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Severe Weather Risk Lower Today After Days of Relentless Storms; Defense Secretary Calls Lawmakers Biggest Adversary in War; Fed Holds Key Interest Rate Steady; Comey Makes Brief Federal Court Appearance After New Indictment; Trump Welcomes Artemis II Crew to the White House; Trump Takes Questions From Reporters at White House. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired April 29, 2026 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: -- Mississippi.

So this is the line of storms that are kind of taking advantage of this last gasp of our seven-day stretch of severe weather. So yeah, there's plenty of moisture and dynamics to work with, but as it moves eastward, it'll kind of peter out. And then we can all take a collective sigh of relief because the severe weather taps are going to shut off for the days ahead.

Hey, this is good news too, Brianna, with some of the rainfall here starting to help some of the wildfire activity across the southeastern parts of the country.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Yeah, that is good news. Derek, thank you so much for the latest there.

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

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Jerome Powell's last stance. We're about to learn the Federal Reserve's decision on interest rates, a critical call for the economy, also possibly the last time we'll hear from Powell as Fed Chief.

And no plea for James Comey, the former FBI Director, surrendering as he appears in court over an alleged threat against President Trump. In a video message, he said he is "still innocent."

And fighting words from Pete Hegseth. These are live pictures of a high-profile hearing where the secretary of defense says that the biggest adversary for the United States in the war with Iran are sitting members of Congress.

We're going to follow these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to "CNN News Central."

KEILAR: We have Breaking News. The Fed announcing its decision on interest rates. For the past year, rates have held steady in the face of inflation, President Trump's tariffs and a deflating labor market. And this could also be Chairman Jerome Powell's last meeting. After eight years, his term as chair will be ending in just about two weeks.

CNN's Matt Egan is at the Federal Reserve. Matt, is the decision in?

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: The decision is in, and the Fed has decided they are keeping interest rates exactly where they are. It's the third straight meeting where the Fed is keeping rates steady.

Now, this decision was widely expected and it does reflect the fact that Fed officials, they want to wait and see how much damage the war in the Middle East and this energy price shock does to the economy. And the Fed did put out a new statement where they acknowledge the situation in the Middle East. They write, developments in the Middle East are contributing to a high level of uncertainty about the economic outlook.

And they add that inflation is elevated, in part reflecting the recent increase in global energy prices. Now, remember, the last time the Fed met back in mid-March, the hope was that this crisis in the Middle East was going to be short lived. Of course, that has not happened, right? We've got $100 oil, $4 gas and concerns about shortages of jet fuel and fertilizer and other key inputs.

Now, what's notable is that despite the fact that inflation is going in the wrong direction, the Fed did not open the door in its statement today to potentially raising interest rates. They did not do that. They kept in place some language that implies that the next move, whenever it comes, will be an interest rate cut.

Well, that statement, it did not go over well with some of Jerome Powell's colleagues, because we actually got three Fed officials who dissented, who favored removing that language, because apparently they were concerned enough about inflation. Another Fed official, Stephen Miran, the Trump ally and former White House economist, he took the exact opposite approach. He voted in favor of an interest rate cut today.

Either way, you've got four officials dissenting. That's the most in any Fed meeting since October of 1992. And I do think this speaks to the uphill battle that Kevin Warsh faces. Remember, Powell, this is likely his last meeting as Chair of the Fed. And his successor -- his likely successor, Kevin Warsh, he seems open to eventually cutting interest rates.

But the fact that we have four dissents here and three Fed officials who seem concerned about inflation, that suggests that this will not be easy to get interest rate cuts out of this Fed anytime soon. Back to you.

KEILAR: All right, Matt. Thank you so much for that.

Now to our other major story that we're following today. A short time ago, former FBI Director, James Comey appeared in federal court for the first time since he was indicted again by the Justice Department.

SANCHEZ: He's facing a new set of criminal charges over a social media post that prosecutors say threatened President Trump's life. Joining us now is CNN Senior Justice Correspondent, Evan Perez. Evan, walk us through what happened in court today.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: This was a very brief hearing. This was his first initial appearance before a federal judge here in Alexandria, Virginia, which is a district where Comey lives. He is facing these charges in North Carolina, which is allegedly where those seashells were -- that were on that social media post, the ones that spelled out "86 47." The government says that that is a willful, violent threat against the president of the United States.

As you pointed out, Comey says that there was no such intent. He apologized. He said he didn't know that the 86 could refer to violence. He thought it meant just simply remove.

