作者： root

三天发生四起致命事故 中国官方对事故查处挂牌督办

发布/2026年3月16日 07:38

中国国务院安委办对过去三天发生的四起较大亡人事故查处挂牌督办。

中国应急管理部官网星期天（3月15日）公布，四起事故为：3月13日广东肇庆一汽车零部件公司发生事故，造成三人死亡、四人受伤；3月14日广东梅州一自建房发生火灾，造成三人死亡、两人受伤；3月14日江西九江雁列山附近有人员在攀岩时坠落，造成三人死亡；3月15日山东烟台一汽车零部件公司发生机械伤害事故，造成三人死亡。

国务院安委会办公室在星期天决定对上述四起事故查处挂牌督办，要求相关地方严肃追责问责。并印发关于近期典型较大事故情况的紧急通报，要求举一反三深刻汲取事故教训，坚决防范遏制重特大事故，有效防止重大涉险事故和较大事故反弹，确保全国安全形势持续稳定。

通报称，近期发生的典型事故敲响了安全警钟。当前，各类生产经营单位正在加速复工复产，各方面冲刺“开门红”意愿强烈，安全风险明显上升，随着气温陆续回暖上升，群众出行出游集中，各类风险隐患交织叠加，安全生产须臾不可放松。

通报要求坚决扛起防范化解重大安全生产风险的政治责任。各地区、各有关部门和单位要加强对本地区、本单位、本行业领域安全生产风险的分析研判，扎实推进安全生产治本攻坚三年行动，针对性加大“打非治违”工作力度，全力防范化解重大安全生产风险，以实际行动为经济社会发展持续筑牢安全底板。

通报也要求枕戈待旦严把复工复产安全关。紧盯矿山、危险化学品、建筑施工、工贸等重点行业领域，加强复工复产风险研判和警示提醒，督促企业严格制定并执行复工复产工作方案，全面开展作业前风险辨识，做好开工前动员培训，明确人员到岗要求，落实安全防护措施，严防设备设施“带病运行”和企业“带病复产”。对于矿山企业要严格复工复产验收，切实做到“验收合格一处、复工复产一处”。

通报强调，要强化群众出行旅游和户外活动安全风险防范。进一步强化交通运输安全监管和责任落实，加强涉水涉山等景区安全管理，加强索道、缆车、大型游乐设施、玻璃栈道、浮桥吊桥、观光车船等设施设备隐患排查治理，强化安全提示和宣传引导，发现游客擅自进入“野景区”等缺乏有效安全防护地带的要及时劝阻，加强对有组织的野外攀岩、健步走等户外活动的安全管理，防止漏管失控。

通报要求加力加快夯实基层消防安全基础。聚焦“三合一”“多合一”等经营性自建房、高层民用建筑以及大型商业综合体、宾馆酒店、养老机构、医疗机构、学校等重点，持续深化建筑保温材料、人员密集场所动火作业等全链条安全整治，严查电动自行车违规停放充电、采用易燃可燃外墙保温材料、违规动火作业、私拉乱接电气线路、占堵消防通道等违法违规行为。

通报也要求切实加强事故应急处置和调查处理。从严开展事故调查处理，对于典型事故按程序提级调查、挂牌督办，在推动问题整改、追责问责等形成闭环的基础上，注重发现质量和标准缺失的问题，倒逼本质安全水平提升，举一反三推动“一件事”、一个行业、各个行业全链条治理，从源头上防止重蹈覆辙。

节点运行失败

March Madness bracket set as Duke nabs top overall seed in the 2026 NCAA men’s basketball tournament

March 15, 2026 / 7:04 PM EDT / AP

Duke received the top overall seed for March Madness on Sunday, followed by Arizona, Michigan and Florida, each of whom would love a repeat of last season when all four No. 1s made it all the way to the Final Four.

The top line was the most predictable thing to come out of Selection Sunday, with Michigan’s drop of one spot to the overall No. 3 the result of the Wolverines’ loss to Purdue moments before the brackets were revealed, according to tournament selection chair Keith Gill.

