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CNN's The Arena with Kasie Hunt

The Funeral Of Rev. Jesse Jackson; Trump Demands "Unconditional Surrender" By Iran As War Expands. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired March 06, 2026 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:03]

WILLIAM J. CLINTON, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: And whenever I get discouraged, I think about Jesse and I just laugh. Well, you got to open your brains and not your veins.

So, 10 years later, I was living in the governor's mansion, and Jesse shows up for the 30th anniversary of the integration of Little Rock Central High School. By then, I become governor, and we bring all them back to the governor's mansion, because that's where Governor Faubus plotted to disenfranchise them and keep black people out of school.

So, we had a big dinner that night. And after the dinner was over, Hillary asked Jesse to hang around so he could talk. We went to the kitchen put some more food on the counter, and talked until midnight. And Hillary said, you know, we all got to work tomorrow. I'm going to bed. Two hours later, Jesse and I are still going about it, and she walks into the kitchen and throws us out. I'll never forget it.

We did not always agree but I'll tell you one thing. He made me a better president when I got in office because he was always pushing on things and he knew that change came from the outside in, and sometimes from the inside out. So, he knew how to keep pushing and nagging and wearing you out. Right?

Look at Governor Pritzker laughing here. I mean, it was really -- it was like having a dog to the bone, you know? He was.

I said one time when he was working on something in Africa because I made him a special envoy for African diplomacy. I said you know, we might, ought to put Jesse on the list. And one of my aides said, only members of Congress are on that list. I know, but I said, I think we need to put him on anyway.

And they said, so I had another guy that was there and said, what's the list? He said, it's a list of people that will dog you to death until you do what they want you to do. So, we just call it the just say yes list, put it on the just say let's save you so much time and you can go on and do something else with your day.

And I remember how impressed I was in 1988 before I became president. When Jesse and -- negotiated with the Governor Dukakis and the other people at the Democratic Convention to end the exclusive primaries, which you talked about it and the caucuses and to open up the Democratic process and add people, including Willie Barrow. And Representative Maxine Waters, who became one of our senior leaders, I'm saying this to make another point everybody knows how eloquent he was and everybody knows that he could talk an owl out of a tree.

But he actually was interested in policy, in specifics. So that's the second thing I'd like to say. So, what if you weren't big, tall, broad shouldered and eloquent like Jesse Jackson? If you want to make change, there's still plenty you could do. If you've got an agenda. Youve got to have it. He always had an agenda so that's the most important thing I could say to you.

Now, one other thing I am going to say Wordsworth. You don't think about Wordsworth when you think about Jesse. But Wordsworth said the last, best hope of a good man's life for the little unremembered acts of kindness and love.

[16:05:11]

So, I used to think all the time about how hard Jesse's childhood must have been. You know with his mother and then having to go past his father's house and all that, and all the mixed up. And I knew a little about not nearly as severe a situation because of my situation and I admired his mother. I was afraid of Jackie. I had to do whatever she said. Labubu. But I love you so much.

But I really I liked his mother and he called me one day. And he said, this is purely personal, but my mother liked you, you know, and I would really appreciate it if you would speak at her service. And he said, Andy Young's coming and, you know there aren't that many of us left anymore who are over 75 and have been through all this.

And I said I would be honored. I know this sounds funny, but it really meant something to me that he wanted me to talk at his mother's memorial service. And then -- I don't think I've ever told anybody this, when the Congress was trying to run me out and I was in that big impeachment fight, Jesse called me one night in the White House, I thought he was calling me.

He said, I don't want to talk to you. I want you to go get Chelsea. Now keep in mind, he's got all this other stuff going on. We got all this stuff. He called me to talk to my daughter to make sure she had her head in the game, and he prayed with her on the phone.

And you know, a lot of people, it would never even have occurred to them to do that. And ever since Hillary and I went to visit Jesse in the hospital, and Jackie and a lot of the family were there, I've been thinking about him, calling my daughter. He didn't know if I was going to be president in six months. He didn't know what was going to happen, but he liked Chelsea, I thought showed he had good taste.

