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The Situation Room

Fallen U.S. Soldiers Remembered; Future of Iran?; U.S. Forces Vulnerable to Iranian Drones?; Kristi Noem Grilled on Capitol Hill. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired March 04, 2026 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD): Were they domestic terrorists, as you said to the country?

(CROSSTALK)

KRISTI NOEM, U.S. HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: ... my condolences to their families, because I know that their lives will never be the same after that happened.

RASKIN: Is that an apology for what you said?

NOEM: We, in those instances, offer as much information as we can from officers and agents on the ground in a chaotic scene that gets really...

(CROSSTALK)

RASKIN: I will repeat my question, reclaiming my time.

Based on what you know today, Madam Secretary, based on what you know today, we're Renee Good and Alex Pretti domestic terrorists?

NOEM: As you know, there's ongoing investigations that are being led by the FBI.

(CROSSTALK)

RASKIN: Oh, but you didn't wait for the investigation, did you? You didn't wait for the evidence. You proclaimed that they were domestic terrorists at the time. Why did you do that?

NOEM: And you didn't wait to attack our law enforcement.

RASKIN: Why did you do that?

(CROSSTALK)

NOEM: ... going into a dangerous situation.

(CROSSTALK) RASKIN: Why did you call them domestic terrorists?

(CROSSTALK)

NOEM: ... our ICE officers and our HSI officers that day risked their lives to protect that scene, so evidence could be reclaimed, so it could be used in the investigation, because those violent rioters that were...

(CROSSTALK)

RASKIN: So you're proud of the fact that you called them domestic terrorists? Is that what you're telling America?

NOEM: HSI officers put their lives on the line to protect that scene, so evidence -- so we could have.

(CROSSTALK)

RASKIN: Yes, they do. Yes, they do. But you told a lie about them. You said that they were domestic terrorists. Do you regret that?

NOEM: I offer my condolences to those family.

(CROSSTALK)

RASKIN: Based on what you know today, were Renee Good and Alex Pretti domestic terrorists?

NOEM: There's ongoing investigations. And so I can't...

(CROSSTALK)

RASKIN: So you still don't know? You think that's an open question?

NOEM: I would think you would want there to still be investigations going into these situations.

(CROSSTALK)

RASKIN: Well, you stated the conclusion two hours after they were killed that they were domestic terrorists. I wanted to give you an opportunity to correct the record, not just for their family, but for everybody in America who believes in the truth and fairness and honesty.

NOEM: In every situation, as facts come out, we relay them...

(CROSSTALK)

RASKIN: Your acting ICE director, Todd Lyons, came before Congress. He said he had no knowledge whatsoever that Alex Pretti and Renee Good were domestic terrorists, none. This is your guy. He said that. He admitted that that was wrong. Why won't you admit it?

NOEM: I will tell you, the investigation is still ongoing. And we will...

(CROSSTALK)

RASKIN: So, do you regret speaking before the investigation?

NOEM: I would say that in those situations...

RASKIN: Do you regret that?

NOEM: .... when you have got a scene on the ground, we relay information to the American people that they're asking for.

And as the things change, situations change...

(CROSSTALK)

RASKIN: People were asking you whether they were domestic terrorists? And you decided that they were before the investigation?

NOEM: As we learn more, we can...

(CROSSTALK)

RASKIN: You don't want to say anything to their families?

NOEM: I did. I said I -- condolences.

(CROSSTALK)

RASKIN: For what? How about an apology for what you said about their loved ones?

NOEM: My heart is with them. And we will continue to stand with them as they get a complete investigation into these situations.

RASKIN: All right.

Well, let me ask you some questions of law if you can't handle the facts, very simple questions of law, not trick questions. Is it lawful for federal agents to shoot and kill a person for engaging in peaceful protest and nothing else? That's a yes-or-no question.

NOEM: Each instance is -- and peaceful protest, no, it's not.

(CROSSTALK)

RASKIN: OK, good. Is it lawful for federal agents to shoot and kill a person for filming them on a public street, yes or no?

NOEM: No.

RASKIN: OK. Is it lawful for federal agents to shoot and kill a person just because that person is lawfully carrying a holstered firearm under the Second Amendment and state law?

