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Iran Vows Retaliation After US Strikes On Key Oil Hub; Trump Claims Countries Will Send Warships To Open Strait Of Hormuz; Iran Allows Two Indian Tankers To Pass Through Strait Of Hormuz; Inside White House Thinking As War With Iran Escalates; Terror Attacks Rattle Americans' Sense Of Security Amid Iran War; U.S. On Alert After Terror Attacks At Synagogue & University; Trump Fundraising Email Uses Photo From Soldiers' Dignified Transfer And Promises "Private National Security Briefings"; TSA Workers Miss First Full Paycheck Amid Partial Govt Shutdown; Iran Vows Retaliation After U.S. Strikes On Key Oil Hub. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired March 14, 2026 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:00:39]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM, everyone. I am Jessica Dean here in New York and new tonight, President Donald Trump urging countries to help the U.S. secure the Strait of Hormuz as Iran significantly hinders traffic through that vital passageway.

Trump writing on social media: "The countries of the world that receive oil through the Hormuz Strait must take care of that passage, and we will help a lot." His latest message coming as gas and oil prices surge. AAA reporting gas prices have risen by 23 percent since the war with Iran began just a couple of weeks ago.

Iran vowing to go after United States linked oil and gas infrastructure in the region if more of its own energy sites are targeted it comes after the U.S. hit military targets on Kharg Island on Friday. It is a key Iranian oil hub that handles roughly 90 percent of the country's crude exports.

Let's bring in CNN's Nic Robertson, who joins us now from Kuwait and, Nic, I want to get the latest from specifically Kuwait in just a second, but first, tell us the latest more broadly in the region there.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, look, Kharg Island is an absolute vital facility for the Iranians for the export of their oil, as you say, 90 percent of their crude oil is exported through there. That is about four to five percent of the global uptake of crude oil, so it is important economically around the world.

But most important to Iran, the forbidden island, as it is known, about a third the size of Manhattan, but they built it out so that it can fill supertankers and has been working steadily over the last few weeks while this war has been going on exporting oil for Iran. It has got massive oil storage facilities there as well.

So, it is a very vulnerable target if the United States was to target the oil facilities there. So, far it is just the military facilities and that's why we've heard Iran responding so strongly, verbally, at least from the IRGC, the military side, from the political side, the Foreign Minister saying that Iran will uptick its targeting of American interests in the Gulf region, pointing specifically to the United Arab Emirates, telling some of the citizens there to get away from locations where they accuse the United States.

They haven't put evidence forward, but they accuse the United States of using facilities in that country to target Iran. That is not what is being said by the Gulf countries. U.S. facilities within the Gulf countries, they say, are being used for defensive measures only.

But as we've seen today, Iran has had a very steady level of attack on Bahrain. Saudi sirens going off in the last couple of hours, and the UAE today about eight ballistic missiles 30 drones all intercepted, that's quite a heavy amount of missiles for the UAE.

Here in Kuwait, seven drones the military says were fired in Kuwait earlier on today, late afternoon. They say three were intercepted. Two fell in open area and two hit an air base, a Kuwaiti Air Base in the south of the country here. They also say that three service personnel, Kuwaiti service personnel were injured in that.

And in the last couple of hours, Kuwait International Airport, the civilian airport was hit by a couple of drones, according to the Civil Aviation Authority here, who say it was radar facilities at the airport that were hit.

The international airport, the civilian airport here continues to get hit very hard by Iran. But of course Kharg Island, 130 miles from Kuwait. What happens there? What Iran threatens and what happens there at the north end of the Gulf here is of key interest for Kuwait, of course.

DEAN: Certainly. And I know you have been speaking with people in Kuwait about all of this. What are they telling you specifically?

ROBERTSON: Yes. Really interesting, because what? Kuwait's DNA of all the sort of Gulf States here, is more intertwined with the United States perhaps, than any other of the countries here. Why? Quite simply because the United States led a coalition to rescue Kuwait when it was invaded by the Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein in august 1990.

It was a brutal occupation for about seven months, thousands of Kuwaitis were killed in that brutal repression, when the Iraqi Army was beaten out by a coalition of almost 40 countries, half a million troops to drive the Iraqi Army out. They set fire to the oil fields here.

