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CNN This Morning
1,000 Arm Paratroopers to Deploy to Middle East in Days; Trump: Iran Gave Us 'A Present'; Lawmakers Try to Cut Funding Deal as Airport Wait Times Grow. Aired 6-6:30a ET
Aired March 25, 2026 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[06:00:09]
AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: The U.S. expected to deploy Army paratroopers to the Middle East within days. So, is President Trump getting ready to escalate the war with Iran, or end it all with peace talks?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: They're going to make a deal.
ESMAIL BAGHAEL, IRAN FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESPERSON: There is no talks or negotiations between Iran and the United States.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: But, if there were talks, Iran is now saying it wants Vice President J.D. Vance at the table. So why him?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: They gave us a present. And the present arrived today, and it was a very big present.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: A mystery gift. So, what did Iran give the U.S. during a war that's left the president so pleased?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I wished every senator, every congressman could stand in this line.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Lawmakers face a tight deadline before they end up at the airport trying to get home. How can both sides cut a deal and save face?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JENNIFER HOMENDY, CHAIR, NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD: When something goes wrong, that means many, many things went wrong. (END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: So, fateful moments in the LaGuardia tower. Did an air traffic controller mess up, as we heard, or did the system fail him?
CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you intend to potentially put U.S. troops or more troops in the region?
TRUMP: No, I'm not putting troops anywhere. If I -- if I were, I certainly wouldn't tell you. But I'm not putting troops.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: All right. So, that was the president just six days ago. Did something change?
Welcome, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish, and we're asking that question this morning, because CNN has learned that around 1,000 U.S. Army paratroops are headed to the Middle East.
Now, sources are telling CNN soldiers with the Army's 82nd Airborne Division are expected to deploy in the next few days. Here's another question. Why are troops being deployed when President Trump insists talks with Iran are progressing?
This morning, Iran is still denying there are any negotiations at all.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BAGHAEL: There is no talks or negotiations between Iran and the United States. As it has not been such a negotiation for the past 25 days of their illegal war against Iran.
And you see, we have a very, catastrophic experience, I should say, with the United States diplomacy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: So, there is talk about talking. And then there's also still fighting.
Israel launching a fresh wave of attacks on Tehran. Tehran responding with drone strikes on Tel Aviv.
Now, CNN's chief national security analyst and anchor, Jim Sciutto, is actually on the ground in Tel Aviv. He joins me live.
First, can you tell me a little bit about this deployment of troops that we're hearing about?
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST/ANCHOR: Yes. Well, Audie, whatever the president ultimately decides about a ground operation in Iran, all the pieces are now in the region to carry one out.
And it's not just the 1,000 paratroopers. You have Marines deployed to the region, and then all the forces, the air transport, et cetera., that one would require to -- to put troops on the ground, whether that be you've heard the discussion of Kharg Island, which is so central to Iran's energy industry, or perhaps along the shores of the Strait of Hormuz to secure the Strait of Hormuz? We don't know.
And ultimately, it's up to the president. But at least the pieces are in place.
So -- so we're left in -- in a situation not unlike where we were four weeks ago, before the start of the war, where you have two tracks at the same time.
You have diplomatic discussions with Iran, or at least now laying the groundwork for those discussions with an enormous military buildup.
We saw what happened four weeks ago. The president chose the military option, saying that the talks weren't going anywhere. So were left in that situation again. Will the president decide that the talks aren't going anywhere in his view, and then deploy further military action up to and including ground forces? We don't know.
I will tell you, from here in Israel, there's a great deal of skepticism as to whether there is actual potential for real peace negotiations right now.
CORNISH: I wanted to ask more about that. We've heard where Iran stands them claiming there are no talks. We've heard the president talk about a gift and talk about moving forward.
[06:05:08]
But is Israel on the same page with the U.S. about even the 15-point sort of ceasefire options that the White House has put out?
SCIUTTO: Well, I spoke last night to -- to the former head of military intelligence for Iran. And he said, listen, if you look at those 15 points, and if Iran were to agree to those 15 points, great. You know, that serves U.S. Interests. It serves Israeli interests.
But again, Audie, you look at that list there, things like no enrichment on Iranian soil, the decommissioning of those nuclear plants at Natanz, Fordow, et cetera. These were things that that Iran refused prior to the war and that Iran, from its perspective, sees as essential to its own security.
So, that gap is quite wide between what's on that list and where we are right now.
It's possible, following four weeks of devastating military strikes, that Iran's calculations are different. It's also possible that Trump will accept less than all 15 of those points.
