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State of the Union
Israeli Settler Violence Surges in West Bank; Interview With Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC); Interview With Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA); Interview With Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ); Interview With White House Border Czar Tom Homan. Aired 9-10a ET
Aired March 29, 2026 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST (voice-over): Going nowhere. Gridlock in airports and in Congress, as House Republicans break with their Senate colleagues to tank a shutdown deal.
REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): This gambit that was done last night is a joke.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They made my job a lot harder.
TAPPER: With Congress home for a two-week break, is anyone trying to fix this? White House border czar Tom Homan joins me in moments and then Democratic Senator Andy Kim on the Senate's next move.
And war plans? Thousands more U.S. service members arrive in the Middle East, as a new front opens in the war.
TRUMP: It's not finished yet.
TAPPER: Can the president avoid a long slog, even if he wants to? A Republican warning Trump against a ground war, Congresswoman Nancy Mace, joins me ahead.
Plus: to the streets. Americans rally against the Trump agenda across the U.S.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Democrats need a strategy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have a very, very small chance to turn the tide.
TAPPER: What message are they sending to national Democrats? Our political panel weighs in.
(END VIDEOTAPE) TAPPER: Hello. I'm Jake Tapper in Washington, where the state of our
union is in limbo.
Whether you are currently waiting in line at airport security or maybe you're watching the prices go up, up, up, up, up as you fill your gas tank, the American people are facing the consequences of problems caused by lawmakers here in Washington, D.C.
That was certainly the theme among the No Kings protesters yesterday. Most pressing for many of them, the war in Iran. "The Washington Post" is now reporting that, while the president has not yet made a final decision, the Pentagon is preparing for weeks of ground operations in Iran.
"The Wall Street Journal" is reporting that Trump is weighing deploying another 10,000 ground troops to the Middle East. Meanwhile, here in Washington, another extraordinary conflict in the president's own party, this time over the partial government shutdown, after President Trump and now Speaker Mike Johnson rejected a bipartisan Senate deal that had been brokered in part by Senate Republican Leader John Thune to fund the Department of Homeland Security with some caveats.
And then everybody went home for a two-week break. The result, more uncertainty for federal employees going without paychecks, as well as for Americans traveling for spring break and more work for ICE. This week, in fact, we saw an ICE agent save a baby who was choking in an airport security line.
But, broadly, those ICE agents -- more were just sent to Washington's BW -- Baltimore's, rather, BWI Airport -- these ICE agents are also a flash point in the shutdown debate that is now set to continue, as far as we know, indefinitely.
Joining us now to discuss, White House border czar Tom Homan, who just visited the Houston airport to monitor the very, very long security lines there. Mr. Homan has also been involved in the talks on Capitol Hill to end the shutdown.
Thanks for joining us, Mr. Homan.
President Trump now says that there is in fact a way to pay TSA workers possibly as soon as tomorrow. Can TSA agents expect a paycheck tomorrow? And when can Americans expect the long wait times to die down?
TOM HOMAN, WHITE HOUSE BORDER CZAR: Well, as soon as Congress opens up the government and funds the Department of Homeland Security. That's what needs to happen.
But, yes, I talked to Secretary Markwayne Mullin yesterday. There is a plan to get these TSA agents pay hopefully by tomorrow or Tuesday. So, yes, it's good news, because these TSA officers are struggling. They can't feed their families or pay the rent.
And your heart goes out to them, because they're sitting there right now working very hard and not being paid, while members of Congress are now on vacation getting paid. It's ridiculous.
TAPPER: I don't disagree. If the administration had the power to move funds around to pay TSA agents this whole time, why did it take 41 days to do it? And how long will this money last?
HOMAN: Well, paying TSA agents doesn't pay the rest of the Department of Homeland Security.
You've got the Coast Guard. You've got CISA. You've got the men and women of Secret Service. You've got a lot of people working at the Department of Homeland Security that isn't getting paid. And even though -- and we've got the mission support under TSA -- I mean under ICE, right?
ICE officers, excuse me, they'll be getting paid. But how about the mission support people, the people that keep the lights on it and do all the things that they have to do so ICE agents can go out and do their job?
So, no, they just need to fund the Department of Homeland Security. After all, we're talking about the Department of Homeland Security in a time we have a heightened threat posture right now in this country because of what's going on in the world.
This should be the last thing they're fighting over funding for.
TAPPER: Right. But if President Trump had the power to pay TSA agents this whole time, why only start doing it now?
HOMAN: Look, I don't understand -- look, I'm a cop. I don't understand the whole appropriations language, appropriations law.
