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Cuba's President Non-committal on Releasing Political Prisoners; Eric Swalwell Ends California Governor Campaign Amid Sexual Misconduct Claims; Trump and Putin Ally Viktor Orban Voted Out in Hungary; Rory McIlroy Wins 2026 Masters Tournament. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired April 13, 2026 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00]

PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And that would be very beneficial in terms of U.S. sanctions being lifted and a path forward being reached. We'll see if that can be worked out. Like, look, like what took place in Venezuela. And I think this is why Miguel Diaz-Canel has come out now in two interviews, more interviews than he's ever given in his life to U.S. press in the last few weeks, to Newsweek and then Meet the Press, where he is trying to show that he is the final word in Cuba.

But we should also point out that Miguel Diaz-Canel has said multiple times that all major decisions go through Raul Castro who, though is not, is retired, is no longer the president of this country, still seems to be the ultimate authority in what takes place on this island.

Patrick Oppmann, live for us in Havana. Thank you so much, Patrick.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Still ahead, CNN exclusive reporting on Congressman Eric Swalwell, one of the frontrunners in the California's governor's race, dropping out in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations. We're going to sit down with a woman who says the Congressman raped her, an allegation that he denies.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:35:10]

ERICA HILL, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Democratic Congressman, Eric Swalwell is quitting the race for California governor after four women accused him of sexual misconduct. Those allegations include one former staffer who says Swalwell sexually assaulted her after a night of heavy drinking in New York. The Manhattan District Attorney's Office is now investigating her claims.

In ending his campaign, Swalwell wrote in a social media post Sunday night, quote, "To my family, staff, friends, and supporters, I am deeply sorry for mistakes in judgment I've made in my past. I will fight the serious false allegations that have been made, but that's my fight, not a campaign's." CNN's Pamela Brown spoke to the former staffer who says Swalwell raped her when she was heavily intoxicated. That interview is important to note took place before the Congressman announced the end of his gubernatorial campaign. And I do want to warn you, the story contains disturbing and graphic details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FEMALE STAFFER OF ERIC SWALWELL WHO ACCUSED HIM OF RAPE: I kept figuring out ways to blame myself. I shouldn't have reached out to him at all. I should have left. I should have done this. Well, Eric shouldn't have raped me.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN CHIEF INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This Capitol Hill staffer is coming forward for the first time on camera to talk about her experience with Congressman Eric Swalwell. He is now a leading Democratic candidate for governor of California.

REP. ERIC SWALWELL, (D) CALIFORNIA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: Let's get together, make the biggest wave this state has ever seen.

BROWN (voice-over): Swalwell was in his late thirties and married when she joined his office as an intern and became a junior staffer. She's speaking in shadow as she fears professional consequences.

FEMALE STAFFER: It was in 2019. I was again driving him to an event. This was my job.

BROWN: And you were 21 years old?

FEMALE STAFFER: I was 21 years old. We see some sort of parking lot and he says to pull over. He pulls out his penis and instructs me to give him oral sex. And I started to. Again, I felt incredibly uncomfortable and I stopped and I said to him, this feels really uncomfortable and anyone could see us right now. And he said to me, you're right. It's probably not good for a Congressman to be caught with his pants down.

BROWN (voice-over): Swalwell calls her allegations false. His campaign responded earlier to vague accusations on social media related to his behavior with staffers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you ever behave inappropriately with female staffers?

SWALWELL: No. No, it's false. And also, you know, some of the allegations I've seen, which is that we've had NDAs in the office. Never, there's never been an allegation and there's never been a settlement. And you know, I will also just take stock that, look, we're twenty seven days before an election starts.

BROWN: Did he ask you to send him lewd photos?

FEMALE STAFFER: Yes.

BROWN: And did he ever send you photos?

FEMALE STAFFER: Yes. He would send short Snapchat videos of him rubbing his penis through his pants while on the airplane.

BROWN (voice-over): The staffer says she liked Swalwell's attention at first and nervously went along with it, which included sending back nude photos of herself. But in September 2019, she says she and some friends met up with Swalwell. After a night of heavy drinking, she says she woke up naked with Swalwell in a hotel room with no memory of what happened.

FEMALE STAFFER: The five of us were having some drinks. At some point it was time to go home. I got in an Uber. I was taken to the Aloft Dublin Pleasant Inn where he was staying. And I don't remember what happened that night. But I know that we -- there was sexual contact because when I woke up in the morning, I could feel that there was and he said as much too.

BROWN: What did he say?

FEMALE STAFFER: That last night was great. It didn't feel great to me because I didn't remember it.

BROWN: And so you blacked out and you end up in his hotel room and wake up with him?

FEMALE STAFFER: Yes.

BROWN (voice-over): She says another incident occurred in 2024 after this event in New York where Swalwell gave a speech.

SWALWELL: Some of us are working hard on Capitol Hill.

