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The Lead with Jake Tapper

U.S. Set To Deploy More Troops As W.H. Says Iran Talks Continue; Sen. Chris Murphy, (D-CT), Is Interviewed About TSA, 3,160 Plus TSA Workers Did Not Show Up For Work Tuesday, White House Reiterates Iran War Timeline About "Four to Six Weeks," Chuck Schumer; Savannah Guthrie Tapes First Interview Since Her Mother Disappeared Nearly Two Months Ago; NTSB Looking Into Multiple Technology Failures As Potential Cause For Collision; FL Dems Flips Seat In District That Includes Trump's Mar-A-Lago. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired March 25, 2026 - 17:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KASIE HUNT, CNN HOST: All right, thanks very much to my panel. Really appreciate you all being here. Thanks to you at home for watching as well. Don't forget you can now stream the arena live. You can catch up whatever you want in the CNN app.

Just scan the QR code below. You can also catch up by listening to The Arenas podcast. You can follow the show on X and Instagram at thearenacnn. But don't go anywhere, Phil Mattingly is standing by for "The Lead." Hi Phil.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kasie. Thanks so much. We'll look for more tomorrow in "The Arena." HUNT: See you soon.

[17:00:40]

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Could U.S. troops run directly into traps in Iran? The Lead starts right now.

New CNN reporting sources say Iran is planting mines on its Kharg Island before U.S. troops possibly land there. When does the ongoing U.S. troop buildup constitute boots on the ground? Our experts are standing by. Plus, two days and now two juries finding Meta liable in lawsuits. This time it's Meta and YouTube ordered to pay millions in a landmark case that accused the tech giants of intentionally addicting younger users.

And today's show anchor Savannah Guthrie in her first interview since the disappearance of her mother, Nancy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAVANNAH GUTHRIE, NBC "TODAY" ANCHOR: We are in agony.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. GUTHRIE: We are in agony. It is unbearable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Her gut wrenching words nearly two full months since her mother was last seen.

Welcome to The Lead. I'm Phil Mattingly in for Jake Tapper. We start in the world lead in that new CNN reporting, Iran building up its defenses on its Kharg Island ahead of a potential U.S. ground operation. All as the Trump administration tries to find a diplomatic path to end the war. Sources familiar with U.S. intelligence reporting tell CNN Iran is laying traps and moving military personnel and air defenses to the tiny island that handles about 90 percent of the nation's crude exports.

Sources also tell CNN the Pentagon is weighing a takeover of that island as a way to force the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. But there is concern among officials about whether risks to U.S. troops outweigh the potential gain. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt today offering little information about whether Congress would be called if even more troops are set to be deployed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: That formal authorization from Congress is not necessary because we're currently in major combat operations in Iran. The Department of War and the president, as I said, estimated about a four to six week timeline for the full completion of these military combat operations at this moment, it's unnecessary. The president likes to maintain options at his disposal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: The White House is still pressing on to find an off ramp to the war. Sources say the U.S. offered a 15 point list of expectations this week with Pakistan serving as a diplomatic intermediary. An Iranian official today rejecting that proposal through state media. Iran is offering its own conditions and the Iranian official says Tehran will not allow Trump to dictate the timing of the war's end. President Trump said Tuesday Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio Secretary set to lead negotiations.

Officials telling CNN a potential meeting this weekend could happen in Pakistan, although exact timing and location remains very fluid. The president also has said Secretary Rubio, along with special envoy Steve Witkoff and the president's son in law Jared Kushner, will take part in negotiations with Iran, although it's still unclear whether they'll travel to Pakistan for a meeting this weekend. Let's discuss all of this with retired Brigadier General Steve Anderson.

General, really appreciate you coming in. I want to start with the headlines that people may have seen CNN reported about a deployment of about 1,000 troops from the 82nd Airborne. And just to start with the 82nd Airborne itself, spent a lot of time in Fort Bragg as a kid, the significance of the unit.

BRIG. GEN. STEVE ANDERSON (RET.), U.S. ARMY: It's a great unit. The immediate response force that they put together, probably about 1,000 troops, although some people are saying perhaps 2,000. That's probably about a battalion's worth. They can be on the ground in about 22 hours or so to fly to a place like probably Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar. That would put them -- if the mission is Kharg Island, they'd be about 250 miles away.

