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Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) On Iran And Israel Striking Energy Sites, Trump Threatens Iranian Gas Field; University Of Alabama Student Missing In Spain After Night Out At Club; Off-Duty Trooper's Quick CPR Save Skier On Slopes. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired March 19, 2026 - 07:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:31:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: So while you were sleeping oil price jumped again hitting a new high as it becomes evident there is a supply shock playing out in the Middle East in a new way and on a new level now. Brent crude surging to $115 a barrel after tit-for-tat strikes were carried out on energy infrastructure across the Middle East.

Here is what happened. Israel targeted Iranian facilities, one they share with Qatar in the South Pars gas field. That marks a significant moment in this war. The UAE called the strike a serious escalation and a direct threat to global energy supplies and regional security. Qatar called it dangerous -- a dangerous and irresponsible step. President Trump also condemned the strike claiming he knew nothing about it ahead of time.

Despite the confusion around that one point it does raise at least one simple yet big question: Why is South Pars so important? Let's show you.

It's part of the world's largest natural gas reserve and is Iran's biggest source of domestic energy supply. The entire gas field contains an estimated 1,800 trillion cubic feet of usable gas -- enough to supply the entire world's gas needs for 13 years.

In response to that hit, Iran hit back targeting major energy facilities in neighboring countries and causing extensive damage to Qatar's main energy hub and a key natural gas processing facility.

President Trump seeming to say that he is watching this, I don't know, from the sidelines and possibly trying to de-escalate, also leveling then a new threat at the same time, now threatening to "massively blow up the entire Iranian gas field if Iran continues to attack Qatar's energy facilities."

What happens next? Who knows. As one expert though tells CNN, the timeline for any relief in oil prices just got longer -- Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. CNN senior business reporter David Goldman is here with us now. David, how do these strikes impact the immediate and long-term outlook on oil and gas?

DAVID GOLDMAN, CNN SENIOR BUSINESS REPORTER: Well, we just went from what was kind of a passive supply disruption in the Strait of Hormuz that we've been talking about all week --

SIDNER: Yeah.

GOLDMAN: -- to an active production decimation, right? I mean, Kate laid this out really well. It's the most important gas hub in the world and the one that Israel hit is one of the most important natural gas facilities in the world.

So right now we're looking at natural gas prices surging toward 20 percent. Now, in the United States we frack a lot of natural gas.

SIDNER: Yeah.

GOLDMAN: This isn't going to disrupt production here, but Pakistan and Bangladesh -- all the South Asian countries, I don't know what they're going to do. And this could last for years, like Kate was saying.

SIDNER: That is really extremely concerning because once something is damaged getting it back online takes a long time, right? I mean, to rebuild these things is not an easy task. Is that correct?

GOLDMAN: Yeah. I mean, this wasn't just, you know, a couple of bombs went off and they can rebuild. I mean, it looks like this was decimated.

And so the big question now is how long does this take? And we've already seen that just by controlling the Strait of Hormuz and locking oil in there -- I mean, look at what's happened to oil prices. Look at what's happened to gas prices. Now if we're talking instead of a scale of weeks, we're talking about a scale of years for the disruption.

I mean, this is really -- this is a can of worms that was opened and the United States doesn't control this anymore. It's not like an on- off switch. This is something that could last a long time.

SIDNER: War generally never is, and that is why people are very skeptical about getting into a war.

I do want to quickly ask you about Fed chair Jerome Powell saying he doesn't know what's next --

GOLDMAN: Yeah.

SIDNER: -- for the economy. Yikes!

[07:35:00]

GOLDMAN: Yeah. I mean, the word "uncertain" came up seven times in his remarks yesterday and then twice in his prepared statement. He doesn't know about AI, he doesn't know about inflation, and he doesn't know about jobs. He doesn't even know how long he's going to be at the Fed. There is so much uncertainty in the economy. Add all of that into what we were talking about with gas, it's interesting times for sure.

SIDNER: And we know the markets -- how they feel about uncertainty. It's the way I feel about broccoli. We have the same attitude about the two things. We don't like it.

David Goldman, we do like you.

GOLDMAN: Oh, thank you.

SIDNER: Thank you so much for coming in and being here with us this morning.

All right, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Let's talk more about all of this. Joining us right now is Democratic Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont. Senator, thanks for coming in.

Let's start here. Refineries and gas facilities in Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia have been hit by Iran. This is after Israel hits Iran's South Pars gas field, as I was just laying out a little bit earlier.

