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CNN's The Arena with Kasie Hunt

NTSB: Two Controllers Doing The Work Of Four Night Of Crash; TSA Lines Stretch For Hours As ICE Agents Deploy To Airports; Trump: "We're In Negotiations Right Now" With Iran Amid New Strikes. Aired 4- 5p ET

Aired March 24, 2026 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:02]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Climate scientists at world weather attribution say this kind of heat would be virtually impossible this time of year without human induced climate change.

Thank you so much for joining us this afternoon.

Brianna, always a pleasure.

You can stay tuned for more news.

"THE ARENA WITH KASIE HUNT" starts right now.

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 Tuesday.

As we come on the air, we are learning vital new details about the moments leading up to that fatal collision between a passenger jet and a fire truck at New York's LaGuardia airport. The NTSB announcing today that at the time of their disaster -- of this disaster, there were just two air traffic controllers working in the tower, and that those two people were doing the work of four different positions.

The NTSB chair saying, this is standard operating procedure for a midnight shift at LaGuardia.

We also learned that a runway safety system that could have detected the impending collision did not alert the air traffic controllers and that the fire truck involved in the collision did not have a transponder that could have helped the tower track its location.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENNIFER HOMENDY, CHAIR, NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD: We rarely, if ever, investigate a major accident where it was one failure. Our aviation system is incredibly safe because there are multiple, multiple layers of defense built in to prevent an accident. So, when something goes wrong, that means many, many things went wrong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right, let's get off the sidelines and head into THE ARENA.

CNN aviation correspondent Pete Muntean joins us now. He was at that NTSB press conference.

Pete, what more did we learn from investigators? What would you underscore here?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, the big thing here, Kasie, is what you said off the top, is that there were only two controllers in the control tower here at LaGuardia at the time of the crash. But we need to clarify something now, it's not that they were doing four positions. They were doing something that was standard procedure.

According to NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy one controller and one supervisor, that supervisor was also doing the role of what's called clearance delivery, meaning issuing route clearances to flights that were still on the ground that other controller is known as the local controller responsible for airplanes still in the air, taking off and landing and separation on the runway.

But what's not clear to investigators right now is which of those two people were performing the duties of the ground controller, meaning responsible for all the movements of airplanes and vehicles that were still on the ground. That is critical. And that is something that the NTSB is going to continue to dig into, says Chair Homendy.

She also said, in response to a question that I had about whether or not it is a safe practice to combine positions for air traffic controllers during what was this midnight shift, about 10:45 to 6:45 a.m.

And I want you to listen now to Chair Homendy's response to my question here, in which she says this has been a concern for the NTSB for years. It cannot make regulatory changes. It can only issue recommendations. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOMENDY: In this situation, for the midnight shift, it is standard operating procedure that they only have to on duty. And those two perform the duties of other controllers. That is our understanding right now. However, we're going to further dig into that as part of our investigation. Certainly, I can tell you that our air traffic control team has stated this is a problem, that this is a concern for them for years.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: Remember, the air traffic control system in the United States remains incredibly strapped short between 1,000 to 1,800 controllers, by some estimates and some years as the FAA scrambles to supercharge hiring, according to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, the FAA nets only single digits of new controllers each year. LaGuardia here is considered one of the most dynamic, one of the most

stressful, one of the most high workload places where a controller can work. They're rated facilities out of 12. That also determines controller pay. This facility, the tower here at LaGuardia, is considered an 11 out of 12, just to give you an idea of how difficult it is to be an air traffic controller here.

The other big thing that came out in this investigation is that this airport has a system called ASDE-X. It is a surface collision warning system, essentially a ground radar system designed to warn against the collision that occurred here, the exact type of thing that occurred here, the exact recipe.

[16:05:06]

And the NTSB says that simply did not work. It did not warn controllers of the collision in the making because the fire truck that was moving from an incident on another side of the runway, on this side of the runway over here at LaGuardia, crossing runway four, back to the airport firehouse behind me, it was not equipped with a transponder, a crucial oversight of in this incident. That may be a very significant finding by the NTSB.

So much more still to come out here. We've had the most significant release of information now from the national transportation safety board, but now begins so much painstaking work of putting together the exact sequence of events. Was it the pilots who saw the final moments of this collision in the making? Did they see it brewing, or did those in the fire truck see it brewing? How could they have entered onto this runway with an airplane about to land?

