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Israel Targets Iranian Military Headquarters In Tehran; Iran Launches Retaliatory Strikes After Supreme Leader's Death. Iranian Supreme Leader Killed in Strikes; Interview With Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA). Aired 8-9a ET

Aired March 01, 2026 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:09]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Earthquake. The United States and Israel launch sweeping strikes against Iran, killing its supreme leader and throwing the region into chaos.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're doing this for the and Israel launch sweeping strikes against Iran, killing its supreme leader and throwing the region into chaos. We're doing this for the future, and it is a noble mission.

BASH: What's the president's end goal and are Americans behind this war? I'll ask two Democrats with different views. Senator Chris and Senator John Fetterman.

And, uncertain future. As the Mideast braces for a new war, how did we get here and what happens next?

Our panel of experts breaks it down.

Plus, turning point. President Trump predicts a new day for Iran.

TRUMP: The hour of your freedom is at hand.

BASH: What do Iranians want to happen? Two Iranian American activists join me to discuss.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(MUSIC)

BASH (on camera): Hello. I'm Dana Bash in Washington for a special two-hour edition of STATE OF THE UNION. We're following the monumental developments out of the Middle East. The United States and Israel launching sweeping attacks against Iran, targeting the regime's nuclear program, weapons systems, and eliminating many in its leadership.

Overnight, Iranian state TV confirmed that the country's supreme leader since 1989, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in the attacks, a potentially seismic event that throws the future of the Iranian regime and the Middle East into a new era of uncertainty, with Iran vowing revenge and President Trump celebrated Khamenei's death in a social media post writing, quote, "This is not only justice for the people of Iran, but for all great Americans and those people from many countries throughout the world that have been killed or mutilated by Khamenei and his gang of bloodthirsty thugs."

Trump also vowed to continue the bombing campaign, quote, as long as necessary to achieve our objective of peace throughout the Middle East and indeed the world.

I want to go straight to Nick Paton Walsh, who is in Tel Aviv.

Nick, I understand we have some breaking news about the impact of Iranian missiles there in Israel. What's the latest?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, we've been hearing in the last hours, Dana, some barrages, some interceptions passing over Tel Aviv. It may be linked to that Beit Shemesh, a city about an hour away to the southeast of where I'm standing, Israel's emergency services now saying that six Israelis have been killed in a strike on a residential building, say authorities.

Now, the images that emergency responders are putting out from that scene are of remarkable devastation. There are significant injuries, it seems as well to that. And this would mark the worst single incident since the start of this conflict, which I should say is barely only 24 hours old to some degree. But it marks a remarkable morning where we have seen Israel under attack. We have seen Israel still targeting inside Tehran. The Thar-Allah main military headquarters of Iran. Other buildings, too, intelligence headquarters as well, saying that they have stand in capability for their air force over Iranian skies. Ultimately, they have air superiority there.

That marks a significant development for Iran's going to be able to do going forward. But still, Iran carrying out an extraordinary array of retaliatory strikes, not just against Israel but across the region against its neighbors, against countries that were reticent to see U.S. and Israel take military action specifically.

Now, we're learning of three dead in the United Arab Emirates, where over 500 drones have been flown against in the last day or so, says the ministry of defense. So startling developments there, and also two dead emerging from other parts of the region, too.

So, a question, I think, to be asked right now is precisely who is ordering this wide scale attack? One key Iranian official has tried to suggest on social media that ultimately, they're targeting U.S. bases there, but the response is to infuriate and potentially drag into the conflict many of these regional countries as well. So, a conflagration here certainly, but one that ultimately ends with the question, Dana, who is in charge in Iran now, who is calling the shots and how much more does Iran still have in its arsenal?

Back to you. BASH: So many unanswered questions, including the important ones you

just laid out. Thank you so much for that report, Nick.

I want to go now to Alayna Treene, who is in West Palm Beach near Mar- a-Lago, where President Trump monitored these attacks as they unfolded.

