A short time ago, the United States military began major combat operations in Iran. After months of failed nuclear negotiations, the U.S. and Israel strike Iran in Operation Epic Fury, with President Trump calling on Iranian citizens to seize the moment. When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations. I'm Daily Wire executive editor John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Saturday, February 28th. This is a special breaking news edition of Morning Wire. President Trump addressed the nation at 4 a.m. Eastern to deliver the news that the U.S. and Israel have struck Iran. For 47 years, the Iranian regime has chanted death to America and waged an unending campaign of bloodshed and mass murder, targeting the United States, our troops, and the innocent people in many, many countries. They've rejected every opportunity to renounce their nuclear ambitions, and we can't take it anymore. For these reasons, the United States military has undertaken a massive and ongoing operation to prevent this very wicked, radical dictatorship from threatening America and our core national security interests. We are going to destroy their missiles and raise their missile industry to the ground. Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips joins us now to discuss. Hey, Cabot, so you've been covering this for us all morning on The Daily Wire Live. A lot of information streaming and obviously a lot of things changing on the ground, probably as we speak right now. But let's start with what happened this morning. Walk us through the timeline of events. Yeah, my newborn happened to wake my wife and me up at 3.45. I just happened to check my phone and saw that the world has changed after what happened just a few hours ago. So early this morning, although again, keep in mind about 8 a.m. local time in Iran, it was broad daylight, Israel launched the first wave of attacks on Tehran and other areas across the country. Soon after, President Trump posted that eight-minute address announcing that the U.S. was also joining the effort, and the U.S. began with its own airstrikes. Around the time the U.S. strikes began, Iran began launching its own retaliatory strikes on surrounding countries. Around six to eight of those countries were hit. We're still waiting for final confirmation. So a lot of chaos and a lot unknown as of right now, of course. But in terms of the targets that we know that the U.S. has particularly focused on, what do we know so far? So early on, it appears that the American strikes have focused more on the Iranian nuclear facilities and then other military sites across the country. Remember, Iran was working feverishly to rebuild a lot of those sites that were badly damaged or even destroyed during Operation Midnight Hammer. Now, for their part, the Israeli military mostly was going after senior leadership within the regime. Their strikes reportedly targeted top generals, the country's president, and armed forces chief of staff, and even the Ayatollah himself. Footage from Tehran shows smoke rising from a number of compounds that housed the country's senior leadership, including the country's presidential palace. According to the New York Times, satellite imagery also appears to show that the Ayatollah's primary residence has been completely destroyed. Elsewhere Israeli media is reporting that Mohammed Pakpour he the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps has been killed During his early morning address Trump gave the Islamic Revolutionary Guard the following ultimatum I say tonight that you must lay down your weapons and have complete immunity or in the alternative face certain death So, lay down your arms. You will be treated fairly with total immunity or you will face certain death. So an emphatic ultimatum issued by Trump there. Now, unlike Midnight Hammer, this is not expected to be a limited operation. This might go on for days, maybe weeks, correct? Yeah, that's right. Very different from Operation Midnight Hammer. This strike is expected to be just the first of many strikes. This will not be a limited operation. The Pentagon says these strikes will go on for at least the next few days, as you mentioned, potentially weeks. President Trump offered a sober warning to the American people that there may well be American casualties when all is said and done, saying, quote, this is what happens in war. My administration has taken every possible step to minimize the risk to U.S. personnel in the region. Even so, and I do not make this statement lightly, the Iranian regime seeks to kill. The lives of courageous American heroes may be lost and we may have casualties. That often happens in war. But we're doing this not for now. We're doing this for the future. And it is a noble mission. Now, at the time of this recording, there are no reported casualties of U.S. troops, yes. But there may be coming and he's saying, look, this is a noble cause. So what are the goals of these military strikes, these initial strikes from the U.S.? Well, it seems like the main goal is to knock out Iran's nuclear sites and weaken their military. But President Trump, look, he also made it clear that he wants to see regime change from within when led by the Iranian people themselves. In an just extraordinary statement, Trump called for the Iranian people to rise up and overthrow the Ayatollah's regime. To the great, proud people of Iran, I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand. Stay sheltered. Don't leave your home. It's very dangerous outside. Bombs will be dropping everywhere. For many years, you have asked for America's help, but you never got it. No president was willing to do what I am willing to do tonight. Now you have a president who is giving you what you want. So let's see how you respond. America is backing you with overwhelming strength and devastating force. Now is the time to seize control of your destiny and to unleash the prosperous and glorious future that is close within your reach. This is the moment for action. Do not let it pass. But ultimately, the prospect of potential regime change, again, it's going to come down to the Iranian people themselves and how they respond over these next 24 to 48 hours. We've already seen unprecedented demonstrations this year against the regime. And the White House is confident that sentiment will only grow as they continue to weaken, that the people will see an opportunity. Trump actually said that, saying this might be your best chance for generations. Now, to that point, we've already seen just moving videos of Iranians celebrating in the streets, honking their horns, yelling from the rooftops as bombs literally drop on government facilities and military installations. Here's one, for example, that appears to show students celebrating the news, some of them saying quote I love Trump All right one of the big questions here of course is how will Iran respond We've seen some retaliatory strikes. How successful have those been? And what do we expect to see in the coming days? Yeah, before these U.S. strikes, the Iranian military was talking a big game, for lack of a better term. They were threatening to send American carriers to the bottom of the ocean. They said the U.S. military, quote, wouldn't do a damn thing. But to this point, it's the Iranian military that really hasn't been able to muster much of a response. They've already launched drones and missiles at Israel in what they're calling the first