The NTSB chair said they're going to interview the air traffic controllers today at 4 p.m. eastern time. That's right now. They're also going to interview the firefighters in the fire truck because they will have key information here after they are out of the hospital. Miraculous, Kasie, that they survived this incident.

HUNT: Miraculous indeed.

All right, Pete, stand by for us. I want to expand this conversation, bring in two of our CNN aviation analysts, Peter Goelz and Miles O'Brien.

Peter, the NTSB said that for this midnight shift at LaGuardia, it was standard operating procedure to have just those two controllers in the tower. And Pete talked a little bit about this, but how dangerous would you say, is this operating procedure for such a busy airport?

PETER GOELZ, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, it's not necessarily a dangerous, operation when all things are normal, but this was far from a normal night. You had a weather system that had been through is because of that. And you had system delays throughout the East Coast because of the TSA issue. And you had an emergency on the field just within an hour of the shift change.

It was far from normal. And I think that there has to be a reassessment of when you have, you know, non-normal situations, how you staff up to meet them. They clearly were understaffed, facing the problems that they faced.

HUNT: Miles, we were, of course, talking here on this program yesterday and you were underscoring the systemic nature of what you saw as the systemic nature of the failure here. What stood out to you from the press conference today?

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, just to pick up where Peter left off, I'm amazed. Yes. On a normal night at LaGuardia, you can get away with two controllers and they do so repeatedly. But this was not normal. There was an emergency on the field.

They were dispatching trucks to a United 737 where the pilot had made the decision to evacuate people down a slide because of fumes in the aircraft. This was an emergency situation. And yet the controllers continued to allow aircraft to arrive as if it was a normal night. And so, on an occasion like that, clearly the staffing level is not appropriate.

And so, as a matter of procedure, that Air Canada flight probably should have been put into a holding pattern, told not to continue that approach. We've got an emergency on the field. We have to dispatch trucks across the runway you're about to land on.

So, these are the -- this is when you talk about the layers and the systemic problem. It's all connected. If there had been four controllers in the cab that night, maybe one of them would say, hey, let's slow down here and tell air Canada to take a holding pattern or one individual could have been assigned specifically for the emergency response.

It's -- there are layers of redundancy here, but when you begin with a short-staffed tower, that's good enough on a normal night and you go into an emergency situation acting as if its normal, you don't have any margin for safety.

HUNT: I mean, Pete Muntean what are the options for controllers in a situation like that? If there is another emergency going on, I mean, what are their options to try to reduce the likelihood of another accident happening because of too much going on.

MUNTEAN: It's important to note here that the controller controlling the tower frequency told truck one, the lead vehicle that was coming back from that incident, "truck one, stop, truck one, stop."

[16:10:08]

He had the awareness at the time to see the mistake and to see the incident that was about to unfold in front of him. It's so easy to lay blame on air traffic control, but I approach it with some empathy.

And the fact that the controllers are essentially helpless in the tower. What are they going to do? Walk out and stop the truck physically? I mean, there was not much more that this truck -- this controller could do. And now, there's some big questions about what could be heard in that Oshkosh striker truck, which is a very well- fortified truck with incredible visibility. It's not like a normal firetruck.

You sit sort of in the center of the truck with a lot of windows around you. It's for the specific high risk environment of being on an airport in an emergency situation.

But really, there were not many other cards for this controller to play, if I'm putting my analyst hat on, it's a very, very difficult to lay blame all at the feet of air traffic control. One must ask, why did the truck continue across the runway? You treat every runway at an airport.

And I can say this as a pilot, anytime you cross the hold short line, the two solid bars followed by the two dash bars like it is a loaded gun.

We have seen time and time again. So many near-collisions caused by airplanes and vehicles at airports that casually breeze across that line. It is a sacred thing, and there are some big questions now about why that truck ended up clearly in the wrong place at the wrong time.

HUNT: Well, and one of those questions, Pete, might be to do with this at transponder, you mentioned basically radar for the ground. I mean, is it common practice for these emergency vehicles to not have this equipment?

