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The Situation Room

LaGuardia Crash Investigation; Interview With Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE); Israel Strikes Lebanon; Long Wait Times at Airports. Aired 11- 11:30a ET

Aired March 24, 2026 - 11:00   ET

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

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WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Happening now: near a breaking point. The partial government shutdown sends TSA callouts through the roof, pushing one major airport toward its limit.

Plus: escalating strikes, Tel Aviv hit with a new wave of Iranian missiles after Israel hit 50 targets overnight in Iran and struck inside Lebanon. Will take you live to Beirut just ahead.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer. Pamela Brown is off. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

We begin this hour with a major change in TSA security wait times at airports across the country. Right now, passengers at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport seemed to be breezing through security just 24 hours after lines stretched outside the building.

But it's a very different story at Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport. The major hub is nearing its breaking point, as travelers wait upwards of four hours to get through security.

CNN senior national correspondent Ed Lavandera is at George Bush Airport in Houston.

What are you seeing this morning, Ed?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's another incredibly difficult day.

The wait times -- we are in terminal E. This is one of the two TSA checkpoints that is open in this entire airport. This is nearing the end of the line. From where we are, Wolf, to where you get to the security checkpoints, it's probably 45 minutes to an hour.

But this is the end. This goes on for hundreds of yards. You have to wind your way through the lobby of this terminal, then go down an escalator to the baggage claim area, where there's another series of lines that wind their way through and then down another series of escalators to get to the subway level.

And that is where the beginning of the line is. So you have to go through three floors just to get to this point in hopes of getting to this checkpoint in any kind of reasonable amount of time. So, many people are getting here very -- hours.

The people you see behind me, I've been talking to, and they tell me that they got here just after 7:00 this morning. We will try to grab somebody.

Gentlemen, how long have you guys been in line?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Seven twenty.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, going on about three hours now.

LAVANDERA: Three hours? You got about 45 minutes left?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hope so.

LAVANDERA: Frustrated?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is what it is, man.

LAVANDERA: It is?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm frustrated.

LAVANDERA: Yes?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, absolutely.

LAVANDERA: Where are you trying to get to?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Omaha, Nebraska.

LAVANDERA: Omaha?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, so I have got about an hour to catch my flight here. But all this is unnecessary.

LAVANDERA: Yes?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

LAVANDERA: Who do you blame for this?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just personally, I think just politicians in general.

LAVANDERA: Just all of them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, all of them. All of them. Yes, this could have been avoided, especially in the fourth largest city in the U.S., yes.

LAVANDERA: And you knew what you were getting here today.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, yes.

LAVANDERA: We will walk with you, so we don't anger the people behind you who have been waiting a long time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sure. Absolutely.

LAVANDERA: Do you think you will make your flight? What's time your flight at?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I think I'm good. I think I plan accordingly, so, yes.

LAVANDERA: All right, very good. Very good.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But I do feel bad because I think there's a lot of people that are in different situations that are going to miss their flights.

LAVANDERA: Yes, yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And just depending on what they have going on. Some people are going to graduation. Some people are -- medical procedures. Who knows the reason why, though? But, yes, it's not really fun to miss a flight.

LAVANDERA: All right. Well, hang in there. Hope you make that connection.

So, there's been countless people like that traveling for all sorts of reasons, personal, business. And it has been incredibly difficult. I have talked to, Wolf, a lot of people who just simply missed flights and they were just trying to get to the other side of the security checkpoint area just to get over there and then they could figure out the flight situation after that.

And here at Houston Intercontinental Airport, we have seen federal agents, more than several dozen now over the last two days. It's not exactly clear how they're helping in getting all these passengers through the security checkpoint, we should say, because if you look out to where the checkpoints are, you just see TSA employees there.

You don't really see any of the federal agents from our vantage point at this distance where we have seen them navigating it. And it's also important to point out that there are only two TSA checkpoints that are open in the entire airport. There's normally about nine, so everybody having to funnel through two different terminals, which makes all of this even much more difficult -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Have you seen any indication at all at the introduction of these ICE agents at the Houston Airport have helped ease the lines, as they were supposedly going to be doing? '

LAVANDERA: Well, we have seen them just really kind of helping with the crowd movement on the periphery. They're often just kind of walking around the edges of these lines that wind their ways I have talked about on several different floors.

