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Questions Around Iran War Timeline; U.S. Preparing Insurance Plan For Ships Passing Strait Of Hormuz; Michigan Synagogue Attacker Had Ties To Hezbollah; Michigan Synagogue Attack Comes As Antisemitic Incidents Rise; Oil Prices Climb Past $105 A Barrel As War In Iran Enters Third Week; White House Splices Iran War Footage With Clips From Video Games And Movies; Powerful Storm Has Potential For Historic Snow, Thunderstorms. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired March 15, 2026 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:41]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN ANCHOR: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. Hi, everyone. I'm Jessica Dean here in New York.

We are covering breaking news across the Middle East. The war with Iran now in its third week. The Israeli military saying it struck more than 200 Iranian targets over the past day, focusing on what it calls Iran's ballistic missile capabilities and air defense systems. Earlier today, an Israeli Defense Forces official told CNN that Israel is planning for at least three more weeks of its military campaign against Iran.

Let's bring in CNN's Jeremy Diamond from Tel Aviv.

Jeremy, again, a lot of questions around the timeline on this, both from the Israeli side and also the U.S. side, and also how in alignment they are with everything. What are you hearing?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Yes. That's right. Well, certainly the Israelis are sending the message that this military campaign is going to continue for at least several more weeks, that they have a lot more targets that they still plan to hit in Iran before they wrap things up. The Israeli military's top spokesman, General Effie Defrin, telling us that the Israeli military is not working, according to a stopwatch.

He said that there are at least three more weeks of strikes planned, with thousands of targets in the Israeli military target bank for Iran, and that beyond those three weeks, there are another three weeks of deeper plans that the Israeli military has in store as well. And we're certainly reaching the timeline now where we're seeing an increase actually in the number of strikes being carried out.

That's largely due to the fact that Israel and the United States have destroyed so much of Iran's air defenses, making it a lot easier to strike targets using bombs rather than kind of guided missiles or those types of munitions.

The United States' perspective is slightly different. We heard the Energy Secretary Chris Wright today saying that this operation would likely last several more weeks, but it could end sooner. He is clearly trying to send a signal to the markets that have been rattled by this war, the oil markets in particular, that this is not going to go on for too much longer.

But I think there's some real uncertainty about that, and also the question is, how much does Iran's continued blockade of the Strait of Hormuz affect those plans? The Israelis may want to go on for three weeks or beyond, but should President Trump see oil prices continue to rise, get prices at the pump in the United States rise as well, does that lead to a change in calculus? I think for the coming weeks ahead the key question to ask is whether or not we're going to see boots on the ground, Israeli or American, in the form of special operations, to seize the hundreds of kilograms of enriched uranium that are there.

That's something that's been discussed now, but no indication as of yet as to whether or not that's going to happen -- Jessica.

DEAN: A key question in all of this. And Jeremy, you're laying it all out in the broad strokes. Tell us more about what's happening on the ground there in Israel as well.

DIAMOND: Well, today we certainly saw, you know, multiple barrages of ballistic missiles being fired by Iran, rocket fire from Hezbollah to northern and central Israel. We saw several of those ballistic missiles make impact in Israel not in terms of a direct impact of that warhead, but smaller impacts across the country, likely an indication once again that Iran is using these cluster munitions, heads of missiles that are outfitted usually with 24 smaller bombs weighing just, you know, a few pounds really of explosives. But that fall kind of indiscriminately at random and that can and have caused two fatalities so far.

As far as today's attacks were concerned, we did see some damage, but no serious casualties or fatalities. Israel, for its part, carried out significant airstrikes across Iran, also in the Lebanese capital of Beirut. That is another front, of course, that we're keeping a close eye on. Israel and Hezbollah continuing to fight it out with Israel, considering the possibility of a major ground operation in southern Lebanon -- Jessica.

DEAN: All right, more to come. Jeremy Diamond live from Tel Aviv tonight. Thank you so much for your reporting.

Let's talk about the U.S. strategy in all of this and bring in CNN White House correspondent Julia Benbrook, who has been traveling with the president in Florida this weekend.

