Transcript: Sen. Mark Warner on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan"

Face The Nation Transcripts Transcript: Sen. Mark Warner on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan," April 12, 2026 .chip { background-image: url('/fly/bundles/cbsnewscore/images/chip-bgd/chip-bgd-face-the-nation.jpg'); } April 12, 2026 / 12:02 PM EDT / CBS News Add CBS News on Google The following is the transcript of an interview with Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on April 12, 2026.MARGARET BRENNAN: We turn now to Senator Mark Warner. He's the top Democrat on the intelligence committee, and he joins us from Charlottesville, Virginia. Good morning to you, Senator. SEN. MARK WARNER: Good morning, Margaret. MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to pick up where we just left off with the ambassador when he was talking about his country's intelligence estimates versus ours. He said he was in that room that day when Prime Minister Netanyahu pitched President Trump on this war that the U.S. is now in. He said these press accounts were wrong. In your understanding of U.S. Intelligence. Is it true? The CIA disputed the Mossad's assessment as farcical.SEN. WARNER: Well, Margaret, I was not in that meeting. I know two things. One, having seen all the intelligence, there was no imminent threat from Iran against the United States. And two, I take my former colleague, and now Secretary of State Marco Rubio, at his word when he publicly said, well, we knew the Israelis were going to strike Iran, so we felt we needed to go ahead and strike first, since Iran would attack us. So we are where we are, but let's- no American should forget this is a war of choice, chosen by the president, and if we just quickly look at the goals regime change, frankly, the new leadership is more radical getting the enriched uranium out would require 10,000 troops minimum, guarding a perimeter around a bunker where our troops would have to go in and get this very volatile uranium out. The Ukrainian- [sic.] I'm sorry, the Iranians cou...