[18:05:08]

Now, when you talk to people today here, they still -- the older generation, at least they remember that. They feel that today is not as bad and as dangerous as then. But they recognize what can happen.

But people here feel, and you know, this is way after midnight here. It is like 1:00 in the morning, I think, people are still out on the streets. It was busy early on.

People we talked to here feel in these areas, they are safe, because they say that the government can intercept the vast majority of missiles coming. That said, they still worry about the direction this conflict could still go in.

DEAN: Yes, all right, really important reporting there from Kuwait. Nic Robertson, thank you so much for that.

And joining us now is the President of the Eurasia Group and GZERO Media, Ian Bremmer.

Ian, thank you for being here with us. Look, we just went through kind of the state of play and Nic really giving us some great detail there on the back of us hearing from President Trump earlier today saying that the U.S. had decimated Iran and then calling on other countries to help secure the Strait of Hormuz.

How do you see this playing out from where we sit today?

IAN BREMMER, PRESIDENT, EURASIA GROUP AND GZERO MEDIA: The President doesn't yet know how to get the Strait reopened. As of right now, almost all of the naval assets that the United States has in the Persian Gulf are being used to defend Gulf infrastructure, energy, desalination and bases and as a consequence you can't defend the ships that are going through the Strait or that are sitting there in the Strait, which are right now basically sitting ducks if the Iranians choose to hit them.

That's why President Trump is suddenly calling pretty urgently for every country around, including China. He is asking for other countries to send ships. And remember, the United States, when they launched this war, went with the Israelis. They weren't asking anyone else to be a part of it. They weren't giving anyone else a heads up.

They were telling the Brits, we've already won. That was just last Saturday. It is too late for you to send any ships. One week later, he is saying, we need a global flotilla and that is because the impact of these straits staying disrupted.

But the only country that can get ships out right now, the Iranians, that is a major, major disruption that we are going to feel for months in the United States and the global economy.

DEAN: And so two follow ups to that. What is the likelihood of this actually happening -- what the President is requesting, these other countries coming together to help? And are you surprised by Iran's actions that they were willing to do it and shut down the Strait?

BREMMER: I think that other countries are going to participate. We've certainly heard from the French. I suspect the Brits will participate. I think other countries will as well, maybe even India.

How much of that will be defensive? Overwhelmingly, it is not like they are joining the United States in a Coalition of the Willing to beat up on Iran, but everybody wants the Strait reopened. Now, and India has managed to get one of their own tankers through in the last 24 hours on the back of an agreement between Modi and the Iranian President, maybe we can get more support that way, too, but no, I mean, the surprise here is that the United States did not have a plan for what happens if they don't have a regime they can work with and they don't.

I mean, everybody knew that the Strait of Hormuz could be made impassable by the Iranians. I mean this is something that the CIA analysts and the Department of Defense analysts have been working through for decades. It has been scenario planned every which way. So that doesn't come as a surprise but Trump wasn't worried about it because he said well, after we decapitate the Iranians, they're not going to do anything. They are going to need to work with us.

That turns out to not be the case at all. And so two weeks into this war, a war of choice, Trump's timeline, Trump's preferences, Trump's extent of targeting, you've still got the straits closed with no way out and it is urgent for Trump who is now facing $4.00 gas real soon in the United States and you know fertilizer, you don't get fertilizer through, it is too late if it is after the planting season, that's going to come through, food costs all over the world, grocery stores in the United States, too late if you don't get that done urgently.

So he does understand the urgency, he just doesn't have a plan for it.

DEAN: And so to the point about who is in charge in Iran and how that is all working, I do want to ask you about Iran's new Supreme Leader.

Ostensibly, we heard a purported statement from him in this last week, the first statement since he was named, but we have not seen him in public. We have not heard from him directly. What does that mean to you?

BREMMER: Well, we know a couple of things. He certainly doesn't have experience running the country.

[18:10:02]

And they also are mostly cut off from their local commanders because the idea of military leadership having regular conversations with the commanders on the ground means that they are potentially more vulnerable to the Israelis and the Americans striking them.

So right now, the decisions being made to put all of these drones in the air against all of these targets around the Gulf, those are being made locally. At the same time, it was the Iranian President who was a symbolic leader and hasn't had a lot of power but he is the one that talked with Modi, the Indian Prime Minister, to essentially get a swap deal done that got a tanker through.

