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CNN's The Arena with Kasie Hunt
Trump: "I Have All The Time In The World" To Reach Iran Deal; Trump Addresses War In Iran; New Poll: Dems Up Six Points Across Battleground Districts; Source: Spirit Airlines Close To $500 Million Bailout From Trump Administration. Aired 4-5p ET
Aired April 23, 2026 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[16:00:03]
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Again, the affirmation.
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Yeah. Also, Manu having his kid ask an expulsion question to the leader.
KEILAR: No. He always takes the moment to make the news.
SANCHEZ: Yeah.
KEILAR: Sonia and Sanjay, great work. Very good work on take your child to work day here.
THE ARENA WITH KASIE HUNT starts right now.
(MUSIC)
KASIE HUNT, CNN HOST: Hi, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. Welcome to THE ARENA. It's great to have you with us on this Thursday.
As we come on the air, President Donald Trump making a renewed push for peace across the Middle East. But he wants you to know he's not in a hurry. He posted this afternoon this, quote, "Please be advised that I am possibly the least pressured person ever to be in this position. I have all the time in the world, but Iran doesn't. The clock is ticking. The blockade is airtight and strong, and from there it only gets worse. Time is not on their side," end quote.
This comes just hours after U.S. Central Command announced that American forces had seized a sanctioned tanker carrying Iranian oil in the Indian ocean. All of this designed to force Iran to accept a peace deal.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We are completely strangling their economy through this blockade. They're losing $500 million a day. The Kharg Island is completely full. They can't move oil in and out. They can't even pay their own people. As a result of this economic leverage that President Trump has inflicted over them. So, he's satisfied with that as we await their response.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: At the same time, President Trump is pushing for a separate peace deal, this one between Israel and Lebanon.
Multiple sources tell CNN that President Trump is expected to join direct talks between the Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors at the White House this afternoon. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee also expected to be in attendance. There are just days left in a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon.
We're actually listening to the president talking to reporters right now. Let's listen in.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We were in the Korean War for seven years. I've been doing this for six weeks, and their military is totally defeated. They're outside of the little wise guy ships.
I call them the wise guy ships, the little boats that they have running around with guns in them. We'll take them out, too, when we see them.
But their navy is gone. Their air force is gone. Their anti-aircraft is gone. All of their anti-aircraft machinery is gone. Maybe they loaded up a little bit during the two-week hiatus, but we'll knock that out in about one day if they did. We've done an amazing job. Their leaders are gone. Their leaders are all gone.
Part of the problem is that, that's why I can't really answer your question. They have all new leadership and they're fighting like cats and dogs for who's going to control because we've created a real mess for them, but they've created a mess for the world over the last 47 years. They've killed a lot of our people.
When you see a soldier, a young person or now an older person, but a person without legs or without arms or with a face that got blown to pieces, most likely it was from Iran. It was Soleimani who I killed.
Soleimani loved the roadside bomb. He was an evil genius. He was a brilliant general. Probably we wouldn't be as far advanced had I not taken him out. That was the beginning of it all.
And then I ended the Obama horror show. The nuclear transaction that he made was he gave him a road to the -- you call it. I mean, what the deal that he did, the Iran nuclear deal was so bad it gave him a road to a nuclear weapon. And I will tell you, I deal with them. You cannot give Iran a nuclear weapon.
This is all about a nuclear weapon. They cannot have the nuclear bomb, and they're not going to have the nuclear bomb.
So, we've taken out their military. We've hit about 75 percent of our targets. We stopped a little early because they wanted to have some peace. And we have a blockade that's 100 percent effective. And they're getting no business. And as you know, they're not doing well economically, financially,
they're not doing any business because of the blockade. They want to make a deal. We have been speaking to them, but they don't even know who's leading the country. They're in turmoil.
They're in turmoil. So, we thought we'd give them a little chance to get some of their turmoil resolved. But, you know, and I hope the fake news people like you, I hope the fake news are going to be able to write about it accurately. Because when you say, oh, they're fighting very well, they're not fighting well, they've been obliterated, Jeff. Obliterated.
A hundred fifty-nine ships are in their navy. You know, how many ships are at the bottom of the sea, Jeff? A hundred fifty-nine.
So, you know, and if you read "The New York Times", the failing "New York Times" subscriptions are way down. As you know, that's because people don't believe the stuff anymore.
[16:05:00]
If you watch CNN, you'd think that they're doing well in the war. They're not doing well. They're getting absolutely decimated.
Now, with all of that being said, we'll see what happens. They have a lot of -- we have no pressure. It's only guys like you with a question like that about what's your time. Weve been doing it for five and a half weeks.
(CROSSTALK)
REPORTER: Eight weeks that the U.S. now has been involved with Iran? You had initially said it would be four to six.
TRUMP: Well, I hope that, but I also took a little break. I gave them a break. And remember this -- I want to make the best deal. I could make a deal right now.
Do you know that if I left right now, we had a tremendous success, it would take them 20 years to rebuild. But I don't want to do that. I want to have it everlasting.
I want to have it where they never get -- they never have a chance to get. I mean, the way you asked that question, I did say it. I thought it would take four to six weeks. And I was right, because at the end of six weeks, at the end of four weeks, the military was decimated.
REPORTER: So are you saying --
TRUMP: But now what I'm doing, I don't -- I can't tell you that. I don't want to put that kind of a timetable on it, but it'll go pretty quickly. And well have the strait opened up. Now. Right now, we have it closed. We have total control of the strait. And the fact that it slows, you know, they would have opened it up three days ago. They came to us and they said, we will agree to open the strait. And all my people are happy. Everybody was happy except me. I said,
wait a minute. If we open the strait, that means they're going to make $500 million a day. I don't want them to make $500 million a day until they settle this thing.
