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Transcript: Ret. Gen. Frank McKenzie on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” Oct. 6, 2024
The following is a transcript of an interview with retired Gen. Frank McKenzie, former commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that aired on Oct. 6, 2024.
MARGARET BRENNAN: To discuss the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, we go now to retired General Frank McKenzie, who was the former commander of US forces in the Middle East. It’s good to have you back with us, General, we saw–
GENERAL FRANK MCKENZIE: Good to be with you, Margaret.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We saw the US and Israel say there would be severe consequences for what Iran did with those 180 missiles fired at Israel, President Biden said he doesn’t support an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, and he’d be thinking instead about alternative targets to oil fields. What do you expect the US to do, and what do you expect to happen in the next few days?
GEN. MCKENZIE: Well, Margaret, let’s begin by saying Iran is the country that’s in a corner. Their strike against Israel several nights ago was not particularly successful. Their principal ally in the region, Hezbollah has been decapitated, and its own offensive capability is gravely limited. Hezbollah’s is gravely limited. So Iran’s on their back heel. Israel has a lot of choices here. They can choose for something that would be very escalatory in terms of a strike against the Supreme Leader himself, perhaps, or against the nuclear program, or against the oil infrastructure, or they could look at military intelligence targets. They have a wide variety of options that they can choose from. They have the capability to execute most of those attacks, I will say this, the nuclear target is a very difficult target. It’s large and complex. I held the plans for that when I was a central command commander. I’m very familiar with it. There are a lot of other alternatives to that target that perhaps you could go after first, then hold out in case you get into an escalatory ladder with the Iranians. But the Israelis are certainly going to hit back, and I predict it will be larger than the very restrained, very modulated response that we saw in April after the first large Iranian attack on Israel.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You heard the Republican Chair of the House Intelligence Committee not advocate for an attack on nuclear facilities, but say it shouldn’t be taken off the table. It’s been widely reported for some time, General that it’s only the United States who could effectively take out the underground facilities that Iran has. Does that remain the case?
GEN. MCKENZIE: Well, let me begin by saying you should never take a potential target off the menu. You want your adversary to have to plan to defend everything. So giving-giving them assistance and not knowing and not-not having to defend against a particular target is probably not the best way to establish this kind of deterrence. Having said that, the Iranian nuclear target is a very difficult target, we have special capabilities that allow us to get at it. The Israelis do not have all of those capabilities. They can certainly hurt this target if they choose to, if they choose to strike it. But again, because of its size, complexity and scope and how it’s expanded over the last 10 years, it’s a very difficult target to take out. It would be very resource intensive, and I would just, I would argue, just from a purely military point of view, there are perhaps targets that are more productive to hit in an initial response.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Do you want to give us some options?
GEN. MCKENZIE: Well, again, you know, we talked about some of them. I think oil infrastructure is certainly a possibility. And the oil infrastructure can be very broad. You can look at refineries, you can look at storage facilities, you can look at locations where the oil is unloaded onto ships. So within the oil target, it’s not monolithic. You can- you can be escalatory or less escalatory, as you look at targets there. That might be something to take a look at, but I’ll tell you the other thing, Margaret, is the Iranians made a big show of targeting the Mossad headquarters in urban Tel Aviv. Israel certainly has the capability to go after IRGC, Islamic Republican Guard Corps headquarters and intelligence buildings all around Tehran or anywhere else. Again, as we know from April, Israel has the ability to operate not with impunity, but with great force over Iran at a time and place of their choosing. And I’m sure they’re thinking about all those options right now.
MARGARET BRENNAN: There’s also that risk of unintended consequences, since you’ve characterized Iran as cornered here, are you at all concerned that this could be the kind of event that would trigger them to actually pursue a nuclear weapon? They’ve given themselves options, but they’ve never fully pursued it in the way that US intelligence has said the supreme leader would have to make the ultimate decision to do. Could this be the trigger event?
