best and potentially only option.
00:06:37.000And that pushback from the left and from many who are skeptical of a broader military conflict in the Middle East, it's only going to grow as we now have these reports from Central Command that three U.S. service members have been killed.
00:06:49.000Again, President Trump warned that could take place, but now we know that it has, in fact, happened.
00:06:57.000We now also know that on Saturday morning, Ayatollah Khomeini convened a meeting of his top military and intelligence aides above ground in Tehran.
00:07:04.000And at the same time, two other meetings were taking place in the city.
00:07:07.000Now, typically, these sorts of strikes take place at night, but the U.S. and Israel reportedly felt this was their best shot for a decapitation strike, and they took it.
00:07:15.000The obvious question now is who will fill the power vacuum in Tehran?
00:07:19.000Could this ultimately lead to the collapse of the regime?
00:07:22.000Joining me now to help answer those questions and more to kick things off today is Tim Rice, Daily Wire, D.C. bureau chief, and Cassie Akiva, Daily Wire, foreign affairs reporter.
00:07:39.000About the same as yesterday, but Congress has shifted into the expected phase two of its response to yesterday's attacks, which is they're now fighting with each other and demanding more information.
00:07:50.000So, Congress had previously scheduled votes on potential intervention in Iran for this coming week.
00:07:58.000Now we have the Democratic leaders of both the House and Senate calling for a referendum vote, essentially, in the next coming days to either condemn or affirm the president's strikes in Iran and also to attempt to, in some levels, curtail future action.
00:08:14.000We're also seeing, you know, dissident Republicans like Thomas Massey and Rand Paul joining in those calls to prevent another forever war and curtail executive power.
00:08:24.000And more than that, though, and this is likely going to change now that we've seen reports for casualties of casualties and fatalities.
00:08:31.000But the other thing that the lawmakers are doing is they are grappling for information.
00:08:34.000So as we reported yesterday, Marco Rubio briefed the gang of eight, which is congressional leaders and the head of the classified intelligence committees from both houses.
00:08:43.000Now every other lawmaker wants to get in on the action.
00:08:46.000There have been some private meetings, at least on the Republican side late yesterday and early today.
00:08:51.000But I expect to see a lot more public posturing calling for either support or condemnation of the president.
00:08:57.000And more than anything, expect to see a lot of anonymous stories of such and such a lawmaker is furious that they weren't briefed on the attacks.
00:09:04.000Yeah, we're going to be speaking with Senator Bill Hagerty in a moment, and we're definitely going to get his take on that looming war powers resolution vote in the Senate.
00:09:58.000They have IRGC commanders spread out throughout the country.
00:10:01.000They knew something like this could happen and they're prepared to deal with it.
00:10:04.000So usually there is a huge process of how they pick the next supreme leader.
00:10:08.000You know, a lot of the mullahs come together and they go through a very legalistic process to figure out who the next leader is.
00:10:15.000But they're obviously suspending that and having a short term council to lead.
00:10:20.000So but I did just see that Israel has now launched new strikes on Tehran.
00:10:25.000This has happened in the next last few minutes.
00:10:27.000Israel has declared air superiority over all of Tehran and all of Western Iran.
00:10:32.000So they are in the skies and they're not getting shot down.
00:10:35.000And this is a this is a big breakthrough throughout this conflict.
00:10:38.000And I'm assuming they'll, you know, go to the rest of the country as well and get get rid of those air defense systems.
00:10:44.000So again, the big question now, we have this obviously information vacuum coming out of Iran where it's difficult for us to glean too much about their internal processes.
00:10:53.000But what are we hearing right now as to who could be the most likely or logical replacement for the Ayatollah when this is all said and done?
00:11:03.000Right. So a lot of people, I mean, previously, a few years ago, you would have said it would have been the Iranian president that mysteriously fell down in a helicopter.
00:11:10.000Everyone thought he was going to be the successor.
00:11:12.000You know, there this is up in the air.
00:11:15.000It could be anyone. Israel is currently killing a lot of the senior leaders.
00:11:19.000And if you haven't heard of how the work's been kind of divvied up between Israel and the U.S. during these attacks, Israel's been primarily taking out leadership.
00:11:26.000And America has been primarily taking out facilities and military installations.
00:11:30.000So I guess we'll just see who's left standing because Israel has already killed a huge portion of the chain of command in Iran.
00:11:39.000So I guess we'll see what happens there.
00:11:41.000But I also want to point out that you're talking earlier about Iranian strikes on different countries in the region.
00:11:47.000And the UAE just announced that they had shot down 90 or 96 percent of Iranian missiles.
00:11:53.000That is highly successful. Israel is close to that as well.
00:11:56.000So while the Iranians are shooting their missiles and they're estimated to only have about 2,500, a lot of them are getting shot down.
00:12:02.000So it's only a few more days until Iran might run out of missiles.
00:12:06.000Tim, let's get back to the political angle here.
00:12:09.000Before these strikes, polling showed that a preemptive operation against Iran, frankly, was not popular.
00:12:15.000The majority of Americans opposed such an operation.
00:12:18.000But we also saw the same thing before the operation to capture Maduro in Venezuela, where people were not supportive.
00:12:24.000But then they saw the results and the majority ended up supporting that mission.
00:12:28.000Do you think the same thing could happen here in Iran, given the overwhelming success of this move?
00:12:35.000I mean, first of all, you know, the sort of disclaimer is that war polling and polling around military action is kind of notoriously fickle.
00:12:41.000And it always sort of vacillates depending on the mood, right?
