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U.S. Gas Prices Surge To $4.18, A New High For The Iran War; Kimmel Defends Joke After First Lady, Trump Say He Should Be Fired; Investigations Examining Suspect's Online Activity, Tracking His Travel; Soon: Trump And First Lady Welcome King Charles, Queen Camilla To White House. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired April 28, 2026 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:05]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. The breaking news this morning, the average price for gas jumps to its highest level since the war with Iran began. Is this just the beginning?

Jimmy Kimmel's new response to the new calls from the president and first lady to get him fired, his new jokes and how he explained an old one.

And we are standing by for the King to arrive at the White House for an official state visit, 212 years after British troops tried to burn the building down.

I'm John Berman with Kate Bolduan. Sara Sidner is in Los Angeles. And this is "CNN News Central."

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news this morning, gas prices jumping again overnight, now reaching the highest price. Since August 2022, the national average, $4.18 a gallon. That's up nearly seven cents since Monday. It's a new high since the war with Iran began.

Let's get over to CNN's Matt Egan. He's here. He's watching this very closely. Talk me through these latest numbers and what's driving it right now.

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, Kate, look, here we go again, right? Gas prices going up at warp speed. Once again, the national average, as you mentioned, 4.18 a gallon Highest level in almost four years.

You got to go back to the aftermath of Russia invading Ukraine for a higher price than this. And this jump of nearly seven cents in the past day. That's the biggest one day increase in five weeks.

And look at how much prices are up since before the war, before the war, right? Energy prices were a bright spot in this economy. Gas was below $3 a gallon. Now, well above $4 a gallon.

And unfortunately, analysts suspect that this is not done yet. I just talked to a veteran analyst Andy Lipow. He said that in the next seven to 10 days, he thinks the national average will go to 4.25 to 4.30 a gallon. And that's because yes, look at oil prices. They're going up once again. Brent, the world benchmark, three percent higher today, $111 a barrel. Kate, before the war started, Brent was trading at just 70 bucks, now 111.

This is a look at gas prices. And you can see the trend going back for the past four years. Prices were up massively after Russia invaded Ukraine. They came down. It took some time.

But look at this line going straight up, as soon as the war started. The problem is that the Strait of Hormuz, despite the ceasefire, the Strait of Hormuz remains largely closed, and that's just not sustainable.

I mean, normally, that's where about a fifth of the world's oil goes through, but not happening because of the war. And this is causing problems, gas prices to go up all around the country, right?

California knocking on the door of $6 a gallon, but it's not just about those high cost blue states. Some of the states where prices are up the most for gasoline, over the past year, are states that the president won in 2024, including Arizona, where it's a $1.29 more expensive per gallon for gas. New Hampshire, Nevada, another state that the president won, $1.22. Alaska, prices are up as well.

And look, I think the point here is the clock is ticking, right? The longer the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, the higher prices are going to go, and the greater the risk of shortages of energy, including jet fuel and gasoline.

BOLDUAN: Yes. How long can Iran endure? How long can the United States? How long can the world endure the economic hardship that's coming from what we're looking at with the Strait closed down?

It's good to see you.

EGAN: Thank you, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Thank you so much.

John.

BERMAN: All right. Breaking this morning, the White House escalating its latest feud with Jimmy Kimmel over a joke he told days before the White House Correspondents' Dinner. This is what he said then.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY KIMMEL, HOST, "JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE": And of course, our First Lady, Melania, is here. Look at her, so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Again, that was days before the chaos Saturday night. Now, the first lady's calling for ABC to fire Kimmel. The president joined in. This is what he posted. Quote, "Jimmy Kimmel should be immediately fired by Disney and ABC."

This is how Kimmel responded overnight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KIMMEL: It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he's almost 80 and she's younger than I am. It was not, by any stretch of the definition, a call to assassination. And they know that.

I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject. I do. And I think a great place to start to dial that back would be to have a conversation with your husband about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right. And this is not over yet. The White House still involved here.

A new post from the White House communications director, cover your kids' ears if you have them, posted that Kimmel is a, quote, "shit human being," and again called for him to be fired.

Let's get right to seeing as Alayna Treene live at the White House this morning with White House officials still pushing this now this morning, Alayna.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: No, absolutely. And I do think this is kind of what we're going to see the rhetoric be this week as this continues to be talked about.

