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- [00:03]
A
Hey everybody, and welcome to here's the Scoop from NBC News. I'm Yasmin Bisugian. Coming up on the show today, we are one month into the war with Iran and we are going to hear from Iranian women who have risked everything to share their voices with us. Plus, a federal judge is siding with Anthropic in its dispute with the Pentagon. And women's hockey is ready to score with television audiences. First, though, we're heading to Washington where a senator's pulled an all nighter to pass a bill to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security minus Border Patrol and ICE after weeks of pretty tense negotiations. So now it's in the hands of the House and things are not looking good. Here's Speaker Mike Johnson at a press conference this afternoon.
- [00:47]
B
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.
- [00:56]
A
And I'm going to Meanwhile, you have some 65,000 TSA workers who've gone more than 40 days without pay. Yesterday we saw the highest call out rate since the shutdown began, 3,400 TSA officers didn't come to work. That's on top of the 500 that have already resigned. So for that I want to bring in NBC News chief Capitol Hill correspondent Ryan Nobles, our MVP of the week because of the mess that is Capitol Hill right now.
- [01:22]
B
Hey, Ryan, thank you. That's the only award I'm getting this week, but thank you.
- [01:28]
A
So the Senate passed a bill and they sent their version to the House. They passed it around 2 o' clock in the morning today and then they left for two weeks recess. And then the House met today. But Speaker Mike Johnson told us this afternoon the Senate's version is a quote unquote. And he said this verbatim joke. What was the Senate's version and what are the Speaker's reservations with it?
- [01:56]
B
So the Senate version was the funding of almost all of the Department of homeland security, probably 99.9% of the department of Homeland Security with funding for Customs and Border Protection and ICE removed from the package to allow for an extended period of time for the two sides to negotiate these reforms that that Democrats have been asking for from the beginning of the year. As it relates to ice, it's important to keep in mind in the context of this that the enforcement mechanisms of ICE and CBP are fully funded through last year's one big beautiful bill. It's one of the biggest, wealthiest law enforcement organizations in the world so it's not in any way, shape or form gonna prevent any of the immigration enforcement tactics and policies from being implemented by the Trump administration. Senate Majority Leader John Thune realized this was only way to get Democrats on board with this plan. It was going to require Democratic votes in order to get over the finish line. So last night, in the middle of the night, he put a bill on the floor to do that, fund all of those things, save for CBP and ice. One senator could have said no to that. Any Republican senator could have walked in the room and said, nope, I don't agree to doing it this way. We need to have more of a debate. We need to take this process a little bit longer. Not a single one did. It passed effectively unanimously.
- [03:18]
A
But.
- [03:18]
B
Well, the House of Representatives came in this morning, saw what the Senate did, and basically were angry. Conservatives thought that they were selling out the President and selling out CBP and ICE by taking them out of this funding package. And now Speaker Johnson is basically returning the volley with what is essentially a 60 day continuing resolution or a 60 day short term funding bill that would fund all of the Department of Homeland Security, including CBP and ICE for 60 days to allow for more negotiations to. Democrats have already said that plan is dead on arrival. Democrats have said over and over again they're not giving ICE or CBP a nickel until they get the reforms that they're looking for. So what does that mean? We are locked in a staring contest. And Yasmin, in the past when you and I talked about this, I'm like, well, the Easter recess, usually cooler heads prevail. I don't think that anymore. This is a never ending story. And I don't know how we get out of this because the leaders on both sides of the aisle in both chambers have decided that, that it's better for them politically to stay in this fight, which I have to believe that the American people feel very differently about that.
- [04:25]
A
So this continuing resolution that the speaker said he is bringing forward, that's got to get voted on by the House, that's got to get passed by the House, and then it's got to go back to the Senate. You already said when it comes to the Senate, that's doa, but they're going to take it up, I assume, anyway. But they're already in recess. So how does that work?
