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The Situation Room

New Purported Message from Iran's Supreme Leader; Massive Security Wait Times as DHS Shutdown Drags On; Actor Chuck Norris Dies At 86. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired March 20, 2026 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:00:00]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, rising gas prices overnight. It's now $3.91 a gallon. How the war with Iran could take a chunk out of your tax return.

Plus, asylum claim denied. Five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, who captured the country's attention after being detained in Minneapolis, well, he and his family could be deported back to Ecuador. We're going to speak to their attorney about their fight to stay in the U.S.

And Christian nationalism in the Pentagon, how Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's says biblical messaging is getting stronger as the war with Iran continues.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Also happening now, hours-long wait times plaguing major airports across the United States this morning. We're live at the world's busiest airport in Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson, with an update as spring break kicks into high gear.

Plus, new purported message, Iran's supreme leader issues a new statement as Israel's prime minister is signaling he's on the same page as President Trump. We're alive in Tel Aviv.

And we're watching the nation's highest court as we await decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court on major outstanding cases that could impact the midterm elections and presidential powers.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer with Pamela Brown, and you're in The Situation Room.

Happening now, a warning from Iran's new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not been seen in public since being named the leader of Iran, has purportedly said in a written statement this morning, and I'm quoting him now, security may be denied to internal and external enemies and granted to all our compatriots. This just hours after the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said this during a news conference yesterday. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: I'm not sure who's running Iran right now. Mojtaba, the replacement ayatollah, has not shown his face. Have you seen him? We haven't. And we can't vouch exactly what is happening there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Also new this morning, the Israel Defense Forces, the IDF, says it has launched a fresh set of attacks on Iranian targets in Tehran. We're also learning that Iran has executed three men in connection with nationwide protests that took place in January. This despite President Trump's previous warning that Iran should not engage in such executions or it will pay a big price.

Let's go live right now to CNN Jerusalem correspondent Jeremy Diamond. He's joining us in Tel Aviv. Jeremy, you asked the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, a number of questions at his news conference. What did he tell you?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right. Well, this was the Israeli prime minister's first in-person news conference since the beginning of this war, and it was an opportunity for us to ask him about his strategy in Iran, which I did. But the prime minister also began by talking about this commitment that President Trump had asked him to make regarding not striking any future Iranian energy targets.

And the prime minister did confirm that he has made that commitment to President Trump. He also said that Israel had acted alone, although we do know from U.S. and Israeli sources that Israel did inform the United States about its planned attack on that energy facility.

And all of this raised the question for me of the kind of level of coordination between the U.S. and Israel and who's really in charge. Here's one of my questions to him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DIAMOND: You've also indicated today that you've made a commitment to President Trump not to strike these oil and gas facilities in the future. Should President Trump come to you one day and say, oil prices are too high, it's time to end this war, will you listen to him? And do you need the United States in order to continue this campaign alone?

NETANYAHU: I don't think any two leaders have been as coordinated as President Trump and I. He's the leader. I'm, you know, his ally. America is the leader.

But, ultimately, President Trump makes his own decisions. And do I respect them? Yes, I do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DIAMOND: And, Wolf, I did try and follow up on that question to ask the prime minister whether or not he could indeed continue this military campaign alone.

[10:05:04] He declined to answer and told me that I had exhausted my questions. I also asked the prime minister about Iran's -- about the spree of assassinations that we've been seeing Israel carry out in Iran, and experts who said that it may be emboldening the hardliners, that by killing the former supreme leader, you've got a new supreme leader who's even more hardline. A number of other officials being killed empowering the IRGC perhaps. The prime minister told me that he is confident in his strategy and he believes that he is seeing cracks in the Iranian regime right now, both at the very top and also at the operational level, including those military officials responsible for firing ballistic missiles. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right. Jeremy Diamond in Tel Aviv for us, thank you very much.

And this note, make sure to tune in later tonight for a CNN Town Hall, War with Iran, moderated by our own Dana Bash. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, and a panel of experts will take questions from a live studio audience. That's tonight, 9:00 P.M. Eastern, right here on CNN and on the CNN app as well. Pamela?

BROWN: All right, Wolf. Happening now, massive, unpredictable delays at airport security lines nationwide. At Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson, two-hour-long lines have been reported this morning. Look at this video right here. And now let's go over to Houston's George Bush Intercontinental. Travelers have encountered a wait as long as two and a half hours there. One of that airport's security checkpoints is closed entirely due to staffing shortages.