NOEM: No. RASKIN: And, finally, yes or no, is it lawful for federal agents to

shoot an innocent person or even a criminal suspect just for driving away from them, according to the Supreme Court?

NOEM: No.

RASKIN: OK. Well, I'm glad you got the law right. And I hope you would rethink what you said about two good, honest, faithful American citizens and what that means to their families when you say that as secretary of homeland security.

Your ICE guy has already retracted that, and you should retract it too. I yield back to you, Mr. Chairman.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The gentleman yields back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Pretty tough question from Jamie Raskin, the Democratic congressman from Maryland, who used to be a professor of constitutional law at the American University here in Washington.

He was very tough with her. And she refused repeatedly under his questioning to apologize for saying these horrible things about these two individuals.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Right.

And they're -- he points out the inconsistency, and now that she is falling back on, well, there's an investigation, so I'm not going to retract what I said about domestic terrorism, that they were domestic terrorists. But then he pressed her on, well, then why did you come out in those early hours...

BLITZER: Two hours, yes.

BROWN: ... two hours after they were killed, and label them that without a thorough investigation?

And that's really been the criticism from even sources we know from inside DHS, that typically, in a situation like that, you would wait to gather the facts, because those early initial field reports are often wrong.

And you say, this is under investigation, and then you come out with a more thorough report. But one thing is clear. She is not offering an apologies to those families who have made it very clear that it's hurtful to them that she called their loved ones who are now dead domestic terrorists.

BLITZER: She could have easily said, I was getting information. I misspoke. I apologize to the families. They were not domestic terrorists. She could have said that.

BROWN: Right. She is -- I think, at this point, there's a lot of information out there where that question about, what you know now, would you still label them as domestic terrorists, there's enough information out there where she could give an answer to that, but clearly didn't want to.

[11:35:05]

We're going to take a quick break and we will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: We have new reporting this morning, a source telling CNN that the Trump administration has told lawmakers in a closed-door briefing that U.S. air defenses may not necessarily be able to intercept many of Iran's one-way drones.

The White House confirms it was a drone that struck an area near the U.S. diplomatic consulate in Dubai inside the United Arab Emirates. There were no injuries, and the fire was quickly put out.

[11:40:06]

BROWN: We're also getting video of a drone attack in Bahrain. You can hear the buzzing sound of that drone just before it slammed into a high-rise in Bahrain on Saturday.

CNN's Tom Foreman joins us now.

Tom, how significant is the concern that U.S. air defense may not be able to intercept many of these Iranian drones?

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is significant and it is growing, Pam, Wolf.

Let's take a look at what the U.S. is doing right now. They're fielding a previously unused military asset. I'm going to show you a life-size model that we bring into our virtual studio here. This is the LUCAS drone, Low-cost Unmanned Combat Attack System.

It is, as you can see, about 10 feet long, about an 8-foot wingspan. It weighs about 180 pounds. It's powered by a propeller back there, which means very low heat signature, hard to track, and up front it can carry about 40 pounds of high explosives.

It is also, interestingly, based upon a clone of an Iranian drone, the Shahed-136 Kamikaze. The Iranians have been working on this for years. The U.S. got ahold of one. They had engineers take it apart and say, let's build a better version of it. That's what they have done.

And yet the Iranians continue to rely on this and many other types of drones. But this one in particular, they rely on for several reasons. One, compared to a missile, which requires a great big launch platform that can be targeted and taken out and then the missiles are no longer useful, this can be launched from the back of a truck, from the middle of a field, from a boat.

Compared to a missile, which requires a big production facility, which also can be targeted and destroyed, these can be made in many covert locations all over. They are hard to track down. And compared to a missile, which will cost at least a million dollars, sometimes several million, this is cheap, only about $20,000 per unit.

So, when we look at these maps out here where you see places where drones have hit or missiles have hit, every time a drone is hit, it doesn't necessarily mean just one drone was launched there. Instead, squadrons of things are launched.

They send many of them in, precisely because of what you said at the top, Wolf, because, if you have a system out there that can't stop all of them, you only need 10 percent to get through to do a tremendous amount of damage, as we have been seeing in these videos in various places.

