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Air Force Aviators Expressed Reservations About Interview; Former Fetterman Staffers Vow to Expose Embattled Pennsylvania Senator; Court Filing: Former CIA Director John Brennan Subpoenaed; Oil Prices Rise as Tensions Remain High in Middle East; Trump Blames Ukraine for Fuel Spike. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired September 14, 2026 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: For them, these officers, to sit down for this interview, what did you learn?

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yes, Brianna, as you know, the prospect of sitting for an on-camera interview as a uniform military member is a very uncomfortable idea. It's outside of the normal scope of duties, even for an elite airman or pilot. And so this is something that I'm told by sources that both the pilot in this case, dubbed Alpha and Bravo, both had some initial reluctance to participate in this segment, and specifically to sit for an on-camera interview in this case.

And they voiced those concerns through the chain of command. But still, Pete Hegseth and political appointees in his office continued to push them to participate. Some political appointees, I'm told, were adamant that they both needed to take part in this 60 Minutes piece.

Ultimately, Hegseth met personally with the two downed airmen and essentially gave them a choice. And he said, we're not going to force you to do this, but we would like you to do so. And Bravo opted to participate, while Alpha chose not to.

But still, it speaks to this concern about an attempt to maybe retell the narrative around the Iran war, one that Pete Hegseth has really faced a lot of criticism over.

KEILAR: Yes, they're at a tough spot in this war for sure. Zach, thank you so much for the reporting. Really appreciate it.

Some of Senator John Fetterman's former staffers are promising to release some more damaging information about him on social media today, as we learned that some fed up Pennsylvania Democrats are already plotting to run for his seat in 2028. That's next.

[15:35:00]

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KEILAR: Moments ago, the Senate returned to session from its summer break, but only time will tell if we'll actually get answers to one of the biggest intrigues that emerged during that hiatus. Pennsylvania Democrat Senator John Fetterman has faced intense backlash from his own party in recent weeks after his video appearance at the Republican midterm convention last week. And the Wall Street Journal's expose, of course, over his reported indifference to the work of being a senator. Fetterman dismissed that report as being lies, half-truths, innuendo smears, and anonymous.

But now a group of former Fetterman staffers is promising even more evidence as soon as today. In a social media post, they called the Wall Street Journal report just the tip of the iceberg. We're joined now by former Deputy Chief of Staff to Senator Fetterman, Tre Easton.

He's also vice president of the Searchlight Institute. Tre, thank you so much for being with us. I do want to note, you're not involved in this social media account of former staffers who say they have more stories.

Have you talked to anyone involved in it?

TRE EASTON, FORMER DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF, SEN. JOHN FETTERMAN: So I have a good sense of who might be involved. I think there's a small world of individuals who span from campaign to official side, so there's only so many people who could be involved. But beyond just the people who are behind this account, I want to focus on how extraordinary this entire thing is.

I've worked in and around U.S. Senate politics for basically the entirety of my career, and I cannot point to a time in history where staffers have felt compelled to sound the alarm about their principle this way. So that to me is the thing that just strikes me about this entire ordeal.

KEILAR: So do you have a sense of what we should be expecting?

EASTON: I mean, having worked for him for two years myself, I can say that he is a very colorful texter and very blunt in how he expresses his feelings about what's going on in the Senate and his approach to the job. I don't know what's going to be in these text messages or these leaks or these screenshots or whatever this account happens to be, but again, it just all fundamentally underscores the bigger picture here, which is that this man is not interested in doing the job. And I think that's why you see this account emerge, because you only have so many ways of recourse as a staffer, right?

Most of it is just to quit. I think people who have worked for him probably all understand that this is not a person who's interested in doing this job and who's not interested in serving Pennsylvanians in a real way.

KEILAR: What said to you he didn't want to do the job? Can you point to a particular interaction or moment?

EASTON: I mean, so my job was first as his legislative director and then as his deputy chief of staff. So I was his chief policy advisor, and that meant I was putting together legislative proposals for him. I was making vote recommendations for things that were coming on the Senate floor.

And that's my job on paper, right? But my job in practice was every day begging him to do the bare minimum, begging him to meet with constituents who had traveled from Pennsylvania to talk to him, begging him to interact with his colleagues.

