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Interview with Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA): Vance Expected to Head to Pakistan for Iran Talks; Singer D4vd Charged with Murder in Death of 14-Year-Old Girl; 2 Southwest Jets Fly Dangerously Close Near Nashville Airport. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired April 20, 2026 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Back to our breaking news. President Trump now says it is highly unlikely that he would extend the ceasefire with Iran that expires this week if a peace deal is not reached in time. Those are comments coming as new negotiations with top Iranian officials are expected to happen perhaps, maybe, we'll see, maybe as soon as Wednesday.

[14:35:00]

Sources telling CNN, Vice President Vance and top U.S. negotiators are expected to travel to Pakistan even as Iran publicly insists there are no plans for a second round of discussions. The two sides have been locked in a very shaky ceasefire for the past two weeks. And now the U.S. capture of an Iranian ship over the weekend is threatening to sink new talks before they even start as Iran is now vowing to retaliate.

We're joined by Congressman Adam Smith of Washington. He's the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee. Thank you so much for being with us. As we are looking at these talks, and as I said, maybe, because the reporting right now, it's very iffy if this is going to proceed.

But if it does, who has more leverage going into this?

REP. ADAM SMITH (D-WA), RANKING MEMBER, ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: Well, I think the two sides are very, very far apart. I don't know that one side has more leverage than the other. We're both just kind of stuck.

I mean, you look at the 15-point plan that Trump put out. You look at the 10-point plan that Iran put out. Completely opposite.

There's literally no point of agreement between those two. So how do you navigate your way back from Iran basically saying, we're not going to do anything. Now we're going to control the Strait of Hormuz and you're going to pay to rebuild Iran.

To us saying, no, you have to give up your nuclear program, give up your ballistic missile program, give up your support for terrorism, and open up the Strait of Hormuz. Completely opposite. How do you bridge that gap?

I don't have any idea, but it certainly starts with actually meeting and talking. So hopefully that will happen.

KEILAR: How do you understand the timing of this ceasefire? Because the president is now saying that it ends on Wednesday night, Eastern Time. It was originally set to expire on Tuesday night.

SMITH: I think he probably just gave it an extra day in the hope that the planned talks are tomorrow. So basically give them into the night to at least resolve it. I don't think there's a huge significance to a one-day difference in the end here.

KEILAR: Do you think it's likely that if there isn't a deal, as the president threatens, that this blows all up on Wednesday?

SMITH: I guess 50-50. A, I think it's highly unlikely that we will get a deal. And then the president has a choice.

He can either restart the war. And my big complaint here also is towards what strategic end. If we continue to bomb, how is that going to force Iran to grant us all of that stuff?

It's also possible that the president says, we made enormous progress. We are so close. We've got like 99 percent of what we want.

I'll give them another week. I think that's probably the most likely outcome because the cost of restarting this war at this point, very, very high for all sides.

KEILAR: So to what strategic end? I mean, how are you seeing this U.S. seizure of an Iranian-flagged freighter? And the U.S. has released video. It's pretty dramatic of our service members rappelling down and boarding this ship and taking it over. Do you see it as a good move militarily? Is the objective here clear to you?

SMITH: Well, on this point, the objective is clear, in the sense that we want to put pressure on Iran, and we think we've got a weakness. Just like they're closing up the Strait of Hormuz, they're attacking infrastructure in the Gulf states. It put the entire global economy in a vice that they controlled.

We want to do the same thing to their oil exports. The problem is, what is Iran's capacity for pain, first of all? And second of all, there is a lot of collateral damage.

This will impact the economies all across the world, China, India, everybody in Asia, our own economy, as gas prices go up by over a dollar a gallon. Fertilizer becomes expensive. People don't talk about helium, but that's a big problem, too.

So Iran, I mean, remember the Iraq war, the human wave attacks? When the Iranians sent children, 19 years old, old men, 65 years old, just human wave attacks on the Iraqi forces, it is very well documented that the Iranians have a high capacity for pain. So I'm worried that this will simply up the pain without getting us the result that we want.

KEILAR: It is asymmetric, certainly, that capacity for pain. If these negotiations do happen, as you mentioned, the two sides are worlds apart here. But when you're looking at, when it comes to the nuclear ambitions of Iran, this highly enriched uranium, their desire to continue enriching uranium for whichever purpose in the future, what do you see as an acceptable end point?

SMITH: Well, first of all, I see an incredible blown opportunity. Because prior to the start of this war, Iran was as weak as they've been in some time. Hezbollah, Hamas, both designated Assad, fell in Syria.

The 12-day war had a huge impact on Iran. They were on their heels, and we were attempting to negotiate a deal. Well, now all that's off.

