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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
U.S. and Israel Signal Attacks on Iran About to Intensify; Hegseth: Iran Making "Bad Miscalculation" if it Thinks U.S. will Slow Strikes; Trump Fires Noem, Taps GOP Sen. Mullin as New DHS Chief. DHS Secretary Noem Ousted After Controversial Tenure; Trump Appoints Noem As Special Envoy For The Shield Of The Americas, A Previously Nonexistent Role; Iran Strikes Kurdish Groups In Iraq; Sources: CIA Working To Arm Kurdish Forces To Spark Uprising In Iran; Hegseth: Firepower Over Iran About To "Surge Dramatically"; Trump Says He Must Be Involved In Picking Iran's New Leader; CENTCOM; Iranian Missile And Drone Strikes Down Significantly. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired March 05, 2026 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Trump says Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin will take her job. Kristi Noem is set to leave her role as DHS Secretary at the end of this month.
All right, well, thanks so much for joining us live here from Tel Aviv with all of the developments in the war tonight.
I'll be back here tomorrow starting at 1:00 P.M. Eastern. And also, of course, for OutFront at 7:00 P.M.
AC360 though, starts right now.
[20:00:34]
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER: 360": Good evening, thanks for joining us.
Two big stories dominate the hour, the war and the firing of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, whose department mission is, among many other things, protecting Americans from Iranian reprisals at home. We begin with the war and new signals that strikes on Iran like this one will intensify.
That is a provincial government office being hit in the northwestern city of Bukan. Defense Secretary Hegseth late today promising more, saying, "We have just begun".
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETE HEGSETH, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF WAR SECRETARY: Our capabilities are overwhelming and gathering still, as are those of our Israeli partners. Our munitions are full up and our will is ironclad, which means our timeline is ours and ours alone to control.
(END VIDEO CLIP) COOPER: For its part, Israel says it is moving into the, "next phase
of its joint offensive with the U.S." and Iran continues to strike at countries in the region. This is new video of an explosion not far from Israel's Ben Gurion Airport.
Starting off, our CNN global war coverage tonight in Iraq is CNN chief international correspondent, Clarissa Ward. Also, in Tel Aviv is CNN's Jeremy Diamond. I want to go first to Clarissa.
So, Clarissa, President Trump said today that he would be all for the Kurds launching some sort of an uprising in Iran. What are you hearing about any possible movement on that front?
CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, at the moment, the Iranian Kurdish forces on the ground that we have spoken to continue to say that they are preparing themselves, that they will go in when the moment is ready. We did hear an interesting thing today, speaking to a car dealer in Irbil who said that two days ago, a man with one of these Iranian Kurdish militias were not going to name which militia it was, went in and purchased 50 Toyota Land Cruisers.
Obviously, this is coming at a time where everybody is watching very closely to see if potentially these Iranian Kurdish Forces could launch some kind of a ground offensive with U.S. and Israeli support, as they have indicated they are wanting to do.
But it's very important to underscore, Anderson, that they are facing some really stiff resistance from within Iraqi Kurdistan. The leadership here does not want to get involved with this, does not want to risk being seen as taking a position, as not being neutral. They have been warned by Iran that if they allow their territory to be used as a launch pad for any kind of a ground offensive that they will pay severe repercussions.
And we have seen those severe repercussions, and we have seen how the Iranian regime is already cracking down on the mere possibility of a ground offensive. There have been a steady stream of strikes, missiles and drones on those Iranian Kurdish Militia positions since this reporting first came to light. So, a lot of tension here amid, you know, growing speculation that some kind of a ground offensive could possibly take place -- Anderson.
COOPER: Jeremy, Iran claims to have launched a hybrid drone and missile attack against Israel tonight. What have you heard about that?
JEREMEY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, yes, that's' right, Anderson, that is the claim from Iran, although it's not clear what the significance of that is exactly in particular, because we understand that about 99 percent of drones that are fired towards Israeli territory from Iran are intercepted. And it's not the same kind of aerial defense systems that are intercepting those drones versus those ballistic missiles.
So, it's not clear that it makes it that much more effective for the Iranians. But we do know that tonight one of those ballistic missiles did make it through Israel's air defense system. It struck an area near Israel's Ben Gurion International Airport, setting a warehouse on fire, damaging several residential buildings in the area.
We've seen some images of that ballistic missile as it was coming in. There's been some speculation, the possibility that this could be carrying some kind of cluster munition an accusation that the Israeli military has leveled against the Iranians several times in the last week so far.
We don't have confirmation that that was indeed the type of munition that was used here but nonetheless, we know that, you know, it was the first time in a few days that we've seen one of these missiles actually get through the air defense systems and strike near a populated area, notably happening on the first day that Israel began to reopen its airspace allowing flights, repatriating Israelis to come back here.