Alayna, what are you hearing this morning from the White House about these unanswered questions?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah, there's a lot that still remains unclear, Dana. I think there are a few things that I'm specifically looking at one is we heard the president and a number of different interviews yesterday talk more -- a little bit more about the timeline, kind of confirming the report and that my colleague Zach Cohen and I have that the U.S. military is planning for strikes to continue for days.

[08:05:05]

And so, what we are seeing this weekend is not the end of this. The president saying on social media that they will continue this heavy and pinpoint bombing as long as necessary, but really saying, at least throughout the week. But a big question, I think now is specifically about what's going to happen and what the U.S. role is going to be in regime change now that the ayatollah, Iran's supreme leader, has been killed.

And this is a key question, I know when I've been talking to my sources and the lead up to these strikes, you know, as we saw this massive military buildup in the Middle East, the largest since the U.S. entered war with Iraq in 2003 has been what would happen if there was regime change? What is the United States plans to fill a potential leadership vacuum? And those are serious questions that they are currently looking at as well.

And there was one interview, one quote from an interview that the president did yesterday, Dana, that I really stood out to me, he said in one of these interviews, he said, at some point, they'll be calling me to ask who I like -- that was referring to, who he likes to replace Iran's leader. That is a key question, and it's something we've also heard from the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, saying there is a lot of work that the U.S. wants to be doing in conjunction with the Israelis about what to do now, to kind of fill that vacuum.

So, a lot of questions that still need to be answered. We do know that the White House is working with Congress to set up briefings for later this week. Hopefully, they'll get at least some of those answers during those meetings.

BASH: Alayna, thank you so much for that.

Here with me now is a Democratic member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Chris Coons of Delaware.

Senator, thank you so much for being here. Iran's supreme leader is now dead. We've seen videos of Iranians

celebrating in the streets. Put aside your opposition to how these strikes were carried out, the elimination of the ayatollah -- is that a good thing for America?

SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-DE): Absolutely, Dana. Look, Ayatollah Khamenei was the longest serving and among the most brutal dictators in the world. He had the blood of many Americans on his hands -- from the attack on Khobar Towers in Saudi, to the attack on the marine barracks in Beirut, to the killing of many American service members in Iraq. The Iranian regime has been the greatest exporter of terror in the region, and I will not grieve for one moment the passing of the supreme leader of Iran. And frankly, the success in taking out many of the leaders of the IRGC.

My concern is that Iran has three main weapons. They've got ballistic missiles and drones, and they've launched many at our allies and partners in the region, as well as at our service members and bases. They've got cyber capabilities, and they've got terrorist capabilities around the world.

And so today, I am praying for our service members, our diplomats, our civilians in the region, for all of our partners and the civilians in the region and hope that our national security apparatus is as prepared as it can be for attacks anywhere in the world against the United States and our interests as Iran seeks to strike back for our success in taking out one of the most brutal dictators in the region.

BASH: Do you think that's going to happen in a way that's more robust than what we have seen so far?

COONS: Well, I think the Iranian regime has its back to the wall, and I think unlike the 12-Day War last year, where they de-escalated relatively quickly, they see the killing of their national leader and the scope and breadth of the strikes against Iran and President Trump declaring a full scale war to achieve regime change as the moment, I believe where they need to throw everything they've got against us. That's why they're attacking civilian targets in countries in the region.

Dana, I spent yesterday afternoon calling the ambassadors to the U.S. from Jordan, from Qatar, from Saudi Arabia, from UAE, just to express support and to thank them for standing by us. They're receiving attacks from drones and missiles, and in some cases, they're hitting civilian infrastructure like the Fairmont Hotel in Dubai.

And this is causing real alarm by our allies in the region. They need to know that we have their back.

