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Games Underway in Men & Women's March Madness Tourneys; Martial Arts Master, Hollywood Legend Chuck Norris Dies at 86; Thousands More U.S. Marines Deploying to Middle East; Massive Security Wait Times as DHS Shutdown Drags on; Harvard Hit With a Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit From the Trump Administration. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired March 20, 2026 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

DANA O'NEIL, CNN SPORTS WRITER: -- it's more of the same, right? This is what we love about the first round. We want to see people that we've never heard of at schools we can't find, see what they're up to. One of the ones that's going on right now is Akron and Texas Tech, kind of not unlike North Carolina. Texas Tech lost its best player, JT Toppin to an ACL.

Akron likes to shoot threes. That's pretty much the majority of their offense. And I think when you shoot threes, it's a great equalizer in this tournament. So I'm really curious to see how they do.

And then, of course, there's the Cinderella of all Cinderellas, which is Miami of Ohio, right? A lot of people weren't sure that they belonged in the NCAA tournament. At 31-1, they earned a ticket by having to go to the first four. They knocked down a bunch of threes and knocked out SMU. And now they're in, as you would call it, the big bracket against Tennessee in Philadelphia. Tennessee has had its share of first-round troubles.

And look, again, if Miami starts knocking down threes, everybody in the Philadelphia arena is going to be rooting for them. So that's going to be entertaining to watch later today.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": All right, can't wait. Dana O'Neil, thank you so much. Things are getting exciting. And a new hour of "CNN News Central" starts right now.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Headed into a war zone, the Pentagon deploying thousands more American troops to the Middle East as we learn more about the efforts by the White House to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, alongside a concerning assessment about how long the closure there could last.

Plus, lined up and fed up, passengers seeing long lines at airports as TSA agents go unpaid and call out from work.

And he was a legend on television, on the big screen, and online. Fans of action hero, Chuck Norris, mourning his passing. We are following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to "CNN News Central." We start this hour with Breaking News. CNN has learned that the U.S. military is sending thousands of additional Marines and sailors to the Middle East. This comes just a day after President Trump said this about deploying more troops to the region.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: No, I'm not putting troops anywhere. If I were, I certainly wouldn't tell you, but I'm not putting troops anywhere.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: It also comes just hours after President Trump shared on Truth Social that the fight to stop nuclear-powered Iran is "militarily won." CNN National Security Reporter, Haley Britsky joins us now. Haley, what's the latest? What are you learning?

HALEY BRITSKY, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yeah, so Boris, we're learning that the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit off the West Coast is heading towards the region now. This is the second MEU going towards the Middle East. The 31st has already left from the Pacific, going towards the region. We don't quite know when it'll get there, of course, what exactly it will do.

We're still asking if it will stay in the region, if the military will have two of these Marine Rapid Response Forces there. Certainly, it raises questions about boots on the ground options, as that's the first thing people think of when they think of these MEUs. But these units are really kind of the Swiss Army knives of the Marines and of the military.

They can provide aviation logistics support. So they provide commanders a lot of options. A lot we still don't know about this deployment, but it certainly provides a lot of options to Admiral Bradley Cooper of CENTCOM.

SANCHEZ: It also raises questions about how long this engagement might go. We heard President Trump say it would be a matter of weeks. Now, there are questions about whether this is going to be prolonged.

BRITSKY: That's right. I mean, we still don't know how long this is going to go. We hear Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, saying it could be four weeks, it could be five weeks, it could be three weeks. Obviously, we're nearing the fourth week point at this point.

But they keep saying, we keep hearing from these senior officials that, as we just heard from the president, this is essentially won, that the conflict is -- you know, there's fewer targets to hit. But still the Strait of Hormuz is effectively closed.

SANCHEZ: Yeah.

BRITSKY: We just saw yesterday an F-35 -- U.S. F-35 had to make an emergency landing after sources say it was believed to be hit by Iranian fire. So there's certainly a lot still happening on the ground here. And these units moving in will just provide more options for what the president decides to do next.

SANCHEZ: Hayley Britsky, thanks so much for that reporting. Brianna?

KEILAR: Now to the race to reopen the Strait of Hormuz as gas prices are surging. U.S. officials are now said to be furiously working to avoid the possibility of a months-long closure of this key oil route. CNN's Alayna Treene has been doing some reporting on this. Alayna, what are you learning?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah, look, we, our colleagues and I, have spoken to many intelligence officials and also administration officials and the number goes on about how exactly problematic the Strait of Hormuz has been proven for this Trump administration. And actually, we learned of one recent internal assessment from the Defense Intelligence Agency, which predicted that the Strait of Hormuz would be closed from anywhere from one month to six months.