And as the ongoing Homeland Security shutdown continues without any end in sight, TSA officers are feeling the strain. Tens of thousands are working without pay while a growing number are calling out sick or quitting entirely.

So, let's go live now to Atlanta's airport where we find our CNN's Ryan Young. This has been his home away from home lately. Ryan, you have been out there all morning long. What's it looking like right now?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No, it's one of the worst we've seen so far in terms of how it stretches. I feel like a broken record at this point when we say that so often. But usually the rush hour is over by now. Look at the wait times right here. You can see them on that board. The wait times are officially for when you get to the front of the line, not for when you're in the back of the line. This one right now stretches all the way down almost out the door here. And this is 10:00 o'clock.

And let's turn the camera so we can show everybody what's going on. This line has been like this consistently since 4:00 this morning. We talk about those official wait times. We've talked to families who've been waiting in this line for three hours.

It's not just about the impact to the airports, the impact to the overall economy. So, people are really frustrated by the idea that they have to wait in these lines with no idea about how long they're going to be waiting here.

We tried to talk to the TSA today. We've talked to some of the people off-camera, and they've been telling us they're feeling the strain of this point, coming to work every single day, not getting paid, dealing with frustrated passengers who are visibly upset about missing their flights. On top of all that, you have the idea that no one has an idea when this is going to end.

Oh, you can come through. Go ahead, brother. And so you can understand that people want to sort of figure out from Congress, hey, what's going to happen next? When is this going to end?

And we're walking the line. This line right here continues to go all the way into the security checkpoint. So, just to get to here, most people have been waiting an hour and 45 minutes, and it's another hour on the other side. They have been providing food for people here at the airport. And, of course, we heard from Delta CEO today who said this is going to all too long. They want to see some impact from D.C. They want to see some changes.

BROWN: Absolutely. Ryan Young, once again, getting the steps in, thanks so much.

And coming up a little bit later this hour, we'll be joined by the president of the union that represents TSA workers at Chicago's O'Hare and Midway Airports. And we're going to ask him what he's hearing from agents and what all of this could mean for travelers, because, Wolf, there's also the national security concerns as well, right?

BLITZER: Yes, these people are supposed to be protecting us from -- potentially from terrorists, and it's so, so important that they do what they were trained to do. And if there's a problem like this, but God forbid there could be some problems.

BROWN: Yes. I mean, let's not forget why TSA was put in place in the first place.

BLITZER: Of course, after 9/11.

BROWN: Yes.

BROWN: Yes. All right, still ahead, gas and oil prices are up and mortgage rates are stubbornly high. What can be done to ease the burden for everyday Americans? Our Make It Make Sense segment is coming up.

Stay with us. You're in The Situation Room.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:10:00]

BLITZER: We're back with more breaking news on the war with Iran. Just outside the gates of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, Israeli security forces kept people away as they tried to celebrate the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Israel closed the mosque at the start of the war.

And take a look at this, a stunning photo of what appears to be an unexploded warhead right in someone's living room in central Israel in Rehovot, Israel. After Iran launched new missile attacks, the residents were in a bomb shelter when it happened.

Joining us now, CNN Global Affairs Analyst Brett McGurk. Tomorrow marks three weeks, Brett, since this all began, and the Pentagon says Iran's military has been severely degraded. But there seems to be no sign this war is coming to an actual end.

BRETT MCGURK, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS: I think the original timeline that the military briefer said three weeks ago is four to six weeks. I think this is going to go longer than that, Wolf, just given where we are. I think the mission now increasingly is to try to get the Straits of Hormuz open. That's a very difficult -- that's a very difficult strategic conundrum.

[10:15:02]

So, that's going to take some time.

And trying to degrade missile and drone launches is hard, tedious work. It can be a cat and mouse game. I dealt with this in the Yemen situation where an Iranian-backed group called the Houthis were launching missiles and drones into the Red Sea. It's going to take time.

As I understand it, I mean, the CENTCOM operation has really taken out Iran's ability to reproduce missiles. So, every missile they now fire, they can't get another one. So, it's ultimately depleted. But Iran's still able to get these off and I think that's going to continue for some time.

BLITZER: They're still succeeding in getting some missiles, rockets and drones landing in Central Israel, in and around Tel Aviv, to be sure. And Hezbollah is doing the same from Lebanon.

MCGURK: Some of them will get through. I've talked to Israeli officials, I've talked to, you know, former counterparts across the region.

