Return to Transcripts main page

Erin Burnett Outfront

Iran Makes New Threats Against U.S. Troops In Region; Trump Says He's Signing Order To "Immediately Pay" TSA Agents; Savannah Guthrie Speaks Out In First Interview Since Mother Vanished. Aired 7- 8p ET

Aired March 26, 2026 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:27]

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next:

Breaking news. Iran with a new threat against U.S. troops as Trump reportedly weighs new military options to seize Iranian land.

Also breaking, are TSA lines about to finally get shorter? An announcement just in that could make a major difference at airports across the country tonight.

And why did President Trump spend five minutes talking about Sharpies today? Is this what Americans want?

Let's go OUTFRONT.

(MUSIC)

BURNETT: And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.

And OUTFRONT tonight, the breaking news. Iran with a strong warning tonight against American troops threatening to target U.S. Service members who are now forced to stay in hotels and office spaces across the Middle East, in large part because Iranian strikes have caused so much damage to U.S. bases.

Well, that comes as President Trump is weighing several options that could result in heavy U.S. casualties. It's a heavy sentence to say, but that's the reality. And according to "Axios", on top of invading Kharg Island, a move that Trump, of course, we've pointed out, has talked about since 1988, the Pentagon is also drawing up scenarios that involve military action on several other Iranian islands. Those islands key to Iran's oil production, as well as control over the Strait of Hormuz itself. And President Trump tonight is still ramping up the rhetoric against Iran

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: With their worst nightmare. In the meantime, well just keep blowing them away unimpeded, unstopped.

(END VIDEO CLIP) MATTINGLY: Blowing them away as the sort of words we've heard again and again from the commander in chief and his defense secretary, Pete Hegseth.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I had to do a little stopover in Iran, and we had to knock the hell out of them.

PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: We negotiate with bombs.

TRUMP: We just keep bombing our little hearts out.

HEGSETH: It takes money to kill bad guys.

Death and destruction from the sky all day long.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: That's what the world hears again and again, day after day, from both of them. And that tough talk comes as Fox News asked President Trump something surprising but interesting. They asked whether the new supreme leader of Iran is gay.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JESSE WATTERS, FOX NEWS HOST: Did the CIA tell you that ayatollah junior's gay?

TRUMP: Well, they did say that, but I don't know. It was only them. I think a lot of people are saying that, which puts them off to a bad start in that particular country, you know?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Now, if the CIA really told him that and if it's true, it would be significant. The fact that he's saying it is significant is the president of the United States, because he is saying this, knowing that homosexuality is illegal in Iran. And according to Amnesty International, the punishment for being gay ranges from flogging all the way up to execution. So, to say that the supreme leader would possibly be that delegitimized and possibly someone who could be executed is something Trump knew he was saying in that interview.

It also comes, though, as he's actually backtracking on another threat to Iran, writing on Truth Social, "As per Iranian government requests, please let this statement serve to represent that I am pausing the period of energy plant destruction by 10 days to Monday, April 6th, 2026 at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. Talks are ongoing now."

This is a remarkable statement because it raises the question of why is he doing this? Why is he delaying this now? Now, you know, he's put out a deadline. It was 48 hours, then it was five days. And we're used to this, okay?

But did he really put this out? Because talks are ongoing and that's why the delay. Or is it because Trump is trying to buy time before striking Iran because thousands of American troops are still on their way to the region, and they're not going to be there in time for his first deadline, which is tomorrow. Actually, it's the second deadline. So, by another week, is that it?

Or is Trump just trying to manipulate the markets? Today, the Nasdaq ended down more than two percent, which put it into a formal correction territory because of the war. And Deutsche Bank actually even has a model now that they say helps predict when Trump is going to change his mind or, quote/unquote, TACO. The Trump always chickens out term that's been made popular by Wall Street traders.

It's basically a pressure index. The higher it goes, the more pressure on Trump from a variety of things like inflation and markets, the higher the chance Trump will reverse course. They said, you know, it was a record level coming into today.

And then, well, guess what? So, you saw the tariff delay when he said he wouldn't fire Jerome Powell, not using force in Greenland. You can see the chart call it every single time now higher than ever during the war. And somehow suddenly a delay, a delay of another ten days, perhaps.

Jim Sciutto is OUTFRONT, live from Tel Aviv to begin our coverage tonight.

And, Jim, you know, Trump saying he's delaying this comes as attacks themselves are actually ramping up tonight.