KEILAR: And how would he respond?

EASTON: Just no, or any set of resistances or really just staying in his office and not engaging.

KEILAR: Could you get him to change his mind? What would you do?

EASTON: I mean, there was a group effort, right? It wasn't just me on my lonesome doing this. There were senior staff who were sort of all on this effort of trying to get him engaged in a real robust way in this job.

But again, because there was just this fundamental lack of commitment to doing it, you really didn't bat very well whenever you tried to push him.

KEILAR: Did he say why he didn't want to?

EASTON: Never why. Usually it was more of a, why are these people here to talk to me? Or why do these people want to hear from me, even though I already support whatever they care about?

And we would always try to underscore the importance of talking to constituents, especially constituents who had been supportive of him in his previous campaign. And also just at a basic level, this is the job of a senator, right? Like you talk to constituents, you talk to people who come to meet with you because you, in theory, are representing their interests in the United States Senate.

[15:40:00]

He just was not interested in that. And that's the thing that I want people to take from this entire ordeal. It's like, yes, you can have thoughts about his position on Israel, or Iran, or any of those kinds of things.

And part of the reason why I left was because of disagreements about that. But fundamentally, he's just proven time and again, and there's a rich body of evidence on this around that he's not interested in doing this work.

KEILAR: So I wonder what you chalk that up to, and if that illuminates how you're thinking about whether he's going to run again when he's up in a couple of weeks.

EASTON: Yes, I mean, I would hope, and if he's still listening to me, I would hope that he would recognize that he is miserable in this job. I think that's a very fair statement about things. And because he is miserable, he sort of made the people around him miserable. And I would hope that that would lead him to the conclusion that he should not seek re-election. That would be my recommendation to him because, and this is the really sad part, I think this is a moment where Democrats really need to have vision and honest conversations about what comes next for the party. He should be in the forefront of that conversation.

He's just not.

KEILAR: So what do you think about how Democrats are handling this? Because certainly, there is this concern that if the Senate flips in November, he could flip. He said he's not, he said he would still be the 51st vote that he ran on.

But you have different Democrats who are reacting to this differently in terms of how to treat him, even though they're hearing these frustrations. Vermont Senator Peter Welch telling Politico last week that Fetterman's a friend, he's an important member of our caucus, being kind of careful there. What do you make of that?

EASTON: Yes, and I would actually give Leader Schumer a lot of credit here. Back when I was still working for Senator Fetterman, I knew that he was making great pains to make sure that John felt included and that he felt like he was a member of the caucus. But there's only so much of that you can do when the principal himself, talking about John Fetterman, wants to be isolated, wants to be a lone wolf.

So I think Democrats should absolutely still treat him as a member in good standing, because he is until he's not. And I also think that, yes, while there's concern about him potentially switching parties, you know, if Democrats do retake the Senate by one or two seats, he suddenly becomes the kingmaker and the most important member of the Democratic caucus. If he were to switch to become a Republican or be an Independent who caucuses one way or the other, he sort of loses that intrigue and that attention.

I think part of it that he likes about all these conversations is that he is getting attention, and I believe he likes that.

KEILAR: Do you find it weird to be talking about this?

EASTON: God, yes. This is, you know, I'm a staffer at heart, and we do not talk about our principles.

KEILAR: But you are, so why?

EASTON: Right, because I feel like there is a duty for the people of Pennsylvania to understand exactly that they don't have two senators right now. They have Dave McCormick, who is sort of leading the other senator around, like you just see him speaking at the Republican convention back in Dallas. That's absurd.

That, to me, is sort of offensive in a deep way. And so that's why I feel, I think, you know, others have felt the need to come forward and talk about it this way. KEILAR: Tre Easton, thank you so much for being with us. We appreciate it.

EASTON: Thank you for having me.

KEILAR: Still ahead, an update in the Justice Department's investigation into President Trump's top foes. Attorneys for former CIA Director John Brennan say he has now been subpoenaed. We'll have that next.