Now we've attacked them, and Iran has dug in, and the regime is arguably stronger now, at least the hardliners, in terms of simply holding on to power. I'm not talking about their relative strength to the world, but their ability to hold on to power is higher, and they're less incentivized to make that deal. Now, where we should try to get to?

[14:40:00]

A nuclear deal and open the Strait of Hormuz, all of which we could have had without the cost of this war that's gone on, what, seven, eight weeks now, in one form or another. But, you know, unacceptable deals Iran turning over their nuclear material. But how do we force them to do that at this point?

I don't think anyone has a clear answer.

KEILAR: And U.S. boots on the ground to achieve that turning over of the nuclear material, is that acceptable to you?

SMITH: Gosh, no. I'm completely against it for two reasons. One, the cost would be enormous. We would suffer a lot more casualties. But second of all, boots on the ground wouldn't necessarily accomplish that objective.

KEILAR: How do you do it, then?

SMITH: Well, you do it through negotiations. It's all we've got. And as I said, I think we've put ourselves in a weaker position and at an incredibly high cost by launching this war.

We've had these conversations for 15 years. Iran's been a big problem. And we looked at what are the military options.

And the conclusion was the military options were not good. Every other president, every other secretary of defense, heeded that advice. President Trump, Secretary Hegseth decided that no, we're going to give it a shot.

And I think we're seeing the results as were predicted in most of the war games and conversations about what it would look like.

KEILAR: Congressman Adam Smith, thank you so much for being with us. We appreciate it.

SMITH: Thanks, Brianna. Good to see you.

KEILAR: Still to come, prosecutors in Los Angeles just charged the singer known as David with first-degree murder months after a missing teen was found dead in his Tesla. We have the latest.

[14:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN HOST: We want to bring you some breaking news. The L.A. County District Attorney's Office has now charged a singer known as D4vd with multiple crimes, including first-degree murder. He's currently behind bars for the killing of a 14-year-old girl whose dismembered body was found in the trunk of his Tesla seven months ago.

CNN's Kyung Lah is in L.A. with the latest on this case. So, Kyung, what led prosecutors to charge D4vd now?

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: Well, they said that they had been working on this case. It had been a seven-month investigation. And finally, that they had had enough forensic and digital evidence, a preponderance of evidence, in order to charge.

And we've just gotten the complaint, the official felony complaint, against D4vd, the singer known as D4vd. And let me go over those three different counts. The first one being murder with special circumstances.

So, first-degree murder. The second count being continuous sexual abuse, that involving a minor. Celeste Rivas Hernandez was under 14 years old. And the third count of unlawful mutilation of human remains.

Now, getting back to that first-degree murder with special circumstances charge. Prosecutors say that the way that they believe this happened is that D4vd had invited Celeste over to his home. That they had had a years-long relationship at this point.

And on April 23, 2025, she was invited over by D4vd. And that what it came down to, that the impetus for this crime on that evening, was money. I want you to take a listen to what the prosecutor said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NATHAN HOCHMAN, LOS ANGELES COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: This murder was committed for financial gain. As the evidence will show in court, the financial gain was for Mr. Burke. To maintain his very lucrative musical career that Celeste was threatening on that particular night.

The third charge, in addition to lying in wait and for financial gain, is murdering a witness to an investigation. In this particular case, as the evidence will come out in court, the witness to the investigation was Celeste. And the investigation was into the lewd and lascivious sexual acts committed by Mr. Burke. It is the subject of count two of this complaint with Celeste while she was under 14 years old.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAH: I want to get to that extensive forensic and digital evidence that I was referencing that the prosecutor was talking about. Take a look at this Twitch stream. CNN was able to recover this deleted Twitch stream from January 11, 2024.

That's D4vd and Celeste together. She is just 13 years old. There's an extensive digital footprint that shows this relationship that had been going on for more than a year.

Celeste, at 13 years old, also pictured behind stage at a D4vd concert as well as a picture of him in her hometown. So as part of all of this, the prosecutors say that they had enough that they felt to charge him with these three different counts. Very serious counts -- Omar.

JIMENEZ: Well, this is just something that, I mean, we're just learning more and more details as you just read through the complaint that you just got there as well. Kyung Lah, appreciate the reporting as always -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Now to some of the other headlines that we're watching this hour. Another major showdown in the Supreme Court involving LGBTQ rights. The justices have agreed to look at whether schools receiving taxpayer funds can refuse children of same-sex couples.

Catholic parishes and one family in Colorado filed suit claiming that a state program's nondiscrimination provision for universal preschools violates the First Amendment. Arguments will likely be heard in the fall with the decision likely sometime next year.

And Pope Leo sending another strong message about oppression. During his visit to Angola today, the Pope criticized authoritarian leaders around the world.

