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Economic Impact of Iran War?; Air Travel Delays Grow; More U.S. Troops Deployed to Mideast. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired March 20, 2026 - 13:00   ET

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

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BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Thousands more American Marines and sailors are now heading toward the Middle East. What their deployment could mean for the war in Iran.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: And pack your patience, and then some, because, today, we're looking at some of the worst TSA wait times that passengers have faced all week, the Trump administration warning this crisis could get a whole lot worse unless Congress acts to pay those agents.

And a black belt legend of Hollywood, Chuck Norris, has died. We will look at his life and his extraordinary legacy.

We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SANCHEZ: We have breaking news on the war with Iran. CNN is learning that thousands more U.S. Marines and sailors are heading toward the Middle East just one day after President Trump downplayed deployment reports, saying -- quote -- "I'm not putting troops anywhere," though he did say that, if he were to, he would not share that with the public.

The deployment also happening just hours after the president shared on his TRUTH Social account that the fight to stop a nuclear-powered Iran has been militarily won.

CNN senior national security reporter Zach Cohen has our new reporting.

And, Zach, on that question of the nuclear capability of Iran being militarily won, isn't their enriched uranium believed to be stored hundreds of feet underground, buried under sand?

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yes, Boris, that is certainly the understanding of the U.S. intelligence community. And it's a problem we know the Trump administration has been grappling with and weighing the possibility of using U.S. special forces potentially to try to go in there and extract or destroy the uranium that is believed to be deep underground at one of those facilities that was hit last year.

But, again, to the president's comments yesterday about sending additional troops to the region, we're learning that thousands more Marines are going to be deployed to the Middle East here in the near term, having their deployments accelerated.

Now, one Marine expeditionary unit was already on the way to the Middle East. These are units that are really the Swiss army knife of military capability. They're made up of about 2,200 sailors and Marines. But we're learning now that they're going to send potentially a second Marine expeditionary unit to the Middle East.

This unit was intended initially to go and deploy to the Indo-Pacific region. But their timeline has now been moved up and they're going to be traveling to the Middle East, according to sources familiar with the plans.

And so it does raise questions about, what is the Trump administration's timeline for bringing an end to this conflict, and what objectives do they need to accomplish before they can do so?

SANCHEZ: To that point, you have this announcement of a deployment and then also what is potentially going to be a $200 billion request for supplemental funding from Congress. How does the administration square that with what Trump has been saying about this coming to a close relatively quickly?

COHEN: Yes.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth was asked about that additional request for $200 billion for the Pentagon yesterday. And he said -- quote -- "It takes money to kill bad guys." And that was sort of his explanation for why the Pentagon is seeking more funding when they have already spent billions of dollars over the last four some weeks of this conflict.

We know that the first week of the military operations against Iran cost roughly $11 billion. And estimates for the totality of the war so far are hovering around $20 billion. So, some of this $200 billion request, as we understand it, would go towards addressing the expenditures that have been spent so far during the conflict.

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But there's also speculation and concern that the Pentagon may try to also get funding for other priorities as part of this additional request. That's something that is going to raise a lot of eyebrows on Capitol Hill, as lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are starting to really push the administration to come out and explain their reasoning and their objectives for the Iran conflict.

And they haven't even asked Congress to vote on this conflict yet, so a lot of questions as to whether or not this will ultimately come to pass, but the Pentagon is seeking additional funding and we are seeing more Marines sent to the region.

SANCHEZ: Zach Cohen, thanks so much for that reporting -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Today, security lines have been stretching for hours at some of the nation's busiest airports. Right now, travelers at Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport are waiting more than two hours.

And if people think that they're frustrated now, well, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is warning that, if the DHS shutdown does not end soon, things are about to get a whole lot worse.

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SEAN DUFFY, U.S. TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: Oh, 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 to a grid halt, stop.

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KEILAR: With the shutdown dragging on, tens of thousands of TSA workers remain on the job without pay. However, according to DHS, on average, more than 10 percent of agents are calling out nationwide.

CNN's Ryan Young is at the world's busiest airport in Atlanta, where you have been for a long, long, long time. Perhaps the longest wait of anyone in Atlanta has been for Ryan Young.