One of the concerns here is also that the cost of the systems to stop these is higher than the cost of the drones. In many ways, military analysts say the Iranians have been preparing for many years for just this type of conflict. So, though they didn't want to have a war necessarily, now that the war has come to it, their use of drones is forcing the U.S. to fight a type of battle that the Iranians would prefer, even as the U.S. tries to turn that weapon back against them -- Wolf, Pam.

BLITZER: Tom Foreman, thank you very, very much, a terrific explanation indeed and very, very creative. Appreciate it.

BROWN: It really is.

All right, coming up here in THE SITUATION ROOM: The Trump administration says this military campaign isn't about regime change in Iran. So what will the death of its supreme leader mean for the country and the region?

We will discuss straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:46:53]

BLITZER: We're back, and we're following the breaking news across the Middle East right now, as the U.S. and Israel, the war against Iran clearly escalates.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth telling reporters this morning, the operation is still in its early days. Israel's defense minister, Israel Katz, says any leader appointed by the Iranian regime will be -- quote -- "an unequivocal target for elimination."

Joining us now is Iran expert and senior fellow with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Karim Sadjadpour.

Karim, thanks very much for joining us.

KARIM SADJADPOUR, CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE: Thank you.

BLITZER: Where does the Iranian regime go from here? What succession options are there at this point?

SADJADPOUR: It's a regime in disarray right now, Wolf. As this Israeli figure alluded to, everyone who's a senior figure inside Tehran right now has a target on their back. There's been some reports, not yet confirmed, that the position of supreme leader may be filled by Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.

It was reported that he's been injured. But it's a -- I would argue it's a government that has the ability to kill its people, it has the ability to fight, doesn't really have the ability to govern.

BLITZER: Is the regime actually facing some sort of existential threat right now?

SADJADPOUR: A hundred percent they're facing an existential threat externally and internally.

The big question is the security forces and the cohesion of the security forces. So far, we haven't seen internal splinters. That is what could be fatal for the regime.

BLITZER: President Trump has pointed to the United States' actions in Venezuela a few weeks ago as an example of how regime change can actually play out and has suggested that's what he wants to see in Iran. Is that at all realistic? How is Iran different?

SADJADPOUR: So far, it hasn't proven realistic.

In the Venezuela context, we decapitated the leadership there, seized Nicolas Maduro, brought him to New York, and they very swiftly did a deal with his successor, Delcy Rodriguez. In the Iranian context, they have decapitated number one, but there's no one yet in that Iranian system who has the legitimacy, the power or the will to break with 47 years of "Death to America" and resistance against Israel in the United States.

BLITZER: Where does all this -- what does all this mean for the protest movement inside Iran? It was just a few weeks ago we saw thousands of Iranians on the streets and many of them were murdered, were killed by the Iranian regime.

SADJADPOUR: That's the critical question, Wolf, because that is what got us into this current context.

It was President Trump issuing those red lines to the regime not to kill protesters. At the moment, people in Iran I think are shell- shocked. They're observing what's happening. A U.S. general once told me that a lot of populations living under tyranny want a magic bullet which is only going to kill the bad guys in their country and not do civilian harm, but, as we know, that's not the case with war.

BLITZER: We have been reporting -- and I know you have heard about this -- that the CIA is working to arm Kurdish forces in the region as a way to try to bolster potential uprisings in Iran. Is there a way to do this without risking Iranian and broader regional stability? [11:50:03]

SADJADPOUR: I think that is playing with fire, arming these types of different factions inside Iran.

My view is that the greatest weapon against the radical Islamism of the Iranian regime is a pluralistic Iranian nationalism that encompasses the country's various ethnic groups, and I think trying to play different sides off one another is a recipe for failure.

BLITZER: I want to ask you about how the various Gulf nations -- these are Arab countries, Sunni Arab countries, basically. Currently, they're facing attacks from Iran, whether Bahrain or Qatar or the United Arab Emirates, even Saudi Arabia, Oman.

What does this tell you about the Iranian regime's strategy?

SADJADPOUR: The strategy is pretty clear. They want to make life hell for these Gulf countries, so those countries will put pressure on the United States to end the war.

I think, so far, it's had the opposite impact, and that the Gulf countries have really been angered by what Iran has done and have gone to the United States and said, how can we help in actually making this a stronger effort?

