Transcript: Sen. Ted Cruz on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” March 1, 2026

The following is the text of the interview with Sen. Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, aired on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on March 1, 2026.

MARGARET BRENNAN: We now go to Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz, who joins us from Austin. Hello to you, Senator. I’m glad we got your sound working. He’s from Houston, I believe this morning.

SENATOR TED CRUZ (R-TX): I am. Hello, Margaret.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Hello, I want to ask you about Austin, though, because there are reports of three people dead, more than a dozen injured following a mass shooting in that city. The FBI said this morning that the Joint Terrorism Task Force has joined the investigation. Is there a connection to terrorism or what is happening in relation to the global alert at this time?

SEN. CRUZ: We, we don’t know for sure that there are initial reports that this shooting may be connected to terrorism, but we need to follow the evidence and see, in particular, what caused the shooting. Certainly, Heidi and I are praying for those injured and the families of those killed, but, at this point, we don’t know what the evidence will show about whether this was an act of terrorism.

MARGARET BRENNAN: We will continue to follow those, those initial reports, but Senator just looking at the global environment, CENTCOM announced that three Americans were killed and five were seriously injured in this operation. President Trump and President-Vice President Vance are campaigning to keep America out of new wars. What do you say to the Americans this morning who are asking why we are in this conflict now?

SEN. CRUZ: President Trump’s decision to launch this decisive action against Iran is the single most important decision of his presidency. I think he stated very powerfully and effectively why he took this action. He is taking this step because the government of Iran has a bad and bad influence. They have been the leading state sponsor of terrorism for 47 years. During that time, they killed nearly 1,000 Americans. They provide more than 90% of the money for Hamas. They provide more than 90% of the funding of Hezbollah, the Iranian ayatollah, until yesterday, actively trying to kill the President of the United States Donald J. Trump. I spent the day with President Trump on Friday, just before he launched this attack. He and I discussed this in detail on Friday. My advice to him was that the Iranian regime was never weak, that it was getting stronger and now was the time. My advice was don’t miss this opportunity. I think the president acted bravely. He took decisive action, and Iran is no longer led by a theocratic, murderous dictator, making America much safer.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Senator, you won’t find many people in any way defending the supreme leader, that’s for sure. However, endangering the American people is what I am pushing for here. Did the president explain to you why he withdrew active diplomacy? Because he was on that flight at the same time, the vice president of the United States was talking to the Omani mediator, who was trying to get an agreement and told us that they were close. Why not choose diplomacy?

SEN. CRUZ: Because diplomacy was a huge failure. The Iranians approach diplomacy with arrogance, which is outright hubris. They said they will not stop getting rich. No matter what they would continue to enrich uranium. They would not discuss enriching the egg. They want the right to enrich uranium in underground settlements without supervision. As President Trump said on Friday while he was with me in Texas, his line was not suggesting anything, and the Iranians refused to discuss it. They refused to discuss their representatives. They refused to discuss Hamas and Hezbollah and the Houthis. And President Trump understood that the Iran concession talks were just a ploy, and that the only answer- my advice to him, I said, is there’s only one deal you have to accept. And it’s the agreement that Maduro gave you, that is if you want to leave the country, you can do that. Anything else is unacceptable. Again, and Khamenei made his choice.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, there are arguments there about your interpretation of exactly what was on the table and what the administration had indicated they were willing to accept in terms of allowing enrichment for medical purposes and things like that, but, but that has now been made clear–

SEN. CRUZ: —well Margaret, what I just told you–

MARGARET BRENNAN: –Yes–

SEN. CRUZ: –what I just told you is almost verbatim, what Secretary of State Marco Rubio told me yesterday.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Can you tell us now if you believe there was an ongoing nuclear weapons program? One of the top arms control experts out there, David Albright, has written that there should be an immediate start to rapid response operations to protect Iran’s nuclear arsenal right now. Can you assure the public that it will be protected, and if so, who is doing it if there are no Israeli or US forces on the ground?

SEN. CRUZ: So there is no doubt that last year, Iran had an active and progressive nuclear weapons program. We took out a lot of that at the end of the 12-Day War, where Israel had taken out–

MARGARET BRENNAN: –That the US intelligence tests were not made public, if that is what they are being informed about.

SEN. CRUZ: We went out — we launched targeted bombs at the end of the 12-Day War, where we dropped the equivalent of a third of a nuclear weapon in those underground structures, facilities like Fordow, which was built under the mountain. The bunker buster bombs that we used, Israel does not have those bombs. No other country has those bombs. We released them last year. The Iranians were still willing to rebuild them, and one of the things we’re doing right now is taking out their missiles, especially the southern missile belt. Currently, Iran is building about 100 missiles a month. They’re building missiles to threaten their neighbors, and I’m going to target them–

MARGARET BRENNAN: –They’re kicking some of them out now from their neighbors.

SEN. CRUZ: Yes.

MARGARET BRENNAN: To our partners.

SEN. CRUZ: They showed strength. They attacked almost every Arab neighbor around them. They are shooting arrows that – it’s like they want to show the world how hateful they are.

MARGARET BRENNAN: But in terms of containing the risk, who is protecting the nuclear material that Iran still has? Who does that?

SEN. CRUZ: Look, a lot of the nuclear stuff I didn’t say anything about, somehow. What I said was that they were building nuclear weapons last year, and our bombing was taking that out. They had a constant desire to rebuild themselves. I have no current information on the progress they have made in rebuilding their nuclear weapons since we blew up their facilities. I have no indication that they were close to getting nuclear weapons because our bombing was so bad. And Margaret, that’s one of the reasons I appealed to President Trump, now is the time. You know, dictators survive because they are seen as unstoppable. And this time, Iran completely lost the 12-Day War, which weakened the regime and stopped what the president is doing now.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Senator Ted Cruz, we should leave it at that for today. Thank you for joining us.

SEN. CRUZ: Thank you.

MARGARET BRENNAN: We’ll be back now with more Face the Nation. Stay with us.