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Israeli P.M. Netanyahu Gives Update on War with Iran; Senate Appropriators Huddle with Border Czar Over DHS Shutdown; A.I. to Bring the Late Val Kilmer Back to Big Screen

Aired March 19, 2026 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:00]

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: We destroyed missiles and we destroyed a lot of the nuclear infrastructure. But what we're destroying now are the factories that produce the components to make these missiles and to make the nuclear weapons that they're trying to produce.

We're wiping out their industrial base in a way that we didn't do before. Iran's air defenses have been rendered useless their Navy is lying at the bottom of the sea.

Today we hit the other part of their Navy in the Caspian Sea. Their Air Force is nearly destroyed. Iran's command and control structure is in utter chaos and I can tell you that there's still more work to do and we're going to do it. And I want to close these opening remarks with one other fake news, and that is that Israel somehow dragged the U.S. into a conflict with Iran.

Does anyone really think that someone can tell President Trump what to do? Come on, President Trump always makes his decisions on what he thinks is good for America and may I add, I think what is also good for future generations. In this case, those interests are absolutely clear and so is the clarity of our achievements. Together in close coordination with President Trump, close coordination between America and Israel, our militaries, our intelligence services, were achieving goals in lightning speed.

But I want to say another word. It's been said that for 40 years I've been saying that Iran is a danger to Israel and a danger to the world. That is true, you know who else said that? President Trump, 47 years ago, when the Iranian thugs took over the American embassy. He said how dangerous this regime is.

In his first term in office, he didn't need any convincing. He said the Iranian nuclear deal was the worst deal that he'd ever seen and he walked out of it. Right before his second term, before he was reelected, I went to see him in Mar-a-Lago. The first thing he said to me was, Bibi, we've got to make sure that Iran doesn't have nuclear weapons. He said that to me. I didn't say it to him. He didn't need any convincing there, either.

Now, why did he say that? Because for more than four decades, this regime, as I said in the beginning of my remarks, is chanting, death to Israel, death to America but they say Israel is only the small Satan standing in their way. The great Satan is the United States of America, and these ideological fanatics, these lunatics, define their own detre, their reason for being is wiping out Western civilization and America that leads, they have claimed the lives, they have maimed and wounded thousands of Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan. They killed the American marines in Beirut, they bombed their embassies.

They tried to assassinate the American president, Donald Trump, not once but twice.

Now, they blackmail for oil. just imagine what they would do, what they are capable of doing, if these lunatics had nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them to every American city and every European city and everywhere around the globe.

This is a danger for the entire world. It's certainly a danger for Israel, it's certainly a danger for America. We see eye to eye on that. President Trump and I, Israel and America. But I think if people are honest, if leaders are honest, they would understand that were not only fighting our fight, were fighting their fight. I speak to dozens of world leaders dozens -- dozens. They all know that and privately, they all say that. They say that privately. But I say it publicly.

The world owes a debt of deep indebtedness, deep indebtedness to President Trump for leading this effort to safeguard our future.

REPORTER: Thank you.

BRIANA KEILAR, CNN HOST: All right, so, there are actually the audio kind of drops out of that, which was moments ago. We're trying to reestablish that and he's taking questions. So, we are going to bring that to you if we can reestablish that connection.

But it's just really interesting as you hear Netanyahu there, he's trying to push back on this concept that it was Israel that really drew the U.S. into this war. And of course, that comes on the heels of Joe Kent resigning effective immediately from the National Counterterrorism Center.

He said that Iran didn't pose an imminent threat and he went on this screed about Israel and how Israel had deceived President Trump, which obviously the Trump administration is pushing back on and is getting a lot of criticism, too. As being anti-Semitic, not just anti-Israeli.

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BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Yes, not very subtle references to antisemitism in that statement. Nevertheless, there have been statements by members of the administration that have raised questions about whether the U.S. was, at the very least, persuaded by Israel and Prime Minister Netanyahu to enter this war.

Netanyahu there, saying that President Trump had long held this belief that Iran's leadership was dangerous and needed to be stopped. Going all the way back to 1979 in the Iranian Revolution he also notably started off by saying he wanted to dispel fake news for a week or so, there was chatter on the internet that he may have been assassinated, and he started off his remarks by saying that clearly, he is alive.