Still a long shot, but still something they could do. If the mission is in the Strait of Hormuz, as some people have talked about, that could be also 250 miles away and they could go to seize (ph) an island there. But I mean, this is a light unit, OK? So they're going to have cruiser weapons, they're going to have individual weapons. They're going to have some mortars, they're going to have aviation support.

They're going to have Apache helicopters. You know, they're going to probably be lifted in on Chinooks or maybe even Blackhawks. Probably take about 70 some odd Blackhawks to move a unit of that size, battalion size into Kharg Island. If they had C130s and they wanted to do an airborne operation, which they could, it would take about probably 15 or so C130s. But again, that's a very, very dangerous situation.

[17:05:19]

So it's a very capable unit, but they're small. They're probably most ideal for taking something like the airfield at Kharg Island.

MATTINGLY: The buildup that we've seen, also marine units have been moving toward the region as well. I think there's a lot of questions about what it actually means, whether it's an optionality issue or whether it is -- there are definitely going to be boots on the ground. Speaker Mike Johnson said this when he was asked about it. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), HOUSE SPEAKER: The buildup of troops is very different than boots on the ground. We don't have boots on the ground. I don't think that's the intention, but I think Iran should watch that build up and they need to take note of that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: The distinction there, I understand it on its face, but a buildup at this level to where it's at right now, is this something that can be pulled back with no repercussions?

ANDERSON: Absolutely, Phil. I mean, it could. I mean, it could be a bargaining chip, you know, for diplomacy, just like Speaker Johnson suggests. The MEU is going to be a very capable entity right now. The 31st MEU, we believe, is at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, but they still got to come through the Strait of Hormuz.

You, you know, if in fact they're going to go to something like Kharg or -- Kharg Island or one of the islands in -- within the strait. But I mean, I think that putting boots on the ground obviously would be a huge step forward. And, you know, we were talking mission big time, but perhaps they're just trying to position these forces over there in the Middle East to give them some options later on.

MATTINGLY: Send a signal on some level. When it comes to the Strait of Hormuz, obviously there has been no major breakthrough. There have been no naval escorts. The insurance proposal wasn't enough to trigger tankers and their personnel saying, sure, we'll take a shot at this. Is there a viable military solution to that that the U.S. would be considering right now?

ANDERSON: I would think that probably the only viable military solution, the one that makes the most sense, is to have some kind of an escort mission. But it's going to still be fraught with peril because you're talking about an enemy, a committed enemy. I mean, 200,000, you know, religious fanatics. That's what the IRGC is. These people are fighting to the death.

They are not going to go down easily. It's either kill or be killed. They know if there's any kind of a regime change, they're gone. So they're going to continue to use all their asymmetric capabilities. They're going to use mines.

They're going to use missiles. They're going to use probably some of the cruise missiles, like homemade cruise missiles. You remember, Phil, when the Moskva was sunk by the Ukrainians four years ago, that was essentially a surfboard on steroids. They also got drones, as we all know. So they're going to use all those elements of their power, their asymmetric power, to try to interdict the strait as best they possibly can.

MATTINGLY: What is your sense right now, given what we've heard from the administration? Just the scale of the military operation that's been underway, which from an air operation successful, period, end of story. There's no question about that. What's left, do you think?

ANDERSON: What's left is, I believe, a political solution. I mean, they've got to come up with something because obviously -- I mean, there was never a doubt, Phil, that were going to be able to dominate them militarily. That was never a doubt. But that's tactics. I'm talking strategy.

And we don't really have an effective strategy, and we haven't really brought about an end of the war or say -- even set the conditions, I think, to bring about an end to the war. Phil, you remember about a year and a half ago, maybe a year and a month ago, when President Trump was sitting in the Oval Office with Zelenskyy, and Trump kept yelling, you don't have the cards. You don't have the cards. Zelenskyy had the cards. Trump just couldn't see him.

The Iranians have the same cards. They have the will to fight. That's card number one. I mean, these are a committed, like I said, fanatical enemy. Will number two -- card number two, they got the Strait of Hormuz.

They've shut it down. We've got 1500 ships that are waiting to get through there. It's going to take three months to work off that backlog. And card number three, they still have 440 kilograms of highly enriched uranium that hasn't been addressed with either. So the Ukrainians -- the Iranians clearly have a lot of cards they can continue to play.

And, you know, the Trump administration needs to do something about all three.