00:12:44.000I mean, there was a time when the Iraq war was polling, not super popularly, but right, I mean, kind of better than it eventually polled and these things go up and down.
00:12:54.000I think one thing that people are missing in this debate and one thing we're hearing a lot here in Washington from the president's supporters is that it's very easy to fall back into the rhetoric of he said no more forever wars.
00:13:05.160He promised no more, you know, regime change in the Middle East.
00:13:08.260And yes, while this sort of smacks of that, I think much like we saw with Maduro, the president and this administration are really hitting the message that their goal is not for it to be a forever war.
00:13:18.460Their goal is for it to be decisive, successful, and then to hand things over to the Iranian people.
00:13:24.320So I would expect to see a lot of vacillations in the coming days.
00:13:27.960I mean, the two big news stories out this morning, obviously the fatalities, that's going to make this a little bit less popular.
00:13:34.780But not an entirely equal counterbalance, but something else to throw into the mix, the reports that former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been killed.
00:13:43.000I mean, he was a big villain in the American political lexicon for a long time and in the formative years of a lot of people in our prime voting bloc.
00:13:51.340So, I mean, this is a man who, much like the Ayatollahs, in a lot of American minds is synonymous with terrorism and tyranny in the Middle East.
00:13:59.300So, again, I think we're going to see a lot of these one-two punches, something to boost the poll numbers, something to bring it down.
00:14:05.640It's also, I think, going to come down to when does Trump really start talking about this, right?
00:14:09.660We've seen a couple of statements, a couple of truth social posts, again, mostly geared at Iran and the Iranian people.
00:14:16.040But at some point, the president's going to come back to Washington.
00:14:18.680At some point, he's going to get in front of news cameras.
00:14:20.940And then that's a whole different ballgame.
00:14:22.280Let's talk about what that might look like then, Tim, because, as you mentioned, Americans are hesitant to get involved in the Middle East, even if it is a more touch-and-go operation like this one, in and out, not having boots on the ground.
00:14:36.180But the White House was saying off the record to reporters or on background that they had evidence of an imminent strike from Iran.
00:14:58.580I mean, one never really knows what the president's going to say.
00:15:01.020I think if I were the president's advisers, if I'm Caroline Levin or Marco Rubio or Susie Wiles, I would be telling the president to actually take a different tack.
00:15:09.800Because, again, that, as you mentioned at the top of the show, that does sort of, people are immediately going to start thinking about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
00:15:17.740The Bush administration, all of a sudden, this entanglement becomes 2003 and everyone's minds are made up.
00:15:24.120What I think the president could do instead, and what I do think he will likely do, is go back to the same posture that he usually takes after foreign entanglements, particularly successful ones, which is talking and describing himself as the president of peace.
00:15:36.040He's going to talk about all the wars that he's settled.
00:15:38.600It's going to be some big number that will probably leave some head scratching saying 15 wars, and you start counting on your fingers and trying to figure out what it is.
00:15:45.920But he's going to talk about Venezuela.
00:15:47.540He's going to talk about bringing on all the hostages from Israel.
00:15:50.380He's going to talk about how he's talking tough with Putin.
00:15:53.460He's going to talk about peace in Armenia and all these other places that he's sort of brokered talk.
00:15:58.760So I think that is ultimately what it's going to come back to, not switching the rhetoric away from we needed to neutralize this threat and more to look at all that I am doing to create peace and stability in the broader world and make America safe.
00:16:12.880Cassie, there have been reports from Israel that it was Israeli intelligence that was telling the U.S. that the Ayatollah would be having this secret meeting above ground.
00:16:23.440That was an important aspect there as well, that he would be above ground with his team.
00:16:27.280Just tell us about that intelligence operation, because even the fact that they were able to get footage of the Ayatollah's body confirmed out of the country, how are they doing things like that?
00:16:38.700And just how ingrained is Israeli intelligence within the regime?
00:16:44.500I mean, there was a story a few years ago about how the man in charge of finding Mossad spies in Iran was actually a Mossad spy himself.
00:16:52.180So Mossad is very ingrained in Israel, but they're not the ones taking credit for this.
00:16:56.720The CIA is taking credit for knowing where Khomeini was, and they say that they passed it along to the Israelis who carried out the strike.
00:17:21.840And I just want to flag one more thing, that we might be seeing the death toll of Americans go up, because there were nine Israelis who were just killed in Beit Shemesh, which is a highly American neighborhood in Israel.
00:17:32.220We don't know the identities of these people yet.
00:17:34.460And the death toll might be going up, because there are some severely injured.
00:17:38.040But I'm just flagging that, because that might be a situation as well.
00:17:41.060Yeah, I want to read this tweet again for people who are just now joining us, that we have information coming in of American casualties.
00:17:49.980I'm going to pull up that post right here from Central Command.
00:18:03.040That is about as cut and dry as it gets there.
00:18:06.220So a lot of Americans now waking up to not just a flurry of deaths among Iranian leadership, but also the first deaths among American service members.
00:18:15.520Tim, what does this do to change the political calculus?
00:18:32.080It immediately galvanizes the critics of the operation, of course.
00:18:38.280But I think one thing that it does especially is it really galvanizes that handful of, as I called them earlier, dissident Republicans.
00:18:45.440Those sort of isolationist war critics like Thomas Massey and Senator Rand Paul.
00:18:50.640She's not in Congress anymore, but former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia has also been a very prominent voice on this front.
00:18:56.880So you always see the line along, you know, they want to send your sons to die in the Middle East.
00:19:02.680If they care about this war so much, why don't they enlist?
00:19:05.140You hear that more from Republicans than from Democrats.
