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The Story Is with Elex Michaelson

Two Killed by Iranian Missile in Central Israel; Trump Blasts NATO Over Iran; Cuba Works to Restore Power After Nationwide Outage; Passengers Wait in Long Lines as TSA Callouts Rise; Top Trump Intel Official Resigns Over Iran War; Was U.S. Right to Go Into Iran's?; Hormuz Closure Could Spark Global Inflation; Trucks Carry Lifeline with Strait of Hormuz Blocked; Iranians Caught Between U.S.-Israeli Strikes and Government Forces. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired March 18, 2026 - 00:00   ET

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

[00:00:00]

ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR: It's about who are the best pitchers.

LAURA COATES, CNN ANCHOR: Well, you know, did you hear it? I love this line because Aaron Judge said the World Baseball Classic is, quote, "bigger and better than the World Series." Well, Derek Jeter's response tonight, I mean, listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Passion has been unbelievable. And we've heard a lot of players say bigger than a World Series, bigger than a World Series, Derek Jeter?

DEREK JETER, FORMER PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL PLAYER: I think the people who said it's bigger than the World Series never played in the World Series.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COATES: You know what? What can one say? Have a great show, Elex.

MICHAELSON: One of the great World Series champions of all time, Derek Jeter.

Laura, thank you. THE STORY IS starts right now with breaking news.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

MICHAELSON: I'm Elex Michaelson live in Los Angeles where it's 9:00 p.m. Tuesday night. It's 7:00 a.m. Wednesday morning in Baghdad, Iraq.

The top story is there. Another day of strikes on the U.S. embassy compound in Baghdad.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking in Foreign Language) (END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Local security officials tell CNN the area was targeted by at least four projectiles, including two drones, at least one landing in the vicinity of the compound. Earlier Tuesday, air defense systems intercepted another projectile aimed at the embassy. There was some damage around the embassy, but no reports of any casualties. Meanwhile, Iran says a hostile projectile struck the site of the nuclear power plant there. It says no part of the plant was damaged. The U.N.'s nuclear watchdog is urging restraint.

And Iran confirms its top security official and the head of a powerful paramilitary force have been killed in an overnight strike. The Israeli military vowing to pursue and neutralize anyone who poses a threat to Israel, including Iran's newly chosen supreme leader.

Iran's attacks on targets in Israel are not letting up. At least two people have been killed in the central part of the country after an apparent cluster munition exploded overhead.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond is at the scene.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: So we just arrived on the scene of Iran's latest ballistic missile attack. You can see this is caused by one of those cluster munitions. The direct impact appears to be at that apartments right up there where you can see that one of those smaller bomblets that's released from that ballistic missile made impact. We understand that two people are dead as a result of this attack.

And this is just one of multiple impacts that we are seeing now across the Tel Aviv area. You can see some of the damage that's caused here on the ground as well as a result of this ballistic missile. Again, we're seeing multiple impacts across the Tel Aviv area right now. This brings the total number of fatalities to 14 now in Israel as a result of these Iranian attacks that we've been witnessing over the course of the last two weeks or so.

One of the impacts also struck a railroad station in Tel Aviv. Multiple other residential areas. And again, these are cluster munitions that Iran is firing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAELSON: President Trump is lashing out again at U.S. allies who are refusing to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz. He met on Tuesday at the White House with Ireland's prime minister, where he said he's not ready to end the war with Iran yet but claimed the U.S. will be leaving in the near future. The U.S. military says it dropped 500 pound guided bombs on Iranian missile sites along the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday.

And President Trump now claims the U.S. would no longer need any help in getting the vital oil shipping route reopened. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think NATO is making a very foolish mistake, and I've long said that, you know, I wonder whether or not NATO would ever be there for us. So this is a -- this was a great test because we don't need them, but they should have been there.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Are you rethinking the United States' relationship with NATO, possibly getting out?

TRUMP: When they don't help us, I mean, it's certainly something that we should think about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: With me now is Julianne Smith. She represented the United States at NATO in the Biden administration.

Thanks for being here. First off, your reaction to President Trump's comments about NATO?

JULIANNE SMITH, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO NATO: Well, I don't think the president should be that surprised that he's received a lukewarm response from our allies to his pleas for assistance to open up the strait. I mean, look, the Europeans right now feel like they're being treated like subordinates. They feel like past contributions have been belittled. Their contributions in places like Afghanistan.

