Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Israel and Lebanon Wrap Up Ceasefire Talks in Washington; U.S. Naval Blockade of Iranian Ports Holding After 28-plus Hours; Trump Officials Discussing Possible Second Meeting With Iran; Oil Prices Fall Slightly on Hopes of New U.S.-Iran Talks; Reps. Swalwell, Gonzales to Resign Amid Sexual Misconduct Allegations; Speaker Johnson Says Democrat Rep. Cherfilus-McCormick Should Be Expelled; Tornadoes and Giant Hail Ignite Weeklong Severe Storm Threat. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired April 14, 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]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EDWARD EASTLAND, CAMP DIRECTOR, CAMP MYSTIC: We weren't told to go to this website to look at this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ERICA HILL, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": The hearing comes as Camp Mystic hopes to reopen this summer if the state renews its license. Camp operators say close to 900 girls are registered for the season.

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

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": A second chance to a deal. President Trump hinting that something could be happening over the next few days as the U.S. and Iran consider coming back to the negotiating table in Islamabad with the latest from the White House.

Plus, backing his boss, Vice President J.D. Vance suggesting that Pope Leo should stick to matters of morality as the feud between the pontiff and the president escalates. Also, tornadoes, hail and damaging winds hammering the central U.S. with more severe weather on the way. Today's threat could be the most dangerous this week.

We're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to "CNN News Central."

Breaking News in the war with Iran. President Trump just a short time ago hinting a second round of talks with Tehran could be coming in the next few days. But with just a week left before the U.S. ceasefire expires, Iran is saying they've not yet decided whether they're willing to meet again.

Last hour, Secretary of State, Marco Rubio wrapped up the highest level direct talks between Israel and Lebanon in 40 years. The meeting lasted roughly two hours with Lebanon demanding a ceasefire as Israel continues to pound Hezbollah, Iran's proxy group there. Lebanon's health ministry says at least 35 have been killed in the last 24 hours, more than 2,100 since the war began, including 168 children.

New details on the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports are coming in as well. More than 10,000 American troops are said to be involved as this standoff continues to cripple global economies and the cost of oil globally. CNN's Kristen Holmes is live at the White House with more on what President Trump is saying today. What's the latest, Kristen?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Boris, I mean, President Trump is really leaning heavily into this idea that new negotiations or a second round of negotiations are right around the corner.

Now, he declined to say who from the United States would take part in those negotiations, although we know, of course, the last delegation was led by Vice President J.D. Vance. It included Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. And as of now, we have no indication that they wouldn't be involved in a second round of talks.

But here's what he told a reporter who is currently on assignment in Islamabad. He said, you should stay there, really, because something could be happening over the next two days and we're more inclined to go there. It's more likely. You know why? Because the field marshal is doing a great job.

Now, in that, he is referring to the Pakistan Field Marshal, General Munir, that is somebody who has been running the Pakistani side of these negotiations in between the United States and Iran. He was also asked about Geneva and essentially, blew off that idea saying why would we go to a country that's not currently involved in these talks.

And just about this blockade, I mean, the White House administration is leaning very heavily into this. You noted the 10,000 service members, that's across 12 U.S. Navy ships that are indicating or that are holding the blockade currently. We have heard now from CENTCOM saying that six ships have left Iranian port and then turned back around because of that blockade.

Right now, it certainly seems as though this is a standoff between Iran and the United States when it comes to that blockade and who is willing to, one, suffer the most pain when it comes to the economics of all of this, but, of course, also who is willing to blink first.

SANCHEZ: Kristen Holmes, live for us at the White House, thank you so much. Erica?

HILL: Well, as we're watching all of this, we can tell you oil prices are falling slightly today on those fresh hopes that peace talks between the U.S. and Iran will continue. Gas prices also down slightly overnight, but, of course, they're still much higher than they were before the start of the war. Energy Secretary, Chris Wright warns it will take some time before the prices really drop significantly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CHRIS WRIGHT, UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF ENERGY: We're going to see energy prices, you know, high and maybe even rising until we get the ships, meaningful ship traffic through the Straits of Hormuz. That'll probably hit the peak oil price at that time. That's probably sometime in the next few weeks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Gregory Brew is a senior analyst on Iran and energy for the Eurasia Group and joins us now. It's good to have you with us. So, when we look beyond the prices at the pump, has the full impact of this war and what is happening in terms of the closure and now the blockade of the Strait, has that actually hit the U.S. in your view?

GREGORY BREW, SENIOR ANALYST ON IRAN & ENERGY, EURASIA GROUP: I don't think it's really hit the U.S. yet. It is rolling across the global economy. What we've first seen has been pretty intense spikes in the price of fuel oil, in the price of jet fuel, in the price of other oil products, but mostly in places like East Asia, Southeast Asia and Australia, those markets that are most directly affected by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

[14:05:00]

The United States is somewhat insulated, given that the U.S. produces a lot of oil, produces a lot of natural gas and a lot of refined products. But the U.S. is still part of the global energy market and the effects of the price spikes (ph) are going to be felt here sooner rather than later.

