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Top Republicans Optimistic about DHS Deal; Iran Launches Missiles; Rep. Eugene Vindman (D-VA) is Interviewed about Iran; Trump's Numbers with Men; John Boyd Jr. is Interviewed about Struggling Farmers; Aid Ship Arrives in Cuba. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired March 24, 2026 - 08:30   ET

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

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[08:31:15]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: This morning there is word of a potential plan in Washington to end the partial government shutdown and begin paying TSA officers who have been working without wages for, I think, 40 days now. But until it is a done deal, travelers are bracing for another day of wait times potentially stretching for hours at some airports. And the Trump administration has now deployed ICE agents to airports, saying they are there to help TSA officers struggling amid staffing shortages.

CNN's Ryan Young is live at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, where you should just get an apartment because you've been there every single day trying to get through these lines.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I have.

SIDNER: What are you seeing, Ryan, this morning? Because I know it -- there's ebbs and flows to this. Sometimes the lines are insane and then sometimes they change.

YOUNG: Sara, I got a big question for you. Do you feel good this morning?

SIDNER: Yes, I feel great. Do you?

YOUNG: Well, the reason why I ask is because right now there's no lines. There's no waiting.

SIDNER: Wow.

YOUNG: I feel 100 percent great now that I can show you this.

Look, if you look behind us, there's nobody here anymore. The lines are under seven minutes. We're at the point where people are walking up and they're just like, how did this happen? Tuesday is a lower volume day here at the airport. That's something that we should tell everybody. Mondays is crush. Sundays is usually the worst day. Saturday is also a challenge. And, of course, Friday still is one of those days where you see people getting ready to go away for the holidays.

But as you look this direction now, there are no lines, no waiting, going any direction. We have the ICE agents who are here. In fact, they just went down this corner over here. So you can -- you can see, though, walking around, doing their perimeter security. We also have Atlanta police officers here as well.

But the real story here is the lanes are open for TSA. So, right now we've counted one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Eight lanes open. That's the most lanes that we've seen open in the last few days on this side.

But take a listen to some of the passengers that we talked to a little earlier this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PHIL THOMAS, PASSENGER WAITING AT ATLANTA AIRPORT: I don't see how extra security could be bad, you know.

YOUNG: Right.

THOMAS: I mean, they're going to help out and, you know, make things move a little faster. But whether they're doing that or not, we don't know. But extra security is always good to me.

DINA PEMBER, PASSENGER WAITING AT ATLANTA AIRPORT: I mean you think it's not going to be that bad.

YOUNG: Yes.

PEMBER: But then you get here and, you know, you think, oh, man, it's -- it really is as bad as they say it is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: So, something I want to make clear here. When people arrive here to the airport, those screens are shut off that used to give us the wait time. So, when they arrive, people go right to the TSA precheck line, or they go right to the line they normally go to.

Some folks are not even checking the main checkpoint line. If you do, you would at least see that it's shorter than all the other lines. This also was packed for the last few days. If you look down here, this line is now gone as well.

So, the good news here, on Tuesday, if you have a flight out or you were thinking about changing your flight, now would be a great time to get to Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport as the times have almost disappeared.

Back to you guys.

SIDNER: You have now become an ambassador. You're telling people exactly when to be there because, right now, it's incredible, right, in comparison? YOUNG: It's incredible. It is. Look at that.

SIDNER: Ryan Young -- yes, we haven't seen this, like, in a really long time before all this started happening. The lines so much better there where you are this morning. We know there are lots of problems in other airports though. Houston having a hard time this morning as well. But man, things change on a dime there. And, Ryan Young, you've witnessed it all. We do appreciate you and your crew making those long walks through those lines.

All right, Erica.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: All right, breaking overnight, Iran firing waves of missiles at Israel just one day after President Trump claimed that talks are -- were underway with Tehran to end the war. In Tel Aviv, drone video shows the extent of the damage on a residential building in central Israel. Israel actually intercepted a barrage of missiles. One official telling CNN, a deal to stop the fighting, quote, "does not appear to be tangible right now."

[08:35:05]

Israel is continuing, meantime, to carry out its strikes on Iran. New video from Tehran showing a man trapped in rubble after an airstrike. That's according to an aid group there. The man was apparently pulled to safety.

CNN's Jim Sciutto is live in Tel Aviv for us this hour.