And they don't really know whether or not the U.S. truly needs their assistance. We've heard contradictory statements from the White House in recent days. So it is not a surprise to me that the European allies aren't jumping at the chance here.

[00:05:05]

However, it raises some tough questions for the allies because if the strait remains closed, it will affect the global economy. And Europe has to ask itself whether or not it wants to help to try to get that strait open.

MICHAELSON: Does President Trump have a point that we're there for them, we spend all this money and they're not there for us?

SMITH: Well, look, the NATO alliance was only called to action once in terms of using Article Five. That's the clause in the treaty that says an attack on one is an attack on all. That was invoked actually on 9/11, when we were attacked. Europe was here for us and came to our assistance and served side by side with us in Afghanistan for 20 plus years. So they believe that they have showed up for the United States time again.

They are appreciative of all the security that we provide. They appreciate the assistance to Ukraine. But right now, the United States isn't providing any security for -- security assistance to Ukraine. So they feel that the relationship is a little bit off balance. They've been trading jabs over the last year, and there's a lot of tension in this relationship right now. And so Europe feels like it's not in a steady place in its relationship with the United States.

Europeans find us to be a bit unpredictable at the moment, and for that reason, it's hard for them to appreciate kind of a president that is demanding that they show up on a moment's notice to help with a war that they weren't consulted on from day one.

MICHAELSON: Do you think that President Trump is an existential threat to NATO itself?

SMITH: I don't think the president is an existential threat to the NATO alliance. I think he's challenged the alliance in a number of ways both in his first term and now in his second term. I will say that I am relieved and excited about the fact that he was able to push allies to spend more on defense. But I think at times he's called into question America's commitment to this alliance.

And for that reason, a lot of Europeans will tell you right now that there's a bit of a trust deficit, that they're not sure whether or not they can trust us. Again they find us unpredictable, and trust really sits at the root of the relationship in the NATO alliance. Without trust, it's hard for NATO to operate day in and day out. So no, the president is by no means an existential threat. But I do think that some of the trust that has always sat at the foundation of the alliance has really been eroded over the last year.

MICHAELSON: Well, really interesting to get insights on NATO from somebody who knows it so well.

Julie, thank you so much for being with us and thank you for sharing your perspective.

SMITH: Thank you.

MICHAELSON: To Cuba now, and a new warning to the Trump administration. Cuba's president says that at any attempt by the U.S. to take control of the island will be met with, quote, "impregnable resistance."

President Trump on Tuesday suggested potential U.S. action could be happening soon. This comes as Cuba is struggling to restore electricity following a nationwide blackout. Cuba's power grid collapsed on Monday weeks after the U.S. effectively shut off oil supplies into the country. The Trump administration says it's time for Cuba to change its leadership.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCO RUBIO, SECRETARY OF STATE: The bottom line is their economy doesn't work. It's a nonfunctional economy. It's an economy that has survived -- for 40, that revolution, it's not even a revolution. That thing they have has survived on subsidies from the Soviet Union and now from Venezuela. They don't get subsidies anymore. So they're in a lot of trouble. And the people in charge, they don't know how to fix it. So they have to get new people in charge. (END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Joining me now from Cuba is Patrick Oppmann, CNN's Havana bureau chief. Obviously, there's no power there. He's using a generator to make this happen here. It's also raining there on top of everything else.

Patrick, talk about what you're experiencing on the ground there and how this power outage is affecting people.

PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, power has been slowly coming on and then it gets knocked back off. But officials say they are making as good a progress as you can expect but for the people who have been without power now for more than a day, of course those explanations, those assurances mean very little because they are still in the dark. They're going to probably spend a second night in the dark. Your food begins to spoil, and it just is a very unpleasant situation that Cubans know all too well.

[00:10:02]

MICHAELSON: How does that sort of change the politics of this? The no power, the problems with gas, the -- I mean, is it boiling anger, frustration with the government?

OPPMANN: There's certainly a sense of exhaustion as people kind of go from one crisis to the next, and Cubans are no strangers to having to resist, having to deal with one shortage of another their entire lives. But this is something different where just in the space of several months, there is basically no fuel to be had. And so transportation, public transportation is becoming harder and harder to find.

You have blackouts now on a regular day that can last 20 hours or more, and then you have a big island wide blackout like the one that we're still experiencing now that knocked out the power to the entire island for more than 24 hours. And so that means people can't work. They can't send their kids to school. That hospitals are doing only the most necessary procedures. And that really makes life almost unlivable here.

