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The Lead with Jake Tapper

War In The Middle East Is Expanding; Jake Tapper Interviews Trump; Jake Tapper Interviews Carlos Gimenez; U.S. Urges Americans Across Mideast To Depart; Lawmakers React To Briefing On Iran War; Austin Mass Shooting May Have Been Motivated By Iran Strikes, According To Law Enforcement; State Dept. Urges Americans In 14 Countries To Depart Now. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired March 02, 2026 - 17:00   ET

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

[17:00:00]

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KASIE HUNT, CNN HOST AND POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Thanks so much to my panel. Thanks to you at home for watching. Jake Tapper is standing by for "The Lead." Hi, Jake.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN LEAD WASHINGTON ANCHOR: Thanks so much, Kasie. We'll look for more tomorrow in "The Arena."

HUNT: See you soon.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): This is "CNN Breaking News."

TAPPER: Welcome to "The Lead." I'm Jake Tapper. We begin with breaking news in our "World Lead" today. As the U.S. military continues to carry out strikes against Iran, this war appears to be expanding. Overnight, the United Kingdom confirmed that its base in Cyprus was hit. And video shows a fire at an oil refinery after Saudi Arabia says it intercepted two Iranian drones.

And we are also hearing more from President Trump about his objectives and next steps which, thus far, have not been made abundantly clear. I actually spoke with the president this morning, one-on-one, a nine- minute phone call. I asked him if the U.S. is doing more beyond the military assault to help Iranian people wrest control of their country from the regime. President Trump said -- quote -- "Yes. We are indeed. But right now, we want everyone staying inside. It's not safe out there." In fact, the president claims it's about to get less safe. He told me -- quote -- "We haven't even started hitting them hard. The big wave hasn't even happened. The big one is coming soon."

Now, shortly after our conversation, the world saw a new round of attacks and explosions in Iran, although it's unclear if that was the big wave the president referenced to me. After I spoke with the president, he publicly discussed the war, explaining his goals for the first time since the attack began this weekend. The president is saying he wants to destroy Iran's missile capabilities, annihilate the Iranian Navy, and Iran's nuclear weapons ambitions, and prevent the country from arming terrorists. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: This was our last best chance to strike, what we're doing right now, and eliminate the intolerable threats posed by this sick and sinister regime.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: So, how long might it take to achieve these goals, and then end the conflict? When I asked the president how long he thinks this is going to last, he said -- quote -- "I don't want to see it go on too long. I always thought it would be four weeks. And we're a little ahead of schedule."

Now, Iran has fired missiles at population centers in Israel, which participated in the attack with the U.S. But Iran has also launched a wide range of retaliatory attacks across the Middle East, against Jordan and Kuwait and Qatar and Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates and, as you saw, Saudi Arabia, which has aligned many in the Sunni Arab world against Iran.

The president telling me -- quote -- "We were surprised. We told those countries, 'we've got this,' and now they want to fight. And they're aggressively fighting. They were going to be very little involved and now they insist on being involved." The Iranians, the president said -- quote -- "shot into a hotel. They shot into an apartment house. It just made them," meaning the Arab countries, "angry. They love us, but they were watching. There was no reason for them to be involved" -- unquote.

Now, even though Iran continues to retaliate at this hour, there is still an open question as to who is actually in charge in Iran, given U.S. strikes took out Iran's leader, Ayatollah Ali Khomeini, and 49 other Iranian leaders, President Trump told me, on day one.

President Trump told me -- quote -- "We don't know who the leadership is. We don't know who they'll pick. Maybe they'll get lucky and get someone who knows what they're doing."

The Iranians, the president said, lost -- quote -- "a lot in terms of leadership because of the initial strikes." "Forty-nine people," he said. "It was an amazing strike. They got a little bit arrogant by meeting all in one place."

The president added -- quote -- "They thought they were undetectable. They weren't undetectable. We were shocked by it. We don't know who's leading the country now. They don't know who's leading. It's a little like the unemployment line."

Now, regarding Iran's nuclear weapons ambitions, the president told me that his team tried to negotiate with the Iranians, but -- quote -- "We couldn't make a deal with these people" -- unquote. Every new offer, he said, was met with the Iranians walking back a previous offer.

He said Iran would not agree to stop enriching uranium and -- quote -- "They had all that enriched stuff. They looked at redoing it there, but it was in such bad shape, the mountain had basically collapsed" -- end quote. Trump referring there to the June 2025 U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.

