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Trump Admin's Probe of 2020 Election Get First Public Test in Court; TSA: Workers Will Miss Nearly $1B if DHS Not Funded by Today; Saving the Manatees. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired March 27, 2026 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, a major court's test over efforts to investigate President Trump's disproven claims of election fraud. In Fulton County, Georgia right now, the U.S. Justice Department is facing very serious questions from a federal judge after local officials sued over the seizure of 2020 election ballots this year.

Here with us now, CNN's chief legal affairs correspondent, Paula Reid. What are you watching for here today? And what have we learned so far as this lawsuit moves forward?

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, we've learned nothing so far because this hearing has been going on for 90 minutes. But as is often the case, this federal courthouse is making it very difficult to get information out of the courthouse. I've said this is not a Trump administration thing. This is something I have encountered for 15 years of covering the federal courts. Each court has its own rules.

So, even though we have four journalists in the court right now, we have to wait until there's a break. One of them is going to go out, call us and get an update. And that is something people should be frustrated about because this is one of the most significant court proceedings in the country right now. This is the first time that the Trump Justice Department's attempt to revisit what happened with the election in 2020 is being tested in court. And this comes at a time when President Trump is saying he wants to federalize elections.

So, what we're looking for is how much this case will tell us about the tolerance the courts will have for the Trump administration trying to reach into our elections. Now, at issue today is that unprecedented search back several weeks ago where the Trump Justice Department went in, they did a search and they seized 2020 ballot materials in Fulton County, Georgia.

Now, I've talked to senior Justice Department officials about why they're going back to Fulton County. This is something former Attorney General Bill Barr looked into, didn't think there was enough evidence of any kind of fraud to pursue a full-blown investigation. So, when I ask, why are we going back to this? I haven't been given any new information. Instead, what the Justice Department points to is the fact that a judge signed off on this search warrant. And that is true. But county officials down in Fulton County, they argue that the Justice Department omitted key evidence in that search warrant. Key pieces of information that might have changed whether that judge signed it. We know that a lot of the support for the search warrant comes from debunked claims from Trump allies. So, today, these county officials, they want the Justice Department to have to return what they seized.

Now, the judge overseeing this hearing is a Trump appointee already shown a little bit of deference, probably rightfully so, to the Justice Department saying that, look, this is a federal investigation and they are therefore granted wide latitude. So, it's going to be really interesting to see what happens. I will note the Justice Department didn't want to have this hearing, but the judge said, no, we're going to have a hearing.

And that's why we're eagerly awaiting updates. And it would be helpful if the federal courts were, you know, more permissive in allowing people to share information as it comes in. Because one other thing, CNN is one of the few outlets that has the resources to send four people down there. And that's the only way people will learn about what's happening in this critical hearing.

BLITZER: It's our job to report.

REID: Exactly.

BLITZER: All right. Thanks very much. Paula Reid reporting for us. Appreciate it. Just ahead, when will they see the money? I'll ask two TSA agents as the push to finally get them paid works through Congress.

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[10:35:00]

BLITZER: Happening now, another day of massive airport lines and very long waits. Despite some progress here in Washington, the TSA is still unfunded, and that means staff shortages as officers work yet another day without pay. One TSA union official says until the paychecks arrive, travelers can expect scenes like this to continue.

At Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport, the wait times were reaching nearly four hours before 5:00 a.m. local time. And in Atlanta, CNN staff at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport reported lines out the door by 5:15 a.m.

CNN Aviation Correspondent Pete Muntean is joining us. He's over at BWI Airport that's near Baltimore. Pete, what are you seeing there and what are you hearing?

[10:40:00]

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: You know, that Senate deal, Wolf, and that pledge from President Trump to pay these TSA workers too little too late for all of these people who have been in line here for Checkpoint C here at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport.

This is about three quarters of the way into the line. This used to be a food court. They shut this all down so they could make it into line. Let me show you down here a little bit. This is where the line keeps going and snakes around itself twice here at BWI. This line initially starts outside the airport.

And I just want to show you the time lapse of how long this line is. That's probably the best way to capture this because it is so, so long. Earlier, a federal agent who was down here from his office volunteering to help out with things here maintaining the line, told me the line was between 3 hours 10 minutes and 3 hours 40 minutes just to get to the main TSA checkpoint. This is all general screening. There's another checkpoint that is for clear and TSA pre-check. There's another checkpoint that's fully closed because the TSA call- out rates here have been especially high. The last few days, they've hovered around 30 percent. That's pretty high, among the highest in the nation for call-out rates.