And so for the government, that essentially becomes a point of concern, a point of worry, because we've seen people go out in protest and people more and more seem to be blaming their own government rather than the United States government, which is, of course, responsible for cutting off the oil to this island. But what Marco Rubio said, there is some basis in fact that Cuba depended on the Soviet Union, they depended on Venezuela. And now no one, no country has really stepped in that role that -- they're sending, you know, throwing them a lifeline. Cuba is on its own.

MICHAELSON: We hear that Cuba and the U.S. are negotiating. What exactly are they negotiating over?

OPPMANN: Well, Cuba, of course, would like this oil blockade to end. Perhaps some sanctions relief because there are more than six decades of U.S. sanctions on this island that have had a big impact on the Cuban economy. There's no doubt about that. On the other side of things, for a long time, not only the U.S. but many other governments have said the way, the centralized way, it is a communist state that the Cuban government runs their economy, and the fact that so little private industry is allowed on this island that that really hampers Cubans. That is why so many Cubans have chosen to leave according to the U.S.

And now we -- there's really a remarkable moment earlier where Marco Rubio, who of course is Cuban American and knows the weak points of this government and economy all too well, said, you know, the people in charge here shouldn't be in charge. They are running this country into the ground. And that he felt, as secretary of state, as a high ranking U.S. official that he has the right to tell the Cuban government they need to have a new leadership.

And so Cuban officials are pushing back on that quite hard. But at this point, they have a gun to their head. They are running on fumes here. It is checkmate. And so that is why the Cuban government has decided at long last to go into negotiations. How much you can really negotiate with the government that's calling on you to completely change your political system, your economic system, remains to be seen.

MICHAELSON: Well, Patrick Oppmann, despite no power, despite the rain, despite everything, you're still working and still giving us such important information. It is great to have your reporting from the ground in Cuba. Thank you so much.

OPPMANN: Thank you.

MICHAELSON: The United States Senate is debating a voter I.D. bill President Trump wants passed before November's elections. The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act or SAVE Act, would require voters to show I.D. and proof of U.S. citizenship in federal elections. The bill is not likely to pass, but is expected to generate some sharp debate on the Senate floor.

It already has sparked tensions within the Republican Party. One Republican House member is criticizing the way that Senate Majority Leader John Thune is handling the bill.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Are you disappointed with the way John Thune has handled the SAVE Act?

REP. ANNA PAULINA LUNA (R-FL): A thousand percent. They're over there doing a show vote. They know it's going to fail. I actually had my little sources tell me about what their kind of plan was to get the American people off their back. Voter I.D. is not controversial. Over 80 percent of Americans want it. So yes, it's completely unacceptable.

RAJU: Do you think there needs to be new leadership in the Senate?

LUNA: I'm not in the Senate so I can't make that determination. But I wish that the Senate would find its backbone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Democrats say the SAVE Act is only meant to block qualified voters from exercising their rights. Before debate began, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats are prepared to stay on the floor to defeat the measure.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): All day, all night, as long as it takes to ensure the powers of voter suppression do not win the day. Let me be very clear, the SAVE Act is not a voter I.D. bill. It is in every sense a voter suppression bill.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[00:15:03]

MICHAELSON: Meanwhile, lawmakers are still trying to strike a deal to reopen the Department of Homeland Security, at least to fund it. The White House detailed a proposal on Tuesday. It includes expanding the use of body cameras used by immigration agents. It would also limit the government's ability to carry out operations at sensitive locations like hospitals and schools. Other provisions include making agents clearly identify themselves while operating in public, and making it illegal to knowingly detain a U.S. citizen.

But the deal failed to address some of the Democrats' main concerns, specifically the desire to stop agents from wearing masks and the use of administrative warrants over judicial warrants.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD ALEXANDER, TRAVELER: It's disgraceful what's going on here. Wait until November, and a lot of these people get thrown out because they're not, they're not legislating appropriately for the people of this country. This is disgraceful and I hope at a minimum they are offering all these TSA employees an extra dollar and a half, $2, $3 an hour to show up to work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: So you see it there. We are seeing more frustrated passengers across the U.S. as that partial government shutdown continues. On Tuesday, TSA reported at least 336 agents -- 366 agents have quit since the shutdown began more than a month ago. Some airports have advised passengers to arrive hours ahead of their flights to make it through backlog, security lines and the issues could get even worse.

