'This Week' Transcript 3-15-26: Energy Secretary Chris Wright & Rep. Adam Smith

A rush transcript of "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" airing on Sunday, March 15, 2026 on ABC News is below. This copy may not be in its final form, may be updated and may contain minor transcription errors. For previous show transcripts, visit the "This Week" transcript archive.

MARTHA RADDATZ, ABC “THIS WEEK” CO-ANCHOR: The U.S. ramps up the war in Iran, sending more forces to the region, as the shockwaves from the conflict hit here at home. This week starts right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RADDATZ: Escalating war.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The situation with Iran is moving along very rapidly. Our military is unsurpassed.

RADDATZ: President Trump threatens to wipe out Iran’s oil infrastructure, as Iran keeps its iron grip on the Strait of Hormuz, and Americans feel the pinch.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Food’s going to get more expensive. Goods are going to get more expensive. Everything’s about to get more expensive.

RADDATZ: And the terror threat spreads. Multiple attacks across the U.S. since the war began.

GOV. GRETCHEN WHITMER (D-MI): This is targeting babies who are Jewish. That’s anti-Semitism at its absolute worst.

RADDATZ: This morning, we’ll cover the war’s widening impact. Our guests, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, with a view from the White House, and Congressman Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee. Plus, expert analysis on what could come next, and our panel on all the political fallout.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: From ABC News, a special edition of “THIS WEEK,” “War with Iran.” Here now, Martha Raddatz

RADDATZ: Good morning, and welcome to “THIS WEEK.”

We’ve now entered week three of the war with Iran with no end in sight and serious signs of an intensifying conflict. This weekend the Trump administration destroying military targets on Iran’s Kharg Island, where nearly all of Iran’s crude oil is processed. The Pentagon says the U.S. and Israel have struck some 15,000 targets inside Iran, reducing Iran’s missile volume by 90 percent, and its drone capability by 95 percent.

But the Iranian regime is not going quietly, keeping up its retaliatory attacks against the U.S. and its allies, and effectively shutting down the Strait of Hormuz, the critical passageway where 20 percent of the world’s oil supply passes through, sending oil and gas prices spiking and disrupting global supply chains.

The toll on U.S. troops is also mounting. Overnight, the Pentagon released the names of six service members who were killed this week after their refueling plane crashed in western Iraq. Three were assigned to MacDill Air Force Base in Florida and three to the Air National Guard Base in Columbus, Ohio. All were under the age of forty. That brings the total U.S. death toll so far to 13 since the war began. And with so much volatility across the region, the president is now sending in the Marines to join the fight.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RADDATZ (voice over): This morning, escalation with thousands more U.S. forces heading to the Middle East, including 2,200 Marines, a quick reaction force aboard three Navy amphibious ships, their deployment coming just days after the president declared victory in this war.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We’ve won. Let me tell you, we’ve won. You know, you never like to say too early you won. We won. We won the bet. In the first hour it was over.

RADDATZ (voice over): The tactical success in this war is evident. The U.S. military destroying the majority of Iran’s missile launchers, air defenses and Iranian Revolutionary Guard targets.

PETE HEGSETH, SECRETARY OF WAR: With every passing hour, we know, and we know they know, that the military capabilities of their evil regime are crumbling.

RADDATZ (voice over): But the fight with Iran seems far from over. Its remaining missiles and drones striking throughout the region and taking aim squarely at the world’s oil supply. Oil tankers ablaze in the Strait of Hormuz, from which 20 percent of the world’s oil flows. The strait has long been a deep concern. We were on board the U.S. destroyer, the USS Sterett, in 2012, when Iran was threatening then to close down the strait.

RADDATZ: The shipping lane itself is only about two miles wide, so there is very little room to maneuver. That’s the massive aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln just behind me.

RADDATZ (voice over): The ship’s captain, Richard McDaniel, on high alert in his heavily armed ship.

RICHARD MCDANIEL (ph): You want to be always at a max state of readiness to respond to anything.

RADDATZ: But now, 16 days into this very real war with Iran, this vital waterway connecting the Persian Gulf to the Arabian Sea is effectively closed. Satellite imagery showing the rapid

decline in the flow of ships and Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, vowing to keep the block on the strait as leverage.

HEGSETH: They are exercising sheer desperation in the Straits of Hormuz, something we’re dealing with, we have been dealing with it and don’t need to worry about it.

RADDATZ (voice over): But there is deep concern. Oil prices this week hitting more than $100 a barrel for the first time since 2022, surging gas prices in the U.S., now $3.70 a gallon, up 76 cents since the start of the war. The U.S. tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, authorized to release 172 million barrels, part of a coordinated effort with more than thirty countries to stabilize markets.