Wolf, if you look at what the Gulf countries and what Iran has done from 1979 to the present, essentially, Gulf countries have tried to build soaring societies and economies, and Iran is in the business of destruction, which is so much easier, unfortunately.

BLITZER: Karim, Pamela has a question as well.

Go ahead.

BROWN: Yes, and some of the criticism we have heard from America's allies in the Gulf region is that there has been so many different justifications from this administration for the war.

So I want to play some sound that we pulled together and get your reaction.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

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

PETE HEGSETH, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: 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 TO THE MIDDLE EAST: 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.

HEGSETH: And their swelling arsenal of ballistic missiles and killer drones were no longer, 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 have 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 clip it to reach a narrative that you want to do, all right?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Your reaction?

SADJADPOUR: Well, Gulf countries don't have the luxury of being 6,000 miles away from Iran, like the United States.

So, these -- many of these countries view Iran as an existential threat. They would be happy to see the regime gone, but they are worried about chaos and they're worried about the malign capabilities, as we have witnessed.

So, I have spoken to many Gulf leaders, who say, listen, if the United States is going to do this operation, it's imperative that it's not a hit-and-run operation, that they stay and help defend us from blowback against Iran.

BROWN: What is the concern, though, of that vacuum being filled in Iran with another hard-liner or someone even more extreme?

SADJADPOUR: You know, unfortunately, power vacuums -- when you introduce a power vacuum into a country, it empowers folks who can mobilize violence. It's not poets and intellectuals who come to power usually when there's a breakdown of state. And so, in the Iranian context, it remains to be seen, but there is a fear that what could happen when the dust settles is a faction of the Revolutionary Guards or another hard-line cleric. And we're still very early days. My view is, this is a very unpopular regime, which is on borrowed time, but in the near term it can still do a lot of damage.

BLITZER: Certainly can.

All right, Karim Sadjadpour, as usual, excellent analysis. Thank you very much for coming in.

(CROSSTALK)

BROWN: Thank you.

And thank you so much for joining us this morning.

"INSIDE POLITICS" with our friend and colleague Dana Bash is in just a moment.

BLITZER: But, before we go, we want to take a moment to tell you more about the four American troops killed in Kuwait who've been identified now. They were killed in an Iranian strike on a makeshift operations center in Kuwait.

[11:55:00]

This is Captain Cody Khork, originally from Lakeland, Florida. He enlisted in the National Guard back in 2009, becoming a military police officer in the U.S. Army Reserve. His parents and stepmother described Captain Khork as -- quote -- "a man whose life was defined by devotion, character, and service."

He's also being remembered by those who served alongside him. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SGT. 1ST CLASS BRIAN KOCHENDORFER, SERVED UNDER CAPTAIN CODY KHORK: I'm still trying to wrap my brain around that. Look, I'm going to start tearing up.

God, you just hate -- somebody you know. You see it on news, but when it's somebody that -- it hits home because the individual, and you got to serve with them.

A tactician, solid leader, get the mission done, but, however, on the back end of that, he cared about people. Hey, I'm not going to put soldiers in harm's way. That's what you look for in a commander.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: And Sergeant 1st Class Nicole Amor was just days away from coming home. Her husband says he talked to her just a few hours before, telling the Associated Press: "She was almost home. You don't go to Kuwait thinking something's going to happen. And for her to be one of the first, it hurts. She just never responded in the morning." Amor loved gardening and made salsa with her son, a high school senior. And she was also mom to a fourth grade daughter.

BLITZER: So sad.

Sergeant 1st Class Noah Tietjens was from Nebraska. He was deployed to Kuwait twice before back in 2009 and 2019. A fellow soldier told our affiliate KETV he was -- quote -- "the kind of guy that was always around to help you no matter what you needed. He made you feel important."

Tietjens and his wife and son were prominent members of a martial arts studio in Nebraska. The studio has created a college fund for his son.

BROWN: And Sergeant Declan Coady was just 20 years old. He was posthumously promoted from specialist to sergeant. While deployed in Kuwait, he was going to school online and wanted to become a commissioned officer.

His sister told CNN: "I can't quite comprehend it even now, but the only thing I can think is that I wish I had called him one more time and told him I loved him."

BLITZER: Our deepest, deepest condolences to their families. May they all rest in peace and may their memories be a blessing.

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