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Hegseth on War Time Frame; Most Intense Day on Iran; Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) is Interviewed about Iran; Georgia Voters Replace Greene; Trump on Iran War. Aired 9-9:30a ET
Aired March 10, 2026 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[09:01:49]
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, you saw it here live. The news coming in now. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth just offering an update to reporters on the latest on the military operation and war with Iran. What he said now about the timeline.
And we're learning new details also about the Pennsylvania teenagers charged with throwing homemade bombs during an anti-Muslim protest in New York. What they told police afterward.
And this summer, Indy cars will be racing through the streets of the nation's capital. The new race route announced, and more details for America's 250th anniversary celebration
I'm Kate Bolduan, with John Berman and Sara Sidner. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking this morning. This is the 11th day of the war with Iran. And Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says this will be the fiercest day of strikes yet. Here's what he said moments ago at a briefing at the Pentagon.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: Today will be yet again our most intense day of strikes inside Iran. The most fighters, the most bombers, the most strikes, intelligence more refined and better than ever. So, that's on one hand.
On the other hand, the last 24 hours have seen Iran fire the lowest number of missiles they've been capable of firing yet.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SIDNER: Clearly the war not ending yet. Hegseth says the leader of Iran are desperate and scrambling, and added he -- that the U.S. will not relent until, quote, and I'm quoting here, "the enemy is totally and decisively defeated." Those comments are coming after President Trump gave some mixed
messages on when the war might end, including saying that it is, quote, "very complete, pretty much." Hegseth declined to give a timeline, saying only that it will be up to the president to decide when it's over and that it will not be endless.
CNN has live team coverage across the Middle East and here at home.
Let's start here at home with Alayna Treene, who is at the White House.
Did you get a clear picture from Hegseth as to these mixed signals from the president as to whether or not that's been cleared up, how long this war will last, or a definitive timeline?
ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Not really. Sara. I don't think we've been given a definitive timeline. And I think that's by design. The Trump administration does not want to box themselves in to any sort of timeline, really, as this is ongoing.
However, we did hear an attempt from the defense secretary to try and clarify what the president said yesterday, because I'd remind you that at that press conference, it was hastily arranged last night, the president essentially, over the course of three hours, gave two very different assessments. At some points he was saying that it looks like the war was very much complete. Those were the words that Trump used. But then at other times he seemed to argue and suggest that perhaps the war could still go much further.
But I want you to listen to how the defense secretary tried to clarify some of that and put it into context. Listen.
[09:05:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: Where we are is in a very strong place, giving the president of the United States maximum options. And from the beginning, from this podium we haven't stated how long it will take. Our will is endless. Ultimately, the president gets to determine the end state of those objectives, right? But what he's said continually, and I want the American people to understand is, this is not endless, it's not protracted, we're not allowing mission creep. The president has set a very specific mission to accomplish. And our job is to unrelentingly deliver that. Now he gets to control the throttle. He's the one deciding --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TREENE: So, Sara, look, he was essentially saying that it's really up to President Trump when, you know, it's decided whether or not the U.S. objectives in Iran are essentially completed.
And I think this speaks to, though, a broader sense of what the Trump administration has been trying to communicate without giving that definitive timeline that you were asking about, this idea that they recognize many Americans are very wary. This includes many people in the president's own base of support. Many are very wary about a protracted military involvement.
And you've heard Hegseth, he actually just said this morning that this is not 2003. They're very keen that people are maybe comparing this to the United States, you know, going to war with Iraq and Afghanistan. They do not want those comparisons to be made. While also not being boxed into a specific timeline.
So, there's still so many questions. We didn't really get answers to what the long term goal of this and what this will look like really moving forward. That's still very much something I think people are wondering today.
SIDNER: It certainly is. Thank you so much, Alayna Treene.
Let's go to Paula Hancocks, who is in Abu Dhabi.
You know, Defense Secretary Hegseth said very plainly one of the big mistakes he thinks that Iran has made is attacking its neighbors, like Abu Dhabi, like the UAE, like Qatar and Saudi Arabia. What are you learning there?
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And, Sara, he also said that he can't say that we anticipated that this would happen, but we knew it was a possibility. It's something certainly that leaders in this region are extremely angry about, that they've been dragged into this war.
We have been seeing here in the UAE another target against the oil infrastructure here. So, it's the al Ruwais facility, one of the largest oil facilities in the region, we understand. There has been a fire caused by a drone or potentially the interception of a drone in that area.
Now, we know that this is part of the ADNOC, the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company. It is an area that has been targeted before, and it's really what we're seeing Tehran push towards is trying to target the energy infrastructure around the region, trying to cause this spike in pain, in economic pain, in energy prices. And once again, the UAE has had that happen to them.
Now, we also know that there were three drones fired in Erbil in Iraq. Two of them actually hit very close to the UAE consulate. We understand no damage, no casualties, but certainly that the foreign ministry here wants to find out from the Kurdistan authorities why exactly this would have been targeted, the UAE consulate in Iraq.
