Ambassador Michael Leiter, Senator Mark Warner, Congressman Mike Turner

15:04Margaret Brennan:What exactly did the U.S. and Israel agree to?

15:07Mark Warner:reduce cadence, up cadence. Operational issues aren't discussed on Sunday morning on television. Well, the president. Well, what we discussed is that we're going to be in tandem with the president's efforts in the Gulf, and we support the president's efforts. Right now, we are pursuing those who are shooting missiles against our civilians. And the Operation Wednesday was targeted against operation centers of Hezbollah. Now, what they do...

15:36Margaret Brennan:You dispute those Lebanese government figures of civilian deaths? Oh, of course.

15:38Mark Warner:It's like Hamas releasing figures from Gaza, you know, their health ministry. You're negotiating with the Lebanese government. Absolutely, absolutely. But sometimes there's this attempt to paint us as, you know, going after civilians. We're going after, in a targeted fashion, the terrorist infrastructure. That's what we focus on. Now, what they do, Margaret, is they put their operation centers, their terrorist centers, among civilians. Now, we tell them to get out. They don't always get out, but we do what we can. Hamas does this in Gaza by building their bases within civilian centers. Hezbollah does it.

16:11Mark Warner:And we saw the other day where Tehran sent their civilians out to the bridges and the energy plants so they wouldn't be. This is a crime against humanity.

16:20Margaret Brennan:Well, you have your own diplomacy on Tuesday. We will be watching for that and what happens. Thank you for your time this morning. We'll be right back. deadlines move plans change and sometimes opportunities pop up out of nowhere when you need branded gear fast for imprint is ready to deliver for imprint offers hundreds of promotional products in their 24-hour category everything from custom apparel bags and drinkware to writing tools trade show staples and high-tech gear at for imprint it's not just about speed it's about doing it right. Your logo is printed with precision. Your order is packed with care and it all ships out fast.

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17:30Margaret Brennan:We turn now to Senator Mark Warner. He's the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, and he joins us from Charlottesville, Virginia. Good morning to you, Senator.

17:39Mark Warner:Good morning, Margaret.

17:40Margaret Brennan:I want to pick up where we just left off with the ambassador when he was talking about his country's intelligence estimates versus ours. He said he was in that room that day when Prime Minister Netanyahu who pitched President Trump on this war that the U.S. is now in. He said these press accounts were wrong. In your understanding of U.S. intelligence, is it true the CIA disputed the Mossad's assessment as farcical?

18:09Mark Warner:Well, Margaret, I was not in that meeting. I know two things. One, having seen all the intelligence, there was no imminent threat from Iran against the United States. And two, I take my former colleague and now Secretary of State Marco Rubio at his word when he publicly said, well, we knew the Israelis were going to strike Iran. So we felt we needed to go ahead and strike first since Iran would attack us. So we are where we are. But let's no Americans should forget. This is a war of choice chosen by the president. And if we just quickly look at the goals, regime change, frankly, the new leadership is more radical.

18:51Mark Warner:Getting the enriched uranium out would require 10 ,000 troops minimum, guarding a perimeter around a bunker where our troops would have to go in and get this very volatile uranium out. The Ukrainians could bomb that. We've taken down a lot of their ballistic missiles, but as we've seen, they still have many left shooting down our planes. Thank God our military is world class and got those pilots out. But they literally have thousands of drones left. And this question about what the president's going to do with closing the Strait of Hormuz. Yeah. The Iranians have hundreds of speedboats where they can still mine the strait or put or put bombs against tankers in closing the strait.

19:34Mark Warner:How is that going to ever bring down gas prices?

19:36Margaret Brennan:Well, two things on that. Just to follow up, that 10 ,000 troop requirement, is that an official government estimate? And is that in the midst of combat or is that with Iranian government permission to have boots on the ground?