So, I'm the one that kept it closed. We have total control of it. And it'll open when they make a deal or something else happens. That's very positive.
REPORTER: Mr. President, the American public -- excuse me -- what do you say to the American people who question how much longer this will take? Obviously, you know that they are having higher --
TRUMP: You are such a disgrace. Did you hear what I just said? Vietnam. How many years was Vietnam?
REPORTER: I understand, sir. But you are --
TRUMP: How many years was Vietnam?
REPORTER: -- a six-week deadline.
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: Well, I did, I took -- I took -- I took the country out militarily in the first four weeks. I took it out militarily. Now what we're doing is sitting back and seeing what deal? And if they don't want to make a deal, then ill finish it up militarily with the other 25 percent of the targets.
We've hit 78 percent of the targets that we've wanted to hit. We've knocked out their manufacturing. We've knocked out their missile production. We've knocked out their drone production. We've knocked out everything.
In some cases, when I say knocked it out, 70, 80, 90 percent. It's amazing what we've done.
So, I've done that within that period of time that I mentioned. But I don't want to rush myself, you know, because every story I say, oh, Trump is under time pressure. I'm not -- no, no, you know who's under time pressure? They are. Because if they don't get their oil moving, their whole oil infrastructure is going to explode. You know what that means? Because they have no place to store it.
And because they have no place to store it, if they have to stop it, something happens and only then can explain -- something happens underground that essentially renders it in very poor shape, and you never recover fully. You can recover 50, 60 percent, but you can never have it like it is right now. And they have a matter of days before that event takes place.
So, I'm not under any pressure whatsoever. We've never had so much ammunition. Our ships are loaded. I call them locked and loaded. They're locked and loaded. They're ready to go. We have much higher quality equipment than we did when we first
started the war, and -- or the military operation, whatever you want to call it. And they're coming to us. The problem they have is they are very disorganized right now.
Well, now, yesterday and I was very pleased with this, eight young women were going to be executed yesterday afternoon at 6:00. And I asked them, call it a favor. I call it just a moral request that they not be executed. And they came back with an answer that they won't be executed.
They're going to release -- it was protesting -- eight beautiful young women, very young women. And they were -- the pictures in the paper. And it's been a story for a little while. And I saw that and I said, let's see if we can save them. And they were it was very nice what happened.
So, they're not going to be what they're doing is, as you know, they're releasing four of them very shortly. And they're going to keep four of them in jail for a period of one month and release them, so they won't be executed. Yeah, please?
REPORTER: So, if you're asking for more time to sort out negotiations with Iran --
TRUMP: I'm not asking you for more time, I'm not asking for them. No, it's not more time. I'm just -- I'm not asking anybody for more time.
REPORTER: If you need more time, does that mean Americans should anticipate spending more on gasoline for the foreseeable future?
TRUMP: For a little while. And, you know what they get for that, you know what they get for that? Iran without a nuclear weapon that's going to try and blow up one of our cities or blow up the entire Middle East.
You want to see what shock would be. And I have to be honest, the stock market is at an all-time high right now.
[16:10:03]
I thought it would have been down 20, 25 percent when we hit -- wait a minute. Wait, can I finish, my question, wise guy?
Stock markets at an all-time high right now. I projected, and I'm pretty good at this, that the stock market, Howard, would drop maybe 20 percent 25 percent. And I understood that. And I said, hey, it's a bad thing, but I have to do what's right for the country. Even the world, because you can't have them. You cannot let them have a nuclear weapon.
So, the stock market, unlike what a lot of people were predicting, I thought they weren't necessarily wrong. The stock market today hit an all-time high, hit an all-time high yesterday, the day before. And it's staying there. I thought oil would go up to maybe $200 a barrel. And oil is at a very
-- a different number than anyone thought. In fact, this country is much lower because we have all the oil we can use. We're actually ships are coming from all over the world to Texas, Louisiana and Alaska. They're coming from all over the world to get oil from the United States, you know, while this is closed, the Hormuz Strait.
So, if you look at what I said, I guess it was right because I said I'd have it four to six weeks. And in four weeks we have totally defeated that military.
REPORTER: Which you began --
TRUMP: So right now, I don't want to rush it because you guys are, you know, trying to make us look as bad as possible. I don't want to rush it. I want to take my time. We have plenty of time, and I want to get a great deal. I want to get a deal where our nation and the world is safe from lunatics with nuclear weapons.
Yes?
REPORTER: If it does go to 200, are you okay with that, sir? If oil goes to --
TRUMP: I think that there's nothing worse than a nuclear weapon that takes out one of your cities or two of your cities, or three. I think there's nothing worse than a nuclear weapon that's going to destroy the Middle East, including Israel.
I think there's nothing worse than Europe being under attack by people that have missiles now that reach Europe, as you know. They don't reach us, but they reach Europe, but they will reach us at some time, probably at not-too-distant future, unless we stop them now.
I think there would be nothing worse than having nuclear holocaust in Europe, London, Paris, various places in Germany, all targeted. No, what I -- what I say is you can't let them have. I don't think it will happen.
By the way, I really think we actually -- it turns out that we are -- drill, baby drill. And it turns out were producing a lot of oil and they're buying the oil. They're going to Alaska, they're going to Texas, Louisiana, and our guys have done a fantastic job.
We're putting out right now more oil and gas than we ever have in the history of our country.
And one other thing, there are more people employed today in the United States than ever in the history of our country. Okay.
REPORTER: I have a question, sir. Is it true that your administration is considering sending 1,100 Afghans to the Democratic Republic of Congo? And if so, do you have a response to --
TRUMP: I don't know, I'd have to check that. Please?
REPORTER: Thank you, Mr. President.