The president said -- quote -- "They were a month away from having a nuclear weapon." Trump said to me about his military action -- quote -- "This is the way" -- unquote -- to deal with Iran.

[17:05:02]

Quote -- "We don't have to worry about agreements" -- unquote. The president also gave me his assessment of how he thinks this is going so far, saying -- quote -- "We're knocking the crap out of them. I think it's going very well. It's very powerful. We've got the greatest military in the world, and we're using it" -- unquote.

Now, the use of the U.S. military in this operation has, of course, already come at a cost. As of this hour, we know of American service members killed and injured. Six, specifically, six service members killed in action from that same attack in Kuwait. Others considerably wounded.

In a separate interview with the New York Post, the president did not rule out sending U.S. troops to Iran, into Iran, boots on the ground -- quote -- "if they were necessary."

Let's get to CNN's Clarissa Ward, who is in Erbil, Iraq about 100 miles west of the Iranian border. Clarissa, earlier, you witnessed an Iranian drone flying overhead into Iraq?

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Jake. We traveled earlier on to the Iraq-Iran border. We found a line more than a mile long of Iranian trucks and truck drivers who were finally after two days being allowed to cross back into Iran. Also, Iraqis who were trapped on the other side being allowed to cross out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WARD: But after being there for just half an hour, Jake, we did hear and see with our own eyes an Iranian Shahed drone flew directly across the border into Iraq. Take a look.

And about half an hour after that, Jake, we heard another Shahed drone. The border closed for a while, then it opened again. And to the best of our knowledge, those two Shahed drones that we saw crashed outside of Erbil. But there have been many others coming in. According to the Iraqi foreign minister, more than 70 missiles and drones. This part of Iraq does not widely have air defense as well, Jake, which is important for our viewers to understand.

Now, obviously, in areas where there are U.S. troops such as the airport, the Erbil Airport, which is over in that direction, there are air defenses. But in other parts of the country, there are not.

(END VIDEO CLIP) WARD: So, these drones and missiles really do pose a huge threat. And what I should say as well that we've just been hearing, Jake, in the last few minutes, we heard some booms earlier on. Obviously, last night, we saw a direct impact on the Erbil Airport compound. We saw flames coming. It appears that a drone hit some kind of an ammunition dump.

Tonight, we are hearing military helicopters, lots and lots of them in the air. I can hear them now. I don't think our microphone will pick up on that sound. At this stage, we have no idea what that signifies or what exactly those helicopters are doing. But still interesting to note that there's quite a lot of activity above that Erbil Airport, which is one of the last places in Iraq where there is still a U.S. troop presence. Jake?

TAPPER: And Clarissa, what sort of information are we getting, if any, from people inside Iran?

WARD: So, Jake, we have been trying to talk to people on the ground in Iran who I have been in contact now for many months. It has been extremely difficult. More than 48 hours now of an internet blackout. Some people do have star links or are able to make phone calls on regular landlines. So, we get glimmers.

And it's really a mixed picture because at the same time, as you're seeing those images of people celebrating the death of Khomeini, the supreme leader, you're also seeing a lot of terror. The bombardment that we have seen in Iran today has been extraordinary, and particularly in Tehran, and even in parts of Tehran that are not supporters of the Iranian regime. There has been heavy bombardment. There is real fear among so many people as to how this thing is going to end.

And President Trump had originally asked them to take to the streets at some point and take their country back. But now, there's even more fear that the strategic objective of the U.S. has changed and that they might go out into the streets, risk being killed, and then see President Trump make a deal with the current regime So, a lot of confusion, a lot of anxiety, and a lot of terror in Iran. Jake?

TAPPER: All right. Clarissa Ward, thank you. Stay safe. Let's talk more about the big wave yet to come that President Trump warned me about on the phone today. What might that look like? We're going to get intelligence from a retired general who served under President Trump. Plus, what the people of Iran make of this moment. We're getting reaction from inside the Iranian borders. That's coming up.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE HEGSETH, UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: The mission of Operation Epic Fury is laser-focused. Destroy Iranian offensive missiles, destroy Iranian missile production, destroy their Navy and other security infrastructure, and they will never have nuclear weapons. We set the terms of this war from start to finish.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth earlier today laying out the administration's justifications for attacking Iran Saturday. Let's discuss with retired Air Force Lieutenant General Charles Moore. He was a fighter pilot and last served as deputy commander of the U.S. Cyber Command in President Trump's first term.

