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Trump Ceasefire Extended, Blockade of Iranian Ports Remains; Virginia Approves New Congressional Map Ahead of Midterms; Soon: U.S. Supreme Court to Issue More Opinions. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired April 22, 2026 - 06:00   ET

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

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: A LEGO set inspired by the film "Project Hail Mary" took off above Wales on Monday, using a high-altitude balloon system.

[06:00:09]

On board, minifigures of the characters Ryland Grace, whom Gosling plays and the alien, Rocky.

It set the Guinness World Record for highest altitude launch and retrieval of a LEGO set. Who knew that was even a record? Reaching nearly 115,000 feet above sea level.

Thanks so much for joining us this morning on EARLY START. I'm Erica Hill in New York. Stay tuned. CNN THIS MORNING with Audie Cornish starts right now.

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: President Trump extends the ceasefire but won't lift the blockade. Is this why Iran won't commit to talks?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT (via phone): I expect to be bombing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: But now he hopes to be talking. We're asking what changed?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think the new map is absolutely horrible.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm glad that people in Virginia took on the challenge.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: So, Virginia voters helped Democrats even the score in the redistricting fight. Could Florida now be the tiebreaker?

And another member of Congress resigns after accusations of ethics violations? Why she says this sets a dangerous precedent.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KASH PATEL, FBI DIRECTOR: If there's any connections that lead to nefarious conduct or conspiracy, this FBI will make the appropriate arrest.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: The missing scientist mystery. Is it a conspiracy theory or serious national security threat?

CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Maybe I won't extend it. So, you'll have a blockade, and unfortunately, we'll have to start dropping bombs again.

I would say the fighting -- if there's no deal, fighting resumes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is a deal is not reached by the end of the ceasefire, does your threat from before still stands?

TRUMP: Yes, I don't want to comment on that. But it won't be pleasant for them. Let me put it that way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: So, the president was not going to extend the ceasefire until he did. We're going to play some catch-up here.

Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish, and let's start with these breaking developments in the war with Iran.

Fresh attacks overnight in the Strait of Hormuz. This is just hours into the extended ceasefire. At least two ships have been hit by fire, complicating these already tense peace talks.

Negotiations this morning on pause, J.D. Vance's trip to Islamabad canceled, at least for now. And Iran's envoy to the U.N. is saying that talks will resume under one condition.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMIR SAEID IRAVANI, IRAN'S ENVOY TO THE U.N.: And as soon as they broke this blockade, I think that the next round of negotiations will take place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: President Trump is saying the strait will remain closed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP (via phone): And the blockade has been a tremendous success. They said two days ago, we will open the strait. I said, no, we're not going to open the strait until we have a final deal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: He actually went further in a Truth Social post overnight, writing they can't open it because, quote, "if we do that, there can never be a Deal with Iran unless we blow up the rest of their Country, their leaders included!"

So, I'm bringing in CNN correspondent Eleni Giokos in Dubai.

And Eleni, let's start with those talks and, specifically, Iran's reaction to the extension of this ceasefire deal with the blockade still in place.

ELENI GIOKOS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Well, they say it means nothing. They believe this is just a ploy to buy time to eventually start with military action once again in Iran.

And importantly, the advisor to the parliamentary speaker, Ghalibaf, says the losing side cannot dictate terms and called the continuation of the U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz a siege. And they also say this is a declaration of war.

So, while we're not seeing any military action on land, it is a completely different story in the seas. And this is where we're seeing maritime confrontations.

You were talking about the IRGC firing at two vessels just a few hours ago, and we saw something similar happening on Saturday. And then importantly, U.S. CENTCOM says that they've been able to board and seize two vessels, one in the Gulf of Oman and another one that was thousands of miles away from this region.

And it just shows that the U.S. blockade is going to be enforced in any seas anyway. So, this means a really big job for the U.S. Navy.

But then, importantly, both sides are just, you know, really digging in their heels about who controls the straits.

For the Iranians, they see it as a bargaining chip. This is the lever that they can inflict pain on everybody. And the U.S. says were going to inflict pain on Iran's ability to gain revenue.

And I also want to say this, Audie. You know, you and I and everyone else in the world, we're not just spectators. We are all feeling the effects of this energy crisis that is, you know, spread far and wide.

