Ashley Roque details the rescue of two American airmen in Iran following F-15E shootdowns, revealing a CIA disinformation campaign amidst 150 aircraft operations. With President Trump threatening infrastructure destruction by an 8 p.m. Eastern deadline and Iran rejecting ceasefire offers, the segment highlights a $200 billion munitions request facing congressional delays. As analysts warn of daily billion-dollar costs and potential regional chaos, the discussion underscores the administration's aggressive stance on regime change while clarifying Pentagon press restrictions regarding recent leaks. [Automatically generated summary]
So yesterday, President Trump and Secretary Hagseth and Dan Kane spoke about that rescue operation of the American airmen in Iran.
Can you tell us about that and what it looked like?
unidentified
Sure.
So there were some details given yesterday, some details definitely left out.
Essentially, what they said was after the F-15E went down last week, President Trump seemed to confirm that it was a shoulder-fired heat-seeking missile that actually took down the aircraft.
There were two separate rescue operations with about 150 air, 55 aircraft.
They went in.
First, they went and rescued the pilot, and then after that, they spent the better part of the weekend going after the other, the second airman, the colonel.
There were some problems with landing planes and wet sand.
The airmen sort of like went up and alerted the U.S. of where his location was.
And then at that point, the CIA started a disinformation campaign to say that sort of ground forces were escorting him in a different location, how to detained him, while the military went in and actually rescued him.
Lots of aircraft lost in that, including multiple helicopters, two airplanes, U.S. military airplanes got stuck and were destroyed, but he was taken out.
This is the Times of Israel saying that airstrikes on Carg Island have targeted military strikes.
So is that something new?
I believe we have hit Carg Islands before.
unidentified
Yes, but this comes right after President Trump's speech in the White House yesterday, where he walked through what happened with getting the two airmen out.
This is potentially an escalation of what's going to come.
There is a deadline that Trump has imposed of 8 p.m. Eastern tonight, and so this seems preemptive ahead of that.
There was reports that Iran has rejected a 45-day ceasefire proposal that had been on the table.
Iran said no.
What is U.S. targeting look like right now, given that there doesn't seem like a ceasefire is on the table?
unidentified
It's not clear.
So yesterday during that press conference, Trump was flanked by the CIA director, along with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Kaine.
He said, still working on negotiations, sort of in limbo, what he's actually asking for isn't clear.
Is it the Strait of Hormouth opened up?
He seems to hint that that's part of it.
And then also, you know, no more ballistic missiles.
It's just not clear what the president is asking for at this point.
But then at the same time, Iran has countered with a 10-point plan, supposedly, which includes the strait being reopened and then no more fire.
And so part of that would be sort of a fee for the boats coming through that would be sort of split to help pay for what's incurred in Iran and what's occurred and to go to Oman as well.
So what targeting looks like?
It's not clear.
Trump did not lay out the grand plan.
What he said is if the deadline passes and he does not accept what Iran has offered, that over the next four hours he would destroy the country, starting with bridges and power plants.
What do you mean it's been floated and not been delivered?
unidentified
It hasn't been delivered.
So it's all fluid.
The Pentagon asked the White House to add $200 billion to pay for war operations.
The White House hasn't actually approved that yet or given the green light for it then to be delivered to Congress and then debated at this point and marked up.
So it's still, that number could change.
It could go up, it could go down.
It's just not clear.
But that $200 billion potentially would pay for Tomahawk missiles, Patriot interceptors, a whole array of interceptors that are being run through at this point in the conflict.
So we don't actually know how much they have done.
unidentified
We don't.
There's reporting out there, and you talk to analysts.
They are concerned about some of these interceptors running out.
Whether it's the Tomahawk or the PAC-3, those are some of the top two that they're definitely interested in and keeping an eye on.
What's also been these analysts have also said to keep an eye on is foreign military sales.
Because we're not just producing the Patriot or the PAC-3 or the Tomahawks for the U.S. military, we also, the production base within the country also sells them to foreign militaries, whether it's Japan, Switzerland, other countries.
And there's a potential that they've been in a pipeline waiting for those munitions, but then the U.S. will sort of circumvent them, push them to the back of the line to fill up their stockpiles.
I mean, retaliation is always on the table, but at the same time, there are military bases, U.S. military bases, and ally bases within the region that is easier to target.
So there could potentially be retaliation within the U.S., but there hasn't been a major alert given.
Mike, Jarrettville, Maryland, Republican Line, you're on with Ashley Roke.
unidentified
Hey, good morning.
Real quick here.
So President Trump talked about the press having some kind of a leak with this second pilot that they were trying to pick up, that the press leaked it all over the place.
Listen, I'm really upset with the American press to begin with.
You know, when this war first started a few weeks ago, I know CNN called, was interviewing the Iraqi foreign minister.
I mean, really, on what he thought about the war, maybe in Second World War we should call, you know, like the comparison I'd like to make is during the Second World War, perhaps, I mean, we didn't call Joseph Goebbels in Germany and ask him what he thought about what the United States was doing.
So I was wondering if your guest maybe could just talk real quick about what Trump is talking about, how the press violated.
You know, he's investigating them, apparently.
Maybe we could talk about the press and their bad behavior a little bit, please.
And before you do that, Ashley, just this is NBC News.
It's the headline as Trump threatens to jail journalists in Hunt to find leaker of Iran fighter jet story.
Tell us what happened.
unidentified
So I guess let's back up a little bit.
