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Pete Hegseth and Dan Caine Hold Press Conference; News Out of Press Conference on Iran; Daniel Shapiro is Interviewed about the Iran Strikes. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired March 02, 2026 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00]

GEN. DAN CAINE, JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN: Air Force F-15E's overnight in the region. I am grateful for the safety of the crews. And we know that this was not from hostile enemy fire. As this matter is under investigation, I'll not comment further on this.

Let me close. Operations will remain active across the theater and across the globe. The U.S. forces are postured not only to maintain pressure but to respond and adapt as required. Operation Epic Fury stands as a reminder of what the United States military uniquely delivers, the ability to project power on a global scale with speed, surprise, precision and overwhelming force when and where our nation requires it. What we've demonstrated over the past several days reflects years of investment in readiness, joint integration and professionalism of the joint force.

As major combat operations continue across CENTCOM, we remain engaged globally. America's joint force retains the credibility, capacity and flexibility to respond to any contingency anywhere in the world at any time. To those who would test our resolve or threaten the United States, our allies or our interests, understand clearly, we can reach you, we can sustain the fight, and we can scale the fight, and we will prevail.

To the American people, your joint force remains steady, frosty, calm and focused. Your service members are trained, disciplined and determined. We understand the risks of this mission and the weight of the responsibility that we carry. We also recognize that our families also shoulder the burden at home. You are a part of this too.

I am proud today, as I am every day, to stand as a member of America's joint force. There is no mission too complex, no distance too great, and no adversary too determined for the men and women who wear our nations uniform. We mourn our fallen. We honor their families, and we continue our mission with focus, unity, and strength.

And now I'm happy to take any questions.

PETE HEGSETH, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Right here. Go ahead. REPORTER: Thank you for your time. What percentage of Iranian long,

straight capabilities are still in the fight? And what is our exit strategy here? And when will it be deployed?

HEGSETH: Well, they have long range strike capabilities, which we are hyper focused on. The brief we got just this morning, Admiral Cooper knows exactly and precisely what kind of threat matrix he's looking at, the way they might change their techniques and how we adapt to that. So, we're making sure the theater commander has absolutely everything he needs.

And one of the things the chairman mentioned is, for months and months, even before we built up, we ensured that we had maximum defensive capabilities in theater to allow the president the decision space in the future. So, even before this buildup, in the last 30 days, we discreetly brought defensive assets in to make sure -- understanding that there are Iranian capabilities.

As far as timeframe, I would never hang a timeframe from our perspective. The commander in chief sets the op tempo in terms of this fight. As I said, it's on his terms. And we'll make sure that Admiral Cooper and his team have everything they need, not just to defend. I mean the best defense is a good offense. And so we are aggressively pushing into that airspace over that southern flank to ensure that we control it and we destroy anything that moves that would attempt to shoot us. Think of it as shooting the archer instead of the arrows. That's where we want to be. And we have the kind of exquisite intelligence to get over the top, find that and destroy it.

It won't happen overnight. This is a big battle space with a lot of capabilities. That's part of the reason why it's such a threat to us. That's why I talk about conventional umbrella to blackmail nuclear ambitions. They were building up this conventional arsenal in order to ensure that no one would ever block them from their ability to get nuclear weapons. So, we're very clear-eyed about the nature of this Iranian threat, and we are going to get after it.

I don't know if you have anything to add to that, Mr. Chairman.

CAINE: Thank you for the question.

The only thing I'll add is that, unlike an operation, a single operation like Midnight Hammer or Absolute Resolve, we'll -- it will take some time for us to conduct battle damage assessment. And the targeting cycle that CENTCOM will run will take those things into effect.

Admiral Cooper will adjust his plan and fires accordingly to ensure that we're attritting (ph) that. He's focused on long range strike capability coming out of the enemy. And that's a key and essential part of it.

REPORTER: The capabilities that still exist from the enemy front.

CAINE: Yes, that's what I mean when I say we're still doing BDA.

[08:35:02]

Normally, you know, normally we'd be able to see a singular thing and we'd assess pretty quickly. He's doing offense and assessment simultaneously. So, it will take longer for us to assess than it would in a single operation.