So, it is very hard to know what, if any, authority the Supreme Leader has on a day-to-day basis right now. I mean, the analysts that we have that are very close to politics in Iran have no visibility on that whatsoever. DEAN: Yes, and so it leaves that open question that you're getting at right there. What about Iran's allies in this war? China, by far the biggest buyer of Iranian oil and U.S. Intelligence suggests they are preparing to financially aid Iran as well. What about China in all of this?

BREMMER: Well, the Chinese, of course, would much rather see the Strait open. They have right now plenty of oil in reserves, probably for three months of domestic usage. So, it is not urgent for them, but these prices are hurting their economy, clearly and that will also be true for fertilizer.

It is going to be true for, you know petrochemicals and the rest, so they want this open. You know that the tankers that are getting out right now are Iranian tankers.

Pete Hegseth said this in his press conference yesterday morning. He said that the Straits are not blocked. That is true. There are Iranian tankers getting out and they are getting out to provide oil to China. The United States has every capacity to interdict them if they wish, they don't.

They want the prices lower, just like why the U.S. is right now suspending sanctions on Russian oil and they also don't want to antagonize the Chinese.

Remember, just six hours ago, Trump called on the Chinese to help keep the Strait open, and he also has -- he is going to travel to China in a couple of weeks, and he is going to meet with Xi Jinping and he wants good relations there.

So he doesn't want to suddenly be responsible for shutting down oil to China. But it is all very ironic in an environment where the Americans are at war with Iran, that the Iranians are presently sending oil to China. And the Chinese, of course are quite comfortable with that.

DEAN: Yes. Interesting stuff.

Ian Bremmer, great context. Thank you so much. We appreciate it.

BREMMER: Good to see you.

DEAN: Still ahead. Now, a couple weeks into the war with Iran, new CNN reporting showing that the Trump administration is working to contain the fallout of this war. We are going to go behind the scenes at The White House to understand the President's thinking.

Plus, the new plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz as gas and oil prices soar worldwide.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:17:50] DEAN: Gas prices keep rising as the war with Iran disrupts the oil industry. And today, the average price of gas climbed to $3.68 a gallon. That is a 23 percent jump since the war started just over two weeks ago.

Diesel prices averaging $4.85 this week. That's over a dollar more than when this war began. The rise in fuel prices being triggered after Iran has virtually cut off oil tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, which we've been talking a lot about.

As we noted, it is one-fifth of the world's oil supply that would usually pass through there. Today, an Indian Foreign Ministry official telling CNN, Iran allowed two Indian tankers carrying liquid petroleum gas through the Strait, that coming after India's Prime Minister spoke with the Iranian President, Wednesday.

And control of that Strait remains a major advantage for Iran in this war. Tehran has escalated attacks on vessels attempting to pass through the vital shipping route, paralyzing the waterway. So far, at least 17 oil tankers, cargo ships and other vessels have been attacked in and around the state, and at least eight people have been killed, four are missing, several others injured. Tehran has also reportedly mined the Strait, further deterring ships from trying to go through.

Knowing all of that, lets now bring in a former Pentagon official Bryan Clark, who is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute.

Bryan, thank you for being here with us.

We've heard from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth a number of times on all of this. This week, he said that these attacks are what he calls acts of sheer desperation by Iran. How would you categorize what we are seeing right now?

BRYAN CLARK, SENIOR FELLOW, HUDSON INSTITUTE: Well, this is part of Iran's game plan. When we've done war games in the past looking at conflicts against Iran, we always assume that Iran is going to at some point close the Strait of Hormuz and attack shipping because that's their best leverage against the West. They will always go to that, probably.

I am a little surprised it took this long for them to go to it. I think they were looking to try to seek a resolution of the conflict before they got to this point, because clearly this hurts Iran, but this is definitely part of their game plan and we've always assumed it would be.

DEAN: And so assuming all of that, when you would go through these exercises and your experience kind of gaming this out, what were the possible solutions if we found ourselves in this situation, then what.?

[18:20:10]

CLARK: Right. Well, once Iran has made the decision to shut off vessel traffic to some countries which probably are those of the U.S. allies, we would have to be in a situation where we are going to have to protect the shipping going up and down the Strait of Hormuz, and then were going to also have to do responsive strikes against any threats that emerged on the Iranian side.