MUNTEAN: (INAUDIBLE) ASV tracks as an AvGeek at airports all the time. You see vehicles, you can watch them from home on your computer or on your iPhone. Moving across the airport during an incident. And so why this one particular vehicle did not have a transponder will be so key.

You know, we saw in the DCA, the Reagan national airport mid-air collision, that the helicopter involved in that crash did not have something called ADS-B Out, meaning a granular broadcasting of that helicopter's position that may have given a better warning to air traffic controllers. And if the airplane that was involved in that collision had something called ADS-B In to receive that data, it could have potentially had a 59-second warning as what the NTSB said in the final report that was published not all that long ago.

There's so many technological advances here. And NTSB chair Homendy says this is the year of our Lord 2026. We should be equipping our controllers with the best possible equipment. But it's also incumbent on those using the airspace system, and that includes vehicles to have technology as well.

HUNT: Fair enough. All right. Pete Muntean, Peter Goelz, Miles O'Brien -- thank you all very much for starting us off on this story today.

Coming up next here in THE ARENA, we've got fast moving developments on Capitol Hill, a deal to fund DHS may be potentially on the horizon as security wait times at some airports approach five hours. Yes, five. There's just one small wrinkle.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: As you know, they're negotiating a deal. I guess they're getting fairly close, but I think any deal they make, I'm pretty much not happy with.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Aare you going to miss your flight or are you going to --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got airplane time. It's not until tomorrow.

LAVANDERA: Good. Who do you who do you blame for all this?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's the president.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The government is --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Marriage or your partner at the airport? It's a special genre.

If you are heading to the airport today, chances are you're going to be stuck there for a while. DHS says the TSA staffing shortages are now at the highest level of the shutdown so far. It is causing massive lines at security checkpoints.

Some of those lines approaching five hours of wait time. Here in Washington today. Senators are talking, and those talks seem to be moving. It's just not totally clear what they're moving toward at this hour. Today, Senate Republicans say that they've agreed on a plan to fund DHS, except for a small portion of the immigration enforcement budget.

This afternoon, the minority leader, Chuck Schumer, telling CNN he's a no on the proposal and plans to counter. But before he's even officially countered, Republicans say it will go nowhere. Then, of course, there's the Trump factor.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We're going to take a good hard look at it. I want to support Republicans. They're negotiating a deal. I guess they're getting fairly close. But I think any deal they make, I'm pretty much not happy with it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Okay, were going to break down the deal versus no deal in just a moment.

But first, CNN's Ed Lavandera is live at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, again, for us today.

Ed, this time yesterday, it was 4-1/2 hours wait time. What is the latest there?

LAVANDERA: It's about four hours. So what? Slightly better. We're in the middle of the chaos here at this airport, where on Sunday and Monday, we've had about 40 percent of TSA employees calling out.

[16:20:07]

We don't have the figures for today. We'll get those tomorrow.

But that is why there are only two TSA security checkpoints open at this airport, one here at Terminal E, where we are the other one at Terminal A, but over there that is the promised land. That is where the security ends.

But look over down into the floor below us. You can see this is where you want to get up to where we are. All of these people zigzagging back and forth. And believe it or not, all of these people started in a line below -- below this.

So, two floors below that. And then all of those people you see down there will eventually come out over the escalator, over there in the distance. And just when you think you get a taste of being closer -- no, no, no, the line goes outside where it zigzags four or five more times outside. Then you get to come back inside and get a little bit closer to the TSA line.

So, all these people that you're seeing, where we are in the line still have about an hour left to go before they get to all of that. Weve talked to some people who have been in line for about 3-1/2 hours.

We're also talking, Kasie, to a lot of people today who are taking no chances. So many people missed flights yesterday. They came back today, talked to one person who had a 6:00 p.m. flight. They got here seven hours ahead of time, spoke with one man who had a 6:00 p.m. flight for Trinidad.

He got here at 7:00 in the morning. People taking no chances. But by and large, when you talk to people, taking it all in stride with pretty decent spirits, although they do not like politicians here right now. Don't ask about that.

HUNT: Gee, I can't imagine why. Like, my goodness. That is -- I mean, God bless the TSA agents that are showing up to work and dealing with this because that looks incredibly miserable.

Ed Lavandera in Houston -- Ed, thank you very much for that reporting.

