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CNN's The Arena with Kasie Hunt

Sources: U.S. Officials Are Furiously Trying to Avert A Potential Monthslong Closure Of The Strait Of Hormuz; Just In: Trump Says "I Think We've Won" Iran War; Officials: Thousands More Marines Deploying To Middle East. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired March 20, 2026 - 16:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[16:00:06]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

KASIE HUNT, CNN HOST: Hi, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. Welcome to THE ARENA. It's good to have you with us on this Friday. We made it to Friday.

As we come on the air, the White House is facing a crisis that will test just how far President Trump is willing to go in Iran.

Multiple officials in the Trump administration and in the intelligence community tell CNN that U.S. Officials are working furiously to prevent a months-long closure of the strait of Hormuz. In fact, a recent internal assessment circulating inside the Pentagon determined that Iran could potentially keep the strait closed for as long as six months. That, according to four sources familiar with the document.

In a statement to CNN, a Pentagon spokesman said this, quote, "One assessment does not mean the assessment is plausible. The Pentagon was well-prepared for the Iranian regimes attempts to close the strait, and we are working to address this challenge at the direction of the commander in chief," end quote.

Today, however, that critical shipping route remains effectively paralyzed even as President Trump declares on social media that the war is, quote, "militarily won".

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think we've won. We've knocked out their navy, their air force. We've knocked out their anti- aircraft. Weve knocked out everything. We're roaming free from a military standpoint. All they're doing is clogging up the strait. But from a military standpoint, they're finished.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Right now, two U.S. officials tell CNN that thousands of additional American marines and sailors are deploying to the Middle East, as many of America's allies refuse to commit forces of their own. And that has President Trump lashing out, writing this, quote, "Without the USA, NATO is a paper tiger," end quote. And calling Americas allies cowards, saying, quote, "We will remember," end quote.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: The simple military maneuver. It's relatively safe, but you need a lot of help in the sense of you need ships, you need volume, and NATO could help us, but they so far haven't had the courage to do so. And others could help us. But, you know, we don't use it. You know, at a certain point, it'll open itself at a certain point.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: At a certain point, it will open itself.

All right, let's get off the sidelines. Head into THE ARENA. My panel is here, and we're joined by CNN national security reporter Zach Cohen and CNN White House correspondent Alayna Treene.

Zach, first, this is a lot of this is your reporting about these attempts to avert this months-long closure of the strait. And now, of course, you have these latest comments from the president as well. What do you make of it all?

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yeah. And I talked to a number of sources across various corners of the U.S. government who really painted the opposite picture in terms of how the Trump administration is really grappling with what they realize is a very difficult problem as far as reopening the Strait of Hormuz. And I know the president just said a few moments ago that it's a relatively simple military maneuver, sort of glossing over the inherent risks that exist and have prevented the U.S. Navy from conducting those escort operations, as we've been talking about for several weeks now.

And one thing our sources did acknowledge privately is that there is really no clear solution to reopening the Strait of Hormuz at this point, at least not one that carries little risk. And so, it's really going to come down to how much of that risk is President Trump willing to take on as those oil prices continue to be volatile and the global economy, frankly, continues to be impacted?

And one of the other contributing factors here is that we've learned from our sources is that the Defense Intelligence Agency, which is obviously part of the intelligence community, produced a recent assessment that did, put forward a timeline of sorts that said Iran could potentially keep the Strait of Hormuz closed from anywhere between one and six months.

And so, obviously, as you mentioned, Sean Parnell, the Pentagon spokesperson, saying effectively, that time frame of six months is a worst-case scenario. And it's something that the Pentagon and the White House seem to not be paying much attention to, or at least dismissing it in terms of a valuable assessment. But still, that reality and that concern still prevalent within the intelligence community itself. And those are warnings that President Trump did have at least some

knowledge of before launching this conflict, and ultimately ending up where he is now.

HUNT: And, Zach, you also have some new reporting on the deployment of Marines to the Middle East?

COHEN: Absolutely. Weve been hearing speculation and sort of seeing indications potentially that the Trump administration could be preparing to use ground troops in or introduce ground troops as part of this ongoing conflict targeting Iran. The mission of speculatively what that could be remains unclear, but we are seeing movement as far as the military is concerned, thousands of additional U.S. Marines and sailors, two sources telling us, are now going to be headed to the Middle East.

This is a marine expeditionary unit that was originally slated to be deployed to the Indo-Pacific, but recently had its deployment timeline accelerated and is now going to join U.S. Forces in the Middle East.