Julia, we just heard about how the Israelis are thinking about everything. How is the Trump administration thinking about everything and the timeline?

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, one word that Jeremy used there was uncertainty. And I think that's exactly right.

[19:05:02] I mean, we have heard numerous timelines from President Donald Trump, and it's been two weeks now since those joint U.S.-Israel strikes against Iran. And we heard from Trump frequently especially in like brief phone calls with various news organizations. And in those predictions, he said that this could last a couple of days. It could last through the week. We're of course past that now.

Most recently, he has been predicting four to five weeks, four to six weeks, but always emphasizing that it could last much longer, whatever it takes. Now he did say just last week, while speaking with a group of Republican lawmakers at a conference here in Florida, he said we've already won in many ways, but we haven't won enough. And I did have a chance to press him on that specifically.

What did he mean by that? What is the baseline here? And he said in part, "When they are not going to be starting the following day to develop a nuclear weapon, adding that they need to be able to look at negotiators like special envoy Steve Witkoff, who was in the room at the time, and confirmed that they aren't going to pursue it. During that same press conference, he did repeatedly say that this was all going to end soon, but was clear that he didn't really want to be tied down to a specific timeline there.

And then some recent behind-the-scenes reporting from some of our colleagues at CNN showed that, as they're familiar with some of those internal discussions, that the administration does not seem much closer to being able to articulate a defined strategy for bringing this all to an end as the conflict continues to grow more complicated -- Jessica.

DEAN: All right. Julia Benbrook there in Florida. Thank you so much for that.

And for more on all of this, let's bring in CNN national security analyst Alex Plitsas. He's a former Pentagon official and U.S. Army special operations veteran, as well as the current director of the Atlantic Council's Counterterrorism Program.

Alex, thanks so much for being here tonight. We appreciate it. I do want to get your thoughts. I want to take everyone to the Strait of Hormuz right now because obviously that is a huge piece of all of this. President Trump has been encouraging and asking other countries to help the U.S. regain access to those -- to that vital oil passageway.

How realistic do you think that is and where do you think things stand right now?

ALEX PLITSAS, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: It's actually probably the biggest risk point to the operation, you know, for the significant or foreseeable future here. I think it's realistic that some countries will get involved. I think they're going to announce a coalition of countries that have committed. And then it's a question of getting resources there. And then on top of that, they also have to create an environment what I would describe as a semi-permissible environment in the sense they would have to degrade the drone infrastructure and other things that could potentially hit tankers moving through the straits to allow the naval ships that are going to escort them, and then the air cover to be sufficient to protect the ships moving through.

So there's still some work that needs to be done to soften the defenses, so to speak, in Iran before that can happen. So we're still probably a week or two out potentially from that being a reality.

DEAN: And so if that's the case, if we're a week or two out from that being a reality in what sounds like a best case scenario what does that mean more broadly for the oil industry, for people back here at home?

PLITSAS: So I think measures are being taken to try to increase output in other areas. You know, we saw some potential sanctions relief on countries that are sanctioned over oil, potentially releases from the Strategic Oil Reserves in which there's oil that can be dumped on the markets to help to alleviate some pressure in the interim. You know, at the end of the day, this is a critical waterway. This is part of the Iranian strategy for what they're trying to do.

They're trying to pressure the president to stop the operation through some of the few means that they have available and, you know, to be clear, the straits themselves are not closed. They're physically open. They're not mined, there's no ships blocking them. Right now ship owners out of fear of a potential attack are not sending ships through there. So it's a question of giving the confidence back to the ship owners that they can safely transit and not have the crew subjected to, you know, casualties or fatalities, God forbid.

So that's really what needs to be done and that's what the U.S. military is working on in coordination with allied partners.

DEAN: Right. And so to that point on Friday, we saw the U.S. targeting Kharg Island there and they were very explicit in saying that it was military targets that they hit on Kharg Island, not oil infrastructure there. What does that tell you about where this might be headed? How do you kind of factor that into this conversation we're having?