So the press does not have the same level of access right now within the Pentagon that it used to.
Just a couple of months ago, we had desks within the Pentagon.
If there was ever a question, we could walk to desk officers, go grab somebody, and bury, these are like not classified settings, to ask clarify information.
Now we are calling these same people and getting information.
We're going to different sources, getting information.
What is not clear is what the president is talking about with that reporter specifically and what is classified about that.
There was a disinformation campaign going on and it's not clear what exactly the reporter potentially did or did not do correctly, but it's not even on that person.
It is on the person who shared the information.
If it was classified, it is up to that individual to have known it was classified and then knowingly shared it.
And you guys have not been allowed back into the Pentagon, even with the court order saying that it...
unidentified
So the way it's going right now is when there is a press briefing, we show up, even with those who are credentialed.
We show up about two hours early, we get badges, there's a background check done on us, and we're escorted directly into the briefing room and we're escorted out.
That's for press briefings.
If we are going to do meetings with officials, we go through the front door after a background check and we are escorted into the meeting with that said individual and then escorted out of the building.
There is still litigation pending right now and court orders.
They are potentially allowing our badges back.
Every outlet is approaching it differently at this point.
But there is a library off campus.
Well, it's on campus, but you have to go to the Pentagon and hop on a shuttle to get to a library that we will have desks at at this point.
What's going to ultimately happen is a question mark.
It came up again yesterday in the press conference.
I mean, this was an operation undertaken by the U.S. and Israel.
There was concern.
There was Operation Midnight Hammer in the summer that destroyed nuclear facilities and uranium enrichment facilities that are reportedly under rubble at this point.
When the U.S. and Israel embarked on this, they did not tell allies and partners.
Most of the NATO members did not know ahead of time.
We just got a New Truth social post by President Trump.
I just want to share with people who say this.
This came out at 8:06 a.m.
A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.
I don't want that to happen, but it probably will.
However, now that we have complete and total regime change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionary, revolutionarily wonderful can happen.
Who knows?
We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the world.
47 years of extortion, corruption, and death will finally end.
God bless the great people of Iran.
That is what President Trump has put out about 15 minutes ago, 10 minutes ago.
Any comment on that?
Do you have any information on kind of where this is going tonight?
As the, I mean, we're under 12 hours away from that deadline.
unidentified
It's a lot to unpack.
It follows sort of the messaging yesterday from the White House in the press room with the president.
One moment, it could be complete destruction.
The next, he's not sure what is going to happen.
So it seems to be teetering and he actually responded to a reporter that he wasn't sure which way he was going to lean.
It might be up to the last moment is the way he sort of phrased it.
He's also, when he was pressed yesterday during the press conference about human rights and international law and also the actual potential death of thousands of Iranians, from his vantage point, he said that the civilians of Iran are with him and support it.
He didn't back that up with anything.
So it really seems to be there's both options on the table, both verbally and then over Truth Social.
Mike, Indianapolis, independent line, go ahead, Mike, you're on the air.
unidentified
Yes, I don't like everything that the president does, but I think it's always cheaper to keep what we can by having a strong military to deter other people than to get us involved in more wars.
There's no question I think we need to rebuild after the attack that we've had on Iran to restock our weaponry to keep us strong.
And I think people need to remember that the cost of not stopping the enemy has what happened when we got attacked in 9-11, has what happened with Pearl Harbor, and what happened with when gas prices went up with OPEC and oil embargoes in the 1970s was very detrimental to the United States.
Going back to the planes that were shot down, there was an F-15E and there was an A-10.
Can you tell us a little bit about those airplanes, what they're used for, and if you know anything about what it was that shot them down?
unidentified
So the aircraft can do surveillance, also dropping weapons to target either launchers, drone production facilities, the F-15.
There's different uses for them.
What shot them down, the president, yesterday when he was talking from the White House, seemed to confirm that it was a shoulder-fired heat-seeking missile, is what he said, that shot down the aircraft.
More details about that have not been put out in the public domain from either the Pentagon or from the White House at this point.
And as far as how much this has been costing the American taxpayer, we've heard a billion a day.
What do you know about just operations, the munitions, and the planes that have been lost?
unidentified
Okay, so the cost per day.
The Pentagon has not been transparent with the public at this point, or even lawmakers.
Lawmakers are voicing concerns about they don't even have a grasp of what the cost of these operations are.
Could be a billion per day, could be more, could be less.
When you factor in losing these aircraft and other weapons, that goes up higher than just dropping munitions and the manpower and the oil or the gas for the aircraft.
So the cost we do not have a grasp on right now with budget season here and you have the secretary, defense secretary heading to the hill and some other people have going, there might be more forthcoming of what the cost is, especially as they start marking up the bills and looking at a supplemental.
Potentially lawmakers could be asking more questions before they greenlight money for the operations.
Tell us about that, what it can do and what it's used for.
unidentified
Yeah, so it can definitely be used for surveillance as well as targeting.
So the numbers that are up in the air, I do not have those numbers for you right now or how many have been shot down, but those are up to target launchers, facilities as well.
And do we know Iran's drone capability and how quickly they can produce more drones?
unidentified
We don't.
So they primarily rely on the Shaheed, which is so much cheaper per unit, a couple hundred thousand dollars versus maybe a million plus for an interceptor to down it.
So what their facilities or their capabilities are right now has not been detailed.
It's not clear how much we've degraded what they can produce, what they had in stockpiles, and or what they're still able to produce right now and where.