Now, I will say, White House officials have been insisting that this is not a serious consideration that they are taking into account. They say that there are many different agencies and assessments that have pulled up different timelines for how long this could be closed. But again, it's very concerning.

And from the number of people I talked to in the intelligence community about this, a lot of people say there is no easy fix for this.

[14:05:00]

And really, a big part of it does depend on the lengths that the president is willing to go to force Iran's hand here. Now, I do want to read for you a statement we got from the Defense Department, from their spokesperson, Sean Parnell, kind of pushing back on the weight of this DIA assessment I was referencing.

He said that the six months closure of the strait is an impossibility and completely unacceptable to the Secretary of War. The Pentagon was well prepared for the Iranian regime's attempts to close the strait, and we are working to address this challenge at the Director of the Commander-in-Chief. So again, trying to frame kind of the six months potential timeline as the worst-case scenario.

And they're hoping, again from my conversations with people in the White House, they're hoping that they can have it reopened much sooner. But I do want to get into some of the other reporting we have about this, because one intelligence official I spoke with, essentially said that what's so complicated about the Strait of Hormuz is how long it is.

You know, it's some 100 miles, and there are many different points across that stretch where the Iranians still have the ability, because their weapons capabilities have not been completely destroyed, the ability to launch these types of projectiles toward tankers trying to pass through. That's in addition to us knowing, and CNN previously reported this, the idea that many mines have been laid by Iran throughout the strait as well.

And so, from my conversations with people across the administration, and that's including our colleagues who joined me on this story, essentially they're saying there is still no obvious way to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Of course, from the president's standpoint, we have seen his frustration really boil over in recent days with his calls to allies, specifically NATO allies, to help in reopening that key waterway, which of course, I should note, does provide 20 percent of the world's oil. He's very frustrated with that.

And so, there are a lot of different scenarios that I know the administration and different people in the intelligence community are working through to see what they can do. But again, this is going to be a problem that likely is going to persist for some time, and again, not one that has an easy fix, Brianna.

KEILAR: All right. Alayna Treene, thank you for that.

Still to come, TSA wait times at some airports are stretching past the two-hour mark as travelers feel the impact of the partial government shutdown. Where things stand on a deal to fund the agency and get more agents back to work.

Plus, the Trump administration is suing a top Ivy League school, claiming it isn't protecting Jewish students from discrimination. New details on the multibillion-dollar lawsuit ahead.

And then later, ABC cancels the new season of "The Bachelorette" just days before the premiere after a disturbing video of the show's star surfaces. That and much more coming up on "CNN News Central."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:12:26]

KEILAR: More misery for travelers today as TSA shortages lead to hours-long waits at some of the nation's busiest airports. The partial government shutdown means many Department of Homeland Security staff are missing their second straight paycheck. In Atlanta, additional TSA agents are actually being flown in to help keep lines moving there. Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy says if Congress does not approve funding soon, the situation will get significantly worse.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEAN DUFFY, UNITED STATES TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: This is going to look like child's play, what is 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 hold, stop.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Let's talk more about this now with CNN Transportation Analyst and former Inspector General for the Department of Transportation, Mary Schiavo. Mary this just does not seem sustainable, what we're seeing. How much longer can air travel go on like this?

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN TRANSPORTATION ANALYST: Well, frankly, it shouldn't be going on like this right now because what Secretary Duffy didn't say, but I'm sure he's thinking it, is what's also occurring as we are degrading the security of the United States of America and aviation transportation. Literally, people have seemed to have forgotten.

Well, certainly they've forgotten this in Congress that on September 11, 2001, 2,977 people died because we did not have a TSA. We did not have a trained professional law enforcement staff of people who had a background check and who knew what they were doing to stop guns, to stop knives, box cutters and mace through the security checkpoint.

We were 10 for 10, I mean 19 for 19, the hijackers just walked right through security. And by degrading the security, by not having the personnel in place, by making the screeners work overtime, et cetera, we are literally degrading our security by the hour. And another point on that is those people standing in that line we see right there, they're a target.

Terrorists and other criminals have attacked people waiting in line. They attacked the Atlanta TSA checkpoint in October 2025. They checked LAX's checkpoint. They attacked it in 2013. So by allowing these long lines to go on and causing screeners to work overtime when they're tired, et cetera, security is being degraded.

So that's the other thing passengers should be outraged about. They deserve much more security than they're getting on top of the fact that they have to stand in line for two to three hours, and that's what's going to happen next, is the security will be affected.