MATTINGLY: Is the diplomatic pathway that's being pursued right now, the best option in your view that's on the --

ANDERSON: I think it probably is. We got to come up with a diplomatic solution, you know, because the military is not the right answer. I mean President Trump tends to use the military because he can, because he knows when he says, hey, jump six feet or jump this high, they're going to do it. The problem is that diplomacy is much, much more difficult. They're going to have to develop some kind of diplomatic solution and unfortunately, you know, the Iranians don't trust us right now because Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have burned them twice which is why they're asking to negotiate with J.D. Vance right now.

So, you can see their position. But this war is not going to end until the Iranians say it's going to end.

[17:10:05]

MATTINGLY: Brigadier General Steve Anderson, thank you, sir. Really appreciate your time.

ANDERSON: Thank you, Phil.

MATTINGLY: Well, the House Republican today said a Trump administration briefing on Iran turned into, quote, "the most contentious" committee briefing he'd ever seen. We'll go to the other side of the chamber to get a Senate Democrats point of view of the conflict next. And more than 3,000 TSA employees did not come to work on Tuesday. Blame the partial government shutdown. So how long is it going to drag on?

We are asking that very question ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MATTINGLY: In our national lead, the partial government shutdown creating more misery for both air travelers and TSA agents who are still working without pay. More than 3,160 TSA employees did not show up for work Tuesday, the last day we have numbers for, 481 TSA officers have quit so far. TSA workers are set to miss a second full paycheck this weekend if Senate Democrats and Republicans fail to agree on a funding deal for the Department of Homeland Security. The shutdown, now in its 40th day.

[17:15:11]

Joining us now to discuss Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut. He serves as the ranking member on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee which specifically deals with DHS funding.

Senator, there have been proposals going back and forth for a proposal and then another proposal. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said the Democrats latest offer is, quote, "not even close to being real." What's the pathway here?

SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT), FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE: Well, let me tell you what's really going on here. Republicans are refusing to fund TSA and the Coast Guard and FEMA because they're using the shutdown of TSA as leverage to try to get more money for ICE. Democrats every single day go to the floor of the Senate and offer a motion, offer legislation to open up TSA. Republicans reject it. We then offer a motion to open up the Coast Guard, they reject it.

We offer a motion to open up FEMA, they reject it. The reason is they want to keep TSA closed as leverage to try to get more funding for this out of control ICE operation that's murdering American citizens and tear gassing elementary schools. Democrats are saying, listen, like, let's open up TSA, let's open up the Coast Guard, let's open up all the rest of DHS and just narrow our disagreement to ICE. Let's spend the weekend next week working out our differences on ICE. But let's not, you know, clog up the airports just because you have to satisfy Donald Trump and give him money for his runaway immigration enforcement agency.

So that's the path here, is that at some point Republicans just have to decide to stop holding TSA hostage to their demands on immigration and then there won't be any problems at the airports. That's just Republicans decision as to whether they want to open the airports or not.

MATTINGLY: So two pieces on that and correct me if I'm wrong in my understanding of things, but first, I mean, ISIS funded on the mandatory side based on Big Beautiful Bill, which they did last year. And second, the administration and Senate Republicans primarily in the administration, seems to have come along with the idea of stripping out the enforcement funding, dealing with that later, which would be a vehicle to have the negotiations over what you guys have been talking about now for more than a month in terms of adding new restrictions on those enforcement operations. Why -- I don't understand why Democrats are opposed to that.

MURPHY: Well, I don't know that you're actually accurately representing what Republicans have offered. They've basically said fund half of ICE and not the other half. And fund half of ICE without a single reform. We want money to be able to put half the ICE officers into communities without any restrictions on them, tear gassing schools or arresting legal residents of communities. That's not really a solution.

I don't want half as many schools tear gassed. I want no schools tear gassed. So we're going to continue to fight to have these reforms. But the bottom line is that why aren't Republicans just saying yes to our offer to open up TSA, Coast Guard and FEMA today? They are the ones holding those agencies hostage. We do not want TSA shut down. Every single day we go to the floor and say, you will get every single Democratic vote to open up TSA and they block that bill every single day.