If you can describe the war to this point as showing some restraint in avoiding hammering energy infrastructure in the region and that restraint is now gone, what happens?

SEN. PETER WELCH (D-VT): It's a disaster. I mean, the president is at that moment where he has to make a critical decision, end this war or escalate. And we're seeing now that after the massive display of force by the U.S., with the nuclear program obliterated and with the missile program largely compromised, it's time for the president to end the war.

We're now in a phase where the asymmetric response by Iran where they can close the Straits of Hormuz and then Israel is acting unilaterally and very much against our interests is putting us in incredible peril as David just explained.

BOLDUAN: Let me --

WELCH: So it's time for the president to end this war.

BOLDUAN: Sorry. I wanted to get through a million questions with you on this, including this. The president says he knew nothing about that Israeli attack. Some of the reporting we're seeing, especially from Barak Ravid of Axios, is that is not true.

Which is more problematic and troubling, if President Trump says publicly, he didn't know about it but did and didn't stop it or if President Trump really did not know that this major escalatory strike was about to happen?

WELCH: They're both absolutely unacceptable. But what it does indicate is that Israel has different intentions in this war than the United States. Netanyahu wants this war. He is fine with an Iran that totally falls apart and is a failed states much like happened in Iraq and much like happened in Afghanistan. That's a catastrophe for the United States and for the world economy. So you've got a divergence here of interests between what the U.S. objectives were -- the nuclear program, the missile program -- and then the Netanyahu objective, which is a failed state in Iran.

The more this goes on the worse the economy gets and the hard -- the harder it is for us to unwind. I mean, we are literally on the precipice of another forever war that we had in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the president has to take decisive control of this. He has to end this war, otherwise it's endless escalation.

BOLDUAN: Well, and that leads to this. Reuters is now reporting that the president is -- in the way they're reporting, is considering deploying thousands of U.S. troops to reinforce its operation in the Middle East. The reporting is they may be used to help secure the Strait of Hormuz, Kharg Island, or Iran's stockpile of highly-enriched uranium.

Are you OK with that if it would bring the war to an end sooner?

WELCH: It wouldn't bring the war to an end sooner. The asymmetric response would continue. I am absolutely opposed to that.

And, in fact, the president hasn't even come to Congress to tell us what his plan is, yet we're hearing that he may be asking for a supplemental of up to $100 million -- $100 billion. I would oppose that. You know, the president has no plan. He has no way to pay for it. He should get no money for this reckless war that he's escalating.

BOLDUAN: Yeah. I'm seeing even The Washington Post reporting the Pentagon is asking the White House to sign off on a request of $200 billion to be coming your way.

Let me ask you this. Oman's top diplomat is speaking out right now calling this an unlawful war and saying that America is -- the way the diplomat is putting it is has lost control of its own foreign policy and contradicts claims that President Trump had said he didn't know that Iran would potentially target the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation, saying this.

"If this had not been anticipated by the architects of this war that was surely a grave miscalculation. The American administration's greatest miscalculation, of course, was allowing itself to be drawn into this war in its first place. This is not America's war and there is no likely scenario in which both Israel and America will get what they want from it."

[07:40:00]

This speaks to what you said -- in your opinion, the divergent goals here. But what does need to happen now -- you said this a couple of times --

in order to end this war? What would you need to hear from President Trump today that you think would end this war and not have it be worse than when he be -- when he went in?

WELCH: He's got to say that the two objectives that were most important have been achieved. He's -- his language -- we've obliterated the nuclear program, and we've totally decimated the missile capacity of Iran. Those are two good things. A non-nuclear Iran is good for everybody.

The escalation that happens from here on out -- Iran is the asymmetric power where all they need is some speedboats loaded with explosives or some drones that can continue attacking ships going through the strait. We're going to be choked up on the oil.

And there is a divergence of interest between Israel and the U.S. Netanyahu wants a failed state in Iran. That has never been a U.S. objective. We want a non-nuclear Iran but not a failed state in Iran where you then have all of the -- all of the chaos that we saw after the U.S. invaded Iraq.

BOLDUAN: Let me ask you really quickly as well. Senator Markwayne Mullin is facing a confirmation vote in committee this morning to become the next DHS secretary. It seems most Democrats will oppose. Senator Blumenthal, who is on the committee, said that Mullin needs to make commitments to reform before essentially, he can give support.

I have heard you call him competent and honest though. Should he be confirmed?

