Return to Transcripts main page

Inside Politics

Massive Security Wait Times As DHS Shutdown Drags On; No Deal In Sight As DHS Shutdown Drags On Causing Chaos At Airports; TSA Union President Warns Call-Outs Will Worsen; U.S. Gas Prices Soar To $3.91 A Gallon Amid Iran War. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired March 20, 2026 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR, THE SITUATION ROOM: All right, that was a lot of important information, and I think a lot of people will find it surprising. Sanjay Gupta, as always, thank you so much.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN CO-ANCHOR, THE SITUATION ROOM: And thanks to all of our viewers for joining us this morning. You can always keep up with us on social media @wolfblitzer and @pamelabrowncnn. You can also follow our show mascot on Instagram. Once again, Lucy Blitz Brown, @lucyblitzbrown, Blitz Brown.

BROWN: Lucy Blitz Brown, the hound mix. We'll see you back here tomorrow morning and every weekday morning at 10:00 Eastern. Inside Politics with our friend and colleague, Dana Bash, starts right now.

DANA BASH, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: Airport lines are endless, and Congress is still nowhere near a deal to fix it. I'm Dana Bash. Let's go behind the headlines at Inside Politics.

If you're planning to fly this weekend, you might want to think about leaving now. Sadly, depending on where you're heading and where you're coming from, it's not a joke, because the DHS shutdown is wreaking havoc on airports across the country, from Houston to Burlington, Vermont, passengers are dealing with massive lines just to make it through security.

You can see in the bottom right of your screen, CNN is tracking the estimated TSA wait times for travelers at major airports. And the mess all stems from what's going on here in Washington. What's not going on here in Washington is probably a better way to put it, congressional gridlock. There is a partial shutdown that began in mid-February, a month later, there is still no sign of a deal. Meanwhile, TSA agents who are working are doing so without pay, forcing many to call out to try to get work elsewhere or just resign.

CNN's Ryan Young is in Atlanta. Ryan, you spoke to one traveler who showed up three hours earlier, still missed their flight. What's it like there right now?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi Dana. Look, when we're covering this, you talk to people sometimes and they're unaware of what's going on in D.C. Almost everyone that we're talking to at this point is so aware of the Congress is not talking enough about this. They really want them to start feeling the pain here. In fact, we've been asked over and over again, is there any way they can't get paid while the TSA workers are not getting paid?

You look at the line behind me. This is the line that still stretches. Usually, by now that rush hour is over, it's 64 minutes. But these folks haven't even got to that line to start the 64 minutes yet. We're going to flip the camera around, so you can start seeing what they're all waiting for, because they're waiting for the checkpoint that's here, the main checkpoint that's right in front of us. This has been going on all day long.

The TSA PreCheck line at one point was more than two hours long. Once they get from here, they didn't have to go into that maze of a line that's up there, and this is having a direct impact with so many people across the country. Take a listen to some of the folks we talked to a little earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I had to pay a stranger $100 to push me and get me through the TSA line. Do better. Trump, fix it.

YOUNG: Even though you have three hours before your flight. Are you sure you're going to make it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think I am. I was here two days ago. I made it.

YOUNG: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah. I estimate it's about an hour and 15 minutes from this point.

YOUNG: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. I think I'll make it.

YOUNG: Have you ever seen anything like this?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Never, never.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They should be paid. They need to be paid.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel bad for everyone, except people in Washington, D.C. because they don't have to stand in line and they don't have to deal with this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: Imagine that sentiment. We're starting to hear it, more and more, that impact. And as we come down this direction, one of the things that we're noticing is the number of the lanes that aren't open here. So, if you look at this direction, you can see just the sea of people again. Normally, the rush hour is over by now and you can make those flights, 1, 2, 3 o'clock flights. No problem. Yesterday, it actually fell to two minutes around this time. We are not seeing that. We've also been trying to get an updated number for how many agents called out. We have not gotten that from the TSA just yet, been trying to get in contact with them as well. We counted the last time, four lanes open, and I believe at this point you can see the green lights up there. It looks like five lanes open.

So normally you have 18 all the way across. They're open and pushing, but that's not happening today. Friday, one of the busiest days here at the airport again, Monday is the day that we all know is a crush here at this airport as well.

BASH: I'm going to ask you a question and if it's unknowable, just tell me so. We're looking at the screen right now as you're talking and we have this tracker.

YOUNG: Yeah.

