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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Trump: Iranian Civilization "Will Die" If Deal Isn't Made By 8PM ET; NASA Releases New Photos Showing Historic Flyby Of Moon; Pete Hegseth's Christian Rhetoric Reignites Scrutiny; Women's Pro-Hockey Game Sets Attendance Record; "Kara Swisher Wants To Live Forever" Premieres Saturday, 9PM ET. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired April 07, 2026 - 17:00   ET

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

KASIE HUNT, CNN HOST: Thanks very much to my panel. Really appreciate you guys. You can now stream don't forget The Arena live or catch up whenever you want in the CNN app. You can just go ahead and scan the QR code below on your screen. You can also catch up by listening to our podcast.

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HUNY: Can we talk about the Michigan baseball or basketball game? Because go Blue.

TAPPER: And go Blue. My daughter is having the time of her life. Just unbelievable (ph).

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TAPPER: Kasie, we'll look for more tomorrow in "The Arena."

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[17:00:38]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN Breaking News.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper and we're going to begin with breaking news in our world lead. We're now only three hours away from President Donald Trump's deadline for Iran to make a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The president just told Fox that the United States is in heated negotiations over the Iran and ending it. This after a last minute proposal from Pakistan the White House says requesting to extend tonight's deadline by two weeks.

If the current deadline holds, if no deal is made, here is what the president said this morning will happen tonight. Quote, "The whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don't want that to happen, but it probably will. We will find out tonight one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the world. Forty-seven years of extortion, corruption and death will finally end," unquote.

Now, just looking at the statement factually, out of all of Donald Trump's threats, of which there have been many, this may be the most outrageous and disturbing of them all ever. A civilization dying, he says, meaning he will give the order to kill that civilization, which is comprised of 93 million Iranians. Such an order, if enacted, would constitute the most heinous of war crimes. It would be a mass murder. It would be a genocide the likes of which the world has never seen.

Now, if you find yourself out there saying, "OK, Donald Trump isn't really actually going to wipe out a civilization, he's just negotiating," unquote. Stop for a second and listen to yourself. We have a president of the United States threatening to kill 93 million people. Pope Leo, the first American pope, today weighed in saying, quote, "this is truly unacceptable," unquote.

If the goal here is to scare Iran into making a deal, we already know the murderous Iranian regime is led by homicidal religious zealots and they don't seem particularly interested in protecting their own citizens. The Trump administration says the Iranians murdered about 45,000 of their own citizens earlier this year simply for protesting. That number might actually be much higher.

This afternoon, a spokesman for Iran's government said Trump's threats will not open the door to dialogue. So it is possible the president will move the deadline or goalposts, says he's done many, many, many times before, which, of course, does tend to diminish the impact of his word and the threats in general.

There's also the possibility, of course, that he actually does follow through to some degree. Before threatening to destroy the entire Iranian civilization Trump has specifically threatened to target Iranian bridges, Iranian power plants, attacking civilian infrastructure widely considered to constitute a war crime, although Trump could argue that any particular attack is justified because the infrastructure has dual civilian military use. But be that as it may, while his supporters might be arguing today that this threat of murdering 93 million Iranians is just the latest example of the art of the deal, one has to observe that there is an increasingly unhinged quality to the president's threats. Until today, most shockingly, with his Easter morning message, quote, "Open the fucking straight, you crazy bastards, or you'll be living in hell. Just watch. Praise be to Allah, unquote."

The most shocking thing perhaps he'd ever said until today. Today. Today, in response to these threats, Iran is calling for citizens to form human chains around bridges and near power plants. Video shows that some appear to have heeded that call, even bringing their children along.

Overnight, we're told the U.S. struck military targets on Iran's Kharg Island. That's where almost all of the country's oil is exported from. A U.S. official said the strikes did not target the oil facilities, but military facilities.

As we await tonight's 8:00 p.m. eastern deadline, there is some good news in all of this madness. A pro Iran militia in Iraq has announced that it has decided to release Shelley Kittleson. That's the American journalist kidnapped in Baghdad last month. And a U.S. official telling CNN that "efforts are underway and hopefully she will be released shortly, unquote. Let us hope and pray that's the case.

