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U.S. Service Members Killed in Iranian Strike in Kuwait; Trump Avoids Questions from Reporters on Iranian Strike; Travelers Stuck at Middle East Airports Amid Conflict; Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Insists They are in Control of the Government; House and Senate to be Briefed on Iran Tuesday; Interview with Rep. Pat Ryan (D-NY); Sources: Briefers to Congress Undercut White House Claim of Imminent Iranian Threat; Six People Being Treated After an Iranian Missile Hits Jerusalem. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired March 01, 2026 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:36]

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN HOST: We're following breaking news across the Middle East tonight. I'm Kaitlan Collins here at CNN.

And right now we're watching the fallout from the Israeli and U.S. joint military campaign against Iran. Iranians are grappling with a monumental shift in their country, as they are now facing what is going to happen next after the death of the supreme leader in their country.

We're hearing more from the president since yesterday's attacks, but not in person which is notable because typically if the White House conducted this in front of the White House press pool, reporters would be in the room for what you're seeing here. But I want to stress that no reporters were in the room for this video that you're about to see that the president posted to social media. Instead, it was only filmed in front of staff at his Mar-a-Lago club.

But the president did comment for the first time on camera about the deaths of those three U.S. service members that we've now learned died during a suspected drone strike in Kuwait.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: As one nation, we grieve for the true American patriots who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation even as we continue the righteous mission for which they gave their lives. We pray for the full recovery of the wounded and send our immense love and eternal gratitude to the families of the fallen. And sadly, there will likely be more before it ends.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: The president saying there bluntly that there could be more deaths from what is happening in Iran right now. He just got back to the White House from spending the weekend at Mar-a-Lago. And a source tells CNN that his officials are expected to brief what is known as the Gang of Eight, the top eight lawmakers on Capitol Hill on key committees tomorrow afternoon.

This also comes as we're getting new reporting on potential threats that the United States is preparing for, with a source telling CNN that U.S. officials are bracing for potential suicide attacks in addition to more retaliatory attacks and missile strikes from Iran following the United States campaign there.

Our chief international correspondent, Nick Paton Walsh, joins me now.

And, Nick, obviously, as we're watching all of this play out right now, one key question is what happens next in Iran? The president said tonight he did his part. He fulfilled his promise. Now it's up to the Iranian people to decide what's next here.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and he said that he would still be there to fulfill the promise and provide help. But there was an element that was up to them. Indeed, he said, too, that there had been thousands of calls from Iranian security force members essentially trying to take up his earlier offer of immunity for them.

Remember he said that they could claim immunity from previous crimes or face, quote, "certain death." He reiterated that threat again today in that speech. It feels as though this whole notion of a popular uprising is a bit more of an aspiration, almost like a nice to have for the president, frankly, rather than the more concrete goals we've been hearing him focusing on in that speech. And that's removing Iran's longer range missile program and their capacity to think about having a nuclear weapon.

Those elements seem to be on the receiving end of the B-2 bombing strikes that hit some ballistic missile bunkers yesterday. And, of course, the wider campaign against the nuclear program in general. But listening to the president there, it is unclear exactly how long potentially the White House thinks this may go on. He did speak in an interview with "The Daily Mail," suggesting he might be ready for a full weeks' worth of conflict like this.

I would suggest that potentially with the turmoil economically and regionally we're seeing, that might be quite a lengthy ask. But inside Iran right now, we're not only seeing a lack, as far as we can tell, of a cohesive popular uprising. Yes, celebration certainly at the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei after the brutality he's caused for decades, but not necessarily a sense of a groundswell, and most importantly, or any idea of an opposition or an alternative government.

Instead, we have a series of successor type individuals in a temporary council that we understand from state media may have met today. And of course, the ultimate question of who is going to step into the role of supreme leader, if indeed there is enough of a functioning state capability to make that decision right now -- Kaitlan.

COLLINS: Yes. Nick Paton Walsh, on the ground in Israel, thank you for that update. I want to also now go to Washington, where CNN's senior White House

correspondent, Kristen Holmes, was just out on the South Lawn waiting for the president as he arrived back at the White House.

[19:05:06]

And, obviously, Kristen, we were waiting to see if he would take any questions from reporters when he got back.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and Kaitlan -- exactly. And, Kaitlan, as you and I have just discussed, it is striking when President Trump doesn't use almost any opportunity that he can to come talk to reporters to come to the cameras. This is something that he prides himself on, but he has been almost radio silent in a public space. The only time we have seen President Trump since this attack in Iran was in these two videos that were produced by the White House.

