Who Will Be Iran's Next Leader?

0:00Okay, this breaking news we could soon know who Iran's new leader will be. Amadi Kornish and we're one week into this war with Iran. There are developments on several fronts this morning, heavy bombardment in Tehran over the past few hours. Iran's state media says a busy shopping street was hit. Israel says it started a new wave of strikes there. In the US saying it has intensified attacks on Iranian targets. So here's a video showing a US strike on a drone carrier vessel. Iran is hoping that we cannot sustain this, which is a really bad miscalculation for the IRGC in Iran. The Pentagon is saying Iranian missile attacks have decreased by 90 percent. The threat however remains, a missile fired by Iran actually hit an oil refinery in Bahrain.

1:00It's set it on fire. Now the three-man council running Iran is getting ready to introduce a new Supreme leader. We don't know who that is. We don't know exactly when this will be revealed. But President Trump saying that he needs to be involved in that. CNN's Nick Robertson is live in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Nick, we know that Iran has long prepared for a potential kind of attack. So tell us about this process for this new leader. Yeah, look, the council is supposed to appoint a new leader and decide amongst themselves. It's hard to see how President Trump can interject himself into that. The best effects that the United States appear to be able to create is on the ground going after the drone launchers, the missile launchers, the sort of headquarters of the security forces in Iran because that's a way to sort of lift the lid off the population.

2:00And President Trump, P. Hakeseth as well, have talked about the population of Iran being out of come out on the street. So getting rid of the security services, every big, complicated, maybe impossible, impossible scale job to achieve from the air, that seems to be underway. What we've witnessed here today in Saudi Arabia, again, is Iran's ability to sort of pick and choose and change its tempo. There were a lot more strikes around Riyadh last night than we've seen recently. Three ballistic missiles were intercepted on the way to the Prince Sultan Air Base, important air base, just outside of Riyadh. There was a drone that was intercepted a couple of hours later in the east around energy facilities, around about that same time a cruise missile was intercepted near that important air base. And then several more salvos of drones around Riyadh possibly around that air base. The knock on effect of that was some of the international flights coming into Riyadh.

3:05It didn't arrive, now it's not quite clear if it was that intense missile activity. But there was a knock on effect on the ground and we've been at the airport today talking to people who've been trying to get out of the region. I talked to people at a driven 13 hours from Kuwait to get to Riyadh to get on a flight to back to Europe. I talked to a young Spanish couple who'd driven eight hours from Kuwait again to get on a charter flight out of Riyadh. So Riyadh is a hub for people exiting the region. But what we've seen Iran do overnight is effectively have an impact. It appears on the air services operating out of here. Some of them are running, but there was a blip overnight. Okay Nick Robertson, thank you for that update. Now given what Nick is just telling us about how this is affecting things in the air. We're bringing in Frank Kendall. He's the former secretary of the U.S. Air Force. Thank you for being here with us. First I want to talk about this, we're in the era of drone warfare.

4:08I heard Nick say something really interesting that Iran is appearing to be able to pick and choose its tempo. Can you talk about what you're seeing in their response? Yeah, what we're seeing is what probably couldn't have been expected. Iran has a pretty good inventory of the drones that we talked about as well as mobile ballistic missiles. We boot around that truck and cruise missiles. And Iran's a big country. We had a very difficult experience in the first 12 or trying to find the scud missiles that it's not the same as using. And the same is generally going to be true here. We can bring a lot of forces to bear on this problem, but it's just a very difficult problem. And now you're trying to hunt down and find individual vehicles. It's very difficult. Although we did learn that the U.S. was able to down a drone carrier, so we know this is very much part of the effort here. I heard something interesting, which is President Zelensky of Ukraine. Seeing what's going on, these waves of attack by Iranian kamikaze-style drones, which

5:11have been used against him by Russia and Ukraine. And he says, quote, we received a request from the U.S. for specific support and protection against these drones in the Middle East. And he said, I gave instructions to provide the necessary means. Can you talk about what it is like to go up against these drones? You have a million dollar interceptors, and then they cost 30,000 a piece. What does Ukraine know that maybe the U.S. is now finding out? You're pretty out very good problem. We've been well aware of this for quite a long time now. We've been working pretty hard on common drone capabilities. Those targets are relatively expensive. They're also relatively easy to track, and not that hard to engage, but you don't want to kill them with a very expensive Patriot interceptor, for example. So finding things that are more efficient, jamming, directed energy possibly, and lower cost interceptors, what we need. When Ukraine's been doing this for four years now, they've been under the burden of absolute necessity, feeling a lot of capability, experimenting with tactics.

