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House Speaker Makes Comments as Iran War Escalates; Johnson Calls for End to DHS Shutdown; Hegseth: U.S. Operation Against Iran Still in "Early" Days. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired March 04, 2026 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), HOUSE SPEAKER: And most recently, they even offered nuclear fuel for life if Iran would cease its domestic nuclear program, and they were rebuffed. Iran said no. Why? Because we all know why they were enriching uranium, and it had nothing to do with medical devices and energy supply. It was to kill their enemies, and the U.S. was at the top of the list with Israel. Think about that.

While Iran dragged its feet, its leaders pressed forward with its nuclear ambitions. They were stalling because they wanted to kill us. They continued to advance their conventional missile systems at a speed and a scale that greatly outpaced our regional allies' ability to respond. That is what made it imminent.

In short, the situation was untenable. We had our personnel, troops, citizens, installations, and assets in harm's way. And through this operation, President Trump took decisive and defensive action to ensure the safety of our forces, our citizens, our allies, and our homeland.

In my estimation, this course of action was necessary, lawful, and effective, and reversing it now would weaken America. Congress has a constitutional right to exercise its oversight authority, and we will. But we also have a duty and obligation not to undercut our own national security.

One last note. There is a misconception that Operation Epic Fury is in any way a diversion from Republican demands for peace. It's the opposite. Peace is not secured through appeasement, and it's certainly not secured by airdropping billions of dollars on terrorist regimes, which is what previous Democrat administrations have done.

Peace is secured through strength. That is the principle that our party has stood for my entire life, and on principle before that, articulated the idea of peace through strength. That's what this administration is demonstrating, and that is why America is the last great superpower on the planet, and all freedom-loving people around the world are grateful to God for that.

Let's talk about DHS. It's been mentioned this morning. If we're being wise, now is the time to be vigilant at home and to ensure that all of our doors are locked, so to speak. Obviously, everyone understands that it's a heightened threat environment. Global tensions are high, threats are constantly evolving, and America's adversaries are watching for any sign of weakness on our part. We cannot show them that.

And yet, all this is happening, we have Democrats running around here playing political games in Congress. It's infuriating. They've shut down the very agency that is responsible for securing the homeland. The Democrats have shut down the agency responsible for keeping Americans safe. Unbelievably, they've already instructed their members to block funding. They sent out a whip notice to tell House Democrats, to instruct them, to give them the order to vote down homeland security funding. That's a bipartisan consensus bill that had already been prepared by the House. It will be on the floor tomorrow for yet another vote, and you better watch that board, and everybody in America better watch that board.

Anybody who votes to block funding for the homeland, it is shameful. I don't know how else to describe it. It speaks to a long record of Democrats' deliberate efforts to undermine America's safety and the essential operations of DHS.

We all remember that under Joe Biden, Democrats opened wide our nation's border for four catastrophic years. They allowed hundreds on the terrorist watch list to cross a border illegally and unwittingly. They released 2.2 million known gotaways into the interior. We have no idea where so many of those people are. These are individuals who entered our country illegally. They were detected by law enforcement, and they evaded capture. We don't know where they are. We don't know what they're doing or what they're plotting, and we pray that we can find them and apprehend them. Keep your head on a swivel.

CBP figures show that the number of Iranian nationals, OK, entering our country illegally rose precipitously under Joe Biden's open borders policy. During that period, at least 1,500 Iranians crossed the U.S. border illegally, and over 700 were released into the country. Now, the 1,500 number is not an accurate assessment because we frankly have no idea because they weren't even keeping track of so many of the people coming across who evaded capture and evaded notice because the border was wide open.

So, we don't know. We don't know how many dangerous people are here, how many Iranians who believed in that ideology of the Ayatollah who now is buried. Think about that. Over 1,500 Iranian nationals traveled multiple oceans to enter the U.S., not through legal ports of entry, but unlawfully at our border. It's just a small sample of the mess we inherited from Democrats with their radical ideology and the mess that President Trump and Republicans are working in earnest to clean up so we can save American lives and protect the homeland.

And now, we have -- look, DHS is not just ICE and CBP, OK? It's so many agencies responsible for keeping us safe.

[10:35:00]

You're talking about the Coast Guard. You're talking about FEMA. Our cyber security infrastructure, our counterterrorism coordination, all of that is at stake right now. And the Democrats are going to vote tomorrow not to fund those operations. Just think of that. Massive mission-critical functions, especially right now. And the military action in Iran makes it all more urgent and crucial to have a fully- funded, fully-staffed DHS across all its departments. They cannot argue otherwise. It's madness.

