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Proposal to End Shutdown; ICE Deployed to Airports; NTSB Has Plane Recorders; Israeli and Iran Trade Attacks; Mullin to be Sworn in As DHS Secretary. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired March 24, 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]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: One of the runways closed, as a CNN review reveals pilots raised red flags about close calls at the airport years before this crash.

Plus, Val Kilmer is making a return to the big screen a year after he died, thanks to the help of, of course, artificial intelligence. We'll be talking with his family.

I'm Sara Sidner, along with Erica Hill. John and Kate are out this morning. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: The breaking news this morning, could scenes like what you're seeing behind me there at the airport, those long lines, could those actually be coming to an end? There is a Republican plan to end the partial government shutdown, which, of course, has forced TSA officers to work without pay.

Just coming into us now at CNN, a White House official says that while conversations are ongoing, quote, "this deal seems to be acceptable." That is an important point, especially after we heard from the president that he was not going to make a deal on Sunday. This proposal would fund all of the Department of Homeland Security, except for a small portion of the ICE budget, which is actually funded by that big, beautiful bill from last year. And then the plan from Republicans is try to push through a bill without Democratic votes to fund the rest of ICE.

Now, all of this, of course, coming on the heels of that deployment for ICE agents to more than a dozen airports nationwide. The Trump administration says they are there to help TSA officers who have been struggling to keep up amid staffing shortages.

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

So, in terms of this possible deal could be acceptable, that is a really important shift. What more could be in this deal?

KEVIN LIPTAK, SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes. And it is kind of the first glimmer of optimism that we have had over the course of this 39- day shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, that there may be a path out. Republicans were here at the White House last night, and they emerged relatively optimistic that this proposal that they have to fund the entirety of the agency, including TSA, except ICE, leaving that funding for down the road, they seem fairly sure that this could be the pathway out of this shutdown.

Democrats, of course, have been demanding reforms to the immigration agencies. This stops well short of applying all of those reforms. But you do hear from Democrats, at least initially, before they have seen the final text say that this could potentially be the most viable pathway out of this logjam.

Now, there are still hurdles ahead. Of course, it will have to pass the House of Representatives. The very narrow Republican majority in the House doesn't make passing anything particularly easy. And, of course, President Trump will have to sign it. He had rejected a plan that looked a lot like this one on Sunday night. And, in fact, he spent most of the day yesterday encouraging Republicans not to agree to a deal that doesn't include his new voter I.D. law, the SAVE America Act. He said in Memphis yesterday, don't make any deal unless you include voter I.D. But after that meeting at the White House last night, Republicans emerged relatively sure that the president would get on board and that they would pass these voter I.D. provisions down the line when they also try and pass that ICE funding. And now, of course, a White House official saying that, yes, while the conversations are still ongoing, that the plan appears, at least on paper, to be acceptable.

Now, we will have to wait and hear from President Trump himself. Of course, his word abides above all others. But as of now, officials fairly optimistic.

Of course, a deadline does help in all of this. Many senators are eagerly awaiting their two-week recess, which begins on Friday. Many of them also likely hoping to avoid those hellish TSA lines as they depart on that recess. So, that could potentially be a motivating factor as well.

Now, whether that TSA crisis ends immediately when the department is funded remains to be seen. Remember, 400 TSA agents have already resigned as part of this because they weren't getting paid. It doesn't seem clear that all of the logjam will be resolved immediately once the funding goes through, but at least for now it does seem as if a pathway has been identified to resolving this crisis.

Erica.

HILL: And a pathway, the first step there. Kevin, appreciate it. Thank you.

Sara.

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

And with more on what's happening at airports at this hour, I want to turn to our Ryan Young, who has been at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the busiest airport in the world, for days and days.

We are seeing something that we have not seen in the last three days. What are you looking at here?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, there may be a celebration here at the airport before it's all said and done, especially for the folks who have been working non-stop extra shifts.

If you look right here, you can see this is the main checkpoint. Almost no lines, no waiting, Sara. And this is unbelievable at this point.

This morning started briskly with a lot of people showing up here at the airport.

