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Secretary Hegseth, General Caine Give Update on War with Iran. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired March 19, 2026 - 08:00   ET

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

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ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: The Huskers are playing Troy at 1240 Eastern. Troy has also never won a tournament game, so someone's going to be happy after that one. But you've got about four hours left to get those brackets in, and here are some last second tips for you.

If you're looking for an upset, 11 seeds are the way to go. They're 30-30 in the last 15 years. Then teams that win in the first four, they usually win again.

Only two times since the first four started has a team not made the round of 32. So both those stats really favor 11 seeds, Texas and Miami of Ohio winning in round one. And where games play, you know -- are played, that matters.

Houston is hosting a regional this year, so if my Houston Cougars can get past the first weekend, they're going to get virtual at home games in the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight. But the games tip off 12:15 Eastern. Of course, you can watch them across all of our sister networks, TNT, TBS, and TruTV all day long.

I can't wait to park myself on a couch, Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: It's so exciting. I'm there with you, man. Andy Scholes, thank you so much. I do appreciate you.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And there is breaking news. We are standing by for a briefing from the Pentagon. These are live pictures any second now. We expect to see the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, and the chair of the Joint Chiefs, Dan Caine. They will walk out there.

One of the big questions they could face this morning is the United States about to surge more troops to the region. Reuters is reporting that the Trump administration is weighing the deployment of thousands more U.S. service members as reinforcements to potentially help secure the Strait of Hormuz or Iran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium. This morning, there were also questions about the Israeli strike on the world's largest gas field, Iran's South Pars.

Now, overnight, President Trump claimed the U.S. knew nothing about the strike ahead of time. But an Israeli source contradicts that, telling CNN that Israel carried out the attack in coordination with the United States. The president, in his message on social media, said there will be no more attacks by Israel on the field.

Now, Iran retaliated, striking an energy complex in Qatar. Oil prices spiked overnight. Natural gas prices.

Brent crude, more than $110 a barrel at some point. West Texas crude in the 90s right now. We're going to get right to CNN's Oren Liebermann in Jerusalem.

Oren, just give you a warning here. The minute that the secretary and the chair walk out, we're going to go to that news conference. But until then, give us the latest from the region.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF: Fair enough, John. And we just learned from our colleague, Jeremy Diamond, who is reporting in Tel Aviv. According to a U.S. official, the U.S. was, in fact, aware of Israel's plans to strike the South Pars natural gas field in Iran. So that also contradicts, not only from the Israeli side, but also from the U.S. side, that the U.S. was aware of. And there was coordination between the U.S. and Israel on Israel's plans to strike the South Pars gas field. That strike, in and of itself, was a major escalation of the war.

It is Iran's biggest source of energy there. So it affects not only Iran's ability to function as a government, but the ability of the country to keep on working here. And that, perhaps, the purpose of the Israeli strike.

But that strike was coordinated, according now to both Israeli and U.S. officials, in advance between the militaries, between the U.S. and Israel, who have, of course, coordinated at just about every level, military and political, since the beginning of the war. So that, too, contradicts the statement from President Donald Trump that he wasn't aware or didn't know of the strike in advance. And that is an incredibly important piece of information, especially as we see Iran's retaliation continuing.

Saudi Arabia just saying they intercepted at least one missile that was attempted to strike their facilities at -- and I want to get the name here right -- the strategic oil port of Yanbu. That's just the latest in what appears to be Iran lashing out at the region. We have seen strikes on Qatar's major natural gas facility, as well as other attempted strikes against Saudi Arabia.

That, of course, does not just have a regional impact around the Gulf. That has immediately affected the price of crude oil, gas prices in the United States and beyond. So the U.S. feeling the heat here as we wait to see where this goes, and that is the key question, because this is another major escalation here, with not only no apparent off- ramp here, but no apparent attempt to get to an off-ramp as this war very much escalates across the region. Again, John, with those impacts being felt around the world.

BERMAN: Yes. Oren Liebermann for us in Jerusalem. Needless to say, this raises a whole bunch of questions that could be asked in this briefing in the Pentagon, which we're waiting on any second. Oren, thank you very much -- Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, let's keep an eye on those images, as you're seeing behind John, of the podiums at the briefing room. But in the meantime, let's go to the White House and get the White House view on this. Because, Kevin, just last hour we were talking about this contradiction, it seemed, between what we read from President Trump and what was somewhat known in terms of --

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One second. Let me turn -- can you guys show me the live pictures?