[16:05:08]

There's already a marine expeditionary unit, a second one that's about to arrive in the region in the coming days, but it remains unclear what they ultimately will be doing when they get there.

HUNT: Indeed.

All right. So, Alayna, President Trump did speak briefly about Iran just a few minutes ago. He was leaving for Mar-a-Lago. That's where he made those comments about saying that at a certain point, the straits going to open itself. What else did you take away from the comments he made?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. Well, one thing, one question that was asked that actually gets back to some of this reporting that Zach and I have done on the Strait of Hormuz is we are learning that one of the leverage points really Kasie that they're viewing to potentially try and force Iran's hand is this idea of trying to capture or really wipe out the oil infrastructure on something known as Kharg Island, which is essentially responsible for 90 percent of Iran's oil infrastructure, and also something that, you know, many people refer to it as an oil lifeline. And from our reporting, were hearing that, you know, there's potentially, there's an increasing significance that is given to these plans under consideration to try and potentially capture or attack Kharg Island.

The only thing is that many people say that would likely require ground troops, something that, of course, many people inside the administration and of course, many conservative allies outside the administration are incredibly wary of the president. Asked about that this afternoon, just moments ago, he essentially said that Kharg Island is at the top of a lot of people's minds, but he wouldn't give any insight into whether or not it's actually a target they're looking at moving toward very quickly. Another thing is what I asked the president -- I asked him

specifically about his relationship with Israel throughout this war, and particularly whether or not he believes that Israel will be ready to end the war when the president is ready to end the war. Listen to his response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: Do you think Israel will be ready to end the war when you're ready to end the war?

TRUMP: I think so.

REPORTER: Mr. President, Mr. President, Mr. President --

TRUMP: The relationship is a very good one. I think so.

REPORTER: Mr. President --

TRUMP: We want more or less similar things. You know what we want? We want victory, both of us. And that's what we've got.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: We both want victory, we both want similar things is essentially his answer. But the reason I think this is significant case and the reason I asked that question of the president is because increasingly in recent days, you know, the United States and Israel had this joint effort in striking Iran.

But as the war continues and as it stretches on, there have been people inside the administration and allies on the outside that are, you know, wondering and potentially concerned about their visions diverging, and, you know, what both sides want out of this, the United States and Israel, those ideas diverging as this gets further on.

Now, the president saying, you know, he has very similar ideals for what he wants this to look like. The rest of this military operation. But it is a key question of whether or not Israel is going to be ready to end this when the president is. For now, he said he believes that they will be able to do so.

HUNT: All right. Alayna Treene, Zach Cohen, thanks very much for your reporting.

My panel is here in THE ARENA. Republican strategist and pollster Kristen Soltis Anderson, former Obama White House senior policy advisor Ashley Allison, they're both CNN political commentators. And we also are joined by Republican strategist, former RNC comms director, Doug Heye.

Thank you very much for being here. Welcome to all of you.

This idea, Doug Heye, that the Strait of Hormuz is going to open itself might be nice if you're worried about gas prices spiking through the roof, but it seems implausible? DOUG HEYE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Yeah. And sugar prices are at a high as well. I spent a lot of my day on the phone with AppleCare because I was dealing with a new phone, dealing with my Mac.

What they didn't tell me is the problem is going to take care of itself. Your doctor never tells you, you know what? Don't worry about this. Don't take any medicine. Don't come and see me again. The problem is going to take care of itself.

And I think the challenge for Trump here is he's never laid out the case of what he wants to do and why he's doing it.

We know total domination and total victory. In fact, we've already won this war, I think, 27 times. But the case hasn't been laid out for our allies or for the American people on what we're doing and what our ultimately aim, our aims are. That's a problem for him as this continues to continue.

HUN: I mean, where are the American people, Kristen, in -- you know, because you're constantly talking to people, understanding kind of what the landscape is. And they have been telling you and us, I think generally before this happened, that what they cared most about was affordability was the word, right? And as we're seeing what's playing out in Iran, honestly, it's getting harder to afford stuff because it's harder to fill up your car.

KRISTEN SOLTIS ANDERSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah. There are rationales for military action in Iran that I see in my polling could be popular with people. They don't want to see Iran get a nuclear weapon. In my polling, voters do view Iran as a threat to the United States. And so there's a way in which this conflict could go, where Americans leave thinking, hey, we actually did get something we wanted.

The flip side of that is that they very much do not want ground troops.

[16:10:02]

They very much do not want expensive gas. And it looks as though we're going to have at least one of those, if not both of those things.

