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Hegseth Says, U.S. On Plan for Iran War, Does Not Give Timeline; Energy Prices Soar as Attacks on Middle East Gas Facilities Escalate; Epstein's Personal Attorney Testifies in Congressional Invesetigation. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired March 19, 2026 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:00:00]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, breaking news, the cost of war. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is addressing reports that the Trump administration is considering sending more troops to the Middle East and asking Congress for more than $200 billion for the war with Iran.

Plus, Epstein's lawyer testifies. Darren Indyke worked for the convicted sex offender for nearly 25 years. And in just moments, he will answer questions from a key House committee behind closed doors.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: And diplomatic dilemma. President Trump will host Japan's prime minister over at the White House as he calls on allies, including Japan, to step in and help reopen the critical Strait of Hormuz.

Plus, pleading for help. The family of a University of Alabama college student is desperately asking the public for information after he disappeared in Spain. Jimmy Gracey's aunt will join us. That's coming up just ahead.

We want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer with Pamela Brown, and you're in The Situation Room.

BROWN: And we are following multiple breaking news stories this morning. Gas prices are soaring right now as the war with Iran escalates. It is now the highest it has been in three and a half years. The average is now $3.88 a gallon. The vice president calls it a, quote, temporary blip.

Plus, we're tracking staggering delays at TSA lines as the agency warns airports could be shut down if the stalemate over Homeland Security funding doesn't end soon.

And Senator Markwayne Mullin's passes his first hurdle. The Senate Homeland Security Committee votes to advance President Trump's pick to lead the Department of Homeland Security.

BLITZER: Well, let's begin this morning with the breaking news and a lot of new headlines coming out of the war with Iran. First, we just heard Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth say, the war is not, I repeat, not a forever war. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: We are very much on plan, and that's why I want to speak to the American people here. You hear a lot of noise about widening or new missions or speculation about what we should or should not be doing. This is a clear set of objectives. The president has given us every capability we need to accomplish, that we've got the best in the world in uniform, executing it on the ground. They believe in and are invested in this mission.

And it will be at the president's choosing ultimately where we say, hey, we've achieved what we need to on behalf of the American people to ensure our security. So, no time set on that, but we're very much on track.

As far as $200 billion, I think that number could move, obviously. It takes money to kill bad guys. So, we're going back to Congress and our folks there to ensure that we're properly funded for what's been done for what we may have to do in the future, ensure that our ammunition is -- everything's refilled and not just refilled, but above and beyond.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: All this comes as Reuters is reporting this morning that the Trump administration is considering sending thousands of U.S. troops to the Middle East in an effort to reinforce its operation there.

Another big headline this morning, oil prices are spiking. Brent Crude is now over a hundred dollars a barrel, and gas prices here in the United States are still rising as well.

And Israel hit an Iranian gas field sparking retaliation by Iran on oil infrastructure across the Middle East. President Trump says, the U.S., quote, knew nothing about this strike but an Israeli source is telling CNN the attack on Iran was in coordination with the United States.

CNN National Security Correspondent Kylie Atwood is here in The Situation Room, Jerusalem Correspondent Jeremy Diamond is on the ground in Tel Aviv for us.

Kylie, first to you, what more did the defense secretary say this morning?

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, as you saw in those remarks that you guys just played, he effectively said that the U.S. military is on plan. They have all of the resources that they need to attain their military objectives, but he really did not give any timeframe for when those objectives would be accomplished. He deferred, as we have heard him do multiple times in the past, to President Trump, saying that President Trump would be the one to determine when those objectives have been met.

But I do want you to listen to a portion of what he said about the nuclear threat and the threat that that posed by Iran to the United States and its allies in the region. Just listen to that.

[10:05:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HEGSETH: A regime like that, refusing to abandon its nuclear ambitions, is not just a regional problem. It's a direct threat to America, to freedom and to civilization. The world, the Middle East, our ungrateful allies in Europe, even segments of our own press should be saying one thing to President Trump, thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ATWOOD: Now, yesterday when we heard from the director of National Intelligence, part of her prepared remarks before the -- before Congress and part of the worldwide threat hearing, it was ongoing yesterday, we have another session of that today, said that after the strikes that the U.S. carried out on Israel last year in June, that after that Israel did -- excuse me, Iran did not continue to rebuild its nuclear enrichment capabilities.

And so there are questions as to whether what kind of nuclear threat Iran was really posing to the region if they weren't even working on their enrichment capacity after the U.S. said that that had been decimated as a result of those U.S. strikes last year.