[09:05:01]

Lines were long. People were waiting about an hour. But when that rush hour went away pretty quickly this morning, we ended up with this. And there seems to be more lines open than normal right now with the TSA workers here breezing people through. In fact, a lot of folks have been showing up shocked at how short the lines are.

Take a listen to some of the folks we talked to 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, there's a bit of a mix here. So, when people were showing up and going right into the TSA precheck line, a lot of them weren't even checking the main checkpoint line. That line has been open and moving pretty quickly. Some folks just get so used to going through a line they go to, they didn't even check to see what that's like.

We've also seen those ICE agents moving through today. A lot of folks are saying they're very pleasant. They're not wearing masks. In fact, on this line right here, you can see two of them standing behind the TSA agents. I'm not sure we can get complete focus on that, but just wanted to show you that. They've been walking around the perimeter. Atlanta police have also been added to this equation in terms of showing up extra patrols.

But the story right now, Sara, quite honestly, is the fact that the lines have disappeared. We haven't seen this like in a week. So, this is good news. If you have a flight to catch, you should know that you can probably maybe take a deep breath. At one point, this line stretched all the way down the hallway. This one is gone as well. So, I guess we'll just give a thumbs up and smile a little bit. Sara, and take a break.

SIDNER: Yes, I mean, look, we're looking at two different pictures here. This is from earlier this morning, where there were a lot of people in line. And things have changed throughout the day, which does happen at different parts of the airport as well. But this is very different from what you've been showing us all week and over the weekend. So, good news from Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson.

Ryan Young, thank you so much. Great reporting this morning.

Erica.

HILL: Let's get you up to speed now on what we're learning about that tragic and deadly collision at LaGuardia Airport this morning. So, flights are taking off there at LGA. One runway, though, does remain closed, of course, in the wake of that deadly Air Canada collision. Investigators are on the ground. They're trying to determine exactly what happened here.

And it turns out today we could get some first information. National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy telling CNN investigators are expected to provide an initial readout from the cockpit voice and flight data recordings. That could happen as soon as today.

CNN also learning there have been some unsettling reports from pilots, this is over the last couple of years, who were warning of the conditions at LaGuardia, comparing it in some situations to what they were seeing at Reagan National Airport in Washington in the days before the deadly collision there between an aircraft and a Black Hawk helicopter.

CNN aviation correspondent Pete Muntean is joining us now live from LaGuardia with more.

So, in terms of, Pete, let's start with what we could learn today when it comes to the NTSB. What could those recorders tell us about the moments leading up to this tragic moment?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: The voice recorder will be so key here, Erica. And that is something that investigators will really lean into as they dig into the data here. It will really fill in some of the gaps here when it comes to the timeline about how aware the pilots were of this truck, this fire truck that was potentially crossing in front of them, were they aware that there was a collision in the making? Did they make any sort of last-ditch efforts to try and avoid this collision? Did they slam on the brakes, or did they simply not see this coming?

We will also get some huge updates here from the NTSB when it comes to controller staffing in the air traffic controller tower cab. That is so key. And the NTSB has just confirmed to me that we will get some initial readouts there on staffing levels in the tower. They have been going through things like not only time cards for the controllers that they use, but also the sign-in sheets. So, the NTSB can precisely say how many people were in the ATC tower cab at the moment of this fatal collision.

Remember, transportation chair -- or Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy refutes the claim that there was only one person overseeing multiple radio frequencies at the time of this crash.

Want you to listen now to NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy. She says that this is not easily pinnable on any one specific thing. It's not just air traffic control. The NTSB will leave no stone unturned in this investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENNIFER HOMENDY, NTSB CHAIRWOMAN: You know, at this stage of the investigation, we don't limit ourselves. So, we have questions on everything.

[09:10:02]

And we look for everything. We collect everything. We, you know, we may have information that comes our way that we didn't expect. So, we don't rule anything out until later. So, we have a lot of questions on everything.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: Big questions now also about what was occurring in the airport rescue and firefighting fire truck that was crossing Runway Four here from -- responding to an incident on one side of the airport going back to the firehouse on the other side of the runway. Were those firefighters in the truck essentially complacent or blind to the fact, oblivious to the fact that they were coming up onto an active runway? Did they look both ways? There's some big questions here that investigators will ask.