As members of this body, our first and most basic duty is to ensure the safety of American citizens. Maybe that's why they sat through that line at the State of the Union. They're more interested in protecting illegal aliens. They see that as their first responsibility. There's no other way to explain this. If they ever want to correct the impression that their party prioritizes the welfare of illegal aliens over the welfare of American citizens, tomorrow would be a great place to start.

But they, again, have sent out a whip notice instructing Democrats to vote down homeland security funding. I got to drop the mic right here and walk out of this room. That's all you need to know. But I'll take a few questions. Chad?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You obviously don't think that the president needs an authorization from Congress for war. But do you think if this goes south after a while, and Democrats are going to have a vote tomorrow in the House, right, engineer war powers vote tomorrow in the House, that that could be a problem for Republicans this fall if there is a public sentiment against the war down the road?

JOHNSON: Look, we don't make political decisions at a time like this. We're making decisions that are necessary to keep American citizens and troops safe. That is the first responsibility. Unlike the Democrats, we don't sit around in a back room and decide what's politically expedient. We do what we must do to protect the homeland. And we let the chips fall where they may, to protect our interests, to protect America's first priorities and principles. And that's the people of this great country.

And so, I trust the American people. I trust that they will evaluate all these things and they will understand that this administration did the right thing. I think they'll reward it politically. But if people get a bad taste in their mouth for what happened back here in the first part of the year in Iran, they just do. But we know, and history will record, we did the right thing. I think passage of a war powers resolution right now would be a terrible, dangerous idea, for all the reasons I've just explained. It would empower our enemies. It would kneecap our own forces. And it would take the ability of the U.S. military and the commander in chief away from completing this critical mission to keep everybody safe.

Iran has attacked three of our U.S. embassies in the last couple of days. Those are sovereign territories of the U.S. They have declared war on us. I don't believe in the semantics. We've talked about the language this morning. We're not at war right now. We're four days in to a very specific, clear mission, an operation, Operation Epic Fury, which has two components, as you know, that we have articulated over and over, the president has, the, you know, commander of the joint chiefs, everybody has explained. Two points. We had to take care of these ballistic missiles that they were producing at such a rapid pace that our regional allies could not keep up with. We had to ensure that they can't fire all those barrage of missiles at our people, our troops, our assets, our citizens in the region and our installations. We're taking that out. We had to. It's a defensive operation.

And secondly, we had to take their navy down. That's effectively what, in layman's terms, that's what's happening right now. That will be done quickly. As I explained this morning, we almost have, we're I think hours away probably from having full operational control over the skies over Iran, which means that this mission can be completed quickly. We expect that it will be. And then we will hope and pray that the Iranian people take this moment of opportunity, rise up, take their country back and that they, that freedom can flourish there for the first time in generations. Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you so much. Some of your members, as you know, Congressman Davidson included, oppose this Iran operation, which the president himself has called a war. Are you confident that you have the votes to defeat the war powers resolution tomorrow?

JOHNSON: Yes. And I had a discussion with Congressman Davidson this morning. He's a dear friend and brother of mine. And we -- you know, iron sharpens iron. We disagree on issues and we have those discussions. He and I have done this a lot. He said this morning in front of all their House Republicans, he's not yet sure how he's going to vote on the war powers resolution. I believe we have the votes to put this down. And I certainly pray that's true, because for what all the reasons I said, we would put the country in serious harm. And it would certainly jeopardize the lives of our troops and all those who were involved in making these great sacrifices to defend us. We have to put this down. Manu?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You said on Monday, talking about the start of this war, you said that Israel, Israel was determined to act in their own defense here with or without American support. You also said that if Israel fired upon Iran, they would have immediately retaliated against us, personnel and assets. But the president said yesterday that it was him, it was the United States that might have forced Israel's hand. So, why are you and the president not on the same page?

[10:40:00]

JOHNSON: We're on the same page. I'm not at liberty to say publicly much of the classified information that I get in all these briefings. And that's always the delicate part of this, because if we say too much, then it reveals methods and sources and it eliminates the ability of our extraordinary military and Intelligence Community to do what they do.

The president has explained his analysis and his thought. Obviously, Israel is a close ally. They're in close communication. But everything I've said and everything he said is all true. They're not inconsistent in any way. Israel saw Iran as an existential threat. We should have seen them as well. But they were -- let hold on. They were literally a neighbor.

