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Ceasefire, Peace Talks in Questions as U.S. & Iran Trade Shots; United Jet Hits Truck, Streetlight While Landing at Newark Intl; Judge Apologizes to Press Dinner Suspect Over Solitary Confinement 3-3:30p ET

Aired May 04, 2026 - 15:00   ET

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

JOAN BISKUPIC, CNN SENIOR SUPREME COURT ANALYST: They might then put a more permanent hold on the ruling while they can actually assess the merits of it or they could lift it and starting next Monday is when serious restrictions will be put on the ability to get mifepristone online.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Yes.

BISKUPIC: And to get it through the mail.

SANCHEZ: An important decision to watch.

BISKUPIC: Right.

SANCHEZ: Joan, thank you so much for that.

BISKUPIC: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

ERICA HILL, CNN HOST: Ceasefire hanging by a thread: The U.S. and Iran trading fire as tensions over the Strait of Hormuz escalate. President Trump warning Iranian forces could be, quote, "blown off the face of the Earth."

Plus, a terrifying collision caught on video. A United flight hits a streetlight and a truck on the highway just before landing at Newark International Airport.

And cell phone bans, just how well do they work in schools? A new study finds mixed results why researchers believe the bans may be falling short of some goals.

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

There are growing questions at this hour about whether the fragile ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran will hold. The two militaries trading shots in the Strait of Hormuz today soon after the U.S. began what it called guiding of commercial ships out of the waterway.

U.S. Central Command has says that Iran launched, quote, "multiple cruise missiles, drones and small boats at U.S. Navy and commercial vessels." And then, in turn the U.S. military says it responded by blowing up six small Iranian boots -- boats rather.

Now, at the same time President Trump is warning Iranian forces they will be , quote, "blown off the face of the Earth" should they target U.S. ships. CNN's Betsy Klein is live at the White House with more for us now.

So, we're hearing from the President directly. What are we hearing from the broader administration as we see these tensions continue to escalate in the region?

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, Erica I think it's fair to say that the status of both these peace talks and the status of that ceasefire both incredibly fluid. But over the weekend we saw that back-and-forth exchange of proposals between the U.S. and Iran pick up significantly.

And I just want to take you through some of the messaging that we had heard from the President. Back on Friday he said that it might be in the United States best interest not to get a deal with Iran. On Saturday, he said that he believed Iran had not yet paid a big enough price. By Sunday, he was saying that they were having very positive discussions.

Now, then the President announcing last night that the U.S. would begin to guide boats from other countries through the Strait of Hormuz. That critical oil thoroughfare in what he said was going to be a humanitarian mission. But now there are major questions about the status of that ceasefire. Whether it is actually holding as the U.S. and Iran have been trading shots in the Strait of Hormuz.

Now, according to U.S. Central Command, the U.S. blowing up six small Iranian boats after Iran launched multiple cruise missiles, drones and small boats at both the U.S. Navy and commercial vessels. The President, meanwhile, ramping up his rhetoric telling Fox News in an interview earlier today that if Iran targets U.S. vessels , quote, "they will be blown off the face of the Earth."

He also reacted to all of this in a post to social media. I want to read to you he said, quote, "Iran has taken some shots at unrelated Nations with respect to the Ship Movement, PROJECT FREEDOM, including a South Korean Cargo Ship. Perhaps it's time for South Korea to come and join the mission. We've shot down seven small Boats, or as they like to call them, "fast" Boats. It's all they have left. Other than the South Korean Ship, there has been, at this moment, no damage going through the Strait."

So, if all of this is a little confusing, just to recap, CENTCOM says that Iran targeted U.S. Navy ships. Trump tells Fox News the U.S. will blow Iran off the face of the Earth if they target U.S. ships. And then the President posts that Iran targeted other countries.

The biggest question right now that the President could face, as he's expected to host a small business roundtable at the White House moments from now, is what is the status in his view of this ceasefire. We'll be watching that very closely, Erica.

HILL: Yes, absolutely. Betsy, really appreciate it.

Also with us is our CNN's Nic Robertson who's in Islamabad Pakistan where of course Pakistan has been working to act as mediator between Iran and the U.S. Islamabad where hope was where -- there was hope that more talks would take place.

What is your latest reporting in terms of where things stand and just how quickly this could potentially escalate, Nic?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Nick none of this looks like the pathway to continued negotiations. That said, however, we have seen spikes in tensions before. We have seen moments like this come and go. So, it is possible that the talks could continue and I think a lot of that is going to depend on what happens in the next 24 or 48 hours.

