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Israel And Iran Trade New Strikes As War Widens In Middle East; Leavitt: "Completely False" That Trump Agreed To Help Arm Kurds; The Press Faces A Pentagon "Black Box" On The Iran War. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired March 05, 2026 - 07:30   ET

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

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[07:31:25]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: There is now a new front opening up as the U.S. war with Iran widens and expands. There's new video appearing to show Iranian drones striking an airport in Azerbaijan. Authorities there say two people were injured and a terminal building was damaged. There is also new images coming out of Qatar showing explosions in the sky after what are suspected Iranian missiles being -- were intercepted over Doha.

I also want to show you a map that will help illustrate kind of the strikes from Iran and its proxies thus far shown in yellow there. You can see that they have been targeting and hitting and reaching everywhere from Cypress to Oman. And with this in mind sources tell CNN at least one U.S. ally in the region is now running low on crucial interceptor munitions.

Iran has very successfully utilized low-cost drones -- a Shahed drone -- especially to carry out its retaliation. They're able to fly low and slow, a feature that makes them harder to detect and intercept than ballistic missiles.

The U.S., by contrast, is deploying sophisticated and very expensive interceptors throughout the Middle East, including Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, which you probably have heard more colloquially known as THAAD systems. Each one costs nearly $13 million.

President Trump is set to meet tomorrow with executives from top U.S. defense companies at the White House as he is pushing them to ramp up production of equipment just like this, showing that the equipment, the munitions, the weaponry at hand that can be deployed is becoming central in this fight.

Senior international correspondent Fred Pleitgen and his team -- they've crossed the border into Iran. CNN is the first U.S. network allowed into the country since the start of the war. We have to point out though that CNN operates in Iran only with the permission of the government there.

Here's Fred's report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We just crossed the border and are now inside of Iran. The Iranian government has granted us a visa to come here and to report from the Islamic Republic of Iran. We're now trying to make our way to the capital, Tehran, as fast as possible but, of course, the distances in this huge country are immense and we know it's going to take many, many hours for us to get there.

We also don't know what the situation on the road to Tehran is going to look like. How many checkpoints there's going to be. And, of course, we know at the same time there are massive combat operations also going on.

The United States and Israel are continuing their huge aerial campaign against targets inside of Iran. At the same time, the Iranians continue to retaliate not just with their ballistic missiles but with their drones, mostly hitting Israel but then also American military installations, especially in the Gulf region, but in general, in the Middle East.

In total, the Iranians are saying that they can continue this campaign for a very long time. They say that their missile arsenal is still immense and they haven't even used some of their most modern missiles. But we also, of course, know that the place that we aim to go to, Tehran, has been under almost sustained attacks with massive airstrikes going on there and also huge damage being caused and, of course, many people also having been harmed.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BOLDUAN: Thank you so much to our Fred Pleitgen for that report. Much more to come from Fred and his team.

Let's go now to another critical member of our team in a critical location. Clarissa Ward in Iraq near the Iran border. What's the very latest that you're picking up, Clarissa.

[07:35:00]

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well overnight, Kate, there were reports of at least three different Iranian Kurdish opposition camps coming under fire from Iran with missiles, with drones. At least one fighter was killed. There were also a number of injuries.

And we're hearing through an Iranian news agency that Iran's intelligence ministry has said that those attacks were targeting these fighters because of reports that we, our self, have actually reported that Iranian Kurdish groups based here in Iraq are preparing in the coming days for some kind of a potential ground offensive inside western Iran. The Iranian ministry saying that they were separatists and that they were targeted as a result of these claims that they would be coming across the border.

Now here in Iraqi Kurdistan the leadership is really trying to diffuse the situation. They are in a very uncomfortable position. They want to maintain neutrality. But nonetheless, as we've been reporting that the CIA has been giving support to these Iranian Kurdish groups that are based here in Iraqi Kurdistan and everybody now effectively watching and waiting to see whether this much anticipated ground offensive will actually place Kate, or whether cooler heads will prevail.

