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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Trump Wants no more Energy Strikes, but Supported Attack on Iranian Gas Field; Israel Says it Eliminated a Third Top Iranian Official, Interview with Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA). Israel Says It Killed Iran's Intelligence Minister; Explosion in Saudi Arabia's Capital After Iranian Missile Attack; Trump Attends Dignified Transfer of Six Service Members Killed in Plane Crash; Mullin Faces Accusations of Anger Issues and Stolen Valor; GOP. Sen. Paul Clashes With DHS Nominee, Mullin; Senate Committee Set to Vote on Mullin Nomination Tomorrow. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired March 18, 2026 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LT. GOV. JULIANA STRATTON, (D) ILLINOIS NOMINEE FOR U.S. SENATE: ... supplemental funding for this war. We need to make sure that there are proper checks and accountability with this President and that's exactly the kind of leadership I will bring.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Lieutenant Governor Stratton, we appreciate your time and thank you so much.
STRATTON: Thank you for having me.
BURNETT: And thanks so much to all of you for joining us as well. AC 360 starts now.
[20:00:30]
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER: 360": And good evening. Topping tonight's Global War coverage from the newsroom, new and rare Iranian strikes targeting Saudi Arabia. There was also a strike at a Qatari facility. Take a look at this video from Riyadh.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(VIDEO OF SAUDI CAPITAL UNDER BALLISTIC MISSILE FIRE.)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: That is the Saudi capital under ballistic missile fire for the first time in more than two weeks.
Now, according to CNN's Nic Robertson, who is there, some of the explosions occurred not far from where a high-level meeting of Arab and Islamic foreign ministers was taking place. Saudi defense officials say they also intercepted two drones; one was headed for a gas facility in the Kingdom's Eastern Province.
Now, it was not Iran only attempt today on oil and gas targets. We don't have video of what Qatari officials say was a missile strike at one of their energy crown jewels, the world's largest facility for exporting liquefied natural gas, according to the Foreign Ministry there, a strike started fires causing what they said was a significant damage to the facility.
Israel today struck oil and gas facilities on Iran's South-Central Coast. The country's semiofficial, "Fars News Agency" reported that powerful explosions had been heard at several refineries in the area.
Now, Iranian State Media also accused the U.S. and Israel of hitting the South Pars Natural Gas Field. And we'll talk about that more coming up which is the largest in the world. There's also new reporting tonight in "The Wall Street Journal" that you should know about. The President wants Israel to pause strikes against Iranian energy infrastructure for now, but approved of the one today according to "The Journal" to send a message to Tehran.
The price of oil has now hit a 52-week high crude settled today at $107.00 a barrel, then climbed further after hours, touching $110.00 mark in the futures trading. Not a hopeful sign for gasoline prices. Obviously, a gallon is now averaging $3.84, according to AAA. That's up from $2.98 when the war first started. Vice-President Vance weighed in on that today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
J.D. VANCE (R), VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: The President said this, and I certainly agree with it. This is a temporary blip. Okay what happened under the Biden administration is that gas prices were high for four years. Gas prices are higher right now. And frankly, they're not even as high as they were during certain parts of the Biden administration because of what's going on in the Middle East. It's not going to last forever. We've got a rough road ahead of us for the next few weeks, but its temporary.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: While acknowledging a rough road ahead, as he did. That's a change in tone somewhat from just a day ago when the President's top economic advisor called consumer pain from the war, "the last of our concerns".
Here's that quote from Kevin Hassett.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KEVIN HASSETT: DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL: It would hurt consumers and we'd have to think about, you know, if that continued what we would have to do about that. But that's like really the last of our concerns right now, because we're very confident that this thing is going ahead of schedule.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, ahead of schedule or not, there's late word tonight on what the war could cost American taxpayers. This comes from "The Washington Post" citing a senior administration official. They are reporting that the Pentagon is seeking more than $200 billion to pay for it all. However, some white house officials are telling "The Post" that they do not think the request has a realistic chance of getting through Congress.
Israel's campaign against top Iranian officials continued as well. Today, they killed Iran's intelligence minister, Esmail Khatib. Iran's President called it a, "cowardly assassination". Also today, the Senate Intelligence Committee heard from the administration's top intelligence officials, including from the Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who had this to say about the President's claim that the wars outset and ever since that Iran was an imminent threat.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JON OSSOFF (D-GA): Was it the assessment of the intelligence community that there was a, "imminent nuclear threat" posed by the Iranian regime, yes or no?
TULSI GABBARD, NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE DIRECTOR: Senator, the only person who can determine what is and is not an imminent threat is the President.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, we'll be joined shortly by the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee. Also, weighing in on that threat or non-threat, as the case may be, is the director Gabbard's former counterterrorism chief who resigned yesterday and spoke to Tucker Carlson today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TUCKER CARLSON, "THE TUCKER CARLSON SHOW" PODCAST HOST: Was Iran on the verge of getting a nuclear weapon?
