Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Kaine discuss the fragile 16-hour Iran ceasefire, noting U.S. military decimation of Iranian forces as key to the truce. Viewers react with mixed sentiments, ranging from impeachment calls due to controversial remarks to claims that Trump destroyed 80% of Iran's military. While Iranian state media proposed a peace plan demanding sanctions relief and Hormuz control, diplomats note discrepancies regarding nuclear enrichment. Casualties exceed 3,600 in Iran, sparking debates on whether religious animosity or U.S. support for Israel drives the conflict, with some fearing market manipulation by the billionaire class ahead of the next election. [Automatically generated summary]
That was Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Kaine from earlier today at the Pentagon on the two-week ceasefire in Iran.
We are now 16 hours into that ceasefire.
And we're going to continue to hear from you, our viewers, here on C-SPAN.
Here's how you can call in this morning to talk about it.
Republicans, 202-748-8001 is the number.
Democrats, 202-748-8000.
Independents, 202-748-8002.
We'll also look for your social media posts and your texts as well.
202-748-8003.
For texts, let us know your name and where you're from if you do send in a text.
As you're calling in, I want to show you some headlines, the latest on that ceasefire from news organizations around the world, starting here in Washington, D.C.
This is the Washington Times.
Trump says the U.S. will work with new leaders in Iran for a lasting peace deal and will nab nuclear dust.
Oil prices plummet the story notes and markets cheer the two weeks ceasefire.
To the CBC out of Canada, the headline there, sporadic attacks reported in Iran, Gulf countries, hours after Trump announces his ceasefire.
To the Jerusalem Post, their latest in their live updates.
The Jerusalem Post, writing, U.S. and Iran are claiming victory over each other as the IDF halts strikes on Iran and resumes fighting in Lebanon.
And then one more for you.
It's the national.
That's out of the UAE.
Israel bombards Lebanon after denying it is part of the ceasefire deal.
The sub-headline, from Stone Age to Golden Age, the 10 hours that halted Iran's war.
Just a few of the headlines for you this morning.
I want to let you know where we're going here over the course of the next couple hours on C-SPAN.
We're going to take your phone calls for about 20 minutes or so, and then we're going to take you to I-24, coverage out of Israel.
I-24 is the Israeli news network.
It's based out of Tel Aviv.
It's mostly in Hebrew, although at 11 a.m. Eastern, it's the English language hour, and we're going to show you some of their coverage to give you a sense of how this story is playing out in Israeli news.
And then at noon, we will take you to Press TV.
That is Iranian state-owned television.
It's their English-language television network to give you a sense of how this story is playing in Iran.
At 1 p.m. Eastern today, we will take you to the White House press briefing room, a press briefing expected.
Caroline Levitt is right now expected to brief the press.
We'll see if the president himself comes out or anyone else.
We do know the president is in the White House today.
He does have a scheduled meeting with the NATO Secretary General, Mark Ruda, that is scheduled at 3 p.m.
And so we will see what happens over the course of the day.
We'll also give you any coverage from the Hill.
We're expecting perhaps a briefing from minority leader Chuck Schumer sometime in the lunchtime hours, and we'll, of course, show you that if that happens.
In the meantime, your phone calls, we want to hear from you about the two-week ceasefire deal.
We will start with James out of Georgia on that line for independence.
James, what were your thoughts last night?
What are your thoughts today on the ceasefire?
unidentified
Yeah, I don't disagree with the ceasefire at all.
I don't disagree with the action we're taking, but what I disagree with is the fact that, you know, we're spilling blood and treasure, and the average person has to suck it up and pay more at the pump when the gas companies are making big money off of this.
You know, when is it time for them to kind of take a bite?
You know what I mean?
The other question I got is: why do you guys refer to Haysteth as the defense secretary when his title is Secretary of War?
James, the Defense Secretary is still the official name, they also call it the Department of War.
You can call it what you want as you call in here on C-SPAN.
Steve is in Prairie Hill, Texas, Republican.
Steve, good morning.
unidentified
Yeah, I think Donald Trump and him are doing an excellent job.
I mean, because, I mean, as long as we don't get a weak, pathetic president in there like a Democrat, Obama, he just paid them millions and millions of dollars, billions of dollars, really.
And, you know, paid them murdering killers money.
It just kicked a can down the road.