But it is clear that Iran's ballistic missile capabilities have been severely impacted, seeing fewer of those ballistic missiles being fired towards Israel as the Israeli military says that it has now destroyed some 60 percent of Iran's ballistic missile launchers inside Iranian territory.
[20:05:40]
COOPER: Clarissa, in terms of any kind of cross-border operation, any kind of offensive by a Kurdish Force, just what are the capabilities of whatever group might be involved with this if any, if any, is being funded to do this? I mean, how many personnel do they have? What sort of weaponry do they have?
WARD: Well, I think you've hit on a really key question here, Anderson, which is perhaps why so many people feel anxious about the possibility that this could actually take effect. You have many different Iranian Kurdish groups here, six of them who are part of this coalition.
They have potentially thousands of fighters, but most of them are carrying light arms. We don't know of them having any heavy weaponry. One of the groups actually, today made a claim that effectively they have lots of tunnels which we have known about for some time now. But again, it's just so difficult to know how on earth they would be able to pull something like this off without serious support from the U.S. and Israel. And even President Trump's comments today, Anderson, they didn't really definitively give a sense as to whether the U.S. would be willing to really actively support some kind of an effort like this with major air cover, with serious arming.
Another group has said that they already have fighters inside Iran who are ready to rise up at any given moment, but very difficult to sift through, what is real, what is partially propaganda, and that really feeding to this unease. And I just want to close with one thing that the Iraqi First-Lady said, which was I think, quite powerful. She said, leave the Kurds alone, we are not guns for hire.
COOPER: Jeremy, Israel has also stepped-up bombardment of Lebanon, obviously, looking at Hezbollah targets, talk about the significance of that. DIAMOND: Yes, we're seeing a real escalation in this new front that we
are watching of this regional war after Hezbollah a few days ago fired rockets towards Northern Israel, entering the fray giving Israel a pretext for an operation that they have been planning for months now really.
And we've seen both Israeli troops moving into parts of Southern Lebanon. But also today, what was really significant was seeing this massive evacuation order that Israel issued for almost the entirety of the Dahia, this southern suburb of Beirut, that is also a Hezbollah stronghold. Hundreds of thousands of people tonight have been forced to flee their homes as a result of that evacuation order. And within hours of that order being issued, the Israeli military began bombarding that area of the Lebanese capital.
And we don't yet know the scale of the destruction from that bombardment. But this evacuation order is something that we haven't seen even in previous rounds of this conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. We didn't even see it last time when the Israeli military, over a year ago first launched its ground incursion into Lebanon. And so, it really just signals the kind of decisiveness with which Israel is trying to blow Hezbollah away. As the Israeli military's chief-of- staff said, is the goal a few days ago. And obviously the consequences of that for the Lebanese people are enormous as we are witnessing yet another humanitarian crisis beginning to unfold with so many people now out of their homes, many of them living on the streets tonight -- Anderson.
COOPER: Jeremy Diamond, thanks very much, Clarissa Ward as well.
I want to bring in CNN global affairs analyst Brett McGurk, who served in senior National Security posts under the last four Presidents, including during President Trump's first term. Brett, Secretary Hegseth also said today that Iran is making a bad miscalculation. In his words, if it thinks the U.S. will slow strike six days in, where do you think this is heading? And do you still think Iran is hoping to kind of basically buy time?
BRETT MCGURK, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Exactly, I think stepping back, heading into a one-week mark, good time to kind of make an assessment and I think you hit the mark there. I'm reminded of something, Anderson, the Taliban used to say about the Americans. You might remember this, that the Americans have the watches, but we own the time.
America might have military proficiency, but end of the day, they'll be there and we won't. And I've spent a lot of time, Anderson, through hostage negotiations with the most ideological part of Iran's system, the Intelligence Services and the Revolutionary Guards, that's exactly how they think.
[20:10:28]
And if you kind of step back of what they are trying to do, they are trying to shorten the clock for the United States, that's closing the Strait of Hormuz, that's trying to expand the conflict today, drones into Azerbaijan. So, they are trying to create this sense of mayhem and chaos. I'm sure they are watching oil markets. They're watching stock markets. That's kind of how they think. So, that is clearly what they're trying to do.
And then, on the U.S. side, I thought the press briefing at the Pentagon today was very instructive because they actually, you could see Brad Cooper the CENTCOM Commander and Hegseth, really answering this saying we have the will, we own the clock. We will determine how this goes, and we're prepared to sustain it.