WELCH: Well, our problem here is that Stephen Miller is the architect here. And the chaos and the violence that we saw -- the mayhem in Minneapolis is still top of mind for many of us. So we've got to get real assurances that there are reforms and that's the whole battle we're having.

Markwayne Mullin is a respected person, and his testimony was so much better than Kristi Noem, who is really corrupt and self-involved, and a failure. And he's going to do good work on FEMA, I think.

But the real holdback for us is that the person in charge is Stephen Miller and there's no indication that he has backed off of his mass deportation policy, going to farms, going to work sites, going to churches. So that's the holdback for us.

BOLDUAN: So right now you're a no?

WELCH: Yes.

BOLDUAN: Senator Peter Welch, thank you very much for coming in. I really appreciate it -- John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, with us now retired Col. Cedric Leighton, CNN military analyst. And Colonel, I want to start with these dueling attacks on the natural

gas fields. People can see where they are right here. Here is Qatar, here is Iran. The gas fields basically span the distance between them. And if we push in you can get a better look at what's called the South Pars field here.

The Israeli strikes on Iran we think happened actually in the field itself right there, and then also in a town on the coast of Iran up there. The Iranian retaliation happened in Qatar right about here.

And I would say the feeling is palpably different overnight and into this morning -- the sense among many of the Gulf nations that this is entering a new territory. Why?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, this is real escalatory, John. And what you're seeing here is these -- you have to keep in mind these are the largest -- this is the largest combined gas field in the entire world.

And if this is destroyed -- let's say the South Pars field ends up being destroyed -- it was not destroyed by the Israeli attack -- that would then cut off basically the entire energy supply that Iran uses. Because they use gas not only for cooking and for heating and things like that, but they also use it for electricity generation. So with that, if this is eliminated, then Iran's population all of a sudden is plunged into basically darkness.

If things happen against Qatar, Qatar is the world's -- one of the world's largest gas exporters. And as a result of that they make their money based on their ability to control the North Dome, which is really an extension of the South Pars field. And that makes a huge difference to all these energy flows that --

BERMAN: Yeah. Their natural gas goes right out there and then over to the east here all the way to Japan.

LEIGHTON: Exactly.

BERMAN: I mean, this is -- you can see the flow of their natural gas out there.

I want to talk about the president's response to this. He said -- among other things, he said that Israel is going to stop its attacks. But maybe the most glaring line, right here. "The United States knew nothing about this particular attack." He's saying the United States -- he's claiming knew nothing about the Israeli strike on the South Pars field.

You've been in these planning sessions. How likely is that?

LEIGHTON: Not very likely. I mean, if you're really integrated at the planning level you will know exactly what your coalition counterpart is doing. And when you work with a foreign country like the Israelis they will share with you a lot of what they're doing.

Now, is it possible that they did this on their own? Yeah, technically, but remember, they need things like refueling support. They need logistical support. They also need intelligence support. So that would then lead you to believe that we knew something. That they were going to do something with their targeting package against the South Pars field.

[07:45:06]

BERMAN: And so -- I mean, either he's not being straight and the U.S. did know or Israel did this without U.S. knowledge?

LEIGHTON: It's really hard to believe that, especially in the planning cell --

BERMAN: Yeah.

LEIGHTON: -- where you're working together, you know, that closely that you wouldn't know that something was up. But I -- the Israelis have done other things without our knowledge and it is -- you know, it is not inconceivable.

BERMAN: And just to take another look here. Reuters reporting that there could be more U.S. troops headed to the region -- reinforcements. What we do know is there's a Marine Expeditionary unit or a Marine Expeditionary Force that is headed somewhere to the region. We think they're somewhere out here and they're headed on a float right now.

What's the most likely scenario of what you think they'll be doing?

LEIGHTON: So there are several possibilities. One of the, obviously, it's a show of force. One of them is that they could secure the Strait of Hormuz right here or they could go after Kharg Island, which is right up there.

Now, the logistical part of this is if they're going to go to Kharg Island they are going to have to go through the Strait of Hormuz one way or the other. Now, how they do that is, of course, an open question, but the most likely route would be right through here. So this might be the first area that they go after because it's actually critically important and it would achieve both military, political, and economic objectives.

BERMAN: Yeah. People can see right her this is the Strait of Hormuz live. Look at the traffic right now -- none. No traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. Perhaps you need troops somewhere up here to secure it. We'll see. That may be in the days or weeks ahead.

Colonel Cedric Leighton, great to see you. Thank you very much.