And so how does this White House square the circle where they've got objectives that they have not communicated very clearly, but could in some ways be popular, depending on which rationale is chosen, with consequences for average Americans and possibly for our military that are not what Americans are interested in sort of putting forward. And that's why the making of the case, or the absence of the making of the case, has created this extra significant political problem.

ASHLEY ALLISON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I agree with both of you. I think definitions matter a lot in this moment. What is victory? What actually is victory in this moment?

Is it Iran not having nukes? Then, apparently, according to President Trump, we've won. But then why are we still in it and why might we be deploying? So, it feels like there's a different definition for victory.

Is our definition for victory and Israel's definition for victory the same? I'm not sure. He told us the other night in a Truth Social post, that he didn't even know about the recent strike on the liquid natural gas facility. So then, are we on the same page on this?

I think if -- I've always said this before, nobody wants Iran to have nuclear weapons. But I also was told that they weren't going to have nuclear weapons back in the summer. So then why are we in this situation?

It just feels like the target keeps moving. And when human lives like our soldiers, our troops actually have lost some and we might lose more, become part of this equation. The stakes are so high. In addition to people not being able to afford the cost of living, and it only skyrocketing because of these actions.

ANDERSON: And speaking of definitions, the definition of what is a ground troop is actually a really interesting question in 2026.

ALLISON: Or what is war?

ANDERSON: Well, because essentially, you know, right now we have American troops stationed throughout the Middle East. They are not stepping onto Iranian soil right now, but they're definitely in potential peril, as we've already seen with the casualties that have already been suffered.

And so, Americans say, I don't want ground troops, but what does that look like when you're talking about trying to take this island in the Strait of Hormuz?

I mean, I do think some of these definitions start to get a little blurry.

HUNT: Right. And it can get slippery quickly as well. And as obviously, we've seen the president use various definitions.

Now, one central piece of this is going to be, of course, the money that the administration is likely going to be asking for reportedly as much as $200 billion. And this is going to ultimately be a test for congress in terms of are they willing to sign off on this.

Senator John Kennedy, Republican from Louisiana, someone who talks to the president on a fairly regular basis, had this to say about what he would like to see as that request moves forward.

Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN KENNEDY (R-LA): I can assure you that that we're not going to vote to give $200 billion or $2 billion or $200 until we have hearings on the money. I support the war. And if they -- if they need more money, I'm going to vote to give it to them.

But my mama didn't raise a fool. And if she did, it was one of my brothers. I'm not going to give them a blank check.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: John Kennedy for you, Doug Heye, but I don't think what he's reflecting there is there are other Republicans who feel similarly. And being out there and pushing forward for this without -- I mean, typically these votes have been bipartisan, right?

At least some moderate Democrats have often gone along with the funding request for Iraq and Afghanistan over the years. Obviously, we have military assets that are at risk, right? Theres a risk in not funding what, you know, providing the funding that the administration is asking for.

But this is a tough political ask.

HEYE: It is, especially with those members of Congress who have only been there for two or three terms or one or two Senate terms. They were elected in the age of Trump. And so, the rhetoric that they've used and the and the policies they've espoused, they talk about forever wars, not funding those kinds of things. They also talk about deficit reduction.

All of this could fly in the face of what they've campaigned on and acted on as a member of congress. Now for several terms. It's a real challenge for them moving forward again, because the case will have to be made. It makes those -- it makes those hearings very interesting.

But it says to the administration, you've got a lot of work to do to get from point a to point b, even with your own members, because Republican members, they're not angry yet, but they really are getting apprehensive at the actions that we're seeing without the explanation. And also with gas prices and other prices skyrocketing, airfare prices are rocketing up as well. We're seeing this on place after place. Republicans are nervous.

ALLISON: You know, can I just say? So -- during the Biden administration, we were charged with over inflating the economy with surging money for an American sitting at their table right now, $200 billion is like an unfathomable amount of money that I even struggle to wrap my head around.

But the question that I would tell voters to ask is, who is getting that $200 billion? It's not going just to the -- it's going to companies that build, that already are billionaires. And so, this conversation in the backdrop of the first Trump -- the first year of the Trump administration was all about billionaires profiting and getting wealthier in war that often actually expands and billionaires get more and more wealthy and corporations make more, while the American people still see their prices going up and their paychecks aren't expanding.

[16:15:10]

HUNT: Well, and we saw some Republican members of Congress, Lauren Boebert among them, essentially saying like, I want to see us spend this money here. Why are we spending it abroad?