I also think it's important to note, given the context of the top counterterrorism official who resigned earlier this week, saying that there was no imminent threat posed by Iran. There was a line of questioning on that front today with Director of National Intelligence Gabbard and a member of Congress when it came to Israel potentially pushing the United States into this war. We heard that from the top counterterrorism official who resigned. We've also heard elements of that from U.S. officials.

And what Director of National Intelligence Gabbard said was that the United States and Israel have different objectives when it comes to this war. She said that when it comes to Israel's objectives, they're going after Iranian leadership. The U.S. is going after the missile program on Iran. She didn't say if those objectives are aligned, but that is a critical question as we talk about how this war is going to end and if the United States and Israel are going to be on the same page about ending it.

BLITZER: Good point. All right, thanks very much. We're going to get back to you.

I want to go to Jeremy Diamond right now. Israeli forces, as you know, Jeremy, attacked the world's largest gas field in Iran. The president claims he knew nothing about that Israeli attack and said there will be no more attacks by Israel on the field. What are your sources telling you over there about the president's claim?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, despite what President Trump has said, both Israeli and American sources indicating to us that the United States was aware of this strike on the oil facility before Israel carried it out. A U.S. official telling me that the U.S. was aware and an Israeli source also telling us that this strike was carried out in coordination with the United States. So, while the U.S. didn't participate in the strike directly, they clearly were aware, in direct contradiction to what President Trump has said.

But it seems like President Trump decided to try and distance himself from this strike after we saw the chain of events that it set off yesterday, one of the most serious escalations that we have seen of this conflict so far, and characterized as such by a number of U.S. allies in the region. We saw yesterday that after Israel carried out this strike, Iran retaliated with attacks on Qatar's gas facilities, as well as ballistic missiles that were struck -- sorry, that were targeted, I should say, at Saudi oil facilities in the capital. Those missiles appear to have been intercepted.

A drone was also fired at a Kuwaiti oil facility as well. And as a result, we saw Kuwait taking steps to banish certain Iranian officials who were in their country, and, overall, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates both calling this situation a very serious escalation.

As a direct result of all of that, we've seen oil prices spike once again, rising to as much as $115 per barrel. That's up from $73 per barrel before this conflict began. And amid all of this, President Trump, despite his step -- distance himself from those Israeli strikes, he's now warning that the United States will massively blow up that South Pars facility that Israel targeted yesterday should Iran continue to target oil facilities of U.S. allies in the region. Wolf?

BLITZER: And, Jeremy, before I let you go, as I do every day, are there more Hezbollah and Iranian strikes coming across Central Israel, Tel Aviv, where you are, the siren's still going off?

DIAMOND: Yes. Well, throughout the night we had multiple incoming Iranian ballistic missiles. There were no casualties today, but yesterday, we did see one man who was killed not far from here in Tel Aviv, in a moshav, a farming community in Israel. He was a foreign worker who was here. He was killed by one of those cluster munitions. And then in the West Bank as well, we have four women who were dead as a result of what appears to also have been one of those cluster munition strikes. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right. Jeremy Diamond, thank you very, very much. Kylie Atwood, thanks to you as well. Pamela?

BROWN: All right, Wolf. Another news happening now, a member of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's inner circle is testifying before a key Congressional committee.

[10:10:00]

His name is Darren Indyke. He was a lawyer of business representative for Epstein for almost 25 years, and his co-executor of his estate. He's answering questions at this hour from the House Oversight Committee in a closed door deposition.

So, let's bring in CNN Senior Reporter Annie Grayer, who's been following all of this from Capitol Hill. What are you expecting from Indyke's appearance today, Annie?

ANNIE GRAYER, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, Pamela this lawyer has known Epstein for decades. He was central to all of Epstein's business dealings, saw every paper essentially that came across Epstein's desk. He was so close with Epstein that Epstein, in his will, left Indyke over $50 million, we're told. And Indyke was known to take money out for Epstein on his behalf thousands of dollars at a time to the point where it raised flags for banks who were monitoring all of this.

And as you mentioned, Indyke is one of -- a co-executor of Epstein's estate. He was involved in a recent settlement with some of Epstein's victims. And Indyke has claimed no -- he said he has no wrongdoing here. He has not known anything about Epstein's crimes, but he was never interviewed by the FBI as part of the investigation into Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, who was also convicted as Epstein's co- conspirator.