This is classic going back to doctrine. You and I have talked about Clausewitz. War is a contest of wills. That's kind of where we are. And I think I actually think the U.S. Military campaign is proceeding on plan and really reducing Iran's ability to project power outward. I mean drone attacks are way down. Missile attacks are way down, as reported today by 90 percent, missile attacks by 86 percent, drone attacks. But they can still get these things off. And that still doesn't answer the other question, Anderson, if you achieve that military mission and, in that briefing, today, again, it was the most disciplined briefing I have seen since this started.
They said, the Pentagon briefers said that the missions are narrow and scoped. If you achieve that main mission of reducing Iran's ability to project power outside its borders, that is a key objective that does not address Iran's ability to project power inside its borders against its own people. And that addresses this issue with the Kurds and kind of where that's going and that's the political end state.
So, a lot going on here. But the core of it is this test of wills. Iran is trying to basically cause mayhem. So that President Trump ultimately pulls the plug before the military campaign can go to its conclusion.
COOPER: Well, to that point of what happens once, you know, the target list has been gone through, U.S. has air superiority, but doesn't want to put boots on the ground. What happens then? Secretary Hegseth, the CENTCOM commander, reiterated that the Iranian people today should lay low in their words right now until it's time to seize the advantage. What does that signal to you? I mean, I'm not sure even, what, how that would work?
MCGURK: This is going to approach an inflection point. It might be three weeks from now, four weeks from now where the military commanders say, we've carried out the campaign. We've actually hit every target we want to hit and we believe we've achieved the narrow military objectives. And there are two questions open there. Number one, are we aligned with Israel? Israel might have much broader objectives. It seems they do. And they might want to keep going. That's going to be a key inflection point.
And then secondly is this political end state. We can either say, Anderson, we have degraded Iran's ability to project power outside its borders, and then you can go through missiles and drones and Navy and the institutional security apparatus of the state. It's now up to the Iranian people or you can say, we're going to stay over the top of Iran. We're going to stay engaged and call on the people to rise up. These are huge questions, Anderson, and it's pretty clear I don't
think these fourth, fifth order steps have been totally thought through, but they're coming, they're coming. They're going to be coming, you know, over the course of the coming weeks.
COOPER: Yes, Brett McGurk, thanks very much. We're going to continue our work coverage throughout this hour, including more on what we touched on a bit at the top. Will Kurdish fighters actually join the battle? The President today said he is, "all for it". We'll be joined by former CIA officer who has worked with the Kurds before.
Next, though, the firing of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, a major development for this administration and everything that may have brought her down, including ads like this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KRISTI NOEM, FORMER U.S. HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: Anyone who searches for freedom can always find a home here, but that freedom is a precious thing, and we defend it vigorously.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:18:33]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NOEM: Why do I love these wide-open spaces? They remind me of why our forefathers came here, not just for its beauty, but for the freedom only America provides. I'm Kristi Noem.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, commercials like those may have been part of Kristi Noem's downfall. Today, she was fired as DHS Secretary. That ad where she saddled up was one of a series of spots which reportedly cost taxpayers nearly a quarter billion dollars, and her Congressional testimony about it seems to have been the final straw, or a final straw for President Trump. There were plenty of other straws already.
In any case, the President made the announcement on social media about 20 minutes before she was scheduled to speak in Nashville. The President named her replacement Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin, and said that Secretary Noem would soon be taking up a new job special envoy for security initiative, called the Shield of the Americas.
He promised to give more details on that over the weekend from his golf resort near Miami. There is little question, however, that it is a downgrade from running an agency of a quarter million men and women charged with protecting Americans from security threats at home, especially with the country at war against a longtime sponsor of global terror.
Again, this comes after a string of public missteps, many of which came up in congressional hearings this week with a number of Republicans, including senator and Trump loyalist John Kennedy, leading the charge.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN KENNEDY (R-LA): The President approved ahead of time you are spending $220 million running T.V. ads across the country in which you are featured prominently.
NOEM: Yes sir, we went through the legal processes, did it correctly, worked with OMB.
KENNEDY: Did the President know you're going to do this?
NOEM: Yes.
KENNEDY: He did?
NOEM: Yes.
KENNEDY: Okay.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[20:20:10]
COOPER: Well, the President is on record saying he did not and CNN has learned he did not like the Secretary implicating him. This is how "PROPUBLICA" last fall headlined their story on the ads, "Firm tied to Kristi Noem secretly got money from $220 million DHS ad contracts".
The company is run by the husband of Noem's chief, DHS spokesperson and has personal and business ties to Noem and her aides. "PROPUBLICA" also reports that DHS invoked what it termed the emergency at the border to actually skirt competitive bidding rules for the ad contracts. One of which went to a company run by the ex-husband of former DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin.