Breitbart News's Matt Boyle just published an interview with Greek Prime Minister Mitsotakis in which the prime minister said that he's rooting for you to succeed in getting a deal with Iran. And he also said he looks forward to hosting you in Greece later this year. Do you have any response?
TRUMP: No, it's really nice. I mean, Greece has been very supportive, actually. Greece has been terrific. He's a terrific guy because he understands the importance of it.
You know, oil goes up a little bit. I hate it. You know I was the one that had it. I had it down to $60 a barrel. And I looked at guys like Howard Lutnick -- Howard, you remember it well. I said, well, we just hit an all-time high in the history of the market.
Think of this. When we hit 50,000, I was told -- everybody was told when I won the election, November 5th, they said, well, during the four-year period, it will be impossible for the Dow to ever reach 50,000. It'll be impossible for the S&P to ever hit 7,000. Impossible.
And you remember that Howard, right? It was going to hit maybe six, seven years, eight years. But I did it in my first year, hit 50,000. Now it's just about at 50,000. And S&P is higher than it was when we started.
And S&P hit over 7,000. And that was before the year ended up, one year.
So, I can only tell you this, it'll end. I don't think it'll be very long, by the way. They're delaying it because they we don't know who to deal with. They are in -- you know, they know who the leader is in this country. We don't know who the leader is in Iran because remember, regime change, Khamenei is gone. It's gone to greener pastures.
He's gone and all of his team is gone. Then a second group came in. They're all gone. And now you have the third group, and they're a little concerned about being gone too.
REPORTER: Sir, would you use a nuclear weapon against Iran? You posted on Truth Social --
TRUMP: No, no. I wouldn't, we don't need it. Why do I need it? Why would a stupid question like that be asked?
[16:15:01]
Why would I -- why would I use a nuclear weapon when we've totally, in a very conventional way, decimated them without it? No, I wouldn't use it. A nuclear weapon should never be allowed to be used by anybody.
(CROSSTALK)
REPORTER: -- Iranians, given a timeline of when they. REPORTER: -- were all very much looking forward to Prince Harry
today, has said that he would like to see you do more to end the war in Ukraine. Do you think it's appropriate for a royal to make those comments ahead of the visit on Monday?
TRUMP: Prince Harry?
REPORTER: Yes, sir.
TRUMP: How's he doing? How's his wife? Please give her my regards. Okay.
No, no, I don't know. I think -- I know one thing. Prince Harry is not speaking for the U.K., that's for sure. I think I'm speaking for the U.K. more than Prince Harry, but I appreciate his advice very much. Great advice.
REPORTER: -- to the -- to the dinner and to the state visit.
TRUMP: Well, I look forward to the dinner. We're having King Charles come. He's a friend of mine. We're really looking forward to it. We've spoken and we're going to have a great time.
I'll tell you, we -- if I had that ballroom built, it would be full. I wish we had more seats. You know, they've wanted a new ballroom for 150 years. Now they're getting the best in the world. We're going to have the best in the world. But, you know, we have a little room that's not big enough to handle what would be a big crowd.
But we're going to have very great people that love the U.K. I love the U.K. I think they made a big mistake on energy. We should open up the North Sea in Aberdeen. We should open it up. And the other thing is they've made a big mistake on immigration.
Okay.
REPORTER: Sir, on TrumpRx, on TrumpRx --
REPORTER: What do you hope to learn from Jeanine Pirro's investigation into the Fed's renovation that you did not --
TRUMP: Say it again?
REPORTER: What do you hope to learn from the Jeanine Pirro's investigation into the Federal Reserve's -- reservation that you did not learn when you visited the site yourself?
TRUMP: Well, look, you know, the Federal Reserve building is a small building. They're going to be in there by the time it opens, in my opinion, for $4 billion, I built a hotel down the road for $201 million that I believe is bigger than the Federal Reserve building, $201 million. The ballroom, I'm going to have the ballroom from $300 million to $400 million, depending on finishes like marbles to quality. You know, quality finishes. We'll go top of the line, but that's a much bigger project. When you look at the fact that they've taken this beautiful building
and destroyed it, they've taken down the beautiful ceilings with eagles, they've taken down the walls that are a foot and a half thick masonry. You couldn't hear from office to office. They ripped it all down. They did. They ripped down these.
Kevin Warsh, who's terrific, said the saddest thing is they ripped down the nicest building in Washington for a boardrooms and all. Did you know about that building? They ripped it down. It was beautiful.
The boardroom building, it was beautiful. And they ripped it down. And probably because it cost so much to fix it. So, I would have done that job for $25 million, had money left over. It's going to cost more than -- in my opinion, it's not going to open for a long time.
You know, Kevin may not be able to have an office. I'm going to have to get him an office. Can you give him an office space?
Bobby, do you have some space over there, please?
ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR., HHS SECRETARY: Yeah, we have a lot of space.
TRUMP: But here's more than you think. But were going to have Kevin sitting right next to you, Bobby. But it may not open for a long time.
I looked at it the other day. It's a see through. See through. You know what that means? The walls aren't even up yet. This is after years and years of construction.
And somehow you have to find out what went wrong. That a small building. I could have done it for $25 million and had money left over. It would have been beautiful, that a small building can cost $4 billion.
It may never open, it may never open. And we have to get to that. On top of that, he's been terrible on interest rates because he should have lowered interest rates. That's why I call him Jerome "Too Late" -- "Too Late" is his nickname -- Jerome "Too Late" Powell.
He likes me a lot. Thank you very much.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, press. Thank you, press.
(CROSSTALK)
HUNT: All right. We have been listening to President Trump there, speaking in the Oval Office. He touched on the war with Iran. He said that part of why the United States gave Iran more time is because they don't know who is leading the country. He said he doesn't want to rush himself on the talks and on the decision. But he also said Iran just has a matter of days.
We're going to dig into what all this means. My panel is here, but we're going to get started with CNN senior White House correspondent Kristen Holmes.