CNN's Ryan Young, who we just saw there, has more from Atlanta.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Tuesday at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the story is still the same when it comes to TSA and whether or not workers are showing up. The airport GM says there's been more than a 30 percent call out from TSA workers.

You can actually see that on the lines here. As we walk down the way here you can see how few of the lines with TSA agents are open. And we really see people with tears in their eyes, not sure they're going to make it to their location because the hours wait has been long here. In fact, at one point it stretched over 128 minutes and there's really no sign or any kind of notice when this may all come to an end.

We've had passengers blaming Republicans and Democrats, trying to figure out when D.C. will get its act together to get these TSA workers paid again, to see these security lines shorten, but we've actually heard from officials that some smaller airports could be forced to close and that's something that a lot of folks in the traveling public are scared to see because they want to take their travel, they want to go on their vacation or get home to their families.

Reporting at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, Ryan Young, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAELSON: Ahead, a senior U.S. intelligence official stepping down over his objections to the war with Iran. We'll dive deeper into that and more with our political panel standing by live right here in L.A., Stephanie Miller on the left, Jennifer Horn on the right. Two radio hosts here to debate, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:22:17]

MICHAELSON: A top U.S. intelligence official has abruptly resigned over the war with Iran. Joe Kent, who was appointed by President Trump, had been serving as the director of the National Counterterrorism Center. His resignation marks the highest profile rebuke yet of the war effort from someone inside the administration.

In his resignation letter posted on X, he wrote, quote, "I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby."

President Trump had this reaction.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I read his statement. I always thought it was a nice guy but I always thought he was weak on security. But when I read a statement, I realized that it's a good thing that he's out because he said that Iran was not a threat? Iran was a threat. Every country realized what a threat Iran was.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Let's talk about this and more with Jennifer Horn, host of "The Morning Answer" on 870 A.M. here in L.A., and Stephanie Miller, a national radio talk show host and TV host, host of "The Stephanie Miller Show."

Ladies, welcome. Two strong radio hosts on different sides of the aisle.

Stephanie, does Joe Kent have a point?

STEPHANIE MILLER, NATIONAL RADIO AND TV HOST: Oh, my God, yes. I -- you know, I love how this is splintering the MAGA base because it's such an unmitigated disaster. And he just said what we already knew that Iran posed no threat to us. This is a complete disaster. There is not one ally that wants to help clean up, you know, this mess that Trump made all by himself. And you know, I don't know about you, Elex, but I don't want, you know, 200 little girls blown up in a school in my name for -- they still can't articulate a reason why we're there and what we're doing and how we get out.

And Joe Kent is right. Netanyahu dog-walked us into this. And as a dog lover and a dog walker, the dog doesn't know where it's going, when it's going to be over, how it gets back. And that's where we are. How do we get out?

MICHAELSON: I mean, Republicans would say the number one sponsor of terrorism, Iran, right?

JENNIFER HORN, HOST, "THE MORNING ANSWER" ON AM 870 IN L.A.: Yes. My dog takes me for a walk so I think dogs know exactly where they're going sometime. But I'll tell you this much. I take issue with the fact that we're going this alone. We are not. We are obviously in this with Israel. We are in it with the Arab countries as well, who seem to be taking our side over the side of Iran.

And look, I laugh a little bit because Joe Kent was called a racist. He was called a white nationalist by a lot of people on the left and he took a lot of heat. But because he comes out with a letter talking about how he doesn't agree with the war, suddenly he is a hero to the left. I think that this guy is a war hero.

I understand if he doesn't agree with all of the of the efforts, but from what I'm hearing in reporting from Axios and from other sources that this guy was a leaker and was actually not even privy to the briefings on Iran over the last several months.

[00:25:13]

So it's hard to take his word seriously if indeed he wasn't even part of that thread. It's the president's job to determine --

MICHAELSON: But doesn't President Trump appoint all the best people?

MILLER: Yes.

MICHAELSON: Isn't that his thing?

HORN: Well, we see the first time --

MILLER: Yes. He was always weak on security, and Trump made him the head of security? That seems like --

HORN: Look, I think that --

MILLER: More of his fantastic judgment.

HORN: I think that we have great people around President Trump right now.

MILLER: Do we?

HORN: But if we believe that this person was leaking, he was --

MILLER: Which ones?

HORN: He was taken out --

MILLER: By the way, Joe Kent is still awful. He's still awful in every other way.