[15:45:00]

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KEILAR: We have breaking developments in the Justice Department's investigation into President Trump's top foes. Former CIA Director John Brennan has been subpoenaed, that's according to his attorney. Brennan is a longtime target of the president's.

He's accused him of lying to Congress about Russia's interference in the 2016 election. He has repeatedly denied the claims. His lawyers say Brennan received the subpoena on the same day that the prosecutor who led the investigations, Joe diGenova, resigned.

CNN has exclusive details on the turmoil behind this shakeup and CNN's Evan Perez is here with the story. So, Evan, first, Brennan, he's been in court today. Tell us what you know about this hearing.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, the hearing just wrapped up, and the judge did not make a decision. This is a lawsuit filed by Brennan's legal team to try to see if they could get, I guess, some details from the Justice Department. The Justice Department at the end of today's hearing said that there's no actual indictment of Brennan and it's speculative to say that there will be one.

And I can tell you, you know, based on everything we have from our reporting over the last few days, that's very much true, you know, definitely because of some of the turmoil in this investigation. What Brennan's team said is that he was subpoenaed for information on this broader, vast conspiracy that Joe diGenova, the prosecutor who was leading the case, was working on, but they don't know much more than that.

KEILAR: And you have some exclusive reporting on Joe diGenova's resignation, which seems to link up and timeline with this. What do you know?

PEREZ: Right, exactly. Now, look, this is an investigation that the president wants. This is one of the top priorities, which is he's been very unhappy that it's taken this long to go after some of his top enemies, his top political foes, people like John Brennan, people like Jim Comey, Barack Obama.

There's a list of people that the president would like to see somehow have legal issues in Southern Florida, which is where this case has been run. But everything came to a head last Wednesday where Joe diGenova spoke to the Attorney General, Todd Blanche, and one of the big issues was personnel. He's been asking for more personnel.

He's been asking for a SCIF, which is like one of these secure rooms so they can look at classified evidence. Justice Department has been pushing back because essentially, they want something to for all of this months and months of promises for an investigation that is still ongoing. Now, diGenova resigned on Thursday, even as his team was going to court to present some grand jury testimony in the Brennan investigation.

[15:50:00]

What we don't know at this point, Brianna, is whether this will speed up a case against Brennan or anyone else in this vast conspiracy that they've been pursuing, or whether this sets it back. At this point, it does seem at least that there is going to be nothing happening this month, which is another big delay for people at the Justice Department who had been anticipating that we might see some sign of something from this prosecution down in Southern District of Florida.

We did hear from Joe diGenova over the weekend. He repeatedly talked about how he was thankful for serving the president and the Justice Department and said that he does cases the old-fashioned way, which is waiting for evidence.

KEILAR: That's interesting. Evan Perez, thank you so much.

Ahead, diesel prices hitting a record high and Americans could really be hurting as soon as temperatures drop this winter. We'll explain next.

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KEILAR: All eyes are on Wall Street as investors react to the growing tensions in the Middle East. Oil prices are rising. The cost of diesel just hit a record high.

And some homeowners could feel the pinch this winter when they're looking at their higher heating oil bills. Caleb Silver is the chief business editor for People Inc. and the editor in chief of Investopedia.

Thank you so much for being with us.

[15:55:00]

The president has insisted on social media today that oil is flowing through the Strait of Hormuz, that oil will drop like a rock as soon as the military conflict with Iran is over, and that it will not be long. But how do the markets see it? What should Americans really be preparing for as they're heading into winter?

CALEB SILVER, CHIEF BUSINESS EDITOR, PEOPLE INC.: They're higher for longer. And even if the Strait of Hormuz opens up magically today, that does not mean prices come down very quickly. Oil has this way of rising like a rocket and dropping like a feather.

And all the products that it impacts have high costs as well. Those costs come down very slowly as well. So we're looking at higher costs for longer.

If you think about crude oil, it trades into the future, future prices. Future prices right now, going out to December, still around $85 to $90 a barrel, which tells you that traders don't think this is ending any time soon. And we're going to have these high prices for quite a while.

KEILAR: So, I mean, everyone's expected to be paying more, pretty much, I think, for their energy if they're using natural gas or electricity. But it's really the folks who use home heating oil that are going to get hit, right? They're forecast to pay a whopping 31.3 percent more to keep warm this winter. What does that mean for the average American and their finances?

