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Comey Expected to Turn Himself in Today After New Indictment; Interview with Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE): Hegseth Testifies on Capitol Hill for First Time Since Iran War Began; Severe Weather Outbreak, Tornados, Hail, Flooding in Midwest and South. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired April 29, 2026 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A synagogue was attacked about 10 days ago and everyone has been very fearful of where this is headed. What we understand right now from the Metropolitan Police, we don't know yet if this is linked to the arson attacks that we've seen, but this is something they are looking into. This investigation is being led by counter-terrorism police.

They say that they are looking into the suspect's background and his nationality as well -- Kate.

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

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, the breaking news. We are standing by for former FBI Director James Comey to surrender to authorities after the new indictment from the Justice Department. We're hearing from experts on how high a bar it would be to get a conviction.

We're also standing by for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth testifying before Congress for the first time since the war on Iran began. He has bristled at questions during Pentagon briefings. How will he respond today?

And then we're getting some just devastating images in this morning. Destruction from severe weather sweeping across the country, tornadoes and hail. Where is it headed next?

I'm John Berman with Kate Bolduan and Sara Sidner. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

BOLDUAN: Happening soon, very soon on Capitol Hill, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The headlines include "Hegseth's brutal Hill showdown." "Hegseth in the hot seat" and "Hegseth about to face a gauntlet of questions."

A lot of lead up and all for this. Secretary Pete Hegseth will be grilled by Congress for the first time since the war with Iran began. He will also be joined in testimony by the Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Caine, facing the serious and mounting questions about why the administration launched the war when it did, what its plans are now to end it, and why top military officials have been ousted from their roles, some in the midst of this war.

And then there is the $1.5 trillion question, the administration's defense funding request for the coming year, a massive increase from where it stands today. The president himself has been up early sending out messages, including this, a warning to Iran with quite an image and the message, "No more Mr. Nice Guy."

CNN's Brian Todd is following this one for us and he's joining us right now. There are a lot of important questions that, I mean, even from the beginning of the war, but now, however, the number of days that we are in now, basically 60 days into the war for the defense secretary. But what are you learning about what's about to happen?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What's about to happen, Kate, starting in about an hour are some highly charged hearings. He's got the House Armed Services Committee hearing in about an hour from now. He's got the Senate Armed Services Committee to face tomorrow.

As you mentioned, these are going to be very tough, pointed questions for the defense secretary and for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine. He's, again, the first time that they will have addressed these congressional panels since the Iran war began. They're going to face a lot of tough questions on the blockade of Iranian ports, which, according to the latest reporting, might even get tighter in the days ahead.

They're also going to be facing questions about the aggressive U.S. interceptions of Iranian-linked cargo ships and tankers, some of which have extended all the way out into the Indian Ocean. So they're going to be really, you know, facing some tough questions about those military moves.

But also, they're going to be pushing hard for this 1.5 trillion dollar budget request and some added funding for the production of new weapons. Now, why are they going to be requesting that added funding? We've got new reporting, recent reporting from our colleagues Zachary Cohen and Natasha Bertrand in recent days, citing military experts and three people familiar with the Internal Defense Department assessments of stockpiles that the U.S. has, basically saying that these stockpiles are depleted. According to our sources and according to experts, the U.S. has expended at least 45 percent of its stockpile of precision strike missiles since the Iran war began, at least half of its inventory of THAAD missiles, which are designed to intercept ballistic missiles, and they've expended nearly 50 percent of their stockpile of Patriot air defense interceptor missiles. That's according to our sources and according to an analysis from the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Now, our sources say that in the short term, the U.S. does have enough bombs and munitions to engage in combat in the Iran war. The question is, it's going to take them a few years to build back up those stocks and possibly engage in a war with an adversary like China. [09:05:00]

Also, the secretary is going to face some very tough questions about his maneuverings -- his personnel maneuverings, basically ousting the Navy Secretary John Phelan and a very popular and competent general, the Army Chief of Staff General Randy George. Those were very controversial moves, Kate. He's going to face a lot of tough questions about that.

BOLDUAN: And it's, as Brian just said, and he'll be watching closely, it is all about to get underway. Brian, thank you very much -- Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, thank you so much, Kate. Appreciate it.

We're following breaking news this morning on former FBI Director James Comey. He's expected to turn himself in today in the Eastern District of Virginia, according to a federal official familiar with this case. Now, he's facing a new indictment over an Instagram post that Comey shared last year of shells on the beach spelling out 86-47, 86 slang for getting rid of 47, being the 47th president, which was President Trump.