But -- but my point is, those are the things you remember so I think we should honor him by saying, okay, maybe I'll never come up with a line like, open your brains and not your veins. Maybe I'll never give a speech that will move hundreds of thousands, but I can do something. I can still be somebody, and what should I do? And how can I, with whatever speaking ability I have or don't have, do what he did? When he called Bill Clinton's daughter and a crisis. When he asked a friend, I know you may be busy and my mother's not

famous, but would you please come say a few words? And Andy -- Andy Young and I went. We both went and we were there. So that's what I want all of you to think about when you leave here.

This guy lived a big life. He lived with his head and with his heart. He was faithful to the Scripture which said, we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But unlike a lot of people in politics, he didn't go around looking down his nose at other people. He hated the sin and not the sinner. He was always trying to lift people up.

[16:10:04]

So, I'm here more as a friend than a former president. He was my friend when I needed him, and I ask you to ask yourself how you can do more by being a better friend and a more effective one. God bless you and thank you

(APPLAUSE)

ANNOUNCER: Come on, let's thank President Clinton again for those remarks.

Reverend Jackson believed that women deserved equal pay. Reverend Jackson believed women deserved equal opportunity. Reverend Jackson believed that women should hold the highest roles and positions in the land.

The first woman, the first African American woman, the first Asian American woman, Vice President Kamala Harris.

(APPLAUSE)

KAMALA HARRIS, FORMER U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon. Good afternoon, everyone.

Mrs. Jackie, and to the entire Jackson family, on behalf of Doug and my family, we pray with you as we did a couple of weeks ago in your home and we thank you. I thank you.

I -- you know, so let me just say, I predicted a lot about what's happening right now. I'm not into saying I told you so, but we did see it coming. But what I did not predict is that we would not have Jesse Jackson with us right now to help us get through this. And this afternoon has been such a beautiful remembrance of his spirit, his life and his faith.

And in a way that reverend al talked about it in so many others have, I do think of this afternoon as what it is doing for me to renew my faith in what is possible fueled by the hope that Jesse Jackson so often reminded us of. I'm reminded of a passage in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter seven, verse seven.

Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you. And so, from a young age, we know that Reverend Jackson saw that the

doors had been closed to the millions of people across our nation and throughout the world who were otherwise so deserving. And they were doors, of course, to opportunity, to equity, to justice, to freedom. And so, he dedicated his life as we all know to breaking down those barriers.

So, when we are speaking of these doors, I will share with you that as a child I was raised that when you see a closed door. You must knock. And wait to be invited in. What life has taught me is that if that invitation is not offered, and if that door remains shut even after repeated attempts to knock on said door, sometimes you have no choice but just to kick that door open.

Reverend Jackson was impatient. He did not waste time waiting even when the doors in front of him were barred and bolted. Even if those on the other side hesitated or even ignored him, he always devised a way through.

[16:15:01]

Jesse Jackson was a strategist. He was one of the most effective community and political organizers of our time and he was the founder. I think most would agree. The founder of the modern progressive coalition.

Think about the work that he did in addition to the strength of his spirit and his determination the leadership of Jesse Jackson was defined by his vision dare I say, his ambition to tap into what otherwise had been untapped in terms of the potential of a coalition of seemingly different people who could be brought together around shared values and ideals and experience. That's what Jesse Jackson did.

He modeled that for so many of us over the past half century. That coalition strategy, his methodology has been the heartbeat for so many movements about progress in our country. Those movements born out of struggle but resulting in progress. Think about and it was mentioned, the women leaders that he elevated, like the self-described colored girls who have been a driving force behind so many campaigns that have been about freedom and justice.

Throughout his life, Reverend Jackson reminded us that the many fights for freedom are interconnected. He saw not only the interconnection, but the interdependence of the various struggles for justice and dignity on behalf of Black Americans, Native and Asian Americans, Latino LGBTQ Americans and Americans with disabilities. That was Jesse's rainbow, and he continued to grow it.

He gave us the language the rainbow, to understand. As has been said, the beauty that comes after the storm when we see what is possible and what can be unburdened by what has been. As he once said, when a barrier falls for one of the locked out, it opens the doors for all.

And that is what he told me and what he taught me, and how he inspired me. I was a student at Howard University -- you know -- when Jesse Jackson was one of the leaders of the anti-apartheid movement, and me and my classmates would go out on the mall every weekend and protest, looking at Jesse Jackson as a model of what that movement should and could have been.

