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Trump: I Had a Feeling Iran Would Attack First; U.S. Consulate in Dubai Hit by Suspected Iranian Drone; Israel Hits Tehran and Beirut as Iran Strikes U.S. Gulf Allies; Emergency Sirens Sound in Tel Aviv; Interview with Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH): Trump Administration Briefs Congress on Iran War. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired March 03, 2026 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

MARCO RUBIO, SECRETARY OF STATE: The President said this is the weakest they've ever been. If we don't hit them now, a year from now, a year and a half from now, no one will be able to touch them, and they'll be able to do whatever they want. And he made a decision to go, and he made a decision to go in a joint operation because it gave us the highest chance of success, and he made the decision to go first because he concluded that we were not going to get hit first.

We were not going to absorb a blow from them. We were going to go first. He was not going to run the risk that they could attack us before we could hit them because in addition to costing lives, it would undermine the effectiveness of our operation.

All right, guys, I've got to go. Thank you.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: That was Secretary Marco Rubio on Capitol Hill just before he is set to brief lawmakers on the ongoing U.S. and Israeli operations in Iran. Rubio, there making a number of headlines but also trying to clean up what he said yesterday. The Secretary of State was criticized for suggesting that Israel essentially led to these attacks.

He essentially said that the United States ascertained that Israel was going to launch this attack and that in response, Iran would not only retaliate against Israel but also against American allies and assets in the region, and therefore the U.S. had to move preemptively to prevent loss of life.

Today, the Secretary of State, suggesting that the media is misconstruing his exact words from yesterday, he is saying that this had to happen anyway, that we were going to get hit first, so Trump decided to act. This gave us the highest probability of success.

Notably, the intelligence from the Pentagon, from DIA, from a number of sources has suggested that Iran was not going to strike either U.S. or Israeli assets unless it was hit first.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Yes, it's so important to note. And also, the president himself contradicted Rubio this morning when he was speaking. He said maybe he sort of forced Israel's hand. And I'm paraphrasing, but very lightly there. I do want to bring Beth Sanner into this conversation. A little bit of a cleanup there in the Capitol basement, Beth, as you're listening to Rubio, what did you think?

BETH SANNER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes, he has to do this, right? I mean, you know, they're clearly on different pages, so he's trying to get back on the same page. But, you know, this communication gap that you mentioned is something that we're continuing to feel.

And I think it's because they didn't really all agree beforehand, which has bigger implications. But I think one of the things he said that sounded different to me is the president had already decided and that the reason to strike now was because an opportunity presented itself. And that opportunity was so they could do those things, which is missiles, drones, Navy, nuclear.

But what happened on this first strike was to go after the senior leadership and to, you know, coordinate with Israel and give them the intelligence so they could kill a foreign leader, you know, that we were involved in now for the first time, you know, really in our history that we've done it in this way since Ronald Reagan banned the assassination of leaders. And so I think that there are still some questions here about how does what we did match up with the stated goals. We still have regime change kind of in the mix.

And now I feel like we're just we're pulling back from that because it's now not popular or it's hard or I don't know. But, yes, we're still in shifting sands, aren't we?

SANCHEZ: Yes, Beth, please stand by. I do want to point out when it comes to the objectives that Rubio laid out and that you reiterated, he did say that he got an update from the Department of War suggesting that everything is on or ahead of schedule, though details have been somewhat scant. We have Joel Rubin still with us.

We also want to go straight to Capitol Hill where CNN's Manu Raju literally had a piece of paper and was reading Secretary Rubio's quote from yesterday to the secretary. And he did not seem to want to hear what he's actually said yesterday.

MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and this is the piece of paper right here. You know, the point is that what Rubio said yesterday got enormous attention and was different than what the president had said.

The secretary said very clearly yesterday, initially, that he said, we know that there was going to be an Israeli action. We knew that would precipitate an attack against American forces. And we knew if we didn't preemptively go after them before they launched an attack, we would suffer higher casualties.

He wanted to talk about a separate quote later on where he said that they would have attacked -- the U.S. would have attacked no matter what Israel decided to do. But no question. But what he said yesterday is what has caused enormous blowback, mostly from Democrats, but some Republicans, too, and had a much different message from the president today.

So just listen to what the secretary said yesterday when speaking to us here on Capitol Hill.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUBIO: We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action.

[15:35:00]

We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces. And we knew that if we didn't preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties and perhaps even higher those killed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Now, the secretary just walked into brief senators in this classified setting. And the big debate here in the Capitol is whether there should be a vote to authorize war here. And typically, before you declare war, of course, Congress has the ability and the authority, constitutional authority, to declare war.