[14:05:00]

But he took that down and he's apologized. He's also saying that he's going to fight these charges. We heard from his lawyers in federal court today. They said that one of the things they're going to file is to challenge the government that this is a vindictive or selective prosecution against Comey. This is his second time that they're going to go this route.

If you remember, of course, he was arrested and he was charged with lying to Congress. Those charges went away at the beginning of the year after a judge found that the U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia was not lawfully appointed. So now, we're waiting to hear when he appears in North Carolina where those charges are now pending. Brianna? Boris?

SANCHEZ: Evan Perez, thank you so much for the update. Joining us now is former Federal Prosecutor, Brendan Ballou. Brendan, thanks so much for being with us.

Your reaction to Comey being in court today, these new charges being filed over that social media post?

BRENDAN BALLOU, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: I mean, I don't want to overstate it, but I think this is a shameful prosecution. There are any number of problems with this case that should have made it impossible to even bring this before a grand jury. So let's start with the basics.

To prove this case, you would need to show that the threat that James Comey made was objectively clear, a physical threat against the president. I think very few of us knew that 86 was ever meant as an inference of violence. Most of us know it from restaurants and things like that, that they're out of ingredients.

So you have the objective reasonableness requirement, then you have the subjective intent requirement -- the idea that James Comey actually intended to threaten the president. Nothing in the indictment or nothing in the surrounding statements suggest that that was actually the case, and the Department of Justice hasn't suggested that they have additional evidence other than the Instagram photo.

And then you add on top of all that the idea that you just mentioned of vindictive prosecution. Even a meritorious case must be dismissed if it is brought for vindictive reasons against the defendant. So I think there are any number of reasons why this case will fail and why it shouldn't have been brought in the first place.

KEILAR: How important is intent here? Because Comey did take some really important steps at the beginning when he faced criticism after posting this -- taking it down, apologizing, saying, I do not believe in violence. That makes it pretty easy for him to make the case that this was not his intent to imply any kind of violence. How important is intent here?

BALLOU: Incredibly important. I think that's the entire ballgame. You know, the idea, as you said, that James Comey took the picture down, apologized after he was alerted as to the potential meaning of the 86 phrase. You know, this is a statute that requires not just a knowing threat, but a willful one. So you have to not only intend to make the threat, but you have to know that the threat was wrong.

And so nothing about his surrounding actions suggests that that was the case.

SANCHEZ: Republican Senator, Thom Tillis told CNN, quote, "Hopefully, there's more to it than just the picture in the sand. Otherwise, I think it's just another example of where we're going to regret this because we're setting a fairly low bar."

What sort of legal standard does this set?

BALLOU: Yeah. So, you know, the standard for getting past a grand jury is relatively low, but there is sort of broader professional obligations here. You know, your reporter, Kevin Liptak, said the process is the punishment here. That's exactly the case.

I think lawyers need to be given a very broad berth to make arguments in court. But when you're using the legal system, not to achieve an end, but simply to raise costs and to try to discredit a person really raises concerns under Rule of Conduct 3.8 that all lawyers have to follow, which means that prosecutors cannot invidiously discriminate against a defendant.

So I think this is one of the rare cases where, you know, we should be seriously looking at professional sanctions for the people involved in this case.

SANCHEZ: Wow.

KEILAR: Well, I mean, that would be extraordinary, right? We have to look at the backdrop in which this is happening, and that is that you have the Acting Attorney General perhaps angling to get the job of being the attorney general, Todd Blanche.

And you know, the quickest way to Donald Trump's heart is trying to help him with some of his retribution. What do you make of that?

BALLOU: I think it means that we should be extremely concerned and extremely careful about what's going to happen over the coming weeks. You know, there's obviously jockeying to see who's going to be running the Department of Justice for the long term.

And it seems that the candidates are trying to curry favor by bringing extraordinarily extreme and extraordinarily political prosecutions.

SANCHEZ: Brendan, thank you so much for joining us. Appreciate the expertise.

Still to come, a war of words on Capitol Hill as Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth spars with lawmakers, pushing back on critics, calling the war with Iran a quagmire.

Plus Elon Musk, the world's richest man, going up against one of the most powerful A.I. companies in a fierce court battle that could change the future of artificial intelligence.

