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CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip
Confusion Erupts As Iran Denies Trump's Claim They're In Talks; Trump Pauses War, Claiming U.S. And Iran In Talks To End Attacks; Trump Deploys ICE To Airports As TSA Lines Stretch For Hours; Dem Senator Says ICE At Airports Striking Fear At Travelers; Trump Says No Deal To An Off-Ramp To Fund DHS; President Trump Says In A Post He Is Glad That Mueller Is Dead; Noem's DHS Ad Totals To More Than $280 Million. Aired 10-11p ET
Aired March 23, 2026 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[22:00:00]
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KASIE HUNT, CNN HOST (voice over): Tonight, a war on pause.
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: So, they called. I didn't call. They called. They want to make a deal.
HUNT: Iran denies both calls and deals as Donald Trump's sudden about- face comes ahead of a bombing deadline.
Plus, from the streets to the gates.
SEN. CORY BOOKER (D-NJ): They have brought this reckless and out of control ICE into our airports,
HUNT: ICE enters the chaos inside America's airports.
Also in the standoff with Democrats over the shutdown, Trump rejects an off-ramp by throwing a political grenade into the talks.
TRUMP: Don't make any deal on anything unless you include voter I.D.
HUNT: And he served in Vietnam, earned a purple heart, led the FBI after 9/11, and the president cheers Robert Mueller's death.
Live at the table, Scott Jennings, Ashley Allison, Brad Todd and Miles Taylor.
Americans with different perspectives aren't talking to each other, but here, they do.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HUNT (on camera): Good evening. I'm Kasie Hunts in for Abby.
Tonight, the president pushes pause on the war claiming there are talks underway with Iran, but Iran is saying, what talks? Trump had threatened to attack various power plants if Iran didn't open the Strait of Hormuz. But now that warning has been paused. This morning, Trump said the U.S. has had very good and productive talks with Iran, and he announced a five-day delay to strikes against Iran's energy infrastructure.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: So, the discussions took place yesterday. They went into yesterday evening. They want very much to make a deal. We'd like to make a deal too. We're doing a five-day period. We'll see how that goes. And if it goes well, we're going to end up with settling this. Otherwise, we'll just keep bombing our little hearts out.
We were planning tomorrow on shooting down some of their power plants and we're not going to hold that up. Hopefully, we won't have to do it. And hopefully, we can make a deal that's good for all of us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: He also told reporters, the U.S. and Iran had come to 15 points of agreement. What those are, we still don't know. He did reveal one of them today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: They're not going to have a nuclear weapon. That's number one. That's number one, two, and three. They will never have a nuclear weapon.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: They said yes to that?
TRUMP: They've agreed to that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: So, Iran denies any conversations even happened. Its Foreign Ministry said there was no dialogue between Tehran and Washington, according to state affiliated media. They argue that with this announcement, Trump is trying to lower energy prices and buy time for his military plans.
So, lower energy prices, it seems he did. But he also said that they're going to -- we are going to continue to bomb our little hearts out, which got reactions from both of you, as we were watching it, one smile and one not. Miles?
MILES TAYLOR, FORMER DHS CHIEF OF STAFF UNDER TRUMP ADMINISTRATION: Still not smiling, and that's because, look, the president has turned this thing into a video game. I'm not saying that to score political points. I mean, he literally has White House staff trying to turn this into video games and making memes and talking about working their little hearts off making memes instead of focusing on war planning.
And I had dinner tonight with Gulf state representatives. I'll tell you what our allies think in the region. They think that the president shouldn't have gone to this war. They tried to convince him not to continue the buildup in the region and not to go to war because they warned the consequences could be catastrophic. Some of these are countries who, by the way, they are no fans of Iran. They wanted to see Iran weakened, but they knew what could happen would be worse. And now they see a president who doesn't know what he's doing, who's constantly moving the goalposts, whose own staff isn't even sure what he's doing. That's pretty scary to me.
The president sees this as, again, a video game, not what it is, a matter of life and death that affects not just the United States, but the entirety of our world.
HUNT: Scott, is that unfair, I mean, to say we're going to bomb our little hearts out? I mean --
SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I mean, it would be fine with me if we continue to bomb them. These are the worst people in the world. They've been at war with us for 47 years. They want nuclear weapons. By the way, the reason that they're saying there are no talks while the president is saying there are is because they lie all the time.
[22:05:01]
They sent their people out in February to say, oh, we would never have long-range missiles. We have no plans. And then what did we find out this weekend? They got 4,000-kilometer range missiles that can reach most of Europe.
They lie all the time. That's what the Iranians do. They're terrorists. They hate us. We're the great Satan. Israel's the little Satan. We can wipe them off the face of the Earth and we'll be fine with me. But if the president achieves no nuclear weapons, no ballistic missile program, and an end to the largest state sponsor of terror on the face of the Earth, that'll be a good outcome.