And now, with Iran reportedly laying mines in the strait, the U.S. targeting more than 30 mine laying Iranian vessels, according to CENTCOM, and launching those air attacks on Kharg Island, where 90 percent of Iran’s crude oil is processed. President Trump claiming the bombing, “totally obliterated every military target,” as he threatened to wipe out the island’s oil infrastructure if Iran continues to block the Strait of Hormuz.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RADDATZ (on camera): And I’m joined now by Energy Secretary Chris Wright.

Good morning, Mr. Secretary.

Let’s get right to President Trump’s threat to close down the oil infrastructure on Kharg Island. We have Iran’s foreign minister firing back saying they would target American-linked energy infrastructure if that happens. Your reaction?

CHRIS WRIGHT, U.S. ENERGY SECRETARY: So, the United States did not target their energy infrastructure in Kharg Island. Just the military infrastructure that’s on the island. But since this conflict started, Iran has been attacking the energy infrastructure all around the Gulf, even among nations with no hostilities towards Iran.

RADDATZ: Iran’s new supreme leader has pledged to keep the strait closed and Iran’s armed forces are warning the world to prepare for oil to hit $200 a barrel. How confident are you it will not get to that point?

WRIGHT: So, Iran’s activities, these pronouncements, their military strikes, all of this, I think, makes it very clear why this military operation was so essential. On that, for 47 years, Iran has threatened the Straits of Hormuz, has attacked its neighbors, has killed U.S. soldiers. Just imagine an Iran that’s nuclear-armed, with a massive weapons arsenal to surround those nuclear weapons.

This is why President Trump needs to act now before -- to stop the killing of American soldiers, to stop the destabilization of the region and to end Iran’s ability to threaten energy markets.

Yes, we go through this period of short-term disruption, but better to do it now than to have a nuclear-armed Iran.

RADDATZ: Are you really sure it’s going to be short term? Can you guarantee it will just be weeks before prices go down?

WRIGHT: Hey, there’s no guarantees in wars at all. I can guarantee the situation would be dramatically worse without this military operation to defang the Iranian regime.

The Straits of Hormuz, Martha, as you’re implying, are very important for global commerce and for energy commerce, and they impact energy prices, as we’re all seeing.

They have used this threat for 47 years, and they’ve continued to build up their arsenal to make this threat graver and graver. In fact, it would soon be too hard for us to defang Iran if they were nuclear-armed.

So, this is -- this is short term pain to get through to a much better place, where the Middle East can no longer be held hostage by the one rogue nation in Iran. Over (ph) 90 million citizens in Iran will get to a better place as well.

RADDATZ: Let’s talk about the strait. Let’s stick with the strait.

They have taken out tactically, the U.S. military, dozens and thousands of targets, and successfully it would appear. But let’s talk about the strait and the planning for the strait. Critics of the administration have said that the current stance still shows that the administration didn’t adequately plan for the retaliation from Iran in the strait.

Listen to Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY), MINORITY LEADER: How did Donald Trump not see this coming? How did his planners not see this coming? This is the one bit of leverage Iran has. Of course, we knew they were going to use it. They’ve used it in the past.

A college student with a basic understanding of geopolitics could tell you that Iran’s greatest leverage is this narrow passage.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RADDATZ: You yourself said we've known about this threat for 47 years. So, what would you say to Leader Schumer?

WRIGHT: So, he's either being, you know, ridiculously naive or he's simply being disingenuous, which is more likely. Everyone knows that we -- the issue with the Strait

of Hormuz. Of course, meticulous planning went into what might happen with the Strait of Hormuz, how to deal with -- deal with that.

Our chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Caine, is known for many things, but high on that list is an absolute meticulous planner of all of the scenarios that might unfold.

So, why Chuck Schumer says these things to try to undermine the credibility of the United States military two weeks into a conflict just -- just quite offensive to me as a patriotic American.

RADDATZ: Mr. Secretary, so then what was the plan? Was the plan to let them effectively close down -- if they effectively close down the Strait of Hormuz, which they have done, we would just see a spike in oil prices, hope that you can get Navy ships in there to escort oil tankers? Was that the plan?

WRIGHT: We knew there'd be a temporary introduction of flows out of the Straits of Hormuz. In fact, some of our allies, Saudi Arabia -- I'll call out one, but they're not the only one -- positioned over 100 million barrels of oil in storage outside of the Middle East before this conflict began. Just seeing the rising tensions in the region, knowing that this administration had the resolve to deal with Iran.

So, many contingency plans were taken. Of course, the broader Trump agenda of having America become the dominant producer of oil and natural gas in the world and continuing to grow our capacity. So, not only to mute the impacts of these interruptions right now, but to lead to a future where America is energy strong, energy dominant, Americans have lower energy prices, and America can help supply energy to an increasing number of our allies around the world.

RADDATZ: But Mr. Secretary --

WRIGHT: But yes, we're going to have disruption and we do have disruption. Yes.

RADDATZ: Mr. Secretary in that planning, we see right now the president is seeking help in opening up that strait from other nations. He says that many countries will be sending warships. Can you tell me who those countries are?