[14:15:00]

KEILAR: Would you fly right now?

SCHIAVO: I have to, like so many Americans. My job, I'm a transportation lawyer, my job requires me to get on a plane. I'll be back out there again starting tomorrow. I was out there last week, but I try to pick and choose.

And what's really awful is people forget that the TSA also has support staff. So while the TSA has to go to work without pay, a little under 10,000 TSA employees are laid off. Those are the people who fix the equipment, who, by the way, who post the statistics on the website so we can see the lines and the delays.

So there are a lot of people that support the TSA that aren't supporting the TSA. And for example, when I was inspector general, we looked at security and what makes for good security. We investigated everything we possibly could. And one of the things that degrades security is if you don't have enough backup support and you don't rotate the staff. I mean, when you're standing in line at TSA, you often see somebody on the screen go to some other job. That's to increase their effectiveness. And if they don't have enough personnel, they can't even do that. So, yes, I have to fly for work like so many other people, but I check the lines and I try to give myself a lot of options. But, security is being harmed right now as we sit here today.

KEILAR: So we had a former TSA agent on yesterday who has put together a mini-documentary about what TSA agents are dealing with, because it's not like they can kind of, you know, come on the show and tell us exactly the hell that they're living, but that is what they're living. And so he was telling us about it. He said that, yes, they've missed this last paycheck.

And you said this. You said they've missed two paychecks. So let's get that straight, right, because they missed this whole last paycheck. And he said, well, technically, you know, it's reported they missed the first one as a partial paycheck. He's been talking to a lot of TSA agents who got like $9 on that first partial paycheck. That's not really a paycheck, right? So let's be clear on that.

Next week, the transportation secretary is saying they're going to miss this other one, and that is when what we're seeing now is going to look like child's play. What is it going to look like once we get to that point?

SCHIAVO: Many, many more sick leave -- sick leave will increase. People are going to quit. And you know, when I was inspector general, I went through many shutdowns, never as long as the two in the Trump administration, but Clinton had one, a pretty long one. And what we saw is they'd make it through the first missed paycheck, first partial missed paycheck. But starting with the first missed paycheck, resignations started to increase.

With the second missed paycheck, then we saw a lot of sick leave. And of course, the fellow TSA workers sometimes turned in people who were abusing it because they have to carry the load. But then we started seeing a lot of resignations.

And don't forget, we talked about when the air traffic controllers weren't getting paid. They're much higher-paid federal employees. TSA workers, some of them only make $35,000, $40,000 a year as an entry- level salary. And if they have a family of four, that puts you pretty close to the poverty level. So they don't have the luxury and the flexibility as other government employees might.

For example, Congress. Theirs is what? $250,000 to $300,000? They still get their pay when the TSA isn't. And so, it's really an unfair burden on a group of people who literally are our last line of defense against attacks, terrorism, criminal activity, et cetera.

I just don't know why Congress doesn't give them the utmost respect and their full pay because they deserve it. I mean, like I said, TSA agents have died at the checkpoint, trying to keep us safe. And it's outrageous. KEILAR: Yeah. No, it is tough. And we are looking at live pictures coming to us from the Atlanta Airport, the busiest, Hartsfield- Jackson, and there's actually -- I don't think you can make it out, but I can. There's a gentleman wearing a T-shirt that says, 'S Show Supervisor.' And I just have to say, I think he is in the right place today, as we are looking at these stalled lines.

Mary Schiavo, thank you so much for being with us.

And still ahead on "CNN News Central," Harvard hit with a multibillion-dollar lawsuit from the Trump administration. We're going to tell you why. Plus, we take a look back at the life and legacy of actor Chuck Norris, who passed away at the age of 86.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:23:53]

KEILAR: The Trump administration has filed a new multibillion-dollar lawsuit against the nation's oldest and richest university, that is Harvard. The Justice Department alleging the school is violating civil rights law by failing to protect Jewish and Israeli students from discrimination.

SANCHEZ: Now, the DOJ is seeking to make Harvard return millions it received in past grant payments and to stop the university from getting some $2.5 billion more in existing grants. CNN Senior White House Reporter, Betsy Klein has the story. So Betsy, this is the latest turn in the ongoing back and forth between the administration and Harvard.

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah, Boris, we've seen so many fits and starts in these negotiations between Harvard and the Trump administration. All this setting up a much broader battle over federal funding, campus oversight and academic freedom. And back in February, the New York Times had reported that there wouldn't be a monetary settlement between the Trump administration and Harvard.