So, Jim, you know, we've heard sort of conflicting reports, I should say, about where things stand for talks between the U.S. and Iran. What are you hearing from the Israeli side today?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, listen, wherever the talks President Trump is speaking about stand, the facts on the ground here are conflicting with a sense that this -- this war is coming to an end anytime soon. You have the Israeli defense minister, Israel Katz, saying that Israel's attacks on Iran continue with full force. They struck a number of targets since midnight overnight. And you have Iranian attacks in the region maintaining pace as well.

In fact, one of those Iranian strikes got through Israeli air defenses, struck in northern Tel Aviv, not far from where we're standing here. No one killed, but there were minor injuries, showing that as formidable as Israel's air defenses are, that Iran still maintains some capability to break through those defenses periodically.

And we're also hearing from the gulf that Bahrain and other countries in the gulf region intercepted Iranian attacks. So, Israel and Iran certainly are still maintaining this level of fire. In fact, when we came across from Jordan, across the border from Jordan into Israel this morning, we heard a number of air warning signals over Jordan as well.

So, this may be more aspirational at this point from the president's perspective. But again, Israel is denying any substantive talks underway, as is Iran. And the pace of the attacks here, they certainly have not slowed down.

HILL: Yes, certainly not. And it's important to have that too in that context too as you're talking about, even what you heard on your way from Jordan. When it comes to the U.S. military presence, U.S. military posture in the region, what more do we know about where things stand?

SCIUTTO: Yes. Listen, the U.S. military has not reduced its forces in the region. It maintains the capability to keep up its own pace of attacks. Now, of course, it's up to the president how much of that capability he uses. But my understanding from speaking to U.S. military officials is that those forces remain in place to continue to strike targets inside Iran. It will be up to the president to decide whether his view of the negotiations with Iran are taking this in a place where he can reduce those for over time, perhaps take a substantive pause. But as far as U.S. forces position in the region, they have not changed.

HILL: Right. Important. And good to have you there. Jim, appreciate it. Thank you.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, thank you so much, Erica.

Joining me now is Democratic Congressman Eugene Vindman of Virginia. He sits on the Armed Services Committee, and he is an Army veteran who served in Iraq.

Let me ask you about what we're hearing from the president and Iran. Israel and Iran trading major strikes on one another. In the meantime, the president, Trump says, look, talks with Iran are happening. They're going well on the possibility of opening the Strait of Hormuz. On the other end of this, you're hearing from Iran's state media that that is -- those talks are not happening. They're denying that talks are happening. How do you decide what's happening here?

REP. EUGENE VINDMAN (D-VA): Yes. Unfortunately, Sara -- thanks for having me this morning. Unfortunately, I don't believe President Trump. It turns out he's not very good at his job. In fact, he's spending more time in Mar-a-Lago playing golf than he is devoting attention to this war. And it's showing.

Right now we're at $28 billion, $29 billion for the cost of this war. I've got a ticker here I pay attention to. We have 13 Americans that have been killed, hundreds that are wounded. And the president is nowhere near figuring out where this war ends. What is the end state? And, frankly, I'm very concerned.

The Iranians are the ones that control the Strait of Hormuz. They're, by some reports, charging $2 million a tanker for transit. They get to decide who comes across, who doesn't. And it's not the United States. And that's because the president does not have a strategy. SIDNER: Congressman Vindman, the president saying, look, we are

getting closer to the end of this war. We heard that for the first time that he is ready to negotiate when it comes to the war. Does that give you some, I don't know, some hope that that there is indeed a plan to negotiate our way out of the war and not, for example, have boots on the ground?

VINDMAN: Not really. We have thousands of troops flowing into the region. We have thousands of soldiers from the 82nd Airborne and Marines that are -- that are going in. At the same time, the president is saying we're ready to negotiate.

[08:40:02]

I'm happy to hear that we're in a position that we want to negotiate a solution. Opening the strait, anybody that is well versed in this region could have told you that it's extremely, extremely difficult to open the Strait of Hormuz without significant military forces, including boots on the ground. And so, getting to the point where we're ready to negotiate is where we need to be.

But I don't think the president has fully decided. It's unclear to me whether he still wants to have regime change or he's backing off this idea that we're going to be able to eliminate, completely eliminate a nuclear capability, which apparently, you know, eight months ago in the first strikes, Midnight Hammer were obliterated.

