Virginia senator on Old Dominion University shooting and deadly school strike in Iran

(CBS, KYMA) - Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) spoke with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation Sunday about the shooting at Old Dominion University (ODU) late last week.

The suspect in the ODU shooting has been identified as 36-year-old Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, a former Virginia National Guardsman who pleaded guilty in 2016 to providing support for ISIS, apologizing at the time saying he was disgusted by the terror group, and was sentenced to 11 years.

However, he was released early in December 2024.

This prompted Brennan to ask Sen. Warner how a convicted ISIS supporter does this right under law enforcement's noses, and whose job was it to track him, to which the senator said:

"I think the job was supposed to be the FBI. And unfortunately, under this FBI director, Kash Patel, he has fired many of the top counterterrorism folks, counterespionage folks. And he has taken, and I reported this many times, close to a third of our FBI officers off doing counterterrorism or doing sex crimes and put them on immigration enforcement. I knew this was gonna come back and bite us. And I believe while there may not be a direct relationship here, we know in all of the offices they've taken these FBI agents off their critical cases and put them on immigration enforcement. I think that was a mistake. I wanna find out how this guy was able to still be on the loose, and we've got to get an investigation, but we've got to get an FBI that is back focused on protecting the homeland and preventing, whether it be terrorists or espionage taking place."

When asked if he is aware of any credible threats to the homeland, Warner said, "I have not been briefed in the last few days on a additional credible threat."

During the interview, Brennan and Warner talked about a deadly strike to an elementary school in Iran, with CBS News reporting that nearly 200 people were killed, "likely the result of outdated intelligence that was used for the target coordinates," according to the preliminary assessment.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he has appointed an investigator from outside U.S. Central Command to do a full probe.

This led Brennan to ask the senator if the fatal error originated from within the intelligence community, or if this was an issue with the military not vetting the intelligence they were given, and he said in part:

"We've only got preliminary assessments, and I want a thorough investigation. But what I don't want to do is jump to the conclusion, whether it was CENTCOM or whether it was Defense Intelligence Agency. Let's...that's what thorough investigations are supposed to be for. Clearly, it was an American strike. I, again, feel a little disappointed that the president tried to deny that at first or say it was even the Iranians...This is why we want the investigation. This school, though, was absolutely adjacent to an Iranian military base. That does not excuse what happened. But that's why, before I cast blame on whether it was the military or DIA, I want to get the facts. I think we'd all do a better job if we actually argued from facts rather than from suppositions."

To watch more of Brennan's interview with Warner, click here.