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Government Attempting to Speed Deportations of Migrant Children; FCC Targets ABC; King Charles to Address Congress. Aired 1- 1:30p ET

Aired April 28, 2026 - 13:00   ET

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

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BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: A royal address to Congress. King Charles to give remarks to a joint meeting of lawmakers here on Capitol Hill just two hours from now, at a time when the special relationship between the U.S. and the U.K. is being tested.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Plus, Jimmy Kimmel firing back after President Trump called for the late-night host's firing over a joke about his wife.

And a special delivery, two paramedics stepping in to help a woman giving birth on a flight from Atlanta to Portland, a midair moment that led to cheers from the other passengers.

We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

KEILAR: We're about to witness a historic moment here on Capitol Hill. King Charles will deliver the first royal address to a joint meeting of Congress in 35 years, the first ever by a British king.

The last royal address by a British monarch was given by his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, in 1991. And, right now, the king is at the White House meeting privately with President Trump. A lot of attention being closely paid to what the king says here on Capitol Hill, as political tensions over the Iran war simmer between the president and the U.K.

CNN's Max Foster is live for us at the White House, where there's been a lot of pomp and circumstance.

Max, King Charles was a teenager when he first visited the White House. He met with then-President Richard Nixon back in 1970. What more can you share about his visit today?

MAX FOSTER, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Well, it's interesting.

I think it couldn't have gone better for the British side, personally, because the Americans certainly gave the Brits a run for their money with this extraordinary ceremonial display, something that I know the president really enjoys.

And there were elements in there which have never been given as an honor to a visiting head of state, so a huge honor today for King Charles. And many of the elements of the president's speech today at that welcoming ceremony I think will be reflected in what the king says tonight as well.

So it's perfectly folding together.Probably the biggest test of the king's reign currently taking place in that one-to-one meeting with the president, the king charged with really solidifying that relationship between the U.S. and U.K., which is very fractured right now.

No cameras allowed in there, so the king can speak freely. And what -- I don't think the king would ever release what comes out of that meeting. The president may, but a big test for him to really fix that relationship, so a key moment for him.

I also thought it was interesting that the gift that the king gave to the president was a facsimile talking about the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office and how it was designed. And there were timbers used from naval ships in that.

So this is going to be reflected later on in the king's speech to Congress, where he will talk about the deep, indelible ties between these two countries and really reemphasizing that. So, we will get over current problems like we always have done in the past, I think that would be a big part of the speech later on.

And he will also be talking, referencing briefly at the beginning what happened on Saturday at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, showing that his presence here is just another example of the solidarity that U.K. feels towards the U.S.

KEILAR: And, Max, Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna says he believes the king will address the Jeffrey Epstein investigation. Have you heard anything about that?

FOSTER: Well, only that this comes out of conversation with the U.K. ambassador.

I actually spoke to the person writing -- who was heavily involved in writing the speech. He didn't suggest to me there would be any reference. I think it would be extraordinary if the king were directly to reference Epstein. I think it would undermine his constitutional position as the head of the British judiciary.

He's a symbolic head. That British political -- legal system is currently investigating his brother. If he were seen to be involved or influencing or prejudicing that investigation in any way, it could undermine his constitutional position.

I think it's just too much of a risk for him to mention in probably the most high-profile speech that he's given in his reign so far. KEILAR: Yes, it's a really interesting thing to keep in mind as we

await his comments.

Max Foster, thank you so much live for us from the White House -- Boris.

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SANCHEZ: Today's security for King Charles' visit is under an even bigger microscope after the White House Correspondents' Dinner shooting.

FBI Director Kash Patel says that investigators have now gained access to the suspect's phone and they are tracking his online activity. A CNN review of 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen's social media found thousands of posts on X and Bluesky.

The accounts linked to Allen show a shift in recent years from posts largely about video games to angrier political messages, including comparisons between President Trump and Hitler. They also shared conspiracy theories about the first assassination attempt against Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.

We're joined now by former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.

Andy, thanks so much for being with us.

What is the FBI looking for in the suspect's phone? And are there any restrictions on what they have access to?

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Sure.

So they are, of course, Boris, still looking for evidence that could help them shore up this prosecution. Now, I should say that they already have a massive trove of very damning evidence, and the case looks strong even at this early juncture.

But, in addition to evidence, they are constantly looking for intelligence, information that may not be necessary for the prosecution, but is essential for the FBI as they try to understand the dimensions of this threat, understand if there's anybody who worked with this person or maybe helped him prepare for this, and more broadly to understand his path towards radicalization.

What was it that took this highly educated person who was interested in math and programming computer games and brought him to arm himself with deadly weapons and attack the president -- or attempt to attack the president of the United States.

So that phone could be a treasure of information that sheds light on the transformation of the shooter.

