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Israel Renews Attacks, Iran Vows To Avenge Supreme Leader's Death; Trump Heads Back To White House After U.S. Launches Strikes On Iran; Oil Surges And Stock Futures Tumble As U.S. Goes To War With Iran; FBI Investigates Motive In Texas Mass Shooting; U.S. Officials Prepare for Potential Retaliation Abroad; Trump Allies Make The Case For Iran Strikes. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired March 01, 2026 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:00:14]

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN HOST: And good evening. I'm Kaitlan Collins.

And we're following major breaking news in the war with Iran as President Trump is now on his way back to Washington, in the White House, after overseeing these strikes on Iran conducted by the United States and Israel from his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach.

In a new video that he posted on Truth Social, and I should stress, this is a video that was conducted and taken by the White House, not with the White House press pool of reporters in front of the room. We still have not seen the president, except for boarding Air Force One, and have not been able to ask him questions yet on camera about these strikes. But in this video put out by the White House, the president sent this message to the Iranian military and their people.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I once again urge the Revolutionary Guard, the Iranian military police, to lay down your arms and receive full immunity, or face certain death. It will be certain death. Won't be pretty.

I call upon all Iranian patriots who yearn for freedom to seize this moment, to be brave, be bold, be heroic, and take back your country. America is with you. I made a promise to you, and I fulfilled that promise. The rest will be up to you. But we'll be there to help.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: At least three U.S. service members have also been killed as a result of these attacks, and the president warned in that same video to the American people that there could be more U.S. service member casualties before this operation is over. It's a notable comment where the president is basically telling the American people that this could be a sustained military operation, and there could be more U.S. deaths as a result of it.

We're now in the second day of this joint military operation. The Israeli Defense Forces have carried out another round of strikes in the heart of Tehran and Iran has continued on its own to retaliate with strikes across the Gulf region.

CNN's Kristen Holmes is at the White House as we are awaiting President Trump's arrival. I do want to start, though, with Jeremy Diamond. He's live for us on the ground in Tel Aviv.

And Jeremy, obviously we just spoke to the former ambassador from Israel. He was in Tel Aviv. He was talking about the impact this has had obviously there with multiple people being killed as well. What else do you make of how Israel is warning about what could happen next here?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kaitlan, for Israelis today was the deadliest day of this conflict, with a single strike in which nine Israelis were killed in the town of Beit Shemesh on the outskirts of Jerusalem. I was at that scene earlier today, and it was absolutely devastating, not only because this ballistic missile made a direct hit on a synagogue in a residential neighborhood there, but also because beneath that synagogue was a public bomb shelter where people in that neighborhood would go to in order to seek shelter when those air raid sirens went off.

And indeed several of the people who were killed were in that shelter, according to police officials on the scene. The damage throughout that neighborhood was also quite significant, and people were in shock as we arrived there about the kind of damage that one of these missiles can do. Tonight, we've seen a continuation of those barrages of missiles from Iran, one of them making impact in Jerusalem, where at least six people were wounded.

A very large crater could be seen in footage from the scene in the middle of a road, with damage all around there. We've also seen small fires break out in other parts -- in the Tel Aviv area as a result of falling shrapnel.

By and large, Israel has been successful at intercepting the vast majority of these missiles. I'm told that the number of actual impacts, direct hits, has been in the single digits over the course of the last two days. But when you look at the rhetoric that is out there from Israeli officials and American officials and Iranians as well, it's clear that there is still an appetite for a much longer conflict than just the last couple of days.

U.S. and Israeli officials have made clear they will continue this campaign until they feel like they've achieved their goals. One military official telling us today that this is only just the beginning of Israeli strikes in Iran, where they now feel like they have air superiority, the ability to fly over the skies of Tehran for extended periods of time, and carry out strikes on a variety of targets.

And Iranian officials are vowing to avenge the killing of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and also directing that the retaliation be swift and severe and continue. And for now, that is what seems to be happening. And so it's very possible that those scenes, like I saw today in Beit Shemesh, will continue to reproduce themselves as this conflict continues to go on -- Kaitlan. COLLINS: Yes. Jeremy Diamond, keep us updated with what you're seeing

on the ground in Tel Aviv.

[18:05:04]

I want to go back to Kristen Holmes at the White House.