In the day’s biggest nail-biter, Miami (Ohio) made the field as a No. 11 seed, but just barely. The RedHawks, with a 31-1 record but the 339th-ranked strength of schedule, were one of the last teams in the field and they face a First Four game Wednesday against SMU in Dayton, Ohio, not terribly far from home.

The tournament starts Tuesday with other play-in games, including one pitting bubble teams and No. 11 seeds Texas and North Carolina State. The national champion will be crowned at the Final Four in Indianapolis on April 6.

Among those left out were San Diego State, Indiana, Oklahoma and Auburn.

The Tigers had 16 losses but the third-best strength of schedule. The snub drew predictable blowback from Bruce Pearl, their former coach and father of their current coach, who said on the CBS broadcast, “They played the toughest schedule in the country, and I don’t know if they were rewarded for it.”

Even with those snubs, the Southeastern Conference led the way by placing 10 teams in the field of 68, four short of its record from last year.

The Big Ten followed with nine, the ACC and Big 12 with eight apiece — an unsurprising result in an era of massive conference expansion and NIL compensation drawing top players to the biggest spenders.

The Gators (26-7) are the defending champion, trying to repeat their back-to-back titles from 2006-07. Last season, Florida was part of an all-No. 1 Final Four — the first time that had happened in 17 seasons.

Rep. Dan Crenshaw says Trump is “doing what’s needed” in the Middle East conflict

Updated on: March 15, 2026 / 5:23 PM EDT / CBS News

Texas Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw said Sunday that President Trump is “doing what’s needed” as the Pentagon is set to deploy a few thousand more Marines to the Middle East as tensions escalate between the United States and Iran.

“I think it signals that there’s a seriousness of supporting whatever contingency operations might be needed,” the congressman and a former Navy SEAL said on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”

“If you’re going to do this, which we have done, you need to see it through,” he added.

When asked about the messages being sent to U.S. troops by Department of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who earlier this month said there would be “no stupid rules of engagement” and “no politically correct wars,” Crenshaw commended Hegseth on what he said is clear military language for troops to abide by.

“If you fought in these wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, you’d be well acquainted with bad rules of engagement,” Crenshaw said. “You know the kind of thing that says, look, you can’t shoot unless you’re shot at. What he’s saying is that we are targeting Iranian military without quarter.”

Hegseth is “making it very clear for our military,” Crenshaw said, adding that it is something the U.S. has lacked in many past conflicts.

Crenshaw also said he’s not worried that the language could inflame enemies.

“The rules of engagement will be very clear and in place and in writing for our troops,” he said. “I don’t think it sends any wrong message … I think it sends exactly the right message.”

Islamophobic rhetoric in GOP is “fairly fringe”

Asked about some anti-Muslim messages that emerged from some Republican lawmakers in recent days — including Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama who posted an image of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani at a Ramadan event along with a photo of the 9/11 terror attack, and Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee who said Muslims don’t belong in American society — Crenshaw called the Islamophobic rhetoric within his party “fairly fringe.”

Crenshaw, whose term as representative of Texas’s 2nd congressional district is set to end following his loss in the GOP primary earlier this month, then said, “I mean, the truth of the matter is, radical Islamism is bad, right? We’ve always known that … That should not be a controversial statement at all.”

“There’s a Republican conflict ongoing right now over Israel and the antisemitism issues, and so, you know, one could make the argument that speaking out against it has only inflamed it,” Crenshaw said. “So, look, I still think that’s very fringe. I don’t think that’s- that’s certainly not the administration’s position. And like, we’re going to go after radical Islam, that’s why we need to fund agencies like DHS, and that’s what we’re going to do.”

Misinformation blamed for primary loss

On his recent loss in the primary, Crenshaw has blamed misinformation as one of the factors.

“I’m a unique Republican, you know, I’ve been the target of online smears and conspiracies for a very long time. My election was basically a product of that,” he said.

“The lesson to be learned is like, you’ve got to get the truth out. You’ve got to try,” Crenshaw said. “But ultimately, this is a question for the American people. Are you going to believe everything you read online or that’s sent to you in your mail?”

