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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees

Iran Targets Israeli Oil Refinery; Hegseth Demands Thanks from Allies and World; Drones Seen Near Army Base Where Hegseth and Rubio Live; Trump On Pentagon's $200 Billion Request A "Small Price To Pay"; Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu Says It's Unclear Who Is Running Iran Right Now; Trump Says He Thought Gas Prices "Would Go Up More"; DNI Gabbard: Israel And Trump Have Different Objectives; Sara Bareilles On Love, Loss & Music. Aired 8-9p ET

Aired March 19, 2026 - 20:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Thank you for joining us, AC360 starts now.

[20:00:42]

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER: 360": Good evening, topping tonight's CNN Global War coverage from our Newsroom, the President downplays American's growing pain at the pumps as another $200 billion to fund the operation is, in his words, a small price to pay and says the war will be over pretty soon. But as we saw today, it is not over yet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE SWEENEY, BRITISH WAR CORRESPONDENT, RT: Further rocket attacks were reported against Nahariya and a minute --

(STRONG BLAST)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: That's RT, "Russia Today" reporter Steve Sweeney. He and his cameraman, Ali Rita, came just a few feet away from being hit by incoming fire today in South Lebanon. It happened where Israeli forces are operating.

RT says both men were wounded. Rita says they were targeted. The IDF says it's investigating the incident.

Iran continues to attack energy infrastructure in the region this Israeli oil refinery was hit in the port city of Haifa. No injuries were reported there. The facility is run by one of Israel's largest energy companies, and we've been reporting on Israeli strikes on Iran's oil and gas industry, including this one yesterday on the South Pars gas field, the largest in the world. President trump denied any U.S. involvement in that strike in a late-night social media post, and he was asked about it today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Have you talked to Prime Minister Netanyahu about attacking the oil and gas fields?

DONALD TRUMP (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Yes, I did, I did, I told him, don't do that and said he won't do that. We didn't discuss you know, we do -- we're independent, but get along great. It's coordinated but on occasion he'll do something. And if I don't like it, and so, we're not doing that anymore.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Well, he was also asked about the soaring price of oil, which hit $108.00 a barrel today, and gasoline is now $3.88 a gallon. That's up $0.90 since the war began.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I actually thought the numbers would be worse. I thought that it would go up more than it did, but we are doing this excursion, and when it's completed were going to have a much safer world.

I wanted to put out that fire and I said, you know, if I do that, oil prices will go up, the economy will go down a little bit. I thought it would be worse, much worse. Actually, I thought there was a chance it could be much worse. It's not bad and it's going to be over with pretty soon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Well, pretty soon or not the President today also acknowledged that the Pentagon would be asking for an additional $200 billion to fight the war. He called it, "a small price to pay to make sure that we stay tippy top." And yes, tippy top are his words, not mine. He also said this about Iran's capabilities.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Their Navy's gone, their Air Force is gone. Their anti-aircraft equipment is gone. We're flying wherever we want. We have no -- nobody even shooting at us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Well, unfortunately, that does not seem to be the case. An Air Force F-35 stealth fighter today was hit. Two sources tell us by what's believed to be Iranian fire. The plane landed safely at an American base in the region. The pilot, according to central command, is in stable condition.

Now, this morning, the Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, said Iran's air defense had been flattened. He also had this message to the rest of the world.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE HEGSETH, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: The world, the Middle East, our ungrateful allies in Europe, even segments of our own press should be saying one thing to President Trump. Thank you. Thank you for the courage to stop this terror state from holding the world hostage with missiles while building or attempting to build a nuclear bomb. Thank you for doing the work of the free world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: He also declined when asked to set a time frame for the end of the war. And if his words there sounded less than diplomatic. Listen to what the President said a short time later, with Japan's Prime Minister sitting right next to him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Why didn't you tell U.S. allies in Europe and Asia, like Japan, about the war before attacking Iran? So, we are very confused about the Japanese --

TRUMP: Well, one thing, you don't want to signal too much. You know, when we go in, we went in very hard and we didn't tell anybody about it because we wanted surprise.

Who knows better about surprise than Japan? Okay, why didn't you tell me about Pearl Harbor? Okay, right.