[17:05:09]

Let's go to CNN's Jim Sciutto in Tel Aviv. And Jim, what are you hearing about the state of negotiations between the U.S. and Iran, perhaps with Pakistan involved? We're now less than three hours from Trump's deadline.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: So, Jake, to some degree we're reading tea leaves here, right, because those negotiations, as they stand, taking place in private and some of them indirect as opposed to direct. But we are told Pakistan says it has a proposal on the table for a two-week pause in the fighting in exchange for Iran opening the Strait of Hormuz for two weeks. In effect, a ceasefire with something in return for the U.S. and for President Trump. Karoline Leavitt has told reporters at the White House that the president is aware of the proposal and is considering it now. A source in the region told our colleague Nic Robertson that this source expects good news regarding this proposal.

So that's what we know. Now, it does remind me of the diplomatic back and forth that we heard of just prior to the start of this war. And there were discussions, but of course, those discussions didn't lead anywhere, at least to the point to prevent the president from ordering this war to begin. So in a few hours time, when that deadline passes, the president could pronounce himself satisfied. And if not, then we're in another stage of this war.

Today, already to be clear, the tempo of this war did not ratchet down at all. To some degree, it ratcheted up. The U.S. as you noted, attacked Kharg Island for just the second time of this war. Military targets, yes, but given that Kharg island is where 90 percent of Iran's oil goes out to the world, something of a signal there from the U.S. as to the extent of its ability to strike Iran. But also Israel began today striking civilian infrastructure inside Iran.

Civilian infrastructure, it says, is being used by Iranian forces to transport missiles, missile parts, et cetera, but civilian infrastructure nonetheless, railroads, roads, bridges, as perhaps something of a taste of what the next phase of this war might look like if the president orders similar. We're going to know in a few hours time. Again, caution, because last time were here, war followed. But as I said, there are some in this region who see some hope.

TAPPER: Jim Sciutto in Tel Aviv, thanks so much.

Let's talk about this with Ambassador John Bolton, former Trump National Security adviser and former U.S. ambassador to the U.N.

Ambassador Bolton, you've been an Iran hawk, for decades, what do you make of the threats the president's making?

JOHN BOLTON, FORMER TRUMP NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Well, I think it shows his desperation. I still don't understand what his objectives are. I had hoped at the beginning that this would be a campaign for regime change. And every once in a while, Trump still seems to say that's it. But I think his confusion about his objectives and his desire, his palpable desire to get out of this war before price at the pump of gasoline in this country rises more and there's more political trouble, is a real signal to the Iranians they don't need to give anything at this point, that they can bide their time. They think apparently, they can ride this out and that eventually not only will they have pushed back the United States, they would have won a significant geostrategic victory that Saddam Hussein tried for in 1990 but couldn't sustain.

And that is, they will have control not just over their own oil, but, in effect, all the oil of the Persian Gulf countries, which would be a huge setback for the United States, its allies, and the global economy.

TAPPER: In your view, is there any justification for the president threatening to destroy an entire civilization?

BOLTON: Of course not. Look, this -- I'm not a shrink, I'm a lawyer. I'll let other people make their judgments about it, but it shows how little he knows of what he's talking about. He doesn't pay attention to his words. As a friend of mine said many years ago, there's no filter between his brain and his mouth.

This hurts the American cause. Let's just get down to brass tacks on this. Forget the morality. What's the real impact? It's bad for the United States.

And that's the -- that's the judgment. That's the measure by which, against which all presidential remarks should be weighed.

TAPPER: I can't help but think about those members of the House and Senate Democrats who put out a video about telling -- reminding service members that they are under no obligation, in fact the opposite, to carry out an illegal order. I can't think of an order more illegal than wiping out an entire civilization.

BOLTON: Well, if he's given that order, I rather doubt that he has, but it certainly would be illegal if he did.

TAPPER: What do you think will happen less than three hours from now if there is no deal on the table?

[17:10:02]

BOLTON: I have no idea. I'm not even sure Trump knows. I'll hazard a guess for what it's worth. I think he will order a strike. It'll be big, but not what he's been talking about. He'll say, this is just a taste of what I could have done, but out of the goodness of my heart, I didn't destroy Iran's civilization.

They've got seven more days. He's going to have -- he's going to try and have it both ways, basically.

