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Transcript: Rep. Don Bacon on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” Aug. 16, 2026

2026-08-16T12:17:00-0400 / CBS News

The following is the transcript of an interview with Rep. Don Bacon, Republican of Nebraska, that aired on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Aug. 16, 2026.

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ED O’KEEFE: We turn now to Republican Congressman Don Bacon. He joins us from Omaha, Nebraska. Good morning, Congressman, and we understand it is your birthday. So happy birthday, and thank you for spending part of it with us.

REPRESENTATIVE DON BACON: Good morning to you, and yeah, I’m nine years old and dog years, so that makes me feel better.

ED O’KEEFE: Okay, well, if you could do the math, you’ll figure that out. But we appreciate you being here. I want to start this morning with something the president had to say on Friday about the state of the economy and the state of the war with Iran. Take a listen.

[BEGIN VC]

DONALD TRUMP: For you to pay a tiny little bit more for your gasoline, just remember you’re doing it so that a very evil country cannot have- a country really, it’s the number one state sponsor of terror in the world. We don’t want to have them have a nuclear weapon. So remember that when you have to pay a little bit more, you’re at $4. It’s okay. I mean, it’s- I’m not- I’m not- I’ll never apologize. I did the right thing.

[END VC]

ED O’KEEFE: I know you’re not running for re-election this fall, Congressman. But in the context of the midterm elections, is the president’s justifications for gas prices across the country helpful to Republicans on the ballot this fall?

REP. BACON: I think here in- in the tape you just played, he was being honest. And I think he was setting maybe false expectations in the previous months during the initial, you know, parts of this campaign with Iran, saying, “We’re going to get a deal tomorrow, we’re going to get a deal tomorrow,” and- and not. This is going to be a longer term fight, and I think he needed to set appropriate and honest expectations here. Iran has killed about 1,000 Americans. It was the- has been the world’s leading exporter of terror. In fact, 600 Americans were killed in Iraq from primarily those very dangerous roadside bombs that Iran made and sent to all the terrorists in Iraq. And I just think it was important for him to level with the American people. This is going to be a tough fight, and we do not- we cannot allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon. I don’t think we should allow Iran to kill 1,000 Americans. This should probably been done a long time ago.

ED O’KEEFE: Yeah.

REP. BACON: But I think with the- he started out this whole war with, “This is going to be an easy fight. We’re going to be done here. It’s going to take a month, two months. Okay, we’re going to get a deal tomorrow.” And I think that that- those false expectations hurt him, and it’s hurt the- the favorability of what we’re trying to do here.

ED O’KEEFE: But do you get a sense he feels the pain of Americans, the economic pain?

REP. BACON: He doesn’t communicate it well. As you mentioned, he makes light of the affordability question, and we do have an affordability problem. And I think, you know, I think a better way for him to frame it, we had 9% inflation under Joe Biden. Of course, it went down towards the end of his presidency, but the Americans have never recovered from that. And once again, inflation is slightly higher than wages.

ED O’KEEFE: Yeah.

REP. BACON: So, I think most Americans are feeling the pain at the grocery store and the gas. So, I think it’s better just to acknowledge, hey, this is a problem, and we got- we got to work towards getting wages climbing faster than inflation. But one of the ways we could do that is to change his tariff policy. Tariffs have hurt inflation. It’s not only just the war with Iran and gas; tariffs have also had a- an impact here. And I would encourage the president to review the tariff policy. Global tariffs, it ends up being a tax on consumers, and we’re paying more because of it.

ED O’KEEFE: Well, you know, the fate of the USS Abraham Lincoln has been in the news in recent days. It is now expected to return to port after a more than nine-month deployment amid concerns about living conditions aboard the vessel. The president was also asked about this on Friday. Take a listen to this what he said.

[BEGIN VC]

DONALD TRUMP: No, no, no. Not nearly long enough.

[END VC]

ED O’KEEFE: Not nearly long enough the deployment has been, he said. Was the president wrong to be dismissive about the concerns aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln?

