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Missiles Intercepted over Saudi Arabia; UAE Intercepts Iran Missiles; Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL) is Interviewed about Iran; Economy Loses Jobs in February; Iran's Missile Launchers; Michael Oren is Interviewed about Iran; Celebrating Jesse Jackson. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired March 06, 2026 - 08:30   ET

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

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[08:30:26]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: While you were sleeping, new blasts rocked Tehran as the U.S. and Israel launched a new wave of strikes on Iran. And the Pentagon is now vowing to dramatically surge firepower at the country. There's -- with all of this in mind, there's a new look on how much has been thrown at this so far and what that has cost.

According to an analysis from the bipartisan group the Center for Strategic and International Studies, this war has cost U.S. taxpayers more than $890 million per day so far. That's -- the first 100 hours alone are estimated to have cost $3.7 billion. To break that down further, CSIS shows this, air operations are clocking in at $30 million per day. That's with more than 200 fighter aircraft conducting missions. Naval operations, which have clearly been a key aspect of this operation, each day the fleet of battleships taking part in the war will incur costs of another $15 million. Ground operations are estimated at $1.6 million per day. And the bombs, missiles, artillery that we've seen in all of the videos so far, they're estimated to have cost the government and thus the taxpayer about $1.5 billion in just the first 100 hours.

The interceptor units that have proven critical in taking out Iranian missiles and drones, another $1.7 billion so far. Now, CSIS also projects that these costs, they will go down as the war progresses, but the future price tag all depends on, well, one, the intensity of the operations as they continue, and, of course, also how long all of this lasts.

CNN has teams stationed across the Middle East for you for some critical updates to come. Nic Robertson in Riyadh for us this morning.

Nic Robertson, what's the latest from there?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, a different night around Riyadh than previous. The first time the Saudis have acknowledged that they've shot down ballistic missiles, three ballistic missiles, fired in the early hours of the morning, they say targeting the Prince Sultan Air Base, a major air base just outside the capital Riyadh here. One that's historically been used by the United States Air Force in the past. Not clear if they're doing that now. But a couple of hours later, the Saudis say they intercepted a drone in the same sort of area. A few hours later, they say they intercepted a cruise missile in the same sort of area. A few hours later, they intercepted three more drones in the same sort of area. And by 9:00 this morning, they're reporting another drone interception in the same area. No casualties reported.

The knock-on effect perhaps being felt at the airport here in Riyadh today, which has been a remarkably safe and secure place for people to fly in and out of the region from. We went out there early this morning, and some of the flights that were coming in from Europe didn't make it. Flights from Frankfurt, Munich, Paris and London didn't make it in. There were some disappointed travelers on the ground that even had their bags tagged and had to get them back and come out. And the other passengers we saw who were coming in, not just for the commercial -- regular commercial flights, but also for charter flights.

I talked to people who'd driven in from Kuwait, a 12 to 13 hour drive. Pretty -- a long wait at the border, they told me, but an uneventful drive. And a young couple I met who had given up waiting for flights in Qatar and had driven into Saudi to fly from Riyadh, an eight hour drive, got their visas at the border, drove into Riyadh to fly out of the region, that's something we're seeing and hearing a lot more about because the airspace here has been relatively safe. Flights are coming and going from Riyadh. So, people now are figuring out how they can drive. They're not waiting any longer for these flights that are occasionally coming out of the other gulf states they're getting here. But even that not a guarantee of getting on a plane because some of them are still getting interrupted.

BOLDUAN: Yes, very clearly. Nic, thank you so much for the update.

One of the places where there have been those travel troubles, many of them, has also been taking on a lot of -- hearing a lot of sirens there. Paula Hancocks in Dubai for us.

What's the latest there, Paula?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we've just had an update from the ministry of defense about what today, this Friday, has looked like. It's now 25 till six in the evening. We hear that nine ballistic missiles have been fired towards the UAE and 112 drones.

[08:35:04]

So, on day seven, it is clear that Tehran still has the capability to be able to target the UAE.

And you look at the sort of numbers that we have been seeing since the beginning of this war. Well over 1,100 drones have been fired towards the UAE. Now, more than 90 percent of them have been intercepted. The air defense systems are working, as they should be, up until this point. And that's certainly making people here feel a little better. But there are thousands that are trying to get out. An update in just a moment on the travel situation.

