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The Situation Room

Interview With Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta; Shooting at Old Dominion University; Gas Prices Skyrocketing; Interview With Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY). Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired March 12, 2026 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:00]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: And, as I mentioned, you're a key member of the Senate Intelligence Committee. You're well-briefed on all these developments.

And I want to ask you about something that's very personal for me. as you know, I grew up in Buffalo, New York, right on the border with Canada, used to cross the Peace Bridge, go to Toronto all the time, spent a lot of time in Canada, not far from Buffalo.

And Canadian police right now, as you know, they're searching for two men who fired at the U.S. diplomatic consulate in Toronto just a few days ago. At the same time, three synagogues in Toronto were hit by gunfire in the greater Toronto area. I should be specific.

Thankfully, no injuries were reported. And it's unclear if these incidents are tied to the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. But should diplomatic missions in New York state, specifically near the U.N. in Manhattan, for example, have more security? What about Israeli diplomatic missions?

And what about synagogues in New York? Should they beef up security as well? And should New York state get involved in beefing up that security?

SEN. KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND (D-NY): Yes, they should.

And this is one of the appropriations efforts that I make every year to make sure the amount of money that we get for religious sites, for any sensitive sites have more security funding. And we have been asking to get that security funding increased every year for the last decade.

And so I am hopeful that New York has the resources it needs to protect our places of worship, to protect our sensitive sites. And I have heard from NYPD that they have increased their staffing to protect these sites.

BLITZER: I want to also turn, while I have you, Senator, to that devastating bombing of a girls school in Southern Iran. According to an ongoing military investigation, the U.S. was responsible and outdated information could be to blame. You're a member of the Intelligence Committee. You're briefed on all

of this. What information are you receiving, first of all, about this?

GILLIBRAND: Well, I have very deep concerns about how this site was targeted.

Obviously, it was next to naval operations. But even in "New York Times"' reporting this morning, they were able to see the site clearly in publicly available data that shows this was clearly a school. So I have very serious questions that I asked in the Armed Services Committee hearing this morning of our top generals, asking specifically, how was this location targeted? What tools were used? Was A.I. used?

What is the oversight responsibility of commanders to make sure these sites aren't targeted? I want to know what Secretary Hegseth knew about this targeting. He has undermined the resources that we put aside in the armed services to ensure that civilians are not targeted in any military operations.

And he has degraded that -- those sets of personnel and resources. We are -- I don't think we have had the oversight and accountability that we are entitled to. We have yet to have an open hearing on the Iran war in the Armed Services Committee.

So I have a great deal of questions. And I think Secretary Hegseth should resign because of this failure in being more precise. This operation was on the first day of operations. All sites were selected, pre-targeted by our military with arguably great care and great precision.

And so how they missed that this was a girls school is very concerning to me. If Secretary Hegseth did not cut the funding for this area of review by 90 percent, if Secretary Hegseth did not continually try to undermine the rules and the procedures that our service members and our generals take -- I think he should resign because of this failure.

BLITZER: All right, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, thank you very much for joining us.

GILLIBRAND: Thank you.

BLITZER: And just ahead: The war with Iran could soon mean higher prices beyond the price at the gas pump. What else may get more expensive here in the United States? We will make it make sense.

That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:38:36]

BLITZER: More breaking news. These are live pictures, look at this, from Beirut, Lebanon. Israel is launching widespread attacks. They're targeting the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah. And, this morning, Israel is telling its military to prepare for a

larger Israeli ground operation in Lebanon as well. But look at the smoke. Look at that Lebanese capital right now the victim of these latest Israeli strikes.

Also happening now, the price of gas here in the United States, indeed around the world, is ticking up yet again. According to AAA, the national average price in the U.S. is $3.60 per gallon. This comes just one day after dozens of countries, including the U.S., agreed to release a record amount of oil from emergency reserves into the global markets.

Despite all of this, there are fears that oil could hit $200 a barrel. Here's what Energy Secretary Chris Wright told our Kate Bolduan earlier this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Iran just said that the world should be ready for oil at $200 a barrel. You don't agree with Iran on anything, but do you agree that people need to be prepared for that?

CHRIS WRIGHT, U.S. ENERGY SECRETARY: We're going through short-term energy disruption for just huge long-term gain. You're seeing Iran's behavior. They're attacking every country in the region.

