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Soon, U.S. Military Begins Enforcing Strait of Hormuz Blockade; Pope Says He'll Keep Speaking Out Against War Despite Trump's Attacks; Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) Quits California Governor Race After Sexual Misconduct Allegations. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired April 13, 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]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: We are standing by for a major new stage in the war on Iran. After negotiation stall, a U.S. naval blockade on the Strait of Hormuz set to begin this morning, a fresh spike in oil prices.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Ending his bid for governor, now, Eric Swalwell is facing growing calls to resign his House seat and facing an investigation now after allegations of sexual misconduct with against multiple women. What his party is also now saying.

And Pope Leo speaking out, an extraordinary turn of events after President Trump lashes out at the pope. And Pope Leo's new message today saying he has no fear of the Trump administration, and blessed are the peacekeepers.

I'm Kate Bolduan with John Berman. Sara is out today. This is CNN News Central.

BERMAN: And the breaking news this morning, two new targets for President Trump, oil in the Strait of Hormuz, and Pope Leo IV, the leader of the Catholic Church. Just moments ago, the pope said he has no fear of the Trump administration, an extraordinary response from the pontiff's of unprecedented engagement, really, which we will get to in a moment.

First, though, we are counting down the minutes to the U.S. promise to block all traffic entering and leaving Iranian ports. The U.S. closure of the Strait of Hormuz begins at 10:00 A.M. Eastern Time. President Trump ordered this after talks with Iran collapsed.

Vice President J.D. Vance and the U.S. team left the negotiations in Pakistan after saying he put the final and best offer on the table. Overnight, though, President Trump said the ceasefire with Iran remains in place.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: How is the ceasefire holding?

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: I would say it's holding well. Their military is destroyed. Their whole navy is underwater, you know that. 158 ships are gone. Their navy's gone. Most of their mine-droppers are gone.

They broke their word. They broke their promise. And remember, their promise was that they were going to open the Hormuz Strait. They didn't do it. They lied.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: And so now President Trump is closing it to any vessels leaving Iranian ports.

There was a new spike in oil prices overnight. You can see more than 7 percent both Brent Crude and West Texas Crude now both over $100 a barrel. And in an extraordinary admission, the president told Fox that gas prices might not drop before the midterms or could even be higher.

I want to get right to CNN's Nic Robertson, who is live in Islamabad this morning, where the talks were and now are not. Give us the latest on the situation in the strait, Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes. Look, everyone's watching it right now, and it's very clear that the traffic there is thinning out. Shippers are saying that they're not going to put tankers through there. And Lloyds of London, the insurer, is saying they're seeing a complete stoppage of movement.

The United States over the weekend said it put two missile-guided destroyers -- guided missile destroyers, threw their sort of a mine- clearing exercise. So, it's not quite clear what the sort of military navy element of enforcing this blockade is going to look like. But we know structurally how it's going to be. It's going to blockade all Iranian ports inside the inside the Arabian Gulf or the Persian Gulf, as the Iranians call it, and outside in what's known as the Gulf of Oman.

So it's going to put a block on the Arabian block, so there'll be no international shipping going through. And no Iranian shipping or any ships that the Iranians might have allowed through, you know, for them to make money. That's all going to stop. The question is, what happens next? Do the hawks or the doves, when in Tehran, you have the hardline, the IRGC membership, and we've heard from some of those leaders overnight saying, look, if you, the United States, shut down the Strait of Hormuz, then we are going to shut down the Red Sea route, the Bab el-Mandeb, that bit that passes Yemen. They've got their Houthi proxies who are well experienced in hitting marine shipping, including tankers trying to exit the Red Sea.

[07:05:00]

So, you look like you could get an escalation there of the inability to move oil around the world. Okay, so that's, on the one hand.

