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Trump Lashes Out at NATO After Meeting With Leader Mark Rutte; NATO Chief Says Allies Were Slow Over Iran, but Also a Bit Surprised; More Charges Filed Against Former Ft. Hood OB-GYN; Artemis II Crew Preparing to Return to Earth Tomorrow; U.S. Fertility Rate Drops to Another Record Low in 2025; 90th Edition of the Masters Officially Underway. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired April 09, 2026 - 13:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:31:07]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": NATO's leader today praising U.S. leadership of the alliance in the face of growing criticism from President Trump. After a closed-door meeting with Secretary General, Mark Rutte, Trump posted this last night, quote, "NATO wasn't there when we needed them and they won't be there if we need them again."

The president has repeated threats to withdraw the U.S. from NATO for what he says is a lack of support in the war with Iran. While not directly saying whether this was raised in their meeting, here is what the secretary general said earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK RUTTE, NATO SECRETARY GENERAL: Let me be clear. This alliance is not whistling past the graveyard, as you would say in the United States. When it came time to provide the logistical and other support the United States needed in Iran, some allies were a bit slow, to say the least. In fairness, they were also a bit surprised.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Let's discuss with former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for European and NATO Policy, Jim Townsend. Jim, thank you so much for joining us. Do you agree with what Mark Rutte said there, that he understands the White House's disappointment that some allies could have been faster in responding to U.S. requests?

JIM TOWNSEND, FORMER DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR EUROPEAN & NATO POLICY: Well, I think he's being generous saying that. I think that the allies were absolutely completely surprised and not in favor of this. This is something that I think Trump has a big misunderstanding of what NATO even does. So as an institution, NATO should not have been involved. As allies, individual nations were not exactly happy to follow Trump where he wanted to take them.

SANCHEZ: Is it your view that NATO or the European allies that are part of NATO would not benefit from the U.S. attempting to disarm Iran and to prevent it from potentially acquiring nuclear weapons in the future?

TOWNSEND: Well, I think that's an important point. And the President raises this as well, that, look, I'm doing a job that no one else wanted to do. All of us lived with great concern about the Iranian missile capability. It's approaching a nuclear capability as well. And I decided to do something about it.

So, yes, indirectly, I think everyone benefited by it. But the point, though, is that while they might be very happy, as they are, to see Iran in the military state that they're in with a diminished military, they didn't like the approach. They didn't like the way he went about doing this.

He certainly didn't go about it the way an ally would, consulting with the allies up front, bringing them along, going to NATO at least to talk to the alliance about it. He just went off and did it with Israel and then turned around to the allies and said, hey, how come you're not with me?

SANCHEZ: Do you think it would have made it more likely that those allies would have supported this kind of operation if he had gone to them beforehand? It seemed like you were skeptical a moment ago.

TOWNSEND: Well, yeah, I think that if he had gone to them ahead of time, I think he would have gotten a lot of very skeptical responses. That's probably one of the reasons he didn't, because he knew what the answers would be.

But at the same time, I think they could have said, look, if you're going to do this, we'll see what -- you know, you can use the bases and, you know, this type of thing if that is what's needed. I mean, there are ways they could have been more helpful.

But a lot of them thought it was illegal as well. The U.K. certainly did. And so, that stopped a lot of nations from being more helpful than they could have. But I think it's going to be post-ceasefire, if they can get an agreement, that's where the allies can come in and help in terms of escorting tankers and doing that kind of thing once the fighting has stopped.

But I think it would have been easier for nations to agree to doing something like that had they been consulted up front and had them been brought along, and not criticized and mocked the way they have been by the president.

[13:35:00]

SANCHEZ: You brought up something that is interesting and after the ceasefire announcement, a host of European countries pledged to contribute to maintaining open traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. What do you imagine that is going to look like? When could it begin?

TOWNSEND: Well, I think it could begin once the fighting ends. That's what the nations have said, is that once there's a ceasefire or a peace agreement or something --

SANCHEZ: Sure.

TOWNSEND: -- there's still going to be a need to do escorting, at least for a short time, to assure the insurers and the shippers and people who are nervous about going through the straits that in fact there's other nations involved that are doing escorting, sweeping mines or at least making sure there's no mines in the channel.