HORN: Well, because --

MILLER: So I agree with you. He is awful.

HORN: But it's sort of like the -- I actually didn't say he was awful because he lost his wife to ISIS. He was a military hero. Do I like the fact that it looks like he was leaking? No. I don't know what he's going through in his personal life, but what I can tell you is if we want to talk about imminent threats that's up for President Trump to decide for sure as the president of the United States.

He's got 70 percent of the Republican Party behind him. He still has in most polls half of the country with him. And what I would say is there is nothing more America first than protecting the country for the foreseeable future. And that's exactly where we will be in about three weeks from right now where our world is safer.

MILLER: There are no imminent threats. Joe Kent is just echoing all of our intelligence agency --

MICHAELSON: Do you think that this has made us more safe?

MILLER: No. How? We're -- you know, we've already had two antisemitic attacks here. You know, they say when you kick a hornet's nest, the hornets decide when it's over.

HORN: But we were having those attacks before, and this group of people yelled death to America. For 47 years they have been at war with us. And you want to talk about little girls and women? They're not exactly --

MILLER: Yes. Trump said Obama started this. HORN: They're not exactly fans, by the way.

MILLER: Started this war with Iran when he was apparently 17. So he had some mad skills, that Obama.

HORN: Well, I mean, you have to understand that since the hostage crisis, Iran has been at war with us. They're the leading state sponsor of terrorism.

MILLER: We have not been at war with Iran.

HORN: Thousands of Americans, they have killed thousands of their own people. They have killed thousands of people around the globe, tens of thousands.

MILLER: Right. So we're against shooting protesters now, except in Minneapolis.

MICHAELSON: No, no, but --

HORN: What does this have to do with that?

MICHAELSON: I mean, they have been one of the leading state sponsor of terrorism.

MILLER: They are the leading state sponsor. Yes.

MICHAELSON: And they have, they have proxies all over the Middle East that have attacked American allies as well. And they have been a threat to Americans in some times. The question is, did you need to do this, right?

MILLER: No. It's -- this is a disaster.

MICHAELSON: But what do you say to that point that --

MILLER: This is a complete unmitigated disaster.

MICHAELSON: Iran has a lot of bad dudes in that government.

MILLER: A lot of countries have bad dudes. Are we -- I mean, he ran on, no more wars. This is a completely unnecessary war of choice. It's illegal.

HORN: This is not a war of choice.

MILLER: We are committing a war crime a day practically. And it is --

HORN: If you listen --

MICHAELSON: How is it not a war of choice?

HORN: So the reason I believe that, and if you listen to Marco Rubio and you listen to what some of the senators have come out to say, obviously they can't talk about the intelligence directly. But what you -- MICHAELSON: You could have made a case to the American people.

HORN: But what you get from it is --

MILLER: Marco Rubio won't even tell the president what size shoes he wears.

MICHAELSON: Right.

(LAUGHTER)

HORN: What you get from this, though, is that there were threats to our military bases in the Middle East and that is the --

MILLER: Now there are.

HORN: It was before the attack and that's why President Trump decided to move.

MICHAELSON: But if there was such a threat, why not make the case to the American people? Why not make the case to Congress? Why not declare war on Iran if we actually are, in your words --

HORN: I think they did make the case to Congress, though. I mean they did everything they were supposed to do to go to Congress, and they --

MICHAELSON: They did not. They did not ask for a declaration of wars.

HORN: You don't have to. They notify Congress within 48 hours. They took the vote on war powers. And that failed in both Houses. So President Trump is completely within his right to do this and --

MILLER: We've already heard 17 different reasons why. And they all contradict each other.

MICHAELSON: What do you think is the reason?

HORN: To go into this conflict now?

MICHAELSON: Yes.

HORN: I think that Iran has been -- I think President Trump is the only one with backbone enough to actually take on this problem. Six other presidents have let this slide, and they've kicked the can down the road. Americans die, Iranians die, Israel, I mean, my goodness, look at October 7th. I don't think that we can argue with the fact that Iran had their fingerprints all over that.

So if you have the opportunity to continue to degrade their military power, that's exactly what you have to do. And I applaud President Trump and his team for actually having the backbone to do it because most people don't.

MILLER: Backbone is not the word I would use. I would say that he is a lunatic with dementia who is taking us -- who is starting World War III. HORN: That was Joe Biden.

MICHAELSON: But if -- if this actually works out, if President Trump is able to --

MILLER: What does work out mean?

