Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Trump Gives 48 Hours For Iran To Open Strait Of Hormuz; Trump Sending ICE To Airports Amid Shutdown Stalemate; Some Airports See Painfully Long Lines Amid TSA Staff Shortages; Israel Hits Key Bridge In Lebanon Amid Infrastructure Attacks; Multiple Iranian Strikes Across Israel This Weekend; Long Airport Lines Amid Shutdown Stalemate; Trump Invokes "Save America Act" In DHS Funding Standoff; Interview With Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA). Aired 7-8p ET

Aired March 22, 2026 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:00]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: It's effectively been closed since the war with Iran started more than three weeks ago. Now, in response to this, Iran saying it will close the strait indefinitely if the U.S. goes after its energy infrastructure as the president is threatening to do. Meanwhile, back in Washington, Alaska Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski says she's considering pushing for Congress to vote to authorize the war with Iran if Trump decides to deploy U.S. boots on the ground.

Let's bring in CNN's Julia Benbrook, who has been traveling with the president this weekend down in Florida.

Julia, what more can you tell us about the president's strategy at this point in time?

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that threat that you mentioned specifically, Jessica, that came in a social media post, a Truth Social post from President Donald Trump Saturday evening at exactly 7:44 p.m. Eastern. And that timestamp is significant because as that deadline is quickly approaching, he gave a very specific deadline. He said that the United States would, quote, "obliterate" Iran's power plants if Tehran does not reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

And I want to pull up that post for you exactly. Just to read for you verbatim what he said. He said, "If Iran doesn't fully open without threat the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours from this exact point in time, the United States of America will hit and obliterate their various power plants, starting with the biggest one first."

Now, Iran's military did respond on Sunday, saying that if the United States did carry through with this threat, that Iran would then, that the Strait of Hormuz would then be completely closed and it would not be reopened until the destroyed power plants had been repaired.

Now, it also said that Israeli energy and communications infrastructure would be targeted, as well as similar companies in the region with U.S. shareholders. And this marks an escalation in rhetoric from Trump. It also marks a significant acknowledgment of the importance of this strait.

Now, we know that 20 percent of the world's oil typically travels through this critical waterway, and we've seen a surge of gas prices here in the United States. And now Trump has acknowledged that his team did know that these prices would go up. But he has also said that it is a small price to pay for long-term safety.

We also know that U.S. officials, they have been working to strategize and try to avert a month's long closure of this critical waterway, and they have acknowledged privately, some of them, that this is a problem that does not have a clear solution at this point -- Jessica.

DEAN: Julia Benbrook, with the latest. Thank you so much for that.

And we're joined now by national security expert Joe Cirincione. He's the vice chair of the Board of Directors at the Center for International Policy.

Joe, thank you so much for your time tonight. We appreciate it. One of the objectives of this war --

JOE CIRINCIONE, VICE CHAIR, BOARD OF DIRECTORS, CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL POLICY: My pleasure.

DEAN: It's good to see you -- is to destroy Iran's nuclear program. Would you say, could you assess that the region is safer since the start of this war about a month ago? Do you think progress has been made toward that direction?

CIRINCIONE: Safer isn't the word I would use here. There's no question that the bombing has set back Iran's nuclear capabilities by several years. We don't really know how much because we don't know the extent of the damage. But unfortunately, it hasn't eliminated their core asset. And that's the 440 kilograms of 60 percent enriched uranium, which we believe is stored in a deep underground facility at Natanz.

And that is the material they would need to build one, two, maybe as many as 10 bombs. And they could build them -- they could get the material to, for the core of the bombs in a few weeks. And it would take them several months, maybe as much as a year after that to build the weapons. And unfortunately, this war has probably increased Iran's desire to sprint for a bomb. So, no, I would not say this war has made the region or the United States any safer.

DEAN: You talked about the enriched uranium. That is so key when it comes to the nuclear program. What does it take to physically get that, to get that out of Iran? And is that a realistic expectation, do you think?