Let's bring in Oren Liebermann right now, who is in the Middle East for us. Oren, what did you make of Netanyahu's remarks?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF AND CORRESPONDENT: There is a lot of and you can see it quite clearly, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu effectively echoing the talking points of President Donald Trump and many in the Trump administration, talking about 1979 as the day this war started between Iran and the West.

That's something we've heard from, for example, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and you heard Netanyahu talking about it right there trying to portray this as decades of conflict that only President Donald Trump had the guts to make this move.

So, you also see that Netanyahu trying to ingratiate himself with Trump, it's important for Netanyahu, as he wants to continue to prosecute this war, to make sure there is as little daylight as possible between him and Trump and I think that was on full display as Netanyahu ticked down the accomplishments of the Israeli military and the U.S. Military after nearly three weeks of war here.

So, not too surprising in terms of the messaging. And you're absolutely right. Netanyahu tried to portray the decision to go to war as Trump's not Israel influencing Trump to go to war here. That important not only for Netanyahu, but also for Trump here.

So, as he continues to take questions here, I think we don't really expect to hear any surprises. This is his opportunity to talk to the foreign press. And it's either the first or maybe the second time he's come out and really done a presser since the war began. And he's going to hit the talking points we expect him to hit making sure he praises Trump over and over again.

We've already seen that, and I suspect much more of it will happen. And then basically saying that that and you heard this a bit there where he's saying, you know, this is this is the fight everyone should be thanking Israel and in particular Trump for, of going after Iran.

KEILAR: All right, Oren Liebermann, stand by for us there in Jerusalem. Thank you so much.

Let's talk more about this now with retired Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton, who was there at the magic wall. We're really at this critical point, Cedric, in this conflict where you're seeing a lot of infrastructure for energy being hit, that's going to have a big effect right now, that's going to have a big effect even after this conflict comes to an end, whenever that is.

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, that's' certainly true, Brianna and one of the things that you notice when it comes to the infrastructure being hit, one of the areas that they're really concentrating on from a targeting perspective on the Iranian side is port cities as well as refineries.

And so, you have scenes like this, you know, from Oman and Fujairah, you have scenes like this from Bahrain, and you also have scenes like this on the other side where the Israelis attacked Iran in the city of Azalea. And this is all part of an effort by both sides to really go after the infrastructure but it's very clear that the Iranians made a decision very early on in this war and probably before the war to put these in their target lists.

So, they BAPCO refinery in Bahrain, the Rusta Reviva Refinery in Saudi Arabia, and of course, the Ras Laffan Gas Facility in Qatar were all key elements of their economic warfare. And this is probably just the first salvo in this case.

SANCHEZ: Colonel, we heard Netanyahu there saying that closing the Strait of Hormuz would not work. That is, despite traffic there nearly slowing to a crawl and the price of a barrel of oil jumping over $100.00 for the first time in years so everyone is feeling the effects of this war.

I wonder who you think hurts the most from these strikes on energy?

LEIGHTON: So, that's a really good question, Boris, because one of the areas that of course, is really critical is right here, that Strait of Hormuz, as you mentioned, and what prime minister Netanyahu talked about, is that he's basically saying this area were going to keep open. So, what does that actually mean? That probably means that there's going to have to be some kind of a military presence here. Does that mean ground forces? Not necessarily. If you have enough air cover and you have enough naval presence here to escort tankers and cargo ships in and out of the Persian Gulf.

[15:10:02]

But the key element here is if you want to make sure that no missiles from Iran get through, then you're almost always going to have to have a constant presence. That means constant overflight. That means constant intelligence overwatch. And it also means the possibility of ground troops in this area, especially the part right here that borders on the Strait of Hormuz.

KEILAR: So, Cedric, how are you seeing that? Because the President appeared to be rejecting this idea of troops on the ground. No, were not going to send any in. I'm paraphrasing, but that's really the heart of what he said. He also said, though, that if he was going to, he wouldn't be telling the media but no, he's not going to send them in.

At the same time, there are thousands of marines and we know this, and CENTCOM has confirmed this heading for the region. They're the kind of folks who could carry out something like that, but I just wonder how you're seeing it.

