David Frum

So I will just preface now with some thoughts before the dialogue about what is at hand.

I should stress, I record this program midday, Monday, March 2nd.

It will not be released on audio for a day and a half.

It will not be released on video for two days.

So there may be intervals.

There may be gaps in the things you know about the situation at home and abroad and what I know as I speak to you.

But I want to speak about something that just happened a very few minutes ago that is a real indicator, a real warning of the dangers that the United States faces in this war with Iran.

Shortly before I began the recording, CBS News obtained and published images or purported images of the alleged shooter in the Austin, Texas mass shooting.

The alleged shooter was wearing a t-shirt, which apparently, according to the images that have been released, reveals an image of the Iranian flag.

Now, I personally very much doubt that the shooter was in any way an agent or operative of the Iranian state and was in any way operating on behalf of the Iranian state.

Might be wrong, but I doubt it.

But there's no question that Iran is the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism and that it has over many decades not only built networks all over the world, but activated, triggered networks that have committed acts of terrorism all over the planet.

Buenos Aires, Berlin, Washington, D.C., any prudent administration.

in a war with such a power would have to anticipate that one resource available to that world's leading state sponsor of terrorism would be to activate terrorist networks in the United States.

You simply have to plan for that, even the best administration with the greatest respect for American liberties.

What if you have an administration that does not respect those liberties?

What if you have an administration with a proven record of falsely accusing Americans of terrorism for acts like legally recording the operations of immigration authorities that has repeatedly lied about what the Department of Homeland Security is doing and why it's doing it, that has covered up casualties of American citizens at the hands of the Department of Homeland Security?

What if you have that kind of government?

Well, that possibility of Iranian sleeper cells inside the United States, that's not just a resource for the Iranian regime to use against the United States.

That's a resource that the Trump administration can use against the liberties of American people.