CIRINCIONE: I wouldn't say it's impossible because there may be something we don't know, but from everything we do know, it does appear to be an extremely difficult mission. This would be by far the most difficult special operations attempt in history. It's extremely difficult here for, number one, the site itself, Isfahan, is 500 miles from the Iranian border, maybe 700 or 800 miles away from the staging area. [19:05:08]

The transportation is going to be extremely difficult. You can't do it above ground, so you'd have to have helicopters, cargo planes, take you to the sites, vulnerable to air fire along the way. Once you got there, the uranium is stored underground, several, 100, 200 meters below where any U.S. conventional bomb could take it out. But worse, the tunnels that get you there are covered in dirt, some say cement, so you'd need excavation equipment to take that out. Bulldozers, diggers. How are you going to get that there?

Number three, you'd have to do all this while under fire. Remember, Iran has a very large army, very large militia force. They'd be attacking the troops while you're there. Third, when you get underground and you see the uranium which is stored in canisters about the size of a scuba tank, you have to treat it extremely carefully, assuming that Iran hasn't put decoy tanks out there. It could have hundreds of tanks, but you got to pick out the 60 or 100 that are the real stuff.

You got to be very careful with this material. To show you how careful, we've done a similar operation to this back in the '90s in Kazakhstan called Project Sapphire. We trained a group of specialists for two months and then brought them to Kazakhstan with the government's cooperation in peace time. And it still took them a month to take out a near equivalent amount of uranium gas stored there.

You've got to be very careful with this material. Any leak releases the gas, it's highly toxic. If you get the canisters too close together, you could trigger a chain reaction and you don't want that. So it's a mission fraught with difficulty. Your only option would be to go in there, go down to the site and then blow it up. Now that might be something you could do, but even that is going to be extremely difficult.

DEAN: Yes. I mean, it is incredibly complicated the way you are laying it out for sure. In terms of just broadening out for a second, do you think at this moment in time there is a diplomatic offramp at this point? Or, again, just before we came to you talking about the president's threat to Iran about opening the Strait of Hormuz, what Iran has said back to them, where would you put things?

CIRINCIONE: Well, we had two diplomatic offramps. Remember, in 2015, we had an Iran nuclear deal that had prevented Iran from getting anything like this capability. If that deal was still into effect, there wouldn't be any highly enriched uranium for us to worry about. But Trump pulled out of that deal. So that's offramp number one that he killed back in 2018.

Number two, the Iranians offered three weeks ago, three and a half weeks ago now, at the discussions mediated by Oman to eliminate this material. They offered to down blend it, and they offered to pause the uranium enrichment for three to five years. And the British official who was with us, the British national security adviser was involved in those talks, said they were surprised at how good a deal that was, and they didn't think that was Iran's final offer. But Trump rejected that negotiated solution, too. And now I feel that

he's burned his bridges. I mean, these kind of escalatory demands that he's placing on Iran, it makes it almost impossible to negotiate. So we may be in the worst of all possible worlds. He's prevented the ability to get a negotiated solution to this with these unconditional surrender demands and the military means to get rid of it are near impossible.

So at the end of this, Iran is holding all the nuclear cards. They just have to wait us out. It's the worst of all possible worlds.

DEAN: All right, Joe, thank you for your time. We appreciate it.

CIRINCIONE: Thank you.

DEAN: Still to come, it's not even a holiday weekend. Travelers, though, facing unpredictable, very long wait times at many airports across the country, with some people having to stand in line for nearly two hours to get through security. Plus, the president planning to send ICE agents to help out at airports as lawmakers hit a stalemate in talks to end the partial government shutdown that's tied to all of this. We're going to talk to a Democratic congressman about where things stand. That's straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:13:57]

DEAN: Travelers continue to face long lines at airports across the country as Congress remains at a stalemate over DHS' enforcement -- immigration enforcement tactics. Senate Majority Leader John Thune saying this afternoon, in his words, the talks over that DHS funding are hitting a pause.

