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Powerful Multi-Day Storm Lashing Hawaii With Heavy Rain; U.S. & Iran Prepare For Make-or-Break Talks Tomorrow; Oil Prices Push Inflation To Highest Level In Nearly Two Years; NASA Making Final Preps For Artemis II Crew's Return To Earth; Husband Of Michigan Woman Missing In The Bahamas Held For Questioning. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired April 10, 2026 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

CHRIS WARREN, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Forecast is showing that the rain with this round should be moving fairly quickly. That should help us, Omar. But if it does stall out and that rain does linger over some of the same areas like on the big island from Kona to Hilo, it will absolutely be worth watching for the potential of more flooding.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Wow. I mean more than a foot and a half of rain in some spots, this is really, really serious. Chris Warren, appreciate it, as always.

A new hour of "CNN News Central" starts right now.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Right now, Vice President J.D. Vance is on his way to Pakistan for talks aimed at ending the war with Iran, but not before issuing a warning to Tehran. Do not play us.

Plus, new details in the disappearance of a Michigan woman in the Bahamas, an attorney for her husband, Brian Hooker, releasing a new statement after Hooker was arrested.

And a historic mission around the moon coming to a close. We're tracking Artemis II as the crew prepares for its return home. We're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to "CNN News Central."

More tough talk and mounting pressure as the U.S. prepares for peace negotiations with Iran. President Trump firing this shot across the bow ahead of that meeting, telling the New York Post today, we have a reset going. We're loading up the ships with the best ammunition, the best weapons ever made, even better than what we did previously. And we blew them apart.

His vice president, J.D. Vance, and a team of top negotiators are on their way to Pakistan to speak with Iranian officials. But economic concerns back home, largely driven by the war, could loom large over those discussions. The surging price of gas drove U.S. inflation to its highest level in nearly two years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And with shipping in the Strait of Hormuz mostly idle right now, anxiety is building over the long-term impact that this could have on Americans' pocketbooks.

CNN's Kristen Holmes is at the White House. Kristen, how is this new economic data affecting preparations for these talks?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly putting even more pressure on them. While it's not shocking, the White House really wants to turn its focus to the economy. And while there's still this lingering Iran war, because remember, just because we're in a ceasefire does not mean it's over, they can't actually turn their attention to this. They have to focus on Iran, and every day that passes is a day that they are closer to the midterms. And Republicans inside the White House and around the White House are deeply concerned about this.

Now, it doesn't seem like these talks are off to a great start already. We heard from the parliamentary speaker in Iran saying again that the U.S. had breached two parts of the ceasefire, saying they couldn't have talks until Lebanon was part of the ceasefire, among other things.

We also have President Trump posting this just moments ago on Truth Social, saying "The Iranians don't seem to realize they have no cards other than a short-term extortion of the world by using international waterways. The only reason they are alive today is to negotiate." Now, Vice President Vance, as he was boarding his plane, did give brief remarks where he sounded a little more optimistic. This is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J.D. VANCE, (R) VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: We're looking forward to the negotiation. I think it's going to be positive. We'll, of course, see, as the President of the United States said, if the Iranians are willing to negotiate in good faith, we're certainly willing to extend the open hand.

If they're going to try to play us, then they're going to find that the negotiating team is not that receptive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: And obviously, all eyes are going to be on what happens in these negotiations. But I can tell you, talking to administration officials really across the board, they want this to go well. They want this to put an end to Iran and put all of this behind them, so they can move on ahead of the midterms.

KEILAR: All right, Kristen Holmes, thank you for the latest from the White House. Omar?

JIMENEZ: Well, meanwhile, the countdown is on for Artemis II's return to Earth later tonight. As the crew re-enters Earth's atmosphere, their capsule is going to endure extreme heat while traveling about 30 times the speed of sound.

