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Secret Service Faces Renewed Scrutiny After Press Dinner Attack; Hegseth, Caine To Face Lawmakers For First Time Since Iran War Began; Wife Of Army Soldier Detained By ICE, Facing Deportation; Man Detained After Two Stabbed In London; Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired April 29, 2026 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:04]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: We've got some new CNN reporting this morning as President Trump and other top officials praised the Secret Services' response to the Correspondents' Dinner attack

Behind the scenes, the incident is raising some new questions about the challenges that are facing that agency, including staffing shortages and burnout.

One high ranking former official told CNN, "The reality is we're stretched thin and the agency is constantly playing catch up."

For several years, sources have expressed frustration over having to do more with less. Among the concerns, the number of Trump family members and staff that the agency is now charged with protecting according to sources.

Also, the president requires a large footprint because of the increased number of threats against him, as well as his attendance at events with big crowds like you're seeing there, UFC fights.

Secret Service spokesman tells CNN, there are no staffing shortages to the agency's presidential protective division.

Joining us now, CNN senior national security analyst Juliette Kayyem.

Look, the president tends to travel big, right? And he goes to a lot of places where there are huge crowds because he likes huge crowds.

But what does this do to the detail? I mean, how difficult is it when you consider, I mean, this room alone, but the White House Correspondents' Dinner, but -- but UFC? It's tens of thousands of people.

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes. And -- and he likes those events. And we should want a president to like those events.

And we should want a president to like those events. I mean, we should want a president to be out in the crowd, depending on what -- it doesn't matter what the crowd is. And so the pressure that you're seeing at -- at the Secret Service is on the presidential detail. And part of that is the security perimeter keeps getting bigger and bigger.

So, if you think of a president at a small dinner party, you -- the security perimeter is pretty small. But then if you think of the hotel at this weekend, that's much larger.

And -- and to be clear, Cole, the -- the assassin who -- who tried to kill President Trump, he never breached that security perimeter. But that's getting bigger with a lot -- a lot of pressure on the Secret Service.

And I think just one thing that people don't talk about, the focus of the Department of Homeland Security, where the Secret Service resides on immigration, has put tremendous pressure on the department to satisfy the immigration mandate.

So that is why you're hearing a lot of people, Republicans as well, saying, take the Secret Service out of DHS. It just doesn't fit in there anymore.

SIDNER: It's interesting because they're -- they're seeking to hire some like 4,000 --

KAYYEM: Yes.

SIDNER: -- new employees by 2028 to try to ease the burden. Is that even possible?

KAYYEM: It's very hard because it's not just, do they have the money? And what are the funds look like?

Is -- the training for Secret Service is very different than normal law enforcement. So, if you thought about, like, well, can ICE increase another agency?

Yes, because the skills needed are tend not to be specialized, so you can pull from local and state law enforcement.

Secret Service is very different. It's a very elite group. It's had its challenges. I'm not completely defending it. But once again, the -- you know, if we look at Saturday, the -- Cole never fired a shot. He never got close to the ballroom. He never breached the security perimeter. Those are, in the world of the Secret Service, all good news stories, even though we don't perceive them as such.

SIDNER: Right. Because what we see is someone who had multiple weapons.

KAYYEM: Yes.

SIDNER: Two guns and knives, who was able to access even the area where this happened. And to -- to be fair, where he was, there were -- there was every -- just about every member of the cabinet who showed up that day went through that very area because that's where the red carpet was.

KAYYEM: Right. And that --

SIDNER: But this was long after. I mean, you know, 30 minutes, 40 minutes to an hour after they'd already left.

KAYYEM: And that's the challenge of sort of these kinds of plannings. I mean, the first is, even if you have a hard target, eventually there's a soft target. Even think of an airport. Yes, we have the hard targets, but someone's parking, you know, in the parking lot, that's definitely soft.

The other is a challenge we've been talking about, about the summer ahead. These are just complicated efforts in a democratic society of which you want people to engage, get together, have fun, see sports, do whatever, right? Celebrate the 250 of America.

And -- and if our standard is, there's -- there -- there's no risk, that's a bad standard. It's an -- it's an unachievable standard.

SIDNER: It's an impossible --

KAYYEM: The question is, are we ready if there's a disruption like Saturday night?

SIDNER: You just brought up something that's really important. The 250th, you know, celebration that's being planned is very extensive and it involves tens of thousands of people.

I was talking to someone at the UFC who was saying, this is going to be huge. And seeing just how big it is with tens of thousands of people who are going to show up. And then you have the president has asked for more than 4,000 people to be on the South Lawn.