[09:05:03]
I'm just glad that President Trump is able to pay the TSA agents. At least that's a start. But, again, there's a lot more, many more, thousands more, tens of thousands more DHS employees who are not being paid that need to be paid.
TAPPER: Once TSA agents start getting paid, will ICE agents leave the airports?
HOMAN: We will see.
It depends how many TSA agents come back to work, how many TSA agents have actually quit and have no plan coming back to work. I'm working very closely with the TSA administrator and the ICE director to decide what airport needs what.
But God bless the men and women of ICE. They're doing a job. They're plugging those holes. They're keeping the security at the airport at a high level, again, because of heightened threat that we're in right now. Thank TSA agents -- I mean, the ICE agents are there protecting the exit lanes, doing identification checks, plugging the security holes. We have got to keep the airports safe. We have got to keep American
people going through those lines. So -- and ICE is helping shorten those lines and adding security at each and every airport around the country.
TAPPER: So, it's been a week since President Trump sent those ICE agents into airports to help with security. The lines are still obviously bad. I'm not blaming them on ICE, but the lines are still bad.
The head of the union overseeing TSA, Everett Kelley, he told "The New York Times" -- quote -- A"The administration sent ICE agents to airports as replacement workers. That's like giving a person dying of pneumonia a teaspoon of cough syrup. It doesn't address the problem and it's not going to work."
But, specifically, you mentioned this just a second ago, but if you could go into more detail, what have ICE agents at airports been doing? What have they actually accomplished?
HOMAN: Well look, the wait lines have decreased. I was in Houston. Wait lines decreased in about half. We got additional agents going to Baltimore yesterday to bring those lines down.
And I can understand the TSA union's position. They want to be paid. And they're frustrated. But, however, the facts are, every place we send ICE officers, the lines have decreased. And they need to decrease more. Look, they're checking identification before you go to screening.
We're not going to have an ICE officer looking at X-ray images, deciding what bags need to be secondary. That's a high level of training. But we can check I.D.s before they get to that machine. We can cover exits to make sure that people don't enter through the exits.
That takes that TSA agent off that security line and put him on an X- ray machine. We're plugging other security holes. We want to keep the airports safe. So we're doing the job TSA is asking us to do, so their officers can get back to main screening.
TAPPER: For the first time since the shutdown began, just a few days ago, Democrats and Republicans came together. They passed this compromise bill in the Senate. Republican Leader John Thune said it was a good bill because ICE and CBP are already funded because of the One Big Beautiful Bill passed last year.
He said the Democrats got zero restrictions that would prevent ICE and CBP agents from doing their job safely. And Thune also said ICE and CBP are going to end up getting even more funding through budget reconciliation. So why would President Trump oppose this deal that John Thune, the Senate majority leader, says is a good deal?
HOMAN: President Trump wants the entire Department of Homeland Security funded. He wants the government open and funded. And, look, I have been on Capitol Hill talking to both sides. And
bottom line is, they want changes in ICE tactics. They want changes in policies. Look, the same laws that ICE follows today, the same laws about immigration enforcement have been in place during Clinton and Obama and now. The laws hasn't changed.
And the things we're talking about, I -- they want to prevent ICE from doing their job. They can say they don't want to abolish ICE. I'm in the room. They want to change operations so we arrest less people. And, look, the conversation is going good. We talk about body cameras.
We will pass the budget and there's $120 million there to buy body cameras. They want to talk about sensitive location and enforcement at sensitive locations. But they can't point to one instance, not one, where we have arrested anybody in a church or anybody inside of a hospital.
There has been no issues like that. We don't have a sensitive location policy, but we're already practicing sensitive location that we don't do the operations there unless there's a significant national security threat or a significant national security threat.
They have no sanctuary. But they can't point to a single instance we have arrested an alien inside of a church or a hospital. So these discussions can continue. But why can't they continue these discussions and open the Department of Homeland Security while we do that?
They're holding the department hostage because they don't like what ICE is doing. And ICE is enforcing the laws they enacted. If they don't like what ICE is doing, then change the law. That's your job.
TAPPER: Well, I think some of the issues that they have raised have to do with ways that ICE is doing its job differently now than they were doing it even in the first Trump administration, having to do with a different kind of warrant, having to do with ICE agents wearing masks.
[09:10:00]
And, obviously, this all comes in the wake of ICE detaining and arresting American citizens mistakenly, and obviously and obviously Renee Good and Mr. Pretti, Alex Pretti, being killed on the streets of Minneapolis. It's not exactly the same as how things have always been done.
HOMAN: The laws are exactly the same.