And the president said, “Hopefully, China, France, Japan, South Korea will send them as well.” Was this not done before? Why is it happening now? And who are those -- and who are those countries?

WRIGHT: Look, broader dialogues about energy security have been going on since the Trump administration arrived -- for example, my engagement with the International Energy Agency. But dialogue about this specific military operation did not happen broadly right in front of it. The element of surprise was essential, so that we could as quickly as possible destroy their military capabilities and their ability to project power.

But yes, all nations of the world depend on products that come from the Straits of Hormuz. China, top on that list. Japan, Korea, all the Asian nations is where the energy -- energy that comes out of the Straits of Hormuz flows to.

So, those are the nations that most immediately impacted by this. So, of course, it's quite logical to have a broad coalition of the nations of the world work to reopen the straits.

But, first and foremost, right now, is to finish -- to destroy Iran's ability to protect -- project military force in the region and around the world.

RADDATZ: I just want to be clear here. How --

(CROSSTALK)

WRIGHT: It’s going tremendously well, ahead of schedule.

RADDATZ: How -- how long should Americans expect for gas prices to be high? Are we talking weeks? Are we talking months? Or you just don't know at this point?

WRIGHT: Yeah, I think that this conflict will certainly come to the end in the next few weeks, could -- could be sooner than that. But the conflict will come to the end in the next few weeks and we'll see a rebound in supplies, and a pushing down of prices after that.

But yes, we were very aware -- very aware that we would have short-term disruption. We would cause some -- we would cause a little bit of increased prices on Americans. Prices today are still far below what they were in the Biden administration where they were begging, bartering, and bribing Iran to behave better.

We had $5 gasoline in the middle of the Biden administration. We hope we don't get there this time, but at least this increase in gasoline prices is for something that's going to change the geopolitical situation in the world forever.

RADDATZ: I just want to ask you very quickly, what will the Marines be doing? Will they -- they help open the strait?

WRIGHT: All U.S. military assets -- and again, as President Trump mentioned of other countries -- will work to open the straits. Right now, our focus is destroying their military capabilities, including those that are used specifically to threaten the straits.

But we need to finish those tasks first and you will see the straits open again in the not-too-distant future.

RADDATZ: Okay. Thank you for joining us this morning, Mr. Secretary. Appreciate it.

WRIGHT: Thank you, Martha.

RADDATZ: And I’m joined now in studio by retired Admiral Kevin Donegan, who commanded the Navy’s Fifth Fleet in the Middle East during President Trump’s first term.

It’s very good to see you this morning, Admiral.

You are deeply aware of what’s happening in the strait, and you have a deep understanding of that. Are you alarmed by what’s happening?

VICE ADM. KEVIN DONEGAN, FORMER U.S. 5TH FLEET COMMANDER & U.S. NAVY (RET.): Well, I’m not surprised by what’s happened. And I guess the first thing that I’ll say, you know, we’ve been looking at this problem set for a long time, decades, to be honest. And so, we knew that if we were going to be involved in something in Iran from an offensive state -- capability, that the Iranians would, at some point, leverage the, you know, some -- or try to attempt in some way to control the straits and put the pressure on the global community.

RADDATZ: So, are you surprised by the reaction from the administration, by the Pentagon? Secretary Hegseth says, basically, don’t worry about this. But we’ve seen what’s happening. It’s effectively shut down.

DONEGAN: It is -- it is effectively shut down, the straits. We knew when we -- if we would go into conflict, that de facto traffic flow would stop through the straits. You know, as you know better than anybody else, in conflict, when missiles are flying overhead back and forth, the traffic through the Straits of Hormuz is going to -- is going to come to a stop because there are tankers, liquid natural gas carriers, container ships, et cetera, they’re going to slow down. And so, we understood that.

Well, what I think that surprised me more than anything in this, what’s going on, is Iran’s retaliation. And I said from the beginning, to understand the effectiveness of the campaign that we’re waging, we should look at how Iran -- not to a box store, but look at, you know, Iran’s capability to retaliate. And --

RADDATZ: But you say we knew about their capabilities.

DONEGAN: Sure.

RADDATZ: And certainly in the strait. Are you surprised that we didn’t do more or have a bigger plan for -- against that?

DONEGAN: I would say that if you look at the campaign CENTCOM initiated, this was built into it from the beginning. And when you think about it in terms of the things that the chairman said and the things that Admiral Cooper said his mission was, one of the things in there was to just to go after the Navy. And what they really meant was, Iran’s capability to control the straits when this is over. Because we don’t want them to have power projection capability. We also don’t want them to have this leverage over this internet (ph) -- you know, this such an important chokehold. So, this effort that -- that’s being done and being waged by CENTCOM is specifically to get at their cruise missile threat, their ability to launch drones at boats, put mines in the water, all those things that when this is over, you want them not to have, if that makes any sense.