LEIGHTON: Yes, so with the deployment of the Marine Expeditionary Unit, Brianna, they're basically coming from right about here and going -- they've already left this area and passed Singapore. So, there are somewhere in the Indian ocean right now, and they're headed in this direction toward the Persian Gulf and of course, right here to the Strait of Hormuz. So, they are a possible option that the President can use if he decides to move in this direction. What he can do is he can deploy them potentially to a place like Oman.

Park them there for a bit or they can stay offshore, which is what they would normally do. And if the goal is to actually use them, even in a temporary fashion, that could be done.

But the other part of it is there might be other targets that they're interested in, but in order to get to those other targets, for example Kharg Island, you would have to go into that area in a way that would actually make it, you know make it impossible to go in without going through the strait of Hormuz. So, you'd have to go in this area without and without doing any other things here, it would be almost impossible not to at least do some kind of securing of this area, whether that's land troops or not remains to be seen. But from a military perspective, that would be one of the options that you would have to use.

SANCHEZ: Colonel Cedric Leighton, thanks so much for sharing your expertise with us appreciate it.

LEIGHTON: You bet.

SANCHEZ: Still to come, the faces of the shutdown as lawmakers battle it out on Capitol Hill, workers across the nation are fighting to pay their bills.

Plus, stunning allegations against Latino Civil Rights icon Cesar Chavez. We're following the fallout.

KEILAR: And then later, what makes you happy? According to a new report, social media sure isn't. All right, so what do we need to do here people, I think we know all right, but we'll have more coming up on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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[15:17:26]

KEILAR: Today a bipartisan group of lawmakers met with Border Czar Tom Homan in the first major sign of negotiations over the DHS shutdown. But one lawmaker described the talks as being a long-ways away from a deal with The White House. We talked a lot about the TSA, but some FEMA programs that depend on DHS funding are struggling to function, and its forced administrators to find other ways to get grant money. We're joined now by Chief Ray Reynolds from the U.S. Fire Service in Nevada Iowa, which is part of FEMA.

Chief Reynolds is also a member of the International Association of Fire Chiefs.

Chief, thank you so much for being with us. I do think it sometimes is in a government shutdown where we start to really understand what it is that government does, and it's really affecting you guys. Tell me what it means with every day that passes, how it's affecting you.

RAY REYNOLDS, CHIEF U.S. FIRE SERVICE IN NEVADA IOWA: You know, since the terrorism-attacks of 9/11, the federal government has stepped in in a big way to help local communities with federal grants training. We see DHS funding for our bomb squads, our Hazmat squads, our 72 fusion centers. So, all of that relies on support from the federal government.

So, specifically for the fire service, the AFG, safer grants and our National Fire Academy is shut down for the third time in a year, so it's certainly impacting communities throughout our country.

KEILAR: So, these local in these local communities, the money is -- it's been spent, right with the anticipation that the grant money is coming because it always does. So, then what?

REYNOLDS: Right. So, that's the real issue. We received AFG grant for fire hose and nozzles. We spent $20,000.00 with the anticipation of federal reimbursement. Well, that reimbursement isn't coming. So, cities are having to do budget amendments. And in some cases, a colleague of mine said they purchased $750,000.00 worth of SCBAs for their whole county.

KEILAR: What is that? What's an SCBA?

REYNOLDS: That's the air-breathing apparatus that you firefighters wear when they go into a structure fire. So, their check is no good, and they're waiting on the federal government to help them get this equipment.

KEILAR: You mentioned the fire academy, tell me how that how essential that is and what's happening right now with that.

REYNOLDS: Right in our state, particularly we get federal classes handed down. These are juvenile fire center classes. These are incident command classes; chief officer classes, community risk reduction classes. Those classes are all stopped because of the funding shutdown, specifically at the National Fire Academy, the premier training academy for the fire service is housed right there in Emmitsburg, Maryland, the executive fire officer class.

I have colleagues who have tried three times to go to the National Fire Academy and every time hit with a shutdown or a funding stop. So, these are critical missions that really need to be funded.

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KEILAR: What are the circumstances that they're training for in the local community that, you know, we kind of take for granted that firefighters are going to be there for us in these instances.