So, I'm very skeptical. But I do know one thing for sure is that I have very little confidence in the senior leadership of this administration. Folks like Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, deals in memes and not in strategy. And we need to have real leadership in order to be able to turn the corner here.

SIDNER: I want to turn to what's happening here in the United States with these long lines at some airports across the country. Sometimes people waiting up to three hours to try to get through to their flights.

The funding of DHS has -- is the -- is the crux of the reason why this is all happening because TSA workers are not getting funded, some of them having to call out sick, et cetera. I do wonder what you know about this potential plan that Republicans say they've come up with and say that they think can pass through. What are you learning?

VINDMAN: Well, look, I think we had the framework for a deal. In fact, I saw what the outline of the deal was. I think there's, obviously, room for negotiation. We want to ensure there are safeguards. We want to make sure that ICE is actually cognizant in protecting American's fundamental, constitutional and civil rights.

We had a framework. We were moving forward with that framework. And then the president sounds like he killed it. By admission of Senator Kennedy, Republican out of Louisiana, said the president killed this deal. So, this is squarely on the president's shoulders.

SIDNER: Congressman Vindman, I'm going to -- I'm going to play that for you because that was something that that we saw. So, we were wondering what your thoughts are on that. But you just mentioned Senator Kennedy, who plainly said that the president killed a compromise that senators were willing to make, Republican senators, with Democrats, in what was a version of a bill.

Let me let you hear his words.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN KENNEDY (R-LA): The Democrats have offered to open up everything but ICE. Ted and I said, OK, let's accept their offer. And then, at the same time, we would offer a bill through reconciliation where we don't need any Democratic votes to do whatever we wanted to do with ICE. And that way we're out of the shutdown and DHS is back open. We submitted that. Senator Thune submitted that to President Trump, as is his right. He said, no. No deals with the Democrats.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: If the president says no deals with the Democrats, what hope is there that this will actually get passed?

VINDMAN: The president will come to the table. The pain is being felt by the American people. Congress has the outlines of a deal. I think we're going to get there. The president deals in impulse. He doesn't think things through. And he'll come back once he feels the pressure.

But Republicans have to actually step up. Republicans in the House and Senate have to say, Mr. President, now is the time to make a deal, whether it's here or in the Middle East, and actually think things through and not just deal on impulse. And there needs to be a strategy. There needs to be analysis. There needs to be thinking here.

SIDNER: Congressman Eugene Vindman, do appreciate you taking the time. I know you're very busy with what's happening there on Capitol Hill, and hopefully the TSA workers will get paid soon.

Erica.

HILL: Well, major support for male voters, particularly young men, really helped propel Donald Trump to victory in 2024. So, where does that support stand now? We're, of course, heading into the midterms. There are some questions about how it could impact key races.

CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten is here.

So, of course, the president, not on the ballot.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: No.

HILL: But kind of, you know, kind of -- kind of sort of.

ENTEN: He's on the ballot. Not in name, but he's there.

HILL: OK, so how is the president's standing right now, March 24, 2025, with men? ENTEN: 2026.

HILL: Oh, shoot, it is 2026.

ENTEN: 2020 --

HILL: Time flies when you're having fun here with Harry Enten.

ENTEN: It's very true. Although the older I get, I don't even know. The beard gets grayer.

Look, the bottom line is this, Erica Hill, Donald Trump and Republicans won in 2024 because of support from male voters. The only way they can win given the gender gap in this country is support from male voters. And male voters are abandoning Donald Trump.

Take a look here. This gives the game away. OK, Trump's standing with men. In November of 2024, he beat Kamala Harris, among them, by 13 points, by 13 points.

[08:45:03]

Look at where he is now on his net approval rating. Down he goes. It's a 20-point shift away from Donald Trump. He is now seven points underwater at this particular point among men. I think it is very difficult for Republicans to do well in this midterm cycle if Donald Trump is under water with men. As my uncle once wrote, where the boys are, where the men are, they are underwater when it comes to Donald John Trump.

HILL: OK, so that's overall men. But what about young men who were really influential?

ENTEN: Yes. Young men, of course. There was a massive shift to Donald Trump from 2020 to 2024 among young men. And look right here. Whoa.

HILL: Yikes.