And Kristen, obviously the president, you know, in an unusual fashion for typically when the United States gets involved in a conflict like what we are seeing play out right now with this war in Iran, is we haven't really heard from him directly with reporters in the room. We've only seen two videos that he has posted, about a total of 14 minutes, where he is laying out why this is happening, and also, you know, what we could see happening next.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And I want to take you back to just the extraction of Maduro. He was in front of the cameras nonstop. He was stopping anytime he saw a group of reporters. And we haven't had that at all. He's had two, quote- unquote, "public briefings," which you would note they're not actually press conferences. They've not taken a single question.

Just a reminder, no one from the administration was out today answering questions on this. There has been one background briefing in which reporters did not answer questions. And it was during that background briefing that essentially it was laid out by administration officials that they believed that there was the potential, that they had the intel for a preemptive strike from Iran on Americans.

That is not something that we heard from a number of sources within our CNN reporting, from a number of sources who are familiar with the intelligence, who said that they had no knowledge of any kind of preemptive or imminent threat. And that was something we also heard from Senator Ted Cruz today. But again, not a member of the administration.

President Trump, in situations like this, this is a two and a half hour or one and a half hour flight, normally would go back and talk to the press. That didn't happen here. We'll see if he talks to the press either as he is deplaning or when he lands here on the White House lawn. I will be waiting there because we have a lot of questions.

Now I do want to note one thing because I think that a lot of Americans, and particularly those with family serving in the military, have a lot of questions right now. President Trump, in that second address, did talk about the deaths of those service members. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: As one nation, we grieve for the true American patriots who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation, even as we continue the righteous mission for which they gave their lives. We pray for the full recovery of the wounded and send our immense love and eternal gratitude to the families of the fallen. And sadly, there will likely be more before it ends. (END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: So you hear there he's clearly saying that they believe, or at least are anticipating, more deaths there. And just really quickly here in terms of a timeline, we have not heard publicly from President Trump, but he has done a series of these kind of very short phone interviews in which he's laid out several different timelines. One, he said that this would take four weeks, that this was always going to be a four-week bombing. And another one, he said, he could end this within a matter of days. That's obviously another question we have for the president and this administration.

COLLINS: Yes. How long this could happen and also that blunt warning about more U.S. deaths potentially.

Kristen Holmes, keep us updated. If the president takes questions, obviously we will take that live from the White House if he speaks to reporters.

I also want to talk more about what this could play out like over the next few weeks as you heard those different timelines there. CNN's political and global affairs analyst Barak Ravid is joining me now. He's also a global affairs correspondent for Axios.

And Barak, obviously, as you're looking at this, when you look at this from the White House perspective and how the president is carrying this out, I know he called you yesterday and spoke to you and one of those conversations that Kristen mentioned there about his rationale here, what else are you hearing from the administration given they were not out on television today answering questions?

BARAK RAVID, CNN POLITICAL AND GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Yes, Kaitlan, I totally agree with you that it's interesting that President Trump hasn't taken questions neither during his speech today. It was a recorded speech. And at least for now not when he left Mar-a-Lago, and I don't know if he's going to do something on the plane, and usually he takes a lot of questions.

But I think that if you listen to what he said in his recorded speech, I think to me what he said regarding the casualties, I have to say, I think he told the truth to the American people. You know, the easiest thing for him to do is to say, don't worry about it. It will be OK. But you know, he basically laid out both his case for the war and said, you know, very, I think, honestly, that in a war you're going to have casualties.

And I think this is something that was very important because, you know, the American people I think need to know what's going to happen over the next few weeks. And what I hear from people in the White House is that this is not about -- this is not about punishing the current regime.

[18:10:05]

This is not about solving only the nuclear issue. This operation is one person very close to the president told me was intended -- is intended to "finish them off," quote. And that that person told me we are not going to settle for anything short of finishing them off, meaning the current regime. Therefore, I think that I don't see, at least for now, Donald Trump having any negotiations with the current regime or with anybody who is part of the current system in Iran.

When Donald Trump speaks about having talks with people in Iran, he talks about people who are not part of the current system, of the current regime. People who might be part of a future regime. And I think also when you listen to his speech it is very clear this is about toppling the current Iranian regime and nothing else.