REYNOLDS: You know, I think the really big thing that starts out as terrorism. Terrorism starts locally homegrown threats and terroristic threats happen locally. And were seeing an increase in that and it's the fire service and the police officers who are responding directly to those threats. So, just being able to manage a critical incident like that, that's the value that the national fire academy provides to the fire service.

KEILAR: And chief, you're from Iowa. Someone might say, well, why are you here in Washington, D.C., but you're here sounding the alarm.

REYNOLDS: Yes, we spent -- it's Congressional Fire Service week. This year is kind of unique in that we usually talk about the woes of the fire service and funding but this year it's really hitting hard because we have roughly a thousand fire officials from around the country that are here speaking to our elected officials to let them know just how important the federal government is to the fire service.

KEILAR: Chief Ray Reynolds, we really appreciate you sharing your perspective with U.S.

REYNOLDS: Thank you for having me.

KEILAR: Thank you. Resurrected by A.I., the late actor Val Kilmer will soon be back on the big screen with the help of artificial intelligence. The move is bringing back some major concerns from Hollywood. We'll have those details ahead on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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SANCHEZ: A year after his death, one of Hollywood's brightest stars is now getting a second act. Val Kilmer is being brought back to the big screen in what is likely the first ever performance enabled by generative A.I., the movie is called "As Deep as The Grave." and the studio behind it just released this new image.

KEILAR: Kilmer died last year, after a years' long battle with throat cancer. The disease severely limited his abilities during his final performance in the film "Top Gun: Maverick".

CNN's Hadas Gold is with us now with more on this. And, Hadas, this is a technology that many actors have been dreading. How does Kilmer's family feel about all of this?

HADAS GOLD, CNN A.I. CORRESPONDENT: Well, Val Kilmer's family is 100 percent behind this. In fact, Val Kilmer was an early proponent of using technology and A.I. to help prolong his work after throat cancer took away his voice. And actually, in 2022, in that "Top Gun" movie, you do hear what seems to be Val Kilmer speaking, but that was actually an A.I. enabled voice, because even by then most of his voice was gone and he was really hard to understand him.

So, this new movie, as you noted, is called as deep as the grave. It's about an archeologist discovery of an ancient Native American civilization. And the director said he always wanted Val Kilmer to play this Catholic priest role. And it's a pretty central role. But obviously Val Kilmer was not able to be a part of this movie.

So, instead, they used an A.I. Generated avatar and obviously Val Kilmer has a lot of, you know, film and images and sounds of his that they could use to train an A.I. model to create this avatar, to act in this film. And then they superimpose that avatar into actual scenes that they filmed. Similar to how they would have done CGI with a character like Gollum in "Lord of The Rings" or Dobby in "Harry Potter". They superimpose those characters into an actual film.

And what's different here, I think, is that this was done in full cooperation with Val Kilmer's family.

I'll read to you a statement from one of his daughters.

He said, he always looked at emerging technologies with optimism as a tool to expand the possibilities of storytelling, saying this spirit is something that we are all honoring within this specific film of which he was an integral part. This is not the first time that an actor has been sort of brought back from the dead using technology.

We saw Carrie Fisher, she had a cameo in one of the recent "Star Wars" films, but those were all mostly cameos. I think this might be one of the first times we've seen a famous actor that we all know and recognize being brought back into an integral role. And this brings up a big question as A.I. improves, as it's getting harder and harder for us to be able to tell what's real and what's A.I., are we going to see more and more actors who are no longer with us, be sort of resurrected in these types of roles? That's a big question. A big debate in Hollywood, a big fear for a lot of actors out there who want to make their big break want to become the next big name. And this is something that the actor's union, SAG-AFTRA, they're actually trying to deal with this right now.

And variety, who first reported that Val Kilmer was going to be this sort of A.I. actor. They are also reporting that SAG-AFTRA is now considering trying to get the studios to say that they will have to pay a royalty. If an A.I. actor is going to be used in place of a human actor -- guys.

KEILAR: Really interesting, this raises so many questions and concerns, even as it sort of enables a favorite to be seen again. Hadas Gold, thank you so much and we are following the escalating attacks on oil and gas facilities in the Middle East.

We'll have new details on the energy crisis it's creating next.

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