[15:05:04]

But neither side really at the moment is poised or disposed to -- to sort of follow the -- the -- the dialogue. United States with the Project Freedom is very clear -- clearly testing Iran's intent to maintain and control the Strait of Hormuz. And when I met with Iranian officials here late Friday they said, look, if we come to some agreement over the Strait of Hormuz, what's the stop, who's going to guarantee for us that the U.S. Navy doesn't move in and doesn't take control of the Strait of Hormuz. And this appears to be what the Iranians have responded to today.

They said they would respond. They said they would respond militarily. They've escalated it now to targeting not only the UAE injuring three Indian nationals there, but targeting Oman as well, injuring two people there in -- in a strike. So, the escalation has -- has -- has gone beyond what's happening on the Strait of Hormuz.

That, again, that -- that said, there is the possibility that if this doesn't escalate further, that both sides decide to continue to pursue talks, that it's in their best interests, that neither side wants to go back to war, that -- then that can happen. And even this morning, even after President Trump had announced Project Freedom, the Iranian foreign ministry spokesman was saying that they were going to respond to the U.S. proposal that came to them over the weekend on Sunday.

So, we haven't heard the Iranians shut down that narrative. We haven't heard the mediators here say that all bets are off at the moment. But we are in a very, very difficult moment.

And Iran, to get to that -- to get (INAUDIBLE) to let go of its ability to control the Strait of Hormuz, and that's just going to be the test right now. And -- and so, you -- we may (INAUDIBLE) possibility of talks lasting for a few more days. But if you look down this path further, it just looks less and less likely that it can happen.

HILL: Yes, it really does. Nic, appreciate the reporting, as always. Thank you. Boris?

SANCHEZ: We'll see if this remains a ceasefire in name only. Let's discuss with retired Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton.

Colonel Leighton, to start, talk to us about what activity you're seeing on the Strait of Hormuz. What exactly Iran is doing?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: So, one of the key things, Boris, is that the Iranians have basically decided that they want to control all of this area right here. So, what -- what they're doing is they're drawing imaginary lines on the northern side and on the southern side of the Strait. And theoretically, that's supposed to block all traffic.

But when you look at the marine traffic that's going through here, there are a few little ships that are going into and out of these areas along the coastline, which nominally would be Omani territory and the territory of the United Arab Emirates. But very little traffic is actually going through because nobody trusts the security of this area right now. And so, Boris, what you're looking at here is basically an almost empty Strait of Hormuz.

SANCHEZ: I want to get your thoughts on the distinction that we've heard from U.S. officials. They're saying that Project Freedom is not an escort system for these vessels, but that it is a guiding one. In other words, they're guiding vessels through but not escorting them. I mean, what -- what does that mean?

LEIGHTON: Yes, so that's a -- that's really one of those things where when you look at this, if you're going to guide through this area, basically what you're doing is you're telling the ships where to go, how to navigate through this area. And when you look at the marine traffic right through here, basically you're telling them, okay, go to this waypoint, this waypoint and this waypoint.

If you're escorting them, you're actually accompanying them through ...

SANCHEZ: I see.

LEIGHTON: ... the Strait. And that's the difference.

Now, you know, escorting is -- is something that would require a lot of manpower. We have, you know, when you look at the regional assets that we have right here, we've got about 15,000 service members here, hundred aircraft, both Navy, Air Force and Marines. You've got UAVs, you've got destroyers. All of these things would have to be employed in order to actually affect a -- a really good escort mission.

But right now, these folks are engaged in guiding, as CENTCOM calls it and the President is calling it, and that is a far less personnel intense effort when it comes to securing the Strait at this point.

SANCHEZ: So, when it comes to the ceasefire itself, what would you need to see to let you know that it's essentially over? Because right now, they're exchanging fire and other regional allies are sort of bracing themselves potentially for more action from Tehran. But the talks are still, our understanding is still sort of ongoing. What would let you know that the ceasefire is now completely off the table? LEIGHTON: Yes, if the ceasefire is off the table, basically the talks

would stop, number one. And then you'd start seeing even more action in this area.

[15:10:02]

So, you know, when you look at what's going on in this particular region, you would -- you would end up seeing not only traffic and activity here, but there would be much more combat associated with this. And right now, I think the combat threshold is at a much higher level than what we're seeing right now. So, the administration -- the U.S. administration is letting things happen, but their desire is to, of course, open up the Strait of Hormuz first and foremost.

And then if they can, they'll want to get a nuclear deal from the Iranians as well. But it looks like we're going into a direction where the Strait of Hormuz is going to be priority one, just because when you look at the marine traffic again, you see all of these ships that are bollixed up in here, and the ships that are bollixed up trying to enter the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf. And that's economically not feasible, and it's really affecting everybody in this entire region. And that's the real problem right here. It's really destroying the economies of these areas.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

LEIGHTON: And destroying the global economy as well eventually.