But the UAE government, along with other gulf nations, are furious with Iran targeting them continually. We've heard the UAE say it reserves the right to retaliate. It hasn't publicly said what it is doing in that regard.

But we did get more detail from Pete Hegseth. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: What Iran is doing by targeting allied countries that would otherwise want to stay out of this, they've actually pulled them into the American orbit. So now you've got UAE and Qatar and Bahrain and Saudi and Kuwait and others saying, hey, we're with you. Here's -- we'll shoot with you. We'll fly with you. We'll defend with you. We'll allow you more basing and other -- a lot of which, you know, we can't talk about and won't talk about. But it's actually firming up the unity of the resistance in order to focus exactly where we need to.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANCOCKS: But the UAE not saying publicly what they are doing.

Now, when it comes to people trying to get out, we've had an update from Dubai Airport saying some 30,000 people managed to get out of Dubai yesterday. Of course, Americans among them. We know many who managed to leave. And by tomorrow they think 106 daily return flights should be in place. From emirates they're saying, give it a few days and we may be back to 100 percent capacity.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: All right, Paula, thank you so much for that update. Nic Robertson as well. Thanks, guys.

John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, with us now is Congressman Brad Schneider, a Democrat from Illinois, who is on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Congressman, before I get to Iran, I do want to give you a bit of breaking news. We just got the February jobs report in. The U.S. economy lost 92,000 jobs in February. The prediction had been that actually they would add 55,000 jobs. And the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.4 percent. We're going to dig into this in depth in just a moment. But first, I just want to get your general reaction.

REP. BRAD SCHNEIDER (D-IL): My reaction is, the numbers reflect what I'm hearing from people at home, that the economy is not working for them. That cost of living is too high. This is why -- you know, I chair the New Democrat Coalition. It's 115 of the moderate Democrats in our caucus. We just put out last month our affordability caucus -- our affordability agenda to focus on the cost of groceries, bring down the cost of housing and health care, energy costs, utilities in general, as well as the cost of childcare and care for parents. All of these things are putting a burden on families. And now we're seeing that the job market is shrinking at the same time. This administration is failing us left and right.

BERMAN: Shifting to Iran, we heard from Central Command that since this war began, now exactly one week ago tonight, the number of missile strikes from Iran has dropped by more than 90 percent. The number of drone strikes from Iran has dropped by more than 80 percent. Isn't that success? Is that not going the way you would want it to?

SCHNEIDER: That's a measure of achievement. The U.S. military is the greatest military in the world. So, I have no doubt that they are able to implement and execute as they need to. We should all keep all of our men and women in uniform who are fighting and serving our country in our hearts, wish for their success and pray they all come home successfully -- or safely.

That doesn't change the fact that this president hasn't explained why we are in war right now, what are the specific objectives and goals of this war, how we'll achieve those goals, and what's the end game.

There's a reason that the founders put Congress with the authority, and only Congress with the authority, to take our nation to war. And this administration is violating the Constitution and failing to talk and explain to the American people why we have soldiers dying overseas.

BERMAN: President Trump now says that he feels as if he should have a say in who the next supreme leader of Iran is, suggesting he would not approve of the son of the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to be the next supreme leader. Would you be satisfied with the son of Khamenei being the next supreme leader of Iran?

SCHNEIDER: I'm not going to be satisfied as long as the current regime, the mullahs, continue to rule Iran. These are people who, for 47 years, have said "death to America," "death to Israel," largest state sponsor of terrorism, were seeking a nuclear weapon, were developing ballistic missiles.

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Iran is a threat and we need to address it.

I'm not looking for a temporary solution. I want to make sure we have a permanent solution to the threat Iran poses to its neighbors and the world as a whole. But again we get to the point of what is the goal of this -- of this war? Is it regime change? Is it to put back Iran's nuclear program or to end Iran's nuclear program? That needs to be explained to the American people and brought to Congress to vote on it.

BERMAN: One more note on the economy as it pertains to Iran. We learned today that gas prices are now at their highest level in either of President Trump's terms, an average of $3.32 a gallon. It's actually up from the day he took office, $3.13. Your reaction to that? SCHNEIDER: Well, we're seeing gas prices rise, as well as other

prices. You just talked about earlier, the jobs numbers. The supply chain, global supply chain is at risk, which will increase inflation yet again. And still the president insists on applying these arbitrary and capricious tariffs, which are raising prices for American consumers.

