Below is a transcript of the interview with HR McMaster, CBS News contributor and former National Security Advisor, on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” airing on September 29, 2024.
ROBERT COSTA: We are joined now by retired Lieutenant General HR McMaster. He is the National Security Advisor in the Trump administration, but he has not endorsed any of the candidates in the presidential race at this time. He is also a CBS News contributor and author of the new book, “At War With Ourselves.” Good morning, General, thank you for coming.
LT. GENERAL HR MCMASTER: Robert, nice of you.
ROBERT COSTA: You just heard from retired General McChrystal. He has made an endorsement. You haven’t. why not
LT. GENERAL HR MCMASTER: Well, Robert, I respect his- you know, the ability to make those decisions and the right to make those decisions. But what I’m trying to say now is that the military has become addicted to partisan politics, and you hear both sides trying to involve the military. Now, of course, General McChrystal endorsed Vice President Harris as an individual, but I think sometimes it’s hard to distinguish between individual endorsements and the military taking medicine into partisan politics, right? You hear- you hear this narrative today, you know, from some people on the right, that the military has woken up, or from the left that the military is extremist. Hey, the military isn’t woke or extremists, right? The military performs its duties according to the Constitution and to whomever is elected as commander-in-chief. So that has been a big part of the reticence. And then another role, I think, Robert, I mean, another reason, I don’t think anybody needs me to tell them how to choose, right? In that book and elsewhere, I put everything — everything, right, good, bad, ugly, you know, from the Trump administration. But I did it in the context of the eight years of Obama that followed and the four that preceded it, and the four years of Biden that followed. So I think voters should make up their own minds, and what I’ve tried to do is help inform voters, no matter what they want.
ROBERT COSTA: Let’s go to the Middle East. What is your view? You heard from Senator Cotton, you heard from General McChrystal. How do you see the possibility of war on the horizon, if any, between Israel and Iran? Or is there anything that can be done, especially by the United States, to contain what is happening?
LT. GENERAL HR MCMASTER: Robert, I would say there has been a war between Israel and Iran, and it’s a- it’s a war that Iran has been waging for forty plus. Nasrallah, who was at the beginning of Hezbollah, who was there when they killed 241 Marines in- Beirut, and started a campaign against not only what Nasrallah called the cancerous boil of Israel, but the great Satan of the United States. And Nasrallah, remember what the catchphrase is at the end like, almost- many speeches he gave, that is, Jews are vulnerable because they love life. We can take away from them. We will win, because they love life and we love death. So the Israelis had no choice. Remember, after the horrific attack on October 7, when Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel in solidarity with Hamas. This led to the evacuation of 10% of Israeli territory. About 70,000 Israelis left their homes. So I think Israel is taking the right approach to fight an enemy that can rise, on its own terms, with impunity. And I think more and more the United States should act like it knows what the return address is, in Iran. Now is the time to ease the pressure on Iran, so that the available cash flow–
ROBERT COSTA: But, what does that mean? Just about financial actions, or do you expect that there is a US military role on the line for the United States in the Middle East?
LT. GENERAL HR MCMASTER: Well, there’s been a — there’s been a military role —
ROBERT COSTA: In terms of ground forces or air strikes?
LT. GENERAL HR MCMASTER: Well, I think – I think both of these things should be on the table. And I think we need to act like we know where the rockets are coming from, the 150,000 rockets that Hezbollah is pointing at Israel, the 40,000 or so members of the Iranian proxy army in Syria, Palestine, along with Jihad and Hamas in the West Bank. , what is left of Hamas in Gaza, they are all trained, equipped, provided by Iran, to create this ring of fire around Israel, and destroy Israel and kill all the Jews. Precursors for it to act on us. Robert, 175 attacks on US forces and US installations by Iranian proxies since October 8 last year.
ROBERT COSTA: General, you said that the United States and Israel should be in lockstep, or at least in sync, going forward. But the Pentagon said, the Biden administration said, they did not know about the attack beforehand. So what does that say about the actual situation between Israel and the United States?
LT. GENERAL HR MCMASTER: I think Israel has determined that it must protect security and secrecy during this operation. If you think about the blows that were sent to Hezbollah in the last week, 10 days, it’s really unprecedented, you know, kill a lot of people, win a lot with beeps and then walkie talkies, and then when they can’t talk safely, they meet at the location in Beirut , hit that target. So, Nasrallah has been taken out, but also all the cadres around him. It has been decades of relationships and knowledge, so I think now is the time to impose financial sanctions. Why didn’t the Biden administration impose Trump-era sanctions on Iran, and allow about $100 billion to flow to that theocratic dictatorship? Now is the time to reverse that policy.
ROBERT COSTA: So- Israel has taken military targets. Lebanon says many civilians have been killed. What should the U.S. do in terms of protecting civilian casualties going forward, talking to Israel about the issue, what should it do on the civilian front?
LT. GENERAL HR MCMASTER: Well, you want, you need firepower to defeat this enemy, but you also want to apply firepower with- with discrimination.
ROBERT COSTA: Is it over?
LT. PUBLIC HR MCMASTER: Well, it depends on the calculus at the time. Remember, the bunker where Nas-Nasrallah was killed is underground, several stories underground, under where? Apartment complex. And it became Hezbollah. Remember, he said, we love death. Remember what Hamas leaders said before the October 7 attacks? The purpose, one of the purposes, of the attack, was to have some of their own people killed so that they could be used against Israel. So it is very important, I think, at this stage, to continue to impress the Israelis, to apply their firepower with discrimination, but also to recognize that this terrorist organization is the main cause of the violence and the poverty and the suffering of the people in Gaza. and people in Lebanon. Look at Lebanon’s great promise. It’s a beautiful country. Look at what Hezbollah did in the country, with its alliance with the Syrians in the 2000s, remember, we had the Cedar Revolution in 2006 after the assassination of Hariri. I mean, the Lebanese are poor, in large measure because of Hezbollah.
ROBERT COSTA: And finally here, former President Donald Trump, who you know, he met with President Zelenskyy recently. He continued to talk about possible mediation between Zelenskyy and Putin. Did you buy it?
LT. PUBLIC HR MCMASTER: You know, I don’t really buy it about, you know, hey, in 24 hours, maybe- I think it’s a real- it’s a real myth, right? It is a real misunderstanding of war to assume that you can get good political results without good military results. This never happens in war. So I think the right thing to do is, if you want to speed up progress, to a settlement, is to convince Putin that he’s losing the war. I think this is the only way you get a good settlement. How to do it? You demonstrate our determination to continue to support the Ukrainians as they defend themselves against continued attacks by Russia. That’s how you can, perhaps, the ideal situation for negotiations.
ROBERT COSTA: General McMaster, thank you for coming on “Face The Nation.” Hope you come again. Thank you very much.
LT. PUBLIC HUMAN RESOURCES MCMASTER: Thank you.
ROBERT COSTA: And we’ll be back in a moment.