So you end up having to put a dozen or more ships, destroyers, frigates -- those kinds of ships with air defense systems into the Strait, and they end up escorting small groups of tankers up and down the Strait, which will be slow because normally there is about a hundred ships that go up and down the Strait or come down the strait every day and you probably need one ship for every couple of tankers.

So it would turn the normal traffic down to a trickle, and you would also have to put orbits of uncrewed systems like MQ-9 Reaper drones that would hover above the Strait and they would attack anything that comes out like a missile launcher or a drone boat from the Iranian side.

DEAN: And what you're describing are these, I believe these naval escorts that we've been talking to, the U.S. Navy, escorting these ships that we've heard a lot about but we aren't at that point. What officials have said is were just not quite there yet.

The President on Truth Social has been saying that he wants other nations to join in and try to help as well. What do you think about all of that?

CLARK: You definitely don't -- right, it should be an allied effort. I think there are multiple countries clearly that depend on the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. actually doesn't depend on it as much.

These allied countries in particular, Asian and European allies depend on oil from there. They have already in some cases it advanced ships like the French to come and help with a potential escort mission. I think the reason that The Pentagon is talking about not being ready yet is they are trying to degrade the Iranian threat more before they start bringing ships up and down the Strait, because they still have some targets they want to take out, with the launchers or caves where they anticipate missile launchers are being hidden.

So they will be doing more of those attacks until they get to a point where they believe the risk has been lowered enough that it warrants starting the vessel traffic up again, but as soon as they do, new threats will come out and they will have to immediately attack those to prevent them from turning into a problem that shuts down the Strait again.

DEAN: And when you're describing that, it makes me now think back to what we've seen in the last 24 hours, which is the attack on Kharg Island of the military targets there and they were very clear about the military targets. That seems to me to be what you're talking about -- evidence of what you're talking about.

CLARK: Right. Exactly. So Kharg Island which is a big oil terminal that the Iranians use for most of their oil exports, also houses a lot of military systems. The IRGC, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps is responsible for controlling the Strait and controlling the area inside the Persian Gulf that is on the Iranian side and so they had positioned a lot of forces there.

So the Pentagon is continuing to drive this effort to erode the Iranian threat on the coastline to get to the point where at least there are no visible threats and they can then bring vessels down. But in a lot of ways, the vessel traffic when it is restored, becomes a bait for new threats to emerge and that they will out of hiding and you'll have to attack those, so a little bit of a game of whack-a-mole will ensue as soon as the vessel traffic begins in earnest.

DEAN: And that is important to remember as we look ahead to all of this. Bryan Clark, thank you very much. We appreciate it.

CLARK: You're welcome, Jessica. Great to be here.

DEAN: Thank you.

Still ahead, the Trump administration is dealing with the fallout from war with Iran. We are going to take you inside The White House around and talk about their thinking around all of this.

That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:28:14]

DEAN: Over two weeks now into the war with Iran, the Trump administration is scrambling to contain the fallout. According to interviews with several people familiar with internal deliberations, the administration is not any closer to a plan to end this conflict.

We have so far seen the war escalating with U.S. strikes on Iran's key oil lifeline. They were striking military targets on Kharg Island. We also have learned more Marines are headed to that region.

We are joined now by "New York Times" White House correspondent, Luke Broadwater.

Luke, I know you are there in Palm Beach traveling with the President this weekend. Tell us a little bit about what you've been reporting on, what you're hearing from your sources about the president's thinking on the timeline of this war and how it is playing out.

LUKE BROADWATER, "THE NEW YORK TIMES" WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, the President has been kind of all over the place on this. At first, they thought this might be a very quick war, one that would last a matter of days perhaps weeks, but it is stretching on. And the longer it stretches on, the more people around President Trump get worried.

You know, he was warned before this even started that it could be a prolonged engagement and there could be significant political and economic fallout. But it was the President's decision to push on with it. He felt that he could, you know, really take out the Iranian regime in a way past presidents haven't, and there were a bunch of successes militarily early on, and there continue to be successes militarily by the United States military. But the longer it stretches on, the more collateral damage we are seeing both to the cost of human life and to the cost to the economy. You're going to see support start to wane for this endeavor.

DEAN: Support from within the people he is talking to, you think or in terms of his base?