You know, he's asking me do you believe in surprise? I think much more so than us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Starting off tonight with Jeremy Diamond in Tel Aviv. So, just last night, Jeremy, we were talking about what you called Israel's assassination spree in Iran. Today you were asked you were able to ask Prime Minister Netanyahu about it. What did he say?

[20:05:19]

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, Anderson, the Israeli Prime Minister holding the first ever in-person news conference during the course of the war. And he began it by touting the successes that Israel and the United States, he says have had in Iran including those targeted assassinations that we have seen Israel carry out. And I asked him that very question about whether or not this may be counterproductive, as some experts have suggested.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DIAMOND: What do you say to those who say that killing those individuals is in fact, empowering the hardliners in Iran? And are you confident that your strategy will still lead to regime change?

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, PRIME MINISTER OF ISRAEL: I think the authority and the hold that Khamenei has had is not going to be translated to anyone, not to Mojtaba if he's there and not to anyone else. But I think this is part of the effort to crack the regime. It's not going to happen one day. We're 20 days into this war.

DIAMOND: Are you seeing cracks? NETANYAHU: Yes, yes, we're seeing cracks. We're seeing cracks and we're trying to propagate them as fast as we can, not only in the top command. We're seeing cracks in the field.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Jeremy Diamond in Israel for us, Jeremy.

DIAMOND: And among these cracks the Israeli --

COOPER: Go ahead.

DIAMOND: Sorry, I was going to say amid the, among those cracks, the Israeli Prime Minister also said that there were fear and trepidation in Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, who are in charge of firing those ballistic missiles. But important to note that those missiles are still being fired.

The Israeli Prime Minister also said that he had committed to President Trump, not to continue targeting those oil and natural gas facilities after the escalation that we saw over the course of the last 24 hours. That also led me to ask him whether or not he would end this war should President Trump wake up one day, see oil prices are too high and decide it's time to end this campaign.

On that point, the Prime Minister said that the United States is the leader. He described himself as the ally, but he would not say whether Israel would go it alone in the event the U.S. decided to end its military campaign in Iran -- Anderson.

COOPER: Interesting, Jeremy, thanks very much in Israel for us tonight.

Joining us now, is CNN National Security analyst and former deputy director of National Intelligence, Beth Sanner and CNN National Security analyst and director of the counterterrorism program at the Atlantic Council, Alex Plitsas.

Beth, do you think Israel would go it alone if President Trump woke up tomorrow and said, you know what, victory, we're done?

BETH SANNER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: They would want -- they would want to continue. I mean, I think that that's clear, whether we would put the screws on Israel to make them stop is a question mark in my mind. I mean, we might just let them go but, you know look what Israel wants is absolutely regime change or regime collapse.

They prefer chaos to having someone in charge and that's why they're taking out every leader they can find, which makes it kind of hard to negotiate back to Jeremy's question.

So, if you want to negotiate at some point, you really can't, not that I'm suggesting we should.

COOPER: Alex, we saw Israel, I don't know if they're still doing it, going after militia checkpoints, trying to kind of the levers hit as many levers of control over the civilian population as possible. I'm not sure if they are still targeting that. They're obviously still targeting leadership whenever they can find them.

ALEX PLITSAS, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes, I mean they came out two days ago and said that there was a targeted operation to go after the Basij, the localized security forces, specifically for the reasons you mentioned, because as Beth was saying she's hundred percent correct surprised, by the way, as usual. The forces on the ground are the only ones with the guns. And if they're really pushing for regime change, they have to take out the folks with the guns to enable the civilians to take over, which is a tall order to best point.

And so, I think, you know, to the point you guys are both making there in order for this to end with a negotiated settlement, the President has to want to do that. Now, the last time this ended, the Israelis were sending another wave of fighter jets over. He got angry. He tweeted said send them back. They did turn around mid-air and come back.

So, I think if he's in a position where he feels he wants a deal, he could probably restrain the Israelis. But it's a question of whether or not he actually wants one at this point.

COOPER: What do you think is important for viewers to know -- just in the last 24 hours or so what's going on?

SANNER: I think what's important for me is that this idea that we can somehow bomb these Iranians into a negotiation or into capitulation is not understanding the Iranians at all. And I think that after we hit Kharg Island, we saw them step up in terms of escalation. They hit UAE's Fujairah Port, right here outside the strait. They hit, you know, refineries.