PLITSAS: It was a very clear and immediate message from President Trump to the Iranian government or whoever's running it at the moment as Kharg Island, about 90 percent of the oil flows through there for loading and there are some military assets that were there for protection, which were struck. And so I believe the message from the president was, you know, the company that was that you need to open up the straits and make sure that there's freedom of navigation, or else I'll take out your oil infrastructure.

Because before this, the protests that popped up in Iran in January were the result of deep rooted economic issues that are not solvable in the short or mid-term. So even if this conflict comes to an end shortly, Iran is still in a bad position economically and is going to need to rebuild.

[19:10:03] And they've spent the last few weeks targeting their Gulf neighbors who may have been more willing to help them afterwards. So it's a reminder that they're going to need to rebuild at some point. And if they do this, he can hit back. So it was an initial attempt to send a message. The Iranians are still being defined, it looks like. So additional measures will likely be taken.

DEAN: And so to that point, we are still seeing strikes in these Gulf States. They're going after, they say, American interests there. But the fact is these Gulf States are absorbing these hits. Where do you see them going? Obviously they're not monolith but how do you see the Gulf States as we continue down this road?

PLITSAS: So the Gulf States, their militaries have performed exceptionally well. I mean, across the board in terms of taking down missiles and drones. But to your point this is an attack on their sovereignty. And in speaking to a number of Gulf, you know, government officials from, you know, Qatar and Bahrain, down to Oman, the UAE, Kuwait, even, the response I'm getting back is that the Iranians' intention of causing a divide and getting them to put pressure on the United States has failed.

They're absolutely furious. It's going to be long term problem for the Iranians with their relationship with their Gulf neighbors. But the Gulf -- the Gulf Arab States are also aware that the Iranians are attempting to lure them into a conflict to give them a reason to strike more. And so right now, they've remained in a defensive posture. And so that part of the strategy has failed for the Iranians.

And that's why we're seeing more pressure now put on the straits because they've only got a few pressure points left that they can really push on.

DEAN: All right. Alex, it's great to have you. Thanks. We appreciate it.

PLITSAS: Thank you.

DEAN: Still ahead here on the CNN NEWSROOM, new details about the Michigan synagogue attacker's family ties to an Islamic terrorist group. Plus this week's attack on that synagogue, a nightmare come true for many Jewish Americans already on edge due to rising antisemitism. We're going to talk about what more can be done to ensure the Jewish community's safety. And later, just how high could oil and gas prices rise before we see any relief?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:16:37]

DEAN: We are learning more about the man police say rammed a car packed with explosives into a synagogue outside Detroit Thursday. The man accused in the attack is Ayman Ghazali, a 41-year-old naturalized U.S. Citizen from Lebanon. The Israeli military has just revealed that his brother is a Hezbollah commander who was recently killed in a strike in Lebanon. Sources telling CNN Ghazali was in government databases is having connections to Hezbollah in Lebanon, but was not a member himself.

Let's bring in CNN's Gloria Pazmino.

Obviously, as the days go by we can continue to get more information. Gloria, what more can you tell us?

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jessica. We're learning more about the suspect and about his connection to that alleged Hezbollah commander. But right now, we're also learning more about what the community in Michigan is going to have to do moving forward after their attack at their temple. We are just getting a statement from Temple Israel that was the synagogue that was targeted in last week's attack, when the suspect, Ayman Ghazali, drove a vehicle into the synagogue.

And we're learning that because of the extent of the damage, they said in the message, it will be closed, the building will be closed to us in the immediate future. The synagogue posted a long message reaching out to the community, thanking supporters and congregants for the support that they have gotten in the last few days. They also said that they are trying to put together resources and programming in the next few days to make sure that they can continue to serve the community and those who congregated at this synagogue.

So they are very much trying to move forward. Now, as I said, we're also learning a little bit more about the suspect and the connections that he had to a Hamas commander who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on March 5th. The IDF confirming in a -- in a statement earlier today that that man is Ibrahim Muhammad Ghazali and he was killed in an IDF strike at a military building that was being used to store weapons.