The Justice Department saw this as a threat against Donald Trump and went to a grand jury. This is raising eyebrows, especially since Comey removed the post the very same day. He apologized and said he didn't realize that the quote was associated with violence. In a new message, Comey said he is still, quote, innocent and still not afraid.

Joining me now is CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig. Just now, we heard from Todd Blanche, who was the acting AG, who tried to explain away the difference between what Comey did and what Jack Posobiec did.

Two people who put the exact same wording on a tweet and sent it out to the public, although Posobiec was against, and you see it there, the 46th president, which was Joe Biden, and the one that Comey did was against the 47th president, President Trump. Here's how he responded to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TODD BLANCHE, ACTING ATTORNEY GENERAL: Will the Justice Department pursue that case? Because they sound very similar. That's just completely not true.

That's not how a grand jury does its work. They don't just look at a single image and then say, OK, yes, we'll indict or OK, no, we won't indict. They do an investigation.

This conduct took place in May of last year, May 15th. It has been almost a year. I assure you, the FBI, the Secret Service and the U.S. Attorney's Office have not been sitting around doing nothing. They have been investigating. I have no idea whether there was an investigation into the other times that that post has been made and whether that investigation yielded different results. This investigation that we undertook resulted in a two count indictment. So you cannot compare, well, what happened last time, what happened this time. Every investigation is different.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: So he was asked, will the Justice Department pursue this other case? And he said, that's not how a grand jury works. That wasn't the question.

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, Todd Blanche just said you, quote, cannot compare the two posts. One of them says 86-46. The other says 86-47.

They're identical. And by the way, neither of them is a crime because this phrase 86 is nowhere near clear enough to constitute what we would call a true threat. You have to have an unambiguous threat of bodily harm or death.

That's what it has to be. Now this term 86, we've done some deep dives into the dictionary. Sometimes it's used in normal life.

I've heard from a lot of people. Sometimes it is. Occasionally it is used to mean kill or murder.

However, the vast majority of the time it's meant in a more innocuous way. Remove, throw out, cut a person off. It goes back to the restaurant industry.

If someone was drinking too much. Yes, it's 86. We ran out of that item.

SIDNER: Yes.

HONIG: So if there's ambiguity, you're going to lose as a prosecutor. You have to prove your case beyond a reasonable doubt. There is nothing to this indictment.

And Todd Blanche knows better than this. That's word salad you just heard from him. He understands.

I promise you I was raised as a prosecutor with Todd Blanche. He understands in his heart of hearts that this is a bogus case.

SIDNER: I do want to ask you about the possibility of Comey being arrested and sort of paraded or what we're now learning is that we do expect him to be able to turn himself in. Who makes that decision?

HONIG: So it's the right decision. It is 100 percent entirely up to the prosecution. So when you have a warrant, you have the right to send up the FBI to slap cuffs on the guy and perp walk.

You're not supposed to perp walk him actually for the public but bring him in to be processed. However, if you decide that this person is not a risk of flight and not a danger to the community, what you do is as a professional courtesy, as an act of decency, the guy's not dangerous. He's not going to take off. You say, come in and surrender yourself, which courthouse you got to come in tomorrow by 8:30 with your lawyer, surrender to the Marshals. And so Jim Comey is not going anywhere. Everyone knows who he is.

He's six foot seven. You can't miss him. He's not fleeing.

He's not a danger to the community. He should be given the right to surrender.

SIDNER: But Todd Blanche said it's great that it wasn't his yesterday.

HONIG: Yesterday when asked, he tried to say, that's not up to me. It's up to him. He's the attorney general. He's in charge of all of DOJ and the FBI.

SIDNER: Well, it seems like he's going to be able to turn himself in. And again, he's saying, look, I'm not afraid.

[09:10:00]

He feels like this is bogus as much as many attorneys do as well. We will see what happens with this case going forward. There is a grand jury and an indictment, and this has to go through the process, right?

HONIG: He's got to fight it. Whatever one thinks of Jim Comey, there's plenty of valid criticisms of the guy. He doesn't deserve this.

SIDNER: Elie Honig, it's a pleasure always -- John.

BERMAN: All right, with us now is Congressman John Bacon, a Republican from Nebraska. He is on the House Armed Services Committee. And that's why we have you today because you're about to be able to ask the Defense Secretary questions for the first time since the war on Iran began.

But let me just very quickly ask you, since Elie Honig, our legal analyst, just suggested that this case against Jim Comey is thin, and that might be an exaggeration there. What do you think of all the time and resources that have been put in to prosecuting the former FBI director?