COLLINS: But I think if you tell Americans that more American service members could die here, the first question is, why? And do you think, Barak, when you hear an objective like finish them off, I mean, is that clearly defined in terms of when the administration can say, here's our objective, and now we've achieved it?

RAVID: So at least if that's the goal, as I'm hearing from people in the White House, then it means that this will not stop as long as the current regime is in place, and I think if you saw what the Israelis have been doing over the last 24 hours most of their strikes were intended to destabilize the regime.

And if you heard what President Trump said at the end of his speech, one, calling on current members of the regime to lay down their arms, and get immunity, and second, telling the Iranian people, it is now your time to go to the streets and protest again to try and topple the regime.

I think this is what both President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu are aiming at. Several weeks of concentrated military strike that will basically create the conditions that will allow the protesters to come back to the streets without the threat of being -- without a threat of a significant crackdown, as we saw a few weeks ago, and with knowing that the U.S. and Israel are flying above Iran and could intervene at any minute.

And when that's the situation, I think both Netanyahu and Trump are hoping that that would lead to the collapse of the regime.

COLLINS: We saw Lindsey Graham, someone who advocated for these strikes, saying earlier on television that it's not really up to the White House to have that plan for what comes next if they do eliminate the regime. I mean, that's still a huge question.

I wonder what you've been hearing, if anything, in terms of there are several people in the president's Cabinet who did not favor action in Iran, didn't favor some kind of extended conflict. The vice president said he doesn't think it will be this open ended conflict. But given what he said previously, people like Tulsi Gabbard, the director of National Intelligence, who certainly is not aligned with this previously, I don't know how she feels about it now, I wonder what you make of what's happening internally in Washington.

RAVID: So I think that the biggest problem for that camp around Donald Trump was that the Iranians did not agree for, you know, a deal that is even close to the U.S. position. The Iranian proposal was so far away from where the U.S. was that it was just unrealistic to get a deal. And I think even people like the vice president who really wanted a deal to happen and he worked on it personally, but I think even he realized that the Iranians are just not there.

And I spoke to several people who were in the anti-war camp around Donald Trump, people very close to him, that said that in the meeting in Geneva on Thursday, there was just no there-there. And therefore, even the people who wanted the most to get a deal instead of going to war, you know, they didn't have anything to show.

COLLINS: Did you think the talks were real? Or some people have said, oh, it was just a cover, as they were always planning all along to carry out these strikes? What's your sense of that? Were they genuine?

RAVID: That's the million-dollar question. I have to say, I'm not sure I know 100 percent what really happened.

[18:15:07]

But I'll tell you one thing, the original date of this war was not last Saturday. It was the weekend before. The U.S. military and the Israeli military were planning to launch the strike on February 20th or February 21st. That was the original plan. It was delayed by a week because of bad weather conditions, because of some coordination issues that needed to be finished. But the original plan was to do it a week ago.

And when the strike was delayed, there was a week that, you know, you needed to do something during that week. So there are people I spoke to Israeli officials who think that, you know, OK, how -- what can we do in this week without alarming the Iranians? Let's have another round of negotiations.

But U.S. officials I spoke to claimed it was not a ruse, that they came in good faith to try and get a deal. And that in the first part of the day on Thursday, they spoke for four hours. The Iranians gave their proposals. After that, they took a break of two hours, held phone calls with both Vice President Vance and President Trump, and came back to the room with a proposal that basically told the Iranians, listen, this is our final proposal.

Ten years of suspension of uranium enrichment by you guys. And we -- in those 10 years, we will pay for the nuclear fuel for your reactors. The U.S. will pay for it. You will get it for free. And when the Iranians said no, it was what the U.S. official told me was a tell. Because if somebody proposed to you, here, I'm going to give you something you want for free, and you say no, then it basically means that you don't really need it, that you don't -- that you're not really enriching uranium in order to get nuclear fuel, that you're enriching uranium for some other reason.

COLLINS: Barak Ravid, that's telling insight into how those talks went down obviously unsuccessful talks. Barak Ravid, thank you for joining us with your reporting.

RAVID: Thank you.

COLLINS: And of course, as we look to see what the president is thinking, it's often helpful to hear from him directly himself. He's about to land in Washington, and we are standing by to see if he does speak to reporters about one of the biggest foreign policy decisions he's ever made as president. More of our breaking news right after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:22:28]

COLLINS: You're looking at Air Force One landing at Joint Base Andrews just a few moments ago as President Trump and top aides are returning to Washington for the first time since the United States launched those extensive attacks against Iran, attacks that are still ongoing alongside Israel tonight.