So, I hope he gets it. I'm glad he is working towards a diplomatic solution. They say he might be talking to this speaker of the Iranian parliament. I don't know how it works over there now, because we killed so many of their top guys, maybe the left hand doesn't know who the right hand is talking to.
ASHLEY ALLISON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I agree with you. The leaders of the Iranian regime, they lie. I think the problem is we don't know if our president is also telling the truth. And so it feels like there are two bad actors in this case, and I am confused. I really don't know. I want my president to be honest.
JENNINGS: You're equating the American president to the Iranian regime?
ALLISON: No, that's not what I did. And you know --
JENNINGS: You said two bad actors.
ALLISON: But two bad actors don't have to be the exact same type of bad actors. One is a little bad, one is a little worse. I don't know. JENNIGNS: Truth for America.
ALLISON: I am cheering for America. But America can only win if we're honest. And I don't know if our president is being honest with us because they haven't been honest since the beginning of this war. They didn't tell --
JENNINGS: About what?
ALLISON: About what they actually want. Now it's just nukes. Before I thought it was regime change. Aren't they talking to him?
JENNINGS: They said repeatedly. He said terrorism.
ALLISON: Nope. He said -- nope. He said the Israeli government didn't tell him they were going to strike the liquid gas reserve. Then they say it is. It's just every day it's something else.
So, I'm allowed to be skeptical of the truth.
HUNT: Brad, go ahead.
BRAD TODD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think it's depressing that we can't get to a point where we can't all agree that Iran without a ballistic missile program and without its ability to run a proxy network in the region that wreak havoc, that that's an unequivocal good thing. There is nothing bad about that.
HUNT: I'm not hearing that at this table.
ALLISON: That's not what anybody's saying.
HUNT: I'm not hearing the idea that -- I mean that Iran is not a bad actor at this table so far. Now, one thing I am hearing, and, I mean, Brad, weigh in on this, and this was a question that I put to Chris Van Hollen, The Wall Street Journal Editor-at-Large Gerard Baker said this today, the unsettling reality is that with this president, Americans in wartime are in the unprecedented position of having to suspect that the enemy's version of events is more likely to be true than our own. We have become Baghdad Bob.
So, I put that question to Chris Van Hollen, or I put the question of whether the Iranian regime or the president are telling the truth about whether or not we're talking to each other, pretty basic, right? Here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Who do you think is telling the truth?
SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D-MD): Kasie, unfortunately, we've learned that Donald Trump has been lying to the American people from the start, and he keeps lying to the American people, which is never a good thing --
HUNT: So, you believe the Iranian officials over the president of the United States? VAN HOLLEN: I believe that based on all the information that's available, and Donald Trump's track record of lying.
We know he's lying when he says that the Iranians are talking with us and they're about to give Donald Trump everything he wants. Yes, that's a lie.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: He's sitting in the U.S. Senate.
TODD: Chris Van Hollen is a United States senator. He is a senior member of our government. And he is undermining America's ability to end this war on our terms by undermining the president. It is his job as a United States senator to support the United States position here, just like he did when Obama was in Libya. And he gave him 90 days and basically just took his word for everything.
But back to the Iranian government, of course, no one's admitting they're talking to the president of the United States because that'd be a good way to be hung by a crane tomorrow if you're a person in the Iranian government. The Iranian government is not just a bad actor. They terrorize and murder their own citizens, much less anybody who might cut a deal with the United States.
So, I think we ought to trust American president about what America's interests are.
ALLISON: But hasn't the president been inconsistent? Do you feel like there has been a straight line from the first strike to right now, and if you can say it with a straight face?
TODD: I wish he would do less color commentary and less play by play. Instead of talking six times a day to the press on this, I wish he'd talk once a week.
ALLISON: And you re and probably why you want him to talk less than six times to the press is because when he talks, he doesn't say the same thing every time.
TODD: I think --
ALLISON: -- which can lead some people to think he's not telling the truth.
TODD: I think he's offering too many different objectives and I think that less access could help that.
JENNINGS: But the objectives are all worthy. You don't want Iran to continue to be a state sponsor of terror. You don't want Iran to have a nuclear weapon, especially now that we know they have missiles that can land all over Europe and soon, who knows where else. You don't want them to have an aggressive Navy, which they have had for years.
These have been consistent objectives, and as Brad said, if you achieve these things out of this, whatever the regime or something else looks like at the end, that is a good thing. They have been at war with us and all of western civilization for 47 years.
[22:10:00]
We are way overdue for this. They need to be dealt with, and he finally had the guts to do it. So, at the end of this, if we achieve those things I just laid out, you would agree that would be the world would be a better place, yes?
TAYLOR: I've got to agree with Scott, your point about the objectives. You and I both agree, Iranian regime, bad regime, dangerous regime, killed Americans, terrible regime. The reason you want to be consistent about your strategy is depending on what opening move you make. It affects the second move. It affects the third move. Anyone who plays chess knows that. Donald Trump hasn't played chess. Donald Trump doesn't know how to play chess. And our allies tonight even told me in meetings that because Donald Trump keeps shifting his objectives --
JENNINGS: Who was it?