[09:05:05]

It's quite different, John, from the mollifying language that the president used on Saturday night after returning from the Washington Hilton when he was addressing reporters in the White House briefing room saying, you know, Democrats, Republicans, the media all came together. He was calling for unity.

How quickly that changed. You know, not even 24 hours later the president was out there really leveling these attacks against, what he said was, you know, the left arguing that they have been largely responsible for a lot of the political violence that has targeted him in recent years.

Now, I do want to say as well, I did find it pretty interesting to see the first lady, Melania Trump. She was actually the first one to come out with a strong rebuke of Kimmel specifically.

Something that is pretty rare, I should say, for Melania Trump. She does not often involve herself in these disputes, but she was the one to come out and say enough is enough. It is time for ABC to take a stand now. And her comments did follow what we had been hearing already throughout the day yesterday from the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, from the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche. Many others. You just shared that clip, of course, or that post from Steven Cheung, the White House communications director.

I mean, a lot of them really using this moment now in the aftermath of the shooting to try and lay a lot of the blame at the feet of Democrats.

Now, I should say we've also heard Democrats respond to this as well. We heard the House -- or excuse me the House Democratic Leader, Hakeem Jeffries, come out, condemn some of the language and -- and attacks from the White House and other Trump administration officials.

And we've also seen, of course, many other people point to the language that has been used by the president and his allies and other administration officials in the past as well.

One person saying just, you know, a month ago the president had celebrated the death of FBI Director Robert Mueller, you know, saying, good, I'm glad he's dead.

So language like that is really coming up in the aftermath of this shooting. And this is what we have seen. I mean, as someone who had covered the Butler assassination attempts against the former president, the assassination attempt by Ryan Routh in Florida, often when we've seen these types of political violence, you know, speaking about other things, Democrats, for example, being shot and killed in recent years.

All to say, this is the kind of place where the conversation is going and not really a place I think that many people had hoped we would find, particularly after hearing some of the unifying calls on Saturday in the aftermath of all of this. So, we'll have to see where this leads, John.

BERMAN: All right. Alayna Treene at the White House with the latest on all of this. Thank you, Alayna, for your reporting. Kate.

BOLDUAN: Also right now, the FBI is trying to find out all it can about the White House Correspondents' Dinner shooting suspect, digging into his phone, digging into his digital trail, his travel.

31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen is now charged with trying to assassinate President Trump. He made his first appearance in federal court yesterday.

CNN analysis of his social media posts is also revealing quite a lot about what appeared to be a growing political rage.

In nearly 5,000 posts on X and Bluesky, accounts linked to Allen had a profile that once focused on more simple video game content, if you will, and then switched to anger-filled posts about the Trump administration, comparing the president to Hitler and sharing conspiracy theories about the first assassination attempt on Donald Trump back in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Joining me right now is CNN senior law enforcement analyst, a former deputy director of the FBI, Andy McCabe.

Andy, we -- he was in court yesterday. What evidence with what you can gather so far, what do make of the evidence that the government already seems to have against this man?

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Yes, Kate. So the evidence is, at this very early stage in the investigation, is extraordinary. I mean, they are -- they have a -- a trove of very damaging evidence.

It's fascinating to me that a guy with a -- a pretty accomplished tech background, right? He' s a Caltech graduate. He's a master's in engineering. He's a -- he's a computer programmer. He programs computer games.

He seemed to have made no effort whatsoever to cover his tracks. He left an extensive record, certainly in the social media posts that you referred to earlier, all of which will be helpful to the prosecution in their effort to prove his intent to try to assassinate the president.

He wrote an extensive letter or manifesto, whatever you want to call it, and sent it to many people, some of whom handed it directly to law enforcement, in which he basically confessed to the crime ahead of time, explained why he was doing it, who he was targeting, in what order.

So it's -- it's really a very extensive record. Now they have his phone to help them to kind of uncover anything else that might be of interest.

[09:10:01]

So the evidence for the case, for the prosecution, is already quite strong. What investigators are looking for now is additional intelligence that can tell us a little bit more about why this young man went in the direction that he did. And that's an important question for our intelligence and law enforcement folks to understand.

BOLDUAN: Yes. Part of the conversation, and this all eventually will get worked out, of course, is the kind of, I don't know, discrepancies or just lack of clarity about whether the suspect fired his gun that night on Saturday night.

The -- the acting attorney general Todd Blanche had said that they believe that he did, but ballistics that he said were still being finalized. And it's unclear, again, just at this moment of whether the officer who was shot in the vest was hit by the suspect.