BASH: In the wake of the initial strikes on Iran, you said this is not how a democracy goes to war. And I want to ask you about that because as you well know that senators in both parties have been all too willing over the past, I don't know, two-plus decades even more to give Democratic and Republican presidents a lot of leeway in using military action overseas, how they see fit without Congress weighing in. COONS: That's right. And one of our challenges is getting correct.

The balance between scope and means for a war.

[08:10:01]

In this case, President Trump has launched a war of very large goals, regime change ending a nuclear enrichment program, eliminating all of their ballistic missiles, but with limited means. As far as we've heard so far, only attacks by the air by missiles, and by airstrikes. There's no example I know of in modern history where regime change has happened solely through airstrikes. And I hope and pray we won't see American boots on the ground in Iran.

Iran is dramatically different than either Iraq or Venezuela. It is four times larger than Iraq, has double the population, has a regime that's been in place nearly 50 years, and that is incredibly repressive domestically. It lacks some of the internal divisions and the mobilized opposition that existed both in Venezuela and in Iraq.

In Venezuela, many of the military and intelligence services actually speak English and trained with the United States before Chavez came into power. So, we were able to actually remove the leader and have almost immediate negotiations with potentially partners and compliant members of the Venezuelan leadership.

That's not going to happen in Iran. This is going to be much tougher, and the consequences are much more unpredictable.

And last, I'll just remind you, President Trump ran on no new foreign wars of regime change. So, I hope the folks who voted for President Trump expecting that are looking harder at this moment and at what Congress should be doing to rein in the scope of this war and this military adventure.

BASH: Well, that's what I was going to ask you, because you noted at the beginning of that answer that you don't remember any example of successful regime change with military action solely from the sky and not ground troops.

Are you suggesting that maybe there could be ground troops as long as Congress authorizes it? Or are you saying that perhaps regime change isn't realistic in -- when it comes to the goals?

COONS: I think regime change is a very ambitious goal here. I wish that were not true. I would like to see a successful uprising, and obviously, the murder of thousands of innocent Iranians who were protesting the regime is just one of the most recent of the horrible actions of the Iranian regime.

But the most recent example, we could both point to is the air campaign against Gadhafi that produced chaos in Libya for years. There is one hopeful recent example in Syria, where a seemingly stable, repressive regime was overthrown relatively quickly, but that was by an armed organized opposition.

In Iran, it's not at all clear to me how regime change will happen. My fear is that by opening this new chapter, by choosing the path of war, when diplomacy was still within reach, that what Trump will cause is a more repressive, more aggressive Iranian regime, that the IRGC will massacre more of its civilians and that they will be more aggressive in the region. I hope that is not the case, but that is the concern that animates my expression of opposition to this war at this time, with this scale and scope.

BASH: Well, you say that diplomacy was happening and some kind of deal was within reach, but you well know that a lot of the president's allies were pushing him to go ahead with these strikes, because it wasn't just the nuclear program, that this is a moment of strategic weakness for Iran -- economically, militarily, and also because of the protests even though the tens of thousands were killed, there is more unrest, civilian unrest, at least publicly than we have seen in in a very long time.

So, given that, do you -- I know you don't support the notion of doing this, how the president did it, but do you understand why?

COONS: Yes, I can understand the president taking a bold gamble, but I disagree with this gamble at this moment, because I do think, according to the Omani foreign minister, that the Iranian regime, the weakest it's been in years, was actually making real concessions. And I did support the JCPOA, the agreement negotiated under Obama that got inspectors into every aspect of Iran's nuclear enrichment program.

I think it was possible to achieve through diplomacy and intense pressure aligned with our allies to get Iran to finally stop its support for terrorism in the region, to rein in its ballistic missile program and to stop its nuclear enrichment program.

I at least think that should have been given --

BASH: Yeah.

COONS: -- more of a chance before we launched a broad-spectrum war.

[08:15:02]

As it is, I understand, given how weak this very dangerous and terrorist regime is at the moment, that President Trump decided to take the path of war. But in a democracy, a war of this scale should not happen without congressional approval

BASH: Senator Chris Coons, thank you so much for being here this morning. I appreciate it.

