Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Airport Turmoil; Nicolas Maduro in Court; Trump Threatens Iran. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired March 26, 2026 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:00:32]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: President Trump threatens Iran: Abandon your nuclear ambitions, or we're your worst nightmare. CNN tracking where potential talks stand and what Tehran is saying about the administration's 15-point proposal.

Captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro back in court. He is arguing that the U.S. government is interfering with the funding for defense. We are inside the courtroom.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: And want to get away? Lawmakers are about to. They're set to enjoy a two-week-long recess, though they're leaving behind a mess at airports for both passengers and TSA agents, who are now missing out on yet another paycheck.

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

KEILAR: We have breaking news on the war with Iran, President Trump ramping up the pressure for a deal and then casting doubt on whether he's even willing to negotiate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I say they're lousy fighters, but they're great negotiators. And they are begging to work out a deal. I don't know if we will be able to do that. I don't know if we're willing to do that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: He did warn Iran that the U.S. will be their worst nightmare if they don't agree to his terms to end the war, as CNN is learning more than 1,000 soldiers are preparing to deploy in the coming days to the Middle East.

CNN's Kristen Holmes is live for us at the White House.

Kristen, what's the latest there?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

And, Brianna, this Cabinet meeting was really set up to explain to the American people what was going on with the war. They were directly responding to criticism that has been ongoing since those first strikes were launched in Iran. You had Vice President Vance saying that the war was necessary to stop Iran from getting a nuclear bomb or from having nuclear capabilities.

Just a reminder, Vance is somebody who has been against U.S. intervention. That is something that is very key here, as he was the first person who spoke after President Trump. You had Steve Witkoff explaining where they were in the negotiations with Iran, as well as kind of trying to show why it was not possible to give a lot of details on those ongoing negotiations, something, again, that has faced a massive amount of criticism.

Now, one thing President Trump did reveal was what that gift that he talked about the other day from Iran was. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: They said, to show you the fact that we're real and solid, and we're there, we're going to let you have eight boats of oil.

Eight big tankers are going loaded up with oil right through. And I said, well, I guess they were right, and they were real. And I think they were Pakistani-flagged. And I said, well, I guess we're dealing with the right people.

And, actually, they then apologized for something they said, and they said, we're going to send two more boats.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: And, remember, this is all in response to a question of, who are you negotiating with and how do you know that they're in charge? He had touted this gift.

Now we know, of course, it was ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz. The other thing just to note here is he repeatedly said over and over again that it was Iran who was looking for a deal, not him, not the United States. He clearly wanted to emphasize that during this Cabinet meeting.

KEILAR: Yes, certainly notable.

Kristen, thank you very much -- Boris.

SANCHEZ: We're also monitoring some major developments on the front lines of the war. Israel now claims that it's assassinated a key official orchestrating Iran's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, Israel's defense minister saying the IRGC navy commander was killed in a strike last night.

Let's go live to Tel Aviv with CNN anchor and chief national security analyst Jim Sciutto. Jim, would this really change access to the Strait of Hormuz? How

significant is this move?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's an open question, really, because this is certainly not the first Iranian leader or even IRGC leader, Iranian Revolutionary Guard leader, who's been killed in this war.

Of course, the supreme leader himself was killed in the very first hours of the war, and the regime has continued to hold power and continued to lash out with attacks on U.S. forces, on Gulf allies, certainly here in Israel.

Just today, Boris, I could tell you, has been the busiest day of air raid signals in Israel since the start of the war, at least seven, I think a couple more in the last couple of hours, 7:00 in the morning, which shows that Iran continues to try to get through these Israeli defenses.

[13:05:13]

And then, for its part, Israel, with the killing of this navy commander, as well as other strikes inside Iran, is keeping up the pace of its attacks. So it's important to note that, that the attacks continue in both directions, even as the president himself has first brought up the possibility of talks with Iran earlier this week.

That's the reality here. And, of course, Boris, I always remind people there's another front to this war, and that is on the northern border of Israel, which Israel is expanding inside Lebanon, with the intention, it seems, of taking territory in Southern Lebanon there to create what they refer to as a buffer zone inside Lebanon, pushing Lebanese residents north of the Litani River.