They haven't really, from what we can tell, been involved in the more -- the front of the line here area, where people are getting processed through, getting their I.D.s checked, getting their bag scanned, going through going through the detectors and that sort of thing. We haven't seen that.

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So how their presence here is helping move people through here faster, we haven't really been able to get a clear indication of it at this point. But they are around -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Ed Lavandera, we'll stay in close touch with you. Thank you very, very much.

And good luck to all the folks at the Houston Airport.

There are other important developments unfolding right now, and new this morning, the U.S. Defense Department, making a major change that affects how journalists cover the U.S. military. The Pentagon has announced new rules that limit access for the press corps. They include banning unscheduled reporting and on-the-fly hallway interviews.

They also are shutting down the correspondent corridor where journalists have worked for decades. That's where I worked when I was a Pentagon correspondent. These new restrictions come just three days after a federal judge ruled that the Pentagon's previous restrictions on the press violated the First Amendment.

The press association representing about 100 reporters who cover the military is questioning the timing, saying this -- and I'm quoting now -- "At such a critical moment, why restrict the press freedoms that help inform the American public?" -- end quote.

The Pentagon says the changes come down to security, saying in a statement -- and I'm quoting the Pentagon now -- "The department remains committed to transparency and to working with credentialed journalists who cover the department and the U.S. military. The department is equally committed to the security of the Pentagon and the protection of the men and women who work there" -- end quote.

Very disturbing development, indeed.

Also this morning, we have brand-new drone video of a heavily damaged building in Tel Aviv. The Israeli authorities say this is from an intense wave of Iranian bombardment overnight, seven waves of missiles all after midnight.

Israel is also striking Iran. Here, you see rescue crews search for victims in the capital city, Tehran. Israel says it struck 50 targets overnight. Israel is also striking targets in Lebanon and its capital, Beirut. This is new video of a building that was reduced to rubble overnight. The Israeli defense minister is calling for the seizure of Southern Lebanon. CNN's chief international security correspondent, Nick Paton Walsh, is

in Beirut for us.

Nick, what's the latest? What are you seeing? What are you hearing?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, just to explain, the noise behind me is a drone that's been hovering around this part of Beirut for a number of hours now, obtrusively loud, obviously adding to the anxiety of many in this city.

And, last night, we had multiple Israeli strikes on the southern suburb of Dahiyeh here, adding to a quite fast-paced moving day. Wolf, in the last minutes, Lebanese state media has reported on a rocket interception occurring slightly behind me here, debris falling.

Now, that's important because at this point we're not aware that Lebanon has particularly sophisticated interceptors or Hezbollah, for that matter, capable of taking down a rocket of some substance. So it's unclear who fired that, what it was aimed at or indeed who took it down, but it comes on a day in which Israel's objective, it seems, in Southern Lebanon is becoming increasingly more vocal or public.

We have been hearing from rescue officials of three strikes that hit around the city of Tyre in the south. That's important because it lies below the Litani River, essentially the boundary across which earlier on Israel said everybody's civilians and Hezbollah had to flee north from. Many had fled indeed to that city and the strikes happened today after some Israeli warnings.

Israel's defense minister has talked about the need for a security zone along the southern border. And indeed the finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, has gone even further, suggesting that they might indeed occupy everything up until the Litani River. This is not policy, but it's an indication potentially of where Israel's campaign is indeed going.

They have hit targets inside the city, particularly on the east here just last night, and indeed that drone is clearly here for some sort of observational purpose, as far as we understand, but things moving quickly at this point, Wolf.

And we have also heard today from the Lebanese government, caught in a bind, many observers here say, between Hezbollah that are a significant part of the military and political infrastructure here in Lebanon and their own desire to see that militant group backed by Iran disarm. They have been very public about that.

Well, today, Lebanon's foreign minister said that the Iranian ambassador here had until Sunday to get out and withdrew their ambassador from Iran too, citing how he'd acted outside of diplomatic norms, so escalating tensions here, both in Israel's intentions and, frankly, the blasts and military frequency we're seeing around this huge city, to which many of the million have displaced in Lebanon have fled to, Wolf.