SANCHEZ: Notably, it could help the prosecutors add charges, right?

Because, during a press conference yesterday, U.S. attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro said the suspect is likely to face more. What do you imagine those could be?

MCCABE: Yes, I think there's no question they will bring as many charges as they can here.

The one charge they did not bring yesterday, but I expect they will at some point, will be the assault on the law enforcement -- the federal law enforcement officer, the Secret Service agent who was shot in the exchange of gunfire. They haven't done that yet, which tells me that they're not 100 percent sure that he was hit with a bullet that was actually fired by the attacker.

There were Secret Service agents who also fired their weapons, so they have to sort that out with the forensic evidence. But assuming that all plays out the way they expect, I'm sure we will see a charge based on that officer's assault.

And, really, the door is wide open. And that gets us back to, what will they find on the phone? There's really no part of that device that is off-limits to the FBI. They can search every piece of it. But if there are particularly encrypted apps in which the data is inaccessible, that could pose some challenges for them there.

SANCHEZ: Andrew McCabe, always appreciate the expertise. Thanks.

Still to come, much more on the royal visit. King Charles and Queen Camilla expected to arrive at the U.S. Capitol in about 20 minutes, where the monarch will address Congress.

Plus, Jimmy Kimmel responding to White House calls for his firing, what he is saying about his controversial joke.

And, later, we're following the arraignment of the U.S. Special Forces soldier accused of winning money off of Nicolas Maduro's capture, an operation that he took part in.

That much more coming your way on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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SANCHEZ: Comedian Jimmy Kimmel is pushing back on the president and the first lady's calls for his firing after he joked on his show last week days before the incident on Saturday night that Melania Trump had -- quote -- "a glow like an expectant widow."

After the shooting at the White House Correspondents' Dinner on Saturday, the Trumps have portrayed that joke as a call to violence. Here's what Kimmel said about the controversy last night:

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JIMMY KIMMEL, HOST, "JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE": You know how sometimes you wake up in the morning and the first lady puts out a statement demanding you be fired from your job? (LAUGHTER)

KIMMEL: We have all been there, right?

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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 have been very vocal for many years speaking out against gun violence in particular. But I understand that the first lady had a stressful experience over the weekend. And probably every weekend is pretty stressful in that house.

(LAUGHTER)

KIMMEL: And, also, 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, because...

(CHEERING)

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SANCHEZ: Kimmel went on to say that he, the president and all Americans have the right to free speech under the First Amendment.

Let's get more now from CNN chief media analyst Brian Stelter.

Brian, how is ABC reacting to all of this?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: Yes, here we are. We're back to that same situation we were in last September where there's government pressure, the heavy hand of government, toward ABC and Jimmy Kimmel.

But ABC's reaction is different this time. Last fall, some broadcast station owners decided to preempt Kimmel's show, and then the ABC network did the same thing. And Kimmel was benched for almost a week. This time around, ABC doesn't want to go through that again. That was embarrassing for the company. It was a bad look.

It was a First Amendment fight. So Disney is doing something differently this time. Behind the scenes, the company has signaled to Kimmel that it has Kimmel's back.

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But you can tell that because we just watched the clip. The actions speak louder than words here. And ABC's action was to keep the show on the air, despite the pressure yesterday and despite the ongoing pressure. My sources at ABC and Disney say they are well aware that the MAGA

media attacks against Kimmel are not in good faith. They are well aware of the hypocrisy that's at play here.

Take a look at what the White House communications director, Steven Cheung, wrote on X earlier today. I don't have as much of a potty mouth as Mr. Cheung, so I'm not going to read the first line there, but you can read it. He railed against Kimmel for not apologizing for last week's joke, and then he said: "ABC needs to fire him immediately."

But that is not going to happen in this case. Kimmel is not being fired. And his monologue, it's quite popular. It already has three million views on YouTube so far.

SANCHEZ: So, Brian, ABC's new CEO, about six weeks or so into the job, is already being tested by the Trump administration. You have news that the FCC is planning to challenge Disney's licenses for its owned and operated TV stations.

STELTER: Yes, that's right.

So most of the ABC affiliate stations across the country are owned by other companies, not by Disney. But Disney owns eight of those stations in big cities like New York and Chicago. And those licenses -- those stations are licensed by the federal government.

Now, those licenses, they're always renewed every eight years. It's usually no big deal. But the FCC in this case is going to tell Disney that it wants to go through the license renewal process early. That's a form of challenging the license. That's a form of punishing ABC.

And if this happens, as I'm told it probably later today, it's going to be widely viewed as an act of retaliation by the government over this Kimmel controversy. Now, here's what the FCC is going to say.

They're going to say, we have an open investigation into Disney. We are looking into Disney's diversity initiatives, their DEI initiatives. We're doing that probe, and this just happens to be going on. And that's why we're challenging the licenses.

