There Was NO Imminent Threat from Iran (w/ Erin Banco)
Bulwark Takes
The Bulwark
4.7 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 20 March 2026
⏱️ 27 minutes
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Summary
Sam Stein talks with Reuters national security reporter Erin Banco about how the U.S. ended up at war with Iran—and why the official story doesn’t hold up. Intelligence assessments didn’t show an imminent threat, but the administration moved forward anyway after months of pressure, shifting justifications, and a last-minute decision from Trump.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, everybody. It's me, Sam Stein, managing editor to Boilwick, and I'm pleased to welcome back, |
| 0:04.5 | Aaron Banco, National Security Reporter. For Reuters, Aaron's been on once before. I've been meeting to have her back again. Aaron's one of the best in the business. She didn't pay me to say that, but we did work together in a prior life when we were both at The Daily Beast. Aaron, thanks for doing this. I really appreciate it. Yeah, thanks for having me back. I know. I, |
| 0:22.6 | I toiled with not doing it again, but when we were both at The Daily Beast. Aaron, thanks for doing this. I really appreciate it. Yeah, thanks for having me back. |
| 0:22.1 | I know. I toiled with not doing it again, but the last time went smoothly enough. |
| 0:26.4 | So let's hope this one doesn't have any fireworks. |
| 0:29.6 | We're going to be talking about what's going on in Iran. |
| 0:32.5 | You've been reporting continuously about a number of different facets of the war. I think I want to do this chronologically, |
| 0:40.3 | even though you're supposed to be forward-looking these things. I think it's important to start |
| 0:44.3 | with the sort of essential question, which is, why did we get into this war? What was the administration |
| 0:49.3 | looking at specifically? We know there's stated rationales, although they've kind of jumped all |
| 0:55.8 | over the place. But from your reporting from the Natsakh community, what was the real reason for |
| 1:01.7 | getting into this war? I mean, we have our own reporting. And as you stated, you know, |
| 1:06.2 | the administration has its own talking points on why it's doing this. But also through the last couple of weeks, it's became apparent that while the talking points may be more aligned now publicly, there are actually people inside the administration. |
| 1:21.4 | Everybody has a little bit of a different answer. |
| 1:23.7 | But truly, this story really goes back to Trump's reelection and his inauguration. |
| 1:28.9 | Trump really enters this administration with the very public messaging that he does not want to get into a war with Iran. |
| 1:36.9 | That's not something he wants to do. He wants to try to avoid it. |
| 1:39.9 | It becomes very clear that he's going to try to go the diplomatic route with Iran. |
| 1:43.5 | But at the same |
| 1:44.1 | time, Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu is very resolved in the fact that in maybe late 2025, |
| 1:53.4 | 2025 or early 2006, there's going to be some sort of Israeli action, military action against Iran. |
| 1:59.8 | And so really, over a year Netanyahu and Trump meet several times. |
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