COONS: Thank you

BASH: Up next, as the Mideast faces an uncertain future, how did we get to this point and what comes next?

And later, with the supreme leader of Iran dead, what do Iranians hope for in the future? That's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [08:20:01]

BASH: Welcome back to STATE OF THE UNION.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it has launched another wave of missiles and drones on countries across the Middle East. This comes after Israel's defense forces said it had killed 40 senior Iranian commanders, calling it a historic strike.

Here with me now, David Sanger of "The New York Times", CNN's Natasha Bertrand, and CNN political analyst Barak Ravid of "Axios".

Starting here at the table, David, I want to start with you because you wrote in a great "New York Times" piece this morning that president Trump has embarked on the ultimate war of choice.

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL & NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Right. There was nothing, Dana, that forced him to act and act now. There was no imminent nuclear threat. He had actually neutralized a good deal of that back in June when he hit Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan and most of the nuclear fuel that is closest to bomb grade is buried at Isfahan. And there's been no evidence that anyone was digging it up.

His claim that they were soon going to have missiles that could reach the United States is contradicted by his own Defense Intelligence Agency which reported last year that they were probably a decade away from having something intercontinental. They can certainly reach American bases. American allies in the region. That's been true for a long time, and there was no imminent threat.

So, the question is, why did he choose to go do this now? And I think the answer, which I think you touched on talking to senator before, was this was a remarkable moment of weakness for the Iranians politically, economically, certainly militarily. He saw his chance. The CIA, you know, came in with intelligence about where they'd been tracking the supreme leader, and they've been sharing that with the Israelis.

But the fact of the matter is that he did not need to go do this. And wars of choice are illegal under the un charter. They're illegal by most international law. Unless you have an imminent threat.

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: And I think that's where were going to see the legal justification start to take shape. And we already saw it starting to take shape. Yesterday in a call with reporters, administration officials said the Iranians had missiles pointed at U.S. bases and U.S. forces, and they were prepared to use them preemptively.

And so, we had to take action first to take out these missiles, take out the launchers to prevent a mass casualty incident. We're told that that is not true, that the Iranians actually there was no intelligence to support the idea that the Iranians were going to take a first strike against the U.S. or against Israeli assets, unless the U.S. and Israel acted first. But of course, going back to your point they need a justification not

only, you know, under international law, but also to lawmakers who are coming potentially coming back to the hill this week to vote on a War Powers resolution to say that the U.S. was under imminent threat, that there was an imminent attack coming. And so, they had to act quickly.

BASH: Barak Ravid, you spoke with President Trump yesterday. He floated the idea of off ramps, but he also said he was willing to go along. How do you read that?

BARAK RAVID, CNN POLITICAL & GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: I think I read that as President Trump sending a message to whoever is left in the Iranian leadership that if this operation or this military campaign could end within days, if his conditions are met or it could last much longer. I think the U.S. military has been preparing for a multiple week campaign.

It could also end -- the first segment of the plan is five days, so it could end sometime around Tuesday. But that's only the first segment. There are other segments afterwards, but President Trump will have to decide whether he wants to go to the second segment or not. I think that's what President Trump was trying to say.

BASH: Barak, you have incredible sources in the region. What are you hearing about the state of war as we speak?

RAVID: I think the main question right now is, and we got to this point a much faster than in June because the first the opening strike was so consequential that, you know taking out Khamenei and his top advisers. But right now, I think we are in the state of sort of a war of attrition. On the one hand, Israel and the U.S. will try to take out as many rocket launchers as they can to try to degrade the Iranian ability to continue firing at Israel and the Gulf states and on the other hand the Iranians will try to overwhelm the defense systems in the region, continue on blocking the Strait of Hormuz.

[08:25:03]

And the question will be, who will be more effective? I think that's what we're going to see in the next -- in the next few days.

