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The Situation Room

Interview With Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA); War With Iran Spreading?; Colin Gray Found Guilty. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired March 03, 2026 - 11:00   ET

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

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PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Happening now, breaking news: Get out now. That's what the State Department is telling Americans in the Middle East, as U.S. embassies are being targeted.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: And Kristi Noem up on Capitol Hill right now, the homeland security secretary facing serious questions from U.S. senators.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer with Pamela Brown, and you're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BLITZER: And we begin this hour with the breaking news. Israel hit a compound in Iran of a group that chooses the new supreme leader. This is the aftermath of that strike. Look at this video.

BROWN: CNN Jerusalem bureau chief Oren Liebermann joins us.

What are you learning, Oren?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF: We're still learning only the first details of this strike and what the intended target was, this according to an Israeli source, familiar with the matter and the operation.

Israel struck a compound in the holy Iranian city of Qom that belonged to the council that was set to pick Iran's next supreme leader. According to that source, the goal here was to hit what's called the Assembly of Experts compound in the city of Qom while its members were in fact meeting and voting on who Iran's next supreme leader would be.

Iranian state media, however, says the building itself had been evacuated prior to the attack, so it's unclear whether there was anyone inside the building itself, whether the council was in fact meeting -- it's an 88-member council of senior clerics who are set to meet and vote on Iran's next supreme leader -- or whether it had in fact been evacuated. So that is still one of the key questions here. Again, you can see

that video that Wolf mentioned just a moment ago. That shows you the damage from the strike that occurred earlier today in the city of Qom.

According to Iranian state media, the building had in fact been struck some 24 hours ago as well. We know the council, the Assembly of Experts, was supposed to meet there to vote on Iran's next supreme leader after Iranian state media confirmed in the early hours of Sunday morning local time here that the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had been killed in the opening round of strikes from Israel and from the United States.

So it was fully expected that the council would be meeting. Now, at this point, we're waiting to learn whether in fact there was anybody in the building itself as was the intended target of this strike, according to that Israeli source, or whether, as Iranian state media reports, the building in fact was empty.

But this is a clear strike, Wolf and Pam, at the heart of the regime itself. This is a seat of the council that's intended to pick the next leader, the succession of the Iranian regime here, so Israel not just going after its leadership, which we saw on Saturday morning, but also going after the mechanism that keeps the regime alive and moving forward.

BLITZER: Yes, a serious development indeed.

Oren, should we anticipate in the coming hours and days even more intensive Israeli strikes against various targets in Iran?

LIEBERMANN: I think that's very much the direction where this is going. Israel's military says they have increased and expanded their air superiority, meaning Israel's air force can pretty much do whatever it wants over large swathes of the country.

And this strike and the other targets we have seen throughout the day makes it clear they're going after in a very, very big and increasing escalating way a lot of the targets, if not many, most of the targets of the Iranian regime in Tehran and other parts of the country.

BLITZER: All right, Jerusalem bureau chief Oren Liebermann in Tel Aviv for us.

Oren, stay safe over there. We will be in touch with you -- Pamela.

BROWN: All right, CNN international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson, he's in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He joins us now.

Well, the U.S. Embassy there is closed after those overnight drone strikes. What's the latest on the ground there, Nic?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, they're still trying to work out the level of damage at the U.S. Embassy here in Riyadh. We don't know precisely what was damaged.

[11:05:01] We do know there was a fire. We do know that no one was injured. The

instruction went out immediately afterwards for shelter in place there, shelter in place at the embassy in Riyadh, at the consulate in Jeddah in the west of the country, and in Dhahran in the east of Saudi Arabia, the consulate there as well, shelter in place.

And there were actually two rounds of drone strikes overnight last night that impacted the embassy here. That has led to the shuttering of the embassy, but it's also, later on today, in the past couple of hours an instruction coming from the embassy of an immediate threat and warning to the consulate in the east of Saudi Arabia in the oil- producing area, much closer to Iran, of course, in Dhahran.

And then the instruction there was very, very clear and immediate: There is a possibility of incoming ballistic missiles and drones. Don't go out of your homes, U.S. citizens. If you're at the consulate, shelter in place. This is an immediate threat.