I was a law student then, in 1988 when Jesse Jackson decided to run again, I was the first black woman elected district attorney of San Francisco, as the first black woman elected district attorney in the state of California in 2004 when I created one of the first in the nation initiatives as a prosecutor that was about getting jobs and counseling to those who had been in the criminal justice system.

And at the time the powers that be told me I was not supposed to be doing that. They said, why are you letting people out of jail when you're supposed to put them back in? Jesse Jackson spent a lot of time in the Bay Area. Many of you may know I saw Butch Wang (ph) here and Butch together with Jesse Jackson would visit with me during those earliest days of my elected career to give me the support and the confidence and the initiative to think about how, in a position such as being D.A., I could continue the idea about what it means to build coalition around a group of people whose dignity must be seen and the resources that must be put into them.

Jesse Jackson, from my first elected position to when I ran with Joe Biden for vice president of the United States and when I became the Democratic nominee for president of the United States, always told me and convinced me that everything that we were doing is possible. And so, I just want to share what I brought today.

I brought with me two momentums from Jesse Jacksons campaign that I have saved since I was a student.

[16:20:03]

So one is this button that reads "Jesse Jackson '88", the other, some of you who are around at the time may remember, is this button. I will read it to you, and, pastors, please forgive me. It reads as follows. All caps. Damn straight, exclamation point. It's time for a black presidential candidate. That was a Jesse Jackson pin from those days.

And just a beautiful example of his determination, his sense of humor, but his ability to see what can be, unburdened by what has been.

And I thank you, Jesse Jackson, for your service, for your service to our nation and the world. Well done, good and faithful servant. Well done. Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

ANNOUNCER: What a joy and a privilege to have Vice President Kamala Harris.

At this time. Ladies and gentlemen, I want to bring a current president, the president of Columbia is here. Where is the president of Columbia?

KASIE HUNT, CNN HOST: We have been watching former presidents, the former vice president of the United States honor, Jesse Jackson. But we are going to continue to monitor that. This is the final public tribute to the late civil rights leader.

We also heard from Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden. We are still expecting to hear from some of Jackson's children. We're going to bring all of that to you when it happens.

But we have so much more news to get to. I'm Kasie Hunt in Washington. Welcome to THE ARENA.

Here in Washington, there are new demands and new enemies as the war with Iran explodes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: What the president means is that when he, as commander in chief of the U.S. Armed Forces, determines that Iran no longer poses a threat to the United States of America and the goals of Operation Epic Fury has been fully realized, then Iran will essentially be in a place of unconditional surrender, whether they say it themselves or not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: President Trump today demanding Iran's, quote, "unconditional surrender". He says it's the only way the war will end. Just what that looks like, though, unclear. The White House, as you heard there, says the president and only the president will decide when that, quote, unconditional surrender, end quote, has happened.

And not only will the president decide when the surrender has happened, he also wants to decide who will be next to lead the country. In an interview this morning with our Dana Bash, the president said he is not set on Iran being a democratic state in the future. He seemed even open to the idea of backing a religious leader in Iran. We'll have more on that in just a moment.

And today, new details that some of America's most powerful adversaries are getting involved. CNN reporting today that Russia is now helping Iran specifically to target American troops. Sources telling our national security team that Moscow is giving intelligence to Iran about the locations and movements of U.S. forces as well as American assets in the region, like ships and planes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEAVITT: We don't comment on intelligence reports that are leaked to the press. Whether or not this happened, frankly, it does not really matter.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: So just to recap -- the war, not yet a week old, has taken the lives of six American service members, more than a thousand Iranian civilians, and the White House says that Russia is helping Iran to target Americans. Press secretary there, saying it doesn't matter. So, our Kristen Holmes followed up on that just moments after those

comments.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: You just said on Fox that it doesn't really matter if Russia is giving Iran information about military assets. Why doesn't it matter if U.S. military is being put in danger by Russia? And is that what the president believes as well?

LEAVITT: What I meant, Kristen, and thank you for giving me a chance to make it very clear, is that it clearly is not making a difference with respect to the military operations in Iran, because we are completely decimating them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right. Let's get off the sidelines, head into THE ARENA. My panel is here, along with CNN senior White House correspondent Kristen Holmes, CNN chief international correspondent Clarissa Ward, who is in Iraq.