President Trump then ramped up his demands to $1 billion. The talks, I am told, fell apart after that. They effectively stopped talking. There was no communication. And one administration official told me that Harvard ghosted the administration. So today, they are looking to ratchet up that pressure on Harvard, slapping this new lawsuit. And they contend that Harvard is in violation of civil rights law.

[14:25:00]

I want to read to you a little bit from this lawsuit. They say, quote, "Harvard defied federal law and violated Title VI repeatedly by discriminating against Jewish and Israeli students without remorse. The United States cannot and will not tolerate these failures and brings this action to compel Harvard to comply with Title VI and to recover billions of dollars of taxpayer subsidies awarded to a discriminatory institution."

Now, they point to examples like protests in classrooms and at libraries. One student wearing a yarmulke who was spit on, among many others, and they are asking this judge to declare that Harvard is in violation of its contract with the federal government. That means that they would not be able to get more than $2.6 billion in future grants.

They're also asking the court to rescind and award restitution of grants. They want an independent outside monitor, that is something that Harvard has resisted so far and just a reminder that Harvard is the only school that has really aggressively taken on the Trump administration in court and they are pushing back on this very aggressively.

They say in a statement, quote, "Harvard has taken substantive proactive steps to address the root causes of anti-semitism and actively enforces anti-harassment and anti-discrimination rules and policies on campus." The lawsuit they say represents yet another pre- textural and retaliatory action by the administration for refusing to return over control of Harvard to the federal government.

Now, this school is embroiled in a pair of lawsuits with the Trump administration, one over international students, one over a funding freeze, both of those awaiting appeal.

KEILAR: Betsy Klein, really interesting. Thank you so much for the reporting.

Hollywood is mourning the loss of legendary actor and master martial artist, Chuck Norris. His family revealing that he passed away yesterday, surrounded by loved ones, at the age of 86.

SANCHEZ: Norris is possibly best known for his iconic role in the 90s TV series "Walker, Texas Ranger." He also starred in scores of iconic action films. CNN's Stephanie Elam takes a look back at a legendary career.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHUCK NORRIS, ACTOR: I was a very shy, introverted kid growing up.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Chuck Norris didn't stay that way for long, thanks to the martial arts.

NORRIS: I was sent to Korea when I was in the Air Force and I started training over there and then I came back and got out of the service and started teaching. And to get students in my school, I became a karate fighter.

ELAM (voice-over): Some of those students were stars like Steve McQueen who encouraged him to become an actor.

NORRIS: I retired as the world karate champion, and I was looking for something to get involved, in a new goal for myself, and I had thought about acting. I talked to Steve McQueen about it, and he encouraged me to pursue it. He said if I would apply myself like I did the martial arts, that I would maybe have a chance at it.

ELAM (voice-over): Norris' first memorable part was Bruce Lee's furry and formidable opponent in 1972's "Way of the Dragon." Five years later, he landed his first leading role as a truck driver searching for his missing brother in "Breaker! Breaker!"

Throughout the '70s and '80s, Norris made a name for himself as a rugged action hero in movies like "Lone Wolf McQuade, Missing in Action, and Delta Force." With his film career cooling off in the '90s Norris made the switch to television. The tough guy won new fans with his long-running series "Walker, Texas Ranger."

RANGER CORDELL, PLAYED BY CHUCK NORRIS, "WALKER, TEXAS RANGER": You have the right to remain silent.

ELAM (voice-over): Off-screen Norris was a supporter of conservative causes and candidates like former Arkansas Governor, Mike Huckabee.

NORRIS: This race is extremely important for all of us.

ELAM (voice-over): A Born-Again Christian, Norris expressed his faith as an author and columnist, and advocated for religious education in public schools. In later years, he became an internet sensation as the subject of humorous Chuck Norris Facts, which satirized his tougher- than-tough image. He read a few of his favorites on " The Best Damn Sports Show Period."

NORRIS: When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night, he checks his closet for Chuck Norris.

(LAUGH)

ELAM (voice-over): Norris kept poking fun at himself when he returned to the big screen in "The Expendables 2."

BARNEY ROSS, PLAYED BY SYLVESTER STALLONE, "THE EXPENDABLES 2": I heard another rumor that you were bitten by a King Cobra.

BOOKER, PLAYED BY CHUCK NORRIS, "THE EXPENDABLES 2": Yeah, I was but after five days of agonizing pain, the Cobra died.

ELAM (voice-over): Online, on screen, and on the mat, Chuck Norris struck a chord with the public and left his mark as a performer and an athlete.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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