GEN. MCKENZIE: Margaret, it’s always been my belief that the Iranians flirt with breakout, with getting fissile material to create a bomb in order to extract concessions from us, because we dance, we’re very eager to come to an agreement with them on the nuclear issue, so they know they can get stuff from us. They also know if they cross that line, you can’t go back. That’s a Rubicon that can’t be recrossed. But even if they, even if they do develop the fissile material, which they can do, within a matter of days or weeks, they still have a delivery problem. They’ve got to create a missile and an entry system that will allow it to take the missile to Tel Aviv or whatever target they choose. That’s a matter of many months, and that’s the valley of death for Iran, because during that period of time, they will have declared nuclear, and they will be vulnerable. It’s not a physics problem, then it’s an aeronautical engineering problem, and the aeronautical engineering systems in Iran are going to be vulnerable to attack. So it’s not as easy as you might think for them to just declare, you know, we’re going nuclear, or to go nuclear. They’ve got to balance a number of things as they do that.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Important context. If I can ask you, sir, former President Trump, as you know, faces an ongoing assassination threat as revenge for ordering the killing of Qassim Soleimani, that Iranian general. You played a key role in that, and I know you face threats as well. Mr. Trump recently said, big threats on my life by Iran. The entire US military is watching and waiting. The Biden White House has condemned the threats, but some Republicans say it’s not loud enough. How do you think this should be messaged? Do you think Iran is getting the message not to go through with this?
GEN. MCKENZIE: So whenever we look at Iran, we need to look at what’s their basic motivation. The principal goal of Iranian statecraft is regime preservation. They view the election of President Trump as a direct threat to that regime preservation. So I have no doubt believing that Iran is very active in its attempts to go after the former president, as well as other officials, of which I am keenly, personally interested as well. But I think that-that’s what’s driving their behavior. Is desperation. Margaret, it’s actually the same sort of desperation that drove the massive attack on Israel of three or four nights ago. They’re in a corner and they really don’t have any good options, but they don’t want to sit still and do nothing. They view President Trump as worse than the alternative that could be elected.
MARGARET BRENNAN: General, thank you for your analysis.
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Rep. Mike Turner says all “candidates need to deescalate” after Trump assassination attempts
Rep. Mike Turner, an Ohio Republican who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, responded Sunday to Eric Trump’s implication that his father’s Democratic opponents were responsible for the attempts on former President Trump’s life, saying the innuendo was “of course” inaccurate but political candidates on both sides of the aisle “need to deescalate” their rhetoric.
“No, of course not,” Turner said in his latest appearance on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” after being asked whether he believes there was truth to claims made by the former president, his son Eric, and his vice presidential running mate, Sen. JD Vance, at a rally where each either implied or suggested Democrats tried to kill him.
Trump returned Saturday to Butler, Pennsylvania, to speak to supporters gathered at the Butler Farm Show fairgrounds, the site of the July 13 assassination attempt against him. A gunman facing Trump on the podium at that rally opened fire into the crowd, grazing Trump’s ear, killing one attendee and injuring two others, according to authorities. The gunman was killed by a Secret Service sniper, officials said.
Another apparent assassination attempt happened in September when a suspect pointed a gun in Trump’s direction on the Florida course where he was playing golf. The FBI has opened probes into both incidents.
CBS News
Trump, his son and Vance all acknowledged the assassination attempt in Butler at Saturday’s campaign event.
“Over the past eight years, those who want to stop us from achieving this future have slandered me impeached me indicted me tried to throw me off the ballot and, who knows, maybe even tried to kill me,” said the former president, while Eric Trump claimed his father’s political opponents “tried to kill him, and it’s because the Democratic party, they can’t do anything right.”
Vance, in his remarks, addressed Trump’s Democratic challenger in the presidential race, Vice President Kamala Harris, and suggested that the Republican nominee “took a bullet for democracy.”
Brennan asked Turner: “You don’t mean to imply here anything that would suggest Eric Trump’s allegations that Democrats are trying to kill him?”
“No, of course not,” Turner responded. “But I do think that Vice President Harris needs to actively state and acknowledge that her administration is saying a foreign power, which would be an act of war, is actively trying to kill her opponent.”
The attempts on Trump’s life came after a citizen of Pakistan with ties to Iran was arrested and charged with allegedly planning a murder-for-hire scheme targeting Trump, among others. Although the timing of the charges coincided with the first attempt, there was no indication that the two incidents were related.
Turner criticized Harris for what he viewed as a failure to openly condemn the alleged plot.
“I think there’s certainly a role for her to play and for the president to play in this, in both identifying that there are threats against Donald Trump that need to be acknowledged and responded to, to deter,” he said. “I think all the candidates need to de-escalate, certainly in their language.”
But the congressman did acknowledge that a Biden-Harris Justice Department official, Matthew Olsen, the head of the national security division, said the U.S. government has been “intensely tracking Iranian lethal plotting efforts targeting former and current U.S. government officials — and that includes the former president.”