Kristen, let me start with you. What more are you hearing about the White House or -- excuse me, from the White House about Russia's reported involvement in the conflict?

[16:25:00]

LEAVITT: Look, they're not commenting on it. You can tell that Karoline Leavitt did not want to talk about it. It's something that she repeatedly said. First of all, she was asked about it four or five times, not just in that interview, but also afterwards by all of our reporters in the press pool who are trying to get questions to her. She kept putting it on President Trump saying that it was his to answer that she would let him answer.

But I will also note President Trump. We are also hearing a variety of different things about this intelligence that Russia is apparently sharing with Iran. And President Trump is very wary to come out against Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Weve seen it time and time again. All he'll say, even when it comes to the war in Ukraine, is that he's disappointed he hasn't been able to solve this war. He's disappointed with Vladimir Putin.

So, to actually hear what he has to say about the fact that Russia is essentially going around the United States and helping Iran attack the United States that is going to be question number one. When we get into this event, which he's speaking at currently, if reporters are able to ask questions.

But we've seen for the last several days, is this kind of remarks being put out by the president whether it is in a true social post or in a one on one interview, for three or four minutes with a reporter, and then having the administration officials, including Karoline Leavitt, kind of clean it up. And that's what you saw today with this unconditional surrender.

We know what the phrase unconditional surrender means. It doesn't mean that you decide that somebody has surrendered because their military has been depleted. He was saying unconditional surrender. But if you look at the historical context here in Iran, that wouldn't happen or is very unlikely to happen. So, you saw Karoline kind of cleaning this up.

HUNT: And, Kristen, you also saw Condi Rice walk into the White House today. Do we have any more on that?

HOLMES: She's there for this roundtable that they're in right now. But the timing could not be more, I mean -- wow, just given what we're seeing right now, two days ago, she was on Fox News praising President Trump's actions in Iran. And she did arrive here an hour and a half early. I have asked the White House if President Trump or any senior administration officials were meeting with her around this sports roundtable, I have not gotten an answer yet

HUNT: Fair enough.

So, Clarissa Ward, to you now with, of course, in light of this new reporting that we have about help from the Russians, what are you seeing today on the ground there?

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it was just a few hours ago, Kasie, that the U.S. State Department put out a new alert for Americans across Iraq warning that there was a chance or a possibility that some of what they called these Iran backed terrorist militias based in Iraq would be targeting hotels in the Kurdistan area, which is where we are now where foreigners are staying. It's worth noting that there are a lot of contractors who were working on various bases across this area up until just when this war started, who have now been put up in these hotels.

And within two hours of the U.S. state department putting out that warning for drones, attacked Erbil, they were intercepted, but one of them partially hit one of the hotels here in the center of town in an area called Ankawa. Nobody was injured as a result but certainly this is an interesting development. We haven't seen that in Erbil before with a civilian target, and we have heard now also a statement from the Islamic Resistance of Iraq, as they call themselves. They basically have said your evacuation of your bases and flight to hotels does not make your -- make you safe. We are pursuing you and we know in which hotels you reside.

So, obviously now, there is a heightened sense of alert across Iraqi Kurdistan. It's not only American contractors who are staying in hotels, there are business people working here. There are many journalists, of course, who are also here at the moment covering this story and all of this, adding to this sense of increased confusion, anxiety and fear that Iran and its proxies in the region are really now upping the ante -- Kasie.

HUNT: Wow. Pretty remarkable. Clarissa Ward, stay safe as always. Kristen Holmes, thank you both very much. Joining us now to discuss further, Democratic Congressman Jason Crow,

who served three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and now sits on the House Intelligence and Armed Services Committee.

Congressman, thanks very much for being here.

Can I just get you to respond off the top here to what we were just hearing from Clarissa about the drone capability that the Iranians have. Was America unprepared for this? And if so, why?

REP. JASON CROW (D-CO): We do seem to have stumbled into this. This appears to be a last minute, impulsive decision by Donald Trump to launch what is very clearly a war.

[16:30:03]

Make no mistake, we are at war with Iran. You know, if 11 different countries being brought into this missiles, drones aircraft, bombers being exchanged across the entire region isn't a war, then I don't know what is.