So you have seen it all. What's going on there today?

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RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

And you really feel for the people at this point, because usually the lines are dead right now. That is not happening. So we have a few human stories we can tell all at the same time here. First of all, let's look back this direction.

This is the line. And, even here, these folks are hoping that, in the next hour-and-a-half, they can make it to the front, so many parents here with little ones, like the little guy right there walking in the line, having -- standing here for more than an hour to get through this. I don't even know how they can have that patience.

But let's flip back this way. This is the real story. When you see the lines this long, and they stretch all the way out the atrium, this means the people who are back here, that's more than 2.5 hours that they're probably going to have to wait.

On top of that, the other story that we have to tell here is the fact that what we have learned from TSA agents who are working here, they really don't feel like they're getting enough support. And we talked to one TSA agent who took the job here in July. They gave him a letter to say he obviously hasn't gotten paid.

The people he pays his rent to said they don't care. They need him to be able to pay the rent before the end of the week. He has pressure in his life because of that. He also said that, yes, there are food vouchers, but right now those food vouchers don't always cover an entire week for someone like himself, who has to support his entire family.

This is the end of the main checkpoint line. So you got to imagine these folks back here are probably at least a three hour wait. On top of what that agent also was telling us is that apparently they're flying TSA agents from around the country into Atlanta to help deal with this line.

But, as you can imagine, as you see, families coming through worried, trying to figure out how long they're going to have to stay in line. People are desperately frustrated.

In fact, take a listen to someone we talked to a little earlier.

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AMBRIA BRITT, AIR TRAVELER: I have been in this wheelchair. They're going to tell me to go stand up in line. I have 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.

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YOUNG: Yes, what you see also is folks who need assistance have been dealing with this.

The line for folks who need assistance is actually the longest we have seen as well. There has not been enough people to walk the wheelchairs through to get folks going. They brought music in to sort of help folks feel better about standing in this line.

I'm taking you around the corner here, because, as we will be able to show you, there's another set of lines here, as they have been trying to work it through. So, Stu (ph), our veteran photographer, is with me. And this line splits on the other side.

Look, if you're trying to get to the airport, there have been some people who say they had to wait 3.5 hours. They're not sure how many TSA agents will be here later on.

And, as I walk you through this direction, we have all sorts of help in terms of the airport staff trying to guide people through. This is how long the other line is. This hasn't stopped. This continues to go. The rush hour continues. People are angry. They're upset. And you understand why.

KEILAR: Yes, totally. And I'm sure they appreciate the music, but soon they're going to need therapy dogs and a bar, although the bar might make some things better and some things worse.

YOUNG: And food. Exactly.

KEILAR: And food.

Ryan Young, thank you so much. Snacks do always help.

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Still to come: some new warnings today that the Iran war could hurt the economy more than previously thought, as the average cost for a gallon of gas nears $4.

Plus, one day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu raised questions about the health of the new ayatollah, Iran releases a message purportedly from its supreme leader. You can't see him, though.

And then later, here, why some Republican hard-liners say they're reconsidering their support for subpoenaing Attorney General Pam Bondi.

We will have that and much more coming up on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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SANCHEZ: There are new warnings today that the Iran war could deliver a stronger-than-expected hit to the economy. Gas prices jumped another 3 cents today, with the national average now at $3.91 a gallon, nearly a full dollar up from where it was a month ago.

And as those new costs eat into family budgets, one Fed governor gave this bleak assessment. Listen.

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CHRISTOPHER WALLER, FEDERAL RESERVE GOVERNOR: Start backing off. I mean, they're looking at their gas tank. They're looking at the price, and they're seeing how much is going into their car versus going into other things. And that starts affecting consumers' outlooks on the economy as well.

So all these things could end up tipping the -- now, I don't want to say into a recession, but suddenly a much more weakening of the economy than we thought.

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SANCHEZ: In another potential jolt to the economy, President Trump could soon ask Congress for $200 billion to bolster the war effort, despite the national debt surging since his inauguration last year by another $2.8 trillion.