BROWN (voice-over): At the time, she no longer worked for Swalwell's office.

FEMALE STAFFER: I decided to ask him to meet me for a drink. And I did this because I was so far removed from what had happened in 2019, I felt safe because I was established. I had a partner. I felt more secure that I could have a strictly professional relationship with this person. After that bar closed, we went to another. I went to the bathroom and I don't remember anything after that.

BROWN: You don't remember anything?

FEMALE STAFFER: I remember the next day, I can see flashes of that evening of him on top of me, me pushing him off, him grabbing me. It was a lot more aggressive. It was aggressive.

[13:40:00]

BROWN: Did you say no?

FEMALE STAFFER: Yes. I said no. I said -- I -- in my flash that I can recall, I was pushing him off of me saying no.

BROWN: And what did he do?

FEMALE STAFFER: He didn't stop. BROWN: He didn't stop. And you woke up the next morning?

FEMALE STAFFER: I woke up the next morning naked, alone, in his hotel room. I, for a moment, didn't even know I was in his hotel room. That's how intoxicated I was. And I called my mom, the only person I could think that could help me.

BROWN (voice-over): Her mother confirmed her account in an interview with CNN. CNN also reviewed screenshots of texts she sent to a friend saying she was, "sexually assaulted by Eric." She also shared this note from a physician's assistant calling her, a "survivor" after she went to get tested for STDs one week later.

BROWN: Why do you feel like it's so important to speak out now?

FEMALE STAFFER: When I found out there were others who might have been impacted by Eric in different ways, I realized I couldn't be scared anymore because that is how he keeps us quiet, the fear, the shame.

BROWN (voice-over): In addition to this former staffer, three other women who spoke with CNN also alleged sexual misconduct by Swalwell. One said he kissed her and touched her without her consent. Two of the women said he sent them unsolicited, explicit messages or nude images of himself, something the others say Swalwell did with them as well.

One shared this message where he commented on her photo and wrote, quote, "That swimsuit. [expletive]." You like it? she responded. Yes, very much like, he wrote.

In a statement to CNN, Swalwell said, quote, "These allegations are false and come on the eve of an election against the front runner for governor. For nearly 20 years, I have served the public as a prosecutor and a Congressman and have always protected women."

FEMALE STAFFER: There is another me out there. There is another young girl who dreams of working in this field and believes in him and could fall into this trap.

BROWN: And that's why you're speaking out?

FEMALE STAFFER: Yeah.

BROWN: You want to protect others like you when you were young.

FEMALE STAFFER: No one protected me. Sorry. No one protected me. And I don't want someone else to suffer because I know what I know.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HILL: And our thanks to Pamela Brown for that very important interview. If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, there is help. You can reach the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1- 800-656-HOPE. It is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

We also have some Breaking News just coming into us here at CNN. The House Ethics Committee just opening an investigation now into Congressman Swalwell.

CNN's Manu Raju is joining us now. Manu, what are you learning?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, just moments ago, the bipartisan House Ethics Committee announcing that it has indeed opened a probe into Swalwell's conduct. Just putting out a brief statement, which I'll read you, some of which said that the committee has begun an investigation and will gather additional information regarding the allegations that Representative Eric Swalwell violated the code of official conduct or any law, rule, regulation or other applicable standard of conduct in the performance of his duties or the discharge of his responsibilities with respect to allegations that he may have engaged in sexual misconduct, including towards an employee working under his supervision.

Now, the implications of this are that it could take some time for it to play out because House Ethics probes typically take months to carry out. And this comes, though, as there's a much faster moving effort in the House of Representatives to expel Swalwell from his seat altogether. There could be a vote as soon as the middle of this week to expel Swalwell because it's being pushed by several members of the House of Representatives, some Democrats supporting this as well.

And that any member can force a vote within two legislative days. And we know that Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna, a Republican from Florida, plans to offer a resolution to kick Swalwell out of the House of Representatives. So it's going to pose a test for a lot of members, many of whom oftentimes are reluctant to vote for expulsion matters until after a House Ethics Committee probe has concluded.

But given the nature and gravity of those allegations that you heard right there just moments ago, it's going to put a lot of these members in a difficult spot. And remember, it would require 290 votes, two- thirds of the House of Representatives, meaning a significant amount of Democrats to vote yes to kick Swalwell out of the House.

We'll see if that ultimately happens, because there are several other members who could also face expulsion votes, including Congressman Tony Gonzales of Texas, a Republican who has faced sexual misconduct allegations of his own as well. Guys?

[13:45:00]

HILL: Yeah, certainly a lot of calls in this moment. We'll see how all of that plays out, as you said. Manu, appreciate it. Thank you.

