Return to Transcripts main page

CNN This Morning

Holly Dagres is Interviewed about Iran; MAGA Divided over Resignation; Rep. Joe Morelle (D-NY) is Interviewed about Iran. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired March 18, 2026 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00]

ADM. JAMES STAVRIDIS (RET.), CNN SENIOR MILITARY ANALYST: Sweeping technology at this point, Audie. They're all over 30 years old.

What you're showing in the background there is the replacement. That's a littoral combat ship, much bigger. It's about the size of those four. You can see it on the right side of the screen there. And that brings a package of very high-tech capability. We've got three of those in the gulf. So, that's a very reasonable upgrade, if you will.

And finally, in addition, our allies, the British and the Saudis, for example, also have very good minesweeping. So there's a lot of minesweeping. There's one of those littoral combat ships, the more advanced capability that is in the gulf.

CORNISH: Let me ask you something there though, because you just mentioned the Saudis and U.K., right? So, you've got the Europeans who are like, ah, maybe we'll come later when you guys have settled things down. And I haven't heard them really talk, the administration, about reaching out to gulf allies about their abilities.

Respond to what I'm hearing from Germany, that -- where they say, look, what can we do that the U.S. Navy can't at this point?

STAVRIDIS: Incorrect. The German navy has very capable minesweepers, as do the British, the French, the Italians, the Spanish. There are good minesweeping capabilities in the NATO alliance. And the Europeans, in my view, ought to send those to the gulf.

Now, we can debate the politics or the approach of the administration pushing people and calling it a loyalty test. Not the right approach. But is there capability there in Europe that could be helpful, everything from minesweepers to frigates to destroyers to guided missile cruisers, yes.

CORNISH: So, in the meantime, U.S. Navy warship believed to be carrying thousands of Marines and sailors, was spotted near Singapore. And so, yesterday, Republican Congressman Pete Sessions was kind of asked about this, and he suggested that they might be headed for a mission to Kharg Island. And he told CNN that he doesn't see it though as boots on the ground.

Let me see if I can play that for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. PETE SESSIONS (R-TX): The president has chosen not to obliterate the ability that -- to get oil. And I think he wants to go secure that to make sure the Iranians don't do themselves in. So, I think it's probably wisdom. Is that boots on the ground? No, not like inside Iran where they're in the cities.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: So, for people who don't know, this is Iran's key oil and gas kind of export hub. What do you see when you see a carrier of that size going in that direction?

STAVRIDIS: I see certainly the potential for boots on the ground. And let's start with Kharg Island. It is important because it controls 90 percent of the oil that comes out of Iran from the inside of Iran. The Kharg Island is where it's loaded onto big tankers. They come down through the Strait of Hormuz, as you're showing now. Kharg Island is way up to the left on that graphic, all the way in the northern part of the Arabian Gulf. So that strike force, expeditionary force we call it in the Navy, with the 2,500 Marines, is going to go through the strait. If you see it head up to Kharg, you ought to start thinking that the potential is for those Marines to go ashore, seize it, hold on to it. And that is boots on the ground. And Kharg Island is part of Iran.

CORNISH: Admiral Stavridis, I know that the European allies, their feelings are hurt. They're mad at Trump. If you were in this position right now, what would you be saying to them to get them back on board?

STAVRIDIS: I'd say, be pragmatic. You need the oil, you need especially the natural gas, because you, quite correctly, got off of Russian natural gas. Your natural gas now comes as liquefied natural gas, LNG, out of the gulf, a lot of it. So, I'd say to the Europeans, rise above anything you're hearing but send your ships. It makes sense for them to do so.

CORNISH: OK. Retired Admiral James Stavridis, thank you so much. Really appreciate your time.

STAVRIDIS: You bet.

CORNISH: Straight ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, a top counterterrorism official has resigned. So, is the war in Iran actually splintering the MAGA base?