Let's discuss with Kevin O'Leary, chairman of O'Leary Ventures.

Kevin, thanks so much for joining us and sharing part of your afternoon with us.

I do want to bring up some news that we just got. This is new CNN reporting detailing a recent internal assessment from the Defense Intelligence Agency that has been circulating in the Pentagon that Iran could potentially keep the passage the Strait of Hormuz shut down for anywhere from one to six months.

This is according to four sources familiar with this assessment that spoke with CNN. A Pentagon spokesperson described this as a worst-case scenario and that the Pentagon plans for every possible outcome.

I wonder what your thoughts on that are. What happens if the Strait of Hormuz is closed for half-a-year?

KEVIN O'LEARY, FOUNDER, O'LEARY VENTURES: Yes, I can tell you now the market doesn't think that's the case.

In order for this to really impact the U.S. economy and sustain a growth of inflation -- I mean, we had a pretty hot number, but for it to really make a difference you would have to have oil above $93 for more than three months. And that would be major.

It would have political implications too, but the market is not assuming it's going to take six months to clean up this Hormuz problem. Everybody hates war, obviously, but we're now -- if you look globally at what the assumption is, right now, still the assumption is it's going to get cleaned up in the next 30 days.

And so everybody's speculating. Nobody knows with certainty. And there's certainly -- the Iranians have been more tenacious than many people thought. I'm getting my read every day from my office in Abu Dhabi, a number of -- today was a good day actually, one of the days with very few drones. So we will see if tomorrow's like that.

And I assume if I got three days in a row with very few drones above Abu Dhabi, that would tell me they have run out of stuff to shoot.

SANCHEZ: At what point would you be concerned that the war could weaken the economy? Is it a month that you see perhaps being the tipping point?

O'LEARY: Well, I like history to be my guide, and it's very simple. If you keep oil above $93 for three months, you have problems, because one thing about this commodity, it's the input to every sector of the economy.

We have 11 sectors. Every single sector requires a reasonably priced energy source. And we have talked a lot about alternative energy and new ideas and nuclear power, but this shock has proven to the world that oil still matters, not some, a lot. It matters a lot.

And I expect policy around hydrocarbons to change dramatically everywhere in terms of securing a source of it at a price sort of around the $70 range. So you're going to see that happen and a lot less money going into alternatives. That may not be good or bad, depending on where you sit. But, clearly, we didn't buy any insurance investing billions of

dollars in wind and solar. It's been practically useless in helping us in this point right now. And so I'm a pragmatic person. I'm just looking at it saying, what matters is figuring out how to open up that spigot.

And I have told this count -- said this countless times. There's a two-mile-wide -- at the thinnest of the Hormuz, it's two miles wide. You got to guarantee, you got to ensure that stays open. And I anticipate the Japanese and others, even the Chinese, are going to fund that insurance program going forward.

And it could cost billions a month, $4 billion or $5 billion, I don't know. But that's a fraction of what it's worth, because if you hold that strait up for longer than three months, everybody hurts, not just the U.S. domestically, everybody, including our adversaries, China.

SANCHEZ: Is there much, short of ending the conflict, that the U.S. could do to bring prices back down in the short term?

O'LEARY: They have done a little of that. The administration's talked about allowing some of the oil that's on the water to be sold. And that's the Iranian tanks that are already out there on the ocean. That's helpful.

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But what's -- you have got to think about the oil market as a forward market. Everybody that's buying these futures basically is guessing when this Hormuz opens up. The one thing that could happen that would have oil drop back to $70, it could happen overnight, was to come up with a strategy, a multination strategy, United Nations.

I know this administration doesn't like the U.N., but the U.N. has been used before to fund and put boots on the ground, in this case just to keep the strait open.

I mean, even you could -- you could still fight the campaign in Iran, but if you told the market that we're going to do this, we're going to fund, everybody's going to fund whatever technology it takes -- and we have a lot of good tech, including minesweeping and all the rest of that, to make sure that two mile remains liquid, fluid, and tankers can go back and forth, that's a game changer.

