Epic Fury Escalates & Terror Overshadows Texas Primary | 3.3.26

Summary

Morning Wire Podcast Summary

Episode: Epic Fury Escalates & Terror Overshadows Texas Primary
Date: March 3, 2026
Hosts: John Bickley & Georgia Howe | The Daily Wire

Overview

This episode of Morning Wire covers the ongoing U.S.-Israel military operation against Iran—dubbed “Operation Epic Fury”—deployments of U.S. forces, American casualties, international response, and President Trump’s objectives. The show also addresses the aftermath of a mass shooting in Austin, Texas, being investigated as a potential terror attack, and its impact on pivotal Texas Senate primaries.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Operation Epic Fury: U.S. & Israel in Iran

Timestamps: 00:04–06:12, 07:16–11:43

• U.S. Forces in the Middle East: More troops are being deployed as President Trump prepares the public for an extended military campaign.
• Presidential Optimism & Sobering Losses:
  • Trump states the operation is ahead of schedule but acknowledges casualties:

    “We grieve for the four heroic American service members who have been killed in action... We continue this mission with ferocious, unyielding resolve to crush the threat this terrorist regime poses to the American people.”
    — President Trump [02:50]

  • CENTCOM later announces two additional deaths, bringing the total to six American losses.
• Objectives of Operation Epic Fury:
  • Destruction of Iran’s missile capabilities
  • Annihilation of Iran’s navy (10 ships already neutralized)
  • Preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons
  • Disrupting Iran’s ability to arm, fund, and direct terrorist proxies
  • Notably, regime change is absent from explicit goals, although Trump has called on Iranians to rise against their government.

  • “First, we're destroying Iran's missile capabilities. Second, we're annihilating their navy... Third, we're ensuring that [Iran] can never obtain a nuclear weapon. And finally, we're ensuring that the Iranian regime cannot continue to arm, fund and direct terrorist armies outside of their borders.”
    — President Trump [03:42]

• Troops on the Ground?: Trump tells the New York Post he doesn’t “have the yips” about boots on the ground but hedges, saying he probably won’t need them [04:08–04:59].
• Public Opinion on Strikes:
  • Reuters/Ipsos poll: Majority of Republicans support the strikes, support drops sharply among Democrats and independents.
  • 43% of Americans do not support the strikes; about 1 in 3 are unsure [05:07].
  • White House pushes historical context to sway public opinion (1979 embassy siege, recent attacks, plot on Trump’s life).

International Response & Prospects

Timestamps: 07:16–11:43

• Support from Allies:
  • Brigadier General Mark Kemet notes Saudi Arabia and UAE may formally join a coalition, offering critical precision weapons and intelligence or cyber support [07:54].
  • “Adding their capabilities into the mix would be tremendous assistance,” says Kemet.
• U.S. Weapons Readiness:
  • “We have pre-positioned stocks in most areas of operation or potential operations... All of our combatant commanders have ready and available stockpiles.”
    — Brig. Gen. Mark Kemet [08:38]
• Status of Iranian Proxies:
  • Iran’s proxies (Hezbollah, Hamas, Houthis, Iraqi militias) are weakened but not “completely powerless.” Houthi attacks could strain U.S. munitions if reignited [09:18].
• Troops on the Ground?:
  • Kemet is emphatic: “No, I don’t” expect U.S. boots on the ground. The goal should be an agreement by force, not regime change:

    “Let’s not expand and broaden the mission to do other less important things, less important to American interests.”
    — Brig. Gen. Mark Kemet [10:02–11:34]

Texas Mass Shooting & Security Concerns

Timestamps: 11:47–16:24

• Austin Attack:
  • Suspect immigrated from Senegal in 2000, became U.S. citizen in 2013, has a history of prior arrests.
  • Evidence of terror links: Wore a “Property of Allah” t-shirt and displayed the current Iranian flag during the shooting.
  • FBI treating the case as a potential terrorism nexus. 2 dead, 14 wounded [12:16–13:34].
  • Tragedy stirs debate on immigration and vetting.
• Sleeper Cells & Homeland Security:
  • Concerns raised about possible sleeper cells in the U.S.
  • War Secretary Pete Hegseth:

    “...across the interagency, in full coordination, of course, we're paying attention to any potentialities there. ...We're vigilant on that.” [13:54]

  • Ongoing debate about DHS funding and immigration enforcement’s role in national security [14:16].
• Texas Senate Primary:
  • Shooting overshadows today’s high stakes primary.
  • AG Kim Paxton speaks in favor of a Muslim immigration ban.
  • Key Democratic contenders: Jasmine Crock, James Talarico.
  • Republican field: Paxton, incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, Wesley Hunt. No clear Trump endorsement.
  • A May 26th runoff expected if no candidate earns 50%+.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• President Trump on U.S. resolve:

