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The Situation Room

Veterans Raise Concerns About V.A. Cuts; Israel Resumes Deadly Strikes on Gaza; Trump and Putin to Speak this Morning. Aired 10:30- 11a ET

Aired March 18, 2025 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: The federal workforce is reeling from massive cuts to government agencies, and this is having a real-life human impact. Among those impacted are, of course, the nation's veterans. The Trump administration says the goal is to terminate about 80,000 employees from the V.A. Department.

Last night, Democratic Senator Tim Kaine held a town hall in Virginia for veterans concerned over what these firings mean for them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEAN SPENCE, ARMY VETERAN: I must say that my experience with the V.A., I'm a disabled veteran, obviously, has been fantastic. Yes, getting in is hard. Some of the wait times are not good. But I've had nothing but great things at the D.C. V.A. I've gone to. I have a primary care doctor. I love the doctor. I love all of the clinicians. I've been very upset if I lose these clinical people.

SEN. TIM KAINE (D-VA): If you tell veterans, we're going to fire up to another 80,000 people who work for the V.A., you're telling them that it's already hard to get care, now it's going to be much harder.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: So, you have the concern about cuts at the V.A., and then, you know, what about those veterans who work for the federal government who are impacted by these government cuts?

I want to go now to Terry Wright (ph), who is -- sorry, Terry Uniter, who is an Army veteran dealing with the fallout of these government cuts firsthand. He is now in limbo, essentially, with his family. So, Terry, thank you for coming on. So, walk us through what has happened to you. You were all set to do this job in Japan. You sent over all your belongings. And then, what happened?

TERRY UNITER, RETIRED ARMY VETERAN, NEW JOB PUT ON HOLD DUE TO GOVERNMENT CUTS AND FORMER DIPLOMAT: So, thank you for having me on your show. So, I'm third generation Army. I retired and I was working as a contractor. And I thought that this international relations job in Japan was important enough that I was willing to take a $60,000-pay cut to go over there. I verified three times with, you know, United States Forces, Japan and the hiring people, OPM, hey, am I good to proceed to station? And I was told, hey, you're good to go. And then, at the last moment, 24 hours before flying to Japan, they told me, hey, that exemption that we thought that you had, it's not good.

And to make it worse, 12 hours before flying, they contacted me again to say, well, actually, we had our wires crossed, you're good to proceed. And then, five hours before flying, they were like, hey, remember what we just told you like a few hours ago? We're sorry. Actually, you're still not good to come.

BROWN: What?

UNITER: Yes. So, like all my stuff is on a boat right now going to Japan. I was fortunate enough to get my car back. It was about to be loaded on the boat at the vehicle processing center. But I was like, hey, I don't know when I'm going over to Japan. Can I please have it back?

BROWN: You sent all your stuff over, you got your car back, but you also have a son who you pulled out of school, right?

[10:35:00]

UNITER: I pulled him out of school. I put my home up for sale -- not for sale, for rent. So, we're basically sleeping on the floor right now.

BROWN: You mean out of a suitcase?

UNITER: Yes. But in the midst of all of this, I will say to command in Japan has done everything from the commander all the way on down. Lieutenant General Jost has been advocating with the Pentagon for me personally to try to get me an exemption to the hiring freeze, and which it just did come through, but in lieu of everything else going on, I do not think I'll be accepting the position.

BROWN: So, finally that exemption that you were supposed to have, you said it just came through after you've been sleeping on the floor in limbo, but you're not going to take the job?

UNITER: So, In the midst of all of this, there's one person I've been very, like, extremely disappointed with, and that's my congressman, Andy Harris. I called up his office, and he told me what he wanted me to do about it. It's too early for me to intervene.

BROWN: He told you that directly or his staff?

UNITER: His staff did, but like, there's protests going in Maryland because evidently, they're -- everybody's getting the same answer from his office. Hey, you know, like, I was told, what can we do for you? There's nothing we can do. I'm like, you're my elected official. You can advocate on my behalf. And they're like, well, it's too early. I'm like, how is it too early? I just resigned from my job. All my stuff is going over to Tokyo right now. At what point is it not too early? BROWN: Yes.

UNITER: So, if he's not willing to do his job, then I will.

BROWN: So, you're saying you tried, you went to your, you know, representative, not get anywhere. This exemption just came through. You don't want to take the job. Now, you're just have to wait to see if your belongings come back from Japan and so forth. And your son was pulled out of school. What are you going to do there?

UNITER: I have started to homeschool him.

BROWN: Oh, wow.

UNITER: So, I will say thank you, God. I am in a better position than most people. I am retired from the military, so I do have my pension. So, I'm not at risk of losing my house.

BROWN: Yes.

UNITER: But there are so many people that have lost their jobs, and you know, they don't have a safety net that I do.

BROWN: Yes.

UNITER: So, I appreciate you having me on once again, and I wanted to become a voice for the voiceless.

BROWN: Let me just quickly ask you, as we run out of time, I mean, you do agree overall from what I gather, from what I've read about you, for the restructuring and the streamlining of the federal government.