Now, another worth some $143 million, was awarded to an outfit which had only been in business for less than two weeks. If the President was bothered about it at the time, he didn't say. He wasn't troubled either at the time by Secretary Noem's appetite for the cameras and cosplay as she traveled from one photo op to another, frequently with her aide, Corey Lewandowski, sometimes in a customized Boeing 737 equipped with a bedroom. But that may have changed with her testimony about it and other things this week.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. SHELDON WHITEHOUSE (D-RI): Could you explain this?
NOEM: Sir, I'm looking at a picture of an interior, looks like a bedroom.
WHITEHOUSE: Of an airplane?
NOEM: Yes sir.
WHITEHOUSE: You're not familiar with that?
NOEM: These photos are not accurate. If you're referring to the airplanes that the Department of Homeland Security has purchased and are purchasing. We're using them for long-range command and control aircraft. That is dictated in statute by Congress for the Department of Homeland Security to have a plane --
WHITEHOUSE: So, you did not use a luxury jet with a bedroom in it?
NOEM: No, we used a 737.
WHITEHOUSE: Does it have a bedroom?
NOEM: In fact, we spent $1.442 billion on ICE deportation flights last year.
WHITEHOUSE: Does it have a bedroom in it?
NOEM: I believe it's being refurbished and not having a bedroom in it. So, it is being refurbished.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, she, Kristi Noem, of course is married, Corey Lewandowski is married. He is expected to leave DHS as well.
He told "The New York Post" today that he would not speculate on whether testimony like this about the two of them before the House Judiciary Committee cost her the DHS job, but it was certainly more bad publicity for the administration.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. SYDNEY KAMLAGER-DOVE (D-CA): So, Secretary Noem, at any time during your tenure as Director of Department of Homeland Security, have you had sexual relations with Corey Lewandowski?
NOEM: Mr. Chairman, I am shocked that were going down and peddling tabloid garbage in this committee today.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, she was pressed repeatedly on the subject and continued to give answers like that, but never once denied the allegation. Another factor in her departure might have been the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis or the lies she told in the wake of them.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NOEM: When you perpetuate violence against a government because of ideological reasons and for reasons to resist and perpetuate violence, that is the definition of domestic terrorism.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, she said that just hours after Alex Pretti's killing. Here's what she said under oath this week.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD): You said that they were domestic terrorists. Do you regret that?
NOEM: I offer my condolences to those family and I can't --
RASKIN: Based on what you know today, were Renee Good and Alex Pretti domestic terrorists?
NOEM: -- there's ongoing investigations and so I can't --
RASKIN: So, you still don't know? You think that's an open question?
NOEM: I would think you would want there to still be investigations going into these situations.
RASKIN: We'll you stated the conclusion two hours after they were killed that they were domestic terrorists.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Again, we do not know what motivated the President to fire her, only that he had plenty to choose from, which the hearing this week threw a spotlight on even the admission she made in her memoirs, which sparked headlines when she was appointed that she had shot and killed her dog, Cricket, because she was, "untrainable".
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. THOM TILLIS (R-NC): The passage where you talk about killing a dog that was 14-months old. I trained dogs, all right. And you are a farmer, you should know better.
You decided to kill that dog because you had not invested the appropriate time in training and then you have the audacity to go into a book and say it's a leadership lesson about tough choices.
But my point is, those are bad decisions made in the heat of the moment, not unlike what happened up in Minneapolis. I expect we're an exceptional nation, and one of the reasons were exceptional is we expect exceptional leadership. And you've demonstrated anything but that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: And CNN's Kaitlan Collins joins us now with more. Kaitlan, in any other administration, in the modern history, if the -- well, since the Homeland Security Department was formed, if the Secretary of Homeland Security had awarded no bid contracts for more than $100 million to companies that were newly created, that had ties to people that she worked with and knew and had relationships with. I mean, she would have, that person would have been investigated at the very least. Is there any sense that there are, I mean, this Department of Justice hasn't shown any indication that it's going to investigate these contracts, but in any other administration, I would think they would be investigated.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN'S CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT AND THE ANCHOR OF "THE SOURCE": Yes, they haven't shown any inkling of that that that's happening. We don't have reporting on that. But there are lawmakers who are saying accusing Secretary Noem of lying under oath yesterday when she was saying that it wasn't done by Corey Lewandowski. Of course, the person who's been serving as a special government employee to her.
[20:25:58]
But I think in that moment, and this is actually something that has bothered and rankled a lot of people in the President's orbit. These contracts, how they were awarded, the fact that they spent a quarter of a billion dollars on these ads that you see here, prominently featuring Secretary Noem.
A lot of people had actually tried to get the President's focus on this because they knew that he wouldn't like it. It was something that a lot of people have been talking about here in Washington for months now, but it wasn't until that line of questioning from Senator Kennedy, which he told reporters he gave The White House a heads up that he wasn't going to have friendly questions for the DHS Secretary when she came before his committee.