I asked a number of Republican senators today about whether they should, in fact, vote to declare war, as Congress did back in the Iraq War and the Afghanistan War.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. JONI ERNST (R-IA): I obviously have served. My daughter serves on active duty now. But I would love for anyone to name the last time Congress authorized operations or strikes in other countries.

RAJU: Iraq and Afghanistan. Iraq and Afghanistan. This is serious.

ERNST: And we're just a few days in.

RAJU: But it's Congress that has the authority to declare war.

SEN. TOMMY TUBERVILLE (R-AL): Yes. But I wouldn't call this a war as much as I'd call it a conflict that should be very short and sweet, if you can put it that way. But, again, this element of surprise is very important.

RAJU: U.S. servicemembers are being killed. Should Congress not have voted on this first?

TUBERVILLE: Well, if they wanted to vote on it, they should have brought it up.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RAJU (on camera): And we expect a vote that will happen as soon as tomorrow in the Senate to require the president to come to Congress to get explicit approval in order to carry on hostilities against Iran. But Republicans are lining up against that. That is expected to fail in the Senate tomorrow and fail in the House on Thursday -- Guys.

KEILAR: All right, Manu, thank you so much.

Joel, you've been listening to all of this. What do you think?

JOEL RUBIN, FORMER, DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE, OBAMA ADMINISTRATION: There are so many different layers to this. First and foremost, a lot of messaging malfunction happening. And I think in some ways there was a gotcha moment with Secretary Rubio in his shifting explanations about who went first, right?

So that's one thing to look at. When it comes to the war authorization vote as well, it's now at the top of mind because of exactly what was described and what Manu brought up. When service members are dying, Congress needs to get in.

We've been talking about this before, right? There needs to be a congressional voice in this. Why?

Not just for the paper, but for the policy, to make the policy work better, to ask the hard questions, to require oversight, to demand the administration explain. All of these issues that we're talking about right now comprehensively, which they have not yet done. So I think there's a lot more here that needs to be explored.

SANCHEZ: Joel, before we go to break, we should note the secretary did mention that progress was being made to evacuate Americans that were stuck in the region, and he said that those folks there should immediately communicate with the State Department. The number to call is 1202-501-4444.

KEILAR: And that website is state.gov. If you go on there, you will see where you can click to learn more about registering. That's right.

All right, Joel, thank you so much to Beth as well and Manu.

We'll have more of our coverage of the war with Iran after a quick break.

[15:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR, ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT: OK. Welcome back to our breaking news coverage of the war in Iran. And you can probably hear what's going off on my phone right now. The phone's around here.

So let me just tell you exactly what's happening. I'm here with Dan Diker. We're going to be talking in just a moment. But what's happening is that's a warning of what they believe is going to be incoming missiles coming from Iran to the area where we are.

So they give this. It's coming from Iran. So this gives us a few minutes to get ready. Then we're going to hear the sirens.

When that happens, we're going to show you exactly how this plays out. So I'll walk you exactly to where we go for shelter as we're tracking these developments at this hour. So as we're doing that, I'm going to continue with what we're doing here.

So everyone understands, though, what you're about to see happening. And then we will hear the explosions as whether these missiles actually come through or whether they are intercepted. That is the big question.

But this is what happens throughout the day. So you're going to see this in just a moment. And I do want to also say we have an update on that story out of Dubai.

A source, an Emirati official telling me and CNN is learning that the U.S. consulate in Dubai was struck by a suspected Iranian drone. There was a fire that had started there. So we do have that.

We understand that has been put out. And we'll update you as we get more information. We do understand, though, I understand that there have been no injuries there.

All right, we just heard from Secretary of State Marco Rubio. I'm not going to play that soundbite because we are about to obviously have missiles coming in here.

So I'm here with Dan Diker. And, Dan, I just want to, as we're getting ready for this, give you a chance to explain, you know, where are we in this war? When you see Iran, as we're about to see, right, they are still sending missiles here.

We know the United States hit almost 2,000 targets in, they say, in Tehran since in the past three days, Israel even more.

DAN DIKER, PRESIDENT, JERUSALEM CENTER FOR SECURITY AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS: Well, Erin, where we are is really having a two-front Iranian regime war against Israel, the United States, and its Arab neighbors. Let's remember that in the last 48 hours alone, the Iranian regime hit six Arab countries, turning all those countries into what we call the coalition of the willing, first time of that type of coalition since the coalition against Saddam in 1991.

[15:45:00]

And we have a terror war that continues. As you've just told the viewers, there are missiles that could be very much raining down on where we are right now. We are at a tipping point, though, in which the Iranian regime is beginning to show real signs of the beginnings of a collapse, and it is not going to -- it will not be able to survive the coalition of the willing.