TAYLOR: Because Donald Trump -- well, I'll tell you when the president tells us who he's negotiating with so you don't -- so when your president --
JENNINGS: So, you're claiming you had high conversations with other countries tonight.
TAYLOR: I talk to people from the region all the time, Scott.
JENNINGS: The region or with the government?
TAYLOR: Scott, here's the point, here's the point. The people in that region who are our allies have been very public about their frustration with the president's shifting objectives. And I'll tell you why. Because when you say you're going to go in and undertake regime change and a decapitation strike, you encourage your ally to throw it all out there.
Donald Trump, if he approached this war differently, would not have instigated Iran to go attack our closest allies in the region, which they have done against civilian sites, against economic sites that they would not likely have otherwise done if we had said, this is just about the ballistic missiles, this is just about nuclear.
JENNINGS: So, you're saying --
TAYLOR: Do you remember when they struck the nuclear sites?
JENNINGS: You're saying --
TAYLOR: We didn't see LNG facilities struck in the wake of that.
JENNINGS: Because they didn't know we were there. We were gone before they even knew we were there. So, you're saying if we had sent out --
ALLISON: But we also annihilated it, right? JENNINGS: You're saying if we had sent out the correct press release, the Iranians wouldn't have acted or erratically?
TAYLOR: No. I'm saying if the president of the United States understood why he was there, we'd be able to achieve our objectives better.
JENNINGS: Get rid of the nukes, get rid of the missiles, get rid of the terrorists.
ALLISON: But the reality is --
JENNINGS: Consistent from the beginning.
ALLISON: -- the American people aren't with your talking points. They are highly skeptical. They don't like the tactics. I think there is a way you can get to an outcome, but there are many pathways to this solution and I don't know if the American people are with the president.
And one reason why I don't think they're with the president is because he's -- it doesn't feel like he is being honest. I'll ask you the same question I asked, Brad, from the time we did the strikes a couple weeks ago to today. Do you feel like we've gotten the same story?
JENNINGS: Yes. I feel like the objectives have been clear to me.
ALLISON: Then you aren't watching the news.
JENNINGS: Because nukes, missiles, terror, navy, it's been consistent time and again. POTUS, Rubio, Hegseth, Caine.
ALLISON: No. Rubio said the reason why we did it is because they were going to strike Israel and then they would strike us. I mean, you aren't watching the same news that we're all watching and if you think the story has changed.
JENNINGS: I mean, I came to the same office you do. I watch plenty.
TAYLOR: But they literally said, we're not going after nuclear sites. Like just that one alone, let's just hone in on that one. That's not true. What you just said wasn't true, Scott.
JENNINGS: For the entirety of Donald Trump's adult life, he has said --
TAYLOR: We're talking about this war --
JENNINGS: -- Iran will never have a nuclear weapon on my watch.
TAYLOR: But we're talking about this war right now. The nuclear sites have not been targeted.
TODD: Here's where it all boils down to. This president had the guts to do something that was very difficult to take out an avowed enemy of the United States. When we saw President Obama do that with Syria, he backed away from his red line. His party didn't support him. The president's party has supported him. They will continue to support him as long as he's achieving worthy objectives in Iran. And as long as this is quick, which he still --
ALLISON: The elected officials have supported him. Many people in your party are not supportive.
TODD: CNN's own poll shows it's 99 percent.
JENNINGS: You're not looking at the correct poll.
TAYLOR: 92 percent of Americans want this war to end as soon as humanly possible.
TODD: Agree. Everyone does.
(CROSSTALKS)
JENNINGS: Everybody agrees.
TAYLOR: I want our objectives met too. I want it done in a thoughtful way. This president did not approach this in a thoughtful way. He did not game it out.
JENNINGS: How much longer should we wait? Another 47 years?
TAYLOR: He didn't even claim -- Scott, he didn't even claim he thought the -- he didn't think the Strait of Hormuz would be closed. You know where I saw that, though? My grad school international relations class, we gamed that out and that's what happened.
HUNT: Well, first of all, the CNN reporting is a little bit more nuanced than what you posit, which is there is a difference between what we are prepared to do in terms of the war plans, which were absolutely correct, and what officials thought how far that they thought they would be willing to go. And this is playing into a number of other things, including questions about the Israelis seem to think that the Iranian people would go further than they actually have been willing to go here.
But, Scott, I want to ask you this question as we wrap up here. Is it right or wrong, should the United States of America be striking civilian energy infrastructure the way that Vladimir Putin has struck civilian power plants in Ukraine? Because that is what we are talking about here, that is something that the president put on the table. Right, wrong, is that an American value.
JENNINGS: We have to strike any targets necessary to achieve the objectives.
HUNT: Including civilian targets that are typically prescribed (ph) --
JENNINGS: And the president putting -- and the president putting on pause while we're apparently having conversations with somebody shows a real resistance to wanting or needing to do that. He knows whatever comes next, the country of Iran, you want it to rejoin western civilization at some point.