It's a political game changer. It's a global game changer. The price of oil will collapse 20 percent, 25 percent. And then you could still have this campaign, whatever the objective is, the change of regime or whatever.

But the one thing you have got to know over the last four days, which I think the market likes a lot, is that we heard loud and clear that the region, including the UAE Qatar and Saudi Arabia, has had enough with Iran, and they're not going to let the status quo be the outcome. They're just done with it.

They can't go on like this. It's been 60 years of this stuff. And, I mean, maybe that was the objective, was to go in there and finally make a change. I feel terrible for the Iranian people. By the way, this was a very advanced society 60 years ago, artists, mathematicians, you name it, and then they just ran into bad luck with leadership.

They have had really bad leadership, and it's destroyed the place, and now maybe there's a chance for them to fix that. But I'm kind of focused on that strait. That's the one that keeps me investing. I'm still long. That's what matters.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

All right, Kevin O'Leary, thanks so much for the conversation, more serious conversation. I did have a question in here that I wanted to ask you about the Oscars, but we will save that for another time. Thanks so much for being with us.

O'LEARY: Oh, you're killing me. You're teasing me, the Oscars.

SANCHEZ: Next time. Next time.

O'LEARY: Listen, we got robbed. We should have -- our movie should have won definitely for casting, and I wanted Chalamet to win. Two out of nine. I'm more than pissed off.

SANCHEZ: Thanks so much for that.

Kevin O'Leary, appreciate your analysis.

Still to come: He was an action hero and a legend of Internet memes. Chuck Norris has passed away. We have more on his life and his impact straight ahead.

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CHUCK NORRIS, ACTOR: It's been an incredible run, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Would you?

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SANCHEZ: A new purported warning today from Iran's new supreme leader.

Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not been seen in public since being named the leader of Iran, has issued what appears to be a new written statement today in which he called attacks on Oman and Turkey false flag maneuvers by the U.S. and Israel.

His statement coming as the Israeli Defense Forces say that they have launched a fresh new set of attacks on Iranian targets.

Let's go live to Tel Aviv now with CNN's Jeremy Diamond. Jeremy, what more can you tell us about this new statement from Khamenei and the reaction to it in the region?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, this new statement by Iran's supreme leader is once again attributed to him, but yet again we are neither seeing nor hearing from him, continuing to raise questions about the new supreme leader's current state and the extent to which he is in control of the country.

In this statement, which is once again attributed to him, a paper statement that was released, it is ostensibly to mark the start of the Persian new year. He does, as you mentioned, accuse Israel of carrying out false flag attacks against Oman and Turkey, something that Israel has, of course, denied and rejected so far.

And it was accompanied by new photos of the new supreme leader, the authenticity of which we have not yet been able to verify. So that's important to know.

But it does come as we heard just yesterday from the Israeli prime minister, who continued to question whether the new supreme leader is in fact in charge of his country, noting at one point in an answer to one of my questions that we haven't yet actually seen the new supreme leader in person. Here's those remarks from the prime minister.

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BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: I'm not sure who's running Iran right now. Mojtaba, the replacement ayatollah, has not shown his face. Have you seen him? We haven't. And we can't vouch exactly what is happening there.

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DIAMOND: Now, that being said, Boris, while we have seen Israel continue to carry out these targeted killings of senior Iranian leaders, beginning, of course, on the first day of the war with the father of the current supreme leader, we have also watched as that has really led a number of Iran analysts to say that this is emboldening the hard-liners within the Iranian regime, notably Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, and that so far we haven't really seen any signs that the regime is collapsing.

And I asked the prime minister yesterday about that strategy. The prime minister didn't back off of it at all. In fact, he indicated that there would be more killings to come. And, indeed, today, we saw yet again another assassination carried out of a senior Iranian official.

But the prime minister effectively said that he is seeing cracks in the regime. He insisted that he's seeing that both at the very top and also at the kind of operational level of those soldiers who are firing ballistic missiles towards Israel.

SANCHEZ: Jeremy Diamond, live for us in Israel, thank you so much -- Brianna. KEILAR: Let's talk about the war with Iran with Mark Esper. He's a former defense secretary under President Trump.