REP. DON BACON (R-NE), HOUSE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: Well, first of all, thanks for having me on. I think it's foolish. I don't defend Director Comey for putting that post out.

I thought it was foolish in his own right for doing it. He took it off right away. But to prosecute a guy for putting that post out also seems foolish to me. It's overreach.

And I think most Americans, we don't like seeing a lawfare going after people's opponents. And I think we've seen it not just this administration, we've seen it in a few administrations now. And I just think it's not healthy for our country. So I think this will be short- lived.

A judge will throw it out. I don't see any jury do a guilty thing for a picture like that on their social media.

BERMAN: Congressman, as I said, you're about to have a briefing with the Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, thank you for taking the time to stop and talk to us on your way, no doubt, to the briefing room. What do you think of the fact that he hasn't faced questions from your committee for the duration of the war on Iran so far?

BACON: I have no doubt it's uncomfortable because he's going to take some heated questions. I do, on our side of the questioning here, I don't really like the yelling and the screaming. I don't like all the drama for TV that people are doing there.

But he does deserve tough questions. You can do it in a professional way. I know I'm not happy with all the firing of the generals.

Let's think about this. They fired four of the six service chiefs, and they fired the chairman of the joint chiefs. Some of the vice service chiefs were fired as well.

And I don't think it's right. And I think it's clear -- it's good to say this is not just Pete Hegseth's Pentagon. This is America's Pentagon. And citizens deserve to know why this is being done.

Now, I want to ask about money that we have obligated through the appropriations process that is not being spent in the way that Congress intended. $40 million for Ukraine has not been spent.

We had $2.9 billion that we wanted to give to our servicemen and women living off base in high-cost areas. That money was redirected. And so I have questions that will go in that area.

And I think that's our role for oversight. We budget this money. It's appropriated. The president signs it in the law. We expect it to be spent in the way that Congress intended.

BERMAN: Just this morning, the president put out a social media post that seemed to get into the current status of negotiations or non- negotiations with Iran. It said quote, "Iran can't get their act together. They don't know how to sign a non-nuclear deal. They better get smart. President DJT. No more Mr. Nice Guy."

And I don't know if you can see the picture there, Congressman, but it's the president in sunglasses holding a gun there. Your reaction to that statement?

BACON: Big picture, we have to prevail in Iran. I deployed four times in the Middle East as an Air Force officer. Iran's proxy groups were often our biggest threat.

I've lost friends from their proxy groups all over the world. I mean, at Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, in Iraq itself. And so we -- I think this is overdue.

And we also got to realize the government of Iran has never played fair or played honestly with any president, going back to Jimmy Carter. We should be very skeptical of anything these folks offer to do. And they are not ready to surrender yet.

They're blocking traffic in the Straits of Hormuz. They act like they've won this fight. So I think we have to continue putting the pressure on.

And this blockade is vitally important. It's working. Let's keep the pressure on.

This regime's going to have to acknowledge that they're losing and that they cannot have a nuclear program and that they cannot be a threat to their neighbors. So I encourage the president, keep the pressure on.

BERMAN: The Wall Street Journal's reporting today that he intends to keep the blockade going. I will note, gas prices up to $4.23, I think, a gallon today. The national average, the highest they've been in four years. If the Straits don't get open soon, I mean, what do you think Americans need to be prepared for in terms of gas and oil?

BACON: Well, I trust this will be relatively short-lived. America's producing more energy than it ever has. And so once we get this blockade lifted, you're going to see prices come down pretty steadily because the supply is high and the supply and demand that works for lower prices in the long run. And so I would just ask for patience.

[08:15:00]

The alternative is Iran will eventually get a nuclear weapon. They would have bombed New York with a missile if they had the capability over the last two months. So let's deal with this threat now.

And I think in the long run, we'll have better gas prices and we'll have a more peaceful Middle East and one less threat facing America.

BERMAN: Congressman, we got word this morning that the State Department is preparing to issue Donald Trump branded passports. And I think we have a mock-up of them so people can see there. That's the outside. The inside has a picture of President Trump on the inside with a golden signature on top of the Declaration of Independence.

They will be available, we're told, at the Washington passport office, the default location. You may get your passport in Nebraska, but I don't know if you're up for renewal, but how do you feel about going to get a Trump branded passport?

BACON: Well, I have to renew it in about a year. I think it's a little silly. We laughed at Russia when they had pictures of Lenin and Stalin everywhere.

