Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Sources Say, Secretary Hegseth is Very Trigger Happy Amid War With Iran; U.S. Gas Prices Hit $4 a Gallon for First Time Since 2022; FBI Says, Michigan Synagogue Attack was Hezbollah-Inspired Act of Terror. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired March 31, 2026 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight, it's happened, the average for a gallon of gas, $4, now the highest since 2002, and the highest of any point of President Trump's two terms. A spike triggered, of course, by the Iran war sustained by Trump's threats of escalation.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: We are standing by for a briefing from the Pentagon, the first in nearly two weeks. There is a new report on Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. One source says Hegseth believes blowing stuff up is the best way for him to keep his job.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And the moment an engine on a Delta flight just erupts during takeoff. Passengers heard screaming for the pilot to turn around. Everyone is safe, thankfully, but what happened here?

I'm Kate Bolduan with John Berman and Sara Sidner. This is CNN News Central.

SIDNER: Breaking news, $4 gas is here. The national average price you're paying at the pump has now hit $4 a gallon as the war with Iran continues. That's the highest in nearly four years, and also higher than any point during President Donald Trump's two years. It come as the Strait of Hormuz, that critical waterway and oil route, remains effectively shut down.

And new on that this morning, the headline from The Wall Street Journal, the president telling aides he's willing to end the war without reopening the strait.

We are also standing by for the first Pentagon briefing on the war in nearly two weeks, and we have new CNN reporting on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's role in the war effort. One source says he is, quote, very trigger happy and believes the best way to keep his job is, and we are paraphrasing here, blowing stuff up.

Overnight, new video showing massive explosions as several Iranian cities were hit by deadly attacks and a Kuwaiti oil tanker was struck in an apparent Iranian drone attack off Dubai. But no leakage or injuries have yet been reported from that.

CNN's Alayna Treene is live this morning at the White House with more on the reporting that you have on Secretary Hegseth. Good morning.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Sara. Yes, I think, you know, this is a great story from our CNN's Zachary Cohen and Kristen Holmes, just examining what Hegseth has been like. Of course, in front of cameras, which we have seen, he's given more briefings during this war with Iran at the Pentagon than he has in his entire career as defense secretary thus far, in the president's second term, but also behind the scenes. And, really, what White House officials and Trump administration officials are telling us is essentially that he is the president's, and really, the Iran war's, number one cheerleader when it comes to discussing this.

And one of the anecdotes is about, you know, when the president was first in the immediate lead-up to those strikes and joining Israel and striking Tehran back a month ago now, when the president made clear that he wanted to enter this war and enter this conflict, Hegseth was the one who was kind of encouraging him to do so, and also downplaying some of the inherent risks, of course, that would involve the United States getting involved in a conflict of this magnitude.

And then from there, we've really seen, and what this story examines is, how Hegseth has kind of brought that out in public in these briefings. You know, part of the reason the president hired him was because of his communication skills. He was a former Fox News anchor, and he's wanted to rely on Hegseth to be one of the chief communicators around this war. Of course, that's no surprise as he's the head of the Pentagon, but Trump has really made him, and this White House has really made him, one of the key faces of this.

But when you look inside a little bit more and some of, you know, the path before the war that Hegseth has found, I mean, and previously, many people in the Trump administration had actually considered Hegseth as, in some ways, some of the president's support waning for him or him being a backbencher. That's in part because we saw a lot of, you know, different erroneous mistakes that he had made from the Signal chain last year that caught a lot of attention and put this White House on the back foot on that front. But now, being the public face of this has really kind of risen his stature in the president's mind and eyes.

And there was one quote, actually, and this is from President Trump himself at the cabinet meeting last week that I think encapsulates a lot of the reporting from Kristen and Zach pretty well, when the president said, you know, there are two people who were quite disappointed, he was saying, when talking about trying to end this war swiftly and find a diplomatic approach with Iran, and he'd said it was Hegseth and the joint -- the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Dan Caine.

[07L05:23]

He went on to say, they go, oh, too bad, right? Pete didn't want it to be settled. That was again from the president himself.

What we've also been hearing, though, from lawmakers is that during some of these classified briefings on Capitol Hill, Hegseth doesn't really deviate from a prepared script. He sticks very much to it -- State Marco Rubio or John Ratcliffe, trying to offer, you know, more answering questions, kind of going off script a little more, Hegseth doesn't do that.

So, we're going to see him at 8:00 A.M. He has another Pentagon press briefing today. I think a lot of the elements from this story will be on display. Sara?

SIDNER: Yes, we will see him next hour and take that live for you. Thank you so much for your reporting there, Alayna Treene. John?