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BLITZER: Is it fair to say, Nick -- and you have been covering this now for a while. Is it fair to say that this war between Israel and Iran and between Israel and the Iranian proxy Hezbollah is clearly intensifying right now?

WALSH: I think there are two separate things, to be honest.

Yes, they're intimately linked because Hezbollah started this conflict again or escalated it again, saying they were avenging the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. But, ultimately, Israel's goals here of disarming Hezbollah, it's a longer-term project they have had for their own security.

It's one, frankly, they have been itching for the excuse to complete. It's one that is certainly out of their reach for now. They are not moving deeply into territory. And it's one that, even if there is some kind of resolution and peace deal between the U.S., Israel, and Iran, is likely to continue.

Just it's unclear how fast Israel is moving, although we have seen today those targeted airstrikes escalating and ratcheting up the pace, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, stay safe over there, Nick Paton Walsh in Beirut. Appreciate it very, very much.

Still ahead: Is relief finally on the way for the brutal airport security lines? We have new reporting on a U.S. Senate Republican proposal that could help. I will ask Democratic Senator Chris Coons if he's on board. He's standing by live.

And Hawaii now trying to recover from catastrophic flash flooding. Governor Josh Green says it's the worst his state has seen in some 20 years. He joins me live in THE SITUATION ROOM.

That's coming up next.

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BLITZER: Breaking news: a senior Iranian source telling CNN there's been outreach between the U.S. and Iran in recent days initiated by Washington.

The source says nothing has reached the level of full-on negotiations and refused to comment on public statements from President Trump, like this one. Listen.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: But to determine whether a broader agreement can be reached, we have had very good discussions, very, very good discussions, and you have to understand. I know my whole life has been a negotiation, but, with Iran, we have been negotiating for a long time, and, this time, they mean business.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right, and let's discuss.

Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware is joining us. He's a key member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Senator, thanks so much for joining us.

Do you have any indications at this point, based on everything you have heard and learned, that the U.S. and Iran are in, in fact, serious talks to end the war?

SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-DE): Serious talks to end the war, no, but the beginning stages of outreach to identify who is in some position to negotiate on behalf of the Iranian regime, yes.

This is based on press accounts, not based on any classified briefing I have had. Wolf, it's important that President Trump begin to find an off-ramp, given the chaotic process he followed to get into this war, where there wasn't enough strategic planning and where he failed to assess the risks that, when he made it clear this was a war focused on regime change, that the Iranian regime and the IRGC would pull out all the stops, close the Strait of Hormuz, attack all of our allies in the Gulf.

And we had no clear plan for how to stop those two things. Don't take my word for it. Former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, a decorated four-star Marine Corps general who served as Trump's first secretary of defense, made these same points this week, that there wasn't enough strategic planning.

So I'm encouraged if President Trump is directing his folks to begin outreach to try and find an acceptable off-ramp.

BLITZER: As you know, Senator, several analysts have questioned whether President Trump's statement at the U.S. renewed discussions with Tehran may have been a move to help calm the markets...

COONS: Yes.

BLITZER: ... and the volatile oil prices. What do you think?

COONS: Yes.

Look, we have seen over and over that Trump cares more about the markets than he does about our strategic position or about the values that underlie our democracy. Look at some of the things he's done in recent days. He's pulled sanctions off 140 million barrels of Iranian oil that's already loaded on ships, making it through the Strait of Hormuz, and going into the ocean.

Why? That's going to produce billions in revenue for the Iranian regime. Something I'm even more concerned about is lifting sanctions on Russian oil, helping fund and fuel Putin's murderous war machine against Ukraine.

Our Ukrainian allies and partners have volunteered to help us defend our troops, our facilities, and our regional allies in the Gulf against Iran's constant drone attacks. President Trump's picking the wrong team and the wrong side, and so far his chaotic war in the Gulf has principally helped Iran and Russia, not the United States.

BLITZER: President Trump's negotiating team, as you know, Senator, his son-in-law Jared Kushner and his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, did help broker that cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas, which you praised at the time.

Do you have confidence that they will be able to reach a deal with Iran?

COONS: Look, having two New York developers negotiating with Russia, with Iran, with Hamas, let's just say is a novel approach to doing global diplomacy. There were reasons that Hamas ultimately was willing to come to a hostage and cease-fire deal and that President Trump finally applied pressure to Netanyahu to accept that.