When we saw Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth give that briefing yesterday and showing on the map where the various U.S. and Israeli strikes have hit, it's clear that there is a high concentration of strikes along this border between the Kurdish areas of Iran and the Kurdish areas of Iraq, and that is only fueling speculation that potentially that bombardment paving the way for some kind of an offensive.

But at this stage, Kate, we simply do not know exactly what will happen. But clearly, Iran very angry about reports of this possible ground offensive, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Yeah, very clearly.

Clarissa, thanks so much for your great reporting to you and your team. I really appreciate it -- Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, thank you, Kate.

Joining me now is Democratic Congressman Mike Quigley of Illinois. He is a member of the House Intelligence Committee. Thank you, sir, so much for coming on this morning.

I know you can't tell me exactly what was in your intelligence briefing but was there anything that you saw that showed an imminent threat to the U.S. and a good reason for this war on Iran?

REP. MIKE QUIGLEY (D-IL): Absolutely nothing that I have seen in nine years on the committee.

And what's concerning here is that diplomatic needs in the past have been rejected by President Trump. Iranian efforts to move forward with the nuclear program -- they were in compliance with the treaty -- the JCPOA. President Trump unilaterally removed ourselves from that treaty, removed all our soft diplomatic power from across the world, and put himself in a position for what can only be described as reckless contact -- conduct in Iran.

SIDNER: All right, let me ask you about what's going to happen in the House today. The House is going to vote on a resolution to curb Trump's war powers in Iran, but Senate Republicans outright rejected a similar proposal. So how will what happens in the House have any teeth if the Senate if clearly not going to go for it?

QUIGLEY: You know, we have to try. Americans don't want another endless, bloody war. In 1848, a freshman congressman from Illinois, Abe Lincoln, said that when you give one man the authority to begin a war you put the presidency in the place where kings always stood. We have to stand up and make this argument. Whether the Senate comes back and talks about this in a different vein -- you know, I think that's going to depend a great deal on how long this war goes, how much of a threat it poses. The concerns here aren't just to our service members and that is foremost. It is threats to the homeland. This is a country, Iran, that's quite capable of threats across the world. Not just cyber threats but terror threats.

And as this war expands throughout and the conflicts -- what they said -- talked about could be days -- now they're talking about it could be much more lengthy, protracted, and of course, very dangerous.

SIDNER: I want to ask you about something that we heard this morning from a former British ambassador who was talking to our anchor Becky Anderson this morning in the UAE. Here is what he said about America's role in all of this.

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RICHARD DALTON, FORMER BRITISH AMBASSADOR TO IRAN AND LIBYA: There's absolutely no trust in the United States' word anymore I suspect anywhere in the world, particularly as lies continue to come out of the president's mouth such as that there would have been an Iranian nuclear bomb in a fortnight. That's simply untrue.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[07:40:05]

SIDNER: He said there nobody trusts the U.S. Do you think that's true?

QUIGLEY: I think it's true and I think it's dangerous. This is what happens when you tariff your friends, you tell NATO they're on their own, you seem to have a moral equivalency between Ukraine and Russia and Putin, and you go back on your campaign promise that says no new wars.

The greatest American president's inaugural speech was FDR's last when he said, you know, to have a friend you need to be one in foreign policy. I'm not sure who our friends are. I'm not sure who trusts us with important intelligence that keeps not just our troops safe but our allies and our country safe.

SIDNER: I want to ask you about what we heard from Israel's former prime minister Naftali Bennett talking to a group gathered in Israel. He said this about Turkey and its tie to Iran.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NAFTALI BENNETT, FORMER ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: I want to be very clear. Turkey and Qatar have gained influence in Syria and are seeking influence elsewhere and everywhere throughout the region. And from here I warn Turkey is the new Iran.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Since the United States and Israel are now working unprecedentedly close in this war with Iran, is Turkey the next target?

QUIGLEY: Look, Turkey's a great concern and where they go in the future. But when you engage in a conflict like this, you're pouring gasoline on a -- on an extraordinarily dangerous situation creating a fire that who knows where this goes. It's part of a reckless foreign policy strategy with absolutely no end in sight. The concerns are that if this goes on beyond Iran -- and we see the strikes taking place there.