We understand that this man is the brother of Ayman Ghazali, the man who drove that vehicle, which was packed with explosives, into the synagogue in Michigan last week. We had known that Ayman Ghazali had been previously flagged in U.S. databases here in the United States for having a connection to known members of Hezbollah. But this is the first time we are hearing that his brother was killed in those strikes.

DEAN: OK. Gloria Pazmino, thank you for that.

And joining us now, Michael Masters, national director and CEO of the Secure Community Network. It's a Jewish security organization. He's also been a member of several task forces with the Department of Homeland Security.

Michael, thank you so much for being here with us. We really appreciate it. I'm sorry it is under these circumstances. We know that Jewish institutions spend millions of dollars on security. In this case, it was those security guards that were employed by the -- by that synagogue that were the first line of defense there that stopped this assailant before that massive law enforcement response.

How would you assess the safety of Jewish Americans right now? MICHAEL MASTERS, NATIONAL DIRECTOR AND CEO, SECURE COMMUNITY NETWORK:

First of all, thank you for having me. We're in the most complex and dynamic threat environment that we have ever faced as a Jewish community.

[19:20:02]

And I would argue, as a country. And quite simply religious freedom is under attack in this country. If you think about the shooting at the Catholic Church in Minneapolis, the shooting and the truck ramming very similarly to the Church of Latter Day Saints in Michigan in September, and now this vehicle ramming.

The reality is, though, that we are making investments as a Jewish community, over $765 million a year that we are investing in order to participate in our faith. What we are doing now is we are doubling down on that. We are doing more. We are doing more training. We are having more security guards, like those phenomenal guards that we saw in Michigan and the plans they had in place at Temple Israel.

And we're being more vigilant, and we need our partners to do that as well. We need law enforcement to double down. We need the public officials that are responsible for departments and agencies to increase the funding. So those men and women who protect and serve us on the front lines have more training, more techniques, more equipment, more bandwidth. And we need Congress to double down.

We need more grants going to law enforcement so they can do their job. And we need more grants going to the faith based community so we can protect ourselves.

DEAN: And I know your organization, among other things, you all do a number of things but one of those is monitoring specifically threat levels within the United States. And I know you said this is a really dynamic moment for that. But give us some more detail on what we're seeing at this moment in time. We're looking at a -- I don't know if you can see it, but we're looking at just in the last since June, I'm seeing May last year into this year, just antisemitic attacks we've seen across the country.

What are you seeing?

MASTERS: So in our Jewish Security Operations Command Center where we are monitoring the surface deep and dark web, we are looking for these, these bad actors and working to protect communities. We have seen over 130 percent increase in violent posts directed against the Jewish community in the last week. And I want to be very clear, that is not someone who is drawing a swastika or saying they don't like Jews or disagree with Israeli policy.

That is someone that is threatening to maim or kill a member of the Jewish community. That is the highest number that we have tallied. 8,000 violent posts in under five days in the history of our record keeping. That's the nature of the environment. And every one of those threats could be someone driving up to a synagogue as we saw, tragically on Thursday. DEAN: It's like you want to underline that information because that

really does, as you're saying it, stand out. When we heard from the Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer on the day after that attack, she was talking about how -- and Elissa Slotkin, too, the senator -- how words can go to action. And that's what we saw and how quickly that can escalate. And the danger in not stopping it there before it gets to actual actions.

MASTERS: Well, and that radicalization period is becoming more and more condensed. We've noticed that. Certainly 15, 20 years ago after 9/11, it would not be uncommon for that to be. 18 months now we can see it happening in a matter of days. Just after the U.S. and Israeli strikes in Iran, of course, you know. A mass attack in Houston, the ISIS inspired attack in New York City. Then we saw the synagogue attack in Michigan, in addition to the Old Dominion attack earlier that day. And attacks in Canada and Norway.

So that's the reality of the threat environment. The question now is, how do we make sure that faith based life and our American values can stand strong? And so in addition to the physical security, it is proactively identifying these bad actors and taking them off the streets. And that's where we're so grateful to our partners in law enforcement and our prosecutors around the country.