What have you got on the dove side in Tehran right now? Well, that's the doves that were here in Islamabad over the weekend negotiating with J.D. Vance, Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner. So, that was happening. And one of the doves who went back to Iran saying now, they're saying, look, we put forward -- this came from the leader of the delegation, the parliamentary speaker on the Iranian side. He said, we put forward, these (INAUDIBLE) different proposals. The problem is the U.S. didn't accept them. The U.S. needs to trust us. We heard from the foreign minister from Iran who said, look, the U.S. keeps shifting the goalposts, which is sort of a recurring narrative here that the U.S. kept shifting the goalposts on what was achievable and the Iranians saying pretty much that they agreed and wanted to get this deal done.

So, this is where we're at. Do the doves win? Do the hawks win? Does the war escalate or not?

BERMAN: How much economic pain can Iran endure before the world pain that will no doubt be felt by the lack of oil coming out of the strait?

Nic Robertson in Islamabad for us, excuse me, thank you, Nic, very much. Kate?

BOLDUAN: All right. And now to that extraordinary new front that the president of the United States is now taking his fight to, taking on the pope, and Pope Leo is responding, a statement that no pope has ever made before or quite frankly ever has had to make before. The pope saying this morning that he has, quote, no fear of the Trump administration after President Trump went after him, as if Pope Leo were just any other politician, saying the pontiff was, quote, weak on crime and terrible for foreign policy.

Here is Pope Leo's message.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

POPE LEO XIV: The message of the church, my message, the message of the gospel, blessed are the peacemakers. I do not look at my role as being political politician. I don't want to get into a debate with him. I don't think that the message of the Gospel is meant to be abused in the way that some people are doing. And I will continue to speak out loudly against war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: CNN Alayna Treene is at the White House for us to start us off. This is quite a way to start a Monday, Alayna.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. I mean, a remarkable statement and comments you're hearing from Pope Leo XIV this morning, and they come, Kate, in response to the president issuing sharp criticisms against the first American pope. He had called the bishop of Rome, quote, weak on crime and terrible for foreign policy, while also claiming that Pope Leo would not have been selected if it was not for the president himself.

Now, we later saw Trump double down on comments in person while speaking with reporters last night before posting an A.I.-generated image of himself that essentially portrayed him looking as if he were Christ the Healer. But I do want you to take a listen to what we heard the president say last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: He's a very liberal person and he is a man that doesn't believe in stopping crime. He's a man that doesn't think that we should be toying with a country that wants a nuclear weapon so they can blow up the world. I'm not a fan of Pope Leo.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: I am not a fan of Pope Leo.

Look, just to give you a little context here. We had heard the pope weigh in. I think, initially, he was, you know, trying to refrain from criticizing the president or the Trump administration directly, but we have seen him become far more vocal when criticizing the U.S. war with Iran. Last week, he condemned the president's rhetoric specifically after we saw President Trump issue that threat that a whole civilization would die tonight.

Now, I want to give you a little context as well. It's very interesting and what I'm going to be watching for is what the 53 million Americans who are Catholic, who identify as Catholic, I would also say, you know, put that in another number that's known as 20 percent of the voting public, remains to be seen what their reaction to this will be.

Same with, I would note, among those, you know, 20 -- excuse me, 53 million Americans, that includes the first lady, Melania Trump, the vice president, J.D. Vance, the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, all of them as well, identifying as Catholics. So, just a remarkable, I think, war of words that we're seeing between the president and now having Pope Leo XIV respond this morning.

BOLDUAN: Yes. I mean, you can definitely -- it's almost less a war of words, but you were absolutely right. It's more President Trump lashing out and Pope Leo sticking with the gospel and continuing to press a message that we have seen popes in the past speak out many times against war. But the level of discourse between the leaders is definitely different this time.

Alayna, thank you so much.

[07:10:00]

Breaking for -- breaking -- some more breaking news in overnight, Congressman Eric Swalwell exits the race for California governor, now facing calls to resign from Congress, from his own party, over the allegations of sexual misconduct that he now faces.