And this was issued several hours ago, and we haven't seen so far another statement telling people to stand down from that level of potential threat. So it does appear to be an ongoing threat. There is some sort of intelligence, if you will, that is giving the United States a heads-up about the potential and actual incoming missiles, but it's not all precise.

It's not a clear game. And while Saudi Arabia has been able to shoot down some missiles, eight shot down around Riyadh yesterday, clearly, some are getting through. And the view from Saudi Arabia is that this is a calculated escalation by the Iranians and that their leadership level is -- it has an effective command-and-control of what they're doing with military assets.

And one other line on that is, these were drone attacks. Iran has the option, the assessment here, is to escalate further to missile strikes on some of its targets in Saudi. That's a worry.

BLITZER: Yes.

BROWN: All right, understandably.

Nic Robertson, thank you so much -- Wolf.

BLITZER: And, in Israel, at least 10 people have been killed since Saturday and more than 200 injured. First responders are in their fourth day of what's called crisis management.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond is inside an Israeli command center in Ramla in Israel.

What are you seeing there, Jeremy?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, this is the command center for Magen David Adom, Israel's rescue service.

And you can see behind me all of these screens are prepared to help this rescue service respond to the incoming ballistic missiles that have been fired by Iran over the course of the last several days. I was here, in fact, when one of those alerts came in about three hours ago.

And it was really quite incredible to see how these systems all come together to quickly dispatch paramedics to the location of potential impact sites for these ballistic missiles. We actually rode with a crew of paramedics to one of those impact sites, which ended up being not a direct hit from a ballistic missile, but rather shrapnel that fell from a missile being intercepted.

But even just that shrapnel was able to partially cave in the roof of a home in the city of Ramat Gan on the outskirts of Tel Aviv, showing the destructive potential of these missiles, even in cases when they are indeed intercepted.

And, Wolf, we have been talking over the last 24 hours about the intensity of Israeli strikes in Iran. Israeli officials telling me that that will result in a severe decline in Iran's ability to fire those ballistic missiles at Israel perhaps as early as tonight.

So we will be waiting to see whether that is the case or not. But I can tell you that the paramedics here at Magen David Adom are certainly prepared to rush out to scenes quickly, even when those sirens are still going on, in order to try and save lives.

BLITZER: And I have been in Israel when enemy missiles were coming in. And the Iron Dome, Israel's air defense missile system, and Patriot air defense missiles went up and shot down those incoming missiles. But the metal, the shrapnel that fell to the ground was so powerful, it could kill people.

And I remember Israeli security forces telling me and other journalists, run inside because you're going to see a lot of metal coming down. It could be deadly. And that's what just happened, as you point out, in Ramat Gan outside of Tel Aviv.

Jeremy, CNN has some new reporting also on the truly extraordinary Israeli intelligence that led to Saturday's killing of the Ayatollah Khamenei. What are you learning?

DIAMOND: Yes, that's right, Wolf.

I spoke with an Israeli source who was briefed on this operation, and in fact, it was the hacking of traffic cameras in Iran's capital of Tehran that helped Israeli intelligence officials and ultimately the military to be able to carry out the operation that killed the Ayatollah Khamenei on Saturday morning and multiple other senior leaders.

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One of the things that Israeli intelligence officials were able to monitor through those traffic cameras was the comings and goings of Iran's elite bodyguards who protect the supreme leader, as well as other senior Iranian officials, as they were arriving to work at the compounds where the supreme leader was killed in those opening Israeli strikes on Saturday morning.

Those traffic cameras, the data that Israel got from that, alongside satellite intelligence, human intelligence, signals intelligence, all of that went into an A.I.-powered system that helped Israeli officials build a map of Tehran, that helped them actually carry out these targeted strikes that took place on Saturday morning, killing several dozen senior Iranian officials in that opening move by Israel.

It is just one component of the years of intelligence work that went into the strikes that we saw on Saturday and that we have seen continue in the day since by the United States and Israel -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Jeremy Diamond on the scene for us as usual, thank you very, very much -- Pamela.

BROWN: All right, Wolf, still ahead here in THE SITUATION ROOM. The German chancellor is at the White House today as the war with Iran spills across the Middle East. How will America's European allies respond?