And so then, just, you know, a day-and-a-half ago, whenever it was and we hit -- the Israelis hit the South Pars, right, the largest natural gas field in the world that's shared with Qatar. But we hit -- the Israelis hit that.

The escalation has been way another notch up, right. And they're hitting all the upstream things. This LNG plant that they hit in Qatar, it might take three to five years to fix it. This could be a huge, huge problem for us, for the world.

And so, I just don't understand it's like, you know, what's the saying? You know, where the definition of insanity is when you do the same thing and you expect a different outcome. We did Kharg. They escalated, Israeli's did South Pars, they escalated.

This is where we're at and I just think that we are failing to see the enemy here.

COOPER: Alex, how about for you?

[20:10:50]

PLITSAS: I think she's, you know, 100 percent correct. We haven't had diplomatic relations since 1979. Theres a lot of misreading going on both sides. But I mean what this is telling me, at least from a military perspective is I think we had four very achievable goals that the military laid out in inside of Iran to do away with the ballistic missiles, the drones, the nuclear program potentially, which really hasn't been struck yet, The industrial base behind it and the Navy.

But now this is mission creep. That's where we are at this point, I think.

COOPER: Do you think, you see that?

PLITSAS: I mean, I don't see how we don't at this point because you have to free up navigation in the Strait and to the best point everything that we have done to date to send a message to get them to do it, it's not working.

So, unless they're going to give this up and free up navigation, the only way you're going to do that is through the military, if this doesn't end in some sort of settlement and they're trying to run out the clock with economic pressure against the President because speaking to folks in Iran and the region, there seems to be this perception, the President is really worried about the midterm elections, and they're trying to pressure him through these different means, through the attacks we just talked about et cetera, raising oil prices to get them to stop.

COOPER: If I mean, if it's true that organizing a coalition or organizing safe passage in the Strait of Hormuz, I mean that could take weeks, no?

SANNER: It will take weeks and then, you know, the allies who have given, you know, a kind of vague statement about we'll prepare and we will do appropriate action that is going to be really hard to do unless there is more of a cessation of firing.

Nobody is going to put their assets and their personnel at risk, because our ability to fend them off and prevent our ships, their ships and tankers from being hit is right now really bad.

And even if we increase, you know, even if we take out more, they still have the capacity to put drones and mines in our way so that will take a long time and it will be kind of ugly.

COOPER: Netanyahu today was talking about seeing -- they've seen cracks in the regime, obviously, again they're trying to go after as many regime targets, actual individuals as possible. What kind of an impact do you think it has had the people that they have killed, the vacuum its created, the people who have replaced them?

PLITSAS: Sure, I mean, this is, I consider this as your, definitely, your area of expertise. But I mean, for what I've seen Larijani in the last couple of targets, those are the ones the old school pragmatists saw, they're called. And again, I made a joke the other night. Calling him a pragmatist is like saving up to be poor, you know? But he could at least bridge the security side and the civilian government together. Now you've got this younger generation of IRGC guys coming up who are hardcore, and it's kind of difficult to figure out who's in charge of negotiating with I don't know, are you seeing it differently?

COOPER: You think it's true that they're more extreme.

SANNER: They're definitely more extreme and Tulsi Gabbard said today that the ICE assessment is that Mojtaba is more extreme, which of course, all of us that is something that we all believe, people who watch Iran.

So, you know, people don't understand that actually, the Supreme Leader was putting a brake not that he didn't want nuclear weapons. Of course he did, but he was putting a brake on it because he was worried that exactly what is happening today would happen if they got caught.

Mojtaba and everyone in Iran right now, if this is over and they are still in place, of course, they are going to go for a bomb. They don't have much to lose.

COOPER: Interesting, Beth Sanner, appreciate it, Alex Plitsas as well, appreciate it.

Coming up next, more on the President today calling the rise in gas and oil prices, "not bad" and how concerned the people around him may be about the political repercussions. We'll talk to "New York Times" White House correspondent Maggie Haberman.

Also, what we're learning about the drones that were spotted recently near the Washington Army base, where Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, live.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:18:32]

COOPER: As we've been reporting, Iran's campaign against regional oil and gas targets, including this refinery in Haifa in Israel, has not let up. And though the president today said that he told Israel's Prime Minister to stop hitting similar Iranian targets, enough damage has already been done across the board to send prices soaring.