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/rep-dan-crenshaw-sending-more-marines-to-middle-east-isnt-a-boots-on-the-ground-deployment/

美媒：特朗普政府拟宣布成立霍尔木兹海峡护航联盟 | 联合早报

发布/2026年3月16日 07:52

美国知情官员透露，特朗普政府最快将在近日宣布正式成立霍尔木兹海峡“护航联盟”。

《华尔街日报》星期天（3月15日）引述美方官员称，多个国家已经同意组成一个护航联盟，为通行这一国际石油海运关键航道的船只提供护航。然而护航行动是在美国和以色列对伊朗的敌对行动结束前或结束后启动，仍在讨论中。

白宫拒绝就即将发布的公告置评，这一公告可能会根据战争形势而有所调整。

鉴于其中存在的风险，在美以伊敌对行动停止前，许多国家在公开讲话中对护航行动持不置可否态度。

美国总统特朗普星期六（14日）接受美国全国广播公司 （NBC）访问时说，他正要求多个国家派战舰保护霍尔木兹海峡，已有数国同意这么做。

特朗普也称，美军已彻底摧毁伊朗哈尔克岛的大部分地区，但“我们可能还会再炸几次，只是为了开心”。 他说：“伊朗想要达成协议，但我并不想，因为目前条款还不够好。”

U.S. beats Canada in Para ice hockey final to complete Team USA sweep in Olympics and Paralympics

March 15, 2026 / 2:17 PM EDT / AP

Three weeks after the United States beat Canada in the Olympic ice hockey finals, the Americans overcame their neighbors again to win Paralympic gold and complete the three-peat at Milan Cortina.

Jack Wallace scored a hat trick to help the U.S. beat Canada 6-2 in Sunday’s Para ice hockey final and become the first nation to sweep the hockey tournaments at the Olympics and Paralympics.

There is currently no women’s division in ice hockey at the Paralympics as it is classified as an open-gender sport.

It was remarkably a fifth straight Paralympic title for the U.S. and captain Josh Pauls.

Team USA Para ice hockey players celebrate after winning the gold medal against Canada at the 2026 Winter Paralympics, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, March 15, 2026. Luca Bruno / AP

While the Olympics saw the U.S. men’s team win gold for the first time since the “Miracle on Ice” in 1980, it’s a very different story at the Paralympics.

The U.S. has now won six of the past seven editions of the Winter Paralympics. It was a third straight loss in the final for Canada, which won its only Para ice hockey gold on Italian ice in Turin in 2006.

Earlier, China claimed a second successive bronze medal as it fought back from conceding two goals in the opening three minutes to beat Czech Republic 3-2.

Sunday’s final set a new record attendance for the sport at a major tournament as 10,755 fans filled the near-capacity stands.

The mark had been set in the opening match of the tournament with the preliminary round game between the U.S. and host nation Italy drawing 8,992 spectators.

Major weather threats bring blizzard conditions to U.S. northern tier, early heatwave to the West

March 15, 2026 / 3:26 PM EDT / CBS/AP

Severe weather threats across the United States have millions of Americans on alert for blizzard conditions, potential tornadoes and record-breaking high temperatures in the coming days.

More than 11.5 million people are under blizzard warnings, another 4.3 million are under winter storm warnings, and about 20.6 million are under an extreme heat watch, according to forecasters.

A storm sweeping system is expected to bring life-threatening travel conditions in the Northern Plains and Upper Great Lakes, the potential for damaging winds and tornadoes across the eastern half of the country on Monday.

Across parts of the West, an unusually early heat wave is expected for much of the week.

Blizzard slams Northern Plains, Upper Great Lakes

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A rapidly intensifying storm is producing blizzard conditions from eastern South Dakota through Wisconsin into Michigan’s Upper Peninsula on Sunday.

More than a foot of snow fell in some portions of Minnesota and Wisconsin on Sunday, according to National Weather Service reports, with another several inches likely to fall in the Minneapolis area amid blizzard warnings by the weather service.

Warnings of hazardous road conditions were issued across Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin, where transportation officials warned of worsening conditions Sunday with low visibility and snow-covered roadways.

More than 600 flights flying out of and into the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport were canceled Sunday, according to FlightAware, a website that tracks flight disruptions. Dozens more through Detroit were also scrapped.

