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Keir Starmer Says U.K. Working With Allies to Reopen Strait of Hormuz; Some Allies Dismiss Trump's Call for Help in Strait of Hormuz; More Than 250 Million Americans to See Some Form of Hazardous Weather; Airport Lines Grow as TSA Workers Go Without Pay From Government Shutdown; Five Members of Iranian Women's Soccer Team Withdraw Australia Asylum Claims. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired March 16, 2026 - 13:30   ET

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

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[13:30:29]

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": New today, members of NATO are responding after President Trump warned that the alliance would face a "very bad future if it doesn't help secure the Strait of Hormuz."

Now, the E.U.'s foreign policy chief appeared to agree with President Trump that it is in Europe's interest to keep the Strait open, but also added it's "out of NATO's area of action." And a spokesperson for German Chancellor Friedrich Merz struck a more defiant tone, saying, "It is not NATO's war."

Meanwhile British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer spoke about the situation earlier.

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KEIR STARMER, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: We have to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to ensure stability in the market. That is not a simple task. So we're working with all of our allies, including our European partners, to bring together a viable collective plan that can restore freedom of navigation in the region as quickly as possible and ease the economic impacts.

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JIMENEZ: Let's talk about the dynamics here. I want to bring in Jim Townsend. He served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for European and NATO Policy. Good to see you.

I just want to start on -- I want to pick up with a little bit of what we heard from the president here in terms of the United States' relationship with NATO. On one hand, asking for help, not just from NATO countries, but from those from the likes of China and Japan as well.

But also in the same breath, saying the United States doesn't need NATO. And I just wonder, from the European perspective, where is the threshold for actual assistance here? And what do you think it would take to actually get to that point?

JIM TOWNSEND, FORMER DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR EUROPEAN AND NATO POLICY: Well, it's a great question. And I think there's a lot of confusion about NATO versus NATO allies. NATO as an institution, if it wanted to go to the Straits, if this was something that NATO agreed, like going to Afghanistan was, NATO could do that. But NATO right now would not have the -- it would never get the votes within the alliance to make this an alliance operation.

However, NATO nations can certainly come together in a coalition of the willing and go in there and do what the Prime Minister Starmer was talking about, to go in there and to work with the U.S. Navy and get the Straits open.

So as far as Europeans are concerned, they realize that this is going to be in their interest because of the price of energy and other economic ramifications. But they're still stung by how they have been addressed by Trump and how the alliance has been addressed in terms of NATO. So, there's not a lot of good feelings towards the United States right now, particularly because they were not part of the process in the run-up to this war.

JIMENEZ: And that's one of the major contrasts here that, in the past, we may have seen the United States sort of feel out that support that may be there from allies before taking action as significant as we've seen here. Obviously, that didn't happen here. But in terms of assistance, the president is asking for whatever it takes, to quote him, including minesweepers, for example.

What help could NATO countries actually offer here that would help in the United States' efforts?

TOWNSEND: Well, one thing that a lot of the NATO nations who are seafaring nations, like Denmark, U.K. and others, they do minesweeping. The NATO has a very capable minesweeping capability among the nations. So it doesn't have to be a NATO maritime operation there. It can be the nations themselves who can bring their minesweeping capability to the Gulf.

The U.K. used to have minesweepers there. They're not there anymore. The U.S. did too, and they're not there. So I think what's important here is that the allies, the NATO nations themselves, this might not be a NATO operation, but the European nations know that this has got to be done and I think they need to hold their nose and get this done.

Trump or not Trump, a German war or not a German war, a NATO war or not a NATO war, we've got to put that aside. And these nations can bring not just their minesweeping, but they've got frigates. They can do escorting. They can do a lot of things, leaving the combat activities to the U.S., if that's the way they want to do it.

[13:35:00]

JIMENEZ: Well, you mentioned Denmark's capabilities. It wasn't too long ago the United States was threatening to take over Greenland from NATO-ally, Denmark. And then, here we are in a situation where potentially the president of the United States would need help from an ally like that.

Jim Townsend, I got to leave the interview there, but thank you for taking the time.

TOWNSEND: You're welcome.

JIMENEZ: All right, coming up next, 36 million Americans under a tornado watch as severe weather tears across the country. We're tracking it. We'll bring in details, coming up.

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JIMENEZ: I mean, you can see how powerful that wind is there. That was a video showing the moment high winds swept away a portion of a barn in southern Missouri.

[13:40:00]

You can see the animals running from the barn. They were all safe, not injured, but about 75 percent of the population in the United States is experiencing some type of hazardous weather due to the storm.