Let's talk about the masks. You don't see ICE wearing masks inside the airports because they're not on the street arresting criminals. You have got the agitators who cross the line and threaten ICE agents.
The same people in the Democratic Congress that want ICE to take off the mask are the same people who say ICE is going to shoot people inside airports. I mean, they can't have it both ways. So, if you want ICE to take the mask off, the threat level has to decrease. It's up 8000 percent increase in threats against ICE officers, and
that's because of a lot of the rhetoric coming from the Hill. Stop calling ICE Nazis and racists. Stop saying they're going to shoot people inside airports. That's going to drive the threat level down, and we can talk about masks.
So we have got to work together at this. But the ICE is doing the same thing they have done during 40 years I have been doing it. Again, they're enforcing the laws that they enacted. They don't like it, change the law. The law hasn't changed. The difference is, under the last four years of Joe Biden, they weren't enforcing the law.
Now ICE is actually enforcing the law, doing their job, and they don't like it. If they don't like what ICE is doing, change the law.
TAPPER: Let me ask you about a separate topic. Several administration officials have discussed and have not ruled out the idea of sending ICE agents to polling locations during the midterm elections this November. Has President Trump asked ICE to start making any sort of plans to go to polling sites during the midterms?
HOMAN: I have had no discussions about that with President Trump or Secretary Markwayne Mullin. It has not came up in any conversation.
TAPPER: Tom Homan, we always appreciate your coming by. Thank you so much, sir. I hope you have a nice rest of your weekend.
HOMAN: All right, thank you, sir.
TAPPER: Congress is now on a two-week break, so are they heading right back into those long TSA lines so they can rush back to D.C. to fix it? I will ask a Democratic senator next.
And, as President Trump says the Iran war is not yet finished and weighs sending in ground troops, boots on the ground, one Republican congresswoman says she is decidedly not on board. South Carolina Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace joins the panel ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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TAPPER: Welcome back to STATE OF THE UNION. I'm Jake Tapper.
The looming question in Washington, D.C., right now, will President Trump send boots on the ground into Iran? And, if so, will he do so without seeking the approval of Congress?
Joining us now, Democratic Senator Andy Kim of New Jersey.
We got a lot to talk about it, but I do want to start with the Iran question, because "The Washington Post" is reporting, as you know, that, while the president's not yet made a decision, the Pentagon is preparing for weeks of ground operations in Iran.
"The Wall Street Journal" is also reporting that the president is considering deploying another 10,000 ground troops to the Middle East in general. What's your reaction?
SEN. ANDY KIM (D-NJ): Well, this is honestly one of the most consequential moments that I have ever seen in my time in government, not just in Congress, but before when I worked in national security.
I worked on the ground as a State Department officer embedded with the military in Afghanistan. I worked on the counter-ISIS fight. I want to take a moment to make a direct call to President Trump and congressional Republicans, saying, we cannot have American troops on the ground in Iran.
This is going to be such a risky operation. And for what purpose? I mean, everything I see with Kharg Island, it's just about adding leverage for diplomacy, what we see about potential efforts to open up the Strait of Hormuz. Again, this is not an end to this war.
This is something that will only prolong it and increase the risk at a time that we have seen already so many service members put at harm's way and this administration not giving them everything that they need.
TAPPER: What about sending in ground troops to secure whatever nuclear materials are underground or remain in Iran?
KIM: Well, this is something that has been looked at time and time again. An operation of that magnitude would likely take days, if not weeks, to be able to do.
So what are you going to do? Have U.S. service members -- where are they going to bunker down? Where are they going to get provisions, the amount of supply needed? And just keep in mind, Jake, that over half of American service members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan were killed by IEDs, often at the hands of Iranian-backed militia groups.
It wasn't just the ballistic missiles that was the threat. So, putting them in that kind of way is so risky, and, again, at what cost, and certainly without Congress' approval. And, by proxy, what that means is, it would be without the American people's approval.
And I just want to say, there's a reason why Donald Trump is not coming before the American people for approval for this war. It's because he knows what the American people feel, which is that they don't want this, that they want a government that is focused on them, lowering costs.
And not only is he not lowering our costs. He's increasing it. And now it's the American people that are paying for this Iran war, $200 billion that they want, instead of helping us lower health care costs, helping us lower costs of certainly groceries. And now our gas prices are through the roof. And so the American people clearly don't want this.
TAPPER: Let's talk about the funding of Department of Homeland Security. You just heard the border czar, Tom Homan, say that President Trump opposes the compromise bill that was passed by the Senate because he -- the president wants all of DHS funded. And at a time of heightened security threat -- he didn't say this -- this is -- but I'm paraphrasing -- it's troubling that DHS isn't fully funding. Late Friday night, House Republicans passed a continuing resolution that's against what the Senate did. It's going to fund the entirety of DHS, including ICE and Border Patrol, for eight weeks.
