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K-Pop Sensation Returns; TSA Lines Getting Longer; Gas Prices Surge; Rep. Pat Ryan (D-NY) is Interviewed about Iran. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired March 20, 2026 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Unscripted television, which shares a parent company to CNN.

Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: So, BTS is back and today is a huge day for their fans around the world, releasing a new album, their first since the group had to take that break for years for mandatory military service. And on top of this new album, fans are all -- fans are also getting ready for their big comeback tour that kicks off next month.

CNN's Hanako Montgomery is in Seoul with the very latest on this.

Hanako, what have you been hearing? I mean BTS -- it is -- it's hard to overstate how big BTS is, how big their fan base is, how impossible it is to get tickets for their concerts when they are doing like more shows than any group has ever done, ever. I mean the superlatives are enormous with this -- with this group.

HANAKO MONTGOMERY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kate, I almost feel bad because I have a ticket actually to the free concert tomorrow. And I know there are so many fans just around the world who are desperate to see their favorite boy band after that four year hiatus, as you mentioned.

And, Kate, I'm actually in the public square where the concert will take place on Saturday evening local time. And if you take a look behind me, there is this massive stage that's been procured. And just around it you can see the setup is still ongoing. It's around 10:00 p.m. local time here, but there's still people gathered around taking photos, taking videos, just marking this historic moment of BTS coming back.

Now, actually, you can also see a poster of this billboard on a government building. It says "be together in Seoul." I don't know if you noticed. But it does stand, of course, for BTS. You can see the pattern here.

And again, just so much excitement about BTS coming back. Of course, they're a huge influence in the K-pop scene, but also in the global music scene in general. And we spoke to a few fans earlier who just couldn't contain their excitement about the seven member group coming back.

Here's what they said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRANS, BTS FAN: Yes, we were in -- we had to come (INAUDIBLE). So, that was their last concert as seven. And they -- coming here is like a full circle. Like, we watched them like go to military and then right now we watch them coming home to us. So, we were really, really excited about this coming back and we're happy and so, so proud of them. So, yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: And so many other people are.

Hanako, thank you so much. It's all -- and it's all just beginning.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Oil and gas prices soaring for Americans as the war in Iraq rages on. President Trump indicating he will ask Congress for $200 billion to fund the war. But Republicans may not all be on board.

And right now, wait times at airports, climbing, reaching two hours already this morning at some airports. And it could get even worse. Passengers voicing their frustrations as a DHS shutdown drags on.

Dangling by a thread. Literally the Coast Guard racing to offload shipping containers after a huge storm sent dozens into the ocean.

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

BERMAN: The breaking news this morning, it's about to get worse. That's the new warning from Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. He's referring to long lines at airport security across the country. We got some new video just in from Houston. So, TSA workers receiving no paychecks due to the partial government shutdown. Some are quitting. Others are calling in sick. Hence, the lines.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEAN DUFFY, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: As we get into next week, Becky, and they're about to miss another payment, this is going to look like child's play what's happening right now. You're going to see small airports, I believe, shut down. You're going to see extensive lines. And air travel is going to almost come to a grid halt, stop.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So, on average, more than 10 percent of TSA agents across the country are now missing work every day. That's five times the normal rate. The Delta CEO just issued an apology to travelers, particularly those passing through the company's Atlanta based headquarters. He said, quote, "it is inexcusable that our essential transportation workers are not being paid due to the partial government shutdown, but I am hopeful for a resolution soon from Washington."

As we stand here right now, the security wait times in Atlanta are more than two hours long.

CNN's Ryan Young is there watching it. Watching it go by.

What's the latest there, Ryan?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, a few things here. First of all, Delta's CEO is going to have a lot of fans here at the airport. Delta has been helping out tremendously with the ongoing operations here at Hartsfield-Jackson International.

[09:05:04]

But they've also been trying to get some of their passengers through all this. So, you understand, those customers are pretty satisfied with what's happening after all this.

But the rush hour has normally ended around 8:30 here. That's all done, John. This -- we haven't seen it like this all week.