State officials have issued a no-travel advisory in southern Minnesota, and Gov. Tim Walz has authorized the Minnesota National Guard to support emergency operations, CBS Minnesota reported.

Wisconsin snowplow driver Aaron Haas said it was one of the worst storms he had seen in years. On Sunday, he was stacking piles of snow as high as his truck in the town of Marshfield.

“You can’t see anything when you’re on the highways outside of the city,” he said.

Blizzard conditions are likely to stretch into Monday with additional lake-effect snow behind the storm.

Severe weather threat expanding east

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The same storm fueling the blizzard is also triggering severe storms across the Midwest and South along a powerful cold front.

A developing squall line is expected to sweep across parts of the Midwest and Mid-South on Sunday, moving east overnight. Forecasters warn of an enhanced risk of severe weather from the Lower Great Lakes through the Ohio and Tennessee valleys.

Tornado outlook for Monday, March 16, 2026, across the eastern U.S. CBS News

The threat is expected to intensify Monday, when a moderate risk of severe weather stretches across parts of the Mid-Atlantic. Storms could produce tornadoes, damaging wind gusts, hail and flash flooding as they push toward the East Coast, according to forecasters.

A stretch from parts of South Carolina to Maryland appeared most likely to experience particularly damaging winds Monday afternoon, the weather service said. That could include Raleigh, North Carolina; Richmond, Virginia and the nation’s capital. The weather service said an increased — albeit much lower — risk stretched north to a portion of New York and south to northern Florida.

Damaging wind outlook for much of the eastern U.S. on Monday, March 16, 2026. CBS News

Early-season heat building in the West

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While the central and eastern U.S. brace for storms, the western U.S. is heading into an unusually early heat wave driven by a strengthening ridge of high pressure.

Beginning Monday and continuing through much of the week, record-high temperatures are possible across Southern California, the Desert Southwest and the Great Basin, forecasters said. Desert areas could see temperatures climbing into the 90s and 100s, while much of California and the interior West may experience highs in the 70s and 80s.

The warm, dry, and windy pattern is also expected to increase wildfire danger across parts of the West and High Plains.

Landslides, rescues, and collapsed homes on Maui

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Acres of farmland and homes have been flooded in Hawaii. Roads have been closed, and shelters opened. PowerOutage.us, which tracks outages nationwide, reported over 50,000 electric customers in Hawaii without power as of early Sunday.

Flash flooding has been a major problem in recent days in places like Maui, Molokai and the Big Island, where rain had been falling from 1 to 2 inches an hour overnight, according to the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency.

This photo provided by Maui County shows flooding from days of downpours in Hana, Hawaii, on Friday, March 13, 2026. Maui County via AP

Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen said in a social media post late Saturday that some areas of Maui had received 20 inches of rain in the previous 24 hours.

“We’re seeing flooding, landslides, sinkholes, debris and downed power lines across the county,” he said. Expressing gratitude in the Hawaiian language, the mayor added “mahalo for continuing to look out for one another.”

contributed to this report.

IDF says brother of Michigan synagogue suspect was Hezbollah commander killed in airstrike

March 15, 2026 / 1:35 PM EDT / CBS News

The Israeli military said Sunday that the brother of Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, who is accused of carrying out last week’s attack at a Michigan synagogue, was a Hezbollah commander who was “eliminated” in a strike last week.

In a statement on social media, the Israel Defense Forces said Ibrahim Muhammad Ghazali was responsible for managing weapons operations for the unit within the U.S.-designated terrorist group.

“The unit is responsible for launching hundreds of rockets toward Israeli civilians throughout the war,” the IDF said, adding Ibrahim Ghazali was killed in an airstrike on a Hezbollah military structure last week.

A Lebanese official, who requested anonymity because he could not publicly discuss details of the airstrike, confirmed to the Associated Press that Ibrahim Ghazali was killed. The official told AP that Ibrahim Ghazali’s children, Ali and Fatima, and brother, Kassim, were also killed in the strike that hit their home just after sunset.