[09:20:07]
Chuck Schumer says this is dead on arrival in the Senate. So are Democrats not going to come back and negotiate? Where does this stand?
KIM: Well, first, I will start by saying, Trump, like his approach on the Iran war, has no clear objectives for how he wants to move forward when it comes to DHS.
I mean, how many times have we heard him, Jake, talk about how he doesn't want to move forward on anything unless we pass the SAVE America Act, and so many other things like that just send mixed signals?
It's clear that the president is not focused on this. And, again, it's something where the American people are left hanging because of the president's incompetence here.
What we know is that we had a bill that we passed through the Senate unanimously, a bipartisan piece of legislation that sits over at the House of Representatives. If that bill went for a vote on the floor of the House of Representatives, it would have passed. I have heard that from Democrats, as well as Republicans, former colleagues of mine in the House.
So what is standing in the way? It's the fact that, if that passed with support from Democrats and some of the Republicans, Speaker Johnson probably would have lost his job or at least would have had it brought into question.
And so, for the Americans that are standing in line right now at the airports, know that that's because Speaker Johnson cared about his job more than what you are going through in your lives. And I just find that to be such a huge problem.
TAPPER: How long can this shutdown realistically go on?
KIM: Well, first of all, I have to say, Tom Homan did an excellent job of dodging your question earlier in the show when he said that he doesn't know why Trump didn't start paying the TSA agents sooner if they had the authority all along.
Well, I know the answer to that. The American people know it's because he didn't care about them, that he cared about ICE. He cares about his efforts to antagonize and assault the American people in our communities. We have seen no remorse for the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.
And so that is where things are at. This shutdown should have ended. That's just a very clear statement. It should have ended the other day. It should not have gone along all this way, because what the Trump administration is clearly doing is going against the demands from the American people.
And that's what I saw at the No Kings rally yesterday. I spoke in front of thousands of people there, every single one of them united in saying what we see happening in our communities, the lawlessness of ICE, we don't want that here in our own homes.
TAPPER: So, the House Republicans passed a bill that would fund all of the Department of Homeland Security for eight weeks, which does seem as though it is something of a compromise. It's not what you want, but it's only for eight weeks, so Democrats can continue to have another opportunity to address the ICE and Customs and Border Patrol issues.
Is the Senate going to stay out of session for the next two weeks?
KIM: Right now, the House has before them still the bill from the Senate. They could continue on. Instead, Speaker Johnson again chose to leave town and not actually take up the bill that could get passed through.
He knows that he's sent over something that is just not going to get the support in the Senate. We have been through that before, kicking the can down the road. The American people deserve an actual solution to this problem. And that is what we see so problematic.
And, again, it's about focus on the American people, the affordability and cost of living issue, and the fact that they don't stand for this lawlessness out there. The reforms that we're asking for, the fact that Tom Homan continues to say, oh, we're not going to have them take off their masks, I mean, we see again, just the intransigence that is happening and the lack of having learned any lesson from all the chaos they ensued in Minneapolis.
And I think that that's what we need to show the American people.
TAPPER: If you are satisfied with the way that Senate Democrats are doing this, are you confident about the leadership of Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer? Do you want him to stay the Democratic leader?
KIM: Well, look, I am confident that Democrats are strongest when we are united. And, right now, we are united. This is the most united I have ever seen the Senate Democrats and certainly Democrats in Congress across both chambers.
What we see right now so clearly is now the Republicans are the ones that are fighting amongst themselves. This is the most divided I have seen the Republicans.
TAPPER: So is this a vote in confidence? I mean, are you supporting Chuck Schumer as majority -- as Democratic leader?
KIM: Well, I certainly -- I have been supportive of our leadership right now. I have been supportive of what we have been doing and having this united front against this lawlessness of the Trump administration.
And I think that that's really what the American people are seeing is, what we get when the Democrats are united and the Republicans are constantly fighting themselves.
TAPPER: All right, Senator Andy Kim, Democrat of New Jersey, thanks for being here. I really appreciate it, sir.
KIM: Thanks, Jake.
TAPPER: From inflatable Trumps to dinosaurs from the Arctic Circle to deep red states, what do the No Kings protesters want?
Stick around for my panel.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:29:03]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHNSON: This gambit that was done last night is a joke. I'm quite convinced that it can't be that every Senate Republican read the language of this bill.