6:11And so we can learn from them, and we should be doing that. I think that's actually the right thing to do. I want to follow up on something that the Iran's foreign minister actually said. He was in an interview with NBC, and he was asked about the possibility of a ground invasion or ground attack. Here's how he responded. Are you afraid of a US invasion in your country? No, we are waiting for them. You are waiting for the US military to invade the ground troops? Yes. Because we are confident that we can confront them, and that would be a big disaster for them. They want to project strength, but can you talk about this concern? Obviously in the US, very many people are worried about boots on the ground. I think it's highly unlikely. Iran's a huge country. It's got very difficult terrain. They'll just accept it along to support an invasion, would be daunting.

7:13I don't think the administration has any attention to doing that. I don't think it ever has. And I'd be surprised if we would try to attempt that. You could see some things along the coast to try to suppress some of these missile threats that we were talking about, but anything beyond that, or maybe some special operations rage into the country, I think would be, would be extremely difficult to attempt, and we're not prepared to do that. That would take quite a buildup of forces that you haven't seen yet. Okay, Secretary Frank Kendall, thank you so much for your time and expertise. Appreciate it. Thank you. Good to be with you. Now coming up on CNN this morning, we're going to talk about this very sudden shake-up in the Trump administration, Kristi Known, out at the Department of Homeland Security. So what pushed the president to finally make this call? And if they rise, they rise. The message from the White House, as gas prices surge amid the U.S. war with Iran, plus a deadly tornado tears through Oklahoma at the moment it forms was actually caught on camera.

8:15Hey everyone, it's Audi, and I've got another special episode of The Assignment for You. I was at the podcast festival known as On Air Fest. That was in Brooklyn just last week. And for this, I knew I wanted to bring along a friend, because we're going to talk about work spouses and mine for a very long time was Ari Shapiro of NPR. You heard us on the radio being very serious, and during the eight-minute segment when our mics are off, we would cackle about the latest thing that we had found on Reddit or on Instagram or whatever was bubbling up in the culture, and we never really got to laugh like that with each other and finish each other's sentences on the radio in quite that way. Listen to The Assignment with me, Audi Cornish, streaming now on your favorite podcast app. I'm CNN tech reporter Claire Duffy. This week on the podcast, Terms of Service, is the AI market above all waiting to burst. And if so, how should we all as individuals be thinking about our personal investments and

9:16retirement accounts? To help me answer those questions, I have Ross Mayfield here with me. He's an investment strategist for Bayard Private Wealth Management, where he helps clients make informed investment decisions. The dot com bubble of the late 90s is the go-to example, particularly for today, because it's a brand new technology. This also resembles pretty closely the mid-1800s railroad bubble, which is my favorite bubble. Yeah, it's great, right? Because railroads are such an old school technology, but in the 1800s, they were the AI of their time. It was this game-changing technology. Listen to CNN's Terms of Service wherever you get your podcasts. So we have the first big cabinet shake-up of President Trump's second term, and this all unfolded in a matter of hours. So, Kristi Nome was about to walk on stage to deliver the keynote address in Nashville when she, and I guess all of us found out she was fired. Her replacement Senator Mark Wart-Mullen also seemed taken by surprise.

10:17You know, the President, I still got a communicate, so we'll talk about it moving forward. And the President, I've already talked, obviously, is saving money out. We need to talk with the President, and we're going to get on the same page and do what things we need to do. When did you find out, sir? A little bit before you guys do. Okay, it seemed though, like the writing had been on the wall for known for a while, amid turmoil at the agency, the fatal shooting of two U.S. citizens, and then the flundering poll numbers, and then a personal scandal. It was a hearing on Capitol Hill this week that seemed to tip the President over the edge.