How important is this to establish?

MCCABE: Well, the piece about not being 100 percent sure who fired the round that hit the Secret Service agent, that could mean that that -- that particular crime never gets charged.

Now, of course, he's already charged with a much -- the very serious crime that could get him life in prison, so that might not matter.

But it is interesting, you know, what the -- what the dep -- what the, I'm sorry, the acting attorney general said is they believe that he fired because there was a spent shotgun shell in the magazine, I'm sorry, in the -- in the firing chamber of the weapon. So it -- it was in the format that you would expect immediately after the weapon was fired.

Now, we also know that the attacker was using buck shots. So that's a shell that contains several smaller projectiles that kind of, you know, it's not like a rifle that fires long distance in a very straight line. It kind of shoots out in a -- in a bit of a spray. So it's -- it's possible that one of those pellets actually hit the U.S. Secret Service agent.

The evidence they collected on scene should be able to solve some of these mysteries, but at the end of the day, he's already facing a very serious charge.

BOLDUAN: Yes. Great point. It's good to see you, Andy. Thank you so much. Much more to come, clearly, as this all starts to work its way through the system.

We are standing by for a ceremonial welcome at the White House for King Charles and Queen Camilla next hour ahead of the King's big speech to Congress today.

We've got much more on what to expect from him and what his goals are going into this very big moment.

Also this, opening statements begin today in the billionaire tech battle between Elon Musk and Sam Altman. What's going to happen?

And a piece of history, along Route 70 -- what? Route 66 crumbles to the ground in Downtown Albuquerque.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:15:20]

BERMAN: We are standing by for King Charles and Queen Camilla to arrive at the White House where the president and first lady are expected to welcome them in a formal ceremony on the South Lawn.

I want to get right to CNN International anchor and royal correspondent Max Foster who's at the White House.

And before I ask you anything, let me just say, if you come to America and you don't stop by and see us here, we're going to be very disappointed.

That said, what's expected today right behind you? MAX FOSTER, CNN ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: Good to be here, John. So this is the big day really of this state visit. We're going to have a full ceremonial welcome from the White House.

So it's going be interesting to see how Donald Trump plays that. Because I know from experiences in the U.K. how much he enjoys the ceremonial there. And I know that he's been very involved in the process here.

So fly past and elements like that and a full military display. So we'll wait to see how that plays out. And then it's really going on Congress and that speech to both chambers of Congress.

And I've been speaking to people involved in a speech that the King will give. And I think it's interesting because he's going to speak to the historic relationship between the two countries. He's going to acknowledge what happened on Saturday night and use that to show how Britain is showing, throughout history, showed solidarity with the United Kingdom, despite some disagreements that the two countries have had and currently the big one obviously is over the war in Iran.

But he's also going to speak to the institutions that came out of World War II. So, he's specifically going to mention NATO and the United Nations. So he is going to be really standing up for the world order that emerged out of World War II, which I think is interesting because these are things that the president, of course, has criticized in recent months and years.

BERMAN: Max Foster at the White House. Even if you don't make it here, it feels nice just to be this close to you. So thank you for that report.

BOLDUAN: But we will -- against you. Even though --

BERMAN: Yes. He basically just confirmed he's not coming.

BOLDUAN: Of course he isn't coming. He's got a thing. He's very important.

BERMAN: Yes.

BOLDUAN: But maybe next time, Max, he will graze us with your presence.

Anyway, let's move to this. Someone who will graze us with her presence right now is Katie Nicholl, anchor of The Royals Uncensored and the author of "The New Royals." It's great to see you, Katie. It's been a hot minute.

What are you going to be listening for when the King speaks today?

KATIE NICHOLL, ANCHOR, " THE ROYALS UNCENSORED": I am going to be listening for that soft power, that incredible diplomatic touch that I think only the monarch can execute.

When you consider just how strained relations are in this very special relationship, you know, it's taken a bit of a knocking. And I think what is so interesting is we're seeing the King here on the international stage, flexing that soft power muscle and doing what he does brilliantly.

[09:20:09]

I mean, don't forget all the many visits that he has done to the U.S. as the Prince of Wales, all of that experience that he had as the Prince of Wales. That's now being condensed into his role as King.

And I would actually say, as king, Charles is proving to be far more effective on the international stage, perhaps than he is even being here at home.