BASH: And there's such a difference between where you are in Atlanta, where there are very long wait times. Orlando, we have up right now is 25 minutes, but LAX, which is, in my experience, not the most -- not the easiest airport to navigate in any way. It's only like two or three minutes right now.

[12:05:00]

Are the officials there telling you why -- I mean, we know that Atlanta, Hartsfield is one of the busiest airports in the world. We know that. But besides that, are there any other reasons that officials there are giving you for the disparity?

YOUNG: So, we do have that spring break swing here in the area. A lot of kids from college are coming through this area. We're also having Spring Breakers in the high school and middle school getting ready to get out of here. But then on top of that, one of the things that we should explain here. This is one of the airports that all the terminals come through one security checkpoint.

So, they break it down into threes, and some of those other airports that you named actually have terminals and security checkpoints for, let's say, north gate and then plus each airline, so they split up. So, some of this is the architecture of the way this airport is built, and it all sort of funnels to a certain central location. They actually think that helps because with the help of Delta and the other airlines here, they're able to push people through so fast with all the technology.

But when you have people showing up four hours beforehand, plus all the volume that you have in this airport, that's why you have the extended wait times and they've added extra people. But at the same time, the only way to get through this at this point would probably be if they decided to maybe privatize this and get away from the TSA, which obviously has happened at other airports across this country. I'm sure that maybe a conversation in the next few days, depending on how long this goes here at this airport. BASH: You know, internally here, I'm sure you know this, our colleagues are calling you now the mayor of the Atlanta airport. And now our viewers know why.

YOUNG: I'll take it. I love this place.

BASH: Thank you so much, Ryan. Appreciate it. And we're joined here at the table by a group of very smart reporters this Friday. Lauren Fox, you know, we have been talking day in and day out about the complete paralysis on Capitol Hill, in the face of the paralysis in these airports. Is that still the case? Is there any modicum of movement at all that you're hearing from sources?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It truly has not sunk in yet on Capitol Hill. Now, I will say, there is one piece of movement that was really surprising yesterday, which is that Tom Homan came to the Capitol and had an in-person negotiation with Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Appropriations Committee. That is the first in-person meeting I have seen at the Capitol to deal with the shutdown since it took place on February 14. So, that shows you just maybe an inch, a half an inch, a centimeter of movement that's taking place.

BASH: And I just want to sort of interject by sort of catching people up. I'm sure they know by now. But the reason the Department of Homeland Security is shutdown is because after Minneapolis, Democrats said we're not funding anything for this department until there are policy changes made to how ICE operates. And so, you think that it's possible that Homan had -- I mean, he obviously, he had some discussions with Capitol Hill about that, but we don't know how productive it was.

FOX: Yeah. After the meeting, Katie Britt, who is one of the lead Republican negotiators, said that right now the next step is that the White House is going to send a counteroffer to Senate Democrats. Now the timeline between these offers and counteroffers have not just been a couple of hours or a couple of days. They have been weeks at points. Democrats did not return a counteroffer for almost 20 days. So, this is such a slow-moving negotiation. Does this change the dynamic, perhaps. But like, you noted, there are wide discrepancies across the country in different airports.

BASH: Let's listen to Senator Katie Britt after that meeting yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. KATIE BRITT (R-AB): Having dialogue of some sort to at least hear each other and figure out where there is overlap, maybe where there is not? That's the first step in actually negotiating a pathway forward. So, today was not negotiation. It was a conversation. I think it was helpful. And I appreciate, I appreciate my colleagues finally doing that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is a deal by recess possible?

(END VIDEO CLIP) BASH: That question was, is a deal by weeks and possible, and there was no answer, which I think was the answer, no, because we're in Friday.

ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT & ANCHOR, THE STORY IS WITH ELEX MICHAELSON: Right. And it's interesting. So, I talked last night with Senator Gary Peters, who's the top Democrat overseeing Homeland Security about where is the state of negotiations. And he said, basically, there isn't that much of negotiations. But the point that the Democrats are trying to make now is, look, we will fund everything else.

We want to fund TSA. We want to fund everything in Homeland Security, except for ICE. And by the way, ICE is already funded for years. Billions and billions of dollars are already in place for ICE. So, Democrats say, let us go. We could pass this right now to reopen TSA. Republicans are saying, no. We're not going to do that unless we do all of it, and that's where the log jam is right now.

