H.R. McMaster on Trump's "mother of all bombs" plan, Putin "talking" in his ear

Channel: CBS News

Transcript

Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)

[0:00] Sources have told CBS News, the White

[0:01] House and the Pentagon have prepared

[0:03] plans to use a weapon dubbed the mother

[0:05] of all bombs on Iran. A White House

[0:08] spokesperson said it doesn't comment on

[0:10] sensitive military plans that may or may

[0:12] not exist, adding the president quote

[0:14] keeps all options on the table to ensure

[0:16] Iran can never have a nuclear weapon.

[0:20] >> Let's bring in CBS News foreign policy

[0:21] contributor and former national security

[0:23] advisor retired Lieutenant General H.R.

[0:25] McMaster. So, tell us about this weapon,

[0:28] General, and I believe it's been used

[0:30] before in Iran during that strike back

[0:33] in June, but what could its possible use

[0:36] be here?

[0:38] >> Hey Blair, great to be with you and and

[0:39] Lindsey. You know, this is basically a

[0:41] deep penetrating bomb.

[0:43] It is it's a massive ordinance. That's

[0:46] where where MOAB comes from, more than

[0:47] the mother of all bombs, a massive

[0:48] massive ordinance that that has a

[0:51] delayed explosion. So, it has a deep

[0:53] penetration and then it explodes. It's

[0:56] most likely going to be used against a

[0:57] deep buried nuclear site like this

[0:59] Picacho Mountain where we've we've seen

[1:02] some some activity resume

[1:05] maybe to to to get to get centrifuges

[1:08] going again to begin to enrich uranium

[1:10] again. And so, I I think that's what's

[1:11] likely is and a strike similar to the

[1:14] strike that we saw last August during

[1:19] during the operation to destroy Iran's

[1:22] nuclear capabilities.

[1:23] >> Is it possible that the administration

[1:25] will use the threat of dropping this

[1:27] bomb to get Iran back to the table?

[1:30] >> Yeah, I I I think that might be part of

[1:31] it, but you know,

[1:32] I just I'm pretty skeptical about that

[1:34] working. You know, if you get the same

[1:35] people to come back to the table, you

[1:38] know, the

[1:39] the people who are running really

[1:40] running the country now. This is Vahedi

[1:42] and the and the

[1:44] the the Islamic Revolutionary Guard

[1:45] Corps. Hey, these people are imbued with

[1:49] the ideology of the revolution, Lindsey.

[1:51] I mean,

[1:52] I don't think they're they're going to

[1:53] give the kind of concessions that

[1:55] President Trump thinks are minimally

[1:57] acceptable.

[1:59] Uh and and if they do, they're just

[2:00] going to lie about it. And so, if there

[2:02] is an agreement that provides only a

[2:04] pause, I think it would be in in in this

[2:07] uh

[2:07] in the in this latest phase of the

[2:09] 47-year-long war, uh it's not going to

[2:11] last very long based on the nature of

[2:13] the regime, Lindsey.

[2:15] >> Well, I want to ask you about our

[2:16] ammunition stockpile because CBS News

[2:18] has learned that 2 months before the

[2:20] conflict with Iran began, Army Chief of

[2:22] Staff General Randy George warned his

[2:23] service was critically short on missile

[2:25] defense munitions, and that shortage

[2:27] would last another 5 years. Defense

[2:29] Secretary Pete Hegseth ousted the

[2:31] general in April. Are you concerned

[2:33] about our own stockpile and ability to

[2:35] keep up with it given what's going on in

[2:37] Ukraine, what's going on in Israel, and

[2:39] given that we can't make them fast

[2:41] enough?

[2:42] >> Hey, Lindsey, we should all be concerned

[2:43] about this. And this just didn't happen

[2:45] in the in the last, you know, couple of

[2:47] years. This happened This was clear to

[2:49] us since Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

[2:52] We've been operating on this assumption

[2:54] that oh, you know, future war is going

[2:55] to be fast, cheap, efficient. You know,

[2:57] and you know, we kind of kind of think

[2:59] about future war like the George

[3:01] Costanza approach to war. We just can

[3:02] leave on a high note. Well, these wars

[3:04] tend to go on and and you use a lot of

[3:06] munitions. And for many, many years, we

[3:09] procured just the minimum amount of of

[3:11] munitions to keep these assembly lines

[3:14] going. And so, what you need now is you

[3:16] really need the defense supplemental

[3:18] passed by the lame-duck Congress and the

[3:21] National Defense Authorization Act. If

[3:23] we go back into what are called these

[3:25] continuing resolutions in Congress, and

[3:27] if the war and and defense becomes a

[3:29] partisan issue like everything is in

[3:31] this country, apparently, then we're

[3:33] going to really suffer the consequences.