Lieutenant General, thanks for joining us. So, Secretary Hegseth also said that this war is -- quote -- "not Iraq." It's -- quote -- "not endless" and that it's not a -- quote -- "so-called regime change war, but the regime sure did change" -- unquote. So, what kind of war is it then?

LT. GEN. CHARLES "TUNA" MOORE, RETIRED LIUTENANT, U.S. AIR FORCE: Well, good afternoon -- good evening, Jake. Thanks for having me on. I think what we have is, as the secretary laid out, very clear and specific military objectives that the president has given the Department of War to achieve. Take care of their ballistic missile programs, try to attack the remaining remnants of their nuclear programs, and destroy their Navy.

[17:15:00]

You know, these are really the last bastions of their abilities to project force or try to affect their neighbors or the United States interest in the region. And so, I think that that's exactly what we're focused on. And, you know, this is -- just like any other conflict, we shouldn't be focused on end dates, we should be focused on in states. And I think when those objectives are achieved, then the president will start considering whether or not we should end the operations.

TAPPER: If those are the objectives, was it necessary to kill the top 49 leaders of Iran, including Ayatollah Khomeini, the supreme leader?

MOORE: I think it was a very wise move for a couple of reasons. First, any time you can decapitate leadership in the government and military organizations, you put the whole country, the entire apparatus in a state of upheaval. They don't know what's going on. It's extremely difficult for them to execute command and control, to have any type of synchronization or integration of their forces.

The other thing that it does is it significantly hurts morale. You can imagine if you're a member of the Iranian military, the IRGC or security forces, and you found out that close to 40 of the top leaders, including the supreme leader, were eliminated in a very surprised move in one fell swoop, that's not going to do a whole lot for your morale.

TAPPER: The president told me earlier today in that phone interview that -- quote -- "the big wave hasn't even happened" -- unquote. That that's coming soon, he said. What do you expect this big wave to look like and what would it be targeting, do you think?

MOORE: Yes, Jake, I think that's a really good point. So, as we've talked a lot about in the last few days, the opening salvos of this conflict were really about preparing the battle space for what's to come. We obviously did the decapitation strikes for the reasons that we just discussed. But then we really focused on their integrated air defense systems and their command and control systems so they can't see what's happening in the battle space, they can't communicate in the battle space.

And now that we, as Chairman Caine laid out earlier today, have achieved air superiority over Iran, we can now move forward some of our older weapons systems, including traditional bombers like the B-1 that first hit targets today. And what that means is this next phase allows us to mass the number of aircraft that we have over the skies of Iran, mass the amount of ordnance that we can drop, and significantly increase the number of targets that we strike.

TAPPER: Secretary Hegseth today also said that Iran has long-range strike capabilities. What weapons is Hegseth referring to, do you think, and how long-range? I mean, President Trump has said that they don't yet have the ballistic missiles that could reach the United States. So, how far could they reach?

MOORE: Yes, I think some of what you're showing right now on your map is very helpful. We know that they took shots with some of their capabilities all the way to Cyprus. It's our estimate that they can reach portions of Europe. But that's not their end state. Their end state goal is to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles. And that would obviously be able to reach the United States or pretty much anywhere on the planet. So, that's why stopping this program in its tracks right now is so important.

TAPPER: Retired Air Force Lieutenant General Charles Moore, thank you so much. Great stuff. Really, really insightful and interesting. My next guest is a Republican lawmaker who says what's happening in Iran is a warning for every dictatorship that believes power lasts forever. But can President Trump really take out every dictator on his own without consulting Congress or getting them to vote? We'll get into that, next.

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TAPPER: Breaking news just in. The U.S. State Department is now urging Americans in 14 countries to leave those countries now due to safety and security risks. The countries listed Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, including the West Bank and Gaza, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the UAE, and Yemen. The U.S. State Department saying that Americans can use available commercial travel to leave.

Let's bring in Republican Congressman Carlos Gimenez from Florida. He's on the House Homeland Security and House Armed Services committees. Congressman, thanks so much for joining us. So, this new warning to Americans in these countries, that suggests a major escalation of this war. Are you hearing similar advisories to Americans in different ways?