[12:10:00]

BASH: Then we just need to inject the human toll of this, and that is on these people who are TSA agents. Who are now having to decide whether or not they go to work and do their job without pay or whether they quit or take time off in order to get other, you know, gigs basically as much as they can in order to feed their families. Listen to the union, TSA agent union president this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DARRELL ENGLISH, PRESIDENT OF UNION REPRESENTING CHICAGO TSA WORKERS: People at the beginning of the month, they have their rent that's due, those that have mortgages are due. All those things are done. They do at the beginning of the month. And this will be the second month that TSA officers will be unable to pay those critical bills. And I can guarantee you again that there will be more call-offs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Sabrina?

SABRINA RODRIGUEZ, POLITICAL REPORTER, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: It doesn't take a lot to just start thinking about how awful this is for the TSA agents caught in the cross hairs of this. I mean, you know, we saw this past Friday, it was around the time that they -- the first paycheck that they missed. We don't see much movement on this, so we're talking that this could end up being another paycheck that lapses for them.

And meanwhile, you talk -- you think about the debt that's racking up for them, the question about whether they show up for work or not. You know, it's not like you just automatically get a different job from one day to the next. I think there's so much uncertainty for these people. And I just think of that person at the Atlanta airport who said it like, they're not worried about the people in Washington, D.C., who they feel bad for the TSA agents and all the people who are now caught in these massive lines in the middle of travel.

BASH: And there are also real questions about the actual homeland security issues. I wouldn't say threats, because I don't know that we're -- that's not -- probably goes too far. But if there are fewer TSA agents, if they're distracted, they're people who are in long, long lines before they get through security. It could be problematic again --

MICHAELSON: And not just TSA for Homeland Security, the rest of Homeland Security, they're getting paid too. And we are at a time where there are increased Homeland Security threats because of what's going on in Iran.

BASH: Yeah. That's such a good point. And again, going back to the genesis of this particular standoff is the president's immigration policy in the interior of America. And the Wall Street Journal, our friend of the show, Josh Dawsey, has a story this morning. Trump told inner circle some mass deportation policies went too far. In conversations with top advisers and his wife Melania, Trump has become convinced that some of his administration's deportation policies have gone too far, and voters don't like the term mass deportation.

I mean, OK, that was definitely part of what he ran on, but this idea that they had to do a certainly an optic shift, and in some cases, an approach shift. I wouldn't call it a policy shift or an approach shift, that's obvious, and it's part of CNN's reporting. I mean, just last month, Trump administration plans to take Homan's Minneapolis immigration playbook nationwide because they sent him to Minneapolis. He calmed things down, and they're hoping that they can continue with their enforcement and even deportation program but do it in a way that is not as aggressive.

FOX: Exactly. And I think we started to see some of that during Markwayne Mullin's confirmation hearing this week. He's obviously up for that top post at the Department of Homeland Security. And he even sort of opened the door a little bit to addressing warrant concerns that Democrats have had for the last several weeks and months since they saw what transpired in Minneapolis. I thought that was kind of an interesting opening.

Now, talking to Democrats, many of them say Markwayne Mullin is not going to change the culture of an agency that is on this track already. But obviously, he was trying to soften his rhetoric a little bit, at least on the fringes around the --

BASH: Yes. He was definitely trying to, you know, at some point, and I'm sure he already knows, but he'll probably learn it very quickly, assuming he's confirmed, is that this policy and this strategy comes from the White House and from one person, Stephen Miller.

RODRIGUEZ: Yeah. I think there's real questions about whether it's just a rhetorical shift or whether anything is actually going to change. I mean, clearly the administration is making a calculus here that hyping up their mass deportation agenda that, you know, doing the big show of force in major U.S. cities has not panned out for them. Has not done well for them. You know, poll after poll shows that what was once, you know, President Trump's signature issue is one that he is now struggling with further, and as they look to the midterms that's something for them to be keeping in mind.

But I think part of this narrative, they can't keep control of. You know, if there is mass deportation still taking place, whether they call it something different, there's still a reality in communities that we've seen so much of the information around this come from videos from people in the community. So, I think there's a real question about whether there will be an actual pivot on the way that they implement this or if it's going to be the rhetoric.

[12:15:00]

BASH: We're going to sneak in a quick break. Up next. The war in Iran is pushing an already teetering economy closer to the brink. You're going to hear a new warning from a top Fed official. Plus, it's mid- term madness. The panel is going to break down key races in their brackets. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:20:00]

BASH: As the war in Iran heads into a third weekend of war. The U.S. military is leaning on the Air Force in a ramped-up effort to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. At home, time is of the essence as the price of gasoline steadily rises. Today, the average cost is $3.91 a gallon. That is almost $1 more than it was just a month ago, and in spitting distance of crossing the $4 mark. Under pressure to reverse that trend, President Trump is lashing out once again at NATO.