BROADWATER: Yes, both. I would say both within the administration and outside of the administration, right? They are going to get pressure from the public. Voters don't want a long prolonged war. We are seeing polling that doesn't support a long engagement in Iran. You know, already, President Trump has hinted that he would like to say the war is almost over. He said that publicly and privately.

[18:30:38]

But it's pressing on, and, you know, we'll see how long -- how long this lasts. It's -- it's going to be hard for the United States to stay in this for a prolonged period of time without significant political and economic damage.

DEAN: Yes, and to that end, there is a question about the President, but also those around him. But truly, it's his decision. His tolerance, you know, his threshold for that pain.

BROADWATER: Yes, and -- and look, President Trump is someone who has long not wanted to see American casualties, right? And we're -- we are seeing more American casualties. We are seeing some, you know, bad mistakes in the war, too. You know, this -- this missile strike on the school where a hundred -- you know, more than a hundred and fifty kids were killed. There -- there are real lives and real casualties here at stake.

And so, you know, I -- I don't think Trump has a huge stomach for that. He has sort of said things recently about how, well, that's part of war. It's the worst part of war, but it's something you sort of have to live with. But at this point, he's dug in. He wants to get the Iranian regime out of there. He has said so publicly. And it's going to be how much pain can he take before he decides to declare victory and move on.

DEAN: I'm also curious about your reporting around the -- and -- and -- and talking to people what you found out about the messaging around all of this and how they're telegraphing this to the American people, because in kind of one bucket on that topic, there are -- there are many people, even some Republicans, who say they -- that the President has not done a good enough job explaining to Americans why we're there and what we're doing.

And then, in terms of what we are seeing from the White House, we've seen these -- these kind of hype videos with video games spliced in or films, sports, get -- you know, football games. What is the strategy behind all of this? What -- what is your sense?

BROADWATER: Well, I'm not -- I'm not sure there is a unified strategy. I mean, you do have the sort of social media wing of the White House, which is made up of younger people who -- who like the memeification, the video gamification of war. They think it's, you know, cool and funny to put out videos of movie clips and the like.

And then, you have, you know, what Trump himself is saying, which has -- which has changed repeatedly. He's offered several different explanations for why - why we are at war with Iran. He's even questioned whether it is a war. And -- and sometimes even within the same sentence, he'll say it's a brief excursion, but then also it's a war.

So, is the goal regime change? Is it to wipe out the nuclear weapons? Is it to -- or the nuclear capabilities? Is it to take out a Navy ship? You've heard all different explanations from the administration for what the endgame is here. And ultimately, you know, what President Trump said himself is the war's over when he feels it in his bones.

So, he's taking full responsibility for when this war ends. You know, I think if it was up to some other people in the administration, they would have already declared victory. They would have said, look, we wiped out the Navy. We took out the ballistic missile capabilities. Let's call -- let's say it's a victory and move on. But it's going to be President Trump's call when this war ends.

DEAN: All right, Luke Broadwater, good to have you. Thank you so much.

BROADWATER: Thank you.

DEAN: And still ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM, in recent days, we have seen terror attacks here in the United States, including a deadly shooting at a university in Virginia that was inspired by ISIS. A suspect who drove a car with explosives into a suburban Detroit synagogue that was filled with over a hundred children. Safety in American communities has been rattled in these days, and we're going to talk about it when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:39:18]

DEAN: Amid the tensions over the war in Iran, two terror attacks this week are rattling Americans' sense of security in the Detroit area. A synagogue and preschool was attacked Thursday. Sources say the suspect had connections to members -- to members of Hezbollah.

In the other attack, this one in Virginia, a convicted ISIS supporter opened fire at Old Dominion University. This and more incidents showing the war with Iran having ripple effects here in America. Let's bring in CNN Senior National Security Analyst, Juliette Kayyem to talk a little bit more about this.

Juliette, a few days ago, you wrote about another incident. This was outside the mayor's mansion here in New York City, where two people told law enforcement they were inspired by ISIS when they are -- are alleged to have thrown those two or to throw IEDs at dueling protest.

[18:40:12] But you said ISIS has become a brand. What more can you tell us about that?

