Washington, D.C. — Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) today delivered the below remarks and took questions from reporters following an all-Senators classified briefing about President Trump’s strikes against Iran’s nuclear program.
A partial video of the press conference may be found here. The full transcript is below.
Senator Tom Cotton: First, I want to commend President Trump and his national security team and our brave and skilled pilots and their crews for a brilliantly executed mission on Saturday night. Second, I want to condemn the selective and unlawful leaking of a report from the Defense Intelligence Agency, which explicitly said was preliminary, was done with low confidence, was done with numerous intelligence gaps that could lead to a broad range of conclusions. And I also want to address what I think of the effects of not only the United States' military efforts against Iran, but also the Israeli Defense Forces. You have seen several experts in the last couple of days who, I think it's fair to say are not Donald Trump partisans, use words like, effectively destroyed, catastrophic damage, and set back for years. That includes Raphael Grossi, the director of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency. David Albright, a renowned and respected former weapons inspector in this field. Norm Roule, who was the National intelligence Manager on Iran during the Obama Administration. All again, use phrases like effectively destroyed, catastrophic damage, set back for years. So, without any classified information whatsoever, I think it's safe to say that we have struck a major blow alongside our friends in Israel against Iran's nuclear program, that is going to make America safer, our friends in the region safer, and protect the world from the risk of the Iranian nuclear weapons for years.
Reporter: Mr. Chairman, there was a report that the Trump administration was going to limit briefings to members of Congress because of this leak. Have you pushed back on that?
Senator Cotton: I've seen the report, I'm not aware of that. No one in the Trump Administration has raised it with me. I understand their frustration that just hours after that report from the Defense Intelligence Agency was posted to Congress's classified system, it was leaked. Obviously, it was leaked by someone who was trying to put our pilots and their crews, the president, and his national security team in the worst light. I don't know if it was from Congress, I don't know if it was from someone inside the administration opposed the President's policy, but as I said, that report was preliminary, it was done with low confidence. It said it had numerous intelligence gaps. It assumed the worst-case scenario with perfect conditions in Iran. I believe that this mission is a tremendous success, and that we have effectively destroyed Iran’s nuclear program today.
Reporter: Mr. Chairman, how common are you that the ceasefire can hold at this point? Given, especially what you' heard in this briefing?
Senator Cotton: The ceasefire will hold, if Iran lives up to its end of the bargain. If Iran starts trying to attack Israel again, or to attack U.S. interests in the region again, and both the President and the Prime Minister said rightly that we will have to go back, and we'll have to show Iran once again, that we mean business.
Reporter: Did the Democrats seem satisfied with this, they’ve expressed many reservations about this?
Senator Cotton: They should be satisfied. They got very good answers from John Ratcliffe CIA director, Pete Hegseth the Secretary of Defense, from General Caine, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and from Marco Rubio, who I point out is not just the Secretary of State, but also the National Security Advisor, something that I believe is almost unprecedented in terms of the access of briefing that the democrats get. Now, maybe they’re going to come out and tell you that they’re not satisfied. Some Democrats—some in the media—seem to have such a case of Trump derangement syndrome that they’re rooting for the survival of Iran’s nuclear programs versus celebrating the success of our pilots and their crews, but I think the answers they got in there should be totally satisfying.
Reporter: Was there discussion about the leaks in there at all?
Senator Cotton: Yes, there was condemnation of the leaks by both the briefers and Republicans and Democrats, for that matter. We should not ever leak classified information.
Reporter: Mr. Chairman, if there is additional force required necessary to do further damage to Iran’s nuclear program, do you think that action should be vetted or consulted through Congress?
Senator Cotton: Well, first off, as I said, I think we caused catastrophic damage to Iran’s nuclear program. That’s not to say they may not try to reconstitute it at some time. But for those of you around 10 years ago during the debate over Barack Obamas nuclear weapons program, we often used the phrase ‘vast nuclear infrastructure,’ because it does take a vast infrastructure. And I know everyone’s very focused on what happened at a couple of these underground bunkers, or what happened with canisters of uranium, but if you look at the whole span of what happened over 12 days—the targeting of Iran’s nuclear scientists, the underground bunkers, the centrifuges, the centrifuge manufacturing sites, the gas to metal conversion sites—that’s why we’re confident, since all of those are single points of failure in an effort to get a nuclear weapon, that we have had an extraordinary success. Now again, both the President and Prime Minster Netanyahu have said that Iran should not try to reconstitute their nuclear weapons program, and, if they do, then all options will remain on the table.
Reporter: If this leaker was a member of Congress do you think they should be prosecuted?
Senator Cotton: Well, the law applies equally to everyone, and no one should leak classified information.
Reporter: Do the people in both parties seem satisfied by the amount of damage caused by-
Senator Cotton: I think you’ll have to ask some of our democratic colleagues, I suspect—. Those who are satisfied won’t stop here, and those who are dissatisfied will stop and explain their reasoning.
Reporter: Do you have some sense of where the enriched uranium is at this point; has the intelligence community figured that out at this point?
Senator Cotton: I don’t have a comment on that. I will say it was not part of the mission to destroy all their enriched uranium or to seize it or anything else. Again, this is not a Mission Impossible movie. There’s not a single thing out there that can be done or not done to allow Iran to get a nuclear weapon. It’s the entire chain of events and people and places that you have to put together to get a nuclear weapon: the scientists, the centrifuges, the repair parts, centrifuge manufacturing, the cascades of centrifuges, the gas to metal conversion facilities. But I’m confident the mission was an extraordinary success.