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Interview with Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA): Trump: U.S. Allies Should Take Over Strait Once Iran Regime is Finished Off; Airport Security Lines Grow as TSA Goes Unpaid Amid DHS Shutdown; $915 Million Incentive Program has Helped 72,000 Self-Deport. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired March 18, 2026 - 08:00   ET

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

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DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I mean, what do you have to say about toxic masculinity?

SOPHIE RAIN, ONLYFANS CREATOR: It's sad. That word just sends chills down my spine if I'm being honest. I think it's the same kind of weaponized incompetence, you know what I mean?

Like, there's no reason to be acting like this. We are all adults at the end of the day, and I think that there are bigger problems in this world that we need to be focused on instead of trying to regulate women's bodies.

OSULLIVAN: Only fans, it's freedom of speech though, right? I mean, if you want to go on there, you want to express yourself in this way or make money this way.

JAMES FISHBACK, (R) FLORIDA GOVERNOR CANDIDATE: This is not an argument about the First Amendment or free speech. This is an argument about what kind of society we want to live in. Sophie Rain could be doing so much more.

OSULLIVAN (voice-over): Actually, both Anya and Sophie say the platform has done a lot for them. It's helped make their lives better.

RAIN: It just has created so many opportunities for me, and I'm so thankful to even be here. It helped me build a business.

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KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: The breaking news. Israel takes out another top Iranian official, Iran's intelligence minister, the latest target of assassination in this war.

And air travel across America going from bad to worse when it comes to TSA security lines. TSA officers quitting or calling out because they aren't getting paid. Will this pain finally push Congress to do its job?

And a wild ride for one Oklahoma officer getting a ride on the hood of a car in order to nab two suspects on the run.

I'm Kate Bolduan with John Berman and Sara Sidner. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, the breaking news. President Trump just making a new threat to Iran and putting new pressure on U.S. allies to help secure the Strait of Hormuz. Just moments ago, he wrote, quote, "I wonder what would happen if we finished off what's left of the Iranian terror state and let the countries that use it, we don't be responsible for the so-called 'Straight'."

By the way, he spelled straight with a G, H. He continues, "That would get some of our non-responsive allies in gear and fast."

Overnight, the U.S. military said dropped 5,000 pound guided bunker buster bombs on Iranian missile sites near the Strait of Hormuz, which has been more or less closed for the duration of this war.

Also breaking this morning, Israel says it targeted and killed Iran's intelligence chief. This is another Iranian leader killed right in the heels of strikes that killed two other top officials. Iran retaliated with new strikes on Tel Aviv. Multiple locations hit with falling debris.

That right there might be cluster munitions you're seeing in the sky. At least two people were killed in central Israel.

In Iraq, a fire was burning outside the U.S. embassy in Baghdad after it was targeted for a second night in a row.

With us now is Congressman John Garamendi, a Democrat from California. He is a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee. And Congressman, I just want to read once again what the president just wrote and see if you can explain to me what you think of it and what it means.

He said, "I wonder what would happen if we finished off what's left of the Iranian terror state and let the countries that use it, we don't be responsible for the so-called Straight?"

What do you think that means?

REP. JOHN GARAMENDI (D-CA), HOUSE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: I don't have any idea what the president is trying to do. I mean, this is the most confused situation I have ever imagined the United States would find it in. Every morning, the president is off in some other tangent, going off on, in this case, with what is, I think -- I don't know, how do you describe something that makes no sense at all?

The bottom line of this is that the president jumped into this war without following the Constitution, explaining to Congress what it's all about, getting the authorization from Congress to conduct the war. Had he done that, maybe there would be some certainty as to what the goal is here. But frankly, the goal is changing morning to night.

And the next day, it's yet another goal. Right now, I have no idea of what that statement's all about, except he's upset that the rest of the world doesn't want to go to war with him. And I can understand that because it's not all clear what he wants to do.

BERMAN: The Israelis say they killed the Iranian intelligence chief overnight. That would be the third official killed in the last two days. How effective do you think the Israeli battle against the Iranian regime has been?

GARAMENDI: Well, it's certainly been successful in taking out the leadership. However, we should by now realize that there is depth in the leadership. There's somebody to take the place of the individual that has been killed.

So they take the top out. The next guy moves up. The bottom line of this is that the regime is still in place.

The tools that, and mechanisms that the regime has used for the last 40-some years is still in place.

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What has changed? Well, the leader has changed, but the underlying situation has not at all changed.

BERMAN: I want to ask you about the situation at U.S. airports right now. We're seeing long delays being blamed partially on TSA workers not getting paid, not showing up to work because of the partial government shutdown.