11:19Okay, so joining me now in the group chat, Noel King, co-host and editorial director of today explained that podcast and Ben Tara's Washington correspondent for New York magazine, Mike Warren, senior editor of The Dispatch and Luke Garcia Navarro, CNN contributor and host of The New York Times, podcast the interview. So we start with the headline, we have not seen this term, compared to the first term, you're fired. With full, complete, with Apprentice reference, can we talk about, Mike, let me start with you, Republicans in this hearing. Tillis, we heard Kennedy, they really leaned into, hey, we think you're doing a bad job, and is that what contributed to this? I mean, there's somewhat of a lagging indicator, I think, right? They were

12:21sort of the final kill shot in this, but this has been going on for a long time. There was a Wall Street Journal article about three weeks ago that really was just the latest in a series of articles. Ben has written one of them about the turmoil, the chaos going on at DHS under Nome's leadership, and it was pretty clear at my deep reading of that article that the White House was pretty much done with, with Nome at that point, and I thought, at that point, after Minnesota, after everything else that had come out, that it was just a matter of win and not if she would be fired, that I think Republicans sort of pointing that out, and really, it was her own party going after her in that hearing, kind of sealed the deal. Because we have to say, in the end, it was not the fatal shooting of two U.S. Americans that led to her ouster, right? It came down to something, it was money. Talk about that. We'll show people what the funding for ice is right now, so they can see, but why did you take the money? Did it. Well, because she said that Trump had approved that ad, and it just looks really bad. It's $200 million dollars. It's her riding around

13:25Mount Wushmore on a horse telling me what was up to the port. We have it. We're going to come back to this. This is the thing in question, a contract for this campaign spending, and where she's in a commercial, I think at one point on a horse, let's see. Why do I love these wide open spaces? They remind me of why our forefathers came here, not just for its beauty, but for the freedom only America provides. I'm Christina. But if you come here the right way, your American dream can be as big as these endless guys. So, she was saying, look, this contract was like the president was on board for what we were doing. Do you think it makes a difference that like, she's the center of the campaign, right? Yeah, because she made herself the center of it. She's been the center of every disaster. Like, this is a woman who just courted mess after mess after mess so publicly that at a certain point, I don't know, it's like something had to get. Well, let's not act like Trump wasn't okay with this. I mean, if you look at reporting throughout the last year, it is indicates that Trump was

14:29okay. And in fact, approved all of this. I think what's interesting is that once she sort of restated that in these hearings, it indicated that she had lost his support. One more thing, the Corey Lewandowski of it all. This is a former campaign manager of the president, someone who is very loyal to him. And in your reporting, if there's a three-legged stool, it's like Stephen Miller, the architect, and known the face. And then as we are learning this week, the role of Corey Lewandowski, which people can't see this, but at one point in this article, he's called the top goon. How did he behave at DHS? Yeah, so you're right. So Stephen Miller was important because he kind of set the rules for what he wanted to have done. Daily quotas and all that sort of stuff. All the big picture stuff came from him. And then Corey and Christie kind of had their little fiefdom that they got to run. He tried to operate kind of under the radar. He would be responsible for signing off on lots of contracts. And as a special government employee, not someone who had been approved in any way,

15:30by Congress. That's right. He was only supposed to be there for 180 days or something like that, but he stuck around for kind of longer than that, it seemed. And every contract for $100,000 or more had to get signed off on by Christie Nome, but Corey was off in the one kind of making these decisions, which meant lots of money could be spent allegedly towards people that he wanted to have get that money. And he kind of was running the show behind the scenes and he wanted to do that quietly. Is it true he was doing polygraph tests looking for leakers? Sure, there were polygraph tests. I talked to the former acting head of FEMA who when he got fired, he went to Nome's office, thought that he was going to see her and get fired by her, but Corey Lewandowski was the one behind the desk. He was basically kind of a shadow secretary. Can I ask you a question because one of the things that came up in this hearing was a plane with a bed in it. And I'm just curious what you make of that. Well, what I make of it is sort of a

