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CNN This Morning
Melania Trump Blasts 'Lies' Linking Her with Jeffrey Epstein; Dems Call for 25th Amendment to Remove Trump; Artemis II Set to Return to Earth Tonight. Aired 6-6:30a ET
Aired April 10, 2026 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DANNY FREEMAN, CNN ANCHOR: -- has gotten off to a strong start in this year's Masters.
[06:00:04]
The Northern Irishman shot an opening 5-under-par round of 67 at the famed Augusta National Golf Club.
He is one of just six players to win all four major golf tournaments. It took McIlroy 17 years to triumph at the Masters. He's now looking to become just the fourth man to claim back-to-back Masters titles, joining Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo, and Tiger Woods.
McIlroy still has a long way to go, though he's currently sharing the lead with Sam Burns.
All right. Thank you so much for joining us here on EARLY START. I'm Danny Freeman in New York. CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.
AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: Today in the group chat, that statement from Melania Trump, calling out the lies linking her to Jeffrey Epstein. Could this backfire for the first lady?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MELANIA TRUMP, FIRST LADY: I'm not a witness or a named witness in connection with any of Epstein's crimes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: So, does her statement undercut what her husband has said about the Epstein files?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN BOLTON, FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR: I think this is going to turn out to be a mistake.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: We want to talk about that ceasefire, and the negotiations are approaching. So, does the Trump administration have leverage over Iran?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've actually been thinking about entry since April 3rd, 2023, when we got assigned to this mission.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Artemis crew back on Earth today. But the riskiest part of the journey is still to come.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Officers should be treated with a little more respect.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: OK. Giving you this update: TSA employees are still struggling today. They will get a paycheck. But after this one, who knows when the next could be?
CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: The lies linking me with the disgraceful Jeffrey Epstein need to end today.
To be clear, I never had a relationship with Epstein or his accomplice, Maxwell.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: While the president is trying to move on from the Epstein files, the first lady just brought it back into the spotlight.
Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish, and we're going to begin with that, because it was unexpected. And it seemed to shock everyone, maybe even her husband.
Melania Trump has been denying ties to Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, despite multiple photos with the pair and emails with Maxwell. Emails where she wrote, quote, "Love, Melania."
Now, Maxwell responded, calling her "Sweet Pea" in these messages. And she said Thursday -- the first lady said just Thursday that this was just casual correspondence.
The most stunning part of the press conference Thursday was when she seemingly undercut the president and the White House when she said this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I call on Congress to provide the women who have been victimized by Epstein with a public hearing specifically centered around the survivors. Give these victims their opportunity to testify under oath in front of Congress with the power of sworn testimony.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: A group of survivors then put out a statement, saying that the first lady was shifting the burden to them. They wrote, in part, "Survivors of Jeffrey Epstein have already shown extraordinary courage by coming forward, filing reports, and giving testimony. Asking more of them now is a deflection of responsibility, not justice."
One survivor told CNN she's -- is ready, though, to take the first lady up on her offer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LISA PHILLIPS, JEFFREY EPSTEIN SURVIVOR: But she said that she'd like the opportunity to have the survivors testify under oath. No one's ever given that -- us that. No one's ever said that before.
What she also said was that the testimony would be sworn into congressional record. I think that's huge, because what we're saying has to be taken seriously if it's sworn into the congressional record.
This is the first powerful woman -- and she has a lot of power -- coming forward and saying, I'm going to do something. This is what should happen.
What I say is, OK, let's call your bluff.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Joining me now in the group chat, Elliot Williams, CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor; Noel King and co-host and editorial director for the "Today, Explained" podcast; and Zolan Kanno-Youngs, CNN political analyst and White House correspondent for "The New York Times."
So, this is not how I expected to end the week, given that we started the week with a threat against Iran's entire civilization. But here we are.
And it was a politically vulnerable moment for the White House. They're in the middle of these negotiations with Iran. The inflation report is coming out today. Probably not going to be ideal, given fuel costs.
[06:05:05]
And yet, somehow, the first lady came out and made this statement. What was the reaction from the press corps?
ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: It was shocking. You know, we really didn't --
CORNISH: So, no leaks?
KANNO-YOUNGS: -- see this coming. CORNISH: No -- yes.
KANNO-YOUNGS: No, no, no. I mean, we knew that there was going to be a press conference yesterday. But there was almost a -- we were trying to report out what the actual topic would be.
By the time the first lady walked away from the podium, all the reporters at the press conference in unison were pretty much shouting, Why now? Why now for this kind of defensive press conference that you would typically see almost after a story is published linking a subject to a polarizing subject like this?
CORNISH: And she was slamming false smears. And we should note that she has successfully -- or the Trumps have filed suit against news organizations, against book authors. So, they have always wanted to be in front of this.