HILL: When you look at how this is playing out, how much leverage, if any, do you believe this blockade gives the U.S. in this moment?

BREW: Well, I think the blockade will start to put more pressure on the Iranians. Right now, I think the Iranians are kind of waiting to see how aggressively the U.S. intends to enforce this blockade. I've been watching ship trackers all morning and I can tell you that no Iranian ships have successfully made it out of the Strait of Hormuz into the Arabian Sea.

Some have gone through the Strait, but are sort of waiting before proceeding any further. It does look as though the Iranians are holding back on directly challenging the blockade. At the same time, the U.S. hasn't stopped or seized any ships yet.

So it is a bit of a standoff and I think it'll be closely linked to whether or not we do get more talks between the U.S. and Iran in the coming days.

HILL: In terms of those talks, there is some hope, right, that they could resume in the coming days. President Trump says something could be happening in Pakistan in the next two days. When you look at the full picture of where things stand, what do you think is more important to Iran in this moment? Is it the nuclear discussion part of this or is it control of the Strait of Hormuz? BREW: Well, I think for the Iranians the nuclear program is still very important. It was something that Iran spent decades, billions of dollars building up. Of course, most of it was destroyed in the war last June between Iran and Israel.

What Iran has left are mostly bargaining chips. It has its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, which despite a month of bombardment by the U.S. and Israel, Iran has been able to retain in hardened locations. At the same time, Iran has sort of the threat to rebuild the program and to enrich again.

But I think Iran is more likely to see these issues as bargaining chips. What they've succeeded in achieving over the Strait of Hormuz, they want to hold on to.

HILL: What do you think -- I mean, looking to it, where we stand, there has been so much made over the last several weeks since this U.S. -- since U.S. and Israel started this war with Iran, about just how long it took, for example, to get to the deal that ultimately was the JCPOA, right? We're talking months, more than a year to get there. So the fact that things weren't resolved after 21 hours of negotiations, perhaps not shocking.

But do you think that the expectations are realistic in this moment, given how difficult these situations are and the gap that needs to be bridged?

BREW: Well, it's absolutely the case that these are very complicated issues. They're issues that the Iranians, for their part, have negotiated before. And most of the Iranian negotiating team have a lot of experience in negotiating over these nuclear issues. There's a little bit less experience on the U.S. side, I will say. Vice President Vance, Steven Witkoff, Jared Kushner, none of them are coming with the kinds of experience that the Iranians have.

So there is some risk that the Iranians drag out these talks, try to get them into more technical details. The U.S. really wants a quick deal. But that has been the case since President Trump took office last January.

Whenever there have been negotiations between the U.S. and Iran, the U.S. side has generally tried to push for an early deal. And while that serves U.S. interests, it doesn't necessarily align with what the Iranians want. The Iranians have been pushing back on a lot of these issues.

And it does get down to the complexity of these issues. You can't address the whole package of the deal with one or two days of talks. It will likely require much longer than that.

HILL: Yeah. Gregory Brew, really appreciate your insight and your expertise this afternoon. Thank you.

Still ahead here, Rep. Eric Swalwell now says he will leave his seat in Congress, set to resign amid those allegations of sexual misconduct. So what does that mean for other investigations in the House?

Plus, Acting Attorney General, Todd Blanche now accusing the Biden administration of bias when it comes to anti-abortion protesters. We have more on those allegations in the DOJ's first weaponization report.

And ahead here as well, severe storms packing strong winds, large hail, tornadoes. We're taking a closer look at the damage. Millions of people facing potential threats from the Great Plains through the Midwest. We'll get you up to speed. That and much more ahead on "CNN News Central."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:14:04]

SANCHEZ: Just minutes ago, Arizona Senator, Ruben Gallego, a longtime ally and close friend of Democratic Congressman, Eric Swalwell, spoke to reporters on Capitol Hill. Swalwell announced his plans to resign Monday after allegations of sexual misconduct and sexual assault came to light. Listen to this exchange between Senator Gallego and CNN's Manu Raju.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What about any sort of position that he may put himself in? Any compromising position? Was he drinking excessively? Was he around younger women? Did you see any of that?

SEN. RUBEN GALLEGO, (D-AZ): I didn't see that. But look, we all heard rumors in Washington, D.C., about Eric Swalwell for many years. And my family, again, was with him all the time, with his wife, with his kids. And we saw a different side of Eric that I never saw. And when I asked him about some of these rumors that were starting on the internet a few weeks back, he also denied it and said the same thing like the same thing they tried to do to you is in 2024 is what they're trying to do here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[14:15:00]

SANCHEZ: We're joined now by Republican Congresswoman, Anna Paulina Luna of Florida. The Congresswoman threatened to introduce a measure to expel Swalwell if he did not resign by today.