Plus, for a second night in a row, a U.S. embassy in Baghdad under attack.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:39:10]

CORNISH: OK, as you might recall, when the president first announced U.S. strikes, he called for protesters to rise up and take over Iran. "The Washington Post" now says senior Israeli officials told U.S. diplomats that Iranians will be, quote, "slaughtered" if they take to the streets in protest. The Iranian regime is now cracking down harder, which is saying something since it actually executed protesters by the thousands back in January. Here's some of our reporting from CNN's Jomana Karadsheh.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Iranians still reeling from the collective trauma of January 8th and 9th, now being warned, take to the streets and it will happen again.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Our team have their fingers on the trigger.

KARADSHEH (voice over): The chief of police threatening protesters. They will be treated as the enemy and shot.

[06:40:02]

The feared Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps promising another massacre of protesters. This time, they say, they will strike harder than they did in January. Messages we've received from Iranians inside the country describe a regime using every tool in its playbook to crush dissent.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Every time you go outside, even just to go to the market, you see machine guns and pushkas, heavy guns on the streets. Everyone is afraid of the checkpoints. They are basically the regime's street level enforcers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: OK, joining us now in the group chat, Holly Dagres, senior fellow at the Washington Institute, and former senior fellow at -- and Iran source editor for the Atlantic Council.

I wanted to bring you back because we talked about this moment, and I want to play it for people, when Trump first announced the U.S. strikes. Remember, there was no debate in Congress. There was no other conversation. You saw this moment on social media.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Finally, to the great, proud people of Iran, I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand.

When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Is the hour at hand? HOLLY DAGRES, SENIOR FELLOW, WASHINGTON INSTITUTE: I would say, no, not at this juncture. And it's because, as Jomana's reporting noted, there's heavy security presence in the street. Iranians are getting text messages explicitly threatening them if they go out. And --

CORNISH: Meaning, the government can send a text to your phone threatening you directly?

DAGRES: Correct. And it's even more complicated than that because as some of the Iranian officials have said, they've been threatening -- if there are protesters, they've had their fingers on the trigger and they're ready to shoot. And we've seen what that looks like in -- given the unprecedented massacre in January when Iranians did rise up.

CORNISH: I want to play for you something from the Israeli ambassador to the U.N., Danny Danon, when he was asked, at least about the moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANNY DANON, ISRAELI AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N.: I think the time is coming for the Iranian people to decide about their future, to rise up and to make sure they take control of their future. You know, they waited for this opportunity for so long. Now the time is coming. We know it's not easy for them, especially after what happened in January when tens of thousands were massacred by this same regime. But today there is a new reality, and I hope that they will have the courage to seize the moment and use this opportunity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: It was interesting to hear the words like "courage" and "seizing" and all this stuff, and then see this reporting that says Israel's intelligence is like, that's not going to work.

Can you talk about how you're reading the mixed messages here?

DAGRES: Well, we've been hearing from the Israeli government, specifically Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for a long time call on the Iranian people to rise up. We also saw that during the 12-day war in June. But messaging's one thing. The realities on the ground are different. And the Iranian people aren't going to listen to U.S. officials or Israeli officials about when the time is right. I think they will feel it in their gut. In January they rose up. Nobody told them to. It was because they felt that that moment was what they wanted to do. And I think that we'll see that if that -- they decide to do that in the days and weeks --

CORNISH: But it's also, do they believe anybody would come to back them up? That was always the question. And here, I mean, we do it on this network. We talk all the time about boots on the ground and American reluctance. I feel like, if you hear U.S. people talking like this, you don't think Trump is going to be somehow there, right, or the government or anyone there to back you up in a scenario?

DAGRES: I think there's mixed feelings on the ground. Granted, there is currently an internet shutdown. So, what we're hearing out of Iran is through landlines or Starlink users, which are about 50,000 to 60,000. But the Iranians, I mean, we have to remember, the assets that were moved to the region in January were because of that unprecedented massacre. And it was Iranians that really thought, according to some of the videos we saw, thanking the president, changing the street names to Trump Street, that they really thought help was genuinely on the way. And I think in this moment, some Iranians still think that this regime is on its way out.

I'm an analyst here, and I see it differently, but I can't tell people that are hopeful for change not to feel that way.