So we're going to do something different. We're going to do the responsible thing. Republicans are going to continue to govern and do the right thing morally, politically, legally, and politically.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Republican-on-Republican violence there. Shutdown talks are breaking down, Republicans in the House and on the Senate not on the same page.
My panel is here with me now.
Congresswoman Nancy Mace, Republican of South Carolina, let me start with you.
Speaker Johnson taking something of a shot at his Senate counterpart, John Thune, there. What do you make of it?
REP. NANCY MACE (R-SC): As he should. I mean, we're at war, and the Senate decided not to fund the Coast Guard, not to fund our Border Patrol in only our TSA agents. It was unacceptable, and, in fact, President Trump came out against the measure as well.
And Senator Thune needs to reconvene the Senate, come back in, do it by unanimous consent. You see how they want to do it and approve what the House did on Friday.
(CROSSTALK)
[09:30:02] TAPPER: I thought the Senate -- I'm sorry to interrupt, but just -- I thought that the Senate compromise funded everything except for ICE and Customs and Border Patrol.
MACE: Oh, it funded TSA only, it was my understanding of it, but we didn't get funding for Border Patrol. That was very important, especially when you have the national security risks we have right now. We should be funding all those things, all of it together.
TAPPER: Congressman?
REP. SUHAS SUBRAMANYAM (D-VA): That's not how I read it. It funded everything about ICE, basically, and part of CBP. And, in fact, they actually funded parts of CBP that deal with visas, for instance.
And it was a deal that the Senate Republicans passed unanimously, with House Democrats willing to support it. We didn't get everything we wanted either. That's how compromise works. That's how deals work in Congress. House Republicans are the only thing standing in the way of ending this airport chaos right now.
MACE: That's just not true.
TAPPER: John Thune said something very positive about this legislation passed by the Senate. He basically said Democrats didn't get any of their restrictions.
SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes.
TAPPER: ICE and CBP are already funded because the Big Beautiful Bill passed last year, and that they're going to increase funding for CBP and ICE when the budget reconciliation comes up. He thought it was a good deal.
JENNINGS: Well, I think he thought it was the deal that was possible for them in that chamber. And that's the thing.
There's two parties in Washington, the House and the Senate. And I think that's what we're really seeing here because they have two different sets of rules and two different sets of dynamics. I mean, for the average American traveler, the average American taxpayer right now, they're looking at all this going, am I going to be able to make it to spring break? Am I going to be able to move around the country?
And so I don't know how it's going to resolve. It seems like we're at something of an impasse here. I just know that there's thousands of Americans who are going to go to airports and find themselves mightily disappointed, although I would point out that it does sound like that the TSA agents are at least going to get a paycheck on Monday...
TAPPER: Maybe, yes.
JENNINGS: ... because of this emergency that President Trump declared, which I do think was a good idea, because it sounded like we were on the brink of this -- even a larger collapse when we have already had. TAPPER: Ashley, is this working for Democrats? The polling I have
seen shows that the American people don't support either side. They don't support Republicans more. It's like net negative 22, but they also don't support the Democrats, net negative 12.
ASHLEY ALLISON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, I don't think the airports are the thing that are going to get Democrats' polling numbers up.
I think getting a clear vision for the direction Democrats want to take the country for the midterms is what is going to change their current polling. I do think, though, that this shutdown will ultimately impact Republicans more than Democrats.
It won't help Democrats, but it could hurt Republicans.
TAPPER: Because they're the incumbent party?
ALLISON: Because -- well, yes. And they're in power. They have the White House, the House, and the Senate.
And I know that there are rules, but common sense and logic, if you're American and you're looking at the news and it says, Senate Republicans and Senate Democrats have agreed on something, and they send it,and then you have a Democrat saying, we will pass it, but then a Republican in the House saying, we won't, then the math says that it's the Republicans in the House that are preventing it, even if you don't get everything you want, because you don't...
MACE: We voted on this 11 times, between the Senate seven times.
ALLISON: Vote on it now. Make it 12.
(CROSSTALK)
MACE: We just voted on it on Friday. We have done it 11 times now. And so we're not the problem. It's the left that's a problem.
And now Senator Thune has become a problem and a thorn in the side of the Republican Party. And it's become a national problem.
SUBRAMANYAM: We didn't get to vote on the Senate proposal at all. I think, if we had actually voted on it in the House, it would have passed, because enough Republicans want to end the shutdown as well. But we didn't even get that chance. That's what leadership decided to do in the Republican Party.
TAPPER: So you just heard Senator Andy Kim say that, if Speaker Johnson had allowed a vote, then maybe he would have lost his leadership. Is that true?
MACE: I don't believe that at all.