RADDATZ: And you have heard Secretary Wright and others say the Navy may go in there and escort tankers, how would that work? How complicated is that? Do they need air cover if they’re in there? How many boats can they escort?

DONEGAN: We saw a little bit of this when we saw the Houthis, you know, close the strait -- I mean close the Red Sea down, right, and we saw that it doesn’t take a lot to stop traffic. But in the end, you know, the Red Sea, you know, things flow -- eventually flow. Here we had -- we had a really big problem if we were going to do this and this operation hadn’t started, because then you would have had an Iran that had -- we used to call it a layered threat. They could come and put missiles on convoys that were moving, they could put cruise -- you know, ballistic missiles, they could put cruise missiles, they could put drones, they could put mines in the water, they could swarm it with boats, right? That was the threat to moving convoys before.

What you have now is a different starting point because a lot of the cruise missile threat has been taken out, the ballistic missile threats taken out. In the end, though, it’s not going to be easy to escort convoys, but we practice it. And we don’t practice it alone. Every year we do an exercise with 30 plus other nations in that same region. The last one is in February, just to rehearse, not just with ourselves, but with international partners on how we would do escorting and how we would keep the strait open if Iran actually, you know, followed through on trying to either control it or close it.

RADDATZ: And we’ll see if we can get thirty nations to join.

We appreciate you coming in this morning, Admiral.

DONEGAN: Thanks, Martha.

RADDATZ: Let’s bring in our experts on the economic fallout, the strategy inside Iran and the lessons learned so far. Let’s start with Diane Swonk, the chief economist and managing director at KPMG, one of the largest accounting firms in the world.

And good morning, Diane.

I want to ask you right away, we’ve already seen rising oil prices, gas prices. What’s your read on what’s happening?

DIANE SWONK, KPMG CHIEF ECONOMIST: Well, the longer this lasts, the longer the tail of it are in terms of higher prices at the pump. But more importantly, disruptions to global supply chains. We know that from the pandemic and from our sources in the Middle East, when you shut production down in idle production, it’s easier to turn the lights out than ramp it back up again. It could take weeks to months to get much of the supply that’s currently been idled in the Middle East back online again. And that means it’s compounding the disruptions to supply chains the world over. We're now looking at a scenario where we expect oil prices to hover above $100 a barrel, and maybe even spike in the weeks to come. That will show up as much -- as soon as four to six weeks from the initial shock in things like food prices at the grocery store because of transportation costs.

It starts rippling through the economy fairly quickly, and we're already three weeks in, so we're very concerned that this is much more of a stagflationary shock than what we saw in 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine. That's because we don't have the backdrop of creating hundreds of thousands of jobs each month. And remember, with the inflation that we saw back then, we also saw most Americans feeling that the U.S. economy was in a recession, even though we were generating hundreds of thousands of jobs a month.

RADDATZ: And Diane, I just want to read you something that President Trump said on Truth Social. He said, "Short-term oil prices, which will drop rapidly when the destruction of the Iran nuclear threat is over, is a very small price to pay for USA and world safety and peace. Only fools would think differently."

He seems to think this will end quickly. Prices will go down again.

SWONK: Our sources in the oil industry are telling us that it's going to take quite a while to get the production up and running again. And in the United States, producers don't want to start production and do production -- increase production until they know they have a good six months of higher oil prices to justify the breakevens, which are now higher and more expensive than they once were, to do more production in the United States as well.

There's also a risk premium that we're likely to see even after the Strait of Hormuz is open and that will linger on oil prices. They may come down, but they're going to be coming down from a higher plateau. And that means still very high prices rippling through the global economy but through the U.S. economy as well.

RADDATZ: OK, thanks, Diane.

Let's go now to Iran expert, Vali Nasr, professor, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

Good morning to you, Vali. We know the Iranian regime is resilient. Are you surprised by anything you have seen and how long can they hold out?

VALI NASR, JOHN HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR: No. I think they had telegraphed that this would be their strategy from a while back, that they would attack the Gulf, they would attack energy resources. And if they were attacked from bases in the Gulf, that they would attack the countries that were -- that were hosting those bases. I think what is surprising is the ability for them to sustain this and escalate on pace with the United States going forward.

I don't see any cracks right now. I think there's a sense that they can carry this as long as it takes or at least long enough for the economic impact on the -- on the world economy to be meaningful.

RADDATZ: It's been a week since Iran announced they have a new supreme leader, the son of the late supreme leader. We haven't really seen him in public. Do you see any difference if he is actually going to lead this country?

NASR: We won't see his fingerprints on how Iran will move forward until the war is over. He was part of the decision-making about the strategy that Iran is following right now. So it was not expected that he would come in and change the strategy. If anything his elevation to that position means that Iran is going to stay the course and he's going -- and he's going to unify the system and give it more backing in terms of following the strategy that he's following.

RADDATZ: How do you see this ending? What do you think President Trump does? He's had various scenarios that he's laid out. But how do you see this ending?