CORNISH: Ali Larijani seems like was targeted, and you mentioned online that there are people who haven't been. The president, the judiciary chief, the parliament speaker. Why did you point out these names and what difference does that make?

DAGRES: Well, I pointed it out because it was actually means that the government's still functioning. The Islamic Republic is still in power. Yes, there's these top leadership, like the supreme leader being taken out, but he was quickly replaced by Khamenei Junior, his son.

And then we've seen Ali Larijani, who has been a key interlocutor, who's also been the secretary of the supreme national security council, also be taken out.

[06:45:02]

But there are characters in -- that are in power. And that means that at this juncture, the Islamic Republic is still thriving. It's still able to survive. But that can change, obviously, in the days and weeks to come. But at this moment, it seems that they still have very much a hold on power and are very threatened by their people.

CORNISH: OK, Holly, thanks so much for this detail. Appreciate it.

Group chat, stay with me.

We want to turn to this MAGA divisions over the U.S.' war with Iran. It kind of got more intense on Tuesday. And that's because a counterintelligence official, Joe Kent, resigned. And what he said is that there was no imminent threat from Iran. And he wrote this in a resignation letter. He said, "I cannot support sending the next generation off to fight and die in a war that serves no benefit to the American people, nor justifies the cost of American lives."

Many MAGA influencers online rallying around Kent, citing his military experience.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CANDACE OWENS: Joe Kent did that. So, he has an understanding of what it means to put people in harm's way, and for them to be willing to die for the country's security. So, his measure is going to be infinitely more precise than Trump's is, right? To them, they're playing like Monopoly, right? They -- like figurines on a board. They don't care. OK, how many do we need out here? OK, how many -- they're like -- they're like -- they're playing Battleship. It's not real. It's not real because they have never had any true stake in the game.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: OK, group chat is back.

I wanted to talk about this because Kent originally was linked to Nick Fuentes for a variety of reasons. We don't have to go down the rabbit hole. But it -- he is now kind of going back into that rabbit hole, right? You were saying that he's basically leaving the job and going straight to a Tucker Carlson taping.

JASMINE WRIGHT, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, "NOTUS": Yes, he's expected to go on Tucker Carlson this week. I mean, let's just like kind of set the stage here. This is a person who has basically blamed the FBI for January 6th. He has been accused of pressuring analysts to change their findings to support the president's stance on Venezuela. This is somebody who has forever been against forever wars. Obviously, his wife died in combat in Syria, his first wife.

CORNISH: Yes.

WRIGHT: And so, yes, he's kind of going back to that faction of it. We'll see what he says.

CORNISH: And the administration liked him, put him forward and got him the job, right?

WRIGHT: Yes.

CORNISH: In 2022 the president saying that he's a very incredible guy, tremendous future, retired -- like, you love him when he says BLM is a terrorist organization that needs to be investigated. Now that he has aligned himself with people that Trump is really frustrated with. The other day on Truth Social Trump was praising Mark Levin. And in the -- in that praise basically saying that, look, the people who are against this war "are jealous and angry human beings, whose sway is much less than the public understands and will now that they know where I stand, rapidly diminish."

Him kind of going after this Tucker. Candace, Megyn Kelly wing of the party that is speaking so loudly about the war.

CHARLIE DENT (R), FORMER PENNSYLVANIA CONGRESSMAN: Well, the MAGA people who are upset with this war actually believe that MAGA is a coherent ideology. OK, let's be clear, MAGA is what Trump says it is. This is Donald Trump says. And so, these other folks are just making a lot of noise. They're falling in line. If I were the administration, I'd be a lot more worried about the American public writ large who does have a problem with this military operation.

It's not just about MAGA. I mean, like I said, MAGA is what Trump says it is. And, you know, so Carlson and notwithstanding Megyn Kelly, Carlson -- CORNISH: Yes.

DENT: You know, Bannon, and all the rest of those guys who will scream and yell, but they're always going to fall in line. That's where this is.