If he'd have dealt with this years ago, you wouldn't have had to deal with these super long-range missiles that they got now.
You're talking about the remarks the president made yesterday on True Social.
The president with more remarks today on True Social.
This is about 7.30 a.m. Eastern Time.
This was the President's truth that he posted.
The United States will work closely with Iran, which we have determined has gone through what will be a very productive regime change.
There will be no enrichment of uranium, and the United States will, working with Iran, dig up and remove all of the deeply buried B-2 bombers' nuclear dust.
The president going on to say it is now and has been under very exacting satellite surveillance, Space Force.
Nothing has been touched from the date of the attack.
We are and will be taking tariff and sanctions relief with Iran.
Many of the 15 points have already been agreed to.
Thank you for your attention, the president said, signing his name to his True Social post.
This is Mark out of North Ridge, California, Republican.
Mark, go ahead.
unidentified
I am so glad I could finally speak my mind, what's going on in this world.
But a couple facts.
You know, President Trump did so much to help America, and the Democratic Party wants to do anything and everything to ruin him.
I mean, they're trying to peach him.
I mean, it's amazing how MSNBC is probably the worst trash network out there.
I was up very late last night and talking about that.
Look, I do think there are good developments here.
And let me just say a few things.
First of all, what the president set out to do was decimate the Iranian military, decimate their ability to wage conventional war.
And that military objective, as the president said yesterday, as I said yesterday, has been achieved.
And because of that, what the president did is he basically issued an ultimatum to the Iranians.
He said, open up the straits, stop trying to hold the world's economy hostage, and we'll engage in a ceasefire.
And that's exactly the agreement that we came to last night.
The Iranians have agreed to open up the straits.
The United States has agreed to stop attacking.
And that, not just the United States, but also our allies have agreed to stop attacking.
And that is the basis of this fragile truce that we have, which is now eight to 12 hours old.
Now, here's what I'll say about this.
I've learned a lot about the Iranian system and a lot about the way the Iranians negotiate.
Because the President told me last night the Iranians are better negotiators than they are fighters.
I'm sure they don't like to hear that, but it's true.
But here's a couple things.
So, one, just in the response that we've seen from various segments of Iran, you have on the one hand, people within Iran who have responded very favorably.
The foreign minister who said, look, we agreed to the United States' terms.
We'll do a ceasefire.
We'll do a negotiation.
We'll open the straits of Hormuz, and then we'll see if we can come to more agreement down the road.
So some of the people have responded favorably and have said the right things.
And then you have some people on social media within their system who are basically lying about what we've accomplished militarily.
They're lying about the nature of the agreement.
They're lying about the nature of the ceasefire.
And so you have just even within their system, and this is why I say this is a fragile truce, you have people who clearly want to come to the negotiating table and work with us to find a good deal.
And then you have people who are lying about even the fragile truce that we've already struck.
And that's just an interesting thing about their system.
And the final point that I'll say about this is the President of the United States has told me, and he's told the entire negotiating team, the Secretary of State, the Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, he said, go and work in good faith to come to an agreement.
That is what he has told us to do.
If the Iranians are willing in good faith to work with us, I think we can make an agreement.
If they're going to lie, if they're going to cheat, if they're going to try to prevent even the fragile truce that we've set up from taking place, then they're not going to be happy.
Because what the President has also shown is that we still have clear military, diplomatic, and maybe most importantly, we have extraordinary economic leverage.
So the President has told us not to use those tools.
He's told us to come to the negotiating table.
But if the Iranians don't do the exact same thing, they're going to find out that the President of the United States is not one to mess around.
He's impatient.
He's impatient to make progress.
He has told us to negotiate in good faith.
And I think if they negotiate in good faith, we will be able to find a deal.
But that's a big if, and ultimately, it's up to the Iranians how they negotiate.
Those were his remarks from earlier, calling it a fragile truce.
And you heard him there talking about Iranian negotiations and what a final peace deal will look like and what Iranians are saying about the negotiations.
The Guardian news out of the UK with a look at the 10-point ceasefire plan and the peace process that Iran is proposing.
This is what they report Iran is saying about that plan.
According to state media in Iran, the country will only accept the war's conclusion once details are finalized in line with their 10-point peace plan reportedly submitted to the White House via Pakistani intermediaries.
The list of 10 points published by Iranian state media includes a number of conditions that the U.S. has rejected in the past.