BASH: Yeah. Which is the definition, David Sanger, of what happens in a war, whether its a couple of days or even longer and one of the questions that Nick Paton Walsh was posing, which is one of the many good ones, is if the leadership is gone, who is now in charge, who is calling for these missiles to be launched at Israel and other U.S. allies in the region?

SANGER: Well, before this all happened, as the U.S. built up its forces in the region, the Iranians developed succession plans that went down several layers. And I think that's because they learned the bitter lesson in June when they lost many of their leaders.

So, we're now about to go find out if their succession plan really works. But for President Trump, he has actually laid out something far more ambitious here. Tactically, yes, he's got to take out all those launchers that we just heard Barak talk about.

But politically now, he's got to figure out how to engineer a regime change that is friendly to us. And as you were discussing earlier, it's hard in history to find a single example where a regime change has been brought about, certainly one friendly to us, by air power alone.

So, the president might just suspend his goal and say, I gave the opening to the Iranian people and they didn't take it, or he may keep going until he gets the result he wants.

BASH: Well, I mean, his stated goal is peace in the Middle East. I mean, that's a very lofty goal.

BERTRAND: To say the least, yes. I mean, look I think that the U.S. military, obviously, they had been preparing for this for weeks. Obviously, there were plans in place to conduct an overwhelming attack that did the immediate thing, which was to help the Israelis get rid of those Iranian senior leaders. But we're told that the U.S. intelligence community actually did not have a good idea prior to this, of what would come next if the regime was deposed.

Unlike in Venezuela, where they had a good idea of who would take over once Maduro was ousted, they didn't have a really good idea of the kind of organizational chart of how this would play out, in terms of who would then take power. And so that's what made this additionally risky is because now you might end up with someone even worse. In fact, the intelligence community assessed that the IRGC, the hard line Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is likely to, at least in the short term fill that power void.

BASH: I mean, we can't emphasize this enough, and this is clear from every one of your answers. We have so many unanswered questions, and we don't know what comes next.

Natasha, David and Barak, thank you so much for being here.

Up next, Democratic senator breaks with his party and says that President Trump's attack on Iran is, quote, "right and necessary".

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:32:17]

DANA BASH, CNN HOST: Welcome back to STATE OF THE UNION.

Democrats are demanding lawmakers return here to Washington and hold a vote on President Trump's attack on Iran launched without congressional approval.

My guest now is a Democratic senator who says he will vote no and that Trump made the right call.

Here with me now is Democratic Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania.

Thank you so much for being here, Senator. You are taking a very different approach than most of your fellow

Democrats. You're fully behind what the president did in Iran and you've actually been calling on him to do just this since last year. Is your support limitless if these strikes continue for weeks?

SEN. JOHN FETTERMAN (D-PA): Well, of course it's not limitless.

My support was that they could never allow Iran to acquire a nuclear bomb. I think every single member of the Senate says we should never allow Iran to acquire a nuclear bomb. President Trump was the guy willing to do that, to make sure that didn't happen.

If just putting out tweets and using harsh and strong language was effective, Iran wouldn't have been on the path to acquire a nuclear bomb. Those are the kind of things that are necessary. Now, let's never forget what Iran has done for the last 47 years in destabilizing that entire region and funding the proxies.

They were behind 10/7 and to continue to do these things. So, for me, finally, do you really want to have real peace? Do you really want to have real security in the middle region? So let's do that. And that's why I fully support that.

So, now, of course it's not limitless. Now, have people ever read the War Powers Act? What's required of the president is to provide 48 hours of notification, and then he or she has 60 days, up to 90 days to withdraw those troops before Congress approves that.

Neither of those have been activated. He did provide that to the gate of -- the Gang of Eight. And there are no American troops on the ground now. This was an incredibly, incredibly precise and successful strike. And they eliminated most of the leadership now.