ANDERSON: Yeah, this is -- this is not a brand new fault line within the Republican Party. And in a weird way, Donald Trump, I think, is actually holding the party together more than you might see under any other administration.

This tension between wanting to reduce federal spending and wanting to make sure that we fund the military did not start with the Trump presidency. And I actually think the party is slightly more unified just because of his sheer force of will.

But you have a lot of Republicans who for a long time have been saying, actually, we're not spending enough on defense. We need more missile defense batteries. We need to be able to make sure that we can walk and chew gum, defend Taiwan, as well as defend the Middle East.

And so, for some Republicans, they are actually looking at this and going, yeah, we've been saying all along, we need to invest more in defense while you also have these voices like the Lauren Boebert saying, whoa, whoa, whoa, this is not what I got into this.

HEYE: And to Kristen's point, there's a real difference between getting an angry phone call from Karl Rove in 2004 and getting a tweet in the middle of the night from Donald Trump, and you wake up and find you were called a stupid loser.

HUNT: Yes. That is very --

HEYE: One of Senator Kennedy's --

(CROSSTALK)

HUNT: It is -- it is distinctly different. One other piece of this, of course, is the support inside the administration, the debate that's gone on inside the administration. Joe Kent spoke with Megyn Kelly today, of course, a piece of the MAGA sphere, if you will, that has been pretty critical of what's gone on.

Let's watch that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MEGYN KELLY, HOST OF "THE MEGYN KELLY SHOW": I ask you now whether this was worth it

JOE KENT, FORMER DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL COUNTERTERRORISM CENTER: I think it most certainly was. I mean, the attacks against me are to be expected. The ad hominems from people like Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham at this point are fairly laughable.

As for the leak allegations, I'm not concerned because I know I did nothing wrong. Of course, I am concerned because we've all seen, you know, the FBI and the full weight of the government come down on individuals who speak out.

(END VIDEO CLIP) HUNT: I mean, I think my question here is, is, was what we saw from Joe Kent, Doug, the beginning of something or the end of something?

HEYE: I don't think we know yet. But there's a difference between a staffer and a Republican member of Congress who's speaking out. And I'm -- I'm reminded today, we just saw a story about a FEMA staffer who has apparently was teleported to Waffle House, tweeted out all sorts of hateful rhetoric.

Let's not forget, there are a lot of people who get hired in Trump administrations that would never come anywhere close to congressional leadership or any other administration.

HUNT: Yeah. Ashley Allison, where do you think Democrats are on the most solid ground here? Because, you know, depending on the repercussions, I mean, the debates we have now can impact, you know, campaigns in the future. And potentially, come back to haunt people depending on how they handle it. Is this a situation where you would say that the wisest thing would be to just sit back and watch it play out? Or what would you advise for potential candidates going forward?

ALLISON: Well, I think the American people are looking for leadership in this moment. So I don't think being passive is the right approach. If you are an elected official right now, you should be very clear on where you stand and explain why.

I think people -- we're talking about this in the green room. People like leaders who make decisions and then stand by them. That is what an elected official should do right now. But I also think there's a -- there's a two sides of this coin. Stay where you are on this war, but also talk about if you got power, if you were running, if you were controlling the House, the Senate and the White House, how you would lead differently from what you learned from the Biden administration, but also what you're learning for this administration and how you will do different in the future.

HUNT: All right. Fair enough.

Coming up next here in THE ARENA, we're going to talk with one of Donald Trump's former national security advisors, Ambassador John Bolton will be here live.

Plus, from Houston to Honolulu and basically everywhere in between, airport security lines are growing. TSA agents calling out of work in near record numbers as they continue to go without a paycheck because of Congress's inability to find a deal to fund the Department of Homeland Security.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I had to pay a stranger $100 to push me and get me through the TSA line. Do better. Trump, fix it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [16:23:52]

HUNT: All right. Welcome back.

More now on that internal assessment circulating within the Pentagon that says the Strait of Hormuz could be closed from anywhere from one to six months, according to CNN's sources.

Joining me now in THE ARENA, former Trump national security advisor, the Ambassador John Bolton.

Mr. Ambassador, thanks very much for being here.

I want to start with something the president just said as we look at the strait of Hormuz, the military challenge of opening it, the economic challenge, it continues to present.

Here's what the president just said about his expectations around its reopening. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Simple military maneuver. It's relatively safe, but you need a lot of help in the sense of you need ships, you need volume, and NATO could help us. But they so far haven't had the courage to do so, and others could help us. But, you know, we don't use it. You know, at a certain point, it'll open itself, at a certain point.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: At a certain point, it will open itself, the president said. Is that plausible?