That's what the FCC is going to say, OK? I will let the viewers make of that what you want. But let's keep in mind there's also another point of pressure against Disney right now. The government was also probing Disney over the ABC talk show "The View."

So, if you're sitting in Burbank, if you're the CEO of Disney, you know exactly what's going on here. You're going to view this as an act of retaliation. And you're going to decide you're going to stand with the First Amendment.

I'm looking at my phone, just checking it out. And my sense from all my sources at Disney is that that's what's going to happen if the government follows through and challenges these licenses. But it's going to be an interesting moment, Boris, because this kind of license challenge, it has not happened in decades. So we will see what Disney says. We will see what other media

companies say, and we will see how Americans respond. There was a poll last September, when Kimmel was briefly benched, and it found that most Americans do not want to see the government intervening in programming the way that the Trump administration seems to be trying to do.

SANCHEZ: Brian Stelter, thank you so much for that reporting.

Up next: kids as young as 4 forced to represent themselves in court. CNN has exclusive new reporting about how the Trump administration is working to speed up deportations of migrant children.

Plus, talk about airborne. We're going to be joined by the paramedics who helped a fellow passenger deliver a baby mid-flight. You got to hear what a flight attendant handed them when it was time to cut the umbilical cord.

Stay with CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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SANCHEZ: Some new CNN reporting reveals the Trump administration is working to speed up deportations of migrant children being held in U.S. custody.

It's part of a White House push to get minors through the system faster, but critics say the accelerated process has left some kids shaken and, at times, it's forced kids as young as 4 to appear in court without any legal aid.

Let's bring in CNN's Priscilla Alvarez.

Priscilla, what are you hearing about this?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Boris, in many ways, this story captures the complexities of the U.S. immigration system, because there are two things happening at the exact same time.

One of them is that these children, very young, but also up to 17 years old, are going into immigration court on a much quicker timeline, and having to represent themselves, sometimes without any legal help, sometimes with legal help, again, trying to make the case that they should not be deported to their origin country.

At the same time, they're trying to obtain immigration relief from the Department of Homeland Security. So, there's two tracks happening in tandem, but one can move faster than the other. And that is the concern that attorneys and advocates have here, is, are you making it near impossible for these children to know if they are eligible for any type of relief before an immigration judge tells them that they are deported?

So I have some examples here. For example, a 5-year-old who arrived unaccompanied to the U.S. was scheduled for an immigration hearing within a week or two of arrival. That's much shorter than it would normally be.

Sometimes, or at least in previous times, attorneys would have more times to get to that 5-year-old. In Texas, 300 children residing in shelters had their hearings abruptly moved up, sometimes with little notice, including in one case where the attorneys learned on a Thursday that a hearing was moved up to a Tuesday, and a hearing for 2027 was suddenly scheduled for less than a week away.

Now, these are children who are being faced with a daunting process, the immigration system and immigration courts. And, in some cases, these children wet their pants every time they go to a hearing because they are alarmed.

SANCHEZ: Wow.

ALVAREZ: They don't know what to expect. They don't know what's going on.

So, when you have hearings back to back, the administration says they're trying to get to a resolution, they're trying to expeditiously work through these cases. But, on the other end, you have children who are still trying to build a rapport with attorneys, who have gone through trauma.

And all of that also takes time, which is why these cases have generally taken months, if not years, to find a resolution to. So, I spoke to one attorney. He said -- quote -- "They're all some combination of confused, scared, and frustrated," the -- referring to the children.

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The Department of Health and Human Services, which is charged with the care of children, said that it is focused -- quote -- "on resolving cases involving unaccompanied children as quickly and efficiently as possible, consistent with the law."

The argument from administration officials is, if they do this quickly, they can disrupt networks of people who may be trying to continue to bring these children to the U.S.

And the Justice Department just moments ago also told me that they do have to wait for asylum adjudications before they can make decisions. But all of this is to say this is a nuanced issue. It is a complex one. We do know that there are 2,000 children in HHS custody. They are waiting to be reunited with a U.S.-based sponsor, like a parent or relative.

But that's become increasingly hard. So they're waiting for around an average of seven months in custody. And while they're waiting, they're going through these hearings alone or with their attorney, where there -- ultimately be decided whether or not they're going to be deported from the United States to the very conditions in some cases that they were fleeing. So this is all happening quietly and very abruptly, according to

attorneys and advocates, who are worried about the well-being of these children moving forward.

SANCHEZ: Really eye-opening reporting.

Priscilla Alvarez, thank you so much.

Next, we're live at the Capitol, awaiting the arrival of the British monarch, King Charles III addressing Congress this afternoon.

We will bring it to you as it happens on CNN.

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