19:47Mark Warner:This has been this has been known for. There is a reason the Iranian regime is awful. I agree with the ambassador on that. They've been awful for 47 years. But there was a reason why previous presidents, including President Trump in his first term, didn't choose to go to war because this is extraordinarily complicated. The fact that the president acts like he's surprised the Iranians closed the strait or would attack our Gulf allies, anybody would have read the intelligence would have known that was first. The ability to protect our soldiers would require every estimate I've seen, at least 10 ,000 troops guarding a perimeter, sending troops into these bunkers for days on end, very vulnerable.

20:32Mark Warner:The Iranians still have the ability to bomb their own bunkers. That is, again, a reason why I think action like this has not been taken before.

20:41Margaret Brennan:So CNN is reporting in The New York Times that China is set to deliver new air defense systems to Iran within the next few weeks. The Israeli ambassador previously has acknowledged that China was considering helping Iran. How significant would you describe Beijing's support at this point? I would describe it as significant, but they try to hide themselves.

21:11Mark Warner:China says, well, this is their private sector. We all know there is no such thing as a true private sector in China. Every company in China has to have its first loyalty to the Communist Party. But what we've done, let me also point out, Margaret, by the Trump administration releasing sanctions on Russian oil, that's$10 billion to Putin. More crazy is by releasing sanctions on Iranian oil at sea. We have literally funded the Iranian government$14 billion that they're using to buy from China and elsewhere weapons to attack our troops. That is insanity in my mind.

21:49Margaret Brennan:But you're talking there about President Trump's efforts to try to lower oil prices through those measures. I want to ask you, though, on the broader point in our polling, we see broad dissatisfaction with how the administration is handling the war. But as for, you know, the aspirations, Americans broadly support them. Eighty seven percent say straight up Hormuz needs to be reopened. Eighty one percent want to ensure freedom for the Iranian people. Seventy six percent want to permanently stop Iran's nuclear program. 55 % want the current leaders ousted before we end the war. Do you sort of want to see us finish what America has started here?

22:29Margaret Brennan:Can you really just hit the brakes?

22:32Mark Warner:Margaret, I agree with all of the goals of the American people. But when you ask the next question, are you willing to put your sons and daughters in a ground war in the Middle East to get that enriched uranium out? I've not found any volunteers on that. The Strait of Hormuz was open before this war started. Gas in Virginia was$2.81 40 days ago. It is over$4 now. Even if the president declares victory tomorrow, those high gas prices will be with us for months. And it's natural gas, not just gasoline. Asian countries are shutting down their economies one day a week because the price of oil has skyrocketed so much.

23:11Mark Warner:We buy a lot of stuff from Taiwan, South Korea, and countries around Asia. All those prices are going up.

23:17Margaret Brennan:And we're going to talk about that with the IMF director later on. But just to put a fine point on it, does this mean you would not vote for a supplemental funding request if the president needs more money to finish what he started?

23:31Mark Warner:I'll take a look at anything. I want to make sure our troops have done magnificently. But this president should have come to the American people in Congress first and say, I'm going to choose to go to war. Here's what I want to try to accomplish. Those four goals of regime change, uranium, missiles, and the Strait of Hormuz, we only got those goals about 10 days into the war. And on any honest assessment, I don't think we've accomplished any of them so far.

23:58Margaret Brennan:I want to ask you on another topic, and that is basically congressional inaction. We're on day 58 of the shutdown of Homeland Security in terms of this standoff in regard to funding. Republicans are preparing a plan to fund ICE and to fund CBP on a party line vote through a process known as reconciliation. Democrats had the standoff to demand policy changes that never happened here. What did Democrats actually get out of this?

24:32Mark Warner:Well, Margaret, what we got out of it, at least in the Senate, is we got 100 to 0 vote saying let's fund all of the rest of DHS except for ICE. That should have, we assume, you had every Republican senator vote for that. And then the Speaker of the House, who can't seem to decide what he wants, rejected it. I am glad that the president has gone ahead and paying the salaries. But I think if you ask your same poll questions, do the American people want ice running around cities, frankly, arresting not only undocumented, but Americans and putting Americans life in jeopardy, as we saw in Minneapolis?

25:14Mark Warner:I don't think they want that going on as well.

25:16Margaret Brennan:Okay, Senator, I have a hard break. I got to take care. Thank you very much for joining us. We'll be right back.