[16:25:01]

JOHN BOLTON, FORMER TRUMP NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR: Well, I can't wait for that to happen. That'll be something to see. Look, I think there's a real problem here. And it goes to the question, how well- prepared the administration was even before this conflict in terms of anticipating this.

I don't think there is any surprise that one of Iran's principal retaliatory capabilities, in addition to ballistic missiles and drones, weaponry, was the ability to stop maritime traffic on the Gulf and through the Strait of Hormuz, which you can do with one of two ways make it unsafe, principally for tankers to sail through the Gulf in the strait by mines or anti-ship missiles, or by attacking the Gulf Arab states and their oil production capabilities. Everybody knew that.

And the president's statements that he was surprised by both those maneuvers can only be described as delusional. So, was it the military that failed to prepare, or was it the president that didn't give enough priority to it? My guess is on the latter.

HUNT: And why, if it's as easy as the president seems to suggest, right there to reopen it, why aren't we doing it?

BOLTON: Well, I don't think it is that easy. If you're a ship owner or an insurance company with a huge tanker and 2 million barrels of oil, you don't want to take the chance of hitting a mine that the Iranians have spread around in a random pattern that that our minesweepers can't pick up fast enough, or getting hit by a handheld shoulder fired missile that's been put on swift boats that have swarmed out against a tanker in the Gulf.

There are a lot of ways these ships can be vulnerable, and it's fine to have destroyers convoy them out through the Gulf. Ronald Reagan did that at the end of his administration, but there's a lot more you have to worry about -- missiles, anti-ship missiles that could be fired miles from the coast.

And as I say, the constant addition of mines, even if you think you've found most of them, it only takes one to cause a problem.

HUNT: Indeed. And, sir, you, of course, have warned for many, many years, decades, even about the threat from Iran and the threat it posed to the world, the threat it posed to the United States. How do you evaluate sitting here now the conduct of this war by the Trump administration? Do you think that they are conducting a war that is making America safer?

BOLTON: Well, I think the military action, with the exception of the Gulf issue, has been brilliant. And I think it's important for Americans to understand, you know, Israel's carrying almost half the load here in terms of missions flown and tonnage of weapons dropped on Iraq. They're doing an awful lot. That's -- that's a real ally at work.

HUNT: Iran --

BOLTON: I think it's on the political side -- I beg your pardon? Freudian slip.

I think it's on the political side -- it's on the political side where the president has failed. And as I've said before, he did not prepare the American people for this. There's an excellent case to be made for regime change in Iran because of its nuclear threat, because of its terrorist threat, because of the threat of closing the gulf. You don't want this regime to have that capability.

He didn't make that case. He didn't make the case to Congress. He didn't brief the allies. He didn't prepare the Iranian opposition for the critical role. They're going to have to play inside Iran to induce regime change.

Now, we don't really know, I think at this point, what the president's objective is. I think regime change is the right objective. But if that's your objective, the worst thing to do is start and then stutter and eventually back out before you succeed.

HUNT: Do you think that success, by your definition, however you want to define it, is that going to require American boots on the ground in Iran?

BOLTON: It doesn't require it. And I think they're -- not to parse words, but boots on the ground can mean a lot of things. Does it require an all-out invasion of infantry, armor and artillery? No. Will it require -- could it require some specific missions to be accomplished, like securing or pulling out the enriched uranium centrifuges? Other critical information and materials regarding the nuclear weapons program? I think that is going to be necessary. You don't want that falling into the wrong hands.

But by and large, if we destabilize the regime sufficiently, eliminating its top leadership, destroying the Revolutionary Guard and the Quds Force and the Basij militia, then I think inside Iran, the potential for the people allied with figures in this regime who don't want to go down with a sinking ship to topple the regime is very real. This regime has not been weaker since it took power in 1979.

[16:30:00]

HUNT: And just to put a finer point on it, you do think that we are going to need to put some sort of force on the ground in Iran, a ground force of some kind, to secure the nuclear material?

BOLTON: I think that -- that's the most important issue. If you simply bomb the sites, the key nuclear sites, more, but leave the regime in place, they will come back as they did after the 12-year war, 12-day war last summer, and try and rebuild the program. That's what's compelling. That's the basic argument for regime change.

But to be sure, I'd like to get that material out of Iran.

HUNT: All right. Ambassador John Bolton, thank you very much for your time, sir. Always good to have you on the show.

BOLTON: Thank you.