REP. CARLOS GIMENEZ (R-FL): Well, I'm just listening to what you just said and then, yes, it's probably due to the fact that Iran has decided now to attack its neighbors that weren't even involved in the strikes against Iran. And so, it has become increasingly dangerous for anybody in those countries because of Iranian retaliation against countries that weren't even involved in the original strikes. So, you know, I would think that that's the reason why these warnings have been put out.

TAPPER: Congressman, clearly, the Trump administration does not want another lengthy, protracted, bloody war in the Middle East. The president told me on the phone today -- quote -- "We're a little ahead of schedule in terms of how long he thinks this may last." At the same time, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Dan Caine, said earlier today that the work is just beginning. Are you confident that this will wrap up soon enough?

GIMENEZ: Yes, I'm confident it will wrap up soon enough.

[17:25:00]

I think, you know, we've taken down most of the air defenses. We will have complete air superiority. And I think, as your previous guest said, then some of our older assets can now go in and take care of a lot of the different assets that Iran has, probably at a much less costly price. I mean, you're going end up with bombs, you know, laser- guided bombs which are a lot less expensive than, say, Tomahawk missiles. And so, I think you're going to see a step up in the operations and you're to see us take out more and more of their, you know, war-making capabilities.

TAPPER: We've already seen at least six American service members killed and more than a dozen wounded, some seriously. President Trump told the New York Post today that boots on the ground are not off the table. He said -- quote -- "I don't have the yips with respect to boots on the ground" regarding the continuing operation in Iran. Secretary Hegseth echoed that same sentiment earlier. Shouldn't the president seek express approval from Congress if there are going to be troops on the ground, boots on the ground?

GIMENEZ: No. No, I don't think so. I think he has the power to, you know, exercise what he has been doing so far. And if he deems it necessary for the operations and an operational necessity that we put some boots on the ground for some reason, I think he has the authority to do that.

The war power's resolution says that he needs to advise us within 48 hours, and he has 60 to 90 days to carry out the mission. And so, we're in probably what, day three, day four, so he's got a long way to go. So, I'm not going to put any -- I'm not going to restrain him or the secretary of war to carry out the missions that they deem necessary in order to complete this operation.

TAPPER: So, as you know, the U.S. Constitution Article 1 powers -- gives Congress the authority to declare war, not the president. And obviously, the president and the War Powers Act, he has the right to react to imminent threats.

I'm not sure how imminent this threat was. I'm not saying one way or another whether or not he should have struck, but you don't think there's any role for Congress? There is obviously a war. American service members have been killed. It's expanding across the region as far as Cyprus where Hezbollah has attacked British troops with drones. You really don't think there's any role for Congress other than being informed?

GIMENEZ: Not right now. And so, we will -- you know, there will be a role of Congress if that lasts more than 60 to 90 days, and then we will be involved. Right you, you know, that balls in the president's court. I support what the president is doing. And I was certainly voting no on any resolution brought to the House to try -- trying to, you know, tie his hands into what he can or cannot do in that region.

And so, I think that the fight is being brought to Iran and the Iranian regime. That regime has to go. It's a brutal regime that has been menacing the entire world for over 47 years. It's killing its own citizens.

TAPPER: Yes.

GIMENEZ: And so, at the end of the day, I support what the president is doing.

TAPPER: We're running out of time, but I do want to ask you, do you think President Trump should consider doing the same thing in Cuba?

GIMENEZ: I think the president has already told, you know, the Cuban regime, the dictatorship, that they should negotiate. If I were the Cuban regime, I would take him seriously. The president is a man of action. He is not a man -- he says words, but he backs them up with actions. So, if I were the Cuban regime, I'd take it seriously and maybe come to the table.

TAPPER: Florida Republican Congressman Carlos Gimenez, thank you, sir. Appreciate your time.

In the wake of Saturday's strikes on Iran, we learned of another attack. This one in Austin, Texas. Coming up, why authorities say the gunman may have been motivated by what was playing out overseas. See the hoodie he was wearing and the shirt underneath that are giving them suspicions as to the motive. Stay with us.

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[17:33:20]

TAPPER: The gang of eight in Congress was just briefed on the Iran war. Let's listen in. Here's the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson of Louisiana.

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), HOUSE SPEAKER: -- what I think is important. Israel was determined to act in their own defense here, with or without American support. Why? Because Israel faced what they deemed to be an existential threat. Iran was building missiles at a radical -- in a rapid clip to the point where our allies in the region could not keep up. As you know, Iran has long vowed to take out Israel, wipe it off the map, and they have long seen that as a critical threat to their very existence.