MATTINGLY: I want to play something that Senator Bill Cassidy, Republican from Louisiana said. You know, on the issue of hostages, you won't be surprised to learn Republicans think it's the other way around. But this comment in particular stood out. Take a listen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BILL CASSIDY (R-LA): They feel like they can hold a hostage and get more gain. And it doesn't matter that people are suffering in our country or theirs or they keep moving the goalpost. It sounds a lot like they feel like they've got a good Strait of Hormuz they can choke point travel this time for the American people to achieve their political goals. That's tragic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: What's your response to that?

MURPHY: Phil, it doesn't make any sense. Like, that's not actually what's going on. Republicans are not coming down to the floor and offering legislation to open up TSA. If they did that in the next five minutes, every Democrat would support it. The dynamic is that Democrats are coming to the floor and saying open TSA and Republicans are saying no.

So if Bill Cassidy wants to open TSA, then he should stop objecting to the Democrats efforts to open TSA. What the video -- the audio you just played like does not even remotely reflect the reality that is happening right now. They are holding the hostage. And like, you have to report the truth, right? The truth is, as you know, they're blocking the legislation to open up TSA.

We are not blocking the legislation to open up TSA.

MATTINGLY: I want to shift over to the war on Iran and not just because the Strait of Hormuz has somehow entered the shutdown talks on some level. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt would not confirm whether there will be talks this weekend in Pakistan, there's a lot going back and forth on this. I understand that it's fluid. She reiterated the timeline for the war is four to six weeks. This Saturday marks four weeks, I believe.

[17:20:10]

As someone who's on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has been pushing for Congress to have a role here, what's your sense about what actually happens next?

MURPHY: I mean, I don't really know that there are any negotiations happening. Donald Trump lies every single day. And he basically is just playing for the markets, right? He just represents billionaires, and so he wants the markets to not tank. And so he's telling the markets, yes, there's serious negotiations going on. There's no evidence of that. I just left a private briefing in which we asked the Department of Defense, who's representing us at the negotiations, tell us about the progress, what are they talking about? And they couldn't tell us anything. They had no information. And that's probably because they don't really exist.

What they did confirm for us in that briefing today was that there is no way to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. There is no military plan to open the strait. The strait is effectively going to remain closed until the war ends. So that's bad news for American consumers. Iran has no reason to come to the table right now.

They -- the hardliners control the country. They see the war getting more unpopular in the United States. They control the Strait of Hormuz for the long run. You know, why is Iran going to do a deal right now? They're getting most of what they want.

Trump just has to end this war. He's got to end this war. I know it'll be embarrassing for him politically, but it'll be good for the region and it'll be good for American consumers.

MATTINGLY: I want to follow up on what you said you'd heard about the Strait of Hormuz. One of the things the administration has pushed back on, when people have raised questions about their preparation for that actually being a move Iran would make, is, look, the military has been planning for these types of operations for decades, right? They have exercises, they run training. They have teams and units that are in the region that are thinking about this constantly. They have any number of different operational plans that they could launch in this moment.

None of those are on the table right now?

MURPHY: Well, that's just not true. You know, the reason that we have not invaded Iran before is because we always knew they could close the Strait of Hormuz. That has been the limiting principle of a full scale war with Iran. Donald Trump knew, should have known ahead of time that we don't have a military means to reopen the strait. Why?

Because Iran controls the strait by mining the strait or a threat of mining the strait, and it mines the strait with speedboats, thousands of speedboats. You cannot destroy Iran's speedboat armada with missiles or drones. We are never going to be able to stop their ability to mine the strait. Thus, the strait will remain closed so long as this war continues. And that's what our intelligence analysts told the president before the war.

That's what they're telling him now. And any illusion that there is a military way to destroy thousands of Iranian speedboats and tiny little mines, it's dangerous.

MATTINGLY: This can be a bit of a sharp turn, but before I let you go, I was reading a Wall Street Journal story and all I could think about was it's going to be an interesting couple of days for you in the hallways based on this story, which talks about the potential, I guess it was dubbed a fight club and the idea of trying to get a read on whether Senator Chuck Schumer had support to be leader in the next Congress. Just to cut right to it, like, yes or no, do you want Schumer to run for reelection in 2028? Do you want him to be the leader in the next Congress?

MURPHY: Well, I mean, I get that this is a fun parlor game, but, like, we are united as a caucus right now, and we are united to try to stop this war and to reopen the Department of Homeland Security. Schumer has a very hard job. It hasn't been, you know, a secret that a lot of us have wanted the caucus to fight harder and to hold out longer for our principles. I've been pretty public about, you know, my frustration often with what happens inside the caucus. But, no, we are completely united right now as a caucus.