HUNT: All right. Coming up next here in THE ARENA, the desperate scramble to make pictures like this go away. The White House dispatching a key official back to Capitol Hill today to try and work out a deal on DHS funding to alleviate chaos at the nation's airports.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADAM STAHL, TSA CHIEF OF STAFF: To maintain that security, integrity -- you know, with few lines and few officers, you know, we may have to temporarily suspend operations at those airports to maintain that security integrity. So, we will not compromise that. That is the focus, the top focus for TSA and for DHS every single day.

STUART VARNEY, FBN HOST: Are we close to that?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:35:43] HUNT: Right now, White House border czar Tom Homan is getting ready to head back to Capitol Hill for another round of talks with Democrats and Republicans as they search for an agreement to end the partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security. His visit comes just days before lawmakers are set to leave Washington for a two-week spring recess. And as Americans see and feel the effects of the shutdown, air travelers are waiting longer in security lines with extended wait times as airports experience major staffing shortages, with unpaid TSA workers calling out in near record numbers. And then there's this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STAHL: To maintain that security integrity, you know, with few lines and few -- few officers, you know, we may have to temporarily suspend operations at those airports to maintain that security integrity. So, we will not compromise that. That is the focus -- the top focus for TSA and for DHS every single day.

VARNEY: Are we close to that? Are we close to the point where a small airport might have to close because of staffing concerns?

STAHL: Sure. It's hard to assess this on a day-to-day basis. I can certainly tell you as this continues, that likelihood becomes more and more certain.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Well, that's cheerful.

My panel is back.

Doug Heye, you've seen many a negotiation like the one that were seeing go on on Capitol Hill. Republicans seem to want to basically put political pressure on Democrats here. They've rebuffed attempts by Democrats to reopen all of the Department of Homeland Security except for ICE, which is what this fight is really about. How much longer do you think Americans are in for waiting in lines like this?

HEYE: There's no reason to see that this ends anytime soon. I was thinking about this this morning. There's a great Frank Sinatra song, "Something's Gotta Give", but something doesn't got to give anytime soon. And that's the reality for the situation that we're at.

Dems feel righteous virtuousness with where they are on this and pushing with ICE. Republicans are saying, you know what? We've done our job, so we can -- we can take this recess. What's interesting to me is there's one small political thing that's being played in here, John Cornyn, who's locked in a very tough primary runoff right now, has put forward legislation saying that members of Congress shouldn't be able to skip the lines anymore.

HUNT: You know what? I agree with that --

ALLISON: I agree.

HUNT: -- actually, because --

ALLISON: Whether it's open or not.

HUNT: This is the thing. And I think maybe a lot of Americans don't actually know that this is what happened. We've seen a couple pictures of people doing it that have popped up through this. But yeah, if you're a member of Congress, you want to fly home, you walk to the airport, you get an escort right through that security line. Do you think it's --

HEYE: Even better when you're in leadership, by the way. It is sweet, sweet living.

(LAUGHTER)

HUNT: I mean, I don't know, Ashley. I feel like at some point, like we heard a little bit earlier from a woman who was pointing the finger at Donald Trump and saying, fix it. Yeah. I feel like members of congress might be in for some heat too.

ALLISON: Oh, I think they are. Look, this is a disaster. This is a disaster. And I -- for Republicans, I think they're playing this wrong politically. They should open TSA. They should -- they should agree with Democrats on this point and just say, because the reality is, is ICE is already funded. They already passed this Big, Beautiful Bill in the summer that is funding ICE at astronomical levels, bigger than most departments in the government.

People being inconvenienced is the easiest way for you to lose an election, and the people in charge right now are Republicans and Democrats -- if they are smart, they will run this to the polls. And what I mean, the election polls, not the polls you do. They will run this to the ballot box to get people to vote against the Republicans that are in the House, the Senate and even governors.

But the other thing that this gentleman said on the on Fox about airports closing, okay, first, you have TSA agents not getting paid. Now, you're going to have flight attendants not getting paid pilots not getting paid, the people who work your ticket counter getting paid, the people who clean the airports, not getting paid, the economic disruption that this could actually cause -- I just think Republicans are missing, missing the plot here.

ANDERSON: I think that the dynamic could very easily be flipped. I mean, I don't understand why Republicans haven't every single day put forward a "let's fund TSA" bill and pass it and send it over to the Senate and watch Democrats filibuster and let it die and do that over and over. Because, Doug, when you said somethings got to give something, kind of did give, Donald Trump got rid of Kristi Noem.

He looked at DHS and said, something does have to change here. And he made the change. He took away the leadership.