JOE KENT, FORMER DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL COUNTERTERRORISM CENTER (NCTC): No, they weren't. You know, three weeks ago when this this started and they weren't in June either. I mean the Iranians have had a religious ruling, a Fatwa against actually developing a nuclear weapon since 2004, that's been in place since 2004. That's available in the public sphere. But then also we had no intelligence to indicate that that Fatwa was being disobeyed, or it was on the cusp of being lifted.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[20:05:10]
COOPER: Well, Jeremy Diamond begins our global coverage tonight from Tel Aviv. So, Jeremy, talk more about Israel's move to strike oil and gas infrastructure in Iran.
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well Anderson, these strikes carried out by Israel today appear to be the most significant strikes that we've seen on energy infrastructure in Iran since the beginning of the war consider alone the fact that one of the offshore gas fields that was struck known as the South Pars Facility, accounts for as much as 70 percent of Iran's natural gas production, something that is going to affect Iranians across that country.
It also, of course affected oil prices as we saw the price of oil surge by as much as five percent at one point today. But it also set about a dangerous chain reaction that we saw in the region that Qatar now says is pushing the region to the brink of war. And that's because following those Israeli strikes, which I'm told the United States was aware of, the Iranians then fired back not just at Israel, but also at Qatar's energy infrastructure, the Ras Laffan Energy Hub was struck by Iranian missiles.
There were also ballistic missiles flying over the Saudi Capital of Riyadh, but those appear to have been intercepted. Qatar, in reaction, said that it has declared Iran's military and security attaches persona non grata within 24 hours. And they are the ones who are warning that this is all now a very dangerous escalation on Iran's part.
And so, there are major implications here, not only for the price of oil around the world but also for the prospects of this conflict continuing to widen.
COOPER: I want to ask you about Israel killing another top Iranian official today. Yesterday, an IDF spokesman said that Israel is going to continue to try to neutralize was the word they used the Supreme Leader. Can you just remind people about the strength of Israeli intelligence inside Iran, their ability to find these people has been extraordinary.
DIAMOND: Yes, I mean Israel has really been on what can only be described as an assassination spree inside of Iran, of Iran's top leadership. It began, of course, the first day of the war with those opening strikes that killed the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. And then, of course, dozens of other Iranian officials in that same strike. And then today as Iranian leaders were burying Ali Larijani, the security chief in Iran, news broke that another top security official, this time Iran's intelligence minister, had been killed in Israeli strikes.
And as you said, Israeli military and political officials have vowed to continue carrying out these types of strikes, including killing the current Supreme Leader the late Supreme Leader's Son, Mojtaba Khamenei.
And today we also heard from Israel's defense minister, who said on the one hand, that more surprises are planned. That's the term that the Israeli defense minister used. But he also made this interesting remark saying that the prime minister has authorized the military to take out strikes, to carry out strikes against senior Iranian officials, basically with fewer authorizations, as soon as the operational and intelligence opportunity arises, is the term that they are using, the Israeli military can basically act on that and take out more senior Iranian officials.
COOPER: That's interesting. Jeremy Diamond, I appreciate it, thanks.
Joining me here at the table CNN military analyst and retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton, also CNN National Security analyst, Alex Plitsas who is director of the counterterrorism program at the Atlantic Council.
Alex, let me start with you. What do you think today is the most important development that you've been watching?
ALEX PLITSAS, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: You know, we were talking about it earlier and speaking to U.S. and Israeli officials. It was clearly the strike on the on the gas field, on the Iranian side, just given the impact, because, as Jeremy noted.
COOPER: This is the Pars?
PLITSAS: Yes, correct exactly, the one Jeremy was just talking about and he was right in terms of the impact because Cedric reminded me a large majority of that is actually for domestic consumption, so that's going to hurt the Iranians at home, the people who are there. And it was very clearly a message. So, when speaking to Israeli officials earlier today, they said, yes this was coordinated and this was a very clear message to the Iranians, who still don't seem to get it, that we are going to take things away from them if they don't come to the table and make this stop.
COOPER: Colonel Leighton, do you think that's also the biggest development?
CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: I do actually, Anderson.
COOPER: Where, I mean, where on the map is -- we can't even really see it on this map.
LEIGHTON: Yes, so it's tiny, right here, just, you know where my hand is. This is the Pars field right here. And then the Qataris have a field that is actually geologically part of the same field. And they share that the majority, as Alex was mentioning, the majority of the area is actually controlled by Qatar but the Iranians get a large percentage, you know 70 or 80 percent of their domestic gas actually comes from this field right here, even though they have gas deposits throughout the country. But this is the one that they can exploit. They have a lot of problems exploiting their natural resources because of the sanctions. And that's why they're concentrating on that area, because it's the most workable for them but with this attack that calls all of that into question.
[20:10:08]
COOPER: Why do you think President Trump would say to, according to the reporting, to say to the Israelis to stop going after these kinds of facilities?