And look at all the signs of the lack of preparedness by this administration. You have tens of thousands of stranded Americans we don't even know sitting here today what the evacuation plans are to get them out. We have 50,000 service members serving in the region. We're unclear as to whether or not we have the munitions stockpiles in the interceptors to protect those folks in the weeks and months ahead.

And we also don't know what the endgame is still to this day, it changes by the day, by the hour. This is a real mess, and it's very dangerous for Americans.

HUNT: Speaking of it being very dangerous for Americans, we reported today that Moscow has been helping the Iranians target Americans. The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said on Fox that it doesn't really matter that they're doing that. Do you think that's right?

CROW: No, I have never seen any president in any administration that is more dismissive and frankly, more callous to the lives of our service members and to Americans than this one. When asked about casualties in war, the president has on several occasions said, well, that's just -- that's just what happens in war, right? When asked about the risk of terrorism against Americans, he said, I guess so that also just happens in war, right? No administration, Republican or Democrat has dismissed it in the way that this administration appears to be.

I want to be really clear about the risks that people are facing now as a result of what's happening. We have seen against American businesses and entities around the globe. And the terrorist risk against America both at home and abroad. As a result of this, at the same time, this administration has spent the last year dismantling our cyber security infrastructure, dismantling the counterterrorism infrastructure. There's a 22-year-old former intern running one of the most former,

one of the most important counterterrorism agencies in our government right now. And I will say that they've taken about 30 percent of our counterterror and counter cyber capability, and they've reassigned those officers to mass immigration and deportation work, right?

This is madness. Americans are at great risk. And I'm calling on the administration now to take it seriously, stop dismissing the risk, reassign those officers to counterterrorism and cyber work, and let's do what's necessary to protect Americans.

HUNT: I want to ask you about something that's just in here to CNN. Realize this is new to us as well. But the Russian state media is the Iranian president spoke on the phone today and that they agreed to continue contacts. What does that say to you?

CROW: Well, it says to me that America has been marginalized in this entire conflict, right? We have Vladimir Putin, who's one of the world's foremost dictators, who's just grinding out this war in Ukraine, he thinks he's winning, right?

Vladimir Putin is sitting here today, thinks he's winning and can just outwait the West because Donald Trump, as you pointed out earlier in this program and as the other panelists pointed out, he is unwilling to criticize Putin, he's unwilling to do what's necessary to show, resolve and show our commitment to Ukraine and to democracy. He just doesn't seem to care about it.

And again, the common denominator to all of this is not just the geopolitics, just not the back and forth but that Americans continue to be put at increasing risk as months go on in this administration because of the lack of resolve, the lack of competency in them not caring about the consequences of really significant actions, as we've seen in the last week.

HUNT: All right. Congressman Jason Crow, thanks so much for spending some time with us today. Really appreciate it.

CROW: Thank you.

HUNT: All right. Coming up next here in THE ARENA, our panel is going to be here to weigh in on the days' developments in the war in Iran, including what the president is telling CNN about the future of that country.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:38:44]

HUNT: All right. We're back now following the latest on the war in Iran. The president saying today, the only way that the war ends is with, quote, "unconditional surrender," end quote, by Iran.

My panel is here in THE ARENA. Staff writer at "The Atlantic", Toluse Olorunnipa; CNN contributor, "New York Times" journalist, Lulu Garcia- Navarro; CNN political commentator and former DNC communications director, Xochitl Hinojosa; and the senior advisor to the Trump 2024 campaign, Bryan Lanza.

Welcome to all of you. Thank you very much for being here.

Lulu, you, of course, covered conflict in the region for quite some time. What does unconditional surrender on the part of Iran mean to you?

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: It means that the president wants to decide the metrics by which this will end, because the second part of that was an I decide what unconditional surrender means. And so, it basically is a meaningless phrase in my view.

The thing that we know about conflicts and every single conflict that I've covered, and I have covered a lot of them is that you cannot predict what will happen and how they will end and what the knock-on effects will be. And you are playing a very dangerous game, as we always know, in the Middle East, because at the end of the day what does unconditional surrender mean?

So, at this point now, he is saying we don't even want the mullahs to leave. We might keep the mullahs in place because he's now wondering if you are going to pursue this path, if you're going to end up with a civil war.