ENTEN: Yikes. Yikes, yikes, yikes. Men under the age of 25 on Trump. He won them in 2024 by five points. Look where he is now. The net approval rating, way down there. Down we go to negative 19 points. That's nearly, what is that, nearly a 25-point switcheroo against the president of the United States when it comes to men under the age of 45. Those men that had switched their allegiances over to the Republican Party are seeing what the president is doing. They don't like what the president is doing, and they have very much soured on the president of the United States, men under the age of 45.

HILL: What is it specifically that they don't like? What issues have caused them to sour on President Trump?

ENTEN: I think there are a lot of issues that have caused them to sour on President Trump. But one in particular, we've spoken about it over and over and over again. It's the cost of living. It's inflation.

Look at this. OK, men on Trump and the cost of living. In October of 2024, look at this, Trump was trusted more than Kamala Harris by ten points on this issue. Now we've got a 40 point switcheroo in the other direction. Look at this, his net approval rating on the cost of living among men is underwater by 30 percentage points. You see this. There is no way in God's green earth that the Republican Party can hold on to the House of Representatives if this number holds. When you're 30 points underwater with the gender that, of course, puts you over the top in the election on the cost of living. The number one issue, that means see you later to that Republican House majority and maybe that Senate majority as well.

HILL: Oh, wow. All right. Well, we'll be watching.

Thank you, my friend.

ENTEN: Strong words from an aging man.

HILL: Yes, It's '26, by the way. Thanks, Harry.

ENTEN: Twenty-six. My age.

HILL: Sara. Sara.

Yes.

SIDNER: Yes, exactly. Thank you, guys.

This morning, much needed relief arriving in Cuba as the nation struggles with crippling oil blockades.

Plus, residents told to shelter in place after a massive explosion at a crude oil refinery rattled nearby homes and cars. Where this happened, ahead.

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[08:51:33]

HILL: New this morning, it's not just oil and gas prices. The war in Iran is also having a significant impact on the price of fertilizer. And that's adding even more pressure to American farmers. The Middle East is home to some of the world's largest fertilizer plants. About a third of the world's fertilizer actually passes through the Strait of Hormuz. And the timing here as farmers are preparing for their spring planting season, that, too, is important. Higher prices to grow and to transport your food, of course, can also drive up the prices that you pay at the grocery store.

Joining me now is John Boyd Jr. He's the founder and president of the National Black Farmers Association.

John, it's good to have you back with us this morning.

I mean just walk us through -- I was struck by -- it's my understanding that most U.S. farms do use fertilizer made in North America, but there was one corn and soybean farmer from Illinois who told CNN he can't even get a price at this point on a key fertilizer component because prices are rising so quickly. What are you seeing?

JOHN BOYD JR., FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT, NATIONAL BLACK FARMERS ASSOCIATION: Well, you know, price of fertilizer is up 40 percent. That's anywhere between $140 and $200 a metric ton. And for the average farmer in this country, that's going to mean an additional $100,000 bottom line costs in this country.

And, you know, what's alarming to me is we have -- what my staff told me this morning, 194 farm foreclosures pending. And we can't, we can't get the help to help them. But we have $1 billion a day for this war and the reception we're getting from corporate America and foundations is deplorable. That did not come to the aid of these farmers that are in foreclosure.

So, here we -- on top of all that, now we can't get fertilizer. In my own hometown, I haven't been able to secure an order of fertilizer for my own farming operation. So, I'm speaking as someone who's experiencing this right now. And the agriculture secretary told CNN, I believe, that, you know, farmers already have purchased fertilizer. They already have it. And she's out of touch if she really believes that, because I'm telling you, the farmers that I met with this past weekend, none of them had secured fertilizer for this year and many are -- were behind in their farm notes.

So, this is a farm crisis, you know. In any other part of the world, if, you know, we lose 15,000 farms last year, that would be a national crisis. But here at home, it just doesn't seem to get the attention that it deserves from the American people here.

HILL: You've said that the agriculture -- you just said the agriculture secretary, I believe your words were, is out of touch. She doesn't understand what's actually happening.

I know you have been really vocal, especially over the last year as you were dealing with tariffs, specifically as you were dealing with the U.S.-China trade war, a major issue for soybean farmers.

BOYD: Yes.

HILL: What has the response been when you've reached out to lawmakers, when you've reached out to officials in the administration, are they taking your calls? Are they listening to your concerns?