TAPPER: Take a listen to something Vice President J.D. Vance said earlier today about the president's threats against Iran.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So they've got to know we've got tools in our toolkit that we so far haven't decided to use. The president of United States can decide to use them and he will decide to use them if the Iranians don't change their course of conduct.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Tools in our toolkit that we so far haven't decided to use. Obviously, nuclear weapons would be one of them. Is there anything else?

BOLTON: Well, I don't know that the -- for well or ill, when people hear what Vance just said, they think nuclear weapons. And I have to say, I have always favored a strong American foreign policy. I don't think you fool around with loose talk about nuclear weapons. Again, forget the high tone to morality here. It does not help the United States to make threats that are either not going to be carried out or if they were, would be a huge mistake for the United States.

Presidents and vice presidents should speak carefully, and that has not happened in this administration for far too often.

TAPPER: A big part of the MAGA campaign, the MAGA movement, was this notion of no new foreign wars. When you worked with Trump during his first term, did you ever imagine that he would be initiating a war like this with Iran the way he's doing it?

BOLTON: Well, no. I think he's made several mistakes. I tried to persuade him to adopt the goal of regime change in the first term and failed. So I was astounded to see what he was doing or what he -- what he tweeted back in January when the regime was on the verge of massacring upwards of 40,000 of its own people. He said to the demonstrators, his words, keep protesting.

Take control of your institutions. Help is on its way.

TAPPER: Yes. John Bolton, thank you so much. Always good to see you.

There's the human toll of this war as President Trump threatens a whole civilization will die tonight if no deal is reached. We're going to get some perspective from an Iranian-American who loves a lot of people in that civilization. And later, more history in space today. New images from the Artemis II mission as the world got to hear a special phone conversation with the crew. We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [17:16:38]

TAPPER: In our world lead, signs of resistance in Iran today. Thousands of Iranians responding to a call from an Iranian government official. They're forming a human chain around the country's power plants and bridges. This is in response to President Trump's threats to destroy Iranian infrastructure if the Strait of Hormuz is not reopened. And then, of course, he threatened to destroy the Iranian civilization.

Here to discuss Iranian-British actress and activist Nazanin Boniadi.

Naz, it's great to have you here as always. CNN global affairs analyst Karim Sadjadpour posted earlier, quote, "Trump's threats to destroy Iranian civilization are a gift to the regime. They will alienate even its fiercest opponents who believe the Islamic Republic has spent decades erasing 2,500 years of Iranian civilization." Do you agree? And what does this kind of language from President Trump, what is the impact on people in Iran who hate the Iranian regime?

NAZANIN BONIADI, BRITISH-IRANIAN ACTRESS AND ACTIVIST: It's good to be with you, Jake. I mean, yes, Karim is spot on. It's a propaganda gift to the Islamic Republic who one of their founding principles is death to America and death to Israel. And to basically justify them for having that slogan for 47 years is playing into their narrative. And why do that?

I've been inundated by calls or, well, several calls, because we're on the Internet shut down in Iran, but the people who managed to reach me via satellite were in a panic. And they said, look, we had so much hope that this was a humanitarian effort. And that was the rhetoric at the start of this war. And there were strategic strikes against people we want gone, Ayatollah Khamenei and others. This is not what we asked for.

This is not what we hoped for for our infrastructure to be crumbled and for there to be no Iran to inherit from the mullahs, to take over and reclaim their nation.

TAPPER: Yes, civilization is a very interesting word for the president to use, because the Persian civilization, the heritage, is a tremendous source of pride, as it should be.

BONIADI: Yes.

TAPPER: To destroy all of that, the museums, the 93 million people, it's unimaginable.

BONIADI: And there's one thing that this administration is getting fundamentally wrong. They may be winning the military aspect of this war. They are losing the information war and the propaganda war. And the reason for that is this uprising in January was a nationalistic uprising. It was an effort to reclaim the nation and their culture and their civilization from the clerics.

And so to play this narrative into the hands of the mullahs to say that we want to wipe Iranian civilization, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, said in '79, Patriotism is paganism. We would sooner see Iran burned to the ground for -- in the name of Islam. This is playing into and making his Khomeini's Islamist fantasies come true. Why do that?