- [04:42]
B
It could be two weeks before they even look at it. You know, I don't know. The Senate thought they'd done their work. There's video of them all leaving Washington last night to Head home to their districts. They have responsibilities in their states. They obviously have family obligations during the spring break season. Obviously, there's a severe lack of communication between Senate Majority Leader Republican John Thune and Speaker of the House Republican Mike Johnson. So I don't know. Does Senator Thune tell them they've got to come back in the next 72 hours to vote on something that he knows will not pass? Mike Johnson's in a position right now where he is kowtowing to a relatively small group in the House of Representatives. If you put this bill on the floor on Friday, it would probably get north of 300 votes, maybe 320. Almost every Democrat would vote for it, and a majority of Republicans would vote for it. If he were to do that, the conservative Internet sphere, the loudest right wing voices in his conference, would drive him crazy. That would threaten his speakership. That would make his life miserable. And if the Republicans lose the House of Representatives this fall, his chances of holding on as Minority leader would probably be gone. And so he is responding to that base of his party right now by taking this move, because I guarantee you this bill would pass and it would pass easily if it were actually put on the floor.
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A
So Speaker Johnson also talked about the President signing an executive order which the President had announced just to pay the TSA workers. That has now happened. How is that going to play out? Will they get paid immediately? How long are they going to get paid for? Does it stick?
- [06:22]
B
So the Office of Personnel Management told us that under any circumstances, once the money is released, it takes five to 10 days for that to process and get into the bank accounts of the TSA workers. So it's not going to happen tomorrow. But the other part of this is we don't know where this money is coming from. Like, what appropriations bucket is he able to take this from? And that money is not infinite. So how long and how much money do they have to pay these TSA workers? That's an unknown question, and it's certainly not the solution to this problem. It is a band aid at best. And the other thing that I think is important to keep in mind, and we've spent a lot of time talking about TSA officers because they have been hit so hard by this. But let's not forget about all of these people that are working behind the scenes to keep us safe, that we don't know anything about. The cybersecurity guy that's working at a terminal, you know, in, in Southern Maryland, making sure that a hacker that's trying to break into a water system somewhere is not successful. The frontline FEMA manager who's monitoring the weather forecasts all across the country to see where FEMA employees are going to have to descend upon at a moment's notice to make sure people get the resources they need. None of those folks are getting paid either, and they're still showing up to work every day. And members of Congress seem to be unconcerned with the devastating toll that that's taking on their lives as well.
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A
So I want to be clear here. There is no bill that's heading to the president's desk, it seems, anytime soon in the next 48 hours. This is a tough political moment for this president and his party, Ryan. His approval rating is around 40%. The war in Iran is raging on. Gas prices are up. Inflation's going up. There are 3,000 no Kings demonstrations that are planned for this weekend as well. Is this another political liability for the Republicans in a midterm year in which they risk losing control of the House and Senate?
- [08:15]
B
Well, I think it's a political risk for everyone, but generally, shutdowns, first of all, shutdowns impact everyone negatively, but it tends to be the party in power that takes more of the brunt of that. And so, given all of the other headwinds that Republicans and the president have been facing over the past six months, this is just another thing added to the pile. I mean, think about it, Yasmin. You could get up for work, and you have to go on a work business trip. You pull into the gas station to top off your tank, and you're paying north of $4 a gallon. Then you drive to the airport to get in line at the security line, and it's five hours long. You have to rebook your flight multiple times, and you have to pay for the rebooking fees as you're waiting in that security line. Then you get off the plane in whatever state you're in, and you've got to deal with the G prices all over again. You gotta deal with all this, and you gotta worry about coming back. I mean, it's gonna be a constant reminder for so many Americans everywhere they go, about the policy decisions that this current group of lawmakers are making. There's enough blame to go around everywhere, I think, on this, Yasmin. And who pays the biggest price politically, I think, is still very much an open question heading into November.
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A
Ryan Nobles, I wish you well, my friend.
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B
Thank you. Will somebody else stop talking about shutdowns? I don't know when that will be, but Someday.
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A
Never.
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B
I should have stayed a sportscaster.
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A
All right, coming up, what it's like to live inside Iran right now. We're gonna hear voices from the ground. That's in just a moment. In the meantime, do us a favor. Hit subscribe wherever you're listening to our podcast right now. It really helps us out and you'll never miss an episode. We'll be back in a bit. Olivia loves a challenge. It's why she lifts heavy weights and likes complicated recipes. But for booking her trip to Paris, Olivia chose the easy way. With Expedia, she bundled her flight with a hotel to save more. Of course, she still climbed all 674 steps to the top of the Eiffel Tower. You were made to take the easy route. We were made to easily package your trip. Expedia made to travel flight inclusive packages are atoll protected.