00:19:08.200Democrats tend to criticize these efforts, you know, more along the lines of checking executive power.
00:19:12.620That's what we hear from Tim Kaine and Ro Khanna, you know, not going into more debt, saving money, focusing on domestic problems, allowing autonomy in other countries.
00:19:21.400These are the this is the way the Democrats oppose wars, anti-war Republicans oppose wars by saying American men and women are going to die.
00:19:28.420And we do not want that to happen. Right.
00:19:30.380They are now they are going to remind people that this is supposed to be an America first intervention administration.
00:19:36.840They are going to say that this is not an America first policy if Americans are dying.
00:19:41.660So I think we are going to see the critics who have already brought themselves out from within the president's party, especially louder after this.
00:19:48.160I think we are going we can expect to see some more lawmakers.
00:19:51.740I would keep an eye on some folks like Anna Paulina Luna and and Lauren Boebert, some of these other kind of former allies of Marjorie Taylor Greene who are sort of stuck very close to that America first.
00:20:03.860No foreign wars. Yeah. Part of the party.
00:20:07.020Also, you know, the president's critics externally to conservative voices.
00:20:10.800We're going to start seeing a lot of that. Yeah. All right.
00:20:13.000Tim, Cassie, thank you guys so much for coming on a very fluid situation, but we appreciate both of your insights.
00:20:37.140Because of your work for years now, you have faced credible death threats from the Iranian regime.
00:20:43.480So this has to be a remarkable weekend for you.
00:20:46.980How does it feel seeing the death of the Ayatollah?
00:20:51.780Well, I think more about for American foreign policy than than any of my own sort of, you know, personal questions around these topics.
00:21:01.780And so, you know, the the Islamic Republic of Iran for 47 years has been engaged in really an endless war against the United States and Israel.
00:21:13.080And President Trump has had enormous success in the Middle East in this first term and now in the second term.
00:21:19.180I mean, you saw in the first term the defeat of ISIS and the Abraham Accords.
00:21:26.040And then here we are in the second term.
00:21:28.840We had another country join the Abraham Accords.
00:21:31.780And now you have Iran largely on its back and in a very bad place as a consequence of the 12-day war.
00:21:40.700And now this effort to really change the trajectory of the Middle East towards something more stable, something much more secular, something much more tolerant.
00:21:54.020And I think these are all I think I think the building blocks are in place for a much more stable and prosperous Middle East.
00:22:02.320What do you make of the men currently leading this interim council to replace the Ayatollah?
00:22:34.000And so here we are again, where the president is making very clear that there is an opportunity to have good diplomatic relations with the United States.
00:22:43.960But Iran has to end its enrichment so that we don't ever face the prospect of a nuclear armed Iran.
00:22:50.900We also need to end all of this proxy warfare, which has been such a danger to our troops in the Middle East.
00:22:58.080And they also need to end these long range ballistic missile productions, which could be aimed at the United States.
00:23:05.260And so regardless of who is in power, whether it's the Ayatollah or this triumvirate that's in place, any sort of government that follows the death of the Ayatollah, there is an opportunity to be at peace, not only with the United States, but also with Iran's Arab neighbors.
00:23:24.400And that would be a very good thing because the biggest driver of terrorism and instability in the Middle East has been the Iranian regime.
00:23:34.120It has not been the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
00:23:37.720It has been Iran's revolutionary expansionist regime that has fought proxy warfare for 47 years.
00:23:45.600And one thing I've noticed here is that while we're in the middle of this conflict, we haven't seen any of Iran's proxies attacking Israel.
00:23:56.600And that is a testament to, I think, the resolve that the United States and especially Israel has shown since October 7th to ensure that October 7th never happens again.
00:24:09.520What more does that tell you about the fact that we haven't seen huge operations from these proxies?
00:24:13.900The Houthis issued a statement saying that they were prepared, you know, to help the Iranians and to push back on the West.
00:24:19.920But we haven't seen, you know, this real flurry of activity from the Houthis.
00:24:23.340Do you expect there to be more activity from their terror proxies?
00:24:29.380They are so sufficiently degraded and their leadership has been so thoroughly eliminated that I think they have lost command and control of any operations.
00:24:40.580And so typically this was always the fear from Israel and the United States is that in a conflict like this, you would have Hamas attacking Israel from one side and you would have Hezbollah attacking from the north and you would have Shia proxies in Syria and Iraq.
00:24:56.440And then you would have the Houthis in Yemen and all of these proxies would be firing at the same time on American troops and on Israel.
00:26:28.120What do you expect to see from the Russians in the coming days?
00:26:31.360And what does the success of this operation to date mean for Moscow?
00:26:34.720These sorts of conflicts send a message around the world.
00:26:42.800When Obama did not enforce his red line in Syria, that sent exactly the wrong message.
00:26:48.440But I think President Trump's operations in Venezuela, now in Iran, certainly send a message to President Putin, President Xi, Kim Jong-un in North Korea, in Cuba.
00:27:00.180It doesn't matter anywhere along that axis of resistance, this is a teaching moment.
00:27:56.400So what are some things that you believe that the average American has wrong about Iran or maybe misunderstandings they have about the way that this regime operates?
00:28:05.940Well, ever since 1979, in that Iranian revolution, and they took hostage our entire diplomatic corps in Tehran.
00:28:21.040And then whether it's all, I mean, the Iranian regime is responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans.
00:28:29.300And even in Iraq alone, Qasem Soleimani was responsible for the deaths of over 600 Americans.
00:28:36.520And America has interests in every region of the world.