The president just wrote, "The Democrats purposeful DHS shutdown is causing chaos at the airports. These lunatics are being totally unreasonable in their radical left asks. They're fully to blame."

So what's your response to this? What responsibility do you think Democrats have to get TSA funded?

GARAMENDI: Let's just go back about a month and consider what was going on in Minneapolis. Let's consider what the ICE and Customs and Border Patrol agents were doing in Minneapolis. What we demanded and still demand is that ICE and Customs and Border Patrol be reformed, that they be properly trained, that they stop wearing masks, hiding behind a mask, that they wear body cams, identification, training, all of those things.

There are 12 specific things that we want to do to reform ICE. And for some reason, the president and the Republicans refuse to deal with the reform of the largest police force in America. We just want them to have the same responsibilities, the same training that every other police force in the United States has.

That's what we want. And that's where this holdup is. All that needs to be done is for the Republicans and the president to simply say, you know, you're right.

This police force ought to be properly trained. This police force ought to have the appropriate equipment. They ought to have body cams, identification.

They ought not hide behind masks, all of those things. This would be done and this would open up TSA, and the funding would go forward.

BERMAN: In the meantime, the lines are an hour long or longer. Yesterday they were well longer than that. A TSA administrator who we're going to have on shortly said if this continues, they may have to actually shut down some airports.

What's your message to him?

GARAMENDI: Well, the message is that tomorrow Congress finishes our session for this week and 435 of us and the senators are going to be leaving town, many of us on an airplane. So we're going to be right smack in the middle of that problem. However, this can be solved in a moment's notice.

President Trump, let's reform ICE. Let's have a proper police force. Let's have one that's well-trained and well-prepared to do its job.

That's all that's necessary here. And this could be over this afternoon if the Republicans and the president would simply agree that the largest police force in America be properly trained and that it be prepared to deal with the situation appropriately. And I want the public to remember what was going on in Minneapolis and in other states and other cities around this nation.

We want this police force to be properly organized and properly operated.

BERMAN: Congressman John Garamendi from California. Appreciate your time this morning. Thank you -- Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Thank you, John.

It's getting worse. You're looking at live pictures of the airport there, the world's busiest, and the lines could take you two hours this morning, worse than yesterday. We'll take you there live.

And will the Federal Reserve slash interest rates or keep them as is? President Trump is attacking the Fed chairman again, demanding a rate cut.

Plus, we take you to the drama-filled World Baseball Classic, a first of its kind. And you can see there, didn't go so well for the USA.

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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIDNER: It's getting worse at some of the country's airports. This morning, lines are already long in Atlanta, Orlando and JFK as unpaid TSA officers either quit or call out sick amid the partial government shutdown. This week, DHS says more than 50 percent of TSA workers in Houston called out sick and over 30 percent were reported absent in Atlanta and New Orleans. CNN's Ryan Young is at Atlanta's Hartsfield Jackson, where it's the busiest in the entire world. And I am just curious, Ryan, how things are compared to yesterday, because you were there and the lines were insanely long then.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They were. Now we have another illustration of that. If you look here, look at the expanse of atrium here.

It's full of people. It's been this way all morning. The line was actually longer about an hour ago.

The lines are getting better, but we know this is the rush hour for the traffic when it happens, the airport. So you see the queue here. We know this is about the 78 minute line.

This is the normal check in. Precheck has actually been full today, too. Now we're going to meet on the other side here, Sara.

But as you look at this crowd, this has been tremendous. So we had precheck above 30 minutes today. We have this line at 78 minutes.

And from above, you really get a sense of just how long this traffic is. We're hearing some of the same story from passengers over and over again. They are exasperated about the idea of being stuck in this line, many of them missing their flights, some of them coming up with their boarding passes, trying to negotiate their way to the front of line.

But everyone sort of has that same story.

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And as you come down, you get the sense for just how long this line is. You see the sea of people going this way and their lines on either side. As Jonathan Schaer comes down with the camera, I want to show you something right here.

Look at that board. It says 78 minutes. We saw that go above 120 minutes yesterday.

So this is not the worst it's been so far, but this morning, the lines were crushed. So we've seen that ebb and flow when it comes to rush hour traffic. Sometimes you see all those early morning flights. They're crushed with people getting here early.

There are some people in the back of the line who have an hour before their flight takes off. They're more than likely going to miss it. Some folks are coming for four o'clock in the afternoon flights. So you get the idea here. Some people are coming up really early and some are taking their chances.