The South and Mid-Atlantic states in particular have been dealing with high winds, thunderstorms, and tornadoes. Schools in D.C., Maryland, Virginia, and the Carolinas also announcing closures, delays, or early dismissals. And the storm line is also bringing blizzard-like conditions to parts of Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan, making driving there very dangerous.

And speaking of travel, Brianna, this storm just making matters worse at airports across the country as well.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Yeah, it certainly is, Omar. This was the agony at the airport in Austin, Texas this morning. The line to get into security twisting outside the building while Austin officials say the lines are back to normal at this hour. Similar scenes have played out at multiple airports across the country as TSA continues to work without wages.

They just missed their first full paycheck this weekend, and it's all due, of course, to that month-long shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security.

Now, CEOs of the top airlines and cargo firms are sending a letter. They're pleading with lawmakers to figure it out, to find a resolution to end this impasse. CNN's Ryan Young is at Atlanta's International Airport. It's the world's largest.

Ryan, how's it going there?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wow, it's sort of chaotic at this point. I know this is Omar's home airport, and look, the idea of this airport being so crushed with people, I've seen it at Thanksgiving, I've seen it at Christmas, but this is one of the hardest times I've ever seen the impact.

The tears have been flowing from all sorts of people. Look, you have the weather issue that's going on. That's canceling flights, but then you have this impending TSA disaster that is going on here.

Look, we're standing off to the side because they've actually split the main checkpoint into two rows now. So if we're going to take one step forward here, and this is the main checkpoint right here to your right. The screens that normally tell people how long they're going to be standing in line, that system is down right now.

We've been talking to people who say they've been waiting in line for at least an hour and 45 minutes to make it up front, and sometimes they're missing their flight. They've opened this second bit of a checkpoint right here on the north side to get people to go down this direction, and this has only further added to the frustration because people are trying to scramble all over the airport to find ways through the security. There's no way through the airport security unless you can get to this point.

Take a listen to one of the frustrated passengers.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They'll get you.

SCARLETT KELCH, AIRPORT TRAVELER: We waited also before, even when we first got here, the line was wrapped around. We had to wait like an hour to even check our bags, and it was like a two-minute process. I could like punch through a wall right now. I'm just like over it.

YOUNG (voice-over): All right. You can understand that. Why wouldn't you want to punch through a wall? You see the line here, and look, we've talked to some of the people who've been standing in this line. Some have international flights. Those flights have been canceled. Some due to weather, some due to the plane positioning because they can't even get into this airport.

You have more weather expected later on. You have no expectation for how long you're going to be in this line, and I can tell you people's patience are starting to get pretty short. I've never seen the lines this long, this consistent throughout the day. Sometimes you have that morning spike, but right now, this is really adding up to the passenger frustration.

On top of that, there's a news conference going on outside with TSA workers. People have been bringing food to them so they can go home with groceries because they understand they've been missing paychecks.

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KEILAR: Yeah, this first full one, and that's just the full one. They also had a partial. It is tough going for them. Ryan Young, thank you so much, keeping an eye on things there at the Atlanta Airport.

President Trump says the U.S. doesn't need help securing the Strait of Hormuz as he keeps asking for it. He is calling out NATO allies for being less than enthusiastic about sending ships to help reopen that key oil route. We'll discuss next.

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[13:48:01]

KEILAR: A short time ago, President Trump again demanded U.S. allies help protect the Strait of Hormuz. The president condemned the leaders who have been reluctant to deploy ships to keep the vital oil routes safe and questioned if they're loyal to the U.S.

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DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Well, we'd rather not get involved, sir. I said, you mean for 40 years we're protecting you and you don't want to get involved in something that is very minor? Very few shots going to be taken because they don't have many shots left. But they said we'd rather not get involved.

I just want the fake news media and everybody else to remember that that was said because when I've been a big critic of all of the protecting of countries because I know that we'll protect them. And if ever needed, if we ever needed help, they won't be there for us.

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KEILAR: We're joined now by CNN Military Analyst, retired Army Lieutenant General Mark Schwartz. General, thank you so much for being with us here. And in response to Trump's calls to assist with keeping shipping lanes open, there was a spokesperson for the German Chancellor who said, "This war has nothing to do with NATO. It is not NATO's war."

So, you know, maybe you can sort of dissect the president's request here. I think there's a lot of folks who look at it and think there are flaws. But also, can NATO really wash their hands of this?