This is so far in front, however, that Democrats didn't even know it was coming. I just want to play a few clips for you.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MELANIE STANSBURY (D-NM): In all of our conversations within the committee, there has never been a moment in which we, in any of the conversations I've been in, have called for Melania to testify.
REP. SUHAS SUBRAMANYAM (D-VA): Honestly, if she wants to clear her name, she should come testify before a committee herself under oath, because it's clear that that's what she was trying to do.
REP. RO KHANNA (D-CA): What did she know? Did she know about any young girls being abused? Did she know if other men talking about the rape and abuse of these young girls? She has relevant information. If she didn't have relevant information, how could she say that Epstein was not acting alone?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: So, the president has always denied wrongdoing. He has always said that he cut ties with Epstein before these allegations came to light.
But with the documents coming out, there has been increasing pressure on the social circle. Literally anyone who knew Epstein. Right? What's the state of play with the Justice Department?
ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: I don't know. That's the thing.
CORNISH: What do you mean you don't know? Todd Blanche is now in charge. He's -- the last time he spoke to anyone related to Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, she ended up in a minimum-security prison.
WILLIAMS: Absolutely. So, you know, there is the Todd Blanche angle to this, but it's just hard to know, because it's so inconsistent and incoherent, what's coming out of the White House and the Justice Department here. I think the one thing that has happened right now is that the first
lady has brought more attention to this issue. Now, that's a good thing, certainly, for the survivors, but not for the White House that I think wants to move on.
If you think about if -- folks have heard the term "Streisand effect," that simply by trying to suppress something, you make it more popular. If I say to you, "Please don't look at my pocket square right now," the first thing you do is look right here.
CORNISH: Well played, because it's a nice one today.
WILLIAMS: It's a nice pocket square.
CORNISH: Yes.
WILLIAMS: But that's sort of what the -- what the first lady did yesterday. She has now brought this right back into the spotlight, which I think puts the Justice Department in a very tough spot.
CORNISH: Yes.
WILLIAMS: But also, the White House.
CORNISH: And then speaking of "look over here" tactics. Here are the amount of Truth Social posts the president put out in the aftermath of this statement about a variety of, frankly, very important topics.
But I think that it was pretty clear that there was a sense of, like, this is the most important thing. This is the most important thing.
NOEL KING, CO-HOST/EDITORIAL DIRECTOR, "TODAY, EXPLAINED": Yes. He doesn't appear to have known what she planned to do yesterday, which is super interesting, right? So --
CORNISH: But she has -- since her film came out, it's very clear she's trying to establish what I thought was a brand difference.
KING: Yes.
CORNISH: This feels like something else entirely, but tell me I'm wrong.
KING: I don't know. I mean, she sounded the thing. I watched her press conference 17 times, just -- just to see if I could glean something.
She seems completely in earnest to me. I mean, that was what really struck me. She's like, I am not a victim.
CORNISH: Yes.
KING: She seemed really, really, really sincere. And I think that matters. Elliot, am I wrong?
WILLIAMS: No, I'd be curious to hear from both of you, though, on this idea of whether the president knew or did not know about this. It seems utterly inconceivable that people around the president, or
the president himself, would not have known the specifics of what she was going to say.
CORNISH: Especially if you're walking out into the -- yes.
WILLIAMS: And for people who haven't been in the White House, just that is very prime real estate in the middle of the White House. There were reporters set up. It's a big undertaking to set -- just to even establish something like that.
CORNISH: Right.
WILLIAMS: The idea that the people around the president or the president's press apparatus wouldn't have known every single word that she was about to say is nonsense.
CORNISH: Well, we're going to ask more questions today about the "why now"? What it means. And if the president and the White House and if the first lady were trying to get ahead of something or get us all to move on. How that's going to be complicated by the world of people who are interested in the Epstein files online.
Now, also coming up on CNN THIS MORNING, I want you to stay with us, because those ceasefire talks on the horizon with Iran, that's coming up. So, what, at this point, would the White House consider a win?
Plus, you've got Democrats kind of growing bolder. They're ready to at least call for the removal of Trump from office. Talking about the 25th Amendment. Are their efforts worth it at this moment?
[06:10:09]
And by the way, it's the Masters weekend. Where things stand heading into day two.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CORNISH: OK, so today the House Judiciary Committee will hold a virtual hearing on, quote, "Trump administration accountability and the 25th Amendment." That's according to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
Now, this week, congressional Democrats have been speaking out in favor of the 25th Amendment, impeachment, and forcing a war powers vote next week when the House is back in session.
The minority party's rhetoric has sharpened in response to the president's Easter threats against Iran.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SUBRAMANYAM: The ceasefire is a joke. This war should never have happened in the first place.
REP. GLENN IVEY (D-MD): He's been terrible with the wheel. The threats of total annihilation were, you know, beyond the pale.