DEAN: All right, Michael Masters, thank you for your time. We really appreciate it.

MASTERS: Thank you.

DEAN: He worked in the White House when oil and gas prices spiked during the Iraq war. And after the break, we're going to be joined by former energy adviser -- a former energy adviser to discuss what we can expect from this war with Iran. That's when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:28:40]

DEAN: We do have new video in to CNN. A large plume of smoke rising over Beirut's southern suburbs. This after a large explosion, as you saw there, rocked the city tonight. Details on exactly what happened are unknown right now. But obviously if we get more information, we will bring it to you.

Also new tonight, the price of gas is rising again. According to the latest reading from AAA the average now hitting $3.70 a gallon. That marks a 24 percent increase since the start of this war just over two weeks ago.

And this just in, oil prices have hit their highest level since July of 2022 as the global benchmark. Brent crude surging past $105 a barrel tonight. And you see there the futures have oil hovering around $100 a barrel.

Iran has all but closed the passage of other tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, which saw 20 percent of the world's oil supply on a daily basis before this war broke out.

Let's bring in international energy consultant and president of Rapidan Energy Group, Bob McNally.

Bob, thank you so much for being here. We just kind of laid out what we're looking at tonight. What happens now?

BOB MCNALLY, INTERNATIONAL ENERGY CONSULTANT: Hi, Jessica. Well, the upward march in oil prices continues. Over the weekend the market got some good news just before the open in Asia. Earlier today the president announced that there would be efforts to start escorting ships and so forth.

[19:30:03]

But the weekend started on Friday with a kind of an alarming from a market standpoint a post by the President where he said, you know I attacked and I may attack again, the sort of crown jewel of Iran's oil export industry, the Kharg Island.

And that got traders thinking, wait a minute as bad as this is, it gets a lot worse if both sides start targeting each other's critical oil infrastructure.

We haven't seen that yet, that's when things get worse. So, we're pricing in more risk premium here also with no end in sight to the to the shutdown in the Strait of Hormuz.

DEAN: Right. And so, let's talk about the timing because I'm curious how that plays into all of this. Israel telling CNN today that they anticipate at least three more weeks of strikes. President Trump has said weeks or sooner. The bottom line is it is still open ended.

But let's just say for the sake of this argument, that that things did wind down and let's call it three weeks, what does that mean to the oil market at that point, even if it's just three more weeks of this?

MCNALLY: Well, I think a lot of damage will be done to the economy if we have three more weeks of no more Hormuz flow. But if we're lucky enough to escape this lasting damage to critical infrastructure, in your scenario there, Jessica, I think then you'll start to see the system unclog. It'll take a while; it'll take a while to bring up the oil fields that will have been shut down in those next three weeks. Tankers have to be rerouted, they'll want to get food in and other things besides oil, go through that straight.

So, I still think if we have three more weeks, we will give a body blow to the global economy and we'll be recovering from that. But, you know, as long as we don't hit major infrastructure like Kharg, like Abqaiq, like Ras Tanura Terminal, if we can avoid that, the system is flexible and well get back, you know, back to where we were before within months, I think.

DEAN: And I'm curious too, kind of on that note, what other issues are you watching and that we should maybe start considering that could emerge from this, that could kind of be another branch of the tree, as it were, from this current situation, any sort of ripple effect or anything like that?

MCNALLY: Well, I think one thing we have to watch for are possible policy mistakes. As -- if prices keep rising, which is what I expect. You don't want to see desperate measures, things like having the U.S. government get involved in selling or some say, buying oil futures. That would be a sign of desperation. There's discussion of that inside the administration according to Secretary Burgum. That would be, in my view, very unfortunate.

And so, there's policy mistakes we have to watch for even while this is unfolding. Afterwards, you're going to see folks with a new sense of concern about security from the from the region.

I think it's going to get investors more interested in investing in the Americas, in the United States, maybe looking at more export routes right now, there's only one option to get oil out really of the gulf that goes to the Red Sea. Maybe build some more pipelines.