A freelance journalist working for CBS News in Lebanon was told by sources there that the two brothers were both members of a Hezbollah rocket unit in southern Lebanon.

The FBI’s Detroit office, which is investigating the attack at the synagogue, declined to comment to CBS News on the claims by Israel’s military about Ibrahim Ghazali.

“Out of respect for the ongoing investigation, we will continue to refrain from commenting on its substance,” FBI spokesman Jordan Hall said in an email Sunday.

Ayman Ghazali, a 41-year-old Lebanese-born U.S. citizen, is accused of ramming a truck into Temple Israel synagogue outside Detroit on Thursday after learning that four of his family members had been killed in an Israeli strike in Lebanon, officials said.

Ayman Ghazali waited in his car outside Temple Israel for about two hours with a rifle, commercial-grade fireworks and jugs of liquid believed to be gasoline, before crashing into the building where more than a hundred children were attending classes, according to authorities.

He started firing his gun through the windshield, exchanging fire with an armed security guard. He died by suicide after he got stuck in his vehicle and the engine caught fire, FBI Special Agent in Charge Jennifer Runyan said on Friday.

No one else was killed in the attack, officials said, but a security guard was injured, and dozens of law enforcement officers were treated for smoke inhalation.

The FBI called it a “targeted act of violence against the Jewish community.”

According to the Department of Homeland Security, Ayman Ghazali came to the U.S. legally in May 2011, sponsored by his then-wife, who is a U.S. citizen. He became a U.S. citizen himself in 2016.

The attack on the Michigan synagogue took place on the same day as a former Army National Guard member, who served years in prison for attempting to aid the Islamic State, opened fire on a classroom at Old Dominion University in Virginia, killing one person and wounding two others.

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/latest-details-on-michigan-synagogue-attack-suspect/

Transcript: Rep. Dan Crenshaw on

Transcript: Kevin Hassett on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” March 15, 2026

2026-03-15T12:27:00-0400 / CBS News

The following is the transcript of the interview with National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett that aired on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on March 15, 2026.

*

MARGARET BRENNAN: We go now to President Trump’s top economic adviser, Kevin Hassett. Good morning to you.

KEVIN HASSETT, DIRECTOR NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL: Good morning.

MARGARET BRENNAN: The IDF spokesperson said this morning that Israel’s combat operations will go through the beginning of April. Is that also the U.S. timeline? And if so, how much will this conflict cost the economy if it goes on another three and a half weeks?

HASSETT: Right. Well, one of the things that we’ve been briefed on almost every day is what’s going on and what the president is being briefed on with regard to the Iran war. And as of yesterday this story was- the message was that people, the defense- Department of War believed that it would take four to six weeks to complete this mission and that we’re ahead of schedule. So we are a couple of weeks in and I think that should give you some clarity about when we expect that the president will decide that we’ve achieved his objectives. The other thing I can say is that you can also look at futures markets, which are interesting because you’ve cited over and over the spot price of gasoline, which, of course, is affected right now by the disruption of the strait, but if you look at the futures prices, they are expecting a rapid, rapid end to the situation and much, much lower prices. In fact, I don’t think I’ve seen a sort of future price path with such a steep decline in all my years watching futures.

MARGARET BRENNAN: We will talk about the oil trade later on in the program, as those markets prepare to open later today, but the International Energy Agency called this the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market. So I’m not sure how much past charts are a future indicator here, but the president is calling on other countries now to send ships to help protect the Strait of Hormuz. You just heard Iran’s foreign minister saying Tehran has been approached by other countries about negotiating their way through strait. If that kind of negotiation happens, are Americans just going to get cut out here?