[06:15:05]
REP. SARA JACOBS (R-CA): Threatening genocide is not a negotiating tactic.
REP. MADELEINE DEAN (D-PA): When will my Republican colleagues stand up in the House, in the Senate, the vice president, the cabinet secretaries who surround this madman? When will they grow a spine?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: OK, group chat is back. I wanted to talk about this, because again, at the start of the week with most of the world was in global condemnation, slash horror and confusion at the president doing a Truth Social post threatening Iran's entire civilization, not its regime. It was taken as also a threat for those people.
And we actually had people on air this week talking about the fears of Iranian Americans, right? Saying goodbye to their loved ones.
So, the pressure was immense on Democrats, right? To sort of say something, do something. This has clearly gone too far.
KING: The pressure was immense. And also, no 25th Amendment. Right?
So, we know that this isn't going to go anywhere. President Trump will not be removed.
Here's the thing that I wonder about. So, we were all sitting there when we saw the Truth Social, and I think many people had the knee- jerk reaction. Oh my God, this is just such an escalation.
CORNISH: Yes.
KING: I do wonder if some of this was. Yes, the Democrats appear to have gotten their stuff together. Right? And -- and agreed on a message. Good for them.
Some of it, I think, is also just knee-jerk horror.
CORNISH: Yes, because you even had Megyn Kelly and people like that coming out --
KING: Yes.
CORNISH: -- and saying something.
KING: Yes.
CORNISH: Can they tie this all up with the war powers resolution? Defense spending? Like, can they sort of -- do they have momentum to maybe draw others into their reluctance, right?
KANNO-YOUNGS: Yes.
CORNISH: That we've seen from some Republicans here and there about how the U.S. is prosecuting the war?
KANNO-YOUNGS: Well, they tried with the war powers resolution. And, you know, Republicans also didn't take it up at this point.
CORNISH: Yes.
KANNO-YOUNGS: Right?
CORNISH: That was before the president asked for, like, $1 trillion going forward.
KANNO-YOUNGS: That's true. When you look at Republicans in Congress thus far, I mean, I don't know if we've seen -- yes, we're seeing sort of the loudest voices in MAGA that are speaking out about this.
But I don't know if we're still seeing a sort of -- a mass of Republicans in Congress that have shown that they're not going to -- pretty much placate to the executive branch --
CORNISH: Yes.
KANNO-YOUNGS: -- which we've seen throughout the past year.
I do think there's something interesting, like exclusive to the Democrats here.
CORNISH: Yes, say more.
KANNO-YOUNGS: Which particularly last election cycle, we saw what happened when Democrats moved ahead with a message of Trump poses an existential threat to democracy.
And yes, there were members of their base and Democratic supporters that were calling for accountability against President Trump and looking for fight -- for fighters, as well.
At the same time, if that's not grouped and attached with an actual alternative policy solution, an agenda that you can offer to your base, we've seen that that's not enough, just for actions like these.
CORNISH: Yes. And then there's people who can undercut it. Let's say you have, like, a Senator John Fetterman, right? Somebody who has been taking a very different path from the rest of the party. Let me play a little bit for you guys to get a sense of it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN FETTERMAN (D-PA): I'm going to be the only Democrat that's going to continue to support those efforts, because I can't imagine why we can't agree that it's a good thing.
And now there are more things that are necessary at this point to achieve that. And I'm going to be the one Democrat that votes against the was -- the War Powers Act, if it comes up next week.
(END VIDEO CLIP) CORNISH: This is important because were at the point now where the U.S. has to figure out how does it hold on to the Strait of Hormuz? What will stability in the region look like? It does seem like a project with long-term implications.
WILLIAMS: Right. And it's a fair debate to have. And this gets back to Zolan's point just a moment ago.
There is a policy solution that can be worked out on all of these things. But whether these folks learned anything from 2022 and 2023, going down this road of removing the president by the 25th Amendment, which Congress does not have the authority to do. Right?
So, all of this nonsense that the public doesn't quite understand that are actually huge distractions from what they do have the power to do, which is have votes on this down the road.
CORNISH: But it just -- this is very fast. Is this an easier discussion for Democrats in office to have than the one that is actually being had, which is about Israel and the U.S. and the policy over the war, which they have struggled with?
KING: Yes, I'd say 1,000 percent. It is bad to call for the destruction of a civilization. That's simple. Yes.
CORNISH: Yes. OK, guys, stay with us.
After the break on CNN, we're going to be looking at the final splashdown. The Artemis crew is on the way home. Here's the thing. Today is the riskiest part of the mission.
Plus, Hawaii prepares for more flooding. They could get months' worth of rain coming up this weekend.
In the meantime, good morning, Philadelphia. Thank you, guys, for listening.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:24:15]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll be honest and say I've actually been thinking about entry since April 3, 2023, when we got assigned to this mission.