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: I mean, basically, ISIS -- since the war started, ISIS took advantage of -- of this moment of -- of people's anger, fear, disruption and has basically been using it through their mechanisms of social media and -- and communication, to elevate their own relevance. And that allows people who want to do harm to absorb it and then claim that they're doing something in the name of ISIS. That's what makes it so hard to stop these kinds of attacks.

So, we saw -- so we -- there's no reason to believe that the Gracie Mansion attack had to do with the war in -- in Iran. It -- it was -- it was triggered by an anti-Islam rally that the two Pennsylvania men went to -- to essentially protest. But that the incident in Virginia, in ISIS, is being investigated -- that the guy said he was a part of ISIS or had been a part of ISIS, is being investigated as such.

We also know, just going over to Michigan, not related to ISIS, you have a -- a Lebanese naturalized citizen who our reporting shows lost members of his family in the Israeli bombing -- bombings in southern Lebanon, where his family is. He also had had some sort of trigger to terrorism when he came through the border -- the U.S. border about a decade ago with Hezbollah, that he might have known members of Hezbollah. Southern Lebanon is where Hezbollah basically is organized and resides.

DEAN: Yes. And so, for Americans out there who are taking all of this news in, and -- and obviously they are -- they're -- you know, they're -- they're watching all of this, what should they think? How concerned should they be about what we're seeing -- what we have seen in such a short amount of time?

KAYYEM: Yes. So, the -- the threat environment is elevated. There's this -- I mean, it -- you don't have to be an expert to know that. We are -- we -- we started a war. It was not quick. It's now a regional war. It's having global consequences. And -- and we ought -- we need to be prepared as a homeland. That means both the government, but our communities, local and state law enforcement.

To date, the administration has yet to issue what we would call an elevated threat advisory to state and locals. But -- but we all know -- anyone in the field knows it to be true. I talked to enough police officers and -- and state officials. They know it to be true. And that is -- and -- and that would be true of any war, and that would be true during any presidency.

The -- so, that is one concern, right, obviously. And then, I think out there somewhere is some concern about Iranian state-sponsored terrorism. I don't think we should expect that immediately right now, but, you know, Iran plays the long game, and they've definitely been a state sponsor of terrorism. For the average American, you know, basically, watch your surroundings. Don't go into hiding. Don't -- don't be too fearful. You know, that -- that -- then they win, and I really believe that. For certain communities in particular, the Jewish communities we saw

in Michigan, they are going to be and probably shouldn't, you know, organize for greater defenses at Jewish institutions, temples, congregations, elsewhere, because in the anti-Semitism that animates some of this terrorism, they're equating disagreement with Israel's policies with Judaism, which is just anti-Semitism. And I -- I do worry about that.

DEAN: Yes. I also want to ask you, we saw the FBI sending a memo to local law enforcement in California earlier this week that Iran allegedly aspired to surprise a -- to conduct a surprise attack. The Governor said that there's no credible threat right now, but there has been an increase of security at the Oscars tomorrow. What are your thoughts around that?

KAYYEM: Well, look, the Oscars have always been a high-profile event. I'll be watching starting at like 4 P.M. I like the red carpet. Everyone should enjoy themselves. This is -- it's -- it's so high- profile that it is fortified. This idea of an Iranian drone being targeted at a specific time, you know, it -- it could -- you know, this is in -- you know, you could imagine it, but in terms of a specific threat, there is nothing for us to believe that -- for us to believe that that is true. Safety and security for an event like this has been going on a long time, weeks before, in terms of fortifying the structure, the crowds, vehicles near the crowds.

So, anyone who is lucky enough to attend, enjoy yourselves. I will be enjoying myself. And honestly, the most disruptions at the Oscars have happened inside, where there was like a streaker in like 1973.

[18:45:08]

You had the Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, being handed the wrong envelope. And then, of course, Will Smith punching out host Chris Rock on air. Those are things that still happen. You can't control for them. But for the most part, greater security, but also no cancellations.

DEAN: All right, Juliette Kayyem, thanks so much. We appreciate it.

KAYYEM: Thank you.

DEAN: We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:50:14]

DEAN: Growing criticism tonight after a new fundraising email from President Trump's political action committee used an image from last Saturday's dignified transfer honoring six U.S. soldiers killed in the U.S. war with Iran. The email also promises access to private National Security briefings. Let's bring in CNN's Andrew Kaczynski, who joins us now.