Kristen, you were listening to the president taking questions there from reporters. What were your top line takeaways?
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, first, we're going to have to get clarity from the White House on what he means by Iran has a number of days. Just a reminder, we heard from the Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt yesterday who essentially said that any reporting of the ceasefire being over in three to five days, or that being the amount of time that president Trump was giving them, was fake news. So now, President Trump is saying they have a matter of days. So we'll definitely want to circle back on that.
[16:20:00]
Now, most of what he talked about was what we've been hearing from him. I will say he's spoken a lot about how fractured the leadership is in Iran, and that is because of what we've reported that there is speculation inside the White House that the reason they haven't heard from Iranian officials is because the Iranian officials cannot agree on a unified proposal for negotiation.
This was interesting, though, he said. They are in turmoil. They're fighting like cats and dogs. They don't know who their leader is. And then he said, we don't know who the leader of Iran is.
And that has been something we've been pushing on. Do you know who has the ultimate authority to make a deal? And we haven't gotten a clear answer until President Trump said it right there saying, we don't know who the leader is.
I will say, I also thought it was interesting that he ruled out the use of a nuclear weapon in Iran. That was something that we had been pushing the White House on. They had been dodging that question after President Trump had said he could take out an entire civilization.
And then the other part of this, which, of course, is the politics of all this and the effect on the American people, twofold. One, saying that, yeah, Americans might just have to wait a little bit longer to see those gas prices go down. So, they're going to be paying more at the pump for longer.
And he really got a little bit testy when asked, what about what do you say to Americans who thought this was going to be over by now? He kind of deflected on that question. He admitted that he thought it was going to take three to five weeks, but then kind of said that he did take three to five weeks with a bunch of different reasonings for it, whether it was that he had decimated the entire military or that they had taken a hiatus.
So that hiatus didn't count as part of the fighting. But again, no real answers for Americans who are asking questions about how long is this going to take?
HUNT: Indeed. All right. Kristen Holmes for us at the White House -- Kristen, thank you. Always appreciate you.
My panel is here in THE ARENA. CNN chief national affairs correspondent Jeff Zeleny, managing editor at "The Cook Political Report", Carrie Dann, CNN political commentator, former communications director for Vice President Kamala Harris, Jamal Simmons, and former Republican speaker pro tem, Patrick McHenry.
We are also joined by CNN national security analyst, former deputy director of national intelligence, Beth Sanner.
And thank you all for being here.
Beth, I do want to start with you just on kind of to pick up on what Kristen was saying there in terms of the leadership of Iran and what we know and what we don't know, there's some interesting reporting in "The New York Times" today that kind of walked through some details, at least according to their reporting, about the son of Ayatollah Khamenei and the role he's playing or isn't playing, the role the generals are playing or aren't playing. And a little bit of the TikTok in the lead up to essentially the vice president and the negotiating team here in the United States, pulling back, deciding not to go to Islamabad to restart those talks.
What do you make of what the president has said? And given all of the background that you have here and the things that you've known in the jobs that you've had, what would you highlight as most important?
BETH SANNER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, I mean, I think this point about not knowing who is the final arbiter of the cacophony of voices in Iran right now is, I'm sure, true. You know, there have been infighting.
There was infighting in Iran, and we expected everybody who watched Iran out of government, inside government. Everybody expected infighting when the supreme leader died. You know, we didn't expect like this.
But -- so the question is, who makes that final decision to arbitrate between all these different factions? I think what's clear is that, yep, we're not sure who's doing that. And the president just confirmed that for us. But we also know that the -- more hard line, they're all hardline, the more hardline IRGC folks are in ascendance. They are the ones who seem to be making the decision.
And the reason I say that is because we're in an escalatory cycle again, with Iran. We're doing it differently, but we capture some boats and they, with complete impunity, boarded and took two ships yesterday, and we didn't do anything. So, in terms of who's controlling the situation right now, we are in a place where the Iranian leadership is not responding except by showing us that they have a vote and they and their demands are probably higher.
So, we're raising the level of difficulty for ourselves right now. And it is going to take time. But the Iranians think they have more time on their stopwatch than we do. I don't know if that's true or not, but that's what they're signaling.
HUNT: Yeah. Challenging landscape for sure.
I mean, Patrick McHenry, political conditions here in the United States would suggest that the president has less time than the ayatollahs or the ayatollah does, or that the government of Iran does.
What are the pressures on the president here around this?
PATRICK MCHENRY (R), FORMER SPEAKER PRO TEMPORE: Well, midterms, that would be the traditional way to measure this. The media cycle that has been the measure of every -- ever since President Trump came down the golden escalator, the media cycles is a daily thing. So somewhere between a day and the election day, frankly.
[16:25:02]
But what you're hearing from him is he has no pressure because the midterms aren't shaping up well for Republicans. I think we can get into the numbers there. President Trump's economic performance by the American people is not good in traditional measures. But this time in 2010 for President Obama, President Obama still had a high approval rating higher than Republicans on his handling of the economy in 2010 was an absolute disaster for Democrats.
We are living in a media cycle now that is much faster than it was in '10, and anything could happen between now and election day. To mitigate the obvious pain for Republicans. But faster is indeed, of course, better.
HUNT: It is. I mean, you're right about the speed of things. It's really remarkable. We could be living in a totally different world come October. I think it's a really good point.
Carrie Dann, I know we're going to dig into the midterm polling and the pure politics of it soon, but -- set the stage. You guys have been looking at the battleground districts for Republicans. That's the pressure on the president here, right?
CARRIE DANN, MANAGING EDITOR, COOK POLITICAL REPORTER: Oh, exactly.
HUNT: What are you seeing?