President Trump now deploying ICE agents to help TSA officers who are currently short-staffed and going unpaid during the partial government shutdown. Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens announcing ICE agents are expected to deploy at the Atlanta airport tomorrow. Senate minority Leader Chuck Schumer criticizing that decision.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): This is really disturbing. ICE agents who are untrained and have caused problems everywhere they've gone lurking at our airports? That's asking for trouble. All they will do is worsen the situation at airports, which are already on edge. So I have an idea for Donald Trump. Instead of sending ICE agents to harass travelers at airports, why doesn't Trump get his act together and agree to pay the TSA workers and get the Senate Republicans to do so?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[19:15:04]

DEAN: Let's bring in CNN's Gloria Pazmino, who is joining us now from Newark International Airport in New Jersey. Gloria, you have been there with travelers all day. What are they

telling you?

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jessica, you know, I can firstly tell you that we have gotten a lot of mixed reaction from passengers about President Trump's plan to send ICE officers into U.S. airports. But first, I want to give you an idea of what the day has been like here at Newark Liberty International. We've been here all day as well as yesterday. And I have to say, things here at Newark have been pretty good, all things considered.

The peak wait time here we saw today was about 35 to 40 minutes. That is a lot better when you compare it to what we are seeing in many other airports. Atlanta-Hartsfield Airport, where ICE officers are now expected to be tomorrow, that saw significant wait times throughout the day today, more than an hour during certain times. Also, Houston airport, the George Bush Intercontinental Airport, that saw significant delays.

LaGuardia Airport, J.F. Kennedy Airport here in the Tri-State area, also seeing significant delays. So things here in Newark under control for the most part. I spoke to passengers who said they came here four, five, three hours ahead of time just to be safe. And again, getting a lot of mixed reaction from travelers telling me that they are worried that having ICE agents in airports will create a climate of fear.

Other passengers who also said they just want to get to their final destination, and if that means that the lines are going to move quicker, then they're on board.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because they've been shown to be a little brutal and their training doesn't seem like it's even in line with being an official of any form.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If it's -- if it helps the wait times diminished, I'm not worried about ICE actually doing it. If it's just a manpower, gap stoppage, to make things run smoother, that's great.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAZMINO: Now, in the meantime, as this partial shutdown continues, of course, we have the TSA officers who are caught in the middle, many of them not coming into work as they continue to go without their paycheck. More than 400 of them have submitted their resignation. The absentee rate at the agency hovering at around 9 percent. It reached 10 percent last Monday. And we expect to see that absentee rate continue to climb as we enter into next week. And we continue to see that agents are not being paid as a result of this impasse between lawmakers on the hill -- Jessica.

DEAN: All right. Gloria Pazmino with the latest from Newark, thank you for that.

When ICE agents arrive at Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta tomorrow, they're going to be in for a busy day with painfully long lines at many security checkpoints across that airport.

And CNN's Rafael Romo shows us more.

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Jessica, notice how crowded it is behind me. But this is only the main checkpoint area. And part of the reason why the lines today are worse than the day before is because out of 18 possible windows that screeners have to screen people here at Atlanta airport, only four are open. By way of comparison, eight were open on Saturday. So that's probably the reason why we've seen longer lines today.

Again, this is the end of very long lines. Let me show you what it looks like on the other side. Take a look at this area. Three lines on this side, another three on the other side, behind the escalators. And I want to walk so that I can show you how far, how far back the line goes. All these people have to wait. Not a whole lot of movement. And then once you come to the end of this hallway, you get to the atrium area, and there's another holding area here where people are also waiting.

Excuse me, excuse me. Thank you. So we have seen already three holding areas for people and the end of the line is not even here. It loops around that way and it comes back in the baggage area where you can also see not only the general boarding line, but also pre-check. I've been talking to people here and the common denominator is frustration, anger, and a lot of fear because many feel like they are not going to make their flight on time. This is what they have to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAMSES DIAZ, TRAVELER: It's bad, but everybody is just dealing with the fallout. I mean, it's going to just take patience and got to deal with it.