[3:35] Lindsey, what we need is we need

[3:37] multi-year contracts to the defense

[3:40] industry cuz these are not charitable

[3:42] organizations, right? Uh they they need

[3:44] the demand signal to open more assembly

[3:47] lines, to train labor force. Now,

[3:48] they're doing it now. They're investing

[3:50] a lot of their own money. And so, that

[3:52] estimate that's going to take 5 years,

[3:54] that's shrinking. I mean I mean there

[3:56] there is a lot of progress being made in

[3:59] expanding our defense manufacturing

[4:01] capacity. But hey, we really need, you

[4:04] know, Americans to to to demand that

[4:06] their

[4:07] members of Congress,

[4:09] you know, pass the NDAA, the National

[4:11] Defense Authorization Act. And you know,

[4:12] we're spending historic lows on defense

[4:15] right right now when you in terms of

[4:17] percentage of GDP equivalent invested in

[4:20] defense, we have not spent this this low

[4:23] of an amount since the 1930s.

[4:25] >> Wow.

[4:26] General, before you go, I want to

[4:27] quickly get your thoughts on the recent

[4:29] spat between the President of the United

[4:31] States and Ukraine's leader, Volodymyr

[4:33] Zelenskyy. In one soundbite that we

[4:34] played earlier, the President

[4:36] said that he believes that Volodymyr

[4:38] Zelenskyy has destroyed Ukraine.

[4:42] We we know that's just simply not true,

[4:44] but what do you make of that?

[4:46] >> Hey, that's Vladimir Putin talking in

[4:47] his ear. You know, and and and so you

[4:50] can tell you can tell when President

[4:52] Trump talks to Putin by what he says

[4:55] right after and what he says on Truth

[4:57] Social, right? And and there's a

[4:58] four-step process that Putin uses to

[5:02] play President Trump. Step A, everybody

[5:04] can probably guess what that is. It's

[5:06] flattery, you know, "Hey, you're so

[5:08] wise, Donald. You're so wise." The

[5:09] second is is that it is is his

[5:12] aggrievement. "You've been treated so

[5:14] poorly. Look at the way your press

[5:16] treats you, you know, those guys on CBS.

[5:18] Look at how they treat you. Look at how

[5:20] you know, they look at how the you know,

[5:22] look at look at how the the Europeans

[5:24] treat you, you know." The the third

[5:26] thing he does is you hold up the

[5:27] prospect of a big deal that the

[5:29] President can get credit for it, like

[5:30] the diesel deal, right? Or like reducing

[5:33] nuclear weapons. Or hey, I can help with

[5:35] with Iran, even though it's Russia

[5:37] that's providing the intelligence that

[5:39] that's helping the Iranians kill

[5:40] Americans, right? And and wreak havoc in

[5:42] the region. And the fourth thing you do,

[5:44] and this is really important, is you

[5:45] portray any alternative as weak.

[5:48] Zelensky weak, Europeans weak, cuz

[5:51] President Trump hates weak. So, if you

[5:53] go through A B C D, you get the kind of

[5:56] statements you saw President Trump make.

[5:58] And what President Trump needs is an

[6:00] advisor there to tell him, "Hey, this

[6:02] guy's playing you." LIKE HE PLAYED

[6:04] George W. Bush in a different way. Like

[6:06] he played Barack Obama. Like he prayed

[6:08] played Joe Biden. Like he played Angela

[6:10] Merkel. You know, and so, you know, the

[6:12] message to the president is, "Hey, don't

[6:14] be a chump. Don't don't buy into this

[6:17] thing." And Putin also, as part of his

[6:19] ruse, portrays himself as strong, you

[6:21] know, the shirtless guy on a horseback.

[6:24] He's profoundly weak right now, Vlad. I

[6:27] mean, his economy's in a shambles. He's

[6:29] taken a million 400,000, you know, maybe

[6:33] you know, dead and and and seriously

[6:34] wounded casualties. You know, he's

[6:37] thinking about a conscription now to to

[6:39] continue the meat grinder in Ukraine.

[6:41] And and people are leaving, they're

[6:43] voting with their feet. So, hey, I would

[6:45] just say to the president, don't fall

[6:47] into the trap that so many people have

[6:49] fallen into. Disabuse yourself of this

[6:52] idea that you can have a good

[6:54] relationship with him. You can get a

[6:56] good deal with him. That you can

[6:57] separate him from China. I mean, glue

[7:00] China and Russia together. They deserve

[7:03] each other, right?

[7:04] >> [laughter]

[7:04] >> And they're not going to separate from

[7:05] each other at this moment. And they both

[7:08] of those that axis of aggressors, I

[7:10] would call them, you know, they they

[7:11] have severe problems that we could

[7:12] exploit if we get out of our own way.

[7:14] You know? And hey, how about being

[7:16] better friends with our friends

[7:18] and treating Putin, you know, like like

[7:20] the horrible person he is, who's

[7:22] continuing this massive onslaught on

[7:24] Ukraine, attacking their energy

[7:25] infrastructure, not abiding to the

[7:27] ceasefire President Trump announced,

[7:29] right? I mean, I think this is a really

[7:31] big moment for President Trump. He's got

[7:33] to step up to it.

[7:34] >> Retired Lieutenant General H.R.

[7:36] McMaster, so good to talk to you. Thank

[7:37] you.

[7:37] >> Thank you, sir.

[7:39] Wait.