The UAE is by far seeing the most numbers of missiles and drones from Tehran. We also have some remarkable footage I want to show you of a fighter jet that is trying to shoot down a drone just over a Dubai beach. Remarkable because you also see a number of people on that beach. There are some in the UAE refusing to let this change the way that they are living their lives at this point.
But it shows again just how close this all is to people on the ground. We know that there are obviously Emirati fighter jets in the air. We know also the French have sent fighter jets here. The U.K., just last night as well, saying that they are now involved in the defense of the UAE, a recognition from Europe that the UAE is really drawing a lot of the Iranian fire.
Sara.
SIDNER: Yes. Paula Hancocks, thank you so much for your reporting and also to our Alayna Treene at the White House.
John.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, with us now is Senator Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat from Maryland.
Senator, thanks so much for being with us.
It was just yesterday afternoon that in a phone interview with Weijia Jiang of CBS, President Trump said, quote, "I think the war is very complete, pretty much." "I think the war is very complete." That's what he said yesterday afternoon. Just a few minutes ago, this was Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: Today will be yet again our most intense day of strikes inside Iran.
[09:10:01]
The most fighters, the most bombers, the most strikes, intelligence more refined and better than ever. So, that's on one hand. On the other hand, the last 24 hours have seen Iran fire the lowest number of missiles they've been capable of firing yet.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: So, today has been the most intense day of strikes yes -- yet. Does that sound very complete to you?
SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D-MD): No, John, and it's part of a pattern we're seeing with constantly shifting rationales. Still absolutely no end game. And of course, this from a president who promised he wouldn't drag us into another war in the Middle East. This is making Americans less safe. We've already lost seven of our service members. And we're seeing this cost $1 billion a day at least. And the president's asking for up to $50 billion more as oil and gas prices go up.
So, this war is not making us more safe. They don't have an end game. They're making it up as they go. And it's putting more Americans in danger as we speak.
BERMAN: How so? Less safe how?
VAN HOLLEN: Less safe because what they've done is taken the lid off pandora's box and unleashed all sorts of forces that the president and his team clearly don't -- can't control. I mean they said, for example, that they were going to bring in new leadership. I mean one of the rationales the president's given is regime change. And yet we know now from public reporting that the administration, the CIA, said that if you get rid of Khamenei and the existing leadership, you're not likely to get a more, quote, moderate leadership. In fact, you're likely to get a more extreme leadership.
And so, that is just going to put the region in continued danger. And Americans should not be paying the price for this unnecessary and at war.
BERMAN: Continued danger, even if the missile capacity is degraded 90 percent, the drone capacity degraded some 83 percent? Doesn't that make people in the region more safe?
VAN HOLLEN: Hey, John, there was never any question that the United States military could obliterate Iran's military. That was never a question.
The question all along has been, to what end? And again, there's no end game here. And you can take out some of their missiles. They can, of course, reconstitute missiles. The -- really the weapon of choice for the Iranians right now are these drones. They're very cheap. The secretary of defense didn't mention that those continue to be fired at a rapid clip.
And so, again, the claim that the president had that Iran was on the verge of getting a nuclear weapon was just a lie, just like he lied when he said that the school that got blown up, killing about 150 people plus, including mostly kids, he said the Iranians did that. We know that's not true. So, he has lied about this from the beginning.
Look, Prime Minister Netanyahu said he's been wanting to do this for 40 years, but it appears he's finally found an American president who's stupid enough and reckless enough to actually do it.
BERMAN: I want to follow up on what you were just talking about, about the Iranian school, because there was a remarkable exchange between the president and Shawn McCreesh (ph), a "New York Times" reporter, about this subject yesterday.
Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Mr. President, you just suggested that Iran somehow got its hands on a Tomahawk and bombed its own elementary school on the first day of the war. But you're the only person in your government saying this. Even your defense secretary wouldn't say that when he was asked, standing over your shoulder on your plane on Saturday. Why are you the only person saying this?
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Because I just don't know enough about it. I think it's something that I was told is under investigation, but Tomahawks are used by others, as you know. Numerous other nations have Tomahawks. They buy them from us. But I will certainly, whatever the report shows, I'm willing to live with that report.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Iran does not have Tomahawks as far as we know and does not buy them from the United States, but what do you think of that answer?
VAN HOLLEN: So, John, look, again, this is a pattern. President Trump lies and he lies. He makes it up as he goes. When he gets caught lying, he tries to shift the narrative. But the reality is, it's very dangerous for us to go into a war with a president that we just can't trust. And this is why one day he says, this is going to be over soon. The next day, the secretary of defense comes out and says we're going to actually pick up the intensity.
All of this tells us that they do not have an end game. They've never had a strategy.
[09:15:00]
It's been going back and forth, zigzagging from the very beginning. And it really is unfair to the country and the American people. It is putting American lives at risk. Again, we've already lost seven souls. Civilians are being killed, and the president wants to pretend it wasn't caused by the American Tomahawk missile.