Because Israel was determined to act, with or without the U.S., our commander-in-chief and the administration and the officials I just named had a very difficult decision to make. They had to evaluate the threats to the U.S., to our troops, to our installations, to our assets in the region and beyond, and they determined, because of the exquisite intelligence that we had, that if Israel fired upon Iran and took action against Iran to take out the missiles, then they would have immediately retaliated against U.S. personnel and assets. We have troops in harm's way, and we have many Americans in the region, and that was of great concern.

If we had waited for all of those eventualities to take place, the consequences of inaction on our part would have been -- could have been devastating. We don't know at what magnitude, but you can assume, because it is common sense, that if Iran had begun to fire all of their missile arsenal, short and mid-range missiles, at our personnel and our assets and our installations, we would have suffered staggering losses.

[17:35:10]

And if we had waited to respond before acting first, then those losses would have been far greater than if we had done what we did. That was their decision. I can guarantee you this. If we had not acted, if the President, the commander-in-chief, had not acted as he did, those same officials would have been hauled in here by members of Congress and asked them why in the world they waited if they had exquisite intelligence, knowing that that would happen, that we would suffer such staggering losses. Why did they not act to prevent it?

So I am convinced that they did the right thing. There's another critical point. What were the objectives? The objectives for our operation, Operation Epic Fury, I am convinced, because I've now been to multiple briefings and I've understood the point of this, the objective was not regime change. The objective was to take out those missiles. The short and mid-range missiles and their ability to produce them. We did that. That was objective number one.

Objective number two was to eliminate their naval capabilities, destroy those and the missiles, and we are well on our way to accomplishing that mission. That is why I think the President has said in his own words, the commander-in-chief has said this is going to be an operation that's short in duration. We certainly hope that's true. We pray for our troops and all those in harm's way, our allies as well. I am encouraged that our NATO allies are standing with us. The Arab states are largely standing with us, publicly, certainly privately. Iran was a great threat to everybody in the region and everybody in the world because it was an evil regime. The Ayatollah is no more. That was not the mission of the U.S., to go in and take out the regime, but that happened, and in my estimation, that is a great development for freedom-loving people around the world. If you guys want to make any comments, take questions.

(CROSSTALK)

JOHNSON: Go ahead, right here. Yes?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you guys discuss the need for supplemental to get some munitions and other things that our military might need?

JOHNSON: It was brought up in discussion. There are more details to be determined, of course. It depends upon how long the operation goes and what the need is. But our appropriators certainly asked that question, but I think there will be some time before we can put a final number on it.

TAPPER: OK, that was House Speaker Mike Johnson reacting after his classified briefing from the Trump administration on its war with Iran.

Let's turn to our National Lead. The FBI says it is looking into a, "Potential nexus to terrorism," in Sunday's mass shooting in Austin, Texas. Two innocent people were killed, 14 others wounded in the shooting by a man wearing a, "Property of Allah" hoodie and underneath a shirt bearing the image of the Iranian flag. CNN's Ed Lavandera is in Austin, where we're learning more about the gunman and a witness who captured the aftermath.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sirens and blasts of gunfire cut through the early Sunday morning hours on 6th Street near the University of Texas in Austin.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Active shooter, 600 Rio Grande, got multiple victims.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): It was just before closing time in this popular entertainment district. Thousands of people were headed home for the night.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my God. What is going on?

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Nathan Comeaux was standing across the street. He and his friends had just left one of the bars when the shots exploded.

NATHAN COMEAUX, WITNESS: I was sitting down eating on a picnic table when all of a sudden we heard 15, 20 loud bangs. And it wasn't clearly a shooting at first. No one around me realized what was happening. The cops showed up a few minutes later at around 2:02, and at that point people started running towards us saying there was a shooting and the police got out of their vehicles and started running down the street.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Comeaux said he took cover once gunfire erupted again, realizing the suspect was still shooting.

COMEAUX: On the far left of the screen, you see the shooter. He is walking towards me. He's walking towards Buford's where hundreds of college students are holed up. He pulls his gun out, points it at the police, and then right here, there he lifts it, fires. The cops are between these two cars. They fire back at him, and then within about one second, two seconds, he goes down.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): The gunman was shot and killed by police. According to law enforcement, the suspect is 53-year-old Ndiaga Diagne. Investigators say he rolled down the window of his car while driving down the street and unleashed a volley of gunshots on bar patrons, then got out of his SUV and shot people walking by. His clothing, one factor prompting law enforcement officials to say they are investigating the incident as a potential act of terrorism.