KAYYEM: Yes.

SIDNER: And they're trying to accommodate all that. How much of a danger is that? Because it's an obvious target where you have a date already.

KAYYEM: Yes.

SIDNER: The 14th. Yes?

KAYYEM: Yes. Unlike the hotel, though, you're not going to have like an open, oh, anyone could just get reservations. So well before the event, presumably, they know who those 4,000 are. They're going to be vetted in all the same ways that -- that you would vet anyone who maybe goes to the White House. The lawn is similar. So the Easter egg hunt is a -- is a good example or even watching from the lawn.

[08:35:09]

So they -- they can do it. It's not like this is hard or new. It's just doing it over and over again, when you look at what the president wants to do around the 250 and what's going to happen, say with the World Cup.

It's the sort of consistency, the length of time and all the different events that's going to be a challenge, even if the security planning looks very familiar from event to event. And I think that's what you're hearing from the Secret Service. It's absolutely exhausting.

SIDNER: It's -- it is a lot. But as you point out, you do want to see your president going and the two things where the American public is interested in and where they're going as well.

KAYYEM: Your standard of success for a democracy is not whether the president is always safe, right? You actually want him to be out and about. That is an inherent vulnerability, whether, you know, and -- and you want that for any president, including this one.

SIDNER: Thank you so much, Juliette Kayyem. It's really good to have you here in person. Come back.

KAYYEM: Thank you.

SIDNER: Come back.

Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Soon on Capitol Hill, the way "Punchbowl" described it this morning, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is about to face a gauntlet.

He, along with the Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman, General Dan Caine, will testify before Congress for the first time since the war with Iran began.

And House lawmakers, they are expected to have a lot of questions about the war, its end goals, the firing of top military officials in the midst of it.

And the Trump administration's request for $1.5 trillion in new defense spending, which is a massive increase.

And helping to set the stage, it appears as President Trump, up early in posting on social media this morning with a message for Iran, no more Mr. Nice Guy.

Joining me right now is Democratic Congressman John Garamendi of California. He sits on the committee holding today's hearing House Armed Services. Thanks for being here.

What is your most important question today for the secretary?

REP. JOHN GARAMENDI (D-CA): Why did you get us into this war? Why did you advise the president to conduct this war? And how are we going to get out of it?

This isn't a debacle. This is an international calamity. Prices across the world have risen sharply. Who would have thought that -- that Iran would be able to close the story of a moose? Any thinking general, any thinking secretary of defense would have known that the outset, if you're going to go to war with Iran, then you better plan on that Strait being closed and the oil, 20 percent of the world's oil shut down.

No, they didn't think about it. They did expand enormous number of our very precision munitions, which will take billions of dollars in years to replace.

We have stressed our military. We've moved a 30 percent of our fleet from the Pacific into the Middle East. What does that say to China?

How are we going to hold our position in the Pacific with the third of the fleet gone? This is just a debacle.

It is a policy debacle. It's an energy debacle. It's an international crisis. And it sure as heck didn't reduce the cost of living in the United States.

BOLDUAN: How are you going to approach the secretary? He -- I mean, you just -- you -- you can see in any press briefing that he holds or any kind of public -- public -- you know, public staging that he has. He is ready and willing to push back, criticize in biting terms sometimes.

GARAMENDI: Well, I don't intend to get in a fight with the secretary. His fight is with the American public. He has to explain to the American public why. Why did this happen? Why was this necessary?

There is no justification thus far. So, really, the fight is with the American public and really beyond that with the rest of the world, because the rest of the world is suffering economically as are we in America.

So, no, I'm not going to get in a fight with him. I know his dances very well. He's fast on his feet and his mouth is even faster. But the reality is there has been no rational explanation for this.

And whatever reasons they put out, they changed daily. We've heard this explanation. We've heard that explanation. We're going after the -- the uranium, the highly enriched uranium.

Really? There was no highly enriched uranium in 2017 when Biden's program was in place. Iran couldn't build it.

Trump shredded that in 2017 and Iran began to build its highly enriched uranium. And here we are. It's still there. Iran still has it.

BOLDUAN: Let -- let me ask you this now about some of the new reporting coming out.

GARAMENDI: Sure.

BOLDUAN: Is that President Trump has told his team, according to "The Wall Street Journal," to prepare for an extended blockade on Iran. The way the "Journal" puts it as, "In recent meetings, including a Monday discussion in the Situation Room, Trump opted to continue squeezing Iran's economy and oil exports by preventing shipping to and from its ports. He assessed that his other options, resuming bombing or walk away from the conflict, carried more risk than maintaining the blockade."