[19:05:03]

What are you seeing?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: So, Erin, I'm going to focus on what we can see, right? What we're witnessing. What we witnessed today was the busiest day of Iranian strikes on Israel. Just by counting the number of air raid warnings and the number of times we and other residents of Tel Aviv had to go into those shelters, it was a very active day, which shows you that Iran maintains the capability to strike out, and not just in the Gulf, but against Israel.

Now, most of those, the vast majority of those missiles, incoming missiles get taken down, but some of them get through and they have caused damage and injuries on the ground here. So, it maintains that capability. I will say that Israeli officials believe that Iran is weaker than it's letting on, and therefore more open to talking than it might be letting on in some of those more hyperbolic statements and threats it's making.

However, on the key issues that currently divide the U.S. and Iran, its nuclear program, support for regional proxies such as Hezbollah, but also Iranian control of the Strait of Hormuz, there is no evidence, at least that Israeli officials have seen, and I haven't heard any evidence from U.S. officials that Iran is willing to deal on those issues at this point. So you're left with a scenario where perhaps the most attainable goal

in the near term, if the talks work out, is a ceasefire. But much like we saw in the Gaza war, getting a ceasefire is one thing, and it's significant, but it does not address the longer term issues because those are the tougher ones to negotiate and compromise on for both sides.

BURNETT: Right. All right. Jim Sciutto, thank you very much.

And everyone is back here with me now.

Colonel Leighton, let me start with you.

We know the U.S. is weighing in Kharg Island. We've all talked about that. "Axios" is now reporting specifically on some other possible invasions. And I know Seth had spent time talking about two other islands closer to the Strait of Hormuz and also seizing the Iranian ships that are carrying Iranian oil, even as they've taken away the sanctions that would allow Iran to sell that oil. But you know, being contradictory doesn't stop them.

Does it sound to you that were on the verge of a potentially dramatic escalation?

CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: It does, Erin. Now, it doesn't mean that it's going to happen, but the likelihood is has increased that it will happen. And what we're looking at is the increase in the force posture by the U.S. forces.

The fact that not only do we have about 50,000 troops in the region right now, but we are also getting more -- we're getting more airplanes, more air force squadrons are coming in, fighter squadrons are coming in. We have, of course, the two MEUs that are. One is basically there already, and the other one is approaching. And then you also have, of course, the 82nd Airborne.

So, all of those elements are critical elements for Americas firepower in general. And they don't make deployments like this just to have an exercise. This is a demonstration of force that could easily be used for actual combat operations.

BURNETT: And every time so far that Trump has done that in this in this situation, frankly, even with Venezuela, he's used it. I mean, you know, it doesn't mean it's going to happen. But that's the trend.

Seth, when we talk about Abu Musa and two other smaller islands, you had talked about those. "Axios" is now reporting that he is indeed looking at those. And you had already said that was possibly, a very likely option because they're in the street as opposed to hundreds of miles north of the strait, which is where Kharg Island lies. So, if Abu Musa is the target, then what does that look like?

SETH JONES, PRESIDENT, DEFENSE & SECURITY DEPARTMENT, CENTER FOR STRATEGIC & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: Well, I think, Erin, we've already seen partially what it looks like because what we've seen is U.S. aircraft striking a range of different targets on Abu Musa, on several of those islands there.

What that -- what that means is they're trying to target any air defense systems on their stockpiles of weapons, any bunkers, communications centers, where if they do end up landing forces there, they're trying to limit the resistance that that has faced. One thing that we have not seen a lot of is the bombing of those, of airstrips in case they wanted to land aircraft --

BURNETT: I mentioned those runways.

JONES: -- C-130 or C-17. So that all suggests the possibility of amphibious landings to seize those islands, which could be used both for defensive purposes if there were incoming strikes to target the any transits of the strait of Hormuz and offensive operations into Iran itself for strikes.

BURNETT: And I know that, Colonel Leighton, you said that the amount of warning time that troops on those islands would have from a missile from Iran could be as little as 10 seconds.

LEIGHTON: That's right, depending on where the missile is and what type of missile.

BURNETT: Which makes which, which fits with what we're hearing. The Pentagon is saying that the scenarios they're looking at involve a very high level of potential casualties. Sobering moment, especially given some of the childish rhetoric that gets thrown around, right? We're talking about human lives.

Richard, as this as -- all of this is happening, Trump, you know, put this this technical delay out. I thought the Deutsche Bank graph was pretty incredible. Every time the pressure on Trump has gone up, however, that is measured by markets.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS EDITOR-AT-LARGE: Yeah.

BURNETT: Or, you know, and now the highest it's ever been, he has pulled what markets call a TACO, which is what he did tonight with that, oh guess what? I won't do this for another 10 days. Markets immediately reacted.