25:49Listen to Becoming You wherever you get your podcasts.

25:58Margaret Brennan:Welcome back to Face the Nation. Americans are growing increasingly concerned about the war with Iran and its impact, our latest CBS News poll finds, as the approval of Donald Trump's handling of the conflict has dropped to 36 percent. Back home, the president's ratings on handling of inflation are at the lowest level of his second term, with only 31 % approving. For more, we're joined by our Executive Director of Elections and Surveys, Anthony Salvato. Good to have you here, Anthony. Morning, Margaret. So what exactly are Americans telling you? Well, when I just asked how this war is making you feel, the top answers people give are worried and stressed.

26:37Let's unpack that. Why? When they look overseas, they see a lot of important goals for the U.S. Big bipartisan majorities think it It is important to you can go down the list. Stop Iran's nuclear program. Make sure the Iranian people are safe and free. Change the regime, change the leadership in Iran. And most important, open the Strait of Hormuz. And what you see is interesting is when you juxtapose that and ask them, well, have those things been done? You see a dramatically different answer because very few people think that they have. What that collectively tells you is this looks to people like unfinished business.

27:17There are goals. OK, the war began. Not everybody liked it. But now they're saying make sure it pays off in ways that come back to the U.S. And let me pick up on that word pays off for a second, because when they talk about opening the strait, so really talking about gas prices. Right. And what we've seen is people here telling us those higher gas prices are a financial hardship, difficult to pay. And so that is having an impact both on their views of the economy more generally, as well as their pocketbooks. And you mentioned those ratings at the top. Look, sort of like first rule of politics, gas prices and prices go up and approval ratings start to go down.

27:57Margaret Brennan:Well, the president always uses social media to make big statements of intent. A few days ago, he posted a particularly incendiary one. It said, quote, a whole civilization will die tonight. never to be brought back again. I don't want that to happen. That statement drew rebukes from even some of the president's closest supporters, as well as the Pope. You gauged reaction to that rhetoric. What did the American public think? So by the time we got to talking to them, people had heard and seen that post. And when we showed it to them, the general view was they disliked it. There were some who said, OK, a little bit more alike.

28:39And those were folks in the MAGA base, not all, but relatively more. But it's also a window into how people process some of these statements. And we've been looking at this for 10 years that are, if you will, shattering norms or changing the way things have been done in the past. And that is, they thought it was at least as much a negotiating tactic as it was an intention.

29:02Margaret Brennan:So how does all of that impact how the public views the president's leadership? So one consistent thing through this war is that most people have said they don't feel the administration has clearly explained the goals. I followed up on that this week. And most folks who feel that way think it's that the goals have kept changing that they've heard, not that they haven't articulated anything. So there's that wide array and they're not clear which one exactly. That relates to most people saying they don't feel Donald Trump has a clear plan for this conflict. Those two things together speak to that collective uncertainty about it, if you will.

29:39And when there is uncertainty, you inevitably start to see ratings overall and the feeling that the war isn't going well yet going down.

29:48Margaret Brennan:Anthony Salvato, interesting stuff. Thank you. Thanks. And we'll be right back with a lot more Face the Nation. Stay with us. We're back now with Republican Congressman Mike Turner. Thank you for coming back to town early to talk to us in person. Thank you. Let's start on our polling because you, like many people right now, are running for re-election, right? You look at this poll, 64 % of the American people disapprove of the war, 62 % say the president has no clear plan. There are these negative perceptions, the president's handling of the economy and inflation. Dayton isn't immune, gas prices up a buck from where they were same time last year.

30:24Margaret Brennan:How are you explaining to people in your district that this war is worth it? Well, first off, no conflict ever polls well. I mean, when there's a conflict occurring, no one says it's being handled well because you have to go through the conflict. The president has articulated, I think, very well that this is about ensuring that Iran does not become a nuclear state. And no one is willing to trade lower gas prices for Iran becoming a nuclear state. And when Vice President Vance stood at the podium and said that the negotiations had broken off because Iran was not willing to declare that they would not become a nuclear state, that should have set a chill both through Europe and around the world.