CORNISH: But the reason why I'm bringing it up is because in his letter he mentions the Israel lobby. And this language is very in line with what you hear from Tucker et al Nick Fuentes who is a white supremacist, said we're not playing here because, of course, and I think that you had someone like Ted Cruz last week saying, look, these divisions around Israel are a huge problem. And now here he is after this. We're going to play that for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): I think there are very few divisions. There are a few loudmouthed commentators.

Republicans are overwhelmingly standing with President Trump. And just because Tucker Carlson and a handful of other mouthpieces online decide to embrace a radical, isolationist view that is deeply anti- Israel and that is an apologist for radical Islamists, it doesn't mean that's where the voters are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: He went from like, this is a widespread problem we need to address, to --

WRIGHT: And the Republican Party is tainted with anti-Semitism, to it's just a couple people.

CORNISH: And now he's like vibes from one bad guy.

ANTJUAN SEAWRIGHT, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, I would say leopards don't change their spots and zebras don't change their stripes. And that's how I would deal with and describe Mr. Kent.

[06:50:00]

However, I will say that there's a difference between the Republican -- modern day Republican Party and the MAGA movement. And I think that's what we're going to have to -- that's what will be measured in the election. With all of the president abandoning his America first principles that he campaigned on, and pissing off those who were centerpieces to his success in the last election, what would that mean for the November election? Will those folks turn out to vote for his agenda and his last two years of his tenure as president of the United States? And when it comes to the war, when it comes to all the things, and you're starting to see more and more Republicans who supported Trump speak out against him, Marjorie Taylor Green, Kent and others. And I think that's where you see the fractures in the Republican Party.

CORNISH: Yes. Like, how long can you call them fringe? OK, I want to ask someone else some of these questions. And also about this, the voter I.D. bill that's hitting the Senate floor. Democratic Congressman Joe Morelle is here. He's going to talk about why he calls the bill Jim Crow 2.0.

Plus, this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wait till November. And a lot of these people get thrown out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: The DHS shutdown putting the nation's airports on the brink. Should masked ICE agents be the red line for Democrats?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CORNISH: So, President Trump and his Republican allies in the House are defending the war with Iran after the defiant resignation of a top counterterrorism boss. So, we've been talking about Joe Kent because he wrote this resignation letter. He said in it that, "Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and that it is clear" the U.S. "started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby."

I want to play for you the speaker of the House.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): I don't know where Joe Kent is getting his information, but he wasn't in those briefings, clearly, because the secretary of state, the secretary of war and everyone, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Caine, they had exquisite intelligence that we understood that this was a serious moment for us.

[06:55:04]

Had the president waited, I am personally convinced that we would have mass casualties of Americans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Joining us now to talk about this and more, Congressman Joe Morelle, Democrat of New York.

Thank you for being here.

REP. JOE MORELLE (D-NY): Thank you.

CORNISH: We always like to talk to you because you're on House Appropriations, which I guess when -- when people say the power of the purse --

MORELLE: Yes. CORNISH: They're talking about you guys. So, when you hear stuff like this, is there an opportunity for oversight, questions on the horizon, for people who want to know about some specifics about how the U.S. entered this war?

MORELLE: Well, Speaker Johnson must be in different briefings than I'm in because we've gotten very little information. I was in a classified briefing yesterday, and it's hard to get any real information from the administration on the cost of the war, which as appropriators that's our primary mission. But just to understand, and, frankly, the shifting rationale for this, and this --

CORNISH: But they say their rationale has been consistent, to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear war. And they're going to come to you. The speaker said that we would need a supplemental because we've used quite a bit of munitions and have got to replenish the stock.

MORELLE: They're certainly right about that. They've used a lot of munitions. The question is whether we're close -- any degree closer to stopping Iran from having a nuclear weapon. And I think -- and it's funny to watch the Republicans. They're all for you until you say something against the president, then they're all against you. And, you know --

CORNISH: Can you picture yourself voting against the supplemental when you have service members in the battlefield?

