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Suspect Charged with Attempting to Assassinate Trump; Investigators Examining Suspect's Online Activity, Tracking His Travel; High-Stakes Royal Visit by King Charles to White House, Congress; U.S. Soldier to be Arraigned Over Polymarket Maduro Bet; White House Moves to Speed Up Deportation of Migrant Children in Custody. Aired 8:00-8:30a ET

Aired April 28, 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]

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Over Mississippi Valley, into the Tennessee Valley, anywhere from Nashville, Memphis, Little Rock, Shreveport to Dallas, this is the area we're highlighting. Right now we have bands of showers and thunderstorms, lots of lightning about to approach the Atlanta metropolitan, even into Birmingham.

But points to the south and west, this is where it's already starting to get severe. We have a severe thunderstorm watch across portions of southern Oklahoma, northern Texas, this includes Wichita Falls. There's a severe thunderstorm-worn storm right now developing.

It's all about this destabilization of the atmosphere, and you can see it clearly with our future forecast radar. We start to increase the humidity values, the sun comes out, we dry things out for a moment, and then pop, there goes the thunderstorms by the evening time, right? Starting to sound like a broken record, but this is why we need to be weather aware today, as these storms kind of conglomerate into a larger system as it moves east through Little Rock into Jackson by this evening, and by 9 p.m. tonight, I think they'll start moving into the Atlanta area, bringing some much-needed rainfall. Remember, we still have ongoing fires in southeast Georgia.

Here's our greatest chance of EF2 tornadoes, Little Rock, Memphis to Dallas and Shreveport. Keep an eye to the sky, but this could also be a big-time hail maker. We're talking about very large hail, baseballs falling from the sky if you live, potentially at least Dallas, Fort Worth, and the Highway 10 region. And then tomorrow you can see a much calmer day. So one more day, John, one more day.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, good thing those baseballs are not falling from the sky in New York, because the Mets would not be able to catch them. Derek Van Dam, thank you very, very much.

A brand-new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

The late-night response. Hear what Jimmy Kimmel said overnight to the new calls from the president and now first lady to get him fired.

And breaking this morning. After dipping for a bit, gas prices now at the highest point since the war with Iran began. A big jump overnight. So why? And what does this tell us about how much your summer drives might cost?

And then a hot air balloon crashes into a casino, doubting anyone yelled jackpot.

I'm John Berman with Kate Bolduan, Sara is in Los Angeles, and this is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, let's get to the breaking news this hour. Gas prices surged overnight. The national average now $4.18 a gallon, up $0.06 since Monday. The highest one-day increase in five weeks. A new high since the war with Iran began. And the highest price since August 2022.

Oil prices also rising, meaning even higher prices at the pump likely lay ahead. Here are oil futures right now. Take a look at that, both north of $100 a barrel right now.

The Strait of Hormuz, of course, is still essentially closed, despite the talk of new proposals being passed around. If the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, that is just increasing concerns once again that this disruption, the crisis, the war will drag on, and the economic pain will become more and more severe. Let's get over to Sara right now -- Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, thank you so much, Kate. We are learning new details this morning about the man accused of opening fire at the White House Correspondents Dinner. 31-year-old Cole Thomas Allen is now charged with attempting to assassinate the president.

FBI Director Kash Patel says investigators have gained access to his phone now. Authorities are also tracking his travel and his digital footprint. CNN analysis of Allen's social media found nearly 5,000 posts across X and Blue Sky.

Accounts linked to him show a shift towards political anger in the last couple years, with some of that anger directed at President Trump. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said Allen ran through a security checkpoint, as we're seeing here, holding a long gun and exchanged fire with law enforcement. A bullet struck a Secret Service agent in his protective vest, but Blanche said investigators are still trying to determine if it came from the suspect's gun.

Joining me now is CNN senior law enforcement analyst Charles Ramsey, former Washington, D.C. police chief and former Philadelphia police commissioner. Thank you so much for being here. First of all, let's talk about what we're hearing when it comes to, I guess, the forensics they're going to need to look at, because so far, he's not charged with shooting a Secret Service agent.

Give us a sense of what happens in these scenarios where you've got someone, you know, going at breakneck speed, running through, there's chaos. And we heard at least, because I was inside the building at the time, in the dinner, we heard at least five gunshots go off.

[08:05:00]

Give us some sense of how they're going to go about looking into this to figure out whether it was his gun, or I'm assuming they're looking at whether it was friendly fire possibly as well.

CHARLES RAMSEY, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Yes, well, first of all, good morning. And yes, you're absolutely right. They're running a several tests.

They know each officer that fired their weapon. So they have ballistics evidence there. He was struck in the vest.

So they probably have recovered the pellet, the bullet itself that did not penetrate, obviously. And they'll do comparisons. Personally, when you have something like this and it's a delay, this could very well be a friendly fire situation with that many people firing at one time.

He's actually holding a rifle in his hand as he runs past. Now, depending on what kind of ammunition he was using, if it was birdshot or something like that, you could see that pretty easily. I know he had a semi-automatic handgun, but did he have a chance to really pull it out when he fired the round?