BURNETT: OK, now you use the word coalition of the willing. I just want to push you a bit more on that to understand, because obviously these are American allies in the Gulf. They are using American- supplied missile defense systems.

They have, you know, defense systems they have paid for from the United States. However, other than Qatar, we have not seen outgoing fighting, right? In the Emirates, for example, they are very adamant to say we are right now operating on a defensive posture, even though they, second only to here, have been hit by drones and missiles from Iran.

So you still would describe it as coalition of the willing, even though they are not participating in strikes?

DIKER: Excellent question. I'll tell you why, yes, it is a coalition of the willing. Because what happens in the Middle East, what is not said, is in many cases a thunderous expression of what they believe.

And let me explain. Until a week ago, these countries in the Arab world were adamantly against any kind of U.S.-led action, military action against Iran. And here you are, and all of a sudden here is Saudi Arabia, the King, the leader of the Arab-Muslim world, changing sides, switching sides, and publicly condemning the Iranian regime for, you know, its continued reign of terror.

This is very significant from a cognitive standpoint in the Middle East, and it really speaks volumes.

BURNETT: All right, and as I say, we are now, what, two or three minutes since we heard those first alarms? And I'll let everyone know, because you're talking about what most likely are going to be cruise missiles, could be ballistic, but cruise missiles.

DIKER: Or drones, or killer drones.

BURNETT: Or drones coming this direction, and the time can be anywhere from 3 to 10 or 12 minutes from that initial, which is when the IDF determines that missiles are coming, to when you actually hear the sirens, which is when you need to move very quickly, which we will do. So I'm just letting everyone know who has just joined us. You know, we get these alerts on our phone, alerts are expected in a few minutes, find the best protection, right?

RAJU: Right.

BURNETT: Which is what people are doing right now, and this is happening in the middle of the night, but right now it's almost 11 o'clock, and it does happen through the night. You have been doing a lot of work with Israelis, with U.S. officials.

OK, Trump says a lot of things that are hyperbole or embellishment, and he changes what he says a lot. It's hard for people to know the truth. But you are aware of a lot of what's going on. So what are the facts on that? Are there defections?

DIKER: Erin, we've been -- Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs has been working intensively with the highest levels of the Iranian opposition over the last two to three years, and we hear from them, including one of them who was one of the co-establishers of the IRGC, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps itself, speak about defections.

BURNETT: So it's happening.

DIKER: It is happening.

BURNETT: He's right, OK.

DIKER: It is happening. The president is accurate on this point.

BURNETT: Yes.

DIKER: And we're hearing it from the Iranian opposition themselves. And they're all -- we just don't know what is going to happen the day after. What we do know is that there is massive pressure, military pressure, coming from Israel and the United States. And, as I say, this --

BURNETT: So as we're talking, I will just say, and we're not going to show this live because we don't show this live, but I do see interceptors going up from where I can see. We just saw one go up there. We're not showing you that because we're not going to show -- the Israeli government does not allow us or want us to show where that may have come up, that interceptor. But I've not seen it intercept anything.

OK, now we hear the sirens. So here's what we're going to do, everyone. The sirens -- and you saw that interceptor. It didn't intercept anything, but we have things coming in. So we are going to just un-mic. Dan, why don't you take your mic off?

DIKER: We can un-mic and then go downstairs.

BURNETT: Yep. I'm going to show you exactly where we go. All right.

DIKER: That's pretty dramatic.

BURNETT: We do need to move pretty quickly.

DIKER: Yep.

BURNETT: OK. And there we go. We're just going to get onto this camera.

All right. And come with me, Dan. You can just leave that there.

OK. All right.

DIKER: Yep.

BURNETT: All right. I'm going to just move slowly here while Dan's coming with me. OK. And we're going to move. So you hear the sirens now, and this is all around the area that we're in in Tel Aviv. So that initial warning, it was about, I think, five or six minutes, Dan?

DIKER: Five or six minutes.

BURNETT: OK. And then let's just keep going. All right, we're going to -- DIKER: This could be fire from Lebanon as well, from the Iranian- instructed Hezbollah. This is part of the Iranian regime's strategy of what's called survival warfare. Mobilize as much missiles coming from Lebanon.

It could be the Houthis in Yemen. We don't know. But this is the Iranian regime's survival strategy.

Mobilize as much terror as you can to distract the world's attention away from the Iranian front itself.

[15:50:00]

BURNETT: Right. And then now we're inside. And I don't know if everyone can still hear those sirens.