They were not done live. They were clearly scripted. And then they were sent out to the masses. He has not been in communication with the White House press pool, for example. We were told he did go to the fundraiser last night at Mar-a-Lago. The press pool was not allowed there. He has not given any kind of press conference to talk about the status. And in fact, he has done a few of these short phone interviews, one of them Nick was just referencing there.

But the problem with some of those interviews is that they're inconsistent across the board. As he mentioned in the conversation with "The Daily Mail," President Trump said four weeks and actually went on to say it was always a four-week operation. Well, the day before, he had told another reporter that he could get out within two days if he wanted to, or it could go on for a longer period of time.

Then he also issued a statement on Truth Social saying that the bombing would continue for one week. So we have heard a lot of different variations here. And just a reminder, Congress has not been fully briefed yet. We do know now that that is going to happen on Tuesday, the full Senate and the full House, and we have not had a chance to ask questions to the president or to any administration officials.

Obviously, earlier today a litany of lawmakers, Republican lawmakers, were doing interviews, but none of them actually in the administration, none of them sat down. At one point, the White House said this was because a lot of them were with President Trump. But of course, we saw the pictures that showed that not all of them, not all of his Cabinet officials were in Florida with the president, although, of course, some of them were sitting there.

So there are still a lot of questions from the American people and in particular questions as to what exactly we are doing. How long is this going to be? Can they outline what caused America to go in at this time? And right now, we are still waiting for the opportunity to ask those questions.

COLLINS: Did the president say anything when he got back to the White House tonight, Kristen?

HOLMES: Well, he did. Not directly in that moment. He went into the residence and then he came back out in the back and they blocked us off. And now -- and I don't think we have the video yet because it's feeding in but he has put statues into the Rose Garden Club, you know, no longer the Rose Garden. It's been paved over. He hosts parties out there. In addition to all the gold lettering, there is now one -- at least one giant statue that I saw.

I'm not entirely sure what it was. It was dark and we were all kind of running around. He came out to admire that in front of the reporters, who, of course, were shouting questions about Iran, shouting questions about any messages for the families of the soldiers who were killed. He did not answer those questions. He did have some positive praise. And I don't want to quote exactly because I don't -- I don't have it written down what he said, but he praised the statue in the garden, and then he left.

COLLINS: So he commented on the statues that have been installed in the Rose Garden, but not this war with Iran that's playing out. Is that right?

HOLMES: That we are currently in right now.

COLLINS: Kristen Holmes at the White House, thank you.

And there are a lot of questions, as Kristen noted there, for the administration on what is playing out here. We've seen Iran carrying out their own retaliation for what's been going on. They're going after major travel hubs in the Gulf region. It's really disrupted air travel all throughout the Middle East. There's seriously dramatic footage that shows people running inside the Dubai International Airport, an incredibly busy airport.

You can see here officials told us that at least four staff members at that airport were injured.

I'm joined tonight by retired Major General Randy Manner, who joins us. He's currently stuck in Dubai, I should note.

And can you just first tell us what's been going on there, and in terms of has there been any word on when you may be able to travel?

MAJ. GEN. RANDY MANNER (RET.), FORMER ACTING VICE CHIEF, NATIONAL GUARD BUREAU: So two things. I'd like to, first of all, my thoughts are with the U.S. military members and their families, particularly those that were killed or wounded. Plus, of course, their families back home that are very worried about them. And then also all the civilians in the Middle East who have been killed or injured.

And then lastly, of course, the hundreds of thousands of travelers like myself who are obviously stuck here in the Middle East during this time of war. It was rather surreal about arriving in Abu Dhabi at the airport while missiles were flying. It was very calm and very unusual. We could hear missile impacts over at the U.S. air base that were about 20 miles away from that airport, and seeing F-35s streaking through the air now and then.

[19:10:05]

But again, very surreal. You can imagine that many of the family members of all of us that are stuck here in the Middle East, especially in my case, obviously with the military, not quite as worried about my personal safety, but for those people who have no experience in dealing with this, it is very disconcerting. Let alone of course the impact on the all the people here in the Middle East.