DANN: And when you ask voters if they are more motivated to vote for a generic Democratic candidate and a generic Republican candidate, specifically on the issue of Iran, Democrats have a 12-point lead right now.
If you are a Republican member of Congress running in a competitive district, the last thing that you want to hear is gas prices might still be high in the summertime. The last thing you want to hear is there may be boots on the ground, or there may be. This may be a prolonged conflict, but I promise you, it's worth it.
Republican candidates want to hear the president say cost of living. They want him to say inflation. They want him to say, I feel your pain. And this is a distraction. Every time he's talking about this, every time he's talking about the ballroom, as he was doing earlier today, that's time that he's not spending on those issues that I think candidates really desperately want to hear.
HUNT: Yeah. Beth Sanner, I want to ask you one more one more question before we let you go. Thank you for hanging with us through the president's press conference.
How does the state of play right now in Iran interact with some of the bigger questions we have on the world stage, including Taiwan, in terms of the depletion of our weapons stockpiles, but also the lessons that our adversaries are learning from what's happening in the Strait of Hormuz right now.
SANNER: Well, you can look at it from lots of different ways. I think that China is kind of a strategic winner in this, but they want it to be over. I think that they can look at the strait and the situation and see, wow, you know, we had this great tactical brilliance with our military. And I don't want to take away from that, but we failed to remove the entire military, you know, most of it, but still thousands of weapons left. And Iran is living to fight another day. We are not ten feet tall.
And the third thing I think, you know, while it's important that, that the United States has this depletion of our future readiness, you know, we are not ready to fight a war tomorrow over Taiwan. I think that it doesn't actually change the Chinese timeline.
And I really want to caution people on this that it doesn't mean it's go time for China, because President Xi is still quite cautious.
HUNT: Fair enough. All right. Beth Sanner, thank you so much for being with us today. Really appreciate it. The rest of our panel is going to stand by.
But joining me now is Democratic congresswoman from California, Sara Jacobs. She sits on the House Armed Services and Foreign Affairs Committee.
Congresswoman, thanks for being here.
I want to start with what the president just said, that he suggested that Iran just has a few more days for the ceasefire before things, potentially before they apply more pressure. It's a little bit of a conflict with what he had said before, which was that he was on no timeline.
What are administration officials telling you when they're coming up there to brief members of Congress about all of this?
REP. SARA JACOBS (D-CA): Yeah, I mean, to be honest, we don't really get a real strategy or plan from administration officials. We get briefed on the tactical successes that our military has had. And I think there's no doubt that our military has had tactical successes. But how those tactical successes actually fit into a broader strategy, how this war is going to end, how we're actually going to get to a negotiated solution that is in the benefit of the United States. They have no answers for us on.
And, you know, I think it's very clear that they launched this war without any real strategy or plan, and now are sort of dealing with the consequences of that. And we really only have bad options moving forward from here. And that's why presidents from both parties have previously declined to do these kinds of strikes, because it will put us in this position where you know, we are likely to get now a deal that is worse than the deal we had under President Obama with the JCPOA after 13 service members have been killed and billions of dollars have been expended.
HUNT: Congresswoman, one of your fellow members of Congress, Senator John Fetterman, was with me a couple of days ago, and he argued that some Democrats, he seemed -- he said some Democrats are, quote, "cheering for Iran". There have also been. I know Chris Murphy put something up on Twitter.
[16:30:02]
He later said it was a joke talking about the American blockade and how it was not working and something that he had said about that. What do you say to critics like Fetterman about where Democrats are in terms of wishing for success or failure in in Iran?
JACOBS: Well, that's absolutely a ridiculous thing for Fetterman to say. I represent the biggest military community in the country. I have 2,500 San Diego marines who are en route to the Middle East right now to potentially be deployed in a ground invasion in Iran.
This is personal to me and to my constituents and to their families who are worried about them. And what we want is to get an end to this war so that we can actually make sure that were addressing the economic costs that are happening right now, where my constituents in California are paying over $6 a gallon for gas, that we can get the strait reopened and actually get traffic moving, that we can protect our service members who are being sent over there with no real strategy or plan.
That's what we care about. That, to me, is being more pro-American and more in favor of our troops than someone who's saying, well, their lives clearly don't matter enough. We can send them into harm's way without any real strategy or plan, or how were actually going to end this and get anything remotely good for American national security.
HUNT: One other thing that you had said last month about President Trump is that he was the first president, quote, stupid enough to help Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, achieve regime change in Iran. Can you explain further what you meant by that?
JACOBS: Yeah. So Prime Minister Netanyahu has been trying to get the U.S. to work with him on regime change operations in Iran for decades. This is why he was so opposed to the Iran deal that President Obama negotiated. He wanted us to do a military action with him.
Then, he's asked, you know, other previous presidents, and every president has declined because they know that it would get us to this point where now we only have bad options of a negotiation where were likely to get a lot less than we had before. And these real economic costs and costs to our alliances that are really damaging to U.S. national security.
And so, you know, I think that we have seen that this is something that, you know, president -- that Prime Minister Netanyahu has wanted, has been trying to get us to do. And this is why every other president has declined, because it's not actually in U.S. national security. And we are here where we are with the strait closed, giving Iran billions more dollars because we need their oil to get out. All of these things that are hurting Americans.
HUNT: Fair enough. It's worth noting, you know, in this in this conversation broadly about the Israeli prime minister, you're the youngest Jewish member of Congress. You have family living in Israel, but you've also been a critic of Israel. And I'm interested to know what your diagnosis is of your party and its stance around and toward Israel right now. How would you explain it?
JACOBS: How I would explain the Democratic Party's stance is, first of all, we're not a monolith. There are lots of different opinions in our party, and that's not a bad thing. We all represent our districts, and our districts are different.
