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Artemis II Crew Views Solar Eclipse, Breaks Apollo 13 Distance Record; U.S. Official: Military has Struck Targets on Kharg Island; Trump on Deadline for Iran: A Whole Civilization Will Die Tonight. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired April 07, 2026 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

LELAND MELVIN, FORMER NASA ASTRONAUT: And to say that maybe if they can do it, I can do it so that that inspiration of inspire that next generation is critically important.

I think it's something they're going to think about.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And may we all be able to join the member of the jelly club being jealous of you traveled further in space than my travel in space. I mean, I love a subtle flex, Leland, and that was a very, very good one. Thank you so much.

It was great to see you and have you. I really appreciate it. Absolute delight. Leland Melvin, it's great to see you.

A new Hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news this morning. Explosions reportedly heard this morning on Kharg Island, where Iran handles roughly 90 percent of that country's crude exports. It comes just hours ahead of the president's deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, or the U.S. will, as he put it, unleash hell.

Also, aiding and abetting in the age of A.I. A family is planning to sue ChatGPT, claiming an accused shooter at Florida State University used it to plan a deadly attack.

And who will replace Stephen Colbert when late night signs off next month? CBS has just revealed the answer.

I'm Sara Sidner with John Berman and Kate Bolduan. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, the breaking news this morning. We are just learning of new reports of explosions on Kharg Island. This handles almost all of Iran's oil exports, about 90 percent.

If you look at that map, it's actually, yes, you can see it all the way up there at the top of the Persian Gulf there, just off the coast of Iran. President Trump has repeatedly threatened to bomb or seize the island. And there have been strikes before.

Oil prices have been spiking over the last few minutes since the reports have been coming in of these strikes. Up about two to three percent in the numbers that I've seen. Again now, now, over three percent there in some cases, Brent crude up more than one percent.

Let's get right to seeing as Jim Sciutto, who's in Tel Aviv, monitoring the situation. Jim, what are you learning about this?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes, John, I just spoke to a U.S. official who confirms to CNN that the U.S. struck targets on Kharg Island overnight. To be clear, this U.S. official says these targets were military targets on Kharg Island, not oil facilities. To your point in the introduction, John, the U.S. has previously struck military targets on Kharg Island going back to the middle of March. And that appears to be what they've done again this time.

And that's an important distinction, of course, because, yes, the president has held out the possibility of striking oil facilities there, which would have an impact far beyond Kharg Island, given that this is where more than 90 percent of Iran's oil exports come out of. But again, the U.S. official confirming strikes, but making clear that those strikes are solely on military targets on Kharg Island.

BERMAN: Again, the reason we're distinguishing those two, because the president has said, by tonight -- and we have a countdown clock actually over in the corner right there -- by 8 o'clock Eastern Time tonight, which is now 11 hours, 56 minutes and 54 seconds, the president has said, if Iran does not open the Strait of Hormuz, if there is no deal reached, he will hit all bridges and all power plants, all, he says, in the nation of Iran. Again, so we're monitoring the situation very closely.

New word of these strikes on Kharg Island. Jim Sciutto in Tel Aviv, thank you for bringing us up to speed there -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: All right, joining us now to talk about this, CNN Global Affairs analyst Kim Dozier, retired Army Brigadier General Steve Anderson. General, let me just ask you about this breaking news. As Jim Sciutto is reporting, a U.S. official confirms that there were U.S. strikes on targets on Kharg Island overnight, military targets, Jim is told, not oil facilities, not some of those key energy facilities that have been now clearly threatened by President Trump. Take that, even though the United States has hit targets on Kharg Island before, when you look at it in the context and against the backdrop of this looming deadline, what do you make of it?

BRIG. GEN. STEVE ANDERSON, U.S. ARMY (RET.): Well, thank you, Kate. What it tells me is that they're considering perhaps a ground invasion of Kharg Island.