I mean, Senator -- Mike Johnson has the support of the president. He has the support of the Republican Conference. We're all very supportive of Mike Johnson as a speaker. I think he's been a great speaker so far.
JENNINGS: But we can all agree, though, that this is highly irresponsible. We're at war. And we have the thing called Homeland Security closed.
I know it was a long time ago, but let's all go back and remember how this started. Democrats don't want to have any funding or enforcement of our immigration laws.
SUBRAMANYAM: That's not true.
JENNINGS: For this fiscal year, this fiscal year, Department of Homeland Security has been shut down 50 percent of the time, highly irresponsible. And in both cases, it was Democrats, frankly, just throwing a fit, a fit about immigration.
That's it. They care more about no immigration enforcement...
(CROSSTALK)
ALLISON: No.
JENNINGS: ... than people moving around the country.
ALLISON: Let's just be clear. ICE received 75 billion with a B dollars in the Big Beautiful Bill. They are fine. They go to work in the airport.
(CROSSTALK)
ALLISON: Let me finish. They go to work to the airports right now, getting paid, not even doing the things that are like screening. The secretary said -- or Tom Homan said, they're standing at exits.
Like, I don't ever remember seeing a TSA agent standing at an exit and making my time at airport better. ICE is fine. We just want ICE to have more restrictions and not be killing Americans in the street while we also can fund TSA. It seems pretty simple.
(CROSSTALK)
MACE: But the Big Beautiful Bill did not include support staff for Border Patrol. And the border has been open for the last four years. Hezbollah is here.
ALLISON: But it's closed now, right?
(CROSSTALK)
MACE: It's closed now.
ALLISON: Then we're good.
MACE: But what happened in the last four years and the terrorists that came across the border...
[09:35:03]
JENNINGS: Well, we have had four radical Islamic terrorist attacks in the United States in the last...
(CROSSTALK)
ALLISON: And that is not good.
TAPPER: Speaking of Hezbollah, let's turn to Iran.
And, Congresswoman, you posted on X earlier this week saying -- quote -- "If a single boot of a single American soldier sets foot on Iranian soil, I will vote against this."
You would be breaking from President Trump. You would be breaking from Speaker Johnson on this. Do you think President Trump is going to put boots on the ground?
MACE: It's hard to say.
I read this morning that they're looking at plans. And I hope the president has every single plan at his disposal to make the right decision here. When Pearl Harbor happened, it was President Roosevelt that came to Congress to declare war. Even President Bush, when I opposed troops in Iraq, he came to Congress to get an AUMF both in 2001 and in 2002.
If we're going to do a conventional ground operation with Marines and 82nd Airborne, that is a ground war that I believe Congress should have a say and we should be briefed on. We should be able to do that. If we're talking about very high, I would say -- low-signature, high- impact raids, like Osama bin Laden, that was done under Title 50 with the intelligence community authorities, or Title 10 with special operations forces with very limited raids, again, low-signature, high- impact, that's different.
And so that's how I'm looking at this, more holistically. And you're seeing former Navy SEALs like Congressman Eli Crane, like Congressman Derrick Van Orden. You're seeing Senator John Kennedy. Everyone's echoing we don't want conventional war, we don't want troops on the ground.
TAPPER: Yes.
MACE: And I think that's a line for a lot of people. If we're going to do that, then come to Congress and get the proper authorities to do so.
TAPPER: Is there a way for Democrats to capitalize on the fact that most of you agree with her, and there are enough Republicans in the House, at the very least, to force some sort of resolution through a discharge petition or whatever to bring this to a vote?
SUBRAMANYAM: Yes.
I want another Iran war powers resolution again. This president should be coming to Congress now. He's called it a war himself. His administration has called it a war.
TAPPER: He goes back and forth, but yes.
SUBRAMANYAM: Goes back and forth on a lot of things. But he's called it a war. And he needs to come to Congress, especially for putting in ground troops, because the American people are literally paying the price for this war right now. They deserve to have a say through their Congress.
TAPPER: What do you think, Scott?
JENNINGS: Well, I think it comes down to objectives. What are the objectives? And are we meeting them? And can we meet them in the shortest amount of time? Can we take away their nuclear capability? Can we destroy their ballistic missile program?
We have basically destroyed their navy already. Can we turn this place into something that is not the world's largest state sponsor of terror? So, to me, how quickly can you get to those objectives, and how can you do it with the least amount of American troops in harm's way?
Whether they need an authorization or not, whether they can do it via some of these intelligence titles, that's above my pay grade.
MACE: I think it depends on the plan and the objectives.