BERMAN: All right, the breaking news. We're looking at right now a live look at West Texas crude oil prices. If it closes at this level, this would be the highest level for oil in years. In fact, it closed last night at the highest level in years, the highest since July 2022. That's oil.

What about gas? Well, you know this, if you fill up your car, the national average is now above $4 a gallon, the first time since 2002. And we should note, look, if the war ended today, it would still take a while for prices to come back down.

David Goldman, great to see you this morning.

DAVID GOLDMAN, CNN BUSINESS SENIOR REPORTER: It's good to see you.

BERMAN: So, gas, $4.2 a gallon, and what strikes me is that a month ago it was a dollar less. That's a big jump.

GOLDMAN: Yes. And, you know, every dollar that gas prices rise, that's about a thousand dollars for American families over the course of a year. So, this is a lot of pain for people, and it's not just at the pump. Remember, diesel prices are also rising. They're above five. So, now we're talking about everything that's on a truck gets more expensive. There's a lot of added cost here, and it doesn't look like it's going to stop anytime soon because President Trump today is talking about how the Strait of Hormuz might remain closed for some time. Now, we're talking about maybe $150 oil, $200 oil, some analysts are saying yesterday, and that's a real possibility. That translates to maybe $5, $6 gas. That's a lot of pain for people.

BERMAN: And these oil traders I think are faced with these conflicting signals all the time, right? Yesterday, the president put out his tweet saying, negotiations are going well. We're talking to a much different Iranian regime, then last night, and I happened to be here working, there's a giant Kuwaiti tanker on fire there. And so you have these conflicting forces.

GOLDMAN: Well, that's right. And, you know, if you look at the oil market, they're telling us a signal, right? They're giving us a sense of what to expect from this war. Right now, Brent Crude, that's the international benchmark, that's trading at about $110 a barrel. If you go out, though, because you can buy futures for next month, and the following month, and the following month, and those are falling off pretty quickly. That gives us a sense that, well, okay, oil might start to fall a little bit, but we don't get back down to $70 a barrel, which is where we were before this conflict started, until 2032.

BERMAN: Oh, wow.

GOLDMAN: So, this means that for six years the oil market is saying that we're going to be above where we were before the conflict started, and that's a bad signal for the economy. It means that we could have high gas prices, high oil prices for quite some time.

BERMAN: Yes, adios to $3 a gallon for gasoline. It may be years before we get that back.

GOLDMAN: That's right.

BERMAN: David Goldman, great to see you this morning. Thank you very much. Kate?

BOLDUAN: New details are coming in on the terror attack on a Michigan synagogue, and there are new images of the suspect and the video that he sent his sister moments before carrying out the attack.

And tens of thousands of TSA workers, they are beginning to see their back pay. Lines at airport security are appearing to get shorter, but the crisis is not over. Thousands of DHS staffers are still being expected to work without pay right now.

And later today, the man accused of trying to kill his wife on a birthday hike in Hawaii, he could take the stand.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:10:00]

BOLDUAN: So, there are now new details coming out about the terror attack on a Michigan synagogue. The FBI says that he was inspired by Hezbollah to carry it out, and also to purposely target the Jewish community and the synagogue in Michigan. Investigators have released new photos of the suspect at a gun range, and also of the suspect walking to his truck filled with fireworks and gasoline, and this is before he rammed it straight into that synagogue with more than 100 children inside.

Let's get over to CNN's Holmes Lybrand with more on this, tracking this new reporting for us. Holmes, what are you learning?

HOLMES LYBRAND, CNN REPORTER: That's right, Kate. So, the FBI says that this individual had actually been consuming Hezbollah propaganda, calling for the death of American soldiers as well as the death of Israel and Jewish people abroad since at least January. It wasn't until a few days before the attack that he really started his planning in earnest.

And I want to show you what the FBI said about some of those searches as he planned the attack.

[07:15:04]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENNIFER RUNYAN, SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE, FBI DETROIT FIELD OFFICE: During the morning and early morning of March 10th, he continued his online searches with specific search terms and phrases, such as the largest gathering of Israelis in Michigan, Orthodox synagogues, Israelis near me, what time is the Trump rally in Michigan, as well as a center affiliated with the Israeli embassy in Michigan.

He later attempted to try and delete these queries, but we were able to recover them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LYBRAND: Now, as these searches were being conducted, he was also purchasing a firearm, going to a firearm range to practice, as well as filling up his truck with 35 gallons of gas and $2,000 of commercial grade fireworks to create what he called a booby trap.

