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Sources Say, U.S. Intel Says Half of Iran's Missile Launchers Intact; Trump Fires Loyalist Pam Bondi as Attorney General; Artemis II Leaves Earth Orbit on Journey to the Moon. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired April 03, 2026 - 07:00   ET

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

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JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, a CNN exclusive, sources say Iran still has half of its missile launchers, intact drones too. What does this mean for the two to three week timeframe in which the president said he wants to end the war?

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Attorney General Pam Bondi is out, new reporting on what was the final straw for the president here and who he's going to be bringing in next.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: A mother races to rescue her three month old baby from the backseat of her car that was being stolen in a daycare parking lot. How this all ended.

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

BERMAN: And this morning we have a CNN exclusive, destroyed, obliterated, decimated, dramatically curtailed, those are all words President Trump has used to describe the impact of the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran's weapons capabilities. But three sources tell CNN that recent U.S. intelligence assessments show that about half of Iran's missile launchers remain intact and thousands of one-way attack drones are still in reserve. So, this raises new questions about how long this war might go on.

Iran is making some claims of its own this morning that its forces shot down a U.S. F-35 Stealth Fighter in Central Iran. State media released photos as supposed proof, but on close inspection, the records appears to be from a U.S. Air Force F-15 jet.

President Trump making new threats after a strike, took out a huge suspension bridge in Iran. He says more bridges and power plants will be targeted. And the Pentagon released images of U.S. Marines practicing an amphibious assault in the Indian Ocean, a skill set that might be needed if the U.S. were, to say, launch ground operation, a ground operation on Iran's oil hub, Kharg Island.

Want to get right to CNN's Jim Sciutto, who is live in Tel Aviv this morning. Jim, we last spoke a couple hours ago when you were sheltering during air raid sirens going off in Tel Aviv. A bit representative of this new reporting you and others have about Iran's still intact capabilities. JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes. We've certainly been getting a taste of those still intact capabilities here in Tel Aviv over recent days, in fact, an uptick, frankly, in missile attacks on Tel Aviv.

The reporting is as follows. It's based on a new U.S. intelligence assessment, and that is that Iran, even after nearly five weeks of war, retains some 50 percent of its missile launchers, 50 percent of its one-way attack drones, a significant portion of its coastal defense missiles. That's, of course, key because those missiles could be used to target shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, continues to give. Iran, the capability to open and close the Strait of Hormuz as it sees fit.

One challenge, despite the fact that U.S. and Israeli forces have hit many thousands of targets in the more than month of the war so far, is that those mobile launch -- those missile launches are mobile. Iran having some success moving them around, many of them buried underground as well.

In response to that, U.S and Israeli forces have been trying to, in effect, pin those missile launchers down, close, for instance, the opening to those underground bunkers so they can't be used again. And Israeli officials, they will say that while Iran may retain many of those launchers, that some of them are inaccessible regardless what it does fight and contradict to some degree as the administration's rosy calculations, that Iran's missile capabilities have effectively been destroyed, given that they maintained this number of launchers after so many so many weeks of war.

And as I said, we've seen this here in Tel Aviv. Iran certainly retains the capability, to hit to strike the Israel's largest city.

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And, sadly, despite is Israel's formidable air defenses, some of those missiles came through. We saw one yesterday that came through in Tel Aviv, struck the ground with force. It's still a dangerous time here.

BERMAN: Yes. And the war is still very much on, and it does raise questions about the two to three-week timeframe.

Jim Sciutto, thank you for sharing your reporting from Tel Aviv this morning. Stay safe. Kate?

BOLDUAN: So, Pam Bondi is now out, making her tenure as attorney general of the United States the shortest in 60 years. Key questions now, who's the president going to bring in to take over that immensely important job, especially when reporting suggests that one of the reasons he fired her was that she didn't go hard enough at his political opponents?

And what does this mean for the Congressional subpoena over the Epstein files that Bondi face? She was set to give a deposition to lawmakers very soon.

CNN's Alayna Treene is at the White House for us this morning. Alayna, what are you hearing from behind the scenes about all of this now?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, there's a few interesting points about this. I will say, according to our sources in the West Wing, this had really been a long time coming. The president, for several months now, has been very frustrated with the attorney general, Pam Bondi, particularly one of the biggest things being her handling of the Epstein files, something that has become a huge problem, not only for this administration, but even Republicans have been pushing back on the handling from this White House over all of that. So, that has been a huge weak point.

The other thing though is as you mentioned, Kate, this idea that perhaps she did not go hard enough against political enemies. There was that kind of now infamous post that the president wrote back in September where he essentially directed Pam Bondi to secure more indictments against people in that time. He mentioned the, you know, former FBI director, James Comey, as one of them. We also reported at the time that was meant to be a private message that he ended up sharing publicly.