JENNINGS: But, to me, when this is over, you have got to tell the American people, we went there for this reason, we met all of these objectives, this is what the investment got us, a safer world, and I think that could be true when we get done defanging these people.
TAPPER: Ashley, did you go out? Did you participate in a No Kings rally yesterday?
ALLISON: Tangentially, but not...
TAPPER: Tangentially?
ALLISON: Yes.
(CROSSTALK)
TAPPER: OK. Well, here's some -- demonstrators nationwide, hundreds of thousands, if not millions, turned out for the No Kings protest. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can't express how much I hate Donald Trump, and I think that he's just ruining our country.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He cares nothing about America. He cares nothing about the American people. He cares nothing about the people of the world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: So, the front page of "The New York Times" today: "Will primal scream of No Kings echo in the voting booth?"
And I think that's the question for your party right now. Does this actually mean anything?
ALLISON: Wow. Look, if you remember after...
TAPPER: It's not my work.
ALLISON: I know, I know, I know.
The reason why I said tangentially is also because there were events throughout the entire weekend. I did some stuff on Friday. There's a couple things today that I will be most likely participating in.
But, look, if you remember, after the 2024 election, everybody was like, where's the resistance? Nobody's taking to the streets. Democrats are like, they're defeated. They feel exhausted. They know they are not like the way of the American people.
And I think people like myself said, well, when you lose, it's right to take a step back and say, is marching the only thing that is going to get people to rally around you? We saw first Hands Off a year ago. Then we saw No Kings around the president's birthday. And now we see this.
And I think what the important -- I don't know if this will ring in the voting booths. I know that some of the policies the Republicans are passing is what might actually be the thing that makes Americans not support them in the midterms.
But what a protest like this shows is that there are so many people at home being like, I don't like this. And they think they're by themselves sometimes saying that. And when you have millions of people peacefully go out, rock stars, Bruce Springsteen, Jane Fonda, all these folks coming out and saying, we don't like it either, we're not in isolation, it shows a unifying force that could be powerful.
TAPPER: Did you go to a No Kings rally?
SUBRAMANYAM: I did. I went to six.
[09:40:00]
And I will tell you, there's so much excitement. There's so much energy.
JENNINGS: Six?
SUBRAMANYAM: Yes.
JENNINGS: That's a lot of free speech for a country with a king.
(CROSSTALK) SUBRAMANYAM: You should come. I will get you a T-shirt. You should come.
JENNINGS: That's a lot of free speech for a country with a king.
SUBRAMANYAM: That's a lot of free speech.
(LAUGHTER)
SUBRAMANYAM: And I will tell you, there's so much excitement and there's so much energy. We didn't have that a couple of years ago.
And there's also people -- I met someone who was a Republican actually at the rally, who is -- because of the Iran war, he said he will never vote for a Republican now because of what's going on.
TAPPER: Do you worry that the Iran...
MACE: I did not go to a No Kings rally.
SUBRAMANYAM: You didn't? Oh...
(CROSSTALK)
SUBRAMANYAM: We will invite you next time.
(CROSSTALK)
TAPPER: Do you worry that the Iran war is going to help Democrats?
MACE: Well, I come from a military family. I come from a military district. I worry about the impact of war on our troops and our sons and daughters that we're sending into war.
They deserve an answer to, how does this end? I don't make decisions, obviously, based on what elections look like. I don't think any of us should. This is something I take -- that has such deep gravity and a seriousness. I think it is insulting to equate it to elections.
I just -- this is serious. We want to take out terrorists. We want to take out Iran's nukes. We want to make sure they don't have uranium. And we want to do it with the lowest impact on American soldiers, our sons and daughters from Hampton, South Carolina, Bamberg, small towns across.
The country, the poorest of all Americans, those are the ones that we're sending into war.
TAPPER: Last word?
JENNINGS: These No Kings rallies actually look pretty representative to me of the Democratic coalition. I saw people flying the hammer and sickle in New York City. I saw Hezbollah flags. I saw Hamas flags. I saw Palestinian flags. I saw trans signs.
I see weirdo liberal boomers out there. This is pretty representative of the Democratic coalition. And that's who funds it as well, by the way. And so I think -- I think -- I think -- I think if, if America looks at this and says, what do the two parties stand for, they got it at the No Kings rallies.
(CROSSTALK)
ALLISON: No, I think if you Americans were out there, you were out there, Republican are saying...
JENNINGS: You like hammer and sickle? You like hammer and sickle flags?
ALLISON: That's not what that No Kings stood for. And you know the .
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: They had a bunch of them. They come from somewhere.
(CROSSTALK)
MACE: A lot of commie flags.
TAPPER: Thank you, one and all. Appreciate it.