REP. BACON: I think so, Ed. It would have been better to acknowledge, hey, long deployments are hard. You know, I did one year in Iraq. I had another three- three other deployments to Iraq or the area that were shorter. But when I was in Iraq for a year, there were Marines and soldiers there for 18 months. So I think it’s better to acknowledge, hey, this is hard on the families. It’s hard on the service members. Thank them for being willing to defend our country and doing these 10-month deployments if you’re on an aircraft carrier. I think that would have been a much more better way of addressing this issue. It is hard on families, we should acknowledge that. But we’ve done it for previous wars and deployments, and we’ll have to do so in the future. I think that’s a better way to phrase it.

ED O’KEEFE: The USS George Washington is now headed into that region as the Lincoln comes back or heads to port. Do you think there needs to be some kind of congressional investigation or review of the last nine months and what was going on aboard that carrier?

REP. BACON: Now we should have oversight. We should bring in Secretary of the Navy and or the Commander, the- the Service Chief of the Navy, and have them explain to us the truth on that. But I- I served on an aircraft carrier as an Air Force guy during my 30 years in the Air Force, and we had some of these incidences when I was on the carrier. This was back in 1996, when we weren’t- weren’t at war. We were doing the north- the southern no-fly zone for Iraq. We were trying to deter Iran, but we had a couple members jump overboard and commit suicide while I was on that deployment. So, these incidences, they’re terrible, they’re sad, but it’s- but it has happened previously, and unfortunate, likely in the future as well.

ED O’KEEFE: You know, we’re about five and a half months into the war, and earlier this month, you argued Iran believes they can drag the president along. Looking at the battlefield as it currently stands, has the U.S. lost its advantage in this war?

REP. BACON: We still have the advantage, but we have to be patient. And I think that that was the point I was trying to make when I said that Iran was dragging the president. When the- when Iran hears the president say, “We’re going to get a deal today, we’re going to get a deal tomorrow, they want a deal.” Iran is- doesn’t think that way. What they were hearing was weakness. The president should say less. Keep the pressure on. This blockade is crippling to Iran, and we need to keep that blockade ironclad. Not let a single ship enter or leave the ports out of Iran. Their economy is in tatters. The- the leadership there is struggling. Keep the pressure on and say less. That would be my advice to the president.

ED O’KEEFE: And how do you assess the defense secretary Pete Hegseth’s performance during all this?

REP. BACON: Well, I think he’s followed the wishes of the president. I do have concerns that the president said he was not aware that we had a shortage of weapons like cruise missiles and Patriots. That’s not a good- good thing. I- I think that’s the number one issue. We’ve conducted these operations, and it’s appears that there’s been a lack of transparency. I think we’ll get some transparency when we go back to the- Washington D.C. here on the 31st of August. But there’s a big concern for many of us that when you have a shortage of Patriots, shortage of cruise missiles, and other weapons, that this has not been managed well, or in the fact that the president claims he did not know, so that- that’s a concern.

ED O’KEEFE: Real quick, in our new CBS News poll, more registered voters describe the Republican Party as extreme more than anything else, 58%. You’re one of the few mainstream moderates left in the House Republican Congress. Like I said, you’re retiring. You’re not running for re-election this year. But what do you think Republican leaders could do to meaningfully tack the party back to the center and reverse those numbers?

REP. BACON: Well, I became a Republican when I was 13 years old. When Ronald Reagan ran in 1976, he lost to Gerald Ford, but he won four years later. His philosophy, I believe, is still popular, and there’s- I’ve- I’ve pushed back in a few areas. Republicans have never supported tariffs since World War II, and suddenly we’re now- we’re the party of tariffs, and it’s not working, I don’t think, in the Midwest. So I think Republicans could reclaim the middle if we push back more on tariffs. Also, 70% of Americans support Ukraine, and yet the president–

ED O’KEEFE: Congress–

REP. BACON: –has not been that supportive. So there’s some areas here that we could push back on the White House, and also be where most Republican–

ED O’KEEFE: Alright.

REP. BACON: –or most Americans are at.

ED O’KEEFE: Congressman, thank you so much.

REP. BACON: Thank you.

ED O’KEEFE: Happy birthday. We appreciate it, and we will be right back with a lot more. Face the Nation. Stay with us.