COLLINS: Well, yes, and I think, you know, sometimes when we've seen these retaliatory strikes in the past, obviously not at the level of what's playing out right now, but, you know, it's they've focused on American facilities, military bases. I mean, yesterday we saw shrapnel hitting and, you know, a strike happening over near the Fairmont Hotel. I mean in a very busy, very populated area in some of these countries where Iran is striking.

MANNER: Yes. This is something that is unprecedented. We also have to remember that many, I mean hundreds of drones and missiles have been intercepted. And when you send up something to defeat or intercept that missile, it does destroy the missile. But what happens is all that shrapnel comes down. And apparently that is what happened there at the Fairmont Hotel in Dubai.

And so it wasn't the fact that it was specifically targeted. It's the fact that the missiles were intercepted and drones were intercepted. So, again, I can't -- I have no firsthand knowledge about the specific strikes that were in Dubai. However, yes, of course, when so many drones, hundreds of drones and missiles are coming in, there's a lot of shrapnel that will fall out of the sky.

COLLINS: Yes, it's a scary, a scary situation. Can I just get your perspective on -- you know, we were just talking to Kristen how the president got back to the White House tonight. He commented on new statues that he's installed in the Rose Garden, but he didn't answer shouted questions from reporters on Iran. He hasn't answered questions on camera about this yet.

Given the significance of this and the huge impact this could have on his legacy, whether you like what he's doing in Iran and you support the killing of the supreme leader, or you're skeptical and have questions about it, do you find it unusual that the White House and the administration is not taking questions on this in a public format?

MANNER: It's extremely disconcerting for the American people to not hear from their elected leader. The president has the obligation to be able to speak to all of us, to be able to explain what is going on, and to do so, of course, through the media. So it is very disconcerting about what apparently is going on. Plus, of course, the news blackout by the administration. It's -- that is just very unusual. And I am -- I am personally concerned about it. We need to hear from the president.

COLLINS: We'll see if we do tomorrow at our next opportunity. Major General Randy Manner, thank you for being here. I hope you get

home safe. We're thinking of you. And I'm so glad you said what you did about the families of those U.S. forces, because all of our thoughts are with them as they are getting incredibly devastating news tonight.

MANNER: Of course. Thank you.

COLLINS: And still ahead here we're going to continue to monitor what we are learning from CENTCOM about those U.S. troop deaths. Also, we have more of our breaking news coverage including who's running Iran right now and what's their plan next, as the retaliation is continued.

Also, Congress is ready to debate and vote on President Trump's war powers after they were blindsided and did not give approval before the strikes on Iran happened. Democrats say people need to go on the record about whether or not they support this.

We'll be having more right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:18:10]

COLLINS: We're following breaking news across the Middle East tonight as Iran is retaliating for those major U.S. and Israel strikes that we saw happening over the weekend.

CNN's senior international correspondent, Fred Pleitgen, is joining me now live from Berlin.

And, Fred, you spoke exclusively with Iran's deputy foreign minister. I mean, given what's left of the regime, and the estimation is 40 to 50 people killed and the senior leadership, how are they responding to what we're seeing happen right now?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, first of all, they say that they have a plan in place that they can continue for a very long time, Kaitlan. One of the things that they say that they put in place is that immediately there was a plan on the shelf for once the shooting started from the airstrikes that happened on Saturday, that the Iranians immediately were able to fire back, despite the fact that they lost so many of their top level commanders.

And if you look at some of the commanders who were lost, it's the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the defense minister, a lot of the top generals. Nevertheless the Iranians are saying that even local commanders can now make decisions and continue those missile barrages, those drone barrages, firing those at targets across the Middle East and of course, even further than that.

At the same time, the deputy foreign minister also expressing obviously the Iranian power structures anger at President Trump and President Trump's decision to go essentially to war with Iran. Here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAEED KHATIBZADEH, IRANIAN DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER: If President Trump didn't want to see Iran hitting back and pushing back, President Trump should have not started this war from the beginning. It was a war of choice. There was no necessity to start this aggression that was act of aggression. And you know that, you know you can ask those who were in the meeting in Geneva. You can ask the Omani foreign minister, Mr. Grossi. That was a breakthrough meeting. Kushner, Witkoff and those people who were in the meeting, the terms and conditions of the agreement was there to the extent that we decided to meet on Monday.

[19:20:07]

PLEITGEN: One of the things that we're seeing is that your forces are hitting a lot of targets in Gulf countries. Now, I know that the Gulf countries were involved in trying to prevent this war, why are you doing that?