NASR: I think he's escalating right now to break the back of Iranian resistance. And if he doesn't, if he's not able to do that within a month or so, I think the end game might be a ceasefire where there has to be some serious negotiations about the rules of the game. And the Iranians have already laid out what they want out of those negotiations. They wanted a drastically different scenario in which they have more economic freedom and guarantee that they will not be attacked again.

RADDATZ: OK. Thanks very much.

Let's bring in Meghan O'Sullivan, director of Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center.

Meghan, you were deputy national security adviser for Iraq and Afghanistan under George W. Bush. There's been a lot of comparisons made with those wars as particularly Iraq. Do you see similarities?

MEGHAN O'SULLIVAN, FORMER DEPUTY NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER FOR IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN: Of course, I do see similarities as well as many differences. One of the potential serious similarities is the lesson that a huge display of military force, a very impressive display of military force like we're seeing in the region and against Iran by the U.S. and Israel.

That force does not necessarily translate into political success, particularly if there isn’t sufficient planning for the aftermath.

And I would say, as we look at the situation today, particularly at the Straits of Hormuz and there seems to be this lack of preparedness for the scenario that is unfolding there that suggests that there is going to be insufficient planning having been done for what might come after force completes -- whether or not it results in a regime change or regime collapse or a negotiated settlement.

RADDATZ:  I want to ask you about lessons learned when you look back that should be applied to this conflict.

O’SULLIVAN:  Well, I think one of the important lessons has to do with the fact that the hard work in both Iraq and Afghanistan, not to dismiss the importance of the U.S. military, but the hard work really began after the end of the war and had to do with building an alternative system in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Actually, Iraq in the last several years has been doing quite well, and it is a fragile but functioning democracy. But that took 20 years of effort, and enormous cost, both on the Iraqi side and on the U.S. side.

And, of course, we know how efforts to build alternative institutions in Afghanistan played out.

Now Iran will have some serious advantages if and when regime change or regime collapse occurs now or in the future. There’s a real, consistent history and commitment to constitutionalism and desire for democracy in Iran that didn’t necessarily exist in Iraq or Afghanistan, but building institutions and creating consensus and identifying leaders is a very, very hard job.

And I think the reliance on exiles is something that needs to be cautioned against as well.

In Iraq, there was the hope and expectations that Iraqis who had lived in exile for decades would play a central role in a political transition. And that proved very problematic.

We hear a lot of talk about the son of the shah coming in and playing a similar role in Iran, and I would really caution against thinking that could be any kind of easy path to a different kind of political Iran.

RADDATZ:  So much to look forward to and be careful about.

Thanks for joining us this morning, Meghan. Thanks to all of you.

Up next, multiple attacks here at home since the war began raised concerns about security. Congressman Adam Smith responds.

We’re back in two minutes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RADDATZ:  Horrifying scenes across the country this week. An attack on a Michigan synagogue and a deadly shooting at a Virginia university, with investigators looking at the war in Iran as possible motivation.

Our chief investigative correspondent, Aaron Katersky, reports on the heightened threat environment nationwide.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AARON KATERSKY, ABC NEWS CHIEF INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over):  The nation on edge this week after multiple attacks on U.S. soil, and heightened security threats since the start of the war in Iran. On Thursday, a pair of incidents on a college campus and a synagogue hours apart.

In West Bloomfield, Michigan, 41-year-old Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, originally from Lebanon, rammed a truck full of explosives through the doors of Temple Israel, driving down the hall, exchanging fire with security guards.

GOV. GRETCHEN WHITMER (D), MICHIGAN: Yesterday's attack was antisemitism. It was hate, plain and simple.

KATERSKY: Authorities say Ghazali, who became a U.S. citizen in 2016, recently posted that an Israeli strike on Lebanon killed his two brothers, a niece and a nephew.

And in Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got cops running across. The entire police force of Norfolk is here.

KATERSKY: Professor and Lieutenant Colonel Brandon Shaw killed by a man with ties to ISIS in what the FBI suspects was an act of terror. The suspect, 36-year-old Mohammed Jalloh, who opened fire in a classroom was convicted in 2016 of attempting to provide material support to ISIS, trying to acquire weapons for an attack in the United States. He was released from prison in 2024 after serving eight years of an eleven-year sentence.

Thursday's attacks came during a tense two weeks since the beginning of the war in Iran, with authorities repeatedly warning of higher risk for the U.S. homeland.

JESSICA TISCH, NYPD COMMISSIONER: We have been in a heightened state of alert in New York City since the start of hostilities in Iran.