I want to bring in CNN Aviation Correspondent, Pete Muntean, who's here with us. So, Pete, can you just walk us through this really critical final phase here?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, the crew of Artemis II just began prepping the Orion space capsule for re-entry. They are stowing items right now and re-installing the seats that they need for re-entry. Re-entry is hands down the most dangerous part of any space flight, Omar, but especially on this mission.

NASA's flight director just described it as an hour-and-a-half long sequence of events where everything must go right. We're talking going from 76 miles up, 25,000 miles per hour to the speed of a bicycle in just 13 minutes time.

Splashdown set for 8:07 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, 5:07 p.m. in the Pacific Time Zone, where the Orion capsule will land about 100 miles off the coast of San Diego.

[14:05:00]

This is going to be a big test. This is the first time the Orion capsule has re-entered the Earth's atmosphere with humans on board. Also, remember that re-entry generates heat comparable to the surface of the sun. And this will be a big trial of whether NASA has ironed out the kinks in Orion's heat shield because engineers discovered problems with it after the uncrewed Artemis I mission back in 2022.

It's what's known as ablative, meaning that the heat shield is designed to burn off. But engineers found more than a hundred locations after that mission where chunks broke off in ways they were not supposed to. It kicked off a massive investigation. NASA has now changed the trajectory to a steeper angle to reduce the amount of time the punishing heat is burning the bottom of the spacecraft.

I want you to listen now to NASA's associate administrator. He says there's naturally some anxiety about tonight, but insists that NASA has confidence in this re-engineered re-entry.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMIT KSHATRIYA, ASSOCIATE ADMINISTRATOR, NASA: And so, you know, we've done the work. It's impossible to say you don't have irrational fears left, right? But I would tell you, I don't have any irrational fears about what's going to happen. We've done the work we need to. And we have full confidence in the team, the recovery team, the flight control team analysis and the work we did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: NASA says it's done about 30 tests on the heat shield since the Artemis I issues. No doubt, those will be weighing heavy on NASA Mission Control in Houston tonight. Remember, the space shuttle Columbia burned up in re-entry in 2003, dooming the astronauts on board. Russian spacecraft have faced fatal re-entry problems before.

If this fails or even if it doesn't work perfectly, it could seriously jeopardize the Artemis III mission set for 2027 that will test rendezvous and docking between Orion and other spacecraft that are needed to land astronauts on the moon once again. Omar?

JIMENEZ: I mean, you lay out the sheer amount of calculations that have gone to the launch, the travel, the distance, the time spent. And now, this is the most critical phase to getting them back down here to Earth. Pete Muntean, I know you'll be following it at all.

We also will be keeping a close eye on Artemis. Ahead, we're going to talk to the father of astronaut, Victor Glover, on his son's historic journey to the moon and the path that led him there.

Plus, we're also tracking here on Earth the Strait of Hormuz and its impact on oil as Americans face the highest inflation in almost two years and consumer sentiment hits a record low.

And a deadly attack in Florida turning renewed attention on President Trump's immigration crackdown. We'll explain that and much more, coming up on "CNN News Central."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:12:20]

JIMENEZ: The war in Iran is causing a spike in gas prices and pushing inflation to 3.3 percent in March and that's significant because that's the fastest increase we've seen in nearly two years according to newly released data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Meanwhile consumer sentiment is at its lowest level on record since 1952, a sign Americans are getting a little uneasy with the economy.

I want to bring in Pollster and Communication Strategist, Frank Luntz, who joins me now. So Frank, I just want to start with how politically problematic is this war fueled economic slide for President Trump and his allies, considering that was the number one issue for voters when they went to the ballot box back in November?

FRANK LUNTZ, POLLSTER & COMMUNICATION STRATEGIST: For most people, the economy is number one issue and I want to apologize to viewers for the sound of my voice, but I thought this is too important to pass up. The fact is --

(CROSSTALK)

JIMENEZ: I knew you'd fight through. And thanks for being here.