00:28:39.860We have troops in every region of the world.
00:28:41.860And it has been the consistent mission set of the Iranian regime to target American troops and American civilians in every part of the world, not just in the Middle East.
00:28:52.800And so I'm old enough to remember people tying ribbons around trees to remember the hostages back in 1979.
00:29:04.260And there has just been so much bloodshed.
00:29:08.520And President Trump uniquely understands that.
00:29:11.260He also understands the Iranian regime, you know, has never won a war and never lost a negotiation.
00:29:16.980They're very good at these talks that just go on and on and on.
00:29:20.280And I think Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff did their absolute best to try to help the Iranian regime come to the table and come to a deal, come to a deal that would be around any nuclear enrichment, the things I discussed earlier, and the regime miscalculated.
00:29:43.380The Iranian regime has never been weaker in its history.
00:29:47.140And I think its proxies have never been weaker.
00:29:50.300This will create greater peace and stability in the Middle East.
00:29:54.280We talked about Russia earlier and what this means for Putin.
00:29:56.920Let's get to China, the other big player, other adversary.
00:30:00.200We know they are heavily reliant on Iranian oil exports.
00:30:03.860What else does this mean for President Xi?
00:30:06.320The Chinese relationship with the Iranian regime has always been very transactional, which is kind of how China's relationship with every nation is.
00:30:16.660They engage in predatory economics under President Xi.
00:30:20.900And for a country like China, they very much want cheap Iranian oil.
00:30:27.540And because of President Trump's sanctions on Iranian oil, he was the first one to do that, by the way.
00:30:33.380President Obama, under the Iran nuclear deal, the United States was not allowed to sanction any Iranian oil.
00:30:40.740And all of the terror proxies that we've been discussing, they're all financed by Iranian oil.
00:30:46.760So if you can go after the oil, it changes everything, because Iran is the central banker for all of these terror groups around the Middle East.
00:30:57.180And so China was able to buy a lot of Iranian crude at a discount because it was illegal to ship the oil.
00:31:05.860And so China very much enjoys cheap Iranian oil.
00:31:08.980Under the first term, we were able to collapse Iran's exports and took it from something like 1.7 million barrels to functionally zero.
00:31:22.580And that had a crippling effect on the economy.
00:31:25.600I think it's going to be much harder now for China to continue buying the oil.
00:31:30.040They're going to have to get it from somewhere else.
00:31:31.700So they're going to have to get it through ship-to-ship transfers on these shadow tankers that are floating around the world.
00:31:42.780I don't think it's much of an alliance.
00:31:45.620The Chinese spread their risk around the Gulf.
00:31:49.440They don't want to go so deep with any one country that they alienate others.
00:31:53.560So they play a double game where they'll try to get what they can from Iran, but they'll try to get what they can from other nations in the Gulf or the Middle East.
00:32:03.300And so it'll continue being business as usual with the Chinese.
00:32:19.280And I just want to let all of you know, if you appreciate the live coverage that we're doing here, and if you appreciate the fact that this is commercial-free, you watch this on TV, you're getting three-minute commercial breaks every few minutes.
00:33:20.960So we now know that we have our first American service members killed as a result of this action to disarm Iran.
00:33:28.380And President Trump actually warned yesterday when he announced this operation that there was the potential for U.S. service members to be killed.
00:34:08.520We pray for every service member as they selflessly risk their lives to ensure that Americans and our children will never be threatened by a nuclear-armed Iran.
00:34:18.700We ask God to protect all of our heroes in harm's way.
00:34:23.520And we trust that, with his help, the men and women of the armed forces will prevail.
00:34:29.880So, again, President Trump last night warning when he announced this operation there was the potential for U.S. service members to be killed.
00:34:39.780We now know Central Command confirming three American service members have died to this point.
00:34:45.000At least five others seriously wounded, shrapnel, concussions, and other injuries.
00:34:49.420We're still waiting for the details on how those casualties occurred.
00:34:53.580But, again, this is going to change the calculus.
00:34:55.800President Trump warning of that last night.
00:34:57.720We're now joined in studio by Tennessee Senator Bill Haggerty.
00:35:00.980Senator, thank you so much for being here.
00:35:02.140It's great to be with you this morning.
00:35:02.880So let's get to the breaking news and then we'll get big picture.
00:35:05.660But Central Command confirming this morning three U.S. casualties.
00:35:09.160How does this change the calculus of this operation?
00:35:52.140Democrats largely furious over this operation despite its success to this point.
00:35:57.240A number of Democrat leaders are calling for a vote on a war powers resolution in an attempt to block the president from taking further action.
00:36:05.180How will you vote on that measure if it comes to the floor?
00:39:56.240Could you elaborate on the angle with regard to American interests?
00:40:00.220Polling shows that Americans are very hesitant to support wars in the Middle East.
00:40:04.860There's this hangover that's looming from Iraq and Afghanistan.
00:40:08.040And I think people hear war in Iran and they think, or military action in Iran, and they think, is this going to be another conflict like that?
00:40:16.400What is the case for why this is a beneficial thing for Americans?
00:40:20.580Why this is good for folks here in Tennessee, the state where we both live?
00:40:23.220Well, I can tell you why it's been bad.
00:40:25.300Since, what, 1979 when the regime took over, we have seen nothing but instability and terror throughout this region.
00:40:32.260Whether it's their being the number one state sponsor of terror, you think about what they've done through Hezbollah,
00:40:36.560what they've done through Hamas, the Houthis, they've continued to consistently create havoc in the region.