Another thing I want to say too is, you know, we'd have heard some rumblings of this back in January that he was frustrated with her, was contemplating firing her. But according to my conversations throughout yesterday, this had really grown in recent days to the point where Bondi herself even recognized that the writing was on the wall.

And we were told as well that this call that he ultimately had with her Wednesday evening, informing her that he was going to be ousting her. That came just hours after she accompanied the president to the Supreme Court for oral arguments on Wednesday. And a lot of people had said that it wasn't clear he was actually going to pull the trigger on her firing until he ultimately did.

Now, as in terms of who's going to be next, we know at least for the time being, Bondi's former deputy, the president's former personal attorney, Todd Blanche, is going to be stepping in to fill the place, but we are told that is likely temporary. I do want you to listen to what he said on Fox News last night about all of this.

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TODD BLANCHE, ACTING ATTORNEY GENERAL: As President Trump said today, the attorney general made our country safe again and she is a friend and she did a great job in the first year of this administration.

I have never heard President Trump say that the attorney general was that anything that happened to her had anything to do with the Epstein file.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: Okay. So, you heard there, him kind of, you know, trying to defend Bondi in this time. They did have a good relationship, we're told.

But as for who could be replaced, we have heard that the president has floated a series of name, but it is currently considered that his EPA administrator, Lee Zeldin, a former New York congressman, someone who ran unsuccessfully for New York governor, that he is likely to be the first choice for this role.

And I know that the president in the past has kind of praised Zeldin for being on his side of a lot of kind of the investigations and criticisms he's launched at political enemies. So, we'll have to see whether or not that happens.

As for Bondi, the president says that she's taking a role in the private sector. That's notable because I'd remind you that some of the recent high-profile firings we've seen from this president, he's provided them with a soft landing. You know, you saw Mike Waltz become U.N. ambassador. You saw Kristi Noem get a special envoy roll within the administration. Didn't give Bondi such a soft landing this time.

BOLDUAN: Good to see you, Alayna, thank you so much for your reporting. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. There is no turning back now. They performed a critical move overnight that launched them out of Earth orbit. What the astronauts are saying in their first interview from space.

And this weekend, millions of Americans heading to airports for spring break after hundreds of TSA workers quit due to Congress' failure to pass a budget. We will take you live to the busiest airport on Earth to check things out there.

And shocking new testimony as prosecutors cross-examined the doctor accused of trying to kill his wife on a birthday hike in Hawaii. He says she was actually trying to kill him.

Those stories and more ahead.

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SIDNER: You're looking at live pictures from the Orion spacecraft now officially on its way to the moon. The four astronauts aboard have left Earth's orbit. They are the first to head into deep space since 1972.

Now, last night, a crucial step in the Artemis II mission, Orion fired its main engine, putting it on a course to fly around the moon in just a few days, and we're hearing from the astronauts themselves. Here's Commander Reid Wiseman talking about completing that critical translunar injection burn.

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REID WISEMAN, ARTEMIS II COMMANDER: It was pretty tense moments there for a second. And when we got done that burn, we just kind of looked at each other as a crew. We have been to the moon before in 1969, 1968 through 1972. It's been a long time since we've been back. And I got to tell you, there is nothing normal about this. Sending four humans 250,000 miles away is a herculean effort, and we are now just realizing the gravity of that.

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SIDNER: Joining me now is Keith Cowing, editor of NASA Watch, and a former NASA space biologist. So good to see you.

Give us some sense of just how tricky this maneuver is that they have done, which has slung them now out of Earth's orbit.

KEITH COWING, EDITOR, NASA WATCH: Well, this is kind of cool because we've done this before. When I was a little boy, you would hear TLI, it's like the first acronym you learned about NASA. But this time they have such precision that not only did this engine burn set them on a path to the moon, but it's doing what's called a free return. So, like in the movie, you know, Isaac Newton is doing the driving. But then they will come back to Earth and reenter without doing anything else. So, this is so precise. They, in essence, will go to the moon and come home no matter what else happens.

SIDNER: So, each of these maneuvers, as you talk about, are so precise, but they're all kind of small engineering feats, right, as, or maybe big ones, frankly, as we're watching this, but there are still some things that could be precarious about this. When is it the most precarious for these four astronauts and this mission?

COWING: Well, I think the TLI burn -- well, getting into space, A. B, the TLI burn was important. And then things could happen on the way, but it doesn't seem that's going to be an issue. And then coming home, the reentry will be a rather dramatic thing. And then after that, the most dramatic thing will probably be the public affairs thing with the parades.

SIDNER: The parades are always so much fun, but it is so much more fun watching them in space, having conversations. We're seeing some video of that. We're also seeing sort of what their mission is going to look like.

Give me a sense of what you're most excited about on this particular mission, which is sending astronauts into deep space, something that we haven't seen since -- well, since we were kids anyway?

