CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. John Barrasso
Interview
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[09:46:52] SCIUTTO: Happening this morning, Pentagon officials are set to begin briefing President Trump's national security team on a plan that could send thousands more U.S. troops to the Middle East. This amid, of course, rising tensions with Iran. The plan was first reported by our colleague, CNN's Barbara Starr.
Joining me now to discuss this and many other issues in the news, Senator John Barrasso of the great state of Wyoming. He serves on the Foreign Relations Committee.
Senator, thanks very much for taking the time this morning.
SEN. JOHN BARRASSO (R-WY): Thank you, Jim.
SCIUTTO: So let me ask you this, would you support and do you see a necessity for sending, deploying thousands more U.S. troops to the region now to respond to the threat to Iraq?
BARRASSO: Well, the threat is real, it's credible, it is increasing. I think it's important to show from a standpoint of our strength that we are ready to act, if necessary. But I view this much more as a deterrence so that Iran doesn't do something that I would think would be dumb or stupid. If you have the ability to deter, you have to, one, show that you have the capacity to do it, and that you are committed and willing to use that. But I don't think this is anybody's willing -- or interest in going to war. It's not something that I would want for the United States or for Iran.
SCIUTTO: Let me ask you this because there have been some contradictory messages coming from the Trump administration on the nature and immediacy of the threat from Iran because as you're well familiar, a couple weeks ago the administration talked about new intelligence. They deployed an entirely new carrier group, a second carrier group to the region. But then the president said something earlier this week that seemed to contradict the earlier readings of the intelligence, I'm going to play that sound. I want to get your reaction.
BARRASSO: OK.
SCIUTTO: Have a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think Iran would be making a very big mistake if they did anything. If they do something, it will be met with great force. But we have no indication that they will.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: No indication that they will. His advisers had said there was very strong indication that they would attack. Help explain to me and folks listening what the intelligence actually shows here.
BARRASSO: Well, the briefing that we had was a classified briefing, but we know Iran has been killing Americans for 40 years and they continue to ramp things up and then quiet things down. We want them to understand clearly that either we are ready to talk or we are ready to act. We would prefer to talk than to act. The president has been very clear on that as well. You can proceed diplomatically, politically, militarily. The sanctions really are biting Iran and their proxies. It's hitting Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, they are feeling the impact of the sanctions that are now in place, specifically on oil and on metals.
SCIUTTO: As you've -- as you know, some of your Democratic colleagues, who have received the same briefing as you and your Republican colleagues have, have come out of that meeting with a very different read of the intelligence, saying, yes, Iran is a threat, no question, but there's no marked difference today requiring new military action, for instance, the deployment of thousands more troops. And I just wonder if you're concerned that the intelligence is being politicized here. We saw the dangerousness of that in the run-up to the Iraq invasion. You know, the American people need to know the facts, they don't need to know a partisan interpretation of those facts.
[09:50:08] BARRASSO: Yes. I don't think that anything that we saw was partisan. I think some of the Democrats have been saying, well, who started it, and they say that when we put in place the sanctions, when the Trump administration put sanctions in place, that increased the pressure on Iran. Well, it has increased the pressure on Iran. And, you know, Iran is playing to different audiences. They're playing to their audiences at home, the hardliners. They're also playing to Europe. They're trying to say to Europe, hey, look, stick with us. Let us sell oil and sell products to you. So they're playing to different audiences. To me, the threats are real. And the reason to put the sanctions in place is to change the behavior in Iran and it's been 40 years of bad behavior.
SCIUTTO: The focus, of course, has been on Iran's nuclear program. And though the president did not like the nuclear deal, U.S. intelligence assessments indicated that Iran was and is abiding by the deal. It put Iran's nuclear program under check.
I just wonder what the goal then is of the president's policy here by further restricting Iran, when the program is arguably under control, at least for now. I mean is the goal to add something to that deal regarding other behaviors in the Middle East, but what happens if you end up blowing up the deal and the nuclear program becomes more of a threat rather than less of a threat?
BARRASSO: Well, Iran with a nuclear weapon, you know, makes the world less safe and less stable and less secure. To me, that's part of the bad behavior on Iran. I thought the Iran nuclear deal was so weak that it didn't prevent a weapon. It provided a path to a nuclear weapon over a number of years.
But they're also continuing to develop rocketry, missiles, and they're also funding terrorism through these bad acting groups, the terrorists in that part of the world. And we're trying to make sure they don't have money to do that. And Hezbollah, right now, are finding out they're not getting paid. They're being called back from the battlefield, if you will. So the sanctions are biting, punishing the bad actors that in the past Iran got a lot of cash, as you know, from that Iran deal, the nuclear deal, and that was used to actually pay for --
SCIUTTO: Unfrozen assets. Yes, unfrozen Iranian assets.
BARRASSO: Yes, the unfroze -- well, both.
SCIUTTO: I'm just wondering --
BARRASSO: And the pallets of cash -- pallets of cash as well that went to fund terrorists.
SCIUTTO: As we get -- as the Trump administration is trying to get North Korea to make a deal on its nuclear program, are you concerned at all that the North Koreans might look at Iran and say, well, the U.S. made a nuclear deal with Iran, Iran followed that deal, restricted its nuclear program, shifted -- shipped 98 percent of its enriched uranium out of the country, and now the U.S. is reneging on the deal. If you were North Korea, would you look at the Trump administration and say, this is an administration I can make a deal with?
BARRASSO: Well, one thing is very clear, whatever the United States does, people all around the world watch. And it's not just North Korea. It's also Assad. It's also Vladimir Putin. It's also China. People watch the United States. And we have people around the world who, in a very dangerous world, where you have leaders like Putin, cunning, opportunistic, aggressive, like North Korea, looking for any opportunities they can use. The president has been very strong, in my opinion, showing United States resolve, don't want to use the power, but we have the capacity and the commitment to use it if needed and the president strongly communicates that we'll do that if necessary.
SCIUTTO: Senator Barrasso, good to have you on the program. Hope to have you back again soon.
BARRASSO: Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for having me.
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