Reporters break down Iran war and its election year impacts on "Face the Nation"

[0:00] We turn now to our political panel. David Sanger is the White House and national security [0:04] correspondent for the New York Times and the author of New Cold Wars. Paperback copies coming [0:09] out on Tuesday. You should check that out. Amy Walter is the publisher and editor-in-chief of [0:12] the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter. And Jeff Mason is a Washington correspondent at [0:17] Bloomberg, making his Face the Nation debut. So Jeff, at least under my rules, you get the first [0:23] question. This past week, the White House tried selling the war with Iran as a good thing. Then [0:29] we had this fighter jet shot down. Both personnel on board have now been rescued. How's that sales [0:36] pitch landing with the American public? Well, number one, I think it's right to call it a sales [0:40] pitch. And it's a late sales pitch. The president did not give an address like that at the beginning [0:44] of the war, which most presidents would do before a military conflict. Number two, in that address [0:50] on Wednesday night, he really used sales pitchy language, talking about how long previous wars [0:55] have been, how this is not going to be that long, going back to World War I and World [0:59] War II. But then the political risk to those remarks and his entire sort of strategy rhetorically [1:07] skyrocketed after an airplane was shot down in Iran. So certainly the fact that they have found [1:13] that crewman is a huge political win for him. But there is still substantial political risk, [1:18] because to your question, this is a very unpopular war. There's still some support [1:23] within his base for it, but polling shows that Americans writ large do not. So this is still [1:29] one of the ways that we should be dealing with this crisis. [1:33] So why is this, what you call the two to three-week conversation, more rooted in perhaps economic [1:39] considerations and military goals, at least based on your report? [1:41] He is under significant pressure because of the gasoline prices being up. It also has taken away, [1:45] speaking of rhetoric, a talking point that he's been very happy to use for the last year and a half, [1:50] saying that he's responsible for having brought prices down. Now he is clearly responsible for having [1:55] brought prices up, and that's something that Americans will think about when they go to the polls. [1:59] really at least that's not the focus right now um we i mean our polling for example 84 of republicans [2:06] are still with him on this war but nearly 70 of independents disapprove of military action [2:11] this is all i mean it's it's april churning up turning towards trouble in november right yes [2:17] now look it is only april so we still have time for this to move its way through the process [2:24] and it is true that the president now is looking at his lowest approval ratings [2:29] of his second term this week and a lot of that is driven by the fact that he's lost the sort of [2:36] strong support from republicans i don't think republicans have left him i just think that they [2:41] are feeling very dispirited and that is what gets republicans the most nervous is intensity and [2:48] enthusiasm democrats are fired up republicans are not if that continues as we move through [2:56] this electoral season that [2:59] is when things get really bad for the republican party in november david uh this rescue operation [3:05] successful elaborate uh and and was executed in under 48 hours but what do you make of [3:11] it and what we've heard from the president this morning a bunch of language we can't repeat on [3:15] broadcast television so um first we should all celebrate the fact that they've got both these [3:21] crew members it's a miracle and it's an equal miracle that you could put hundreds of troops [3:26] in to get them out and no casualties there [3:30] we've lost six aircraft in the past um a couple of days uh they can be replaced or repaired [3:38] but the fact of the matter is that that tells you there's accelerating risk here [3:42] and if you took the president's threat this morning to go after uh bridges and go after [3:49] the electric grid we'll set aside for a moment ed the fact that these would probably be war crimes [3:55] under the geneva convention the white house will argue it wasn't because it also feeds the military [4:00] if you set that aside the fact remains that the president still finds himself in a box here [4:07] he's trying to open up the straight that was a problem that got created after the war started [4:14] he has not really explained how he's going to deal with the nuclear material and near bomb grade [4:19] material he said that was a reason to go in this past week he said oh i don't really care about it [4:24] that much it's buried deep we'll watch it on satellite well we were watching it on satellite [4:29] before the war started [4:30] right and i know he says there's been regime change but we haven't seen much regime change [4:37] here we have just seen the change of personnel so he's got a lot of things to go accomplish [4:43] if he's going to get out of this and be able to claim to those voters [4:47] that he got something out of it and more to that point the budget that he put forward this week [4:53] is spending so much more money on the military than on domestic priorities and that goes that's right [5:02] and that cuts against everything with you're saying we need to make life more affordable [5:06] our number one priority is to make life more affordable for americans to release a budget [5:12] that increases money only for the military and then cuts domestic programs is not a great pitch [5:19] and he made that astounding comment that because the federal government should only be focused [5:23] on military protection the state should pay for medicare medicaid and daycare and it was caught [5:27] on camera probably coming to campaign ads near us soon i was just going to say you know what [5:32] how both Republicans and Democrats hear a quote that they think, oh, that's going to [5:37] be the lead of my next campaign ad. [5:39] That's one for Democrats. [5:40] And he risks not just losing some Dems, certainly, and independents going into this election, [5:46] but he's testing the tolerance of his base. [5:49] I was at CPAC a little over a week ago, and there were a lot of grassroots supporters [5:53] there who said, we still support President Trump, we still support this war. [5:58] But there were certainly some who started to question it, and we've also seen quite [6:02] a bit of division at the leader level of MAGA and Republicans, and that messaging sinks [6:07] down to the base as well. [6:09] In our remaining moments, Amy, I want to start with you. [6:11] You heard Governor Moore, more than happy to criticize the war effort, but failed to [6:16] provide any specifics on what he'd do differently. [6:18] And that, while Republicans are in a bit of a pickle this year, Democrats aren't much [6:23] liked for that very reason. [6:24] No, this is what's going to be fascinating. [6:26] This 2028 election cycle that we are very close to bumping into, believe it or not, [6:32] is going to be a big one. [6:32] It's going to be the first election in 10 years where Donald Trump is not the centerpiece [6:36] of it, or where candidates would do well to not make Donald Trump the centerpiece of [6:42] it. [6:43] I think Americans are looking for, for both parties, an idea of who these parties are, [6:47] what they stand for, what they're going to do for me, rather than how they're going [6:50] to fit into a world that Trump has really dominated politically for the last many, many [6:55] years. [6:56] Yeah, I gave him credit for the idea. [6:58] I was intrigued by that buckets theory that he had, but he clearly couldn't fill it yet. [7:02] Yeah. [7:03] And that's part of the problem. [7:04] This is what, and this is, we're at this place, and you know because you're going to be at [7:07] a lot of these games, this is spring training for politicians right now, and this is how [7:10] they get their swings in. [7:12] In our remaining minute, David, I'd be remiss if we didn't mention today the ouster of Army [7:16] Chief of Staff General Randy George, essentially pushed out by Pete Hegseth. [7:21] What is removing someone like him do to the officer ranks and to the rank and file overall? [7:27] So I think what surprised people is the degree to which Secretary Hegseth has reached one [7:31] way down into the system. [7:33] And the split with Randy George was in part over Hegseth's insistence that they not promote [7:41] two black and two women candidates for one star general. [7:46] Very rare you'd see anybody get into that. [7:50] Just one last quick point on your interesting interview with Governor Moore. [7:55] What I think Democrats have to get their heads around now is what are they going to say about [8:00] Iran? [8:01] Yeah. [8:02] And we leave nuclear material there. [8:04] What are they going to say about the priorities of a president who has not emphasized China, [8:09] which we have been told is the existential political and economic and technological competitor? [8:16] We haven't heard that from them. [8:17] We have not. [8:18] We will wait to hear from them about that in the coming months. [8:22] Thank you all for being here.