KATERSKY: Last weekend, two teens were charged with bringing homemade bombs to a protest outside New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's house in what authorities deemed an attempted ISIS-inspired attack. And at the onset of the war, a deadly mass shooting at a bar in Austin, Texas, where a gunman wearing a T-shirt with an Iranian flag went on a murderous rampage just hours after the U.S. and Israel first struck Iran. That attack, killing three and injuring more than a dozen others.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KATERSKY (on-camera): Law enforcement officials are clear, Martha, the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran are causing a surge in threats particularly antisemitic threats aimed at the Jewish community, and the recent pattern of violence, they say, combined with Iran's retaliatory rhetoric, warrants heightened vigilance -- Martha.

RADDATZ: Our thanks to Aaron.

I'm joined now by Congressman Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee.

Good morning to you, Congressman. You heard that report from Aaron Katersky about these attacks on U.S. soil. It's something we've talked about for years, these lone wolves. But has this war sparked these, do you believe?

REP. ADAM SMITH (D-WA): Well, it's exacerbated the problem, without question. I think we'd be wrong to say it sparked it. We've seen these attacks before this war. I mean, we have a long-running problem with terrorist organizations associated with ISIS trying to strike us here on our own soil. We need to be prepared for those. We need to look at what the Justice Department, the FBI are doing to protect us from that.

So, this isn't a new phenomenon. Without question, this has been ramped up because of the war in the Middle East that has brought in, gosh, some 14 countries have been attacked in one way or another. This war and this conflict is without question spreading right now.

RADDATZ: You can't keep people safe anywhere -- everywhere, but do you believe the federal government should be doing something to help here, to help protect people? What can you possibly do?

SMITH: Yes, well, I mean, absolutely. We have an ongoing counterterrorism effort, that's coordinated with the Justice Department, with various intelligence services. We need to make sure that we're doing that. I mean, I worry a little bit that over the course of the last year and a half, starting with the DOGE process, we have driven out a lot of our talent within the bureaucracy, within the Justice Department, within our intelligence services.

We know a lot of Iranian experts left the Justice Department right before this started as part of the ongoing purge. So I think it's worth Congress in particular doing the oversight, do we have people in those places who are doing the best possible job to protect us. It's more important and a tougher job right now than it ever has been.

RADDATZ: You talk about this, but Democrats have refused to vote for additional funding for DHS until reforms are made to ICE. Should Democrats reconsider that strategy because of what's going on now, because of the war?

SMITH: Yes, well, first of all, what you say there isn't really true. Democrats have said, we will fund everything but ICE. So whether you're talking TSA, FEMA, the Coast Guard, we're fully prepared to fund all of that. We want reform to ICE. I mean we've seen what ICE has done across this country. You know, violating the rights of Americans, ignoring probable cause, ignoring due process, using excessive violence and excessive force.

Americans should be protected against that type of enforcement. But all other aspects at DHS, Democrats in the Senate, Democrats in the House have said we would fund. Republicans have refused to do that. And they've also refused to offer any reforms whatsoever to ICE despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of the American people support that.

The American people support a secure border and they support immigration enforcement. They don’t support what Donald Trump’s ICE has been doing. They want reform. There’s a very simple solution to this if Republicans would be willing to do it. I mean before you even get to the reforms, they could fund those other aspects of DHS that are important to our internal security.

RADDATZ: I want to go back to the war. You have been a huge critic of the war. Is there any part of you, as you’ve seen what’s been decimated in Iran, that Americans will be safer because of what the administration has done and is doing in Iran?

SMITH: Well, it certainly doesn’t seem likely at this point when you look at Americans basically fleeing the Middle East. Certainly we’ve already lost 13 service members. We’ve seen those domestic attacks ramp up, as you mentioned, the protections needed across the Middle East and elsewhere.

Now, look, war is not always the answer to a problem. And I think that is what we’re missing here. Yes, Iran is a problem. A problem that needs to be contained. But what we should have learned from Muammar Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein and the Taliban is, you can have a threat and not have a military solution that’s going to make it better. And I think that’s what we’re seeing in Iran.

And keep in mind, before this war started, because over the last two years Iran was as weak as they had ever been. And we could easily predict that if you tried this war, you would not be able to fundamentally change the regime and you would cause a massive amount of violence and disruption.

Now, do I hope that the Trump administration is somehow right and that this war somehow causes a fundamental change in the Iranian regime so that they are less hostile to the region and less hostile to Americans, absolutely I do. But as the military always tells you, hope is not a strategy. And there was no strategy to get from this massive, military action, with all the costs that have come with it, to get to that, to a fundamental change in the Iranian regime. And we knew this.

Look, I've sat in these briefings for 15 years as we’ve contemplated this question. Iran’s problem, is there a military solution. And every single time we were told that the cost outweighs the benefits. Iran is not Venezuela. You can’t just fly in, snatch the president and make things change. It is a country of 90 million people, that has a dug-in, well-armed regime that has, you know, proxies in a bunch of different places. We’re seeing Iraq basically explode. Americans are being asked to completely leave Iraq, as we have multiple attacks on the embassy, and Iran activates their militias. The Strait of Hormuz obviously is now shut down. All of this was predictable. The cost of this war outweighs the benefits.