[14:50:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

POPE LEO XIV, HEAD OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH (through translator): We can see today how many of people's wishes are frustrated by violence, exploited by authoritarians and defrauded by wealth. When injustice corrupts hearts, the bread of all becomes the possession of a few.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: During his trip, Pope Leo also insisted he does not want to debate President Trump after their recent public spat over the Iran war. And finally, a Titanic survivor's life jacket just sold at a landmark

auction for more than $900,000, far exceeding expectations. The flotation device was worn by a first-class passenger who was able to board the first lifeboat on the historic liner, which sank 114 years ago this week.

The ship sank in less than three hours. It did not have enough lifeboats for the approximately 2,200 people on board. Only about 700 survived.

Still to come, a very close call over the airport in Nashville. We'll tell you what happened and how a disaster was narrowly averted.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JIMENEZ: We're learning more about the two Southwest Airlines jets that came dangerously close to a midair collision Saturday afternoon. One plane was attempting to land at Nashville International Airport while the other was taking off. You see their paths here and you see them crossing.

Incredibly, incredibly dangerous there. I want to bring in CNN Aviation correspondent Pete Muntean to talk about this to begin with. So, Pete, start off. What happened here?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, these planes were separated by only a few hundred feet at their closest, which is pretty alarming here. This is just coming to light now, even though this happened on Saturday. Southwest Airlines says, thankfully, the pilots of both planes received in-cockpit alerts, which avoided an even closer call.

Here is the playback of the flight paths from Flightradar24. The plane on the left, Southwest Flight 507, was coming into land as the plane on the right, Southwest 1152, was taking off from a parallel runway. Southwest says the plane on the left aborted its approach due to high winds and that plane turned to the right, putting it on a collision course with the other one.

The latest data from Flightradar24 says when the planes were over top of each other, they were separated by only 500 feet. We're talking about one and a half football fields, which is really close in aviation terms. Both planes received what are called TCAS RAs, or Collision System Resolution Advisories.

It's a mandatory alert from the system that detects other aircraft. Pilots are told, climb, climb now, descend, descend now. It's an oral alert.

Southwest maintains that the pilots were following instructions during this and, quote, the pilots complied with instructions from air traffic control and onboard traffic alerts to avoid conflicting with Southwest Flight 1152. Still not totally clear what will come of this. We have reached out to the Federal Aviation Administration.

It's taking some responsibility here and says this may have been due to an air traffic control issue. The FAA is still investigating this. But remember, these two planes at airliner speeds 500 feet were talking only seconds away, theoretically, from a collision.

Clearly, the investigation needs to go a little further.

JIMENEZ: And as you point out, 500 feet in air terms, I mean, incredibly, incredibly close. Pete, appreciate it.

I want to keep this going with retired air traffic controller Dave Riley, who's here with us as well. And, Dave, you just listened to some of what Pete was saying. What are your takeaways to what we saw and what we should see investigation-wise moving forward?

DAVE RILEY, RETIRED FAA AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: Hey, thanks for having me. Yes, the investigation is interesting. I was just listening to the audio from ATCLive.net, trying to make some interpretations of that myself. So it will be interesting what information the FAA provides. There appears to be some information, control instructions issued by the controller that possibly made the situation even worse than what it could have been. But, yes, 500 feet is close.

By definition, a near midair is 200 feet with evasive action. Fortunately, TCAS did its job in this situation, and something worse was avoided. So it will be interesting to see what happens.

JIMENEZ: And just from an air traffic control perspective, you know, we were showing the path of the planes there a few seconds ago. What is the communication like between the pilot, between the ground? Just bring us into what would be happening on a routine basis for two planes that might be near each other but doing so safely.

RILEY: Well, maintaining situational awareness of what's going on, on the runways and in the air in close proximity to the airport is vitally important. And it's important that you share that information with the other aircraft that are all involved in this situation. And listening to the audio, it doesn't seem like there was much information exchanged with the go around for whatever reason, which is still in question, and why the controller chose to turn the Southwest 507 to the right with a departure coming off the right going east as well.

So, you know, that communication comes hot and heavy. And like I said, in this situation, a phrase I like to use is thank God for TCAS because it could have been a lot worse. And from what I understand, the conditions were IMC instrument meteorological conditions where the pilots probably couldn't see out the window.

They were simply relying on the TCAS for information.

JIMENEZ: And just quickly before we go, I mean, people see this. They hear a lot about close calls. Is this happening more frequently or are we just hearing about it more?

RILEY: Well, go arounds happen all the time. It's a safety procedure that's used by air traffic control and the flight crews for numerous reasons. However, this this is starting to show exactly ... END