PLITSAS: So, I think, you know at the end of the day, they want to free up the Straits of Hormuz for navigation and traffic just to get the oil and gas back out. And if the infrastructure is destroyed on the back end, then there is no oil and gas to export, even if the straits are opened up. So, I think the President was comfortable sending a very clear message today to the Iranians in terms of the strike was mentioning, right. But we'll see if they heed the warnings. He's going to give them a little space now, I think, and wants to prevent further counterattacks at the moment. And well. see what the Iranians respond with.
LEIGHTON: Plus, the other aspect of this is if you destroy a lot of the infrastructure and destroy the gas supply mechanism, you know, to get stuff to people, then that's going to turn the population again even further against anything that --
COOPER: The Iranian population.
LEIGHTON: -- Iranian population or anything that they you know, have to deal with that will turn them against even further against the U.S. and Israel. You have to remember that the Iranians use gas for cooking, for heating, and, you know it's extremely, it's basically also used for power generation. So, this is a critical piece right here. So, if that were cut off, that would really increase the suffering of the Iranian people.
COOPER: Alex, the assassination by Israel of yet another high-level government official. I mean the tally is quite high of people that they have been able to, in their words neutralize, to kill. What kind of an impact do you think that has on the people who come in to replace them on the tone the tenor coming from the Iranian regime.
PLITSAS: So, there were very few officials left at the senior level after the opening strikes, the first couple of days, who were seen as being able to bridge the divide not only between the civilian government but the security apparatus. Larijani was one of the last ones on the way out the door. And now the intelligence minister.
And so, the Israelis, the way they've looked at this, the way they tried to talk to the U.S. about it was, we've been at this for nearly 50 years at the same game. And if you can't change the game, change the players.
The U.S. intelligence assessment on the back end was that what might come afterwards could be more dangerous in the form of the IRGC. The Israelis said, look, whatever comes afterwards can't be any worse than what we have now. And so, there was a disagreement on the intelligence level.
What we're seeing now is a younger generation of hardcore IRGC members who are stepping in to fill the void, and the Supreme Leader, the new one has yet to be seen. You know Khamenei's son has taken over and so, there's a thought that the IRGC pushed him as the candidate because they could sort of manipulate or take control of the country.
LEIGHTON: Yes, absolutely.
COOPER: The CENTCOM has repeatedly talked about targeting the Iranian Naval Navy. Even if they are able to, maybe they have decimated the larger ships. The problem with the Strait is we're still seeing I mean, there's a lot of very small vessels, which can cause a whole lot of damage to tankers.
LEIGHTON: Yes, that's exactly right, Anderson, and you know, when you look at, you know, the geography of, of the Gulf, you see a lot of small islands and those small islands historically have been places where people have gone fishing, they've done all of those kinds of things. And of course, that kind of an industry even, you know pearl diving is also a thing in the Persian Gulf. That kind of an industry, you know, engenders a small boat culture, and that has continued. And the Iranians have adapted that to their combat process.
And what they end up doing is, yes, they have the bigger ships, frigates and things like that, but they're not as, they're there for show to some extent. And the fact that we took them out makes them, of course, useless for this conflict. But the other part of it is that they really very quickly switched to speedboats to dhows, to other things that they have in this area where they can lay mines because of the narrow strait, you know only 21 miles across with a two-mile-wide shipping lane. That makes it really easy for small boats to get in and out, while bigger ships have a much, much harder time.
COOPER: It does seem Alex, that increasingly Iran is fighting an insurgency or sort of with insurgent like tactics.
PLITSAS: Yes, I mean, they've certainly adopted an asymmetric, well call it coming in. And the way that they're employing their power structure because they're running out of options at this point, their missile launchers are severely reduced at this point from the opening of the war.
They have a fairly significant drone stock as they were a net exporter of drones before the war started. But as Cedric mentioned, they've used small boats with explosives. And just earlier, just before we got on air, I was talking on point. We were, there was an attack right off the UAE coast right there where another ship was struck by a projectile that's now on fire. And they're continuing to use whether it be drones or small boats, not, you know, significant conventional attack capabilities, because they don't need to. They just need to use a little bit of pinprick strikes here or there to create the risk and the fear that's preventing the ships from trafficking right now.
LEIGHTON: And that's precisely what's going on here, because they really haven't laid mines in this part of, of the Strait of Hormuz. But what they have done is they've basically said, we can do this and we're willing to do this. Therefore, all the tankers, you know they're boxed in here and they're boxed in here, but they're not being used in, you know to do what their job is to provide commerce the facilities for commerce throughout the region, especially for oil and gas.
[20:15:01]
COOPER: Cedric, thanks so much, appreciate it, Alex, as well.
LEIGHTON: Thanks, Anderson.