KHATIBZADEH: We are not attacking any neighbors that we do have. We did our best to make rapprochement with them. They know that. We communicated with them either to shut down those American bases that are constantly threatening Iran and are constantly using to offend Iran, or we have no option just to push back. We cannot reach out to American soil, so we have no option just to attack any bases which is under U.S. jurisdiction.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PLEITGEN: At the same time, the authorities in Iran, Kaitlan, clearly trying to project that they are still very much in control. There's an interim council that's now in place in Iran that involves the president, the head of the judiciary, and also a legal expert as well from the Council of Experts that are then going to lead Iran essentially until a new supreme leader is elected.

One of the things that I do want to mention from on the ground, because I am also in touch with some sources that we have on the ground as well. They did say that in Tehran, for instance, they are noticing a lot more checkpoints now, many of them run by the Revolutionary Guard. Obviously, the Iranians and the authorities, they're realizing that the security situation there at the moment is one that is very tense.

And at the same time, of course, they want to make sure that they can keep things under wraps there on the ground in Iran's capital and no doubt in other Iranian cities as well -- Kaitlan.

COLLINS: Yes, tense to say the least. Fred Pleitgen, in Berlin, thank you for that report.

I'm also joined now by Michael Allen, who is the former special assistant to President George W. Bush for national security and the former senior director for counterproliferation on the National Security Council.

And obviously, we're seeing how this is all playing out. You just heard from Fred as he was talking to the deputy foreign minister there. I do think there is a question of whether Iran has miscalculated by how they've responded to this, and the fury and the anger from these Gulf allies and response to what's played out and how they've been attacked here.

MICHAEL ALLEN, FORMER SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH FOR NATIONAL SECURITY: Yes, Kaitlan, I think the Iranians made a strategic mistake in the sense that the UAE and Saudi, at a minimum, they were on the fence. They wanted nothing to do with this particular fight. And yet the Iranians took shots at them anyway. The minister seemed to say, well, it was only the American bases there, but it wasn't. It's downtown Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and of course the Dubai Airport.

And all reports indicate now that they're properly angry about it and I wouldn't be surprised to see them not only grant us overflight rights and the rights to launch strikes from their territory, but they themselves may try to get involved in kinetic action here in the next few days.

COLLINS: Yes, it's remarkable to see just the level of anger here. But obviously it raises questions about the decision making process that's coming out of Iran. I do think also just inside in Iran, you know, we were talking to Jason Rezaian earlier who was held wrongfully in Iran for 544 days, and how the Iranian people are feeling right now. And obviously, we've seen the celebrations, they're ecstatic about the death of the supreme leader.

But he was saying they're also probably confused about what happens next and what exactly their capabilities are here.

ALLEN: Well, I think so. I mean, if you go back to what President Trump said 48 hours ago, he invited them to come out on the streets but after the bombing was done. One, we don't know how many of the Iranian people actually received that message. They do not have great internet connectivity there even though we try to get Starlink and other capability to them.

So I do think that what they might have going for them, though, is it's going to take days and days for us and Israel to continue prosecuting all the targets. And they must know that when all of that stops, that will be their time to pounce. So they are either doing one of two things, organizing their own protests or testing whether there are any factions within the regime that want to fracture and come with them.

Maybe the younger generation, maybe those that don't participate in the spoils of office. And so there are a lot of questions we don't have answers to. But I think those are the things to watch in the coming weeks.

COLLINS: Yes, absolutely. Michael Allen, thank you for joining us with your perspective.

ALLEN: Thank you. COLLINS: And there's also questions about the U.S. response here

because we know lawmakers have been divided in their reactions to what we're seeing play out. I'm going to be joined by Congressman Pat Ryan of New York to see where he stands as Washington is preparing for a week of briefings from the administration.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:29:13]

COLLINS: Just a few moments ago, the president returned to the White House, going back to Washington for the first time since he launched these attacks against Iran, attacks that we are hearing from sources could go for days, potentially weeks. And the president didn't answer shouted questions from reporters about what he is doing in Iran, why he is doing this, and what his end goal is here, though he did notice and comment on new statues that he has installed in the Rose Garden at the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: What are the effects for Iran?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. President, do you want to minimize --

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. President --

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Can you talk about Iran?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. President, will you take questions on Iran?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: What's the statue --

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. President, what's your message to the families of the service members who were killed?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[19:30:00]

COLLINS: No response there from the President on those questions related to Iran. Lawmakers also have a lot of questions. They may get answers to them starting this week because we do know the administration is set to brief the House and the Senate on the war with Iran.