[08:05:00]

The fact that they are not going after oil infrastructures, but they're going after military targets on the island, sounds to me like they're trying to soften the defenses in anticipation, perhaps, of some kind of deployment of U.S. ground forces into Kharg Island, which I'd like to go on the record for saying I think would be a serious mistake. But we do have the immediate ready brigade from the 82nd Airborne that is pre-positioned somewhere in the theater, probably Al Udeid, might be in Kuwait.

They're probably just a couple hours away. The 31st MEU that we've heard about quite a bit, I believe they are still in the mouth of the Persian Gulf, so they're probably a good 10 to 12 hours away. And, of course, in order to get to Kharg Island, they're going to have to go through the Strait of Hormuz because that would be really problematic.

So I think the only real alternative here would be the 82nd Airborne Immediate Ready Brigade. And again, I believe that they're probably softening defenses and perhaps at least threatening to conduct ground operations at Kharg Island.

BOLDUAN: So this could be, as I had said, kind of at the top of our show, Kim, it does seem that something is going to happen today. Something has got to give in terms of one way or the other with this looming threat that is kind of hanging over all of the Middle East now of President Trump saying, I mean, he says he's going to blow up the entire country if Iran doesn't agree to open the Strait of Hormuz or come to the negotiating table in a significant way. I mean, what do you see in this moment, how real negotiations are, how real the threat is of blowing up the entire country by President Trump?

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, Iran's latest reported demands include things like guarantees that the U.S. and Israeli attacks will continue not just against Iran, but on Lebanon, war reparations. It's a laundry list that the White House is unlikely to say yes to any part of. And you've also seen that President Trump has come up to several of these deadlines and extended it.

And I think it probably is getting to him that people are saying, oh, Trump always chickens out, TACO. And so something's got to happen. The problem is the Iranian response and also the Western nation response if he follows through with these threats to hit infrastructure because of its potential knock on effect on civilians, which brings you into the territory of war crimes, depending on what is hit and the scale of what is hit.

And you know, for Western allies, it's reported that Britain has said you cannot use Diego Garcia to launch this type of attack. And inside Iran, Iranians are starting, according to interviews that we're hearing through places like BBC, Farsi, they're starting to say, you know, we were in favor of this when it started, but now you're coming after us, things that we need.

BOLDUAN: General, let me ask you this, because this is part of this whole conversation of kind of what happens today, tomorrow, in the coming days, is President Trump continues to make Venezuela the model of his vision of how to deal with Iran, especially when it comes to controlling the country's oil. And he was asked about it a couple of times yesterday. Let me play this for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If I had my choice, what would I like to do? Take the oil because it's there for the taking. There's not a thing they could do about it.

Unfortunately, the American people would like to see us come home. If it were up to me, I'd take the oil. I'd keep the oil. I would make plenty of money.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: General, what should people think about when he continues to make this Venezuela comparison? Is there a comparison when you're talking about Iran?

ANDERSON: No, Kate, there is no comparison whatsoever. I mean, Donald Trump has stuck his fist in the middle of a hornet's nest, and he doesn't know how to get it out. Now, he'd like it to be like Venezuela, but it's not.

It's much, much more complex. You know, we continue to underestimate the Iranians. I mean, they have three cards that they continue to play.

First of all, they have the will to fight. This is an extreme regime, a theocracy. These people are going to fight to the death.

They're fighting for Allah. They're fighting for Islam. They're not fighting for Iran.

The second thing is they still have the nuclear fuel, the highly enriched uranium. We don't know where it is, and we don't know if it's buried or not, but we need to find it. And the third thing, of course, is the Strait of Hormuz.

They continue to have the Strait of Hormuz shut down. Oh, by the way, it's open, but it's only open to Iranian traffic. In fact, their exports have actually increased since the start of this war.

So Donald Trump continues to miscalculate on this war, and that's why we're right in the middle, I believe, of the greatest geopolitical blunder that the United States has ever committed in its history.