CHIEF LISA DAVIS, AUSTIN POLICE: We're looking at the totality of this, and we see those indicators. We see the second shirt with Iran and the picture of the Shah on that T-shirt as well. We're thinking about events and what's occurring. We're calling in those federal partners to take a look at that as well.

[17:40:04]

LAVANDERA (voice-over): The suspected gunman, originally from Senegal, entered the U.S. on a tourist visa, according to the Department of Homeland Security. He married a U.S. citizen and became a lawful permanent resident in 2006 and was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 2013.

Law enforcement officials say the guns used by the suspect were purchased legally, and they are pouring through thousands of hours of video and other evidence to determine his motive in the targeted shooting. Sixteen people were shot by the gunman. Two have died.

DAVIS: I cannot imagine the grief, pain, and loss these families are feeling today, and my heart is with them, Savitha Shan and Ryder Harrington.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): At least a dozen are still hospitalized.

DAVIS: I believe one patient will be taken off life support sometime today, and then two other patients are still critical.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Flowers sit under the heart-shaped entrance to one of the bars, bar walls riddled with bullet holes, crime scene tape, and a single black high-heeled shoe left behind during the rampage, the snapshots of the shooting's aftermath on 6th Street.

(END VIDEOTAPE) LAVANDERA (on camera): And, Jake, both the FBI and the Austin Police Department say that this gunman, this suspect, was not on their radar before early Sunday morning's shooting, and they say they're continuing to pour over thousands of hours of video as well as digital evidence that has been collected in the last 24 hours to try to figure out the motive here. Jake?

TAPPER: All right, Ed Lavandera, thank you so much.

Let's bring in Frank Figliuzzi. He served as an assistant director for the FBI's counterintelligence division. So, Frank, law enforcement officials are looking to see if the gunman's motives was tied to the strikes in Iran. They caution it's too early to draw any conclusions, although obviously we see some of the reasons why they would suspect it would be tied to the Iran attack. How worried do you think the American people should be about attacks here in the U.S. tied to the U.S. attacking Iran?

FRANK FIGLIUZZI, FMR. ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, FBI COUNTERINTELLIGENCE DIVISION: Right. Notwithstanding however this comes down, and we need to wait for the investigation, clearly I do believe that Iran will attempt something. Now, that could simply be in the form of lone wolf attacks. It could more likely, Jake, be a cyber attack. But I think we all need to be more vigilant. That's why you saw the FBI immediately respond to the 6th Street shooting.

And people who say, look, why does it matter now to determine whether this was or was not international terrorism? It matters because for the question you brought up, we need to know whether there's a radicalization process occurring, whether there are acts being planned because of the Iran attack. That's why it matters.

TAPPER: I would think that the FBI is probably more worried about the self-motivated lone wolves who just are self-radicalized by what they see online, but they haven't necessarily been given instructions by the Iranians or Hamas or Hezbollah or whatever, than they are about sleeper cells. But you tell me, I mean, is one more of a threat than the other?

FIGLIUZZI: So there's no question that it's far more difficult to identify and to neutralize a lone wolf who's not part of a larger group. They don't appear on the radar screen. But in terms of their ability to conduct an iconic, highly damaging attack, you're looking then at a more organized effort. Yes, it's all hands on deck right now to try and determine whether there's a threat.

And look, as the FBI pours over the forensic exam of this guy's devices, they do hundreds of interviews of friends, family, neighbors. They will figure out whether there's a radicalization process that points toward other potential attacks.

TAPPER: And this is precisely why there were so many former FBI officials that were so appalled when they saw the FBI director chugging beers with the U.S. hockey team after their victory in Milan because people suspected an attack was coming and that everybody in the FBI needed to be on high alert. What exactly is the FBI doing to prevent retaliation attacks from happening here?

FIGLIUZZI: So look, I share concerns here, and what I'm concerned about is that initially the JCTF agents were being diverted. Those counterterror agents were being diverted to rounding up migrants with ICE. Now I hear that all agents must work a percentage of their time against violent crime and not their specialty areas.