ROMO: Did you know it was going to be this bad?

DIAZ: No, I did not. Not at all. I got here an hour early. Usually it's two hours. Got here three hours and I'm still in this line.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need to pay these people. We need to resolve. They got to come to an agreement. Even if they just agree in this one issue. That's my saying to the politicians.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[19:20:05]

ROMO: And Jessica, the impact of the long lines goes beyond just inconvenience and getting people very edgy. Some people are getting sick. We saw Atlanta Police escorting a lady who was apparently having a panic attack. We saw another lady who came to our live shot position because she needed to sit down for a moment. She was feeling ill. And the reality is that this situation is not going to change as long as there's no agreement in Congress to provide funding for TSA.

Jessica, now back to you. DEAN: All right. Rafael Romo, thank you so much.

Coming up, Israel expanding its strikes in southern Lebanon. We'll tell you why it's now targeting a key bridge. That's just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:25:08]

DEAN: Back now following breaking news out of the Middle East, Lebanon's president criticizing Israeli attacks on infrastructure in that country, including the destruction of a critical bridge. Tonight, Israel's defense minister defending that strike, saying the goal is to sever Hezbollah's supply lines.

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh has more now from Beirut -- Nick.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, a significant development here in Israel's assault against the Iranian backed militant group Hezbollah here and in southern Lebanon. It's a separate chapter, really, to the war with Iran, but ultimately deeply connected. A long standing conflict here in the region. And today, it took for many Lebanese an ugly turn.

Israel, after two warnings, detonated the key bridge that marks a vital artery from the south of the country, the southern Lebanon area that is a Hezbollah stronghold that Israel has declared a mandatory evacuation zone for a number of weeks now but where there are still we've seen thousands of civilians deeply fearing for their safety.

That bridge was detonated in a precise strike that left now only one much smaller bridge connecting the north from the south. Now that has led the Lebanese president, Joseph Aoun, to say that this is the precursor to an Israeli ground invasion. He's talked about collective punishment and the degradation of infrastructure. And critics of Israel will point to the disproportionality of force used here to part of the infrastructure that was deeply useful to civilians, granted, that artery, too, used by Hezbollah and their logistics as well.

But this marks for many Lebanese a deeply worrying chapter potentially where they have long been concerned about some of the rhetoric they've heard from Israel's defense minister, who's harked back to the tactics used to demolish parts of Gaza as something they might seek to replicate in the southern suburbs of Beirut and elsewhere. And Israel Katz, the defense minister, said that they would be seeking to demolish some of the housing and residential parts of southern Lebanon near the Israeli border.

And two, he gave the warning that it would be destroying the bridges across the Litani River. That basically marks the first border of the lower evacuation area that Israel has declared. Civilians have to forcibly leave their homes from. So today's strike on the bridge, startling as the vigil indeed is there, for many Lebanese, I think is raising concerns of a new chapter here where Israel will seek to push all civilians out of that southern area now. But this separate part of the conflict, ultimately, one where Israel said it will achieve its aims over a longer period of time. The military figures talking about advanced targeted ground operations, perhaps stopping short of declaring a full invasion potential in the background.

Maybe for some diplomacy to slow this down. But there are many Lebanese deeply worried that the conflict between Israel and Iran and the United States, which forced or pushed Hezbollah into the retaliation that sparked this part of the conflict, they sought to avenge the death of their sponsor, Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei, is now leading to essentially much longer and uglier war again for many Lebanese civilians caught in the middle.

Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Beirut, Lebanon.

DEAN: Nick, thank you.

In Israel, the IDF saying it's intercepted approximately 92 percent of the ballistic missiles Iran has fired at the country since this war began. Still, just this weekend, Iranian missiles hit two southern cities, injuring dozens of people.