MICHAELSON: If there is a either democratic or at least stable government in Iran, that is --

MILLER: We have just a younger lunatic.

MICHAELSON: That is an alliance of the United States, that isn't sponsoring terror in the region, isn't that a good thing?

MILLER: Right. But we just have the same -- we just have a younger Khamenei. We took out one --

MICHAELSON: Well, clearly not finished yet.

MILLER: And now we have a younger lunatic and we've killed his entire family. So --

[00:30:04]

HORN: I promise, you can actually -- you will have all of your liberal bone fides by still saying, it's OK that we can go in and make the world safer.

Because Democrats did for such a long time. If you go back and listen to Obama, if you listen to Bill Clinton, if you listen to Chuck Schumer, if you listen to Kamala Harris, just a year ago, they said that the top adversary to the United States was Iran's. It's OK for liberals to support this action.

ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR: But --

(CROSSTALK)

MILLER: We had a perfectly good deal that Trump ripped up --

MICHAELSON: The Iran's nuclear deal.

MILLER: -- that President Obama negotiated.

HORN: That was a -- not a perfectly good deal. It actually just funded. It just gave more money to the leading state sponsor of terror.

MICHAELSON: But the counter -- the counter argument -- and this is the last thing. The counterargument to this is that we actually made the world more dangerous now.

MILLER: Yes.

MICHAELSON: Because we've emboldened the radicals in that country who are going to be more frustrated with us and that they're going to want to attack us more, and that --

HORN: They were already here.

MICHAELSON: -- we don't have the patience or the resources to see this thing through.

HORN: Well, we would have.

MICHAELSON: And we've created a mess.

HORN: We would have the resources if the Democrats would actually vote to reopen the government. We need to do that. We need to do it now. We need to make sure that the Department of Homeland Security is fully funded. I agree with you.

MILLER: Republicans are the ones that are voting against it.

MICHAELSON: Yes.

MILLER: They're the reason TSA agents aren't getting paid. They voted eight times against all of the things Democrats wanted to fund. It's ridiculous.

MICHAELSON: They both have a little bit of blame on that whole thing.

But it's nice -- It's nice to see both of you.

HORN: Always fun.

MICHAELSON: And we're sharing our views, and we appreciate it.

MILLER: I wore this so she can see what's going to happen in November. Just a big blue wall.

HORN: It's a blue wave?

MILLER: Blue tsunami.

HORN: I wore green for St. Patrick's Day.

MICHAELSON: Happy -- happy St. Patrick's Day to everybody watching at home.

Jennifer Horn, Stephanie Miller, thank you.

A live look right now at the port in Hong Kong. Look at that. We've talked a lot about how the Strait of Hormuz closure's affecting oil and gas prices. But the rising costs could soon be felt well beyond the gas price -- gas pump, as well. We will go live to Asia and talk about how this is impacting that region. Next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:36:39]

MICHAELSON: Iran's effective shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz has locked up roughly 20 percent of the world's oil since the U.S. and Israel launched their war nearly three weeks ago.

Consumers around the world are starting to feel the effects. Let's go to CNN's Ivan Watson, who is live off the coast of Hong Kong.

Ivan, how is the closure of the strait impacting global shipping and energy prices where you are?

IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Look, you're feeling it when you try to buy gas at the pump. You're feeling it when you try to buy plane tickets, because jet fuel is more expensive right now.

And the reason we're out here is to explain why. This is one of the ships, the kind of ship that has been targeted since the war broke out in Iran.

This ship itself -- it's a liquefied petroleum gas tanker -- was in the Gulf just days before the war broke out. It made it out safely.

It's worth tens of millions of dollars without its cargo. It's more than the length of a football field, right? About 150 meters long. And the Iranian government has targeted more than a dozen ships like this.

We've seen tankers burning off the coast of Iraq that Iran claims to have hit with submarine vehicles. There was a cargo ship from Thailand that was hit trying to transit the Strait of Hormuz a week ago. And three of its crew members are still missing.

And when you get up close to one of these ships, it helps illustrate how vulnerable they are to things like drones, like missiles, like speedboats, all the types of asymmetric weapons that Iran's has that can target ships like this.

And this is why the Strait of Hormuz is effectively closed right now, and why you can't get oil from the Gulf, which supplies 20 percent of the world's oil, can't get it out right now.