So, to say that, you know, Republicans are still just like hell bent on were going to keep doing what we've been doing. He got rid of the person at the top of that organization and shuffled her to a job somewhere else, far, far away in a different building. And so, I do think that Republicans have an opportunity to say, you know what? You're right. We want to do business differently. We have already changed Donald Trump's cabinet to do so.

So, let's talk about some things here and there that we want to change about ICE. But we've passed a funding bill that's going to fund TSA. Where are you?

ALLISON: But they -- but just -- that's too many words. We know how people are. That's too hard to explain.

ANDERSON: We passed a bill to fund TSA. Where are you? That's not many words.

ALLISON: But Dems are saying -- but Dems are saying they would do that. When there was an encounter. I think it was John Cornyn and Greg Casar out of Texas. And, Casar, who is the lead of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said, "We will fund TSA. Where are you?"

So, I think it is a little bit back and forth. And if that is the fight, I think it goes in favor.

HEYE: Ashley mentions the flight attendants, The most underrated, highly effective lobbying unit in Washington, D.C. is the flight attendants union. They know their member of Congress. They fly with them from here to Greensboro, here to Charlotte, here to Atlanta, here to Kansas City. Every week, they are massively effective and they always have access into congressional offices. And then they have private time on the plane as well.

HUNT: Well, let's also hear from the president of the union that represents TSA workers in Chicago, because, again, to this point, TSA workers, you know, they are they are those salaries are incredibly important. They're not terribly high salaries. These are people that are working really hard. Some of them are living paycheck to paycheck.

And this was the point that the union rep -- union president made about the fact that their rent is coming due. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DARRELL ENGLISH, PRESIDENT OF UNION REPRESENTING CHICAGO TSA WORKERS: The beginning of the month, they have their rent that's due. Those that have mortgages are due. All those things are due at the beginning of the month, and this will be the second month that TSA officers will be unable to pay those critical bills. And I can guarantee you again, that there will be more call-offs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: And again, that's going to make the problem worse, not better. And you know, the bottom line here, I mean, Doug, it does seem to me that essentially the calculation for Republicans, perhaps for the White House is that they are more likely to get what they want around ice policy if they let this stay closed and try to blame Democrats for it, then if they open it up. HEYE: One hundred percent and Donald Trump, his mantra is never give

up, never give in. So he's not somebody who, for all the art of the deal, he doesn't make compromises, especially with Democrats. So, it's hard to see what changes in the short term. And Republicans are betting on voter short term memory. If we're talking about this in, you know, May and June, oh, my God, that's going to be a huge problem.

But if it gets solved, then we won't be talking about this come November.

HUNT: There's also the question of what exactly it is they're fighting for. And, you know, it's -- I had a Republican and a Democrat on this show yesterday. And James Lankford said, what this is one piece that it's really come down to is whether or not ice officers should be allowed to wear masks. Republicans, in particular, are very concerned about doxing, of ICE agents, photos taken and then people showing up at their at their houses.

I had Angus King on. He said he was willing -- okay, let's make doxing federal law enforcement agents illegal. Right? But this is a big sticking point. And this is what Republicans are fighting for.

As Kristen -- and I'm going to give this one to you, because you made the point that he has made changes at the top. This was reporting from "The Wall Street Journal" about how the president is thinking about his immigration policy. They write this, quote, in conversations with top advisers and his wife, Melania. Interestingly, Trump has become convinced that some of his administrations deportation policies have gone too far, and voters don't like the term mass deportation. The president has told them he wants to see more attention on arresting bad guys and less chaos in American cities, according to people familiar with the matter.

So, I think it's worth noting, right? They're letting these TSA lines get out of control because they want to defend something that the White House the presidents looking at and saying the politics of this are actually bad.

ANDERSON: Melania saves the day. I guess he's absolutely right. He's coming to the conclusion that the interior enforcement is now being separated in voters' minds from the popular border enforcement. Voters like what he's doing at the border. It's what's happening inside the country with folks who are already here is where this has become a lot more controversial.

And frankly, Americans, in my polling over the last year have been saying that they actually feel like ICE is making them less safe, not more safe, which is a reversal of this dynamic. He needs to win back the safety issue by putting in place reforms that make people feel like having ICE in your community is not making you less safe.

HEYE: And in the first administration, when we talked about child separation, it was Melania who stepped in.

HUNT: Yeah, that's a good point. All right. Coming up next here in THE ARENA, much more on our CNN

reporting around the thousands more U.S. Marines that are being deployed to the Middle East, even as the president just today says he thinks the war with Iran is won.