We have to get back. There's so much data that you've seen already, but all the good stuff is coming back with us. There's so many more pictures, so many more stories.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: OK, those astronauts on Wednesday. This is a live picture right now.
After breaking records and barriers in deep space, the Artemis II mission is now in its final stretch. You're looking at this view.
Orion is expected to splash down in the Pacific Ocean off Southern California. It's supposed to happen around 8 p.m. tonight.
Here's the thing. We are now in the riskiest and most nerve-wracking part of this historic mission. So, temperatures are expected to hit 5,000 degrees as the astronaut -- astronauts reenter Earth's atmosphere.
[06:25:05]
And you're looking at an animation here of kind of what that will look like. And then there's this, like, heat shield that's protecting them from, obviously, that heat.
We are bringing in retired astronaut Danny Olivas, and he's flown two space shuttle missions as -- and has conducted more than five Moonwalks.
Thanks so much for being with us this good morning. I'm sure you're excited.
DANNY OLIVAS, RETIRED ASTRONAUT: I am. I'm -- now all of NASA is looking forward to bringing the crew home safely. This is going to be the end of a historic mission, and everyone is just as excited as the crew is.
CORNISH: All right, so here's how I've explained it to my kid. The reentry. It's coming. It's coming in fast, right? Multiple times the speed of sound. The air gets compressed. It gets hot.
So, is that correct? And what are the concerns NASA is worried about in this moment?
OLIVAS: Right. You're coming back from the Moon, and so, you're going quite a bit faster than you're returning from space. If you were in low-Earth orbit: 17,500 miles is kind of the speed when you come back from low-Earth orbit.
From the Moon, it's 25,000 miles an hour. And that has to be -- you know, you're coming in really hot. You're coming in really fast. And you have to be able to tolerate those temperatures for up to about ten minutes during that reentry phase.
As they -- as they come in, you know, the -- the material back on Artemis I experienced a problem. The heat shield, rather than thermally eroding or what they call ablating, it actually was cracking. And sort of little bit -- you know, little bits falling off of it.
CORNISH: Yes.
OLIVAS: It was big. And that was the big deal. And they're worried about that happening this time, as well.
And that's why they changed the trajectory in order to control the environment, so that they can -- it's going to crack, and it's going to continue to kind of behave in a similar manner as it did on Artemis I.
But on Artemis II, it should be to a lesser extent because of the change in the entry profile.
CORNISH: Yes. This is what we heard from NASA when they talked about the heat shield. Victor Glover, who's the pilot of Artemis II, said, "They made us sharpen our pencils and put more due diligence into that process. And I think we've done that. So, I think the crew is comfortable because of that team."
So, it sounds like they have confidence that NASA has gotten their arms around that issue. Do you?
OLIVAS: Yes, absolutely. You know, I was part of an independent review team started in about October of 2023 when they were into the investigation. They did get to root cause.
We observed a lot of the testing that had been performed, all the analysis that had been performed. The entire investigation, in fact.
I feel pretty confident that NASA understands what was causing the cracking and, you know, with the -- with this particular heat shield, the -- the heat shield had already been manufactured. It had already been installed on Orion.
And there was a number of reasons why this heat shield could not be removed and replaced with what they know is going to be the -- the heat shield for Artemis III, which is a slight modification. They have fixed it for subsequent flights.
But on this flight, they decided to -- to enter with the -- with what we refer to as a deviant heat shield. In other words, it's not behaving the way it should. But they were able to control the risk by modifying that entry profile.
CORNISH: Where will you be watching tonight?
OLIVAS: I'm going to be watching from Indianapolis.
CORNISH: Excited?
OLIVAS: Yes, I -- I certainly am. I'm looking forward to it. As I said before, this is a historic mission. It'll be ten minutes of nail biting.
But -- and I think everyone, whether it was a perfect heat shield or whether it was, you know, what we have right now. I think everyone is always concerned. You know, going up and coming down is the hardest part.
Our crew has done a phenomenal job. They performed, you know, flawlessly throughout their entire flight. May broke the records in a number of areas, and now we're ready to get them home to get them on their -- on their -- their tour around, hopefully, the world, where we can all get an opportunity to hear from them firsthand what it was like to be on the backside of the Moon.
CORNISH: OK. That's Danny Olivas, retired astronaut. Thank you so much.
OLIVAS: Thank you.
CORNISH: And you can join us here at CNN tonight as the crew returns home. "Mission to Mars: Artemis II Returns." It's going to be having some -- we'll have live coverage of that tonight at 7 p.m. Eastern.
And you can, of course, catch it, as well, on the CNN app.
Straight ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, Democrats are moving forward on a plan to push out President Trump. But can they actually do anything more than talk?
Plus, it's payday for TSA, but when the next -- but when the next one could hit is still a question mark.
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