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CNN This Morning
Senate Votes to Fund DHS; No Safe Haven: Stocks, Bonds, Gold Drop in Market Slide. Aired 6-6:30a ET
Aired March 27, 2026 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[06:00:10]
RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: All right. That's going to do it for us. Thanks for being with us here on EARLY START. I'm Rahel Solomon, live in New York. My thanks to Becky Anderson and her team.
CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.
AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: -- take action to finally pay TSA agents. When will that ease the lines at the airport?
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SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): This could have been accomplished weeks ago if Republicans hadn't stood in the way.
SEN. JOHN THUNE (R-SD): The Democrats just kept moving the goalposts.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Senators pull an all-nighter, but not before President Trump said he'd do it himself.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I feel angry. I feel used. I feel abused.
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CORNISH: So, if the president had this power all along, why didn't he do it before?
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DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: They asked for seven, and I said, I'm going to give you ten.
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CORNISH: The president extends his threatening deadline on Iran. Are the chances for peace that good, or are the options for war that bad?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARK LANIER, PLAINTIFF'S LAWYER: We've sent a message with this that you will be held accountable.
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CORNISH: Facebook and YouTube held liable for being addictive. Will that change anything for your kids? I'm going to talk to a mom who sought justice for her daughter, CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.
It is 6 a.m. And yes, there are still long security lines in Atlanta this morning. Now, there are breakthroughs, however, on two fronts. Not in time to help any of these folks. Sorry.
Hi, everyone. I'm Audie Cornish, and we are going to begin with this breaking news.
TSA agents a step closer to getting their first paycheck since February. Just a few weeks [SIC] ago, the Senate voted to fund --just a few hours ago, the Senate voted to fund the Homeland Security Department. TSA gets money. ICE and Border Patrol do not, at least for now. The House still needs to approve.
And hours before that, President Trump said he would sign an emergency order to pay TSA officers immediately. We don't know what "immediately" means in the world of government payroll, but sources tell CNN the money will come from last summer's Big, Beautiful Bill.
Now, the boss at one public workers' group wonders this: "If he can do it, why didn't he do it before? This has been a problem for over a month now."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JULIAN ABE, TSA OFFICER: All my -- my savings that I put aside for other purposes have been used up. So, that's frustrating, because I will have to rebuild all the savings I had.
TATIANA FINLAY, TSA UNION REP, AFGE LOCAL 556: It has come to the point of, like, having to skip meals, because I have to make sure that my kids are fed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Today in the group chat, Noel King, co-host and editorial director for the "Today, Explained" podcast; Elliot Williams, CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor; and Michael Warren, senior editor of "The Dispatch"; and Maria Cardona, CNN political commentator and Democratic strategist.
Michael, I want to talk to you, because halfway through the week, the president was like, no compromise, no deal. Then there was no deal.
Then, all of a sudden it was, actually, I'll have an executive order, and I'll pay the TSA agents. Is that whiplash a sign that the White House felt they were losing on the topic?
MICHAEL WARREN, SENIOR EDITOR, "THE DISPATCH": I think so. I think, after a couple of weeks of these lines, I mean, they can say all they want. You know, this is Democrats' fault.
And I think it is Democrats' fault in -- in part.
Then, there -- the political pressure, though, I think was coming to bear on Republicans. They're looking at, you know, abysmal approval ratings and abysmal sort of outlook for the midterm elections.
This was just something where they really weren't going to win, although I don't really think Democrats won much in this either.
CORNISH: Yes, Elliot was saying the same thing before the show. Why do you think this wasn't exactly a win for them?
ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Because, well, there's a few reasons.
No. 1, there are now -- this all started about ICE, remember.
CORNISH: Yes.
WILLIAMS: We're now fighting about what's happening in airports. But this was really about immigration enforcement tactics in Minneapolis and around the country.
And that thread has been lost, I think, No. 1. Well, OK, we'll talk about it. No. 1.
CORNISH: Yes.
WILLIAMS: And No. 2, because of the fact that funding for ICE and the Border Patrol has been taken out of the bill, that's going to be a new negotiation that Republicans might be able to pass without many Democratic votes and without many concessions.
And so, the point is, what did Democrats actually win here? I'm not convinced that they own the lines at airports, like many people are saying.
[06:05:00]
CORNISH: Yes.
WILLIAMS: No. But what did they win, it's just not clear to me.