So, there are a lot of questions surrounding Indyke today. He's going to be questioned behind closed doors by both Democrats and Republicans. And this is just the latest witness that the Oversight Committee has called in for questioning. Last week, they spoke with another person close to Epstein's inner circle. They've spoken, of course, to Bill and Hillary Clinton, Attorney General Bill Barr. And coming up they have an interview -- they have a subpoena for a deposition with the attorney general who was on the Hill yesterday answering questions voluntarily as a more casual briefing setting, but that deposition is scheduled for next month. We're also expecting the committee to question Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick at some point. Pamela?

BROWN: Okay. Thanks so much.

Let's actually go and listen to House Oversight Chairman James Comer about all of this in his testimony today.

REP. JAMES COMER (R-KY): The fact that we have a lot of dead weight on this committee and the behavior of the Democrats yesterday was unacceptable. And, you know, we're going to have to come back and talk as a conference, the majority, to see what we do moving forward.

But we had the sitting attorney general and the top brass of the Department of Justice there yesterday to answer questions and, you know, they were wanting T.V. cameras in there. And you know why, so they could show out and get on MSNBC and be outraged, but there's an ongoing investigation.

And if you're mature, credible members of Congress leading an investigation, you don't want that televised because you want to get information that will hopefully lead to criminal referrals and lead to accountability. And to do that, you can't do that in public. So, we had this sitting attorney general there last night and they stormed out and they were outraged.

So, look, I don't know how to answer your question because I wasn't expecting that. I thought everyone would be happy that I was able to get the attorney general come in for a briefing and they pull a stunt like that.

REPORTER: But does that count as a deposition, like in the way that it would if you called someone from a subpoena?

COMER: You know, it's a briefing and it's different. But the Democrats say, oh, there's a cover-up, there's a cover-up. Then talk about it. Talk about it. Ask it. There was not one question from the Democrats. There were from Republicans, and obviously the Democrats had someone secretly tape recording that in there because reporters were going into great detail about, you know, the conversation that I had with Summer Lee and all of that. So, that's a violation of the rules too, but I don't care. I stand by what I said, and it's unfortunate that the Democrats they displayed a gross lack of seriousness. That's very concerning moving forward.

REPORTER: Mr. Chairman, do you expect --

COMER: Talk a little louder, please.

REPORTER: Do you expect Mr. Indyke to answer questions today before your committee?

COMER: I hope so.

REPORTER: And then do you plan to ask him about his arrangements of sham marriages for the Epstein --

COMER: We have every question that you all would expect us to ask. I think we'll be asked in here. And we expect to get some, you know, legal pushback. But we're going to do everything in our ability to not allow that to happen and try to get the questions answered.

So, we'll keep you briefed throughout the day.

[10:15:00]

Thank you all for being here. Thank you.

BROWN: All right. You just heard the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Republican James Comer of Kentucky, defending having the Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche brief lawmakers on Capitol Hill yesterday behind closed doors. It got tense. He noted that some Democrats had left the room.

And also we're awaiting some questioning for a longtime attorney for Jeffrey Epstein, who our Annie Grayer just noted, Wolf. And I think it's worth emphasizing that the FBI had never interviewed him as part of the investigation to Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. And Todd Blanche for his part, apparently, did not talk with him before going to interview Ghislaine Maxwell in jail.

So, we're going to continue to cover all of this.

BLITZER: Yes. And he was the lawyer for Epstein for years, years and years and years.

BROWN: And Epstein left him millions of dollars in his will, as our Annie Grayer noted, so clearly an important figure in his orbit.

BLITZER: They were very, very close.

All right, still ahead, we'll go one-on-one with Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth. We'll get her thoughts as a combat veteran on reports that the Trump administration is considering sending more troops to the Middle East.

BROWN: And then later, desperate plea for information. We're going to speak to the aunt of Jimmy Gracey as the search for the Missing college student is underway, thousands of miles away from the United States, in Barcelona.

You're in The Situation Room. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:20:00]

BLITZER: We're following new developments. The Senate has defeated Democrats' second effort to try to block President Trump from ramping up the intensifying war with Iran. The final vote, 47 to 53. Senator Rand Paul was the sole Republican who broke ranks to vote for the war powers resolution while Senator John Fetterman was the only Democrat to oppose it.

Let's discuss this and more with Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois. She's a key member of the Foreign Affairs and the Senate Armed Services Committee. Senator, thanks so much for joining us.

I know that you and a group of five other Democrats have repeatedly put up measures to try to end this military involvement in Iran. What's your reaction to this latest effort failing yet again?