LUNTZ: Yes, I'm not giving up. The affordability, gas prices, energy prices, food prices, housing, health care, all of these are key issues and they're all voter issues. Make no (ph) mistake, this is still April. There's more than six months between now and Election Day. But there is no issue that will be more important to Republicans' efforts to keep the House and the Senate than the economy in general and affordability in particular. And this is not good news for the president at this moment.

JIMENEZ: Well, and even if a deal is made in the Strait of Hormuz, you know, the speed with which these gas prices go up doesn't always match the speed with which they go down. So this could actually extend a good long time after this as well. We will see.

I want to get your pulse on, look, President Trump blasting right-wing pundits who've criticized the war. Public polling though does show Trump's war with Iran is backed by a large majority of Republican voters. But do you believe the likes of Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens and more speak for a significant part of Trump's base. How do you assess their voices in this?

LUNTZ: Their voices matter and the fact that the president doesn't have a united front at this moment among people who backed him in 2024 is an obvious concern. But the critical nature for me, as a pollster, are the independents. These are individuals who will vote in 2026, are not aligned by political party, are not particularly ideological, and are not particularly political, and their opinions matter most because they're the deciding vote in the two dozen seats that determine who controls the Congress.

[14:15:13]

And right now, their hostility to the war, at least at this moment, is going to be a problem for the Republicans. But again, it's only the middle of April and so much can change between now and then.

JIMENEZ: Yeah.

LUNTZ: It's still a warning sign, the red (ph) flashing everywhere, but that just tells me that the White House and Congress needs to do a better job of explaining why, how, and what happens at the end.

JIMENEZ: Yeah. I mean saying, this is early look, how much has happened already to this point in April. It feels like some -- it feels like a million new cycles to this point. You're talking about polling, I was looking at new Pew Polling that was out, where six in ten Americans have a very or somewhat unfavorable view of Israel, which is interesting because it's up seven percentage points since last year and nearly 20 points since 2022.

Now, a majority of Republicans view Israel favorably, but there is a generational divide there. And I just wonder, do you believe that has factored into Americans' negative view on the war overall, especially since the countries have been almost in lockstep throughout this?

LUNTZ: This has never happened in modern history or at least, over the last 25 years. Israel has always been seen favorably by most Republicans. It's been seen unfavorably by some Democrats, but the partisanship is less important right now and the age break is so significant. Younger voters have turned against Israel and supportive of the Palestinians in numbers that I've never seen since the new millennium.

And for these ratings, they have to be concerned that their messaging and their procedures and their policies and how they prosecuted this war is causing the American people to turn against them in numbers that they never imagined before. And let me say this, foreign policy normally doesn't matter in off-year elections. But this year, in terms of where the heat is, where voters are most passionate, the fact that Israel has seen this decline in its public support, I believe that Israel is going to be one of the issues that's going to matter in this upcoming election and that the people over in Tel Aviv ought to be paying attention to this because, in the end, funding allies' support really does matter to the country and to the people of that country and they better be paying attention to it because this is significant and this is serious.

JIMENEZ: Well and funding for foreign allies does tend to permeate the base a little bit more in turn when you look at the state of the economy. We saw a little bit of that fracturing in terms of repeated support for Ukraine amid its war going into the presidential election last year -- I want to -- back in 2024.

I want to ask you one more thing, the New York Times reporting Vice President Vance, understanding Trump wanted to act, pushed for overwhelming force to get the job done quickly, and that Vance warned the war could break apart President Trump's political coalition and would be seen as a betrayal by many voters who had bought into the promise of no new wars.

Now, once the war started, he didn't try to sell the American public on the conflict and I know we are looking way ahead at this point. But has this conflict better positioned him for a 2028 run when compared to Rubio? I just -- how do you assess the relationship between sort of the political dynamics of the future of the Republican Party and the dynamic of how this current issue is being handled in the moment?