TAPPER: The other thing that I wonder about your opinion on is we keep hearing all this very Christian nationalist rhetoric from the Pentagon, from Secretary Hegseth and others suggesting, and the Pope has condemned this not by name against Hegseth, but against anybody who does this, the idea that this is a Christian war, that that is what is supporting this. This is obviously a secular nation by definition, even though we have a strong religious, you know, subtext and beliefs, but the government is secular. Does that play into the whole narrative that Iranians -- the Iranian regime sells to the Iranian people that we're crusaders, that we were there to destroy Islam?

[17:20:27]

BONIADI: They are milking this for all they can to show that they are the true nationalists and lovers of Iran. We know that's not true. Those images that you saw of people surrounding the possible -- the strike -- the places that might be struck in a few hours and hopefully they're not, but those are all waving the Islamic Republic flag. Those are not everyday citizens. Those are people who support the regime.

But I'm hearing from people who are opposed, opposed to the regime that the infrastructure of Iran is -- belongs to the Iranian people. Children are being recruited to military checkpoints and recruit -- and human shields are being used because this regime does not care about Iranian civilization or the Iranian people. They will use this rhetoric and say, yes, this is a crusade from the west or from America to kill the Iranian people. Of course the Iranian people know that that's not happening. But what they fear is that this is turning from what they thought was a humanitarian intervention to a scorched earth tactic of destroying Iran for some other means, for some other end.

And so I just -- people in Iran are in despair. They're losing hope. Who is going to hear their calls and their cries? They are now currently caught between a regime that does not care about destroying Iran. In fact, that's what they've been doing for 47 years.

And clearly the rhetoric that's coming from the U.S. admin shows that they don't also care about the Iranian people.

TAPPER: It's awful. Thank you so much for being here, Naz. It's just -- yes, I don't know what to say. Thanks for being here.

BONIADI: Thanks.

TAPPER: The trickle down cost of this war, new data shows the price of a physical barrel of Brent crude oil is now at $144. That's a record. Gas price is now up to $4.14 a gallon for regular unleaded. That's up 2 cents since yesterday.

Ahead on The Lead, we're going to have some big good news for you. I know we all need some good news. So join us when we look at another big day in space, hear the special conversation between the Artemis II crew and astronauts on the International Space Station. It is very cool. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:26:56]

TAPPER: In our out of this world lead, newly released images taken by the crew of Artemis II yesterday as they flew within just 4,067 miles of the Moon, the images, look at these. They show close ups of the Moon's far side, as well as a total solar eclipse. The crew is now headed back to Earth, returning Friday when their capsule splashes down off the coast of San Diego.

Let's bring in our friend, retired astronaut Garrett Reisman, someone who knows a thing or two about traveling to space.

Garrett, thanks for joining us again. So these new pictures from Artemis II aren't just fun to see. They also have scientific value. I can't get over how much fun they are to see, and I'm not a science guy, so tell us, what can we learn from the images?

GARRETT REISMAN, FORMER NASA ASTRONAUT: They sure are, you know, amazing. And you could just tell by listening to the science team in Mission Control how thrilled they are to have that. And not only the images, but the firsthand observations by the astronauts themselves, which adds so much more color to the images, literally. And that's really valuable because this is the first time that actual human eyes have seen some of these parts of the Moon.

TAPPER: We've all been starstruck, literally and figuratively, by the Artemis II mission and crew. But this whole time there's been another group of humans in space. They're up on the International Space Station. And earlier today the two crews actually spoke to each other a little. Here's a -- here's a snippet of that conversation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REID WISEMAN, ARTEMIS II ASTRONAUT: C-DUB right before you launched, you said you can't wait to talk to us on the space-to-ground and it is happening, brother. I cannot believe it.

CHRISTOPHER WILLIAMS, NASA ASTRONAUT: Yes, I can't believe it, I mean it's -- I remember having coffee and sitting with you guys just before I watched the fly up here and it's just so awesome being able to talk to you right now. It's such a special opportunity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: What was your reaction when you heard that, when you listened to that earlier?

REISMAN: That's so cool. I didn't have anybody going around the Moon to talk to when I was up there. You know, I heard another part of that conversation where Christina was talking about all the advantages of being on the ISS that you can see specific parts of the Earth, including your hometown. And I think she was just saying that to make all of us that have not been to the Moon feel better. Because I would -- I would trade her view for what I had in a heartbeat.