The president spent his time this weekend at Mar-a-Lago, where he has before, where he is in basically a makeshift situation room surrounded by top aides, including the Defense secretary, his chief of staff, the Joint Chiefs chairman, General Dan Caine, in this case, as he was making this decision and watching the immediate aftermath of this strike playing out, and obviously a huge question still remain about what's to come.

We'll see if the president takes any of those questions as reporters are waiting for him on the tarmac there at Joint Base Andrews. As we noted, there are many questions for the president about what could happen next here and the extent of the U.S. involvement and his objectives. If he speaks, we'll obviously bring that to you live as it happens.

And one question that still remains tonight when it comes to oil futures, as they are surging in the first trade since the United States and Israel went to war with Iran over the weekend. We've seen this playing out. In the meantime, stock futures are down and futures for the S&P 500, the Nasdaq and the Dow were all down more than 1 percent.

I'm joined right now by Patrick De Haan, who is the head of Petroleum Analysis at GasBuddy.

And Patrick, obviously there are huge questions here especially, I mean incredibly grave ones, given U.S. service members' lives have been lost as a result of this. The president is warning what's to come. There's also Americans who are asking how this will impact them on a daily basis. And what do you make of what you're seeing in these numbers so far?

PATRICK DE HAAN, HEAD OF PETROLEUM ANALYSIS, GASBUDDY: Well, at least for now kind of right on course with what we expected earlier yesterday. The initial gut response I felt was maybe a $5 or $10 barrel increase, given everything that's going on. Now, there's a lot of headlines, there's a lot of questions, none of which we have a whole lot of clarity on. But typically we see a spike in the price of oil. And so far in the last 15 minutes or so, that's exactly what we've been delivered, at least so far.

WTI crude oil prices back above the $70 a barrel mark. We're up about 7 percent or 8 percent to about $72, $73 a barrel. While they may sound pretty large, put that in comparison back when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, when the economy was reopening amidst COVID relief, we saw oil prices in a matter of a week jump about $22 a barrel. So this is a pretty small response so far. Obviously, a lot of developments still likely here in the days ahead.

[18:25:06]

Consumers are likely to notice the national average tomorrow, will likely exceed the $3 a gallon mark for the first time in 2026. You'll notice behind me right now it's actually taking a little bit lower at $2.94 a gallon, but tomorrow I would expect some sticker shock.

For some areas this is not going to be an overnight massive spike, but it will be noticeable to most motorists. But again, to put this in comparison to Russia, this is not going to be nearly what we saw back in 2022 when not only Russia invaded Ukraine, but when we saw COVID relief as well. So still very noticeable. This will play out over the next coming weeks based on new developments.

COLLINS: Yes. Well, what about, you know, obviously we'll see what they see tomorrow if this continues to go on for another week or even another month or, I mean, it's not even really clear how long this could happen. Then what could impact could that have on prices?

DE HAAN: Yes, as you mentioned, I mean, this is not necessarily a short-term approach. The Trump administration had made quite clear in fact that this was not going to be just a one-day attack and done. This could be dragged on for potentially several weeks. And to your point, this could get worse depending on what those developments look like.

Obviously right now Iran reacting to a lot of the U.S. strikes in a very unpredictable way, and that is part of the risk assessment that we're seeing show up in the price of oil. That uncertainty is what's driving oil prices up. The known would reduce oil prices if there becomes clarity. But it's the unknown that is stoking fears and oil prices reaction tonight.

So if there is some sort of clarity in the days ahead, whether from Iran or the United States or Israel, on how long this would last, we'd be able to put potentially an end date for the potential impacts that we're seeing. Now keep in mind, this is all happening as well as gas prices have already risen for nearly four straight weeks, the seasonality, the warming temperatures, the summer driving prices up as well. So a bit of a double whammy now.

COLLINS: Yes. Patrick De Haan, thank you for that. And we'll watch to see what those numbers look like.

What we're also watching right now, as you can see, the stairs are being moved over to Air Force One. That's because President Trump is about to descend those stairs in just a few moments, as we are waiting to see if he speaks to reporters to talk about and take questions for the first time on this, and what that looks like.