16:30relevant, but a lot of people I talked to for the story talked about how Corey Lewandowski and Christie Nome were having an affair, how it was the worst kept secret in Washington, which this kind of wrankled a lot of people. Not only was he a behind the scenes guy making decisions that weren't really supposed to be made by him, but also was he having this kind of improper relationship with the woman who's supposed to be in charge, both of them are married. And we should say your article came out last year, I think Wall Street Journal did something similar. I mean, she was asked about it in the hearing. We're going to talk to the lawmaker who asked that question, but I bring it up because it's something it seems like surfaced in the reporting from employees. Yeah, employees have talked about it. People around Trump have talked about it. Trump himself allegedly knew about this and kind of would have razz Corey Lewandowski about it. You talked about how she was able to survive for a long time. Back in September, when my story came out, there were already rumors that she was on the chopping block that she

17:31might be turned into an ambassador and lose her job at DHS. But President Trump has liked her because she's always been, quote, good on TV. He likes people who are good on TV. I think now that she's not good on TV, what TV is happening. And now that the polling reflects that it's not quite working. So now she's what in the agents of shield, what is it? What is the name of the thing? Does anyone know? Sorry, who knows? It was completely sort of completely made up to have some ambassador to US shield or something. Okay, Ben, thank you for being here. I might make you stay later because we have more questions after the break on CNN this morning. We actually have a team on the ground in Tehran. CNN's Fred Pleikin is the first reporter there as the conflict in Iran unfolds. Plus, Britney Spears, behind bars, what police now say about the iconic pop stars arrest? It is now 25 minutes past the hour. Here are five things to know to get

18:33your day going. Texas Republican, Tony Gonzalez, now ending his bid for reelection. The congressman had admitted to having an affair just this week with a staffer who had later killed herself by self-immolation. Republicans, leaders in the House called on Gonzalez to end his campaign, but they've not pressured him to resign from Congress immediately. President Trump says he's not worried about rising gas prices as the war with Iran pushes oil markets higher. Gas already climbed 30 cents in the past week. And in interview with Reuters, the president says if they rise, they rise. Arguing the military operation is more important than prices at the pump. And today, the home-going service for the late Reverend Jesse Jackson, former president Clinton, Obama Biden, they're all going to be in Chicago for the funeral. Now this event is being dubbed the People's Celebration and it will be open to the public. We've also got some severe storms moving across the southern plains. They're bringing tornado threats from Texas into the Midwest.

19:37And this is a video where you're seeing is a funnel forming near fair-view Oklahoma authorities say a mother and daughter were actually killed because their car was hit by the tornado. And when I add this, Britney Spears arrested on suspicion of a DUI. This is near her California home. Now she's since been released. Police say the pop star was driving erratically when they pulled her over. Spears is expected to appear in court in May. And straight ahead on CNN this morning, a power vacuum in Iran. With its supreme leader gone, the country is on the verge of choosing a successor. Plus, President Trump, deputy senator Mark Wayne Mullin to replace Kristino. I'm Dr. Sanjay Gupta, host of the Chasing Life podcast. What if caregiving doesn't just take from us, but what if it gives something back as well? Multitasking is the worst thing you could do as a caregiver

20:38because the presence is the currency. That's all you can really give you cannot control outcomes. At the end of the day, the presence and if you're multitasking, it's going to muddy up the whole thing. We also don't consider care as productive in our country. Her book is called When You Care, the unexpected magic of caring for others, journalist Alissa Strauss, the magic of caring for others. Listen to Chasing Life, streaming now, wherever you get your podcasts. Good morning. I'm Adi Cornish. I want to thank you for joining me on CNN this morning. It's half past the hour. And we're following this breaking news out of the Middle East. New bombardment in Iran, the US and Israel launched a new wave of attacks on the Iranian capital. Israel says they are moving to the next phase of the war after carrying out 2,500 strikes since

21:38this all began. We actually have a report from the ground in Iran just moments away. Israel also ramping up its strikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon. Presidents have been fleeing from huge swaths of Beirut and its suburbs. It's also hit parts of northern Lebanon for the first time in this conflict. Also, Kristi Nome, now out as Homeland Security Secretary, President Trump said he was moving known to become the envoy for the shield of the Americas, which is a newly made up position. She will leave her position by the end of the month. Now, President Trump wants Oklahoma Senator Mark Wayne Mullin to replace known. We have seen a good bit of Senator Mullin over the past couple of years. And let's just say that Mark Wayne is no Mark Twain. When you're talking about drinking at 10 in the morning, that's a drinking problem. Now, it doesn't mean that there should be no stigma. There's a lot of politicians that have a drinking problem, Jake. Yes, of course. He is also a staunch ally of the President