Well, after 16 years in power, Trump ally Viktor Orban conceding defeat in Hungary's elections. We're live in Budapest with the latest on what this power shift could mean for the rest of Europe and beyond.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:50:00]

SANCHEZ: In Hungary, a powerful prime minister with close ties to both President Trump and Russian President Putin has just been voted out of power after 16 years. There were celebrations in the streets overnight as opposition leader, Peter Magyar defeated Viktor Orban by a landslide in parliamentary elections. The results are seen as a huge setback for the far-right in Europe and could signal a major shift in European politics.

CNN's Melissa Bell is covering all of this for us from Budapest. Melissa, what can you tell us about Hungary's new leader and how he was able to end Orban's grip on power?

MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we've just been hearing about him in this sort of two-hour press conference in which he fielded all kinds of questions from the Hungarian press, the international press about his vision for Hungary now and also how he had achieved this astonishing defeat of Viktor Orban.

You got the sense on the streets of Budapest last night that even those who were out celebrating, specifically the young, couldn't quite believe what had happened, so strong had been Viktor Orban's grip on power and for so long.

What he explained was a remarkable story of a campaign that began two years ago with a van and a determination to get around as much of Hungary as he could. 700 villages and towns he'd visited, some of them, he said, over the course of the last two years, six, seven, eight times, speaking to people.

And when he was asked, he said, by European leaders about what the recipe, the secret recipe is to beating far-right populism, he said, you know, in the end, it's a sort of different kind of populism, one that goes and listens to people and speaks to people and then represents their interests.

And that's what he has vowed to do, restoring the rule of law to Hungary and also, Boris, repairing its relationship with the European Union.

SANCHEZ: And conversely, with the United States, how do we think this new government is going to approach the White House, given that you had Vice President Vance going to Hungary to campaign for Orban?

BELL: That's right. Vice President Vance, Secretary of State Rubio, we'd had that endorsement from President Trump himself. Viktor Orban had been the darling of MAGA and they'd really invested a lot of time and effort into trying to ensure that he was re-elected. In the end, it didn't work. In fact, his party really collapsed.

We see it now holding about a fifth of the parliamentary seats here in Hungary, whereas the other party, Tisza, that of Peter Magyar, now holds the two-thirds majority that will allow him to change the constitution back, and to try and return this rule of law to Hungary. So what he had to say about that was really interesting.

He said that he didn't believe that any leader should be fighting in the name of a global movement, that every leader should be representing his own people and their interests. And what he had to say about both Washington and Moscow strategically was really interesting.

Take for instance, Russian gas and oil that have been coming freely to Hungary, very cheaply to Hungary. He said he would now be acting in Hungarian interest to diversify the energy supplies of Hungary, and that includes some Russian oil and gas, but not only Russian oil and gas because ideologically, it is no longer about supporting Moscow and Washington at any cost, Boris.

SANCHEZ: Wow. We'll see how the Kremlin responds to that. Melissa Bell, live for us in Budapest, thank you so much.

Still ahead, a historic weekend in Augusta, as Rory McIlroy becomes only the fourth golfer ever to win two straight Green Jackets. Stay with us. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:55:07]

HILL: Rory McIlroy has done it again. The Northern Irishman on Sunday became only the fourth player in Masters history to win the coveted Green Jacket in back-to-back years. So he joins this even more elite group of golf legends that includes Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo, and Tiger Woods.

CNN's Don Riddell walks us through McIlroy's historic achievement at Augusta National.

DON RIDDELL, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR & CORRESPONDENT: Rory McIlroy is making his way back to Florida today, and he promised that he would be flying with a sore head after a big night of celebration at Augusta National. On Sunday, McIlroy further cemented his legacy with his second Masters title, becoming only the fourth player to win back-to- back Green Jackets. It was thrilling, and it was dramatic.

McIlroy admits that he doesn't make it easy for himself. At times during the tournament, he seemed to be running away with it. Then he was flying by the seat of his pants, but he was able to compose himself around Amen Corner with a couple of birdies, and he needed a two-stroke lead because his tee shot on 18 was just awful.

But in the end, he got it done, beating Scottie Scheffler by a stroke, and it meant so much that he was able to do it in front of his family. His mom and dad sacrificed everything so that he could pursue his dream, but they didn't see him do it last year, and they didn't want to jinx it this time. But he persuaded them to come, and it was certainly worth their while.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RORY MCILROY, 2026 MASTERS CHAMPION: When the ball trickled by and I marked it there from, you know, two inches or whatever, I just looked at the back of the green, and I give it one of these because I saw my mom and dad and Erica and Poppy, and I was just like, I can't believe I've just done it again. So, yeah, more joy, more like, yeah, not as emotional, but just, wow, this is, you know, it's amazing. I can't believe I did it again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RIDDELL: Having entered the pantheon of greats by winning all four major titles for the career Grand Slam last year, now he joins only Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods as the only men to win twice in a row at Augusta. He's got six major titles to his name. He's tied for 12th on the all-time list, and he says he doesn't plan on stopping here. --