And if you end up with a civil war in that region, we've seen it before, what ends up happening? You end up seeing people splintering. There's fighting and then there's massive immigration waves to places like Turkey, which is a NATO ally, and other places in the region.

Again, we have seen this movie before. And so, I think what he has promised and what he is delivering are two different things.

HUNT: So big picture here, too, right? We've been watching the markets today and, Bryan Lanza, this one being for you. I want to play something that Congressman Jim Himes said, because, of course, we have seen oil prices up above $90 a barrel today. Gas prices creeping up from $2.95 on average February of last year to $3.32 a gallon today.

Here was what Congressman Jim Himes, who of course, is the top Democrat on the house intelligence committee, predicted or predicts about how this war might end. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JIM HIMES (D-CT): I have a theory on how this ends up, and I'm willing to make a small bet on it. The next couple of weeks, you're going to see oil go across 100 -- in fact, may happen today, $100 a barrel. That is going to translate into very high prices at the pump for the American consumer. And at some point in three, four or five weeks, the president is going to realize and he's going to look at the numbers and he's going to say, this is really not tenable, and he's going to declare victory and walk away.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Bryan, you think that's right? BRYAN LANZA, SENIOR ADVISER, TRUMP 2024 CAMPAIGN: Trump always

declares victory, right? So yes, President Trump at some point will declare victory what that ultimately looks like, I think I think you've said it right. He -- only he gets to determine what victory looks like.

But 100 percent energy is going to play a huge cost into this. I think if -- if you get to the point where -- I'm hearing 110, 120 barrel, that's a problem. It's a huge problem.

HUNT: I mean, isn't it exactly the opposite of -- you know, what he got elected to do?

LANZA: Absolutely. Iran was never on the checklist during the campaign or even the transition of issues that we had to get involved in, intervention --

HUNT: I mean, he ran on, not getting involved and on lowering prices and this seems to both -- to contradict both of those promises.

LANZA: I would say this and this is, you know, the Donald Trump that I know, you know, is creative. He's wily. And I wouldn't be surprised because he's not a small government, small government Republican, he's going to be looking for any alternative to drive prices down. And that means market interference. I wouldn't be surprised.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: He's interested more than any other thing, though in playing kingmaker across the world, because it's not only he gets to decide who is the next leader of Iran. It's Venezuela, it's now Cuba. And then who knows what else.

And this is part of the problem here, which is that he seems to have been emboldened by what happened in Venezuela, to think he can apply it in many other places and solve these very thorny issues that have bedeviled the United States for a very long time. But, you know, as we've seen with these oil prices, is that these actions always, always have knock-on effects.

XOCHITL HINOJOSA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR; Yeah and -- well, and also. it's -- he got us into this war, but he also was not prepared for the consequences. It doesn't seem like he was prepared or his team wasn't prepared for the rising gas prices. They did not have a plan for that. I think anyone knows if you're in a war there will be rising gas prices.

He's not prepared for getting Americans out of the region. He's not prepared here at home and stopping terrorist attacks and other potential attacks that come with a war. We saw what happened in Austin, where -- they're still trying to figure it out, but it looks like a potential terrorist attack.

So, at every turn, he actually -- he doesn't know how to get out of this conflict. So, he got into the conflict all of these things are happening because of this conflict. And now he doesn't know how to get out. And this is just a few months away from the midterm elections. So that I think is a problem. HUNT: Do we think he wants to get out yet?

HINOJOSA: I don't know if he wants to get out, but I do think that Americans did not ask for this war. Congress didn't even ask for this war. It was Donald Trump's responsibility. So I think there's an -- nor did they vote for Trump because of -- to go into Iraq.

HUNT: Yeah?

LANZA: Like -- listen -- the key factor in a lot of the decision making process is a cold factor, but it is a factor that's killed in action. You know, right now, we're only at six. If that number starts to rise, that's going to be the real toll.

HINOJOSA: And he said it probably will rise.

LANZA: But we'll see when it rises as a rise now does it rise in six months from now? I mean, if we're still there in six months and we have significant losses, that's going to have a huge impact. But if in four months, we're at less than 100, you know, it's as insensitive. It might be 100 is not that bad considering what the American people felt that took place in Gulf War, too.

TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I do think the idea that we could use the Venezuelan model and translate it into the Middle East really lulled this president into a war that is much more complex than what we saw in South America, when you have the situation --

HUNT: I mean, when we went into Venezuela, the argument around Venezuela, officials were literally telling us, telling me when I was talking to them that Venezuela is not the Middle East, right?

[16:45:01]

HINOJOSA: So, the Venezuelan oil, what happened to Venezuelan oil?

HUNT: Continue.

OLORUNNIPA: The president definitely was impressed by what the military was able to do. And the idea that he's told some colleagues that the military has a biblical level of power and ability to carry out operations, he thought that that would work in the Middle East. But what has happened instead is that, yes, we did see a pretty effective initial strike and initial operation, but since then, we've seen this expand to multiple Gulf States.

We've seen the strait of Hormuz essentially be closed down, and we're seeing the impact on gas prices. We're seeing this expand beyond the idea of a pinprick type of strike into something that's more of a conflagration in which this is much more difficult to predict where it goes from here. And that's what makes it difficult, just one week in for the president to figure out how to make this into a victory.

HUNT: Well, and the other thing that I think we're seeing here that I think is worth kind of focusing in on, is something of a gamification of war, right? Which is kind of the ultimate thing any state can use on the geopolitical stage, and which, of course, has extraordinary consequences in treasure, but most critically in blood of the people who are fighting on behalf of the country.

And the White House recently shared a mash up of movie clips in their sort of effort to convince Americans that this is what we should be doing. Let's watch that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wake up, daddy's home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome home, son.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Strength and honor.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Strength and honor.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What will you do without freedom?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Maverick, send out

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can't conceive of what I'm capable of.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Finishing this fight.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, I'm thinking I'm back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm here to fight for truth and justice and the American way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: I mean, Lulu, you've seen what it's like up close. You know, I --

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Sickening, actually. I have seen what it's like up close because it isn't a video game. It's not a movie. They're broken little bodies of children. There are parents and loved ones of American service people who are mourning today.

These actions have real consequences. Every bomb that drops should be weighed very heavily because it kills people. And those people have families and lives. They are not just, you know, movie images. And so, to pretend that that is what it is, is to me, absolutely horrific.

HUNT: Yeah.

All right. We're going to pause this conversation and we're going to go back to the funeral for Jesse Jackson -- the former Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr., now speaking.

JESSE JACKSON, JR., FORMER U.S. CONGRESSMAN: -- to close and get us out of here at a reasonable hour. Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg address, Pastor Browning, in 3-1/2 minutes. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered the "I have a dream" speech in 13-1/2 minutes if it can't be said between the Gettysburg address and "I have a dream", it ought not be said at all.

For what remains of my time, and I promise, Yousef, that I would not be more than seven or eight minutes I want to talk about my daddy. Now, when Martin Luther King, Jr. died in 1968, he was an immensely unpopular figure, Brother Reynolds, Brother Sharpton, members of the Congressional Black Caucus who are present, Dr. King on April 4th 1968, was immensely unpopular.

Who he is today is not who he was on April 4th, 1968. And I'm sensing, Sister Parker, on this occasion that we are moving in the direction of a Jesse Jackson that I wouldn't, mama, even recognize, Jesse Jackson at the hour of his death was not, Roland Martin, a popular figure.

He would have stood against the war in the Gaza. He would have been fighting for the Affordable Care Act. He would be fighting to save the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and challenging the Supreme Court to render a decision in the Calais decision that would strengthen the Congressional Black Caucus and not undermine it.

If you are a member of the Congressional Black Caucus and you are still here, allow us the opportunity to recognize you.

[16:50:06]

Will you please stand?

Members of the CBC came from around the country and our congressional districts are under threat at this hour I want to try and summarize in the five minutes that I have left, some of what I heard from everyone, starting with President Clinton. He said, with head and heart, "With Head and Heart" is the title of the autobiography written by the doctor, Late Dr. Howard Thurman, who dedicates his life story to simple and haunting simplicity, Mr. Mayor.

He dedicates the book and I quote this, Jonathan, to the stranger in the railroad station in Daytona Beach, who restored my broken dream 65 years ago. To the stranger. Who was Jesse Jackson? To the political class that took up most of the time, dad was a stranger, awaiting a return phone call reminding, the political class of the urgency of the hour. That's who my daddy was.