22:45who is known for making frequent media appearances to defend the administration. Now, over the years, the former MMA fighter has been known for bringing that fight to Capitol Hill. Sometimes, literally. If you want to run your mouth, we can be too consenting adults. We can finish it here. Okay, that's fine. Perfect. You want to do it now? I'd love to do it right now. We'll stain your butt up, then. You stand your butt up. Oh, hold on. Oh, stop it. Say you solution every bullet. Oh, no, sit down. Sit down. Okay. You know, you're a United States senator. Group chat is Pat. So earlier, we heard from Ben and you guys talking about how Kristi Nome had been the face, right? She wanted to be upfront. And the President wants somebody who can defend what used to be his most popular sort of subject with the voters. What is he getting with Senator Mullen? A new person. A new person? The fight? Don't let me go over here. What is getting is this?

23:48Mark Mullen is frequently on CNN's air, for example. He's much more accessible to the press, which is unusual in this environment, especially with Republican lawmakers. That's true. I think some lawmakers at the start of the year were actually kind of wrestled to the ground trying to go to Kristi Nome events. You know what I mean? And so the fact that you could even see him in a scrum is like a different vibe. So he doesn't bring a lot of that kind of baggage to it. And yes, as we've seen there, he is certainly has his own persona. I mean, if you have to break up a possible fist fight and Bernie Sanders is your man to kind of make you sit down. I think, you know, maybe you're a bit of a hot head. Wall Street opinion page with their headline about firing Nome. But what I noticed was their editorial board saying this is a chance to reboot deportations in a more targeted fashion. I think so. And I think, you know, you could do a lot worse than Mark Mullen. I think he's

24:48popular on Capitol Hill. You've heard even Democratic senators say that he's competent. And really, when you think about DHS, it's a huge department and it needs management more than anything else. He has no experience though. I agree. I agree. He has no experience of that. But I do think he has the support of Donald Trump, which is obviously the most important thing. And he has no ambition. I, you know, Kristi Nome, I think, had presidential ambitions. Mark Mullen does not as far as I know. And I think, you know, if you're looking for somebody who can execute his policy, you could do worse than Mark Mullen. I can't not say that is though. He's loyal to the president. He has no experience with the thing that is the most important thing to protect the homeland during a conflict in the Middle East where threats are escalating towards the homeland. And this man has zero point zero, zero experience with any of it. This is a huge agency. Though often when you tap a senator, you get the benefit of the senators knowing each other is up approval. Yeah. And you have to assume on some level that he is competent. I mean, Kristi Nome,

25:51again, we cannot say this enough disaster after disaster after disaster. This guy's coming in and there are no disasters preceding him. So he likes to square up on Capitol Hill. It's something that Trump likes. I, I do think this is a situation where it's worth seeing how he does. Yeah. And just to show the polling, what we know so far, how do people feel about the administration's program to deport immigrants illegally in the U.S. Independence, six, uh, 59% disapproved. Um, so that is the number we are watching to get that back. And the other thing I want to add is Democrats, they are still withholding funding in this partial government shutdown. Some of the things that they're looking for, we mentioned judicial warrants, having a use of force standard. And then I noticed no enforcement insensitive sites, which forever was schools, hospitals. And I see on the list polling sites. Is that the next fight? I think it could be a look. I think whoever the face is of, of this immigration enforcement

26:53fight, the sort of brains behind it all is Stephen Miller. And that's the person that we really have to remember is going to be directing a lot of what actually happens. Is Mark Wayne Moan the man to sort of put a media friendly face on that kind of policy? Uh, you know, he's probably going to be pretty good at that. But we should keep watching and keep tabs on his relationship with Stephen Miller because that's going to be the most important to determine how this actually plays out if he is of course. Okay, thank you so much. I want you to say here, we have more to talk about. One of the things I want to get to hear is the senior international correspondent here at CNN Fred Pleikin, he and his team are actually in Iran. And this is where air strikes were hitting just before dawn. Now CNN was the first US network allowed into the country since the start of the war. We're going to point out here that CNN does, as a result, operate in Iran essentially with government permission. We're making fairly good progress towards Tehran. It isn't very,