The plan requires the lifting of all primary and secondary sanctions on Iran, the continued Iranian control over the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. military withdrawal from the Middle East, an end to attacks on Iran and its allies, the release of frozen Iranian assets, a U.N. Security Council resolution making any deal binding, and more.
They note in the version released in Farsi, Iran also included the phrase acceptance of enrichment for its nuclear program.
But for reasons that remain unclear, that phrase was missing in the English version shared by Iranian diplomats to journalists.
That is The Guardian today on the 10-point ceasefire and peace plan coming out of Iran.
We're getting your thoughts on the latest on the ceasefire.
Again, we're about 16 hours into that ceasefire.
A little more.
We're going to be showing you a lot today on that ceasefire, including coming up at the top of the hour, I-24.
It's Israeli 24-hour news network based in Tel Aviv.
Their English language hour begins at 11 a.m. Eastern, and we're going to show you some of that coverage to give you a sense of how this is playing in Israel.
Press TV is the Iranian state-owned television English language network.
At noon, we'll show you some of that to give you a sense of how this is playing in Iran.
And we will take you to the White House at 1 p.m. for today's White House briefing.
If there's more out of Capitol Hill or out of the White House, we'll, of course, bring you that as well, all on the C-SPAN networks.
Thomas is called in from Ohio Independent Line.
Thomas, thanks for waiting.
Go ahead.
unidentified
How are you doing this morning?
Doing well.
All right.
I got a whole lot to say, except anybody in this country that can sit down and think that Iran is telling us the truth is literally crazy.
And that's what you get from CNN, MSNBC, NBC, and some of these other far-left liberal media sites.
They act like every word Iran's telling us is nothing but honest to God's truth.
And they haven't told the truth in 47 years.
So why would anybody in this country honestly think that a liberal Democrat, Chuck Schumer, Jeffries, or anybody else on the left that's sitting in Congress, AOC, Talib, or any of these other people, would take our security first?
They won't.
They will not.
They will not keep us safe.
And this ceasefire, this ain't going to last.
Iran's not going to tell the truth.
They're going to go right back to trying to hide, cheat, and steal and do whatever they can to manipulate the left.
Thomas, do you think agreeing to the ceasefire was the right move by the president last night?
unidentified
I think he has to give it a chance because the left in this country is so against him that it's making him so hard to succeed.
And I don't understand that because as an American that I've worked hard all my life, I cannot understand why 40% of the left or 40% of the population that is left wants us to be destroyed.
Are you a Republican who voted for Donald Trump any of the times that he ran?
unidentified
I am a Republican.
I did vote for Donald Trump once.
And, you know, I just would like to see, like the previous woman said, I'd like to see diplomats negotiating.
Rubio is a good guy because he knows that there's a tomorrow and he needs to take care of his kids and he needs to take care of his party.
And the party has to still focus on conservation, conservative.
That's what Republicans are mostly made of, is conservatives.
And here we go attacking Iran, and we're wasting equipment that we need to help Ukraine and we need to help Taiwan and we need to help a whole lot of countries across the world with weapons and ammunition to fight off their bad guys.
Iran was a totally unnecessary thing, you know, and he's saying that 47 years, you know, that they've been attacking us.
There's a lot of countries that have been attacking us for 47 years.
We had problems with North Korea, but he buddied up with North Korea.
Russia's been attacking us for decades, underwater nuclear engagements and little fights that happened.
We had a big one that actually a thousand Russians attacked less than 100 Americans and their allies in Syria, and we slaughtered them.
But still, the Russians are our greatest enemy, and Trump's a buddy-buddy with their leader.
I've been listening to your callers, and I am just absolutely.
First of all, I want to say to the callers that keep referencing CNN and MSNBC and all those, the Democrats, we don't listen to them.
So for them to say that we're getting our points and our talking points and our information from them, no.
It seems to me that they're getting their information from them and Fox.
Second of all, why would Iran even believe anything that the United States says?
Twice, Iran has come to the table to negotiate, and we have gone behind their back and we have attacked them.
We were in charge of bombing a school.
So for people to get on this on this TV and act like they don't know what's going on and like they're not getting the real facts is really bothersome to me.
We initiated it.
We had no reason.
The president has got on the TV and said, oh, I've obliterated all of their weapons.
I obliterated their army.
Okay, you obliterated it, but how are they still bombing?
Who's doing all of this?