I think we're going to see a renewed focus on making sure we never get in this situation before. And Jessica, I got to emphasize, no one thought we would be here. Nobody thought it was possible for Hormuz to be shut for more than a couple of days.

My team and I did at Rapid Energy Group, we modeled it in June, but this is a shock. This is just not supposed to happen and I think minds will be focused on making sure it never does again in a serious way.

DEAN: And so, when you say, you and your team modeled this back in June, obviously, we've talked to people like you who are on the energy side of this. We've talked to military people on that piece of it. And obviously, you all knew very much how important the Strait of Hormuz is, you knew this could be if anything like this ever happened in play. But to your point, where we are today still seems to have caught people off-guard.

MCNALLY: I think it did. But you know, in our military, don't get me wrong, has been aware of this problem, Hormuz, and has been planning to secure it for decades. So, we've planned for it, but by its very nature, it's sort of like playing a game of whack-a-mole with a thousand moles.

Very hard to get at targets -- small ships, small boats, small mines, small missile launchers. It's going to take some time. And if it gets to mine lane, cleaning up mines can take a long time, so we're prepared to do it.

But back in June, we said it would be a 30-day closure. And that's assuming if on day one of the conflict, we started attacking the Iranian facilities that can hit these ships, I don't know when we started doing that in this conflict, but you can start the clock at whenever we begin and probably go for weeks, according to military experts we spoke to.

DEAN: All right, Bob McNally, good to have you. Thanks for that context. We appreciate it.

MCNALLY: Thank you.

DEAN: The Trump administration is facing some criticism over the war with Iran. We're going to discuss what's being said from both sides of the aisle with our political panel. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:39.50]

DEAN: The White House has been facing criticism for using actual mission footage of U.S. operations in the war with Iran spliced together with clips of Hollywood films and video games. Here's one recent example. This is from online.

[19:40:03]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(VIDEO GAMES ONLINE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: We are joined now by CNN political commentators David Urban and Bakari Sellers. David is a Republican strategist, former Trump campaign advisor, and also a veteran.

Bakari is a former Democratic South Carolina State Representative.

Good to have both of you here. I just wanted to play that because, David, obviously, there's a lot to talk about when it comes to this war, but we have lost men and women in this war. They have given their life for this mission and that's what we're getting online from The White House and I'm curious what your take is on that, especially as a veteran.

DAVID URBAN, SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, my take is as bad, okay, that's my take. Not hard, right? I don't think --

DEAN: A simple answer.

URBAN: This is, yes, it's bad. This is gravely serious stuff, like you pointed out, right? We watched the other night I watched as Kaitlan and a bunch of senators sat silently on our network while they had the dignified transfer of remains of U.S. servicemen who were killed in action and that's the type of solemnity this needs to take place.

You shouldn't be joking around about this at all. I mean, it is serious business. It is serious no matter who you're killing, right? You're killing bad guys. Okay, well they're bad guys, but you're still killing individuals and human beings and I don't think video games are correct or appropriate kind of venue for that kind of thing. So, I'm not a big fan.

DEAN: Yes, and so, why, David, are they -- why do this? Why are they doing this? URBAN: I do not know. No one called me to ask me because I would have said bad idea, right? I would have said bad idea. Look, there's lots of things, if you want to make, hurrah, you know, chest thumping videos of, you know, Marines hitting the beaches or rangers rappelling out of Blackhawks or, you know fighter pilots and carrier pilots. I mean, go for it.

You want to fire the troops up, go for it. I'm not quite sure who that is appealing to, but maybe they're trying to send it and say, look, it appeals to our troops who are 19 and 20 years old out of doing these missions. Maybe they like it, I don't know, but I'm not the target demographic of that piece of video that you just showed.

DEAN: Yes, Bakari, what are your thoughts on this?

BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I mean first of all, let me just say I agree with David. And I think that most people who come on this network, regardless of politics, know that David is someone who served admirably and actually served the university in this country who produces some of the best men and women on earth. And so, kudos for telling the truth.