We'll hear the booms when they start hitting, which sometimes are as the sirens are going, and sometimes they're a little bit after. So now we're inside, and we're just going to go into a stairwell here, Boris and Brianna. And I know it's a little awkward when you watch this, but this is what it is.

And I think it's important for everyone to understand this is what has become the cadence -- sorry Dan -- of normal life. And here we are now in the stairwell. So this is where we're going to go, obviously concrete fortified.

So I'll just come through here. Dan, come with me.

DIKER: Yes.

BURNETT: And as we pass it back to Boris and Brianna, what I will say, guys, is that you just don't know when it's coming.

So you actually have people here who are -- because these are cruise missiles that they now anticipate, ballistic missiles from Iran. It's not rockets in most cases, so you can't just go -- I can hear all of it right now.

People can't hear it probably on our mic. We're going to show you afterwards, but I can hear it all hitting right now, whether it's being intercepted or not. So we'll know that in just a few seconds.

But it's unpredictable in terms of when. And people are camping out in garages and things like that, parking garages, to try to find places that are safe. So it has completely disrupted life here.

DIKER: Absolutely.

BURNETT: Schools closed. Most stores closed. Obviously, it's a war zone.

DIKER: It's a war zone. I will say that in Israel uniquely, life still continues business as usual. Why?

Because beginning with these Scud missiles, remember 1991, Saddam Hussein fires 40 Scud missiles into Israel. And subsequently, we have been in a ballistic missile war opposite the Iranian regime and its terror proxies, whether it's Hezbollah, whether it's Hamas, whether it's the Houthis, whether it's the Iraqi special forces. People are used to this type living under terror.

BURNETT: Yes. And I can hear. And obviously, everyone watching.

DIKER: That was a (INAUDIBLE).

Now, that you might have heard. I don't know, Boris and Brianna, if you could hear that one?

SANCHEZ: No.

BURNETT: Yes, yes, OK. So there's a lot going on out there, quite a bit.

And we'll see some of these that have come in have appeared to be the sorts of things that would be like a cluster munition, where it sort of explodes in multiple pieces, and then the shrapnel come down and injure people. But so we're going to stay in here. We'll pass it back to you.

But obviously, we have to stay because you can hear all of this exploding right outside. And then we'll let you know, obviously, exactly what happened in just a few minutes. Back to you guys.

SANCHEZ: Obviously, an active scene there. Erin, to you and the team, please stay safe and keep us posted on what more you are hearing.

Right now on Capitol Hill, top Trump administration officials are receiving a briefing. Senators are in a classified setting getting details about the ongoing war with Iran. And members of the House are set to hear from officials later this afternoon.

We're joined by a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee now. Republican Congressman Warren Davidson of Ohio joins us now. Congressman, thank you so much for being with us. I want to start by asking you about something that we heard from President Trump earlier today, who said that it was his opinion that Iran was going to launch a strike against Israel and U.S. allies and assets in the Gulf. I wonder what evidence you would need to see to believe that opinion was well-founded.

REP. WARREN DAVIDSON (R-OH), FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE: Well, you know, I've asked for a classified briefing for, you know, well over a week at this point. And I haven't seen that kind of information yet. And, frankly, only a handful of members of Congress have so far.

So I'm looking forward to today's briefing and going into it with an open mind. You know, we know President Trump has been reluctant to embrace war. He campaigned on avoiding wars and has a great track record of promoting peace.

So he found something compelling, and I look forward to seeing the intel. SANCHEZ: It is somewhat dubious, only at least on the surface, given what the administration has released publicly, because the Pentagon assessed that Iran was not going to attack unless it was hit first. Also, it was the Defense Intelligence Agency's view that Iran was a decade away from the ICBM that Trump said would be targeting the U.S. mainland potentially imminently. Further, the IAEA said that there was no imminent threat of Iran developing a nuclear weapon.

Even Secretary Rubio has frequently said that it would have been a year or more past the point of immunity with conventional weapons for Tehran. So why was this an imminent preemptive strike if there was no clear threat of a risk to Americans?

DAVIDSON: Well, look, I think the public's right to be skeptical. And, frankly, that's part of why President Trump's, you know, no new wars kind of campaign mindset resonated with the public. I mean, you look at war-worry people who've seen just endless wars really in this century so far.

Post-9-11, the U.S. has kind of been in a continual state of war really in the 90s. I mean, we used air power with hopes of regime change in, you know, the former Yugoslavia, in Serbia and in Kosovo.

[15:55:00]

And what we ultimately found, even in a smaller place like that, is to change power, you needed to put people on the ground.

