Arkansas senator on U.S. and Israel striking Iran

(CBS, KYMA) - Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) spoke with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation Sunday about the U.S. and Israel launching a strike against Iran.

According to President Donald Trump and Iranian media, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in an attack earlier Saturday.

U.S. Central Command posted to X Sunday saying three U.S. service members were killed in Operation Epic Fury.

In addition, President Trump said there could be American casualties, prompting Brennan to ask Sen. Cotton if that means the U.S. is putting boots on the ground, to which the senator said:

"No...the president has been clear that what we should expect to see is an extended air and naval campaign that's designed not only to continue to set back Iran's nuclear ambitions, but most importantly, to destroy its vast missile arsenal. Many more missiles than the United States and Israel have air defenses combined, as well as the missile launchers and its missile manufacturing capability. Now obviously one risk of that kind of campaign is that an aircraft could be shot down, and the president would never leave a pilot behind. So no doubt we have combat search and rescue assets in the region that are prepared to go in and extract any downed pilot. But barring that kind of unusual circumstance, the president has no plan for any kind of large scale ground force inside of Iran."

Brennan then brought up a New York Times report saying the CIA provided intel regarding Khamenei's exact location and then he was killed.

When asked to confirm if the report was true, Cotton said:

"No...I can't confirm anything about the intelligence that the United States intelligence community collects. I can [say] that, of course, we have exquisite intelligence collection methods, that the location and the intentions of the Supreme Leader and the other Ayatollahs in Iran, or for that matter, the leaders of other adversaries around the world, is obviously one of the highest priorities of our intelligence community. But clearly, this operation is driven by intelligence collected by Israel and the United States that has once again proven that our nations have capabilities that no other nation on earth has."

During the interview, Brennan and Cotton talked about Secretary of State Marco Rubio's testimony to Congress earlier this year.

During his testimony, Secretary Rubio was asked what happens if Iran's regime fails, and Rubio said, "I don't think anyone can give you a simple answer as to what happens next in Iran if the Supreme Leader and the regime were to fall, other than the hope that there would be some ability to have somebody within their systems that you could work towards a similar transition."

This led Brennan, who says the U.S. is seeing "some succession planning happening inside Iran," to ask the senator if this is a managed regime change in Iran, or if the U.S. is betting on a regime collapse, and Cotton said:

"First, I want to stress what happens next in the days ahead and probably the weeks ahead. Iran does have a vast missile arsenal, and that's going to be the priority objective for this military campaign. It is destroying that arsenal that threatened American troops from bases as far flung as the Indian Ocean to Western Europe, and making sure Iran can't rebuild it...As far as the long term future of Iran's government, Secretary Rubio is right, I don't think anyone can give you a simple answer. There's probably a lot of jockeying inside of Iran right now, they have a very consultative, deliberative process to replace the Supreme Leader. There's a reason why he didn't want to have a clear succession plan in place. It's hard to do that when the United States is pummeling their leadership every moment of the day. I'm sure, though, that there are also some supreme, or there are also some leaders inside of Iran who might be jockeying to audition for the role of Iran's Delcy Rodriguez."

Later in the interview, Brennan brought up a CBS News poll saying 74% of Americans said Trump would need congressional approval for military action against Iran, which she said he did not seek.

This led her to ask Cotton if he believes the administration has made their case to the American public to expect casualties to support this action should the operation take weeks, and the senator said:

"I thought the president's eight minute video yesterday was outstanding. It laid out Iran's 47-year campaign of terror and revolutionary violence against the United States and our people and really, the civilized world. I'm sure the president will speak more in the coming days."

Brennan followed up by asking if the American public is owed something more than a video posted to social media, and Cotton then said:

"I think an eight minute address to the American people, whether the president posted on social media or whether it happens on your network, is in keeping with presidential custom of addressing the American people. Again, I'm sure that he's going to be speaking more in coming days. The administration will be briefing Congress, and we're going to have a vote in the Congress. The Democrats are forcing a vote... I expect there'll be overwhelming Republican support for our troops, for the, for our troops, and for the president's decision to finally eliminate the threat of Iran. And I would invite Democrats in the Congress to join their Democratic colleagues like John Fetterman and Josh Gottheimer and Greg Landsman in supporting our troops, in finally putting America's foot down against the Islamic Republic of Iran."

To watch Brennan's full interview with Cotton, click here.