But by and large, what I would say is just how you can be pro-American and love America without supporting anything that Donald Trump is doing. You can also consider yourself pro-Israel and understand the need for a Jewish state without supporting any of the things that Prime Minister Netanyahu is doing. And in fact, in many ways, being a good friend is standing up to people like Prime Minister Netanyahu, who I would argue are actually damaging Israeli national security, damaging the U.S.-Israel relationship and damaging the safety of American Jews with his reckless behavior.
HUNT: All right. Congresswoman Sara Jacobs, thank you so much for spending some time with us today. I really appreciate it.
JACOBS: Thanks for having me.
HUNT: All right. Coming up next here in THE ARENA, Florida, Florida, Florida. The growing pressure on Governor Ron DeSantis to redo the maps in his state to try and offset Tuesday's election results in Virginia.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. TIM BURCHETT (R-TN): We need to start playing hardball, this redistricting stuff, it's ridiculous. We're going to lose everything because we don't have any guts to fight it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:38:48]
HUNT: All right. Welcome back.
One day after Virginia voters opted to pursue mid-decade redistricting, all eyes now on the Sunshine State, where President Trump's former primary rival, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, is basically the party's last chance and last hope to eke out maybe a few more Republican gains ahead of the 2026 midterms. Key Republicans involved in redistricting, though, say they've been kept largely in the dark on DeSantis' exact plans.
The effort comes as a new poll of voters in competitive House districts shows Democrats hold a six-point advantage in those battlegrounds, an advantage that, if held in November would put any district that Trump carried by 10 points or less in significant danger of flipping for Democrats.
All right. Joining us now in THE ARENA, former West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin.
Senator, it's always great to see you. Our panel is here, too, listening -- listening to this conversation.
JOE MANCHIN (D), FORMER WEST VIRGINIA SENATOR: Good to be with you, Kasie.
HUNT: We miss you here in Washington. What is your diagnosis for why -- I mean, the president's approval rating is in the 30s. And his -- many of his MAGA -- loudest MAGA supporters have turned on him very publicly. It looks like it's going to be a bloodbath in November for Republicans.
MANCHIN: Yeah.
HUNT: You are someone who spent a lot of time trying to understand these voters. You have so many of them in West Virginia.
What's going on?
MANCHIN: Well, everybody's confused. They're worn out. They're just worn out. I mean, they're hearing too much. It's just over -- overload, I guess is.
And they're just tired of all of this toxicity that we have in the whole process right now.
You know, you're talking about redistricting. Everybody's worried about redistricting. The only people's worried about redistricting is the parties, the poor people who are supposed to have representatives that represent them. And that's how this this whole experiment that we have of being able to govern ourselves by picking the people we want to represent us.
No one's ever talking about this is really going to be good for the people, because they're going to have a district that lines up with the person, that they're going to be able to elect. They could care less about that. This thing is so far out of whack now. The parties have gone completely crazy, both of them just eking out power.
Someone better start thinking of what their purpose of being involved in public office is all about. Public service is not self-service, and the political parties, the ruling political parties are destroying our country because the people have very little to say about what's going on. And you can't have a democracy that's truly based on a representative form.
We think we could basically govern ourselves when the political parties that George Washington warned us about would be the engines to allow unscrupulous people to take advantage and take basically the power away from the people. That's exactly what the parties are doing in every turn.
HUNT: You were a Democrat in the Senate. Do you think that the Democratic Party is destroying the country, playing a role in it?
MANCHIN: I think both of them are, absolutely. Right now, the parties don't -- anyone sitting there right now that's been in the House or the Senate -- you know, it's basically the four corners.
The chairman -- I was the chairman of the committee. We worked together with the other side, John Barrasso and I getting a piece of legislation out. It didn't -- it wasn't up to us. After we got it out in a bipartisan way, you think you'd go right to the floor and get a vote?
It didn't do that. It was all about packaging and doing this and that. So basically, the system is not working. Now, the president has all the power. He has the trifecta, and everybody's upset about that. Well, basically we have taking the power away from the people.
When I talk about that, 45 percent of the people like myself are basically no party affiliation yet were disenfranchised in voting. The 20 million people can't even vote in the state. That's basically a closed state. You either have to belong to one party or the other.
HUNT: Yeah.
MANCHIN: And it's just horrendous what's going on. Horrendous.
HUNT: So speaking of nonaffiliated voters, Carrie Dann, "The Cook Political Report", has this new poll of battleground house districts that's giving us an idea of where control the fight for control of the house stands at this moment.
What are you learning about independents and nonaffiliated voters and where they are?
DANN: So, sort of the most striking thing, I think, in this poll was in the generic ballot. Democrats have a lead of six points. These are 36 districts that are going to control matter for the House, of the control of the House. Donald Trump won these districts in 2024 by two points. So that's a really dramatic swing for voters overall. And it's being fueled by independents.
Democrats are winning independents by 25 points. That is a really astonishing number for independents.
And you know what? It's not because they like Democrats. They hate Democrats. They hate Republicans too.
And they hate Donald Trump. Their disapproval of Donald Trump in this poll was 70 percent. That's very high.
They also hate Democrats. But yet when they are asked about issues, whether it is the economy, whether it is ICE enforcement, whether it is cost of living, whether it is taxes, they're picking Democrats by a significant margin.
The only issue that Republicans still have an edge with, with independents or with voters overall, is border security.
JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: I mean, the warning signs could not blink any brighter for Republicans. There's no doubt about it. I mean, on every metric, but we talked about Florida before.
HUNT: Yeah.
ZELENY: There's a lot of thinking that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis can ride to the rescue here. That is really raising the expectations of what he'll be able to do, because there are very strict laws in Florida that prohibit the over gerrymandering of things.