I'm going to show you this sign because we like to show you some data. That is the precheck line at 77 minutes now. And you see the main checkpoint at 80 minutes. We've been talking to security professionals, TSA, Atlanta Police Department, they've all been saying the same thing, they haven't seen lines like this before. And on top of that, when you look back, it stretches up that way. And we're going to walk you that way in a second. But I want to show you, this is the TSA precheck line as it snakes back and forth and then it goes all the way down there before coming back this way. We even thought about buying a ticket to stand in line. The family that we talked to earlier in the day, around 7:00, was trying to get to their flight to Jamaica, they're still standing in line. They've been in line since 6:45 a.m. So, you understand the pain point. We've even talked to a man who has been -- got here at 2:45 a.m. and wasn't able to get on his 6:00 a.m. flight because it was so long.

So, I'm going to walk you this direction so you can just see the mass of people, because it seems like, instead of the normal rush hour, it is a Friday. It is busy. People are coming through. Some folks are trying to change their tickets early. The line to get to the 77 minute mark is over an hour long. So, most people right now are telling me they're waiting over two and a half hours just to make it to the front part of security.

We talked to some passengers who, as you can imagine, are angry, frustrated, and pointing toward D.C. for help.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've been in this wheelchair. They going to tell me to go stand up in line. I am M.S. How you going to expect me to stand up and push my own self in a wheelchair? Atlanta got to do better. I had to pay a stranger $100 to push me and get me through the TSA line. Do better. Trump, fix it.

YOUNG: Even though you have three hours before your flight, are you sure you're going to make it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think I am. I was here two days ago. I made it.

YOUNG: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. I estimate it's about an hour and 15 minutes from this point.

YOUNG: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. I think I'll make it.

YOUNG: Have you ever seen anything like this?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Never. Never.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: Yes, I've been talking to those business travelers, you know the ones that we see all the time, sort of way -- getting their way through this kind of security. When you talk to all the folks who have hacks, those are all gone now because you really can't get past all this because there's no way to just use an extra clear, there's no way to use an extra TSA precheck to beat all this when you have people who are -- been in line for hours.

I'm going to walk you to this point here. This is the main checkpoint line. This is the split. So, if you look this direction, you can see all the people who've been snaking through these lines and waiting for quite some time. There have been people talking about buying flights for tomorrow morning. But at the same time, we've talked to TSA agents who believe there could be more call outs because, again, Saturday was the first day they didn't get their full check. Today, some of this is just becoming one of those things that they understand all those late payments for the bills they have are starting to come home right now, and they are upset.

John.

BERMAN: It is something. Those lines are something, Ryan. That family we met at 7:00, right, who showed up three hours before at 10:00 flight --

YOUNG: Yes. Yes.

BERMAN: They're still not through security yet? Two hours into it, they're still not through?

YOUNG: No. So, we're texting them as we speak. The last time I got, they were at the second ring up here. They were hoping to make it through for that flight. I hope they make it. Let's see if they have to do that run once they get downstairs. They're supposed to text me when they get through.

BERMAN: All right, well, keep us posted.

Ryan Young, in Atlanta, thank you very much for that.

BOLDUAN: I mean, that's horrible.

BERMAN: That's something. I mean that is something. The line to get to the line to get to the line. And Friday's a bad day to do it.

BOLDUAN: Oh, my God, I feel so bad for everybody there. Oh, my God, and it's only going to get worse.

So, also this morning, how high could gas prices go? They're surging again as Iran launches new attacks on energy sites in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE and Israel all reporting that they're intercepting drones and missiles this morning.

Americans are now paying an average of $3.91 a gallon for gas. Nearly a dollar more than a month ago due to this war.

And, well, specifically, the Strait of Hormuz, which remains essentially still shut down and paralyzed. But now several U.S. allies, after initially hesitating, are now saying that they are ready to help to try to secure the strait, but there is not real detail on how they all plan to go about doing that.

In Washington, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are balking this morning at the $200 billion that the Trump administration is expected to ask them to approve to fund this war. The president calling that a, quote, "small price to pay."