I should have ended it on your nice...
(LAUGHTER)
TAPPER: Coming up next: As violence rocks the West Bank, Israeli troops pointed their guns at a CNN crew. What happened?
When we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:46:34]
TAPPER: While the world is largely focused on the conflict with Iran, a new wave of violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians continues to rock the West Bank.
And a CNN crew trying to cover that violence was violently detained by Israeli troops.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(SHOUTING)
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Producer Abeer Salman identifies us as journalists before translating the soldiers' commands.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sit down, sit down, sit down.
DIAMOND: So the soldiers just immediately came up and started pointing their weapons directly at us, telling everyone to sit down immediately. Obviously, we're not posing any threat here.
The commander comes straight for our camera and within seconds ...
(SHOUTING)
DIAMOND: ... a soldier has just put photojournalist Cyril Theophilos in a choke hold, forcing him to the ground.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't touch him like that. Don't touch him like that. Give me my phone.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: And it got worse.
CNN's Jeremy Diamond joins us now live.
Jeremy, what exactly happened? Is everyone all right?
DIAMOND: Yes, Jake.
Well, thanks for asking. My team is doing well, including my cameraman, Cyril Theophilos, who's shooting this interview right now.
We arrived in this village of Tayasir in the West Bank about 12 hours after Israeli settlers set up this illegal outpost there and violently assaulted multiple Palestinians. And when we arrived, we saw Israeli soldiers on the hilltop alongside this outpost standing idly by.
But it was minutes after we arrived and we were interviewing Palestinians in the area that suddenly you saw that scene unfold there, where these Israeli soldiers immediately escalated quite violently, assaulting my cameraman, Cyril, and ultimately detained us for about two hours.
And what was remarkable was not only the fact that the soldiers were only taking action against us and the Palestinians in the area, and not against those settlers who established this outpost -- that's illegal under Israeli law as well -- but also the conversations that I had with some of those soldiers during our detention were quite revealing, showing the way in which these soldiers see themselves as participants in this settler movement.
One of them acknowledged to me that that outpost was illegal under Israeli law, but he said: "One day, it will be legal."
And that's the pattern, the Israeli settler playbook, to create facts on the ground and then get this right-wing government in Israel to legalize those settlements under Israeli law.
TAPPER: And we saw some images on Twitter that you posted of Cyril looking quite banged up. And I know that that wasn't in the piece that you just ran, but it's really disturbing.
What is behind this new surge of violence in the West Bank and the fact that the Israeli government and the Israeli military seem to be supporting it?
DIAMOND: Well, there's been a huge increase in settler violence since October 7, 2023, in the West Bank. The Israeli government has legalized dozens of these settler outposts, legal under Israeli law, but still illegal under international law, which is an important distinction to make here.
But during the war with Iran, we have seen a spike in violence once again. At least seven Palestinians have been killed by Israeli settlers, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, since the beginning of this war with Iran. That is nearly as many as were killed by settlers in all of 2025. And it just gives you a sense of how out of control this Israeli settler violence is now getting in the West Bank.
[09:50:00]
And it's been really quite remarkable to see the reaction in Israel to our reporting. It has aired on multiple Israeli TV news channels. And there's a real conversation now brewing about what this government needs to do about it in ways that we haven't seen before.
And, obviously, this is not just about what happened to our crew, but these actions by Israeli soldiers and settlers that take place against Palestinians almost every single day in the West Bank -- Jake.
TAPPER: Well, please send our love and strength to Cyril, your cameraman. And thank you so much for your brave reporting.
Completely unacceptable what's going on in the West Bank and what happened to you. Thank you so much, Jeremy.
DIAMOND: Thanks, Jake.
TAPPER: Sharp words from Pope Leo this Palm Sunday. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:55:18]
TAPPER: Sharp words from the first American pope in his very first Holy Week, telling the faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square that Jesus is -- quote -- "the prince of peace who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war" unquote.
Pope Leo did not name any names, but it's worth pointing out that, while we are all used to America's enemies, al Qaeda, the Taliban, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Iranian regime, them using their religion to justify war, what's new is how much the U.S. secretary of defense invokes God while justifying war.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETE HEGSETH, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: Blessed be the lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle. May almighty God continue to bless our troops in this fight, give them wisdom in every decision, endurance for the trial ahead, unbreakable unity, and overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: The pope apparently does not approve.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
POPE LEO XIV, LEADER OF CATHOLIC CHURCH (through translator): He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them, saying, even though you make many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: To all those who celebrate, please have a peaceful and meaningful Palm Sunday.
"FAREED ZAKARIA GPS" starts next.