There we go. There we go. Here's the defense secretary. Let's listen.

PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: Well, good morning. Yesterday at Dover Air Force Base, President Trump, the chairman, and I stood in solemn silence as heroes came home. Flag-draped caskets, we honored them.

We grieved with their families, and we listened. What I heard through tears, through hugs, through strength, and through unbreakable resolve was the same from family after family. They said, finish this.

Honor their sacrifice. Do not waver. Do not stop until the job is done.

My response, along with that of the president, was simple. Of course, we will finish this. We will honor their sacrifice. Their sacrifice only steals our commitment.

I wear this bracelet. Staff Sergeant Jorge Oliveira, he was one of my specialists in Guantanamo Bay. He deployed later to Afghanistan, where he was killed on 19 October 2011.

Killed 10 years after 9-11, 15 years ago. He was one of the 1 percent, the best of America, not just a guardsman, but a law enforcement officer back home, and a family man. I remember him every day, just like so many other men and women of our generation and previous generations who wear bracelets like this, just as we will always remember those lost in this conflict.

Their names are now etched into our mission and into the soul of a grateful nation. I stand here today speaking to you, the American people, not through filters, not through reporters, not through cable news spin.

A dishonest and anti-Trump press will stop at nothing, we know this at this point, to downplay progress, amplify every cost, and call into question every step. Sadly, TDS is in their DNA. They want President Trump to fail. But you, the American people, know better. Yes, there are reporters in front of me, but they are not our audience today. It's you, the good, decent, patriotic American people.

You, the hard-working, tax-paying, God-fearing American patriots. The media here, not all of it, but much of it, wants you to think, just 19 days into this conflict, that we're somehow spinning toward an endless abyss or a forever war or a quagmire. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Hear it from me, one of hundreds of thousands who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, who watched previous foolish politicians, like Bush, Obama, and Biden, squander American credibility. This is not those wars. President Trump knows better.

Epic Fury is different. It's laser-focused, it's decisive. Our objectives, given directly from our America-first president, remain exactly what they were on day one.

These are not the media's objectives, not Iran's objectives, not new objectives. Our objectives, unchanged, on target, and on plan. Destroy missiles, launchers, and Iran's defense industrial base so they cannot rebuild.

Destroy their navy, and Iran never gets a nuclear weapon. Our objectives from day one.

To the patriotic members of the press, nobody can deliver perfection in wartime. This building knows that more than anyone. But report the reality. We're winning decisively and on our terms.

Iran is a vast country, and just like Hamas and their tunnels, they've poured any aid, any economic development, humanitarian aid into tunnels and rockets. That's what they did with Hamas.

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Iran has funneled decades of state resources, not to their people, but into missiles and drones and proxies and buried facilities.

But we are hunting them down, methodically, ruthlessly, and overwhelmingly, like no other military in the world can do. And the results speak for themselves. To date, we've struck over 7,000 targets across Iran and its military infrastructure.

That is not incremental. That is overwhelming force applied with precision. And again, today will be the largest strike package yet, just like yesterday was.

As I've said from day one, our capabilities continue to build. Iran's continue to degrade. We're hunting and striking death and destruction from above.

Iran's air defenses flattened. Iran's defense industrial base, the factories, the production lines that feed their missile and drone programs, being overwhelmingly destroyed. We've hit hundreds of their defense industrial bases directly.

Their ability to manufacture new ballistic missiles has probably taken the hardest hit of all. Ballistic missile attacks against our forces, down 90 percent since the start of the conflict. Same with one-way attack UAVs and kamikaze drones, down 90 percent.

Now, the Iranians will still shoot, we know that, but they would shoot a lot more if they could, but they can't. The last job anyone in the world wants right now. Senior leader for the IRGC or Basij. Temp jobs, all of them.

And to borrow a page from Admiral Ernest King in World War II, we've decided to share the ocean with Iran. We've given them the bottom half. We've damaged or sunk over 120 of their Navy ships with battle damage assessments pending for many more. See, oftentimes we have to wait a few days on battle damage assessment to get the real number.

Their surface fleet is no longer a factor. Their submarines, they once had 11, are gone. Their military ports are crippled.