Gasoline, as we said, is fast approaching $4.00 a gallon, up $0.90 since the start of the war, something the President is appears to be downplaying.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I saw what was happening in Iran, and I said, I hate to make this excursion, but we're going to have to do it. And I actually thought the numbers would be worse. I thought that it would go up more than it did.

And I said, you know, if I do that oil prices will go up, the economy will go down a little bit. I thought it would be worse much worse actually. I thought there was a chance it could be much worse it's not bad and it's going to be over with pretty soon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Joining us now is CNN political analyst, Maggie Haberman. She's a White House correspondent for "The New York Times".

So, Maggie you hear the President talking about the economic impacts of the war does it track with what you're hearing about how the White House privately sees all this? Because publicly he's obviously downplaying it?

MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Look, there's a difference between how President Trump looks at these things sometimes and how his advisors or some of his advisors do.

A number of his advisors are concerned about the midterms, and they're concerned about the impact that high gas prices could have on how voters are feeling. And there's obviously been a number of other factors economically recently about, you know, economic stagnation and where things are headed in the next quarter.

If as he says this is going to be this is going to be over, this meaning what's happening in Iran and the U.S. involvement is going to be over soon, if it is true that, you know the Strait of Hormuz and somehow opens up or at least opens up partially, and oil prices come down, then he may be right. It might be that, you know, voters end up not caring that much by the time we reach the fall.

[20:20:25]

He's not on the ballot again in November and I do think, Anderson, that people lose sight of that, that, you know, he is taking risks and, you know, sort of showing a greater tolerance for certain political pain than he certainly did in his first term and certainly even ahead of the midterms when he was doing things that people didn't like in that term.

It just, he's looking at it differently. But are his advisors concerned? Yes, of course they are. Their concerns about the economy have been consistent for months.

COOPER: I want to play again, the moment from the President meeting in the Oval Office with Japan's Prime Minister he was asked by a Japanese reporter why the U.S. didn't give Japan a heads up about the war.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We went in very hard and we didn't tell anybody about it because we wanted surprise. Who knows better about surprise than Japan? Okay, why didn't you tell me about Pearl Harbor? Okay, right?

He's asking me, do you believe in surprise? I think much more so than us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: It's interesting because they're looking for Japanese help in, you know, in an action in the Strait of Hormuz. What do you think it says about how the president views America's allies right now?

HABERMAN: I think the President tends to say things as if he is, you know, watching a show or if he is -- as if he is, you know talking on live radio or something like that, he's been a little more explicit in those kinds of things in this term. We know that he is frustrated about allies and he has been very clear about that. It is true that Japan and a handful of European countries have said they're going to try to help get things flowing with the Strait of Hormuz.

You know, the look on the Japanese Prime Minister's face was quite something. But I don't know that that translates to not helping. I think the President believes that people owe the United States help, and he's been pretty explicit about that.

COOPER: There was also this moment that I thought was extraordinary. Earlier this week, Peter Doocy of Fox asked the president a question about --

Well, the President told Peter Doocy that he was shocked, Iran attacked other countries. And Peter Doocy talked about whether he was briefed on this. I just want to play that.

(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: Tulsi Gabbard was asked about this under sworn testimony. She said she wouldn't talk about what the President had been briefed about. It's inconceivable that he was not briefed about this. I mean, I talked to Ambassador Bolton a couple nights ago. He said he briefed him during the first term.

HABERMAN: Yes, it does not comport with certainly my reporting that he was not briefed ahead of time. He seemed to be trying to get out of that question as quick as he could, although the question was we're you surprised you weren't briefed? And he sort of went along with it.

People obviously did expect that the countries near Iran, where there were alliances with us or where their U.S. Interests would be targets. And that's exactly what happened. So, I'm not quite sure what he's referring to there.

COOPER: Do you think it's still possible that one day soon, the President might just suddenly declare that the war is over, that victory has been achieved?

HABERMAN: I think it becomes a little harder the longer this goes on, Anderson. And again, depending on what happens in terms of the Strait of Hormuz and depending on how much help the U.S. might get, look, anything is possible, in terms of how the President tends to look at what he is going to declare victory.

You saw the White House Press Secretary gave him a fair amount of leeway on how he will decide what unconditional surrender actually means or looks like from the other side.