I'm joined tonight by Democratic Congressman Pat Ryan of New York, who is a member of the House Armed Services Committee. And also, I should note, is a veteran who served two combat tours in Iraq. And first off, just on the deaths of these three service members. Obviously, that's three families that are getting a devastating call tonight to tell them about what happened to their loved ones. What do you make of that?

REP. PAT RYAN (D-NY): Its horrific. I still wear this bracelet with the names of my fellow soldiers I lost and my two deployments and for the President to not answer those questions, to have nothing to say to those family members is pathetic, it's pathetic. And it's because he doesn't have answers.

Theres not a plan here or it is, he's not sharing it with the American people and this certainly rhymes with past, ill-conceived half-baked regime change wars that sound good until they start, and then all of a sudden no one knows what the heck is going on, and it is young American men and women that that pay the price and that me off.

COLLINS: The President addressed their deaths earlier in a in a video that he recorded talking about it, but he also issued a warning for Americans saying that there could be more of this, that there could be more deaths, and was basically making the argument, this is what happens in a conflict like this and a war like this. What did you make of his comments on more potential deaths?

RYAN: I thought his tone was incredibly dismissive, like, sort of like, oh, this is the way it is, I think is what he said and again, this is not the way it had to be. This decision was wrong on every level. I think it was wrong strategically. It makes us less safe. It makes the American people less safe. It was wrong procedurally, certainly, and that he totally ignored the Constitution and I think, you know there's a moral piece of it, too. But most importantly, the American people want to be safer and this did not do that.

COLLINS: Why do you think taking out the Supreme Leader in Iran makes Americans less safe? Because the administration obviously argues the complete opposite, that it makes Americans more safe to take out a brutal dictator?

RYAN: And frankly, I get frustrated when we just talk and I hear colleagues to talk about the process and war powers which is right. But on a on a fundamental strategic level, I think this was wrong and here's why, we already know who the replacement is, interim. Theres a line of succession of as bad if not worse dictators lined up who are Islamic extremists. They're continuing to strike the region to kill our soldiers. And there's no plan. And so, and he's not even answering questions and made no attempt in an almost two-hour speech to do so and it seems like he doesn't want to do that.

So, not to mention the fact that this has started an escalatory chain here that is very hard to ramp down. We see neighboring countries now potentially getting pulled in, rightly so, because they're being struck. Of course, when we lose American soldiers that rightly escalates. So meanwhile, Putin, Xi, I believe the PRC is our greatest enemy. They're watching this, seeing us bogged down with two carrier strike groups depleting our munitions stocks. And I think that puts us in a less safe position. And I don't want to say that; I don't say it lightly.

COLLINS: Well, and on munitions, you make a good point, because we know from reporting which the President disputed, that the Joint Chiefs Chairman, General Dan Caine, was worried about an extended operation and what exactly that could look like. What's your first question for the administration when they're briefing lawmakers on this?

RYAN: If they actually let us ask questions which in our previous Venezuela briefings were a joke, they lied to us and barely left any time for questions. So, this merits real questions. I think they should be public debate. The American people should have a say were there as members as representatives of the people my main question is what is the specifically articulated aim here? What is the goal? No one's been able to answer that.

And then the obvious follow on is, are we willing and able to allocate the means necessary to achieve that aim? I mean, it's our taxpayer dollars. It's now our young soldiers coming home in flag draped coffins. So, that is real, let's not pretend here anymore, President Trump.

COLLINS: Someone who has a really strong position on U.S. involvement in the Middle East, is the Vice-President. J.D. Vance. I mean, he's been on the record many times talking about this talking about his own experience. I want you to listen to something that he said. This was posted in October 2024. So, right before the election.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J.D. VANCE (R), VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Our interests, I think, very much is in not going to war with Iran, right? It would be a huge distraction of resources; it would be massively expensive to our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin was arguing this is not a war with Iran. I think a lot of people would see this and say, given the level of conflict, they do believe that it's a war with Iran. I mean, what do you make of what J.D. Vance said then and what the administration is doing now?

[19:35:29]

RYAN: He's right I mean, and that is not only is he right, which I would like to I don't say that often, but well say when it's the case the American people, in their wisdom, are right. After our two longest wars they said the last thing, we want is more ill-conceived, open- ended, regime change wars. And that's what the President ran on, of course, as you know and have reported on and then, it's just a betrayal of that promise.