MORELLE: I think it's a -- it's a challenge for the reason you raised, which is munitions are being depleted. Some of the exquisite interceptors that we're going to need to replenish. So, they put -- it's essentially putting a gun to your head. But we'll see. I think it's premature to talk about it, but it'd be nice to have a real accounting from the Department of Defense or the president on what exactly is happening, what the goals here are, how we'll know whether we've completed this mission. I mean every day it's just taking you know, what Donald Trump's opinion is at any given moment on what we're doing and we're putting men and women in harm's way and there's no clear reason for this.

CORNISH: Let me turn to something else related. The Department of Homeland Security shutdown is over. Democrats saying, look, we want to see changes at ICE and their tactics. And one of the things the administration has counter-offered, we discussed earlier, making them show I.D.s, visible I.D.s, limiting arrests at sensitive places like schools or hospitals, and my favorite, adhering to existing law not to deport U.S. citizens.

What is the reply? Other than being upset. Because we need to get closer to getting these folks out of the airport.

MORELLE: Well, if it weren't such a serious matter, I'd say it's laughable. It's not about getting angry. It's, we're going to follow the law. I don't even know what -- I mean, really? That's your offer? But look, without judicial warrants -- I mean people in communities across this country are terrified right now.

CORNISH: So, judicial warrants is one of the red lines. Anything else?

MORELLE: Absolutely. I think taking the masks off, having prominently displayed, having body cams on everyone. I mean that's the starters. I mean those aren't even included in the list of things. So, people back home -- I hear this from Democrats, Republicans, independents, do not give in on the reforms that we need to see and ICE.

CORNISH: Let me --

MORELLE: So, and, look, we can find the funding issue. Rosa DeLauro, the ranking Democrat on Appropriations, is going to advance a discharge petition today on a bill that would fund TSA. (INAUDIBLE) this is --

CORNISH: Discharge petition. God, this is when you all override the vote. You just say, we're going to vote and move this forward.

MORELLE: Try to get a majority member of the House, members of the House, to sign a petition that says, let's consider this way of doing it without regard to what the speaker wants or whatever, you know. So --

CORNISH: Earlier in the show we played this clip of a traveler at the Atlanta airport who said, look, wait till November. We're going to get these people thrown out. Which brings me to the issue of the SAVE Act and voting. This is very high stakes, as people may be upset with the administration or upset with Democrats and how they are behaving here.

Can you talk about the status of this debate? At this point, looking at the Senate, do you -- are you worried this is going to pass?

MORELLE: Well, I'm worried only because the implications, if this does pass, what this means for our American elections. But I have great confidence. I was with Senators Padilla and Schumer yesterday. They clearly understand the stakes here.

And look, this is not about voter I.D. I appreciate the fact on the intro you said about voter I.D. We could have a bill on voter I.D. done literally tomorrow, as long as it's responsible and reasonable.

CORNISH: Right, which is already in 36 states.

MORELLE: Yes. Well, and, by the way, we identify voters even in places like New York and Arizona through signature analysis. But that's OK. If you want to have that, that is a tiny part of it.

What they don't talk about, and I challenge them on the floor, you don't talk about is all the voter file and data is now going to be sent to the Department of Homeland Security. What role they have to play in this is really questionable. Their database is awful. You're going to use it really to purge voters. You're going to make it harder to register. In rural communities, you may have to travel three hours to get to your board of elections because mail-in registration, online registration will all be gone.

CORNISH: Yes. But we've heard places, like Kansas and Iowa with big rural populations, have something similar. But I hear what you're saying. This is a --

MORELLE: Could you imagine driving three hours, having the long --

[07:00:01]

CORNISH: Yes, but it's a Christmas tree of other things, right?

MORELLE: Yes. Well, now we're adding all kinds of stuff. Yes.

CORNISH: Trans-sports and all those other stuff.

Let's keep our eye on the Senate, where, as you said, there are even some Republicans who are nonplused.

MORELLE: Yes.

CORNISH: Thank you for being here.

MORELLE: Yes.

CORNISH: Thank you, guys, for being here. And we know you could spend your time in a lot of places. So, thank you for being here. I'm Audie Cornish, and the headlines are next.