[16:45:12]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We are doing really well. We're not going to let them have nuclear weapons, because if they had them, they'd use them. And we're not going to let that happen. Should have been done a long time ago by other presidents.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I'm not putting troops anywhere. If I -- if I were, I certainly wouldn't tell you. But I'm not putting troops.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: President Trump in the Oval Office yesterday telling reporters he's not planning on sending U.S. Troops to Iran with the caveat that he, of course, would not disclose that prior to doing so.

[16:50:06]

Today, though, thousands more U.S. Marines and sailors are deploying to the Middle East. It's unclear what they'll be doing or when they'll get there exactly.

Joining me now to discuss, retired Major General James "Spider" Marks.

General Marks, always great to have you. Thank you very much for being here.

Let's start with these marines. What does it tell you that they're going and what might their mission be?

MAJ. GEN, JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS, U.S. ARMY (RET.): Well, Kasie, what I think it means is that it provides the commander on the -- in the area, the Central Command commander, Admiral Cooper, options. He now will have probably in a week and a half, whatever the transit time is, another 2,500 marines with immense capability. He's got one 2,500 marine expeditionary unit in route right now. So, it gives that commander options if the decision is to put marines across the shore or to secure some facilities to be determined what those look like.

If they were to go ashore north of the Straits of Hormuz, the mission would be to push back resistance fighters from either security forces, IRGC, Quds Forces, that could provide fire into the streets. That's a mission the marines can take on, the terrain is incredibly difficult there.

If it was to put marines ashore Kharg Island, first of all, you got to get through the Straits of Hormuz. That's -- that's a -- that's mission number one. Then mission number two is come ashore at Kharg Island. That's, I would say less risk.

But then what are you going to do with those marines? That's probably leverage. In other words, we now own it and we can turn it on or turn it off.

And the other one is highly enriched uranium, which is being discussed. Of course, it has to be secured or it has to be rendered safe. I can't imagine, I mean, having gone through something like that, in my experience in the past, not highly enriched uranium, but looking for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, that is a soldier and it's a soldier suck.

It just takes immense amount of people and experts on the ground that have to be woven into that command structure to try to figure out what they're really looking at once they get there and they have to secure that stuff. These are big facilities, Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan. You'd have to choose, where are you going to go?

HUNT: So, sir, are you saying that if the mission is to secure the highly enriched uranium to prevent the Iranians from building a nuclear weapon, if that's the mission, is this or isn't this enough marines to do it?

MARKS: Well, you can do it in a number of ways. I think you could try to do it very precisely, leading with special ops. But wherever you employ special ops, you routinely have an outer ring of conventional forces, which the marines could provide. So, you have outwardly looking security so the inward forces can get the job done.

That would be very precise. A number of things would have to come into play. It would have to be beautifully sequenced, and it would be an incredibly long distance if you're launching them from either right on shore or some place that's still offshore from a -- from some platform.

These are extreme distances and everything just has to fall into place beautifully. Now, the United States knows how to do that. We can do that.

The other alternative is you just turn that place into a little bit of America. You just load it up with marines and loaded up with firepower. You take over roads, you start putting have logistics ashore, and you just own it until you get the highly enriched uranium. Then you try to transport it out.

And that's another problem set right there. Number one, where is it? Has it been dispersed? And then once you find it, how do you now transport it safely without having some type of a significant challenge?

HUNT: Well, and what is the potential for casualties in these situations?

MARKS: Oh, my goodness. So, first of all, with any type of movement like that, you have so many moving parts. So, certainly, you can have challenges there. But I mean, the training that goes into executing these kinds of missions is extensive and routine. And it's part of muscle memory. I mean, that's -- that's what your military does for a living quite well. Then it is the dispersed and remnants of IRGC and or security forces that were that will certainly engage and will, they'll provide fire and will try to make this mission that much more difficult.

So, certainly, you elevate the risk when you look at it from that perspective.

HUNT: All right. Retired Major General James "Spider" Marks -- sir, thank you very much for your expertise. Really appreciate it. Hope you come back soon.

All right. Thanks very much as well to my panel.

[16:55:00]

Really appreciate you all being here.

Thanks to you at home for watching as well. Don't forget, you can watch much more THE ARENA tomorrow, THE ARENA SATURDAY airs at noon Eastern and again at 4:00 p.m. right here on CNN. Please be sure to join us.

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But don't go anywhere. "THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER" starts after this quick break. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy will be his guest, coming up.