My panel is here in THE ARENA. CNN legal analyst Elliot Williams, the host of "The Chuck Toddcast," Chuck Todd; former Obama White House senior policy advisor, and CNN political commentator Ashley Allison, and CNN's senior political commentator, Scott Jennings.

Welcome to all of you.

This is a pox on everyone's houses, I think, at this point. I mean, I don't know, Chuck, like this is like, for what? For what?

CHUCK TODD, HOST OF "THE CHUCK TODDCAST": Well, look, I the fact that its legal for the government to just shut something down like this and I will not -- I will quickly go down that rabbit hole. This is all due to bad legal analysis in the Carter Justice Department in 1979 and the Reagan Justice Department, 1981. And this is why we have these ridiculous shutdowns.

So, this is what we're going to do, we should privatize TSA. And if you privatize TSA by airport and then the government is still funded it. But at least these people would have and it would be the company employing them that would be waiting for their government reimbursement here. But if this is, if this, if you're going to treat TSA agents as pawns like this pretty much annually, they're not going to want this job.

So, we're going to be less secure. We're going to have fewer people here. So, if the politicians want to have these silly deadlines to play their games and treat these people like pawns, then the least they can do is figure out a third way of doing this. Just privatize TSA the way it used to be, and the government can reimburse the cost of the TSA security.

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: You also got a much bigger problem here, which is the Department of Homeland Security is too big. There is no reason why the folks that screen you at airports and the Coast Guard and FEMA and immigration enforcement are all under the same roof. And then when you smush everything under this big multibillion dollar roof and you start shutting down parts of it, things that should not be suffering end up suffering. And it's a big, bad government problem that we've had since 2003.

Now, all the partisan stuff that you're talking about, I think that's absolutely right as well. I mean, it's a pox on everybody's house. This is really bad. And these people that we're seeing on our screen right now waiting on line, are suffering for something --

TODD: They at least stayed in the 21st century. He just went back to 2003.

HUNT: He did. Yes.

Yeah, go ahead.

ASHLEY ALLISON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: The thing is that I actually think this is like the best opportunity for democracy to actually work for folks. The majority of those people who are in line are voters. Sure, there are some probably international folks who are traveling, but they have more agency now to be calling their elected officials and telling them what they want to do than ever before. And the reality is, is like, maybe if this was a different calendar point in the calendar, they wouldn't listen as much.

But there's an opportunity to make sure this never happens again. And it's to make sure people on both sides of the aisle to probably be clear, but also the president who doesn't want a deal to be held accountable for this behavior.

TODD: Fly in October --

(CROSSTALK)

TODD: But you should really do is only fly in October of an election year. Because I promise you, Congress won't shut down TSA then.

HUNT: Scott Jennings, I know you were talking to people close to the White House last night about the president here. I want to play what Senator Kennedy from Louisiana had to say, because it does seem totally unclear exactly where President Trump is at this particular moment in time. Anyway.

Let's watch.

[16:25:02]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN KENNEDY (R-LA): President Trump as you know, from his tweets said no, but I talked to Senator Thune last night, and he says the president has reconsidered and may be on board.

BILL HEMMER, FOX HOST: Okay. All right.

KENNEDY: I don't know for sure.

HEMMER: That's a bit of a stemwinder. We'll try and nail it down because all the reporting suggested last night that there was a breakthrough.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: So, what happened?

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think last night they did meet. And I do think the president, indicated to the people in the meeting that he wanted to move this forward. Today -- by the way, what they're proposing is, I think pretty reasonable. Split it into two vehicles here. Vehicle one gets the airports moving again, and the rest of DHS, vehicle two funds the ICE and other immigration enforcement stuff, plus allows them to attach maybe the Save America Act, which the president really wants in a reconciliation vehicle, which could be done with simple majorities in both chambers.

So, it's a -- it's a two-step process. But step one would fix the airport thing. I think the president earlier said, you know, it didn't sound like he was all that happy with it. But of course, that's not unexpected because I don't think he's all that happy having to deal with his Democratic intransigence all the time. So, at any rate, I think they're still moving towards this. I believe

the deal that has been discussed has been filed, and the Republicans are now trying to get the Democrats to agree to collapse time if they don't consent to that. My belief is they will probably vote on it on Thursday, and then the Democrats will have to decide if they again want to go down to the floor and keep TSA shut down.