UNITER: I do.

BROWN: But given your personal experience, how has that impacted your view of how it's being done?

UNITER: So, there has to be some compassion. So, we are Americans and I liken it as parents love their children, but children should respect their parents. It's the same thing. The leadership should take care of its citizens and we should respect our elected officials.

People go too wild on the left and the right. And we need to have balance and we need to come back united as a country. That being said just doing blanket cuts is not the way to go in my honest opinion.

BROWN: All right. Well, Terry, we really appreciate you coming on. Thank you so much.

UNITER: Thank you, ma'am. Thank you, sir.

BROWN: Best of luck to you and your son. We'll be right back.

UNITER: Appreciate it. Thank you so much.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:40:00]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Let's get back to the breaking news in the Middle East. The ceasefire in Gaza in tatters right now after deadly Israeli airstrikes overnight. I want to get some analysis and some reaction from President Trump's former national security adviser, retired Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster. He's the author of the new book "At War with Ourselves: My Tour of Duty in the Trump White House."

General McMaster, thanks so much for joining us. As you know, Israel says it was forced to carry out these airstrikes after Hamas rejected two U.S. proposals to continue the ceasefire and return hostages. Do you believe the Israelis were justified, even if it means the end of this ceasefire?

H.R. MCMASTER, AUTHOR, "AT WAR WITH OURSELVES: MY TOUR OF DUTY IN THE TRUMP WHITE HOUSE" AND FORMER TRUMP NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: I do, Wolf. And the reason is just the nature of Hamas. And what we're dealing with is a terrorist organization that has inflicted tremendous pain and loss on Israel, but also on the Palestinian population in Gaza. I think it's really important that we not allow Hamas to offload responsibility for this war on anybody else.

And it's important to remember that they're still holding 59 hostages. If anybody had still had doubts about the nature of the organization, just look at the way that they have used these hostage releases to continue to torture the Israeli people. And I think what we have to recognize is they continue to try to evade the Israeli defense force by using the Palestinian population as human shields.

I mean, the sad truth is, Wolf, that the only thing that Israel can do to assure its security is to destroy that organization. You know, the sad part is there aren't options for the civilian population to evacuate. I can't think of any other example of a war in which the population was denied the ability to move out.

You might remember, you know, in the Syrian civil war, you know, that I think you could argue is still going on, but that Syrian civil war, half the population was dead, wounded or displaced. Many more would have been killed. If the population had been penned in into cities like Aleppo. So, you know, it's a very sad situation all the way around, but I don't see how Israel had any other option.

BLITZER: The Israelis say and the U.S. agrees that Israel formally officially notified the Trump administration just ahead of the planned attack. How would you recommend that President Trump handle the renewed fighting that's going on right now?

MCMASTER: Well, I think the way to handle it is kind of what he did in his first administration, which is to act like he knows what the return address is. And this is what the Trump administration is doing that the Biden administration was really reluctant to do. I mean, Iran has caused so much pain, so much suffering across the region for Israelis, for Palestinians, for the Syrian population, for the Yemeni population.

[10:45:00]

And these recent strikes against the Houthis, I think, were long overdue. You know, these just reprisal attacks weren't adequate to security in the Bab al-Mandab, you know, that shipping route that's so critical. But also, it's important to remember that the Houthis have inflicted tremendous suffering on many people, besieging and starving people to death, you know.

So, I think the next step is going to be, you know, what happens with Iran. And I think, of course, financial actions, economic actions are appropriate. Interdiction of Iran's efforts to reinforce its access of terrorist organizations and militias in the region. And then, ultimately, of course, you know, what we ought to be talking about is what happens with Iran's nuclear program. And what I think is probably like a 98 percent chance, Wolf, that the Israelis are going to have to strike that program to ensure their own security.

BLITZER: Well, you think the Israelis would strike the Iran nuclear program as opposed to the United States doing that?

MCMASTER: Well, I think it remains to be seen if the United States would join in a military operation to block Iran's path to the most destructive weapons on Earth, and it's important to remember that the reason why a military option is important to have is because this is an Iranian regime that wants to destroy Israel and kill all the Jews, you know, and the Begin doctrine, which has been Israel's doctrine, you know, since really the -- you know, the new -- the age of nuclear proliferation has been that Israel cannot conscience a hostile state having the most destructive weapons on Earth. And they've acted on that twice. Remember in Iraq and Syria in 2007.

And so, I think this is a much more complicated operation, certainly, but it's important to remember in the last strikes that Israel conducted on Iran, they flew 140 aircraft into Iran, destroyed Iran's air defense systems, essentially flew laps around Tehran. And I think -- Wolf, I think struck a lot of those nuclear sites already, because so many of those nuclear sites are undeclared.

So, you know, I think that Israel's already demonstrated the ability to conduct strikes, but of course, doing that with the United States would be a lot more effective. Can Iran escape that? Donald Trump has offered them an opportunity to escape it through negotiating a settlement that would have them stop the enrichment of uranium, right? I mean, there are a lot of countries that have nuclear power, you know, that don't enrich uranium. That could be an option for Iran. But of course, you've heard Ayatollah Khamenei's the -- you know, the theocratic dictator in Iran, dismiss that out of hand.