BLITZER: Plus, the war sends gas prices surging right now. The U.S. sees the biggest single-day increase in more than 20 years. We're going to break down what this all could mean for you.

Stay with us. Lots going on. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

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BLITZER: We're following the breaking news, Israel launching simultaneous strikes on Tehran and Beirut this morning targeting both Iranian military sites, as well as militant group Hezbollah sites in Lebanon.

Israel's defense minister and prime minister have both instructed the Israeli military to -- quote -- "advance and seize additional strategic high ground" -- end quote -- in Lebanon after forces unleashed a wave of attacks this week.

Joining us now, Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell of California. He serves on the House Homeland Security Committee.

Congressman, thanks so much for joining us on this busy news day.

REP. ERIC SWALWELL (D-CA): Thanks, Wolf.

BLITZER: What's your most pressing question right now for the Trump administration about this war? I know you and other lawmakers are about to be briefed by the administration later today.

SWALWELL: Yes, what's the plan, is the question, Wolf.

I'm in California. It's home to the largest Iranian diaspora in the United States. And, of course, they're excited to see leaders of this regime fall, and they dream of a place where women can dress the way they want, drive on the streets, and vote openly.

But there's a lot of questions about what the plan is, because we know this guy has never had a plan on anything. He said for a decade that he was going to replace the Affordable Care Act with his own concept of a plan. And then, yesterday, as it relates to this conflict, Marco Rubio confirmed that we don't even have concept of a plan as it relates to striking Iran, and we didn't have one going into it.

And when asked yesterday, Trump started talking about his new ballroom and the gold drapes in it. And so if you think about that for a second, Donald Trump has more plans for the ballroom in the East Wing than he does for a war in the Middle East.

And our job in Congress is to make sure that we lose the least amount of troops possible, the least amount of Iranians possible, of course, keep our allies in the region safe. But it's very worrisome that there appears to be no plan from the commander in chief.

BLITZER: I understand, Congressman Swalwell, that you disagree with the way in which the U.S. and Israel have been conducting this attack against Iran. But do you give the operation any credit for taking out members of the regime who you yourself have called repressive and a -- quote -- "grave threat to global security"?

SWALWELL: Of course. There's no sympathy here, Wolf, that these brutal leaders are gone.

I am concerned, though, that the president is saying that he would be fine if members in the current regime who are still around are in charge. And he likened it to the situation in Venezuela, where we were told that was about the free people of Venezuela having free elections.

And so the Iranian diaspora, who has hoped for free elections in Iran, which they have not had since the 1950s, they are also wondering if that is actually going to happen. And, again, that's why Congress will be consulted this week. That's why I am going to vote for the War Powers Act.

But we have to have a plan here. You can't just fire missiles on Saturday and then say we will see what happens for the rest of the week. That's not going to cut it.

BLITZER: And, as you point out, Congress is set to hold a war powers vote later this week. But even if it passes, Congressman, still a major if at this point, President Trump can simply veto it. So what can lawmakers really do to rein in the president's power besides merely a symbolic rebuke?

SWALWELL: Well, we have the power of the purse, of course. Congress has to vote to fund this.

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Also, tomorrow, in the Judiciary Committee, we have Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem coming to testify. And it's our job to make sure that the homeland is protected. We saw over the weekend what looks like a terrorism attack in Texas.

And we want to make sure that the secretary of homeland security is up for the job, that the FBI director, who, it's reported, fired Iranian counterintelligence FBI agents just in the last couple of weeks, is also up for the job.

We have to protect the homeland as well, as threats will certainly escalate, as they always have, any time we have taken actions like this in the homeland -- I'm sorry -- in the Middle East.

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BLITZER: Yes, sources are telling CNN, Congressman, that, just days before the U.S. operation against Iran, the FBI director, Kash Patel, fired a dozen agents and staff members from a counterintelligence unit tasked with monitoring Iranian threats, not only in the United States, but indeed around the world.

They were ousted because each was involved in the investigation of President Trump's alleged retention of classified documents at Mar-a- Lago. So what's your reaction to that?

SWALWELL: We have to secure the homeland. Political violence in America has been on the rise in the last year.