We don't have live wait times here at BWI, so this airport has not really made a lot of headlines. But it is really, really long. Of course, the good news is so many people will be able to make it to spring break. The airlines say if they don't make it through the line, they'll try and rebook them pretty quickly here. This is one of the biggest days all year for airline travel here at BWI. They say today is the biggest. 31,000 people expected to pass through the lines here at TSA at BWI.

Yesterday, it was 30,000. Spring break officially starts on Monday for Anne Arundel County Public Schools. That's the county we're in. The line is pretty happy, though. There's been TSA workers moving people through. There's been Southwest folks here handing out waters and Oreos. Folks have been taking selfies. They're keeping spirits up here, Wolf, in spite of the fact this is taking so, so long for folks just to get to where they're going. Maybe they should drive.

BLITZER: If it's not too far. All right. Pete Muntean, thank you very, very much. More than 60,000 TSA employees have been working without pay. Earlier this week, a TSA official told lawmakers that today will mark nearly $1 billion in missed pay. That's causing financial strain on TSA workers across the country. Here's how one described it. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONIA CROCKER, TSA AGENT: Most of us haven't even recovered from the last shutdown. I'm quite sure, you know, people are getting letters of, you know, eviction, foreclosure, you know, repossession. That's nonsense.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: And joining us now, two TSA agents, Cameron Cochems, who is also the regional vice president for his local TSA union, and Rachel, who has asked us not to use her last name. She's also a member of the TSA union. Cameron, let me start with you. What has it been like these past several weeks working without any pay?

CAMERON COCHEMS, TSA OFFICER AND TSA UNION REGIONAL VICE PRESIDENT: Hi, Wolf. Thanks for having us. The last couple of weeks have been exhausting. People don't know when they're going to get their next paycheck. And so, then people have to not know when we're going to be doing anything, you know, so, like, we don't know how we're going to pay our rent, you know, how to do all these bills and everything like that. So, it's been really tough.

It has been kind of nice from the checkpoint side because we've had a lot of passengers say thank you and give us gift cards and all those different things. But at the end of the day, we just need our paycheck.

BLITZER: And, Rachel, what has your experience been like?

RACHEL, TSA OFFICER AND TSA UNION MEMBER: My experience has been a little different than Cameron's because I have children. So, not only do I have to provide for myself, but I have to provide for my children.

Last Monday in particular, you know, I went to work. I'm working the front lines, you know, and then I got off work, and I had to go pick up my baby and go to the government assistance office to get WIC. So, I have to go get government assistance from the same government that I work for. And I shouldn't have to do that.

BLITZER: If this deal, Rachel, goes through Congress today, up to the House of Representatives to pass what the Senate has now passed, do you know when your next paycheck will actually come?

RACHEL: We don't know. No. Last time, it took about a week for us to get paid last time. So, I don't know how long it's going to take this time.

BLITZER: And give us a little example. How have you had to adjust your day-to-day life knowing you're not sure when your next paycheck will come?

RACHEL: So, it's gotten to the point I can't afford daycare. So, I'm essentially passing my baby around like a hot potato to whatever friends can watch her for free. It's stressful planning where I have to drop her off, where I have to pick her up. Grabbing food on my way out and to rush to go get my baby from -- because my friends also have lives or jobs to get to.

[10:45:00]

So, it's been a large adjustment. I've had to call out on days that I didn't have anybody to watch her. I've had to call out on days that I couldn't afford daycare. And the $450 in utility bills that I have. So, it's been an extremely difficult shutdown this go-around. Less than three months ago, we were just shut down for over 40 days.

So, like many have said, we haven't had any time to recover. We've maxed out our credit cards. Our credit has tanked. We can't get loans this time. So, a lot of us, it's a lot difficult this time, more than it was last time.

BLITZER: Awful situation. Cameron, the national president of your union says he's, quote, "grateful" for the president's order for the Department of Homeland Security to pay TSA agents. What's your reaction to the latest developments, the movements unfolding in Washington over the past day or so?

COCHEMS: Listen, when we get our paycheck, we'll believe it when we see it. So, it's so tough trying to face our lives off of tweets we're seeing online from the president and stuff like that.

So, you know, just last night, the Senate passed the DHS funding bill. And now, it's going to go to the House. Who knows when that's going to pass? It might have passed while we speak. I have no idea. And so, we're happy that things are moving forward. But it's just ridiculous that it took this long to even get here.

BLITZER: So, Cameron, what's your message to the lawmakers right now? They're supposed to begin a two-week recess later today. But they've got to pass this legislation first. And let's hope they do.