Andrew, you've been digging into this. What are you learning? ANDREW KACZYNSKI, CNN KFILE SENIOR EDITOR: So, this email was sent on

Thursday night by Donald Trump's Political Action Committee. It's called Never Surrender. That is the PAC that supports Donald Trump. It's taken over for his campaign. This email was sent out Thursday night, and it's like you said, it promised private National Security briefing.

And in the middle of that email there, you can see it right there, is that photo from the dignified transfer of the remains of those soldiers who were killed in Kuwait in that Iranian drone strike. And right there, it's sandwiched -- it's sandwiched in between two links that say claim your spot. And if you click on that, it takes you to a donation page for President Trump's political action committee.

It's got a lot of people outraged online, a lot of Democrats, a lot of members of Congress, a lot of former National Security officials who are -- who are angry, saying that, you know, this is -- these soldiers were killed in a war that Donald Trump started, and now they're being used in a fundraising email by his political action committee.

We did reach out to the White House to ask about this yesterday and the Republican National Committee, and we didn't hear back from either of them asking about this email.

DEAN: And Andrew, to your knowledge, have presidential security briefings been offered to supporters before?

KACZYNSKI: No. No, they haven't. And it's not even -- it's not entirely clear what's going on here, because when you click the link in the actual email, it takes you to a donation page for his PAC asking, and then there's all of this text from Trump on the actual donation page in large font asking you to donate like $5,000, $10,000, $50,000. It's not clear what this is going to. It's not clear if there are any National Security briefings, like it says in the email. It really just looks like a way for his PAC to fundraise, frankly.

DEAN: All right. Andrew Kaczynski with his latest reporting. Thanks for that. We appreciate it.

More than 60,000 TSA employees are missing their first full paycheck this weekend because of the partial government shutdown. Funding for DHS ran out last month, or for their department, rather, ran out last month. And now some workers are wondering how they're going to get by until that's over. CNN's Camila DeChalus spoke to employees about how they're feeling.

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CAMILA DECHALUS, CNN REPORTER: Well, Jessica, what we're seeing right now is that it has been relatively really quick lines, not major delays at this airport. But unfortunately, that is not the case of airports across the country. And even though we're not seeing major disruptions here, what you can't see on camera is just the emotional and financial toll this partial government shutdown has taken on several TSA agents here. Now, I spent a lot of time just talking to TSA agents, and they told

me their biggest sentiment is that they're feeling very fed up about what is happening. One of the biggest things I've heard is them feeling that it's very unfair that they're being financially impacted by this partial government shutdown because of what's happening on Capitol Hill and the fact that Republicans and Democrats can strike some sort of a deal to pass funding for the Department of Homeland Security.

One person just told me, hey, this is about immigration-related activities. That has nothing to do with us. And so, I'm kind of confused about why we're being financially impacted by this. A lot of them talked about not just the financial strain that this partial government shutdown has taken, but also the emotional toll.

Some people have told me how they've had to call out of work sick, just saying because the stress alone of how -- they can't even think about how they're going to afford to pay their next bill is enough for them to not just show up to work. And they're saying that the big picture here is that this -- if this government shutdown continues, that we're going to expect to see major delays at airports because they're really saying to me that enough is enough. And even these past few months, they've experienced government shutdown after government shutdown, that they're really feeling like they're the collateral damage in all of this and it is unfair.

And so, the big question here is that what we're going to see in the days and weeks ahead, if this partial government shutdown continues, and they're expecting to say that you're going to see more delays and more disruptions at airports as more TSA workers call out.

Camila DeChalus, CNN, Arlington, Virginia.

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DEAN: All right, Camila, thank you for that.

And still ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM, we're going to go back to the Middle East, where our team on the ground has new reporting on the war's impact on the broader region, including a new warning from -- for the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

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DEAN: You're in the CNN Newsroom. I'm Jessica Dean here in New York.

We are following breaking news out of the Middle East. Tonight, the U.S. Embassy in Iraq is issuing a new security alert urging Americans to leave the country immediately as the war with Iran expands. The new warning coming after an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad that happened earlier today. A security official telling CNN the embassy was hit by two Iranian drones, but the extent of the damage and whether or not there were any injuries is not immediately clear.

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That's coming one day after the U.S. targeted Iran's Kharg Island. It's a key oil hub that handles a vast majority of the country's crude exports.