And I know people need to write these stories, but we're focused together as a Democratic caucus on getting homeland reopened and ending this war right now.

MATTINGLY: Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut really appreciate your time, sir. Thank you.

MURPHY: Appreciate it.

[17:24:50]

MATTINGLY: Well, next, that new interview from "Today" show anchor Savannah Guthrie, her first since the disappearance of her mother, Nancy. And the chances of somebody knowing something about this agonizing case. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GUTHRIE: Someone needs to do the right thing. We are in agony.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

GUTHRIE: We are in agony. It is unbearable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: In our national lead, we're hearing from "Today" show host Savannah Guthrie in her first interview since her mother Nancy Guthrie disappeared nearly two months ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GUTHRIE: I wake up every night in the middle of the night, every night. And in the darkness I imagine her terror.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: It has been 53 days since someone took 84 year old Nancy Guthrie from her home in the middle of the night without her phone or critical medications. The search, it's ongoing.

[17:30:00]

MATTINGLY: Let's bring in former FBI agent Bryanna Fox and CNN chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst, John Miller. John, I want to start with you, what are your sources telling you about where this investigation stands right now?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, the investigation is obviously continuing, although, you know, the fast and furious leads that we saw in the early days of the case where homes were being raided, search warrants were being executed, suspects were being questioned, now they're down to the slower version of that where they are picking through leads that they already examined, saying is there anything we missed here that we need to go back over, waiting for lab tests and scientific items to come back, waiting for technical information from subpoenas.

On the one hand, it's good that being out of the intense spotlight they were under has given the investigators, both FBI and the sheriff, a little more room to breathe, but also, as time goes on, the likelihood, the possibility that Nancy Guthrie, the victim in this case, could still be with us, of course, has gotten much dimmer.

MATTINGLY: And Bryanna, you know, as John lays out the technical aspects of what's happening in the current investigation, from a bigger picture perspective, when a case goes on this long, it seems to be going cold on some level. Explain to people operationally what's going on behind the scenes.

BRYANNA FOX, FORMER FBI AGENT: Right. Well, the true definition of a cold case is where they literally do not have any new leads. There's nothing new that they can really pursue. I don't think we're there. I agree with John. I don't think that they're there yet. They had upwards of 15,000 leads that came in just when the $1 million reward was offered by the Guthrie family.

So I think they are still heavy combing through all of those, but it could be safely assumed that those high-priority leads, the ones that had the most amount of detail, they seem to be the most promising. We can assume they have pursued those. So what are they doing now? One thing is exactly what John said.

They're going back over. They're re-interviewing people. They have new people that are on the case, fresh eyes, looking at things from a new perspective. Another thing is they could start analyzing other cases in related jurisdictions. Has this ever occurred before? What happened? Are these potentially related? How did it end up getting resolved? And could they implement a similar strategy here? That was one thing that I was working in the Behavioral Science Unit at the FBI on how can we better link cases to help solve them faster.

MATTINGLY: And Bryanna, Sheriff Chris Nanos spoke with Tucson's CBS affiliate KOLD about the specific request for footage from the evening of January 11th. He said, "We do believe that something occurred on January 11th, and that's what the FBI's analysis of equipment and digital stuff they've done." He wouldn't share what evidence led the FBI to have interest in that specific date, but what might they have? FOX: Well, obviously, we don't know everything that they know, and that's important. We don't -- I think that's important for the public to be aware. We've seen this in other cases, the Bryan Kohberger case out in Idaho. I was obviously a big one where it didn't seem like they had a lot, but they had a lot going on behind the scenes. So there could be information we don't have.

So there could be sightings of a person walking through the neighborhood that looked like the suspect. There could be video footage that they didn't release because maybe it's not that helpful to the investigation. But yet they do have somebody that may be casing this location.

That could be helpful because it shows starting to have information about a pattern with someone coming to this neighborhood repeatedly, maybe something that was very small, like with the recent shooting at Brown University. That small thing, like somebody walking through a neighborhood that doesn't really seem right, that actually can lead to breaking the case open.

So that date, somebody has some information that is leading authorities to say, if you know something about someone on that date, that's where we want to hear it, not just the date in question, which was February 1st.

MATTINGLY: A lot of hope and prayers still ongoing for Savannah and her family. Bryanna Fox, John Miller, appreciate you guys both. Thanks so much.

