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Funeral Service for Civil Rights Icon Jesse Jackson; Intense New Attacks Overnight Lit Up the Sky Over Tehran; Trump: Cuba is Going to Fall "Pretty Soon". Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired March 06, 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]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: We're continuing our breaking news coverage of the war with Iran, but there are other stories that are breaking right now as well.

I want to update you. Thousands are gathering in Chicago right now to celebrate the life of civil rights icon and legendary activist, Reverend Jesse Jackson. Moments ago, the doors opened at the House of Hope, where a public service is being held. The line stretches around the block as people wait to go inside and pay their respects. Several former presidents and other notable figures are expected to be in attendance.

I want to go live right now to our senior national correspondent, Ryan Young. Ryan, what does Chicago mean to the Reverend Jesse Jackson?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So, much, and I wanted to point out the video that we're seeing coming in right now. That's Lori Lightfoot. That is the former mayor of Chicago. She was the last mayor, and so many people talk about the impact that Reverend Jackson had on the city.

When you came to the city of Chicago, a lot of times one of the things you had to do, especially as a young reporter, is go and talk to the Reverend Jackson. He will tell you all the ills that he thought needed to be addressed. And one of the things that the Rainbow PUSH Coalition did for so many years is it made sure not only did people have an opportunity to find jobs, but it gave them an opportunity sometimes just for food. So, he did so much civil rights activity around the country, but also there in the City of Chicago. So, you know the mayors will be there today. We know the presidents, Clinton, Biden, and Obama, all plan to speak. And that, of course, will be a crowd that can't wait to hear from those men to talk about the role that Reverend Jackson played.

When you think about his life and the fact that he died at 84, starting out in South Carolina, he was born to a teenage mother. He often talks about the idea that his life could have turned out so differently. But through the hope of this country, the fight, the promise of America, that he was able to develop not only into a strong civil rights leader, but at one point was at the top, the top when he almost became president of the United States when he was running to be that Democratic nominee. Of course, he fell short in that, but a lot of people believe he paved the way for Barack Obama to become the president.

And after that, if you think about Dr. King, he was standing right next to him when he was shot. For 50 years, he led the civil rights movement. So, many people from that era are now starting to pass on. And you see images like this one where he was walking across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. He often talked about the promise of this country and not giving up on the hope. And he took that message across the world.

So, we know today there'll be a lot of people paying attention to this service. About 49 minutes ago, the casket arrived at House of Hope. And the last time I had a long conversation was a few years ago with Reverend Jackson, it was after the verdict at Ahmaud Arbery, and he wanted to press on the fact that there was still work to be done. Even this morning, as I was talking to Ben Crump, who's going to be attending the services there today, he told me he's worried because so many other civil rights leaders will not have the opportunity to make the phone call and get guidance from someone like Reverend Jackson, who was able to lead the way for so long. He's going to miss his friends.

So, you can understand what's going to happen over the next few hours. I'm told this will be a southern service, so it's going to take some time. Wolf.

BLITZER: It certainly will, and we'll have live coverage coming up around 12:00 noon Eastern, right after the Situation Room. Ryan Young, thank you very, very much.

And just ahead, the Trump administration insists the war with Iran isn't about regime change, but he still wants a say about its next leader. When we come back, I'll ask a Republican congressman about the White House's ultimate goals for the war.

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[10:35:00]

BLITZER: We're back with the latest developments from Iran. Intense new attacks overnight lit up the sky over Tehran, the capital, on this, the seventh day of the war. People there say it was the worst night of U.S. and Israeli airstrikes yet.

Joining us now is Republican Congressman Marlin Stutzman of Indiana. Congressman, thanks so much for joining us. President Trump posted this morning, there will be no deal with Iran except unconditional surrender. His words, unconditional surrender. How long do you think this war could be going on for?

REP. MARLIN STUTZMAN (R-IN), BUDGET COMMITTEE AND FINANCIAL SERVICES COMMITTEE: Well, I hope that it goes quickly. We always do. Of course, as Americans, our attention span is sometimes too short. But as I was talking to some other members on the Hill just this week, it sounds like we're ahead of schedule. And so, my hope is that the servicemen and women that are doing a phenomenal job of going and taking out the assets that the Iranian regime had will cripple them. You know, they're probably done sooner than what they will ever admit, unfortunately. But I think at this point, we have to see a regime change there in Iran. And this is -- it's good for America. It keeps America safer. It keeps our partners and allies in the region safer. And, of course, it gives the Iranian people a new opportunity for their country.

[10:40:00]

BLITZER: There's potential there. Let's see how that unfolds. You did not vote for that War Powers Resolution that was narrowly defeated yesterday in the House. Do you believe this is, in fact, a war right now that's ongoing? The Trump administration has been calling it a war, but many Republicans in Congress are reluctant to do so. Why?