[08:40:10]

And a senior U.S. official told "The Wall Street Journal," "The blockade is demonstrably crushing Iran's economy."

Do you believe that's the case?

GARAMENDI: I don't believe a thing the president says. He lies every day, gets up in the morning, lies, and goes to bed at night, lying.

In between, there is just one statement after the other, which is foolish and not supported by any of the evidence.

The bottom line here is --

BOLDUAN: So, do you think the blockade is having any impact on Iran's economy?

GARAMENDI: I'm -- I'm sure it has some impact. But one thing we do know from 60 days of war is that Iran is not going to roll over and simply do what Trump wants.

They fought -- they have fought back. They have used the levies that they had over the Straits of Hormuz. And they remain in control of 20 percent of the oil in this world.

So, what is the good of this? This is just absolute chaos. It is a policy debacle. It's certainly a debacle.

Now, our military has performed extraordinarily well, doing what it has been told to do, but the result of all that is not victory. We're not going to have a victory here.

And -- and you just read what Trump is saying, which is, victory is not at hand, it's off someday in the future. He wants to continue bombing or whatever the next step will be.

Bottom line here is, we are stuck, once again in the quagmire of a Middle East war.

BOLDUAN: OK. So --

GARAMENDI: Trump promised -- promised all of us, they wouldn't happen.

BOLDUAN: With -- with all of that that you've said, his handling of the war is one reason that some Democrats are pushing for impeachment again.

"Axios" has reported that there are House Democrats who want to start building a case against Trump now in anticipation of a day one impeachment vote if Democrats retake the House in the midterms.

Do you support that?

GARAMENDI: I think we need to be prepared for every eventuality. We have no idea what Trump's going to do tomorrow, but we do know what he has done thus far.

He has plunged the United States into an unnecessary war from which it's going to cost us vast amounts of money.

BOLDUAN: So you would support an impeachment vote again?

GARAMENDI: What I do support is that we begin talking about why Trump is not fit for office. We need to talk about his in -- his inability to articulate to the American public clearly, not only this war, but also all of the other policies, which are one day here and the other day there.

The bottom line is he is not fit to be president. Is that an impeachment issue? It could turn into that. It's not there today, but we need to be prepared for it.

Beyond that, we need to make sure that the American public understands that this president lies at every point. Secretary Hegseth does the same. They're -- they've never explained to the America why we went to war and what they expect to do.

Can I change that? Actually, they have a different explanation every other hour.

The bottom line is that this is a war that has been conducted with chaos. This is a war that has been extraordinarily expensive, depleting our key munitions and depriving the Indo-Pacific of the assets it needs, the Navy and the like.

Bottom line is we're stuck. America is stuck in another Middle East quagmire. Thank you, Mr. Trump. Thank you, Mr. Secretary. This is what you've done for the American people. Brought us back to a Middle East war.

BOLDUAN: Yes. Secretary Hegseth will be before your committee answering your questions in about little more than an hour from now.

Congressman, thank you for your time. I appreciate it.

John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. It was a little less than 24 hours ago, we were on this set with Royal subject, Richard Quest, who began a sentence with the phrase, the beauty of monarchy.

And then Richard was concerned about how that line might sound to my American ears.

With us now, CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten.

This isn't about me and my ears, but American ears.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Yes.

BERMAN: The beauty of monarchy. How much beauty do Americans see in monarchy?

ENTEN: The Americans do not see very much beauty in monarchy at all. In fact, they may see some ugliness in monarchy. What are we talking about here?

OK. Americans who say a U.S. monarchy would be a good thing. Well, guess what, folks? All the percentages on your screen are less than the number five. Only two percent of independents want a U.S. monarchy.

Just four percent of Republicans want a U.S. monarchy. Just four percent of Democrats want a U.S. monarchy.

To put that into some perspective, 12 percent of Americans believe that the U.S. fake the moon landing back in 1969. And we're talking about a third to a sixth of that percentage who say that the U.S. monarchy would in fact be a good thing.

They believe that William Daniels played John Adams back in the film 1776. For a reason, they do not want a monarchy here in the United States of America.

BERMAN: Right. And then props to the independents here --

ENTEN: Yes.

BERMAN: -- outshining both Democrats and Republicans on this subject.

[08:45:02]

How do Americans feel about royal news in general, which gets a lot of coverage?