00:40:42.380We went in, what was it, eight, ten months ago, using bunker busters and took out their nuclear capability.
00:40:47.800Operation Midnight Hammer was a complete success.
00:40:50.200We told them that should be the end of their nuclear ambitions.
00:40:52.780The Iranians turned right around and started back on that program again.
00:40:55.540President Trump could not have been more clear.
00:51:35.000We're going to continue going with all the breaking news that we have coming in.
00:51:38.160Again, the United States launching day two of Operation Epic Fury with Israel.
00:51:43.840There are ongoing airstrikes across the region.
00:51:46.700The U.S. continues to hit missile sites,
00:51:48.240knocking out nuclear production facilities and knocking out missile stockpiles.
00:51:53.120We believe that the Iranians' latest intelligence says they had 2,500 missiles before this.
00:51:57.460They are burning through those stockpiles, launching them.
00:52:00.340As we said, for lack of a better word, use them before you lose them because the U.S. is targeting them.
00:52:04.300And they are hitting Middle Eastern countries throughout the region.
00:52:07.980We've had explosions reported in Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan, the UAE.
00:52:12.580There were explosions at high rises in Dubai.
00:52:14.940In Israel, there were reports of a bomb that made it through, a missile that made it through.
00:52:19.520And at this point, killed eight people in a residential neighborhood.
00:52:23.520And the big news this morning, three U.S. service members confirmed killed.
00:52:27.020We're going to read that update from CENTCOM.
00:52:30.360At 9.30 a.m. Eastern Time, we're confirming three U.S. service members have been killed in action
00:52:34.940and five are seriously wounded as part of Operation Epic Fury.
00:52:38.680Several others sustained minor shrapnel injuries and concussions
00:52:41.260and are in the process of being returned to duty.
00:52:44.000They go on to note that because of privacy for the families,
00:52:46.840they are going to withhold any further information.
00:52:49.860But once we get news on how this took place,
00:52:52.180we don't know if these were some of the missiles that got through to some of these bases.
00:52:58.240We do not know how these individuals were killed,
00:53:00.520but we will bring you the news as soon as we get it.
00:53:03.620President Trump has been relatively quiet about this matter.
00:53:07.680He posted a number of statements on Truth Social talking about all of this.
00:53:12.580He had one where he warned that, quote,
00:53:14.900Iran just stated they are going to hit very hard today,
00:53:17.660harder than they have ever hit before.
00:53:19.240However, they better not do that because if they do,
00:53:22.660we will hit them with a force that has never been seen before.
00:53:25.540Thank you for your attention to this matter.
00:53:27.620President Trump, again, going on later on to celebrate the death of Hamini,
00:53:31.740saying one of the most evil people in history is dead.
00:53:34.560This is not only justice for the people of Iran, but for all great Americans.
00:53:38.440He went on to say that this is the single greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their country.
00:53:43.800So President Trump, again, celebrating the death of the Ayatollah.
00:53:47.360We also now know that at least 40 senior members of the Ayatollah's team were also killed in that decapitation strike.
00:53:54.220There were three simultaneous strikes by the Israelis.
00:53:56.820The Ayatollah was meeting with his top advisors from the intelligence and military community in Iran.
00:54:03.000There were two other meetings going on above ground.
00:54:05.820Right now, reports from the White House are saying that the Ayatollah did not believe that he was going to be targeted in the morning.
00:54:11.080He was not in his bunker, and the U.S., we believe, preferred to launch this strike in the middle of the night as they have in the past.
00:54:18.020But when they saw that the Ayatollah was meeting above ground, they took the opportunity.
00:54:21.920They said this might be the best chance we get, and we now know that the U.S. and Israel were, again, successful in that operation.
00:54:28.660We're now going to get to one of our reporters, Breka Stoll, who has been on the ground in New York City.
00:54:33.860She has been gathering some footage from protests, so let's play some of that footage that we have from her protest that she attended in New York City yesterday, and then we'll bring Breka on.
00:55:12.280First, I'll say I can smell that protest from here based on some of the individuals I'm seeing, but what were some of the chants that you heard?
00:55:19.440What was the main message from those protesters?
00:55:23.460Well, the most concerning chant that I heard was when they were chanting, you know, Donald Trump and the U.S.A. are the biggest threat in the world today, and these protesters were very angry with the president, and as you saw, that clip was in the middle of the street in New York.
00:55:38.000And so right behind me, we walked all the way up 8th Avenue from Times Square to Columbus Circle, where I am now, and they overtook, you know, one of the biggest cities in the country.
00:55:49.860And how on earth are you able to take over a street like that?
00:55:53.300Well, we found out it's actually through the mayor's office.
00:55:56.180They obtained a permit in seven hours, Cabot, and were able to put on that production.
00:56:01.660What do we know about who was organizing this protest?
00:56:04.480Yes, so as, you know, we talked about yesterday, we saw it was the Answer Coalition was part of it, but then I'm also seeing reports of the People's Forum, and apparently people are saying that that program has ties to the CCP.
00:56:19.300And, you know, I talked to one of the protesters out here yesterday, and I asked, how did you find out about this?
00:56:24.520And then she tells me about the group chats that they have, and the different roles that every protester can play in the group chats.
00:56:31.800So they have sign makers, they have chanters, they have organizers, and they have outreachers, flyer printers.
00:56:38.580And we saw, you know, before the protest started, people bringing in these large signs, these large wagons carrying supplies.
00:56:46.380And you'll notice in that video, several of the signs are the same.
00:56:49.800And it just shows that this is ready to go.
00:56:53.180And it's very difficult to get kind of something of that scale, a thousand people, on the same page so quickly, so you just know that there is some level of organization behind it.