So, do I think it's possible? Yes. But I also thought that if that was going to happen, it probably was going to happen already. I do think it's worth noting, though, that one of the look -- is there going to be regime change? That's a real open question. Is there going to be an uprising from the Iranian people? They're under threat for their lives from the regime and threat of violence and potential death, if they protest. So, I think that something is going to have to change there.

But has Iran been hit pretty significantly militarily? Just, you know again, it's not only in small increments and some larger increments, they will still have drones, they will still have other abilities, but it will be a diminished force in the region. And that may be enough for Israel and for the U.S. at some point.

[20:25:08]

COOPER: Yes, Maggie Haberman, thanks so much, I appreciate it.

This next story is raising concerns in light of the American and Israeli strikes on Iranian leadership and Tehran's past plots to kill former National Security Advisor, John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo from the first administration.

Two drones, we don't know what type spotted recently near Fort McNair, which is the Washington Army base that is home to the current Secretaries of State and Defense. Their detection was first revealed by "The Washington Post" which reports that officials believe the threat serious enough to have considered moving those two somewhere else.

John Miller, our CNN chief law enforcement intelligence analyst, joins us now here in the newsroom.

What do we know much more about these drones?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, we know that they were spotted multiple times on one night a couple of weeks ago, and that the first thing they did was they reached out to the FBI, to the Secret Service, to NCIS to say, were you doing any drone operations in the area? Because some of those agencies use drones, particularly if there's a protectee nearby.

All of that came up negative. So, the question was now burning okay, so who's drones, were they? Why were they flying over this base and what were they capable of doing? COOPER: Do we know, I mean are we talking about commercially available drones? Do we know?

MILLER: So, it's hard because it's at night. And most of these sightings are made based on you know, I heard the noise. I looked up, I saw the flashing lights and I saw it flying by.

So, a competent description of whether it was commercial you know, like the normal ones we see people playing with or something more sophisticated. We don't know.

COOPER: I mean, there's certainly been concerns about drones over military bases now for a while. Is, much known about those other incidents in the past?

MILLER: So, you have a couple of concerns. One is, is it the Chinese just doing what the Chinese do?

COOPER: -- which is, they always reconnaissance?

MILLER: They always -- they're always looking for ways and other governments to get documentation of the layout of military bases and so on, so reconnaissance or is it reconnaissance for something else?

If you have the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense staying in residences in a secure military base, and you want to know where, that is one way you're going to get, you're going to get video. You're going to get images, you're going to get the perimeter or the layout, the roads.

But you're also going to be looking for where are those residential locations on the base where you've got those lines of black SUVs or those indicators that a heavily protected person is residing there?

It could be intelligence gathering or the worst-case scenario is they could be armed.

COOPER: It's fascinating to me that so many members of this administration are living on military bases now. Kristi Noem as well, I didn't realize that Rubio was doing that.

MILLER: So, as the threat picture has increased, you know, you've seen people move to places that are outside of the neighborhood where they're just on a street where there's a security detail in front, where there's access control to get in.

You know, a military base is the ultimate gated community in that sense. But just to close on this, we've got to remember one thing. As you hinted at, the 2024 drone sightings, hundreds of them in New Jersey after being investigated quite extensively, most of those turned out to be small private planes flying at low altitude that had the flashing lights most of those were sighted at night.

It is not out of the realm of possibility when they're finished investigating this, that because of that heightened security posture, people may have been looking for things and that could explain the multiple crossings.

Because they're between a military air base and an airport there also.

COOPER: John Miller, appreciate it. Thanks very much.

Next, more on whether Israel's assassination campaign against Iranian leaders could have the opposite of its intended effect and leave the country more intractable and harder to deal with, with hardliners taking control.

Later, our political panel on how all this is being seen by voters, as they're seen in Global War coverage, continues. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:33:13]

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: As we reported, the President is suggesting that the Pentagon's $200 billion request for the Iran war is a, his words, small price to pay. What's still very unclear is how long the President may be willing to pay it for. Some experts in the region have suggested that Iran has anticipated and is prepared to wage a longer conflict than the President may have initially calculated.

One of those experts is Vali Nasr, professor of the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. He joins us now.