You know, there's a great book on this, "The Guns of August," in which, you know, at the end no one really understood how the first world war started. We're in that kind of a volatile situation right now.

Turkey represents part of the problem but by engaging in attacking in Iran the way it has been done, it has made the situation far more dangerous throughout the region and the world.

SIDNER: Congressman Mike Quigley, thank you so much for joining us this morning. I know there's a lot of work to be done and a vote today on Trump's war powers with Iran later on. We'll see how that goes. Appreciate it -- John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. This morning the Iraqi Kurdistan regional government -- let me give you a sense. We're talking about the Iraqi Kurdistan regional government -- that area up there in Iraq -- said that reports the CIA is working to arm Kurdish forces with the aim of sending them into Iran and starting an uprising are "completely unfounded."

This is what the White House is saying.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president has held many calls with partners, allies, and leaders in the region -- in the Middle East. He did speak to Kurdish leaders with respect to our base that we have in northern Iraq. But as for any reports suggesting that the president has agreed to any such plan is completely false and should not be written.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right, with us now CNN political and global affairs commentator Sabrina Singh, and former U.S. ambassador to NATO Kurt Volker.

Ambassador, let me just start with you. You heard Karoline Leavitt. The White House press secretary says any reports that the United States is arming the Kurds to go into Iran are false But we do know that President Trump has spoken with Kurdish leaders in northern Iraq and we also have seen reports -- there are reports the CIA is giving these groups small arms there.

What's the risk-reward for encouraging or even standing by to push the Kurds to go into Iran? KURT VOLKER, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO NATO, DISTINGUISHED FELLOW, CENTER FOR EUROPEAN POLICY ANALYSIS (CEPA), FORMER U.S. SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR UKRAINE NEGOTIATIONS, AUTHOR, ": Yeah, I think it's a huge risk to do that. I think that the Iraqi Kurdish region is prosperous, stable, and one of the best things going in that part of the world right now. We don't want to see that jeopardized or see them in a war directly with Iran.

I think that the phone calls between the president and the Kurdish leaders are probably as Karoline Leavitt said. They are probably about our use of the base that we have in the Kurdish region against Iran and threats to the Kurdish region that might be coming from Iran and how we work together to protect that region.

And then I'm sure that there are intelligence operations that we are leading from there but I would be surprised if they were developing a ground force to go into Iran from there.

BERMAN: And Sabrina, of course, we know there is significant Kurdish populations inside Iran, inside Iraq, inside Turkey, and also inside Syria, which obviously the Kurdish forces inside Syria have been -- all the Kurdish forces to an extent, maybe aside from Turkey, have been allies of the United States over time. But inside Syria they fought against the Islamic Republic and whatnot. But a lot of times the Kurdish forces ultimately have been let down by the United States.

[07:45:05]

Again, what do you see is happening here?

SABRINA SINGH, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR, FORMER DEPUTY PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY (via Webex by Cisco): Yeah. I think as you said, we have long partnered with the Kurdish forces and worked with them when it comes to the fight against ISIS. So there is a longstanding relationship.

I do think your point though has to be taken that we have at times turned our back on our allies. And so I think sending in some type of ground force arming Kurdish forces along that border comes with a very high risk both for the United States and for them. Because at the end of the day if we continue to pull this threat and this does happen and they are armed and they go into Iran, I mean, what happens? Who do they answer to?

There's a lot of questions that we just don't know the answers to, and I think that's something that this administration is struggling to explain to the American people on.

BERMAN: Ambassador, I want to look at a slightly wider aperture here, almost literally, as we talk about this because as there is this activity around Iran with all these nations using enormous amounts of air defense there is now concern that we're hearing from inside Ukraine. The Ukrainians may be getting concerned that there won't be the air defense for them that they need against Russia.