31:07And I think, you know, for everyone, because that truly is what this is about. That that puts away what, you know, what Senator Warner was trying to dismissively say that this was not an eminent threat and what everyone else has been saying in Europe and around the world. But that that that this is a an immediate the IAEA grossly, the director had said they were weeks away from being having enough material to have. He said there was no evidence that they were pursuing a nuclear weapon. He said they were weeks away. And now you have it. No longer can people say that they did not have the ambition.

31:45Here they are all the way at the table. They have been in this massive conflict, and they're unwilling to say they're not going to pursue a nuclear weapon. They're unwilling to pursue a nuclear weapon.

31:55Margaret Brennan:However, the negotiation itself is proof of the fact that militarily you cannot achieve destruction of nuclear ambition. Is it not? No, it's not, because they're still ongoing. And the president has said this conflict, this act, the negotiations. But the president said the war is won. This is not over. And as it's not over, Iran is going to have to come to the realization as the JCPOA, the original enrichment deal that Obama had negotiated where he said, we're not going to allow them to have a nuclear weapon, but we're just going to watch. And they didn't have a nuclear weapon. And we're going to watch.

32:32And they don't have a nuclear weapon now. And we're going to watch them enrich until they get close enough, and then we'll take military action. Europe, everyone was a party to this deal. This is not just a United States issue. This is not just a United States issue. As we saw during this conflict where Iran in their missile technology, sent a missile all the way to Diego Garcia. This was a wake-up call for Europe. They now have missile technology that can reach Europe. This is a regime, a terrorist regime, that we cannot allow to have a nuclear weapon.

33:00Margaret Brennan:So you said the president has been very clear here in his goals and intent. Art polling shows the American people aren't persuaded in the same way you are. Let me run through some of the things he said on the Hormuz Strait. At the outset of the war, March 3rd, he said the Navy would begin escorting tankers no matter what. The U.S. will ensure the free flow of energy to the world. March 9th, he said he was still thinking about taking it over. March 15th, he said it was someone else's problem. Our allies would take care of it. Maybe we shouldn't even be there. We don't need it. We have a lot of oil.

33:29Margaret Brennan:Six days later, he threatened online the U.S. would attack Iran's power plants if it didn't open the strait within 48 hours. March 26th, he went back to blaming allies, saying he's disappointed in NATO. And then he announced a two-week ceasefire saying Iran had agreed to open the strait. I'm not done, because yesterday he said that CENTCOM announced they're sending two ships to set the conditions for clearing mines. this morning he said the Navy is going to start blockading the street and interdict ships. Is that the final answer? I mean, can you see here why the public doesn't think that the president has a clear strategy?

34:07Your adversary has a vote in this too, and they have a position at two, which there were just negotiations just yesterday. Just yesterday, there were negotiations, and literally, Iran had an opportunity just yesterday to say to the world, we're not going to pursue a nuclear a weapon. Can you imagine the largest exporter of a terrorist regime having a nuclear weapon? They have been enriching uranium. They've been enriching to the point where the IAEA, they had the IAEA, so they were weeks away from having enough to have a nuclear weapon.

34:42Margaret Brennan:There has not been a single congressional hearing on this issue. No one's disagreeing. It's an important one. Since this war began, you have been in session for 11 days, Congressman. Do you think this is adequate oversight of this war? Well, actually, we have had classified briefings on this issue. Now, this is an ongoing conflict. There are going to be continued briefings. I think the administration certainly could. And the chairman of the Armed Services Committee has chastised the department on needing to provide Congress with more information. But we've had classified briefings. But the issue that the crux of this, that Iran cannot be permitted to have a nuclear weapon, which is what the vice president stood before the world and said, that Iran is unwilling to declare just yesterday, which was the breaking point of the negotiations, has been the subject of hearings for decades.