And a short time ago, Congresswoman, you posted that Swalwell began the process of switching staff over and that his resignation would be coming shortly. Otherwise, you would present that motion to expel him. Can you give us an update on the status of his resignation?

REP. ANNA PAULINA LUNA, (R-FL): Yeah. So his office actually contacted mine via our chief of staff. So they have talked. We are expecting the letter to come imminently. It will be effective as of Friday because there is administrative paperwork in transition that the then acting, I guess member, if you will, would then basically embrace to take over the office and constituent services.

And so once I received that letter, which we'll be receiving here shortly, I will formally withdraw my motion and that stands to be the case as well for Representative Tony Gonzales.

SANCHEZ: Well, I wanted to ask you about that because he is retiring instead of resigning, the last I read. And there is a distinction there. A congresswoman from New Mexico, Teresa Leger Fernandez is essentially carrying out the same process that you are with a measure to expel him. Is it clear to you that his resignation as opposed to retirement is also imminent?

PAULINA LUNA: Yes. And I actually encouraged Teresa to do what she's continuously doing. We've been in talks regarding this entire process. I think both of these men need to get that on the books officially as soon as possible. And I look forward to assisting the FBI with information that I have regarding the investigation into former representative, Swalwell.

SANCHEZ: Can you expand on that Congresswoman?

PAULINA LUNA: Look, there's been a lot of reports you've heard about people knowing information on the Hill, but there was some information brought to my office specifically. I did obtain forensics on that now infamous video in the hotel room. I am hearing that there is an investigative report coming out that he used his campaign funds to pay for that. There's also been allegations that potentially, the person that filmed that video was potentially a minor.

All of these things obviously coming to my office, but I am going to be handing over to the FBI because they are to my understanding now asking Mr. Swalwell to come in and talk to them.

SANCHEZ: Just for context for our viewers, she's referring to a video that CNN has not yet verified that we're still working to verify of Swalwell in a hotel room, allegedly with, as you noted, someone in the room whom he was kissing and there have been various allegations on social media about what was happening there. CNN again has not yet verified those.

I wonder Congresswoman, if you could share whether you heard from SPEAKER JOHNSON about all of this and how much support was coming behind the scenes from leadership for these expulsion efforts.

PAULINA LUNA: Look, I actually talked to the Speaker this morning. He's very supportive of what's transpired because, obviously, he does not agree that the House of Representatives should engage in, A, cover-ups, but also to this type of corruption. And so I think that he said that this played out in the best way possible.

But I also want to point out the fact though that, you know, these allegations bubbled up. People knew about it and they didn't say anything. And it wasn't really until, you know, me and Teresa basically said, we're not going to tolerate this anymore and really pushed it. And what I will also say is I think that this gets into a bigger issue here. Both Swalwell and Gonzales voted to refer the release of the congressional slush fund, which is responsible for the payouts for victims of sexual assault or sexual harassment in the House of Representatives. They voted to refer it to Ethics.

And so the fact is, is that that motion was put forward by Representative Mace. I personally voted for its release, but when you have members being protected by the institution using taxpayer dollars for it, I think everyone in the country should agree that all of that should be released to the American people. And that's not what our taxpayer dollars should be going towards.

So I actually think that there's probably going to be a few more expulsions here. I don't want to serve with these people. I don't think that my Democrat colleagues want to serve with these people. And I look forward to draining the congressional swamp.

SANCHEZ: I did want to ask you, Congresswoman, further about Speaker Johnson, in part because the way that Congressman Gonzales' case was approached was different. He had acknowledged the affair with a former staffer, a violation of House rules, six weeks ago on March 4th.

The Speaker called on him to drop his re-election, but not to resign. So it leads to the question, is he now retiring, resigning and not expelled because leadership wanted to keep his vote? Is he only leaving Congress because a Democrat is now also leaving?

PAULINA LUNA: Well, what I will say is that I've been pretty vocal about both of them resigning. And Tony, even before I guess it was considered a popular position. What I will also say is that leadership tends to, in these types of cases, lean heavily on ethics. And that's why you saw Hakeem Jeffries also, as well as Speaker Pelosi, say that, you know, there needs to be a full-fledged investigation into Swalwell as well.

[14:20:00]

And they also did not ask him to resign from Congress. But remember, any one member of Congress, if they find that there's dishonor being brought on the institution, can actually bring forward these expulsions. It's very hard to expel a member of Congress, you need two-thirds of the vote, but what we're finding in both cases of both these individuals is that both Democrats and Republicans, if there's one thing that we can agree on, it's not protecting people like this in the House of Representatives who have knowingly broken and brought in dishonor on the House.