To the economic class that Jim Reynolds talked about on Wall Street, my father had no qualifications in business or in finance to be able to talk intelligently initially about the transactions of Wall Street. But to them, he was the stranger.

So, this story comes together in Howard Thurman's book with my final four minutes. In this way, brother Turner, it says that Howard Thurman's sharecropping family had been gathering in the Deep South, all of the coins of their hard work, and they had put just enough money together to send Howard Thurman to college by buying him a train ticket. And when he got to the train station, after having loaded all of the broken pieces, Pastor Dates (ph), into his life and of his life into a trunk the conductor of the train told him, Judge Mathis, that he could not carry the trunk on the train unless he bought another ticket. And so, Howard Thurman went over in the corner of the train station, and he began crying, crying for the idea that, after all that his family had been through, he would not, mama, be going to college. And as he cried through those tears, he looked up and saw a pair of brown old rustic boots and then he looked up and he saw a man in overalls, and he looked up and he saw a black man, and he said, the black man said to him, son, why are you crying boy? And Howard Thurman said, because the broken pieces of my life I cannot take with me to college because I need a ticket.

And the old man, Sister Bryant and Reverend Bryant, reached into his pocket and pulled out a little leather sack and took some coins and went and bought Howard Thurman a ticket for his luggage.

And Howard Thurman says in the story that all he remembers is the man walking down the train tracks while he and the train were heading in the opposite direction.

Pastor Munsey (ph), he dedicates his book to the stranger who changed the trajectory of his life by restoring his hope.

Every single person in here has a Jesse Jackson story, the time he shook your hand. The time he prayed for you. The time he held you up. The time he prayed the funeral for somebody that you know. The time he was at the hospital for you.

The time, Roland, when you lost your job and he prayed you to a new -- a new course of existence. Everybody has, Sister Watters, their own Jesse Jackson story.

[16:55:00]

Why? Because, according to Dr. Walter Fluker, the infinite Howard Thurman scholar, he says to Howard Thurman, the stranger -- watch this, preachers -- the stranger was God.

Two minutes. The stranger was God, because he redeemed and restored the hope of Howard Thurman, a man whose name he did not know. And he sent him to college.

At the moment that he needed hope, hope showed up in the form of a stranger. It's impossible, Roland Burris, for one man to know all of the people that Jesse Jackson has touched. Everybody here doesn't have the number. He don't need it no more, 773-251-6353.

But just about everybody in here had the number 773-251-6353, it's a flip phone. It's analog. He didn't believe in iPhones and Samsung. He believed in a flip phone because whenever we needed, Isaih, the stranger, that's what I heard you say.

When the stranger showed up in the locker room, when the stranger showed up in the projects, when the stranger showed up, the stranger came in the form and in the embodiment of Jesse Jackson because he is the one, Reverend Sharpton, who we came into contact with, who restored our hope and changed the trajectory of our lives. Now, I'm going to go on ahead tomorrow morning at push, 930 East 50th Street. Part two of this will be there because I got enough sense to know that I've already talked too long. I want you to think about the stranger, Reverend Dyson, in your life. It's going to be a nameless, faceless person who enters your life and restores your hope.

And so, when Jesse Jackson said, I don't care what the political class says, they're only interested in high propensity voters. My father looked at the undecided, Father Pfleger, and he recognized that they lacked somebodiness. And he told them to keep hope alive.

But that's not enough. Keeping hope alive is the answer to suicidality, not only for individuals who might want to kill theirselves, but for a nation on the brink of self-destruction. Keep hope alive.

For a man or a woman getting ready to hang themselves who's given up on hope, Bishop Ellis, Reverend Jackson says they need hope, not dope.

Kevin Adell (ph), he took the ministry from Sunday morning and he delivered it to the people I am somebodiness is what Jesse Jacksons known for. Not the '84 and '88 campaign and just voter registration, Jesse Jackson's greatest contribution is not political. It is psychological.

Negro, you are better off today than you were when you met this Negro.

My god, the namesake Jesse L. Jackson, where are we going to keep it moving with everybody's favorite auntie. She's here. She's been sitting here patiently, just waiting her turn.

Can y`all give it up for Congresswoman Maxine Waters?