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Gas Prices Surge Again Overnight, Now $4.39 a Gallon; Hegseth Claims Iran Ceasefire Pauses 60-Day War Powers Deadline; New Footage of WHCD Suspect Accused of Trying to Kill Trump. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired May 01, 2026 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight, a huge jump in gas prices, nearly 10 cents in just 24 hours, relentless increases all week. So, how many more days of this could we see?

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Good question. And deadline day all around for the Iran war. Donald Trump expects to get a new proposal possibly today from Iran.

And Congress is staring at the clock on Congressional approval for U.S. military action there. Is Congress going to actually take a stand?

And the moment some very good people break down a fence to save a man in the midst of a house fire.

I'm Kate Bolduan with John Berman. Sara is out today. This is CNN New Central.

BERMAN: All right. Breaking this morning, hope you filled up yesterday because today it is a lot more expensive. The national gas average for a gallon of gas now $4.39. That's up a whopping 9 cents overnight and up 33 cents since last week.

Prices are up all across the country with California, which is always more pricey, at an average of $6.06 a gallon. The average in Indiana has risen $1.09 in the past week. That's just in one week. Think about that.

The Trump administration has insisted that high prices are part of the short-term pain because of the war with Iran, but that short-term is now two months and counting.

Let's get to see CNN's Gloria Pazmino at a gas station here in New York. What are you seeing there, Gloria?

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John. And New York is seeing some of the highest prices across the country, and drivers here at the pump are feeling it, John. I just spoke to a man who told me it takes almost $180 to fill up his truck. I mean, some of the numbers I heard here in the last hour or so are really eye-popping, $180 for a truck, almost $200 for a van. And that driver has to fill it up multiple times a day -- multiple times a week, I should say, because he drives for work.

Now, I also spoke to a nurse's assistant who was actually on her way home after ending her night shift. And she told me that she was going to fill up her tank just enough to make it to the border to New Jersey, where then she will likely fill up again, just because it's a few cents cheaper. So, you see just how much people are making calculations every single day as the prices continue to increase.

Now, many of them also told us they simply feel like they don't have a choice. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REGINA HARPER, DRIVER: Oh my God, $4.69? I mean, I know when I go home, I cried when I saw $4.22 last night, but I passed it straight. Now, I'm going to pay $4.69.

PAZMINO: So you saw it at $4.22 last night?

HARPER: By my house. And I just -- I was like, that's a lot.

This car used to cost me $25 to fill up. Now it's going to $47 to $50.

PAZMINO: Do you have a choice? No, I don't, unless I bring a scooter from New York. And I don't have a choice. I really don't.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAZMINO: Now, let's talk about the numbers, John. We are seeing gasoline prices reaching just a whole new height since the beginning of the conflict in the Middle East back in February. We're seeing $4.39 a gallon for the national average. That's the highest jump since July 2022. So, we're seeing some of the highest gas prices Americans have seen in the last few years. And it means that Americans are paying about $1.32 more per gallon than they were paying for before the Iran war.

Now, it's affecting everyone's bottom line. As I said here, drivers telling me they simply feel like they have no choice. Some of them telling me they have to fill up their car in order to get to work or to work because they work behind the wheel, and there's no sign so far that this is going to be improving anytime soon as the conflict in the Middle East continues to escalate.

And even if it were to end soon, experts warn that it's going to take a long time, likely months, if not more, for gas prices to stabilize.

[07:05:06]

John?

BERMAN: Yes. Gloria Pazmino at a gas station, not a happy place to be today, Gloria, thank you very much.

And, Kate, you know, we're talking about real money here. Every time you fill up, it's $10 to $15 more than it was at the end of February. That's real money.

BOLDUAN: Yes. I mean, these averages and how fast it's jumping day to day is a real number.

Another real number, 60. Today marks 60 days since the war with Iran began, and with that comes a deadline, I guess we should say maybe. A Vietnam war era law requires that Congress sign off on U.S. military action that lasts beyond 60 days. If they do not, the president is required to wind down military operations.

But will that happen? It is right now seeming unlikely. According to the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, the April 7th ceasefire between the United States and Iran, he believes, they believe, now gives the president a loophole.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: We are in a ceasefire right now, which our understanding means the 60-day clock pauses or stops in a ceasefire. So, they're not in. That's our understanding.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Tim Kaine did not agree. Republicans, some Republicans also did not agree with that analysis.

Still, another key deadline to keep an eye on today. Iran is expected to offer up, submit, hand over a revised proposal today to Pakistani mediators after President Trump is said to have rejected the previous version. And new reporting just this morning, according to a CNN analysis, at least 16 U.S. military sites have been damaged in Iranian strikes, a majority of U.S. positions in the Middle East. Some of them, according to the analysis, virtually unusable at this moment.

CNN's Kevin Liptak is at the White House for us starting us off this morning. Kevin, what are you hearing about plans on all fronts and deadlines on all fronts that the White House is now facing?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Right. And the administration is making very clear this morning that they do not plan to go to Congress for authorization for this war, making clear that, in their view, in the purposes of this law, which is designed to constrain a president's military powers, they say the war is over. An administration official told me just last hour, quote, for war powers resolution purposes, the hostilities that began on Saturday, February 28th have terminated.