wave of retaliatory attacks. And from there, they launched missiles targeting a number of other Middle Eastern countries, specifically U.S. military installations in those countries. There have been large explosions in downtown Dubai with drones seemingly targeting large skyscrapers there. Just remarkable footage coming out. There were also large explosions reported in Kuwait, Jordan. We mentioned Israel and also in Bahrain. The U.S. Navy, the Fifth Fleet, has a headquarters there in Bahrain. We saw a missile make it through the aerial defenses and blow up a warehouse. The footage was just stunning to see, this huge explosion. Thankfully, though, that was an empty warehouse. There were no U.S. soldiers inside of that building. So again, to this point, still no U.S. casualties. But Iran is trying very hard to get at American forces in the region. And it's worth pointing out a lot of American bases in the region were evacuated or troops were moved to safer areas because we were anticipating these attacks happening. Now, it's also worth pointing out that Iranian leaders have been saying for months that if the U.S. targeted the Ayatollah and other members of the country's leadership, they would view that as an existential threat and respond with force the likes of which we've not seen in a generation. That was their red line of sorts. So it's already clear that this is a very different situation than what we saw back in June when Trump first hit Iran. Now, remember, following those strikes, the Iranians offered a more restrained, mostly symbolic strike of their own. They targeted a U.S. base in Qatar. But the Iranians said that if they were hit again, they would respond with the full force of their arsenal. And they're trying. During Operation Midnight Hammer, the U.S. successfully targeted Iranian missile stockpiles, and that significantly hindered their ability to launch retaliatory strikes down the road. It looks like in this instance, Iran is trying to fire off as many of those missiles as possible to use them before they lose them. And we've already seen an unprecedented flurry of explosions again, as we mentioned, across the Middle East. So we've already seen the fallout of this starting to affect other countries in the region. What about the global response to this operation so far, including American allies? As you can imagine, responses to the war, both for and against, are flooding in by the minute. One of the more critical statements, though, came from Oman's foreign minister. He had been serving as middleman this week in negotiations between the U.S. and Iran. He was very upset by these latest developments. He issued a statement saying, quote, I'm dismayed. Active and serious negotiations have yet again been undermined. Neither the interests of the U.S. nor the cause of global peace are well served by this. And I pray for the innocents who will suffer. I urge the U.S. not to get sucked in further. This is not your war. Now, in Europe, leaders have taken a more cautious approach, with EU head Ursula von der Leyen releasing a statement calling the operation, quote, greatly concerning while urging both sides to de-escalate. For his part, French President Emmanuel Macron warned that the, quote, outbreak of war carries serious consequences for international peace and security. Elsewhere American allies praised the operation including some that have been at odds with Trump lately Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for example said his country quote supports the United States acting to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and to prevent Iran continuing to threaten international peace and security. In Canada, Prime Minister Mark Carney, who again has been clashing with Trump publicly, issued a nearly identical statement saying Canada supports the U.S. in their efforts against Iran. Well, like you said, some surprises there. Now, what about here back home? What has the response been so far on Capitol Hill? Well, stateside, we've seen a mixed reaction that, as you can imagine, largely is broken along party lines. Republicans mostly lauded the strike, commending President Trump for protecting America from Iranian aggression. While many Democrats slammed the operation, their main line of attack was that President Trump had supposedly bypassed legal procedures and, you know, unconstitutionally launched a war without their approval. But Republicans say he has every right to do what he is doing and the White House has been vehement that he has not acted illegally. But expect more battles there from Congress in the coming week. Democrats have also accused the administration of forcing military action and of creating a, quote, crisis of Trump's own creation. Not unpredictable responses from Democrats there. Now, as to why this operation took place now, that's going to be a lot of the debate on Capitol Hill going forward. What is the rationale from Trump to launch this now? Yeah, as we said at the top, this has been months and really years in the making. Since retaking office, Trump has been adamant that Iran could not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon. Last year, he made diplomatic efforts to convince the Ayatollah to abandon his pursuit of nukes. And as we talked about on the show, those talks ultimately have failed. And when they first failed back in the summer in June, he launched Operation Midnight Hammer. But rather than pulling back from their nuclear ambitions, U.S. intelligence says that Iran really only doubled down and that it was only a matter of time before they succeeded in producing a nuke. So as we again talked about on the show, the two sides have held numerous rounds of negotiations over the last few months. And in the most recent talks, which were less than 48 hours ago, White House special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner offered what turned out to be President Trump's final offer included three main demands. first, that Iran would dismantle their three largest nuclear reactors, second, that they would hand over all of the enriched uranium that they had gathered and give it to the United States, and third, that this deal that they were making would last in perpetuity, meaning that Iran essentially would have to permanently forfeit the right for a nuclear program. Now, when the latest round of talks ended on Thursday, there were reports that some progress was being made. Iranian officials said they would come back next week with a revised offer. But there was a growing sense from within the White House that the Iranians were simply stringing the U.S. along and really were just trying to buy time so they could bolster their military preparations and then race to potentially finish that nuclear weapon. And as we've now seen, that led President Trump to take matters into his own hands. Now we have this operation that, as he suggested, is going to go on for some time now. A lot of information to come on this. We're going to be on top of it on this show and also on your new show, Wired and Live. And as I understand it, we're going to run something else tomorrow morning. Yep, we picked a great week to launch a live news show with all this going on. Folks can tune in live on Daily Wire on YouTube or just dailywire.com. We're starting at 10 a.m. Eastern, 9 Central. Yeah, but thanks so much for reporting. Absolutely. Thanks for waking up with us. This has been a special breaking news edition of Morning Wire.