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C
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- [11:11]
A
We are back with here's the scoop from NBC News. Today was supposed to be President Trump's deadline for Iran to either reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face strikes on their power plants. But last night, the president announced on Truth Social he would be extending the deadline to reopen the Strait of Hormuz for another 10 days as they are continuing negotiations. But that does not mean the war with Iran is on pause. Israel has accused Iran of not heeding warnings to stop firing missiles at Israel's civilian population. And the Israeli defense minister said Israel's strikes on Iran will intensify and expand. Meanwhile, inside Iran, millions are living in an information vacuum. They are cut off from the world in near total Internet blackout, left with nothing but rumors, fear and the haunting question of what is next for them. NBC News foreign correspondent Molly Hunter has spoken to some Iranians inside and outside the country and is bringing us those accounts today. For their safety, some of them have asked us to only use their voices, not their names. Hey, Molly.
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D
Hey, Yasmin.
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A
I love that you brought us these voices from inside Iran. I know that you've been in contact with a number of people there. Tell us who you're talking to and what they are telling you about, what life is like right now, inside of Iran.
- [12:35]
D
So being in contact, I think, covers a really wide range. So for the sake of our audience's understanding of how kind of our reporting has worked is these were all voice notes that were sent to us. So we got in touch with three different women. One is in Tehran, one is a US Iranian citizen who is outside of Tehran, and one is elsewhere in the countryside. So two of them are outside of a bigger city, one directly in the capital, which is getting hit the hardest. And so it took us weeks to get these batches of voice notes, and they were sent over a couple of days, not in the last few days. We have not been able to reach any of them. There's been an Internet blackout. They talk about their daily experiences. We didn't ask pointed political questions. We asked, what is it like right now where you are? Yasmin, this is Miriam. She is an artist. She's actually been able to get online and actually upload some of her conceptual images. And she talked a lot about the fear that she holds, the anxiety she holds. But also she talked a little bit about the hope and the fragmentation, too.
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E
There was a horrifying sound. The house shook. Then came the screams. The scene was apocalyptic. I saw a body without a head. I saw a hand separated from a body. I saw a father crying out, searching for his son. Imagine living in a situation where you truly do not know at any given second, what will happen to you. Will that missile or bomb fall on you or one of your fellow citizens?
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A
So often, as I speak to Iranians, both inside the country and amongst the diaspora, there is that real sense of, how do I reconcile these feelings of both wanting something to change, but also being so afraid? And what's interesting to me is there has also been kind of a change in sentiment a little bit. Right. Because before these strikes began, there seemed to be an overwhelming idea from Iranians that they wanted to see significant change amongst the leading class. Right. They wanted help from the United States to get this change going. I spoke to someone three weeks ago here on the podcast. We called him Kourouch. He said he felt safer with the bombs than he did being governed by the current regime. How are Mariam and other people feeling now versus how they were feeling then?
- [15:11]
D
I think that's a really fair assessment, Yasmine. We both spoke with a lot of people after those huge protests in January, and there was this collective momentum and this collective agreement that maybe something had started, maybe a spark had been lit that would actually lead to change. The thing that I kept in mind, going through these voice notes was that Miriam or these two other women don't have access to information or news from elsewhere, so they look out their window. They know what their experience is. But you already said this word, isolating. It's incredibly isolating not knowing, oh, is Isfahan also getting hit as hard as where I am? Is the countryside also getting hit? But I think for Miriam, she has reached a point after almost four weeks of war now, of being very, very scared, of not knowing exactly where it's going, but also at peace.
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E
I love Tehran. This is the city where I was born and grew up, and I want to die here. If Tehran is going to fall, then I will fall with it.
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D
But, Yasmin, we also heard from someone who we're keeping anonymous, who talked about the fragmentation and the disunity that you just mentioned inside the country.