COOPER: Coming up, we'll have more on the assassination campaign that we've been talking about, including the killing of the Iranian Intelligence Minister, Esmail Khatib overnight. We'll be joined by Karim Sadjadpour for his take on what kind of impact that changing the players, as Alex Plitsas just called it, might have on what happens next inside Iran.
Also coming up, we're going to talk with the ranking Democrat on the senate intelligence committee. He questioned DNI Tulsi Gabbard about why she failed to read the part of her opening statement that cast doubt on the President's justification for going to war take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GABBARD: I recognize that the time was running long, and I skipped through some of the portions --
SEN. MARK WARNER (D-VA): You chose to take --
GABBARD: --my oral delivered remarks, sir.
WARNER: You chose to omit the parts that contradict the President.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:20:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A short time ago, the United States Military began major combat operations in Iran. Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: So that was the President stating the case for striking Iran.
Today, almost three weeks later, the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard went before the Senate Intelligence Committee with those claimed threats, still an open question. In a moment, the Committee's ranking Democrat, Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, joins me.
But first, the question he asked her about the administrations basis for going to war and why she left an assessment of Iran's nuclear threat, her agency's own assessment of that threat unsaid.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WARNER: I guess, what I'm concerned about one thing is even in your printed testimony today on page six and your last paragraph on page six, as a result of Operation Midnight Hammer, Iran's nuclear enrichment program was obliterated, there's been no efforts to try to rebuild their enrichment capability.
You omitted that paragraph from your oral opening was that because the President had said there was an imminent threat two weeks ago?
GABBARD: Sir, I recognize that the time was running long, and I skipped through some of the portions of my oral delivered remarks, sir.
WARNER: You chose -- you chose to omit the parts that contradict the President.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Just a coincidence. For the record, this is the paragraph the Senator was referring to verbatim from the opening statement the committee received, which she didn't read.
As a result of Operation Midnight Hammer, Iran's nuclear enrichment program was obliterated. There's been no effort since then to try to rebuild their enrichment capability.
Senator Mark Warner joins us now. So, what does it say about how and why this war is being waged that the Director of National Intelligence had, in writing in front of her. A statement that seemed to contradict the administrations central justification and then decided to skip over it, she says, for time.
WARNER: We'll, Anderson, her answer is not credible. Remember six months ago, the President said, when we bombed Iran in June of last year, we obliterated their nuclear capabilities. Obviously, not true. Why, we're back in a war right now.
This is a war of choice and again, don't take my word for it. Tulsi Gabbard's, most senior advisor, Joe Kent, who is the counterterrorism official, literally quit yesterday because he couldn't abide this hypocrisy, and Miss Gabbard, who's been consistently frankly, in all of her prior roles have been against these kinds of wars of choice is now a stuck up there trying to defend it.
Remember, the President has given multiple reasons for this war, regime changed, obviously, not going to happen since we now have a Supreme Leader that's worse. Getting rid of the Iranian nuclear threat, enriched uranium, obviously not possible unless we put boots on the ground. I don't know anybody who wants boots on the ground. Their missile capacity, we have degraded some of their ballistic missiles, but they still have many thousands Iranian drones.
And again, one of the things that's remarkable is if you're going to do a war of choice, why not bring in which the Ukrainians, the Ukrainians, are the only country in the world that's figured out how to do cheap drones, to shoot down the bad guys. They offered that technology to America in December and this White House refused it.
And then finally, the navy, we have sunk a lot of the Iranian naval vessels, but they still have literally hundreds of these small speedboats which can mine the Strait of Hormuz and the Strait is now closed.
COOPER: Yes, and we were just talking about that with our team here. Director Gabbard told your colleague, Senator Jon Ossoff that it's not the intelligence community's job to determine whether a country poses an imminent threat to the United States. She only said the President can do that. Does that come as news to analysts at the 18 agencies under her control, including the CIA?
WARNER: Well, that comes to news to all of us who thought we still had a constitution, and the requirement that a President, if he going into a war of choice, you have to react quite quickly. We give the President the deference. But this was a war of choice and the idea that he alone gets to determine what is imminent. I always thought imminent was actually a factual determination. Many times, the intelligence community says, you know, there's an imminent threat here or there. There was never that indication from all the reports that I saw and read and I'm a little bit flabbergasted by Director Gabbard but I guess not surprised.
COOPER: Well, you also asked her about the President saying that he was surprised Iran attacked neighboring Gulf countries and has essentially closed the Strait of Hormuz. She responded by saying she was unaware of his remarks which is surprising. She also wouldn't tell you whether she was briefed or whether she briefed the President on those likelihoods and I want to play something that the President said to Fox News when he was asked by a Fox reporter about was briefed, on just this. I want to play that exchange.
[20:25:26]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETER DOOCY, FOX NEWS CHANNEL SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Are you surprised that nobody briefed you ahead of time that that might be their retaliation?
