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Next Hour, Pentagon Briefing as Trump Sends Mixed Messages on Iran; CENTCOM Says U.S. Strikes Hit Iranian Missile Launchers; Iran War Sparks Growing Fears of a Recession. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired March 10, 2026 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: When will it end? The president giving mixed messages on the Iran war. Is it nearing its end, or is there still a long way to go? We're standing by for a Pentagon briefing next hour.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: There could be catastrophic consequences. That is the warning now from the world's top oil exporter as the war continues blocking tankers from passing through the Strait of Hormuz and gas prices continue to rise in the United States

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And a truck barrels past a school bus, nearly hitting two young girls. Police now asking the public for help to track down the driver.

I'm John Berman with Sara Sidner and Kate Bolduan. This is CNN News Central.

SIDNER: We are standing by for a briefing from the Pentagon this morning where we could get some answers after President Trump gave mixed messages about just how long the war with Iran will last. During back-to-back appearances in Florida, the president seemed to be saying two things at the same time. Take a listen for yourself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: We took a little excursion because we felt we had to do that to get rid of some evil. And I think you'll see it's going to be a short-term excursion.

And we will not relent until the enemy is totally and decisively defeated.

REPORTER: On Iran, you called it an excursion, you said it would be over soon. Are you thinking this week it will be over?

TRUMP: No, but soon.

REPORTER: Are you talking about days?

TRUMP: I think soon.

REPORTER: Okay. And with respect to -- TRUMP: Very soon.

We could call it a tremendous success right now as we leave here, I could call it, or we could go further.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: The president was then pressed on the deadly strike that Iran says killed more than 180 people at a girls' school, most of the dead children. The newest video appears to confirm that a U.S. Tomahawk missile hit the Iranian naval base near that school. But the president seemed to suggest again that Iran was somehow behind it, saying it has its own Tomahawks. That would be extraordinary, by the way, since only two countries other than the United States are confirmed to currently use them. The U.K. is one, Australia is the other.

Also overnight, the seventh U.S. service member to be killed in the war was brought home in a dignified transfer. The Pentagon says Sergeant Benjamin Pennington died from his injuries after an Iranian attack on an air base in Saudi Arabia.

CNN has live team coverage across the Middle East and here at home. And we begin with Alayna Treene, who is at the White House for us. Alayna what do you make of what has been really mixed messages on Iran from the president?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Look, I think in the span, Sara, of about three hours yesterday, the president at times, the messaging on Iran seemed to be at one point that the end is near, essentially, that he believes that the United States' objectives in Iran were soon to be concluded. But then at other points, he said that they could go much further.

And you played that clip, but he did that again later, particularly in answering reporters' questions. I want you to listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: As we're achieving major strides toward completing our military objective, and some people could say they're pretty well complete.

REPORTER: You've said the war is, quote, very complete, but your defense secretary says this is just the beginning. So, which is it? And how long should Americans be --

TRUMP: Well, I think you can say both, the beginning. It's the beginning of building a new country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: I think that really showcases, Sara, the president's ability to kind of say two completely different things in the same breath. As you mentioned, there is going to be a Pentagon press conference in an hour or so. So, hopefully, we can get more answers from the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, on exactly that. But other things that the president did that I think are important to note here. One, he talked about the new supreme leader in Iran saying that he was very disappointed with that selection. And he told reporters that he thinks it's going to, quote, lead to just more of the same problem for the country.

We are just seeing too that the president spoke in a new interview with Fox News essentially saying that the new Ayatollah Khamenei cannot live in peace. So, unclear exactly what that means about what the United States might try to do about it.

And another thing that is clear, despite all of the conflicting messages about the timeline for the U.S. in Iran is oil prices and gas prices are spiking, and the politics of this are quickly changing.

[07:05:06]

And I think that's why we saw the president kind of hastily arranged this press conference yesterday after the markets closed. And he told, I think, one of the biggest things we heard as well from that was that he said that the United States would respond even more forcefully if Iran tried to upend the world's global oil supply. And he said simultaneously, you know, projecting that this would still be a short timeline.

So, a lot of questions, of course, I think more questions than answers after that press conference yesterday. We'll have to see how the Pentagon really responds to all of this in an hour or so.

SIDNER: It's certainly eyebrow-raising when you hear him say, well, it could take longer because we're rebuilding a country, which is nation building, which means regime change, which means this could go on and on and on. A lot of confusion as to exactly the timeline here, and hopefully we'll hear something about this during the Pentagon press conference that will be in just a bit here.

Alayna Treene, thank you for your reporting there from the White House. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Let's focus in on some of the new video that's been released from the U.S. military. The Pentagon says that it shows American forces destroying Iranian missile launchers. You see it right there. CENTCOM released it and says they were hidden under a bridge-like overpass structure in Iran. Also new video and of rescue crews seen searching through rubble in Iran after U.S and Israeli strikes, people were said to be trapped inside damaged buildings.

