Transcript: Rep. Jason Crow on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan," Sept. 6, 2026
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Updated on: September 6, 2026 / 2:36 PM EDT / CBS News
The following is the transcript of the interview with Rep. Jason Crow, Democrat of Colorado, that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on Sept. 6, 2026.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We're joined now by Colorado Democratic Congressman Jason Crow. It's good to have you here in person.
REPRESENTATIVE JASON CROW: Thank you. Thanks for having me.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So CBS is reporting that several dozen of the highest-ranking officials in the United States military were subjected to polygraph tests as part of the sweeping leak probe that Secretary Hegseth has ordered. This includes combatant commanders. They're looking for who leaked the highly classified details about the nation's stockpiles of sophisticated weapons. This is extremely rare.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Is it appropriate? Has Congress been told anything about the outcome?
REP. CROW: I haven't been briefed anything about this. I'm a senior member of the Armed Services Committee and the Intelligence Committee. We haven't received any information; it's just been public reports. And- and certainly, stopping leaks and protecting classified information is really important. And I would always support that. The problem is- is the broader context that Pete Hegseth has created here. He has purged over 80 generals and admirals, the top 10% of the entire military chain of command has been purged. We are at a 25-year low for the number of women on the promotion list, and he's created an environment of fear. He's pushed out journalists. He's pushed out media. This is part of his effort to create fear and to clamp down on information coming out of the Pentagon.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I mean, polygraph tests are part of routine cadence, but from what I understand, it's the number, it's the rank of people here. It also seems to confirm the reporting about the problems with America's munitions shortages.
MARGARET BRENNAN: What is the state of that?
REP. CROW: Well, because they don't- they don't want people to know. This is exactly the point. They don't want people to know what's actually happening. That's why they fired the editor of the Stars and Stripes, an independent newspaper that's been around since 1861 by the way- 1861, it was founded during the Civil War to be an independent media outlet for our service members, so that people would understand what they're going through. This is the broader trend of them not wanting anybody, including members of Congress, to understand what's going on. Munitions have been depleted. The stockpiles are very low, contrary to what Donald Trump wants us to believe. These types of precise munitions do not grow on trees. They take a long time to build up. They started this war. The president started this war without a plan, without a strategy. I mean, I just heard your prior guest, Secretary Wright, talk about numbers and barrels, and- and that's all tactical discussion, right? These are tactical decisions. There's no strategy here. There's no off-ramp. There's no longer-term plan for how we get out of this and how we normalize the markets and how we drive down prices for Americans.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Speaking of the region, one of the other things we're looking at is the 50,000 personnel the U.S. keeps currently in the region. The Navy's Fifth Fleet is headquartered in the country of Bahrain. The Chief of Naval Operations held a town hall this past week. A sailor asked about like, when can I go back and get all my gear, and he said, "We're not getting back in there anytime soon. I just want to be completely honest about that." Should we understand that as saying the U.S. is withdrawing or drawing down personnel from- from the Gulf?
REP. CROW: I- I have for a long time thought that we need to draw down our forces generally in the Middle East. We need to get out of endless conflict in the Middle East. Donald Trump campaigned on this, by the way. He knew that Americans are fed up with an endless cycle of conflict and the quagmires in the Middle East. Over the last--
MARGARET BRENNAN: But even from the Navy's Fifth Fleet- you want to pull back from that base?
REP. CROW: No, not from that particular base. I'm talking about overall. You'd mentioned the 50,000 service members. We've had 50,000 plus service members in this region since 2001. That- that is- that is a high high number. That is to support our endless conflicts in the region, right? We can move that number down. We can save money for taxpayers. We can be stronger. We can be more nimble, but the broader point here is that Donald Trump has doubled down on 25 years of endless conflict that's cost us $3 to $5 trillion, thousands of American lives, hundreds of thousands altered forever. Right? We- we have been at war in the region for 25 years now.
REP. CROW: Since 9/11. That's not okay. It's not inevitable. That does not need to happen, right? So, what is happening now is- is- is again, a perpetuation of this conflict that has to stop.
MARGARET BRENNAN: And I understand Secretary Hegseth sent letters out to the Army this week extending troop deployments as well, and our Ellee Watson obtained some of those letters. Let me ask you about a story we shared last week on Face the Nation. General Alizai, an Afghan commander who has asylum here in America, is under current government restrictions due to his nationality. He can't travel outside, he hasn't been able to bring his wife and three children to this country, even though he has asylum here. What are vets like you trying to do to reunite those who fought alongside us in that Afghan war?
REP. CROW: There's a bipartisan group of us who are- who are fighting hard to expand the Special Immigrant Visa program to what it used to be before the Trump administration came in and dismantled- entirely dismantled that program, cut the visas, defunded all of the agencies and departments and personnel that were working to keep that promise. We are pursuing temporary…
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