[08:10:00]

BOLDUAN: This also presents, if you take the scenario, take what the general's laying out, Kim, it presents, and this isn't the only two options, these aren't the only options, but I've been thinking about this quite a bit. Reaching some deal today to see fighting stop, attack stop, and Hormuz opening to shipping traffic is a best-case scenario.

Let's put it as that. Then what is worst-case scenario, based off what we just heard from the general? Worst-case scenario for U.S. national security, keeping his word and following through on this threat to start bombing bridges and roads, civilian infrastructure in Iran, or prove that the threat was a hollow one and not follow through when a red line has been drawn and crossed.

DOZIER: Iran retains the capability to hit the center of Tel Aviv, to hit many Gulf nations in their infrastructure. You had a satellite facility in the Emirates reported hit today. So what Iran could do is unleash its weaponry on the oil facilities, the energy facilities, the desalination plants, etc., across the Gulf and create an economic nightmare for decades to come as they try to rebuild from that.

Also, what this would do is drive a wedge between the U.S. and NATO powers by going after civilian infrastructure. The thing that gets you into war crimes territory is if you don't just hit dual-use stuff that's used by the military and the civilians, but that you unduly harm civilians moving forward. If the U.S. does that, no one is going to want to fight together with U.S. forces.

BOLDUAN: Just as you were speaking, Kevin, that's why I was looking down. The president has put out a new message on social media. Can we put it up?

Let's read it because it's about the deadline tonight. He wrote, "A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don't want that to happen, but it probably will. However, now that we have complete and total regime change where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen. Who knows? We will find out tonight one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the world. 47 years of extortion, corruption, and death will finally end. God bless the great people of Iran," the president ends with.

General, just your reaction to what he just wrote.

ANDERSON: Well, we already knew that Donald Trump was a pretty bad president, but now we know that he's an absolutely terrible commander in chief as well. I mean, he continues to vacillate. It offers contradictory messaging about what's going on.

Does he support the Iranian people? Does he not? Does he want regime change? Does he not? Do the allies with us? Does he need them?

I mean, it goes on and on and on. We're seeing more of that, everything he's writing. But I mean, again, this guy is just not competent in terms of leading this force.

He has not set clear objectives, clear, definable objectives that the military can truly execute. And I think that at 8 p.m. tonight, I believe that he'll figure out a way to either extend the deadline, because there's no way that he can do what he says he's going to do, which is to bomb every single civilian target in the theater in Iran. And if he were to do that, it would be, as Kim suggests, it would be the commitment of a great war crime.

And I mean, I'm old enough to remember the Nuremberg trials and how we've held the Germans accountable after what the atrocities they committed during World War II. And I'd hate to think, you know, five, 10 years from now, we'd be doing the same kind of thing with American soldiers and leaders that made decisions that were being directed by the president of the United States that are illegal.

BOLDUAN: General Steve Anderson, thank you. Kim Dozier, thank you both very much -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right, let's go to CNN's Betsy Klein in the White House. Betsy, just to reiterate what we just heard, the president saying a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again, and ends with God bless the great people of Iran. What in the world is he thinking?

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Great question, Sara. And I think if you're reading the tea leaves here, it is just an incredibly confusing message from President Trump. On one hand, he says that it probably will happen, referring to potential strikes on Iran tonight.

And at the same time, he says it's possible that there could still be a diplomatic solution here. So if you're trying to interpret what is going to happen just 12 hours from now, I think it's still incredibly unclear.

[08:15:00]

What is clear, we have learned, according to one U.S. official, that the U.S. has conducted strikes this morning, Eastern Time, on Kharg Island. Of course, that is the key fuel hub in the Persian Gulf. It handles most of Iran's oil exports.

So it's a very significant area and very significant that the Trump administration is telegraphing that they are indeed serious about proceeding with President Trump's threats if they don't reach a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz by that eight o'clock Eastern Time deadline.