So, listen, it may have an effect. The Israelis hold this navy commander responsible for closing the strait. But, of course, there are other navy commanders. There are other Iranian assets, sea mines, drones, et cetera, that still threaten shipping.

And if you look at the traffic through the strait since that killing today, it's not like it's suddenly opened up. So I think the big question here now is, do these peace talks go anywhere, or does the -- do the attacks continue, or might even they escalate in coming days?

SANCHEZ: Yes, especially in that area of the strait.

Jim Sciutto from Tel Aviv, thank you so much.

Still to come: former Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro appearing in a New York courtroom alongside his wife, as President Trump teases more charges against the deposed leader.

Plus, TSA lines surpassing four hours again, as agents are preparing for a crush of weekend travel. We're going to take you live to Houston, where TSA agents are continuing to work without pay, and we will talk to lawmakers about getting the shutdown resolved. And, later, hear why the deadly LaGuardia crash is renewing questions

about how much is too much for understaffed and overworked air traffic controllers.

That and much more coming your way on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:11:33]

KEILAR: Just moments ago, former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores de Maduro, were back in federal court in New York. Lawyers for the ousted leader were arguing that the U.S. government is blocking his ability to choose his own legal team and that the case should be dismissed.

Both have pleaded not guilty to narco-terrorism-related charges after being captured in an overnight raid more than two months ago.

CNN's Kara Scannell has been inside of that courtroom following this hearing. She's outside now.

And, Kara, Maduro says the Venezuelan government should be able to pay for his legal defense. What did the judge say?

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, the judge said that being able to pay for this defense, which will include interviewing people and finding evidence that is in Venezuela and Colombia, he said, is paramount in this case.

The reason why prosecutors say that Maduro should not have access to the funds from Venezuela is because both Maduro and Venezuela are sanctioned by the U.S. And so the way that it works is, you have to get a license in order to get any payment from there. That was blocked by the U.S. government.

The judge raising questions about that, saying, why are they blocked now? He said: "I see there is no national security interest in this case anymore. Both of the defendants are here in this courtroom."

So the judge was posing a number of different potential remedies, suggesting that he said he wasn't going to dismiss the case at this point, but he said that maybe he could order the government to issue a license to allow them to get the fees to pay from Venezuela to fund the defense.

The prosecutor saying that the only way that anyone could challenge an OFAC license decision was through a civil lawsuit. But the judge wasn't accepting that. He pushed back and said, well, what if I ruled that they had to do that?

He said that, if it was a situation where he said, if he ordered that the license was not given to them on an arbitrary basis and told OFAC to essentially give them the license, and they refused to do it, he said at that point he would consider hearing another argument about this indictment being dismissed. So the judge did not rule today. He did put in the air this idea that

he might find against the U.S. government, short of dismissal, but trying to find some way that the funds from Venezuela could make it to the Maduros to fund their defense. He said that this case is beyond the normal and that the -- and that Maduro and his wife should have funds to put on a defense.

That will require a lot of legwork in Venezuela and he even said in Colombia, based on the allegations in the indictment. Maduro and his wife were in the courtroom today. They sat at the defense table wearing headphones so they could understand the court hearings through a Spanish translator.

Neither of them spoke inside the courtroom. They just were taking notes or -- I saw Maduro at one point lean over and would talk to his attorney, whisper to his attorney as all these arguments were playing out, but no decision yet on this motion, but the judge seriously leaning toward finding some way for Maduro to get funds from Venezuela in order to mount the defense against these very serious charges -- Brianna.

KEILAR: All right, Kara, thank you so much.

CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig is with us now.

Elie, the judge saying he doesn't see a national security interest in blocking the Venezuelan government from funding Maduro's defense. What does that signal to you?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, it signals to me that Judge Hellerstein is looking for some way to allow Nicolas Maduro to tap into that Venezuela money to pay for his defense.

[13:15:00]

But let me say this, Brianna. I think if the judge rules in that way, I think if the judge says, yes, there are these sanctions put in place by the United States, however, I'm going to override them for purposes of this case, I think the judge will be on very shaky legal ground.