We're waiting to hear from the airport about how many TSA agents have called out today, but they have extra staff in place just to get people to the queue to be in this point. We'll have to figure out in the next hour or so, how many people have called out so far. SIDNER: I got to say, Jonathan Schaer skillfully going down that escalator with this camera on his shoulder, showing us just how many people are in line. Ryan, thank you to you and Jonathan reporting.

Next hour, by the way, we will talk the TSA's acting deputy administrator about all of this -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: We have new CNN reporting in on a White House plan to pay undocumented migrants to self-deport. Question is, is it working? We've got the numbers coming in.

And a former FBI agent is speaking out, accusing the FBI director of playing a dangerous game and putting the country at risk. That FBI special agent is our guest.

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BOLDUAN: There's new CNN reporting, President Trump touting a nearly billion dollar incentive program as a key part of getting undocumented immigrants to voluntarily leave the country.

The administration has claimed that more than 2 million have done just that. But now a new document shared internally within the department of Homeland Security and reviewed by CNN reports a much lower number.

CNN's Priscilla Alvarez is here with her new reporting on this. Priscilla, tell us more about what you've learned.

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, this is a nearly billion dollar plan that the Trump administration launched last year to get people to self-deport with financial incentives. It's part of this broader push that the administration says has resulted in those more than 2 million people self-deporting. Now, as far as how many have used the program that was launched with that $915 million contract?

Well, my colleague and I Audrey Ash found that's around 72,000 people as of this month. The majority of whom, according to this document we reviewed, were already in immigration and customs enforcement detention. So what is this program?

This is called Project Homecoming. Again, it was rolled out last May. It began with a stipend of about a thousand dollars and has gone up to be $2,600 and includes free flights to origin country.

Now people can sign up via an app that was also rolled out by the administration. And it is part of this multimillion dollar ad campaign there. You're putting the social media blitz that the administration has been on.

They've consistently talked about self deportation, arguing that it is a way to slash the taxpayer money on deportation costs. However, experts say and have questioned the efficacy of this contract and program because this idea of voluntary departure has always existed. It's been around for multiple administrations, and it has been an illegal option for non-citizens looking to leave.

Therefore experts say there was a reason to provide these incentives in addition to those who would have chosen to leave already. Now the department of Homeland security did provide a statement where they said, "DHS has been consistently clear that those who have used the CBP Home app and utilize Project Homecoming are but a fraction of those who have voluntarily left the country because illegal aliens know President Donald is enforcing our immigration laws."

Now I should note here that here at CNN we have spoken to migrants who have chosen to use the app, therefore notifying the government and using this program as well as those who have opted not to do so. So they left the United States but did not want to tell the administration about their whereabouts. And then there are of course those who are unaware of the program.

So the number could be larger of the, of those who have self deported. It's unclear how the administration got to the metric of 2 million. But what we do know is that this specific contract for this specific program has only resulted in about 72,000 people leaving the country. Again, this has been a relentless push by the administration and one where they've also included flyers about this in people's immigration documents -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Priscilla, great reporting as always. Thank you so much for that -- John.

BERMAN: All right, why treating your cholesterol levels should start as soon as your thirties, which means I might have to address this in a year or two. The new guidelines from leading medical groups.

A police officer hops onto the hood of a moving car to chase down suspects on the run.

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SIDNER: We've got some new developments out of Iran. Central Command says it dropped 5,000 pound guided bombs along the coast of the Strait of Hormuz to target anti-ship cruise missiles in Iran. Just yesterday, President Trump said it won't be long before the critical shipping passage is reopened.

But it's not just missiles that are threatening the ships in the Strait. It's also mines. Two sources tell CNN that Iran began laying mines in the Strait last week. There are several different kinds of mines in Iran's arsenal.

A drifting mine floats on top of the water, drifting with the current and it detonates on contact with the ship. A moored mine is similar but is anchored to the seabed by a cable. It also detonates when a ship's hull hits it.

And there's also the seabed mine or bottom mine. It sits on the sea floor, and it uses sensors like magnets and acoustics to determine the location of a ship. These use a much larger amount of explosives causing an even bigger detonation.

Iran has also what are called limpet mines. These are smaller and are placed on a vessel by a diver and they explode after a set amount of time. So the goal is usually to target the underwater gear of a ship.

According to estimates by the defense intelligence agency, Iran has about 5,000 naval mines, which is part of what makes the waterway so extremely dangerous for ships.

BERMAN: All right, thanks to Sara for that.

And of course, Israel overnight -- the United States overnight, I should say, set off two large bunker buster bombs right on the Strait of Hormuz.

Let's get to see it as Oren Liebermann in Jerusalem for the latest on the activity that we've seen overnight. Oren, what are we seeing?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF: Well, Israel and the U.S. have, and this is no surprise given where we are in the war here.

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