And we're -- the FBI is bleeding seasoned veterans who are being walked out the door because of their ties to Mar-a-Lago search or their ties to the insurrection case. So the question remains, what is the FBI doing now? And that is, look, I think they've stopped diversion of resources. It appears that they are going live on technical coverage, court-authorized coverage of known or suspected terrorists, and that's going to continue. Even surveillances and what we call knock-and-talks, where they knock on a door and say, we know who you are, don't think about it.

TAPPER: All right, Frank, thank you so much. Appreciate your insights.

[17:45:01]

The breaking news this hour, the State Department urging Americans in 14 different countries in the Middle East region to leave those countries immediately because of the escalating war with Iran. We're going to have much more ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: This hour's breaking news. The State Department is now urging Americans in 14 different countries throughout the Middle East to leave now due to safety risks. They're telling them to fly commercially. The countries listed Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, including the West Bank and Gaza, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, The UAE and Yemen. The State Department says Americans can use available commercial travel to leave. I'm not sure how many of those countries have available commercial travel right now.

[17:50:04]

Here to discuss with us CNN national security analyst, Beth Sanner and CNN political and national security analyst, David Sanger. So it's Sanner and Sanger. And let's see if I can get through it without botching the time. Let me just, first of all, just take a step back because we are now starting to hear, we just heard it from Speaker Johnson and I think Marco Rubio said something similar, that the actual preemptive strike was because Israel was about to attack Iran to destroy its weapons -- its missiles.

And because -- and we had learned, the U.S. had learned that if Israel did that Iran was then going to attack U.S. bases in the region. Is that right? Do I have that right? Is that what they're saying?

BETH SANNER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: That's what they said this time.

TAPPER: Does that count as --

SANNER: That's not the definition of preemptive. If you are taking an action that creates someone doing something, then you're preempting a theoretical like --

TAPPER: Right.

SANNER: -- and it also, I feel like it's very interesting that this is all based on the idea that number one, we can't control Israel. And number two, our entire war with Iran is because of what Israel is doing. In other words, Israel is the tail wagging the dog.

TAPPER: It's just an odd --

SANNER: So I don't get that.

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITCAL & NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes.

TAPPER: It's not also what we had been told by lots of other people, including President Trump --

SANGER: Including the President.

TAPPER: -- starting Saturday, but then also today and on and on. What -- how -- do you make sense of this for us?

SANGER: So, Jake, it is confusing. I've been confused several times along the way. The more I listen to them, the more confused I get. But let's start from two principles. First, this was a war of choice, not a war of necessity. A war of choices is one that you do when you are not about to be attacked preemptively. They're trying to generate that thought. You could have made that argument perhaps in June when the President took out those three nuclear sites, because at that point the Iranians were far closer to a nuclear weapon.

TAPPER: How closer? How much closer?

SANGER: Well, they had they had access to all of the fuel that they had enriched in near bomb grade quantities. And so it would have taken them a few weeks at the most --

TAPPER: OK.

SANGER: -- turned it into bomb grade. And maybe a few months to a year to turn that into a usable weapon. OK. But now all that fuel is buried. OK. So the nuclear thing was kind off the table, which is why the President had to then say, well, they're working on intercontinental missiles that could reach the United States, except his own Defense Intelligence Agency said they wouldn't have that until 10 years from now.

TAPPER: Yes.

SANGER: And so that's number one. And number two is, let's just listen to what the President said the morning that this all began.

TAPPER: Yes.

SANGER: He urged the Iranian people to wait for the bombing to be over and then rise up and overthrow their government regime. That sounds like regime change.

TAPPER: Yes.

SANGER: But all of a sudden, they don't want to talk about regime change.

TAPPER: Yes. It is confusing, for sure. The war is expanding across the Middle East because Iran -- OK, so Israel and the United States attacked Iran. Iran has attacked Israel, but also the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Hezbollah, which is a proxy of Iran, is attacking the British Royal Air Force in Cyprus. So President Trump told me this operation, he wants it to last about four weeks. Pete Hegseth said, you know, we're going to end it when we want to end it. It seems to me that Hegseth and others are forgetting that the enemy gets a vote, as they say in the military.

SANNER: Yes, I mean, this is. I think that one of the main things I worry about is, you know, what is our aim? And again, today, we're more confused about our aim. So that -- so when you have the clear goal, then you know, when you've achieved that goal, if you do not have a clear goal or it keeps moving, then you do not know when you're done. And, you know, just a few days ago, were talking about, well, if it's regime change, are we going to be protecting the protesters when they come out on the streets because you've called for them to come out on the streets.