35:40Margaret Brennan:Do you know what the president means when he says that the United States Navy is now going to be blockading the Strait of Hormuz that we are trying to open? Has that been briefed to Congress? I think, well, of course not, because it was just announced, as you were discussing this morning. Well, if it was a clear strategy all along, and this was part of the plan, you would think it happened. What is clear in the strategy, as the president has said, is the straits are not just a United States issue. It is also a Europe issue. It is a worldwide issue. And the president said today we have to reexamine NATO.

36:06Iran should not be permitted to control the straits. And it's not just the United States issue.

36:10Margaret Brennan:Did they mind it? And Iran should not be permitted to just decide who gets through. And Europe, our NATO allies, others who have certainly an interest in the straits, should be coming to the table. And it should not just be a U.S. issue. And the president, by saying we're not just going to let them decide who gets through, is certainly calling all of our allies and everyone to the table of this needs to be addressed. Did they mind the Strait of Hormuz? Because in that tweet today, the president also said they might not have. Because he said no ship. I think you'll have to ask the president. It's his tweet.

36:48Margaret Brennan:That's the point, that Congress has not been briefed on that. As a member of oversight and armed services, do you feel like this has actually been adequately explain to you because the American public does not. The president just tweeted this this morning, so you'll have to ask the president. We would love to ask the president or the secretary of state or the secretary of defense. But members of Congress from his party are the only ones sitting here today. And we do appreciate you answering questions on it. Thank you, Birgit. All right. We'll be right back. On Friday, we spoke with the managing director of the IMF, Kristalina Georgieva, here in Washington.

37:26Margaret Brennan:We began by asking her about the war's impact on the global economy. How do you calculate the economic shock from this Mideast war? We look at the size of the impact and the duration of impact. And what I can tell you is that this shock is large. 13 % of oil, 20 % of gas that would have flown in the world is now stuck for five weeks and counting. It is global. Everybody uses energy. Everybody feels the pinch of prices going up. And it is asymmetric. It affects different countries differently. If you are in the vicinities of the conflict, it's a big hit on you. If you are an oil importer, it is a big hit on you.

38:25If you have no reserves to protect yourself, you're in a very tough situation.

38:31Margaret Brennan:It appears like Asia bore a lot of the economic impact here. South Korea, they've got a big computer chip industry. They have called on their citizens to conserve energy. India, they're rationing energy. The Philippines had a national energy emergency. The Australian gas stations are running out of fuel. It seems like there's a large part of the planet that's really in pain. Oh, yes. People are hurting. They're hurting because of sheer lack of quantities. If you are in the Philippines, you're queuing the same way people were queuing here in the 70s. to fill your tank. They are hurting because they may be in need of helium for semiconductors or for MRIs.

39:26Margaret Brennan:And that comes out of Qatar, out of the Middle East. That comes out of Qatar, and now it is cut to size. They may be hurting because of fertilizers. Now is the planting season. If you are not getting fertilizers or not getting them at a reasonable price, we may see spike in food prices coming. They're hurting because of remittances. Just think how many people live in the Gulf, work in the Gulf, send money home to places like India and Bangladesh, and this money is not coming. They're hurting because of transportation. I'll tell you, My heart goes for Sri Lanka, a country that is coming out of a big shock.

40:14They were now affected because a third of flights to Sri Lanka go through the Gulf. Now tourism is going to be hammered. So for many, many reasons, countries are affected. And when you look at the size of the impact, it depends on how much your reliance on imports is, but it also depends on what is your fiscal position. Do you have capacity to absorb the shocks? Yes, who has this capacity? Poor, vulnerable countries. Whether they are in Asia or in sub-Saharan Africa, they're being hammered dramatically. And when we discuss our response, we will zero in on these highly vulnerable countries.

41:07Margaret Brennan:Here, Americans, they're still spending, they're still driving, but they have seen inflation go up, prices at the gas pump. Right. I mean, the U.S. is in the category of countries that are somewhat less impacted because U.S. is energy exporter. But as I said, everybody feels the pinch of prices going up. Why? This is a negative supply shock. You have less energy, but the demand is still the same. What happens? Prices go up. And here in the United States, people have not quite yet seen inflation going down to target. We were projecting this to happen by early 27. Now that may be somewhat delayed.

