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U.S. Striking Deeper into Iran as War Spirals Across Region; Hegseth: We'll Soon Have Complete Control of Iranian Airspace; White House: U.S. has More Than Enough Weapons for Extended Iran War; Trump's Aides Privately Agonize Over Fallout from Potentially Long Iran War with No Endgame. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired March 04, 2026 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: The U.S. is less than a week into the war with Iran and it could soon start to feel a strain on its munitions stockpiles if the war stretches beyond the anticipated timeline. President Trump originally said the war would last four to five weeks. He since indicated it could go far longer.

This morning, General Dan Caine addressed concerns that the U.S. is digging too deep into its inventory.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. DAN CAINE, JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN: I know there have been a lot of questions about munitions. We have sufficient precision munitions for the task at hand, both on the offense and defense. But I want to tell you, teammates, as a matter of practice, I don't want to be talking about quantities.

And I know there's been a great debate about that. And I appreciate the interest. But just know that we consider that an operational security matter.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: If there is eventually a strain on munitions, the U.S. would have to prioritize which targets from Iran to intercept. Now let's get perspective on that and more with retired U.S. Army Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt. General Kimmitt, great to see you, as always.

I wanted to ask you about something that Secretary Hegseth said during that briefing, specifically on having complete control in the skies over Iran. And I wanted to point to the map of where some of these strikes, actually, these are these strikes that the U.S. has launched into Iran. We're anticipating they're going to go much further than they've gone.

But also, the kind of weaponry that's being used is different. You're going from what Hegseth described as exquisite standoff munitions to precision gravity bombs. And you caught something that Press Secretary Leavitt said during the briefing having to do with that.

What did you hear that she revealed?

BRIG. GEN. MARK KIMMITT, U.S. ARMY (RET.): Well, what I found out very interesting from Karoline Leavitt is she used the term air dominance. Now, General Caine did not use that. But that's really what he was saying.

He talked about we're moving from standoff to stand in weapons. And that's going to relieve the inventory problem significantly, because the standoff weapons indicate that there's a high air defense risk as they're flying into the country. The S-300s, the other air defense capabilities that they have, and even a couple of airplanes.

But when you have air dominance, you can fly without any worry in the country or a very, very small amount of concern in the country. So you can bring in, as the congressman said, F-16s that are not stealth. You can use different types of ammunition.

So instead of having to stand off and fire it from far away, you can just drop it. So by going from standoff to stand in, going against those deeper targets, not the frontline targets as we've been seeing, but the deeper targets, the softer targets, that's where people are saying this is going to be a game changer in phase two, primarily because the aircraft don't have to be stealth. And they really don't have to worry too much about the potential of being shot out of the sky.

Always a probability, but much, much lower.

SANCHEZ: To that question of probability, I wanted to point to the sites, the expansive sites that Iran has targeted.

[14:35:00]

Even as Caine says that missile launches are down 86 percent from when they were a few days ago, this is pretty expansive. You're talking about Cyprus even approaching Turkish airspace.

I wonder if you consider that assessment of the lower number of launches from Iran to be a result of the U.S. and its ability to degrade Iran's capacity, or whether you think Tehran is perhaps holding back and calculating where and when it should use certain munitions.

KIMMITT: Well, let me start off by saying I don't have the intelligence, but if they're 86 percent down on the launchers, that means that they can't use some of their ballistic missiles. Hasn't said anything about the Shahed drones, which they have plenty of. And I think what he was saying is we took out the launchers to get the ballistic missiles by saying nothing about the drones that have been quite effective.

He does still have a concern about that.

SANCHEZ: I also wanted to get your thoughts on reporting that the Ayatollah's son may be headed toward that position. Karoline Leavitt wouldn't give specifics on how the administration felt about that. This is someone you're familiar with.

KIMMITT: Yes, Mojtaba, the son of the Ayatollah, is a very interesting character because he's liked by the hardliners because he's as hardline as his father. But the clerics don't necessarily like him because they don't believe that it should be a dynastic position of supreme leader that goes from father to son. So it's interesting that there is a split.

And if he is, first of all, I thought he was dead. But if he is alive and he gets voted in by the Assembly of Experts, that says that the hardliners are winning, not the clerics.