This also comes tonight, as I should note, the FBI is investigating whether or not a mass shooting that happened in Austin overnight could be in response to what happened in Iran. We have a live update on what law enforcement is saying right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:31:48]

COLLINS: Two people have been killed and 14 others were wounded during a shooting early this morning in Austin's Entertainment District. And tonight, law enforcement tells us they're investigating whether or not the United States' attack on Iran is what motivated the suspect who was involved here. That's according to multiple law enforcement officials telling CNN. And those same officials are cautioning it's still too early to draw any definitive conclusions.

CNN's Rafael Romo is joining us now covering all of this.

And, Rafael, I think a key question as, you know, we saw the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem saying yesterday they were on heightened alert for any kind of threats or potential attacks. We don't know what happened here yet so far, but what more do we know as of this hour?

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's the question, right? What happened and what was the motive? And Kaitlan, officials are still trying to get all the facts in the shooting. But the FBI said earlier today that there are indications it might be linked to terrorism. Earlier this afternoon, authorities including ATF agents and others were searching a home in Pflugerville, Texas, believed to be the suspect's residence. Two

law enforcement officials briefed on the attack told CNN the suspect had a shirt with an Iranian flag design. The officials also said that law enforcement is investigating a series of factors, including whether the suspect may have been motivated by the attacks on Iran, though officials cautioned that it was too early to draw any conclusions.

The deadly mass shooting began just before 2:00 in the morning in Austin's Entertainment District. According to officials the gunman killed two people and wounded 14 others before being shot and killed by officers. According to a law enforcement official familiar with the investigation the suspected gunman was originally from Senegal and appears to have arrived in the United States in the early 2000s, settling in New York.

It's not clear, Kaitlan, when he arrived in Texas, but did have multiple addresses in the state, according to the same officials. Alex Doran, the acting special agent in charge for the FBI in San Antonio, said a digital forensics team and others have joined the investigation with the Austin Police Department. As for a motive, this is what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEX DORAN, ACTING SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE, FBI SAN ANTONIO: Obviously it's still way too early in the process to determine an exact motivation, but there were indicators that -- on the subject and in his vehicle that indicate potential nexus to terrorism.

Again, it's still too early to make a determination on that. That's why we are investigating it very closely with our partners, with Austin Police Department.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: And Kaitlan, officials also told CNN that authorities are also reviewing past mental health encounters that the suspect had while living in Texas, the officials added.

Now back to you.

COLLINS: Yes, OK, well, Rafael, keep us updated if we hear anything else or any update from authorities on this.

We'll continue to follow that story and more of our breaking news across the Middle East, with a source telling CNN that U.S. officials are preparing for potential suicide attacks and other retaliatory attacks that target Americans abroad as we are continuing to see this U.S. war with Iran play out.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:39:20]

COLLINS: Just a few moments ago, we saw President Trump descend the steps of Air Force One. He is now boarding Marine One at Joint Base Andrews. He notably declined to speak with reporters who were gathered there on the tarmac with an arm of questions in hand when it comes to the strikes that the president launched over the weekend and authorized against Iran, strikes that are ongoing, and as the president has previewed today, could happen for at least another month, potentially.

That comes as a result of the deaths of three U.S. service members, as the president has been bluntly warning the American people there could be more American deaths as a result of this war with Iran that is playing out right now.

We do have one more opportunity to potentially see and hear from the president, who has not yet taken questions from reporters on camera as he arrives back at the White House. We'll be watching that closely.

[18:40:08]

I will say, as a White House reporter, it's pretty notable the president did not gaggle with reporters on Air Force One. Typically on Sundays when he's heading back from his Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, he will come back on the plane and speak with reporters, take their questions, especially after such a notable moment as the major foreign policy decision that he made over the weekend.

For example, you'll remember after the capture of Maduro in Venezuela, we heard from the president, the secretary of state and other top officials on their reasoning, on their rationale, and what is going to happen next. I should note this comes as we are hearing from sources here at CNN that U.S. officials are on the watch for potential suicide attacks in addition to any other kind of retaliation targeting American families and personnel that are abroad in response to the ongoing military operation in Iran that's been playing out.

My colleague Zach Cohen has this new reporting.

And, Zach, what exactly are officials on the lookout for in light of what's happening in Iran right now?