Well, if you have information you think could help this case, call the Pima County Sheriff's Department at 520-351-4900 or call the FBI at 1- 800-CALL-FBI. You can also reach the bureau online at tips.fbi.gov.

[17:34:21]

A live look now at New York's LaGuardia Airport, a mangled fire truck still there three days after getting hit by that Air Canada plane going more than 100 miles per hour. CNN aviation correspondent Pete Muntean is just back from LaGuardia, the next steps for investigation. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MATTINGLY: In our National Lead, investigators are moving the Air Canada jet that slammed into a fire truck while landing at New York's LaGuardia Airport Sunday. That crash killed the plane's two pilots. The airline says authorities will move that plane to a hangar. The NTSB's latest findings reveal technology issues may have contributed to the tragedy.

The fire truck did not have a transponder, likely limiting the air traffic controller's ability to track it. And the airport's ground radar system did not issue an alert warning. The runway was unsafe to enter.

Joining us now, pilot and CNN aviation correspondent Pete Muntean. Pete, you're just back from LaGuardia Airport. What's the latest you're learning about this investigation?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, this investigation really at full steam now. Remember, investigators were also caught up in the TSA delays that are ensnarling people at airports across the country. We now just got this update from Air Canada.

All but four passengers have now been released from the hospital and the plane itself has been released by the NTSB back to Air Canada. Now, Air Canada is in the process of moving that airplane to a hangar. Today, NTSB investigators were on the scene again, collecting all of this perishable physical evidence that will be key to this investigation.

[17:39:58]

And they've also been developing these pretty long lists of what they will need in this investigation, what documents they'll need, what components they'll need to save from the plane and the fire truck. And then also what interviews they will need. And that is so key here.

We know that there was a plan, at least last night, to begin to interview one of the two air traffic controllers in the tower at the time of this crash. Now they're developing a list of other interviews they'll need. Of course, they'll want to talk to the firefighters. Two of them were in the truck, miraculously survived this crash, and they could provide some pretty key details here, too.

MATTINGLY: Sticking for a second on the two people who were in the tower at the time of the crash, the air traffic controllers, we've heard a lot about the combining positions. How deep should investigators dig into that? Is it a kind of widespread problem?

MUNTEAN: It is a widespread problem, and that's what's so interesting here. You know, this is kind of standard operating procedure, NTSB Chair Homendy said at LaGuardia, but this happens at airports all across the country. When air traffic kind of goes off a cliff about 9:30 p.m., the problem the night of this crash was there was a pretty irregular day in the air travel system. You have to mention the bad weather that occurred some that day.

There was some weather moving through New York. Conditions were kind of marginal. And then the TSA delays layer that on top of things that caused things to be a little bit weird. So this is also a time when controllers are their most fatigued and their most stressed. So it would make sense that the staffing would actually go up overnight rather than pile that on to just two people.

I just talked to a former NTSB managing director, Peter Goelz, who said, you know, they're really playing with fire here. And when things sort of get out of whack, like when there was an emergency on the airport, which we saw in this case just before this crash, that is when controllers need to be able to staff up more or pump the brakes and stop flights, either put them in holding patterns in the air or put into place delays or ground stops so that things aren't continuing to move while their focus is so divided. There's some pretty big variables here and a lot of questions to ask about combining positions because the NTSB has cited again and again that this has been a factor in crashes. And Peter Goelz told me this will probably be a contributing factor in this crash as well.

MATTINGLY: I want to go back to something we talked about a lot yesterday, and that is the idea that the fire truck was not equipped with a transponder. I understand the regulatory slash statutory or lack thereof kind of guidelines on this. Why is it that an airport like LaGuardia would not have a fire truck with a transponder on it?

MUNTEAN: That's a really good question, because these trucks are multimillion dollar pieces of equipment. And frankly, they're not all that old. The Port Authority placed an order for these trucks, 24 of them only back in 2017. So these are expensive pieces of equipment.

A transponder like I have in my airplane can cost 5 or $6,000. You can often buy them used on eBay. I'm not saying they should have done that here. But when you consider it over the totality of this deal that they made and probably got some federal money from it for the FAA, too, it's a marginal cost.