[22:15:04]
You don't want to have to decimate this.
So, I think his instinct is, Kasie, what is under your question, which is you don't want to have to do that, and if you can get to a solution without having to do that. But at the same time, Iran is firing missiles intermittently into its allies or other countries in the region and saying, we're just going to strike all kinds of targets. So, if you don't leave it on the table --
HUNT: Look, Scott, this would not be the first American enemy that doesn't want to play by the rules of war that we set, but we set those rules of war to protect ourselves and to set an example for the world. That's why I'm asking the question.
TODD: I think it's pretty clear that the administration is trying to protect and preserve civil infrastructure in the country and their oil export capability, which is noble. The Iranians would not do that if they were attacking us on our shores. You know of our allies in Asia, between 40 and 70 percent of their oil comes through the Strait of Hormuz. Kharg Island is the key to that.
The president is trying very hard to convince people who in the Iranian government to come to their census and keep their oil import, export infrastructure, keep their civil infrastructure. I think it's okay for him to wag some bad consequences to try to bring them to the table to do that.
We could have taken it out by now. We could have taken out every power plant in Iran. We have complete control of disguise. He's trying very hard not to do that. He's trying to leave a country that can be run.
ALLISON: And what happens if he does that?
TODD: Well, our allies in Europe and Asia should immediately come to our aid and insist on it, so they see no way out.
ALLISON: They don't want to because of how we treated them to-date.
TODD: If American Democrats --
ALLISON: Should we even have allies to this point?
TODD: -- could back the president in the war, perhaps they might realize that there's no way out of this.
TAYLOR: But, Brad, I got to tell you, one thing I'm bummed about is you and I and Scott at least, all three of us ragged on the Obama administration for giving cash to the Iranian regime to reach a nuclear deal. I think it was $400 million in pallets. Still object to it today, still objected to it back then. What Donald Trump just did on lifting sanctions on Iranian oil is ten times this much money he's giving (INAUDIBLE) than Obama.
TODD: He did not say that Iranian regime's going to get it. And in fact there are plenty --
TAYLOR: Well, of course, he didn't say it.
TAYLOR: Wait a minute. The 9/11 victims have been awarded judgments in the tens of billions of dollars from the Iranian government. This money can go to them. There are a lot of debts that the Iranian government owes to Americans that this money can go to.
JENNINGS: Miles, do you think that the ayatollah prefers his life under Obama or under Trump?
TAYLOR: Look --
JENNINGS: Probably Obama, yes?
TAYLOR: The ayatollah is dead.
(CROSSTALKS)
HUNT: Enough shouting.
ALLISON: Maybe the ayatollah cares more about his life under Obama than Trump, but do Americans care about their lives or they, do they feel safe under Obama or Trump? That is the question.
TODD: Iran's power is decapitated.
ALLISON: We'll see that day.
HUNT: All right. Coming up next here, the president sends ICE to America's airports and Democrats say it's striking fear in travelers.
Plus, Republicans confirmed tonight Donald Trump killed a deal to end this shutdown. Now, he's throwing a new demand into the talks. We'll debate.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:20:00]
HUNT: ICE agents are now patrolling America's airports. As the Department of Homeland Security shutdown drags on, hundreds of TSA employees have quit since the impasse started, and even more are calling out sick after weeks without pay. All of this leading to extreme gridlock at security checkpoints. President Trump ordered the immigration officers to remove their masks, but it's still unclear exactly what the role is, what they're doing there. Democrats say it just adds to the chaos.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOOKER: They have brought this reckless and out of control ICE into our airports and haven't even told the American people what they're specifically doing. And all we see them doing today is roaming around.
Now, I'm going to tell you right now, that is striking fear into a lot of people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Passengers are questioning how this will make anything better.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAMON KENEITT, TRAVELER: I think they should just fund the Department of Homeland Security, pay those workers. They're here for a reason to protect us every day. And I don't think ICE agents should really be up there just filling in the hole.
ADE YEMI, TRAVELER: We all don't want ICE's interfering with people's life and people's travel.
HUGO LOPEZ, TRAVELER: What kind of security are they're going to provide? Is it the same type of security they're doing in Minneapolis, you know, where even U.S. citizens are going to be concerned about, you know, not having the right paperwork?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: So, I think my big picture question here is, the last I heard from this administration was that we really needed more ICE agents than we used to have on the streets and cities arresting illegal immigrants. But now apparently there's enough or undocumented immigrants, apparently there's enough of them to do the airports too?
JENNINGS: It was an unusual situation. Over 12 times, Democrats have gone to the floor and refused to fund the Department of Homeland Security and there is chaos at the airports.
HUNT: Well, the president is the one who rejected, which, I mean, Senate Republicans seem willing to fund everything else in DHS, minus ICE and the president said no.