[09:10:02]

CNN's Kevin Liptak is live at the White House for us this morning.

Kevin, what are you hearing from there this morning?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And, you know, I think that $200 billion figure is causing some of these questions, even among the president's allies, to start to bubble up. And it's worth just pointing out, this is an enormous figure. You know, sometimes the billions and trillions get lost in the wash.

The entire Pentagon budget last year was $1 trillion. So, this is a fifth of the entire budget. And you hear already from some Republican lawmakers who are saying that they just aren't going to be able to get behind a supplemental request of that size unless the White House sort of spells out, in much more detail, what exactly the end game is in all of this. And when you talk to GOP leaders, they say that they do not have the votes for a $200 billion funding request unless the administration comes out with much more detail about what they're asking for here. You know, to listen to the president, he has suggested that this is

not all that large a figure. He says it's for, quote, "vast amounts of ammunition." Pete Hegseth, yesterday, said it would take a lot of money to kill the bad guys, but without offering any real specifics about what the Pentagon is going to use this money for.

You've already heard from one GOP lawmaker, Lauren Boebert from Colorado, saying that she is a no on any war supplemental. She is sort of an outlier in taking that definitive position. But you do hear, you know, sentiments about questioning what exactly the administration is looking to do to try and end this conflict.

Now, White House officials insist, and, you know, it is borne out in polls that there is not a real MAGA divide on the war here. And polls suggest most of the president's supporters are still behind him.

But I think, you know, this is all an acknowledgment that as the war goes on, as it becomes longer and longer, and as the president debates in his own mind this question of putting U.S. boots on the ground in Iran, which is something that I think would be a line in the sand for many Republicans, it will be harder and harder to keep some of that coalition together.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

Kevin, thank you so much, live from the White House for us this morning.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, joining me now is Democratic Congressman Pat Ryan of New York. He sits on the House Armed Services Committee. He's also an Army veteran who served two tours in Iraq.

You are a veteran. You are watching this war from a different standpoint now, as a member of Congress. You said that you are going to, and I'm quoting you here, "lose your mind" if you hear "one more chicken hawk who never served a single day in uniform trying to talk tough about the war." So, I'm wondering what you think about being asked for $200 billion to fund it.

REP. PAT RYAN (D-NY): It's outrageous. I mean the one thing that 90 plus percent of Americans agree on is we want less war and we want costs to go down. And instead we've seen costs skyrocketing, as you were just reporting, not just gas, but food, groceries, gas, utilities, everything, fertilizer is now being spiked up. And this is the second war with no consultation with the American people that the president has started. And he's done it all between rounds of golf at Mar-a-Lago as a five time draft dodger.

So, yes, it is infuriating to a lot of us that sweat and worked and those that we lost in prior wars to see us repeating history again here, sending another generation of brave Americans to fight in an ill-conceived, open-ended regime change war. It's not what the American people want. And to be clear, we should not send any additional funding until the president even starts to have that conversation with us, which he's made no attempt to do.

SIDNER: I want to ask you about something you just said, because after the war, the president started toying with the idea or talking about regime change in Iran, but then the messaging did change to just depleting Iran's military capabilities and destroying any nuclear capabilities. But yesterday we heard this from Prime Minister Netanyahu about regime change. I want you to take a listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: We can create the conditions but they have to, you know, they have to explode those conditions at a certain point. It is often said that you can't win -- you can't do revolutions from the air. That is true. You can't do it only from the air. You can do a lot of things from the air. And we're doing. But there have to be -- there has to be a ground component as well. There are many possibilities for this ground component, and I take the liberty of not sharing with you all those possibilities.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: So, Israel is pushing for regime change. Do you have a sense as to whether the United States shares that same objective as they work so closely together?

RYAN: Well, this is at the heart of the problem. There have been at least a dozen different rationales and explanations and aims from that very first speech you mentioned at 3:00 a.m., when the whole world learned about this war over just the last few weeks.