SANCHEZ: Right. Everyone else depends on what's coming out of the Persian Gulf. Colonel Cedric Leighton, thanks so much for joining us. Appreciate it.

LEIGHTON: You bet, Boris.

SANCHEZ: Of course. Still to come, dramatic video showing the moment a passenger jet clips a truck just moments before touching down at one of the country's busiest airports.

Plus, a federal judge apologizing to the White House Correspondents' Dinner shooting suspect. We'll explain why.

And later, a huge night for fashion, why some are calling for a boycott of this year's Met Gala. That and much more coming your way on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:15:59]

HILL: An absolutely terrifying experience caught on camera. Dash cam video captures the moment that a United flight with more than 200 people on board hits a tractor trailer and a streetlight on the New Jersey Turnpike as the flight was landing at Newark International Airport.

And you can hear it there, too. Now, the truck driver survived. Remarkably, he suffered only a few cuts to his arm from broken glass. No one on the plane was hurt. And the NTSB is just releasing some more information, posting a statement on social media which says in part the incident has been classified as an accident due to the extent of damage to the airplane and that the investigation will examine multiple factors, including flight operations, meteorological conditions, human performance, crew resource management, aircraft performance and air traffic control. CNN Aviation Correspondent Pete Muntean is here to walk us through exactly what happened.

Pete, there's also a new photo of these moments.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's very telling here. This is it. This shows the United Flight 169, a Boeing 767, essentially coming into contact here with this truck full of baked goods on I-95 southbound. You can see that's what's called the trolley of the landing gear system. And you can see it essentially making contact clearly with the truck.

HILL: Yes.

MUNTEAN: So, it wasn't just the light pole that was struck.

HILL: Right.

MUNTEAN: It was also the truck here that sort of toppled it onto its side. And the driver, Warren Boardley there, thankfully okay, just cuts from glass, but clearly was able to make a call to 911. A lot of force here. We know from the early preliminary flight tracking data that this flight was traveling at about 160 miles per hour. So, we're talking delivering a pretty big blow to this delivery truck.

The big thing here is why was this flight so low? There are two things when it comes to landing an airplane, lining it up with the runway. It's called the localizer, which shows where you are left and right, reference to the centerline of the runway, and then the glide path or the glide slope.

Usually, it'd be about a three-degree slope is what it's called to bring you on a smooth trajectory down to the runway. This is not totally accurate, but pretty darn close. Why was this flight below apparently the glide path, especially when you consider the fact that the runway is so, so close to the 12 lanes of I-95 ...

HILL: Yes.

MUNTEAN: ... also known as the New Jersey Turnpike here?

So, people know that flights come right over the Turnpike here. There have been videos before of flights coming pretty low.

HILL: It always feels close.

MUNTEAN: Yes. If you're familiar with area, this borders the east side of runway 29 over here.

HILL: Yes. MUNTEAN: This runway, rarely in use, only because it's one of the shorter runways. It's actually the shortest runway at Newark, but the winds were pretty strong out of the west yesterday, making that the runway of preference. So, were the pilots trying to essentially plan it, really stick the landing here at the very beginning of the runway, knowing that they had not all that much runway left and coming in a little bit low, sort of dragging the airplane in kind of on a flat profile? That's what investigators really want to know.

And so, the big thing now is that they will now pull the voice and data recorder stored in the tail of the airplane. They'll really tell the story here. Was there any sort of exchange between the pilots where they knew of a potential of collision here with the road? Did they see that that was essentially coming? Did they know that they were low on the glide slope or the glide path? Did they try and make any sort of corrections with the flight controls, adding -- adding in throttle, adding in power to try and climb back up on the glide path? That's the typical correction here.

It's a lot harder with a -- than the little airplanes I fly with a large, wide-body airplane like this.

[15:19:59]

There is a lot of mass, making small corrections, having to be sort of bigger sort of earlier on. I can say that at least from flying larger flight simulators for these airplanes. So, really some big questions here about what went wrong. And, of course, the NTSB will want to speak to the pilots as well.

HILL: They'll want to speak to the pilots. But it's also remarkable to me that the air traffic controllers didn't seem to know what had happened based on what we heard from that audio, correct?

MUNTEAN: Yes, and there's even audio of the immediate aftermath here of this collision where the pilots are clearing the runway. They're getting taxi instructions, going to the gate. It's clear that it was not known to anybody inside the plane that there was a problem until after ...

HILL: Yes.