This comes as Israel has also issued more evacuation orders in Southern Lebanon after it says that it struck a Hezbollah-controlled financial institution.

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh is live on the ground in Tel Aviv for us. Nick, what are you seeing there so far today?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes. There's no ambiguity as to the forcefulness of the military operation we're seeing continue here certainly, inside Tehran, the east of the city, and near its Mehrabad airport, some of the heaviest strikes reported so far. Is this a military sensing potentially that politically the window might be closing and expediting operations, or are we just seeing a consistent escalation against Iranian infrastructure, it seems now, as well as military targets too?

1,245 Iranians killed in this military operation so far. Nearly 200 military as well, a separate figure, which may possibly be a little small. And, of course, too on the side of Lebanon here, nearly 500 dead as well as a result of the Israeli operation there, an operation which appears to be intensifying. The evacuation order you spoke of again tells Lebanese to move north of the Litani River. That's basically reiterating something said a number of days ago now.

But the nature of the Israeli operation is clearly changing. We saw ourselves the intensity of airstrikes that accompanied their second ground limited raid inside the country. As of this morning, they're referring to raids that they have done. And it's not clear exactly where that is.

It was clear from what we saw, that a ground invasion, in terms of the publicly available forces that we could see seems unlikely. They simply don't have enough troops there, but instead seemed to be selecting moments when they choose to move. In airstrikes too specifically hitting command facilities in Southern Lebanon as well, and then as you mentioned, Southern Beirut, the cash distribution bank mechanism of Hezbollah being hit by Israel as well.

But it is absolutely clear that we are seeing greatly intensified airstrikes inside of Iran, and that may well be part of the slow window of growth, of scope of this campaign that we've seen from the Americans and indeed the Israelis. But I think we are seeing a president there in the White House trying ultimately to say two things at the same time. And I think what bridges that is ultimately his desire perhaps to seek some kind of political concession or accommodation, even if it's tacit with the new supreme leader of Iran, that may be a misreading of the sheer nature of that theocracy and how much in this moment it's going to not want to project any form of political weakness.

BOLDUAN: Yes, what the end looks like, what the off ramp could be, that remains a huge question today.

It's good to see Nick. Thank you so much. John?

BERMAN: The catastrophic consequences, the world's top oil exporter with a dire warning about the war in Iran as gas prices climb even higher this morning.

Two men charged in an ISIS-inspired terror plot in New York reportedly told police they want their attack -- they wanted their attack to be bigger than the Boston Marathon bombing.

And why the NBA just scrapped a plan by the Atlanta Hawks to hold a stadium celebration with a strip club.

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BERMAN: This morning, the war with Iran is testing the U.S. economy. The conflict has driven up oil prices, although they're down today, gas prices up, diesel prices up, jet fuel prices up. And in some quarters you're beginning to hear whispers of concerns over the R word, recession.

CNN Senior Reporter Matt Egan is here. It's popping up in some of the analysis here and there.

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yes, it is, John. That's because, I mean, the price of oil has arguably become the most important number in the entire economy, right?

[07:15:00]

And these are some insane moves for oil prices. We saw oil before the war at just about $65 a barrel, and then briefly got to as high as $120 a barrel Sunday into Monday. I mean, that is just a wild move. And, yes, it was setting off alarm bells about damage to family budgets, damage to the economy at large. There's even some panic within the White House. Some Trump officials were caught off guard by the size of this move, according to sources who talked to CNN's Adam Cancryn about that.

Now, the fact that prices have come down, look at this, down 7 percent this morning, to $88 barrel. Now, 88 is not cheap but it is well below that peak of almost $120. This means, I think, everyone is breathing a sigh of relief right now, right, from the White House to Wall Street to Main Street, because the higher oil prices go, of course, it means that more expensive gasoline in. And as you mentioned, $3.54 is the new national average. That is a monster move. Look at this, a 43 cent move from a week ago, John, and a 56 cent increase from before the war started.

BERMAN: Which was just two weeks ago.

EGAN: Amazing. But when you saw oil at $120 briefly, that implied a much, much higher number than this $3.54. And it's not just gasoline, right? It's jet fuel, like you mentioned. It's also diesel as well.

Now, what happens next is massive, right? The stakes are huge because, yes, if oil prices stayed at 120, not for a few minutes or hours, but for a few weeks, you would hear more concerns about a severe slowdown or even a recession. University of Michigan Professor Justin Wolfers, he told me the U.S. is and has been on the precipice of recession for quite some time. It only requires one thing to knock us over. Could oil do it? He said, absolutely.