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A
People who were united before against the Islamic Republic are now divided themselves. I had the worst argument ever with my own sister who supports the war.
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D
It's really hard to get a sense 90 million people are not in Monolith. But all three of them talked about their fears of divisions internally, of the fact that, have they lost this kind of unifying moment against the regime? How do they get that back? And no one had an answer. And I also want to be clear. We didn't ask anyone really political questions which could be dangerous to answer.
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A
Yeah, certainly you want to protect their safety, especially when we know a lot of their communications are being monitored. But you talk about the division, and I think it's such an incredibly important conversation because it's happening. It's happening, as you mentioned, not just domestically inside Iran, but it's happening amongst the diaspora in the uk. What have you been hearing from them?
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D
That not only are there divisions within the Iranian community here in London, but there are these internal divisions that everyone feels. And this one woman named Parnia, she says she wakes up every morning and half her brain feels hopeful that maybe this is the day, maybe this is actually the start of real change. And the other half worries for her entire family, which still lives in Isfahan. And she is able to communicate with her family as regularly as possible. She was there during the protest in January. She believes that this is a price worth paying.
- [17:53]
E
We outside Iranians, outside Iran, we are
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D
actually more hopeful than the Iranians inside
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E
because they don't see the change what
- [18:02]
A
we do, because we have access to all around the world, and we can compare their speeches. We can compare, like, we know who's dead, who's not.
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E
So yeah, we actually.
- [18:16]
A
We see it going in a right way.
- [18:19]
D
This was last week, Yasmin. And her feeling is that because she has access to free information, she has more information than her friends and family who are inside Iran.
- [18:28]
A
I think also that division you talk about, the internal division, is something that is very prominent amongst both the Iranian diaspora and people that are inside Iran. I've seen it even within my own family members that are watching the news coverage every single day, but also to the point that Iranians in the diaspora are safe and they're able to, yes, see all of the intricacies of this war and see who has been killed, but they're also not waking up to bombs overhead, not worried that, you know, if their kid goes out in the street to play, they'll never come back. Which is a very real, you know, issue right now for the Iranians that are facing war. We heard from Parnia and what she wants. What about from people inside Iran? What are they most worried about? What do they want?
- [19:21]
D
I think regardless of how they felt at the beginning, regardless if they felt that hope in the first days, the first weeks of the war, we're now four weeks in, and there is the real question of what if the US And Israel don't finish the job that they say they have started? What if the regime stays intact and no one knows what's next? This is what Miriam told me.
- [19:45]
E
What I fear is the fragmentation of Iran. What I fear is a civil war in Iran. I'm angry at some of my own people who believe that a military attack would bring us freedom, ignoring the experiences of Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and many other countries.
- [20:04]
D
And I want to be clear, I'm not sure how Mariam felt in the first couple of days of the war, but this is how she feels about three weeks in.
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A
And she's still in Tehran, Maryam.
- [20:13]
D
And she is still in Tehran. And she is using her real name. And she has said and told us that she wants to use her real name, she wants to show her picture, and she wants to use her real voice.
- [20:26]
A
And that in and of itself is incredibly courageous, knowing how scrutinized all of the communication is by the Iranian government. And I will say, I think, you know, as there were talks of the United States potentially launching on Iran, that was certainly one of the many things that a lot of Mideast experts brought up. The potential of Iran becoming an Afghanistan, Iran becoming an Iraq. Oftentimes, when the United States tries to instill democracy in these countries in the Middle east, that is what people look to as what happens in the aftermath of it all. Did you get a sense of any hope from any of the people that you were speaking with?
- [21:02]
D
I think they all felt it, which I think for me, sitting in London safely, I'm not Iranian, I have no family in Iran, is really hard to understand because we know that civilians are dying. And if you are one of those civilians, it is very hard for me to put myself in that position and think that maybe there is a better day coming. Maybe this actually will lead to goodness. But one of the women that we spoke with who is a US Iranian dual citizen, she is sheltering with relatives outside of a major city. She says hope is the only thing that keeps her going.