Iran has terrorized the United States and our interests for 47 years. Their core industry is not steel or agriculture or tourism, their core industries are state-sponsored terrorism, proxy militias, underground networks, ballistic missiles, and a violent, messianic, Islamist ideology chasing some sort of apocalyptic endgame.

A regime like that refusing to abandon its nuclear ambitions is not just a regional problem. It's a direct threat to America, to freedom, and to civilization.

The world, the Middle East, our ungrateful allies in Europe, even segments of our own press, should be saying one thing to President Trump. Thank you. Thank you for the courage to stop this terror state from holding the world hostage with missiles while building or attempting to build a nuclear bomb. Thank you for doing the work of the free world.

Yesterday's ceremony reminded us why we fight. Not for nation-building or democracy promotion, but to crush direct threats to America, Americans, and our interests. We fight to win, and we are winning, on our terms, following our objectives.

My 13-year-old son popped into my office last night while I was editing these remarks. He asked about the war and the families I met at Dover, and I looked at him and I said, they died for you, son, so that your generation doesn't have to deal with a nuclear Iran. It's the truth, and they did. So to the families who said finish this, we will.

And I say the same to every American who wants peace through strength. May Almighty God continue to bless our troops in this fight. And again, to the American people, please pray for them every day, on bended knee, with your family, in your schools, in your churches, in the name of Jesus Christ.

To the troops, keep going, and Godspeed. Over to you, Mr. Chairman. GEN. DAN CAINE, JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN: Thank you, Mr. Secretary.

Ladies and gentlemen, good morning, and thank you all for being here.

I also had the honor yesterday, as the Secretary said, of traveling up to Dover with the President to welcome home our six fallen. It was an honor and a privilege for me to be there and to say thank you to their families, and I want to mention their names this morning.

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From the 6th Aerial Refueling Wing out of McDill Air Force Base, Florida, but stationed as part of an active associate unit at Birmingham, Alabama, Major Alex Klinner, John Alex Klinner.

Major Ariana Savino. She was posthumously promoted from Captain to Major. And Technical Sergeant Ashley Pruitt, the boom operator on that crew.

From the 121st Aerial Refueling Wing, Ohio Air National Guard, out of Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base in Columbus, Ohio, Captain Seth Koval, Captain Curtis Angst, and now Master Sergeant Tyler Simmons, who was also promoted in the boom operator on that crew.

To a person and every family member I spoke with yesterday, they all shared that their family members loved serving, they loved being part of a great team and a crew, and they loved airplanes and aviation. Our nation's tanker crews really are unsung heroes, incredible warriors who put their lives on the line so we can continue to take the fight to an enemy. I've personally witnessed their courage and tenacity many times, from the morning of September 11th, where they answered my call for some help, to the skies over foreign countries, where they've come forward out of their safe tanker track to give me gas when I simply could not leave a ground force that was engaged in a firefight.

They've answered the call and come forward time and time and time again. I'm filled with incredible pride and gratitude for all that the tanker crews do, our pilots, our boom operators, and the maintainers. And to the families of our six fallen, know that we share your grief. Our nation will never forget their sacrifice, and we will never forget their names. Our entire Joint Force mourns with you today and will continue to remember their incredible gift of a great example for all of us.

Now let me turn to an operations update.

U.S. CENTCOM remains on plan to achieve our military objectives and remain unrelenting in our pursuit of Iranian missile capabilities, UAV capabilities, and their Navy, and as the Secretary said, their industrial base. Each day we continue to attack deeper into Iranian territory. As reported by U.S. Central Command yesterday, the U.S. military dropped 5,000-pound penetrator weapons into underground storage facilities, storing coastal defense cruise missiles and other support equipment. These weapons are bespokely designed to get through concrete and or rocks and function after penetrating those barriers. We continue to hunt and kill mine storage facilities and naval ammunition depots. We continue to hunt and kill afloat assets, including more than 120 vessels and 44 mine layers, and the pressure will continue.

We're flying further to the east now and penetrating deeper into Iranian airspace to hunt and kill one-way attack garrisons, destroying Iran's ability to project power outside of its borders. The A-10 Warthog is now in the fight across the southern flank and is hunting and killing fast-attack watercraft in the Straits of Hormuz. In addition, AH-64 Apaches have joined the fight on the southern flank, and they continue to work on the southern side, and that includes some of our allies who are using Apaches to handle one-way attack drones.

