English transcript

Senator, just big picture, where do you think we are in the course of this current campaign

dealing with Iran?

Well, Charlie, well, I think right now the main objective is to degrade Iran's ability

to destroy targets within the region and certainly degrade their ability to continue to clog

up the Strait of Hormuz.

And I'm sure what President Trump is trying to do is degrade it to a point where our allies

will figure out it's not as risky as they're assessing it is right now, and they will come

and start escorting ships so we can open up Strait of Hormuz.

I mean, that's crucial we do so, and it's also crucial that we can't let this job undone.

Leaving the Iranian regime standing, not completely weakened, not certainly threatened

by the Iranian people to have it taken over, I think would be a mistake.

But the greatest hope I have there is reports I'm reading where Iranians themselves are

calling in airstrikes to their leaders, and leaders are running scared.

They're hiding in tents.

They don't know where to run.

I think President Trump is probably right.

We're getting down to the third layer of leadership.

Now, they've got a lot of layers.

They've got a lot of people in the IRGC and the Basij, and these people are brutal.

They executed 30,000 to 40,000 of their own citizens, just hung some young people, a top-flight wrestler.

I mean, it's grotesque what these people are doing.

That's why we can't allow them to stay in power.

Truly.

Well, if you wind up with a much degraded regime, but that degraded regime remains in

power and the Strait of Hormuz opens up, would that be considered a success in your mind?

Probably as long as we retain the right and ability to continue to degrade further leadership

and make sure that they can never reconstitute their missile manufacturing capability, their

drone capabilities, and never reconstitute their nuclear enrichment.