TRUMP: Nobody, nobody, no, no, no, no. The greatest experts, nobody thought they were going to hit. They were I wouldn't say friendly countries they were like neutral. They were they lived with them for years. Peter, they were going to take over the Middle East.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Do you buy that? I mean, former National Security advisor John Bolton told me last night on this program that he briefed the President about those scenarios back in his first term. The idea that Gabbard and others would not have briefed the President about the very obvious possibility they were going to strike out at neighbors, not to mention, you know, target the Strait of Hormuz. Do you buy that?
WARNER: Well, these nations are all quite adjacent. The intelligence community for years has been definitive that if we strike Iran, they will strike our bases in the adjacent countries, which are in all these Gulf states. And the ability to close down the Strait of Hormuz has been common knowledge.
So, either the intelligence community leadership is incompetent in not telling something that is an obvious truth, or the President is conveniently not remembering what he was briefed on. Either way, we got to recognize where we are right now. We're three and a half weeks into a war on Iran with none of the President's goals met. And even if he determines tomorrow because he's just said, I think about my sailors who were on the Ford, the aircraft carrier in the region, all deployed from Norfolk, Virginia. They've been on the longest deployment in modern American history there are about more than nine months now.
The toilets don't work. They had a major fire on the aircraft carrier not that long. They will do their duty. But the President was asked last week, you know, when is he going to end the war? And he says, when I feel it in my bones.
So, these sailors were defending our country and doing what they said they got to wait on the President to feel in his bones. And he's not willing to acknowledge that all of this was obvious. If you take on this kind of war of choice, there are wars of choice, but you're then obligated to make the case to the American people in the Congress, neither of which --
COOPER: Some of the military objectives have been met, though, no?
WARNER: Well, they have met -- we have treated a lot of their ballistic missiles. A number of them are still in caves they can still respond. We have done a good job there. But the drones this is the part that's amazing to me. You know the Iranian drones cost $50,000.00 apiece. We are using missiles that cost $2.4 million apiece to knock them down. They literally have still thousands of them.
The Ukrainians who have learned through necessity about how to shoot those Iranian drones down, the Iranian drones go to Russia, our adversary who's helping Iran, they have figured out a way to shoot them down at less than $5,000.00 a pop.
The Ukrainians offered that to this Trump White House and the Trump White House said, no way.
So, if you're going to go to a war of choice, why not use the best technology around, which is the Ukrainians, to at least take down those drones? And we still have that threat and we also, as is obvious, the Strait of Hormuz is closed, not because the Iranians have got this big fleet of battleships, because they have lots of these small speedboats that can drop mines or attach mines to our ships.
COOPER: Yes, Senator Warner, I appreciate your time tonight. Thanks very much.
Also, ahead tonight the President picking up to run the Department of Homeland Security. The President's pick, Senator Markwayne Mullin handled his confirmation hearing today which included a clash with a fellow Republican, Senator Rand Paul.
Also, next more on Israel's assassination campaign and the potential effect it could be having both positive and negative in the conflict ahead.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:33:13]
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST OF "ANDERSON COOPER 360": Israel's killing of Iran's intelligence minister overnight is the third high-profile assassination of top Iranian officials in just the last two days. I want to talk about the impact of that, or potential impact.
We're joined by CNN Global Affairs Analyst, Karim Sadjadpour. What is the impact of this? I mean, I've said this before, but the ability by Israel to reach down and kill these people is extraordinary.
KARIM SADJADPOUR, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: It really is, and Israel is killing the pillars of repression of the Iranian regime, and the question is whether these are foundational pillars, kind of like a game of Jenga, which ultimately will collapse the system, or are they men who are easily replaceable? Up until now, we haven't seen signs that this is a regime that is cracking.
COOPER: Easily replaceable because the institutions of repression remain, and there's plenty of other sort of henchmen to fill it?
SADJADPOUR: Indeed, Anderson. This is a regime really fighting for its life, and when you look at the collapse of other authoritarian regimes, one of the key things which is difficult to measure from afar is resolve. You know, how much does this regime want to stay in power.
And in the case of the Islamic Republic of Iran, if they lose power, they lose their lives, and so that's why you see they've been demoralized, but there's no signs yet that this is a regime which is ready to relinquish power.
COOPER: There's nowhere for them, I mean, what would that even mean, them relinquishing power? It would not end up well for them.
SADJADPOUR: This is one of the loneliest regimes in the world, if you compare it to the --
COOPER: The loneliest.
SADJADPOUR: Lonely, yes, strategically lonely. No real allies in the world. These men oftentimes come from provincial backgrounds, a lot of them are on international sanctions lists, so there's no great plan B for them.
COOPER: And of course, it is all men.
SADJADPOUR: It's all men at the top of the power pyramid.
[20:35:00]
COOPER: So, is it clear to you what the removal of -- I mean, whoever fills the spot of the guy who was just assassinated, what the impact of that is? SADJADPOUR: They're not even publicly announcing who the replacements are, because they know if they announce those individuals, they put a bull's-eye on their back. But we know that this is a regime with, I would say, limited capacity at the top levels, limited human capital.