But from the Israeli perspective -- and there was another senior Israeli official who spoke to our colleagues here in Tel Aviv yesterday, who said they just don't see the Iranian leadership in a negotiation footing right now, where it would be willing to give ground on those targets.
I mean, there's -- there's a middle option, right, where you -- you agree to some sort of ceasefire, not actually a peace, to -- to allow for those negotiations to carry forward and see if you can bridge some of that -- some of that ground.
But we just don't know. And again, I come back to say that if you and I were talking for weeks ago, it would be quite a similar conversation. But we know where the president chose to go then.
CORNISH: OK, that's Jim Sciutto in Tel Aviv. Thank you so much.
I want to turn to the other aspect of this, the president saying that J.D. Vance and Marco Rubio are leading the negotiations and that the U.S. is talking to a respected Iranian figure.
So, insiders think that figure could be Mohammad Ghalibaf, the speaker of Iran's Parliament. Ghalibaf has been at the forefront of Iran's deadly crackdown on protesters. If he is leading the negotiations for Iran, he may have found a way to get on Trump's good side.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: They're going to make a deal. They did something yesterday that was amazing, actually. They gave us a present. And the present arrived today, and it was a very big present worth a tremendous amount of money. And I'm not going to tell you what that present is, but it was a very significant prize.
And they gave it to us and they said they were going to give it. So that meant one thing to me. We're dealing with the right people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: All right. Joining me now to discuss, Gregg Carlstrom. He's actually the Middle East correspondent for "The Economist." First, he hasn't said, but what gift could this possibly be, other than the opening of the Strait of Hormuz?
GREGG CARLSTROM, MIDDLE EAST CORRESPONDENT, "THE ECONOMIST": Your guess is as good as mine. I mean, it's another one of many bewildering statements from President Trump this week.
There's been some speculation that it might be related to a message the Iranians passed to the International Maritime Organization, saying that the Strait of Hormuz was open to everyone except for Israel and the United States, but it was open to all other vessels.
Whether that's true or not, whether that's actually going to be something that shippers trust, we don't know. I mean, the Houthis made similar comments two years ago when they were blockading the Red Sea. They said they were only targeting Israeli vessels or vessels linked to Israel. In fact, they were shooting at Russian ships and Chinese ships and all
sorts of other commercial vessels. And so, most shipping companies avoided the Red Sea throughout the duration of that crisis.
And I think whatever it is the Iranians might be saying right now about their targeting --
CORNISH: Yes.
CARLSTROM: -- I think many vessels are going to stay away from the Strait of Hormuz.
CORNISH: Let's talk about Mohammad Ghalibaf, because he's somebody who is considered very much a hardline person. And you tweeted that the Trump administration is very loudly weighing him in order to make it appear that there's been far more diplomatic progress than seems to exist.
Is he someone that would negotiate with the U.S.?
CARLSTROM: He's someone that, if you wanted to find someone to negotiate with in Iran, he would be at the top of the list. Partly due to process of elimination. He's one of the only really senior level figures left at this point who would have the stature to do those sorts of negotiations.
And yes, in some ways, he's considered to be a hard-liner figure. A former officer in the Revolutionary Guard. He has close ties to the IRGC.
[06:10:06]
On the other hand, he's someone whose ambition for many, many years has been to be president and to find ways to advance.
So, he's been a bit of a chameleon in the Iranian system. Sometimes he portrays himself as a hardliner. Sometimes he acts like he's just a pragmatist who wants to get things done.
He did that when he was mayor of Tehran. That was the sort of rhetoric that he used.
So, you can imagine, yes, he is someone who would be willing to talk with the United States. But I think the question is, how much support does he have for that from other components of the Iranian regime?
Is the supreme leader behind these talks? We haven't heard from him since he was appointed to the job on March 9th. What does the Revolutionary Guard think about this? What do other factions think?
CORNISH: Yes.
CARLSTROM: If Ghalibaf is trying to sort of go it alone and engage in talks with the U.S., that's not going to work.
CORNISH: Gregg, I have a short time for this one, but why J.D. Vance? Why would that name come up from the Iranian side?
CARLSTROM: They don't trust Steve Witkoff anymore. They've tried negotiating with him twice over the past year. They've been attacked both times while in negotiations, so they don't want to deal with him.
J.D. Vance, he's the vice president. Obviously, that gives him more stature. He's a more senior interlocutor. And also, I think the Iranians recognize that Vance comes from the more isolationist wing of the Republican Party. He's from that side of the MAGA movement.
If you want to talk to someone about ending the war, he's probably the one you want to talk to.