JENNINGS: Well, they're talking about a deal with Republican senators tonight, which I assume will get to at some point and I assume we'll get to at some point. And I hope they do reach a deal. And I actually agree with that one passenger, I wish they would fund DHS. They should fund all of it, including TSA.
And you know, I live in airports, and if you're a TSA agent and you're watching this, thank you for showing up because the people who were there are doing a thankless job and under terrible circumstances. But the reality is ICE agents went today, wasn't a single problem.
[22:25:02]
I saw a report on CNN this morning, Atlanta was a disaster. By this afternoon, it was pretty well-managed. And ICE was patrolling around and seemed like maybe they had --
HUNT: Is that ICE or is that just the normal flow of a travel?
JENNINGS: I don't know. I don't know. I'm just saying, Atlanta's been a huge problem for days. I showed up and this afternoon we had a reporter there. I saw it on our air --
HUNT: Lucky you.
JENNINGS: -- looking at, you know, pretty short lines.
And so, look, they're not there to scan bags or look at I.D.s or whatever. They're there to basically help manage what is a crush of human beings. And I was in some airports in Florida, I've been in airports out west. If you don't have TSA pre or clear, it's pretty bad and it can look pretty chaotic. So, having a few people there to keep that managed and keep the flow of people moving, that cannot be a bad thing. But they should fund this now and give these people their money. These TSA workers are getting crapped on again. This is the second time they've done it to them.
TODD: Well, and TSA workers make $40,000, $50,000 a year, and I want those guys looking at the machines. They caught 6,600 guns last year, 600 knives. I want their eyeballs on the machines. And if there's anything else that anybody else can be doing, guiding people through the line, directing you to go get your bags, get your -- telling you need to do a pat down, I'm fine with that being ICE. I'm fine with it being the Department of Health and Human Services. I'm fine with being the Department of Education. I'm fine with the White House staff going to do it. As long as you can reduce these lines and keep the experts looking at the machines that find the guns.
TAYLOR: Kasie, I have a really hard time hearing stuff like this because a lot of people who go out there today and say, we got to stand behind our TSA officers are the same ones in previous years who said, we got to get rid of TSA. We got to slice TSA into pieces. But now all of a sudden, because Donald Trump is having trouble with the Democrats, they're saying, we got to stand with our TSA agents.
Well, I'm going to tell you what real TSA agents would say about ICE showing up at airports, because we've had this conversation with them before when I've been in government, and that is this isn't useful to them. It's not useful to them at. A bunch of guys showing up with guns and black jackets isn't what they need right now.
They need people who actually can run the explosive trace detection machines. They need people who actually are trained to do the pat downs in a lawful way. None of these ICE agents go in there are doing that. None of these ICE agents that are headed to the airports are trained to do that. And they'll admit as much to you right now.
And we found out today why all of this is happening. And the president just admitted that earlier. It was his idea. He just wanted to send them. He didn't consult the Department of Homeland Security. He didn't ask, is this going to alleviate the lines at the airports? He made clear he wanted to do this as leverage because he knew it would scare people. He knew people with guns coming into the airport. More of them would be scary. That's why the president's doing it for leverage. Let's be clear, this is political theater.
ALLISON: Can I? Okay. Yesterday Tom Homan was on our network.
TAYLOR: Yes.
ALLISON: And literally said he did not have a plan for this. They haven't. That was 24 hours ago.
So, we're talking about putting people in airports that supposedly are supposed to keep us safe and the plan wasn't even there. So, do they -- do we really think did they got any training to do this job effectively?
The second thing is, let's just be adults here. ICE just funded. ICE had got more money this year than most department agencies. That should not be the reason why Republicans are stopping to pass this bill. Today, Democrats agreed to -- and Republicans until Trump said, no, FEMA, DHS, but take a pause on ICE and CBP. What's wrong with that? If you really want TSA agents to be paid, pass that bill.
TODD: We've never broken an appropriations bill up an apartment. Why don't we start now?
HUNT: We're going to debate this at some length in our next segment. I want to keep this on a couple questions that have been raised here. One is, what exactly are these agents doing?
ALLISON: Standing around.
HUNT: Okay, so Tom Homan and Sean Duffy -- all right, Tom Homan, the border czar, right, oversees ICE in no small part. Sean Duffy, the Department of Transportation, transportation secretary, oversees TSA. They seem to have differing opinions about exactly what these ICE agents are going to do. Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEAN DUFFY, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: They know how to run the x-ray machines. They run those same type of security machines at the southern border, right? Packages come through or people come through.
TOM HOMAN, WHITE HOUSE BORDER CZAR: I don't see an ICE agent looking at an X-ray machine because they're not trained in that. We're simply there to help TSA do their job in areas that don't need their specialized expertise such as, you know, screening through the X-ray machine, not training that, we won't do that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLISON: That's embarrassing.
HUNT: Is that clear to you?
ALLISON: That's embarrassing. That's like embarrassing. And we're talking about keeping our country safe. Be better. Be better.