There's a lot of things to do in terms of reassuring the markets that this is under control and these tankers will go through unmolested. So that's a big job. The U.S. Navy is going to need help and the allies should be able to provide that, particularly given that they've got mine sweepers and that type of thing to provide.

SANCHEZ: Sure.

TOWNSEND: But they're not going to do it until the fighting stops and as long as Trump continues to mock them and insult them, it's going to make them very hard politically to get on board.

SANCHEZ: Jim Townsend, appreciate you sharing your perspective. Thanks for joining us.

TOWNSEND: You're welcome.

SANCHEZ: Brianna?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": We have an update on the sexual assault investigation of an Army doctor at Fort Hood in Texas. The Army has significantly increased the number of charges against Major Blaine McGraw, who is an Army OB-GYN who was arrested in December.

McGraw is accused of secretly filming his patients over multiple years at both Fort Hood and Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawaii and at least one non-patient during intimate moments, including exams, without their consent. The charges are related to 73 alleged victims now, according to the Army.

McGraw now faces 146 specifications of violating the Uniform Code of Military Justice. That includes 64 counts of sexual abuse and assault, 66 counts of indecent recording, and one account of attempted sexual assault. An attorney for McGraw telling CNN today, quote, "The Army has had all the evidence since last year. At this point, they are basing new charges on lawsuits and not investigations."

Previously telling CNN, they'd seen no records to support the patients were touched in a way that wasn't medically indicated. More than 100 women, both service members and military spouses, are accusing McGraw now of sexual misconduct and are seeking accountability as well from the Army.

Most of those accusers have joined a civil suit against the doctor. We'll be right back.

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[13:42:32]

SANCHEZ: We are now 30 hours away, give and take a few hours, from the Artemis II crew re-entering Earth's atmosphere after their historic mission to the far side of the moon. The crew is preparing to splash down in the Pacific Ocean tomorrow night. Last night, the crew spoke with the media about some of the emotions that they've been feeling, how they've been forever changed by the experience and about the re-entry process.

CNN National Correspondent, Randi Kaye is at Johnson Space Center for us in Houston. How is the crew feeling ahead of the big day tomorrow?

RANDI KAYE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I Think they're a little bit anxious, but certainly confident, Boris. There's a lot of anxiety here, certainly, as we wait for them to splashdown in the 8 p.m. hour Eastern Time tomorrow night. But this is one of the trickiest parts of the mission, as you well know. This is when they re-enter the Earth's atmosphere and there's a special coating. It's called an ab coat material and it is on the bottom of the spacecraft and that is really supposed to help protect the astronauts and the capsule from the extreme heat. It's also supposed to gradually erode as they enter the Earth's atmosphere.

Now with Artemis I in 2022, which was an uncrewed mission, it didn't work so well, and it's the same coating that they're using now with Artemis II. What happened there was big chunks of it came off, gases built up and caused a lot of cracks. So there were certainly a lot of questions about re-entry when the crew spoke with the media last night at a late-night press conference and here's what Victor Glover, the pilot, had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VICTOR GLOVER, ARTEMIS II PILOT: The entry thing, I'll be honest and say, I've actually been thinking about entry since April 3rd, 2023, when we got assigned to this mission. One of the first press conferences, we were asked what are we looking forward to and I said splashdown, and it's kind of humorous, but it's literal as well that we have to get back.

There's so much data that you've seen already, but all the good stuff is coming back with us. There's so many more pictures, so many more stories, and gosh, I haven't even begun to process what we've been through.

(LAUGH)

GLOVER: We've still got two more days and riding a fireball through the atmosphere is profound as well.

(LAUGH)

(END VIDEO CLIP) KAYE: And there he is smiling, talking about riding a fireball through the atmosphere. It is truly, truly incredible and they are using the same coating, as I said, but they did change the trajectory path for this capsule, this Orion capsule. They're going to come in at a deeper angle and they're hoping that that will help cause this heat shield to erode more naturally than it did with Artemis I and avoid some of that cracking. Boris?

[13:45:00]

SANCHEZ: That is the spirit, the enthusiasm you want to see, Randi Kaye, as you're getting ready to ride a fireball, like he said.