SANCHEZ: Before we go, General, I also wondered if you had any thoughts regarding the White House's assertion that the press reporting on slain service members is somehow an attack on President Trump.

KIMMITT: American soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marine, if they die in combat in the line of duty, deserve to have the president greeting them and their families as they come back to America.

SANCHEZ: General Kimmitt, appreciate the time. Thanks so much for joining us.

KIMMITT: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Still ahead, Erin Burnett joins us live from Tel Aviv as our coverage of the war with Iran continues. Stay with us.

[14:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: All right, welcome back to our breaking coverage of the war with Iran here in the Middle East. I'm Erin Burnett standing in Tel Aviv tonight.

And just moments ago, you heard the press secretary, Karoline Leavitt. She gave an extensive press conference in which she said U.S. forces should have, in her words, complete and total dominance over Iranian airspace. OK, we know they've been saying that.

But here's what she said that's different than what we've heard before. She said within hours. Now, a U.S.-based human rights group says that American and Israeli attacks thus far, of which we understand U.S. forces alone say they've hit more than 2,000 targets, have killed 1,000 people in Iran. Now, yes, that includes much of Iran's leadership, but 1,000 people also includes a lot of just human beings as well. And last year -- last hour, the White House press secretary said that we'll have to quote, wait and see who the next supreme leader will be, which appeared to be pretty clearly, from listening to it, a very artful dodge of trying to not answer that question, which could be significant as we're awaiting. It's been 24 hours now since perhaps there may have been a decision made on that in Iran with meetings of senior clerics. And we don't yet know what the outcome of that is. Javed Ali joins me now. He's a former senior director for

counterterrorism at the NSC in the Trump administration. And he's now an associate professor of practice at the University of Michigan. So I appreciate your time, Javed.

Let me just ask you here, first of all, starting with this crucial question of air dominance, OK, because everything in terms of whether there is going to be any sort of a resolution here, as opposed to increasing escalation, could come down to that.

We've understood that the Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, has indicated that that's days or up to a week away. There's been a little bit of vagueness there. But what the press secretary just said is that we are hours away from complete air dominance over Iran in terms of U.S. and Israeli forces. So where do you think things stand? And does that difference in what we're hearing, I mean, do you think someone's misspeaking? Or do you think they're actually close to air dominance?

JAVED ALI, FORMER SENIOR DIRECTOR FOR COUNTERTERRORISM, NSC UNDER TRUMP: So, Erin, nice to be with you. And whether air dominance is the right term or not, I think what we've seen over the past five days is that Israel and the United States combined have managed to carry out an operation that has involved thousands of missions against hundreds of targets. That number could be even higher than that ballpark figure.

So whether it's actual air dominance from a military perspective, not sure. But the U.S. and Israel control the skies right now. And this kind of air campaign can go on for quite some period of time.

BURNETT: Both sides have obviously indicated they're ready for that. And I guess in that sense, it's a -- I don't want to be light with the words -- but a game of chicken, right? Ali Larijani, current security chief, it would seem, and military chief in Iran has indicated that they're ready for a long war.

Something happened, Javed, that is pretty kind of jaw-dropping, but a huge development. And that is this torpedo, a U.S. torpedoing and taking down naval destroyer for the first time since World War II.

[14:45:00]

And that is what was apparently one of Iran's, if not its newest and its most sophisticated warship. It was off the coast of India, where it had been attending international exercises and ostensibly was on its way back to Iran, 30 to 40 miles off the coast of the island of Sri Lanka. It was sunk by a torpedo.

Of the 180 souls on board, maybe 30 of them survived. It is obviously an incredible loss of life. What do you think the significance is of the United States doing something like this, taking down a naval destroyer in this way, at this distance from the actual theater of the war itself?

ALI: Well, I think, Erin, it shows that the U.S. has a very broad conception of where they potentially and will conduct military operations against Iranian military targets. Now, this one was a significant distance, obviously, in the Indian Ocean, but there still must have been a legal justification for the Navy to track that ship and then fire upon it. I don't know if there's any warning, probably not, a warning given before.

But the Iranian Navy has always been institutionally relatively weak within the broader scope of the Iranian military. So as we've heard that about 20 ships or so have been sunk, we're getting close to the total of the Iranian naval capability. And it wasn't that big of an operational threat to begin with.