27:54very long drive though. Some things that we are seeing, we already went past one place where apparently there had just been an air strike. There was thick black smoke billowing over one place. So it seemed like a fairly fresh air strike. Also some destroyed buildings that we saw from our vantage point as we were driving past. The other thing that I would also say is that there are definitely more checkpoints than usual. We did see checkpoints with fairly heavily armed security personnel. Other than that though, it seems as though things are going on and we certainly don't see any sign of order collapsing here. Taking a quick break for a coffee along the way we've been driving for several hours. There's a couple of things that we've noticed. Number one is that first of all, all the shops are open. All the shops are really well stock, even with fresh things like for instance fruits and vegetables. Coffee obviously also available as well. And then also the gas stations. There's no long lines as gas stations. Fuel seems readily

28:58available and you just don't see any sort of degree of panic anywhere. Okay, Iran State Media reports the council running the country is getting ready to announce the new Supreme Leader. He's the son of the late Supreme Leader, considered a frontrunner. Speaking to Axios President Trump said quote, they are wasting their time. I have to be involved in the appointment just as he was in Venezuela. So joining us in the group chat, Jonathan Panakoff Director of the Atlantic Council's Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative. First can you just talk about Trump's quote there? Yeah, help. Look, I think this is a question actually that gets implicitly in terms of does Trump actually want regime change or leadership change? Because what he seems to be indicating by saying he wants to be involved in the leadership picking is that implicitly it's okay for the regime as a whole to stay, for cuts forced to stay, for the guards to stay. But that's very different than what he told the people at the beginning of

29:59this campaign where he said look when the bomb stop, it will be yours to choose. That would seem to be a more regime change type concept. And I think that's going to become a real question here as we go forward. Do you think he's saying something like that because there are like diaspora voices of Iran who are saying look we should be the ones to come into this democratic and he's trying to somehow imply that because like he's not in control of what's happening inside Iran period. 100%. I think look I think Venezuela actually probably gave a little bit of a misperception about how much influence he was going to be able to have here and what this was going to be like. And I'm thinking that's probably frankly ringing in his head a little bit as he goes forth. Venezuela and Iran could not be more different fundamentally and how they operate. The president is not going to have the chance to have the same level of impact. Frankly, he's not going to be able to have any impact on how the Iranian regime goes forward and choosing a new leader. Can you talk about the person who's next in line kind of next Ayatollah? I think that one of the names I'm seeing is Machabah Kemeni? Yeah, that's right. So Machabah is the son of the

31:02previous Ayatollah, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The reality is that he is probably the most hard line of candidates that could be chosen. In other words, if Khamenei, if Machabah Khamenei end up coming in and being the leader, it's a reflection that I don't not only do the guards still have full control of the system but that you shouldn't expect to see significant change within the Iranian regime. Can you talk about what that means also for the region? I mean, Trump has said he'd welcome, let's say, a Kurdish uprising within Iran, Kurdish communities around the Middle East, longing usually for their own independent state. And I think the Kurds in Iraq have said, listen guys, we're not going to help you with that. Is this a wild card? I don't think it's a wild card but I think it certainly is a new fact that here in a new variable in a situation that already probably has too many. Look, the reality is that if you ended up having Kurdish efforts to frankly fight and have an

32:03unindependence, you could then have in the north, especially asiri efforts and Balakh efforts. There's 16 major minority groups in Iran. There's a lot other fewer smaller minority groups. Iran is three times the size of Iraq. It's got 92 million people almost. So if you thought Iraq was a challenge in terms of fragmentation possibly just in north with the Kurdistan region, this would be a much more destabilizing situation throughout the Iranian country. If you had so many groups all fighting for their own independence. May the time before I let you go, is there anyone coming up in the ranks so to speak that Israel would remotely want to deal with? Look, I think it gets to this question of what regime change actually looks like versus leadership change. I'm sure that there actually are and I think it's very unlikely that we know who those individuals are right now. Folks that frankly kind of the mid to lower senior level ranks could play that type of role. Could play that type of you know almost Gorbachev like role potentially. But I think we're going to have to wait and see. We're still