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kaitlan, I'm told that in addition to the wave of retaliatory strikes we've already seen launched by Iran in response to this ongoing military operation, U.S. officials are also prepared for Iran to use a range of capabilities to potentially target American personnel and facilities across the region and abroad. Those include potential suicide attacks and also the use of vehicle borne improvised explosives to potentially carry out attacks against U.S. persons and U.S. bases around the country, or around the world.

And we're also learning now for the first time that three service members who we know have already been killed in these -- in a retaliatory strike by Iran were killed in -- at a U.S. military base in Kuwait. And so this was a suspected drone strike or a drone attack by the Iranians, which again highlights another capability that the Iranians have beyond its missile arsenal.

COLLINS: Do we know, Zach, if the U.S. military has been able to notify those families yet?

COHEN: Yes, Kaitlan, also I'm told is that that process was in motion. I think we're waiting for that to play out before CENTCOM and the military comes out publicly and confirms some of the details that are already starting to come out now.

COLLINS: Yes. Just devastating for those families obviously, and our thoughts are with them as they are getting the worst news that any military family can get tonight.

Zach Cohen, please keep us updated and thank you for that.

I'm also joined here this hour by our CNN national security analyst, Beth Sanner, who is the former deputy director of the DNI.

And, Beth, just when you look at this and not hearing from the president just now was pretty notable. We'll see if he speaks when he gets to the White House. There is still another opportunity for him to take questions from reporters. But for a president who famously touts how much he talks to the press, to see him descend Air Force One, hop on Marine One and not take those questions from reporters, do you think that the president has done enough or anything to lay out the justification for what's happening in Iran right now?

BETH SANNER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, you know, I had to go on to Truth Social to watch his video that he put out a couple hours ago. And I don't really think that, you know, most Americans have that, you know, know that that's even happening. I just think that the comparison to previous presidents and even to this president, it just marks such a departure on something that is literally bigger than anything that we have done in so many years.

And when I listen to that Truth Social, that address to the nation, I guess we can call it, it really didn't offer an explanation about, you know, why we're doing this, except kind of I would sum up because we can.

COLLINS: Beyond an explanation for why, is it clear to you what the benchmark is for ending this?

SANNER: No. Right. And that's, you know, that's something I think is really crucial. You're supposed to start any kind of major thing with a clarity on what you're trying to achieve because that drives what you do. It seems kind of obvious, right? But that's military planning, right? You start with, what are you trying to do? And I remember when I was on the National Security Council for a number of years under George H.W. Bush and we would plan.

We would have these quarterly planning meetings where we decided things like, oh, we want to have German reunification. And we literally would like plan backwards, like, how do we get there? And because we haven't done that, Kaitlan, we don't know how it's going to end. We don't know when it might end, and we could turn into this situation where we just kind of keep going and going and going because we don't know.

And it also means we didn't set ourselves up for success in the first place because if we were really going for regime change we should have put a lot more into building up and helping the opposition get to the point where they could take over and we haven't done I think nearly enough in that realm.

[18:45:12]

COLLINS: Do you think it's too late for that? Because I think a lot of people are going to say, this is -- this has brought about the death of a brutal leader in Iran that has suppressed people for decades. And we've seen all the crackdowns. Such a hardliner. Is it too late for the United States to get involved, to help those people in Iran?

I mean, when you hear from the president, he says, we did our part. We fulfilled our promise. We took out the supreme leader. Now it's your turn. Could we see the U.S. get more involved. do you think?

SANNER: I think we could. And I mean, Representative Naylor was on yesterday, and he's a very smart person. And he said, you know, well, now is the time we're going to all sit in Congress and we'll talk to our allies about how we can help the opposition. And I'm like, and making it sound like this is a normal thing to do at this point. Well, it's not normal to do it at this point.

But I do think that it's possible for us to do more. And I expect that CIA and other parts of our government will be working on that with some of our partners. But, you know, and this is the thing, Kaitlan. I feel very conflicted. I wonder if other viewers feel this way, too. You know, it's like, here we are, and how can you not support getting rid of this brutal dictator? And this is why we have Iranians cheering on the streets, right? It's great.

But like, did -- does that mean that we all should support what we are doing now going forward? Or should we say, you know, maybe we should be doing something different? I feel like now it's like we're so far into this that we kind of have to go forward even though we're not set up for success and this really isn't justified under international law, and that has really big implications down the road.