And so there are a lot of questions. They'll get to the bottom of it. If it's friendly fire, those things happen.

You try to avoid it at all costs. I've had it happen during my experience, and it's unfortunate. But it can happen.

So they'll get to the bottom of it and find out. But it doesn't change the fact of what he did. And in fact, in my opinion, I'm not a lawyer. He should be charged anyway because it never would have happened had he not conducted himself the way he did.

SIDNER: Look, law enforcement now is able to get the suspect's phone. And I'm curious, I remember years and years ago where this was always a big fight of getting into somebody's device and trying to figure out, you know, the codes and to be able to look through it. How does that work these days, and how important is it that they now have his phone, something that we all carry around with us and sort of gives a digital footprint sometimes of where we are even?

RAMSEY: Some phones are more difficult to get into than others. They would get a search warrant, obviously, and present it to the manufacturer, just Samsung, Apple, whoever it may be, asking for their assistance in being able to crack the code. They've got very, very experienced people working in the forensics lab over at the FBI, and sometimes it takes a long time, but normally they're able to eventually get into the phone.

Now, he's got a lot of evidence, a lot of digital evidence, apparently, that they've been able to recover. The motive is pretty clear as to why he did what he did. The questions that I have outstanding still is how did he get to the floor where the security checkpoint was located with a firearm of that type without being detected?

Why was he able to get a full sprint going to be able to run past the security checkpoint before people had a chance to react? There has to be some changes in the security design if they do this event again or any future event. I mean, the protective detail did their good job.

They're supposed to get the protectee out of the way. They did that. This isn't on them, but the rest of the security, you have to do an after action and improve.

SIDNER: Yes, it's a very good point, and I'm sure all of that is being looked at, as well as the forensics, as you mentioned. Charles Ramsey, it's good to see you. Thank you so much for your analysis this morning -- John.

BERMAN: Thank you so much, Sara. We are standing by for the president to welcome King Charles in a formal ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House. The men will sit down for a bilateral meeting, followed by the King's address to a joint meeting of Congress that is the first such royal address on Capitol Hill in 35 years.

CNN anchor and business editor at large Richard Quest is with us this morning. What's the Constitution behind you? I think it's rude to taunt a Brit with the U.S. Constitution like that.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS ANCHOR, QUEST MEANS BUSINESS: We pay homage to this magnificent document, as indeed. Look, you can see how you should properly do a three-button jacket there. You tie the middle one, as His Majesty has done there, just in case you were a bit lacking in the deportment section.

BERMAN: I definitely need to be taught manners by a royal there, no doubt about that. In addition to looking good, he's got a real mission here today, Richard, like a genuine role to come here and try to make things better.

QUEST: He's absolutely not got to make things worse, which, of course, is always a risk at these sort of events, as we remember from the Zelenskyy incident in the Oval Office. But I think what his real job here is not to try and pretend that the two sides agree on everything. If you look at the advance of the speech and you look at what the palace is briefing, he's going to be quite blunt about saying we do disagree.

There are disagreements, and when they happen, we talk them through. But our values, the core things that make this the greatest alliance there's ever been between our two nations, that prevails regardless. And that prevails, whoever's in the White House, whoever's in No. 10 Downing Street.

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And in a sense, John, that is -- you're going to bristle at this. I can feel your hackles going up. This is the beauty of monarchy, because -- here I go -- because he's been doing it for 50, 60 years. He's been in the territory. He's not looking over his shoulder at the next election.

That's the beauty of the constitutional monarchy.

BERMAN: The sentence, the beauty with monarchy, or the phrase --

QUEST: Constitutional.

BERMAN: I have an issue with that phrase in general. So you were talking about he's going to say there are disagreements, but specifics, that's not something that he will do.

QUEST: No, and what will be fascinating is that we hope that the president is not going to make what he thinks is some funny comment. For example, with the Japanese prime minister mentioning Pearl Harbor. I mean, that was not funny in any circumstances.

Similarly, if the president were to make some reference to Andrew in a jokey way, or anything like that, or even just Starmer and no Churchill, the King would be --

BERMAN: He is bred for that kind of stoicism.

QUEST: Absolutely. But it would not go down well. And I think, of course, the president's well aware of that, and he'll lay it on with a trowel.

BERMAN: He likes the royal family, to be sure, and I think he likes these types of engagements. Richard Quest, great to see you, as always. Thank you very much -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: The crew just -- I just have to share. The crew just goes, did Richard Quest just reboot or something?

Now we know it's all AI. You can't be that perfect and be human. All right, let's turn to this.

U.S. soldiers expected in court this morning accused of using classified intelligence to win hundreds of thousands of dollars by betting on the capture of Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro. What is going to happen now?

And here's a quote for you. Confused, scared, frustrated. The new CNN reporting about the impact on migrant children as the Trump administration tries to speed up their deportations now.

And a passenger gives birth on a plane. Plane, in the air, just before landing. How baby and mom are doing this morning.

[08:15:00]

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BERMAN: All right, happening today, a court appearance for the U.S. Special Forces soldier who won $400,000 after allegedly using insider information to bet on the ouster of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela. Prosecutors say he was involved in the raid and used classified information before placing the bet. Let's get right to CNN's Kara Scannell outside the court.