I don't understand why people don't act like one plus one equals two.
If this man gets on TV and lies about obliterating the whole army and we can see that they're still bombing, what is where do you go to get the real facts?
Do you find have you found that Al Jazeera has been helpful in trying to follow the events in Iran and throughout the Middle East?
unidentified
I find that they have been helpful.
And I come to CSAN3, but I found that Al Jazeera has been helpful.
But I do find that they lean a little bit more towards Israel's side a little bit, even though they say that they're, you know, supposed to be non-biased.
I do feel like they lean a little bit more towards Israel's side.
And I just do not understand why we are beholden to Israel.
Yes, okay, if they have a right to be a state, what are their borders?
You can't just say, I have a right to exist, and then every other day I'm trying to steal somebody's land.
First of all, I'd like to say, or distinguish between a president who is reactive or preemptive.
And I am grateful for President Trump for his transactional, preemptive philosophy about the safety of the United States.
There really is no such thing as isolationism.
We have to always be attentive to the intentions of every other nation on the earth.
And he does place safety and the welfare of the American people before politics, obviously, because this midterm election is going to be critical for him.
And I would like to think that we as the American people are graciously sacrificial when it comes to temporarily sacrificing for our own welfare, just as the American people did in World War II.
I thank God for Trump's strength, foresight, and his compassion.
I would like to recapture our republic and institute meritocratic immigration.
I'd like to restore the private sector to a great, thriving strength.
And I think he is establishing a good coalition in the Middle East.
I think with China's Belt and Road Project, which has been incredibly imperialistic and aggressive, that America needs to take note of their progress and their dominance over their big footprint.
It's one of the largest distribution footprints we've ever seen by an adversarial nation.
Barbara, do you think Americans have been graciously sacrificial, the word you use, amid rising gas prices over the past six weeks or so of this conflict?
Do you think you've seen your neighbors and Americans be graciously sacrificial?
And I have been a hardworking American, and I'm having to budget for this.
I can say that to your question, I would say that Americans who believe in the verity of this cause in Iran, that they can be gracious about it.
Those who I can be somewhat, you know, before I'm in the breadline, and I'm willing, I'm perfectly willing to, because I do believe in it.
But as your question deserves, I would imagine to define that would require whether someone believes in the cause or not.
And if they don't, then I doubt they're going to be very gracious.
I believe that when a country says death to America, it is something to take seriously.
And I think when you analyze the circumstances in the Middle East and particularly in a non-isolationist view of the world, when we look at China's Belt and Road Project, I think it's just a wonderful thing if we can establish a very amicable coalition in the Middle East that is pro-American.
I'm not sure your numbers are exactly accurate, but I don't know what the latest are on both.
But bring me from October 7th, bring me to what's happening today in this ceasefire.
unidentified
Yeah, today in the ceasefire, you've got how many thousand bombs blowing up in Iran?
How much reporting has there been on the people that have died and been injured because of those thousands of bombs?
You don't hear about that.
You don't hear about the possible response and the constraint on the Iranian side for not using dirty bombs where they could incinerate large areas, not with nuclear weapons, but with dirty bombs.
It's the same result.
It takes away the area in use for hundreds of years.
So there's bad on both sides.
But I got to tell you, when there's a response on one side, there's a tenfold or a hundred or a thousandfold response on the other side.
Somebody asked, why does Iran hate U.S.?
Well, Iran hates U.S. because we started a war over them and we blew up thousands of bombs over them.
How many people have died in Iran?
Has anybody answered that?
How many people have gotten hurt in Iran because of that?
Nobody's answered that.
But 13 Americans died in Iran, and that's been repeated 100 times.
So it's terrible that any Americans have died for this because it's been an unnecessary war.
It was a war of choice by a person who's mentally ill.
It's so sad.
People need to come together.
I agree with the lady that was on last.
We need to look for things that we can rally around.
It's not what's happening now, certainly.
It's not the war that's happening now.
Nobody can rally around that.
That's a slaughter.
They have no capability to fight us.
They're not over here in the U.S. We're over there in an area that we're not wanted.
We're going to keep taking your phone calls this morning going into this afternoon.
Phone lines, again, Republicans, 202-748-8001.
Democrats, 202-748-8000.
Independents, 202-748-8002.