It was that line of questioning, though that got the Presidents attention, and particularly, Anderson, where he asked if the President had signed off on her doing these ads for $220 million and she quickly answers, yes, there. And obviously, the President contradicted that today and told "Reuters" that he had not signed off on it.
And when we asked The White House about that today they just pointed to his own comment here. That was really the last straw for him, because the President does not like when people are using money around him that is tied to him, whether its taxpayer money or his own political money for their own benefit. And he also doesn't like when people try to eclipse him or try to use him to build their own profile. And those are two things that are kind of the third rail in President Trump's orbit and a lot of people know that. And obviously, this crossed the line here with Secretary Noem.
Someone who I should note, though, has been on thin ice basically since January, since the killing of the two Americans at the hands of federal agents. I was there in the Cabinet meeting that day in late January when the President, you know notably skipped over her, something I've never seen him do because the Department of Homeland Security is one he is deeply invested in, it's one of his favorites.
And so, I mean, that moment kind of said it all and put the writing on the wall, but obviously it culminated in this today where the President was so frustrated by that and finally took this moment to do something that, it's actually really notable because he is not wanting to fire anyone from his Cabinet.
I mean, notice he's just, any time they've moved people around, they've shifted them to other jobs. He's not wanted to have the same turnover that he did in his first term. So, it is notable that he still went as far as he did to take this step because he's really resisted doing so, so far.
COOPER: Yes Kaitlan, we'll see you at the top of the hour on "The Source". One of Kaitlan's guests could be retired U.S. Army General and former CIA Director David Petraeus.
More perspective now from the co-founder and editor in chief of "The Dispatch," Jonah Goldberg, and former Republican Congressman, now CNN senior political commentator Adam Kinzinger.
So, congressman, you said in a social media post that you believe Kristi Noem should have been fired long ago. What was it that you think she should have been fired for? Because there's sort of a long list of possibilities?
ADAM KINZINGER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, I mean, there's a huge long list, but I certainly think right after two Americans were killed and the first reaction is to say, we're not going to do an investigation, these were domestic terrorists, et cetera. That should have been the moment that she was fired. But this is an administration that doesn't ever admit wrongdoing and what's amazing to me, Anderson is, I know Kristi Noem. I was elected with her.
When she was elected to the House of Representatives, she came in as kind of this new generation so-called moderate, not necessarily in how she voted, but just in her, in her -- the way she acted was very focused on her local area. And something happened between that when she was elected governor and now that took her completely personally off the rails between this Corey Lewandowski situation. And between just seeing her speak every time, and seeing a person that I never imagined could come out of who the Kristi Noem I knew was.
So, I hope whatever is going on, she gets help. But I've got to tell you, it is another lesson no matter who you are, if you're associated with Donald Trump and you work for him, you'll eventually be thrown under the bus all you can do is hope to buy yourself some time.
COOPER: Well, I mean, Jonah, there has been no one who has been more, you know slavishly loyal in public pronouncements and praise to his face than Kristi Noem in those Cabinet meetings. Do you agree with the congressman that ultimately why do you think she was fired?
JONAH GOLDBERG, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, I mean look, I mean, I wouldn't have hired her for shooting the dog alone, right? And I hope everyone realizes that now that she's out of this job, she's on the loose and that you protect their animals. But I also would say that, you know, look, the way she conducted herself as DHS Secretary in some really, you know, highly charged situations where she would have more wardrobe changes than a Liberace telethon, right?
[20:30:50] She took it -- the whole thing is sort of a reality show joke and she
was not qualified for the job in the first place. But I agree with Adam entirely that but for Minneapolis, she should have been fired for Minneapolis, her handling of that, rushing to judgment, calling someone a terrorist with no evidence.
But I don't think that she would have been fired for this had it not been for the fact that Trump is now 20 points underwater on his signature issue of immigration and everybody in the White House basically blames her for that. When Trump is underwater on immigration and polling badly on it, there's going to be a scapegoat and it's not going to be Stephen Miller.
COOPER: Well, it's interesting, Congressman, because on the, you know, on the one hand, she was fired abruptly. She was pulling up to a speaking event. The President appointed her to a position that is nonexistent or has never existed as a special envoy for something called the Shield of the Americas, which is a previously nonexistent thing and a nonexistent role as a special envoy.
What does that indicate to you? If anything, I mean, it's just about kind of keeping her, you know, within the circle of love, but kind of from a far distance away and in a place that no one will listen to her?
ADAM KINZINGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, that's part of that. I also think, look, Donald Trump, the reason he hasn't fired anybody really until her is because it's all about owning the libs. That's what this whole thing is. And when they fire somebody, they know that people are going to go on TV. It's going to make Donald Trump look bad in that he backed down or he hired somebody that he ultimately had to fire.