QUEST: Yes, they did. And it's interesting that the Nasdaq when it closed down tonight the Nasdaq closed down two percent and it took it into correction territory, down 10 percent from its recent all-time high. What that means, of course, is within minutes of the closing bell, the president you see on the screen, within minutes of that, the president announced this this delay until April the 7th. The futures go up and everything starts to reverse.

Now, whether you call it TACO or you call it the DB pressure index, whether you call it some form of joy.

BURNETT: I'm sure many people want to call it the DB pressure.

QUEST: That's never far from my breakfast reading. But whatever you call it, you cannot, cannot ignore this correlation between -- and it's happened several times this week between bad economic news, market pressure. Presidents statement market reverses. What's interesting is that those reversals don't last because the underlying fundamentals haven't changed.

If you say we're talking and there's no results two days later, whoops. Off it goes. The table. If you say there's progress and there is none visible, the reversal once again. You can only draw the market for so long.

BURNETT: Right, right. And that -- and that's obviously separate from the incredibly suspicious, to use a generous term, trades that we've seen ahead of when he puts these statements out.

QUEST: I don't know what you're talking about.

BURNETT: Colonel Leighton, commander of Iran's IR -- the IRGC was killed. Okay, the navy, in an Israeli operation. Now, I will just put this in the context of Trump has said what? Since the second or third day of the war, that the Iranian navy was obliterated, and then there keeps being more obliteration. Okay? There keeps being -- so I'm asking you the context of how important this individual is because we're talking about island invasions, which means there is still some sort of a navy pressure that they're looking at.

So, does this ex -- elimination matter?

LEIGHTON: It does. And the reason it matters is because whenever there's a leadership vacuum that causes disorganization within the defending forces, especially in a case like this, and that particular leader of the navy, the IRGC navy commander, was critically important to their presence in the southern part of Iran and in that area around the Strait of Hormuz.

The other thing that they did was they also killed -- the Israelis also killed the head of navy intelligence, IRGC navy intelligence. So now you have basically what you have is the brain, and the eyes and ears have all been eliminated at this point.

BURNETT: So, Seth, I mean, how do you see this now? Do you look at it as you can look at a sheet of paper and its getting really tiny with all the paces, places with X's on them, and say they're finally getting to a low enough level that it's really going to affect the command and control, or is it literally like a whack a mole? Okay, this guy was important, and I know he had a long history. Hed been involved in blocking the street, but there's going to be another one right there because it's a very deep bench in the IRGC.

JONES: Yeah. I mean, I think there's a little bit of Iran -- if people remember the Monty Python skit of the black knight that it's got -- it's several of its limbs chopped off, but it still keeps saying --

BURNETT: It's got no legs.

JONES: 'tis but a scratch. The Iranian military has been severely degraded. It's had a range of

its leadership killed a lot of people in hiding. Missile program is severely degraded. Same thing with the drones. Even the navy is degraded.

I don't like to use the term eliminated or --

BURNETT: Obliterated.

JONES: But I think the reality though, is if the U.S. does try to open up the straits, it just takes a couple of shots from an anti-ship cruise missile. You need one or a couple of them just to get through, and you have a littoral combat ship.

By the way, we still don't have two of those littoral combat ships that are in Singapore for maintenance. It's going to take about four to eight days to get them back. So we're still waiting. Trump still needs those two to demine that area.

BURNETT: Fits with his -- which fits with his time. By the way, the Monty Python it was no arms, and no legs. I was wrong, I was wrong.

But, Richard, this other point also is that, you know, I know ships that are still stuck there, right? Nobody's -- what is -- what is even opening the strait at this point, the bar for opening it. The people are actually going to feel comfortable going through it.

QUEST: That's -- first of all, there are 20,000 seafarers who are on ships that have been there for a month, and they are running out of fuel. They're running out of food. And the conditions are dreadful. To your point, let's just say you're the CEO of Maersk, Vincent Clerc, and you're told it's now open. Hang on. You're going to want more than just the president saying it's open.

He said to me, you know, I need -- I need to know it's safe. I need to know it's open.

On this question for the -- for the U.S. and Israel to continue bombing the bejeebies out of Iran is not -- it's a -- it's moves you forward to a certain extent, but it's not a great military success in a sense, with the might of the U.S. military. It's vast.

All Iran has to do is just to keep threatening the shipping to the point where Clerc and others say, we're not going through.

BURNETT: Which is where they obviously are now. They're not.

QUEST: Would you?