RADDATZ: OK, thanks for joining us this morning. We appreciate your perspective.

Up next, our panel on the political fallout from the Iran war. We’ll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE ROGAN, “THE JOE ROGAN EXPERIENCE” HOST:  It just seemed to insane based on what he ran on. I mean, this is why a lot of people feel betrayed, right? He ran on no more wars, and these stupid, senseless wars. And then we have one that we can’t even really clearly define why we did it.

TUCKER CARLSON, “THE TUCKER CARLSON SHOW” HOST:  Breaking faith with those people, those voters, the ones who actually got Trump elected, it’s a betrayal on the level that I don’t think people who aren’t in those groups can understand. Like, this is heartbreak -- this is heartbreaking.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RADDATZ:  Some of the backlash on the right over the Iran war. But do most Republicans overall still support the president’s actions?

Our panel will debate that and more when we come.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RADDATZ:  I’m joined now by our political panel: former DNC chair Donna Brazile, and former Republican Congressman Patrick McHenry.

Good morning to you both.

Congressman -- I will call you “Patrick” -- let’s start with those very prominent voices that -- we have heard Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Joe Rogan, who have strongly criticized the war in Iran, but -- in Iran. But it does not seem to stick that criticism with the MAGA base.

PATRICK MCHENRY, (R) FORMER NORTH CAROLINA CONGRESSMAN:  Well, this has long been the phenomenon. You have MAGA influencers, mainly online, that say that this is their movement, not President Trump’s movement. We saw this with my former colleague Marjorie Taylor Greene.

And when the -- when MAGA influencers get in a fight with President Trump, President Trump wins. That’s been true since he came down the staircase a decade ago.

On small things, they may have influence, but on big things, he’s firmly committed. And this is not played out with the Republican electorate. The Republican electorate still finds Donald Trump to be the most agreeable president of their lifetimes. And this president maintains the highest approval ratings within his party of any modern president.

RADDATZ:  Is it extraordinary to you that this is a president who said, “I’m not going to get you in any wars,” and here we are, and there’s still support? Is that just automatic?

MCHENRY:  No, but it’s – it’s targets of opportunity to reshape the world. The president’s agenda is focused on China and trade. Let’s not lose sight of that. There’s a lot of noise on the way there, but Venezuela was in service to American energy dominance. The issue with Iran was a target of opportunity where you had the forty top leaders gathered in the same spot and they took action. The results here will mean that, at the negotiating table, with China, on trade, the president’s hand will be enhanced. That’s his focus. And we lose sight of all this because there’s so much noise right now. But that’s truly the signal of this president’s second term.

RADDATZ: Donna, how do you see this? We know that overall this war is not popular. Even going into it, it was lower than any war since World War II, favorability rating.

DONNA BRAZILE, FORMER DNC CHAIR & ABC NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Absolutely. Well, you know, I’ve watched MAGA grow over the last couple of years. And MAGA was built on the tenet of America first, meaning no more foreign interventions, no more endless wars. The focus on the American people, the American economy. So, I think the tension that you’re seeing with the base of MAGA, which is the energy of MAGA, is in contradiction with some of the hulks, the Lindsey Grahams and the Tom Cottons who are, hey, let’s just get rid of this country, let’s get rid of its leaders, and then a better day will appear.

But I also believe that the markets. I think the president’s also paying attention to the markets. And that’s where I think they’re like, OK, we might want to calm things down. I was telling the congressman in the green room that the president would say, when I feel it in my bones. Well, that was my Grandmother Francis (ph) saying, oh, by the way, I can tell it’s about to rain because the barometric pressure, I can feel it in my bones. The president doesn’t have an end game. And that’s why MAGA, the base, the energy, they are very disgruntled right now.

RADDATZ: Yes, Patrick the energy there is about going to war, and they’re backing President Trump. But if those gas prices stay high, Republicans have to be concerned about that.

MCHENRY: Yes, that is obviously the case.

RADDATZ: Yes.

MCHENRY: And the president cares about that. That’s why you see the president messaging every day. We saw oil markets respond for a tweet that was up for two hours this past week. We saw oil markets move by hundreds of billions of dollars just based off a tweet. It’s a highly sensitive moment. The president knows how to play on that mental piece of this. The behavioral piece around markets and trying to influence them. That’s why oil, frankly, is not higher today, even given 20 percent of the oil being taken off the global market in a fast way.

The president’s sensitive to that. We know that he’s -- the markers of the market are very important to him and his political case. That’s why you see him working so actively and trying to communicate that this is going to be a short duration war rather than long and drawn out.

BRAZILE: But you got to be upset by the fact that the president is easing the sanctions on Russia at a time when Ukraine is still getting the hell bombed out of it. Putin is going to benefit in the short term of $150 million a day maybe $10 billion over the next couple of weeks. This has to concern, not just, you know, the base of the MAGA, but concern the American people that we are actually going to give Putin a profit, a windfall to destroy a NATO aligned -- well, NATO supported country.