So they've made a decision. I think Donald Trump has made a decision that unlike his first administration where people were fired every two or three weeks by tweet always because he can never do it in person. Now, unlike that, he's going to hang on to people. And I think that's part of it.
I've already seen on Twitter the discussion of she wasn't actually fired. She's promoted or she was moved to a lateral position. Look at like Mike Waltz. He was the NSA guy, and then he ends up being the U.N. ambassador who, by the way, today voted with Russia against Ukraine and saying that the attacks on the energy infrastructure was wrong. It blows me away.
But that's what it is. They don't fire people. They move them into other positions because they never want to admit that Donald Trump made a bad hire.
COOPER: Jonah, what do you think about Markwayne Mullin for the job?
GOLDBERG: Well, look, just as a resume, he's not particularly well- suited, you know, for the job, but he is respected on -- he has good relationships on both sides of the aisle in the Senate. He's carried more water than Gunga Din as a mouthpiece for the administration. And that's getting well rewarded.
And you got to remember, look, the fundamental policies on immigration aren't going to change, but that doesn't mean you can't get some improvement. You know, Tom Homan is a very hard line guy, but he's also a professional and he understands, like, how to conduct himself in a very important position.
I think Mullin will try to be more like Tom Homan than he will be try to be like Kristi Noem. And that will be an improvement over the status quo.
COOPER: Yes. I think that's kind of a goal for anybody in life to not go down the Kristi Noem route.
Jonah Goldberg -- although she's -- I've never met somebody who likes costumes as much as my four-year-old, but I think maybe she does. Jonah Goldberg, Adam Kinzinger, thanks very much.
Up next, Iran strikes the headquarters of a Kurdish opposition group in Iraq as the CIA works to arm Kurdish forces to help incite an uprising in Iran. We'll hear more from a former CIA officer who has worked with the Kurds before.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:38:35]
COOPER: Looking at a salvo in Iran's airstrikes on Kurdish opposition group in Iraq. This action comes as CNN reports that the CIA is working to arm Kurdish fighters to enlist them to try to stir up an anti-regime uprising in Iran. President Trump said today that he is, quote, "all for" end quote, Kurdish forces inciting a rebellion.
I want to talk about Bob Baer, a former CIA officer who worked with the Kurds in Iraq in the mid-90s. So Bob, you spent a lot of time working with the Kurds, I understand, on the ground in Iraq when you were CIA officer. What is your view on the idea of the U.S. arming the Kurds or encouraging them to somehow foment or attempt to foment some sort of an uprising?
ROBERT BAER, FORMER CIA OFFICER: Well, with the Kurds, they're not entirely reliable. At one point when I was in northern Iraq, there was a Kurdish group that moved into Iran and started shelling our positions. They knew they were aiming at our side, the CIA at the time. So their relations with the Iranians differs a lot.
On the other hand, one group under me overran three divisions, Iraqi divisions at the time. So if you can get the Kurds truly on board and starting a guerrilla warfare against Iran, it could work. But you'd also want to really bring the regime down or weaken it.
[20:40:00]
You'd want the Azeris, you'd want the Baloch, you want the Arabs, the Iranian Arabs to all be part of this, because something like 45 to 50 percent of Iran are ethnic minorities. In order -- but the Kurds are not going to march on Tehran. They'll weaken it, but they're not going to march on Tehran.
COOPER: I mean, just realistically, if you have hundreds of thousands of Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps members who are well armed and trained and you have militia members inside Iran as well supporting the government who have arms, what impact can, I don't know, a thousand or I'm not even sure what the numbers of these, you know, alleged fighters would be, what kind of an impact can they actually have?
I mean, like, in the whole history of CIA operations, even going back to the, you know, Vietnam War, when has this really worked, like getting a small band of armed people to cross into a border, cross into another country and try to overthrow the government?
BAER: It's never worked. Having been on the front lines and tried it myself, every time I was involved I failed to get these groups to bring down a central government. And the Kurds alone, the Iranian Kurds, if they take on the IRGC, they're going to get chewed up.
COOPER: So, what would it -- do you have any sense of even the size of these groups at this point?
BAER: We're talking tens of thousands at most, but remember, Anderson, they're not combat trained. They're not like the Kurds that were fighting in Syria or even the Kurds that fought against Saddam Hussein. And even then they failed. And after the war was over, they felt betrayed by us. So it's not only the Kurds not really prepared to take on the IRGC, they don't particularly trust the United States.
COOPER: Bob Baer, I appreciate you being on. Thank you so much.
