Iran Protests Spur U.S. Strike Talk and Escalating Threats (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Iran is escalating threats against the U.S. That's after President Trump offered his support to Iranian protesters as anti-regime demonstrations continue to rock Iran. The president posted on social media yesterday, Iran is looking at freedom, perhaps like never before, the U.S. stands ready to help. In response to Trump's comments, Iran's parliament speaker told Trump that U.S. military and shipping centers would be considered targets. And this morning, the New York Times cites that multiple U.S. officials are saying that the president has been briefed on options for possibly striking Iran. In the meantime, at least 78 people have been killed in those protests. That's according to a U.S.-based human rights organization. We turn now to CNN's Paula Hancox. Paula, good morning to you. Communication blackout there continues. How is that, if at all, affecting these protesters?

[00:00:59] Speaker 2: Well, Victor, it's certainly affecting the way that they can communicate with each other, although we don't see that that is impacting them on the ground at this point, as the numbers appear to be growing. It is also impacting how they can talk to those outside the country. And as we talked about yesterday as well, there is this fear that the crackdown from the security forces will become more brutal. We have had a number of protesters speaking to CNN over the past couple of days, and it appears, unfortunately, as though that is the case. Now, none of them wanted to use their names for fear of repercussions from the regime, but we spoke to one older couple who said that they had been looking out into the streets and they saw people of all ages that were protesting, and they then saw security forces brandishing military rifles that killed many people. We also spoke to another protester who said that when they went into hospitals, they saw, quote, bodies piled up. Now, this is something we've heard from a number of different eyewitnesses on the ground, the fact that hospitals are struggling to cope given the amount of people that have been injured just over the past few days as this crackdown by security forces continues. We spoke to one protester who was trying to help a 60-year-old man who had 40 pellets in his leg, they say, and also a broken arm. They had to go to several different hospitals in order to try and find someone to treat him, saying that it was completely chaotic. We've heard harrowing narratives and descriptions from those within the hospitals as well, from doctors and those trying to treat patients. We did, though, hear from one protester who said that this was unstoppable momentum. Talking about these protests, the fact that people are coming out onto the streets knowing that they may be risking their lives, but the anger, the frustration against this regime is strong enough that they are willing to come out in significant numbers. So, unstoppable momentum is how one described it. And, of course, they know also that they do have this international pressure, what we're hearing from the U.S. president, and also significant pushback from the Iranian side, in fact, saying that Trump should concern himself with problems in his own country. Victor?

[00:03:24] Speaker 1: Hello, Hancocks. Thank you very much. Joining me now is Justin Logan. He's the Director of Defense and Foreign Policy Studies at the Cato Institute. Justin, good morning to you. Let's start here with the threat from the president and the response from the Iranian regime. The president said that he'd hit Iran very hard if forces kill protesters. The reports are that protesters have been killed, some of this number 78. Is it clear what the red line for the Trump administration would be? Because simply the deaths thus far has not been that.

[00:03:57] Speaker 3: No, it's absolutely unclear what the red line may be. And I think that with the indications that you've seen from the Supreme Leader and from the Iranian leadership is that they would love to change this subject. These protests emerged organically, first from economic distress inside of Iran, and broadened to include the political illegitimacy of the Iranian regime. When American bombs start dropping, there's always the risk that the subject changes from Iranians' discontent with their own people to what about all the bombs falling around us too? So I think there's a real danger here were Trump to engage in some sort of large-scale military action that that could succeed in changing the subject and inadvertently relieving some pressure on the regime itself.

[00:04:37] Speaker 1: New York Times is reporting that the president has been briefed on military options for strikes in Iran. This isn't like striking the Iranian nuclear program where those targets are easily identifiable. What's plausible that gets to the support of the Iranian people, those protesters?

[00:04:59] Speaker 3: So anything is plausible, I regret to say, but I think that leadership nodes, key paramilitary installations, places where the people who are brutally putting down these protests are convening. The intelligence is always a question here, right? You're not targeting, as you pointed out, nuclear sites that are clear, we know where they are and fixed. So there's always some danger if you have bad intelligence and you believe that you're targeting some sort of paramilitary barracks that you hit an apartment building or something of this nature. So it would really turn in important ways on the quality of the intelligence.

[00:05:33] Speaker 4: Joining us now is a top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Virginia Senator Mark Warner. Thank you so much for joining us, Senator. So the New York Times has reported that the president's been briefed in recent days on options for military strikes against the Iranian regime, though President Trump has said to have not made a final decision. Are you hearing anything? You're the vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Do you think it's likely that the administration will move forward with any military action and should they?

[00:06:00] Speaker 5: Well, Jake, first of all, the Iranian people want to get rid of this awful regime. We stand with their courage. We don't have great visibility into Iran and Iran has shut off the internet over the last few days. But if we step back for a moment, Jake, let's look at this. This president, in less than one year in office, has used the American military to launch strikes in six different countries. Syria, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Nigeria, Venezuela. He's got 20% of the American fleet off the coast of Venezuela blockading that country. He wants to increase the military budget by 50% to a trillion and a half dollars. How does that affect anybody's cost of living? How does that, what does that say to young people around the country, which may mean American troops could be deployed all over the world? And this was the president that was supposed to take us out of a lot of foreign wars. I don't get it. I don't understand what his overarching policy is other than don't piss off Donald Trump.

[00:07:05] Speaker 4: So you don't support any potential military strikes against the Iranian regime?

[00:07:10] Speaker 5: I think we should put his, along with others around the region, as much pressure and support of the Iranian people. But the idea of military strikes, Jake, I know it goes back. The last time America intervened militarily in Iran was 1953 when a CIA-led coup overthrew the Iranian regime to protect oil, by the way. And that ultimately, most historians would say, was what led to the Ayatollah's rise in the 1970s. I think when we mess with the internal dynamics of a country like Iran, which is extraordinarily complex, only half the nation is Persian heritage, we ought to do that carefully. And I don't think we have enough visibility at this point to start at least planning major military actions when we've already struck, as I mentioned, six different nations in less than a year.

[00:08:00] Speaker 4: Former President Obama has expressed regret for not more aggressively supporting Iranian protesters back in 2009. If you don't support military action beyond sanctions, what should President Trump do right now to support the Iranian people?

[00:08:16] Speaker 5: I think there are ways we can call upon the international community, which, by the way, because we walked away from the JCPOA, it doesn't have as much international support. I do think the strike on the Iranian nuclear facilities was successful, but as we showed, it didn't obliterate the facilities. And public reporting has said Iran's in the process of building back its capability. But the idea, and I want to know what the President's talking about. Is he simply talking about another airstrike? Is he talking about boots on the ground in Iran to take out military facilities when we've already, again, remember, we've got 20% of the fleet off the coast of Venezuela at this point maintaining a blockade. Yeah, so- The Ford, which is the aircraft carrier down there, it's supposed to be deployed to the Middle East. Even America, with its amazing military presence, and our military did extraordinary in Venezuela, we get stretched pretty thin.