BURNETT: No. No. Who would know? No.

LEIGHTON: None of us would.

BURNETT: All right. Thank you all very much.

And next, our breaking news continues. We just talked about Larak Island or Larak Island, and how it's a place that Trump is considering sending American troops. We're going to break down the island's terrain. And why putting troops there would be so incredibly risky. Why this casualty warning coming from the Pentagon.

And breaking news, Trump now directing TSA agents be paid immediately, which could mean travelers who have been spending hours in line could get relief soon.

And Savannah Guthrie tonight revealing new details tonight about the night her mother vanished.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, let's set for the B block. Gets her clear. Let's move the colonel and Erin to the magic wall. Break one and four. Standby, break master in three, two. Effect. Roll your break, please.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:20:40]

BURNETT: Breaking news Trump reportedly considering an invasion of Larak Island, which lies in the narrowest part of the Strait of Hormuz and is key to Iran's control of the strait, part of the area that's now called Tehran's toll booth. The island is 49 square miles, very small, but it does host bunkers, attack craft that can blow up cargo ships and radar technology that tracks activity in the strait, all of this Iranian military.

Colonel Cedric Leighton is back with us at the magic wall.

So, Colonel Leighton, you know, we've talked a lot about Kharg. You know, I know Seth talked about Abu Musa, but Larak is also important. We've got it highlighted here.

What would an invasion of Larak look like, especially in the context of what you know is already in the region and what Trump has coming in?

QUEST: Yeah, absolutely. Erin. So just to orient people right here, this is where Larak is, right here at the at the mouth, basically of the Strait of Hormuz if you're coming out this way. Abu Musa is here and Kharg Island is right up here in the northern part of the Gulf. So, when you look at Larak, specifically, it is right in this area, right here where they have a -- in the area right here. That way you could really cut off anything that's going through the strait.

So, this is a critical military target or at least potentially a critical military target. And one of the key things is how would you actually go about doing this?

Well, you would bring in the marine expeditionary units. This is the kind of thing that they do. They can invade using their marine infantry to go across the beach. They have armor that they probably wouldn't use, but they might use helicopters to fast rope into an area. And they would also be able to use some of their other things, such as the ospreys, for example, that it can be both helicopter like, as in this phase or airplane like. So it's a very versatile platform.

And then, of course, you have combat vehicles that they can actually send in. These are amphibious vehicles that can actually hit the beaches and disgorge marines. So that becomes a critical thing because when you look at Larak, it is a basic rock in the middle of the desert, and it does the kinds of things that you would -- you would be able to see in these areas.

This area here would be the defended area that you spoke about -- spoke about.

BURNETT: Yeah.

LEIGHTON: That has all the radar installations. It's also very mountainous. This might be an area that they could consider for invasion, but their roads and other things here. So, there are several different targets that could potentially be beachheads. But it is a difficult place to invade at this point.

BURNETT: Yeah. I mean, and obviously that is where some of those casualties come in. I mean, the potential casualties, the risk here when you talk about the mountainous area and the -- so it's small, but there's a lot there.

LEIGHTON: Absolutely. There's a lot there. And of course, if they hold the high ground until it's bombed, that could give them a field of fire that could control approaches like at this beach right here or even in the southern areas.

So, it's a very critical element here that has to be decided, and there has to be a lot of fusion of different forces, air power, along with infantry, along with other elements of power.

BURNETT: So, Iran has been threatening now new threats against U.S. troops who are not staying on U.S. bases. Okay? And that might seem a bit confusing, but there's a reason for that.

Some of it, as CNN's reported, some of those troops were moved off the bases before the war even began. But "The New York Times" is reporting that even more troops were moved off the bases because the bases have been hit and there has been meaningful damage.

How much damage is Iran causing to the U.S. bases in the region?

BURNETT: So, this is pretty significant. These are the bases as we know them right now. And these are the bases that were actually struck by the Iranians. So that includes everything from al-Dhafra Air Base in the UAE, Al-Udeid in Qatar, prince sultan air base, where we did have a casualty, a death in near Riyadh. And I've been stationed there.

And then, of course, at Sheba, where we had the mass casualty event with the army national guard soldiers. So, this is a critical element right here. And of course, they also ended up attacking, the, the area in Bahrain. So, this is the Port Shuaiba strike. And what that really shows is that when you look at this area, this

shows the vulnerability of each one of these. This is the Bahrain strike where they knocked out a communications element here. And so, these bases are particularly vulnerable because each of them have a unique mission set. And what they ended up doing was move a lot of personnel into office buildings, into other areas, even into hotels.