REAGAN REESE, "THE DAILY CALLER": Secretary Hegseth, thank you. Reagan Reese with "The Daily Caller."

Two questions for you.

The president said yesterday in his video message that we will leave Iran when we complete all of our objectives. What are our objectives? And can you share more information on how the soldiers who were killed were killed?

HEGSETH: Well, I laid out the objectives, as did the chairman. They're completely nested (ph). I mean Iran has an ability to project power against us and our allies in ways that we can't -- we can't tolerate. So whether that's ballistic missiles and drones, so offensive capabilities, effectively their navy, which would attempt to set other terms and impose different costs, drone capabilities, which we -- which we laid out there. And ultimately, though this -- tying it back to Midnight Hammer, the president has been willing to make a deal. You can't have a nuclear bomb. Radical Islamists can't have a nuclear bomb that they wield against the world. He gave them every single opportunity. Then we precisely took it away.

And even then, after that, they didn't have that. They didn't come to the table with a willingness to give it away. So, ultimately, that -- those nuclear ambitions, which never ceased, are something that had to be addressed as well. So, that's a discrete sense of what's being addressed here to ensure that they can't use that conventional umbrella to continue a pursuit of nuclear ambitions.

And then as it pertains to the U.S. casualties, that particular incident was, you know, you have air defenses and the lots coming in and you hit most of it. And we absolutely do. We have incredible air defenders. Every once in a while you might have one -- unfortunately we call it a squirter that makes its way through. And in that particular case, it happened to hit a tactical operation center that was -- that was fortified, but it -- these are powerful weapons. So, we certainly will do, as I said, moments like that, as we remember them, and we take care of them and take care of their families, only stiffen our resolve to ensure that we do this properly.

REESE: Thank you.

HEGSETH: Yes. Right here.

REPORTER: Thank you, Secretary Hegseth.

I had two questions for you.

First, are there currently any American boots on the ground in Iran? HEGSETH: No, but we are not going to go into the exercise of what we

will or will not do. I think it's one of those fallacies for a long time that this department or presidents or others should tell the American people this. And our -- and our enemies, by the way.

Here's exactly what we'll do. Here's exactly how long well go. Here's exactly how far we'll go. Here's what we're willing to do and not do. It's foolishness. And so, President Trump ensures that our enemies understand, we'll go as far as we need to go to advance American interests. But we're not dumb about it. You don't have to roll 200,000 people in there and stay for 20 years. We've proven that you can achieve objectives that advance American interests without being foolish about it.

Now, will we be bold about it? Are we willing to be decisive about it? Do we put months and months of planning into what kind of effects we want to achieve? Absolutely. But going forward, why in the world would we tell you, you, the enemy, anybody, what we will or will not do in pursuit of an objective? We fight to win. We fight to achieve the objectives the president of the United States has laid out, and we will do so unapologetically.

Thank you.

REPORTER: Is there any significance to Israel carrying out this strike to kill the ayatollah? And I wanted to know, what was your immediate reaction to finding out about his killing?

HEGSETH: I think Israel did a great job in the conduct of that operation.

REPORTER: President Trump put a four-week timeline on it.

HEGSETH: Here you go. Right here. Please.

REPORTER: Are you saying that's wrong?

REPORTER: Yes. Thank you.

You mentioned during the briefing, General Caine, that there would be additional troops sent to the region. Could you say how many troops currently are involved in this operation and how many additional troops are planned to go in, in this next phase?

CAINE: I don't want to talk specifics, because that would tip the enemy off. We have more tactical aviation flowing into theater just based on the time it took to get it out there. I think we're just about where we want to be in terms of total combat capacity and total combat power for Admiral Cooper.

One of the things, though, that a commander, he'll consistently assess the trajectory of the campaign is the on or off trajectory and then make an ask of the joint force, which will then develop options for consideration by the secretary and the president to either increase, or in some cases decrease, the amount of combat capability that we have over there. HEGSETH: I heard the question about four weeks. It's the typical NBC

sort of gotcha type question. President Trump has all the latitude in the world to talk about how long it may or may not take. Four weeks, two weeks, six weeks. It could move up.