HASSETT: Well, first of all, you have to understand that America is not going to have its economy harmed by what the Iranians are doing. The bottom line is that in the ’70s we didn’t produce much oil, but now we do. So America is in a very strong position. They think that they’re going to harm the U.S. economy and get President Trump to back down. There couldn’t be anything that was a stupider thing to say because the bottom line is that our economy has got all this momentum in the world and we’ve got lots and lots of oil. We have lots of trading partners that are more on the hook from imported oil from these guys. And as we can see, it’s completely unacceptable that a government that would, you know, murder 40,000 of their people just a few months ago would be blackmailing countries to let stuff through. President Trump thinks that is unacceptable and for the global economy we need to fix it and we are going to fix it fast.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay. It is a global market, but I take your point there is supply of course, there’s refining, there’s other interruptions to the ability to access oil and gas. But gas prices themselves are up more than 20% since this conflict has begun. Jet fuel prices are leading airlines to raise ticket prices quickly. That’s not my opinion, that’s the United Airlines CEO who just said that. The American Farm Bureau warned of supply chain shocks when we already have record high input prices. So can you give us some kind of projection here on how this will impact consumer prices and for how long?

HASSETT: For sure. And I want you to know that this is something that the government has been studying for decades. And even myself, when I first came in as Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers one of the first assignments I got from General Mattis was to study what happens if there are oil disruptions. And so we know how to minimize- minimalize the impact of this disruption. Now, you can’t make it completely go away but you can minimal-ize it. And so we are increasing the amount of permits that we’re giving to Venezuela, we’re getting new sources of fertilizer from Morocco and from Venezuela and other places to make sure that our farmers have the fertilizer they need. And we’re even thinking ahead about the jet fuel problem which is really mostly a problem for jet fuel coming from Asia. And we have been in discussions to make it easier for foreign ships to go from the Gulf of America over to the west coast to make sure that we don’t have a disruption from jet fuel as well. And so we are looking at every scenario and we’ve got a plan for each scenario.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay. Are you going to trigger those things and make them operational or are you just looking at them? And how do you prevent food prices from also going up?

HASSETT: Right. Well, the big problem right now would be energy prices and we’re watching and monitoring closely. We’re looking at things every day and seeing how quickly we progress. The bottom line is again, that the reason why futures markets for oil are dropping down towards 60 and even below 50 in the long run is that we expect that if Iran stops being this disruptive terrorist force in the Middle East that there will be a boom in oil production and industrial production. But think about the harm- the harm that this evil government has done to their own people. Back in the ’70s before the revolution, Iran was the 17th largest economy in the world, now it’s something like the 50th.

MARGARET BRENNAN: No one’s going to defend the regime’s human rights record on this program.

HASSETT: They’ve run- they’ve run their country into the ground- but the point is that- I wanted to just say that the countries around them, they also suffer from the risk of having them go nuts and attack them. And so we expect that the global economy is going to have a big positive shock as soon as this is over and we’re still being briefed that it would be four to six weeks from the beginning and that we are ahead of schedule.

MARGARET BRENNAN: A big positive shock, four to six weeks. So this a April 9th scenario you’re talking about? You are going to see some kind of boost–

HASSETT: The president will decide.

MARGARET BRENNAN: –even–

HASSETT: The president will decide if they no longer have the capability of blackmailing us and harming our neighbors. And once he decides that, then he will call an end to the war.

MARGARET BRENNAN: That’s a pretty broad definition.

HASSETT: Well, we’ve destroyed their navy, we’ve destroyed their air force and so on and so I think we are well on the way.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well tell me how much is this war going to cost? Because I know the Pentagon briefed it’s going to be about $11.3 billion. Do you need to ask congress for more money to pay for what you’re doing?

HASSETT: I think right now we’ve got what we need, whether we have to go back to congress for more is something that I think that Russ Vought and OMB will look into, but the latest number, you said 11.3, the latest number I was briefed on was 12, and so it’s consistent. So this is something that we’ve got the weapons that we’ve already got in place to do this and so we are not necessarily going to need any kind of supplemental.

MARGARET BRENNAN: More than that was spent in just the first week of the war, you know that. It was over five billion just in munitions. You’re solid on the 12?

HASSETT: I said $12 billion–

MARGARET BRENNAN: –For six weeks of war?

HASSETT: No, I’m sorry. The 12 billion was what I was briefed has been spent so far.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Gotcha. Kevin Hassett. Thank you very much. We we will be right back with a lot more ‘Face the Nation’

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

2026-03-15T12:42:00-0400 / CBS News

Updated on: March 15, 2026 / 2:20 PM EDT / CBS News

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.

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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.