How much are these things connected? VOLKER: Well, I think they are connected because at the very high end

there's a limited number of Patriot missiles and Patriot missile batteries. And for taking out those high-end Russian missiles that are going at Ukrainian cities, those are necessary for Ukraine. So at the top end it's very difficult.

What we are seeing, however, is Iran using the same drones against forces in the Middle East region that Russia has been using against Ukraine for years now. These are the Shahed drones, Iranian designed. There are vast numbers of these and they are very inexpensive. Here, the Ukrainians have developed inexpensive means of taking them out, so they're not using the high-end Patriot missiles to go after all of these drones.

And I think there's actually some coordination that should be happening between the U.S. and Ukraine about developing some of the same techniques that the Ukrainians are using and maybe even getting some Ukrainian assistance to come up with a better way of handling these large numbers of Iranian drones.

BERMAN: I've got some video up here so people can see the drones you're talking about -- these Shahed drones. Maybe $30,000 a pop, which is actually relatively low when we're talking about munitions that cause this kind of damage.

Again, I'm widening the aperture here a little bit, Sabrina. One of the countries that is looking on right now is China, right? China gets a lot of its oil from Iran here.

What's their interest and how do you think -- where do you think they may turn if this conflict continues?

SINGH: Well, I think that remains to be seen. I mean, China -- and we know that Asian markets are greatly impacted by the oil coming through the Strait of Hormuz and you're seeing oil prices and, frankly, just the larger impacts of this war expanding not just to Asia but here in the U.S. I mean, we're seeing the prices go up at the pump.

But specifically, when it comes to China, I mean, they can start looking to other allies. Obviously, there's a close relationship with Russia as well. But they definitely rely on Iran for that cheap oil. And, of course, they're going to -- they have to walk a tightrope here because they don't want to be brought into this conflict, so they have an interest in trying to stay neutral.

But it's going to be very difficult because at the end of the day their economy and frankly, global Asian markets are reflecting that prices are dropping and so that's going to affect people there. That's going to affect their economy within China and I think they're going to start having to look for other solutions depending on how long this war goes on for.

But, I mean, John, as you know and I know and as CNN has been reporting, Americans are already feeling it here at home. I mean -- and gas prices are already higher than when Donald Trump first took office. So I think most people all around the world are asking when does this war end, and we just have no clear answers still.

BERMAN: And, of course, the president traveling to China -- I think it's next month at this point since it's already March right now. Headed there in April

Sabrina Singh, former ambassador Kurt Volker, thank you so much for being with us -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Attorney General Pam Bondi now facing a subpoena by a Republican-led House committee to come testify about the Jeffrey Epstein files.

And a terrifying scenario that we have been hearing more and more about this winter. A skier trapped by an avalanche. This time how the man's wife used an app to help rescuers locate him.

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[07:53:52]

BERMAN: New this morning, the Republican-led House Oversight Committee has voted to subpoena Attorney General Pam Bondi about her handling of the Epstein files. Earlier this week lawmakers also called on seven other prominent figures, including Bill Gates, to testify.

CNN legal affairs correspondent Paula Reid has the latest.

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PAULA REID, CNN LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: This subpoena is an example of a rare rebuke from this Republican-led committee of a member of the Trump cabinet here. Usually this is a committee that is divided by politics, but they are clearly united in their frustration with Attorney General Pam Bondi and her handling of the release of the Epstein files.

In fact, the push from this for the subpoena came from Republican Nancy Mace who wrote on X that "Attorney General Bondi claims the DOJ has released all the Epstein files, but the record is clear they have not. Three million documents in a release and we still don't have the full truth. Audio is missing. Logs are missing. There are millions more documents out there," she added.

So it's unclear how the attorney general will respond to this request.

[07:55:00]

But she recently appeared before a different House committee a couple of weeks ago and that wound up being really one of the most astonishing performances by an attorney general before one of these committees. It really became a meme -- her response to some of the questions about the Epstein files, including her now famous or infamous response when she was asked about the Epstein investigation and she responded with a comment about the Dow.