BOLDUAN: Could that hit -- could short-term mean $200 a barrel?

WRIGHT: I would say unlikely, but we are focused on the military operation and solving a problem.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[11:40:08]

BLITZER: So will the strategic release of oil be enough to keep gas prices from skyrocketing right now?

Joining us now, CNN senior reporter David Goldman.

David, make it make sense. Today's question, what needs to happen for the price of gas at the pumps here in the U.S. to drop?

DAVID GOLDMAN, CNN BUSINESS EXECUTIVE EDITOR: The answer is really simple. The Strait of Hormuz needs to reopen. That's the only thing that the oil market cares about right now.

And the evidence for that is that after that historic release of oil that we saw that you mentioned, oil has gone back up to $100 a barrel. It just hit that a few minutes ago. It's back down just under that. But oil going up is not the direction that you would expect when you release all of that oil onto the market.

Now, the Trump administration is trying to pull other levers, maybe the Jones Act waiver so that we can have foreign ships transporting oil around the U.S. There might be some other things that it might be able to do. But the oil market only cares about one thing, and that's reopening the strait.

And the energy secretary also said that we're not going to get those Naval escorts for the oil tankers in the strait for weeks. So this could be going on for quite a while.

BLITZER: So talk a little bit, David, about what sort of impact this is going to have on our wallet.

GOLDMAN: Well, we're already starting to see it at the pump. So, gas, as you mentioned, is up to $3.60. That could continue to soar.

But you're going to see it in other goods too. Anything that's on a truck, anything that's on a plane, anything that's on a boat, all of those cost money to ship. They're all paying diesel or jet fuel or other kinds of fuels, and those are getting more expensive too.

So perishable goods like dairy fruit, vegetables, those kind of things are going to get more expensive soon. Airfares could go up eventually. Microchips, things like that, all of that travels to the United States. They could all get more expensive soon.

And you don't need to take my word for it. We have seen this before. In 2022, when oil prices started to come down a little bit, gas stayed high. So this isn't necessarily going to just evaporate when the war stops. This could be with us for quite some time.

BLITZER: Yes, 2022 is when Russia invaded Ukraine.

David Goldman, thank you very, very much. Excellent analysis.

And we're following other breaking news right now out of Norfolk, Virginia. The ATF now says there was a shooting incident at Old Dominion University there.

Let's go live to our senior national correspondent, Ryan Young.

What are you learning, Ryan?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Wolf, we're still learning information about this shooting that happened on campus. We do know there was an alert sent out to students to tell them to hide, to run, to shelter in place as well.

But we learned, shortly before 10:49, a gunman entered Constant Hall, opened fire. Two people were injured. Old Dominion University police and Norfolk police all responded. The gunman is now deceased, we're told, and an injured person was transported to a local hospital.

So the university has also canceled classes at this point. We have been watching and monitoring video, as you can see, sort of a chaotic scene, as the officers maintain a perimeter here. But we have also gotten sound recently from one of our affiliates of students on campus during -- after this shooting. Take a listen to what we have heard from them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ZACHARY MULDER, STUDENT: I just left class in Constant Hall, and then I will walk over to Webb Center to read my book and get a coffee. And, as I was sitting, a bunch -- probably about 30 -- 30 or so people (AUDIO GAP) shooter and gun.

So, by that time, we just -- everybody that was in that center just left straight out the front door. And we ran down the road.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: What was going through your head? What was going through your head when you heard people scream "Shooter" and when you saw people start running?

MULDER: To leave, just to leave. My heart dropped. I didn't know -- really know what was going on. I just knew I had to leave immediately. So, it was pretty scary at that point, because I didn't know really what was going on or how close the threat was. So it was terrifying. I just knew I had to leave from the direction everybody was running.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: Yes, Wolf, listening to that sound, we now know that that student had left that area, Constant Hall, where that shooting took place around 10:49.

We have also learned that that shooter is now deceased. We can tell by the posture of law enforcement in the area that they don't believe there's a threat still ongoing there. But, as you know, usually after these incidents, they do a sweep through the area, especially with kids who may have been -- locked themselves down in some of those classrooms or some of those other areas throughout the campus.