[08:40:00]

It could move back. We're going to execute at his command the objectives we've set out to achieve.

And what he has shown an ability to do that other presidents can't quite seem to have the aperture to do -- well, I mean, Joe Biden didn't even know what he was doing -- is to look for opportunities and off ramps and escalations for the United States that creates new opportunities to execute what we need on our own timeline. So, you can play games about four weeks, five weeks. He has all the latitude. And I'm glad he does because there's no better communicator than our president expressing those things.

REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE) to "The Daily Mail" (INAUDIBLE) --

HEGSETH: I've been in meetings with the president for the last two and a half days. We know exactly where his head space is, and he will communicate, as he should, exactly what he would like, and we will follow those orders. And I think he -- everything he said on that is right down the middle. Absolutely.

REPORTER: Mr. Chairman, did you have evidence that Iran would strike first?

HEGSETH: Yes. Right there. Yes, sir.

REPORTER: Thank you very much, Secretary.

I left my hometown of Saqqez (ph) in Iranian Kurdistan in 1996. Can you promise that I will be able to return home safely this year? And I have a following question to please.

HEGSETH: Well, I appreciate the question. I -- I'm not here to place guarantees on that, but I think the message the president has given has been clear, to the people of Iran, this is your moment. There were -- the world was seized by these crowds and then seized by the reality of this regime killing tens of thousands of innocent protesters. So, we saw the nature of the regime yet again exposed. We saw many, many of the Iranian people seek a change there. This is their moment to take advantage of it for sure.

REPORTER: Mr. Secretary, you served in Iraq, and know that no American soldiers were killed in Kurdistan. The Kurdish people are very pro- American. Will you continue to protect Kurdistan and Peshmerga as loyal ally of the United States? Why I'm asking this question because now Kurdistan is under attack by Iranian drones and by proxies in Iraq and in the region.

HEGSETH: I think I can speak to allies generally in the region who we've been in constant communication with. We have been standing shoulder to shoulder with them, and we appreciate their capabilities, absolutely.

Yes, right here.

CAMERON ARCAND, "THE DAILY WIRE": All right. Thank you. Cameron Arcand with "The Daily Wire."

My question is about some of the domestic threats, if any, regarding this right now. Are there any concerns about Iranian sleeper cells and kind of what is the Trump administration been doing to kind of monitor these threats?

HEGSETH: Well, across the interagency in full coordination. Of course we're paying attention to any potentialities there. There -- this is a former regime, a regime that seeks to export that ideology, try to sow terror. We're ready for that. We've seen these types of folks before. And the American people can rest assured that we're vigilant on that.

Right here.

REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE) spilling out into an insurgency?

REPORTER: Thank you. Kind of a follow-up on that last question. There was just this, what appears to be a terrorist attack in Austin yesterday. How -- does that change the operation at all? What effect does that have? And I have a follow-up.

HEGSETH: It doesn't change the operation at all. And I know the authorities are executing exactly the way they should.

REPORTER: Secretary Hegseth, and one for Chairman Caine as well.

I understand, to your point here, that you don't want to broadcast everything for our adversaries to hear, but the American people also want to know what they're sending their men and women to war for. Are -- is there a concern of this spiraling into a longer war?

And then one for the chairman when you're done.

HEGSETH: Did you not hear my remarks? I mean we're ensuring the mission gets accomplished. But we are very clear-eyed, as the president has been, unlike other presidents, about the foolish policies of the past that recklessly pulled us in to things that were not tethered to actual, clear objectives.

So, we know. We have plans. We have generals. We have chairmans. We have commanders, CENTCOM commanders, Admiral Cooper, who's executing very deliberately to ensure outcomes that I laid out are accomplished. But we would never, in front of a press pool, lay out how long that may take. Our -- the mission for our warfighters, which is what matters to us, is very, very clear. And they're executing it right now violently.

REPORTER: This is for the chairman, quickly. I have one quick --

(CROSS TALK)

REPORTER: For the chairman.

You said this is not a one night operation. It will take time to achieve the goals. What would be the goal line here for you?