So, the president campaigned to stabilize our economy and get us out of endless wars. He has started more wars than any president in my lifetime, and he has done nothing to lower prices for the American people.

BERMAN: Let me just note, I just want to put some context in this. The gas price today is an average of $3.32 a gallon. Under President Biden, the high was $5.02 a gallon. That was in June of 2022 during the beginning of the Ukraine conflict.

I imagine, as a Democrat, most Americans at that point, many, thought it was worth it to support Ukraine. Is not a higher gas price, still substantially lower than it was a few years ago, worth it in trying to subdue Iran?

SCHNEIDER: Well, this is why it's so important that the president talk to the American people. He's yet to have an address from the Oval Office or anywhere else, talking to Americans, explaining what is the goal of this war, what are the likely cost of this war, and why those costs are worth it. Again, this is why I think the administration needs to come to Congress, why Congress needs to have public hearings in our committees and a debate on the floor so the American people understand what's at stake, why we're doing this, what our goals are, how we'll achieve those goals, and what the end game is to end the war.

BERMAN: Congressman Brad Schneider of Illinois, thanks for rolling with all the breaking news coming in. Appreciate it.

Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking just moments ago, the U.S. economy unexpectedly lost 92,000 jobs last month.

CNN's Matt Egan joining me now.

Two words, not good.

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: That's right, Sara, not good at all. This was an all-around disappointing jobs report. And it's likely to renew those concerns about America's labor market.

Now, as you mentioned, the U.S. economy lost jobs last month, lost 92,000 jobs. That is much worse than the gain of 60,000 that economists had been expecting. It's also a significant slowdown from January, when a surprisingly strong 126,000 jobs were added.

Now, the other disappointing news is that December was significantly revised lower as well. Previously, it was reported as a modest gain. Now look at this. It's a loss. That means two out of the last three months the U.S. economy lost jobs.

Now, when you look at the trend for job growth, we know that last year was a disappointing year for the job market. You can see this goes back to early 2025. And there have been hopes coming into today that this report would show that the job market had been -- has stabilized. But the fact that we have an unexpected loss in jobs that suggests that, no, it has not stabilized, that there is still weakness here.

Now, the unemployment rate was also disappointing. The expectation was that unemployment would stay at 4.3 percent. It did not. It did tick higher to 4.4 percent. Again, that's higher than expected. It's not high overall. But you can see when you zoom out over the last three years or so, it has moved up.

So, why was this report disappointing? We're still going through it. One thing to call out is that health care, which has been really the engine of the job market. Healthcare lost jobs. Look at this, lost 28,000. But that was somewhat expected. We expected some weakness because there was a Kaiser strike. That strike has since ended. And so, 31,000 or so jobs that had come off payrolls, they should come back on.

However, not just about the strike, because we also know that weather was a factor here, right? It was extremely cold. We had this blizzard. And so, there was a loss of jobs for construction. That's weather sensitive.

SIDNER: Yes.

EGAN: A loss of jobs for leisure and hospitality. That's weather sensitive as well. Manufacturing, which has been a focus of the president's, lost jobs in February as well.

We look at how the market is reacting negatively, right? U.S. stock futures were modestly lower. But they've moved to what looks to me like session lows right now, about a one percent loss for the Dow. I would just note one other point here.

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This was a disappointing jobs report. Let's keep in mind, this was before the energy price shock that we are now living through because of the war. And you got to wonder how this energy price increase is going to impact things going forward.

SIDNER: Yes, I mean, before this war began, before the United States got into this, the president was really looking at the affordability issue.

EGAN: Right.

SIDNER: And now we're seeing some of the effects before the war that are happening that are negative. And we will see what happens with this spike in energy prices.

EGAN: Absolutely. SIDNER: Matt Egan, thank you so much. Great reporting.

EGAN: Thanks.

SIDNER: Kate.

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, we're learning new details this morning about a traffic stop that now ended with Britney Spears in jail. The pop superstar arrested, accused of driving under the influence. More on this.

And remembering Jesse Jackson. Today, three former presidents will gather in Chicago to honor the civil rights icon.

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BERMAN: All right, new this morning, Iran launching drones against U.S. bases in Kuwait, even as U.S. Central Command says drone attacks by Iran have fallen by more than 80 percent and ballistic missile attacks by even more, 90 percent in the week that this war has been lasting, roughly.