BURNETT: No, and I know they had said last night they had sunk 17 ships. So I suppose this would be 18. But as you point, if they only had 20, then their claims that they've taken out the Navy would actually be accurate.

Javed, I appreciate your time. Thank you very much.

ALI: All right, thanks, Erin.

BURNETT: Javed Ali, as I said, a former in the NSC for the prior Trump administration.

And ahead, sources tied to President Trump are worried that the longer this goes on, the bigger the political risks of this could be. We'll be right back with our breaking coverage here from the Middle East.

[14:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Just days into the U.S. assault on Iran, and sources tell CNN that many around President Trump are already itching to get out. According to several people familiar with the matter, the U.S. strikes have stoked fears among Trump's aides and advisors about the political fallout of being caught up in a prolonged war with little buy-in from the public.

SANCHEZ: One Trump advisor actually told CNN, quote, "It's a political risk, no ands, ifs, or buts." That person added, "let's just hope something doesn't go really wrong, because if that happens, it's going to be a problem."

Joining us now is CNN chief political analyst David Axelrod. He served as senior advisor for former President Obama. David, great to see you, as always. Early polling has shown that everyday Republicans seem to be backing the war. But do you imagine that there might be a tipping point that if, as this advisor says, things go wrong, MAGA could be divided over this?

DAVID AXELROD, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, I'm not sure that that is a huge insight. That's the nature of this. It was very risky to go in.

Wars are easy to start. It's hard to control what happens once you do, and it's hard to figure out how to end it, particularly if the goal isn't clear. So, yes, I think there's risk.

And there's been risk from the beginning because this wasn't something Americans yearned for. They really wanted him to focus on the home front, particularly on the economy. And everything that steals attention away from that, I think, is a political liability.

So I hope that this ends in a positive way for the people of Iran and the region and the world. But there are no guarantees here, and that seems very clear.

KEILAR: What about his articulation of the message, or lack thereof, appealing to the American people and making the case for this?

AXELROD: Yes, well, obviously that hasn't. You know, when you have shifting rationales and the war happens before you've settled on one and really sold the case, you're behind the eight ball in terms of having it sink in with the American people in a way that's going to be effective. So this has not been a triumph of communication for the president or the White House.

And it's such a deadly, serious enterprise that it's surprising they hadn't thought this through on the front end. And it seems like they're improvising now. So we'll see.

But yes, there are tremendous political risks associated with it, not as big as the risks that our service people are enduring there and Americans who are stranded. But the risks are great.

SANCHEZ: Democrats in Congress are pushing this War Powers resolution. CNN's Manu Raju asked Leader Jeffries about the argument by some Republicans that then-President Obama authorized U.S. military intervention in Libya without the approval of Congress. And Jeffries asked, why are the Republicans always obsessed with trying to look back at prior Democratic administrations?

What do you make of his answer?

AXELROD: Look, I think that that's a fair question to ask. I don't think that President Obama declared war on Libya, which is what President Trump has done. And this has been a thing that's been brewing over administrations and decades, the whole debate over the War Powers Act.

It's just that this president has been so aggressive in using military force that it's come to a boil here, Boris, and I expect that this is going to continue to be a big debate.

[14:55:00]

Americans want to know what's going on and they want Congress to know what's going on.

KEILAR: What about Democrats and their messaging on this? Obviously, no love lost for the Ayatollah. And we're in early days here, so it's really hard to know exactly what the outcome is here, even as there are many cautionary tales that raise a lot of questions about how this could end up.

What would you say to them?

AXELROD: I would say to make clear that priority number one is the safety of American troops and American citizens and hopefully a better life for people in Iran, if that's possible, at the end of this. And that no one should be rooting for failure, although it's helpful to know what the goal is, to know when you've reached success. But too often in politics, and both parties are guilty of this, we look to weaponize problems rather than solving them.

And in this case, I think you have to be careful to be responsive to people's concerns, but also not to appear to be rooting for political failure.

KEILAR: Yes.

SANCHEZ: David Axelrod, great to get your perspective. Thanks so much for being with us.

Our breaking news continues with a new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL after a quick break.

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