CAINE: I think the secretary laid out the military objectives. And that's what we execute against as the military objectives.

HEGSETH: Last one right here.

REPORTER: Do you know where the Iranian (ph) enriched uranium is?

REPORTER: Thank you. Thank you, sir.

As you've said, there are a large amount of U.S. service members that are in harm's way right now. What is your prayer for them?

HEGSETH: First of all, my prayer for them is that I do pray for them. My wife prays for them. Our family prays for them. Our cabinet prays for them. None of this is done on a whim. Having been in their boots, having been in their shoes, having been in their flight suits, I think we -- I mean I know we think about them with every decision that we make and every recommendation that we make to the president of the United States.

[08:45:05]

Those recommendations are made prayerfully. And when I pray, every day, for them and for this mission, I pray simply for the biblical wisdom to see what is right and the courage to do it. It's going to take courage to follow through on this. There's going to be a lot of noise. And we pray for that. And we hope all of you do too as well.

Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: You've been watching Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the chair of the Joint Chiefs, Dan Caine. They seem to be doing two major things in this first briefing from any administration official since this conflict began.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: On camera.

BERMAN: They seem to be trying to lay out the beginning of a strategic political justification for this, and also lay the groundwork for extended operations, right?

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Yes.

BERMAN: General Caine said, this is not a single, overnight operation. We expect to take additional losses, he said. And Defense Secretary Hegseth said the goal of the operation is to destroy what he called the conventional umbrella that Iran, he says, was trying to establish. He wanted to destroy the missile threat, destroy the navy and destroy the nuclear capability. He said, perhaps contradicting himself, that this was not for regime change. But, boy, did the regime change. And he said, this will end on America first conditions on the president's choosing. Although he would not say exactly what that would be. He did say there are no U.S. troops on the ground, but he would not rule out that there will be. And he got very angry when he was asked about the four or five week timeline that the president himself has said and now laid out for this operation.

SIDNER: Right.

BERMAN: Let's get right to Kylie Atwood for the latest on this.

We've got CNN reporters and analysts all around the world to figure out what was just said to us.

Kylie, first to you. What was your big takeaway?

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, for the first time we're hearing from the leaders of the Pentagon in addressing what the military objectives of this U.S. and Israeli campaign against Iran really is. As you said, the secretary of defense laying out three main objectives, saying that the United States wants to destroy Iran's missile abilities, wants to destroy Iran's navy, and also said no nukes. Presumably that means taking out Iran's nuclear weapons program, though it's unclear if that means taking out their ability to develop a nuclear weapon or the entire program on the whole.

When it comes to the timeframe here, we heard a question about President Trump saying that this could take four to five weeks to reporters over the weekend. The secretary of defense said that this could take two weeks. This could take four weeks. This could take six weeks. Saying that timeframe could move up, it could move back. Ultimately, that President Trump will have the decision making when it comes to how long this military campaign lasts.

We also -- I do think it's worth noting, heard from Caine there saying that the mission here is to "prevent Iran from the ability to project its power outside of its borders." So, he is describing this mission as really degrading Iran's military capability. We heard from the secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, saying very clearly what this is not, in his perspective, saying this is not Iraq, this is not regime change, this is not nation building, this is not democracy building. Almost more emphasis, quite frankly, on what this is not than what this is from the secretary of defense.

We'll watch and see, of course, how this devolves -- how this evolves over the next course of the few hours here as they continue to meet with President Trump on the trajectory of this, as this widens throughout the Middle East.

It's also important to note that at this point there are four U.S. service members who have been killed as a result of this military confrontation. And the chairman of the joint chiefs, Dan Caine, said that he wanted to send a message that we will never forget you to the families, to those American troops, but also warned that there are likely to be more deaths as a result of this ongoing military campaign.

SIDNER: All right, thank you to you there. Let's go to retired United States Navy Admiral James Stavridis here.

I want to read a little bit of what we heard from Pete Hegseth, where he said, "we set the terms for this war," and he went after the media saying, "this is not a forever war. Stop saying that." Saying, "this is not Iraq. This is not endless. Our generation knows better and so does the president. This is the opposite."