COCHEMS: Yes. I mean, our message to Congress is stop playing games with our lives. You know, this has been exhausting for all of us. People, you know, are going to get evicted because of this. People have to sell their cars. Even if it passes today, there's still a week where we're not going to get our paycheck. And guess what happens in a couple days? Rents do. So, all these different things are going to continue to happen until we get paid.

And all I can really hope for is that we get some sort of supplemental extra income because of this. Because this has tanked our credit, tanked, you know, a lot of our financials. And we also need protection for these people who had to call out to protect their families and take care of their families. Because there's thousands of people across the country that that happened to.

BLITZER: Well, good luck to both of you. Good luck to all the TSA agents around the country. Rachel and Cameron, thanks very much. Thanks for all you do as well.

COCHEMS: Thanks, Wolf.

BLITZER: And coming up, Florida's gentle giants at risk. How possible changes to conservation laws could affect manatees. We'll have an update.

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[10:50:00]

BLITZER: They're truly the gentle giants of the waterways around Florida. Let me start again. They're truly the gentle giants of the waterways around Florida. Manatees are a symbol of the sunshine state, much like theme parks, gators and beaches. The final Wednesday in March has been Manatee Appreciation Day in Florida since 1981. It's a day to celebrate them and raise awareness about the ongoing, mostly man-made threats to their survival. But proposed rollbacks to two conservation laws could turn them from a threatened species back to an endangered one.

CNN's Chief Climate Correspondent Bill Weir is here with me in the Situation Room. What can you tell us, Bill?

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Well, happy Manatee Day.

BLITZER: Yes.

WEIR: And they're worth celebrating. Manatees are one of about 300 species that have been saved from extinction by these laws right now. Let's give you some stats for all the manatee lovers out there. They are threatened these days. They're big, as you know, if you've ever been down to the Crystal River and been lucky enough to snorkel with them. Bigger than NBA centers, weigh about 1,000 pounds.

They're herbivores, so like elephants or hippos in Africa, they are gardeners of the ecosystem down in Florida, help shape the ecology down there as well. And they can't survive, you know, big swings in temperature. They need warm water. They're important. They're sort of an umbrella species down there.

And back in the '70s, when these laws were first passed, there were about 1,200 left in the world, wild ones. But now, as a result, more than 8,000 today. But the Trump administration has been steadily rolling back environmental protections on all levels, starting with the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Some of the threats to these creatures are loss of food sources. Some of that is due to fertilizer runoff that creates these algae blooms that choke off the native seagrass. There was a big die-off a few years ago. About 1,200 manatees were lost in one deal. There's climate change. There's, of course, habitat destruction due to developments and trash and debris and boats. Over 500 manatees killed just last year as well.

But under these new rollbacks of the Trump administration, the Marine Mammal Protection Act would weaken the standards around maintaining these healthy populations, raises the burden of proof to sort of investigate where these pollution events are happening there. It restricts the agency's ability to, you know, both permit and inspect new developments out well.

But the big one is the Endangered Species Act rollbacks. And this would restore this to sort of 2019-2020 framework that the Trump administration wanted, eliminates a blanket rule that applies to all different species, and really brings in this consideration of economic impacts and changes sort of the definition of harm. So, if a developer comes in and argues there are certain houses could be built in these places or we could extract oil and gas or different resources from there, that the economic benefit would outweigh the lives of manatees.

[10:55:00]

And depending on the political climate, that is a tough argument for lovers of manatees to win. But Doug Burgum, the secretary of energy, said in a statement as he tries to justify these, he says, quote, as we put it up on the screen for you there, "This administration is restoring the Endangered Species Act to its original intent, protecting species through clear, consistent, and lawful standards that also respect the livelihoods of Americans who depend on land and resources."

BLITZER: Doug Burgum, Interior Secretary.

WEIR: Interior Secretary, forgive me, thank you, yes.

BLITZER: Just made a minor correction.

WEIR: Yes, thank you, Wolf. But this is really alarming for people who have spent the last 50 years struggling to bring these creatures back and every nick to their ecosystem. Of course, it's not just about the manatees. That web of life includes humans and every other creature in Florida down there. So, worth paying attention to going forward.

BLITZER: Our Chief Climate Correspondent, you really know your stuff. Bill Weir, good to have you in the Situation Room.

WEIR: Thank you.

BLITZER: Thanks very much for joining us. And coming up, we're keeping a very close eye on airport security lines and on the state of TSA workers' paychecks as a measure to partially fund DHS is now in the hands of the House of Representatives. We'll have an update that's coming up next.

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