SILVER: Higher costs already. If you look at the costs of everything since the war in Iran began for American households, you're looking at over $1,000, plus an additional $1,000 to $1,500 just because of tariffs. So just higher costs in general.

Why are home heating costs going up? Because home heating oil comes from the same distillate pool as diesel fuel, and there's a crunch on both of those. So there's competition for that supply.

That's why you should expect those higher prices, especially in the Northeast, especially if it gets cold this winter.

KEILAR: The president said today Ukraine's agreed to stop hitting Russian energy targets after he called on Ukrainian President Zelenskyy to stop knocking out diesel fuel in Russia. So he's pressuring Ukraine here. He says Russia has likewise agreed to stop hitting Ukraine's energy targets.

Would that have any major impact on diesel supply and prices, though?

SILVER: Well, there's about 10 to 15 percent of supply coming out of there when it comes out of there, but that supply has been constrained as well. So you add that to what's happening in the Strait of Hormuz and now new choke points around Saudi Arabia and Yemen, and that's just pinching oil prices even higher. You saw West Texas Intermediate.

That's what we're using here in the United States. But Brent Crude, which is used mostly around the world, that is up at a record high, over $108 a barrel. That's why you see this pinch.

There is no supply coming through and not enough supply, yet plenty of demand right now, which is why you have these high prices and why they're going to be with us for a while.

KEILAR: So, Caleb, AI stocks slid this morning after top industry CEOs called for this slowdown of AI development. They want some guardrails. So much of the market's growth has been powered by AI stocks. What are you watching for here?

SILVER: Well, these companies, especially Anthropic and OpenAI, they're talking about going public. They're talking about having initial public offerings. They need demand to be robust.

So they may say, let's slow our roll here and let's make sure this is safe. But inside, they want this spending to continue. They want this build-out to continue.

Their futures depend on it in terms of their companies and going public to the public markets. But also, it's kind of winner-take-all in this battle for AI control into the future.

KEILAR: I wonder how investors and individual investors should be thinking about this. What should people who have their savings or their 401k invest in the market right now be thinking about as they're kind of looking at this turbulence?

SILVER: Yes, they're looking at turbulence here in the stock market. And that's because we have rising treasury yields. We have the 10-year treasury, the most widely held, most trusted asset in the world.

That's piping up to around 5 percent. And our long bonds are also getting higher and higher in terms of yield because there's less trust in the government's ability to pay back its bills. The spending continues.

So that's putting pressure on the stock market, along with high oil prices and these fears of AI. So we wouldn't be surprised to see some sort of a sell-off here. Will it be catastrophic?

No, because the rest of the market's been pretty healthy in the stock market in general in its fourth year as a bull market. These usually run for five and a half. I'm not saying this one will, but we've seen a lot of momentum over the past few months, not just in AI.

KEILAR: And Caleb, we're also looking to see what the Fed does. They're likely preparing to raise rates this week. What are they factoring in?

What are they trying to accomplish?

SILVER: Inflation, and that's the key focus of the new Fed chair, Kevin Warsh. He's now 115 days in office. They haven't touched interest rates.

They haven't done anything around inflation, although he said they're squarely focused on it. So let's see if they actually raise rates. And if they do, it'll be just a quarter point. It won't have that much of an impact, but it'll signify that this Fed's willing to do what it takes to lower inflation.

Now, if they raise rates, you know that's going to anger the president, who wants lower interest rates. So the Fed's in a tricky spot here right now. KEILAR: Any bright spots? Any good indicators for Americans to look at?

SILVER: Well, we still have growth. The employment, the labor market looks pretty healthy as of the last jobs report. And wages continue to grow, just not surpassing inflation.

And like I said, we are still in the fourth year of a bull market that's been running pretty strong. So if you've been invested for a while, you've done very well.

KEILAR: All right, good to end on a bit of a silver lining there. Always important.

Caleb Silver, thanks so much. Great to have your insights.

SILVER: Thank you.

KEILAR: And "THE ARENA" with Kasie Hunt starts right now.

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