LEIGHTON: Thank you, John.

BERMAN: Sara.

SIDNER: All right. This morning an urgent search underway for an American college student who disappeared after a night out in Spain. James Gracey, a 20-year-old student -- a junior at the University of Alabama was visiting his friends in Barcelona.

CNN's Dianne Gallagher is tracking this story and this case. What are you learning about him and about what potentially happened?

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. So, Sara, the family of James "Jimmy" Gracey is worried. They are desperately searching for any information they can at all, saying that this is just completely out of character for the 20-year-old University of Alabama student.

He was in Spain for spring break visiting friends who were studying abroad there. And he was last seen by a friend outside the Shoko nightclub in Barcelona around 3:00 a.m. local time Tuesday. Now he'd been out with a bunch of friends that night, according to a fraternity brother who was not with them. He got separated from the group at some time, and so that's the last time he had been seen. He was reported missing when he did not return to his short-term rental that morning.

Now, if we can bring up the photo of Jimmy wearing the white shirt. He was last seen in this outfit. It's actually a photo taken from that night. His mother says that it's a white shirt, dark pants, and of course that chain with a rhinestone gold cross on it.

He's also without his phone. We know this. His mother says police already have it because it was recovered after being stolen.

Now, CNN has reached out to the Catalan police force, Mossos d'Esquadra, who says that it's investigating but did not provide any details. However, a source with knowledge of the investigation says that the force's aquatic unit was out searching the waters nearby in the area but had negative results. The police have also been reviewing security footage and trying to retrace his movements.

Now, Jimmy Gracey is from the Chicago suburb of Elmhurst. He's the oldest of five children. He's also the chaplain and philanthropy chair of his fraternity.

And his friends say they just want him home.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAVIN MCLAY, FRIEND: He's a great person. He's a great guy. He's a man of upstanding character. Um, he's one of those people that's there for anyone when they ever need it. We're doing everything that we can to keep our heads up and remain hopeful that we find him safe, but it's a tough time and, you know, we're scared.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GALLAGHER: Now, Jimmy's uncle, David Gracey, who is a senior producer here at CNN in Washington, D.C., says that his father has already traveled to Barcelona to help search for his son and just stresses how out of character this is for a man they describe as responsible and helps his family take care of his younger siblings.

SIDNER: Yeah, the chaplain and treasurer of his fraternity. We are looking at that picture and please just take a good look at it. No one knows exactly what happened here but hopefully police will figure this all out.

Dianne Gallagher, thank you so much. I do appreciate it -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: That is so troubling.

All right, still ahead for us, we are standing by to hear from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. A live look inside the Pentagon briefing room where it's all set to begin. He's going to be offering an update on the war in Iran. Big questions for the Pentagon today for sure.

And also, let the March Madness begin. The first official games of the tournament are set to kick off in just hours. Are you clutching your bracket at this point?

[07:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL)

BERMAN: This morning a story of luck combined with skill and bravery. A skier collapsed on a remote trail deep in the snowy hills of Michigan. He might have had just minutes to live when an off-duty Michigan state trooper crossed the path and went beyond the call of duty.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VERONICA MIRACLE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: On a quiet winter morning in Harbor Springs, Michigan a routine cross-country ski outing turned into a critical emergency.

STEPHEN BRIGGS, CROSS-COUNTRY SKI PATROLLER, NUB'S NOB SKI RESORT: It was fast, hard, and face-plant -- mouth open, full of snow.

MIRACLE (voiceover): Fifty-two-year-old Kevin Livingston collapsed on a secluded trail at a place called Nub's Nob.

[07:55:00]

BRIGGS: You could see that the fall was not normal. It was certainly not justified by the terrain.

MIRACLE (voiceover): Off-duty Michigan State Police Sgt. Dennis Wagner was on his daily ski workout when he spotted Livingston.

SGT. DENNIS WAGNER, MICHIGAN STATE POLICE: That trail over there and -- the two trails -- they kind of parallel each other for about five seconds. So I looked over to my right, and I seen a skier that was down -- laying face down.

MIRACLE (voiceover): With nearly two decades of teaching CPR under his belt Wagner's training kicked in.

WAGNER: I took my skis off. I crossed waist-deep snow.

MIRACLE (voiceover): Wagner and other Good Samaritans rolled Livingston over and opened his airway.

WAGNER: And there was a conversation about calling 911. And Steve Briggs, ski patrol, said no, I'm going to call my ski patrol. I think they can get up here a lot faster than calling 911.