KEILAR: And the Artemis II crew is still flying high from a historic mission around the moon to a special welcome at the White House. We'll have that and much more coming up on "CNN News Central."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:14:34]

SANCHEZ: Out of orbit and into the Oval Office. Right now, President Trump meeting with all four astronauts from the Artemis II mission, including NASA Administrator, Jared Isaacman.

KEILAR: It's been three weeks. Are we listening in? Let's listen in.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: -- tried to kill it. And actually, the military would not let the Biden administration kill it. They wanted to kill it. And it has turned out -- it's going to turn out to be one of our most important things. I think it'll turn out to be one of the most important things they did.

[14:15:00]

But we got involved with NASA, bringing it back. And I was saying when I first looked at some of your facilities, they had grass growing on the runways, right? In between the cracks of the asphalt. And but not anymore.

It's really strong. And you know what they do, one of the things they do that's so important is for our military, military offense and defense. And a lot of people say, well, is it worth it? It's really worth it, because what's happened militarily, you see what we're doing militarily. A lot of that comes from space. So it's been pretty good. Good question.

Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, Mr. President. I have two questions for you. First, on the topic of space. Do you have an update on the UFO files and what might be -- what we're going to be seeing this? TRUMP: Well, I think we're going to be releasing as much as we can in the near future for some reason. And I guess it's just a reason it's been in the minds of people for a long time. And that is such, they want to find out about the UFOs and anything having to do with UFO or related material. And we're going to be releasing a lot of things from that we have. And I think some of it is going to be very interesting to people.

I've interviewed people my first term primarily, but I interviewed some pilots, very solid people. And they said they saw things that you wouldn't believe. So you're going to be reading about it.

Yes?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir, you spoke to Vladimir Putin not too long ago. Did you talk to him about --

TRUMP: I did today.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ? Did you talk to him about the progress in the space area and what else did you talk about?

TRUMP: Well, I didn't talk about space. No, I talked about Ukraine and I talked a little bit about Iran. I talked about a few different subjects, mostly about Ukraine. And we had a very good conversation. I think we're going to come up with a solution relatively quickly. I hope.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What was he like --

TRUMP: I think he'd like to see a solution. I can tell you. And that's good.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What involvement does he want to have in the Iran situation?

TRUMP: He told me he'd like to be involved with the enrichment if he can help us get it. I said I'd much rather have you be involved with ending the war with Ukraine. To me, that would be more important because we're going to have that -- look, we're not going to let Iran have a nuclear weapon. And we've knocked out their navy. We've knocked out their air force.

We've knocked out their aircraft, everything, apparatus, everything they have, their radar. They have very little left. And they have some missiles, a small percentage. They have a small percentage of missile making facilities. We knocked out about 80 percent of them.

The rest could come very quickly if we don't make a deal. They're not going to have a nuclear weapon. They know it and just about everybody else does. And so we talked about that a little bit. He doesn't want to see them have a nuclear weapon either.

But I had a long talk with President Putin. I suggested a little bit of a ceasefire. And I think he might do that. He might announce something having to do with that. Did he announce it yet? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, but I was wondering, I was just going to ask you about --

TRUMP: You know, I asked him about -- even if it's a little ceasefire, there's so many people being killed. It's so ridiculous.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Mr. President. And in light of today's Supreme Court ruling on the Voting Rights Act, do you want Republican states in the South to look at redrawing congressional districts before the midterms?

TRUMP: I don't know. You have to tell me, when did the ruling come out. I've been with the astronauts. I've been with contractors because we're trying to get the ballroom built.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.

TRUMP: Ahead of schedule. It's right on schedule. It's ahead of schedule now. I want to keep it that way.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So (inaudible) came out today and --

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: And I was also with commissioning some people, but one of -- you know, David Warrington's son. I don't know. You know, David? Everybody knows David. He's got this incredible son. So he was just sworn in. So we had other things.

Tell me about the -- what happened?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, some think that the ruling could create more Republican-held congressional seats in the South.

TRUMP: That's good.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.

TRUMP: That's the kind of ruling I like.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would you --

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: When did that happen?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, the Supreme Court ruled on it this morning.

TRUMP: Really? Is that right? Tell me about the ruling. This is CNN fake news.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR & CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, I have a question on your call with President Putin today. Do you think the war in Iran ends first or the war in Ukraine? TRUMP: Well, we talked about -- more about the war in Ukraine, but he would like to be of help. I said, before you help me, I want to end your war. So we had a good talk. I've known him a long time. I think he was ready to make a deal a while ago. I think some people made it difficult for him to make a deal. But we talked more about Ukraine.

