July 19, 2026 / 11:26 AM EDT
/ CBS News
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The following is the transcript of an interview with Sen. Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia, that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on July 19, 2026.MARGARET BRENNAN: For more now, we begin with the Vice Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Democrat Mark Warner of Virginia. Senator, good morning to you. You are part of the very small group of people on Capitol Hill who are supposed to have sensitive information shared with them. Since this was the second hit in about two days, on a base where Americans are in Jordan, do you have any insight into why they were able to penetrate those American defenses?SEN. MARK WARNER: First of all, condolences to the service members' families, and it's remarkable in many ways that we've not had more casualties. We literally have hundreds of seriously wounded, but I think we're at 16 fatalities. I would argue, Margaret, this is what happens when you start a war of choice. And as a member of the Gang of Eight, I can say unequivocally there was no imminent threat from Iran. You start a war of choice without a plan. And very briefly, if you go through what the administration finally said their goals were, regime change. Well, the guys in charge now are worse than the prior crowd. Getting the enriched uranium, no progress on that. It'll take 15,000 troops on the ground. Nobody wants to do that.MARGARET BRENNAN: 15,000. SEN. WARNER: 15,000- been the minimum assumption you'd need to go into these bunkers, take out this enriched uranium in canisters would be very difficult. The Iranians would be shooting at them. Nobody has been moving on that. We said we were going to degrade their ability to use missiles and drones. Obviously, we've not been successful on that point. It gets me particularly crazy because we're using missiles that cost two and a half million dollars to shoot down Iranian drones that cost $50,000 and the country that has figured out how to do this cheaply, efficiently is Ukraine. They can take out Iranian drones with $5,000 drones, and we turn down their offer of their technology. And then finally, the Strait of Hormuz, you know, gas is now back up to four bucks. That's $1.20 more than it was, at least in Virginia when the war started, and there is no plan on how we keep the Strait open.MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, the president said he might look at that drone deal. You're right; it hasn't been followed through on yet. But just to put a fine point on it, back in May, the U.S. sanctioned Chinese entities for helping Iran's military secure weapons and satellite imagery. Does this direct hit signal to you they are getting targeting help from our adversaries? SEN. WARNER: I have not been briefed on whether they're getting targeting help. I do know that these bases have been on and off under attack since the beginning five months ago of again this war of choice.