LUNTZ: Make no mistake, the closeness of the president and his key advisers and the key people the administration is unbreakable and unshakable. And to suggest anything else is simply kind of playing games that J.D. Vance is the front-runner by far and it'll be very hard for anyone to topple him. That said, it is so long between now and then that it is kind of unfair to prognosticate.

I believe that this vice president and this president are aligned and that to me, I'm focused on what's happening among the undecided, the unaffiliated, and the independent because where they swing will determine who controls Congress and that in itself will have the biggest impact on who runs and who wins in 2028.

JIMENEZ: And a group of voters that is watching everything playing out right now very, very closely with implications for a midterm election that is far, but will be here before we know it.

[14:20:00]

Frank Luntz, appreciate you powering through. Thanks for being here.

LUNTZ: Thank you.

JIMENEZ: All right. Still ahead, new details in the case of an American woman missing off the coast of the Bahamas. Her husband is now in custody. We'll tell you what his lawyer says happened just as police were arresting him. Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: New details in the disappearance of Lynette Hooker, the Michigan woman missing in the Bahamas after reportedly falling off of a boat.

[14:25:00]

Her husband, Brian, is in custody, but he has not been charged and he denies any wrongdoing. CNN's Dianne Gallagher has been following this case for us. And Dianne, you have some new information, tell us what you're learning.

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, it's just sort of trickling out here, Brianna. Brian Hooker's attorney just spoke with reporters a short time ago outside of the police station, and she said that he was questioned again today.

Look, he remains in Bahamian police custody, and to reiterate, he's not been charged with anything at this point. According to Bahamian legal experts, police have 48 hours, so until later tonight, to bring charges, although they can get an extension to keep him in custody longer to continue an investigation.

Now, we still don't know what led authorities to actually take him into custody in connection with his wife Lynette's disappearance, but we are learning a little bit more about what happened around the night of the arrest.

His attorney saying it was a harrowing experience. She described that they took him to the couple's yacht, Soulmate, to execute a search. The weather conditions were rough, and Brian was handcuffed, and he fell overboard.

The lawyer said that he was submerged in the cold water and took in a significant amount of seawater before his life jacket brought him to the surface. He had to be rescued from the water by the police. She notes that he injured his knee, and police agreed to take him to the hospital to be treated for that.

Now, look, his attorney has maintained that Brian, quote, "categorically and unequivocally denies any wrongdoing." He's been cooperating with the relevant authorities as part of an ongoing investigation. You know, I spoke with his stepdaughter, Karli Aylesworth, yesterday to get reaction to his arrest.

And look, she said that this is a very difficult, emotional and confusing time for her. Her mother is missing, presumed dead, and now her stepfather is in custody. They've asked for a full investigation, saying that their hope is this was just a freak accident, but they want the truth.

And part of that was because they said Brian's initial description to police of what happened that night just didn't seem to add up. According to police in the Bahamas, Brian told them that he and Lynette set off on an eight-foot hard bottom dinghy around 7:30 p.m. on Saturday night from Hopetown, headed to Elbow Cay, where their yacht was moored.

Now, he said that the seas were rough, the wind was blowing, and that Lynette bounced out of that dinghy, wearing the kill switch of the dinghy, so it lost power. That she was taken away by the current. And he told a friend that the wind blew him away. He was unable to get her. He attempted to paddle and eventually beached across the water, miles away in Marsh Harbor, around 4 o'clock in the morning on Sunday.

And that's when he alerted authorities that his wife was missing. They have been searching land, air, and sea since then. But again, Brianna, Bahamian officials say that this is a recovery operation at this point. Lynette's family tells me they have a glimmer of hope. They're hoping maybe she is stranded somewhere on the island and has not been able to contact people, but say they're aware that that is probably not the case.

KEILAR: Yeah. Dianne, thank you for the very latest there. All eyes on Vice President, J.D. Vance as he heads to Pakistan for critical peace talks with Iran and a major point of contention is the Strait of Hormuz, of course. Ahead, how Iran's control of the world's most important passageway for oil could play into negotiations.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)