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Violent Gang Uprising Fuels Humanitarian Crisis; House Hearing on Biden Admin's Afghanistan Withdrawal; Agreement to Finance Remainder of the Government Announced by Leaders of the White House and Congress; Kate Middleton Seen in Public After Manipulated Photo Flap; Prior to Rate Decision, Fed Will Begin Two-Day Meeting Today; Before Tonight's Drawing, Mega Millions Jackpot Close to $900M. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired March 19, 2024 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: And later today, retired top military leaders will be rolled up on Capitol Hill over the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, that's next.

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ACOSTA: New this morning, the White House and congressional leaders have reached a spending deal just days before several key government agencies would have been forced to shut down.

CNN's Chief Congressional Correspondent Manu Raju joins us up from Capitol Hill. Manu, what's the latest? Can you -- what can you tell us about this deal?

MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR, INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY AND CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT AND ANCHOR: Yes, this would fund the rest of the federal government up until the end of the current fiscal year, the end of September 30th, dealing with Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, as well as the Labor Department, Health and Human Services Department, and everything underneath there.

[10:35:00]

But remember, this is almost six months late. They were supposed to have done this by October 1st of last year, but that didn't happen. Ultimately, they had to pass short term extension after short term extension. And the first short term extension actually led to the ouster of Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House, something that had never happened before in this country's history.

So, this has been a tortured process to get to this point. And just moments ago, the congressional leaders and the White House announced that they have a deal in principle. But here's the other catch, they still haven't even drafted the bill language of this here. And the process of unveiling that and drafting it, that takes some time. And they're headed up into the deadline to avoid a shutdown by 11:59 p.m. on Friday night. Meaning they have to get the bill out, go through the legislative process, get the votes, get to the House and the Senate. It's unclear if they can actually get it done in time because this is so last minute as they've gone through this process here.

And just moments ago, the speaker put out a statement explaining what had happened. He said, an agreement has been reached for DHS appropriations, that is the Homeland Security Department that had been the last sticking point in these talks. It says that -- he says, it will allow completion of the rest of this appropriation process this fiscal year. He says, the committees have begun drafting bill text to be prepared for full release and consideration by the full House and Senate as soon as possible.

So, here's the other thing. It -- there's a rule in the House that they need 72 hours, three days for them to actually review legislation to go through the process here. And that may not get to the point of -- by Friday night, especially if the bill doesn't come out till tomorrow or maybe even Thursday. And then he's facing blowback from the far-right members who are already saying they're going to oppose it in the House. And they have to get an agreement, Jim, of all 100 members to schedule a vote in the Senate.

So, it shows you the last-minute nature of all of this, which could mean a shutdown could potentially happen for a short term over the weekend. But ultimately, they expect it to pass and end this messy process. Jim.

ACOSTA: All right. Yes, this has become a sort of regular course here in Washington. I mean, where would we be without some kind of last- minute drama involving the budget and government shutdown?

All right. Manu, thank you very much. Appreciate it.

In just a few hours from now up on Capitol Hill, a critical hearing on the Biden administration's 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan will get underway up on Capitol Hill. The House Foreign Affairs Committee will hear from two of the top military officials who oversaw that exit, Former Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley and Former Central -- U.S. Central Command -- Commander General Kenneth McKenzie.

The U.S. withdrawal was marred by a pair of August 2021 suicide attacks outside the Kabul airport that left 13 U.S. service members and dozens of Afghans dead.

Let's talk more about this with CNN Military Analysts Retired Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton. I mean, Colonel, it has been almost three years since this messy withdrawal from Afghanistan, but still some very important questions remain. Take us through what we might be hearing today and some of the really key points that lawmakers are trying to get to on all this.

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST, FORMER MEMBER OF JOINT STAFF, PENTAGON, AND FORMER DEPUTY DIRECTOR FOR TRAINING, NSA: Yes, this is going to be really interesting, Jim, because one of the key things about this was that the U.S. was really surprised by the rapidity of the Taliban's advance.

It took them, basically, less than four weeks to get from almost nothing -- ACOSTA: Right.