I want you to listen to what Dan Jorgensen, who is the E.U.'s energy commissioner, about the scenarios that we were hoping to see and how they play into the ultimate, you know, long-term impact of this.

[06:05:16]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAN JORGENSEN, E.U. ENERGY COMMISSIONER: But I have to be quite blunt and say that even in the best-case scenarios, it's not a very good case. The worst-case scenario, of course, is difficult to even define. But

if this goes on for many months or even years, we're looking at a totally new world order and probably very, very severe economic consequences that go -- goes far beyond only the energy sector, of course.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GIOKOS: Well, the energy, you know, commissioner there really makes an important point, because we just heard from the German airline Lufthansa that they are canceling 20,000 flights for the summer period to save on jet fuel.

Now, the question becomes, what is the pain threshold of Iran? And in terms of losing revenue on selling its oil? And importantly, what is the pain threshold of everyone else, including the United States -- Audie.

CORNISH: OK. That's Eleni Giokos with -- telling us what's going on with Iran.

Joining me now is Edward Fishman. He's a former Russian Europe sanctions lead at the U.S. State Department. He's also the author of a book called "Choke Points: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare."

Edward, thank you so much for coming back. The last time we talked about your book, it was all sort of theoretical. And now here we are.

I'm going to let Democratic Senator from Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren, lay out how some people are seeing this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA): Donald Trump has painted himself into a corner, and he can't find an exit. We're in a place where, before all this started, the Straits of Hormuz were open. Everything was moving, right?

And now it's all shut down. And Donald Trump is trying to get to -- us to a place we were before he actually started a war. What a mess.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Is that a good description of what's going on? And what do you think is the way out?

EDWARD FISHMAN, FORMER RUSSIAN EUROPE SANCTIONS LEAD AT THE U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT: I'm afraid that it is. You know, I think the -- President Trump started this war with pretty ambitious objectives. It was clear that he was seeking regime change. He thought there was a chance to finally end the Islamic Republic of Iran's rule of tyranny over that country.

And that hasn't worked. And what Iran has achieved is that they now controlled the single most important geographic choke point in the world.

The Strait of Hormuz is responsible for about 20 percent of global oil and liquefied natural gas every single day. And I think what we're seeing right now is that that's a lever that the Iranian government is not willing to give up. And that they see that --

CORNISH: Yes, but to push back on that -- hold on one second, Edward. The president is claiming that, look, Iran is collapsing financially as a result of this blockade.

There are lots of questions about how long they can hold out in a blockade before they've got no place to put the oil. Can you help us understand what is economic leverage in a moment like this?

FISHMAN: Sure. Look, I mean, the Iranian government does depend on oil sales to run its economy.

But mind you, over the last six weeks, they've been under consistent bombardment. Their economy is not at their top of their mind right now. They're just trying to stay in power.

So, I'm pretty skeptical that a continued blockade of Iranian oil is going to lead to capitulation. That doesn't mean it's not a good strategy. I do think it does add additional pressure on the Iranian government to negotiate in good faith.

But the idea that this is going to be a magic bullet that ends the war and makes Trump sort of seem like a very clear victor, I'm quite skeptical of that.

CORNISH: You know, you were writing in an article. It was for "Foreign Affairs." It's called "How to Fight an Economic War." That the world has learned Washington's Achilles heel, in economic conflict and its low tolerance for pain.

When you say that, is that because of, as the administration would say, how the media is reporting it? Or are you talking about something deeper in how markets and -- I don't know -- the global economy looks in this moment?

FISHMAN: I think it's something deeper. And look, we saw this story play out last year when, in April, Trump imposed tariffs on the rest of the world. And we got a new acronym, TACO. Trump always chickens out.

As soon as the markets have dipped, Trump has retreated, and he's pulled back a lot of those tariffs.

I think the Iranians saw that. And they realized, well, if we can inflict some economic pain on the United States, even if by sort of quantitative metrics, it's less pain than they're inflicting on us, that the -- America's pain threshold is going to be lower.

And I think the Iranians have that bet. You know, Trump is playing for the midterms. He wants to wrap up this war long before November so that it doesn't sink Republicans chances. And the Iranians, you know, they have an unlimited time clock, right?