JENNINGS: Is there a single report today of something going awry with ICE agents --
HUNT: Well, thank God, for 24 hours something didn't happen. JENNINGS: I'm asking. Maybe there is.
TAYLOR: There was. There was an ICE agent refusing to identify himself arresting a woman in an airport, freaking people out. They weren't even sure. It was in San Francisco airport.
JENNINGS: Well, what kind of an interaction was it actually? Do you know the situation?
TAYLOR: It was an arrest. I don't know, Scott. What information do you have?
JENNINGS: Who did they arrest? Now you're bringing it up. Who did they arrest?
TAYLOR: No. I'm saying --
JENNINGS: The internet. Only the internet.
ALLISON: Scott, two senior administration officials said extremely conflicting things and that is a problem.
[22:30:02]
That is a problem because we cannot pretend, like in the last three months, ICE hasn't gone into communities and hasn't caused disruption. We can't.
UNKNOWN: The problem is --
HUNT: Well, and the President getting out there and saying that they will not wear masks in airports --
ALLISON: But they can wear them in the streets.
HUNT: -- is directly because this has become the major thing in Congress which we are going to talk about. But it shows you that he's acutely aware of the political potential ramifications here.
BRAD TODD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, he explained it. He says that when you're dealing with -- when they're on an interdiction mission for ICE, they are dealing with people who are cartel suspects, gang-related suspects. When they're in the airport, they're dealing with people who have no presumption of guilt of anything other than trying to go see grandma. And so, therefore, he sees them as trying to replicate the job of TSA.
ALLISON: Alex Pretti was not a cartel.
MILES TAYLOR, FORMER DHS CHIEF OF STAFF UDER TRUMP ADMINISTRATION: I can't say -- I can't say the Democrats --
TODD: They weren't there to find them.
TAYLOR: I can't say the Democrats have handled this thing perfectly. I don't agree with them on everything. I've fought on the other end of shutdowns with Trump, with Democrats, but what I have to tell you is this. What's surprising to me is the demands the Democrats have. Some people at this table, Scott included, have characterized them as radical leftist demands in their negotiations with the President.
Democrats have proposed rewinding U.S. policy to not the Biden administration, but to the first Trump administration. They're just literally saying no roving patrols, no breaking into houses without Fourth Amendment warrants, no masking nationwide. This is literally how the Department of Homeland Security was being run in the first Trump administration. This is how -- this is largely how immigration was being run with Tom Homan and others in the first Trump administration.
SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Miles, what happened to the intervening period? How many did we let in in the intervening period?
TAYLOR: That has nothing to do with --
(CROSSTALK)
UNKNOWN: I got a question --
UNKNOWN: We got to get them out.
(CROSSTALK)
TAYLOR: How does that justify more masks, Scott?
(CROSSTALK)
TODD: Do you think -- do you think Democrats would allow us to go back to the first Obama administration when they're -- ICE was going door- to-door and going after -- go -- trying to apprehend people who were immigration violators before Democrats made them pull it back in 2013, the Secure Communities Program? Do you think Democrats would let us go back to that?
TAYLOR: I just think it's weird that Democrats are having to negotiate over constitutional rights. I thought those were non-negotiable.
ALLISON: Just to be clear, many, many Democrats criticize Barack Obama because of his policies.
TODD: Would they let us go back to it?
ALLISON: I said this in the first block. Sometimes the outcomes can be the same. It's not what you do, it's how you do it.
HUNT: All right, coming up next here, Donald Trump not only says no deal to an off-ramp to largely fund DHS, he upped the ante. He said that the Save America Act has to pass as part of it. We'll debate that, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:37:19] HUNT: Tonight in the standoff with Democrats over the DHS shutdown, Donald Trump has been rejecting an off-ramp and he threw a political grenade into the talks earlier. Over the weekend, the president rejected a proposal from Senate Majority Leader John Thune to fund every part of DHS except for ICE. And he added another item to the wish list.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I'm suggesting strongly to the Republican Party, don't make any deal on anything. The most important thing we can have is what's called the Save America Act. Don't make any deal on anything unless you include voter ID and you have to be a citizen to vote.
The Democrats are being blamed by the American people for the catastrophe going on right now at our airports and at other points of transportation and beyond. And we want the public to know we're not going to let them out of this trap that they created for themselves.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: So, it is worth-noting that tonight, the Senate confirmed Markwayne Mullin as Trump's new DHS secretary, taking over for the embattled and ultimately fired Kristi Noem.
This is a live ball, I will say, where the President is on these negotiations around trying to clear the slug jam at airports. But earlier, he did, and I know, Brad, you've -- you're very -- got close with many Republican senators on the Hill. It seems like they're ready to like not have this be in the headlines every day anymore, but they've had some work to do convincing the President.
TODD: I think they want to legislate. And I think they want to find a way to solve this problem and to get DHS back online. And they want the government to function. I also question whether seven Democrats are going to be willing to go along with that. This is maybe a suicide mission in the Democratic Party to give Donald Trump something that he might sign.