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The U.S. and Israel have been dropping dozens of bombs and missiles on Iran's missile launchers.

Let's get more now from CNN's Tom Foreman.

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TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You're looking at a life-size model of an Iranian missile launcher. And this is what U.S. and Israeli forces have really been targeting out there. By some accounts, they may have taken out more than half of them already.

Why are they after these launchers? Because if you go after launchers, you can go after the missiles, which are so key to all Iranian offensive and defensive operations, especially very advanced missiles like the Khorramshahr, which we're showing here.

What I'm going to do is push this off into the desert out here so we can talk about its capabilities. It's about 40 feet long. It weighs about as much as a fully loaded fire truck. It is liquid fueled, which means it has a higher propulsion rate or stronger propulsion than you would get from a solid fueled rocket. And that's important because it can carry a heavier load. If they had a nuclear weapon, this missile would carry it according to most military analysts. And that yellow cone up there is believed to have the ability to adjust its direction on the way down toward its target. Most ballistic missiles don't have that, and that can be confounding to some of these missile defense systems. So, that's why they're watching it carefully.

What about range? Would this reach the United States? Absolutely not. But by best estimates it would easily go from Iran, over to Israel over here, which is basically from Washington, D.C., to Kansas, if you want to look at it that way. And look what's in between, Saudi Arabia and Yemen and Oman and Bahrain and Jordan and Iraq, all these Middle Eastern countries we talked about so much.

And that's why there's so much focus on the missile supply in Iran. It is largely believed that a lot of them may be buried underground now, where even bunker buster bombs have a hard time getting to them. So, military analysts keep talking about the idea of sending people in on the ground. Say maybe they can find them that way and disable them. Because as long as they are there and have some capability of being fired, there's still a really potent force.

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SIDNER: All right, thanks to our Tom Foreman for his report.

We are joined now by Michael Oren, former Israeli ambassador to the United States.

Thank you so much, sir, for being here.

I just want to get a sense from you, give us some sense of the cooperation between Israel and the United States and if this is unprecedented as they go forward with this campaign against Iran.

MICHAEL OREN, FORMER ISRAELI AMBASSADOR TO U.S.: Good to be with you, Sara. Thank you.

The U.S.-Israel strategic alliance has, for many years, been the deepest and most multifaceted strategic alliance which the United States has had with any foreign power. It actually exceeds the depth and width of the alliance which the United States has with Great Britain or France or Italy certainly. And it's in many areas. It's in cyber. It's in intelligence sharing and weapons developments. We've seen the Iron Dome, for example, and the arrow systems, those are U.S.-Israel developments.

But this war has taken that cooperation to an entirely different level. Honestly, I've never seen anything like it. It's the first time that the United States has cooperated actively with the United -- with Israel in an offensive operation, not defending Israel's skies from incoming rockets and actually deploying very advanced U.S. assets on Israeli soil, like the F-22 jets. So, it's really quite a different level. And both sides have said that this cooperation is in total lockstep, that there's open communications and there's a division of labor, which has proven to be very effective on the battlefield.

SIDNER: There is a concern about how long this war will go on and the objectives. The United States has been saying different things. The president saying that it's about getting rid of Iran's nuclear capabilities, that it's about getting rid of the navy and the air force there in Iran and then perhaps regime change. Israel seems to be saying regime change is the goal, where they say they are going to continue to kill whoever becomes the supreme leader over and over and over again if that is necessary. Do you have some sense of whether these two goals are the same or if there is a distinct difference between Israel's goals and the United States goal? OREN: Happy to. I think the goals are much clearer and much more in

lockstep with one another. And I'll explain. I think both the United States -- and I want to speak for the United States and can certainly speak for the Israeli leadership, as the way we understand it, that the goal of regime change in Iran is aspirational. That ultimately it has to be in the hands of the Iranian people. The United States and Israel can facilitate such a turnover of regimes, but we can't actually go in there and bring down the government.

And I think that the Israeli government's statement said, as a point of fact, that Israel will eliminate any leader who replaces Khamenei or any leader who comes after Khamenei who continues to seek to destroy the state of Israel. I think you can read between the lines and say, if there's a leader that comes up and says, hey, we're not going to develop nuclear weapons, we're not going to develop ballistic missiles that we're going to fire at Israel, and we're not going to support terrorist groups that are going to try to destroy the state of Israel, then Israel would probably welcome that leader.