We can talk about the both sides here, but one party has been voting to keep this closed now for weeks and weeks and weeks, and one party wants to keep it open, and it sounds like they'll have another chance to reopen it in the next day or two.

HUNT: Well, Democrats have been going and saying, hey, well fund everything in DHS except for ICE.

JENNINGS: Here you go. Here you go.

HUNT: And Republicans have been rejecting it.

JENNINGS: Here's the deal.

HUNT: Is this question about what Democrats are going to do now? Go ahead.

WILLIAMS: It's entirely. A fair question, though. That's not just about is it just about shutting down ICE or seeking reforms to ICE, which is what I believe the Democrats have been asking for. The plan that has been laid out here does not include any of that. And so, you know, I would -- I would assume they'd be voting against it, I don't know.

But if what got us here in the first place was broad concern with ICE's behavior across the country. And frankly, that was bipartisan, too. That's not just Democrats who are grousing about ICE. It's entirely fair to, if not demand some reforms or some concessions, at least have a discussion about them. It doesn't appear that that's --

ALLISON: I think the one thing that I'm concerned about for Democrats, though, is they need to be more aggressive on their messaging right now because there is a window where it can feel like, okay, ice is at the airport now, why are we against. Oh, right. Right. A month ago, they were overly aggressive on the streets. Like they need to be strong and intentional. And I feel like they are missing a moment right now to really hammer on nail.

TODD: Democrats trap is they want to be the party that that has government that works, and they're very bad at being obstructionist because of this issue here. They don't know how to message obstruction when they want to make a point. And they have struggled with this and they're really struggling on this one.

HUNT: Understandable.

All right. Coming up next here in THE ARENA, the president claiming again that mail in voting is, quote, "cheating". And guess what? He just did in a Florida special election that's happening today. Plus, what a senior Iranian source is telling CNN about potential

talks with Washington over ending the war, as we get new details on who's leading discussions for the U.S.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: J.D. is involved and Marco is involved, and Jared Kushner is involved. Very smart guy. And Steve Witkoff, smart guy, is involved. And I'm involved. I'm involved.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:33:15]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We're in negotiations right now. They're doing it along with Marco, J.D. We have a number of people doing it. And the other side, I can tell you, they'd like to make a deal. And who wouldn't if you were there?

Look, their navy's gone. Their air force is gone. Their communications are gone. That's the biggest problem.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: The White House is in negotiations with Iran, President Trump said today. That after an Iranian source confirmed with CNN that there has in fact, been, quote, "outreach" between the U.S. and Tehran about ways to end the war. The source, though, also claiming that this has not amounted to full negotiations, saying this, quote, messages have been received through various intermediaries to scope out whether an agreement to end the war can be reached, the source said.

Pressed by reporters about why he decided to pursue a ceasefire despite saying days earlier he wasn't seeking one, the president said it was because the Iranians were, quote, "talking sense".

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: The fact that they're talking to us and they're talking sense and remember, it all starts with they cannot have a nuclear weapon. I don't want to say in advance, but they've agreed they will never have a nuclear weapon. They've agreed to that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right. Joining our panel now is CNN senior military analyst, former NATO supreme allied commander, the Admiral James Stavridis.

Admiral, always great to see you. Thank you so much for being here.

There is this question of trust, and I've talked to officials here in Washington. Weve heard some say that they trust what the Iranians are saying about these negotiations over the president of the United States. Who do you trust right now?

ADMIRAL JAMES STAVRIDIS (RET), CNN SENIOR MILITARY ANALYST: Well, I'd look back at what you were just talking about here in in the capital of the United States. We're in the middle of a negotiation about a very important issue.

[16:35:02]

And every single issue, everybody's kind of on the same team. These levels of confusion says, well, this and that and back and forth. So it's not surprising to me. A lot of folks years, shall we say, right now.

I suppose I would say I don't trust the Iranians. Theres no reason to ever trust the Iranians. But I do believe somewhere on the spectrum that runs from, hey, we're sitting in Geneva and Kushner and Witkoff are at the table and Abbas Araghchi, the foreign minister of Iran, is there. We're getting close to a deal. That would be one end of the spectrum.

And the other is, no, we're not talking at all. Were kind of in the middle. I think there's traffic passing back and forth. It's a confused situation in Tehran right close with this. Like Churchill said, talk, talk, talk is better than war, war, war.