ENTEN: A lot of coverage. And Americans are saying, enough of this. Enough of this stuff. What are we talking about? OK. We're talking about Americans on U.K. royal news.

Look at this. Just 32 percent of Americans care. Sixty-three percent to you know to, quote Stephen A. Smith, we don't care. We don't care. We've had enough of the royal news.

The bottom line is this, when you're talking about more than three and five Americans saying, you know what, go -- go to another channel. Go watch the BBC if you want some royal news.

BERMAN: I don't believe you. Surely Americans watch these big royal events that get broadcast in full across every major network.

ENTEN: Yes. OK. You don't believe me, John Berman. But it's in the numbers, baby. It's in the numbers. Look at this, viewership of major events, viewership in Americans, coronation of Charles III. And this is a cross-channel here in the United States. It was 10 million. Compare that to what I believe is one of the most American events possible. How about the Super Bowl, this past year's Super Bowl?

Look at this, 126 million. What is that? That's 12.6 times as many folks watching the Super Bowl. A pure American event as opposed to the coronation of Charles III.

I will note, of course, that this was early in the morning. But, of course, it was across all the major channels too. So, I believe that this is a just comparison.

BERMAN: I mean, this was just on one network.

ENTEN: This was on just one network. And this was on what, like five, six, seven, eight networks. But the Americans have had enough.

And the bottom line is this, his mother had, what was it, like, triple the audience for her coronation? So interest is declining as well.

BERMAN: I can feel my phone going off now already with concerns perhaps over this segment. But I will say we won the revolution 250 years ago, and we won the viewership battle again here.

ENTEN: That's exactly right, 250 years, baby. Yes, Paul Giamatti as John Adams. Tremendous.

BERMAN: OK. Sara.

SIDNER: I was wondering where the No Kings rally was when the King came, but anyway.

ENTEN: We had our own No Kings rally right here in this studio today.

SIDNER: Just to be clear, my family members are going to be very upset with me and probably won't speak to me for a couple of days, those that are in Britain.

Goodbye.

ENTEN: Bye.

SIDNER: All right. What happens when a bus driver passes out while driving a school bus full of children? It does have a happy ending. We'll show you.

Plus, it looks like something right out of "The Jetsons." A new air taxi could soon hit the skies in New York City. Take a look at this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:50:39]

BERMAN: In Florida, a pickup truck lost one of its wheels, smashing several vehicles and a guardrail, but kept on driving.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just need to report that there is a pickup truck with three wheels that rammed a bunch of people across the New (INAUDIBLE) a few moments ago. And somehow he continued to drive with no wheels. And flew off the exit.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What color is the truck?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a white pickup truck. It's a big truck.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: The truck ultimately crashed into a construction site. The driver was arrested and charged with driving under the influence, resisting an officer, and battery on a law enforcement officer.

In Mississippi, this is incredible. Five medical -- middle school students jumped into action to stop their runaway bus after the driver suffered a medical emergency and lost consciousness.

You can see them all going to the front there. They grabbed the wheel. They hit the brake. They called 911. They gave the driver medication she was holding in her hand. They did everything right. I mean, just everything right. The driver thanked the kids for saving her life.

In this morning, one company testing a new way to beat the New York City traffic. They are testing an air taxi to the airport. It's more like a giant battery powered drone. It can carry up to five people, including the pilot.

The company says the trip from Manhattan to JFK Airport will take less than 10 minutes. Some days it takes about 96 hours.

Sara.

SIDNER: Even you have to start walking, it's faster.

All right. A routine immigration appointment turned into an absolute nightmare for the wife of a 27-year-old army sergeant.

Deisy Rivera-Ortega has lived in an American -- as in America for more than a decade and had a valid work permit. But she was arrested while trying to become a permanent resident.

Her husband, Sergeant First Class Jose Serrano, says his wife followed the rules to a T. But this is how DHS described her, "A criminal illegal alien from El Salvador." Arguing that she was previously convicted for illegal entry and received full due process. And an immigration judge issued her a final order of removal in 2019.

Joining me now is Matthew Kozik, Rivera-Ortega's attorney.

Can you give us a sense of what the very latest is that you are hearing? And if you're hearing directly from ICE or DHS about where she is and why she's still in custody.

MATTHEW KOZIK, ATTORNEY FOR DEISY RIVERA-ORTEGA: Hey, good morning and thank you for the opportunity to be here today.

First off, they talk about that she's a criminal alien. As I told you and or showed you in your team, she has no criminal records. So that's first off.

Second, we have been in contact with DHS. We've asked for her release. There was a similar case in Louisiana of a service member spouse, which was released. She was released about a week later.

