At my direction, the United States military actively supported the defense of Israel, and we're still assessing the impact.

But based on what we know now, the attack appears to have been defeated and ineffective.

And this is testament to Israeli military capability and the U.S. military.

I'm also a testament to intensive planning between the United States and Israel to anticipate and defend against the brazen attack we expect it.

Make no mistake, the United States is fully, fully, fully supportive of Israel.

That was President Joe Biden addressing a major escalation in the Middle East. Iran's ballistic missile

attacked on Israel. We'll bring you the very latest on that developing story in just a moment.

And we'll go through the big moments of last night's vice presidential debate, which could be the final

matchup between the campaigns before Election

Day. And we'll have an update on recovery efforts across the Southeast as President Biden

prepares to get a firsthand look today at some of the devastation. Good morning and welcome to way too early on this Wednesday, October 2nd.

I'm Jonathan Lemire. Thanks for starting your day with us. We have an extraordinarily busy

show for you this morning. And we'll begin with the

latest developments out of the Middle East, where Iran has launched a ballistic missile attack

against Israel. Yesterday, Iran fired about 180 missiles into Israeli territory, forcing

millions of people, millions of people to take cover in bomb shelters. But with the help of U.S.

forces, most of the missiles were intercepted and no deaths were reported in Israel. One civilian,

however, did die in the West Bank. A small town in central Israel was also hit, damaging a school

building. Thankfully, no one was injured in that attack.

Iran claims it targeted three military bases, including an air base in the desert. The IDF says

that attack had no impact on the Air Force's operational capabilities. Iran says the strikes were

in response to the killings of two militant group leaders and an Iranian commander.

...