Coming up next, a look at the bigger picture. We'll be joined by Retired Army Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt when our CNN Global War coverage continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:46:32]
COOPER: And welcome back. We have some breaking news. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says attacks in Iran are going to escalate decisively and that the capabilities of U.S. and Israeli forces are overwhelming. He also insists that the U.S. is not running short of munitions.
The head of U.S. Central Command says Iran's air defenses have been significantly destroyed and that now more than 30 Iranian naval vessels have been sunk. He also said 200 targets deep inside Iran have been struck in the last 72 hours and that Iran's ability to launch missiles and drones is seriously diminished.
I'm joined at the map table by Retired Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt and CNN National Security Analyst Alex Plitsas. General, it's good to have you here.
BRIG. GEN. MARK KIMMITT (RET.), U.S. ARMY: Yes. Good to see you. COOPER: Just big picture, how do you see the operation as it is now and where it's going?
KIMMITT: Well, I think from a military planner point of view, they've hit their first objective in a sense of Phase 1. Phase 1, we're going after leadership targets, air defense targets, go against those offensive capabilities they have, missiles, drones, probably haven't done as much to drones as we'd like.
But now that they've got air superiority, they're moving to the second phase. They no longer, as General Caine said, have to go standoff. Now they're going stand in. They don't have to use standoff capabilities. They don't have to use stealth. They now can bring in the bulk of the aircraft and the bulk of the weapons and the bulk of the ammunition.
COOPER: Which may be slower aircraft or -- they -- if they have air -- sorry, if they're not worried about missiles being fired up, they can loiter over airspace and really pick their targets.
KIMMITT: And they can bring in the B-52, which can drop an awful lot of JDAMs.
COOPER: Alex, from your standpoint, where do you see things?
ALEX PLITSAS, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: So I completely agree with General Kimmitt. And if you take a look at the map here, right, we can see where the concentration of the strikes have been sort of inside of Iran. And this is reflective of the comments the chairman made earlier this week in one of his press conferences, in that as the operation continues, we'll move further into Iran.
So he also gave a nuance where they said that we've got localized air supremacy. So that means we've taken out and cleared all the air defenses basically going into this region. So there may be still some that sort of loiters over here. But as we've seen from the attacks on the GCC countries in the last couple of days, they're expanding the infrastructure that they're hitting.
And so they're also having to ensure that they're balancing taking out those offensive weapons General Kimmitt was talking about, not just for us, but also to protect our GCC partners in, you know, in Qatar, in Bahrain, in the UAE, in Kuwait, where we've had a lot of large strikes.
And then recently today, they actually -- they struck up in Azerbaijan, which has an interesting relationship between Israel and the Kurds and everybody else. And I kind of saw that as a warning shot to Azerbaijan after the leaks about a potential Kurdish offensive that not to get involved.
COOPER: This map now is just showing some of the areas where Iran has struck more recently. General, in terms of Iranian capabilities, I mean, if, you know, obviously the Supreme Leader was killed, how decentralized right now are -- is decision making? Do you have any sense or does (INAUDIBLE)? KIMMITT: Well, I think at the highest level, it's all coming back together. Ahmad Wahidi, who started the IRGC is now back running the IRGC Kurds force. He also was the former defense minister.
So I would suspect that we're eventually going to see a campaign like Israel used with Hezbollah. Slice at the top first, slice, slice, slice. But there does seem to be mostly coherent operations here from something that would look like a centralized command and control. I don't think that's going to last much longer, though.
[20:50:03]
COOPER: In terms of the ability to suppress population, suppress dissent, even if their offensive capabilities have been severely degraded, that doesn't mean that their ability to kill protesters on the middle of streets --
KIMMITT: Not at all.
COOPER: -- has not --
KIMMITT: -Not at all.
COOPER: -- impacted at all.
KIMMITT: Not at all.
COOPER: It's much easier to repress at home than it is necessarily to affect change outside the borders.
PLITSAS: Right. Absolutely. I mean, because the protesters are -- and the citizens are largely unarmed. The government has the gun, so to speak. And if we've noticed the offensive weapons they're using, it's been harder because you're shooting down the arrows when we're talking about the missiles.
So now we're trying to pivot. We're trying to hit the launchers and we're trying to hit the missiles before they go out. So the states -- the stats that came out today where we got about 60 percent of the missiles and 60 percent of the launchers, but they didn't provide the hard numbers for us to tell us what's left.
But if we do a little bit of math, we probably have about two to four weeks left of them at the current rate of fire if they maintain that and if we don't take anything else out. But that's the best guesstimate because they haven't really released battle damage. But inside of Iran, for that reason, they've started now, as you were showing on the previous map, they started striking the besieged, the localized security forces, the police and the military to try to break down that order for that reason.