Professor, appreciate you being here. You've put forward a really interesting notion about this war. You say that because the new regime, such as it is, isn't beholden to the supreme leader, to the Revolutionary Guard commanders who, like him, have been assassinated, that the world may now see what you call a more strident and unbending Iran emerge. Can you talk about that a little bit more?

VALI NASR, PROFESSOR, SCHOOL OF ADVANCED INTERNATIONAL STUDIES, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: Yes, the generation that is being eliminated by the Israel's decapitation campaign was radical, was anti-Western, was antagonistic towards the United States, but at the same time also often followed a certain degree of prudence. For instance, when the U.S. bombed Iran's nuclear sites, the previous supreme leader decided to react in a symbolic manner.

And he wasn't always going for the most aggressive approach. The generation that's now coming to the top is of the belief that, you know, you not only go for an eye, but you go for two eyes for one eye. That the only way for Iran to survive and to dissuade the United States from escalating further or from mowing the lawn against Iran every six months is to raise the cost on the United States in a way in which the previous generation was not willing to do.

COOPER: You've said that, and correct me if I'm wrong, that the current supreme leader, who's now been in his -- who's the son of the former supreme leader, that he would not have ascended to that position if his father had had his choice, if his father, you know, was choosing a successor. [20:35:18]

NASR: Yes, his father was of two minds as to whether it was a good idea to create a monarchy, given that the Islamic Revolution had overthrown a monarchy and was opposed to a monarchy, and had apparently even instructed the Council of Experts not to consider his son.

And had the war not happened, the main question in Iran before the war was how to deal with the aftermath of the massive protests that happened in January and the bloody crackdown that followed. And there was a lot more pressure on the regime to try to find a supreme leader who could somehow improve the situation with the population.

But the change in the supreme leader came in the middle of the war. And in the middle of the war, the most important consideration became security, not theology, not politics. And the revolutionary guards were the most influential voice in choosing a new supreme leader.

COOPER: So is it clear -- I mean, is there a single leader now of Iran? The new supreme leader hasn't been seen in public. Obviously, there are reports he's wounded. Ali Larijani, the top security official who's considered kind of a de facto leader, he was killed in recent days. Is there one person in charge?

NASR: No, even before Larijani was killed, there was no one person in charge. I think Iran created a system, especially after last June's war with Israel, that would not rely on one leader for decision- making. Whether it's in civilian government or in military, they've distributed authority among many different nodes of power. And if one is eliminated, somebody else will take his place.

They are running based on a strategy that they put in place. Everybody knows what they need to do. And they have -- and they don't need to continuously make a decision and wait for a decision to come from top down.

So as a result, at some point, of course, this system could also no longer function. But for now, it has been resilient. Now going into the third week of the war, it has survived the bombing. It has survived the assassination.

And as we see, it is capable of escalating, retaliating against U.S. attacks and escalation or Israeli attacks very quickly. And these Iranian escalations are becoming much more audacious. And that's what I mean, that the people who are now implementing these decisions are willing to do more outrageous acts, like if you bomb our gas facilities, we will not react symbolically, but we will do even a bigger attack and we will hit multiple sites and are willing to escalate on pace with the United States and Israel.

COOPER: What is the signal to you that Israel has targeted Iran's energy infrastructure in the last 48 hours?

NASR: I think Israel is after not only maybe breaking the Islamic Republic, but actually bringing down the state itself. I think it's -- and therefore, a hitting infrastructure is really hitting the state's capability to function, not just its government.

And I think it also reflects the fact that Israel is getting frustrated with the fact that the assassinations is not breaking the back of the Islamic Republic. So it's actually trying to go after all the things that make a country work, its energy, its electricity, its oil supply, its ability to provide all of these services to its population and in a way to make Iran ungovernable and force the state to collapse.

COOPER: Vali Nasr, I really appreciate your expertise. Thank you for being with us.

NASR: Thank you.

COOPER: Coming up next, we're going to focus on the impact of all of this at home with fuel prices rising and still unanswered questions about the White House's justification for the war. Our political panel weighs in as our CNN Global coverage continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:42:56]

COOPER: When we left you last night, we just learned that the Pentagon was planning to ask for an additional $200 billion to fight the war. Today, as you know, the President said, it's a small price, his words, to pay. And the price Americans paid, the pump rose again, now up $0.90 since the war began. People are certainly feeling it.