COOPER: We've also seen Israel target checkpoints of besieged militia, which are levers of repression. Does that have an impact?
SADJADPOUR: It could. We don't know yet because, as of now, the people of Iran are really observers here. They're not yet participants. You know, they're under bombardment. Question is, when that bombing stops, are people going to see an opportunity to mobilize, or is the regime going to continue to have its fingers on the trigger and be willing to kill tens of thousands potentially?
COOPER: Because there are still hundreds of thousands of armed militia members and Revolutionary Guard members. So even if their buildings are gone, I mean, they can still kill plenty of people who try to rise up.
SADJADPOUR: Indeed. On paper, those men exist. And you know, it's a country of 90 million people. So even if you only have, let's say, 15 percent of that population -- of the adult population, that's still in the low millions of people. But the question is, at some point, do these folks say, you know what, we've reached a dead end and we don't want to put our lives on the line. But as I said, they don't have anywhere else to go. And their mentality right now is kill or be killed.
COOPER: Karim Sadjadpour, thanks so much. Appreciate it.
SADJADPOUR: Thank you.
COOPER: Up next, we're going to take a look at -- we're going to talk to a retired Army Chopper Pilot wounded in the Iraq war, Senator Tammy Duckworth, and get her take on whether this war is justified, in her opinion. Later, the grilling of DHS Secretary nominee, Markwayne Mullin from a fellow Republican Senator, Rand Paul.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. RAND PAUL, (R-KY) HOMELAND SECURITY COMMITTEE CHAIR: Explain to the American public why they should trust a man with anger issues to set the proper example for ICE and Border Patrol agents.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:41:24]
COOPER: And welcome back to our Global Report. With Iranian missiles now targeting Saudi Arabia and more oil and gas-related targets around the region, six more fallen troops came home today, killed in the crash of an aerial tanker. The president attended their dignified transfer today. Just before airtime, I spoke with Democratic Senator, Tammy Duckworth of Illinois. She serves on the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees. She's also a combat veteran who was wounded in the Iraq War.
Senator Duckworth, you're obviously more qualified to talk about the cost of war than most in Washington. For anyone who doesn't know, you were a Black Hawk helicopter pilot in Iraq. You lost both your legs when an RPG hit your aircraft. You got a Purple Heart for your sacrifice.
Do you think this war is justified and, therefore, worth the risk to U.S. military personnel?
SEN. TAMMY DUCKWORTH, (D-IL) SENATE ARMED SERVICES AND FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEES: Not at all. And in fact, President Trump has a constitutional responsibility to come before Congress and tell us why this war is justified. And then it is upon Congress, you know, us people in the Senate, to vote on whether or not we should be at war.
And frankly, he was elected to office on the promise to lower prices for Americans and get us out of forever wars. And instead, he's raised prices and launched attacks after attack on foreign nations. This is not what is making America safer or lives of Americans better.
COOPER: What do you say to those who say that, you know, Iran has killed Americans over the years. It's a sworn enemy of the United States. What do you say to those who say this is valid?
DUCKWORTH: Well, I agree that Iran has killed Americans and that they're a sworn enemy of the United States. But the Constitution is clear. You know, the president cannot launch a war unless we were under imminent attack. And he has not come to Congress and shown us evidence of that. And in fact, if you listen to him from morning to evening, his reasons for why he launched this war changes.
On the one hand, he said that it was because they were developing ballistic missiles. And then he says, no, it was to support the democracy protesters. And then he'll say it was for regime change. Sometimes he changes his position in a single sentence. And frankly, our American men and women in uniform deserve better than that.
If we're going to go to war and use up our nation's treasures and put the men and women who wear America's colors in harm's way and ask them to do their jobs, they're going to do their jobs. But it's -- we're beholden to make sure that any war we send them into is one that is just and one that will keep America safe.
And in fact, Donald Trump has made America less safe.
COOPER: The president seemed to claim the other day, when asked by Fox News, he seemed to claim that he had not been briefed on the possibility that Iran would strike out at its neighbors. Do you find that credible at all, that he would not have been briefed? I talked to Ambassador John Bolton last night about this, and he said he briefed the president about that scenario during his first term in office. DUCKWORTH: Yeah. Well, that is ludicrous. And in fact, even if he hadn't been briefed, this is -- you're talking about the commander-in- chief of the greatest military on the face of the Earth. You would think that he could have figured it out, the consequences of his actions. And so, for him to say that he didn't know, he tries to shift the blame all the time. And in fact, a counterterrorism intelligence officer, a MAGA supporter of Donald Trump, is quitting because he has said that there's no justification for this war.
Donald Trump cannot hide behind the fact that the responsibility rests with him. He is the commander-in-chief of the United States military. He made this call, and he knew exactly what was going to happen. And if he didn't, then it's malpractice on the greatest scope.
COOPER: Is it realistic, you think, that the Trump administration has the objective, to the extent that they're clear, that they believe can be accomplished by the air?