And so, really, in that time frame, you've seen a continual use of military force. So I think a lot of the country is sort of tired of the endless wars framework. And, nevertheless, they seem to be popular with certain circles. Lindsey Graham, I don't think, has ever found a war he doesn't like.

So that Lindsey Graham would say, oh, we definitely have to go attack Iran isn't exactly breaking news. It is kind of breaking news to see President Trump say, hey, I think this is the kind of war we need to engage in. He called out Barack Obama for engaging in a war with Iran.

So I think I'm going into the briefing hoping to hear the same kind of information President Trump found persuasive. And we'll see because we're supposed to vote later this week. And I think, look, the idea that Congress doesn't vote isn't unprecedented.

Congress never voted on the Korean War. But it was a war, even though they tried to say it was something other than that while it was being waged. It was a de facto war.

And I think that's the realities. We're in a de facto state of war with Iran right now. But the question is, what is Congress going to do about it?

And it's not unprecedented to do nothing.

SANCHEZ: I just wanted you to clarify something, Congressman. When you said that President Trump called out President Obama for war with Iran, what did you mean?

DAVIDSON: Well, for potentially waging war with Iran. He said, look, Obama would get us into a war with Iran.

SANCHEZ: Because his poll numbers were low, and he wanted to distract from domestic conflict.

DAVIDSON: Right, people throw that up there, where, you know, that's the kind of mindset President Trump comes at this from. He's been a skeptic, and suddenly he's not.

SANCHEZ: And he's being accused of essentially doing what he was accusing President Obama of potentially doing at some point. I also want to ask you about your description of comments from Secretary Rubio regarding Israeli action.

He said yesterday that we knew there was going to be an Israeli action. We knew that would precipitate an attack against American forces. And we knew that if we didn't preemptively go after Tehran before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties.

Today the Secretary of State is trying to clean that up and say that the plan all along was to attack Iran, regardless of what Israel was going to do. Is that a sufficient statement for you to have confidence that it's not Israel directing U.S. foreign policy?

DAVIDSON: Well, again, it was a troubling statement. When you look at the full context of the clip, you know, people circulated, you know, a narrow response by the Secretary. But, you know, Mike Johnson, Speaker Johnson, had a similar short clip where he said essentially the same thing.

So I think when we get in the classified setting, you know, those kinds of things will come up. And I think that the Secretary will certainly, almost certainly in his opening remarks in the classified setting, make those clarifications to us. And he's done it now in public.

So I do look forward to seeing the intelligence. And, you know, we're only going to see that in depth in a classified setting.

SANCHEZ: Whether the clip is short or not, I mean, the substance of what he said, we knew there was going to be an Israeli action. I mean, I imagine that that troubles you if the United States is basing what it is going to do off of Prime Minister Netanyahu's goals, especially because of the cost. U.S. service members are under threat and dying.

DAVIDSON: Yes, I mean, as I said, it's a troubling statement by, you know, the Secretary. But here's the thing. Look, if the United States is going to go to war with Iran, that's a different story.

The fact that Israel would have a just cause to go to war with Iran is very understandable. I mean, you look at Iran. They've been the world's leading state sponsor of terror.

And where has that terror been directed? I mean, overwhelmingly against the people of Israel, it's as predictable as gravity. When Iran has had money, they've used it to fund proxy terrorists, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and they've all targeted Israel.

The 10-7 massacre was enabled by the funds that were freed up under the Biden administration and flowed to Iran. That money flowed ultimately to Hamas. Now, Hamas carried out the attacks, but with the full knowledge and support and to some extent coordination from Iran's government.

So Israel clearly has a cause for war.

SANCHEZ: Unfortunately, I think we're out of time for me to ask the last question. But if you could just very quickly, if the goal, one of the objectives stated by the administration was to end Iran's influence over external terror groups, is that possible without boots on the ground?

DAVIDSON: No, I've long supported an authorization for use of military force similar to the 01 authorization that would give the president of the United States, whomever that is, the ability to designate Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis, or other proxies.

SANCHEZ: But can it be achievable with only airstrikes in this limited conflict? Quickly, Congressman.

DAVIDSON: We were very effective against ISIS, and I think that was a great template for engaging terror groups.

SANCHEZ: Congressman Warren Davidson, we appreciate the time. Thanks so much for joining us.

DAVIDSON: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: We are continuing to follow the breaking news to CNN. The U.S. consulate in Dubai hit by an apparent Iranian -- a suspected Iranian drone. The secretary of state there saying that it was a parking lot adjacent to the building. We're still gathering more details on exactly what happened.

KEILAR: He said no injuries. We'll look for details there.

"THE ARENA" with Kasie Hunt starts right now.

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