SEN. TAMMY DUCKWORTH (D-IL): Well, we're going to keep trying Wolf because I am still waiting for my Republican colleagues to step up and stop enabling President Trump and his war of choice in Iran. I filed a similar motion myself last night, was Senator Booker's motion. I filed one as well, and we're going to keep using the tools available to us in the United States Senate to make sure that the administration comes to the Congress and explain to us why this war was needed, what their plans are and what the next steps are, and what is the off-ramp. I mean, our men and women in uniform deserve no less from their civilian leadership.

BLITZER: According to this vote, as you know, Republicans seem to be mostly united, almost all united on Trump's power to wage war. What are you hearing from them in private?

DUCKWORTH: Well, I'm not hearing from them. That's part of the problem is that they're hiding. They know that this vote to continue to allow Trump to do what he's doing is absolutely illegal. I mean, you know, what he's doing is illegal. Our Constitution is very, very clear. Only Congress has the power entrusted by the American people to decide to take the nation to war. And Trump has not come forward and with any justification for this. And if you listen to him from morning to afternoon, his reasons for bombing Iran and getting us into yet another forever war changes. First, it was, you know, well, the imminent danger was that they were going to hit us with ballistic missiles. Oh, wait, they don't have long-range ballistic missiles. Oh, they were going to develop a nuclear weapon. Oh wait, we annihilated their nuclear weapon capabilities with Operation Midnight Hammer. Oh, it's for regime change. Oh, and now we've replaced the Ayatollah with his son, who's an even worse dictator than his father ever was.

So, what exactly are we doing there? Come to Congress, explain to us, and we'll have that debate, and then we'll cast that vote. Again, our men and women who are in harm's way right now, they will do their jobs. Our military is the most professional, the most mighty on the face of the Earth, but they deserve real thought, real planning when we send them to carry out the mission of protecting and defending America. And, frankly, Trump's war of choice has not made Americans safer. It's made life harder for the average American family, and it's made it more dangerous for Americans around the world.

BLITZER: And amidst all of this, Senator, Reuters is now reporting that the Trump administration is considering sending thousands more troops to the Middle East. Where do you think this war is headed?

DUCKWORTH: I think it's headed to having boots on the ground. I think that's where Donald Trump is going. I don't think he, again, has a coherent plan. He claims to have been surprised that the Iranians would strike back against our allies in the Middle East. He claims to be surprised that they would attack the commercial shipping and the Straits of Hormuz.

Wolf, you know, a first year ROTC student in his freshman year of college would be able to tell you if you gave him this scenario that that's the first thing the Iranians were going to do, and yet the president hasn't figured this out. And in fact, you know, his counterintelligence -- counterterrorism leadership quit over this. As he said, there was no imminent threat.

BLITZER: And as you know, the administration is thinking of asking Congress to approve another few hundred million dollars to support this war, to support the troops. Will you vote for that legislation?

DUCKWORTH: Well, it's $200 billion Wolf. I may not have heard you correctly.

BLITZER: Yes, you're right, $200 billion,

DUCKWORTH: Yes, $200 billion. They didn't even ask that for the war in Iraq, as Senator Gallego rightly pointed out last night. No, I'm not going to vote for that.

[10:25:01]

Here's the thing, when you vote for a supplemental like that, you're basically authorizing the war. And I'm not authorizing this war until the Trump administration comes to us and explains to the American people because that's who I am. I represent the American people. He needs to explain to the American people what the justification is, what his plan is, and when are we going to get out of this war, because the American people do not want yet another, forever war.

Trump ran for the presidency on the promise that no more forever wars and he's going to bring down prices. Well, guess what? He's put prices through the roof for the average American consumer. 13 American heroes are now dead, and we have more harm in the Middle East, more threats to America's national security. He needs to come to us. I'm not voting for anything like that until they justify this war.

BLITZER: Senator Tammy Duckworth, thanks so much for joining us.

BROWN: I'm actually going to jump in right now and just quickly ask you, Senator. As you may know, the nephew of one of our senior producers here, Jimmy Gracey is missing in Barcelona, and he is from Chicago, your home state. I'm wondering if you are in touch with investigators in Spain, if you've been getting any updates on the investigation and what the latest is.

DUCKWORTH: I've not received any recent updates. I'm so sorry. But we will be staying in touch and keeping our eyes on this investigation as it moves forward.

BROWN: Okay.

BLITZER: And we'll speak with his aunt. That's coming up here in The Situation Room as well.

Senator Duckworth, thanks so much. Thanks for your service. We always appreciate you joining us in The Situation Room.

DUCKWORTH: Thank you.

BLITZER: And coming up later this hour, Republican Congressman Ryan Zinke is standing by to join us here in The Situation Room to talk about Iran and his recent retirement announcement.

We'll be right back.

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