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Trump Orders DHS to Pay TSA Despite Shutdown and Pay Should Start Monday; Iran-Linked Hackers Breach FBI Director's Personal Email Account; Tiger Woods Involved in Rollover Crash in Florida; Artemis II Crew Arrives at Kennedy Space Center for Moon Mission. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired March 27, 2026 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

KEILAR: ... You were passed over for a promotion. Maybe you get another shot next year. This if this effectively ends their careers, right?

BRIG. GEN. TY SEIDULE, U.S. ARMY (RET.): Well, you can't go serve in another Army. You know, you can't go. It takes 25 years to make an Army general, 25 years.

So, yes, it's the end of your career and you're going to go out and it to know that you're going out because you made it. And then the secretary of defense chooses for you not to do it, I think is just terrible. And for armor officer, which the Times reported about their vanishingly few Black officers in that branch.

And to take that away of someone who fought in the -- all these officers were fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan and to think that they would not be chosen is I go back to heartbreaking and it's just not what we do in the military. It's not what we do as Americans. And I think that I hope that people will protest against this and will tell the White House they should restore those four officers and let them wear the star and serve their nation further.

Remember, they're serving the nation in war at a very difficult time, and they have my admiration and I hope they continue to serve.

KEILAR: General Ty Seidule, thank you so much for being with us.

And we do have some breaking news. TSA workers should start receiving pay as early as Monday. That is what the Department of Homeland Security is now saying. We'll have more after a break.

[15:35:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: We're back now with breaking news. DHS officials now say that TSA workers should start receiving pay as early as Monday as President Trump has ordered those agents be paid. Earlier today House Republicans rejected a deal to fund the TSA that the Senate passed very, very early this morning. Airports and travelers across the country have been coping with long lines as TSA agents call out from work. CNN's Pete Muntean has seen some of the gridlock firsthand at Baltimore, Washington International Airport. Pete, how are things looking now?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: You know, I just talked to a traveler who's been in this line up to this point for an hour and 50 minutes. This is the TSA C checkpoint to get through here, TSA at BWI. The A and B checkpoints are closed.

One traveler told me this is not really about politics. This is all about the people, and you have that here in huge numbers. So many folks waiting in line today.

We're talking about little kids. I saw the University of Maryland lacrosse team -- go Terps. I've seen school groups going back to South Dakota because this is a huge time for field trips, folks going to and from D.C. You think the line is long when you look at it inside. It actually snakes around itself twice. But come out here, and this is where you really get the dramatic image. The line here is so long.

In a way, it's kind of hard to capture. This is where the line continues outside on the departures level. Let's come out this way, Harlan, on the departures level here at BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport.

And there's a person at the end of the line with a yellow sign that says the end of the line is here. I can't even see that person right now. That's how long the line is here.

So the warning here from officials here at BWI is to get here three hours early, and folks are really going to need it. At one point this morning, during the morning rush, they were anticipating the line being three hours 10 minutes long and three hours 40 minutes long. You can see that spirits here are still pretty good, in spite of the fact that this is such a terribly long line, really almost unbelievable when you get down to it.

31,000 people anticipated to pass through security here at BWI today. It's the highest number they have seen all year long. And when you combine that with the TSA call-out rates, 37.4 percent of TSA employees here at BWI alone called out yesterday. This is the result, the huge, long line -- Boris.

SANCHEZ: It does not look like a good time. Pete Muntean, thanks so much for that report -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Now to the Department of Justice, which has confirmed to CNN the personal e-mail account of FBI Director Kash Patel has been hacked by individuals linked to the Iranian government. The hackers posted some of Patel's messages, which include private photos and documents.

CNN Senior Justice Correspondent Evan Perez is here with more. Evan, your sources confirm the e-mails are authentic. So tell us more about what DOJ is saying about it and what was posted here.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, I mean, these are private messages from his personal accounts dating back from 2011 to 2022. And what we're seeing is pictures the Iranians appear to be trolling Kash Patel and the U.S. government because after the U.S. government, after the FBI put out a confirmation of what happened, they have since posted additional photographs of Kash Patel appears to be smoking cigars. They also posted pictures from his e-mails that include his resume.

There appear to be some travel plans. So things of a personal nature from the last few years.

KEILAR: That's not too bad, though, considering.

PEREZ: That, you know, all things considered, it could be a lot worse. But the obviously the FBI is taking this very seriously. They say that they've taken efforts to -- made efforts to mitigate this, the intrusion.

[15:40:00]

And they say that the Department of Justice, the Department of State's Rewards for Justice program, is offering up to a $10 million reward for information leading to the identification of this Handala Hack Team. This is the Iranian government-linked hack team that's been behind a number of intrusions targeting Trump officials, government officials.

Some of this goes back to 2024, Brianna, because we know that they targeted a number of officials connected to Donald Trump back then. One of them was John Bolton, who ended up getting into some legal problems because of some of the things that the Iranians were exposing that were inside his personal e-mails.