This morning he posted, quote, they complain about the high oil prices they are forced to pay, but they don't want to help open the Strait of Hormuz, a simple military maneuver that is the single reason for the high oil prices so easy for them to do with so little risk, cowards, and we will remember.

Edward-Isaac Dovere joins our group of reporters, and I neglected to welcome you to Washington. Alex, we get to talk to you when I'm in L.A., but nice to see you here. And Sabrina is a regular. It's nice to have all of you here.

Isaac, let me start with you on just kind of the state of play on these gas prices, and on how people are feeling -- how this is playing out right now, going into the third weekend, given the fact that before this war even started, there was so much economic pressure on the president.

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: I think we are three weeks into this. We still have not had an explanation from the president, really, about why we got into this war. We have had a variety of explanations from administration officials, some of which have clashed with each other. We have had a variety of comments from the president about how long it will last or what is being done. Some of those have clashed with each other, but it's a war that's happening far away. It's not having a direct effect on anyone, except for the families of the members of the service who have been killed. Except in this way, people are feeling it this way. They're feeling it at the pump. And the question is how they will feel about that continuing to be the case if it goes on.

Look, if it's a week or two of higher gas prices and then it changes, then we'll probably move on. But when they don't know why the prices are going up, but they know that they're feeling it on top of, as you say, all this other stuff, that's not where people like to be.

BASH: And sadly, I mean, I would hope that it would just be a week or two of high gas prices, even if this war winds down. But no economist, or no expert on this thinks that that's going to happen because it would take some time. Speaking of that, listen to what the Trump appointed governor of the Federal Reserve, Christopher Waller, said this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTOPHER WALLER, FEDERAL RESERVE GOVERNOR: They're looking at their gas tank, they're looking at the price, and they're seeing how much is going into their car versus going into other things. And that starts affecting consumers' outlooks on the economy as well. So, all these things could end up tipping the economy (Ph). Now, I don't want to say, into a recession, but suddenly a much more weakening of the economy than we thought.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RODRIGUEZ: I mean, let's remember that we entered this year with the conversation around affordability, like I think of all the Republican strategists and officials late last year saying, you know, we really want to see the president come out and talk about the affordability crisis in this country. We really want to see the president come out and be on the road, on the campaign trail, talking about how he's going to make people's lives better. How he's going to address rising prices. And we are now at the end of March and in the exact opposite place of that, where we're seeing actions from this administration that are only fueling the issues that people are feeling around affordability.

MICHAELSON: Well, yeah. And that Trump's Truth Social post is passing the buck to somebody else. I mean, he's blaming the other countries for not reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Those countries didn't bomb Iran, right? The U.S. and Israel did. And so, he's trying to make it there was their responsibility for your gas prices going up instead of his decision which created the situation.

BASH: Yeah. I mean, he's been trying to get help. He was very bullish on the notion that he was going to get help from allies at the beginning of the week, and then it was very clear that wasn't going to happen. The U.K. is starting to at least poke its head up to try to find help because as bad as gas prices are here in the United States, oil prices and also gas prices are much, much worse in other countries around the globe. You know, the president says the U.S. is more oil and gas independent. He's right.

DOVERE: Yeah. And that's the Brits take more oil from Iran, right? That's what's going on here. But look, the other thing to Sabrina's point, not only did the a lot of Trump allies say that they wanted to have the president out, that he would be out doing these things.

Not only is he facing a situation where the gas prices going up, he has -- because he's been focused on this war, not been out, talking about any of these other things. They were to talk about what he's going to do about housing. There's proposals around that. Those things haven't been happening and we're already coming up on the end of March here. People's feelings are starting to crystallize. Obviously, there's a long way to go between now and November, but the sense that there's not enough that is being done to help.

[12:25:00]

And in fact, it's now another cost and another cost and another way that I'm paying more. My electricity bill is this, and my grocery bill is that. These are -- in 2024 the Biden administration went into that year saying to people that the economy was actually OK and it was getting better. And the Trump campaign said, no, you're paying more. And Biden said, oh, we're doing all this stuff around the world that's going to make things better for you. And people chose Trump then, similar argument that's going on now, except now against Trump.

BASH: Yeah. All right, everybody standby. We're going to sneak in another break. Up next, the Senate. They're here. They will be all weekend debating a key Trump priority. So why are lawmakers from both sides of the aisle saying it's really for show? We'll explain after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)