[19:25:05]

And now what they're doing is they're actually telling people in Iran and in this region right here, they're actually telling them to target Americans in those hotels, in those office spaces. So, it's become dangerous in that way as well.

BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Colonel Leighton.

And next, breaking news, President Trump now ordering the DHS to immediately start paying TSA agents a move to reduce those horribly long lines at airports.

Plus, why did President Trump spend nearly five minutes today talking about sharpies? Well, America is at war.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: Breaking news, the massive TSA lines across the country could be on the verge of finally getting shorter again.

[19:30:05]

President Trump just announcing he's signing an order to, immediately pay TSA agents. Now, it's unclear how the administration would get the money to make those payments. Obviously, given the stalemate in Congress. But it comes as TSA wait times have been growing and, frankly, unacceptable at airports amid the funding fight in Congress.

Houston's Bush International is currently 3.5 hours. So, is that about to soon improve?

Kristen Holmes is OUTFRONT at the White House.

So, Kristen, you know, signing up, you know, saying he's going to pay them and then actually having the mechanism to do it when Congress hasn't passed anything. How does that work? What are you learning?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, I mean, that's the big question here. And what we're trying to get to the bottom of with the White House. And also, if he had this authority the entire time, why hadn't he done it sooner?

I mean, these agents have gone more than a month without a full paycheck. As you noted, these lines are long. They're song in particular because we know hundreds of these TSA workers have just quit because they're not getting paid and hundreds more, thousands more have called out sick because they are not going to work for no pay. So, we're trying to get to the bottom of this is how he's actually

going to pay for this. Where is the funding coming from? Now we've seen this administration before in the past.

Go to the Office of Management and Budget and kind of try to work around different pots of money, move money from here to there. We don't know if that's what they're doing this time. We've just seen that happen in the past.

But there's also another hurdle here. It's not just where the money is coming from, which, of course, is a big one. It's the legal authority that President Trump has to do this. I mean, let's look back at the last decade of government shutdowns. There's a reason that a president just didn't sign an executive order to end the government shutdown. It had to be worked through legally in Congress.

So, this idea that he can do this, there's just a lot of questions around it and what it would mean for these agents to actually get that paycheck. Again, they are thousands of agents who have gone more than a month without a full paycheck. When will they actually see that money? That's going to be a big question. They want to know as they are determining whether or not they're going to go to work the next day.

BURNETT: Right? Yeah. I mean, even things like if you have a direct deposit, right, the mechanism of getting the money from one place to another there, you know, it's not an insignificant part of this conversation.

Kristen, thank you very much.

And also tonight, President Trump held a nearly two-hour cabinet meeting. And in this meeting, administration officials were offering work updates. And then, of course, the usual flattery that we see at these cabinet meetings.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCO RUBIO, SECRETARY OF STATE: The president's not just doing a favor to the United States and to our people. This is for the world.

STEVE WITKOFF, SPECIAL ENVOY: It is my distinct honor to be a member of your cabinet.

PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: Thank you for doing the work of the free world.

DOUG BURGUM, INTERIOR SECRETARY: Back on Venezuela, where Chris and I have both had a chance to be there, I literally think they're going to put up a statue to President Trump, and I'm not being -- it's not a political statement. It's an actual thing.

TRUMP: I think -- that would be a great honor.

BURGUM: No, that flows to American refineries on the gulf coast, lowering the price of gas in America. So, it's easy -- TRUMP : Forget that. When are they going to do the statue?

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: OUTFRONT now, Patrick Murphy, former undersecretary of the army under President Obama and a former Democratic congressman, and former Republican strategist, now podcast and television host. S. E. Cupp.

All right, so the exchange there between Doug Burgum of the interior and the president. So, they talk about the statue, and then Burgum's going on to talk about lowering energy prices.

S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: But don't talk about that. Stop.

BURNETT: But he says, forget that. When are they going to do the statue

CUPP: Listen, the truth is most voters are not watching these insane cabinet meetings.

BURNETT: No.

CUPP: We have the pleasure of having to do that and they are insane. And if you watch them, that's one, one of several moments that are just kind of nutso. If you watch them, you have to seriously question Trump's stability. Okay?

But what is trickling down in all of this to voters on the ground is the feeling that Trump is not paying attention to what matters to voters at home, to the issues that got him elected, him dismissing Doug Burgum about energy costs is like the perfect metaphor. Hed rather talk about the statue, the ballroom, the monument invading Greenland, all this nonsense rather than the things that got Trump elected in the first place -- the economy, crime.