[09:15:08]

If we can't even define what our goal is, how could we possibly expect to win, which we're all rooting for, of course, the country to win and our soldiers to be safe and come home. And certainly, how could we expect us to spend $200 billion? I mean, imagine what we could be doing with that money in terms of lowering health care costs, helping people with, you know, the housing affordability crisis. That's a -- that is a choice that we do not have to make, that we didn't have to make. That's why all of us, I think regardless of party, have to push back on this. And I'm glad to see at least a few Republican colleagues have the backbone, and I hope more will do it.

SIDNER: I do have to ask you about funding for DHS. We are seeing these insane lines in the world's busiest airport there in Atlanta. Two hour waits. And we're warned by the Trump administration that this will get worse if DHS is not funded. Why can't Congress come to a consensus on this? What is going to be the breaking point?

RYAN: Yes, the good news here is we've got a proposal to do exactly that, which is to take the contentious part of this, which is ICE -- and to be clear, the contention is because of the murder of two American citizens by, you know, ICE agents, to take that out of the discussion and to fully fund TSA, CISA, for cybersecurity, which is very important right now, particularly given the conflict with Iran, and FEMA, and all the other elements of DHS. So, that's where we're at now. I think we can get bipartisan support behind that, of course. And we shouldn't even have had to have this conversation if the Trump administration had been reasonable about the requests around ICE, for example, you need a warrant before you storm into someone's home. You can't wear masks. You have to identify yourself. Those remain the requests, which I know the American people and my constituents support. And so, let's get that done here in the next day or two.

SIDNER: You, of course, need Republican support as well on this. Congressman Pat Ryan, we are waiting and watching to see what happens there. Thank you so much for joining us. Have a great weekend.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: So, Liam Ramos, the five-year-old boy taken into ICE custody in Minnesota, well, his family has now been ordered to be deported. We have the very latest on their fight and their case.

Plus, the tragic ending in the search for a missing American college student in Spain. Officials are now investigating how James Gracey died while on spring break in Barcelona.

And there is a new movie coming out featuring the late actor, Val Kilmer. How the director is using A.I. to pull it off.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:22:22]

SIDNER: Do you remember this image? It became the haunting face of a Minneapolis immigration crackdown that left that community reeling. It shows five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos with his Spider-man backpack and bunny hat being detained by an ICE agent while his mom was feet away inside their home. Now, their lawyer says a judge has denied asylum for Liam and his family, ordering them deported to Ecuador. Their attorney says the family is appealing that order.

For the past three months I've been talking to families, teachers and principals, community members as well in Minneapolis, about what's happening now that the immigration enforcement surge is over. The quick answer, children and families are terrified. So much so that it's changing the face of schools and even neighborhoods.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's been hard to come to work and have you be OK for the students.

SIDNER: Are you okay?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.

SIDNER (voice over): No one here is OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's go. Let's go. SIDNER: You're the assistant principal. Give me some sense of what it

was like when the surge of ICE and Border Patrol agents came into this town.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're a school of around 800, and I think the most we were seeing is 150.

SIDNER: Wait, wait, wait. You normally would have about 800 students.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

SIDNER: And that student population shrank to 150?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

SIDNER (voice over): The result of Operation Metro Surge. President Donald Trump's immigration enforcement operation that started December 2025.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That morning, between 7:10 and 7:25, 7:30, I saw three people being taken by ICE vehicles. And so --

SIDNER: At the school? Around the school?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Around the school.

SIDNER (voice over): Agents were trying to nab people anywhere, everywhere, all the time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have everything because of this country, and that's why I chose to do this, to give everything back. But what's going on here is un-American.

SIDNER (voice over): Months on, the surge ended, the most innocent of people, children, are still suffering. These two high school juniors can't stop thinking about what happened to them when they left school one day.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The whole car was surrounded.

SIDNER (voice over): Here's what happened next. Pieced together with the video on her iPhone inside her car, and videos and photos we obtained from outside her car.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We see grown men covered up coming out of the vehicle. They told me to put my window down, but then while I was putting my window down, some other agent like cracked my window -- the passenger side where -- that's where he was sitting.