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A
I hope these bitter days will pass, that Iran's future will be bright and
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B
that we will finally have the natural
- [21:46]
A
right of a free country, a country without foreign interference and without invasion. It's incredible to hear her say that. But oftentimes I feel as if, you know, Molly, you've done an incredible amount of war reporting, as have I. Oftentimes the only thing you can, the only thing you can do in times of despair is hope, because otherwise you really have nothing. Right.
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D
It is the only thing that keeps a lot of people going. And people have told us that.
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A
Molly Hunter, thank you for bringing this to us.
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D
Absolutely. Thanks, Yasmin.
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A
We are going to take a very quick break. And when we are back, why TODAY co anchor Savannah Guthrie says she's returning to her anchor seat for the first time since her mom Nancy's disappearance. Stay with us for the headlines.
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- [24:01]
A
And we are back with here's the scoop from NBC News. Let's get to some headlines. In AI giant anthropics dispute with the Pentagon, a federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from designated the company a quote, unquote, supply chain risk and cutting it off from government contracts. So here's what happened. Anthropic had a $200 million deal with the DOD and other agencies that soured when the company tried to get the government to promise that its AI would not be used for autonomous weapons or domestic spying. The Pentagon then broke ties with Anthropic and then labeled it a, quote, unquote, supply chain risk to national security. President Trump said he would also ban the company across other federal agencies in their lawsuits. Anthropic alleged this was a, quote, unquote, unlawful campaign of retaliation. The judge agreed, calling the designation arbitrary and capricious. The Defense Department and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A group of Epstein survivors is suing the Trump administration and Google over the disclosure of their personal information in the latest Epstein file releases. Now, while the government later removed it from publicly released files, the survivors allege that their information continues to come up in Google search results and AI generated content. The plaintiffs are seeking minimum damages of $1,000 per survivor from the Justice Department and punitive damages from Google. The group also asked the court to order Google to immediately and permanently take down the survivor's personal information. The Justice Department and Google did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The war with Iran continues to send shockwaves through the economy. The S&P 500 and NASDAQ just had their worst two days of the year. And the Dow and the Nasdaq are now both in correction territory, extending a sell off that has now left all three indexes down five straight weeks. Meanwhile, oil prices are up again today with US Crude oil ending the day at its highest level since 2022. NBC News Senior business correspondent Christine Roman says the pain of the pump could soon spread to the housing market. Another tough week for stock investors as oil prices and gas prices rise. Stocks are falling here it's been a long time since we've seen losses this deep. At the same time, you've got mortgage rates rising. Essentially the war in Iran is raising the cost to buy a home. 6.6% is just about where the 30 year fixed rate mortgages. So you've got stocks down, mortgage rates up, gas prices up. All of that because of the war in Iran. Amidst the heartbreak that our colleague Today show co anchor Savannah Guthrie is feeling, we do have some good news. For the first time since her mother Nancy went missing in Arizona, Savannah says she is ready to return to the show. She'll be back on April 6th. In her first interview since Nancy's disappearance in February, Savannah told colleague Hoda Kotb that coming back felt like part of her purpose.
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C
I want to smile, and when I do,
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A
it will be real
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C
and my joy will be my protest.
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A
And we'll be sharing Hoda's full interview with Savannah in our feed on Saturday. In the meantime, anyone with information on Nancy's disappearance is urged to call the FBI tip line at 1-800- call FBI. And finally, apparently all it takes to get some TV time in America is an Olympic gold medal, a viral White House controversy and a Saturday Night Live sketch that had the whole country talking about you. That is what happened to us. Women's hockey finally getting their first broadcast this Sunday. The Professional Women's Hockey League's New York Sirens face off against the Montreal Victoire at 1pm Eastern Time on Ion. It's part of the league's takeover tour, which is all about taking the game to new markets. After three Olympic gold medals. That is what I would call a mic drop moment. Or I guess a puck drop, as it were. That is going to do it for us. Here's the scoop from NBC News. I'm Yasmin Vesugin. We'll be back on Monday with whatever the weekend may bring. And if you like what you heard, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And you can also subscribe to our daily newsletter, the Inside Scoop. It is a deeper dive on the main stories of the day that comes out every weeknight straight to your inbox. You can sign up for the Inside Scoop as part of our paid subscription@nbcnews.com we'll see you Monday.
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