Transcript: Sen. Mark Warner on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” March 15, 2026 | USAEMALL.com

The following is the transcript of the interview with Sen. Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia, that aired on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on March 15, 2026.

MARGARET BRENNAN: We turn now to the vice chairman of the Intelligence Committee, Democratic Senator Mark Warner. He joins us this morning from Richmond, Virginia. Senator, a lot to ask you about in regard to Iran, but I want to start first on the homeland. We had several attacks, two being investigated as terror incidents here at home. Do we still have the senator? Okay, sorry. Glad he can still hear me. The incidents here at home, including one in Virginia at Old Dominion University, the gunman had served several years in prison for trying to support ISIS. He walked into an Army ROTC class and he shot the instructor dead. He injured two others. How does a convicted ISIS supporter do this right under the nose of law enforcement?

Whose job was it to track him?

SEN. MARK WARNER (D-VA): Well, Margaret, I think the job was supposed to be the FBI. And unfortunately, under this FBI director, Kash Patel, he has fired many of the top counterterrorism folks, counterespionage folks. And he has taken, and I reported this many times, close to a third of our FBI officers off doing counterterrorism or doing sex crimes and put them on immigration enforcement. I knew this was gonna come back and bite us. And I believe while there may not be a direct relationship here, we know in all of the offices they’ve taken these FBI agents off their critical cases and put them on immigration enforcement. I think that was a mistake. I wanna find out how this guy was able to still be on the loose, and we’ve got to get an investigation, but we’ve got to get an FBI that is back focused on protecting the homeland and preventing, whether it be terrorists or espionage taking place.

MARGARET BRENNAN: At this point, are you aware of any credible threats to the homeland?

SEN. WARNER: I have not been briefed in the last few days on a additional credible threat. But this, let’s put it like this, you know, these are the things you have to plan for if you are planning on going to war on a war of choice. This is a war of choice. And if you just go through quickly, the president said there were going to be four goals. Regime change, we’ve actually got a worse supreme leader than the previous one. And you heard the foreign minister, it doesn’t sound like they’re ready to move out. The uranium enrichment, it would take troops on the ground. Getting rid of the missiles, we’ve betrayed some of those.

MARGARET BRENNAN: –I get it.–

SEN. WARNER: But the crazy thing was that we didn’t take the Ukrainian offer to go after, to use their drones, which are much cheaper. I need to talk to you about- And finally, we’ve got the Strait of Hormuz closed.

00:02:46

MARGARET BRENNAN: I got to go to a break and I’m coming back to talk to you where I don’t have to cut you off. Let me just go to this break now.

[COMMERCIAL BREAK]

MARGARET BRENNAN: Welcome back to Face the Nation. We return now to our conversation with Senator Mark Warner. Senator, we were talking about Iran before that break. It was a year ago that the country’s intelligence leaders sat before your committee and provided testimony at the Worldwide Threats Briefing. And at that point, the testimony was, quote, “we continue to assess Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and that Khamenei has not reauthorized the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003.” Clearly, Israel disagreed with that U.S. assessment, and they persuaded President Trump. Were those U.S. intelligence leaders wrong?

SEN. WARNER: No, they were not. There was no imminent threat to the United States, and I don’t believe there was even an imminent threat to Israel from Iran. Over a period of time, particularly with the ballistic missile capability, Israel would be more under threat. The decision to go to war, in this case, was a choice by President Trump. And as I was racing through, I won’t go through the whole list again, but it was regime change, get rid of the enriched uranium, get rid of their missiles, sink the Navy. I’m not sure we have reached a successful conclusion on any of those four, particularly on the last point, the Navy. They’re still- you know, have hundreds and hundreds of these speed boats that they can plant mines in the Strait of Hormuz, which they’ve already partially mined, and now, we’re in this circumstance where he’s going to decide, I guess when he feels it in his bones, I think was the quote the president used, and is that the criteria when we’ve got literally 13 service members killed? And I got a lot of those sailors on the Ford that are home ported in Norfolk, Virginia. And waiting for him to feel right in the bones? That doesn’t seem to be the right criteria.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, we will get an update from those intelligence leaders before your committee later this week. We’ll be watching that closely. I want to specifically ask you, though, about what happened with this deadly strike on an elementary school in Minab, Iran. Our CBS reporting is that nearly 200 people were killed, likely the result of outdated intelligence that was used for the target coordinates, according to the preliminary assessment. Secretary Hegseth said he has appointed an investigator from outside Central Command to do a full probe. From what you have been told, did the fatal error originate from within the intelligence community or was this an issue with the military not vetting the intelligence they were given?

SEN. WARNER: Margaret, we’ve only got preliminary assessments, and I want a thorough investigation. But what I don’t want to do is jump to the conclusion, whether it was CENTCOM or whether it was Defense Intelligence Agency. Let’s- that’s what thorough investigations are supposed to be for. Clearly, it was an American strike. I, again, feel a little disappointed that the president tried to deny that at first or say it was even the Iranians. This is where- what we’ve got. The words of the president of the United States are terribly important in moments like this. And, unfortunately, President Trump has, uses loose language all the time, didn’t ever come to the American people on this war of choice and say what our goals are, and we still don’t know other than the four goals he outlined. I’m not sure we’re going to accomplish, but he’s going to then- whenever he decides. And we- where I disagree with my friend Kevin Hassett is, this is having a huge economic effect. In Virginia, two weeks ago, gas prices were $2.81. Today, they’re about $3.45. I saw a farmer yesterday. His fertilizer cost had been up 40%.

MARGARET BRENNAN: No, and we’ll continue to track that. Just to put a fine point on this, though, because this was, this was a school full of children. If a mistake like this happens, are you confident in the rest of U.S. intelligence that is continuing to be used for targeting and to inform what is happening on the ground now and the more than 50,000 service people we have committed here?

SEN. WARNER: This is why we want the investigation. This school, though, was absolutely adjacent to an Iranian military base. That does not excuse what happened. But that’s why, before I cast blame on whether it was the military or DIA, I want to get the facts. I think we’d all do a better job if we actually argued from facts rather than from suppositions.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, on the facts, the Senate failed to advance that Homeland Security funding for the fourth time yesterday. We have airline CEOs faulting Congress for not paying TSA agents. I’ve got video of TSA workers on food lines because they just missed their second paycheck, half paycheck last time, full paycheck this Friday. Why can’t your leaders break this deadlock?

SEN. WARNER: Margaret, I think we should. And what we have offered is let’s pay TSA, let’s pay FEMA, let’s pay the National Guard [sic.] I’m sorry the Coast Guard, let’s pay CISA, I’d even say let’s pay Customs and Border Patrol. If we can’t agree on ICE reforms, let’s pay everybody else. With the budget that the Republicans laid out, why won’t they just take yes for an answer?

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, they say it’s, it’s a whole scale funding, not piecemeal, but–

SEN. WARNER: –If you’re going to fund 95%, as we did to balance the government, why not do the balance of DHS with the exception of ICE?

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, we will be watching that. Senator Warner, thank you for your time this morning. We’ll be right back.