So, if it can yield some results, I'm all for it.

HUNT: For sure.

Admiral, I want to play one other thing. The president said today about and this was the president was asked directly if he trusts the Iranians. And he said something that I -- I'm just curious what your interpretation of it is. I'll put it that way. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Do you think I trust them? I don't trust them.

REPORTER: Then why bother talking to them?

TRUMP: Because they're going to make a deal. They're going to make a deal. They did something yesterday that was amazing, actually. They gave us a present and the president arrived today, and it was a very big present, worth a tremendous amount of money. And I'm not going to tell you what that president is, but it was a very significant prize.

It was oil and gas related, and it was a very nice thing they did. But what it showed me is that we're dealing with the right people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: I mean, Admiral, do you have any idea what he's talking about?

STAVRIDIS: No, of course not. No one does. (AUDIO GAP) us at this point. I -- you know, when he first started talking about the president, I thought I thought back to Iran-Contra and the cake we baked. And, you know, it's just -- who knows?

Here's what's important. I think we got a kind of a two in three chance of landing this as a deal, which would include reopening the strait. We would stop pounding Iran. We'll probably put the Iranian Ukraine (AUDIO GAP) sidecar deal and negotiate that at some point in the not-too-distant future.

I think we got a two in three chance of getting to that. But as you're showing endlessly with these clips, there's just going to be a lot of confusion, a lot of back and forth and a lot of sand in the gears as this unfolds.

HUNT: Yeah, indeed. Chuck Todd, the politics of this for the president. We're -- there's been reporting that, you know, there are, there are various people in his ear. There are these questions about what the Saudis want, in particular "The New York Times" reporting that the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, has been pushing President Trump to continue the war against Iran. But obviously, gas prices are here.

His approval rating we saw from "Reuters" today down at 36 percent. If you're President Trump, what are the crosscurrents you're feeling on this?

TODD: Oh, and it's his core voters are more likely to live in rural and exurban America, which means they're more likely to be feeling the financial impact.

HUNT: Because they're driving farther every day.

TODD: Simply drive farther every day. Right? You're the working class base. You know, you've got -- this is -- this is a tax, this is a tax on them, right this instant. So, I think --

HUNT: So, you're a trucker, it's diesel. You're a farmer, it's diesel, et cetera.

TODD: It's just -- it's a massive hit at the moment. It's not something that's down the road.

The problem he's got here is that domestically he's got to end this as soon as he can. But this is -- like there's nothing but bad options facing him, because I can tell you this. So, if we do this half measure here, then it becomes well what did you do all this for? You probably could have gotten this without dropping another set of bombs. If you sort of really leaned into the diplomacy.

And instead now, you've got a diaspora who now is frustrated that you didn't finish the job, you're going to have Gulf states who are totally divided on this, right? The UAE is taking more hits, literally, and you have them going, okay, what pandora's box did we open?

You've got MBS who at this point is like in for a dime, in for a dollar, which I understand that mindset, too. It's sort of like if you're going to do this and you don't do regime change and you caused all this damage, and now you've hurt America's prestige, we've got all sorts of -- I mean, so I the problem he's got is this is going to be long term damaging the United States no matter what happens. But politically, he's got to get out ASAP.

JENNINGS: Respectfully dissent from this opinion of Chuck.

[16:40:00]

I think the long-term possibilities here are terrific.

TODD: Regime change, I agree.

JENNINGS: Number one, what he's trying to do is codify the completion of his objectives. No nuclear missiles, which he mentioned today. They are apparently talking to us about agreeing to. You're not going to be a state sponsor of terror and export that around the world. You're not going to have an aggressive navy. You're not going to have a ballistic missile program, which, by the way, we learned this past weekend, the missiles fly much further than we previously knew and that Iran had admitted to just a few weeks ago.

But if you could somehow end this and codify the completion of your objectives with whoever, you know, whatever remnant is left here, that is a good thing. The American people, I think, instinctively know this is the enemy. They also know they are a danger. And they also know that if we can get in and get out quickly while codifying those objectives will be safer --

HUNT: That's a lot of ifs. That's a lot of ifs.

ALLISON: Inconsistency. I mean, I think --

JENNINGS: What is inconsistent about the president?