RADDATZ: Just to explain, President Putin has voiced support for Iran in the middle of this war.

BRAZILE: Yes.

RADDATZ: And we’ve sort of temporarily lifted those sanctions on oil. Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy said, “this easing alone by the United States could provide Russia with about $10 billion dollars for the war. This certainly does not help peace,” he said.

MCHENRY: It certainly does not. But it’s the Europeans have done a great disservice for their energy infrastructure and are more reliant on Russian energy than anyone else in the world. India as well. The pressure points on relief of sanctions are with Europe and India, not with the United States. We produce more oil than we consume here in the United States. We produce more natural gas than ever before in the United States. That’s why you’re seeing natural gas markets not respond. The prices go up as much because it is a regional market compared to global oil sales.

But most of the money -- most of the oil held up because of the closure of the Straits of Hormuz goes to India and China. We see lines today at the gas pumps in China as a direct result of this action. And at the same time, the president’s economic team is negotiating on a trade -- on our trade relationship with China starting today in Paris.

RADDATZ: Donna, one of the things the Democrats have been pushing, pushing, pushing as the midterms approach is affordability.

BRAZILE: Yes.

RADDATZ: So, this is going to be a pretty big deal going forward if this does not turn out well.

BRAZILE: Hey, look, it’s not just that the gas pump. I often tell people, when you see the gas prices go up, you’re going to see bread go up. You’re going to see a lot of other goods go up. Because, you know what, the supply chain is being cut off.

Right now, livestock, they're being held at the strait. You have produce. You have cars being have cars being held up. This is a crisis and the president understands it because he posted last night, I forgot what part of my notes. He's looking for France and the U.K. and China to help him reopen the strait so that those goods can flow through.

It's going to hurt us, not just at the gas pump, but in the grocery store and much more.

RADDATZ: Got about fifteen seconds for you to respond to that.

MCHENRY: Well, it's a question of duration. If the -- if we're talking about this, if we still have an active set of strikes going on in two months, that is going to be a very different economic situation than one month. And it's a question of duration and intensity and the ramifications on energy and infrastructure. That will be --

(CROSSTALK)

BRAZILE: I'd say two weeks, Martha.

RADDATZ: And there -- and there seems to be no concrete answer about how long it'll go on. We'll have to see that. We'll be standing by to watch all that.

Thanks for this.

Coming up, we'll hear from voices inside Iran responding to the war. We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RADDATZ: Since the war began, ABC News has worked to connect with Iranians on the ground. The near-total internet blackout implemented by the regime has made that difficult, but we have heard from voices inside the war-torn nation on what they're seeing and what they want next for Iran.

ABC's chief international correspondent James Longman has their story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was around 1:00 a.m. all the people in my neighborhood, they were screaming. They were shouting. And, you know, I -- it was like a celebration. And everybody was shouting, "Get Khamenei." And we were so happy.

JAMES LONGMAN, ABC NEWS CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Those who sent messages have asked their names not be used and some voices altered for their safety. As war descended on Iran, the regime once again cut off internet and communications across the country, controlling its people and silencing their messages of resilience.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We check the news. We try to keep the connection to the satellite TVs and by the phone, although we are in a total blackout and the slightest connection that we have is very unsecure.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everybody all around Tehran has heard and felt the wave and the sound of explosion that was very big, very, very enormous. Almost like an earthquake.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But I can say the sound, it keeps us going. We are grateful for this opportunity and we are waiting for the day that we can go out to the streets and get back our country from the Islamic regime.

LONGMAN: At the start of the war, President Trump encouraged the Iranian people to rise up when the bombing stops, a call he has since pulled back on as IRGC security forces still control the streets.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are worried that maybe this war stops before the complete regime change. It's very scary because they all have guns and they are very furious now because they have lost the supreme leader, and we are very happy about that.

LONGMAN: But others, despite their views of the regime, remain sharply critical of the U.S.-Israeli operation.

OMID, IRANIAN CITIZEN: The message of Iranians for President Trump is that bombing a country will not bring democracy to it. Bombing our country resulted in strengthening the power of the Islamic regime. And what I see is not a ground for democracy, but they are just making the scene worse and worse by this attack.

This is the direct result of the operation of President Trump. And they must stop that attack immediately.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RADDATZ: Our thanks to James Longman and those Iranian citizens sharing their perspective.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RADDATZ: And before we go today, a big welcome to our newest viewer. Yara Jasmine Alva was born Monday, March 9th. The newborn daughter of our supervising producer, Mitch Alva. We wish him and his wife Uzra and big sister Zara, who you see there, all the best.

That's all for us today. Thanks for sharing part of your Sunday with us. Tune in to "WORLD NEWS TONIGHT" and for the latest on Iran, check out the new podcast from our colleagues at "NIGHTLINE." Have a great day.