  “We continue this mission with ferocious, unyielding resolve...” [02:50]

• On U.S. Objectives in Iran:

  “We’re destroying Iran's missile capabilities... annihilating their navy... ensuring they never obtain a nuclear weapon.” [03:42]

• Brig. Gen. Mark Kemet, on mission clarity:

  “If we can achieve that... let's not expand and broaden the mission to do other less important things, less important to American interests.” [10:42–11:34]

• War Secretary Pete Hegseth, on domestic threats:

  “We're vigilant on that.” [13:54]

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Segment Timestamps

• Operation Epic Fury & Trump Remarks: 00:04–06:12
• International Response & Brig. Gen. Kemet: 07:16–11:43
• Texas Shooting, Terror Fears, Senate Primary: 11:47–16:24

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Tone & Language

The hosts and contributors maintain a brisk, fact-driven, and serious tone, layering policy analysis with on-the-ground implications. Guest experts and officials offer measured, informed perspectives, while political context—both public opinion and electoral factors—is woven throughout.

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For listeners seeking clarity on escalating U.S.-Iran tensions, coalition strategy, American casualties, terrorism fears at home, and Texas political drama, this episode delivers concise, actionable insights from multiple expert angles.

Transcript

[Georgia Howe]

More U.S. forces head to the Middle east as President Trump prepares the public for a weeks long campaign.

[President Donald Trump]

We're already substantially ahead of our time projections, but whatever the time is, it's okay. Whatever it takes. We projected four to five weeks.

[Georgia Howe]

I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire executive editor John Bickley. It's Tuesday, March 3rd, and this is Morning Wire.

[Morning Wire Host]

Isolated and alone, the Iranian regime crumbles as more countries signal support for Operation Epic Fury.

[Brigadier General Mark Kemet]

All of them are no doubt providing intelligence support, and I would suspect some of them are providing cyber support as well.

[Georgia Howe]

And as Texas continues to reel from the mass shooting in Austin, voters in the state head to the polls today for crucial primaries.

[Morning Wire Host]

Thanks for waking up with MORNING wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.

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[Morning Wire Host]

U. S. Israel operation in Iran has reached its fourth day with potentially weeks more strikes to go.

[Georgia Howe]

President Trump delivered his first live remarks on Operation Epic Fury from the White House yesterday. Here to update us on the latest is Daily Wire contributor Tim Pierce. So, Tim, news on the conflict is flooding in every hour and we're hearing more now from the president. What did he say?

[Morning Wire Host]

Yeah.

[Daily Wire Contributor Tim Pierce]

The American military has continued to pound targets deep within Iran and President Trump has sounded optimistic about the way the operation is going. In fact, he's that the operation is way ahead of its initial four to five week time frame. But that optimism has been tempered with the tragic news of more American deaths. News broke Monday morning of fourth death in the attack that had killed three service members on Sunday. Here was President Trump honoring them in remarks, his first live remarks since the start of the operation from the White House on Monday.

[President Donald Trump]

Today we grieve for the four heroic American service members who have been killed in action and send our love and support to their families in their memory. We continue this mission with ferocious, unyielding resolve to crush the threat this terrorist regime poses to the American people.

[Daily Wire Contributor Tim Pierce]

Then U.S. central Command announced two more service members deaths later in the afternoon. CENTCOM said they were, quote, previously unaccounted for service members from a facility that was struck during Iran's initial attacks in the region. The losses have been expected, and the president says he is prepared to see the operation through.

[Georgia Howe]

And what can Americans at home expect to see out of this operation in the next few weeks?

[Daily Wire Contributor Tim Pierce]

Yeah, that is the question that Americans most want answered now. And President Trump has offered more on that front. He laid out the objectives of Operation Epic Fury yesterday as well.

[President Donald Trump]

First, we're destroying Iran's missile capabilities. Second, we're annihilating their navy. We've knocked out already 10 ships. Third, we're ensuring that the world's number one sponsor of terror can never obtain a nuclear weapon. And finally, we're ensuring that the Iranian regime cannot continue to arm, fund and direct terrorist armies outside of their borders.

[Daily Wire Contributor Tim Pierce]

Now, one goal that was not included in the president's list is that of regime change. So it appears to be somewhat of an open question. War Secretary Pete Hegseth said Monday that this is not a regime change war, though he essentially said that if regime change does happen, so be it. And, of course, President Trump multiple times now has called on the Iranian people to rise up and take control of their government from the religious extremists that have controlled it since 1979. But regardless, the US and Israel still seem to have plenty of targets to work through before they can say the job is finished. And toward that end, the president told the New York Post on Monday that he would not rule out putting American troops on the ground. According to the Post, Trump said that he doesn't, quote, have the yips with respect to boots on the ground. He appeared to hedge. He said he would say he probably wouldn't need them or that he didn't think they were necessary.