COLLINS: But which war do you think ends first?

TRUMP: That's an interesting question. You know, coming from you, that's very interesting. Which war would end first? I don't know. Maybe they're on a similar timetable. I think Ukraine -- militarily, they're defeated. OK? You wouldn't know that by reading the fake news. But militarily, look, they're navy.

So they had 159 ships. Every ship is right now under water.

[14:20:00]

Typically, that's pretty good. What do you think, Jared? I mean, it's going to be hard for them to make a naval comeback. OK. Now they have an air force. Every one of their planes has been shot down or has been decimated.

They have missiles. About 82 percent are gone. And they have drones and most of them are gone. Most of the factories are mostly gone. And we have tremendous anti-drone equipment now between lasers and that new, very special machine gun that knocks them out of the air like flies. And we use bullets instead of million-dollar missiles to knock out $30,000 drone.

So I would say Jared would tell me that with everything you just heard, typically, we're in pretty good shape. And in addition, their economy is crashing. Their -- as you know, their money, their -- they got their money. They don't have a name for it. Their money is valueless. They've got inflation that nobody's ever seen before.

Other than that, I think they're doing quite well. If you read The New York Times, you'd say they're doing wonderfully because it's fake news. Or if you watch CNN, I mean, you cover it all the time. You think they're doing well. Do you think they're doing well where they have no navy, no air force, no anti-aircraft apparatus other than what they may have put there? They may have brought in some light stuff during the ceasefire.

And we know exactly where it is. So it'll be knocked out within the first 15 minutes.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Yeah, go ahead, please.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you very much, Mr. President. I want to go back to the Supreme Court ruling on the Voting Rights Act. I know you said you haven't seen it.

TRUMP: When did it come out? Just now? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, it came out this morning, but basically very much narrows the Voting Rights Act.

TRUMP: Would you consider it a win for Republicans?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A win for Republicans.

TRUMP: I love it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But my question --

TRUMP: This is a very good weekend. End this news conference right now. I want to read it. Wow.

(LAUGH)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My question to you, Mr. President, is that some Republican governors have not responded in terms of what they're going to do. I guess early voting, for example, in Louisiana --

TRUMP: Republican governors? What --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Republican governors.

TRUMP: What about it?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Early voting begins Saturday there, for instance? Should they redraw the map in the next couple (inaudible)?

TRUMP: I would. I mean, it depends. I mean, some states don't need to redraw and some do. I mean, I know what, the concept of the ruling. I just haven't seen the result. Yeah, I would say generally, I would think that they would want to do it.

Some are greatly helped and some, it didn't make much difference. Yeah, I would say they would do that. They have time to do it.

Yeah, please.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, Mr. President. I wanted to ask you, there was a lot of drama on the House floor today. Several bills were stalled and a rule took two hours to pass today. And there's still some tension over the farm bill.

Do you think that you need to get more involved legislatively on Capitol Hill?

TRUMP: We want the farm bill. The Democrats don't. We want -- we want security. OK? We need security. We want security. The Democrats don't think we need security. They actually do. But they have -- they suffer greatly from Trump derangement syndrome, like at levels that nobody has ever seen. They're sick people.

There's something wrong with them. They don't want to pay anybody for security. They don't like ICE. They don't like Border Patrol people. They don't like the people that keep us safe. You know, when they ran this, they let 25 million people into our country. And many of those people were from prisons.

They were from mental institutions, drug dealers, murderers, 11,8888 murderers, half of whom committed more than one murder. They think that was fine. I happen to like law enforcement. They essentially want to defund law enforcement. And I don't think the public's going to let them get away with it.

You know, we got it all approved in the great Big, Beautiful Bill and they want to renegotiate. We don't like that.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, the king's speech that he made to Congress, he spoke strongly, forcefully about the necessity for a strong NATO alliance. He also spoke about the necessity to continue to support Ukraine. Did his speech in any way change your thinking on either of those issues?

TRUMP: Well, you have to say my thinking is, I think, exactly correct. But I was very disappointed with the fact that when we called on them to give us a little hand, we didn't need it. I actually did it just to see whether or not they'd be there when we called on NATO to give us a hand with Ukraine.

And in particular, the most recent, you know, we asked them to do certain things on Ukraine. And we also wanted them to do things with Iran. And on Ukraine, they're very much involved, but they didn't do things the way we would like to see.