33:06quite a ways away from this. We're noting only seven days into this war. I think there's quite a bit more to go. Okay, well that means you'll be back. So thank you so much for being here. That's Jonathan Panekov. Next on CNN this morning we're going to talk about the exit of Kristino after fire hearing on fire hearing on Capitol Hill. Democrats and some Republicans saying look it was about time. So sister girl had to go. I am sorry that it took this long. I'm going to be joined by the one when you just saw a Democratic Congresswoman Sydney Kamalagardov. And we're also going to talk about the cost of war. How much the president's fight with Iran is costing you in taxpayer dollars. The relationship between the FBI director and the president has always been complicated. Unravel the complex dynamic in the CNN original series. Standoff the FBI,

34:08power and paranoia from your Sunday March 22nd on CNN and next day on the CNN app. So Secretary Nome at any time during your tenure as director of Department of Homeland Security have you had sexual relations with Cory Lewandowski? Mr. Chairman I am shocked that we're going down in peddling tabloid garbage in this committee today. Kristino is now out as Homeland Security Secretary after a week of tough questions during hearings on Capitol Hill. We're bringing in the group chat the lawmaker who is in the middle of that moment Congresswoman Sydney Kamalagardov a Democrat of California. Why did you ask her that question? It was a question about judgment and decision making. It was a question about conflict of interest and national security risk. She is head of one of the most important agencies in this government

35:08overseeing 260,000 people and we are in a situation where Americans are being shot in the face, detained, deported, brutalized, a five-year-old child has been arrested and cities who are still recovering from natural disasters have not gotten their FEMA money. Here's the thing. She you guys got into it back and forth so I can't play an answer from her in that moment. I will play an answer from her from Representative Jared Moskowitz of Florida who was giving her a chance to answer and here's what she said. I want to give you an opportunity to answer on the record to Ms. Kamalagardov's question. I know you said it's garbage and it may be but I really think you need to say the word no into the record so that you can clear that up. I think the ridiculousness of this and the tabloids that you are quoting and referencing are insane and this has been something that I've refuted for years and I continue to do that so that would tell you is we can move on hold on hold on we can move on I'm not going to belabor it if it is this is

36:08this is what you do hold on I'm not doing anything. I'm not doing anything. They're both left okay as you go off and you attack conservative women and you say that we're either stupid or sluts all right so listen that's what you do. You attack conservatives women and say that we're either stupid or sluts. Can you respond to that moment sort of how she responded to all of this? She didn't answer my question and ultimately like I said it's about judgment we are in the middle of a war and we have staff who are at risk they're putting their lives at risk and we need someone who is operating with very clear judgment right and you have in situation there are so many anti-fretinization policies out there in organizations because it can become a problem liability conflict of interest we could be have someone in a senior position susceptible to black male many of the questions that both my colleagues and senators were asking had to do with how contracts were being vetted and approved reviewed I mean all of those things come into a cultural moment I

37:10was watching the view as one is want to do the middle of the day the host started debating her answer but also the question and whether or not this is a kind of double standard. My issue is where was the no I mean I've been married 27 years if someone asked me if I had an affair with Cory Lewandowski I would say no right so why why didn't she just say no she doesn't want to be so arbitrary that's why you know I think that this the implication is well I think some people when it comes to giving respect to tabloid rumors just choose not to address them I do think there's a big big case of feminism going on when it comes to conservative and liberal women when we should be backing each other to a standard and holding each other to a standard where we're not trying to say hey we don't appoint women to positions of I want to ask about this because there are lots of ways to talk about Lewandowski's role as a special government employee and you you hear a kind of cultural commentary about was this the

38:13way to do it well the Wall Street Journal is not a tabloid and at the end of the day we're talking about accountability we are talking about accountability I represent a district where folks have been homeless because of the fires and Altadena in palisades and we haven't gotten any money and we have called and called and called and went from FEMA and the question is who is reviewing these requests and why are we not getting our money why is Tillis not getting his money I mean at the end of the day that's what it's about now I said it is so okay to be offended by the question but it should also be the easiest question to answer and you should want to do it to clear the air because it is about ultimately are you of clear mind when you are making decisions or have you been co-opted or clouded by something else and her employees need to be able to look at her as their leader and say this person is credible okay congressman we heard a lot from Republican senators maybe not so much from Republican House members going after Kristina I'm curious