And how do you get there? Well, obviously there's a consumer spending impact. If gas prices are above $4, $4.50 a gallon, you got to worry about consumer spending falling in a consumer led economy. That's never good. Also stock market turbulence, that could cause even higher income, more affluent households to cut back. And then there's the risk of reduced hiring caused by a business shock. And we know the job market, John, is already really shaky.

So, look, I think the bottom line is how long does this episode last, right? If this is just a few days of high prices, then I think in the long run, this is going to look like a blip. But if this is a sustained period of very high, very volatile prices, then, yes, it is the kind of thing that could cause a recession. We're looking at stock futures basically unchanged.

BERMAN: They're saying, let's wait and see.

EGAN: Yes.

BERMAN: This is the stock market saying like, you know, show us over the next few hours which way it's going.

EGAN: Yes.

BERMAN: Although President Trump yesterday very deliberately saying the war is very nearly complete, seemed to be in a direct reaction to the oil crisis.

EGAN: Yes. Although I would note ending the war doesn't necessarily end the supply problem.

BERMAN: That is true. Matt Egan, you'll be back with much more on that. Thank you. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. Thank you, John and Matt.

Happening today, a MAGA showdown, special election for Marjorie Taylor Greene's former seat in Congress. Voters will have quite the choice with nearly 20 names on that ballot.

And who do you call when you lose track of your pet python? Not me.

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SIDNER: This morning, we're learning new details about the two Pennsylvania teenagers charged with trying to detonate homemade explosives at a protest near Mayor Zohran Mamdani's residence. Now, court documents show that one of the suspects, Emir Balat, wanted to exceed the death toll of the Boston Marathon bombing. Authorities also say, the young man admitted to being inspired by ISIS.

CNN's Gloria Pazmino following the details. What are you learning from obviously these court documents is how the prosecution sees it and has some of the evidence there? And we've seen some of it in plain sight.

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I will say that is one of the, so sort of more shocking and fascinating parts of the story so far that there is so much video and images from the very moment where you can actually see the suspects throwing these devices into the air. In fact, those very images were laid out in this initial criminal complaint, which was presented in court yesterday. And we are learning from those documents about some of what the suspects said to police immediately after being arrested, talking about having been inspired by ISIS.

Emir Balat specifically wrote on a piece of paper that he pledged allegiance to the Islamic State and Ibrahim Kayumi, the other suspect, said that he was affiliated by ISIS, that he had watched ISIS propaganda on his cell phone, and that he had been inspired by the group to carry out these attacks on Saturday.

Now, both suspects traveled from Pennsylvania into New York City on Saturday morning, and it only took about an hour from the moment they crossed the George Washington Bridge, after having traveled through New Jersey into New York City, to the moment where they were in this crowd, throwing the devices into the air and then quickly apprehended by police. That whole process took about an hour.

Now, this happened at this far right demonstration that was planned outside of Gracie Mansion, and police told me yesterday that they believe the two suspects came here with the intention of targeting that protest specifically.

Now, I also spoke to Balat's attorney yesterday after that initial court appearance. He told me that Balat turned 18 years old just two months ago. He's a high school senior who lives with his family. At home, his family extremely shocked and surprised by what's happened. So far, their home has been searched. They're cooperating with law enforcement. Here's what the attorney had to say.

[07:25:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MEHDI ESSMIDI, ATTORNEY REPRESENTING BALAT: They are not known to each other. They do not live together. They are not -- they did not have family or school ties. There is no reason to believe they knew each other prior to this incident, and I don't know how well they knew each other at the time of this incident.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAZMINO: Sara, one question that remains outstanding from law enforcement yesterday is whether they believe the suspects were self- radicalized. We've heard so much about this in this current world of social media and the information that is out there on the internet easily accessible for young people to look at and read and possibly be radicalized by it. They do not know if that's what happened or if there was actually a role that was played by the Islamic State.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani also issued a statement after the charges were announced yesterday condemning the actions, saying that the suspects should be held fully accountable for their actions. He also said that they will continue to keep New Yorkers safe and that we will not tolerate terrorism or violence in our city.

SIDNER: Some of the images we're seeing of the police officers who jumped in and sort of tackled these suspects and also got people away from the device are pretty extraordinary. We'll be looking at those for a whole long time and I know you'll be following the story all the way throughout. We do you appreciate it, Gloria. Kate?

BOLDUAN: They were labeled traitors by Iranian state media for not singing the national anthem. What happens now that a handful of the Iranian women's national soccer team have been granted humanitarian visas by Australia.

And a new twist in the battle between A.I. and the US military, or Anthropic in the U.S. military, why the company behind one of the most important American A.I. models right now is suing the Trump administration.

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