In Iraq, AH-64s have been striking against Iranian-aligned militia groups to make sure that we suppress any threat in Iraq against U.S. forces or U.S. interests. And we remain focused on pursuit of any platform that Iran could field to harm Americans or our partners.

Last Friday, Admiral Cooper and the CENTCOM team conducted precision strikes against more than 90 targets on Kharg Island, which included all of their military-only infrastructure, which included air defenses, naval base, mines, storage, and deployment facilities.

And as the Secretary mentioned, we continue to strike against Iran's defense industrial base and will continue to do so. Today I want to continue my theme of talking about members of our incredible joint force. Today I want to talk about some exceptional airmen who are engaged in the fight daily.

United States Air Force, Air Force Reserve, and Air National Guard crews within our bomber force, the B-1s, B-2s, and B-52s, and the airmen on the ground who maintain and load these weapon systems. They are the backbone of America's long-range strike capability, and their contributions to Epic Fury have been decisive.

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Assigned to STRATCOM under Admiral Rich Correll and supported by TRANSCOM, the tanker force that we've talked about, under the command of General Randall Reed, every mission is designed to achieve overwhelming outcomes on behalf of the United States and our allies.

Last weekend I had the chance to go out and see some of our deployed bomber forces, the B-1 and B-52 crews, and I had a chance to sit down with some young aviators and maintainers and ask them, how do you feel? Tell me about your typical day. And these are crews comprised of between two and five airmen.

Two on the B-2s, five on the B-52s, and four in the B-1s out there. Some of these Americans are in their early or mid-20s, and we give them the gift of this incredible responsibility, hundreds of thousands of pounds of aircraft, and they take off and go do our work as required. Their mission actually begins the day prior, when they're given a target or a bunch of targets, and they begin to study those targets, look at what are the effects required, what are the weapons required to get there, how will we program these weapons, what is the weather, what is the tanker flow.

It's an incredibly complex problem that we give each and every one of these crews, and they work it over the period of 24 hours prior, get some rest, and then step out the door to go fly. The last thing they do is they check all of their equipment, their oxygen masks, survival gear, load pistols, and get ready to go. They crank the jets about an hour prior to takeoff and then launch into the daylight, doing their pre-flight checks, and as the kids say, lock in and prepare to go to war. Sometimes on a long and stressful journey.

During the flight, they're surrounded by technology and capabilities and they'll do multiple aerial refueling efforts across tankers on the way to the AOR, area of responsibility, either coming from the states or coming from a forward-deployed basing. And I will tell you, as a fighter pilot, getting gas is a lot easier in an F-16 than it is in a B-1, B-2, or a B-52, where you are handling this airplane.

It is a physical thing, unlike a fighter, that's a lot easier. And they stay on that boom for sometimes up to 30 minutes, taking hundreds of thousands of pounds of gas. It is a physical, demanding thing to take gas, and they do it multiple times on the way there, and they do it multiple times on the way home.

As they enter the operating area, they bring the entirety of America's joint force together to go do the things that we've tasked them to do, to put bombs on time, on target, with the proper effects. And I know they're feeling a range of emotions, but the thing the American people should take away from it is they're filled with a focus that is incredibly impressive. And they have fear, of course, but their bigger fear is, Dear God, please don't let me screw this up, the warrior's prayer that we all have in our souls.

In the days of Epic Fury, they were shooting, as we've talked about in this room, a lot of standoff weapons. Now we've switched and rolled, as I mentioned last week, to stand-in weapons. And behind each and every one of them are incredible maintainers and weapons builders who go out there and make sure these aircraft and their weapon systems are ready to go.

These airplanes are so big that they're not in hangars. They're out in the cold, out in the snow, out in the rain. The bombs are being built outside for protection and to make sure that it's safe, and they do it 24-7, 365.

It's not comfortable work, but when you go spend just a minute with these incredibly young Americans who are so motivated, you cannot come away from that exchange not being hopeful for America's future. It is simply awesome. And we hand these Americans, young Americans, incredible and weighty responsibility, and they deliver every single time, quietly, with professionalism and humility, doing the things that we ask them to do.

In conclusion, we will continue major combat operations. As the Secretary said, we continue to get busier. I know the Secretary and I share that we're incredibly proud of 2.8 million members of our joint force. I am personally and we are personally grateful for the tenacity and professionalism of the brave men and women who serve inside STRATCOM, CENTCOM, SPACECOM, CYBERCOM, TRANSCOM, and the rest of the joint force. And I'll close where I started. I ask today that we remember those six

fallen that came home. They represent the best of our nation. For those families that are feeling the pain, know that we are with you and will remain with you. May we always prove worthy of their sacrifice.