I tell you one thing, they're very committed to seeing this through, and the Gulf, Israel as well. I mean, Israel's very cognizant that the longer-range missiles from Iran, they're really -- there are limited numbers of those. So, every missile that Iran uses, they can't replenish. And eventually you reach a tipping point that really tilts in the favor of the Israelis in that kind of longer-range thing.

But, look, what the point is, the president might have hoped for a quick operation or Venezuela-like thing, as we've been talking from this table before this started, and early on that was never really in the cards. And now, you know, I think as we said earlier, if you don't really define your objectives going in, events can define them for you. Now we have the Strait of Hormuz. This is a central element. You know, it goes back to -- it's amazing, the great strategists that military generals study in, in graduate school when they're coming up, Clausewitz and Sun Tzu, they talk about the defender has some intrinsic advantages. They have terrain, preparation. At the end of the day, all they have to do is preserve their power and survive. That's how Iran is seeing this. And they've really taken advantage of this Strait of Hormuz situation.

But as I understand it, the president, the White House, the Pentagon, and our partners in the region are very committed to seeing this through with a plan to get the strait open with military operation. But that's going to be tough. I mean, that's going to require a few more weeks, I think, of preparation. And then we'll have to see. There's talks of -- we have three Marine Expeditionary Units now moving into the Middle East.

BLITZER: 3 million.

MCGURK: What they do -- no. Three units.

BLITZER: Oh, three.

MCGURK: Three units, three Marine -- MEUs. Each one has about 2,500 Marines that can deploy in an amphibious operation.

There's talk of Kharg Island, we've discussed, in the northern part of the Gulf, and perhaps the shoreline of Iran.

I'm not saying any of that is a good idea. That's going to be very high risk. But right now it's a use of air power to set the conditions for possibly those options to be presented to the president.

BLITZER: You know, on a related subject, Brett, while I have you, the president just posted on his Truth Social media site that it's, quote, so easy for NATO allies to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz and that they can do it with so little risk, his words. Is this an accurate characterization?

MCGURK: Right now, the risk is quite high. And it's not just getting it reopened. You have to give confidence to commercial shippers and the insurance companies. You know, I've helped build coalitions and you want to try to encourage capitals, including our closest allies, to make the political decision to actually send their men and women and take their risk with us. And that kind of statement, I just don't think is particularly helpful.

The U.K. and others are actually doing some joint planning with us now for how this might look. I think we want to keep working with them. For when the conditions are set, perhaps three weeks from now, hopefully a little shorter, maybe a little longer, to have a naval coalition come into the strait and actually provide confidence for those shippers. It's going to take time.

BLITZER: I thought it was interesting. For only the second time, this is interesting, we've heard today from the new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, once again. It's a written statement. We haven't seen him his video. We haven't seen him on television. We haven't seen pictures. After the killing of three top officials by Israel, Khamenei says security must be denied to Iran's internal and external enemies, his words. What do you make of this?

MCGURK: Honestly, we don't know if this guy is alive. He was rolled out third -- only the third supreme leader in the history of the Islamic Republic since 1979, you would think you want to roll out with a public speech or something, he was rolled out literally in cardboard. So, who knows?

I think the Revolutionary Guards are in charge in Iran. They guard the revolution. They do exactly what their name says. They're the power structures internally, and their Quds Force is the power structure externally. And Mojtaba, if he's alive, is a bit of a figurehead here. But, no, he's putting out defined statements and I'm sure he's -- if he's around, he's working closely with the Revolutionary Guard. Who's actually calling the shots? It's the Revolutionary Guard. That's my assessment.

BLITZER: Interesting. The leaders of seven U.S. allies, including Britain, France, Japan, and Canada, have now just issued a statement pledging their readiness to contribute efforts that help ships move through safely the Strait of Hormuz. But the statement offered no specifics. Are they waiting for the U.S. to take the lead?

[10:20:00]

And when might that happen?

MCGURK: So, Wolf, again, building coalitions takes time. You have to have a legal predicate. You have to have the political predicate, decisions taking in capitals, then militaries have to meet, military to military operational equations, rules of engagement. It takes time.

But a statement like that shows that the work is being done behind the scenes for eventually to have a number of countries working together in the strait. And I hope that mission succeeds, but as I said here at the outset, it's going to be difficult and it's going to take time,

BLITZER: It's going to be risky, and we'll see if it happens.

We've reported, as you know, that Iran said today it has executed three men by public hanging who were tied to nationwide protests back in January. One of them was a 19-year-old champion Olympic wrestler. Iran says they were convicted for their role in the killing of two police officers. Human rights groups say their trial was totally unfair. What message is Iran sending now by hanging these three young men?