Look, this case has a lot of implications for prediction markets in general.

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, this is the first of its kind, the very first criminal case brought involving bets placed on prediction markets. It's one that a lot of people are watching. Today, Master Sergeant Gannon Ken Van Dyke will make his first appearance in federal court in New York where he will be arraigned on the five criminal charges he's facing, including the unlawful use of confidential government information for personal gain.

Now Van Dyke, according to authorities, was involved in the planning and the execution of that Special Forces raid that captured Nicolas Maduro and his wife from the Venezuelan presidential palace and brought him back to the U.S. What authorities allege is that he used his knowledge of that, that classified information, to place bets on Polymarket, one of the most popular prediction markets. The biggest bet he allegedly made was $32,000 that Maduro would be out by the end of January. That bet, authorities say, was placed just hours before this operation went underway, and then when Maduro was removed from Venezuela, it paid off big, more than $400,000 in profits.

He's facing five criminal charges. He will be arraigned on them today, but as you say, this is a case that a lot of people are watching. It will be very interesting to see how this is tested, what defenses he comes up with, since it is a first-of-its-kind prosecution.

Authorities say it is not just about insider trading, but it's also about national security. By using that information, they say he could have put the lives of his fellow soldiers and the mission in danger -- John.

BERMAN: Yes, a lot going on in this one case, but precedent-setting in many ways. Kara Scannell, great to have you outside the court this morning. Please keep us posted.

All right, Taylor Swift taking on AI. What she is doing to protect her voice.

A major U.S. airline now changing its policy on using portable charges on its planes. What you need to know, and when it's all going to take effect.

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BOLDUAN: There's exclusive new CNN reporting in today, sources saying that the Trump administration is taking steps to speed up even further, even more, the deportations of migrant children that are in U.S. custody. Immigration hearings being moved up by weeks, even months. The ripple effects of this, including putting intense pressure on attorneys to actually represent these children in court, some as young as four years old.

CNN's Priscilla Alvarez has this new reporting. She's joining us now. Priscilla, what more are you learning?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, as you mentioned, these are very young children, but also teens that we're talking about. And in this case, what I'm being told is that children as young as four years old are being told to repeatedly show up to immigration court and provide status updates of their cases. And sometimes that is without any legal help.

Here's why this matters. So in immigration court, there's an immigration judge that is presiding, and that judge is going to determine whether that individual, in this case, these children, are going to be allowed to remain in the United States or whether they're going to be deported. But the way this system works is that parallel to that, these children are working with attorneys to try to obtain immigration relief.

And that portion of this happens outside of the courts and can take weeks, if not months, to obtain. So if they are unable to obtain that relief, the immigration judge is moving ahead with a decision on whether they're staying in the U.S. or being deported. And that is where the scramble and the concern is for these attorneys and these children, because these timelines are now so accelerated and the whole process is expedited that they could be deported without ever knowing if they can get that relief in the United States.

So some examples of what's happening, a five-year-old who arrived to the United States unaccompanied had a hearing within a week or two from arrival. That is a very short amount of time, particularly because these legal service providers are trying to reach these kids, and if they can't reach them, that five-year-old could be in court by themselves. In Texas, 300 children residing in shelters had their hearings abruptly moved up, sometimes with little notice.

[08:25:00]

An example of that, a notice on Thursday that a hearing was going to happen on Tuesday. In another case, a hearing that was scheduled in 2027 is now happening a week from today. In another case, an attorney told me that these hearings are happening so frequently when these kids are just getting acquainted to the system that some of these kids will wet their pants every time they go to immigration court because they just don't understand who this person is that is deciding whether they can stay or go.

Now, one attorney said quote, "They're all some combination of confused, scared, and frustrated," when referring to the children. Now, I asked the administration for comment. The Health and Human Services Department, which is charged with the care of migrant children, told me quote, "HHS is focused on resolving cases involving unaccompanied children as quickly and efficiently as possible."

Their argument, including that of the White House, being that moving forward with these cases can actually avoid kids being in harm's way because of the way some of them get here. through different smuggling and cartel networks. This is a quite nuanced issue. In many cases, some of these children, according to attorneys, are actually fleeing conditions from home. So, expeditiously moving forward with a case can actually put them in harm's way. And Kate, just to give you a sense of numbers here, as of March, there were more than 2,000 children in HHS custody.

The average time they're spending there is about seven months. So all of this is moving very quickly, and in some cases, the concern here is that they're going to be returned home to the conditions that they were leaving in the first place without ever knowing if they're going to have any type of relief in the United States.

BOLDUAN: Yes, it's all just so hard. You don't want them staying in custody too long. You want everything.

It's just, it's just so hard. Oh, my gosh. But your reporting also is so important, continues to be. Priscilla, thank you so much.

So first came the shooting, then came the conspiracy theories. Why false flag theories are simply just taking off after the White House Correspondents Dinner? We have a deeper look into that.

And gas prices hitting their highest point since the Iran war started. What's driving the prices now?

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