ALLISON: Well, you're just saying that they have missiles that go further than we thought, which means they're not telling the truth, which I don't -- I'm not surprised that they're not telling the truth. And then Trump says, no, he doesn't trust them, but he knows he's working with the right people. Well, they didn't tell you what they had.

So, it just feels like -- and then he's talking about this big gift that we don't even -- what is it? Lower gas prices --

HUNT: Put that out.

ALLISON: Send it to us.

HUNT: What is the president? I mean, present from Iran?

JENNINGS: I mean, I'm sorry to say you will not be included in the negotiations. You will -- you will hear about it --

ALLISON: Neither will you.

JENNINGS: -- at the conclusion. ALLISON: Neither will you.

JENNINGS: But he -- they're having obviously, conversations with the people that we're at war with here. But don't -- don't you want this to end with an Iran that is no longer a threat to the West, to the free world, to Europe, to their neighbors in the Middle East, to our troops, to Americans. That's how this ends.

TODD: Scott, Iran's not going to -- this regime is not going to end with a deal that doesn't give them control of the strait. Tell me how, if he can get a deal that ends with them not controlling the strait --

JENNINGS: There's other countries over there that might have something to say about that.

TODD: Well, and I --

HUNT: Well, you know what? We're going to put that to the admiral.

Admiral, if you're still with us. I mean, is there a world where this ends with without Iranian control of the strait?

STAVRIDIS: Depends what you mean by control. I've driven through the straits, I don't know, 95 times anyway. And, to some degree, because of geography, this is kind of the revenge of geography.

Iran is always going to have control in the sense that if you can destroy something, you kind of control it. They can (AUDIO GAP) put in the water.

The question is, can we create a deterrent regime that pushes them back from exercising that power? And I think we can get to that point. And final thought as to what did we get out of this, you know, as the simple military guy at the table, big part of what we got out of it is destroying their navy, getting rid of their ballistic missile program, largely.

We've really done enormous damage to their ability to recreate that, their defense industrial base. There's a lot to that. We got to recognize that ought to be on the table as we judge this.

HUNT: Yeah, Admiral James Stavridis, always appreciate your incredible expertise on all this. Thanks very much for being with us.

All right. Ahead here in THE ARENA, voters in Florida deciding today who will represent Mar-a-Lago in the Florida house. And one of those voters was President Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: How do you feel about voting by mail? Because we did learn that Donald Trump did vote by mail yesterday in this election.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you kidding me? I had no idea. Voting by mail to me is terrible. (END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:47:28]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Mail in voting means mail in cheating. I call it mail in cheating. And we got to do something about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: That was President Trump Monday afternoon, once again calling for the elimination of no excuse mail in voting. This morning, however, CNN learned that the president himself cast a mail in ballot in today's Florida special election.

Trump has long claimed without evidence, that voting by mail is a significant source of election fraud, and he's attempting to sharply limit it ahead of the 2026 midterms through the Save America Act. Some Democrats suggesting that this effort is also not entirely separate from the president's recent deployment of ICE agents to over a dozen U.S. airports.

Here's the Democratic governor of Maryland speaking exclusively today to CNN's Dana Bash.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. WES MOORE (D), MARYLAND: It's impossible to not look at this as all happening at the same time. We're pushing for this Save America Act, which is essentially a voter suppression law. And we're watching the Voting Rights Act under attack that we are watching the president moving and trying to do redistricting in states that he says should do Medicaid registration.

This is a much larger plan about how do you hold on to power and using military and law enforcement personnel to try to do something.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: About --

MOORE: Oh, absolutely. I think the president's thinking about --

BASH: All right.

MOORE: Well, yeah, I think that I think these are all tools of how the president is trying to think about a much larger plan, which is if you cannot hold on to power through democratic elections and just democratic elections.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right. Joining me now in THE ARENA to discuss, CNN's senior political and global affairs commentator, Rahm Emanuel. He is, of course, the former mayor of Chicago and the U.S. ambassador to Japan. Those are just two of his many additional titles.

Mr. Emanuel, always great to see you. Thank you for being here.

At a recent dinner in Washington -- all of those titles were listed and also noted for, you know, a variety of reasons, including the possibility you may be seeking another one.