MCGURK: Well, it's a sign, Wolf, that the Iranian system and the Revolutionary Guards probably has some concern about where this might be heading in terms of internal security. And, you know, lost in the equation as this war started was the popular uprising in late December, early January, the largest, one of the largest in Iran's history, and then that brutal crackdown from the regime. So, that's a -- they're sending -- Mojtaba's statement today was a message to us, those fighting Iran, externally, militarily, and to the internal, the people of Iran saying, don't think about taking the streets. It's a repressive, awful system. We have to keep that in mind.

BLITZER: Yes, we have to keep it in mind, to be sure. Brett McGurk, thank you very, very much.

And this note, make sure to tune in later tonight for a CNN Town Hall, War with Iran, moderated by our own Dana Bash. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, and a panel of experts, including Brett McGurk, will be taking questions from a live studio audience. That's later tonight, 9:00 P.M. Eastern, right here on CNN and on the CNN app. Pamela?

BROWN: Wolf, we have some sad breaking news. Actor Chuck Norris has died at the age of 86. His family made the statement on his Instagram account.

CNN's Stephanie Elam has more on his decades-long legacy in Hollywood and beyond.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHUCK NORRIS, ACTOR: I was a very shy, introverted kid growing up.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Chuck Norris didn't stay that way for long, thanks to the martial arts.

NORRIS: I was sent to Korea when I was in the Air Force. And I started training over there, and then I came back and got out of the service and started teaching. And to get students in my school, I became a karate fighter.

ELAM: Some of those students were stars, like Steve McQueen, who encouraged him to become an actor.

NORRIS: I retired as the world karate champion, and I was looking for something to get involved in, a new goal for myself, and I thought about acting. I talked to Steve McQueen about it, and he encouraged me to pursue it. He said if I would apply myself like I did to the martial arts, then I would maybe have a chance at it.

ELAM: Norris' first memorable part was Bruce Lee's furry and formidable opponent in 1972's Way of the Dragon.

Five years later, he landed his first leading role as a truck driver searching for his missing brother in Breaker! Breaker! Throughout the 70s and 80s, Norris made a name for himself as a rugged action hero in movies like Lone Wolf McQuade, Missing in Action, and Delta Force.

With his film career cooling off in the 90s, Norris made the switch to television. The tough guy won new fans with his long running series, Walker Texas Ranger.

NORRIS: You have the right to remain silent.

ELAM: Off-screen, Norris was a supporter of conservative causes and candidates, like former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee.

NORRIS: This race is extremely important for all of us.

ELAM: A Born Again Christian, Norris expressed his faith as an author and columnist and advocated for religious education in public schools.

In later years, he became an internet sensation as the subject of humorous Chuck Norris facts, which satirized his tougher-than-tough image. He read a few of his favorites on The Best Damn Sports Show, Period.

NORRIS: When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night, he checks his closet for Chuck Norris.

ELAM: Norris kept poking fun at himself when he returned to the big screen in The Expendables 2.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I heard another rumor that you were bitten by a king cobra.

NORRIS: Yes, I was. But after five days of agonizing pain, the cobra died.

ELAM: Online, on screen, and on the mat, Chuck Norris struck a chord with the public and left his mark as a performer and an athlete.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: May his memory be a blessing.

I want to bring in CNN Entertainment Reporter Lisa Respers France. Tell us more, Lisa, about Chuck Norris and the kind of impact he is leaving behind.

LISA RESPERS FRANCE, CNN ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER: Well, Pamela, I don't think, other than John Wayne, there's another actor who's more closely tied to Americana, because he didn't just talk the talk, he walked the walk.

[10:25:02]

He was a martial artist. He held a lot of titles. He was the toughest guy in America, not just according to the fans, but also according to Chuck Norris.

And while we know that yesterday it was reported that he had been hospitalized for an undisclosed reason, I saw back on March 10th he posted on social media a video of him boxing, and the caption was, I don't age, I level up.

So, it's incomprehensible to a lot of fans that Chuck Norris is actually gone because he was such a tough person and so patriotic. He loved this country. He was very outspoken. His family, and their statement referred to him as a symbol of strength. And, Pamela and Wolf, I think that's how he's going to be remembered going forward.

BROWN: Yes, he certainly will. Lisa Respers France, thank you so much. We'll be right back.

FRANCE: Thank you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:30:00]