[09:25:05]

OK, but we're scared. That's obviously -- we're underage. We're scared.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you let us go, please?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. Hold on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE), we're with you. We're with you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The first thing they asked was, like, are you a U.S. citizen? I was like, yes, I have my passport on me. And then I handed it to them, but my passport is expired. So, I was like, it's just expired, but I also have my I.D. on me. So, it was, like, really hectic.

SIDNER (voice over): Federal agents boxed her in, accusing her of trying to hit their car. She says that is not true. Even the agent seems dismissive about the accident.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's just a simple accident, you know what I mean? We're not going to get on you for trying to hit us or something.

SIDNER (voice over): The only sign of an accident is a photo of the agents car touching the back of her car.

SIDNER: So, they accused you of trying to hit their car or hitting their car?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes

SIDNER: And what did you say to them?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'll feel more safe and confident to talk to a police person from Minnesota then like to you guys.

Can I talk to, like, an actual cop from here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, we are law enforcement. You know what I'm saying.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, yes, but --

They tell me to get out of my vehicle. And, obviously, I wasn't going to restrain -- like scared that if I didn't do it something worse was going to happen to me.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're taking (ph) a little girl.

SIDNER (voice over): And with that, a 16-year-old American citizen was taken to an immigration detention cell. Her asylum-seeking classmate was also detained.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They put my hands handcuffed to the front, and then they made me take my shoes off, switched into some, like, blue shoes that they have, and they chained my feet together.

SIDNER: They put you in shackles?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

SIDNER: A U.S. citizen, who hasn't been read her Miranda rights, and who is under age, and they put you in shackles?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

SIDNER: How did they treat you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They were joking with me. Like, they were just laughing about what happened to me.

SIDNER: Oh, we're going after violent criminals. Are you a violent criminal?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.

SIDNER: Are you a violent criminal?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.

SIDNER: So who are they going after?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Innocent people.

SIDNER: Are you afraid now of what might happen when you go out?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. I feel like ever since that thing happened, I'm not the same anymore. I get anxious when I go out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, we're with you. We're with you.

(CROSS TALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're (EXPLETIVE DELETED) with you.

SIDNER (voice over): We reached out to DHS and ICE to ask about this incident. They did not respond.

Her family got her out. There was no ticket, no explanation, no apology. But it was Jamie's (ph) English teacher who helped get him out after his mom called.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And she was telling me that she had received a video from another student, and she was like, I think this is my son. And so, she sent me the video. And I watched Jamie being detained and in handcuffs. And I immediately started crying.

SIDNER (voice over): She knew the hell he and his asylum-seeking family had already been through. His younger brother recently died in a random accident. His older brother recently detained by ICE.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't want to lose another brother.

SIDNER: Do you feel safe going outside to play?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right now? No.

SIDNER: No. Why don't you feel safe?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because immigration is everywhere.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Now, you can learn more about the story and the story of other children in Minneapolis whose lives have been disrupted by ICE in my new special "Minneapolis: The Robbing of Innocence." It's now streaming on the CNN app.

And I do, John, just want to say that at the end of this you're going to see something remarkable, what the community has done on their own to help these children and families. It is mind blowingly wonderful, but it's hard to watch, honestly.

BERMAN: It's so hard to watch. I keep on -- we -- I was watching this right next to you and I keep on asking, how old are they? Sixteen.

SIDNER: Sixteen. Yes.

BERMAN: How old are they? Sixteen.

SIDNER: Yes.

BERMAN: Shackled?

SIDNER: Yes. And those are the oldest students we talked to. We talked to a seven and ten year old as well. Yes.

BERMAN: Just remarkable. Terrific work.

SIDNER: Thank you.

BERMAN: And, of course, everyone can go stream this on the app right now. Thank you very much.

SIDNER: Yes. Appreciate you, John.

BERMAN: An historic heat wave on the move. We could see new record high temperatures today and tomorrow.

And then falling like dominoes. But these are giant shipping containers just teetering on the brink. The mayhem at one of the country's busiest airports.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)