LT. GEN. MARK SCHWARTZ (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: I don't think they can. I think NATO collectively is an alliance. Maybe it's not a NATO alliance, Article 5 scenario. But certainly, there's many European countries that have provided littoral combat ship-like vessels, frigates, other mine -- counter mine capabilities to many of U.S.-led coalition maritime efforts. So, I suspect we'll see several countries eventually agree to come in.

[13:50:00]

The United Kingdom is, you know, you heard the prime minister speak earlier about, hey, let's come together and put together a task force, a coalition to support freedom of navigation. So, you know, I just -- I wish this wasn't playing out in public. It's not healthy. I don't think with long-standing alliances that are kind of, you know, tit-for-tat that's going on, but I do think inevitably we'll see many European countries come to support this effort.

KEILAR: This isn't ideal. I think we can say, right? There have been, we've watched in our time coalitions be built ahead of conflicts. And I just wonder, in your experience, if you can speak to why that is done and what can be achieved so that you're not doing it here kind of in the middle of a war.

SCHWARTZ: Well, every nation to include the United States has a limited amount of capacity and capability and, you know, particularly looking at the level of deployment and forward presence that we have across the globe. And you know, for the last 80 years since the fall of World War II, we've -- the fall of the Japanese and the Germans in World War II, we've had this growing presence.

So we are reliant on, you know, the collective capabilities. And also, there is something important about, you know, collective buy-in too in terms of when a crisis occurs globally or in a specific region. We have a global crisis brewing now with, you know, the maritime commerce and specifically oil being held hostage by Iran.

So I think there's many reasons, but what we've learned over time the United States with our operations and the both contingency and long- standing operations like Afghanistan and Iraq, we are vitally, I would say, reliant on our allies and our coalition partners to be successful for a long-standing operation.

KEILAR: And you mentioned those littoral combat ships, those LCSes. It's a mouthful. I think that's why they call them LCSes. So we're just learning those ships, those ships that are tasked now with the mine-sweeping duties, and it's kind of unclear how much they have to do at this point, but CNN has reported that Iran had already laid some of the mines.

Two of them that were assigned to those kinds of duties in the Gulf before the war were actually spotted over the weekend in Malaysia, which is very far away. That's 3,500 miles away. And a spokesperson for the fifth fleet confirmed they were in Malaysia for brief logistical stops. What questions is this raising for you?

SCHWARTZ: Well, we've certainly heard from the Chairman and, you know, from Commander, CENTCOM that we have capabilities in the region. But the Chairman also, during his last press conference, you know, commented, he didn't talk specific about capability, but he said there's still work to do. That work to do to enable freedom of navigation may include the deployment of additional maritime capabilities. To your point, with the LCSes that are currently out of the CENTCOM theater of operations.

KEILAR: Yeah. Lt. Gen. Mark Schwartz, it is great to get your perspective. Thank you for being with us.

SCHWARTZ: Thank you, Brianna.

KEILAR: And next, we do have some good news. How New York's finest helped deliver a baby that just couldn't wait.

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[13:58:23]

JIMENEZ: Let's get you just some of the other headlines we're watching this hour. A fifth member of Iran's women's soccer team has withdrawn her asylum claim and left Australia for Iran. That leaves just two Iranian women still in Australia on humanitarian visas after the team's exit from the tournament.

Now, the women were granted asylum after claiming a fear of persecution if they went back home after they refused to sing Iran's national anthem during a match. As you might imagine, the action sparked backlash from hardliners in Iran, including one state media presenter who called them wartime traitors.

Also, a new study finds that artificial intelligence may be telling teens to eat a lot less than what's recommended while dieting. For example, the study published in the journal "Frontiers in Nutrition" determined A.I. is advising some teenagers to cut carbs, eat 700 fewer calories a day, and to consume much more protein and fat than even dieticians advise.

Researchers say the A.I. was responding to the profiles they created for four teens who wanted to lose weight, as the study's lead author says these imbalances could potentially be problematic if followed long-term during a critical period of growth.

I want to bring you this story. Case of a baby who just couldn't wait, and New York's finest there to meet this little guy, this little baby's demands. The mother of baby Zenovia couldn't make it to the hospital when she went into labor last month, but mom Kashanna Legette did manage to lay down on a discarded cushioned bench outside her building. That is when multiple officers from New York's 42nd Precinct stepped in to help deliver Zenovia.

One officer ended up swaddling the newborn in his jacket, inspiring Leggett to give Zenovia the middle name of Remy, the swaddling officer's last name. If I had a cap, I would tip it, unbelievable. --