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Interview with Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA): U.S. Military Fires at and Seizes Iranian-Flagged Cargo Ship; Iran Foreign Ministry: No Plans for Second Round of Talks as of Now; Iran-Related Betting Under Scrutiny for Possible Insider Trading; New Details on Killing of 8 Children in Louisiana Mass Shooting; NSA Using Anthropic's Mythos Despite Blacklist. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired April 20, 2026 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: The peace talks with the U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance and the U.S. team were supposed to be headed there today.

New details emerging about the shooting in Louisiana that left eight children dead. We are expecting an update from the scene.

And a surprise visit for one couple inside their house doing yoga as one does. A hot air balloon with 13 people lands in their backyard. The question this morning, did the couple finish their yoga routine?

I'm John Berman with Kate Bolduan and Sara Sidner. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, new images from inside the U.S. raid at sea with the clock ticking on the temporary ceasefire with Iran and possible peace talks hanging in the balance. Dramatic nighttime video showing here U.S. forces from the USS Tripoli boarding an Iranian flagged vessel in the Gulf of Oman. You can see a helicopter hovering over the ship and Marines raffling down with the rope there.

U.S. Central Command says the ship, quote, failed to comply with repeated warnings over a six-hour period. CENTCOM has also released video of U.S. forces telling those aboard the ship to vacate its engine room before opening fire.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Motor vessel Touska, motor vessel Touska. Vacate you engine room, vacate you engine room. We're prepared to subject you to disabling fire.

(GUNFIRE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Iran says it will respond with, quote, necessary action against the U.S. This latest escalation comes just as Vice President J.D. Vance is expected to lead a U.S. delegation to Pakistan today for renewed talks. Security is being tightened in Pakistan's capital Islamabad, but Iran's foreign ministry insists there are no plans for more talks as of right now.

Joining me now is Democratic Congressman Seth Moulton of Massachusetts. He sits on the House Armed Services Committee and served in Iraq with the Marines. Thank you so much for being here, Congressman.

Look, Iran is vowing retaliation for the U.S. seizing a cargo ship. President Trump says no more Mr. Nice Guy when it comes to Iran. In less than 48 hours, the ceasefire agreement will end. Have you and Congress been given any indication of what the Trump administration is planning and what the exit strategy might be in this war?

REP. SETH MOULTON (D-MA): HOUSE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: No, because they don't have a plan and they've never had an exit strategy. And if they continue to escalate, it's only liable to get us dug in deeper in a war that the American people did not choose, that Congress did not authorize, and that nobody wants. I mean, we just don't have a plan at all for what to do at this point.

And it's incredibly dangerous for our troops and it's costing the American taxpayer a lot of money.

SIDNER: From the rhetoric, like cutting through all the all the rhetoric from both the United States and from Iran, this sort of tough talk, do you have a sense of what is really going on here? And are you afraid of what the consequences might be if the ceasefire ends in 48 hours?

MOULTON: I think that what's really going on here is that Donald Trump has lost his war and now he's losing the peace as well because he's essentially given Iran more leverage than they had when this began. I mean, his only victory is that we've had a lot, we've hit a lot of targets in Iran. I mean, it sounds like Westmoreland's body counts from Vietnam.

But wars are not defined by body counts or targets hit, they're defined by outcomes. And the current outcome is that Iran controls the Strait of Hormuz and they've closed it down. And Trump's only strategy is blockading the blockade.

I mean, that's not a naval strategy. I mean, that's like two kids playing, know you're it, know you're it. And as a result of that, we're stalled in the negotiations because he's not really showing up with any trust or any leverage.

There's two things you fundamentally need to do well in a negotiation. One is the basic trust that you can have a negotiation with the other side and that you can come to some agreement that both sides will not only agree on, but will trust will be implemented. Well, every time Iran has come to the negotiating table before, Trump has bombed them.

The one time they signed an agreement with the United States, Trump ripped it up. So he's starting off in a terrible place to actually get a negotiated agreement. But then on top of that, he's lost leverage because Iran did not close the Strait of Hormuz.

The strait was open before this all started. They had not put our Gulf allies in a terrible position, destroying billions of dollars of their infrastructure.

[08:05:00]

And so now Trump is really negotiating from behind with a team of completely amateur negotiators. But at the end of the day, the problem is that there are only two ways that this ends. One is with a negotiated agreement, and the other is by literally taking over the entire country like we did in Iraq.

Since nobody wants number two, we've got to find a way to number one. But the president is negotiating from behind right now, and that's why he's lashing out in different directions, not really sure what to do next.

SIDNER: And let me ask you about the consequences of this war, not just the loss of life, the loss of innocent life, the loss of the lives of U.S. Military members.