And the good news is that those on the truck survived this incident. You can bet that investigators will interview them as well as to their thinking about crossing the runway here with such regularity, and to whether or not they simply looked both ways before they crossed the runway, even though they were cleared to cross the runway according to air traffic control tapes that we reviewed.

HILL: Yes, absolutely.

Pete, good to have you there on the scene. Appreciate the update. Thank you.

Sara. SIDNER: All right, ahead, breaking overnight, an Israeli official says

a deal to end the Iran war, quote, does not seem tangible right now, after President Trump said there were positive conversations happening. What does this all mean for a potential end to the war?

And Senator Markwayne Mullin set to be sworn in today as the new secretary of homeland security. What we're learning about changes that could be coming to the department.

Also, Travis Kelce making a major decision about his future. And we're not talking about his honeymoon plans, although that is a big one.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:16:27]

HILL: The breaking news this morning, Iran and Israel trading attacks just one day after President Trump claimed that talks were underway with Tehran to end the war. In Tel Aviv, buildings severely damaged, as you can see in some of this footage here. Iran launching seven waves of missiles on Israel, a sign that Tehran, of course, can still cause havoc across the region.

Also this morning, there are new questions about those discussions to end the war. One Israeli official telling CNN that a deal, quote, "does not appear to be tangible right now," saying, "the Iranians do not appear to be in any concession mode."

Joining me now, CNN national security analyst Beth Sanner and CNN military analyst, retired Lieutenant General Mark Schwartz.

It's good to have both of you with us.

General, I want to start with you.

When we look at this -- when we look at the continuing attacks, Iran unleashing this barrage of attacks on Israel, Israel continuing to hit targets in Iran and Lebanon, what does that tell you about the state of any potential talks?

LT. GEN. MARK SCHWARTZ (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, I think, from a military standpoint, Erica, both Iran and certainly Israel and the United States are going to continue the military campaigns that they've been directed to execute. And that will continue until such time that there's a substantive change in the strategic dialog between the regime, representatives from Iran, and the United States.

HILL: Which doesn't appear to be that's where we're at based on what we can see.

When we look at where things stand, Beth, you've noted that the administration continues to misread the Iranians. What is Trump missing here?

BETH SANNER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, you know, it's funny because President Trump used to say all the time that Iran has never won a war and never lost a negotiation. And I kind of feel like that's where we're headed here in that there are two underlying assumptions for why he thinks somethings different now, or, you know, really why we got into this war. One was that military force, overwhelming military force would force a capitulation or regime collapse, and that they would be in a position then to -- actually that they would have no cards in this whole scene.

But what we have found is that Iran does have military cards, it's just asymmetrical. They're not fighting this war the same way. And therefore we're measuring our success in the wrong way. And I don't think that these assumptions have proven true at all. Iran has doubled down on what they're demanding. So, the gap between the United States and Iran, compared to where we were during the negotiations, which we ended with bombings, is now wider. The trust is -- it was very low before. It's now completely gone. And Iran believes that Trump is showing weakness.

And so I think that, you know, we are not really getting what the situation is. And the chances are in five days we're not going to be where hope is in negotiations and some settlement.

HILL: You know, that timing of the five days was interesting because we also know, of course, additional U.S. forces are on their way to the region. They should be there in the next couple of days. So, you have that coming in general.

But then also, you know, as Beth is laying out, the fact that Iran is fighting this war, frankly, in a different way, right. Do you see the U.S. military responding to that shift? Are you -- and by that I mean are you -- are you seeing a shift at all from the U.S. side in terms of how they are approaching this now several weeks in?

[09:20:08]

SCHWARTZ: Well, we certainly saw a shift over the first 10 to 14 days in terms of U.S. and Israeli targeting, you know, going after launch sites for both ballistic missiles and obviously their drones and going after weapons stockpiles. And now the shift is going after the military industrial complex across Iran. And there's still probably a lot of targets. There's been that reassessment.

But also, we saw that shift, as Beth was just speaking to, Erica, of going after any capability that Iran has that can threaten the Strait of Hormuz. So, you know, the Marines, as you mentioned, are coming in. They provide additional flexibility and capability for, you know, for commander CENTCOM. They've got attack aviation that can help go after some of these fast boats, similar to what the Apache aircraft and the A-10s were doing, you know, reported late last week. So, I think that's a shift.