(LAUGH)

SANCHEZ: I love that he also remembers the date since when he's been thinking about a re-entry. Randi Kaye, live for us in Houston, thank you. Brianna?

KEILAR: Women in the U.S. are having fewer babies now than at any time on record. The birth rate is actually 20 percent lower than it was two decades ago, according to new federal data. And there are a lot of reasons for this, but a key one is that women in the U.S. are waiting until they're older to have kids.

Another is that there are fewer unintended pregnancies. Women today have more control over their reproductive health. Let's talk about this now with Reshma Saujani. She is the CEO and founder of Moms First, a national movement fighting for affordable child care, paid leave, and an economy that works for families. Thank you so much for being with us.

Last year, 3.6 million babies were born in the U.S. So that seems like a lot, right? That's about 53 births for every 1,000 women of reproductive age. But we're seeing this one percent drop from 2024, down 20 percent, as I mentioned, from two decades ago. Why are we seeing this happen?

RESHMA SAUJANI, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER & FOUNDER, MOMS FIRST: Yeah, honestly, it's not surprising. I would argue that our fertility rates are a scorecard on how America is doing to support families. And guess what? We're failing. The reality is, is we're pricing people out of parenthood.

43 percent of Americans, they can't afford the essentials. I'm talking about food, diapers, the rent. And their biggest cost, their biggest line item is child care. You know, 50 percent of American families can't afford or can't find child care. They're going into debt because of the cost of child care.

And so, they're making a decision not because they want to, but because they have to, that they can't afford children because their entire paycheck goes to raising them.

KEILAR: And so maybe they're waiting until they're a little older and more financially stable, right, to have kids. Overall, women in the U.S. are waiting until later in life to have children. Between 2024 and 2025, birth rates ticked up among women 30 and older, but not enough to offset that sharper decline that we saw in birth rates among those who are younger than 30.

What do you hear from women who are waiting until they're in their 30s to have kids?

SAUJANI: Well, I hear from a lot of women who are waiting to have children that the longer they wait and the fact that the economy doesn't do better, the fact that we don't have a nation that has child care or paid leave, they're opting out of parenthood.

The reality is if you look at the latest jobs report, 500,000 women left the workforce, and most of them were women who had children under the age of five. And the reason why they left is they couldn't afford or find child care.

So I think as you wait, as this nation continues to not invest in families, as we continue to, you know, spend more money on bombs than children, you know, parents, women are deciding not to have kids. And that's just about policies. I didn't even mention culture.

The reality is, you know, we say at Moms First, culture eats policy for breakfast every single day. And all you have to do is go on Instagram or go on TikTok and see that mothers are exhausted. They're burnt out.

And the reality is, is we just don't respect motherhood in America. We offer this false choice that you can either be a girl boss, or you can be a tradwife. And the reality is, is that most moms I speak to, they want something in between.

They want to have choice. They want to be able to pick up their kids from school, and they want to be able to not give up their biggest dreams because they can't afford child care. And so we got to do a better job.

We got to do a better job at putting forth policies like paid leave and child care. We got to do a better job at making it possible to have flexibility in the workplace, to not make sure that the school day starts at 8:30 and work starts at 9. Like, we make it impossible.

And so we have to change our policies, and we have to change culture. But we got to do both.

KEILAR: You actually asked President Trump about the cost of child care and the drag on young families at this Economic Club of New York dinner in 2024 when he was running. And you said both parties talk a lot about making child care more affordable, but neither has delivered a meaningful change.

What would that meaningful change look like? And how expensive would that be? Because that obviously is where it gets tricky for lawmakers, right? They have to deliver on something that it is pricey. It is a big thing to deliver on. SAUJANI: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I would use the president's words that he said when I asked him the question, which is like, child care is child care, and you got to have it.

[13:50:00]

And we have to take care of our families first before we take care of people in foreign countries, which was in opposition to what he said a few days ago, which is that we got to put foreign countries and invest in bombs rather than investing in our children. And so I was disappointed to see the inconsistency, especially because, you know, things have gotten more expensive.