MUNTEAN: ... the plane arrived at the gate. And then, there is this interplay here between air traffic controllers essentially telling a car sent out to inspect the runway. It seems that the crew felt something as they were over the runway threshold here, meaning at the very beginning of the runway.

So, that's probably the impact from the light pole.

HILL: (INAUDIBLE), yes.

MUNTEAN: Maybe the impact from the car, it was very windy on -- yesterday afternoon. So, maybe they were thinking that it was just a gust, maybe a bit of wind shear. They sort of brushed it off. I don't want to speculate, way too soon to say. Seems that, at least according to former NTSB investigators I've talked to, this will be a pretty cut and dry investigation. They'll be able to close the book on this relatively quickly after they get the data, after they speak to the pilots and figure out exactly what went wrong here. Unlikely some sort of mechanical anomaly with the airplane. Maybe a flying anomaly by the pilots. Don't want to lay blame on them. But there's just some big questions here now.

HILL: There are some big questions. Good that it should be wrapped up quickly because then we'll get those answers quickly.

MUNTEAN: That's right.

HILL: And above all, it is remarkable that there were not significant injuries in the process.

MUNTEAN: And this could have been a lot worse.

HILL: It could -- yes.

MUNTEAN: You can see -- I just have to point out one more thing here. This is kind of the retaining wall. This is sort of the barrier wall, runway 29 over here. That's the highway. If -- if this was a little lower, we could be talking about a very different circumstance. If one of these light poles hit one of the fuel tanks in the wings or the engine or -- I mean, this could have been very, very different. There's a lot of combustion happening and a lot of flammable things on a large airplane like this.

And so, if this was just a little lower, if the margins were a little different, then we could have actually had a real disaster here. Thankfully, nobody seriously hurt.

HILL: Yes, absolutely. Pete, appreciate it. Thank you.

Up next here, a federal judge just apologized to the suspected gunman at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. What happened in court? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:27:00]

SANCHEZ: Just in to CNN, a federal judge is apologizing to the man accused of trying to assassinate President Trump during last month's White House Correspondents' Dinner. The judge was holding a hearing after the suspect's attorney raised concerns over his solitary confinement and the decision to put him in a restrictive vest. CNN's Katelyn Polantz has been tracking this story.

So, Katelyn, what led to this apology?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Well, this was a court hearing that was precipitated because the attorneys for Cole Allen were complaining. They said that he was in solitary confinement, he had a padded vest, he had five-point restraints, he was on suicide watch over the past week, and yet he wasn't suicidal. And so, they went to the judge to say he should not be held in such restrictive conditions at the D.C. jail.

Now, we have had a little bit more learning about Cole Allen and who the Justice Department thinks he is since the shooting a full Saturday ago. Here's Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney, speaking to Jake Tapper yesterday on our air.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEANINE PIRRO, U.S. ATTORNEY FOR DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: He took selfies. He's got -- he's got the -- the Mossberg. He's got all kinds of ammunition with it. He's got the .38. He's got knives, daggers, sheaths, holsters, wire cutters, needle-nose pliers. And he takes a picture of himself.

This guy ...

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR, THE LEAD: Yes.

PIRRO: ... what is his defense? Because that's what you're getting at. Can -- did he really want to kill the President? I can tell you we will be able to prove that beyond a reasonable doubt. The one issue that people might think about, is he insane? He is far from insane. He is brilliant. He has a master's degree. He worked at a NASA jet propulsion laboratory. This is a guy who had no psychotic break. He documented his trip from the West Coast all the way to Chicago, all the way to Washington.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

POLANTZ: Now, because he's not deemed to be suicidal, he's going to be put on less restrictive conditions, still in jail, in the D.C. jail. But this was a moment in court today where the judge wanted to make the point that defendants should be treated with dignity and have to have their rights preserved while they're awaiting trial, innocent until proven guilty. Judge Zia Faruqui, he said -- two things, he said that Allen can be both kept safe and be treated with dignity in the jail. And he also apologized to Allen. This is a judge that spends a lot of time with inmates in the D.C. jail. He works with them regularly. He visits regularly. And so, he wanted to make sure that the jail was handling Allen appropriately.

SANCHEZ: Katelyn, we're also learning about the Secret Service agent who was shot but saved by his vest. What are you learning there?

POLANTZ: Yes. So, Jeanine Pirro yesterday wanted to put an end to the theories that were -- that were growing out there that the question of whether Cole Allen actually fired a shot out of that shotgun. And she said that he definitively fired, that a pellet from the buckshot of the shotgun was found embedded in the vest of the Secret Service agent.

[15:30:05]

So, in that video, it is seen where Allen runs past ...