I think that there is a trust gap here and a trust deficit with the American public and The White House and this doesn't help that. You know, I don't think that average men and women in the United States trust Pete Hegseth. They don't trust Tulsi Gabbard. They don't trust Marco Rubio.

They don't trust Donald Trump they don't know why we're here. They don't know the off ramp. They don't know the exit strategy. They don't know why our men and women are dying. They don't know why a school was bombed with 150 young girls when we can just say in the fog of war things happen. It was our screw up. We apologize and move forward.

And so that all of these questions that we have that are good questions, Democrats, Republicans and Independents have. this does not help by just kind of just giving this infant type of response to war.

We are at war whether or not we want to like it or not, we're there. And so, I think we just need some grown-ups in the room and my encouragement would be the White House to call David Urban and say, you know, not just messaging, but explain basic things like, what's our end game here? How do we achieve goals and what do we call success?

DEAN: Yes, and David, to that point, how would you answer that? Because I do think that those are key questions that some Republicans have too, Democrats have. And you know is what are we doing? What are, you know, obviously they've listed out the military objectives, but what's the end game here? And when where do we go from here?

URBAN: Yes. listen, I think that you know, what Bakari is saying, what other people have talked about is exactly correct. The administration owes the American people. When we put our most valuable resources on the line, our young men and women, we send them into harm's way. We need to explain to Americans exactly what we're doing and why we're doing it.

Listen I think the cause is noble. I think that the Iranian regime for 50 years has been shouting death to Iran from killing Bill Burns to blowing up Marines in Beirut to, you know, maiming and killing soldiers in Afghanistan with improved IEDs and exporting terror around the globe. I think there's an explanation for this, right?

The administration can come out in full-throatedly say, we cannot allow these people to have a nuclear weapon. There is never a good time to try to take it out. We need to continue to pound them down, and were going to do so. We're going to go through this target list. We have a list of primary, secondary and tertiary targets which we're going to bomb. And when were done with that, when were done with mowing the lawn, as being said, we may consider stopping and we may not.

We want to see an Iran that does not possess a nuclear weapon or means to deliver it and so, I think that this administration could say that stand up and say it proudly and full-throatedly. But they need to do it, they need to be able to do that and say that to people.

We don't we don't know when it's going to end, I don't think there is an end date to when this is going to be over, because if the Iranians continue to chant "Death to America" and have nuclear weapons and a means to deliver it, I think the bombing will continue.

[19:45:52]

DEAN: Yes, and question two, like, how do you get the enriched uranium out if that that is your target? Like that is a whole another layer to all of this.

URBAN: Yes, and just really quickly, I would just say, and I just, I don't want to step on Bakari but you know, attacking the gulf states like the Iranians are doing I think they're dragging they're making this more of a regional conflict. And, you know, the people in the UAE and other places they're being, you know, drone attacked every day. They're not going to sit back and continue to accept this. So, they're going to get dragged in and continue to pound as well.

DEAN: Yes, Bakari, we've talked about the military piece of this. The solemnity around war. There is a political piece to this as well. We are seeing that with gas prices that Americans, you know, in the 2024 election were very clear. They were very worried about the cost of living and affordability in this country. And we're now seeing gas prices go up and potentially food prices if we have the essential fertilizer being impacted by Iran's control of the Strait of Hormuz. How do you see that influencing American's take on all of this.

SELLERS: I mean, I think that this was, unfortunately for the Trump administration, was more of a political act than it was a necessary act of defense of this country and our country's needs and I think that people are seeing through that. And I think that that is the disdain that you're seeing not only that, but the stress at the pump. I mean, you'll feel that first before you even get to gas prices. I mean, we just talked about, I believe it was in the last segment. You talked about the fact that gas prices were going up and you compound that with, you know, these moments of just, you know, solemnness where you have soldiers coming home in caskets.

You know, you have one of the most righteous rights that we have in this country. You have then those exposes of young girls dying in bombings. I mean, all of these things go to show that this administration, I'm not sure from a political or a defense perspective are taking this seriously enough.