41:53And what does it mean? It means that people experience a tax on their income. Who is most affected? Of course, low income part of the population.

42:09Margaret Brennan:Well, at one point, oil prices surged nearly 50 percent because of this war in Iran. And you called it the largest disruption to global energy markets in modern history. as increases, as you said, to fertilizer, to other prices that are going to push up food. Do you see this impact stretching through 2026, even if we get a ceasefire that sticks? So the impact is baked in because already the tankers that should have arrived in Asia have not arrived. Right. So we already have that impact. But then on top of it, we have the infrastructure impact. 72 energy facilities have been hit. One third of them, severe damage.

42:59You take the gas field in Qatar, it would take three to five years to reach its full capacity. That has significance. And then we have other infrastructure impacts like refineries. If they don't receive oil on a regular schedule, they have to shut down. When they shut down to restart, that is with delay. So yes, we are going to see some drag of this crisis over the year. But if we have peace, of course conditions are likely to improve faster. Above all, because confidence is going to benefit from the knowledge that there is a resolution of the fighting. Before, something that is very important to recognize, the world economy has been incredibly resilient.

43:57We have been hit by one shock and another and another. we were actually projecting a small upgrade for growth in 2026, had it not been for this war. Now we are going to have a downgrade, and the size of this downgrade will depend on these two things, duration and speed with which everything can come back to the same level of production that we had before. Do you think that global economists really overestimated the negative impact of the Trump tariffs? Ah, very good question. So the fund, when the tariffs came, was among the very few institutions that were not projecting recession. We did project some slowdown in growth.

44:51We did see some slowdown in growth. Should it be somewhat disruptive? We thought it would be somewhat disruptive. It was somewhat disruptive. But then what happened was an adjustment, adjustment in the United States with agreements that have reduced the pressure that tariffs would put here and on the rest of the world. And we saw the rest of the world saying, OK, let's see how we can trade more with each other. Massive increase in trade agreements, more attention to regional trade. If you look at the place like... You're saying turning away from the U.S. Well, the U.S. is saying we want to have an economy that is mostly based on investing at home, having manufacturing at home.

45:38That's a choice that the country is making. Other countries are looking into their economic future. Small, open economies, they have no choice. They have to find ways to trade with each other because otherwise it would be very costly for their people. So the developments are relatively calming in a sense that we see trade like water. You put an obstacle, it goes around it.

46:10Margaret Brennan:Our full conversation can be seen on our YouTube channel, website and our podcast. Now to some good news. The Artemis 2 mission has ended and it was a perfect splashdown for NASA and its crew, with the capsule Integrity landing into the Pacific Ocean just off the coast of San Diego Friday evening. NASA astronauts Reed Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian Jeremy Hansen reflected on their extraordinary mission Saturday after being reunited with their families. I would suggest to you that when you look up here, you're not looking at us. We are a mirror reflecting you. And if you like what you see, then just look a little deeper.

46:56This is you.

46:57Margaret Brennan:The four spent just over nine days traveling to the far side of the moon, farther than any human had been. The gratitude of seeing what we saw, doing what we did and being with who I was with, it's too big to just be in one body. I know I haven't learned everything that this journey has yet to teach me. But there's one new thing I know, and that is planet Earth. You are a crew. It's a special thing to be a human, and it's a special thing to be on planet Earth. That's it for us today. Thank you all for watching. Until next week. For Face the Nation, I'm Margaret Brennan. Today's guests were Israeli Ambassador to the U.S.

47:45Margaret Brennan:Michael Leiter, Virginia Democratic Senator Mark Warner, Ohio Republican Congressman Mike Turner, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, and CBS News Executive Director of Elections and Surveys Anthony Salvato. The senior executive producer of Face the Nation is Mary Hager Laird. The executive producer of Face the Nation is Anne Hsu. This broadcast was directed by Shelley Schwartz. Face the Nation originates from CBS News in Washington. For more Face the Nation, we're online at facethenation.com and on YouTube. We're also rebroadcasts on our CBS News 247 streaming network at 1230 and 2 p.m.

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