COLLINS: I think you make such a good point there in terms of what could happen next year, because that has also been why Americans feel so conflicted over, you know, entanglements in the Middle East is that it's got this notion going in that everyone agrees with in terms of seeing a democracy or seeing women have rights, seeing people have rights that have lived under a brutal regime. But then the United States action and involvement doesn't always bring that about, as we know historically.

SANNER: No. Exactly. I mean, Rumsfeld said at the beginning of the Iraq War that there was no way this was going to last more than, you know, a few weeks and maybe a few months, and then look what happened. Right? And then I think that the whole thing about President Trump talking now about negotiating with this regime, which the White House has tried to walk back, but we would actually negotiate now with this regime that is so illegitimate, that has killed so many scores of Iraqis, and we would negotiate with them, which would then make them stronger?

Even if it's a different version of the same thing, like a Delcy Rodriguez in the Iraqi context is not the same thing.

COLLINS: Yes. And obviously a regime that attempted to assassinate the president.

Beth Sanner, thank you for joining us tonight. I think you made a really good point about how so many people could feel watching this play out.

SANNER: Thanks.

COLLINS: Coming up here for us, we are watching the White House as the president is set to return any moment now. They've also been using their allies in Congress to instead make the case for striking Iran. You did not see any members of the administration out on television this morning. What the White House is telling us about why.

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[18:53:05] COLLINS: President Trump has delivered two statements on camera since he launched a major U.S. military operation against Iran. We have not yet seen him live, though, meaning he takes the questions in front of the White House press pool, answering reporters' questions in terms of what the United States and Israel and their objectives in Iran are, and what that's going to look like.

We also have not heard from the top members of his administration. That's notable, given typically, certainly after something as big as this and as momentous as this, you would hear from the president's allies on this.

Our chief media analyst Brian Stelter is joining me now.

And Brian, obviously, we had heard from the White House explaining this, talking about how Ted Cruz was out there, Lindsey Graham was out there, their top congressional allies. But not a single person from the administration went out on television when obviously there's a ton of interest in hearing from them in this moment.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: And we've been emphasizing here on CNN all weekend long that there are so many more questions than there are answers right now, questions that we'd like to have answered by Trump administration officials, as well as others in the region, in the Middle East.

Now, you know, Trump's reaction has been mostly on the fly. Two Web videos so far, nothing formal like an Oval Office address that Americans are accustomed to seeing. He gave a State of the Union just a few days ago, let's remember, and did not use that forum to prepare the nation for war. But Trump has been commenting here and there. He's been answering his cell phone sometimes when reporters from various outlets call up.

So we have been hearing him comment one or two quotes at a time, but not in a formal way and not with the opportunity for the press corps to ask questions. We did write about this today on CNN.com, pointing out that there were no administration officials on the Sunday shows, and the White House responded by saying that those senators, those Republican senators, were on the shows essentially as surrogates, and that there was a briefing that was held on Saturday for those lawmakers before going out on television.

You know, Kaitlan, if you look at Google trends data right now for the word Trump, look at the rising searches. You'll see the number one rising search in the last 24 hours is a question. The question is, did Trump get congressional approval? The answer is no.

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The number one rising search in the last four hours, really interesting, it's Trump addresses nation. So in other words, people are literally searching online looking, trying to find out if the president is addressing the nation. They want to see him explain and justify these strikes. And if you look at the word Trump, in just the last hour, the number one rising search in the last hour is Trump approval rating.

And of course, all of those searches, they're all related. They're all from Americans trying to find out more information about this military effort. We should also keep in mind the Pentagon has severely restricted the flow of information to the press this year. Actually, in the past 14 months, a lot less information coming out of the Pentagon about these strikes as well -- Kaitlan.

COLLINS: Yes, and key questions, as you noted, still remain. It would be great to hear from these top officials about this, given clearly Americans have those questions as well.

Brian Stelter, thanks for your update on that.

And we're going to continue watching to see if the president himself speaks. We have more of our breaking news coverage still ahead, as the president has issued a message not just to Americans, but also telling the Iranian people he made them a promise, he says he fulfilled it, and now he wants them to seize this moment.

We're live on the ground in Tel Aviv after a quick break.

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