The judge said, as Kara just reported today, that he doesn't see a national security risk or a danger relating to Nicolas Maduro, but that's not the only purpose of sanctions. Sanctions exist for us to influence other nations' policies, trade, economics. It's not just about danger.

The other thing is, I don't believe a judge, an Article III judge over in the judiciary, has the right to say, well, I disagree with the judgments made by the executive branch when it comes to sanctioning other countries.

So, if Judge Hellerstein actually does rule in this way, then the government's going to have to decide, do we appeal him? If they do, that will put this case on a much slower track than it already is on to get to trial someday. KEILAR: So the prosecutors saying that treasury made a -- quote --

"administrative error" when it initially granted the license permitting the Venezuelan government to pay these legal fees, how significant is that?

HONIG: So that's a separate issue.

One of the blips in this case is that, for a brief time, for a period of a few hours, actually, the U.S. government did issue a waiver, saying, OK, you can use Venezuelan money to fund this defense, but then the government withdrew that. They said, whoops, that was a mistake, we didn't mean it.

Now, it would be a different conclusion if the judge said, look, I find that that waiver, whether you made it intentionally or not, I find that that's binding. And once you waive it, even for a few hours, I'm going to hold you to that. That would actually be in my mind a slightly better basis for Judge Hellerstein to rule that Maduro can use this Venezuelan money.

But either way, these are really untested legal principles here.

KEILAR: And Maduro's attorney threatening to withdraw if the U.S. doesn't allow Venezuela to pay legal fees, so what do you think about that?

HONIG: That happens all the time, Brianna.

Look, defense lawyers, private criminal defense lawyers need to get paid. They don't work for free. And I do want to note, even if it works out that Nicolas Maduro cannot pay this defense lawyer, Barry Pollack, he's still going to have a lawyer and a very good one.

What would happen if Barry Pollack says, well, I'm not getting paid, so I'm out of the case, then the judge would either appoint a federal public defender. I have worked countless cases against them. They're outstanding. Or the judge would appoint someone off what we call the CJA wheel, the Criminal Justice Act wheel, which is a group of highly qualified, experienced defense lawyers who do the case at a reduced fee that the court pays.

So, Nicolas Maduro is going to have a very high-level lawyer, whether it's Mr. Pollack or whether it's somebody else who needs to be appointed by the court.

KEILAR: I want you to listen to what President Trump said about Maduro during his Cabinet meeting today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: He emptied his prisons in Venezuela, emptied his prisons into our country. And I hope that charge will be brought at some point, because that was a big charge that hasn't been brought yet. It should be brought. They have really sued him just on a fraction of the kind of things that he's done. Other cases are going to be brought.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: He seems to be previewing something, but I wonder if you expect that Trump's public statements about Maduro could have an impact on this case.

HONIG: Well, first of all, there's no such thing as a charge for emptying the prisons into this country. I'm not sure what he's talking about.

It appeared he might have been gesticulating there towards the attorney general, towards Pam Bondi. It is possible that Justice Department, that prosecutors can add new charges to a case. However, this would be pretty late in the game for them to do that. If they did, they would upset the entire time frame here.

I think the judge would have some serious questions. All of these public comments that have been made by the president and others throughout this case are going to give Nicolas Maduro a motion to dismiss this case. He's going to argue, well, the president's made all these public comments about me. They perp-walked me. You have seen video of me being arrested and flown around and processed. Therefore, it has prejudiced the jury pool.

That will be a motion that I promise you Nicolas Maduro will make. I also think he will lose. It's a very high bar to get a case dismissed on that basis. But, sure, all of these comments, I'm sure, are going to the defense lawyer's binder for future motions.

KEILAR: No doubt.

Elie Honig, thank you for that analysis.

And next: With no deal in sight to reopen the Department of Homeland Security, airports are bracing for a rush of weekend and spring break travelers. Stay with us for that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:23:56]

SANCHEZ: The turmoil from the TSA staffing shortage is about to get worse.

After a slight break mid-week, major airports are bracing for a surge of weekend travelers. Today in Houston, the lines for security were hours and hours long. The only chance at relief, immediate relief, is a government funding deal, but that's getting further and further from immediate, as lawmakers are expecting to leave D.C. tomorrow for the April recess.

Let's go live to Bush Intercontinental Airport now in Houston with CNN's Ed Lavandera.