[20:45:00]
The president has not ruled out sending in ground troops. But do you think whatever it is that the administration wants to accomplish can be achieved through air power alone?
DUCKWORTH: Well, Anderson, you're seeing that that's already not the case, right? You've got Iran mining the Straits of Hormuz. They're actually putting mines on ships and blowing ships up in the Strait of Hormuz. So obviously, an air campaign alone is not working. It's already not working.
And frankly, the president does not know what's going to happen next. He doesn't have a plan for what's next. And he needs to come to Congress. What is the next plan? And frankly, I don't think they have one.
COOPER: Senator Duckworth, thanks for your time. Appreciate it.
DUCKWORTH: Thank you.
COOPER: Well, Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin, President Trump's pick to replace Kristi Noem as Homeland Security Secretary, was grilled in his confirmation hearing today by an unlikely source, the Chairman of the Committee in his own party.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL: You told the media that I was a freaking snake and that you completely understood why I had been assaulted. I was shocked that you would justify and celebrate this violent assault that caused me so much pain. Tell me to my face why you think I deserved it. And while you're at it, explain to the American public why they should trust a man with anger issues to set the proper example for ICE and Border Patrol agents.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: The accusations by Senator Paul continued, and this time he put together a montage to try to prove his point.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL: If you just disliked me so much that you approved of violence against me, people can just write it off, oh maybe they hate each other. But really, there's a pattern of this. Let's go ahead and roll the tape.
MULLIN: You know where to find me. Any place, any time, cowboy. Sir, this is a time, this is a place. If you want to run your mouth, we can be two consenting adults, we can finish it here.
SEAN O'BRIEN, GENERAL PRESIDENT, INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS: OK, that's fine. Perfect.
MULLIN: You want to do it now?
O'BRIEN: I'd love to do it right now.
MULLIN: Well, stand your butt up then.
O'BRIEN: You stand your butt up.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, (I-VT): Oh, hold on. Stop it. Is that your solution? No, no. Sit down.
Calm down. Look at you. You're a United States Senator. Sit down.
O'BRIEN: Act it.
MULLIN: OK.
SANDERS: Sit down, please.
MULLIN: All right.
O'BRIEN: Can I respond?
SANDERS: Hold it. Hold it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If he got up too, would you have gone at it right there in the area?
MULLIN: I would have probably jumped over the dais at that point.
You have to be called out on it. If not, this guy continues to get away with this stuff. And it's just, you know, it's silly, it's stupid.
But every now and then, he needs to get punched in the face.
I will bite.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Biting?
MULLIN: Yeah. I'll bite, honey. Yeah. If I'm in a fight, I'm going to bite. I'll do anything. I mean, I'm not above it. And I don't care where I bite, by the way. It just is going to be a bite.
PAUL: In the days after the fight, you said, and I quote, "Sometimes people just need to be punched in their face." Is that still your opinion that political disputes can sometimes and often only be resolved by violence?
MULLIN: No, I don't -- I don't always agree with that. I don't believe in political violence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Paul's Democratic counterpart, Ranking Member, Senator Gary Peters, who is a Navy veteran, questioned the nominee about comments he's made in the past that have prompted accusations of stolen valor. Senator Mullin has never served in the Armed Forces.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. GARY PETERS, (R-MI) RANKING MEMBER, HOMELAND SECURITY COMMITTEE: On March 2nd of this year, you told Fox News Interview, quote, "War is ugly. It smells bad. If anybody has ever been there and been able to smell the war that's happening around you and taste it and feel it in your nostrils and hear it, it's something you will never forget."
On March 3rd, in a podcast interview, you stated, quote, "I did special assignments outside of DOD, now DOW. I never wore the uniform or the flag on my shoulder, but I might have been in the same area." So where did you smell war?
MULLIN: Sir, I just said that this was classified. And the dates, locations, and admission, I've never spoke specifically details about.
PETERS: But we can get that information from you, Mr. Chairman.
MULLIN: That's fine. You're welcome to get it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Mullin eventually agreed to a request that he go to a secure facility to brief committee members about this alleged classified trip. Joining me now is former Republican Congressman, Adam Kinzinger. He's an Air Force veteran who served in both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
So Congressman, you served with Senator Mullin when you were both in the House. Do his comments about the smell and taste of war, how do you feel about that? Is it clear to you what special assignments he might be talking about?
ADAM KINZINGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No, it's really goofy. I'm not going to say that he was never over there, because I don't know. You know, I mean, he lives a whole life, obviously, and I'm not aware of every aspect of it. But it's a really strange thing to say.
And especially implying that he was over there on a classified mission that he said was official business, which implies he went as a U.S. Congressman.
[20:50:00]
I've got to tell you, Anderson, I have never heard of any member of Congress ever going on a classified mission on behalf of Congress. And beyond that, it's like he's not even on the committee that would, if there ever was anything like that, that would happen.