KEILAR: Yes, and the message here is loud and clear. It's we can get in.

PEREZ: Right.

KEILAR: And that's an incredibly scary, scary thing.

PEREZ: Also, stop clicking on stuff. Don't click on things.

KEILAR: Yes, that's good for everyone to follow. Evan, thank you so much.

Ahead, NASA astronauts arrive at the Kennedy Space Center ahead of their historic moon mission. What to expect from NASA's lunar flyby, next.

[15:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Breaking news into CNN, Tiger Woods has been involved in a rollover car crash on Jupiter Island, Florida. That's according to a report from CNN affiliate WPTV deputies telling that station that the accident happened after 2 p.m. today. KEILAR: Officials are said to be investigating, and they will provide additional details as they become available. CNN has reached out to the Martin County Sheriff's Office and Woods' agent, but we have not immediately heard back. The sheriff is expected to share more details later today.

Woods, of course, was involved in a car accident back in 2009 when he was at the height of his career and was one of the world's highest paid athletes. He was also involved in a very serious accident in 2021. We're going to bring you some more information as we do get it.

SANCHEZ: So the four astronauts for NASA's Artemis 2 mission just wrapped up Q&A ahead of their historic launch.

KEILAR: NASA targeting this Wednesday for the 10-day journey, which will take the crew to the moon's vicinity. This is the agency's first crewed lunar flyby in 50 years. Earlier, the crew members described the significance of this mission.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEREMY HANSEN, MISSION SPECIALIST: We should celebrate the pioneers who came before us that put us in this position to be breaking a record like that. And then we should, you know, throw that out to the next generation and say, hey, let's go even further.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Former astronaut Leroy Chiao joining us now. Leroy, I was saying you could tell he was the Canadian there. Astronauts just arriving at Kennedy Space Center.

How will they be spending the next few days ahead of the launch window here?

LEROY CHIAO, FORMER NASA ASTRONAUT: This is normal quarantine. They went into quarantine in Houston a few days ago, flew down to the Cape to prepare for launch, and they'll stay in the crew quarters there. And, you know, go over their notes, you know, the last minute things like that, spend some time with their families. And then the big day will come, and they'll go out, get suited up and go out to the rocket and hopefully go launch on this historic mission.

SANCHEZ: I want to play a soundbite from astronaut Jeremy Hansen, who doesn't have any spaceflight experience. Here's what he said today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REID WISEMAN, COMMANDER: We do have personal computing devices, so we can load stuff on them. We also got iPhones recently, so I don't think I could actually say that as a government employee. We have small, highly powerful computing devices that we'll take with us with outstanding cameras, so we can throw a few things on that.

It's just it is really nice. We will get those devices tonight. Here are our flight devices, and we'll be able to load a few things on there.

I think family photos.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: That's actually Reid Wiseman.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEREMY HANSEN, MISSION SPECIALIST: I haven't lived in space for over six months like these three have, and so I won't know how to float and fly, and I'll be a bit clumsy up there. So I know that's going to be hilarious and annoying at the same time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: That's the soundbite we're looking for. The first one was Reid Wiseman. He's the commander on board this mission.

Two questions there for you, Leroy. I imagine that as with any huge mission, you know, broadcasting live news or going around the moon, there are going to be glitches potentially that you're going to face. What do these astronauts do when something like that happens?

Secondly, how difficult is it to live in zero gravity?

CHIAO: Sure. Well, the first question, you know, glitches, of course, those come with territory, and of course, while the spacecraft is behind the moon, if it doesn't have direct line of sight of the earth, then you're going to have a communications blackout. But, you know, you deal with it as you can.

If you lose communication, well, I mean, there's not much you can do about it, right? So hopefully we'll have a minimum number of glitches. As far as operating in zero g, you know, it's a learning experience.

The first time you're up there, you got to figure it out. You know, you've had a little bit of zero-g experience on the zero-g airplanes, but those are, that's only, you know, 30 seconds per dive. So, you know, you just kind of get an idea of what it feels like.

But to actually operate, it's very -- it can be frustrating because you can, it's very easy to lose things, of course. You know, even if you have them behind an elastic band or Velcro down, if somebody else bumps into it and knocks it loose, you know, it's somewhere else. And fortunately, most of the time you can find lost items in the air filters, but sometimes things stay lost for much longer and sometimes they never get found.

KEILAR: Yes, not the time to go through your coin collection, right? Can you talk about the significance of the mission and what a return to deep space means?

CHIAO: Sure. This mission is going to be like was mentioned the first mission in the vicinity of the moon for well over 50 years.

[15:50:00]

The main purpose of the mission is to check out the Orion spacecraft with astronauts on board. That is exercise the life support system, exercise the thermal control system, do all those things, the communication system. So make sure it's all going to work.