And so why not equip these vehicles that are on the airport all the time? This is not like a catering truck that may need to cross the runway every so often. This is the Oshkosh Striker truck. They're very big. They weigh tens of thousands of pounds, gross weight, maybe 86,000 pounds in some cases. They're really, really fortified pieces of equipment, very, very specialized to be on an airport.

And so the fact that these things don't have a transponder out of the gate, not necessarily laying blame on the manufacturer, but maybe it should be something to be considered because they're crossing the runway all the time. The firehouse is on one side of runway four. The terminals are on the other side.

So it's a big compounding factor here that investigators will really want to look at and maybe say, hey, maybe we should put in a recommendation that these should be mandated on all airport fire truck.

MATTINGLY: Yes, it certainly seems that way. We'll continue to watch how it plays out. I know you will not stop covering. Pete Muntean, appreciate you.

MUNTEAN: Anytime.

[17:43:56]

MATTINGLY: Well, we're going to Florida next after the Democrats big win in the state legislative district that the President calls home. Who's paying more attention to this right now? Republicans or Democrats? We're going to ask some political insiders, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MATTINGLY: In our Politics Lead, Democrats are claiming victory in President Trump's own backyard. Emily Gregory won a special state house election last night, a district that includes Trump's Mar-a-Lago home in Florida. So was President Trump a factor in this race?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EMILY GREGORY (D-FL), HOUSE MEMBER-ELECT: I think it's a real reaction to the current policies at the national and state level, and I think that is a clear indication from voters. It's the wrong track.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How much did people talk to you about the president?

GREGORY: I would say roughly zero. I mean, it really was not a factor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: And that's not the only Florida race Democrats could flip. Brian Nathan holds a narrow lead over Republican Josie Tomkow and in a state Senate race that's currently too close to call. I want to talk about this with my political experts. Guys, thanks so much for joining me.

Bryan Lanza, I am one who is very reticent to draw conclusions based on special elections in general, certainly for state legislatures at this point in time. But there's a trend line here that's pretty undeniable. What are Republicans thinking right now?

BRYAN LANZA, FORMER SENIOR ADVISER, TRUMP 2024 CAMPAIGN: Yes, we're worried. Yes, we're worried about the energy in a Democratic Party. I mean, that's what special elections ultimately show is where the energy is. And there's clearly been a lot of energy in these special elections and these Republican seats that have leaned Democratic.

So we're worried about that. We're worried about the issues that impact them the most is obviously affordability or pricing becomes that choice. We're losing that conversation every day. And that's what worries Republicans.

MATTINGLY: In Florida, District 87, which Democrats just flipped, Trump won it by 11 points two years ago. James Talarico down in Texas trying to flip a U.S. Senate seat, a state Trump carried by 14. Sherrod Brown hoping to do the same in Ohio. Trump carried it by 11 points. In Alaska, former Congresswoman Mary Peltola, a Democrat, is trying to unseat Republican incumbent Senator Dan Sullivan. Trump won Alaska by 14 points.

[17:50:18]

Adrienne, the Senate map is fascinating to me because it never really should have been in play.

ADRIENNE ELROD, FORMER SENIOR SPOKESWOMAN, HARRIS-WALZ CAMPAIGN: Yes.

MATTINGLY: Schumer got every recruit he wanted.

ELROD: Yes. MATTINGLY: Credit to him for that. Whether it works, we'll see. Walk me through what you're thinking right now about kind of those races that I just laid out. I'm an Ohioan and I am skeptical.

ELROD: Yes. No, I know. It's fascinating. I mean, I think, you know, first of all, yes, Schumer got his recruits. But I think you look at somebody, for example, in Maine, like Graham Platner, who is not someone that Schumer recruited and is endorsing. He endorsed Janet Mills, who's the current governor of Maine.

But a lot of people believe that somebody like Graham Platner, who's able to pull in independents, who's able to pull in younger voters, who's really exciting the base. That's the type of people that can win seats like this.

And look, I think, you know, given what Bryan just said, laying out, you know, some of the challenges and concerns that Republicans have about affordability, about the fact that Trump went to war in Iran and is not dealing with problems here at home that American families are facing.

What is so important to remember here is Democrats, if you recruit and this goes for Republicans, too, if you recruit the kind of candidates who voters who are disenfranchised or angry at Trump say, you know what, I could vote for this person because I feel like they identify with my values and they reflect who I am as a person and they're fighting for me. Then we have a fighting chance, which is why you look at Iowa. We've got a good shot in Iowa.