And the suspect accused of starting a massive fire that torched a warehouse filled with paper products, like toilet paper and diapers, and much more, that suspect is now expected in court today. And we're learning about videos that appear to show someone filming themselves starting the blaze.

And a marathon food run, a group of runners shattering the world record for the most fast food restaurants visited in one day.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:15:00]

BERMAN: All right. Breaking overnight, California Democrat Eric Swalwell dropped his bid for governor after four women accused him of sexual misconduct, including one former staffer who says Swalwell sexually assaulted her after a night of heavy drinking. In a video message, the congressman acknowledged making mistakes in judgments, but denied the sexual assault allegations.

The Manhattan District Attorney's Office said it is investigating after -- as the incident was said to have happened in New York City.

With us now CNN, Senior Legal Analyst, former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Elie Honig. Counselor, good to see you this morning.

Talk to me about the Manhattan D.A.'s move here. What will they be investigating? How will it work? Why they jump in?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: So, John, a case like this is likely to come down to the single issue of consent. Was this sexual contact consensual or non-consensual?

Now, the first thing prosecutors will do naturally is speak to the complainant, the woman, get her full statement, get as much detail as they can. Prosecutors also will likely reach out to the accused, Eric Swallwell, here. You have to go through his defense lawyer. He has the -- he'll have the opportunity to speak to prosecutors, although, of course, he does not have to do that.

Then you're in the position of looking for what we call corroboration. You want to look at all the other evidence. So, for example, what were this woman's statements to others at or around the time? According to the reporting, there is evidence that this woman told friends and family members that she had this contact with Representative Swalwell and that it was non-consensual. You want to look at the conversations at and after the fact between the complainant and the accused. You want to look and see if there's any medical records. The reporting here is that the woman had pregnancy and STD testing. So, that's something short of a full medical workup.

And then, John, the key thing to keep in mind is for prosecutors, the question is not who is more believable or which side is more likely. Prosecutors, remember, have to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt. So, that's a very high burden that prosecutors will bear.

BERMAN: And, again, we said there were four women who came forward, including this one here in New York City. What will happen with other potential individuals? HONIG: Yes, so the allegedly criminal conduct that the D.A. is investigating relates to one of the four women, but prosecutors likely will want to speak to the other three women who had other sorts of unwanted advances, photos and texts, and exposure from Eric Swalwell.

Now, prosecutors have to be careful here though, because you might be able to offer that evidence if this case ever went to trial as a prosecutor by saying, well, it establishes a pattern. However, judges and prosecutors can get in trouble if you bring in too much of this what we call other bad acts evidence. For example, Harvey Weinstein had one of his convictions thrown out because prosecutors introduced and judges admitted too much of that other bad acts evidence.

So, I think if you're a prosecutor, you do want to speak to these three other women. But I think you want to be careful with how you use that evidence.

BERMAN: So, the other half of the intrigue surrounding the Swalwell situation is what happens in the House of Representatives. There may very well be a move this week to expel him, something that's almost never been done, though it has been done recently with George Santos here. So, what are the exact rules here and where is the Ethics Committee, which up until this point hasn't launched an investigation, where do they fit in?

HONIG: So, certainly, the Ethics Committee does have the power to launch an investigation to take statements, but the House also does not necessarily have to wait for the ethics committee or even for prosecutors.

Now, the Constitution tells us that the House can expel its own members by a two thirds vote of the entire membership. And if you do the math and look at the numbers, there are 219 Republicans right now. So, to get to two thirds, you would need all 219 Republicans plus about 71 Democratic votes. So, we've seen some Democratic members of Congress come out against Eric Swalwell. So, if that happens fairly quickly, if a vote is forced, they're going to need substantial Democratic support in order to get to that two thirds. That'll be a political question whether they have it or not.

BERMAN: That's right. And, of course, there could be some horse trading here, forgive the metaphor here, because there are some Republican members that Democrats want to see pushed out. This will be an extraordinary week, perhaps in terms of expulsions.