They -- so they think that they can outlast the United States. And I worry that this is something that could play out in other geopolitical conflicts, too.

CORNISH: Yes. Edward Fishman. Edward, thank you so much for being with us.

[06:10:03]

And you can check out his writing with his book, "Choke Points: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare."

And coming up on CNN THIS MORNING, a change of heart. We're going to talk about why Tucker Carlson is apologizing for what he calls his role in getting Donald Trump reelected.

Plus, tariff refund checks, now available to some. But there are some small businesses skeptical that they're going to get the money they deserve.

And Virginia voters help Democrats even the redistricting score. Will Florida break the tie? We've got the group chat here with thoughts on that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CORNISH: So, Virginia narrowly votes to approve a new congressional map, and it nearly locks out Republicans flipping four of the states five right leaning districts.

And this vote is part of a nationwide effort by both parties to try to change the maps in their favor ahead of midterms.

[06:15:08]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think that the solution to gerrymandering done by Republicans is not more gerrymandering done by Democrats. So, I voted no.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I voted yes. You know, it's too bad we're in this fight, but we didn't start it. And it's what goes around comes around. And so, I don't have a problem with it..

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: All right. Bringing in my friends in the group chat: Tamara Keith, senior political correspondent for NPR and host of NPR's politics podcast; Charlie Dent, former Republican congressman from Pennsylvania; and Antjuan Seawright, Democratic strategist.

I want to just play for you the response from the Republican in Virginia who's head of the campaign arm there, just for a moment, so you can understand, like, sort of how they're taking it. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. RICHARD HUDSON (R-NC): You know, it hurts when you you've got an illegal gerrymander that violates the state constitution, draws a divided purple state 10 to 1. That makes it harder.

But there's no one who can look you in the eye and tell you the Virginia map is a fair and legal map.

CORNISH: Was the juice worth the squeeze here for Republicans?

TAMARA KEITH, SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, NPR: If you take this on net, if you take Texas and California and Virginia and Indiana, which ultimately didn't end up redistricting, you almost get a wash.

CORNISH: Yes.

KEITH: All of this money, all of this effort, all of this pain, members of Congress inevitably losing their seats, incumbents losing their seats. And for what ultimately just kind of -- kind of a wash in a year where Republicans are in trouble.

CORNISH: Yes. And Democrats kind of have to go back on all the campaigning and philosophizing about redistricting and how they feel about it.

I just want to give people a sense of what the old district looked like or the current district, and what the new district looks like, what these changes will mean. Let me see if I can get it up on the screen there.

Because there is this one section they call the lobster claw. All right. So, if you're looking on your TV on the left, there's a lot of red there right now. You look over onto the other side and there's that little -- little lobster tail jutting out into the sea of red. Never mind all the blue. It feels like we're right back to the problems that Democrats wanted out of.

ANTJUAN SEAWRIGHT, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, I think Jeffries, in particular, sent a strong message, who I refer to sometimes as the Brooklyn Brawler. Don't come for me unless I send for you, as we say in the African-American community. Charlie, that's a proverb you should use sometime.

But this started in Texas; redistricting war led by Donald Trump. Responded in California with Prop 50 --

CORNISH: That wasn't easy. I mean, Hakeem Jeffries tried to go to Maryland and get this done.

SEAWRIGHT: However --

CORNISH: It did not work.

SEAWRIGHT: So, we had started in Texas. California, Prop 50. We framed them in Ohio, New Hampshire, Nebraska. We tamed them in Utah, picking up a seat. And now in Virginia.

And now we're daring them to put a ballot initiative in Florida. Because when the people have a chance to express themselves about Republicans trying to steal the midterm election, the people responded properly.

CORNISH: I mean, what I hear in this victory dance, because I like the rhyme, is the fact that Democrats feel like the fact that it was voters, in particular, who agreed with them somehow gives them sort of the edge in saying, look, you guys invited this fight, and then the voters confirmed their rejection of it.

CHARLIE DENT, FORMER REPUBLICAN PENNSYLVANIA CONGRESSMAN: Well, look, Congress, after this whole ordeal is finished, is it going to need to pass a law to ban mid-decade redistricting.