CORNISH: Yes. Well, they definitely bought more time to negotiate --
MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes.
CORNISH: -- on these topics.
CARDONA: That's right.
CORNISH: Is that your take?
CARDONA: Yes. Not only that, but Democrats in the Senate and in the House held the line throughout all of these negotiations to not give an additional cent to ICE or CBP because of all of the brutality and the rogue nature of how they've been acting. So that, to me, is a huge win.
Now, it's going to be what's going to happen now in terms of the negotiations.
I don't think all of this has been lost, Elliot. I work with a lot of advocacy organizations, and that has been their true North: to try to get some concessions. There have been already some concessions from Republicans from the list of ten that Democrats have put out there.
My understanding is that there is -- the Problem Solvers Caucus is going to put something out there that also includes judicial warrant --
WILLIAMS: Right.
CARDONA: -- which is a huge piece of this. So, we'll see how this turns out.
But up until now, this is a huge win for Democrats, because they were able to hold the line.
And I think the pressure came, frankly, when recently, a Democrat won Mar-a-Lago district. And Republicans looked at it, looked at that in -- in -- after a huge slew of wins from Democrats who have flipped, I think, 28 --
CORNISH: Yes. They're at the point of 20 legislative wins.
CARDONA: Exactly.
CORNISH: Let me jump in because I think --
(CROSSTALK)
CARDONA: -- a lot of pressure.
CORNISH: There were a lot of ironies in how this played out. The -- after the deaths of two Americans in Minneapolis, Democrats leaned into this "There needs to be changes."
And then, ironically, one of the solves by the administration was, well, maybe we're going to have ICE at the airport. It sort of reminded everyone, like, what the problem was.
NOEL KING, CO-HOST, EDITORIAL DIRECTOR, "TODAY, EXPLAINED": So, to the question of who won this.
CORNISH: Yes.
KING: Perhaps, everybody lost. Because I have been in an American airport in the last week, and --
CORNISH: Thoughts and prayers.
KING: -- it wasn't one of the terrible ones, actually.
CORNISH: Yes.
KING: But what I will tell you is, you know, I always start a conversation in the bathroom, in the line. Everyone is mad at everybody in Congress. This is not like, oh, I blame the Democrats. I blame the Republicans. And I have heard that.
CORNISH: And they did not blame the ICE agents.
KING: They did not blame the ICE -- people are just mad at our lawmakers. And I think that, you know, on -- in one sense, you do understand what you're saying. This is tied to this. It's tied to this.
If you are standing in line at an airport.
CARDONA: Right.
KING: You want everybody fired.
WARREN: But this is ultimately why I think this doesn't work for Republicans in the end. I think that's what -- that's what the Republicans were looking at --
CORNISH: Right. Yes.
WARREN: -- and what the president was looking at here, was that actually, all of those sort of machinations behind the scenes don't matter. We're the ones in charge.
CARDONA: Yes. Exactly.
WARREN: And this compounds all of the other problems.
CARDONA: That's exactly right.
WILLIAMS: The thing that I'm fascinated by is, and to Noel's point, there are fully tacked-out ICE agents walking around airports right now. Why do Democrats not have those images blasting around every campaign ad right now?
CORNISH: OK, that's free advice. I don't know, I don't know what to say.
CARDONA: They -- they are. And --
CORNISH: He's here all week.
All right. We're going to talk more about this today. Obviously, there's going to be more movement on that legislation.
In the meantime, we're going to talk about the fact that, for investors, maybe there is no safe haven. Stocks, bonds, gold all drop in a market slide. So, will President Trump's war do serious damage to the economy? Plus, top U.S. diplomat Marco Rubio at the G-7, set to face our allies
for the first time since the U.S. strikes on Iran.
And President Trump skips CPAC for the first time in nearly a decade. Here's some of what he will miss.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm still a conservative. I still support conservatives, but I just think that the Republican Party needs to go a different direction.
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[06:13:11]
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A few months ago, it was like 30 or something dollars. Now it's going up to 50 for me.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It shrinks my income. Of course, but I'm on E, so I have no choice.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just making sure I keep that money to the side, because I need to get to work.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: So, the U.S. war in Iran and the spike in energy prices have battered budgets, 401(k)s, and global markets.
The national average for a gallon of gas is about to hit $4. And that's up a dollar in just the last month. And nearly $6 a gallon in California.