But the energy secretary said that Americans could be stuck paying more than $3 per gallon of gas until next year. He had earlier predicted that that would sort of end this summer. What does this mean to your constituents?

Because he also said that they've managed this situation fantastically. Is that how you see it?

MOULTON: They've managed the situation fantastically. They started a war that nobody wanted and didn't even figure out that Iran was going to close the strait. I mean, they have not managed anything well whatsoever.

And for the American consumer, we just can't afford higher prices at the pump. I mean, no one around here is saying, oh, I have the room in my budget to pay more on gas, to pay more on heating oil, you know, to pay more for electricity. But that's where this is all headed.

Prices are going up at a time when Americans can't afford basic needs. We've already seen airlines go out of business. The oil shortages that have hit Asia are likely to expand across the world because it's a fluid market.

And so when there are shortages in Asia, oil is going to get diverted from the United States and Europe to meet those shortages. That means prices go up everywhere else. But there's another thing that we don't talk about, which is that Trump has come to Congress to ask for $200 billion to pay for this -- that's $200 billion.

I mean, we throw billions of dollars around Washington all the time. 200 doesn't sound like that much. Let's put this in concrete terms for the average American taxpayer. $200 billion is about $1,400. So if I go to anyone in the United States, whether you're a liberal Democrat or a MAGA Republican, and I say, Would you like to pay $1,400 out of your checkbook to pay for a war in Iran? I don't think anyone's going to say that's a good idea.

SIDNER: Let me quickly ask you about what we've been seeing in the stock market. And President Trump can constantly and consistently talks about, you know, just how well the stock market is doing the gains that the stock market has made. And there have been some big gains, but there have also been some very suspicious trades during this war.

The Guardian is reporting $950 million was spent on oil futures, betting on a price to fall just before a ceasefire agreement. And that it's not the first time there's been some suspiciously well-timed trading happening. Are you aware as to whether the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is investigating these trades for potential insider trading?

MOULTON: I suspect that they're not because they're controlled by the administration. And I have been pushing them to investigate Polymarket and the completely immoral trades that are going on around, like, will the pilot even be recovered alive? I mean, the fact that we're betting on this stuff is unbelievable.

But as you point out, it's the insider bets, the insider trades where people are profiting clearly in the administration. They're the ones who know what the plan is here insofar as there's any plan at all. They're making these bets just minutes before the Trump administration makes a policy change, and they're profiting in the millions.

I mean, that is the definition of war profiteers. I mean, so let's step back here and look at this. Prices are going up across the globe.

It's becoming unaffordable to simply put gas in your car. We've taken hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions of dollars of military losses, 13 American troops dead, hundreds of Iranians dead who are innocent, including 200 little girls just going to school. And at the end of the day, the only ones who are doing well, the only ones who are profiting off of this, are the insider traders with the administration who are anticipating the president's next move and putting bets on Polymarket and the oil futures in the stock market so that they can make a buck.

I mean, this is as immoral and corrupt as it can possibly be.

SIDNER: Congressman Seth Moulton, thank you so much for joining us this morning. I do appreciate your time -- Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: True heartbreak and just shock in Louisiana. We're learning new details about the man accused of shooting and killing eight children, most of them his own children and the new pleas now coming from the community.

[08:10:00] And the signs of real progress toward a cancer vaccine. What's coming out now from a new trial and what it could mean for one of the deadliest forms of cancer, pancreatic cancer?

And a celebration fit for a king. The heroic principal who took down a gunman at his school. We talked about the stories you last week. He has just been crowned prom king now by his students.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: There are new images in this morning of the gunman that police say is responsible for the simply horrific mass shooting in Shreveport, Louisiana. This all happened over the weekend. Police say that the suspect is Shamar Elkins.

[08:15:00]

They say he shot and killed eight children, including seven of his own. He also shot two women, including his wife. Both were critically wounded. And police say the shootings were the way they describe it as domestic in nature.

There's just nothing but questions here around this tragedy. CNN's Isabel Rosales is on the ground trying to get to some of them, but I can just imagine the feeling in that community right now, Isabel.

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kate, this horrific crime has left this Shreveport community shaken. This crime, this mass shooting, spanned across three homes, including this home that you see right behind me, this gray home, where we can still see visible bullet holes in this front door. Since this crime occurred yesterday, community members have been coming out, family members have been coming out, hugging one another, sobbing, leaving flowers here by the door of where this happened.

Shamar Elkins, Shreveport Police, told us first began this deadly rampage by shooting his wife and mother of his children. Then he went to separate homes where he shot eight children, seven of which are his own children. And then ultimately, he started, carjacked a driver and led police on this chase to a nearby parish where officers eventually shot and killed him.