COWING: Well, you're getting a twofer. You've got a 70-year-old former NASA guy and a 15-year-old boy growing up in the -- yes, seriously. And we're both kind of happy about this. One of us was expecting to be back in the moon before they got out of college, and the other one's going to be, well, older.

But take that back a bit. It's not just the way it was when we were kids, when it was America versus Russia. This time, this mission has a Canadian on board. It's got a European stage. There's going to be future astronauts from other countries. China's in on it. So, it's broader. But the cool thing is, and I know you've had a lot of international experience, 75 percent of the people watching this around the world have never seen humans leave this world to go visit another. So, that, to me, this is their first moon mission. So, like I keep saying, it's like doing the same thing again for the first time.

That excites me because I know what happened when I was a kid and my career was ended up as a result of this. Billions more we now see this in places that would never have thought that the moon was something they could even understand, much less be involved with.

So, I mean, it sound a little esoteric, but that's what gives me the giggle factor here. And I'm also hearing Diana Krall playing, Fly Me to the Moon, in the back of my head at the same time.

SIDNER: Aren't we all, Keith Cowing? Thank you so much for kind of explaining that it is a generational thing, right? Your generation and now the next generation is going to be seeing something that you experienced many, many moons, no pun intended ago.

Keith, I do apologize for that. Thank you so much. I do appreciate your time this morning.

John, you are rubbing off on me. I'm just saying that the puns are coming naturally now to me. Thank you for that.

BERMAN: What I like when he said is that like, I want a T-shirt that says Isaac Newton is my designated driver, right? Pretty good driver, if you can get that guy.

All right, we are standing by for major economic news, the new jobs report coming out shortly.

And the phone call to the top, new video of Tiger Woods during his arrest, whom he said he tried to get on the line.

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TIGER WOODS, 15-TIME MASTERS CHAMPION: Say again?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just keep you down here with us, please.

WOODS: Yes, I was just talking to the president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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BOLDUAN: The calendar may have turned, but March Madness is still rocking along. The Final four for both the men's and women's tournaments are upon us, and it all starts with a clash between two legendary coaches.

Patrick Snell is on this one for us. Patrick, what are we looking at? PATRICK SNELL, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Hi there, Kate. Yes, good morning to you.

Yes, what an Easter weekend feast of college basketball we have upon us over the next couple of days. First up, a real powerhouse clash between South Carolina-UConn, 7:00 P.M. Eastern tonight. That's a matchup between the last two champs, and also a rematch of last year's championship game, which was won by the Huskies.

Two legendary coaches, as you mentioned, with Geno Auriemma, who's won 12 titles at Connecticut, while Dawn Staley has led the Gamecocks to three titles, stay full of praise for her opponent ahead of the big game.

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DAWN STALEY, SOUTH CAROLINA HEAD COACH: UConn has been the standard in women's basketball for a very long time. And everyone has to measure up to their standard. I think they allow us something to reach for.

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And when you have some, a traditionally-rich program like that I think it, it helps us all grow.

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SNELL: That game will be followed by red-hot teams, Texas facing UCLA. Texas seeking a first title in 40 years while the Bruins chasing their first. They're led by Spanish-born star Lauren Betts, who's having a truly stellar season.

Meantime, a viral moment from the men's side last week when UConn Coach Dan Hurley appeared to headbutts a referee after that epic finish against Duke. Hurley was asked about his antics on Thursday.

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DAN HURLEY, LED UCONN TO 2023 AND 2024 NCAA TITLES: The reaction, the outrage, yes -- I don't, I guess I just look at it a lot differently, you know? And I think we all do, and I think that's what I guess makes social media so appealing to people, is that you could have the discourse and different opinions about how somebody carries them self. For me, it's a life or death battle. It's a war. It's a street fight.

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SNELL: There's so much to look forward to, I can tell you. I do want to say, Kate, that I saw Erin Burnett's post that one of her producers picking a perfect Final Four on the men's side. Well, listen, I can tell you that one of our producers here at CNN Sports also has a perfect Final Four, who is the mysterious producer who goes by the name of Sammy. All will be revealed after Saturday's action. Back to you.

BOLDUAN: I mean, fine, subtle flex, fine, Patrick, none of us have a perfect Final Four. Fine.

SNELL: I know. I will say that it's great to see you, Patrick.

I'll say J.B., and Patrick couldn't attest to this probably, if I would be terrified to see a playback if me or my team or any team I'm on just won like a massive upset victory, the playback of what my face would look like and the things I would do, I'd be terrified.

BERMAN: His -- Dan Hurley's reaction was so amazing during all of that.

BOLDUAN: It was amazing.

BERMAN: It's just been great, just fantastic.

All right, new reporting on how many TSA agents are calling in sick, even though they have started getting paid again. What that is doing to lines this morning.

And new video of a naked man trying to break into houses. He is still on the loose this morning, and I suppose it is still on the loose this morning.

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