TAPPER: The astronauts are scheduled to splash down Friday around 8:00 p.m. Eastern. What is the return trip from space like?

REISMAN: Well, they're going to have a special return trip because they're going to be screaming in. They're going to be going much faster than were when we hit the atmosphere. And so they're going to have a lot of G forces. There's going to be a lot of heat. It's going to get over 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit out there around the heat shield.

And then, you know, it's pretty wild ride in the capsule. You'll pull a lot of Gs, like I just said, and then you'll have the shock of the parachutes coming out and that jolt when they open up. And then of course, you hit the water. And that's kind of like a kind of a minor car crash. So there is -- it's going to be a pretty energetic ride for all them.

[17:25:00]

And when they get through all that, it's going to be a big relief to see him floating in the ocean.

TAPPER: For those who don't know or maybe haven't even thought about it, astronauts in space, of course, don't have the sunrise to wake them up. So instead, NASA offers wake up songs to start the days for the astronauts. I want to play a little bit from today's. Take a listen.

So for those who don't know, that's "Tokyo Drifting" by Denzel Curry and Glass Animals. Do astronauts get to pick the songs? Did you get to pick one?

REISMAN: No, no, no. Actually, that's -- our family picks them. So, yes. So it's something that's you have to listen carefully. There's usually some hidden meeting and the crew on the morning has to figure out, like, whose family member picked this one out. Usually, you know, right away.

But the commander has a cheat sheet just in case because you don't want to be caught flat footed and have your family play a song for you and not realize it's yours.

TAPPER: What was yours?

REISMAN: Let's see. I had "Saturday Night" by the Bay City Rollers because that's actually one of my pump songs I sing when I'm snowboarding. And I was about to do a spacewalk that day. So they were trying to get me pumped up.

TAPPER: S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y Night.

REISMAN: And then "Macho Man" by the Village People.

TAPPER: Right. That's the one you're talking about. All right. Garrett Reisman, thank you so much.

REISMAN: You got it, Jake.

TAPPER: Appreciate it as always.

We're watching out for any new updates as President Trump's 8:00 p.m. Eastern deadline gets even closer tonight. This is for Iran. Ahead, when religion and God get invoked in this war, not just by the mullahs. We're going to get into that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:36:03]

TAPPER: And we're back with our Faith Lead. Religion, specifically Christianity, has been repeatedly invoked in the war with Iran. Here's the President and the Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth just yesterday addressing the rescued pilot who had said God is good when his fighter jet was shot down last week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: God is good and God wants to see people taken care of. God doesn't like what's happening.

PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: You see, shot down on a Friday. Good Friday. Rescued on Sunday. Flown out of Iran as the sun was rising on Easter Sunday. A pilot reborn. All home and accounted for. A nation rejoicing. God is good.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Hegseth inserting his Christian theology into his job as Secretary of Defense is not new. And it has drawn both praise and criticism since he stepped into the role. Every month he invites employees to a Christian prayer and worship service at the Pentagon.

The nonprofit Global Project Against Hate and Extremism said Hegseth's prayer campaign, "Threatens the constitutional bedrock of religious pluralism that has sustained the American military since George Washington's Continental Army." Others who support it say that it is bringing a refreshing change to the Pentagon.

Joining us now, Matthew Taylor, he's a visiting scholar at Georgetown Center on Faith and Justice. Matthew, what's your reaction to how Hegseth is folding his particular Christian beliefs into his job as Secretary of Defense?

MATTHEW TAYLOR, VISITING SCHOLAR, GEORGETOWN UNIV. CENTER ON FAITH & JUSTICE: I think it's extremely dangerous. He is taking the language of religion, which has deep meaning. Obviously, has very deep connections for a lot of people, including a lot of Americans, about 62 percent of Americans identify as Christian. But he's layering that into the cause of a war. And in doing that, he is sacralizing.

He's making holy that war. This is not a new thing with Hegseth. He has at least three tattoos on his body that reference the Crusades. He has written a book called "American Crusade." He's very comfortable with this language of holy war. That gets very, very tricky when you are actually in an active war.

And he is using and taking all this language, layering it into the briefings that he's giving about the war. The Iranian regime is a theocratic regime. It's a radical Shiite regime rooted in certain theological ideas, certain ideas of martyrdom. And this is only threatening to ramp this up further.