TAPPER: Well, he told me today that they should stay inside because the big one's coming.

SANNER: But afterwards, he said they should come out onto the streets. But, like, again, so what's our role here? So we don't know. And I think that lack of clarity is a huge problem. When do you declare success?

TAPPER: So Trump said that the regime already had missiles capable of hitting Europe and our bases, both local and overseas, and would soon have had missiles capable of reaching our beautiful America. So quickly, if you can, because we're running out of time. How soon is it actually estimated that Iran could have built ballistic missiles that could have reached as far as the United States?

SANGER: A decade.

[17:55:00]

TAPPER: Ten years?

SANGER: Yes. So you'd have plenty of time to go see that coming. And that's according to the President's own Defense Intelligence Agency. That would be the time it would take to get about 50 or 60 missiles. But the critical question now is the one that Beth raised, which is if you don't know what your military objectives are and you're not certain what your political objectives are and overthrow the government or instead working with a government that you set up or keep like in Venezuela, then you don't know when this is supposed to be over, when you've achieved your objectives. Maybe the President thinks he can just at some moment declare victory and leave, but we don't know that yet.

TAPPER: Oh, boy. All right. As airstrikes hit Iran, voices from inside the country reveal a conflicted mix of hope and fear. Some are quietly celebrating the regime's weakening or the death of the supreme leader. Others are worried about civilian casualties in daily life. Ahead, CNN's Jomana Karadsheh, has the latest on voices inside Iran.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If I die, I'm OK with it. If that leads to the destruction of this regime.

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As U.S. and Israeli bombs started raining down on Iran, a woman who says she's in the south eastern city of Kerman shared this rare audio recording from inside the country.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: U.S. strikes have begun. And I felt like I should record a video to say thank you, Mr. Trump. First of all, thank you, Benjamin Netanyahu and the people of Israel. The responsibility of this war is on the Islamic Republic.

KARADSHEH (voice-over): While this voice by no means is representative of a country of more than 90 million people. Over the past six weeks, we have been speaking with Iranians inside the country who opposed the regime. Many told us they wanted President Donald Trump's help. They were desperate, they said, after the bloody crackdown on protesters in January that killed thousands.

But with a massive bombing campaign, reports of rising civilian casualties, including scores of schoolgirls killed and hospitals hit, the mood is shifting even for some of those who want nothing more than this regime gone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): People are not happy. Many police stations are located next to homes. Last night they struck one and nearby homes were damaged.

KARADSHEH (voice-over): The regime's repression and disruption to communication make it difficult for us to speak freely with people inside Iran. But we managed to get some text and audio messages.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We were happy that those who had shot at the people at the youth and killed them were being punished. The situation now is a mix. There's happiness but also concern. And above all, we all hope that in the end they leave and that the Islamic Republic is no longer there.

KARADSHEH (voice-over): Video this weekend showed celebrations on the streets as news broke that the man who depressed them for more than 40 years, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is gone. The killing of Khamenei does not mean the end of this regime for now. It's lashing out and striking back hard. And inside the country, it seems it fears another uprising.

In Iran's Kurdish region, some people received this message. The enemy's plan, it said, will be, "Street riots next. Any movement that disrupts security will be considered a direct cooperation with the enemy and will be faced with the strong fist of the IRGC Intelligence Organization."

So many Iranians want to believe that freedom is within reach, that this is the beginning of the end of a four decade nightmare.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): You always think the Islamic Republic is finished, and suddenly, from a place you wouldn't expect, everything becomes OK for them again. That scares me.

KARADSHEH (voice-over): After the initial euphoria of this weekend as the help Iranians were promised finally arrived, now for many, the reality that this may be a long and costly war is starting to sink in.

Jomana Karadsheh, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER: And welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper. We start tonight with breaking news. Worldwide shockwaves from the U.S. and Israel's expanding war with Iran. The U.S. State Department issuing an urgent warning to Americans moments ago depart now from 14 countries across the Middle East as the barrage of strikes continue to rattle the region. Six, six U.S. service members have now been killed in action, according to U.S. Central Command. A source tells CNN that the first U.S. Service members to die in the war were killed by a direct Iranian strike on a makeshift operations center at a civilian port in Kuwait on Sunday morning local time. The attack came quickly with no warning sirens for troops to evacuate or shelter, according to CNN source.

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