LEIGHTON: -- in terms of control of the country to controlling Kabul. And here we see them in the presidential palace in Kabul, taking over from the Afghan government. When they do that, you know that they're in charge. And of course, we had all of these situations right here with the terrible tragedy --

ACOSTA: Of course.

LEIGHTON: -- of the Afghans trying to hitch a ride, basically, on this --

ACOSTA: Climb onto the plane, I remember, yes.

LEIGHTON: -- the C-17, exactly. And that, that was a real problem. But we had several warnings that really bad things were going to happen here. For example, Jim Sciutto and Tim Lister reported that there was a very specific threat stream from what was called ISIS- Khorasan, this ISIS affiliated group in it -- that was there in addition to the Taliban.

So, they were going to do very bad things, and of course they did. This is the graphic aftermath of these attacks, and, of course, we had 13 American service members, 11 marines, one sailor, one soldier who were killed in this tragedy. And a lot of this really has to do with, the failure to prepare and to anticipate the kinds of things that really happened in this area.

General Donahue was the -- Chris Donahue was the last American soldier there. But what the State Department said in their after-action report was that both President Trump and President Biden were to blame for the way in which this military mission ended.

And one of the key issues here with this, Jim, was the fact that neither one anticipated this under President Trump. We achieved the agreement with the Taliban back in February of 2020 to withdraw the American forces. I -- and when President Biden took over, he continued to honor that agreement. He had a choice, potentially, to do that.

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But if he had chosen to stay in longer, then we would have probably had higher U.S. casualties and we would have had a situation where that withdrawal would have potentially been even messier than what we had at the present time.

ACOSTA: Yes, our longest war would have been even longer. I mean, that would have -- that was the choice that the president faced at that time. And tell us about how things are going inside Afghanistan. Say, people might be wondering what life is like under the Taliban in Afghanistan.

LEIGHTON: So, one of the key things is this statistic right here. Malnutrition in Afghanistan is absolutely rampant. And 41 percent of all children are basically experiencing stunted growth rates --

ACOSTA: Wow.

LEIGHTON: -- and that's significant. Children under five, according to UNICEF, 41 percent of them are not achieving normal birth weight, the normal types of things that you would expect a child to reach all the developmental stages. And that is one symptom of rule under the Taliban.

The country is cut off. The country is isolated. It is still serving as a base -- baseline for terrorists to attack other countries, including Pakistan. But for the Afghan people, this is the most significant statistic right now.

ACOSTA: Yes, and Afghanistan continues to be a major national security worry, not for -- just the United States, but countries in that part of the world.

All right. Colonel Leighton, as always, thanks very much.

In the meantime, coming up, Princess Kate was spotted in public after that controversy over her manipulated photo. We'll show you the video which appears to be the real thing, that's next.

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[10:45:00]

ACOSTA: Happening now, the Federal Reserve is holding its two-day meeting ahead of announcing its rate decision tomorrow as many Americans hold their breath for any sign of a rate cut.

CNN's Matt Egan joins us now. Matt, consumers have been bearing the brunt of two years of rate hikes. Everybody wants to see those rates come down, but that sounds like it might be a stretch this time around. What do you think?

MATT EGAN, CNN BUSINESS AND ECONOMY REPORTER: Yes, Jim, definitely a stretch. There's almost no chance that the Fed cuts interest rates tomorrow. The market is pricing in a 99 percent chance that the Fed does nothing and keeps interest rates steady. And we know Fed officials do not like to catch investors off guard.

Fed officials, they have been clear that they really need to see more progress in the fight against inflation before they're willing to give borrowers a break. Wall Street's also betting, no rate cut at the next decision on May 1. So, the real drama is really over what happens in June. And it's almost an even split, 60-40. A 60 percent chance of a rate cut in June, 40 percent chance of no change.

And those numbers should change tomorrow because we're going to get new projections from Fed officials on where they think inflation, unemployment and interest rates are going next. Jerome Powell, he's going to take questions from reporters tomorrow where he may drop some hints. Listen, all of this is obviously a very big deal to Wall Street, but it's also really important to Main Street and to the election too because the longer the Fed keeps interest rates high, the more that we're all going to be paying for mortgages and home equity loans, car loans and credit card debt.