Iran has made it clear it will target shipping. In fact, I'm going to quote the speaker of the Iranian parliament on X, saying, quote, "The Strait of Hormuz situation won't return to its pre-war status."

Those threats are very real right now. The Trump administration wants to reopen the strait to allow ships like this to move again.

Before the war, about 140 ships like this would pass through the strait both directions every day. Now it's just a handful.

And I'm just going to pan over here so you get a look at some of the other types of ships that typically come to a place like Hong Kong this is the lifeblood of the global economy, Elex. This is where we get our fuel, our container, the stuff that goes to IKEA, flour, rice, whatever.

And when these ships stop moving, we all feel it in our wallets and in our pocketbooks.

There are hundreds of ships stranded on both sides of the Strait of Hormuz right now. The Trump administration is calling for countries to help reopen the strait. It -- he's asked for China, Japan, South Korea, NATO member countries. So far, nobody is volunteering to help.

In fact, what we've seen is the opposite. Some countries are clearly trying to negotiate side deals with the Islamic Republic of Iran.

In the last week, we've seen tankers safely transit the Strait of Hormuz to India and to Pakistan. And just two days ago, a Hong Kong ship actually went into the Gulf through the strait.

[00:40:12]

The Iranian government says it is negotiating with at least eight countries right now to allow safe passage of tankers carrying energy out, provided that the oil is paid for with Chinese currency. We don't know if that's going to succeed yet, but there has been some movement.

What's clear is that Iran's is trying to impose conditions for this vital shipping through the Strait of Hormuz right now, and threatening ships like this, if they don't comply with Iran's -- with Iran's demands. And so far, the U.S. has been unable to fix this problem -- Elex.

MICHAELSON: Ivan Watson reporting for us from Hong Kong. A shout-out to you and a shout-out to your photojournalist for keeping that shot steady on a moving boat. Nicely done.

What an incredible view you have from there. It's really amazing to see.

Coming up, with the Strait of Hormuz blocked to ships, ground transportation is providing a lifeline to the Gulf region. Hundreds of trucks are now bringing vital food and medical supplies into Kuwait each day from Saudi Arabia.

CNN's Nic Robertson is at the border and has our report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: These trucks here are the new lifeline, bypassing the Straits of Hormuz. The Straits of Hormuz closed for oil getting out of the Gulf, closed for goods that would normally be coming in.

And right now, these convoys coming out of Saudi Arabia, going into Kuwait, they're bringing in food. They're bringing in medical supplies. They're bringing in all the equipment that would normally get to Kuwait and other Gulf countries, normally get there by ship or by air.

The Iranians have closed the Strait of Hormuz. The airspace is closed because of all the missile strikes that are going on.

And if you come around here, you can get an idea of all the different products that are on their way into Kuwait. Now officials there aren't talking about food shortages yet, but

people in Kuwait tell us, look, we're -- we're a desert kingdom. We're in the desert. It's a desert country. And we need to import 90 percent of our food.

So, this lifeline here that the Saudis say is passing about 900 trucks a day -- 9,000 trucks gone through from Saudi to Kuwait, they say, since the war began -- is absolutely vital. And it gets more vital the longer the war goes on.

It's part of the Gulf solidarity. These trucks here are driving in from Saudi Arabia, from about a thousand miles away, bout 1,800 kilometers across the whole of the Arabian Peninsula, from Saudi's Western coast, from the port city of Jeddah on the Red Sea.

They can do that, because the Red Sea isn't blockaded. It's not under fire at the moment, which means there's a way to get all this equipment, all this food, all these medical supplies into countries like Kuwait.

But right now, the Iranians have already started threatening the Red Sea with potential strikes, because the USS Gerald Ford, the aircraft carrier, its battle group, are in the Red Sea at the moment.

So, this lifeline, vital; going to get more important if the war continues. But because the Red Sea now appears to be potentially under threat, even this way of getting around the siege of the Strait of Hormuz that Iran has put in place, even this could be under threat, too.

Nic Robertson, CNN, on the Saudi-Kuwait border.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAELSON: CNN taking you from the ground to the sea. Nic Robertson, thank you.

Daily life for many Iranians right now is filled with threats, both foreign and domestic. Just ahead, a report on the people trapped between airstrikes and their government security forces. We'll take you to Iran.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:48:56]

MICHAELSON: Welcome back to THE STORY IS. I'm Elex Michaelson. Let's take a look at today's top stories.