They go on to say that both parties agreed to this ceasefire on April 7th. It's been extended, and they say, quote, there's been no exchange of fire between U.S. armed forces and Iran since Tuesday, April 7th, making the argument there that because, according to them, the war is, quote, terminated, no authorization is needed.

Now, this is a novel legal argument, that's an understatement. There's nothing in this law that has a pause button that says that it can be terminated. It does allow for the president to extend the war for 30 days past that deadline.

And now, we should note this was a legal deadline, but it was also something of a political deadline for a lot of Republicans. You know, their support for this war has been mostly unconditional, but many of them have said that the 60-day mark that would be a point and at which they would need to sign off on it and to put their stamp on this war. So, it's an argument that is almost certainly going to be challenged.

I think it also raises the question, you know, legal questions aside, is this war actually terminated? You know, the Strait of Hormuz remains in a chokehold and questions about the nuclear program that were the ostensible reason for starting this war in the first place have not been resolved.

President Trump was asked yesterday whether he's getting impatient with the ceasefire. Listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Nobody knows what the talks are except myself and a couple of other people. They want to make a deal badly. We have a problem because nobody knows for sure who the leaders are. It's a little bit of a problem, you know? The leaders have been wiped out along with their military, almost all of their military.

I mean, I don't know that we need it. We might need it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIPTAK: So the president's saying he doesn't know that he needs it, but we should note that yesterday the president received a 45-minute briefing from the CENTCOM commander, from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, about potentially new military options for Iran going forward.

BOLDUAN: All right, Kevin, thank you so much. Let us see what this day brings. I appreciate it, buddy.

There's also this new video coming in showing the suspect in the White House Correspondents' Dinner shooting casing the hotel before the attack, a new video of that. And we're also learning more about his movements, his moves, as he rushed through that security checkpoint.

And there's also new reporting about a possible suicide note from Jeffrey Epstein that has been kept sealed and under wraps for more than seven years by a court case having to do with a different inmate and what means that it might not ever see the light of day.

[07:10:11]

And U.S. Olympic figure skating team with the most creative first pitches at the Mets game yesterday.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right. Breaking overnight, brand new surveillance footage of the attempted attack on the White House correspondents' Dinner. So, this is it. The suspect circled in the video walks through a doorway. A law enforcement officer with a dog walks up. And then after about 15 seconds, the suspect bursts out running through the security checkpoint, holding what appears to be a shotgun there as he runs out of frame.

Now, prosecutors say he fired at law enforcement, though in that first video, it is difficult to see.

[07:15:00]

In a slowed down version released by the U.S. attorney's office in Washington, each circle, they say, represents a gunshot. So, you can see one is run through the magnometer and then you can also see it from law enforcement as well.

Let's get the CNN's Katelyn Polantz, who's got the latest on this new video and other new video as well. Katelyn, what are you learning?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, this is where the Justice Department is trying to bring clarity to exactly what happened in the moments when there was the shooting outside of the ballroom at the White House Correspondents' Dinner when the president and several cabinet members were inside the room.

What the U.S. attorney says in releasing this video, this is Jeanine Pirro, she put this out yesterday saying that they were also going to be providing it to the federal court where Cole Allen is facing a charge of attempting to assassinate the president and also discharging his firearm at a federal officer. She's saying that this shows Cole Allen shooting a U.S. Secret Service officer during his attempt to assassinate Donald Trump, that there is no evidence that the shooting was the result of friendly fire.

Now, one of the things that has built toward the Justice Department releasing this video is that there have been a lot of questions of exactly where that shot was out of Cole Allen's shotgun. The white circles are representing what the Justice Department believes are those shots being fired.

We do know that the Secret Service officer who was hit with something, a shot in his ballistic vest, that's him firing in the lower left corner back at Cole Allen. He fires five shots. We do know that. That's been undisputed. But the question of Cole Allen shooting, there's -- looking at this video, it's not exactly clear if his shotgun goes off. The muzzle flash isn't captured on the video. And there are other physical reactions from people in the video, other officers that are standing around that area.

One of the things that the Justice Department has also been doing is they've been making representations in court on exactly where the evidence stands right now in their investigation into how this shooting played out. And what they've said in court is not as much as what they have said there in the filings or in the video. They have said that he held a shotgun in both hands in a raised position parallel to the ground. As he was running through the magnetometers, a U.S. Secret Service officer observed the defendant fire the shotgun in the direction of the stairs leading down to the ballroom, direction of the stairs leading down to the ballroom. What they're saying in court is not the same thing as saying that he fired at a U.S. Secret Service officer.

This is another piece of video that the Justice Department released yesterday. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro says that is him in the days before the shooting, as a guest at the hotel, casing the hotel gym, and also there is additional video of him walking down a hallway. John?