As to where she is, she's still detained at the El Paso Processing Center. She does have a credible fear interview today with regard to removal to Mexico. She does have a basis for credible fear. So we believe that will go well.

Again, we're -- we're waiting for the court to act on the habeas petition, but we're consistently working to get her released and back to her husband of a veteran of 27 years and three combat deployments to Afghanistan.

SIDNER: The fact that she was going to try to get her permanent status, clearly, going through all of the -- the motions that need to be done legally to try and do this the right way.

[08:55:07]

What -- what do you make of this? We've heard of this sort of thing before where someone's going to their appointment, and that is where they end up getting -- getting taken. What exactly happened at that appointment?

KOZIK: She was attending her parole in place interview, which is a special program for military spouses who have status, such as hers with -- withholding removal so that they become legal permanent residence.

She was attending at the direction of United States immigration services. She attended with her husband. We had our translator there, because you're required now to provide a translator. And then they detained her, arrested her, and she hasn't been released since.

The program -- PLACE program was reaffirmed in the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act of the importance of it. Yet, what appears to be happening is the -- the administration is trying to make military service and the parole in place, no longer a matter of consideration in effect ending the Parole in Place program.

So that's the issue here is that she has -- she qualifies for the Parole in Place. She's eligible, no criminal records. Again, they say she's a criminal alien, yet, she lived and worked at Fort Bliss, Texas, the largest base in the United States army.

And so she was doing everything correctly and they just decided to detain her. Again, we're going to continue to fight to get her out. SIDNER: Look, we've heard about some really disturbing conditions at some of these DHS sites where people are being held, people -- children as well, families as well.

Do you have direct contact with her? Does her husband have direct contact with her? And if so, what's she telling you about the conditions and how she is being treated and what's -- what it's like where she's being held right now?

KOZIK: Well, when it comes to the conditions, it's a prison. I don't think any of us would enjoy our stay. So, she has noted the conditions are rough.

I saw her yesterday. We had to fight to see her. There is no questions asked. There was some resistance by DHS and I used to allow her to see her attorney.

Her husband has gotten to see her, but it's a little bit limited, given the fact that attorneys have a little bit more wide discretion to be able to see her.

And with regard to, you know, just overall getting her out, she -- she wants out. The conditions aren't great. But again, hopefully DHS, the administration realizes that the cording the wife of a 26, 27-year service member is not a public policy position that they should be taking.

SIDNER: Yes. And -- and s-- and ending her to a country from which she is not from sending her to Mexico, uh, now El Salvador.

Matthew Kozik, thank you so much for walking us through all of this. And we'll be in contact with you, checking on the status of this case. We do appreciate your time this morning.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: We do have some breaking news coming in. Two Jewish people have been stabbed in an attack in London. Details are really just beginning to come in. We have learned that one man has been detained in this.

Let's get over to CNN's Jomana Karadsheh. She is at the scene. Jomana, bring us up to speed. What is known right now?

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Kate, if you look over my right shoulder here, you can see that still this very much is an active crime scene.

We arrived here a couple of hours ago. We were actually driving back from a synagogue close by in Northwest London, where we heard the choppers up in the sky and we could hear the police sirens and saw this area cordoned off.

So we -- our team just ran over here to see what was going. We heard that people have been stabbed. And since then, what we have heard from the police in the last few minutes, putting out a statement saying that two people were stabbed, man in his 30s and a man in his 70s, both Jewish Londoners and they're in stable condition right now.

A 45-year-old man has been arrested. They say that this suspect tried to also stab police officers and he was tasered.

Now, when we arrived here, we could still see that suspect on the ground surrounded by the police and volunteer Jewish security groups in the area as well as the ambulance service.

Now, this is coming after a spate of anti-Semitic arson attacks that have hit Jewish sites here in London since the end of March. And it has really very much put the Jewish community on edge.

I mean, we were speaking to people earlier and what they were saying is they're shocked to see this. But they're surprised -- they're not surprised. And we heard that as well from the rabbi who -- who's synagogue was attacked about 10 days ago. And everyone has been very fearful in where this is headed.

What we understand right now from the Metropolitan police, we don't know yet if this is linked to the -- the arson attacks that we've seen, but this is something they are looking into.

This investigation is being led by counterterrorism police. They say that they are looking into the suspect's background and -- and his nationality as well, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Jomana, thank you so much for being there. Much more details to come on what is clearly a developing story right now. Thank you.

A new hour of "CNN News Central" starts right now.

[09:00:00]