Frankly, it's like I run to lower costs and end wars. And instead, I've raised costs, ignored that, and started a multitude of wars. And, you know, that's what I hear over and over from my constituents. He's just not focused on the things we care about. And grasping and flailing and getting Americans killed.

COLLINS: Do you think it's important for there to be a vote on this, for your colleagues to have to say, yes, I support this, or no, I don't?

RYAN: Absolutely, it is essential. Like this is foundational to our Republic that the people decide when to send our most precious resource into harm's way and that was so blatantly and disrespectfully ignored. He had so many opportunities to do that. So, at a minimum if I'm an American especially with someone in uniform, a loved one, I want to at least know where does my representative stand? Are they for this? If so, why? And I need to be able to hold them accountable. It's not just the President, it's all of us in Congress.

COLLINS: Congressman Pat Ryan, thank you for joining us tonight.

RYAN: Of course, thanks.

COLLINS: I appreciate your perspective on this.

And our coverage will continue as we are following breaking news out of the Middle East and what's happening next here. We'll be right back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:41:51]

COLLINS: We're getting some new reporting in just now to CNN and this comes after what happened earlier today.

Briefers from the Pentagon acknowledged, apparently, to Congressional Staff, that Iran was not planning to strike U.S. forces and bases in the Middle East unless Israel had attacked Iran first. Now, that matters because it undercuts what we had heard from the Trump administration and the argument that they had made earlier this weekend that Iran was planning to strike the United States preemptively and therefore posed an imminent threat to the United States and its forces and its facilities.

CNN's Zach Cohen is part of the team that broke this story. And, Zach obviously, this this matters significantly, given what they have been arguing, what they've been saying behind-the-scenes to reporters, to lawmakers. What else are we knowing, are we learning about this briefing?

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yes, Kaitlan, just like most of the administrations explanations for why now, why was this operation against Iran launched now this briefing happened in private, but we're told that Pentagon briefers did make a stark acknowledgment, and that was that, no, there was no indication that Iran was preparing to preemptively strike U.S. bases in the region in anticipation of some sort of an attack from American and Israeli forces.

And that's something that senior administration officials had said on Saturday that they believed was true. And that was something that contributed to the timing of this operation. So, raising more questions still, as the President has, we haven't heard from him about his reasoning, his justification and his plan going forward as this military operation continues. And again, the imminent the issue of an imminent threat has been

raised on several occasions. The Trump administration has pointed to Iran's ballistic missile program. The President himself claiming that Iran would soon have a missile that could reach the United States. We've reported, obviously that that is not backed up by Intelligence.

The Pentagon briefers that did brief Congressional Staffers, though, did point generally to the threat of Iran's missile arsenal, pointing to the fact that they did have some nuclear ambitions and that was painted as a general threat but again, this idea that Iran was going to preemptively strike the U.S., and that is why the Trump administration went forward with this operation at this time, seems to not be consistent with what was said today during this briefing.

COLLINS: And I mean, this is why it matters that which we've been talking about for two hours tonight, why they haven't taken questions publicly on this. Because basically, what you're saying and just to make this clear to everyone at home, last night, senior officials told reporters one thing about why this happened now and you're hearing that briefers are telling lawmakers, actually, that wasn't the case. That's not why this happened, now, we don't have intelligence to back that up.

COHEN: Absolutely, and it's just causing more confusion and frankly, raising more questions, not just amongst reporters, but we've heard from several lawmakers that are also waiting for a full briefing from the administration, one they expect to get this week. But it's still not had an opportunity to push either the Pentagon or White House officials on what actually was the justification and the reasoning for starting this operation now.

COLLINS: Zach Cohen, thank you for that important reporting.

[19:45:00]

And the United States and Israel right now, we do know, are bracing for more retaliatory attacks from Iran. Several people have been injured in Jerusalem following strikes there. Also, as Jeremy Diamond noted earlier, a deadly day in Israel following retaliation. I'm going to speak to the former United States Ambassador to Israel right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:50:00]

COLLINS: And welcome back to our breaking news coverage of what is happening in the Middle East right now, where six people we know are being treated by Israeli emergency services after an Iranian missile hit a neighborhood in Jerusalem. The video, as you can see, shows a car destroyed near a large crater in the road. Emergency responders are still searching and looking for any additional missile impact sites. Obviously, people in Israel have spent the last over 24 hours in shelters after a strike earlier that happened in a residential area near Jerusalem. Nine people were killed there while sheltering beneath a synagogue. The former U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro joins me now. And

thank you so much, Mr. Ambassador for being here, because obviously it's just devastating for those nine families who lost their loved ones as a result of while just sheltering in place. When you look at overall what is happening here. A lot of questions about the United States' end game here. What is Israel's goal in this war, would you say?