So here we are. So, yes, I do support that. Why can't the entire world celebrate that he's dead for what he's done to the world?

BASH: I guess the question, Senator, is that it's not over. It's not a one-and-done, they got the supreme leader and other members of the Iranian leadership and now they've moved on. They're continuing. The U.S. and Israel are continuing to strike in Iran.

[08:35:03]

And just in terms of the reasons for this, you gave a lot of reasons that Iran is a horrible regime and has been for 47 years, that it's done a lot of bad things across the globe.

The question now is the immediate threat. And American and European intelligence sources are undercutting the president's reasoning for these strikes. He said that there was evidence that Iran was getting ready to preeminently strike and that Iran was trying to resume enriching uranium, and that that's not necessarily true in an imminent way.

What do you say to that? FETTERMAN: Well, what is true is that President Trump tried to

negotiate that and tried to find a firm, firm kinds of agreements, absolutely. And they refused to those basic, basic kinds of things.

Remind everybody, you are never allowed to acquire nuclear weapons. And, clearly, they was. And I absolutely supported what happened last June. Imagine if people just listened to the conventional wisdom, that they could have possibly have acquired a bomb if we -- weren't bombed back in June.

So, yes, there is a threat. It's not imminent that it could happen right now. But it's one that I think is entirely appropriate to deal with it. And that's why I support it. So, again, people keep -- describe that it was a legal war.

Now, read -- read the War Powers Act. And, now, that has not been violated at this point what happened yesterday.

BASH: Well, let me ask you about that, because your colleague from Kentucky, Republican Senator Rand Paul, posted: "The Constitution conferred the power to declare or initiate war to Congress for a reason, to make war less likely. My oath of office is to the Constitution. So, with studied care, I must oppose another presidential war."

So, just to be clear, it doesn't concern you that President Trump is -- launched these strikes? I understand that he came to the so-called Gang of Eight, the leadership and members of the Intelligence Committee. But more broadly, if these strikes continue, you don't think Congress should have a role?

FETTERMAN: I -- first of all, what does -- who does Rand Paul agree with? He doesn't even agree with Republicans. He voted against them too now.

So, I really don't -- I don't follow him and I don't really use his kinds of insights in all of it. So what happened -- what happened yesterday was incredibly successful. And, now, Iran was trying to acquire a nuclear bomb and they have the kinds of missile technology that could inflict significant damage in Israel and our American forces as well too.

Here we were. They refused to negotiate. They refused to change a different way forward. And now I fully support that. And now, if you talk about the War Powers Act, that -- that wasn't broken now. So that's -- that's the conversation that we're now.

And I don't understand why we can't just say, thank God. No, we weren't lost any -- any soldiers. And we were incredibly effective about destroying the Iranian leadership. And there wasn't any kind of outcry from parts of the left after Iran executed about 30,000 of their young people that were just simply just protesting for democracy.

Why? Why can't we just objectively say what Israel has been able to accomplish since they were calling for a cease-fire back in 2024? Hamas would be still there. Sinwar would be alive. Hezbollah would be allowed to fire thousands of rockets into Israel now too, and then now Houthis too.

And Iran would be able to be perceived as a strong military presence in the region.

BASH: Yes.

FETTERMAN: Turns out it really wasn't effective.

So here we are. We're in a much better place now. If anyone wants those things that they claim that they do, like peace, then they can never allow Iran to acquire nuclear bomb, when someone actually did that that could actually make sure that's possible.

And I'm open to a better opportunity for more, more peace and prosperity for the Iranian people, for more security that Israel deserves.

BASH: All right.

FETTERMAN: So that's a point. And this was not an illegal war, based on terms of what the War Powers Act is.

BASH: Senator, thank you so much for your time this morning. I really appreciate it.

FETTERMAN: Thank you.

BASH: Coming up: As Iranians face an uncertain future, what do they hope will happen next?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:44:16]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(CHEERING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Those are cheers ringing out in the streets of Tehran shortly after news broke that the supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, was dead.