And so, what I will continue to say is that the ethics process as a whole should be reformed. It should not have taken even six weeks for them to recommend that Tony also be expelled or resign from office. It should have been almost immediately, especially with information that was presented, again, to my office that I was asked to not publicly post, because the widow of the staffer of Rep. Gonzales does have a young child, and he did not want his son to see some of that information. But I have presented that to the powers that be, and that's why you saw that resignation come out pretty quickly.

SANCHEZ: Wow. Congressman, I do want to get your thoughts on the counter-argument from Swalwell. He essentially has said that he's resigning because his constituents don't deserve the distraction, but that he hasn't had due process, he hasn't had a full investigation by House Ethics, which you've argued should be revamped, that process should be revamped altogether.

I wonder if you think that this potentially sets a precedent for other members, that they could be forced out based on allegations, rather than full-fledged investigations.

PAULINA LUNA: Well, to be clear, in both the instance of Representative Gonzales and Swalwell, there was evidence. So, these are not just unfounded allegations. Obviously, we are for due process. However, the one thing that we are -- and that both Teresa and I have the expulsions written on is inappropriate relationships, sexual relationships with staff, and sexual harassment, of which there's zero tolerance for that in the House of Representatives and against the House rules.

So, we didn't write our expulsions on accusations. We wrote our expulsions based on a breaking of standard and code of conduct in the House. And I think that they're probably not the only ones, and so this is something that the House is going to have to come together on.

I hate that it took this type of blowup to occur like this. He should have been gone a while ago, same with Tony. But ultimately, I'm asking the press corps to thoroughly investigate some of the stuff out there, because Swalwell and Tony, frankly, would not have been allowed to continue doing what they were doing.

They wouldn't have been allowed to seek re-election, whether it's in the House of Representatives or run for governor of California, if the press was actually following up on the leads and actually investigating some of the evidence out there.

And all I will say is this. We are going to continue to be making sure that the members in this House are held to the highest standards, but also, too, we are all collectively, Democrat and Republican, praying for the recovery of those impacted by both of these individuals.

SANCHEZ: To be clear and fair, Congresswoman, it was partly CNN's reporting on Swalwell that ultimately led to his resignation.

PAULINA LUNA: Yeah.

SANCHEZ: Before we go, I just wanted to see if I could get clarity from you on something that you said, because you mentioned that you were anticipating that more members would either be expelled or forced to resign. Obviously, there's probably information that, because of investigative reasons, you can't divulge, but can you give us an estimation, a number of how many you think may be soon to depart? PAULINA LUNA: Probably two, and it'll probably happen the week of the 21st. Sheila McCormick has been found, I guess, guilty on 25 different violations, stealing $5 million in FEMA funds. I don't think the Democrats are going to vote to protect her. In fact, I know they won't. The votes are there.

And there's another member of Congress that the Speaker is looking into the congressional ethics report on, that I'm finding is pretty alarming. And so I think there's more to come on that. But again, I won't be leading any of those expulsions. Those are being led by other members of Congress.

SANCHEZ: Is that Congressman Cory Mills?

PAULINA LUNA: I believe so, yes.

SANCHEZ: Got it. Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna, thank you so much for the time.

PAULINA LUNA: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Still to come, there's a threat of flash flooding for millions today, an update on the rising rivers threatening parts of the Midwest. Plus, President Trump making new comments and his escalating feud with Pope Leo. That and much more coming your way, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:28:53]

SANCHEZ: A barrage of storms that could last throughout the week is now pummeling the central U.S. Heavy thunderstorms, baseball-sized hail, and multiple tornadoes leaving a trail of destruction across four states on Monday, and there is more to come. CNN Meteorologist, Derek Van Dam is tracking the latest from the CNN Weather Center.

So, Derek, what is the forecast showing?

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Boris, this multi-day severe weather setup really kicked off with a bang over the past 24 hours. 14 confirmed tornadoes, including this one captured on film from a drone's perspective, so an aerial perspective, but look at this one on my right. This is coming out of Kansas, a classic supercell structure, almost looks like a UFO.

There's a shelf cloud leading the forward edge of this, a lot of lightning associated with it as well, but this is the funnel cloud right there. Doesn't quite make connection with the ground, so we can't quite verify that as a tornado, even though there were tornadoes in the region. And guess what? There is more severe weather in store for today, so we'll likely see similar video coming out of the region.

So here it is, the large and expansive area that stretches from the northeast all the way down to the border of Mexico. Large hail, few tornadoes, and damaging winds. Now, we do have an isolated tornado threat across northern New England, but let's focus on the areas that have our greatest risk, and I'm highlighting this region --