00:57:02.720People can see in the video you captured, this protest, it's a very dour mood.
00:57:22.900We're going to play some of that footage from Iran of people being excited.
00:57:25.940Were there any Iranians there that were trying to talk to protesters, telling them, hey, we're actually pretty happy that this evil tyrant was killed?
00:57:32.720Oh, we saw one protester, you know, yell at the group saying, you guys don't know what you're doing.
00:57:39.800You, you know, you shouldn't be doing this right now.
00:57:42.100But we didn't see that same level of enthusiasm or praise for the president.
00:57:46.300And I think we just have to think about, you know, where we are.
00:57:48.980We are in, New York is one of the most liberal cities in the country.
00:57:52.200You know, the state hasn't voted for a Republican president since Ronald Reagan in 1984.
00:57:57.300And so I think we're just seeing that, you know, that group just may not be here.
00:58:01.640And, you know, we weren't in any other areas, mainly just following that group of protesters.
00:58:06.480And so that's what we were following yesterday.
00:58:08.580All right, Brecca, we will leave it there.
00:58:10.060Thank you so much for your reporting on the ground.
00:59:00.420Just walk us through the mood that you are experiencing right now in Israel.
00:59:06.240Well, you know, it's an interesting question.
00:59:09.140The mood, I would say, is overwhelmingly optimistic, grateful to President Trump, proud, incredibly proud of the working together,
00:59:24.940the collaboration between the U.S. military and the IDF, which I think together has put together probably the greatest military operation in the history of the world.
00:59:33.760So there's optimism that this enemy may finally be tamed, that there's pride.
00:59:41.100But then, of course, there's concern because every few minutes there's a siren going off.
00:59:56.260And, of course, just, you know, a couple of hours ago, there was a, you know, not to make light of it, there was a serious tragedy, a direct hit by a missile on a public shelter in a town called Beit Shemesh,
01:00:10.300where at least as of this moment, at least nine people were killed, including children.
01:02:10.780The big question now is how this interim council is going to respond.
01:02:14.900Will they dig their boots in the ground further and, you know, launch even more strikes as a result of the Ayatollah killed?
01:02:21.740What do you think we should expect to see from Tehran in the coming days?
01:02:27.480Well, the first thing is to understand, is there really anybody there minding this story?
01:02:34.600There's been such a decapitation of leadership.
01:02:37.400It's not clear to me that there is anybody really fully in charge.
01:02:41.140But beyond that, look, I think the first day or two of responses has been fully baked into the military, you know, for six months.
01:02:53.100As long as these discussions have been going on, they've had a plan for what to do on the first couple of days.
01:02:59.720We're quickly coming to the end of that period.
01:03:01.880And now the question is, what do they got left?
01:03:04.380You know, between the Americans and the Israelis, they're targeting the launchers.
01:03:09.120They're targeting the ballistic missiles.
01:03:11.140They're doing everything they can with, by the way, you know, exquisite intelligence that, you know, no one else in the world has as to where the targets ought to be.
01:03:21.080So America's continuing to pursue these targets.
01:03:26.320As you just announced, there were three unfortunate deaths and some additional casualties.
01:03:31.980Heartbreaking that American soldiers, you know, would lose their lives here.
01:03:35.420But they are, they're still, they've still got a lot of offense left.
01:03:39.720And I think, you know, the Iranians are going to run out of gas.
01:03:43.460I mean, it's, I don't know whether it's three days, four days, five days, but, you know, the American goal is to, is to get Iran as quickly as possible to a place where they're, they're harmless.
01:03:56.760They're harmless to Israel, to, to the Gulf countries.
01:04:00.040And I think that's a time that's quickly approaching.
01:04:04.520We've seen a number of instances in the last few decades in the Middle East, in particular in Africa, where tyrannical leaders were taken out, either deposed internally or killed by foreign militaries.
01:04:15.920And there was this period of, you know, cloudiness.
01:04:19.360We weren't sure what was going to happen.
01:04:20.340And then there ended up being more instability as a result.
01:04:22.640And there was more of a need for the U.S. to remain involved.
01:04:25.540How do we avoid that happening this time around?
01:04:31.460I think Iran is different than, let's, let's say, for example, than Iraq, right?
01:04:38.340Iraq is a, was a, was a place where there were, it was, it was, it wasn't, it was never really a nation with a kind of a cohesive culture and an identity.
01:04:48.460It was very tribal, very different groups that combined, you know, to kind of be kept under control.
01:04:56.880They're, they're Persians, you know, whatever that means.
01:04:59.280I mean, they are culturally different.
01:05:01.460They are, they're, many of them are very well educated.
01:05:05.760There is a, you know, an advanced movement already there, you know, for freedom and for, and for democracy.
01:05:13.240They've been held back only by the regime.
01:05:15.380That's been their, that's been their, you know, their block, their blockage.
01:05:18.600Now, you know, will a complete annihilation of the Iranian military result in any loss of the regime?
01:05:27.720It's unclear, but this will be the best opportunity, you know, in the history of the, since the beginning of the Islamic Revolution in Iran in the 1970s, this will be the best opportunity for the Iranian people to rise up, take back their country and reform their government and become allies of the West.
01:05:47.420I don't know if it's going to happen, but the upside of that happening, if that does happen, even if there's, you know, some turbulence along the way, which I would expect, that opportunity for the future of that region in the world itself is so great, it really is worth taking the chance.
01:06:03.940I mean, the consequence of not doing this, of doing nothing, is a brutal, theocratic, dangerous Iranian regime that will threaten our children and our grandchildren.