Go to China, they had pictures of Mao everywhere. You go to North Korea, pictures of Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il, Kim Jong-un. We're America and I think we do less of that.

And I just think there's a little bit of overreach by some of the subordinates of the president who are trying to cater for his attention. It's not really America to do this. BERMAN: Congressman Don Bacon from Nebraska, we know you're headed to this hearing very shortly. Thank you for taking the time to be with us. Appreciate it -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: It's good to hear from him today, John, for sure. We're going to take you live soon to Texas, where the devastation from the tornado outbreak overnight, I mean, the devastation is just incredible, you guys. That storm is part of a severe weather outbreak that hit several states and is on the move.

And there's new reporting in this morning as well. Top oil and gas executives met with President Trump at the White House yesterday as oil and gas prices are spiking once again. What was their message to the president?

And Elon Musk's new warning about A.I. that came out during testimony in his now court battle with OpenAI and Sam Altman. What brought about Musk's statement that AI could kill us all?

[09:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIDNER: Stunning new video shows the damage and destruction left by a suspected tornado that struck neighborhoods and industrial areas in North Texas about 80 miles outside of Dallas, leaving them pretty much unrecognizable. The same system also leveled homes and buildings in Oklahoma. It was so powerful that a series of transmission towers are now bent in half.

In Missouri, hail as large as grapefruits wreaked havoc, shattering windshields and denting cars.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wow! I got to get out of here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: That is crazy. CNN's Ed Lavandera is in Mineral Wells, where the suspected tornado hit. Give us some sense of what you're seeing because that destruction behind you looks enormous.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's been a rough night here in Mineral Wells, a city of about 16,000 people east of -- or west of the Dallas-Fort Worth area. And this is an area that was that is known as Fort Walters. This was a military installation back during World War II, was deactivated decades ago.

But it has been one of these places that many people here in this community have been connected to over the years. These were old barracks. Nobody lived in these areas.

And this was at one point was a warehouse up until yesterday afternoon. But you can just see the amount of cleanup that is needed around here. And that assessment and those cleanup efforts are well underway.

Actually, let me turn around back over this way. You can see just on the other side of the barracks and across this field, Sara. There are already crews coming in here, bringing in power poles, new power poles to reestablish all of the power lines that have been knocked out by this storm system that blew through here yesterday afternoon.

The amazing news here is that there are no fatalities reported, just a couple of injuries, and those are not severe. So that is good news. But the cleanup efforts are going to be intense here on the eastern edge of the city.

And officials tell us that now that the sun is up, they're able to start going into these neighborhoods in these areas and start assessing the amount of damage and making sure that there isn't anybody that might be trapped in the rubble or debris. But that does not appear likely at this point. But it is going to be a major cleanup effort here because you can just see this is an area that goes straight back into that neighborhood behind there. You can see damages on the homes over there.

Another neighborhood just down the street from where we are is an area we haven't been able to access yet because of all the downed power lines. We were told by residents here that a lot of those homes in that area as well have been hit very hard.

So it's going to be a long few weeks of recovery here and cleaning up this mess this storm system ripped through here yesterday afternoon. And it's not clear if this was indeed a tornado. We know that National Weather Service teams will be out here on the ground to make those determinations at some point here this morning.

So we'll wait for that news. But regardless, the intensity of this storm and the ramifications and the remnants of all of this is clearly something you can see on the ground here this morning -- Sara.

SIDNER: Yes, it surely has the look of what a tornado does, where it's skipping houses and ripping things to shreds. But wow, what a disaster that they're going to have to deal with there in Mineral Wells.

Thank you, Ed, for being there. You and your team giving us a look at what went on with these storms -- John.

BERMAN: All right, we do have new pictures coming in of just an extraordinary low tech and also high tech effort to save a stranded humpback whale.

And this morning, we are just minutes away from the opening bell on Wall Street, a little bit less than six minutes as of right now. Futures are flat, basically, basically opening flat.

Investors, they are bracing for a decision from the Federal Reserve on interest rates. This could be Jerome Powell's final policy meeting as Fed chair.

[09:25:00] Will they or won't they slash rates in the face of rising inflation, surging gas prices and all the economic uncertainty from the Iran war?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: President Trump making a new threat toward Iran this morning, posting up early and posting this morning this. "No more Mr. Nice Guy" with quite the photo and saying that Iran, quote, "Better get smart soon." What does that statement make on the state of negotiations to end the war and reopen global shipping once again?

You be the judge. But this comes as gas prices in the U.S. did reach a new high overnight. The national average jumped another five cents to four dollars.