And this is the first checkout. The first time astronauts will fly aboard Orion. The other thing about this mission it's a free return mission around the moon. That means they're not going to orbit the moon like Apollo 8 did.

They're just going to swing in a wide, you know, wide arc around the moon and the moon's gravity will pull them back and shoot them back towards Earth. And that's actually kind of a safety thing because they don't need to do another burn with their engine to get back to Earth. Right.

So they'll be able to come back and get in the vicinity of Earth without any other, you know, any other assist. So it'll be an exciting mission, a big first for this flight. It'll be the farthest astronauts have traveled from Earth ever, including the Apollo missions.

SANCHEZ: The view will be spectacular. Leroy Chiao, thank you so much.

CHIAO: My pleasure. Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Up next, a bit more on our breaking news. Reports that Tiger Woods has been involved in a rollover crash. Unclear what his condition is just yet. Stay with us.

[15:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Getting right back to our breaking news now, Tiger Woods reportedly involved in a rollover car crash on Jupiter Island, Florida.

KEILAR: Let's talk more now with CNN sports analyst Christine Brennan and Joel Beall, who's a senior writer for Golf Digest. Joel, we obviously are waiting for details on this, but your reaction to this news.

JOEL BEALL, SENIOR WRITER, GOLF DIGEST: Yes, certainly concerning, given Tiger's past. Just five years ago, he was involved in a single car crash in Los Angeles that sighed on him for 15 months and required major surgery. Basically, a fact that he's still dealing with today.

We were expecting actually news today that Tiger could be involved in the 2026 Masters coming up in less than two weeks. He just made his first competitive appearance in quite some time earlier this week at the TGL finals. Certainly, this is not the news that seems to indicate that Tiger would be teeing it up in just a week's time here at Augusta National.

SANCHEZ: Yes, no doubt. It is unfortunate. Christine, what is your reaction to this news?

CHRISTINE BRENNAN, CNN SPORTS ANALYST: Well, certainly very concerning, Boris and Brianna. Well, clearly, we need to find out more about it and what happened. But your mind immediately races.

I know mine does, having covered Tiger the length of his career to, of course, the Thanksgiving weekend of 2009. That incident with his car, it turned out he crashed at the end of his driveway and that ended up being just a major and terrible personal debacle for Tiger in terms of his family and sponsors and all the things that people thought about him turned out to really not be true. That was terrible.

And that was a personal, you know, I think in many ways it hurt him more personally than physically. But then in 2021, of course, there was that terrible accident that he had out in California where he had his leg was broken in several places. And he's really never been the same after that.

So when you hear this news, I'm sure that there are many people thinking those exact same things over and over again, Tiger and cars. And of course, we have no idea yet how serious this is. But that's the seems to be the theme, at least right now.

And of course, what a concern it is for so many millions of people who have grown up loving Tiger Woods, cheering for him and watching him play golf and be one of the two greatest ever. And now, of course, this news again puts a great concern on Tiger, not the sportsman, but of course, the human being.

KEILAR: Yes, and Joel, I think that's really the concern. This is a rollover crash. So, again, we don't have the details on his condition, but a rollover crash obviously has the potential here to be serious.

And that crash in 2021, even when we hadn't learned the details and we were just starting to get in pictures of what had happened, it was enough to kind of make your heart sink as you waited to find out what might have happened. That was just a horrific, horrific crash that he was in in 2021.

BEALL: Yes, when we talk about Tiger, we mostly talk about the golfer. But since that 2021 accident, I think we've kind of now more focused on the person. A lot of the surgeries he's had since 2021 are basically to impact his quality of life.

Golf has kind of been sidelined. He's also 50 years old. This is an age when most golfers are in their retirement stage.

So any idea that Tiger could still be competitive was already a very far-flung idea. To think that he might now return to any type of formidable state after these latest car incidents, even no matter how today comes out, it's just going to be very hard to foresee that coming to fruition. So obviously you hope that he's OK, but certainly this does not bode well for any prospects of Tiger coming back anytime soon to competitive golf.

SANCHEZ: Christine, put for us in context what Tiger means for the world of golf, because I mean, in this last generation, he has been the most dominant force, you could say.

BRENNAN: I would say that, Boris, and I would say take it beyond golf to sports. I mean, Tiger has been one of the greatest athletes of his generation across all sports. And there are young girls and boys growing up who have only known Tiger as a superstar golfer, and then younger people who really only hear about how he played and all of his incredible victories and major tournaments and comebacks and everything that he's done.

So many people have only heard about stories from their moms or their dads or watching videos.

[16:00:00]

So Tiger has been a part of American culture now, really, since he arrived on the scene at the Masters in 1997, winning that, that's a long time. And I think that's why people care so much.

KEILAR: Yes, and pay so much attention, especially with this alarming news that Tiger Woods has been involved in a rollover crash in Florida. We are expecting at 5 p.m. to get more information from the Martin County Sheriff.

"THE ARENA" with Kasie Hunt starts right now.

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