DANIEL SHAPIRO, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO ISRAEL: I think Israel, Kaitlan, hopes to see the end of the current regime in Iran they, of course identify the nuclear threat that was addressed initially in the war last June, which sometimes called the 12-Day War. Frankly, those nuclear facilities are still not advanced and rebuilt to the point where they pose the same kind of threat. They're very focused on the ballistic missile threat that Iran poses.

Iran possesses enough ballistic missiles to do significant damage in Israel. And maybe outstrip Israel's own air defenses and in the first two days of this war, there have been 15 or 20 volleys of Iranian ballistic missiles. But I think they really believe that this is a moment when this regime, which has been so dedicated in its ideology to Israel's destruction, to the point where it has put its own economy and society at risk, really even destroyed it to pursue that ideological crusade.

They see that as the goal, they eliminated in their strikes in the first day of the war, a number of very senior Iranian leaders, including the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei. And of course, that led them to be very hopeful but that was day one. Day two, was a lot harder, you mentioned earlier three U.S. service members killed and another seriously wounded. Casualties in Israel today, deaths and wounded as well. There have, of course, been violent protests outside U.S. diplomatic missions in Pakistan and Iraq, and many other countries in the Gulf and elsewhere in the region have been on the receiving end of Iranian missiles.

So, this is a war that they see an opportunity, as President Trump kind of has identified an opportunity, although with some inconsistency about his strategy. But I think that's what they prioritize.

COLLINS: Well Barak Ravid was reporting earlier that what his understanding is the United States wants to finish off the regime. Is that your understanding, from what you've heard from others in Israel about, you know, given this is a joint exercise, joint war carried out by the United States and Israel. Is that your understanding?

SHAPIRO: To be honest, if you look at the kinds of consultations between the President and Prime Minister Netanyahu, you'd assume they're very much on the same page. And certainly, the militaries are extremely coordinated and this is a very much a joint operation. But if you listen to what President Trump has been saying in the first 48 hours, he's kind of all over the place about what his goal is.

He has said initially that he wants to create the conditions for the change of the regime by weakening it so much that the Iranian people take matters into their own hands. But also, he has said that he's open to ending the operation within two to three days.

He's also said, he's open to negotiate with the very regime that he said he hopes will fall. He's also said this could go on for four weeks. He's said many different things, initially he made the inaccurate statement about the imminent threat of an ICBM type ballistic missile that could reach the United States of course, the nuclear facilities have been mentioned as well.

So really, they're all over the place. And if I were the Israelis frankly, I would be confused. I think the American people are confused. As Congressman Ryan was saying earlier, there's no case that has been made by the President in a very clear and cogent way to the American people. No administration officials spoke to reporters on the Sunday talk shows today to answer the very clear questions. What is the goal? Why are we doing this? What is the threat we're trying to address?

COLLINS: Don't you think if there was a clear goal, they would just say it?

SHAPIRO: I think they, if I'm reading the President right, he's very improvisational, a bit impulsive. It's not that he doesn't have a feeling about this Iranian regime, and it's a terrible regime by the way. Seeing the demise of Ayatollah Khamenei, one can only say good riddance to a murderous dictator of his really evil character and all the blood that's on his hands, American blood and many, many other people's blood as well.

But President Trump is also somebody who makes spot decisions. And he said very clearly, I think it was to Barak Ravid. He said, I can go either way. I can go two to three more weeks until I take over Iran completely, or I can shut it down in two to three days and I think he's leaving it to his own improvisational sense of what's the right move at the right time. It might be very disappointing for some of his supporters. For some Israelis, it might be very welcome. For others if he would say, you know what, we've bit off maybe more than we want here and we should rethink if we're going to really go all the way on this particular operation.

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COLLINS: Former Ambassador Daniel Shapiro, thank you for joining me tonight. It's very helpful perspective. Thank you all so much for joining us tonight. My colleague Erin Burnett will pick up our breaking news coverage right after a quick break. Stay with us.

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