CNN's Jerusalem Bureau Chief Oren Liebermann has more now from Jerusalem -- Oren.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF: We have seen multiple sirens warning of incoming missiles throughout the day on Sunday as Iran has kept up waves of ballistic missile fire towards Israel. And we have seen the impacts of those on the ground. On Sunday morning in central Israel, in Tel Aviv, we saw what appears to be a cluster warhead, according to the Israeli military, with multiple reports of impacts around Tel Aviv, including one that hit in Habima Square, one of the main squares, which right underneath there is one of the main shelters in the city of Tel Aviv. A number of other impact sites reported in that area.

Meanwhile, on the northern border, there was an impact that sent two cars up in flames, one person killed inside of those cars. At first, the Israeli military said that was fire from Lebanon, but now the military examining whether that was in fact friendly fire that killed one person in that vehicle. Meanwhile, looking back at Saturday night and the overall weekend, two major strikes in southern Israel, one in the city of Dimona, where more than 30 people were injured and taken to the hospital, according to Israel's emergency response service.

And then the largest strike we have seen from a single missile in terms of casualties is in the city of Arad, also in southern Israel, where at least 84 people were taken to hospital. At least 10 in serious condition, according to Israel's emergency response service, Magen David Adom.

Israel's military in a briefing on Sunday stressed that they are intercepting more than 90 percent, 92 percent in fact of incoming ballistic missiles. But the system is not perfect, and we have seen that over and over again with missiles getting through. The military says those ballistic missiles that struck in Arad and Dimona, they had launched interceptors at those so they are investigating what happened there, that the missiles were still able to get through. [19:30:14]

Meanwhile, where is this war going? With President Donald Trump giving Iran a timeline for opening up the Strait of Hormuz, it seems there is intensification on its way, which is exactly what Israel's Defense Minister said would happen this week.

Oren Liebermann, CNN in Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: Oren, thank you.

Still to come here, travelers facing long wait times at airports all across the country. At this moment in time, the Senate doesn't seem to be making any progress on those conversations to end the partial government shutdown and fully fund DHS.

We are going to talk to Democratic Congressman Jake Auchincloss, next about that and more when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:35:25]

DEAN: Tomorrow, Americans could start seeing ICE agents deployed at airports. Questions remain, though, as to exactly the role they'll be playing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM HOMAN, BORDER CZAR: We're simply there to help TSA do their job in areas that don't need their specialized expertise, such as, you know, screening through the X-ray machine, not training that, we won't do that.

SEAN DUFFY, U.S. TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: They run those same type of security machines at the southern border, right. Packages come through or people come through they run similar assets.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: So, kind of different takes there from two different members of the administration.

We are joined now by Democratic Representative Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts. He previously served in the Marines, commanding infantry in Afghanistan and special operations in Panama.

Congressman, always good to see you. Thanks for being here tonight. I do want to start first with these airports and DHS funding. We've seen long lines at various airports across the country. The department has now been unfunded for more than a month. Obviously, these TSA agents are missing already a paycheck could be a second paycheck. Where are you in terms of what it's going to take for you to support a deal that would fund DHS? REP. JAKE AUCHINCLOSS (D-MA): Hi, Jessica. Good evening. I heard Tom Homan just say that ICE agents are going to help TSA agents do their job at these airports. I think what would help TSA agents do their job at these airports is a paycheck. If they got paid for the job that they're doing, which is why I'm a cosponsor of the bill that would fund TSA today. Let's put it on the House floor. Let's vote for it, and let's clear up these airport queues.

But just tonight, Donald Trump says that he will only fund Homeland Security and TSA if Democrats also vote for the Save Act, which is a totally unrelated piece of legislation that is about Voter I.D., and that is a solution in search of a problem. There are more shark bites every year in America than there are even alleged cases of voter I.D. fraud. And yet this President who tried to steal an election in 2020 is going to lecture the American public about what he thinks is necessary for election integrity while they're waiting in line at the airport.