Now it is unclear if she will take that same approach if she is asked to specifically talk about the Epstein files. We're still waiting on a response from the Justice Department.

Paula Reid, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BOLDUAN: Very interesting on what happens there. Thanks, Paula.

Right now millions of people are without power in Havannah and really all of western Cuba and an energy official says it could take at least three more days to restore operations at one of the country's -- one of the island's biggest plants. A leak in a boiler triggered this outage but Cuba has experienced a series of major blackouts in recent years even before the U.S. cut off oil shipments to the Caribbean's largest island. This is the second major outage in the area in just the last three months.

Now a skier out in Washington State was buried under snow after he came upon an avalanche and he says that the "find my phone" feature on his phone is what helped basically get him to survive and get rescued. He was trapped for four hours in the Cascade Mountains unable to move and then his wife used that app to send rescuers to his location.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL HARRIS, RESCUED AFTER AVALANCHE: You feel like you're encased in cement. So this arm was stuck, these legs were stuck. I could move this hand a little bit, but I had no movement in my body. So my mind shifted very quickly from that to does anyone know that I'm here and how am I going to survive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Honestly, I can't imagine. Ski patrol clearly found him and said he was suffering from extreme hypothermia when they got to him. But thank God for that.

There is new data coming out suggesting that the potential health benefits of the new wave of popular weight loss drugs could be growing now to include helping battling addiction. Researchers out of Washington -- out of the Washington University School of Medicine analyzed records from 600,000 VA patients with type 2 diabetes.

The study found that people using the drugs were less likely to develop substance use disorders. Also experts say there are -- well, the substance use disorders and if they had an existing addition, they suffered fewer of the consequences associated with addiction and -- addiction and abuse. Also there are several related trials that should be rolling out more results on this, this year -- Sara.

SIDNER: So interesting, all the research on GLP-1s.

All right, lots of chest-thumping, less concrete data. That's how one Pentagon reporter is describing the Pentagon's approach to briefing the media on the U.S.' ongoing military operations in Iran. This comes as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says the U.S. is ramping up its strikes inside Iran. The Pentagon versus the press tensions all on full display at yesterday's briefing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE HEGSETH, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: I get it. The press told me once to make the president look bad, but try for once to report the reality.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: To be clear, we do report the reality, and the reality was that there were several service members who had been killed. That is literally our job. We do it during every single war.

We turn now to CNN's chief media analyst Brian Stelter. Good morning to you, Brian. What are you seeing here and is it different from times past?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: Yeah. So far this week we have seen a couple of those Pentagon press briefings. You've shown those to us live. But it's important to note what we're not seeing as well. We've heard a lot of hyperbole from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth but we're not getting much in the way of real transparency from the Pentagon about this military operation.

I spoke with about half a dozen long-time Pentagon correspondents and they pointed out what's not happening right now. What we're not seeing are daily or even twice daily briefings -- background sessions where reporters can ask follow-up questions. Those are pretty standard practice during past American wars. They're just not happening this time. And several we're seeing are sometimes web videos coming out from the Pentagon or brief statements.

So it's important to note what we're not getting. We're not getting the kind of more detailed information that you would expect from various parts of the Pentagon. Instead it's more of a social media war and we've certainly seen a lot that in the last few days, Sara.

SIDNER: There is always war propaganda from all sides during a war -- that is no surprise -- but it is interesting to see how they are doing it now.

And this is one of those. The White House is using videogame footage to promote its war strategy.

STELTER: Yeah.

SIDNER: What do you know about that?

STELTER: The White House really turning heads last night with this particular video, and we will show a clip of it so that you can see it for yourself. This is a video that was posted on X and other platforms that mixes "Call of Duty" videogame footage with actual clips of actual American missile strikes from inside Iran.

This is not entirely surprising. The Trump presidency is a meme presidency and sometimes the trolling is the point. So perhaps the White House wants this controversy and welcomes this controversy.

But we have seen quite a few denunciations of this video overnight. Here's Paul Rieckhoff, the founder of Independent Veterans of America and a frequent guest here on CNN.