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This has some of the same contours. There are differences between our strategic goals and Israel's. We are facing a determined, dug-in and capable adversary in Iran. So, if these two negotiators have clear direction from the president to negotiate a resolution, I suspect they can get that done.

Part of our problem from day one of this war, Wolf, has been that the military is pursuing more limited and narrow goals, and President Trump keeps throwing around all sorts of other reasons for this war, securing the hundreds of kilograms of fissile material, enriched material that we still don't know exactly where it is and how much there is, regime change, preventing Iran from having influence throughout the region.

Those are political goals. Our military has been sinking their navy ships, striking their ballistic missile launchers, and reducing their defense industrial base. Those are military goals. If President Trump makes up his mind that he wants narrower goals, he can begin to negotiate.

The problem here, Wolf, is that the enemy gets a vote, and the Iranian regime, whose sole goal is to survive, will keep launching drones at us, our partners, our allies, and the Strait of Hormuz. And there's not much we can do about that.

BLITZER: Excellent analysis, as usual.

Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, thank you very, very much.

COONS: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: Up next: new details emerging about the deadly collision over at New York's LaGuardia Airport, including years of warnings from pilots about air traffic control before this tragic crash.

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BLITZER: Happening now: Canadian and U.S. investigators are gathering evidence about Sunday's deadly runway collision at New York's LaGuardia Airport.

New video into THE SITUATION ROOM shows the moment the Air Canada flight moving at more than 100 miles per hour crashes into a fire truck on the runway. Both pilots were killed and dozens of passengers and crew members were injured.

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JENNIFER HOMENDY, CHAIR, NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD: You know, at this stage of the investigation, we don't limit ourselves. So we have questions on everything. And we look for everything. We collect everything.

We may have information that comes our way that we didn't expect, so we don't rule anything out until later. So we have a lot of questions on everything.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: CNN transportation analyst Mary Schiavo is joining us now. She was inspector general at the Transportation Department.

Mary, the NTSB, the National Transportation Safety Board, says an initial readout from the cockpit voice recorder could come out as early as today. What will you be looking for?

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN TRANSPORTATION ANALYST: Well, there will be some mystery solved right away. For example, was one person handling the communications with the plane and with the fire truck? And if so, were those communications also audible by each other? Did the aircraft here with the fire truck was requesting?

Did the fire truck here that the airplane was coming into land? so, right away, some of those mysteries will be cleared up as who heard what and who was talking to whom. Very important.

BLITZER: A CNN review into past government records shows multiple concerns from pilots about miscommunications, missteps from air traffic control and other hazards.

Where does the responsibility lie when warning signs like these are alerted?

SCHIAVO: With the FAA.

And this came up in the investigation. The NTSB did a very good hearing on the investigation of the midair at Reagan Airport, at DCA, and the NTSB found that there were thousands, literally, I think it was like some almost 10,000 reports, that pilots and others had put in about near misses at DCA that the FAA literally made no use of and they didn't review.

And it came out that the person that was supposed to review the routes and the traffic and the office that was supposed to do that wasn't even staffed. So here again, I would expect that the NTSB is going to look at all those reports relative to LaGuardia. They might find exactly the same thing, that there were many reports and that the FAA did nothing with them.

And that's what the FAA is supposed to do. It's supposed to review where trouble is brewing, what the statistics say, where the next accident is coming. And runway incursions has been at the top of the list of the bad statistics literally for years, if not decades.

And that will be something it will be very useful, and, hopefully, that will reveal that this problem has been brewing for a long time and how to fix it.

BLITZER: Eighteen minutes after the collision on the runway, the air traffic controller in the tower appeared to say this to a pilot on the ground radio frequency. Listen.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That wasn't good to watch.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I know. I was here. I tried to reach out to my staff, and we were dealing with an emergency earlier. And I messed up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, man, you did the best you could.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BLITZER: "I messed up," that's what he said.

I think a lot of people were surprised to see this operator still in the tower after the crash.

SCHIAVO: Exactly.

BLITZER: What is the protocol for operators involved in incidents like this?

SCHIAVO: Exactly. That's a great point, because they're supposed to be removed from their duties right away, because, obviously, they're shaken up and they can't perform in that role.