And the thing that is getting more expensive with rising inflation is the cost of childcare. And so the reality is, is we make choices every single day about where to put our dollars. Quite frankly, we're doing that right now and putting them into foreign wars. And so we can choose to invest in childcare.

We can choose to fix the broken infrastructure. We can choose to make childcare available for everyone. In fact, you're seeing other states do this all the time. New Mexico, Vermont, we just did this here in New York, where we made sure that families, especially low-income families, have access to childcare from two years up.

And that's making families stay in the city, quite frankly. So what we need to do is bring down the cost of childcare. We need to pay childcare workers and we need to make it possible for there to be enough seats that that families can actually find those daycare seats, so they can go to work.

I mean, people can barely survive today. This is an affordability issue. And child care is the linchpin of affordability.

KEILAR: Reshma Saujani --

SAUJANI: It's not rocket science, (inaudible) willing to do.

KEILAR: It's not rocket science, but we have a lot of that going on, right? We see people solving that.

(LAUGH)

KEILAR: So especially today --

SAUJANI: Yes, we do. Yes (inaudible).

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: -- as we're covering this big story. Reshma, thanks for being with us. We appreciate it.

SAUJANI: Thank you for having me.

KEILAR: Coming up, the invisible battle that one player in the Masters will be facing at this week's tournament. This is a really important conversation as we are live from Augusta right after this.

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[13:56:45]

SANCHEZ: A comeback unlike any other. The Masters, one of sports' most iconic events and venues, is now underway in Augusta, Georgia. A field of 91 golfers, all vying for that coveted Green Jacket. One of them, though, is making an emotional return.

Gary Woodland suffers from severe anxiety and PTSD, having endured a series of personal trials and tragedies. CNN's Don Riddell joins us now live from Augusta. Don, Woodland has a fascinating story.

DON RIDDELL, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR & CORRESPONDENT: Just an absolutely remarkable story, and I know how lucky I am to be here in Augusta covering the Masters this week. But I spent 25 minutes in a press conference with Gary Woodland the other day, and at the end of it, I just wanted to go up and give him a big hug because what he has been through and the way he talks about it just puts everything into perspective.

And as you say, his story is remarkable. You'd never know by looking at his resume, he's a former major winner. He won the U.S. Open in 2019. He's won five times on the PGA Tour. He's won more than $38 million in prize money alone.

But what he has gone through behind the scenes is absolutely harrowing, most notably a lesion on his brain, a growth that had to be removed in 2023 because it was pressing on the part of his brain that controls emotion, and it was causing serious spikes in fear and anxiety. Now, the surgery was successful, and he felt immediate relief.

He returned to the game shortly afterwards, and he and I spoke about that last year. But what nobody realized until very recently was that he was suffering PTSD. He was suffering flashbacks to the anxiety and how he used to feel.

Despite all of that, despite the fear that somebody in the golf crowd at the events he's playing might be trying to kill him, he was able to overcome that, and he won the Houston Open just a couple of weeks ago, highly, highly emotional for him. And that is why he's back here at Augusta.

So I asked him this week, you know, given everything he's been through, what would it mean if the story was to end with him wearing the Green Jacket on Sunday? And I think his answer was really quite revealing. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

I got to worry about today. That's a big tail. I love this place. I love the tradition. There's nothing like driving down McCauley (ph) Lane. I definitely drove down a little slower this year than I ever have, even the first time when I was here in 2011. I'm definitely taking it all in this week for sure.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RIDDELL: Yeah, he is taking none of this for granted. He's not looking ahead. He says he doesn't have the luxury of being able to look ahead. He's just trying to get through the day. And yet, here he is, playing at the Masters, living life to the fullest, or at least as much as he can.

SANCHEZ: An amazing story. He just teed off alongside two-time Masters Champs, Scottie Scheffler. How is the scoreboard looking right now?

RIDDELL: Well, for those guys, there's nothing to say yet because they have just started, but he's going to be playing with massive crowds because Scheffler is a two-time champion.

SANCHEZ: Yeah.

RIDDELL: -- and the world number one. So that might be challenging for Woodland. As far as the leaderboard, the American Sam Burns is out ahead on five under. The former champion, Patrick Reed, just a stroke behind. But early days, it's only Thursday afternoon. --