It's been going on for a long time. And on Iran, they weren't there, as you know -- you know it better than anybody. They weren't there. The king is fantastic. We spent a lot of time together. We had a lot of talk. We talked about this also.

[14:25:00]

And he loves his country and he's a great king. And he's a great friend of mine. And I think if he were doing that, if that were up to him, he would have probably helped us with Iran. He would have done -- he would have followed the suggestions we made with respect to Ukraine because, you know, we have some disagreements on Ukraine and not having to do with NATO so much as European countries.

But no, he -- you know, he's coming back tomorrow. We had an incredible evening last night and he's leaving tomorrow. He's going to come back and see us before he leaves. And you know, but I think he's a phenomenal representative for his country. I think the people in the United Kingdom should be proud.

I loved his speech yesterday. I watched it. I loved the speech last night. I don't know about my speech. I thought my speech was OK too. But I thought he was -- I think he's an unbelievable king. And by the way, an unbelievable queen. They are a great couple.

(CROSSTALK) COLLINS: You were talking about how busy you are this morning. James Comey was in court. He self-surrendered. He's now been charged a second time, this time over a social media post with seashells that said "86 47." Do you really think that he was endangering your life or threatening your life with that post?

TRUMP: Well, if anybody knows anything about crime, they know 86, you know what 86 is, it's a mob term for kill him. You know? You ever see the movies? "86 them," the mobster says to one of his wonderful associates, 86 them, that means kill him.

It's -- I think of it as a mob term. I don't know. People think of it as something having to do with disappearing. But the mob uses that term to say when they want to kill somebody, they say 86 the son of a gun. I'm trying to keep the language nice and clear. They don't use that term son of a gun. They use another term.

But that's a mob term for kill him. Yeah?

COLLINS: But do you really think your life is in danger?

TRUMP: Probably. I don't know. You know, based on -- based on what I'm seeing out there, yeah, the people like Comey have created tremendous danger, I think, for politicians and others. He, you know, Comey is a dirty cop. He's a very dirty cop. He cheated on the elections. He tried to help Hillary Clinton, as you know. He dismissed a lot of things that he should have proceeded with. I wasn't involved, but he should have proceeded with.

No, he's a dirty cop. He's a crooked man. Yeah?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, you just described there's been disagreement between the U.S. and Keir Starmer on support for Iran. Did your visit with the king smooth that over or create any warmth (ph)?

TRUMP: My visit with the king really was just, it was extraordinary. I mean, he's an extraordinary man. He's an extraordinary person. And yeah, it helps it from the standpoint that, you know, when you like the king of a country so much, it probably helps your relationship with the prime minister.

But, you know, in that case, the prime minister I said, do you want to send a little help? He said, no, we'll send it after you win the war. I said, that's not good. That's not good. What do you think of that, Jared? Sending help after we win the war. I don't know. Some of that bothers (ph).

I don't want to get you guys involved, but I can imagine what you think.

(LAUGH)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The United Arab Emirates, the UAE, they pulled out of OPEC.

TRUMP: Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you think about that?

TRUMP: I think it's great. I mean, I think it's great. I know him very well, Mohammed, and very smart. And he probably maybe wants to go his own way. That's a good thing. I think ultimately, it's a good thing for getting the price of gas down, getting oil down, getting everything down. They have it all. He's a great leader, actually. So, no, I'm OK. They're having some problems in OPEC.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, Kevin Warsh passed a hurdle today. The Senate Banking Committee confirmed his nomination. It will go to the Senate floor.

TRUMP: That's good. We need to go about it (ph).

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible) in mid-May. Is it your expectation that he can persuade the other Fed governors to lower interest rates? Because (inaudible) recently.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Well, we'll see. I mean, they should, because it's a good time to lower them. We're the most prime country anywhere in the world. We're right now having investments made in our country at a level that nobody has ever seen. No other country has ever seen it. Tens of billions of dollars are being invested.

Factories, auto plants, A.I. -- I mean, not just A.I., because A.I. is new. We're leading China by a lot in A.I., as you know. I'm letting them build their own electric plants. They're building them. Otherwise, you could never do it. It was a concept that I came up with. I'm very proud of it. And by the way, they're building electric plants that people in the utility industry have never seen before.

They're saying, man, that's incredible. So they're building these massive buildings that cost billions of dollars, and they're building their own electric plants. So they're not taking from a source or the old grid, you know, an old grid that wouldn't be able to do it.

No, we're leading with everything. But in the history of our beautiful world, there's never been --