Now the victims, we have more information about them from the Caddo Parish Coroner's Office, eight children in total that have been killed, five girls, three boys. The victims' ages ranging from three- years-old to 11-years-old. All but one of these children were siblings.

Now two adult women were also hurt and one teen wounded. The women are in critical condition. I want you to listen now to the mayor of Shreveport what he had to say about all of this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR TOM ARCENEAUX, SHREVEPORT, LOUISIANA: It not only rattles a community, it rattles that community, it rattles the entire city. This is something that -- when something like this, it affects us all. We are one Shreveport and it affects us all.

And the other people it really affects, imagine the first responders, the crime scene investigators, the coroner's, deputy coroner's and the coroner's people that go in and they have to discover these eight children murdered all at the same time. It just was a horrific scene out there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROSALES: And we also heard about this 13-year-old, this harrowing tale of survival. The 13-year-old ran from the home for their life, jumped from the roof and ended up getting a few broken bones, but will be OK -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Oh my God, everything about it, it's just horrible. Isabel, thank you so much -- John.

BERMAN: Just awful. So the president wanted all kinds of new statues to commemorate the nation's 250th birthday this summer. Reports this morning he might not even be able to get one.

And the Pentagon basically blacklisted one AI company, but a report this morning that the National Security Agency, the NSA, is using one of that company's new models. So what's going on here?

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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIDNER: New this morning, sources tell Axios that the National Security Agency, or NSA as it's known, is using Anthropic's new model called Mythos. Now, why is this a big deal? Because Anthropic itself has taken the extraordinary step of privately warning government officials that Mythos will make large-scale cyber security attacks easier.

Joining us now is Maria Curi, tech policy reporter for Axios. Give us some sense of what the concerns are here with this technology.

MARIA CURI, TECH POLICY REPORTER, AXIOS: This is Anthropic's most advanced AI model to date. Mythos is really capable of doing the work of hackers much quicker, much more efficiently, and it could mean major cyber security threats to the U.S. Starting even this year, the company is warning. And so this is a tool that the National Security Agency, which is in charge of protecting national security and of making sure that our infrastructure is cyber secure.

It's exactly the kind of tool that it would want to have at its disposal.

SIDNER: Can you give us some sense of there's a contradiction happening here? The Defense Department has moved to cut off Anthropic over national security concerns, yet the NSA is still using its tools. Explain how that can happen.

I mean, where do things stand at this moment? CURI: Right. So the Pentagon and Anthropic had a fallout earlier this year over Anthropic's two red lines over how its technology can be used. Anthropic essentially said we don't want our model being used for mass surveillance or for autonomous weapons.

This created a fallout between the Pentagon and the company. But as we see here and what this example really shows is that the government's cybersecurity concerns are outweighing this fallout between the Pentagon and Anthropic. NSA is overseen by the Pentagon.

But as I mentioned before, this is exactly the kind of tool that this agency needs. And it's not just the NSA, Sara. It's actually across the federal government.

We reported last week that Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei met with White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles to discuss how the rest of the federal government can use this tool. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was part of the meeting because you can imagine how important this tool would be to safeguard the nation's financial system or for the Energy Department to make sure that our energy grid is protected. So across the federal government, this is a tool that agency heads are looking to use.

SIDNER: How is Mythos being used right now? What is it being used for now?

CURI: So we don't know exactly how the NSA is using it, but we know that across various organizations, agencies are using it to look and work to see where their own vulnerabilities might lie and see how they can safeguard around it. This is really an offensive capability. But, you know, Anthropic releases this to about 40 organizations.

Big companies are part of those initial rollouts, Amazon, Google. It has not rolled it out to the general public because it is so powerful.

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And so right now, these 40 organizations, we only know about a dozen of them. We reported that the NSA is part of them. And this is usually how they're going to be using it for now.

SIDNER: Maria Curi, thank you so much. Do appreciate your reporting on this -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: There have been and there has been a major shift in the prediction market biz, the largest online sports betting platform, FanDuel, it's rolling out its own prediction market app now.

And what would you do if you're going about your business and then more than a dozen people just land a hot air balloon in your backyard? Well, one man knows.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: So breaking this morning, a spokesperson for the Iranian foreign minister says there is no plan for this next round of negotiations that's supposed to be in Islamabad, so no plan as of now for Iranian officials to travel to Islamabad. Vice President Vance and the U.S. team were supposed to be headed there today.

With us now, CNN military analyst, retired Lieutenant General Mark Schwartz and Karim Sadjadpour.

Karim, let me just start with you.

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