I mean, it's -- I think this is what voters are noticing, not the minutia, not these little moments.

BURNETT: Not the exchange between Doug Burgum or, by the way, he's specifically talking about the price of gas, which has gone up a dollar.

CUPP: That's important to voters.

BURNETT: Since the war began.

CUPP: Yeah.

BURNETT: You know, so, Patrick, in this context, the flattery, right, and how important it is, okay, to Trump. The golden eagle that we're going to show you now is the America First Award. Okay? The America First Award is a new award. There's a golden eagle, and it is one created by house speaker mike Johnson. He created it and he gave it to Trump at a fundraiser last night. And he talked about it.

Here is the speaker of the United States House of Representatives.

[19:35:01]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: But he is the suitable and fitting recipient of the first ever America First Award. We can think of no better title for what that is. That's just beautiful golden statue here. Appropriate for the new golden era in America

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: I mean, he's willing to go up and do that no matter. I mean, he's okay with that.

PATRICK MURPHY, FORMER U.S. CONGRESSMAN: It's like a participation trophy to a commander in chief as if he needs another one. I tell you, Erin, you know, I taught constitutional law at West Point and in our Constitution, it talks about a co-equal branch of government. The speaker of the house is one of the congressional leaders of a co-equal branch of government. It's beneath that office, the kiss ass.

You know, these members of Congress, if they were in the military like I was in Iraq, I would court martial their asses. That's how embarrassed I am of the Congress of the United States right now. It's up to Congress to declare where were sending thousands of our young men and women to Iran and Iran. War. My old unit, the 82nd airborne division, U.S. marines.

BURNETT: Yep.

MURPHY: And they want to give a participation trophy to the president. This isn't a joke.

CUPP: This is the cost of being in Trump's orbit. Pam Bondi unfurled a banner at DOJ with Trump's face on it to suck up to him. Ric Grenell put Trump's name on the Kennedy Center to suck up to him. He's now gone.

I mean, it's really humiliating. The groveling, the flattery, the North Korea coded kind of attitude you have to have in this White House and news breaking today, he's going to put his name on our money. I mean, this is just humiliating for a great nation like ours.

I just think we are looking increasingly like a North Korea, you know, like a hermit nation where you just have to tell the president what he wants to hear. I hear they're showing him videos of things blowing up in Iran. Like that's his security briefing. It's insane. It's insane. It could get people killed. But just at the basic level, this is not America as we know. MURPHY: It has gotten people killed. There's thousands killed in Iran.

BURNETT: And what about celebratory nature to look at that? To look at images like that in a celebratory way?

MURPHY: I mean, it's beneath the office, Erin. I mean, it really is. I mean, these men and women, we have 2.5 million active troops in our military. They take a blood oath to support and defend the Constitution. United States, they are willing to put their lives on the line, their families, those 2.5 million American families are praying every night, going to bed, hoping their sons and daughters are going to be okay.

And I have these jokers giving out fake trophies that are laughing about videos like it's a video game. This is life and death. This is as serious as a heart attack. And these guys think it's a joke.

BURNETT: You know, that during the cabinet meeting when you say this, I will just say Trump spent separate from the flattery. Four minutes and 56 seconds, S.E., talking about sharpies. Yeah, okay, four minutes and 56 seconds. I'm not going to play all of it, but I want to play enough just so that people who don't have to watch this for a living can see what that feels like in this moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: This pen is very inexpensive, but it writes well. I like it, what it is. I don't want to give too much publicity, but they do treat me well, Sharpie.

So, I came here. They have $1,000 pens. And you know, I said I'd like to use your pen, but I can't have a gray thing with a big S on it. , saying Sharpie.

As I'm saying, you do. He said, I'll paint it black. I said, that's nice, and I can even paint the White House on it, sir, if you like, in gold almost real. You like to pay. I said, how about five bucks a pen? I said -- I said, that's all right. Whatever the hell we agreed to.

Peanuts as opposed to $5 could be zero, but for $5 I get a much better pen than for $1,000. And I can hand them out. And actually, they become hot as a pistol.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUPP: This is like an episode of Curb -- Curb Your enthusiasm or something, but it's not. That's the president in a cabinet meeting that's being sent out to the world, and we're supposed to be projecting strength in this moment. He hasn't even told the American public why were in Iran, when we're going to get out, what to expect. He hasn't conditioned us to know what's about to happen. And he's rambling for four minutes about sharpies. It's embarrassing.

BURNETT: Four minutes and 56 seconds, to be exact, Patrick. MURPHY: Yeah. And it just -- I mean, it's more than embarrassing.