Diplomatic efforts are underway. Vice President J.D. Vance, who's currently traveling in Hungary, is leading those efforts, along with Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner, the president's son-in- law, Pakistan, Egypt, Turkey, all acting as key mediators there. But I asked the president just yesterday whether he might be open to extending that eight o'clock deadline. If he felt like those talks were progressing, he said he couldn't say just yet.

So that is certainly something to keep an eye out for. And this Truth Social post that we are seeing from the president doesn't really add much to whether or not definitively we should expect those strikes to happen. The president saying that he will bomb Iran to the Stone Ages, attacking their critical infrastructure, things like power plants and bridges.

The key issue at the center of these negotiations is the Strait of Hormuz, of course, that critical oil thoroughfare. He told our colleague Kristen Holmes that any deal about reopening the Strait must --

SIDNER: Hey, Betsy, I apologize. We're going to jump in here just real quickly because we're hearing now from J.D. Vance. He's been asked about Iran after this statement from the president, this outrageous statement talking about wiping out a civilization. He is in Hungary and taking questions.

Let's listen.

J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So you asked if there's new information. And I don't -- unless I have a text message from Steve. I do have a text message from Steve Witkoff.

Wouldn't you like to know the subject of this message? But no, I need to read it first before I talk about it. But here's -- what time is it in the United States right now?

OK, that makes sense. All right. OK.

So, Natalie, on this question of the deal, I really think there are two pathways. The president's been very clear about this. There are two pathways that this thing is ultimately going to end.

First of all, the United States has largely accomplished its military objectives. There are still some things that we'd like to do, for example, on Iranian ability to manufacture weapons that we'd like to do a little bit more work on militarily. But fundamentally, the military objectives of the United States have been completed.

So that means, as the president has said very shortly, this war is going to conclude. And I think the nature of the conclusion is ultimately up to the Iranians. I think there really are two pathways, and I'm oversimplifying this a little bit, but I think pathway one is where the Iranians decide they're going to be a normal country.

They're not going to fund terrorism anymore. They're going to be part of the world system of commerce and exchange. And that's going to mean much better things for them economically.

It's going to mean better things for the peace and safety of the world. It's going to mean a lot of good things for a lot of people all over the planet. That's option A, OK.

Option B is if the Iranians don't come to the table and they stay committed to terrorism, to terrorizing their neighbors, not just Israel, but of course their Arab neighbors too, then the economic situation in Iran is going to continue to be very, very bad. And frankly, it will probably get worse.

And so what the president has asked his entire team to do, particularly Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, is to figure out what are the contours of a potential deal? What are they willing to do? Because militarily, it frankly doesn't matter one way or the other to us.

It's fundamentally a question of what does this look like afterwards? And that has been what the negotiation has been focused on. And the president's also been very clear that while the Iranians are trying to exact as much economic costs through the Straits of Hormuz, the United States has the ability to extract much greater economic costs on Iran than Iran has an ability to extract costs on us or on our friends in the world.

So I hope that they're smart. The president has set a deadline for about 12 hours from now in the United States. We're going to find out, but there's going to be a lot of negotiation between now and then. And I'm hopeful that it gets to a good resolution.

You know, the second question you asked about, you know, is God on our side? Is God on, you know, whose side?

I think my attitude towards military conflict has always been to pray that we're on God's side. And my own view is that we're doing this for the right reasons. We're doing this because we don't want a regime that has committed acts of terrorism to have it the world's most dangerous weapon, because that would mean a lot of innocent people dead.

I certainly hope that God agrees with the decision that Iran shouldn't have a nuclear weapon, but I'll keep praying about it. And if he gives me a good answer, you'll be the first to know, Natalie. Next question.

Let's see. I think we have.

SIDNER: All right, you've just been listening to Vice President J.D. Vance. He is in Hungary.

[08:20:00]

He said there are a couple of different things that we noticed here, which are very different than the comments that President Trump just put out on his Truth Social. I want to get to Betsy Klein again to sort of give us some sense of what we just heard, because it doesn't match the rhetoric that we've been hearing from President Trump in just the last few seconds.