And it's not just stocks that are struggling. Safe havens like gold and bonds are retreating. That has many economists predicting a market correction. And the Dow, S&P 500, and NASDAQ are set to record their worst month in a year.
President Trump kind of shrugging it off.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Frankly, I thought the oil prices would go up more. And I thought the stock market would go down more. Hasn't been nearly as severe as I thought.
I think they have confidence in maybe the American president and maybe the people sitting around this table.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: We're going to go live now to Dubai and bring in CNN's Eleni Giokos.
Thank you so much for talking with us. I want to come to this issue of recession in a moment.
But first, this is having reverberations around the world. I was reading that the Philippines has now declared an energy emergency. Can you give us a sense of which countries are most vulnerable?
ELENI GIOKOS, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR/CORRESPONDENT: So, it's mostly Southeast Asian countries. And importantly, you also have oil emerging market countries.
I was looking at some of the currency fluctuations specifically for emerging markets, and they are under severe pressure. Even in India. The Indian rupee coming under pressure.
You're seeing people lining up at gas stations, trying to get whatever drop of oil and fuel and gas they can possibly get their hands on.
[06:15:05]
You've got rationing that is happening in India. You've seen similar images out of Thailand. You're seeing this happening in the Philippines. In fact, the Philippines is saying they've only got 40 to 45 days of access to diesel supplies.
So, Audie, we're talking about a very serious situation. This isn't just a conflict on the battlefield. This is a global energy shock.
CORNISH: And I've been hearing about sort of the point of view from the top of the capitalist food chain. This is BlackRock CEO Larry Fink talking to the BBC. Let's talk on the other side of it.
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LARRY FINK, CEO, BLACKROCK: If there's a cessation of war and yet Iran remains a threat -- a threat to trade, a threat to the -- to the Straits [SIC] of Hormuth [SIC] -- then I would argue that we could have years, years of, you know, above $100, closer to $150 oil.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What happens to the global economy if that happens? How do we see it?
FINK: We'll have global recession.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: I was surprised to hear the "R" word there. What are you hearing?
GIOKOS: Yes. Yes. Well, we heard from Christine Lagarde saying we're underestimating what we're seeing in terms of disruption and supplies. That's the president of the European Central Bank.
We've heard from the WTO director general, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. She's saying this is the largest trade disruption in 80 years. Now, that's very contradictory from what we're hearing from the White
House. President Trump is insisting, well, you know, we were expecting much higher oil prices. This isn't going to be so bad.
He's always using sort of some kind of encouragement to prop up oil markets.
But the reality is the reality. You're seeing these images now of what you're seeing, you know, in the Strait of Hormuz. That is still choked off. Iran has de facto control over it.
The -- you know, people here in the UAE are saying that Iran is basically holding the whole world at ransom.
When you're hearing the word "recession" from the largest fund manager in the world, you've got to take this quite seriously. The OECD says inflation is going to hit over 4 percent in the United States, and that is the same for all G-20 countries. Those are the largest economies in the world.
So, when we think about whether this is contained, it is absolutely not. How long this will last will determine the long-term pain. But what is actually being priced in, Audie, is inflation that we're going to get at. We're going to get, whether we like it or not, even though we're only a month into this war.
CORNISH: OK. That's Eleni Giokos. Thank you so much.
And next on CNN THIS MORNING, after a landmark ruling finding Meta and YouTube liable for social media addiction, I'm going to be talking to a mother who has been fighting for this kind of justice after losing her daughter.
Plus, the runway reopens after a plane crash at LaGuardia.
And we're continuing to monitor TSA security lines across the country after a deal in Congress has moved to fund DHS.
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[06:22:10]
CORNISH: So, this week, one woman received justice in her fight against big tech. A jury found Meta and YouTube liable on all counts in a case accusing them of intentionally addicting the now 20-year-old woman and harming her mental health.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LANIER: This message is one that's important to Kaley and her family, but it's of very great importance to a generation of people who have been affected.
There are so many families who have been tragically hurt through the addiction of social media, and we've sent a message with this that you will be held accountable. (END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: All right. So, this case could be just the tip of the iceberg. There are thousands more just like it. And more trials expected this year.
Some of the plaintiffs aren't even alive for their day in court. And that includes the daughter of Tammy Rodriguez. Her 11-year-old daughter, Selena died by suicide in 2021.