DEAN: Yes, and so, let's talk about that because this is something that were just hearing. What you're talking about is something President Trump just said in an interview with News Nation that he's not going to support any deal to fund DHS until that Save Act is passed. A couple questions on that: number one, on the Save Act, the others who are for that would say to you, listen, you have to have an I.D. to rent a car. You have to have an I.D. to get on a plane. You have to have an I.D. to do all of these things. Why not just say you need an I.D. to vote? What would you say to them?

AUCHINCLOSS: What I would say to them is, before they go tinkering with state and local control of elections, which has been a bulwark for liberty and for election integrity, most noticeably, in 2020, when this President tried to steal an election, they should present actual evidence of a problem. There are about 12 to 25 alleged cases of voter fraud every single year across this entire country, across all the thousands of elections that are run. This is a made-up issue.

Let me tell you what a real issue is, what a real issue is when the President of United States calls a governor and says, find me 11,000 votes, or when he has his henchmen threaten a county clerk who is just trying to tabulate the votes that her constituents cast. That is a real problem. And Congress absolutely must address election integrity going into 2026. But we're going to do it in a way that protects secretaries of state and counties and county clerks, not in a way that feeds into his continuation of the big lie.

DEAN: And so, as you know, these things are very unrelated, except that the President is tying them together right now. So, you have that that is dealing with voting and let's put that over to the side. We know how you feel about that. What does the fact that he's tying these two together, do you think due to negotiations to try to get these TSA agents paid?

AUCHINCLOSS: It's just another episode of a President who's gotten drunk on power and is just increasingly divorced from what every day Americans care about. Everyday Americans right now, they care about the price of gasoline at the pump. They care about the fact that beef has gone up 40 percent since this President took office. They care about the fact that after promising to end military adventurism, he has bombed, I think, seven different countries in just his first year in office. They care about the fact that their friends and neighbors feel under threat from a paramilitary that is divorced from the rule of law.

And this President just has removed himself from any of these daily concerns and is sitting there sketching out his East Wing renovations and gabbing to reporters about just totally nonsensical attachments of two different pieces of legislation, fund TSA, clear up the airport use, we are ready to do it today.

[19:40:22]

DEAN: And do you think that its right? Obviously, these negotiations are happening with your Senate colleagues, your Democratic Senate colleagues, and Senate Republicans. Do you think it's right for them to continue to hold out, on what Republicans are demanding in order to get these changes to the way ICE is going about its business?

AUCHINCLOSS: Democrats are absolutely going to demand that any law enforcement officer operates in a way fitting for free people that they respect due process, that they identify themselves, that they end warrantless operations, that they prioritize deporting criminals and border security, not dragnet operations. Of course, were going to stand by those core values. We are happy, though, to continue those negotiations. Focus purely on ICE and fund TSA and the Coast Guard so that we don't have to include all these other vital agencies in what is a specific issue at hand here.

Now, not only is this President not willing to do that, he's now adding a totally separate issue of made up, you know, voter fraud concerns just in pursuit of his own ego because he still can't handle the fact that he lost in 2020.

DEAN: I want to ask you about another one of those agencies related to all of this, which is the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, CISA, which has also been impacted by this shutdown. That agency had already lost workers in DOGE cuts, now, more are furloughed. There's only an acting director who has not been Senate confirmed yet.

And were now at war with Iran, who is threatened, obviously, cyber hacks and that sort of thing. Do you worry about a major cybersecurity threat?

AUCHINCLOSS: Yes, and for our viewers, what CISA is, is it's a public agency that looks across 16 different critical areas of American infrastructure, things like water utilities and telecom, and it worked with the private sector to set standards for cybersecurity and to make these harder targets. And you know what? It works and it's bipartisan. This is not something that has ever been a political football before. DOGE came in absolutely hammered it, and now, as you said, its being left unfunded. And in my district, we've got the world cup coming up, yes, I'm worried.