CORNISH: That's Gregg Carlstrom from "The Economist." Thank you so much.
Now, coming up on CNN THIS MORNING, wait times at TSA, they're actually getting longer. Both Democrats and Republicans say they want a deal. But will the president get on board?
Plus, a safety failure? We're talking on multiple levels. The investigation into the LaGuardia plane crash.
And in the meantime, Democrats have actually flipped a seat in deep- red Florida. Is this a bad sign for the midterms for Republicans?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
EMILY GREGORY (D), STATE HOUSE REPRESENTATIVE-ELECT: Everyone thought we were crazy for saying we could win this seat. Everyone said it was out of reach.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:16:49]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's people down there having medical emergencies, people on dispatch. It's hot. This is a terrible situation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is utter chaos. Utter chaos
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: So, time is running out. Can lawmakers actually reach a deal on the TSA before they have to join angry passengers in lines at the airport?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN THUNE (R-SD): This has all been about reforms that they said they wanted, and we have repeatedly showed up. They have repeatedly backed away. And the ball is in the Democrats' court.
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): Eight times we asked: no poison pills, no politics, no conditions, just paychecks and public safety. Eight times, Republicans blocked it. And Republicans should stop playing games. And no intimidation. No more chaos. Enough.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: So, while they debate, travelers aren't getting more frustrated by the day. This is, like, a live picture of the lines at George Bush Airport in Houston.
And just so you know, we have been tracking wait times at airports across the country. If you need to know yours, look in the bottom of the screen there. They're already three hours long in Houston.
And one of the things we're going to talk about is how the airports that have the highest call-out rates among TSA workers are causing a lot of these issues.
So, in New Orleans, 42 percent of TSA workers calling out. Atlanta, as we mentioned. Houston, as we mentioned. Baltimore, up on that list now, as well, 38 percent calling in.
So, the White House came up with this plan to deploy ICE agents to critical airports. It's unclear right now, at least, how they are alleviating this issue.
On Monday, people saw ICE workers handing out water to passengers in line.
Union leaders with the TSA are skeptical this is really going to help.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
EVERETT KELLEY, NATIONAL PRESIDENT, AMERICAN FEDERATION OF GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES: That's like giving a person dying of pneumonia a teaspoon of cough syrup. It doesn't address the problem, and it's not going to work.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Joining me in the group chat: Michelle Price, White House reporter for the Associated Press; Chuck Rocha, Democratic strategist and former senior advisor to the Bernie Sanders presidential campaigns; and Charlie Dent, former Republican congressman for Pennsylvania.
We're going to talk about Republicans a lot. So, I want to start with you, Chuck. We heard Schumer say no poison pills. No this, no that.
What, right now, would get Democrats to "yes" on this, like, partial package that would at least fund everything but the parts of ICE you're mad at.
CHUCK ROCHA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Several times this week, including yesterday, the Democrats have brought bills saying let's fund all of this except for ICE.
ICE is what we're fighting over. We're willing to open up everything else. We're willing to vote "yes" on everything else. And then let's fight about the ICE thing over here that we don't agree on.
And Republicans -- I wouldn't say all the Republicans, mainly the president -- has said, no, no, no, no. We're not going to do that. Because they see this as -- because of what you're seeing at the airport, playing politics with this saying, no, let's -- let's put the pressure on. This is where the pressure is, at these airports.
CORNISH: So, the offers the White House have made are not sufficient?
ROCHA: Right. Right.
CORNISH: OK. So that leads us to Trump, who's been a huge question mark. Here's just a sample of, I think, how Trump has talked about this.
[06:20:07]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN KENNEDY (R-LA): I haven't seen the president make a public statement. I'll feel better when he does.
SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-MD): We have offered ten times now on the floor to say, fund TSA, fund FEMA, fund the parts of DHS that are not ICE. And so far, Trump has told Republicans to say no.
SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-CT): The main obstacle right now? Donald Trump. Donald Trump needs to say yes or get out of the way.
TRUMP: I think any deal they make, I'm pretty much not happy with it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: So, is there anyone that Trump would listen to? Trick question. Lindsey Graham says it's him. Here's him talking about his involvement in this conversation now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRAHAM: I was asked to intervene, because the president didn't like it. Through some effort, we're in a spot where we can end this madness. And to my Democratic colleagues, let's end this madness.
THUNE: Obviously, maybe you can just say that my colleagues were more persuasive than I was.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Poor Thune, having to call in Lindsey Graham to help. What happened there?
CHARLIE DENT, FORMER PENNSYLVANIA REPUBLICAN CONGRESSMAN: Well, look, John Thune is in a situation where I think he simply has to negotiate whatever he must with the Democrats to open everything but ICE.