[16:50:03]

But I want to start here -- in fact, with that in with midterm elections, because this has really become something that has come up over and over again in conversations I'm having privately. And of course, some Democrats are saying publicly that the midterm elections and the way they're going to be conducted, the way that the president is talking now about the Save Act and other things could contribute to essentially the president trying to raise doubt about the results.

I want to play something that Kamala Harris said recently, and then we'll talk about it on the other side. Take a look

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT: Like, let's be prepared. Because if, as many predict, we win the midterms, if we don't win by substantial numbers, I can see a situation where they find some reason to refuse to seat Democrats who win the election in the midterms is one of the, if not the only, way that in the immediate future we can put some checks on the abuse of power coming from Donald Trump in this administration.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: How concerned are you about the possibility of what Harris suggested there? This idea that the president may try to not seat Democrats who win midterms, midterm seats?

RAHM EMANUEL, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL & GLOBAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: Well, my first concern, Kasie, and I think one of the reasons I was in Wisconsin, you have another statewide election there for the Supreme Court is Democrats are massively energized. Independents are breaking for Democrats and all the races across the country in 220 -- in 2025 and 2026 for Democrats and turnout among Republicans, as well.

So, the basic fundamentals are there and they're not changing. And I think you'll know that more in June. Second is, I think, the point that the former vice president made is when you look at the Constitution, the speaker of the House has pretty good control. That's why there's the court of public opinion and raising people in aware and knowing that this is going to be a big election in just a few seats is one thing. A sizable set of seats in the double digits is another thing where they can't deny the voice of the voters and the public.

And out there, I would just tell you, having been all over the country, there's a lot of emotions of anger, frustration, disappointment, sense of betrayal. And the president and the Republicans know, to quote Senator Cramer from North Dakota the other day, thank God I'm not on the ballot this year, because there's going to be a comeuppance to the Republicans for what they've done.

HUNT: What do you make of the warnings that Democrats have about the idea that Republicans could try to, quote/unquote, "rig the election", because we are seeing some people use that kind of language to warn about this. And I'm just curious if you think that there is any danger in that simply because our democratic system does require trust from the voters that it governs?

EMANUEL: Yeah. Well, there's no doubt it requires trust and it requires trust between the parties and the people out there. But also, you know, it's very clear about the role of the states and the role of the counties in conducting the election. And the reason the presidents all hot and bothered first about redistricting, that looks like its going to backfire as a political strategy.

Second, you know, you're in the middle of a war, right? And you're dealing with massive energy prices. And he's worrying about the SAVE Act, which is about an election, tells you how misguided his priorities are and where his insecurities are, because he sees what everybody else who goes anywhere around the country sees, which is that the voters are going to give the president and the rubber stamp Republican Congress a real referendum on their stewardship. And it ain't going to be pretty, and they know it.

So, I understand the drive to motivate people, but I think the one caution I would say to the Democrats, this is not going to be just a legal issue. This is also going to be fought in the court of public opinion, and the public has a role to play in pressuring what's happening. You can see it.

And the poor analogy, but analogy, all of a sudden, the Senate is starting to focus on the homeland security bill. Why? Because there's massive long lines at TSA. The public anger will come eventually to Washington, even though Washington wants to deny it all too frequently.

HUNT: Yeah. Fair enough. We're basically up against the clock. But speaking of Washington --

EMANUEL: Yeah.

HUNT: -- are you looking to come back here?

EMANUEL: Kasie, when I come back, I'm never quiet or subtle, so you'll know.

HUNT: I -- yes, I can, I can already tell.

EMANUEL: There's nothing quiet about it.

[16:55:01]

HUNT: All right. Rahm Emanuel, always grateful to have you on the show, sir. Really appreciate your time. EMANUEL: Thanks, Kasie.

HUNT: All right. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HUNT: All right. Thanks very much to my panel. Really appreciate you guys being here.

Thanks to all of you at home for watching as well.

Don't forget, you can now stream THE ARENA live. You can catch up whenever you want in the CNN app. Just scan the QR code below. You can also catch up by listening to THE ARENA's podcast. You can follow us on X and Instagram @TheArenaCNN.

But don't go anywhere. Phil Mattingly is in for Jake Tapper, and he is standing by for THE LEAD.

Hi, Phil.