We have seen these sort of scenes play out across campuses across the country, but we now know at least one other person injured, the shooter deceased. This was all taking place around 10:49 a.m., two or three different law enforcement agencies all responding to the scene at Old Dominion. That's the Norfolk area.

[11:45:15]

There's about 23,000 students that attend this university, but you understand the large presence of officers as they try to figure out exactly what happened this morning. They should be able to go through the surveillance video of the area and see how this played out, but this is still early on in this investigation, once again, shooter deceased, one person at least transported to the hospital.

Trying to figure out if there are any more, as we call the local hospitals and the police departments to figure out what the next steps are -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, the shooting occurred just about an hour or so ago.

Ryan Young, thank you very much for that report.

And we will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:50:15]

BLITZER: We're back with breaking news from Iran, where a new purported statement from the new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, was released.

This would be his first written public statement since taking power. It was read on Iranian state television, and it warned that Iran will keep the vital Strait of Hormuz closed.

With oil and gas prices rising, Khamenei said: "Certainly, the lever of closing the Strait of Hormuz must continue to be used."

For more on this and more, I'm joined by Leon Panetta. He was defense secretary under President Obama, also a former director of the CIA.

Director and Secretary, thanks so much for joining us.

Almost two weeks into this war now, CNN is reporting that U.S. intelligence indicates that Iran's leadership is still largely intact and not at risk of collapsing any time soon. How big a problem will this be for the United States, even as it weakens Iran's military big time?

LEON PANETTA, FORMER U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: I think it's a big problem, because what it means is that we have underestimated the consequences of this war.

And that may be partially due to the lack of planning for those consequences. Part of it may be that they are having a difficult time reacting to the changes going on in this war. It's clear that oil and the price of oil, particularly with the Strait of Hormuz, would be impacted.

I don't sense that the administration was prepared to deal with a huge disruption in oil. We don't have escorts in the Strait of Hormuz. It continues to be closed. We don't have a response to that problem. And, frankly, that undermines the whole support for the war that may still be trying to determine where this war is headed.

BLITZER: Mr. Secretary, you heard the new supreme leader's warning that the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed. The U.S. energy secretary said this morning here on CNN that the U.S. Navy is not yet ready to escort commercial vessels through the strait.

He said U.S. military resources are focused elsewhere in this war right now. What do you make of that?

PANETTA: I think that basically is a failure of planning for what would be an obvious consequence of a war in the Middle East.

Not to have these ships prepared to escort tankers through the Straits of Hormuz is a serious failure, and it's going to take time. And the fact is that the statement from the leader of Iran this morning reflects the fact that they think that they are in many ways winning this war by closing the Straits of Hormuz and creating a huge disruption in oil that makes it then politically difficult for the administration to be able to react.

So I just don't get the sense that the administration properly planned for what was going to be an obvious consequence to this war.

BLITZER: Important point.

The president says that he has been briefed on potential Iranian sleeper cells here in the United States. Would that be among your biggest concerns if you were still running the CIA?

PANETTA: Well, without question.

We had intelligence that indicated that Iran was in fact establishing these kinds of cells when I was director of the CIA. So I'm sure they continue to do that. And I would hope that both the CIA, as well as law enforcement in this country, are keeping an eye out for the potential of cells going and committing violent acts against our citizens.

That's a real threat that needs to be attended to.

BLITZER: Yes, it certainly is.

CNN is reporting, Mr. Secretary, that the U.S. intelligence community has actually been warning American companies and various government agencies of possible cyberattacks by Iran. And pro-Iran hackers have already claimed responsibility for an attack on a major U.S. medical device company.

[11:55:00]

Are we likely to see more of this? What do you think?

PANETTA: I think without question.

One of the things that Iran has is a cyber capability. They dispatched a formula into -- through cyber, a formula that basically shut down Aramco oil and took down 30,000 computers. They have a strong cyber capability. And we have to expect that they're going to use it to disrupt not only our business operations, but our communications as well.

BLITZER: Yes, that's going to be very, very worrisome.

Leon Panetta, let's continue this conversation down the road. Thank you very, very much.

PANETTA: Good to be with you, Wolf.

BLITZER: And, to our viewers, thanks very much for joining us this morning. "INSIDE POLITICS" with our friend and colleague Dana Bash starts right

after a quick break.