So, yes, perhaps a couple seats, but the idea that he can suddenly, upend all of this is just not the case by the Florida Republicans I talked to. So he's not holding some secret plan here. And that I think is raising the burden for him. And he might find himself on the other end of some anger once again, as he's familiar with.
HUNT: Yeah, Jamal?
JAMAL SIMMONS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You know, Kasie, the American public is usually very malleable about where -- how the president lands on a particular piece of legislation. I've been around the American presidency my entire adult life, and they're willing to let presidents change their minds if they agree with the goals that they're trying to achieve. Are they going to work on affordability, are going to deal with health care? Bill Clinton talked about the economy. Barack Obama talked about health care.
If they're doing that, they'll say, okay, we'll let you work out the details. Right now, they don't actually know what Donald Trump's up to. Right?
He's in Iran. He's saying it's about nuclear weapons, but then he's fighting over the Straits of Hormuz, where they're changing the names on all the buildings. It all just seems like they're making it up as they go.
So, if you're the American president, both at home and abroad, people want to know that you've got resolve. You're going to stick to what it is you say, and you're a credible partner and ally. Donald Trump doesn't look like either one of those right now.
MCHENRY: Well, there's a sort of tell and House Republicans and Senate Republicans haven't told it. The White House hasn't told it. There is a -- the extension of the tax cuts and jobs act, which actually brought economic prosperity to the American people and the American people like the results of it. They extended it and they made it better. They deliver on the president's pledges as a part of it as well.
They have not messaged on that. They have not talked about it. It's gotten taken away by all the actions that dominate the day and the week.
And on top of that, the president's regulatory agenda is popular and effective. Those things are underlying this, but the day-to-day events that have overwhelmed us, mainly on national security, are dominating the story. And the American people don't like it.
Finally, the big trade deal with the second term of President Trump is all about is getting a big deal with China and reordering how the world trades with China. That is yet to be done. And the first meeting for Xi has been pushed back because of the Iran intervention.
And so that should be the set piece that dominates the second term. But it is a day-to-day stuff that's overwhelmed, and to the detriment of my beloved party.
SIMMONS: And one -- one day-to-day thing that's overwhelmed are gas prices.
HUNT: Yeah.
SIMMONS: The president talked about the stock market, the stock market being high. You know what most people track? Most people track that gas price. They drive by every day on their way home and back and forth to work.
MCHENRY: Not everybody bought the Biden electric vehicle.
SIMMONS: That number is not looking very good for --
HUNT: I have to say, I'm really appreciating the plug-in hybrid right at the moment.
Senator, jump in.
MANCHIN: Kasie, real quick, everyone's talking about all the different concerns we have and all the different problems and things that we have to overcome. And all -- both of the parties are depending on independents.
Where's the independent vote going to go? Because that's going to determine who wins and who loses. Guess what? Once the independents make their determination in either the Democrats or Republicans benefit by it when they get to Washington, there is no representation of independents.
They've got to join the extreme right or the extreme left. There's no center left. There's no center right. There's no moderate at all to be had. They've gone to the extremes.
And independents that are basically giving us the different rewards that the party wants, the Democratic Party -- well, that's fine then you're going to have to come back to the middle or the Republican Party, come back to the middle. We're not going to go to these extremes.
And it's just unbelievable what's going on. In the last presidential election, all we heard about was the seven battleground states, because 43 had been predetermined. All we're hearing about now is 35 or 40 contested house seats, because the other 400 have been determined.
This is crazy. And if the independents just basically we get our act together here, we can make some differences. We can make them change in Washington, because right now they're depending on people who are looking for the best person that basically is going to have the guts to stand up and do what's right for the country, not for a political party, but for the people they represent. And right now, neither party is representing the people they're representing themselves.
HUNT: I'm tempted to ask you if you think that you're that person based on how you've framed this.
(LAUGHTER)
MANCHIN: I'm going to be out there recruiting. I can tell you that. I'm looking for -- there's a lot of good people. There's a lot of good people still in Congress.
HUNT: Who do you like for 2028?
MANCHIN: -- colleagues are right there sitting with them.
HUNT: Who do you like for?
MANCHIN: Well, I don't think we've even seen -- we haven't seen the lineup right now to say who I like for 2028. I haven't even seen what the lineup is going to be. I think there's going to be some surprises. I really do.
Of course, I'm always partial to the former governors because -- because they've been -- they've had -- they've been executives. They can run things or they should be able to run things.
HUNT: Should I be putting you on my list of people to watch 2028 hopefuls? I have a list.
MANCHIN: Oh, I'm on everybody's list --
(LAUGHTER)
HUNT: All right. Fair enough. Senator Manchin, I really appreciate your time. Thank you so much for being here. It's always good to see you.
MANCHIN: Well, it's great being with you all guys, and keep -- don't get give up, don't give up. We're going to get through this.
HUNT: I know. Your diagnosis was rather tough. I have to say. But yes please. And next time you're in Washington.
MANCHIN: My diagnosis is spot on
HUNT: Come by and see us again.
MANCHIN: I'll be there with you. I will, thank you.
HUNT: All right. Appreciate you.
All right. Ahead here in THE ARENA, the bailout backlash, the newest idea from President Trump that has a lot of Republicans not terribly happy.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:53:55]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIMMY FALLON, LATE NIGHT TV HOST: You know Trump owns Spirit Airlines when you can pay more for extra cankle room.
You'll know Trump owns Spirit Airlines when they have a list of everyone who flew on the plane but won't release it.
You'll know Trump owns Spirit Airlines when it lands in the Middle East and doesn't have an exit strategy. There you go.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Late night host poking fun at the news that Spirit Airlines is apparently close to a $500 million bailout from the Trump administration.
A source tells CNN that the deal could be announced any day. But Republicans on Capitol Hill are not so thrilled by the potential government bailout. Senator Tom Cotton writing that it is, quote, "not the best use of taxpayer dollars", and Senator Ted Cruz calling it a, quote, "terrible idea".