With Khamenei's death, Iranians around the world are wondering what the future holds.

Here with me now are Iranian-American journalist and dissident Masih Alinejad and co-founder of the Iranian Diaspora Collective, Moja -- excuse me -- Moj Mahdara.

Moj, thank you so much for being here. Thanks to you both, actually.

I want to start with you, Moj. Well, you both have been calling for this, praying for this, working

towards this moment for years.

Moj, what is going through your mind right now, and what are your concerns about what's next?

[08:45:05]

MOJ MAHDARA, CO-FOUNDER, IRANIAN DIASPORA COLLECTIVE: Well, thanks for having us.

My hope in this moment is always for the safety of the Iranian people on the ground. They're innocent civilians who are fighting for democracy and a freedom and a change. My hope is that we continue to push through to dismantle this apparatus, to dismantle apparatuses of surveillance. We need to help the Iranian people so that they can fight this regime.

We need to think about how we're going to give them coverage so that they can come out and support an overthrowing of this government. And we need to continue to dismember the rest of the leadership, because it's not just one person, but there's about 12, 13 other people that must go that are nonnegotiable.

And so, as you can see, there's jubilation from the Iranian people. They are afraid, they are scared, and they're still in mourning over the massacre that took place earlier this year.

BASH: Yes.

And, Moj, just staying with you for a minute, I know that part of what you do is, and you have been doing, is trying to help with basics, like Internet connectivity, getting VPNs in for people who are pushing. How does that challenge present itself now, when the protesters are potentially on the cusp of and being encouraged by President Trump to be even more aggressive?

MAHDARA: The only way to responsibly support the overthrow of the government and the people of Iran is to make sure they have access to Internet communication and Starlink, to make sure that we have dismembered surveillance, dismembered all of the media, dismembered the checkpoints from the Basij that are all over Iran right now.

The checkpoints are extremely aggressive right now. We have to find a way. We're not talking about a scenario here where there's resources inside the country for them to go get arms. There's no secret militias. The IRGC is the militia inside the country.

So, we need to really think about, what is the coverage we're going to give, whether that's from air, whether that's surveillance and dismembering that? And the best thing we can continue to do is dismember the rest of the regime. And so we can't send them back out into the streets like we did earlier this year, because we have already lost 40,000, 50,000 people.

We're talking about 50,000 people still in Evin prison. And so we have a responsibility to protect.

BASH: And, Masih, pick it up from there. How do you do that, take on that responsibility to protect at this moment?

MASIH ALINEJAD, IRANIAN AMERICAN JOURNALIST AND ACTIVIST: We're talking about a nation that they are aware of the risk.

And we are talking about the nation that have faced massacre. More than 32,000 people have been killed. And guess what? Immediately, they turned the mourning into a massive uprising against Ali Khamenei. So I am worried, because I know that my people deserve to have a secular democracy to end this regime.

But I want the U.S. government to be precise. I want the Israeli government to be precise, accurate, strategic, calculated, targeted military action against not only the military leaders, but also the political leaders should be removed.

And let me just make it clear. This is the moment that Iranian people have been waiting for 47 years, the year actually when the same regime took American diplomats hostage. That strike should have been done 47 years ago. The West waited too long.

But I think we need to welcome this, because this is a war brought to the Islamic Republic by the warmonger regime. And I talk to people every single day. I have family there. I have nobody here. All my family, my beloved family, my friends, my brother, my mom, my dad, my sister, they all live in Iran.

But now this is the moment. If we want to reduce the risk, if we want to end endless war in the region, we have to end the Islamic Republic, the root cause of chaos, the root cause of misery, the root cause of mayhem. Look, my people have been suffering for 47 years.

In America yesterday, I took to the streets. My sisters -- I hugged every single American, because I was heartbroken when I saw Mamdani, the Mayor Mamdani's tweet, sympathizing with the Islamic Republic, no single word condemning the massacre.