STUTZMAN: Well, I do call it a war because the Iranians have been at war with us since the '70s. I mean, all the way back to the hostage- taking in 1979. Looking throughout the '80s and the '90s, the Iranians have been constantly attacking us and our allies, whether it's suicide bombers, truck bombs. And to me, this is a conclusion of the war. This is not the start of a war. You look at what Russia can't engage too much because they're bogged down in Ukraine. China's going to sit on the sideline.

This is the right time to go in and take the head of the snake off, and that way we can stabilize the Middle East. I'm really optimistic about the Middle East. Syria is coming. It's a new day in Syria. You see, of course, Qatar and Saudi being on our side on this conflict. So, I think that, of course, with Israel's partnership, this is a -- of course, it's going to take some time, but I think that this is the beginning of the end for them.

BLITZER: Let's talk a little bit about the cost, the financial cost of this war. It's now estimated to be about $900 million a day, according to an analysis from the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The cost is expected to decrease as the U.S. shifts to what are described as less expensive munitions. Are you prepared to support more funding for this war in Iran?

STUTZMAN: Yes, we have to complete the job. I would not want to go in this far and then all of a sudden tell our military they're not going to have the funding to finish the job. I think once we know that the mission has been accomplished, then that's going to be success. And at this point, yes, it is costly, which is always unfortunate, but at the same time we have to do this for the long-term peace and stability of not only our country but for the Middle East and the region as well.

BLITZER: And the Iranians now are attacking sites in some of the neighboring Arab countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and others, and that's a significant development as well. President Trump and his administration have said there was an imminent threat, their words, an imminent threat from Iran. What's your understanding of that imminent threat and why the U.S. needed to strike now?

STUTZMAN: Well, I think that the imminent threat is that they were going to continue to rebuild their nuclear program. After Operation Midnight Hammer last summer that took out the nuclear facility there in Iran, that should have been the message to the Iranian regime.

But this is a deeply religious-held belief for the Iranian jihadists that they're not going to stop. They want to defeat Israel. They want to defeat America. It's been a war on the West for them for decades. And so, moving ahead like this, it's going to take time. It's going to take precision, but our military men and women are well-equipped and have the best in the world to do it.

BLITZER: But Trump said that nuclear -- those nuclear facilities in Iran had been, in his word, obliterated. If they were obliterated, why again does the U.S. need to attack?

STUTZMAN: Well, I think that, you know, that was their opportunity to come to the negotiating table, which they were. But the Iranians are so good at just stringing us along, just dragging things out. We're going to do this, but we're not going to do this. And so, you have to, at some point, watch their actions rather than their words. And they were going to rebuild their nuclear program. They were up in North Korea before helping the North Koreans build a nuclear bomb. They wanted a nuclear bomb in order to leverage the West and to threaten their neighbors and the region in the Middle East. And so, them having a nuclear bomb at any point is an imminent threat.

BLITZER: On another sense, a very sensitive issue, the president just told our Dana Bash in a phone conversation that Cuba is going to fall soon. How do you read that?

STUTZMAN: You know what? I mean, the dictators are on the run. And I think that's a good thing for all of us, that Maduro has now been sidelined, of course. In Venezuela. Out of Venezuela, yes. And so, those -- you know, the axis of evil and their partners are all on their heels right now. And, you know, of course, as I said earlier, Russia being bogged down in Ukraine keeps them at bay to where they can't go help facilitate Iran or Cuba or Venezuela. And this is an opportunity to really reset the West and the Western Hemisphere for more peace and prosperity and stability.

And, you know, we're going to continue to add partners to that list, I think. I mean, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, they wouldn't have been on our side 15, 20 years ago. So, I think that the world is definitely changing and hopefully for the better.

BLITZER: All right. Republican Congressman Marlin Stutzman of Indiana, a great state, indeed, thanks very much for coming in.

STUTZMAN: Thanks, Wolf. Great to be with you.

BLITZER: And coming up, more European countries right now being drawn into this war with Iran despite their serious reservations. Could this spread the conflict even wider? We have information. Stay with us. You're in the Situation Room.

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[10:45:00]

BLITZER: We're back following the breaking news across the Middle East, and it's intense. The United States and Israel now ramping up airstrikes on Iran. The U.S. Military Central Command posting this new video showing more attacks on Iranian targets. President Trump says there will be no deal with Iran except, and I'm quoting him now, "unconditional surrender."

And in Lebanon, the Israeli military says it carried out more strikes overnight against the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah. Israel says it has struck more than 500 targets across Lebanon over the past week alone.

And joining us now is Ambassador Dennis Ross. He was the U.S. Special Middle East Coordinator during the Clinton administration. He's now with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He's also the author of the very important new book entitled "Statecraft 2.0: What America Needs to Lead in a Multipolar War." It's an important book.

[10:50:00]

I want to start, Dennis, with these overnight attacks by Israel against Hezbollah. What's the significance that this conflict has now spilled over very powerfully, very dramatically into Lebanon?