TAPPER: Well, we had an Iranian, an Iranian Brit on the show earlier today who said that she was worried that all this invocation of religious theology in the war is playing into the hands of the Iranian regime that constantly portrays the United States as crusaders come to kill Muslims.

TAYLOR: Yes. How could it not? I mean, Pete Hegseth is, I don't -- I can't name another person that I've even heard of who's a contemporary who is as obsessed with the Crusades as Pete Hegseth is. And in 2001, after 9/11, there was a moment, it was just a few days after 9/11, where George W. Bush in an offhand comment made a reference to the Crusades in talking about the war against terror. And there was a massive reaction.

And Osama bin Laden wrote an entire treatise about how, see, this proves that the Americans are always doing these crusader wars, and the White House walked it back and said that wasn't what he meant. We aren't talking about civilizational conflict. We aren't talking about religious conflict.

We're -- Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump are exactly speaking about religious conflict and civilizational conflict. They're framing this war in terms of holy war. And yes, maybe that does play into the hands of the Iranian regime. Maybe they're gravely miscalculating and misunderstanding this war as well. And maybe it leads to escalation that neither side can really control.

[17:40:07]

This is the thing with holy war. It breaks the boundaries that we have put on war in the 20th and 21st centuries. And it starts to bleed into some of the worst episodes in Christian history, and I would argue some of the worst episodes in human history.

TAPPER: Take a listen to President Trump's former supporter, Tucker Carlson. He released this blistering attack on the President last night over his Easter Sunday vulgar post where he threatened the civilians of Iran.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TUCKER CARLSON, HOST, "THE TUCKER CARLSON SHOW": This is a mockery, not just of Islam. It's a mockery of Christianity. To send out a tweet with the F word on Easter morning promising the murder of civilians and then saying praise be to Allah without explaining any of it. You are mocking me and every other Christian because we're Christians. (END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: What's your reaction to that?

TAYLOR: It's very rare that I agree with Tucker Carlson, but he is correct on this one. I mean, the idea that on the -- one of the holiest days in the Christian year, a day where we are supposed to pause, and I'm a Christian, on Easter, I want to pause. I want to be with my family. I want to think about the death and sacrifice of Jesus, about the meaning that the resurrection brings to my life.

And instead, Donald Trump is brandishing weapons and warfare and profanity. And then making this insulting comment to Islam. I care deeply about my Muslim neighbors. They are my fellow Americans. I don't want them being alienated. I don't want them being pushed out by the rhetoric of our President.

And yet somehow they keep defaulting and falling back into these patterns of using religious language. And I think it's because the President has surrounded himself with Christian extremists.

TAPPER: Matthew Taylor, thank you so much. Appreciate your time.

As President Trump's deadline on Iran ticks closer, the prime minister of Pakistan says good news is expected soon. We hope he's right. We're standing by to see what it might be. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:46:30]

TAPPER: In our Sports Lead over the weekend, the Professional Women's Hockey League set a new attendance record at the league's Madison Square Garden debut. A sold-out crowd of over 18,000 fans packed into the iconic venue to watch the New York Sirens take on the Seattle Torrent. CNN's Brynn Gingras has more on this historic game.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bright New York City, who's ready for PWHL hockey?

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Can you hear that. That is the sound of a sold-out crowd in Madison Square Garden. The largest crowd women's professional hockey has ever seen in the United States.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And it's center Manhattan zone, number 26, Casey O'Brien.

GINGRAS (voice-over): For New York Sirens' Casey O'Brien and her family, this night is a dream come true.

GINGRAS: Your daughter is playing on the ice at MSD right now.

ERIKA O'BRIEN, MOTHER OF PWHL ROOKIE CASEY O'BRIEN: I mean, unbelievable. I don't even think I've processed it yet, because even three years ago, I did not think this would be possible. GINGRAS (voice-over): Women's professional ice hockey is having a moment. Building momentum off the U.S. women's team gold medal win this Winter Olympics.