And it might lead to a Rose Garden ceremony. I think some Republican senators are eager to call their bluff. And can they say yes to anything? If they say yes, does that mean Chuck Schumer then suddenly has an internal problem?
So, this whole debate is about to shift. As soon as Donald Trump gets -- feels like he's pushed this far enough, and Republicans agree to some kind of a deal with some willing group of Democrats who get on a lifeboat and put their political careers on the line for it.
HUNT: Yes, go ahead.
ALLISON: I was going to say, I don't know if it's as much of a lifeboat for Dems in this. There is a clear way to say we actually are willing to govern, and the President is blocking it. I mean, it kind of writes itself. He's saying, don't do it. [22:40:00]
I killed the deal. And this might be one moment for bipartisanship. And quite honestly, as terrible as it sounds, the attention economy that we live in, if this opens and doesn't shut again for another six months, I don't think it will be liability for either party.
HUNT: Scott, you talk to folks in the administration all the time. What's it going to take to get the President to a point where he's willing to do what a lot of people in the Republican Senate seem to want him to do?
JENNINGS: Yes, I'm hearing from some people who were actually at the White House tonight. Some senators went over there tonight and had some conversations with the President. I think there is going to be a deal. And I think --
HUNT: Among the President and Republican senators, because we don't know what Democrats will do.
JENNINGS: I think some Democrats may be willing to go along with this. The contours of it would be something in the realm of fund DHS except for the enforcement removal operations, EROs. That's about 6000 of the 260,000 employees. And it's more than just ICE. It's also Homeland Security Investigation, but that will be funded.
And so, do that, and then go to a reconciliation. If you're a Republican, what you would want to see next is go to a reconciliation plan, where in that you then do the ERO funding, and you try to do the Save America Act. And the only reason this is possible is because the President got them plenty of money last summer in the Big, Beautiful Bill for ICE operations.
But that seems to be what's in play tonight. And if you could get all the Republicans on board with something like that, going to a phase one, fund it today, phase two, reconciliation, and get a few Democrats on board with that, knowing they'll never support reconciliation, this might be how it ends. And maybe you get it done this week, and maybe we get these poor TSA agents their pay check.
ALLISON: Scott, you just made my point for me. The President got so much money in the summer, so why do they actually need more? That is the point that Democrats are making. You just gave them a runnable clip on every commercial. They don't need this money to be a part of this bill in order to fund FEMA, TSA, and a couple other components of the Homeland Security.
So, this is why I say I don't know if it will actually backfire on Democrats. I don't think him doing a Rose Garden ceremony actually plays well when you're spending all this money on a Rose Garden ceremony and I still haven't -- my pay check hasn't hit my account. Optically, it doesn't --
TODD: A lot of Democrats have now run around saying we can't fund DHS, we can't fund DHS, and they're going to vote to do that?
ALLISON: No, it's not.
HUNT: Is it Miles calling? Is it -- if the President says, go ahead, fund all of it except for ICE, is he calling the Democrats bluffing? Because the Democrats are going down to the Senate floor basically saying, yes, we want to fund all of it tomorrow, but I mean, I've covered enough political theater on Capitol Hill to know when i see it. So, if they get this from the President, is that good for them?
TAYLOR: With the caveat of the Save Act, I mean, that's the piece where Donald Trump has moved the goal post so far that it's outside of the stadium, and it's in the next town over. The Save Act has nothing to do with funding the Department of Homeland Security. Voter ID was never a part of this conversation.
If the conversation was just limited to funding all of DHS except ERO, there might be some trade space, particularly because with Donald Trump already conceding the mask mandates in airports, Donald Trump and his administration starting to concede on the Fourth Amendment warrants for houses, they're very close to a lot of the demands the Democrats want.
Again, there are people inside of this administration who are also arguing to the President that some of the things the Democrats want aren't going to inhibit the administration's immigration agenda that they should reach a deal. So, I think there is possibility here. It's just going to determine if the President wants to stick to this idea on the SAVE Act.
HUNT: Yes, we'll see. I mean, he certainly has been trying very hard. The path, as Brad knows very well, in the Senate is essentially non- existent. All right, coming up next here, former FBI Director Robert Mueller died this weekend, and the President marked his passing by celebrating it. We'll discuss that next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:48:40]
HUNT: President Trump is celebrating the death of former FBI Director Robert Mueller. In a post on social media, President Trump wrote this, quote, "Good, I'm glad he's dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people."
Mueller, of course, led the probe into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. He served as FBI director for 12 years under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. He also served in the Marines and was a Vietnam veteran. Mueller's family said he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2021. He was 81 years old.
Let's just say what should be said -- thanks to Robert Mueller for his service to our country. It's more than many of us have done, and we should all be grateful for it. Scott Jennings, I was taught at a very young age not to speak ill of the dead.
JENNINGS: Yes I wouldn't have put out any statement at all if that's how I felt. And look, I have no doubt that is the President's authentic view. I would have just let it sit and allow other people to make commentary. So, my advice on all of these things is always you don't have -- sometimes no answer is the right answer. And that would have been the case here.