[Georgia Howe]

Now, as far as public perception of this conflict, we have some initial polling on how Americans are reacting. What does that polling tell us?

[Daily Wire Contributor Tim Pierce]

Right. Trump said that he is committed to the operation regardless of polls, that he is focused on doing the right thing, but it does seem to be at odds with Americans feelings on the Iran strikes. A new Reuters Ipsus poll conducted on Saturday and Sunday says that Americans feel like Trump was too quick to approve the strikes against Iran. Now a majority of Republicans back the move, but that support falls to about 1 in 4 when Democrats and independents are included. About 43% do not support the strikes, while about 1 in 3Americans are unsure. So there is still a lot of room for opinion polls to move on this. And for its part, the White House seems intent on swaying the public to support the operation. The president and the White House has taken every opportunity to tell Americans about the decades long abuses and attacks made by Iran against Americans, starting with the seizure of the US embassy in Tehran in 1979 and continuing to the present day with attacks on US bases in the Middle east and a plot on Trump's life.

[Georgia Howe]

While the list is long and doesn't even include the atrocities against the Iranian people. Tim, thanks for reporting.

[Daily Wire Contributor Tim Pierce]

Thanks for having me.

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[Georgia Howe]

A growing list of countries have expressed support for the US Operation in Iran, and that support may become more important should the conflict stretch on for weeks. Meanwhile, Iran appears to be increasingly isolated.

[Morning Wire Host]

Joining us now to discuss the role other countries may play in the military campaign is Brigadier General Mark Kemet, who's had decades dealing with the Middle east at centcom. First of all, thank you so much for coming on, sir. Lake, so we've seen this series of missile attacks from Iran hitting other countries in the region. Do you foresee any of those countries taking more substantial action to aid the US in any substantive way in the future?

[Brigadier General Mark Kemet]

Well, there are indications that both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates will participate as part of a coalition. I don't know if that's been formalized yet, but adding their capabilities into the mix right now would be tremendous assistance, not the least being their significant stockpiles of precision weapons that obviously we've got pressure on our forces in terms of using them, but still having those precision weapons, both attack and defense, for our other requirements around the world.

[Morning Wire Host]

Speaking of our stockpiles, President Trump alluded to the fact that we have weapons around the world that we can access in the future if this does go on for a long time.

[Daily Wire Contributor Tim Pierce]

Is that correct?

[Brigadier General Mark Kemet]

That's correct. We have pre positioned stocks in most of the areas of operation or potential operations. For example, to support pacomp Pacific Command, Indo Pacific Command, to support Europe, all of our combatant commanders have ready and available stockpiles in case they need to go operational. I was a planner at Centcom 20 years ago. Obviously Iran was one of the plans and it was never anticipated to be a short war.

[Morning Wire Host]

Now we've seen Iran be largely defanged over the last two years since October 7, with their proxies greatly debilitated. Does that shorten the timeline of what you would have projected a couple of years ago?

[Brigadier General Mark Kemet]

It always depended on whether the proxies would participate in armed aggression. October 7th changed everything that drew the proxies in Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis, the Hashed in Iraq and every other proxy that starts with H. They have been severely defanged, but they are not completely powerless. I think everybody's watching the Houthis. If the Houthis start their attacks again, that could put a real strain again. That ammunition consumption that we talked about earlier.

[Morning Wire Host]

Final question, and one that a lot of Americans are of course very worried about. Do you see the prospect of putting troops on the ground in Iran anytime soon?

[Brigadier General Mark Kemet]

No, I don't. Look, I think, and this may be a long answer, but it's important to understand that what we are trying to do, in my belief is since negotiations failed on the issues of nuclear enrichment, proxy operations and the ballistic missile program, since the negotiations failed to achieve an agreement, we are trying to achieve an agreement rather than at the diplomatic table on the battlefield. What I hope more than anything else is that we don't decide to do more and allow mission creep in this operation. People are talking about helping the protesters. People are talking about things such as putting American troops on the ground. I hope we have learned our lesson over the last 20 years. I believe that our end state ought to be that the military operations force the Iranians back to the table and far more conciliatory towards not only America's interests, but the interests of Israel and the region, which means no nukes, no proxies, and a severely degraded ballistic missile program. If we can achieve that, that's what we set out to do. And let's not expand and broaden the mission to do other less important things, less important to American interests.