01:06:14.820Do you believe that the Ayatollah would still be alive today if October 7th had not taken place?
01:06:22.080Well, this is, you know, these are great, you know, philosophical questions that we can sit around and debate.
01:06:28.880The answer was, of course, I don't know, but I think October 7th changed everything.
01:06:35.100I mean, we're too close to October 7th to really understand its role in history because, you know, from a historical perspective, it just happened yesterday.
01:06:44.920But what it means, I think, is going to prove to be just as important, I think, as the Holocaust.
01:06:51.840There'll be museums that will be dedicated to October 7th in the same way that we have Holocaust museums, at least in Israel.
01:07:00.580October 7th, I think, was the time that, you know, Israel realized and America realized that there were just certain, you know, certain governments, certain regimes,
01:07:14.160unfortunately, certain people with whom there would be no reconciliation, there would be no peaceful coexistence.
01:07:25.780Israel learned the hard way, you know, by seeing, you know, how Hamas had elected, Hamas was elected by the people of Gaza.
01:07:33.600It wasn't a single Jew living in Gaza, not a single Israeli IDF soldier on the ground in Gaza.
01:07:39.480And yet, you know, with all the money they got, all the aid they got, all the support they got from around the world,
01:07:45.140they took their money and used it to build terror tunnels and weapons that they could shoot into civilian populations in Israel.
01:07:51.220So that was a harsh realization, especially since the people that were most affected by October 7th were people on the South, you know,
01:07:58.580who had a very left-leaning, you know, perspective on life.
01:08:01.260They really wanted to live with the Palestinians.
01:08:31.320I think it caused, you know, those of us who are clear-headed to realize that, you know, you can only negotiate to a point with radical Islamic terror.
01:08:41.840And at some point, you either succumb to it or you destroy it.
01:08:45.860And I think the president has come to that view.
01:08:48.680And he gave every opportunity for the Iranians to, you know, to avoid this.
01:08:55.280I mean, you know, just give up nuclear, you know, just give up, you know, nuclear enrichment, uranium enrichment.
01:09:02.040The only purpose of that was for a nuclear weapon.
01:09:03.960So just give that up and reduce or eliminate your ballistic missile stockpile.
01:09:12.060They could have joined, you know, the community of nations.
01:09:16.120Their economy could have been brought back.
01:09:17.600I mean, they had enormous opportunities, and the people of Iran saw that, and it must have been heartbreaking for them to see, you know, how this played out.
01:09:46.880There's been a very vocal faction of folks on the right, podcasters, former TV hosts, some Republican elected officials who have urged President Trump to sort of abandon Israel and stay out of the Middle East entirely.
01:10:02.760And certainly they've been pushing the president to not get involved in this military conflict in Iran.
01:10:07.300What does it say about that faction's standing within the White House that President Trump, you know, for the most part ignored them and still move forward with this operation?
01:10:16.080I think President Trump has seen for months what they're made of, you know, the ugliness, the lying, the, you know, the willingness to adopt a position contrary to their prior positions just for clicks or to appeal to the lowest, you know, the lowest form of human life.
01:11:28.040We're going to keep going with the breaking news again.
01:11:30.260The big story for those just now joining us.
01:11:33.280Operation Epic Fury continues in the last few hours.
01:11:37.740Strikes moving forward from the U.S. and Israel on Tehran and other sites across Iran.
01:11:42.960Iran continuing to launch a barrage of missiles at a number of Middle Eastern countries targeting U.S. bases and also civilian populations in Israel.
01:11:50.320At least one missile has made it through the Iron Dome defense system and has killed, right now, latest reports saying nine civilians in a heavily populated residential area of Israel.
01:12:01.760And the big news, Central Command confirming this hour that three U.S. service members have been killed in action.
01:12:09.160Five more have been seriously wounded as part of Operation Epic Fury.
01:12:12.160They say the situation is fluid, out of respect for the families, will withhold additional information, including the identities of our fallen warriors, until 24 hours after next of kin have been notified.
01:12:22.700That will be dominating the headlines today.
01:12:25.700Understandably, three U.S. service members killed President Trump, warning that could happen, and we now know that it has indeed happened.
01:12:32.560So our thoughts and prayers with the families of those service members, our brave heroes who are engaging in this operation.
01:12:38.840We're going to turn now to Brent Sadler, former senior Pentagon official and Heritage Foundation senior fellow.
01:12:44.640Brent, the last few hours this operation has continued.
01:12:49.220What has surprised you most in the first 36 hours, though, of this Operation Epic Fury?
01:12:55.840Perhaps the timing in early morning or daylight hours.
01:13:00.380As the Mullah and his 40 or so of his closest and most senior leaders were gathering, that's the most surprising.
01:13:07.720We'll see how much of a strategic impact it is making.
01:13:11.740But that one then followed closely by the just completely misguided or, I guess, confused, lashing out by the regime and its missile launches at all of its neighbors.
01:13:22.780Many of them going after civilian apartment buildings and others.
01:13:26.760Just a poor lack of discipline is surprising to me with their missile forces.
01:13:30.940Do you believe that some of the attacks that the Iranians have launched, we saw in Dubai, for example, a number of high-rise apartments and other buildings that were struck that had seemingly nothing to do with the military.
01:13:42.320Do you believe that they're trying to put pressure on those countries by saying, hey, if you're going to ally yourselves with the U.S., we're going to just strike indiscriminately and try and pressure you into telling the U.S., hey, wrap this thing up?