DEAN: Yes, and so, what do you do, what do you do about that, that specific issue?

AUCHINCLOSS: We fund the Department of Homeland Security. We fund these agencies that are keeping Americans safe, and we restaffed them with the kind of career civil servants and experts who can bring together cybersecurity firms, municipal and state officials who run these critical infrastructure programs and establish the standards and the funding that make them much harder targets against state actors like Iran, like North Korea, and, of course, China and Russia.

DEAN: All right, Congressman Jake Auchincloss, great to see you. Thanks for your time.

AUCHINCLOSS: Good evening.

DEAN: A federal judge says the Pentagon is trampling on the constitutional rights of reporters with policies that would allow the military to pull credentials because of what was reported. What comes next in all of this? We'll discuss that, you're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:48:00]

DEAN: A federal judge has ruled against the Pentagon's restrictive press policy. Writing, in his opinion, the First Amendment, "must not be abandoned now".

The ruling, a major blow to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's effort to exert more control over the press coverage of the Pentagon. And it includes Hegseth's attempt to require reporters covering the Defense Department to sign a pledge agreeing to not obtain or use unauthorized material. Several news organizations refuse to agree, including CNN, which resulted in the Pentagon denying press credentials to reporters from those outlets.

Let's bring in CNN chief media analyst Brian Stelter, who I know has followed this story extensively. Brian, what is the administration saying about this ruling?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: Yes, there are really a handful of really important First Amendment cases that are before the courts right now relating to the Trump administration trying to crack down on press freedom and press access. This is one of those cases.

"The New York Times" brought this lawsuit back in December after, basically the entire American news media rejected the Pentagon's new restrictive rules and turned in those press passes in a kind of very rare show of solidarity last fall.

So, "The New York Times" went to court and on Friday, this judge in Washington sided with "The Times" and said that the Pentagon's restrictions are unconstitutional, that they violate the First Amendment, that they're a form of viewpoint discrimination. Pretty dramatic ruling by this judge.

A First Amendment attorney, Ted Boutrous, who represented "The Times" in court, he told me this decision was a, "powerful rejection of the Pentagon's effort to impede reporting at a time of war".

And of course, that's part of the important element here. There are so many questions about the effort in Iran, the U.S. strikes in Iran. Answers are sometimes, you know, not always forthcoming. So, this is a hopefully a ruling that is going to cause better and more frequent access for reporters at the Pentagon.

DEAN: Yes, and so, to that point, Brian, what does this -- what kind of impact does this have both for the journalists? I mean, I think you and I can appreciate -- yes.

STELTER: Well now, we're going to see in the coming days, yes.

DEAN: Yes, but like that if you can't --

STELTER: Yes, some beat reporters who turned in their press passes last October, sorry about that. It's a delay on my end; I was going to say some beat reporters who were pushed out last fall, they are now figuring out how to come back to work. In fact, I think some of them might even start trying to go back to work tomorrow morning when the workweek begins. So, they're discussing how to have their credentials reinstated. We will how successful they are and whether the Pentagon tries to fight back against this policy, you know, we did hear from Hegseth's press office on Friday night.

They said we disagree with the ruling. We're pursuing an immediate appeal. They're going to try to appeal this. So, this will continue to be picking fights with the press. And it's part of a much broader pattern of behavior we've seen from the Pentagon trying to restrict the free flow of information, trying to restrict access to the press.

But this ruling is going to give some, you know, some firepower or something like that to the press as they try to get those press passes restored. So, we'll see what happens in the coming days.

[19:50:55]

DEAN: Certainly, and the timing, of course, with the war with Iran it's so important to have journalists be able to get in there and do their jobs. Okay, I want to take a rather hard turn here from that story, but Brian, does it all when it comes to the media.

So, we're going to turn now to Friday when ABC announced they're scrapping this entire season of "The Bachelorette" after a video surfaced online showing the season's star Taylor Frankie Paul attacking and throwing objects at an ex-boyfriend.