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Even if it's not, you know, a result of a popular uprising, we're not there yet. Barring that, the agreement, the goal remains, stop the nuclear development, stop the ballistic missile manufacturing and stop the support for terror.

SIDNER: Do you think it was a mistake by the president of the United States not to come to Congress, not to come before the American people before launching this war, as he called it? It has not been approved by Congress, but he and the defense secretary has called it a war.

OREN: Well, it's a congressional internal American issue. The Congress voted about it the other day and made its voice heard. I'm always in favor -- and this is now I'm not spokesmen for either government of the United States or Israel, I'm always in favor of greater transparency, greater communications and communicating, the casus belli, the reason for going to war here is very clear. And there was, for me, there was an ironclad, you know, casus belli for going to war. This is a country Iran has actually declared war against the United States and carried out acts of war under any legal definition since 1979. And that was a shut and closed -- a shut and closed case that could always be made more forcibly.

SIDNER: Let me ask you about something that just happened. This just came to us just now. Donald Trump has posted on Truth Social saying, "there will be no deal with Iran except unconditional surrender. After that," he says, "and the selection of a great and acceptable leader or leaders, we and many of our wonderful and very brave allies and partners will work tirelessly to bring Iran back from the brink of destruction, making it economically bigger, better and stronger than ever before." He writes in bold, "Iran will have a great future. Make Iran great again."

What do you make of what you just heard there, that he has no deal and that Iran must surrender? Do you see that happening in any kind of timeline? OREN: Well, I could if the bombing is continued and if Iran no longer

has missile capacities, doesn't have aerial defenses, and is really literally rendered defenseless in front of an immense amount of military power. It's Israel, the United States, and now perhaps also Arab countries joining in. Just the UAE and Saudi Arabia have together 500 combat jets. It's a huge force.

So, yes, at some point the Iranian leadership, whatever it is, may say, OK, enough, we're willing to go back to the table and agree to those three conditions, no nuclear facilities, no ballistic missile manufacturing, and no support for terror. That's possible.

I think that -- I think if I can speak for the Israeli people, I'm sort of arrogating a role here, the Israelis would definitely resonate to what the president just said and support it. The definition has to be made, what do we mean by surrender? What does that mean? Does that mean that Iran is occupied? I don't think anybody wants to put boots on the ground and occupy Iran. If that means that there's a leadership that says, we are not going to fight anymore, we're not going to try to destroy our neighbors, we're not going to promote terror around the world, and we're not going to try to develop strategic and ballistic weapons. If that's surrender, you know, bring it on.

SIDNER: Michael Oren, I do thank you for your time this morning. Really appreciate it.

John.

BERMAN: All right, today, Chicago, the country gathering to celebrate the life of Reverend Jesse Jackson. Friends, family and a long list of national leaders, including former presidents Clinton, Obama and Biden, they are all paying tribute. Jackson passed away last month at the age of 84 after battling a rare neurological disorder similar to Parkinson's disease.

Let's get right to CNN's senior national correspondent Ryan Young.

You also covered Reverend Jackson for so long. This is a -- this is going to be quite a goodbye today.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's going to be quite a goodbye when you think about. I've covered Reverend Jackson for over 20 years. The first time I met him, though, I was probably about ten years old, John. So, you think about the legacy this man has led for quite some time.

And on top of all that, when I was just talking to Ben Crump less than a half hour ago, and he was telling me that for 50 years the country could count on Reverend Jackson. And now so many civil rights leaders across the country will not be able to make the phone call to Reverend Jackson to ask for help.

And the Rainbow Push Coalition did so much across the country, just not for civil rights, but for the people in the surrounding areas of Chicago and around the world. We've talked to several people who said throughout their life they were able to count on that civil rights agency for not only providing food, but indicators for where they should go to work and to get education. Even the great Isaiah Thomas, who played basketball for the Detroit Pistons, talks about when he was a young child, that Reverend Jackson's help would help his family and his mother get through life. And these personal touches throughout his entire life really, really shaped the thought process that so many people have about Reverend Jackson.

I remember in 2021, when we were covering Ahmaud Arbery, Jackson was there for several hours talking to people, trying to get them engaged in the idea of continuing civil rights. I mean, even have a picture from the times where he was with Dr. King.

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And let's not forget, he was standing next to Dr. King when he was shot and killed, assassinated. And for 50 years he continued that battle