But this is a really important trip. And I was thinking about it before I came on air, I would go so far as to say that this address that he's giving is as important as his accession address.

People will be watching. People will be listening at a time when the -- when the world is questioning everything about the world, but is also questioning the roles that the monarch plays. This is a critical moment for Charles.

BERMAN: Yes. You say it's important. Important for whom? So you say it's critical for Charles. What about the United Kingdom? What about the government of Keir Starmer?

NICHOLL: OK. I think it's important for both. I think it's important for the King because it reinforces the importance and the need in Britain for us to have an apolitical head of state.

And it's hugely important for the British government back here. Don't make any mistake, the tone of the address you're going to hear later on, the words will all have been written by the King.

But the missive, the direction comes from the government at a time when if you were to put Trump and Starmer in the same room, I don't think you would get the same reception, certainly not from President Trump. He is literally rolling out the red carpets of King Charles.

As Max was saying, Trump and the First Lady have enjoyed wonderful hospitality, two state visits unheard of over here in the United Kingdom. They're going to want to return all of that pomp and pageantry. And they are giving the King the ultimate privilege, as I say, only afforded before to his late mother of addressing Congress. So, it's a really important speech all round.

BOLDUAN: We know there's a lot of talk about all the preparation that goes on in and around the White House and just in the United States for a state visit like this, especially in Washington.

But Katie, how much planning and what goes into planning a visit, goes into a visit for like this for the king and queen? One has to assume that plans were in the works before the tension between President Trump and Keir Starmer popped up.

NICHOLL: Oh, 100 percent. I mean, this will have been planned months and months, and months before, but at least six months.

You know, let's not forget what this trip -- trip is all about. It's to celebrate your 250th year of independence. So, this has been in the diary for a very long time. And -- and it -- and it will have been wrecked for a very long time.

So regardless of what happened over the weekend and the last minute changes that have been made to their security itinerary, so much thought and attention to detail has gone into this trip.

And there was speculation right up to the 11th hour that because of what happened in Washington over the weekend, this trip may not go ahead. That I'm told by very reliable sources was not even a consideration for the King. This is an important trip to him on many levels. He was always going to come across the pond.

BERMAN: And then there are sensitivities.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

BERMAN: Right? Ro Khanna, the congressman from California, is urging the King to acknowledge Jeffrey Epstein's victims in his address. The King's brother, obviously, is connected to Jeffrey Epstein and there are all kinds of investigations underway in the U.K.

I mean, I can't imagine the King is going to mention the Epstein situation inside Congress. But what's the impact of that scandal on his visit?

NICHOLL: I think you're right, John, it's very unlikely he's going to mention Epstein. But that doesn't mean to say he won't be questioned about it, perhaps on one of the engagements. And we've certainly seen him heckled over the fallout from the Epstein files over here in the U.K. And the King has ignored any questions that has been shouted out.

Don't forget, he's publicly addressed what's happened. He's been very proactive in terms of stripping his brother of his titles, removing him from his home, essentially evicting him from Royal Lodge.

And well, putting him into royal Siberia. I think the view, and you'll -- you'll know better than me in terms of over in America, but I think the view is largely that he has been pretty proactive in this.

He -- he has not buried his head in the sand. He's done everything he can to distance the royal family from his brother.

But as I say, unlikely he's going to raise this in Congress, but not impossible that he won't be addressed about it while he's over in America. And make no mistake, he'll have a response and that will probably be no comment.

BERMAN: Katie Nicholl, great to see you. Thank you very much.

BOLDUAN: Ahead for us, the roommate accused of killing a Florida grad -- grad student appears in court today. How chat GPT is now becoming a central focus and may have helped the suspect plan the murder. And also breaking this morning, a man pleads guilty to plotting a terror attack on Taylor Swift's Eras Tour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:25:28]

BOLDUAN: Happening right now, a court hearing for a double murder suspect in Florida, charged with killing his roommate and his roommate's friend.

The prosecutors revealed ChatGPT searches allegedly made by the suspect now and could become a central focus here.

Investigators say the body of University of South Florida doctoral students, Zamil Limon was recovered on a bridge last Friday. Another body also recovered in the waterway nearby. Authorities though have not yet identified those remains.

CNN's Isabel Rosales joining me right now. Isabel, what's the very latest? What are you learning here?

[09:30:04]

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kate, good morning. This case is really intensifying the scrutiny over what role A.I. is.