The FBI director has been focused on going after Donald Trump's political enemies. They let out of the jailhouse 1,600 individuals who committed the insurrection on January 6. They're trying to put in the jailhouse the president's enemies. And they're clearing out of the FBI any person they perceive as an enemy of the president, people who are just doing their jobs on lawful cases involving the president.

That doesn't make us safer. And, oh, by the way, Wolf, they have FBI agents conducting immigration stakeouts, investigations, and raids. We need the FBI to do their core mission of protecting the homeland, focusing on counterterrorism. And, tomorrow, we will have questions for the homeland security secretary as to whether she is up for doing that job.

BLITZER: I think Pamela Brown has a question too -- Pamela.

BROWN: Hi, Congressman.

SWALWELL: Hey, Pamela.

BROWN: So you were just talking about how important it is for DHS to protect the homeland. And I wonder what you say to Republicans who say, look, given the change in circumstances, given this war in Iran, it is time for Democrats to come together and fully fund DHS so it can do its job, especially in this moment?

SWALWELL: I see protecting the homeland as also protecting the vulnerable immigrants who are running through the fields and factories where they work, or the woman who's been dragged by her hair and thrown into an unmarked van, or the allies in Minnesota, a nurse named Pretti and a mom named Good who were publicly executed. And so if they can put in place reforms that end that, that stop the

roving terror, Democrats are with them. But they also have plenty of funding from H.R.1, the big brutal bill, to continue to operate. And so we're asking for reforms that protect everyone in the community, not just the priorities of going after the most vulnerable.

BROWN: But not for areas like CISA, which does cybersecurity, and there's a big concern that part of the Iran retaliation will include cybersecurity. So why not get together and make sure that the funding is there to protect the homeland at this point altogether?

SWALWELL: Yes, Pamela, you raise a good point. And if they were able to separate that funding from ICE and Border Patrol operations, they certainly have our votes. They have the ability to do that.

Show us you are serious about protecting the homeland. And let's have a separate debate on these roving terror operations that they're doing to our community. They have support from me if they want to do that. And I know a lot of Democrats would go along with that as well.

BLITZER: Congressman Eric Swalwell, thanks so much for joining us. We always appreciate having you in THE SITUATION ROOM.

SWALWELL: My pleasure. Thanks.

BROWN: Thank you.

And we are following more breaking news. A verdict has just come in for the murder trial of the Georgia school shooter's father.

CNN's Isabel Rosales is right outside the courtroom.

What's the verdict, Isabel?

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Pam, guilty across all 27 charges, including second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter.

Jurors went into deliberations at 9:03 a.m. this morning. I put a timer on my phone. It took them one hour and 45 minutes to come back with a verdict right before lunch, again, guilty across the board. Other charges, including second degree cruelty to children, reckless conduct, these are charges that would put him there, depending on sentencing and how much time Colin Gray, is given for the rest of his life.

He might spend the rest of his life in prison. It was an emotional moment for families sitting right behind us on the second row as they heard guilty across all charges. These were the family members of Mason Schermerhorn, Christian Angulo, Cristina Irimie, and Richard Aspinwall.

And they watch very closely as Colin Gray was led away in handcuffs out of the courtroom. This is a historical case. It's a case testing the limits of who is responsible for a mass shooting, a school shooting. It is only the third time ever that this has happened on a nationwide scale, where a parent has gone through a trial for a shooting carried out by their child.

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You will remember James and Jennifer Crumbley. Their son carried out a shooting in Oxford, Michigan, killing four different students. Now, we heard from the district attorney, Brad Smith, as he was coming out of the courtroom right behind me. He said this simple sentence -- quote -- "We are very pleased with the verdict."

They built a case here arguing that, if it weren't for this father's negligence, all of these people would still be alive today -- guys.

BROWN: Yes, and it's the second time in the U.S. that a parent has been found convicted, as in this case, for the actions of their child with the school shooting.

Thank you for bringing us the latest there, Isabel Rosales. We appreciate it.

BLITZER: Yes, 55-year-old Colin Gray guilty on all these counts.

Up next: The Dow Jones is falling as concerns of a long-term war with Iran hit Wall Street.

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