He was on Energy and Commerce. I was on Energy and Commerce. We didn't go, you know, overseas and blow stuff up. So I'm not saying that he was never over there or -- I don't know. But it was really a goofy thing. And I think he needs to just make it very clear what he did or maybe he embellished. You know, people have embellished before.
COOPER: How extraordinary is the bad blood between Senator Mullin and Senator Paul? I mean, it's kind of extraordinary to see it play out. You know, I don't know how common this is among, you know, sitting members of Senators and Congress people.
But do you think the questions about Mullin's temperament are valid?
KINZINGER: Yeah, they're clearly valid because he's talking about leading an organization that does violence as part of its job, like it can escalate to violence. It's not the Department of Housing and Urban Development where, you know, it's about building housing. This is a department that carries guns, right, that does through the Coast Guard, like offensive and defensive actions.
So temperament matters. And we're just coming off of a DHS secretary that basically cosplayed, you know, this war and came out and would always, you know, immediately say that whoever was shot, they just -- it was justified or they deserved it. So temperament matters a lot.
I think the American people, and I would actually hope the Trump administration is actually desperate for a little somebody to come along and cool the temperatures. And so, it's going to be very interesting where this goes. Clearly, Rand Paul is not going to support him.
Look, I would get into it a lot with Rand Paul over foreign policy issues, but I always respected that he really believed what he was saying to me. That's the barrier to entry. If you really believe what you're saying, I can deal with it.
He's not always the most likable guy, but nobody deserves what happened to him. And certainly nobody deserves their colleague to say that that was justified or they agree with it.
COOPER: I mean, Mullin compared to Krisiti Noem certainly seems like a more three-dimensional person. He certainly seemed more receptive to concerns that have been raised about how she had run DHS, particularly immigration enforcement. KINZINGER: Yeah. I mean, look, if you're giving me Markwayne Mullin or Kristi Noem, and that was the only two options, I'd take Markwayne. I actually know Markwayne personally. We get along well personally. But I think the questions about temperament are very important.
And I think if I'm going to give him compliments on anything, it is that he at least said, look, I'm willing to accept when I'm wrong, even though I think he needs to clarify some of these things. And he seemed to have recognized that the mission of the department has gotten out of control of the Trump administration.
COOPER: Yeah.
KINZINGER: So if he does get the job, I hope he takes that to heart.
COOPER: Congressman Kinzinger, thank you. Appreciate it. Coming up, a live report from Riyadh, which was targeted by Iran today.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:57:29]
COOPER: It's been a day of Iranian strikes at some of the usual oil and gas targets around the Gulf, but also this one, a rare missile attack on Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. As we reported at the top of the program, it happened during a high-level meeting of foreign ministers and senior officials from across the region. CNN's Nic Robertson is reporting from the scene and heard the explosions as air defenses tried to cope with the incoming strike.
Nic, so what did you hear? What did you see?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yeah, it's been an evening of firsts. The first time I've had so many ballistic missiles focus on the capital, Riyadh. The first time we've seen intercepts. The first time alarms of -- warning alarms have gone off in the capital, Riyadh. We saw the intercepts gunning up, flying up into the air, heard the explosions, fragments of missiles coming down.
The first as well, because it's the first time that the foreign ministers in this region have actually gotten together face-to-face. And another first, the first time a foreign minister, the Saudi foreign minister in this case, has actually held a press conference to answer reporters' questions.
So I asked him, does this attack -- ballistic missiles on Riyadh tonight, does that indicate that the Iranians are ratcheting up pressure? And when are you, if you are, going to join the war right now?
And he said, look, it's not lost on me the timing of this ballistic missile salvo. He said he thought it was intentional that Iran was doing this, to try to blackmail these diplomats, put pressure on them. He said that wasn't going to happen, that Iran should cease and desist and stop its attacks, that carrying on like this, Iran, it was just going to backfire on them. He said that, if they do carry on like this, there will be consequences. Escalation, he said, will be met with escalation.
However, as for a red line and a timeline, if they would join the war, he didn't give that. He was projecting a picture of unity here. But he also made it clear that he and the others in the room, the foreign ministers from the region, don't believe that Iran is about to step away from this war.
He thinks that Iran won't listen to them because they are, in essence, using military against a diplomatic meeting. He said Iran was lying about its targets in the region, saying that it was targeting American-related facilities in the region. He said it was absolutely clear --
COOPER: Yeah.
ROBERTSON: -- to everyone that wasn't the case. He said, in fact, Iran had been planning and plotting these attacks on its Gulf neighbors, he said, for a decade-and-a-half, preplanned. It was -- all the coordinates were there. They knew what they were hitting from day two, all intentional.
It creates the impression here of a robust diplomatic message, no military teeth yet coming in behind it.
COOPER: Yeah.
ROBERTSON: But you get that sense that this is still escalating, Anderson.
COOPER: Nic Robertson, appreciate --