So, if Iran said publicly, they all told us why. OK. If they had the ability, they would wipe Israel off the face of the earth. That is why they were trying to enrich uranium. And even though we took out the nuclear facilities several months ago, they were still working on their nuclear ambition, even through the negotiations, as I said. And they were producing missiles at such a rapid pace that they were building up an arsenal that would have done untold damage to Israel and other of neighbors there, right there in the Middle East. So, Israel saw that as an existential threat that Bibi Netanyahu has explained all this publicly. He's stating the obvious.

Everybody knew that. They saw a moment of opportunity. They had to act in their own survival. And we knew and understood. And this has been explained by the secretary of state, the president, myself and everybody else. The unclassified part is that if this kinetic activity began, then Iran was determined to hit us, our personnel, our assets and all that.

If the commander in chief and his administration and our officials waited for all those casualties to be exacted, they would have been drug up here and put through an inquest like you've never seen before, because the Democrats would have had a field day and said, if you had all that exquisite intelligence, why didn't you protect us? So, is it -- it's a no-win situation for them. That's what the president and everyone has tried to explain. There are different ways to explain it. It's all the same truth. None of that has changed. It's entirely consistent. Last one. Yes, sir. Last.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Trump said --

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. You've been listening to House Speaker Mike Johnson talking about what's been going on with Iran. He said, actually, Wolf, we're not at war with Iran, which conflicts with what we heard from the president himself yesterday in the White House. He called it war. Mike Johnson there saying that so far that the joint operation has been a remarkable success. He acknowledged that there was a window of opportunity.

And he also made it clear that he did not believe Congress needed to act or authorize this under the War Powers Resolution and under Article One War Powers for Congress. He also talked about DHS partial shutdown that's happening right now and is calling on Democrats to step up and fund DHS at this moment when there is a concern about risk to Americans. We should note that Democratic leadership will be holding a press conference soon.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: And we'll have live coverage of that Democratic leadership press conference as well. I want to just alert our viewers to that. But there's no doubt that the point he was making about a vote coming up as early as tomorrow to fund the Department of Homeland Security. He sees this as critical because there are intelligence reports that Iranian agents and Iranian sources are plotting various terrorist attacks against U.S. installations and U.S. personnel, whether abroad or even here in the United States. And he feels that if the Department of Homeland Security doesn't have the adequate funding to deal with that, then the Democrats will be to blame if American lives are lost.

And the reason Democrats are opposing the Department of Homeland Security funding is because of what happened in Minnesota and Minneapolis when those two Americans were killed by federal agents. And they can't really defund ICE because ICE got separate funding already. So, ICE is in good financial shape.

But other elements of the Department of Homeland Security are shut down basically right now because the federal government is in this partial shutdown and they don't have the funding for it. And he's going to blame Democrats in case there are attacks that are undermined.

BROWN: And we just had Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell on yesterday asked him the question about given the change in circumstances, is it important to fund DHS right now? And he stood his ground on what the Democrats line has been that they want to see reforms to ICE first. So, we'll see how it all plays out. We'll hear from Democratic leadership soon, and we're going to take a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:45:00]

BLITZER: We're continuing to follow the breaking news. The U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says the U.S. operation in Iran is, quote, "just getting started." He told reporters this morning that the American and Israeli air forces will soon have what he calls complete control of Iranian sky's uncontested airspace. Airspace. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE HEGSETH, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: This is not a mission accomplished situation. This is simply a reality check. The combination of U.S. and Israeli intelligence and combat power will control Iran and will control it soon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right. Let's discuss with Republican Congressman Mike McCaul of Texas. He's the chairman emeritus of both the House Foreign Affairs and House Homeland Security committees. Congressman, thanks so much for joining us.

REP. MICHAEL MCCAUL (R-TX), CHAIRMAN EMERITUS, HOMELAND SECURITY COMMITTEE AND CHAIRMAN EMERITUS, FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE: Thanks, Wolf.

[10:50:00]

BLITZER: Based on what you've learned so far in these briefings, and I know you've learned a lot, do you have a clear understanding right now of why the U.S. is at war with Iran? MCCAUL: Well, they say imminent threat. I would say the imminent threat goes back to 1979 when the revolution brought this dark veil of terror throughout the Middle East. And it's Marines in Beirut to USS Cole, then thousands of Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan. And so, look, they were getting close. They were rebuilding again. They were not negotiating in good faith. I think President Trump, you know, he'll negotiate in good faith. But if you don't do that, there will be consequences. And I think you're seeing those today.

BROWN: Congressman, I want to play some of what top members of the Trump administration, including the president himself, have said about the reason for this war. Watch and listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations.

HEGSETH: This is not a so-called regime change war. But the regime sure did change. And the world is better off for it.

STEVE WITKOFF, U.S. SPECIAL ENVOY: They're probably a week away from having industrial-grade bomb-making material.

MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: After their nuclear program was obliterated, they were told not to try to restart it. And here they are. You can see them always trying to rebuild elements of it. They're not enriching right now, but they're trying to get to the point where they ultimately can't.

HEGSETH: And their swelling arsenal of ballistic missiles and killer drones are no longer tolerable risks. Iran was building powerful missiles and drones to create a conventional shield for their nuclear blackmail ambitions.

RUBIO: We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action. We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces. And we knew that if we didn't preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties.

TRUMP: We were having negotiations with these lunatics. And it was my opinion that they were going to attack first. So, if anything, I might have forced Israel's hand. But Israel was ready, and we were ready. And we've had a very, very powerful impact because virtually everything they have has been knocked out now.

RUBIO: Once the president made a decision that negotiations were not going to work, that they were playing us on the negotiations, and that this was a threat that was untenable, the decision was made to strike them. That's what I said yesterday. And you guys need to play it. If you're going to play these statements, you need to play the whole statement, not flip it to reach a narrative that you want to do. All right?

(END VIDEO CLIP) BLITZER: So, Congressman, what do you say to Americans who hear those differing reasons and wonder if there really was what was being described as an imminent threat to the United States that justifies the loss of U.S. servicemembers?

MCCAUL: Well, I think the imminent threat was, again, the rebuilding of the nuclear stockpile, the ballistic missiles, the ability to potentially put these in a warhead to deliver. They didn't have the ICBM, which would deliver to the United States, but they're working on that. I do think that we had intelligence where the ayatollah was with his top cabinet leaders, and this is a prime opportunity to decapitate the leadership in Iran.

So, you know, the question is, why are we doing this? I would say for all the above reasons that you just heard from a litany of, you know, cabinet members and the president himself, you know, talking about the fact that we were there because of the threat from Iran, the nuclear capability. You do have to look at the day after, though, as well.

I think regime change has a negative connotation to it, but you have to have, if you break it in the Middle East, you own it. And you also need to look at what happens the day after. We do take control of the skies. We do destroy their military-industrial complex. I have every reason to believe that will happen. And then the question remains, what happens with the Iranian people and who is governing that country?

BLITZER: It sounds to me, Congressman, like you're planning to vote against this War Powers resolution that's supposed to come up for a vote in the next few days. And that would require President Trump to get formal, official approval from Congress for military action against Iran. First of all, can you confirm that's the case and tell us why?

MCCAUL: Well, this is not an affirmative War Powers Act to authorize what the Congress has done. What it basically says, and it was put on the schedule before these attacks, by the way, on the congressional calendar. But this one basically says the president does not have authority to conduct the airstrikes that he did against Iran. I will be voting against that.

[10:55:00]

And speaking on the House floor in opposition, this is not the time to be tying the president's hands in a very, very important military operation. The reason why I find this to be so important, Wolf, because Iran for 47 years has stood in the way of peace, true peace in the Middle East. Now, we have an opportunity with all the Gulf states in opposition to Iran and what they're doing with Russia and China running to the hinterlands away from Iran.

We really have a chance now for normalization in the Middle East with the ayatollah and his regime taken out and the idea of the Saudis and the Israelis side by side in peace. To me, finally, we have a chance for that. And that's why I'll be opposing this resolution. BLITZER: But do you have any concerns at all, Congressman McCaul, that Congress is relinquishing its authority when it comes to war? Would you vote, for example, the same way if a Democrat controlled the White House?

MCCAUL: That is a great question, the ultimate issue. The Constitution says Congress has the power to declare war, and yet the president's a commander in chief. The War Powers Act after Vietnam was sort of a compromise between that conflict and the Constitution. I think the better practice is always to go to the Congress who are working on behalf of the American people and work with them on the authorization of use of military force.

I was working to repeal and replace the 2001 AUMF last year, but we didn't get enough support from the left and the right. But what it did was it updated the terror threat to include the Shia proxies of Iran in there. I think that was prescient. I think that's the kind of authorization, if you add Iran to it, is something we could pass bipartisan if we could get enough Democrats on board.

BLITZER: All right. Congressman Mike McCaul, thanks so much for joining us.

MCCAUL: Thanks, Wolf. Thanks for having me.

BLITZER: Pamela.

BROWN: Just ahead, Americans stranded as war escalates. We'll speak to a spokesman from the State Department about Americans struggling to get out of the Middle East.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Happening now, breaking news, we are just getting started. Defense Secretary Hegseth is touting the U.S. operation in Iran and promising strikes even deeper into that country.

[11:00:00]