And, Ed, Houston, in particular, as we have connected with you over the last few days, seems to be a problem spot. Why? ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it is one of the areas and the airports that we're seeing one of the largest and highest callout rates from TSA employees.

We just -- these numbers are one day delayed, so we got the numbers for yesterday, and it's sort of hovering around 40 percent. Just the day before, it was slightly above 40 percent, so some really significant numbers there. And airport officials also tell me that, on average, they're only able to have about half of the security lanes operated at any given time.

[13:25:04]

And that's why you're seeing scenes like this playing out in Terminal E and only two of the security checkpoints opened up in the entire airport. And just to give you a sense of how quickly things can change here, there appears to have been a shift change with the TSA agents at the very front of this line.

This area on the floor underneath where we are, which is where the spillover area is for passengers getting in line, was almost empty about 30 minutes ago. And all of this has filled up dramatically just in the last half-hour.

So, clearly, when it gets down there, that's when we start knowing that there are lines that are probably approaching 2.5 to three hours before these people will be able to get through to security -- to the security checkpoint.

We spoke with the Houston mayor, who tells us and their office tells us that there are additional TSA agents that are being deployed here to George Bush Intercontinental Airport. But he says all of these lawmakers, Republicans and Democrats in Washington, need to be locked up in a room and not let out until this problem is resolved.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN WHITMIRE (D), MAYOR OF HOUSTON, TEXAS: It's a TSA distribution system. And my director is aware of it. I get hourly briefings. We're marching it closely. We make inquiries. But TSA thinks they know what they're doing. Washington thinks they know what they're doing. And we're living with the bad results.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: You know, it's -- the frustration that people are expressing here, Boris, is very intense.

They're trying to make the best of it, but people really clearly frustrated that this continues to drag on and on -- Boris.

SANCHEZ: Yes, understandably so.

Ed Lavandera, live for us in Houston, thank you so much -- Brianna.

KEILAR: And we go now to CNN's Ryan Young in the Atlanta Airport bureau, where he has taken up residence now for a couple of weeks.

How are things looking there, Ryan?

(LAUGHTER)

RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I honestly think, between Ed and I, we should create a misery index, because people are absolutely miserable when it comes to waiting in these lines.

They're upset. A little earlier, there was no line. You could get through pretty quickly, under a half-hour. Look this way now. That's not the case. We're seeing that Thursday rush start. People are packed in here again. That line looks about an hour-plus.

And the reason why I say looks that way is because, at this point, all the numbers in terms of the airport boards, have been shut off, so you can't see that anymore. The other thing that we have noticed today that we have seen is ICE agents actually taking up residence behind some of the TSA checkpoints.

They're actually looking at people's I.D.s and checking them in. In fact, we will stop right here and show you two of the agents right here behind where normally the TSA agents would be. You can now see ICE agents there. We will actually show you some of the video that we had a little earlier.

The video that we had before can actually show you the agents from ICE taking a look at the I.D. They're putting them in the machine and then running people through. That's a new position that we have seen at the airport today. So that helped add more available lanes. And, of course, more available lanes mean more passengers can go through here.

The other thing that happened today is, we saw Atlanta Police Department's police chief here walking around, talking to officers throughout the airport, because a lot more officers have been pressed into service to make sure the people here are safe.

But you got to think about the numbers of callouts. We're at 40.6 percent when it comes to callouts here at the airport. We know at least 500 agents have resigned from the TSA. And then you add in the fact that, just yesterday, 3,000 workers did not show up.

You add all that, the impact has just been immense. And I just want to leave on this one thing. There was someone who had a medical emergency. ICE agents sprung into action to make sure that man was taken care of. And one of them looked at me and said: "Look, we are trying to help. We are trying to make sure that people are safe."

We saw that for ourselves a little earlier on this afternoon. Still busy. We know Friday will be crushed here.

KEILAR: Yes, I mean, with just so many people waiting, standing for hours with different medical conditions as well, it's perhaps not surprising.

Ryan Young, thank you very much.

Coming up: The White House is reportedly looking at four different military options if negotiations with Iran fail. And that includes the possibility of American boots on the ground. We're going to take a look at these proposals next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)