I really think, you know, the majority of the American people are against this war for good reason. It is not making us more safe, and it is costing us a boatload of money every day, even as we have huge needs here at home.
BERMAN: Senator Chris Van Hollen, from Maryland, thanks for being with us this morning.
Kate.
BOLDUAN: This just in. The FDA reversing course on something it initially had been touting as a possible treatment for autism symptoms. Now no more. What's going on there? We've got the details for you.
And a special election is happening today in Georgia. Nearly 20 candidates are vying to fill the seat vacated by Marjorie Taylor Greene. What's at stake there today?
Live Nation, Ticketmaster settling with the Justice Department. So, what does this mean for ticket prices?
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[09:20:43]
BOLDUAN: So, today, voters in northwest Georgia are deciding who will replace former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. Greene, you'll remember, resigned in January amid a growing public -- very public rift with President Trump. At one point when it comes to this special election, there were something like 22 candidates running for the seat. The field has narrowed slightly, now down to 12 Republicans and three Democrats.
CNN's Ryan Young is tracking it all, covering this race from Georgia for us.
Ryan, what is happening there today?
RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A lot of people running for this one, Kate. Look, sometimes you show up to these polling centers, you're not sure what you're going to get. Energized voters is what we've seen so far. Early this morning, a lot of people have some ideas of what they want to see. I should say the word that I've heard over and over is common sense. They want to see more of it, especially in Washington.
One of the things I want to get out of the way here is the top two vote getters after that crowded field will probably face off in a runoff in April. But as we were talking to voters, they kept talking about gas prices and the war in Iran and also protecting Israel. One of the things about this polling center, this overwhelmingly voted for Donald Trump in the last presidential election, some 63 percent. There's over 7,000 registered voters just for this area. But when I'm talking to the folks about why they came out to vote so early this morning, take a listen to some of the things that were on top of their mind.
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STEPHANIE FORTENBERRY, VOTER IN GEORGIA 14TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT: We have a large community of people who are uninsured or, you know, we have a large immigrant population here that, you know, I'm very supportive of. They're hard workers. And so, I just want to make sure that my community's taken care of.
SHANE COWAN, VOTER IN GEORGIA'S 14TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT: Immediately nothing's going to happen because the policy has already been set, you know? But I'm hoping we can get some people in that really have some common sense.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
YOUNG: Yes, that gentleman there also said he wanted to see more focus on the debt. He felt like things were getting too out of control. And he was worried about the future, especially for his grandchildren and his children.
Look, it's still early, but we've seen a steady pace so far. More than 50 people have already voted behind us. But this is one of those elections where a few years ago, people might not have been paying attention to this district as much as they are now because, obviously, when someone steps away, the way Marjorie Taylor Greene did, people are now interested to see what happens next.
Kate. BOLDUAN: To say the least.
It's good to see you, Ryan. Thanks so much for covering it for us. I appreciate it.
Sara.
SIDNER: All right, thank you, Kate.
Coming up, this morning, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declaring today will be the fiercest day of strikes yet in Iran. We'll discuss what that may mean going forward.
And a race through the streets of the nation's capital. A clue as to what's being planned for the 250th birthday of the USA.
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[09:28:01]
SIDNER: This morning, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Caine offering their latest assessment of the war with Iran. Secretary Hegseth refusing to give a definitive timeline, but saying that Iran is, quote, "badly losing."
For more now I am joined by CNN national security analyst Beth Sanner and retired Army Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt.
Mark, I'm going to start with you.
We heard from Hegseth that he would not give a timeline, that it was up to the president as to the timeline. The president has said it's all but over. And then we heard from Hegseth that this day will be the most fiercest of the strikes yet.
So, what does that tell you about the status of this war?
BRIG. GEN. MARK KIMMITT, U.S. ARMY (RET.): Well, I think there's fundamental misunderstanding. In many ways this war will end when the Iranians want it to end. If we want to win this war, the intent is to get Iran to capitulate and come back to the negotiating table. I don't think we really understand. We may stop the military operations, but in terms of winning this war or finishing this war, I think it's more up to the Iranians than it is to us.
SIDNER: That's a really interesting point that you make there.
I want to turn to you, Beth, because there has been some mixed messaging coming out of the Trump administration. On the one hand we heard from Hegseth talking about what they're not going to do, what this war is not going to become. And then we also heard something a little different from the president. So, let me let you listen to the two things side by side.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: You see, this is not 2003. This is not endless nation building under those types of quagmires we saw under Bush or Obama. It's not even close. Our generation of soldier will not let that happen again.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I think you can say both. The beginning -- it's the beginning of building a new country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SIDNER: So, you've got, one, Hegseth saying this is not about nation building, and then you have the president saying this is the beginning of building a new country.
[09:30:01]
Do you -- do we know which is it?
BETH SANNER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes. Right.
SIDNER: I mean, what is the objective here?
SANNER: Well, I think General Kimmitt laid it out pretty clearly for us in understanding