Now, and in the morning of the attack, before he rams his truck into the synagogue, he records several messages, including explicitly saying that he is supporting Hezbollah, he is doing this on their behalf, and that he is trying to kill, God willing, as many as possible.

Now, the only individual he was able to kill was himself, but this is the exact kind of attack that law enforcement are concerned about, individuals that can quickly be radicalized by Iranian and its terrorist proxies' propaganda, and can quickly and really undetected conduct these attacks at a moment's notice in the U.S.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. Holmes, thank you so much for that reporting. I really appreciate it. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. Just ahead, a live look from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, where the countdown is on for the Artemis II launch tomorrow, four astronauts are getting ready to do something that hasn't been done in more than 50 years. We'll explain.

Plus, the Army says it's investigating after an Apache helicopter flyover at Kid Rock's house in Tennessee. What we're learning about this.

Those stories and more ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:20:00]

SIDNER: The women's Final Four in Phoenix is set, and it's a battle of all number one seeds. Both South Carolina and Texas won big last night to advance.

Andy Scholes is here. This has been one really exciting year.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: For sure, Sara, very exciting, but no surprises when it comes to that women's bracket. SIDNER: No.

SCHOLES: As you mentioned, all four one seeds winning their region. This is actually just the fifth time in the tournament's history that all four one seeds have made the Final Four. It's the first time it's happened since 2018. But South Carolina Head Coach Dawn Staley's got the Gamecocks in the Final Four for a sixth straight season. They're just the second team ever to do that, joining UConn.

South Carolina, they pulled away from TCU in the second half last night to win 78-52. They will now play UConn, who has won 54 in a row, in a rematch of last year's title game. That should be a really good one. It's going to be Friday night.

In the women's Final Four, it's actually the exact same as last year, Texas routing Michigan 77-41 last night to get back to the Final Four for a second straight season. The Longhorns are going to take on UCLA on Friday.

All right, in the NBA meanwhile, Victor Wembanyama just continues to absolutely look unstoppable. Last night against the Bulls, Wemby third fastest double-double since the '97-'98 season. So, he had ten points and ten rebounds in his first eight minutes and 31 seconds on the court. In the fourth quarter, Wemby just continuing having a great game, he splits the defenders right here and then throws down the hammer. I mean, how do you stop that? Finished with a season high of 41 points and 16 rebounds. Spurs won that one 129-114.

They remain two and a half games back of the Thunder for the top overall seed in the west, and that's because OKC was able to pull out a win against the first-place Pistons last night. So, the game was tied at 101-101 in closing seconds. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander buries the three. But get this, they waved it off and call the offensive foul. SGA could not believe that call.

We'd end up going to overtime, and it was O.T., SGA showing why he's the reigning MVP. Gets the bucket here then he's going to pass to Alex Caruso in the corner for the three. That put the game away. SGA finished with 47 points. Thunder won 114-110.

Finally, a couple of wacky things happened in the Timberwolves-Mavs game. So, Anthony Edwards was making his return from injury. He was supposed to start the game, but he missed the opening tip because he was using the restroom. Guess when you got to go, you got to go. He would come off the bench, score 17 points.

Then later in the game, Ryan Nembhard for the Mavs, he loses his shoe on a play and he then -- right here, he loses his shoe. Watch he'll just end up picking up. He tries to go block a shot with it. You can't do that. He got a technical foul for holding his shoe while trying to play defense. Minnesota did beat Dallas there 124-94.

But, Sara, you just got to -- I applaud the hustle, for losing the shoe, picking it up, and hey, keep playing D.

SIDNER: You use what you have to use to win. I'm all for that. And also, I would try to use that shoe to dunk. It's like a dream of mine. Never going to happen, would need a trampoline. But I want to be Wembanyama right now. That's what I want to be. I want to know what that feels like.

SCHOLES: Who doesn't?

SIDNER: Unbelievable.

SCHOLES: He's 20 feet tall.

SIDNER: I know. Thank you so much.

BERMAN: And he's getting better as the season goes on.

SIDNER: I know.

BERMAN: It's incredible. All right, breaking overnight, gas prices now higher than $4 a gallon, the first time since 2022. So, how will they go down? Now, The Wall Street Journal reports President Trump could end the war without opening the Strait of Hormuz.

[07:25:00]

And a detonation outside an airport after a live explosive was found in a bag during a TSA screening.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right. The breaking news this morning, gas prices in the United States now higher than $4 a gallon for the first time since 2022, part of the reason, basically the full closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Almost no oil has passed out over the last month.

[07:30:01]

And without that, oil prices around the world have been rising.

Now, The Wall Street Journal reports this morning that President Trump is considering.