E. O'BRIEN: It's going so quickly and so fast, and the fan base has been amazing. You know, the market is there.

CASEY O'BRIEN, PROFESSIONAL HOCKEY PLAYER: I remember when I was maybe seven years old, skating in between periods at a Rangers game out here with my youth team. And so, you know, I never really thought that I'd be back out here because it was, you know, just for the Rangers. It feels like a total full circle moment.

GINGRAS (voice-over): The Professional Women's Hockey League, known as the PWHL, started in 2023. It now consists of eight teams in the U.S. and Canada, with some games televised on major networks.

JILLIAN BARNES, NY SIRENS FAN: I have a daughter also, and she -- I was watching it on T.V., and she goes, oh, is this men's or women's? Like, to her, it's natural that women are on T.V. playing hockey.

ROB ROARTY, BY SIRENS FAN: It's not just for little girls, it's for everybody. It's witnessing excellence. It's top of the line for this sport. I don't know why you'd deprive yourself.

GINGRAS (voice-over): And this historic game at MSG, well, it's bigger than those on the ice.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It can make you emotional, looking out in the stands to see some of the young girls that are following our sport and getting into hockey because of it.

GINGRAS: What does this mean for women's hockey?

C. O'BRIEN: Crazy now when you see, like, a boy saying, my favorite team's the Sirens.

E. O'BRIEN: I think it means that every little girl can start playing a sport and have a dream. You're going to get to pay to play, first of all, and then people are going to come and watch and cheer you on.

C. O'BRIEN: It's always been about, you know, inspiring the next generation of younger girls.

GINGRAS (voice-over): Brynn Gingras, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER: In our Tech Lead, a new CNN original series explores the science, the money, and the ethics of living longer. The series is called Kara Swisher Wants to Live Forever, and it follows our own Kara Swisher, tech journalist, podcast host, as she experiments with all kinds of wellness gadgets. Here's a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KARA SWISHER, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: You're going to steal my face for "Face Off" right now, aren't you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. And --

SWISHER: You're going to switch them, and then you're going to be me, and then I'm going to be you. That's my favorite movie, "Face Off."

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So I'm going to come out 72.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So let's look at eight different characterizations of the face, like UV damage, browns, reds, a bunch of other markers, and they'll give you a single number for your biological age. Good job. You scored one year younger.

[17:50:01]

SWISHER: Well, I actually am 62, but so good.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, so you're -- that's amazing.

SWISHER: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So you'll be --

SWISHER: That's not amazing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your pores are fantastic, so you're in the 90th percentile.

SWISHER: I'm one scary --.

He gets that he's a circus act and a freak show, and I like that about him. At the same time, it's vaguely sad. I find it sad. I do.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER: I have so much to say, Kara Swisher. First of all, quite a gig. Second of all, a fellow "Face Off" fan.

SWISHER: Yes, I love "Face Off." It's the finest movie in the land.

TAPPER: Insane movie. They don't have the same body.

SWISHER: Not at all.

TAPPER: Type.

SWISHER: Stop.

TAPPER: OK, anyway.

SWISHER: No detail.

TAPPER: You tried so many things in this series.

SWISHER: I did.

TAPPER: What did you learn about your own health?

SWISHER: Well, you know, it's interesting. It was sort of, that there's -- it's a lot simpler than it's made to be. And that there's, you know, I got interested because of all the misinformation online about everything, but health is a real area that is a problem. And then all the Silicon Valley guys sort of body hacking their way to eternity.

TAPPER: Oh my God, the blood of pigeons.

SWISHER: The whole thing, whatever. And so that's what got me interested in it. And also Steve Jobs, who talked about the importance of understanding and accepting death to be innovative.

And so it was all these things crashing around. And what bothered me is that there was so much charlatanism, and at the same time so much promise around living better, living longer, including with A.I. and other technologies. And I wanted to find out what was worth it and what wasn't.

TAPPER: Interesting. People want instant results when it comes to their health.

SWISHER: Yes. Forever.

TAPPER: It's me too. This I'm wearing right now, it's an aura ring.

SWISHER: Yes, I have one. I left it.

TAPPER: Which keeps track of my exercise, my heartbeat, and my sleep. That's why I really have it for my sleep.

SWISHER: Yes.

TAPPER: How are companies that own these kinds of products tapping into this trend?

SWISHER: Well, they are. They're interested in data, all that information. I'm not sure how much that data means, really. It interests you because you might like numbers, right?