[22:50:00]
TODD: I think it's a matter of when the family is mourning. You know, I said this about Rush Limbaugh's death, Charlie Kirk's death, Jimmy Carter's death, and now this. If you can't say something good about the person who has died while his family is mourning, then you should be quiet. If you can compliment them in any way, that's appropriate. And I wish we could get back to that in our political system. I wish the President hadn't done it.
HUNT: I want to play what George W. Bush said back in July of 2001 when he nominated Robert Mueller to run the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Bob Mueller's experience and character convinced me that he's ready to shoulder these responsibilities. Agents of the Bureau prize three virtues above all -- fidelity, bravery, and integrity. This new director is a man who exemplifies them all.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: And here was what George W. Bush said on the occasion of Robert Mueller's passing. "Laura and I," his wife, former First Lady Laura Bush, "are deeply saddened by the loss of Robert Mueller. Bob dedicated his life to public service. As a Marine in Vietnam, he proved he was ready for tough assignments. He earned a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart before returning home to pursue law.
In 2001, only one week into the job as the sixth director of the FBI, Bob transitioned the agency mission to protecting the homeland after September 11th. He led the agency effectively and helped prevent another terrorist attack on U.S. soil. Laura and I send our heartfelt sympathy to his wife of nearly 60 years, Ann, and the Mueller family." Seems like that's how you do it.
ALLISON: Yes, you know, a lot of people maybe on the left might not agree with what I'm about to say, but I imagine there will be a day when Donald Trump dies and people might also post nasty comments like that, and I would say don't -- don't. Because a death is a death and it is not -- I'm a Christian, and I don't believe it's my job to judge people that --
HUNT: Judge not yet lest ye be judged.
ALLISON: Yes, that's right. And so, I think we have to all learn how to just, if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. I wish the President would follow that. I wish -- you can debate. I don't agree with half of what Scott says but I would never wish any ill will on him. And when people say things about Scott to me about how do you do it?
It's like because at the end of the day he's still a person. We disagree but it doesn't mean that I think he's a bad human or I want anything bad to happen. We just have lost that in our country.
HUNT: One thing I -- you mentioned Charlie Kirk and, you know, and Scott was right to -- and everyone who condemned the things that were said in the wake of his death about it were right. But one of the things that President Trump said around that that I thought was just illuminating from someone who we have heard from over and over again in public life for this last decade.
He was speaking at Charlie Kirk's memorial service, and he talked about how Charlie felt about his political opponents. And then the President talked about how he feels about his political opponents. Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: He did not hate his opponents. He wanted the best for them. That's where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponent. And I don't want the best for them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TODD: You know, the President also said in that speech, essentially, that he's a work in progress, too. And, you know, that he doesn't quite know how God's going to view him when his day passes. And so, we all are works in progress in many ways, and we all fall short of the glory. And you know --
HUNT: Are you saying he's afraid of going to hell -- the President?
TODD: Yes, he says that. He says it.
TAYLOR: I think you give him too much credit there, Brad. I'm not even sure he's thinking about his own morality in quite that way. And I got to tell you, it was so unsurprising to see the Robert Mueller thing. The day that I decided to speak out from the Trump administration, to quit that administration, was the day when a mentor of mine from Capitol Hill had died.
His name was John McCain. The flags were at half-staff around the country, and the President was trying to call us in Australia on the other side of the world to say not put out a statement in honor of John McCain but to say raise the flags back up. I don't care if you agreed with John McCain or disagreed, it didn't matter.
Like Bob Mueller, he served this country in uniform. He was a sitting United States Senator. He deserved to be honored with the flags at half-staff. For the President of the United States to be so petty, so small and petty to tell us to raise the flags back up in an act of active dishonor tells you everything you need to know about that man and his lack of integrity and character.
UNKNOWN: Wow. ALLISON: I think we just all should strive to be better and we should strive to hold our leaders to be better.
UNKNOWN: Amen.
ALLISON: Let's do that.
HUNT: Let's strive to be better. All right. Thank you all very much for being here. Coming up next here, the latest on the runway collision at LaGuardia Airport. Two former air traffic controllers will discuss what led to the deadly crash.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:59:36]
HUNT: New tonight, we are learning just how much one of Kristi Noem's Homeland Security ads cost taxpayers. Her former spokesperson's husband is the CEO of the contractor who produced this ad, and Senate Democrats just released the invoices for it. $20,000 for the horse, nearly $4000 for hair and makeup, and it continues.
[23:00:00]
In total, it costs more than $280,000. The ad was part of a broader $200 million advertising campaign effort by DHS. The Department responded to CNN's request for comment, saying it doesn't control who contractors hire to fulfill services.
Thank you very much for watching "NewsNight." Don't forget, you can catch my show, "The Arena" tomorrow at 4 P.M. right here on CNN. "Laura Coates Live" starts right now.