I think this is more gamesmanship than it should be at this particular time. And let's all be honest, I think the three of us know this, and I hope the American people know this. If the goal is to take Iran's nuclear sector out right. That has been a noble goal for Presidents for a very long period of time. All three of us would agree that Iran does not need to have or deserve to have a nuclear weapon or ballistic missile, just cadre or the fact that they have a military apparatus that can go out.

The problem is that we cannot destroy, we cannot destroy Iran's nuclear sites without putting boots on the ground. I wish the administration was honest with us about that. I wish they were telling us about the grave toll that would take. But no one is talking about the simple fact that American lives will be lost if that is the goal through war. If we have negotiations, let those play out. We had a peace deal. Donald Trump tore that up. And because he tore that up, there'll be American soldiers that are going to die and people will still feel that price at the pump.

DEAN: All right, we can talk more about this, but unfortunately, we're out of time. But David, Bakari --

URBAN: Really quickly.

DEAN: Yes, quick, quick, quick.

URBAN: Yes, Mazel tov to you and Alex on your good news. I just want to say. We're looking forward to that baby boy in June.

SELLERS: Yes.

DEAN: Thanks, guys

SELLERS: You can name him Bakari.

DEAN: I know, Bakari is a good name. I'm going to add it to my list. Harry Enten also pitched Harry.

SELLERS: Michael Bakari for you, Michael Jordan and Bakari Sellers, you got it. There you go.

DEAN: Oh, that's nice, a little good news to end on. David and Bakari that's really kind. Thank you, guys. We'll be right back.

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[19:54:13] DEAN: Happening now we're tracking a powerhouse storm that is threatening to bring severe thunderstorms to more than 100 million people in the Eastern United States. The Midwest and the great lakes have already been hit with several feet of snow and heavy winds. Meanwhile, rain has started falling in parts of Arkansas, Missouri, Mississippi and Tennessee and that is where the risk of tornadoes is developing the greatest. Let's bring in CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar tracking the storm.

Allison, as you noted last hour this storm has kind of everything in it.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, everything but the kitchen sink is pretty much what we have. Because we have snow, we have wind, we have zero visibility. we also have the potential for tornadoes. I mean, there's pretty much everything wrapped up all in this one storm.

So, here you can see right here we've got over 20 million people under some type of winter weather alert, that's on the northern side of the storm, mainly focusing over areas of the Midwest and the Great Lakes, and even some blizzard warnings in there, just because of how strong those winds are. Here, you can see where the snow that pink color indicating where you have a little bit of that wintry mix. So, like an ice kind of mixing in with the snow.

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And then, the Southern side of this where you have those warmer temperatures, this is where all that severe weather is going to be focused.

The yellow box you can see there, that is a severe thunderstorm watch that is in effect until 2:00 A.M. Eastern time. Farther down to the south. You have a variety of tornado watches. The vast majority of them go until about 9:00 to 11:00 P.M. Eastern time. A lot of those are going to be extended or even shifted farther east as we go through the overnight hours, because what you can see is all of these boxes.

So, the orange boxes indicate a severe thunderstorm warning. The pinkish purple color, those are all individual tornado warnings that are live as we speak. This whole line is going to continue to progress eastward taking with it the potential for severe thunderstorms.

So, a lot of these areas the concern is going to be overnight tonight. So, you're talking Atlanta, Birmingham, Nashville, Louisville, Lexington, Indianapolis, even Cincinnati looking at the potential for the overnight severe weather.

So please make sure you have a way to get those emergency alerts on your phone or a weather radio or something like that, so that you can get woken up if you end up having some of this severe weather that rolls through your area.

Monday, we still also have severe weather, but it shifts farther to the east. Now you're talking, the main threat is going to be from New York all the way down to Florida. You're talking roughly 100 million people have the potential for those severe thunderstorms, damaging winds, strong tornadoes. And some of those could be EF-2 or even EF-3 size. So, please take this very seriously over the next 24 hours.

DEAN: All right, Allison Chinchar with the latest. Thank you for that and we'll be right back.

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