How can you know that when we are just at the beginning?

ADM. JAMES STAVRIDIS, CNN SENIOR MILITARY ANALYST: You can't know that. But I think it's fair to say that there's such massive amounts of scar tissue across the entire American public, over hundreds of thousands of troops deployed, not just to Iraq, but also to Afghanistan, that it's very, very unlikely to see a big troop deployment.

Now, what I took away from the commentary was taking that in context, Sara, the idea that, OK, we're not going to put American troops on the ground.

[08:50:09]

So much will come to depend on the Iranian people if we are going to get to regime change. And that could be as ugly as Tiananmen Square, or it could be as ultimately uplifting as the French Revolution. We just don't know.

But the people of Iran don't have weapons, don't have radios, don't have organization. So, if we're going to put our hopes on them, if you will, to be the ground force, I think we have got to, at some point, put, if not military boots on the ground, CIA, Mossad, very high-end special forces.

So, final thought. Hard to predict where this is going to go, but I listened to the calm, steady, professional voice of General Caine, who is a real pro. And what I hear is, four to six weeks of a campaign coming.

SIDNER: I do want to just quickly follow up because you mentioned regime change and Pete Hegseth said, look, this is not a regime change war, but the regime sure did change. Did it?

STAVRIDIS: We don't know yet. And I think there's kind of three outcomes in front of us here. One would be the one we're all hoping for, which is that the people of Iran do overcome these tyrants. I think there's maybe a 30 percent chance of that. And then in the other 70 percent world, Sara, I think there's a chance of a new regime, if you will, an Islamic Republic 2.0 where they do come back to the table and there is a negotiation. And then, unfortunately, door number three is massive repression of the people and even worse regime to follow. We just don't know yet.

SIDNER: Yes.

BOLDUAN: Let's get over to Nick Paton Walsh, who's been covering all of this since this war -- since this war broke out some 48 plus hours ago. He's in Tel Aviv now.

Nick, what do you hear in what we just heard in this briefing from the defense secretary, from the chairman of the joint chiefs? It's not going to be a single, overnight operation. What does that mean from where you stand?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, it's interesting to hear the goals that they would elucidate. Some of them potentially already may be in reach. Now, they said that the long-range missile program was a key target. We know B-2 munitions were used to try and take some of those larger ballistic missile sites out. And surely Iran's inventory of those longer-range missiles will start to ebb given its use over the days ahead.

The nuclear weapons element of this, if indeed that is what Secretary Hegseth was referring to. Well, there were doubts prior to this onslaught that Iran was rapidly pursuing a nuclear weapon. In fact, March last year, the suggestion even had been by the U.S. intelligence agencies that, in fact, Khamenei, the ayatollah, now deceased, hadn't given the order to restart that pursuit. So, that particular disabling of Iran may be within reach.

And indeed the navy was referred to too. Donald Trump, the president, yesterday said nine ships taken out. Even CENTCOM talked about targeting submarines of Iran's during a statement made yesterday. So, those smaller goals, potentially not too far off, you might argue. And indeed huge latitude given to President Trump here to essentially end this on America first conditions of his choosing. And we've heard from the president's statements that do vacillate a lot about exactly where we're headed in all of this, that his mind isn't set necessarily.

Also, I think what we didn't hear in that statement was a recognition of how this is expanding across the region, that U.S. allies in the gulf are finding themselves very explicitly drawn in, under attack from Iranian drones and missiles. And indeed, Kuwait caught up in its air defenses with the downing of those three American F-15's earlier on today. Here in Israel, I think avidly pursuing regime change in Iran and prosecuting American interests, too, in their air assault against Tehran, which I should say the Iranian Red Crescent says has claimed over 500 lives so far according to their figures as of this morning.

The Israelis now caught in a conflict in their north against an Iranian proxy, Hezbollah, which fired a projectile last night. That potentially opens another front here for another American ally.

So, there's an interesting position where he tried to limit the goals, poured some scorn, I think, on what many -- words, many behind him in that building would have been shocked by, talking about the rudderless walls of hubris that were endured, referring essentially to Iraq and Afghanistan, where so many U.S. serving officers and veterans fought.