RYAN MOORE, AREA MANAGER, NUB'S NOB SKI RESORT: Three or four minutes, I bet, from the time we got the call and got on scene.

MIRACLE (voiceover): An automated external defibrillator or AED was used to shock his heart.

WAGNER: When he took that first breath I knew he had a fighting chance.

MIRACLE (voiceover): Just 25 minutes passed between his collapse on the slope and his arrival at nearby McLaren Hospital, according to Livingston's Strava app that tracks physical activity. Doctors say early CPR and rapid access to an AED saved his life.

GENISIS PETERS, LEAD SKI PATROLLER, NUB'S NOB SKI RESORT: He didn't just live; he's going to live well.

MIRACLE (voiceover): In a statement, Livingston said, "I have incredible respect for these individuals who came together and put their expertise into action. I thank God he put me in their paths that day."

Reunited with Livingston, Wagner's message is simple.

WAGNER: CPR is something, you know, that's easily learned. If you take the time to do it, you can save somebody's life.

MIRACLE (voiceover): One moment, one decision, one life saved beyond the call.

For CNN I'm Veronica Miracle.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BOLDUAN: Incredible story, incredible people.

Also, this is happening. An elderly food truck driver in Japan took matters into his own hands when his truck caught fire. Instead of calling for help he drove straight to it. He drove to the fire station. You can see -- we can show you there was video -- you probably already saw -- like the flames. That ball of fire zipping down the street. That's the truck.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation, but authorities suspect it arose from the truck's cargo where the sweet potatoes that were actually seen, like, flaming and flying out of the truck -- the sweet potatoes were actually being roasted using firewood. No injuries were reported and the fire was put out.

Let's go to Australia right now where a possum played possum so well it fit right in with the stuffed animals at a gift shop. See that one moving? That's not a stuffed animal. That's an adorable -- like, the cutest possum. They make possums cute in Australia -- right there surrounded by other cuddly plushies. Looks like some kangaroos over there.

No one knows how it got there. The -- obviously, the possum is saying no comment. But airport staff did help it exit the terminal safely - Sara.

SIDNER: All right, Miami University in Ohio got its first NCAA Tournament victory in 27 years at SMU's expense.

CNN's Andy Scholes is here now. All right --

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yeah.

SIDNER: -- how are we set for the big dance? I have to tell you I failed and I did the automated one for the brackets.

SCHOLES: Oh, come on, Sara.

SIDNER: It's so embarrassing.

SCHOLES: You've got to do better than that. Automated but with Florida winning it all, I assume.

SIDNER: Obviously.

SCHOLES: I know you're a Gator.

But this is the best two days in all of sports, right? We've got 16 games today, 16 games tomorrow. I certainly can't wait. There's nothing quite like the emotions of the NCAA Tournament.

And I've got a question for everyone. Do you think you can make a free throw with 15 dudes jumping up and down in a Speedo right in front of you? Well, the playing games are always in Dayton, not too far from Miami's campus. And the entire swim team -- they came to this game, stormed down the aisle to distract SMU during these free throws in the second half. Corey Washington missed his first free throw. All the RedHawks fans going nuts there.

Now Miami would go on to win this one 89-79. And after all the debate on whether or not they should be in the tournament after going 31-1, the RedHawks are in. They're going to play Tennessee tomorrow in the first round.

Prairie View A&M, meanwhile, is in the field of 64 for the first time ever. The Panthers' big second half to pull away to beat Lehigh 67-55. They will now play Florida tomorrow in round one. They are 35-point underdogs in that game.

Now, Nebraska, meanwhile, is going to take the floor today looking for their first-ever tournament win. They're 0-8 all-time in the big dance. They're the only Power Five school to never win a tournament game. They're led by head coach Fred Hoiberg and his son Sam, who starts for the team, and they both are hoping to deliver big red their first-ever tournament win.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAM HOIBERG, NEBRASKA GUARD: I would mean the world. That's what I've been dreaming of since I became a player in this program and turning it around. And I feel like that's kind of the only thing left to do is get that tournament win.

FRED HOIBERG, NEBRASKA HEAD COACH: Have I talked to our players about it? No, I haven't. They know. They see it. And is there a pressure that goes along with that? Of course, there is. But as I've said to the team, pressure is a privilege.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: All right, the Huskers are playing Troy at 12:40 Eastern. Troy has also never won a tournament game, so someone is going to be happy after that one.