Now, there's some discussion about putting ICE in a reconciliation package separate from this. There's Thune, and then there's Trump.
And then, of course, Donald Trump is basically saying he doesn't like any of this deal. And -- and so right now, he's basically bringing a lot of the blame right on himself now for this shutdown by not --
CORNISH: You think Trump is?
DENT: Yes.
CORNISH: Yes.
DENT: I mean, I think Thune has a path forward here that makes sense. Now, whether or not Democratic leadership supports it or not, I don't know yet.
But I suspect there are enough retiring Senate Democrats who might be game to vote for something that just does fund everything but ICE --
CORNISH: Yes.
DENT: -- right now.
CORNISH: Yes. And this is like a weird situation. We were reading that a senior administration official says that CPB, Secret Service, Coast Guard are getting paid from funds from the Big, Beautiful Bill this summer.
And I've often thought like, wait, I don't understand. Like, do they have a bunch of money they're sitting on, or do they not? Like, could they actually pay TSA workers if they wanted to?
MICHELLE PRICE, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, ASSOCIATED PRESS: The money was not set aside for them. So that's the issue.
CORNISH: Yes.
PRICE: That the -- the agents, the officers who are at the center of this, right, they actually are getting paid right now.
But the pressure point you're seeing is the ones at the airports, the ones we're seeing on screen right now, we're seeing Congressmembers might start feeling some of that more personally.
CORNISH: Yes. The irony of that is while the salary difference between a TSA worker and an ICE worker just put that up for folks: 35,000 versus 52.
Like, they're literally in this airport mess because of ICE and tactics and the deaths of two people, just so we're clear. And in the end, it's ICE that they're all standing next to while they're not getting paid.
PRICE: Right. And these workers have been through, now, multiple shutdowns, multiple stretches without paychecks. Some of them are calling in, but some of them are also just leaving the job, which is going to be another issue that they will have to address when we do get back, when this is reopened at some point.
CORNISH: Yes.
ROCHA: Four hundred ICE agents have already quit this job. That makes $35,000 a year. Like, you do 35,000. I'm not going to do my math this week, but I'll tell you that that's not a lot of money for folks out there looking to get a paycheck when there's folks offering bonuses to do lots of different --
CORNISH: We're also cruising towards the end of the month for anybody who's been broke and is looking at your bank account dwindle, and you're trying to figure out how to make rent.
I just want to give you an example of how some of these TSA workers are feeling. You guys take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANGELA GRANA, REGIONAL VICE PRESIDENT, COLORADO TSA AFGE Local 1127: We'll never recover from this abuse. We just -- we'll never catch up on our bills. We already live paycheck to paycheck.
We should never have such a small salary to begin with for such a huge responsibility that we have. And then we're working side by side with our counterparts that are getting paid. It's -- it's pretty demoralizing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: All right, guys, stay with me. We're going to have a lawmaker on later this hour to talk about this.
And after the break on CNN THIS MORNING, we do have some new details about the plane crash in LaGuardia. So, was that fire truck that was hit, was it actually missing a crucial safety tracker?
And we're going to continue to monitor those wait times through the morning. You can check on those on the CNN app. We'll also have it on the bottom of the screen throughout the morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:28:35]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HOMENDY: We rarely, if ever, investigate a major accident where it was one failure. So, when something goes wrong, that means many, many things went wrong.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: This morning, investigators still trying to piece together what may have caused the deadly crash between an Air Canada flight and a fire truck. This happened at New York's LaGuardia
Airport.
And new details reveal that the fire truck didn't have a transponder, making it difficult for air traffic controllers to track its location.
There were only two air traffic controllers in the tower at the time. At least one of them was doing several jobs at once.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HOMENDY: It's also common practice across the national airspace, where you would have two controllers in the tower cab during the midnight shift.
The midnight shift, as a reminder, is one that we have many times at the NTSB raised concerns about with respect to fatigue. Again, I do not know. We do have no indication that was a factor here, but it is a shift that we have been focused on in past investigations.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Joining me now to discuss, retired FAA and ATC agent Harvey Scolnick.
Good morning, Harvey.
HARVEY SCOLNICK, RETIRED FAA AND ATC AGENT: Good morning, Audie.
CORNISH: I want to come back to what you said about that midnight shift. But first, the idea of the -- the truck itself, the emergency vehicle that was crossing over to runway four as that Air Canada jet was landing.
Does it -- how significant is it not having one of these transponders in terms of understanding where everybody was that night?
[06:30:00]