Ukrainian President Zelenskyy and British Prime Minister Starmer have agreed to a new military industrial partnership. The two leaders met at Downing Street on Tuesday to sign that declaration.

The new partnership is meant to help boost the supply of drones and ensure A.I. is used effectively on the battlefield. A rare early heat wave is baking the U.S. West Coast. Here in California to Texas, up to Montana, there will be summer-like temperatures 20 to 40 degrees above normal. For some places, they will be all-time records for the month of April, and it's still only March.

And speaking of Southern California, Sunday's Academy Awards, here were the least watched ceremony since 2022. Viewership dropped by 9 percent, coming off of a five-year high last year.

Still, "Variety" reports the Oscars were the No. 1 television program of the night, drawing almost 18 million viewers. And that number does not include all the people that were streaming or watch clips later on places like YouTube.

Back to the war now. The Iranian government is explicitly threatening potential protesters who may look to take advantage of the chaos, even telling people not to mark Tuesday's annual Festival of Fire, which leads up to the Persian new year.

[00:50:13]

President Trump weighed in on the government's crackdown from the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: They put out a notice two days ago. Anybody that protests will be immediately shot and killed. That's pretty tough stuff.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: CNN's Jomana Karadsheh reports on the people caught between foreign bombs and a repressive regime.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Celebrating the death of their oppressor.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

KARADSHEH (voice-over): This is what the world saw coming out of Iran last month after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed.

But cloaked in digital darkness, a new wave of brutal suppression was already beginning. Teenage brothers Ahmed Riza (ph) and Amir Hussain Faisi (ph) were among the crowds that poured into the streets on February 28.

This was the car they were in with their father. honking the horn in celebration. Security forces opened fire on them, according to activists, killing the 15- and 19-year-old boys.

As the regime faces America and Israel from the sky, it is tightening its grip on the ground, determined to extinguish any ember of an uprising.

Two months ago, it did just that, killing thousands of protesters in the bloodiest crackdown in the history of the Islamic Republic. Iranians still reeling from the collective trauma of January 8th and 9th now being warned, take to the streets, and it will happen again.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Our team have their fingers on the trigger.

KARADSHEH (voice-over): The chief of police threatening protesters they will be treated as the enemy and shot.

The feared Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, promising another massacre of protesters. This time, they say they will strike harder than they did in January.

Messages we've received from Iranians inside the country describe a regime using every tool in its playbook to crush dissent.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Every time you go outside, even just to go to the market, you see machine guns and Dushkas, heavy guns, on the streets. Everyone is afraid of the checkpoints. They are basically the regime's street-level enforcers.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): People are randomly being checked, their phones being searched, being asked questions like, what are you doing out here? They even arrest and take them for further investigation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

KARADSHEH (voice-over): Video trickling out, only a small window into this new climate of fear. "Iran is a superpower," they chant. "Iranians are proud."

Regime supporters roam the streets at night with a menacing message: they are still here, they are still in control.

State media, like so many times before, has been airing videos of those arrested allegedly confessing to being foreign agents. Text messages like this one warn those who find a way around the imposed Internet blackout will be treated as spies.

This crackdown only expected to get worse, as outside forces that want to overthrow this regime add fuel to the fire.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We are now at the decisive stage of our final struggle. Await my final call.

KARADSHEH (voice-over): The Israeli prime minister telling Iranians his forces are, quote, "creating the conditions on the ground" for them to rise up.

As the IDF releases video like this, showing what it says are attacks on regime checkpoints that have become a major instrument of suppression and killing the regime's top leadership, one after the other.

An uprising seems impossible right now for those who find themselves trapped between two hells. From inside their homes, they still defiantly cheer against the regime that time and time again has failed to silence a people, risking it all for freedom.

Jomana Karadsheh, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAELSON: One moment, President Trump is urging NATO allies to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The next moment, he says we don't need anybody's help. Ahead, a closer look at the president's striking turnaround and what China's role is in all of this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:59:37]

MICHAELSON: Congrats to Venezuela, which is now the best in baseball after winning a hard-fought final against the U.S. in this year's World Baseball Classic.

Venezuela got out to an early two-run lead in the bottom of the eighth inning. The U.S. tied the game with a two-run homer. Venezuela ultimately reclaimed the lead in the ninth, driving home a run to seal the victory, 3 to 2.

For now, Venezuela holds baseball bragging rights as the U.S. loses its second straight world baseball championship and second straight, losing by a total of 3 to 2.