01:13:55.860Yeah, that's one way of reading it, but I think it's more chaotic and more of a fear of like use it or lose it kind of syndrome because as these attacks were coming in and surprising the IRGC, which was pretty much had the finger on the trigger, I think they thought we're next, so let's shoot it before we lose it.
01:14:16.600Because, again, hitting these civilian targets is just going to galvanize, and it already is, the countries in the Gulf to ally with the United States and Israel and enter into combat, which appears that we're on the track, too, because of this very misguided approach by the Iranians.
01:14:34.140But not as surprising when you start to realize how fractured their leadership's become.
01:14:39.180To this point, we have seen, again, three U.S. service members killed.
01:14:43.000We've seen a number of civilians in Israel also confirmed dead.
01:14:47.240But from a relative standpoint, when you take into account what we believe to be the thousands of missiles the Iranians have fired off so far, have you been surprised by the relative lack of success that Iran has been able to have and the relative lack of damage that they've been able to inflict as a result?
01:15:04.380Again, I kind of go back to the lack of targeting discipline is really what's equating to this very ineffectual missile barrages.
01:15:11.320They're not launching the large massed attacks that they did last summer because their command and control has been decapitated.
01:15:18.680And in that confusion, they're making attacks as they see an opportunity rather than coordinating with drones and large mass missile strikes against, say, Israel or one target, but it's scattered across.
01:15:30.480So I think this is the real reason behind the ineffectiveness that could change.
01:15:37.620But this is going to last with this level of intensity, at least for the next few days as the targets and the threats are actually taken out.
01:15:46.120And hopefully in the interim, the Iranian people stand up.
01:15:49.140So you spent years working within the Pentagon.
01:15:52.560Walk us through what the options you believe are that are being presented to President Trump now from his military advisors.
01:15:59.960Yeah, most of my time was operational in the Pacific, but dealing with providing the president many options, military options, is the key goal of the Pentagon and the military.
01:16:10.880It's not to dictate or make the recommendation which to take, but to maximize the options.
01:16:16.640And so by having two aircraft carrier strike groups, one in the eastern Mediterranean, the other one in the Arabian Sea, both within striking distance and very likely conducting very intensive operations, gives the president a real stat that he can adjust and maneuver his forces to send a signal,
01:16:34.140but also to affect certain military operational impacts like we're seeing right now in the pictures.
01:16:40.740I asked this question to Ambassador Friedman just a moment ago, and I want to repeat it because I think it's on the mind of a lot of Americans right now.
01:16:47.260We've seen so many times throughout history, even in the past few decades, where tyrannical strongmen were taken out and there was this celebratory period.
01:16:55.940But then years later, there was even more instability as a result, and it ended up maybe making the region worse.
01:17:01.940How do we avoid that happening again in this scenario?
01:17:05.920Well, it appears that the folks in leadership in this administration are taking two recent historical events to mind.
01:17:16.640You're talking about the statues of bringing down Saddam Hussein, his eventual hanging as a war criminal.
01:17:22.920But that was overshadowed by too rapidly vilifying and purging all of the Ba'athists.
01:17:28.540Very similar type of circumstances in post-war Germany in the end of World War II.
01:17:34.160Rather than just remove all the Nazis, we kept those that were needed at a lower level to keep the lights on and policing the streets until they could be transitioned out and fully vetted.
01:17:43.780What we ended up doing by the de-pathification in Iraq in 2003 and 2004 is we turned all of them into enemies and into insurgents.
01:17:52.120And that's what bought us a very long war.
01:17:55.600Afghanistan is another lesson that I think is being heeded.
01:18:00.020Afghanistan is never going to be a replica of American democracy.
01:18:04.660But we thought, along with many Western European countries, that we could.
01:18:08.700So you have to take the country for what it is and what its people, their aspirations and desires and culture, and apply your interest to that.
01:18:16.220Making sure that Americans and American interests are being safely pursued.
01:18:20.020I think in both cases, when I say both, I'm talking Venezuela and what could unfold in Iran is give the space for the people to decide a government that is one that's responsive to their wishes, but also one that's not going to be a threat to Americans and American interest.
01:18:36.000And it does take a degree of patience and a highly well-informed insight to the local politics and the local groups.
01:19:06.440They were in the process of rebuilding.
01:19:08.720Some of their shipments from China were intercepted.
01:19:11.540But we have to assume that they had recovered all that they had lost and spent in the last summer during Operation Midnight Hammer.
01:19:20.020That's probably going to continue for the next few days.
01:19:22.160The Iranians are going to name new leadership.
01:19:24.720It'll probably be a new target set unless they change dramatically the nature of the regime and go from one of hostility and violence and terrorism to one of peace and prosperity for their people and their neighbors.
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01:20:57.900The big question now, how will Iran move forward?
01:21:01.460Is this the beginning of the end for the regime?
01:21:04.420That is what we are waiting to find out.
01:21:06.940Now, the regime currently has a succession plan in place that they have implemented.
01:21:11.260There are three men who have survived these strikes who are now on the interim leadership team, sort of a triumvirate leadership team right now.
01:21:19.600So the United States is trying to ascertain how they are going to react.
01:21:26.840They vowed that if the Ayatollah was targeted, it would be an existential threat on the livelihood of their regime and that they would launch war like they've never launched before.
01:21:36.460Will they do that or will this regime take the similar approach to what we saw in Venezuela with Dilsey Rodriguez saying,
01:21:42.980I don't want the same fate that I saw Nicolas Maduro have.
01:22:13.760Please, once we learn more details on those casualties and if there are any more developments of that nature, that will be up on the live blog.
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