Now, we have not independently verified the videos authenticity, but Brian, this is this is a big deal in terms of, you know, television and ABC and what it means financially. What are the impacts of this?

STELTER: This almost never happens in television. This episode, this entire season of "The Bachelorette" had already been produced. It had already been filmed. Some of the episodes produced, by the way, by Warner Brothers, which is a sister of CNN. They've been handed over to ABC. The show was in the can, it was ready to roll. It had been promoted by the network but then TMZ published this video showing Taylor Frankie Paul in an altercation with her then boyfriend, now her ex.

This altercation is hard to watch. Theres a child in the room when it happens, and within hours of this video going viral, frankly, I think ABC had no choice. ABC had very little choice but to pull the show from the network's schedule for the foreseeable future.

Now, ABC left a little wiggle room, Jessica, maybe there's a world where ABC tries to bring it back, but I don't see how that's really possible. This is a situation where ABC has to show that it's taking these of domestic violence seriously, and it's complicated. You read online; you read Taylor Frankie Paul's point of view. She says she is a victim of mental and physical abuse from her ex.

So, there's been a back and forth here. There's an ongoing criminal case. There are other allegations in both directions. But that video, you know, it's one of those cases where video changes everything. And, you know, yes, there have been allegations, there have been coverage of this. This has been a plotline on her reality show on Hulu. But once there was a video published by TMZ, ABC felt it had to pull the plug on the entire season.

So, it probably is going to cost the network tens of millions of dollars. But, you know, this was a high risk, you know, partnering with this reality star on this show. Maybe it was going to be high reward, but ultimately too risky for ABC. And really remarkable to see the network just backing away, throwing the season in the garbage can, so to speak because of this scandal.

DEAN: Yes, it is something. All right, Brian Stelter, always good to have you. Thanks so much.

STELTER: Yes.

DEAN: And don't forget to sign up for Brian's reliable sources newsletter. You can go to cnn.com/reliable for more on that.

Also, tonight on a brand-new episode of "The Whole Story" with Anderson Cooper, CNN's Pamela Brown is taking us inside one community in Texas where students don't pledge allegiance to the American flag, but to the Christian flag. Here's a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST AND CHIEF INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): A classical Christian school's religion isn't a standalone subject. It shapes every lesson from science to history through a strict and literal Biblical worldview. Each morning at this school, they even pledge allegiance to the Christian flag, not the American flag.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We want to enculturate Christian kids and when we say that, we mean deeply Christian kids, ones who think like Biblical Christians all the way down.

BROWN: So, do you teach the kids here? This is a Christian nation. This was founded as a Christian nation?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely, yes.

BROWN: Pastor Jeffereson Caleb and daughter-in-law E.J. are the headmaster and headmistress at the school where they plan to send their nine children. Kinley is also a teacher.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We want to equip students to go to higher places than we've gone to influence culture, like we want to make more Christians. We want to spread the Gospel, so as they're infiltrating into culture, they're influencing the culture to Christ.

BROWN: And so basically, it's all part of a mission to make this a Christian nation?

JEFFERSON CALEB, PASTOR: Absolutely.

Brown (voice over): For some, the choice to place your kids in public schools isn't just wrong. It can be a sin.

You think it is a sin?

[19:55:00]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I think it is because in most areas, the education is coming from the state and that was not what god intended from the beginning. They don't raise children in the fear and admonition of the Lord. If you're a Christian, what justification do you have for putting a child in a situation where they're not getting that?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: "The Whole Story" with Anderson Cooper "The Rise of Christian Nationalism" airs next. It streams tomorrow on the CNN App.

And I want to say thanks to much for joining me tonight, I'm Jessica Dean. Remember if you're here in U.S., you can now stream whenever you want on the CNN App. just go to CNN.com/watch for more. We're going to see you right back here next weekend. Have a great night everyone.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:00:00]