So really, the stakes here are very, very high. Remember, the Fed had to cut interest rates to basically zero during COVID to try to save the economy. Then it had to reverse course and spike interest rates to fight inflation. You could see that on the chart on your screen. And interest rates have basically been stuck at these 23-year highs. Tomorrow would be the fifth straight meeting where the Fed keeps interest rates steady.

And the Fed is kind of in a tough spot here, right? Because if they ended up cutting interest rates too soon, they could actually make inflation worse, that's what happened in the 1970s. But if they end up waiting too long, they could actually damage the jobs market and potentially even cause a recession. So, Jim, it is a very delicate balance and the stakes are pretty high.

ACOSTA: Yes, a lot riding on this. All right. Matt Egan, thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Coming up, a new Kate Middleton sighting. There it is. Some video coming in of Princess Kate, and it's fueling a new round of royal speculation. This time the video appears to be legit and undoctored. Unaltered. We'll talk about that, that's next.

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[10:50:00]

ACOSTA: Are you feeling lucky? The jackpot for tonight's mega millions lottery drawing now approaching $900 million and what is the sixth largest prize in the game's history. The massive jackpot is estimated at $875 million with a $413 million cash option, that sounds fine to me. While your chances of taking home the jackpot are one in more than 300 million.

But if you do win, here are some things you could buy. Eight yachts, 4,000 Bentley -- who came up with this? I guess this is accurate. Or 104, 000 first clap -- first-class round-trip tickets from New York City to Tokyo. Good luck. And let me know if you do get that winning ticket.

All right. In the meantime, out this morning, new video, released shows the Princess of Wales in public for the first time in months as speculation regarding her whereabouts has been rampant. For days now, this latest sighting comes just days after Kate Middleton faced backlash for a photoshopped Mother's Day image that she posted. And for months now, questions have swirled over her health after keeping a low profile following some abdominal surgery.

CNN's Max Foster joins me now in London. Max, is it time to move on? What do you make of this latest video we're seeing of the princess? MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR AND ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: You know what, I think if you're a royal fan, you're a monarchist, you're looking at this video, you're really reassured. You're seeing Kate looking really well. She's carrying bags. She's with William. It's all positive news. Of course, the world we're in on this story doesn't really operate like that. It's not the normal rules. So, the conspiracy theorists are out in force and saying that it's all fake again. So, this is the problem that we're facing with all of this.

ACOSTA: Right.

FOSTER: So, just to explain why we think it's real, you know, the palace -- this is not issued by the palace. This was taken by another shopper at the farm park. The palace aren't denying that it's real. They're certainly not confirming it because they feel the couple should have some privacy, but it's been running. They're not denying it. And there's nothing in this video that we can find at least that suggests it's being doctored. And we know that they were there on Sunday. So, we think it's real. But I don't think that's going to end any of the speculation.

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ACOSTA: Yes. And, Max, I mean, what about the photoshopped photo, has the palace, has the royal couple, have they, at all, put out a statement to explain what that was all about? Why that happened, or is it still we're having to read tea leaves here?

FOSTER: So, this is a problem for the palace. I mean, they've got a very clear communication strategy, which is not to release much information only to release it when there is an update, which they have been doing to be fair. But as part of this, it went over Mother's Day and there was a photo release which had been manipulated.

It would been manipulated by Kate. We now have another photo. Taken by Kate that we've also found manipulations on it's from last year. It shows that the Queen, the late Queen, with her grandchildren and great grandchildren. So, there are now two pictures that have been manipulated and this adds to the conspiracy around the idea of a cover up coming from the palace.

ACOSTA: And we -- but we do think the princess is fine, health-wise, or there's still questions there, very quickly.

FOSTER: What we're told, she's doing well, and the video backs it up. So, that's all we've got to go on at this point.

ACOSTA: All right. And we wish them well. All right. Max Foster, thanks, as always. Really appreciate it.

And thank you for joining us this morning. I'm Jim Acosta. Our next hour of "Newsroom" with Wolf Blitzer starts after a short break. Have a great day, everybody.

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