And I'll turn it back over to you, sir.

[08:25:00]

HEGSETH: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'll take a couple questions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Mr. Secretary. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Given the updated degradation in strike target numbers you laid out, how close would you say we are towards achieving the President's objectives?

And what is the end game of the operation without divulging any sensitive battle plans?

HEGSETH: Well, we wouldn't want to set a definitive time frame on that. But as we've said, we're on plan. So we're looking at those metrics very closely, relaying that to the President and the national security team.

But feel confident that as, again, we're more stand-in. Means we're over the top, even further in. And we have even more of an exact sense of what we're striking and why, and even more dynamically. Meaning, because the intelligence improves, we're able to more quickly identify targets when they -- let's say they come out of an underground facility where they've been hiding and able to strike it before it strikes or right after it shoots.

But we are very much on plan. And that's why I want to speak to the American people here. You hear a lot of noise about widening or new missions or speculation about what we should or should not be doing.

This is a clear set of objectives. The President has given us every capability we need to accomplish that. We've got the best in the world in uniform executing it on the ground.

They believe in and are invested in this mission. And it will be at the President's choosing, ultimately, where we say, hey, we've achieved what we need to on behalf of the American people to ensure our security. So no time set on that, but we're very much on track. Absolutely.

Yes, right here.

DAVID ZERE, REAL AMERICA'S VOICE NEWS: Good morning, Mr. Secretary. David Zere, Real America's Voice News. What countries have been the most cooperative with us, including the Gulf states, as Europe hedges?

And I also wanted to ask you, the internet blackouts by the regime. It's been shut down for weeks. Is the U.S. military playing a role in fighting against the regime, blocking VPN networks and satellites and other things? Is there a role for the U.S. military there?

HEGSETH: Obviously, on the allies and partners side, Israel, from day one, has been an incredible and capable partner, willing and able. There's nothing like capabilities and partners that are able to use them. The Gulf states have stepped up incredibly.

In fact, Iran's sort of reckless attempt to strike civilian infrastructure and other things has brought countries who maybe would have not been as all in as they are today, squarely into our orbit. We're proud to be defending with them, standing with them, you name it. UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and others who have been right there.

And we're grateful for that kind of support. As far as the internet, we're watching the regime try to tighten its grip as much as possible. We're obviously taking countermeasures, many of which we can't talk about here, to ensure that messaging is delivered, not just to the Iranian people writ large, but to the right audiences, certain audiences that need to hear certain things about what their fate might look like or what their choices are.

So even though that regime is trying really hard to ensure the world can't see, right? They want to put out fake AI-generated images, which by the way, sometimes our press happens to fall for, like the Abraham Lincoln on fire and turning around. These AI-generated images are meant to make it look like something's happening when the exact opposite is.

So they make up fake reports and fake images to lie to their own people to try to make it, but even then, their own people can barely receive a lot of those messages and communicate because of the blackout that they've imposed upon them. But we work around that, for sure.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, Mr. Secretary. General, overnight, Iran launched missiles across the Gulf. They managed to hit the Saudi oil refinery on the Red Sea. What does it mean that they have that capability now, three weeks into the war?

And Mr. Secretary, you mentioned civilian infrastructure. Iran seems to be treating U.S. diplomatic outposts, embassies, consulates like they are legitimate, hard targets in the region now. What is the Pentagon doing to, I guess, secure those assets, stop those attacks?

HEGSETH: Absolutely.

CAINE: Thanks for the question on the missile strikes. You know, as we said and have always said clearly, they came into this fight with a lot of weapons. This is why we continue to be as aggressive and assertive as we can against their ballistic missile capability, both their medium-range ballistic missile capability and their short-range missile capability.

So we are continuing to hunt and find them and kill them, and we will continue to do so. So they still retain some capability. And we have layered defenses throughout the region that will allow us to protect those, and we're working with our partners across the Gulf region to help them improve any defensive capabilities that they may need.

HEGSETH: To that point on capabilities, you know, Iran is an energy- rich country, could be, should be. Instead, like so many other places driven by a radical ideology, they've spent that money, instead of investing in their people. That's why you had millions of Iranians protesting.

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