[08:55:07]

And also referring to this as a generational turning point. I think essentially trying to say that there will be clear objectives here. We will not get dragged in. But ultimately, through all of that, I didn't come away with any staggering new pieces of information that were not already clear, giving President Trump latitude to call this a victory tomorrow or push on for multiple more weeks.

BERMAN: I think that's exactly right. Nick Paton Walsh in Tel Aviv, I mean Secretary Hegseth flat out said, this will end when only President Trump decides it ends, on the terms that he decides.

I want to bring in Sabrina Singh, who worked at the Pentagon during the last administration, for some unique insight on this, because we saw a dynamic there which is notable, right? You saw the career military officer, Dan Caine, General Caine, give us the facts of how this operation has been carried out, where the assets are, what they're doing, what they will be doing. It was a little bit of a different message from Secretary Hegseth that included part politics and, in some cases, partizan politics. But it was from that side that there was an attempt at a somewhat strategic justification for this, to destroy Iran's conventional capabilities. To what extent did you hear a why now argument from Secretary Hegseth?

SABRINA SINGH, CNN POLITICAL AND GLOBAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: Yes, I mean, I think that's sort of what we're all wrestling with today, the why now? And we've seen this president say yesterday in his video message late last night that we have many objectives. And yet, today, I think we heard the military objectives. And I do think General Caine did do a pretty incredible job just laying out, not only the operation and the multifaceted locations that were hit in Iran, but sort of the capabilities that they want to level and destroy.

But that still doesn't get to the end objective. And I think what you saw Secretary Hegseth do is sort of lay it out in political terms and trying to win the messaging fight here. And that's sort of what, you know, he would do as the cabinet member.

And I think to Nick Paton Walsh's reporting, he also said that, you know, the president could go out tomorrow and declare victory, or this could go on for four to six weeks and he could declare victory then. I think that's what you saw Hegseth trying to lay out.

I still didn't walk away from the press briefing with a clear understanding of what the end goal is. And I think you heard that from reporters in the room who have not been able to ask the secretary or members of his press staff for many, many months these questions. And so, one thing that really stood out to me that the secretary said is that, we're not going to tell the American people, we're not going to broadcast to our adversaries, we're not going to give you any details on how long we're going to stay. I don't think the American people are asking for a play by play of what you have planning, but what we are asking for is how the department that demands a $1 trillion budget is going to spend our taxpayer dollars. And for how long? Because if you don't want to have endless wars, then explain to us when the end goal is. When have you met your objective?

I heard the military objective from general Caine. I did not hear the overall objective from this administration of when we're going to see an end to this. BOLDUAN: All right, Sabrina, stand by also.

And I want to bring in the former U.S. ambassador to Israel during the Obama administration, Ambassador Daniel Shapiro.

Thanks for jumping on. I appreciate it.

You listened to this as well. Just to reiterate what Pete Hegseth laid out, and he said over and over again was what he says was a very clear objective here in why now? Why he said the United States and Israel needed to conduct these joint operations is, "Iran's stubborn and self-evident nuclear pursuits, their targeting of global shipping lanes, their swelling arsenal, ballistic missiles and killer drones were no longer tolerable risks. Iran was building powerful missiles and drones to create a conventional shield for their nuclear blackmail ambitions."

Does that explain the why here why now to you, a justification?

DANIEL SHAPIRO, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO ISRAEL: Thanks for having me.

It doesn't really because all of those conditions obtained in the years leading up to this war. It's also the case that the president was in nuclear negotiations with Iran only a week or two ago and said he was prepared to take a deal, a tough deal, a deal Iran was unlikely to take of abandoning enrichment, nuclear enrichment, and shipping out their enriched material. But he was prepared to leave in place the ballistic missile capability if he had gotten that deal. Several weeks earlier he had said that help was on the way to the protesters.

So, there's a lot of fuzziness about the why now. And, unfortunately, you know, this was the clearest presentation so far the administration has made to the American people about the reasons and the goals. But it wasn't that clear. And its intention with the president himself, in almost every conversation he has with a different reporter, saying something slightly different.

[09:00:07]

It is regime change.