TAPPER: I just want a good sleep. That's what I want.

SWISHER: Right. But one of the things, Zeke Emanuel, who used to be a top official at NIH, he's written a book about longevity, said, when I said, well, I like to know my sleep thing, he goes, well, don't you know it when you wake up in the morning if you had a bad night's sleep? And I'm like, yes.

TAPPER: Ish.

SWISHER: Ish. But it's interesting to get some data. The thing is, if you obsess on measurement and data, you don't -- you live short. I mean, you waste your life doing that.

TAPPER: Yes. SWISHER: And so the question is, what's useful and what's not? And certain things, that's vaguely useful. I think VO2 max is a really interesting.

TAPPER: What's that?

SWISHER: This is how efficiently your muscles and your heart work together, and you want to get the number up. I got mine up, actually, by doing something. But it shows the efficiency of your heart, essentially, and your muscles.

TAPPER: Has anything changed in just the past decade that's made people care more about tracking their sleep and their steps and their heart rate almost constantly?

SWISHER: Well, online. These online influencers who are mostly information free, but they are always pushing something like red light or now it's peptides, peptides, peptides, peptides. It's insane. And it's actually, much of it is untrue and unproven. And so, you know, that's a little bit. And people used to be sort of the yo-yo diets, the diet, you know, the grapefruit diet, the olive oil diet, this and that.

TAPPER: Intermittent fasting.

SWISHER: Intermittent fasting, you know. And then years, 100 years ago, you know, like snake oil salesmen that would sell you, you know, Coca-Cola or Kellogg's was started like that. This isn't a new thing. It's just surrounding you with all manner of mostly bad information.

TAPPER: I used to do intermittent fasting, and then somebody pointed out it was actually just an eating disorder.

SWISHER: Yes, that's right. Let me just make the point. When women have this as an eating disorder, when men talk about body hacking, it's really noble. So it's really kind of.

TAPPER: I'm not saying it's noble.

SWISHER: I'm just saying.

TAPPER: I'm not saying. As we see in the show, some technology worked for you, other stuff did not.

SWISHER: Yes.

TAPPER: What advice would you give consumers looking for something to try something new?

SWISHER: It's a lot simpler and buying things. If there's a lot of money attached to it, it probably doesn't work as well. If they're really hawking it, it doesn't work as well. They're very simple things. Diet, exercise, sleep are critically important, but not the most important. Two things are the most important, and it's a terrible thing to say, but one is don't be poor. Poverty adds stress, food issues, sleep issues, all kinds of things, and health issues that cascade beyond it.

The second one is friends and family. There's a real, you know, it's not correlation. It's causation of being around friends and family, and also people you don't know, and trying new things, and interacting with humanity. And in fact, you know, I've written a lot about chatbots and the dangers of them. These synthetic sycophantic relationships are bad for us.

Our brain plasticity, our feelings of isolation, loneliness indeed leads to shorter lives, and so does isolation. And so some very simple stuff is actually much more important. And then secondly, some of the scientific breakthroughs are astonishing around CRISPR, around gene editing, around mRNA vaccines.

TAPPER: GLP-1s.

SWISHER: GLP-1s. So I look into all that because that is really, these are groundbreaking. And if combined correctly, we all can be healthier rather than just the top 1 percent of people.

TAPPER: I can't wait to watch.

SWISHER: It's great.

TAPPER: Kara Swisher, looking forward.

SWISHER: You're looking good.

TAPPER: Thank you very much. I appreciate it. It's all lighting.

Again, the all-new CNN original series, Kara Swisher Wants to Live Forever. If only --

[17:55:01]

SWISHER: If only.

TAPPER: -- if only we could get you forever. It premieres Saturday at 9:00 here on CNN, then the next day on the CNN app.

As attacks continue tonight in Iran, we are learning of late-night calls in the region, trying to rush diplomacy as President Trump's 8:00 p.m. Eastern deadline creeps ever closer. He has threatened to wipe off -- wipe out the Iranian civilization. We're going to go live to the region for up to the minute updates next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:59:54]

TAPPER: Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper. Breaking news in the World Lead, intense talks are underway. We're told by the White House to find a path to peace ahead of President Trump's 8:00 p.m. deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or he will destroy the Iranian civilization.