So, I think we're on a path to a conflict involving an effort to block Iran's path to the most destructive weapons on Earth.

BLITZER: Yes, this tension in the Middle East could really explode big time in the coming weeks and months. There's no doubt about that. General McMaster, thanks very much. I want to continue my conversation with you right after a short break. There's other news we need to follow up on.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:50:00]

BLITZER: There's more breaking news coming into the Situation Room right now. At any moment, we expect President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin to hold a phone call at a truly critical moment for talks over the war in Ukraine. Former Trump National Security Adviser, retired Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster is back with us right now.

General, President Trump repeatedly aligned himself with Putin during his first term, as you well remember, including that infamous moment when he said he actually believed Putin over his own U.S. intelligence agency officials. Given that, should Americans have any confidence right now that President Trump will stand up to Putin on this phone call?

MCMASTER: Well, I think there's reason to hope, Wolf, because as you're alluding to, what Putin would really like to get out of this phone call is President Trump to accept something that is unacceptable to the Ukrainians and to pit the United States, not only against Ukraine, but even America against Europe. He seems to be having success in that so far.

But I think what Putin will reach for will be really unacceptable to President Trump. And you already hear this in the statements that they've made about what they're trying to achieve. What they're trying to achieve, basically, is the abject surrender of Ukrainians. They want to offload responsibility for the war. And what President Trump will hear from President Putin is kind of more of the same, right? He'll hear, you know, flattery but then, he'll hear that he's really aggrieved that Putin is really the victim of all this.

And then, what he'll hear is, but, you know, President Trump, you're the only person who can really make this deal. And if we could only work together, think about all the great things we could accomplish. I don't think President Trump is going to buy it in the long run, because even though he would make statements at the time when I was national security adviser that I found unseemly about Putin, he took strong action against him.

And, Wolf, in that first year of the Trump administration, we imposed more sanctions on Russian individuals and entities than in the previous eight years of the Obama administration. He provided javelins. And he did it when we presented him with the pattern of Russian aggression. And so, I'm hoping, you know, that his key advisers are having access to President Trump to help expose what Putin's trying to achieve.

Because his ambitions -- you know, Putin's ambitions will go far beyond anything that's in reaction to what we give him, right? He really wants to restore Russia to national greatness by breaking apart the transatlantic relationship, breaking apart NATO, pulling Europe down so he can be like the last man standing. [10:55:00]

You know, and so, he won't stop, in my view, until he is stopped. And I think what's going to happen here is that President Trump is going to be faced with the decision to either accommodate Putin or put a hell of a lot more pressure on him. And I think, really, the path that he'll ultimately take is to put a hell of a lot more pressure on him.

BLITZER: Yes. And you make an important point. Trump did provide those shoulder fired anti-tank Javelin missiles to Ukraine after earlier administrations were not doing so.

You helped prepare President Trump for various meetings with Putin when you were his national security adviser. And in your new book, a very revealing and excellent new book, you say Putin, quote, "Manipulated his ego and insecurities," close quote. Are you concerned that could happen again today?

MCMASTER: Well, you know, I am, not only because of the way that Putin attempted to -- you know, to play President Trump, but how he played other leaders as well. Remember, George W. Bush looked into Putin's soul and saw somebody who cared about his people, and President Obama, you know, labored under the illusion that he could get a reset, you know, with Vladimir Putin. And you had European leaders fall into the same traps. You know, President Biden fell in the trap, but also, you know, Putin just bought off Gerhard Schroder, the former chancellor of Germany, and then, he strung Angela Merkel along with, Angela, you can be the one who can bring Russia in from the cold.

He's doing the same thing with President Trump. Macron fell for it for a long time. Remember when he went to see Putin, see at the end of that long table right before the massive reinvasion of Ukraine. So, I just think it's time to end the serial gullibility associated with Vladimir Putin. And of course, you know, President Trump's not the only one who's been -- you know, who's been, you know, duped by Putin in the past, and I don't think he's going to fall for it again.

I think what gives me hope, Wolf, is remember when President Trump was negotiating with Kim Jong un, and he had those two summits, the first one in Singapore, the second one in Hanoi. In Hanoi, Kim Jong un made unreasonable demands, and President Trump got up and walked out, you know.

BLITZER: I do.

MCMASTER: So, I hope that -- you know, I think that's likely what's going to happen. Because Putin, I don't think will stop until he is stopped. Any concession you give him, it's not going to warm his heart, Wolf. You know, he's going to be more reasonable. He's just going to pocket that concession and demand more.

BLITZER: Retired General H.R. McMaster, as usual, thanks so much for joining us.

MCMASTER: Great to be with you, Wolf. BLITZER: Pamela.

BROWN: Really interesting conversation, Wolf. Well, coming up in the next hour, a key deadline in the legal showdown involving the mass deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members. How the executive branch is pushing the limits of checks and balances. That's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:00:00]