BOYD: Well, our Congress has taken that course. We did have a meeting on The Hill there, and I expressed the need for more, that type of meetings. But the U.S. ag secretary has not came to the table. They have not granted us a meeting. And that's what I'm saying, if they have not met with the largest organization in the United States that represents black and other farmers of color and we haven't had any dialog, you're definitely out of touch with American farmers because we're farmers too.

[08:55:02]

So, and, look, the thing is that, you know, farmers had fertilizer -- was able to secure fertilizer last year. That was before the tariffs, people. These policies that the president has put in place have driven American farmers out of -- out of business. And you're going to see more farmers on the foreclosure blocks in the coming months because this administration keeps saying, oh, this is a short term problem. The problem with oil and fertilizer is going to be short term. And the president said, you know, when oil prices go up to $100 a barrel, you know, they make money. Who is they? Because Americas farmers are losing money. You know, $5 a gallon for diesel fuel. And I have a tractor that holds 100 gallon. People, that's $500 every time I fill it up. And I'm already struggling out here.

So, where is the -- where's the urgency of now to help farmers like myself and those 194 farmers who are facing foreclosure, where's the urgency of now from somebody in this country to help us?

HILL: It's important to stay on it, and it's important to make sure that this stays in the headlines.

John Boyd Jr., appreciate you joining us. Thank you.

SIDNER: All right, on our radar, parents in the Missouri town of Independence can breathe a little bit easier this morning. Police say they found all five Barbie dolls sold at a Cargo Largo discount store that had fentanyl inside the packaging. Cargo Largo security contacted police last Saturday after discovering the suspicious powder inside the packaging of one of those dolls. Tests confirmed it was fentanyl. And officers had to launch a massive search.

All right, investigators in south Florida trying to figure out what caused a helicopter to crash into a vacant warehouse on Monday. Two people on board the helicopter were killed. It's still unclear if the pilot was trying to land the helicopter when the chopper went down.

And we have new affiliate video of a massive fire at the Valero refinery in Port Arthur, Texas. Officials issued a shelter in place warning for the west side of the city after an explosion inside the plant yesterday sent flames and smoke billowing into the air. It has now been lifted and no injuries are reported. An investigation is, of course, underway. A local sheriff says an industrial heater unit may have triggered that blast.

Erica.

HILL: We are keeping a close watch on Cuba this morning. Relief is arriving. A ship carrying food and medical supplies docking on the island. Cuba, of course, was plunged into total darkness twice last week as the power grid nearly collapsed amid the U.S. oil blockade and threats from President Trump.

CNN's Patrick Oppmann is live in Havana.

So, a little bit of relief here. What does this mean in both the short and the long term, Patrick?

PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN HAVANA BUREAU CHIEF: It's more symbolic than anything else because, as you can see behind me, it's really more of a boat than a ship I guess you could say. Of course, for the activists who've made the crossing from Mexico, not an easy thing to do. They are bringing food, medicine and solar panels, something that are desperately needed here now that we're experiencing blackouts that last most of the day and have had, as you mentioned, those island-wide blackouts, two in the space of a week, something that has really never happened here before.

So, this is an island that is under the gun, that is feeling the energy crunch here. You hardly see cars on the road anymore. People are living with blackouts that go on sometimes for days. And that, of course, means that food spoils. So, these activists, they've been involved in taking aid to Gaza in the past. They say this is a similar situation where a U.S. administration is simply -- is essentially trying to create regime change, and that they are opposed to that. Some aid has arrived as well by plane, and we expect more aid to arrive by boat. Again, more symbolic than anything else when you look at the need that exists on this island at the moment.

There's been some criticism because, of course, these groups are turning over the aid to the government and people say they should turn it over directly to the Cuban people. But we have seen aid arriving at several hospitals here in Havana from these groups. So, the activists say they believe the aid is getting to where it needs to go. But at this point, when you're looking at blackouts that go on now, that are getting worse and worse, especially if the government here does not strike a deal with the Trump administration, they are looking at a total collapse of the economy.

HILL: All right, Patrick, I'm so glad we're staying on it. Appreciate it. Thank you.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

SIDNER: Breaking news, a deal to end the shutdown, quote, "seems to be acceptable," according to a White House official. The most movement to end the shutdown that we have seen so far. More on that in just a second.

Also, brand new details about the investigation of the fatal Air Canada collision at LaGuardia Airport that still has one of the runways closed, as a CNN review reveals pilots raised red flags about close calls at the airport years before this crash.

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