Elie Honig, great to see you this morning, thank you very much.

All right, he showed up to a home dressed as a construction worker, but he wasn't there to fix anything. He walked away with thousands of dollars worth of stuff and now the search is on.

And what do you do the morning after you realize your dreams for a second time? We're going to have to ask Roy McIlroy, back-to-back Masters champion.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [07:20:00]

BOLDUAN: The Masters is a wrap and Rory McIlroy secures his place among golf's all time greats, now with back-to-back green jackets.

CNN's Andy Scholes is live in Augusta. And he had to fight for it, Andy.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: He certainly did, Kate. You know, I mean, it was quite the rollercoaster, but somehow Rory was able to pull it off. You know, ever since he had the largest 36 hole lead in Masters history, he was kind of just out there hanging on for dear life.

[07:25:00]

He shot one over Saturday, one under Sunday, but that was good enough.

And, Rory, he was actually down two strokes to Justin Rose in yesterday's final round. But the difference, like it's been at so many Masters, came down to Amen Corner. And on 12 here, Rory, the fabulous shot off the tee, he birdied the hole. Rose meanwhile had bogey 12 moments before. So, Rory ended up going to 18 up two strokes.

But then he made it an adventure. He hit his tee shot way right, but he was able to get around the trees and he would eventually putt in to win the Masters, letting out a huge scream and sigh of relief at that point. He then shared an awesome moment with his daughter, Poppy, wife, Erica, and his parents. And Rory was so happy, his parents made it this time around.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RORY MCILROY, WON SECOND STRAIGHT MASTERS SUNDAY: Mom and dad, I owe everything to you. You are -- you're the most wonderful parents. And if I can be half the parent to Poppy as you were to me, then I know I've done a good job. Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: All right. Well, for Justin Rose, another Masters of what could have been, he had the lead midway through yesterday's final round, but once again slipped the away. The 45-year-old finished tied for third, and that comes a year after he'd lost to Rory in a playoffs.

Scottie Scheffler, meanwhile, almost made the greatest comeback in Masters' history. He was 12 shots back of Rory entering Saturday, but stormed up the leaderboard. And had Scottie made this cut on 17, he would've got to 12 under and potentially forced a playoff.

All right, in hockey, meanwhile, the Capitol's honoring Alex Ovechkin before their last home game of this season yesterday. This may have been the last home game of Ove's legendary career. The 40-year-old, he's in his 21st season and after the 3-0 win over Pittsburgh, the Penguins actually waded around on the ice to shake his hand. But Ovechkin, he waved them off saying, don't do that. Maybe that means he's coming back. He said after the game he hasn't yet decided if he's going to retire.

But back here in Augusta, you know, we did get to see some history, Rory, just the fourth golfer ever to win back-to-back green jackets. He joins Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods. And, you know, Kate, I was out there with Rory for pretty much the entire day. I will say he makes it fun. It's an adventure. He's just as likely to hit it in the trees as he is the fairway. But it was such a fun ride to see him make some history.

And I tell you what, Kate, this might have been the best weather we've ever had for the Masters. It was fabulous all week.

BOLDUAN: I mean, I enjoyed at least every morning tracking if the puffer jacket was on or off of Andy Scholes as my Masters weather report, which I at least personally enjoyed. I'm glad you, one, dress for the weather, and, two, at an amazing time. We've absolutely loved your coverage, Andy. Thank you so much. Best assignment in the biz, at least this week.

Coming up for us, Americans will soon be nostalgic for $4 gas. That is the warning now from an Iranian official of what could happen if President Trump's plan blockade goes into effect and it is set to do so in under three hours now. Look at gas -- look at oil prices right now.

Also this morning, Pope Leo says he has, quote, no fear of the Trump administration after President Trump goes after him and him speaking out against the war in Iran.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:30:00]