BERMAN: All right. Interesting to see all this new footage, and, of course, whether and when the gun went off matters mostly in terms of the level of charges that are ultimately brought there. It doesn't change really what happened in and around the event itself, but it does matter from a legal standpoint.

Katelyn Polantz, thank you so much for sharing your reporting on this.

Millions of Americans facing dangerous storms and potential flooding this morning with several major cities at high risk.

And then we are on the eve of the world's greatest celebration of seersucker and also a big horse race. Who is the favorite in the Kentucky Derby?

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[07:20:00]

BOLDUAN: Tomorrow is the first Saturday of May. You're like, yes, Kate, I have a calendar. But it does mean something, friends. It is time for the Derby. The 150-second running of the Kentucky Derby is on the schedule for tomorrow night, and Andy Schole's is now Churchill Downs. How's it looking? You are so fancy.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: You got to be, Kate. If you're coming to Churchill Downs for the Derby, you got to bring out your best, you know? And today is the Kentucky Oaks, which means you wear pink for breast cancer awareness. It's become quite the event. It's going to be in primetime on NBC for the first time ever. But the Derby always so much fun, you know, dust off that fascinator. Get out your bourbon, mix up a mint julep because it is Derby weekend.

Now, as for the big race tomorrow, Renegade is the favorite, but he drew the dreaded post number one. No horse has won from the rail since 1986. So, will Renegade be able to break that losing streak?

Now, last year's winner was Sovereignty. He was trained by Bill Mott. Mott has a horse in this race as well, Chief Wallaby, who is one of the favorites. But Bill has some competition from his own bloodline. His son, Riley, is making his Derby debut, training two horses in the race, Albus and Incredible. This is the first time a father and son have squared off since 1964. And we spoke with both dad and son, and they told me, well, they want the bragging rights at dinner.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL MOTT, TRAINER WON LAST YEAR'S DERBY WITH SOVEREIGNTY: I want to beat him, that's my job. And you know, my goal is to do the best we can with the horse that we train and, you know, I'd love to see his horses run well. Look, if I can't win, I hope he does.

RILEY MOTT, TRAINER MAKING DERBY DEPUT SATURDAY: We're both the ultimate competitors, as is everybody in this industry. So, you know, I want what's best for him, but I want to beat him, for sure.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: Yes, Riley also joked with me. He'd love to see the Mott family trifecta, but he did say he wants his two horses to finish first and second, and then dad to come in third.

All right, in the NBA meanwhile, we had a historic beat down last night in Atlanta. The Knicks, they went on a 67-13 run, had a playoff record 47-point halftime lead. So, as you can imagine, the Hawks started getting very frustrated in this one. Dyson Daniels and Mitchell Robinson, they got ejected after a little skirmish later in the game.

The Knicks, they would go on to win by 51. They're now going to wait the winner between the Celtics and Sixers. Philly won last night forcing a game seven of that series on Saturday.

Meanwhile, baseball, the Mets had the gold-winning figure skating team from Milan to throw out the first pitch yesterday and it was pure chaos.

[07:25:01]

They planned some stunts, but they all failed to execute them. The balls were just going everywhere. Evan Bates and Jason Brown were the only one to successfully executed toss. As you can see there on the side, they were pretty excited about it. But everyone definitely had a nice laugh at the efforts there.

Meanwhile here at Churchill Downs, as I mentioned today, the Kentucky Oaks, yesterday known as the Thurby. Get it, Thursday and Derby? They call it the Thurby. But all the fashion was already out in full force at the Thurby. And I walked around to find out some of the strategies behind the headwear.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I always buy the fascinator first. I got told that like the big theme this year was like bright colors. And I was like, you know what? I want to look pretty much like a traffic cone. And you know what, coming in? I pretty much did.

SCHOLES: You were successful.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I bought some foam and made the flower, and I bought this hat and decided bigger the better. SCHOLES: Are you ever going to touch it again after this?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Probably not. One and done.

SCHOLES: One and done.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One and done.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is just on a headband. I probably should have pinned it. But, honestly, once you start drinking, it's kind of a sobriety test whether or not your hat is going to stay on or not. And it's doing good so far. Check in with me in about an hour.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: Hey, Kate, when it comes to people watching, I will say here at Churchill Downs, the Kentucky Derby all week, it's probably tops in terms of events. It's just elite people watching.

BOLDUAN: I truly hope that you got that woman's information because I want her to be the common color commentator all throughout the derby. One, her fashion goal was to look like a traffic cone. Two, she also then made it into sobriety test. I'm in love.

SCHOLES: She was so excited about us coming up to her to interview her. It was just awesome.

BOLDUAN: You were like, I got to -- okay, important question, then we'll go. What is the better assignment? The Derby or the Masters?

SCHOLES: Kate, you can't put that question to me. I'll get back to you. They're one and two.

BOLDUAN: You look so cute. But you look so cute. It's good to see you. All right, thanks, Andy.

All right, coming up for us, gas prices, not so cute, jump at nearly 10 cents in one day. So, what now?

And some MAHA moms now are telling CNN that they are feeling betrayed by President Trump. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think we are on the brink of falling apart.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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[07:30:00]