I took to the New York. I said this beautiful city in New York saved my life. New York is my city. I need to hug my people.

BASH: Right.

ALINEJAD: I need to talk to them. Left people, right people, Trump supporters, the Democrats, they all hugged me.

When it comes to support the lives of innocent people, America is united. The time has come for politicians, Republican, Democrats, to be united for human rights, for global security.

BASH: On that, Moj, the American political leaders are not united. You heard Masih talk about the tweet from the New York mayor.

[08:50:08] A lot of Democrats are calling this an illegal war. What do they not get that you want them to understand about the way that the people in Iran feel?

MAHDARA: I think that it is imperative the Democratic Party wake up and get past their dislike of Donald Trump, of President Trump, and their feelings of international conflicts going on.

This is about national security. This is about what is possible in the Middle East. This is about being a good neighbor, good partner to the Gulf states and what their aspirations are. This is about supporting the people of Venezuela.

This is about dismembering our relationship with -- or not dismembering, but resetting our relationship with China. Right now, 55 percent of the oil production that Iran produces goes to China, despite sanctions.

You want to support the people of Ukraine, you want to end that war, you have -- there is no getting around dismembering this Islamic Republic. It is nonnegotiable. It is not a want-to-have. It is a have- to-have, and it's not just for the Iranian people.

I think you have to trust the Iranian people. We know this government better than anyone else. When you dismember and decapitate this regime, you are going to see a change in the Middle East, in Venezuela, in China, in Ukraine. And I think, quite frankly, their ideology has really -- it's caused a lot of problems for us worldwide.

We need to take it seriously. And I think, at this point, we have a tremendous opportunity. This will be like ending the Soviet Union, the Berlin Wall. This is a transformational moment for humankind, for security.

And, as an American, as an American, this is in our interest to complete it. So I am a Democrat. I have been a huge Democrat. I am incredibly disappointed with my party. I do not see myself in them in this moment.

BASH: Moj and Masih, thank you both for being here.

Masih, get some rest on that throat. Appreciate it. I know your cheering has probably caught up with you.

ALINEJAD: This is a Berlin Wall moment. This is a Berlin Wall moment. Just tear this wall down. Then America will be safe without the Islamic Republic.

BASH: OK. Thanks...

ALINEJAD: I love America. I love Iran.

BASH: Thanks to you both. Appreciate it.

ALINEJAD: Thank you.

BASH: When we come back, a short trip down memory lane.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:56:39]

BASH: There's always a tweet, like this one: "Remember that I predicted a long time ago that President Obama will attack Iran because of his inability to negotiate properly, not skilled."

That was Donald Trump in 2013 as a private citizen.

A few years later, after running for president, partly on a pledge to end foreign wars, Trump declared that -- quote -- "Going into the Middle East is the worst decision ever made."

Now, it's not just Trump. Just before the 2024 election, one of his top advisers, Stephen Miller, declared -- quote -- "Warmongering neocons love sending your kids to die for wars they would never fight themselves. Kamala equals World War III. Trump equals peace."

And then there's J.D. Vance, who in 2023 endorsed Donald Trump with his op-ed -- quote -- "Trump's best foreign policy not starting any wars. He has my support in 2024 because I know he won't recklessly send Americans to fight overseas."

Now, Vice President Vance on Saturday morning, you see him there. He was with the president in the Situation Room monitoring the events in Iran. Sitting next to him is the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard.

In 2019, she tweeted -- quote -- "President Trump seems determined to go to war with Iran even after he championed" -- excuse me -- "even after he campaigned on the platform of ending regime change wars."

Gabbard felt so strongly about avoiding war in Iran, she even sold "No War With Iran" T-shirts.

What a difference a few years makes.

Don't go anywhere. "STATE OF THE UNION" is going to continue next. We have interviews with leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee, both Democrat and Republican, and the president of Israel.

Stay with us.