It's infuriating, you know, for those of us who wear the cloth of our country. And, you know, S.E. is a Republican, I'm a Democrat. This is an American issue of saying, are you really going to spend five minutes talking about a damn pen? And by the way, lying about the fact that it costs $1,000? I mean, it just --

[19:40:03]

CUPP: But you know this, he doesn't know how to talk about war because he's never been in a war. He's never sent a son to war. I'm not sure he's read a book about war. He doesn't know how to talk about war the way you would want your commander in chief to talk about war. So, he has to talk about Sharpie.

MURPHY: And, S.E., that's the most solemn duty of our president.

CUPP: Yeah.

MURPHY: Whether or not we're going to send men and women in harm's way. And it's the most solemn duty by way of Congress to authorize that war. And they've been missing in action the whole time, kowtowing.

BURNETT: All right. Thank you both very much.

And President Trump has repeatedly blamed Pete Hegseth for the now 27- day war. So, what does this say about Trump and the way he is leading? Presidential historian Jon Meacham is next.

And Savannah Guthrie tonight revealing details about the night her mother vanished.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:45:06]

BURNETT: Breaking news. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth saying the United States does not negotiate. It drops bombs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HEGSETH: As I said yesterday, the department of war will continue negotiating with bombs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Hegseth's big talk comes as President Trump has repeatedly now this week blamed Hegseth for the war with Iran.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Pete, I think you were the first one to speak up and you said, let's do it because you can't let them have a nuclear weapon.

I said, Pete and General Razin Caine, I think this thing's going to be settled very soon. Here they go. Oh, that's too bad. Pete didn't want it to be settled.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: OUTFRONT now, Pulitzer Prize winning biographer and presidential historian Jon Meacham. He is the author of the new book "American Struggle: Democracy, Dissent and The Pursuit of a More Perfect Union".

Now, Jon, you have studied leadership in war of every American commander in chief, and you hear Trump this week, you know, appearing to shift the blame or, you know, put Hegseth on the line for the war, of course, was Harry Truman, right? Who said the buck stops here? Is that no longer the case?

JON MEACHAM, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Right, the buck stops where President Trump wants it to at a given moment. You know, we're seeing this monarchical moment, which is interesting given that he's making sure that if things go poorly, he's built an off ramp, if you will.

You know, "The Federalist Papers" told us that one of the points of the constitution was that ambition is supposed to be made to counteract ambition. That that's the reason we have divided sovereignty. That's why we have checks and balances, because no single person, no single party, no single institution can be trusted with absolute power.

And I think we're living through a profound test of whether that 18th century idea with roots all the way back to the ancient world, is going to be dispositive for us in the 21st century.

BURNETT: Well, monarchical moment that that that's going to stick with me.

So, you write in your book, your new book about the polarized state of American politics right now. And, Jon, in part, you say many on the right seek to see America as perfect. Many on the left argue that the national experiment is fundamentally flawed, and your words, Jon, made me think of Admiral William McRaven, right? He led the Navy SEALs during his career. He oversaw the mission that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden.

And then he wrote an open letter to Trump during Trump's first term. That is now getting a whole lot more attention again now. It's a lot of people have been talking about it this week, McRaven said Trump is, quote, "embarrassed us in the eyes of our children, humiliated us on the world stage, and worst of all, divided us as a nation."

And it's just a very, very powerful and poignant thing to come from him as we are sitting in this moment of a -- of a new war.

Jon, as you look through history, can America recover from? And that was the first term that he wrote that end of Trump's in Trump's first term. Can America recover from this now era of division?

MEACHAM: I think so. It doesn't mean it's automatic. The question we're going to face is, are we living in the age of Trump, which we have been. Historians will be compelled to call this era that. Arguably, this is much more the age of Trump than the age of Jackson or the age of Roosevelt, which are common terms at least in 20th century history to look back.

Since 2015, all of our politics and much of our culture has either been defined by unilateral action on the part of a single person or the reaction to it. The question about recovery, the question about restoration. And I worry sometimes about the restoration language because that suggests that somehow we had this Brigadoon-like perfect world, in 2014 that's been taken away. That's not true.

But there were norms. There were political, you know -- you and I have done this a long time. There was political gravity that actually laws of gravity applied. And President Trump has successfully repealed those.

Question is, is this the age of Trump? In which case in 2029, presumably, the country gets to shift, the temperature or is it the age of Trumpism? And will the tone, the again, the monarchical features that he has made now part of our daily lives, will those be more or less permanent or are they unique to him?