“I would say that we are very concerned — gravely concerned — about Iranian plotting,” Olsen told CBS News in a recent interview.
Hurricane Milton rapidly intensified into a Category 1 storm on Sunday, and it has set its path on Florida’s Gulf Coast.
Forecasters predict Milton will make landfall around the Tampa Bay area on Wednesday, bringing with it upwards of 120 mph winds and drenching an area still reeling from Hurricane Helene.
As of 2 p.m. ET on Sunday, Milton was centered about 290 miles west-northwest of Progreso, Mexico, and about 815 miles west-southwest of Tampa. It had maximum sustained winds of nearly 80 mph and was inching north-northeast at 6 mph.
Path of Hurricane Milton
A map from the National Hurricane Center shows Milton continuing to strengthen into a major hurricane as it approaches Florida’s western coast.
“Milton is forecast to rapidly intensify during the next couple of days and become a major hurricane on Monday,” forecasters said.
NOAA/National Hurricane Center
The storm is expected to remain north of Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula, with heavy rainfall expected as Milton makes its way northeast toward Florida. Tropical storm watches are currently in effect from Celestun to Cancún, Mexico.
NOAA/National Hurricane Center
The hurricane center said hurricane and storm surge watches could be issued for parts of Florida later Sunday.
Florida officials prepare for more impact
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Sunday that while it remains to be seen just where Milton will strike, it’s clear that Florida is going to be hit hard. “I don’t think there’s any scenario where we don’t have major impacts at this point,” he said.
“You have time to prepare — all day today, all day Monday, probably all day Tuesday to be sure your hurricane preparedness plan is in place,” the governor said. “If you’re on that west coast of Florida, barrier islands, just assume you’ll be asked to leave.”
NOAA via AP
DeSantis expanded his state of emergency declaration Sunday to 51 counties and said Floridians should prepare for more power outages and disruptions, making sure they have a week’s worth of food and water and are ready to hit the road.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, meanwhile, coordinated with the governor and briefed President Biden Sunday on how it has staged lifesaving resources.
“I highly encourage you to evacuate” if you’re in an evacuation zone, said Kevin Guthrie, executive director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management. “We are preparing … for the largest evacuation that we have seen, most likely since 2017, Hurricane Irma. “
As many as 4,000 National Guard troops are helping state crews to remove debris, DeSantis said.
“All available state assets … are being marshaled to help remove debris,” DeSantis said. “We’re going 24-7 … it’s all hands on deck.”
An American climber was rescued after she and another alpinist from the U.K. were stranded for two days at more than 20,000 feet in the Himalayan mountains.
Michelle Dvorak, 31, and Fay Manners, 37, went missing on Thursday after their equipment and food tumbled down a ravine while trekking up India’s Chaukhamba mountain, CBS News partner BBC reported.
The pair sent an emergency message but search and rescue teams were unable to find them.
INDIAN AIR FORCE/Handout via REUTERS
Manners told the BBC they were “terrified” as they tried to make part of the descent down the treacherous mountains without supplies.
“I watched the bag tumble down the mountain and I immediately knew the consequence of what was to come,” she said. “We had none of our safety equipment left. No tent. No stove to melt snow for water. No warm clothes for the evening.”
The terrifying ordeal intensified when it started to snow. They took cover on a ledge while waiting for rescuers.
“I felt hypothermic, constantly shaking and with the lack of food my body was running out of energy to keep warm,” Manners said.
The rescue was made difficult because of the conditions, including bad weather, fog and high altitude.
“The helicopter flew passed again, couldn’t see us. We were destroyed,” Manners told the BBC.
INDIAN AIR FORCE/Handout via REUTERS
On the second day, the pair began to cautiously abseil down the mountain. They spotted a team of French climbers coming toward them. Manners said they shared their equipment and food and contacted the helicopter company with an exact location.
“I cried with relief knowing we might survive,” she said.
The Indian Air Force said in a post on the X social media platform that their helicopter airlifted the climbers from 17,400 feet after “battling two days of bad weather.”
Chaukhamba is a mountain massif in the Garhwal Himalaya in northern India.
Rep. Mike Turner says all “candidates need to deescalate” after Trump assassination attempts
Maps show track of Hurricane Milton as forecasters predict landfall in Florida this week
American and U.K. climbers rescued after 2 days stranded on Himalayan mountains in India
Rep. Mike Turner says all “candidates need to deescalate” after Trump assassination attempts
Maps show track of Hurricane Milton as forecasters predict landfall in Florida this week