DENNIS ROSS, FORMER U.S. SPECIAL MIDDLE EAST COORDINATOR (CLINTON ADMIN.), COUNSELOR, THE WASHINGTON INSTITUTE FOR NEAR EAST POLICY, FORMER SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO PRESIDENT OBAMA AND AUTHOR, "STATECRAFT 2.0": Well, obviously, Wolf, it opens up another front. The Israelis had not agreed to a deal with Hezbollah but Hezbollah did in the aftermath of the killing of Khamenei, the supreme leader. It is interesting that some of the missiles that Hezbollah fired were from the area south of the Litani, which the Lebanese army had claimed that they had cleaned out. It is also interesting that the Lebanese government has never been so clear in terms of actually delegitimizing what Hezbollah has done, saying it was an illegal act and that all military activities by Hezbollah have to stop. We've never heard a Lebanese government say that.

Some of the Israeli military activity right now is designed to weaken Hezbollah even further to the point where the Lebanese government might finally direct the Lebanese army to do, in fact, what it needs to do with regard to disarming Hezbollah and ensuring that the Lebanese government reasserts its sovereignty over its own territory.

BLITZER: Is there a way, Dennis, a way forward that would keep this conflict more contained?

ROSS: I think it's going to be difficult because the Iranians have a strategy of widening it. They want to do several things. They want to show that they can endure for an extended period of time, that they can widen the conflict to the point where all those involved will be putting increasing pressure on President Trump to bring it to an end. This is the essence of the Iranian strategy.

The strategy we and the Israelis have is to make it less - make the Iranians less and less capable of being able to conduct the war militarily. It is clear that the amount of projectiles they're firing, whether they're ballistic missiles or they're drones, have gone down every day. Certainly, the ballistic missiles are going down, but they do have probably tens of thousands of drones. For the Israelis, they're not that much of a problem. For the countries that are much closer to Iran, they are much more of a problem.

BLITZER: Like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, those countries, that's what you're talking about, right?

ROSS: I am, because there's almost no warning time. The truth is they can shoot them down, and they are shooting them down. What is remarkable is the interception rate. No country has been targeted more in this conflict than the UAE. The combination of ballistic missiles and the drones, they have no warning time, and yet their success rate in interceptions is over 90 percent. But still, you're talking about areas that are built up, close by, not a lot of territory, so not many have to hit to have an impact.

BLITZER: Yesterday, President Trump told Reuters that he would be all for the Kurds, the Kurds launching an uprising inside Iran. CNN has reported that the CIA is working to arm Iranian Kurdish forces. But some have warned that propping up a singular group like this could prompt a greater civil war to develop inside Iran right now. How do you see it?

ROSS: I see it from two different angles, Wolf. On the one hand, the Iraqi Kurds are not enthusiastic about this. They're not interested in joining the war. They're not interested in having their own security threatened more. So, there's not a high level of enthusiasm on their part. I'm not sure how much we're going to see and how soon we're going to see it from the Iranian Kurds, who basically have had a sanctuary there. That's on one side.

On the Iranian side, it is true that you have a number of different sectarian identities within Iran, the Kurds, the Azeris, the Baluch. But there is also an Iranian national identity, and to the extent to which it looks like you're not just trying to spark a conflict that weakens the regime, but it looks like you're trying to spark something that could fragment the country, you may produce a backlash. So, I'm not sure, in the end, that's the smartest way if you're really trying to weaken and promote the collapse of the regime.

BLITZER: President Trump posted on social media today that, and I'm quoting him now, there will be no deal with Iran except unconditional surrender, end quote. And you've said there's always room for diplomacy in war, but President Trump is making it clear he doesn't plan to return to the negotiating table. How do you see this war potentially coming to a close?

ROSS: I think there's one of two ways. One is a negotiation, as you were just suggesting. Usually wars end through a negotiation. But in this case, I think at this point you're not going to have whatever Iranian leadership remains, and we continue to target them and the Israelis continue to target them on a daily basis. Calling for them to capitulate is probably unlikely to produce that. [10:55:00]

Having said that, there's another way for the war to end. It can end with a unilateral American decision on two bases. The key, I think, objective here is have we set back the ballistic missile, the drone capability, and not just the inventories and the stockpiles and the potential launchers right now, but the whole supply chain of building.

If you basically destroy the whole supply chain of building, the whole industrial base that is building drones and building ballistic missiles, and you set the Iranians back five to 10 years at least, you could see the President declaring he has achieved the objectives, they're no longer a threat to anyone in the region, and he could declare an end to the war and declare if they hit us, we'll hit them even harder.

The Iranians might still try to do something in the immediate aftermath of that, but the truth is there can come a point where basically this war ends because we have set back the Iranians so much that they literally can no longer project power in the region and can no longer be a threat to their neighbors.

BLITZER: Ambassador Dennis Ross, thanks so much for your expertise.

ROSS: My pleasure.

BLITZER: And coming up, President Trump says gas prices will go down very quickly after this latest recent spike, but a brand-new analysis says they could hit nearly $4 a gallon in the coming weeks alone. We'll have more on that. That's coming up.

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