And then lastly, I'd point out, I think there are now Ukraine drone, you know, counter drone experts that fly their own models of drones to take down these drones. And four, if not five of the gulf states. So, you are seeing a shift in terms of -- and I'm sure they're sitting in Israel as well now. That just hasn't been reported. But why wouldn't they be? So, I think there has been a shift to go, hey, Iran is very effective at the asymmetric approach to this conflict. And so, they're -- the U.S. and Israel are trying -- and the gulf states are trying to find ways, excuse me, to mitigate that.

HILL: Lieutenant General Mark Schwartz, Beth Sanner, appreciate you both joining us this morning. Thank you.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, just ahead, breaking news this hour, a new deal to end the partial government shutdown, quote, "seems to be acceptable" to the White House. What this could mean for the long lines we've been seeing at airports and for those TSA workers working without pay.

And gas prices rise for the 24th consecutive day, nearing that $4 a gallon mark on average. We are monitoring the price of oil and its impact on the markets. It's been going up and down from overnight to this morning. The opening bell on Wall Street is just minutes away, but you can see what futures are telling you. Things are not looking up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:26:53]

HILL: Today, Markwayne Mullin will be sworn in as the homeland security secretary. He's taking over, of course, at a critical moment. We're in the middle of a shutdown that has cut off funding for most of his agency, sparking hours long lines at airports. And his tenure also begins amid fallout over the administration's immigration enforcement efforts.

CNN's Priscilla Alvarez joins us now.

So, Priscilla, in terms of changes, what the department will look like under Secretary Mullin, what can we expect?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, first and foremost, what I'm hearing from my sources is that they expect personnel changes, particularly at the top among his aides. And that, they hope, is going to give a reset to the Department of Homeland Security because there had been so much tension and turmoil over the way that Kristi Noem and her de facto chief advisor, Corey Lewandowski, had been running the department. So, those personnel changes are expected pretty quickly, and ones that they hope are going to help set the tone within the department, in the case of some officials, a positive direction.

But before I get into more details about the Department of Homeland Security, this confirmation vote was interesting. We had Rand Paul, who voted no. Remember the two, Markwayne Mullin and Rand Paul, had clashed during his confirmation hearing, and there were two Democrats who voted yes. And those Democrats have pointed to their friendship with Mullin, including one who said that they believe that he is not someone that's going to be run over with -- by White House officials. So, hoping -- clearly some Democrats sort of hoping that he is able to shift course a bit at the Department of Homeland Security. Now, already, Mullin had been having conversations with some of the

agency heads at the department, including, for example, at ICE and at U.S. Customs and Border Protection. He also has been having regular conversations with Tom Homan, the White House border czar. And that's important because part of the change that is expected here is that there's going to be more synchronization between DHS and the White House border czar. Under Noem, Tom Homan and Noem did not speak with one another. They were not on the same page. And so, moving forward, the belief among Homeland Security officials is that the two are going to work in tandem. And Homan has certainly signaled that by talking about his regular discussions with Mullin, not only daily, but sometimes multiple times a day.

Though, of course, as you've been talking during the show, there is the shutdown at DHS. And that is something that Markwayne Mullin is going to be walking into. Now, talks seem to be -- there seems to be a breakthrough, a potential breakthrough in those talks, but that is going to be a reality for Mullin as he steps into the role as secretary.

Then, two, what policy changes are -- is he going to make? He already signaled some of them. He said that, for example, he was going to do away with the $100,000 cap that would require the secretary's approval for contracts. That was something that was specific to Noem. He said during the confirmation hearing he would scrap that.

There's also going to be close eyes, particularly within and outside of DHS, what he does with immigration policy and immigration enforcement. He is a staunch supporter of Donald Trump. The president has talked very highly of him over the last several days. So, the expectation here is that the substance is still going to be pretty similar, still an aggressive immigration crackdown.

[09:29:59]

Stylistically, however, is where it may be different. And that is what people are going to be keeping a close eye on. Of course, the president is going to swear him in this afternoon, and then he'll start his.