I want to get some perspective now on the politics of all this from former Trump White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci, Republican Strategist Brad Todd, and former Senior Adviser to President Obama David Axelrod.

So, David, does it seem like President Trump and his administration have a clear strategy for you at this point for how to wage the war moving forward and protect the economy, the global economy at the same time?

DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, they've got a real dilemma because the political imperatives, the Iranians are not wrong in that there are enormous -- there are going to be and are now enormous political pressures on the President. Biggest issue in this country is and has been for several years, costs and inflation. And that's what people want the President to be focused on.

And everything he's done since February 28th has caused these costs to go up. I mean, when I was in the White House, I watched gas prices every day because they were a leading indicator. And, no, I think now he is in a situation where it is not clear how this ends or when it ends.

And in the meantime, these costs are going up dramatically. What's going on in the Strait of Hormuz is, of course, a big part of that. And I think if I were a Republican running for office in these midterms, I would be deeply, deeply worried.

And now comes the request for $200 billion. And you heard both leaders, the -- both John Thune and Speaker Johnson today, express less than great enthusiasm for going to their members and asking them to vote on this because they know it's not going to be a popular vote.

COOPER: Anthony, I mean, the President is saying, look, we -- I expected things to actually, you know, price be even higher. Do you think he's more rattled by the spike in oil prices and he's letting on?

ANTHONY SCARAMUCCI, FORMER TRUMP WH COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Well, I mean, the reports inside the White House are that he is. But I think that the real problem here, Anderson, is the improvisation of the whole thing.

[20:45:05]

He's -- one minute he's saying that the war is over. The next minute they're saying they need $200 billion to finish the war. He's up and down on gas prices. Two weeks ago, he said it was going to end by now. Now we're sending 4,400 Marines, the Marine Expeditionary Forces, into the region.

So I think the markets don't like that. The markets don't like the uncertainty. And then today's press conference knocked oil down. You know, Prime Minister Netanyahu's press conference seemed to suggest that they were trying to create an exit ramp.

So, you know, as a market person and someone looking at the affordability issue, you know, you're heading for $6 gas prices in the United States, which I think will cripple the Republican narrative coming in the midterms.

COOPER: Brad, do you think it's much comfort to Americans facing higher prices at the pump that the President says he's surprised the cost of oil hasn't spiked higher?

BRAD TODD, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: No, but I do think the American public, they're not stupid and they understand that Iran poses a serious threat to the United States and all our allies. I think the President was pretty clear today. He said, you know, we're going to cost a little bit more for a short period of time. Then we're going to be a lot safer for a long time after that.

I think the public can grasp that. And I think this is seven presidents too late. We should have dealt with the Iranian regime a long time ago.

COOPER: David, I mean, obviously you watched Tulsi Gabbard, the Director of National Intelligence. She skipped over and she was kind of called on it over a line in her prepared written remarks yesterday to the Senate. And the line was that Iran's nuclear enrichment program was obliterated, which obviously contradicts the White House's central argument for the war today in front of a House committee. She sort of distanced herself, saying that Iran still has an intention to rebuild its nuclear capabilities. What do you -- what does this said to you about the administration not being on the same page about the justification for the war?

AXELROD: Well, Anthony talked about improvisation. You know, on January 8th, the President said we knocked out the Iran nuclear threat and it was obliterated. On January 20th, he said we achieved the total obliteration of the Iran nuclear potential capability. And a month later, he's -- we're at war because the nuclear threat is imminent, he said.

So if people are confused, they certainly have a right to be. And she seems to be trying to catch up with the story here and trying to align herself with the President's gyrations. So, you know, when you are talking about the kind of commitment that the President's asking for in terms of lives, in terms of money, this is not a confidence building thing.

And, you know, I appreciate the point that people understand that Iran is a malign administration and a malign regime and that we needed to deal with. But I would point out again that a few days before this war began, the President spoke for an hour and 47 minutes and 30 seconds to the nation. The first hour was about the economy. He spent three minutes on Iran.

And all of a sudden, this has become the overriding --

COOPER: Yes.

AXELROD: -- priority at a time when people have said they don't want this to be his overriding priority. They want him to focus on the thing they elected him to do, which was deal with the economy.