[19:50:00]

And we just don't know the answer to that. But I think so much of the next generation of our politics and our culture hangs on that question.

BURNETT: You lay out in the book how candidates frame every election as an existential battle, not just a choice. And we've all experienced that in our lives. But now here we are at a midterm election that is being framed that way in an era that is profoundly unique in its own way. Is it true this year?

MEACHAM: Well, here's what's true. Many things are true, but for our purposes -- I think the vital question is the truly unique virus that President Trump introduced into the body politic is a particularly virulent one, and it is that if an election doesn't go the way you want, it wasn't legitimate. It must have been stolen. It must have been rigged.

That's a unique contribution, if you will, to the American political vernacular. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams didn't do it. Andrew Jackson didn't do it in 1824. Richard Nixon didn't do it in 1960s. Hubert Humphrey didn't do it in 1968. Vice President Gore didn't do it in 2000.

We just -- we tended to respect the results of elections. What happened in 2020 sets that existential question for us right now. If it's -- if something if the Republicans were to hold on to if the MAGA Republicans were to hold on to the Congress, there is the possibility that more work would be done to undermine those full, free and fair elections. And I think that is a vital thing that should be super bipartisan.

If you're a Democrat or if you're a Republican, you should care about that.

BURNETT: And hopefully they do. No matter where people sit on this.

Thank you so much, John. It's wonderful to see you.

MEACHAM: Thanks.

BURNETT: Jon Meacham's new book, as I said, "The American Struggle: Democracy, Dissent and the Pursuit of A More Perfect Union".

And next, Savannah Guthrie revealing disturbing details surrounding her mother's abduction.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:56:32]

BURNETT: Tonight, Savannah Guthrie revealing new details surrounding her mother's abduction. Guthrie saying the back door of Nancy Guthrie's home was found propped open after she went missing, and Brian Stelter is OUTFRONT with more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SAVANNAH GUTHRIE, "TODAY SHOW" HOST: We are in agony. It is unbearable.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST (voice-over): In her first interview since her mother went missing nearly eight weeks ago, Savannah Guthrie describes the pain she has felt, replaying the apparent kidnaping in her mind.

GUTHRIE: I wake up every night in the middle of the night, every night, and in the darkness. I imagine her terror.

STELTER (voice-over): Guthrie telling her friend and colleague Hoda Kotb about the guilt she has endured. Believing her 84-year-old mother, Nancy, was probably targeted because of her fame.

GUTHRIE: She said I think she's been kidnapped for ransom and I said --

HODA KOTB, "TODAY SHOW" HOST: Yeah.

GUTHRIE: -- what? I didn't want to believe, I just said, do you think because of me? And he said, I'm sorry, sweetie, but yeah, maybe.

We don't know. But yeah, that's probably, which is too much to bear to think that I brought this to her bedside, that it's because of me. And I just say, I'm so sorry, mommy. I'm so sorry.

STELTER (voice-over): Guthrie sharing new details about the condition of her mom's house on February 1st, specifically the back door.

GUTHRIE: The doors were open.

KOTB: Yeah.

GUTHRIE: And there was blood on the front doorstep, and the Ring camera had been yanked off.

KOTB: Yeah.

GUTHRIE: And so we were saying, this is --

KOTB: Do something.

GUTHRIE: This is not okay.

STELTER (voice-over): The next day, Nancy's disappearance became national news, and Guthrie says the family began receiving numerous ransom demands.

GUTHRIE: I believe the two notes that we received, that we responded to. I tend to believe those are real.

STELTER (voice-over): When investigators discovered footage of a suspect at the front door.

GUTHRIE: It's just totally terrifying. And I can't imagine that that is who she saw standing over her bed. Yeah, I can't.

STELTER (voice-over): And Guthrie says she is leaning on her faith.

GUTHRIE: One of the very few times in my life, I did hear God speak to me. As I said to myself, I can handle anything, God, I can handle anything. I just can't handle not knowing. And I heard a voice and it said you do know where she is. She's with me. She's with me.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

STELTER: And tomorrow, in part two of the interview, Savannah talks about why she wants to return to work, why she wants to be back at "The Today Show". I'm told she'll return sometime in early April, and she'll make that official tomorrow. But whatever she does, however she moves on. I think people are going to want to watch and see.

How is she able to return to something resembling normal when there's no such thing for her or for her family, not just today or tomorrow, but for the foreseeable future?

BURNETT: There was a before and there's an after, and there's still no what was that between.

STELTER: Yeah.

BURNETT: Brian, thank you.

And thanks so much to all of you for being with us.

"AC360" starts now.