KLEIN: No, we are certainly hearing some mixed messaging from the Trump administration here, but most critically, Vice President J.D. Vance, who is among those leading these negotiations on behalf of the president, says that there is time for a lot of negotiation between now and that eight o'clock p.m. Eastern time deadline. He said that there are essentially two pathways for Iran. One, in his words, they could be a normal country.

That is a path that he said would have significant economic benefits for the country. And then separately, the second pathway, that they don't come to the table and continue to support terrorism. And he said that that would be a continuation of what they are currently doing, and things would further deteriorate from there.

He reiterated that in his view, the U.S. has already accomplished its military objectives in Iran. But certainly that statement that we got from President Trump was remarkably confusing, unclear as to what kind of a path they are pursuing at this hour with just over 12 hours or just under 12 hours to go at this point. The president was also asked yesterday whether he believes that bombing of this critical infrastructure in Iran would amount to a war crime. He's really downplayed those concerns. So that is something that we are certainly watching. And just a lot of questions for the Trump administration at this hour as they decide what kind of deal they are willing to accept and whether Iran is willing to make that kind of a deal -- Sara.

SIDNER: Yes, Vice President Vance saying fundamentally the military objections have been complete. At the same time, Donald Trump going on True Social and saying a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again when referring to Iran. Two very, very different statements there from the vice president and the president.

Betsy Klein, thank you so much for your reporting. We'll be right back.

[08:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right, the breaking news this morning. We are getting word that there have been strikes on Kharg Island. This is the island in the Persian Gulf just off the coast of Iran, which handles about 90 percent of Iran's oil capacity. Now, what officials are telling us is that the strikes were against military installations. They're not the oil facilities.

These are sites, many of which have been struck before. They're giving this distinction because attacking the energy facilities would be seen as an escalation, maybe leading up to this new revised extended deadline the president gave for eight o'clock tonight, which he has now further indicated what he will do to Iran if they don't make a deal. He says, "A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don't want that to happen, but it probably will."

He goes on to say other things, too. Let's go right to CNN's Becky Anderson, who is in Abu Dhabi watching the situation there.

These two new data points, Becky, the new strikes on Kharg Island, which we haven't seen for a few days, and this really new incendiary threat from President Trump. How is it or how do you think it will be received in the region?

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN ANCHOR AND ABU DHABI MANAGING EDITOR: And it's interesting, just about an hour ago, the Qatar spokesman for the prime minister, who is also the foreign minister, held a press conference. This was round about the time that these reports started coming out. Let me just read you very specifically what he said.

He said, "We are close to the point where the situation in the region could spiral out of control." That really feels like, from the Qatar perspective, that they are suggesting an inflection point at this point, this Tuesday. Let's remember, 8:00 p.m. eastern time, which would be the end of the deadline, were that deadline not to be pushed on Tuesday, would be 3:30 in the morning, Tehran time, 4:00 in the morning, for example, here in Abu Dhabi. So for the last, I'd say, 24 hours, this has been a region that has

been on tenterhooks about what might happen next. You know that this entire region is absolutely determined. It insists that this conflict cannot end until the Strait of Hormuz is reopened, effectively, and that the regional security here is sort of ring-fenced.

But at this point, it doesn't feel like we are at the point at which we are looking at a deal or, indeed, the opening of the Strait of Hormuz. We just heard from J.D. Vance in Hungary. He suggested that these talks behind the scenes between the Pakistanis, Egypt, Turkey, and the US and Iran may provide us a bit of a window here.

And we might see that deadline then pushed by Donald Trump. But meantime, of course, the question you asked me is we have just seen two really important data points here, not least that of Kharg Island. Let's remind ourselves, Kharg Island is an absolute sort of trophy for Iran and the Iranian community.

It is from Kharg Island that Iran exports 90 percent of its oil. It has been exporting more and making a lot more money out of that oil since this conflict began, as it has access to that Strait of Hormuz.

[08:30:00]