COOPER: Anthony, do you think that the President still believes that his blueprint for Venezuela can be applied to Iran?

SCARAMUCCI: I think -- look, I think that was the original goal. And I, you know, I want to be fair to the President here. We are at war, and I'm certainly supporting a positive outcome for the American government and for our troops. But I just think somebody should ask the President, what is the definition of success for you? Give us the three things that would mean success in this operation so that the American people can be more informed about it.

So hopefully somebody will ask him that question. So it's very confusing right now, Anderson. And I really do think -- and again, I get what Todd's saying about Iran being a danger and all that other stuff. And I accept all that. But if you are a Republican listening and you want the Republicans to have a chance in the midterms, you've got to form a more consistent, threaded narrative here.

COOPER: Brad, do you think he needs to be -- have that consistent narrative?

TODD: I do. I think John Ratcliffe today when he's testify -- and testifying in the House gave a pretty good summation. He says we're trying to take away not only Iran's ability to attack us now, but to manufacture ballistic missiles and the kinds of weapons that might pose a threat in the future. That's an achievable goal and it's an important goal.

The Israeli government has a little different goal. They may want to completely flip the government in Iran and that's their right and they'd be safer and the rest of the world would be better off with it. But the President's goal is right. We need to take away their ability to make mayhem and wage war on their neighbors and us.

[20:50:04]

COOPER: David --

AXELROD: We should.

COOPER: Go ahead.

AXELROD: We should point out -- we should also -- we should point out, Anderson, that regime change has been part of the litany of reasons he's given over these last few weeks. So, I agree -- I mean, one of the problems from the beginning is if you don't have a solid rationale for what you're doing and people don't understand it, it's really hard to understand how the thing ends and we still haven't totally resolved that.

COOPER: Yes.

AXELROD: Anyway, I'm sorry I interrupted you.

COOPER: No, it's fine. David Axelrod, I will have to leave it there. Brad Todd, Anthony Scaramucci, great to have you on. Appreciate it.

Up next, my guest this week on my podcast, All There Is, is singer- songwriter and actress Sara Bareilles. Sara actually wrote a song inspired by my conversation with Stephen Colbert on the podcast. The song is called "Home" and she debuts it on All There Is. You'll hear some of that coming up in just a moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARA BAREILLES, SINGER-SONGWRITER AND ACTRESS: It's about telling your story and telling your story, warts and all, is the thing that brings you back home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:55:12]

COOPER: A new episode of my podcast, All There Is, just released tonight. My guest this week is singer-songwriter and actress Sara Bareilles. She has sold millions of albums. She's earned two Grammys, been nominated for multiple Emmys and Tony Awards. She's recorded a new song, which she wrote, and it's for a new album, which is coming up to be released later this year.

And the song she wrote, which is about loss and about grief, and it's included on the album. She is debuting it on my podcast tonight, which has just been released. You can watch or listen wherever you get your podcasts on CNN.com/AllThereIs. You can find it there.

Here's some of that song and our conversation from tonight's podcast.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: You've actually listened to this podcast.

BAREILLES: Many, many times. I found it very powerful. Very moving. It's inspired songs.

COOPER: You wrote a song based on a particular episode with Stephen Colbert.

BAREILLES: Yes.

COOPER: It's called "Home."

BAREILLES: It's called "Home." I was really moved. I think you say it in the interview. It's just about -- it's about telling your story and telling your story warts and all is the thing that brings you back home.

And I think of home as being like a place of connection, either with self or with others or with source or God or whatever you think. But for me on this earth, our work is to find ways to be like bold enough to let people, let other people see us.

COOPER: Let's play "Home."

(SINGING)

BAREILLES: Can I hug you, Anderson? I really thank you for that song because you brought me a lot of healing to do (ph).

Thank you so much for having those conversations.

COOPER: I know I should have listened to it beforehand.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Definitely I should have listened to it beforehand. You can listen or watch the full conversation here, the full song, Sara's song, "Home," right now on All There Is. Again, it's going to be part of an upcoming album that will be released later this year. But the song is debuting tonight on the podcast right now.

The new episode just came out. It's available wherever you get your podcasts, or you can watch it right now or listen to the entire episode at CNN.com/AllThereIs. That's our grief community page. Yes, I hope you like it.

The News Continues. The Source with Kaitlan Collins starts now.