And Tammy has a pending lawsuit against several social media companies, accusing them of being responsible for her daughter's death, claiming dangerous features on the apps that drove her to tragedy.
Her mother, Tammy Rodriguez, is here now. Tammy, welcome back. Thank you so much for being with us.
TAMMY RODRIGUEZ, DAUGHTER DIED OF SUICIDE: Thank you for having me back.
CORNISH: I had talked to you, I think, one or two years ago when the Supreme Court was doing a ruling along the lines of this case, a little bit different legally. And at that time, you all basically lost.
So, what was it like to be in this courtroom where a verdict was read in your favor?
RODRIGUEZ: It was incredible. You know, I was there for the day that Mark Zuckerberg did testify. Unfortunately, that's the only day I was able to be there for.
But to hear him have to testify, facing us this time. When we were in the -- you know, in Congress before, he faced away from us. This time, he had to face us while he testified under oath. And that was huge for us parents. That's a win, in itself.
CORNISH: I was thinking about some of the defense arguments that I heard from Meta and from YouTube. And some of the things that they said is that, basically, all of these kids, families had other issues. That it wasn't the technology; it was other factors in their life.
And that this is no different, I think the YouTube folks said, like from picking up a toy and putting it down.
How do you think about it now? And what does it mean to you that, you know, in a way, the jury rejected this?
RODRIGUEZ: That's not true. There are families that I have now become a part of, a network of who are from all different backgrounds; all different racial backgrounds, financial backgrounds; where they live all over the country, all over the world.
So, it's not just families that had issues. They did target the kids that did have issues. They could tell who
they were, and they could tell by what they watched, what they looked at. So, they were easier targets, because they were more vulnerable.
[06:25:13]
CORNISH: Senator Richard Blumenthal has compared this fight to the one against big tobacco all those years ago. I'm going to play this sound for you so you can hear how he's describing it.
RODRIGUEZ: OK.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-CT): These individuals, survivors, and their families are saying to big tech, you also seek to addict our children. You are driving them toxic content on bullying and eating disorders, and you have concealed the truth. You've tried to deceive the public, and you need to be held accountable.
And at the end of the day, what we really need, as we did with big tobacco, as well, is legislation that will establish rules so that big tech changes its product design, that has caused the harms to these individuals.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Now he is proposing this Kids Online Safety Act, and it has things like higher privacy settings and stronger parental -- parental controls and independent audits.
And to be honest, there are some of these things that the companies have started to put in place. Do you think there still needs to be legislation?
RODRIGUEZ: One hundred percent, because I don't trust them to continue doing what they're doing. Because that's what they've done in the past, is they'll make these big P.R. releases where they've added this Instagram Teens or this thing or that feature or -- and they end up not working. Or they turn them off, and there's workarounds for kids, if they do have it turned on.
CORNISH: One of the things I noticed, "The Wall Street Journal" editorial page, their reaction was, "The social media shakedown begins."
And they treated this ruling as something that they say is a victory for the lawyers who want to sue, not for the kids, not for the families. What's your reaction to that?
RODRIGUEZ: That's 100 percent wrong. One hundred percent. Because I can tell you, the attorneys that we have been involved with are not out there for the money.
They've been able to put us in -- in situations where they can enable us to meet. Whether it be government, whether it be, you know, media or things, so that we can educate, we can spread awareness. They've helped us to perform this parent network.
It's not about the money for any of us, actually, as hard as it is for people to hear that or they don't want to believe us. This is about accountability.
Unfortunately, with big tech, they only feel it in their pocket. I understand that some -- most people say this is a drop in the bucket. But this is only one case, and there are so many more to come.
CORNISH: What does this mean for your case? And are you thinking about what you want for Selena's legacy going forward?
RODRIGUEZ: Well, our case is in the federal court. We're in the MDL, so we still have a while until we get in there.
But I will continue for the rest of my life. That has become my mission, is to educate families to these things that I had no idea about. And if I had known, Selena would still be here.
CORNISH: Tammy Rodriguez, thank you so much for speaking with us. Appreciate your time.
RODRIGUEZ: Thank you. I thank you for having me back. It's really important to get this out there to the families and anybody in the life of a child.
And if you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts, we're going to put this hotline up there. Call 9-8-8, and that will take you to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.
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