So just as you mentioned, that's the only thing that's going to facilitate. And we're seeing that across the country. But if you're going to have a revolution or have a civilian overthrow, you're going to have to hit those same types of targets in this half of the country. So it is very clear that we're not done with that. And the President did say today that he didn't like the choice of the replacement for the supreme leader, which was his son, indicating that he and said also that he needs to be involved in the decision for replacement. So if that happens, it's clear he's still supporting regime change. And if that's the case, that means that area's got to get hit and you're going to have to take out the rest of the localized security.
COOPER: Does that make sense to you that the Iranians would somehow give him a say in who gets elected or who gets picked as the leader?
KIMMITT: Certainly not.
COOPER: Be an unconventional decision making process.
KIMMITT: Well, we did put Mosaddegh in 1952, and there was no doubt about who did it there. But I think we're going to -- we should do it with far fewer fingerprints. We certainly want to influence the new regime to be more compliant to our negotiations so that we can get the most important outcome of this war. But to be doing it in public, over world media, in the age of the Internet, the cell phones --
COOPER: Yes.
KIMMITT: -- we're losing more support from the Iranians than we're gaining by that process.
COOPER: You know, the -- Pete Hegseth has repeatedly said this is not Iraq. You had obviously a front row seat to what happened in Iraq, the good and the terrible. In terms of the lessons learned there., I mean, you know, if you try to eliminate and wipe out the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps, is that not -- would that not be like the de- Baathification campaign where all these people who have military training and weapons no longer have a reason to support the regime and start an insurgency?
KIMMITT: The lesson from Iraq is never do it that way again. And, unfortunately, when people say regime change, they think we're talking about getting rid of the military, getting rid of the security forces, setting up stock exchanges, nation buildings, what it really amounted to. I do not believe this President has any intent on nation building in a post-regime structure. I think, in my mind, it's probably going to look more like or his intent is to look more like Venezuela.
COOPER: Which might come as a shock or a sort of clearly upsetting a lot of people who are desperate for change inside Iran.
PLITSAS: I think so because the, you know, the people are expecting a machado in Iran. They're not expecting a Delcy Rodriguez equivalent in terms of somebody from the current regime. They want somebody from the outside to sort of takeover. But to your point, I call it having Caracas goggles.
So I think, you know, the President saw a very successful initial operation, found somebody in the government to work with at the general's point. That means that you keep most of the apparatus intact and you don't have to do nation and state building. You can kind of work with what's left.
But Iran is not Venezuela. It's two very different places. And it's going to be difficult to get there.
COOPER: Yes. Alex --
KIMMITT: No, but if I heard that issue, I do not believe that we ought to count on expats coming in --
COOPER: Right.
KIMMITT: -- the way we did in Iraq. We don't need Ahmed Chalabi showing up in Tehran.
COOPER: Right.
KIMMITT: No legitimacy, no capability to bring the people together, hated because they escape while the people stay and suffer.
COOPER: Yes, Ahmed Chalabi. I hadn't heard that name quite a while. You heard it far too often.
General Kimmitt, it's a pleasure to have you here, and thanks, Alex, as well, Alex Plitsas.
Just ahead, more on Iran's ballistic missile threat and the campaign so far to try to eliminate it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:58:55]
COOPER: Well, since day one, the U.S. and Israel have been working to cripple Tehran's ballistic missile arsenal. CNN's Tom Foreman joins us now with more.
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Anderson, you're looking at a life-sized model of an Iranian missile launcher. And this is what U.S. and Israeli forces have been looking for everywhere. And indeed, by some accounts, may have destroyed half of already.
Why are they after the launchers? Because that's how you get after the missiles, which are so key to Iran's defensive and offensive operations. Missiles like the Khorramshahr-4 one of their most advanced ones here.
I'm going to push this off into the desert so we can talk about its capabilities. It's about 40 feet long. It weighs about as much as a fully loaded fire truck. It is liquid fueled, which means it has a lot of propulsion. It can travel eight times the speed of sound and it can carry a very heavy load.
If they had a nuclear weapon, military analysts say this is the rocket that would carry it. And see that yellow cone up there where the warhead goes? It's also believed to have some direction changing ability on the way back down toward the target. That's unusual in ballistic missiles and could be confounding to missile defense systems.
What about range? Can this thing reach the United States? Absolutely not. Not even close. But by best estimates, it could easily go from Iran to Israel over here, a distance from the western edge of maybe Washington, D.C. to Kansas, something like that.
And look what's in between, Saudi Arabia and Yemen and Oman and Iraq and Jordan and so many other places. Every place in the Middle East we ever talk about. That's why there's so much focus here.
COOPER: Tom Foreman, thanks.
That's it for us. The news continues. The Source with Kaitlan Collins starts now.