39:15behind the scenes whether it's these rumors or questions I think that you're asking questions about the money being spent and how it's being spent what are your Republican colleagues saying about dhs about gnomes leadership behind the scenes that you can share with us nobody said that she's gone on both the Republican and the Democratic side mostly because there are Republican cities red cities that also haven't gotten their money from FEMA and they say okay my constituents are suffering and you have the 70 million dollar plane you got a 200 million dollar ad campaign that's all about you and ultimately I think at the end of the day Donald Trump was saying why is everybody talking about her and she's messing up my image so homegirl has to go you now have a new name Mark Wayne moan the senator does that mean democrats will help release money from this partial government shutdown well leadership change is important in dhs but ultimately the values that we've put forth have really nothing to do with her it has more to do with

40:20how Donald Trump right wants dhs to be run so judicial warrants very important you cannot be knocking down the doors without a judicial warrant the face masks are important you cannot be detaining and deporting U.S. citizens you have to have a very targeted approach to how you're trying to run ice and you have to be getting that money out for FEMA so I don't know the senator how much longer you guys gonna hold out we're gonna hold out until the White House comes at the table and reading negotiates and you feel like because gnomes gone that shows that this is working I think it shows that this is working yes I mean let me tell you something the White House does play hardball and they always are gonna take the win and we are going to have to figure out a way to get the rest of the government open but what we are asking for are common sense requests that quite honestly we shouldn't have to be asking for but we are in a new paradigm so here we are I also want to ask about a run and your capacity on the House Foreign Relations Committee

41:23it's interesting there were a lot of agencies that were doged so to speak in the area of diplomacy the State Department is there anything that the U.S. does not have now as a result that would have been helpful in this situation with the war in Iran so it's been really disturbing to hear reports that England that the UK is getting out its people and that we are not you know what we're hearing call the airlines and see if you can get a seat on a plane and get out and that's because so much of the State Department was decimated with all of these cuts from Doge the other thing that's very scary is we've been having these briefings and where is Tulsi Gabbard to give us intelligence to at least help us understand why we have gone into this war but we have thousands of folks I can't get home. May I ask you something representative I'm very curious about where Democrats stand on this war because they've been very good at criticizing the process of how this war came

42:25about about whether they should be whether the administration should be talking to Congress or not getting authorization issues about how people are getting out but what about the actual execution of the war is this a just war in Democrats view in your view I mean is this something that Democrats should be supporting well we had a war powers resolution vote yesterday two hundred and twelve Democrats voted yes we want to retain our power we think and for voted no I mean it's just show the audience who they were representative quay our golden landsman Vargas people broke ranks they didn't agree yeah but for out of you know how many we have I think says a lot I mean at the end of the day I'm upset with those four I'm going to tell you because Congress has just a few major responsibilities one is the power of the person the other is to declare war and so you know I don't want Donald Trump to do my job that's why I show up but but so that's about whether or not Congress was right in two but what do you think about the war itself should the United States

43:28have actually done this and taken out the leadership of well as someone who sits on foreign affairs we had no briefings we had no hearings we had no real discussions and for me that's about collecting evidence to justify why you would send your men and women into battle but after the war after the war and the attack and the war in Gaza Democrats have struggled especially because of their left flank that is very anti-Israel anti-Natiniahu do you guys even have another thing to offer the American people that says if we were in charge this is what we would do well I don't think we should be in around I don't think we should be doing this we I don't I have not received any information that says okay this is the right thing to do yes the itola is bad yes the repression that you see there is terrible I have Iranians in my district who are happy quite frankly that the itola is gone but does that mean that there's a regime change that's the question does it mean that those folks will be safer and it will be more doubted and democratic that's the

44:31question how long are we going to be there I have a nephew who is graduating from the Marines today and if he gets called up and he says auntie why am I going I have no answer for him I have no answer for him you don't agree with anything that you've heard from Rubio nothing that makes me say it's worth those six people dying I cannot say that okay Congresswoman Kamlauger does of California thank you for being here we really appreciate it I want to thank you guys for this group chat really a helpful conversation today we have more headlines coming up including reporting from Fred Plenton who is in Iran so please stay with us the headlines are next