[Morning Wire Host]

Right. This is an administration whose mantra is America first. So we'll see if they see the situation through that same lens. Brigadier General, thank you so much for talking with us.

[Daily Wire Political Reporter Cameron Arcand]

Sure.

[Brigadier General Mark Kemet]

Thank you for having me.

[Morning Wire Host]

As Texas reels from a mass shooting, the FBI is investigating as a potential terror attack. Voters in the state are heading to the polls for pivotal primaries that could determine the balance of power in the Senate.

[Georgia Howe]

Joining us now to discuss is Daily Wire political reporter Cameron Arcand. So, Cameron, let's start with this tragedy in Texas over the weekend, which is, of course, looming over everything happening in this state. We've learned a lot more over the last 24 hours. What do we know about that shooting and the suspect?

[Daily Wire Political Reporter Cameron Arcand]

So the suspect has been in the United States since 2000. He immigrated here from Senegal, and he had a long rap sheet of prior arrests, including a lawsuit that the New York Post reported on for reckless driving in New York City. So it's very interesting to kind of see the development here. He became a United states citizen in 2013. We're already seeing some pushback and some people asking, how was he able to become a citizen? Why is he still in the United States? United States, as we have this conversation about immigration nationwide, in terms of the actual shooting, the investigation, local police have said they don't want to speculate on a motive just yet. However, we've already seen strong evidence here. And the FBI has already said that they're looking at this as a potential nexus for terrorism. The guy was wearing a shirt that said Property of Allah. Right. And he was wearing another shirt that showed the Iranian flag and not the lion and sun flag that came before the revolution that we saw there. It was the, you know, the current flag There. So this is really showing some of that, those concerns that are currently in the country right now. And to remind everyone, this tragic shooting in Austin, Texas, early Sunday morning took place at a bar and resulted in the death of two individuals and 14 others were injured.

[Georgia Howe]

Now, this was a concern when President Trump was floating the idea of an attack on Iran, that there were these sleeper cells in the United States and some of them could activate and carry out terror attacks. Is there still a concern that there's more like that out there?

[Daily Wire Political Reporter Cameron Arcand]

Yes. So I asked War Secretary Pete Hegstath about this today. Here's what he had to say.

[War Secretary Pete Hegseth]

Well, across the interagency, in full coordination, of course, we're paying attention to any potentialities there. This is a former regime, a regime that seeks to export that ideology and try to sow terror. We're ready for that. We've seen these types of folks before, and the American people can rest assured that, but we're vigilant on that.

[Daily Wire Political Reporter Cameron Arcand]

So for some context here, there's been concerns about sleeper sales within the United States for some time now. Last year, as tensions escalated, the Department of Homeland Security actually put out a bulletin outlining some of these potential concerns, including if there was ever gonna be a direct call for jihad globally and how that could impact the US Homeland. Of course, right now, the big debate is that DHS does not have the proper funding that it needs in order to fight some of these things. And that's the argument that a lot of Republicans are making in Congress. They want to see an end to this shutdown over some of the federal immigration enforcement tactics. But in the meantime, the top concern over here is about some of those potential domestic terror threats, especially as we're seeing people around the country, particularly in areas with high populations of Iranian Americans like Los Angeles, out in the streets rallying in support of the actions that we've seen.

[Georgia Howe]

Now, all of this comes with the backdrop of the Senate primary that's being held today. What have the candidates said about this shooting, and what should we know about those races?

[Daily Wire Political Reporter Cameron Arcand]

So the Senate candidates have spoken out, expressed their thoughts in regards to the shooting. Most notably, we saw Attorney General Kim Paxton saying that he would agree with a ban on immigration from those who are Muslim coming into the United States. But in terms of the primary itself, we're going to see a very, very competitive night in in Texas. On the Democratic side, you have Representative Jasmine Crock and State Senator James Talarico that are going to be battling it out. And on Republican side, you not only have Paxton, you have incumbent Senator John Cornyn, as well as Representative Wesley Hunt. None of them were able to secure a Trump endorsement unique to them. But whoever gets those top two slots will then go on to a May runoff election that is expected to happen if no candidate hits over 50% in this race. And whoever wins that primary on May 26th will then become the Republican nominee.

[Georgia Howe]

Well, a lot of eyes on Texas today for all of those reasons. Cameron, thanks for reporting.

[Daily Wire Political Reporter Cameron Arcand]

Thank you.

[Morning Wire Host]

Thanks for waking up with us. And for those listening to the show, you can also now watch the show free on Daily Wire. Plus, we'll be back this evening.

[Daily Wire Contributor Tim Pierce]

More news you need to know.