CNN's aviation correspondent Pete Muntean joins our panel.
Pete, how ever did we get here? And why does the government want to own Spirit Airlines?
PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: It is a huge question here. And here is the latest. You know, the attorneys for Spirit Airlines just said in a bankruptcy court that the carrier is in advanced discussions with the federal government about a bailout package.
[16:55:02]
We could learn a little bit more about this during a court hearing next week. But it's also possible that the airline or even the White House could announce a deal before then. Here's what we're talking about. A half billion dollar stake by the federal government in this ultra low cost carrier that's been struggling for years.
You got to look at the timeline here. JetBlue tried to acquire Spirit in 2022. That deal was blocked in court when the Biden administration argued that it would hurt competition. Spirit later filed for bankruptcy protection, which really brings us to now.
The spike in fuel costs tied with the war Iran has put spirit on the ropes. I asked Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy about Spirit in a one on one interview on Tuesday. Didn't really commit exactly to government help.
You mentioned how Ted Cruz of Texas posted on X that the government help for Spirit a terrible idea, saying the government doesn't know a damn thing about running a budget airline. And critics also say this really opens pandora's box here. If another big company starts to fail, may look to Washington for a lifeboat.
Either way, here, if you're a traveler, you should pay attention to this. If you have travel booked on spirit, even a credit with the airline, this really matters to you. And then it can have a really big impact on jobs.
You know, Spirit employs about 17,000 people. So, whether the airline folds or gets federal help, either way, it's going to be a huge story.
HUNT: Indeed.
All right, Pete, you're welcome to hang out as our panel is going to talk about this. Or I could say thank you, whichever works for you.
But I'm interested in what Congressman Dan Goldman was just saying in our chat, right, where he said, spirit is not a loved airline. I don't know how you all feel, but I think having budget carriers is very important. I happen to love Southwest Airlines when flying with my family, don't love Spirit Airlines so much.
But he says -- he's arguing they're very important to the industry because they put price pressure on the other airlines.
MCHENRY: And that is true.
HUNT: Why are Republicans bailing them out, though? Isn't this like --
MCHENRY: No. Two things are a big misunderstanding here. You're speaking of Trump as a Republican, thinking of a traditional conservative economic policies.
There is no ideology to this. What he sees as the jobs, the competitive pressure on pricing for tickets. He sees that sensitivity. And that's why he's intervening. That's point one.
Point two is this is the culmination of Biden economic policy that stopped the merger between JetBlue and Spirit. And that's Lina Khan coming back to say that they were the popular part of the Biden economic policy. I'll leave that to Democrats to decide. But it's quite unsavory, then, that they stopped this merger. They could have saved the airline with no cost to the taxpayer.
And now you see the state intervention, which I am a traditional Republican and economic policy here. And I have concerns like Tom Cotton.
ZELENY: Is this finally the issue, though, that Republicans will stand up to this?
MCHENRY: Not a chance.
ZELENY: Okay.
MCHENRY: Not a chance.
ZELENY: Just checking. Just checking.
HUNT: I want to correct myself. I said Dan Goldman, who is, of course, a congressman. The person who was making these points is our David Goldman. He's the CNN business editor.
DANN: I do love the horseshoe politics here. Like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Elizabeth Warren were making the same argument about this. Like, why is the government using your tax dollars when they're not addressing affordability?
And that, by the way, is exactly the kind of messaging that Democratic groups are using in their sort of generic ads against vulnerable Republicans right now, like the Republican Party isn't addressing affordability, but they're doing tax breaks for millionaires or for billionaires.
This is just another version of that, right? The government is using your tax dollars to help out airline executives who make millions.
SIMMONS: Well, at the same time, there are going to be bailing people out on tariffs and not bailing out consumers who pay tariffs to get the goods --
HUNT: I'm still annoyed about my pair of --
(LAUGHTER)
HUNT: Pete Muntean, can you -- I mean, for people who, you know, would avoid flying spirit and look at this and they're like, why are they helping them of all of all airlines? What do you say? I mean, how do you explain how they fit in the market?
MUNTEAN: It's not exactly an airline that's in the too big to fail territory.
HUNT: Right.
MUNTEAN: I said 17,000 employees. Compare that to American Airlines, which has 100,000 employees. You know, one has to question Trump's motivations here. He was pretty critical of the automaker bailout of '08 and '09. And some have said this will essentially nationalize Spirit Airlines. It's not like it's the U.S. flag carrier here. And the sort of verges on sort of a socialist kind of policy. I guess it makes sense because he's a populist, but it really sort of boils down to why do we care so much about Spirit Airlines?
I will say this though, a friend of mine is a flight attendant for Spirit Airlines. She says it truly democratizes airline travel. You're talking about 90-year-olds who are flying on an airplane for the first time. There is some benefit there to an ultra-low cost carrier, but the market has gone really to the high end.
Look at Delta and United. They have had such great success with charging exorbitant rates, in some cases for premium product. So, is there still room for Spirit Airlines in today's modern airline market? That's the big question, and that remains to be seen.
HUNT: Yeah. Well -- and of course, flying is so miserable these days. I mean, I understand why people who can pay --
MUNTEAN: I personally like Spirit. I don't mind flying on Spirit. I don't think the airlines differ all that much, one to the other.
And so, you know, if you can fly Spirit flight, so long as its nonstop and it's going to where you need to go and its nearby to where you need to fly from, then go for it.
HUNT: Well, you can fly yourself places. So, you know, you win. Thank you.
MUNTEAN: It's not that luxurious.
HUNT: I appreciate you.
Thanks to my panel as well. Thank you guys for being here.
Thanks to you at home for watching as well.
Don't go anywhere. "THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER" starts right now.