We've got a great shot in Maine. We actually have -- I've been very skeptical about Texas for a long time. I worked in that state off and on.

MATTINGLY: Don't do it. Don't go down this path.

ELROD: But I actually think with Talarico, we do have the best chance that we've had in a very, very long time. I think we could easily win back the Senate. I think we're going to win back the House. I think, you know, it's a little too early to predict, but we've got some really strong candidates. And that is the most important thing, recruiting the right type of people that will pull in those independent and disenfranchised Republicans.

MATTINGLY: Explain to me why the President hasn't picked somebody, endorsed somebody in the Texas race. He promised to. I think we're on like week three of this right now.

LANZA: I think part of it is, is somewhere along the line, he sees Republicans super eager to get Cornyn endorsed. And in Trump's mind, he's like, let me leverage this. Let me leverage the Republicans to get the SAFE Act. And he sort of wasted that opportunity to lay down an early marker for Cornyn, get what he needed to get that guy across the finish line so we could actually win in November.

But in Trump's, you know, ultimate leverage, ultimate dealmaking, he thinks, oh, Republicans really want me to endorse Cornyn. What can I get out of it? I know what I want. I want the SAFE Act, which doesn't look like it's moving in any direction. So it's a wasted opportunity.

MATTINGLY: It's a tough leverage play when it doesn't involve six Democratic votes that you need as well. OK, I want to turn to the deployment of ICE agents at airports. There's a social media post today. President Trump noting ICE agents are helping people with bags, picking up trash. He goes on to say, "The public is loving ICE. So the Democrats unwittingly did us a favor. They are great American patriots. They just happen to have much larger and harder muscles than most, which is what they're supposed to have."

That took a turn. I wasn't necessarily thinking through at this point. The deployment right now, I'm interested in kind of your perspective on how the broader country is viewing.

LANZA: Yes, listen, I just traveled back from Phoenix, Arizona, to D.C. And we had some of the deployment there and they were actually helpful. You ask the attendants. They're helpful. They provide security. They help guide traffic. Is it doing enough? Probably not, because they don't have the trainings. But I think any time you have our airports, you know, have additional help at this critical moment is going to be is going to be helpful.

You got spring break around the corner for families. They need to know that some action is taking place and the administration showing it the best action that could take place is actually Democrats stop holding, you know, ICE and DHS hostage and pass a budget like they've normally done in the past. But I think that's a good contrast.

You have Trump willing to marshal other resources of our government to assist. Well, Democrats just continue to shut it down and do something unprecedented they've never done before.

MATTINGLY: I want to ask you about the shutdown negotiations Bryan just brought up. The administration seems to have been pulled kicking and screaming behind a Senate Republican proposal --

ELROD: Yes.

MATTINGLY: -- that would strip out enforcement money for ICE and push that through as a vehicle for negotiating what Democrats have been pushing for over the course of the last month and a half. Democrats said, nope, we want what we were negotiating for now.

ELROD: Yes.

MATTINGLY: Move it forward.

ELROD: Yes. Look, Democrats have made it very clear that TSA, they we will fund TSA. But of course, we need meaningful reforms to ICE. And that is something we've been talking about for a long time. And by the way, that is something that the American people want. They're demanding this. But something back to what Bryan said.

I mean, can you imagine being a TSA agent working in the airport right now, not having, you know, not being paid and then looking at an ICE agent who does not have any relevance to being in that airport who is being paid? This doesn't make any sense. And we've got to find a solution. But at the end of the day, this is something that is on Republicans.

[17:55:04]

You guys control the White House, the Senate and the House. Democrats are holding big fire because we want to make, no, not hostage. We want to make sure that ICE reforms happen. But we if a vote took place on the floor today, TSA agents would get paid.

MATTINGLY: Quick last word.

LANZA: Listen, it's pretty clear the Democrats are holding ICE hostage. They're holding DHS. This is what they do. They always complain. Republicans do this like you can't change policy. Elections have consequences. Elections have consequences.

MATTINGLY: Bryan Lanza, Adrienne Elrod, Thanks, guys. Appreciate it.

Well, for a second straight day, a jury is finding Meta liable in a lawsuit ordered and ordered to pay millions. A mother directly impacted by today's verdict will be on The Lead, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:00:06]

MATTINGLY: Welcome to the Lead. I'm Phil Mattingly in for Jake Tapper.