As you keep dialing in, we want to show you from that press briefing this morning at the Pentagon, the Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth talking about the United States not going anywhere for the foreseeable future when it comes to Iran.
A caller earlier mentioned the United States casualties in this conflict.
13 Americans killed, 300 wounded at this point.
The caller was asking about numbers out of Iran.
What have been the casualty numbers there?
Reuters yesterday updated their fact box, as they call it, on casualties around the region.
Here's what Reuters reported as of yesterday.
The U.S.-based rights group, H-R-A-N-A, said 3,636 people have been killed since the war erupted.
It said 1,701 of those were civilians, including at least 254 children.
The group says its data comes from field reports, local contacts, medical and emergency sources in civil society networks, and then open source reporting as well.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Society said at least 1,900 people have been killed and 20,000 injured in Iran in the strike so far.
Again, those are just some of the numbers that have been reported.
This is Brandon out of Austin, Texas.
Democrat Brandon, go ahead.
unidentified
Hi, thank you for having me.
First of all, I appreciate C-SPAN.
I hope there's a lot of young listeners that are out here listening like myself.
I think it's important that we go and listen to what history has to say about this.
History doesn't always repeat itself, but it's pretty similar.
With the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor because its oil supply was cut off, about 80 to 90 percent of it.
Oil Fluctuations and EV Future00:02:02
unidentified
I believe, or I'm not too sure if Iran can reach the U.S. if it were to come to that with missiles.
But China does have the ability to reach us with any kind of ballistic missile because China still imports their oil through the Strait of Hormuz.
According to Reuters, I think March 31st, they reported that China has about seven months of oil and reserve left.
So if the Strait continues to close because of this war, I think that it could lead to bigger issues for us.
So Brandon, in your World War II analogy, you're saying China could be analogous to Japan is what you're saying?
unidentified
It's a possibility.
You know, the ceasefire is, I think it's a good idea.
It leaves us to be able to figure things out.
Usually it's about money.
I think Trump reported in a press conference yesterday that he would be in favor of the idea of us collecting tolls on oil that were to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, and that could lead us out of Iran.
But who knows?
And if you'll allow me, I have one more thing to speak about.
With the oil and gas being fluctuating over years, I wonder if this could possibly lead to the market going toward EVs.
I think the president is like our people, and we are reactionary.
If oil continues to fluctuate, maybe that'll lead us to EVs, and that EV market will boom, and oil won't matter too much.
The latest from the New York Stock Exchange, the Dow Jones, up over 1,000 points right now, some 2.3% on the news since last night of this two-week ceasefire.
We'll monitor the latest domestic side, foreign side, and want to hear from you as we continue to get your reaction this Wednesday.
I think people need to realize that Iran has a very cruel country.
People have been abused, shot and hanged in the street.
They've had to escape on horseback to save their lives, to take over people's land.
While Trump continues this way too long, I kind of agree that there is no way that Iran can have a nuclear weapon.
There is just no way.
But we need to stop fluctuating, and we need to decide, and we need to realize that we can't have a country that hangs and shoots its own people, Bollish is Jews that have to escape on horseback to get away and luckily live in the United States and freedom today.
And actually, this is probably all biblical as well.
But as far as what's going on, like, you know, and I also hear, you know, people comparing 1300, you know, the Jewish people that were killed versus what's going on in Iran.
Those people don't care whether Trump, you know, whether he dropped a bomb now or it could be a thousand years from now.
They hate our culture regardless.
It's born and bred into them, like the other lady talked about.
You know, it doesn't matter if he starts a war.
You could have the most Democratic president in office that believes in all the peace in the world.
This is Tori, Connecticut, out of Hartford, independent.
Good morning.
unidentified
Good morning.
Thank you for taking my call.
I'm hopeful, like a previous caller said, that there are younger folks listening to your platform as well as more independents.
Because, yeah, it's great that you have a platform where all voices are heard.
Unfortunately, to be a little bit extreme.
So I'm going to stay brief.
I don't trust this ceasefire.
I believe that the person that is elected as our president is basically manipulating the stock market weekly with his stunts.
The Iranians had already put the same ceasefire plan in place.
It wasn't until the billionaires started balking about what was going on and the American public balked at what was said in those true social posts that anything was done with this ceasefire.
It's time for Americans to wake up.
We're being manipulated by a billionaire class.
And if we don't rise up to vote in this next elections, if we have them, if they're available to us, we will lose this country.