This is terrible for democracy, because what's happening now is we're creating more very safe seats for both parties. The middle of this country is shrinking as a consequence.

But I get it. But I --

CORNISH: The only other person who said that to me this week was also retiring, and you're out of Congress.

DENT: No, no. But I'm saying --

CORNISH: I feel like when you're -- when they're in Congress, they don't want to do anything about it.

DENT: Well, look, I was -- I've been involved with redistricting three different times in my life. This is an arduous process. It is painful. Once every ten years is enough.

Now, look, Republicans made a strategic blunder entering into this. The juice was most certainly not worth the squeeze. In fact, they're probably going to lose more seats now because of this.

These seats in Texas that they think they're going to win, five. They're not going to win all five of those seats. The mood is so bad. They were assuming -- they were assuming a bunch of Latinos are going to stay with the Republican Party. Well, that's a big assumption right now. So, it's a mistake.

CORNISH: It occurs to me both of you have said something interesting, which is that it's the voters who have been the wild card here.

KEITH: Certainly, there were ballot measures in those two states, in California and Virginia. Voters now --

CORNISH: But even those thinking about Texas, you're assuming.

KEITH: Oh, yes.

CORNISH: -- that those Latinos, we've won. You. It's locked. KEITH: And -- and this is why there's talk of Florida being,

potentially, a dummy-mander instead of a gerrymander. Because in the -- in this -- in this year where Democrats are expected to do far better than Trump did against Harris, if you're drawing lines based on 2024, you're potentially making a terrible mistake.

[06:20:14]

DENT: It's the next election.

SEAWRIGHT: But can we --

KEITH: Yes.

SEAWRIGHT: Can we say this, because I think it's a piss-poor choice of words by the person who ran the campaign in Virginia, in his response.

It was OK for Texas to not ask the people what their will was and simply redraw the seats. But somehow or another, it was cheating or doing something wrong for Virginia voters to suggest what they want their maps to be.

People could have voted no. They could have voted no in California. Yet, they made a strategic decision.

One of the undermining (ph) factors of last night is that voters had a chance to express their disappointment with the president and those in charge, because Virginia, just like Maryland, more so than any other state in the country, has been impacted by the government layoffs.

CORNISH: Well, in the meantime, I think all of these Republicans in Virginia are texting each other this morning, trying to figure out whose fault this was.

You guys stay with me. We're going to talk a lot more this hour.

But coming up, the president is trying to expand his powers, the powers of the executive. So, what does that mean for the judicial branch? Why is he having a hard time bending the Supreme Court to his will?

Plus, this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is crazy, like, just to see, like, how they say like how it happened, like with -- within seconds.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Talking about an armored truck heist in broad daylight, how the thieves pulled it off.

In the meantime, good morning to New York City. Got a little bit of clouds out there over the Big Apple.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:25:55]

CORNISH: OK. Get ready. In just a few hours, the Supreme Court expected to release more opinions. And we're still waiting for some pretty important ones, including a ruling on birthright citizenship, something that the president has named a priority.

And then this week, we've seen the result of another key ruling. Businesses are now able to apply for billions of dollars in refunds on those tariffs they had to pay to the U.S.

The Supreme Court ruled those tariffs put on by President Trump were illegal, including two justices appointed by President Trump, Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch. The president not happy about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Not that it matters. Does it matter at all? But two of the people that voted for that, I appointed, and they sicken me. They sicken me, because they're bad for our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Joining me now, Sara Isgur, a senior editor at SCOTUSblog. She's also the author of a new book. It's called "Last Branch Standing: A Potentially Surprising, Occasionally Witty Journey Inside Today's Supreme Court."

So, when I heard this comment where he's saying, "sickening," it really occurred to me that he is disappointed. And on the left, people think that this is his court, right?

So, help us understand the reality, because you argue that it's more of a 3-3-3 than a 5-4 court.

SARAH ISGUR, SENIOR EDITOR, SCOTUSBLOG: If all you look at is the presidential party who nominated the Supreme Court justices, you will get 85 percent of the cases' outcome wrong.

In fact, the most likely outcome is unanimous or close to unanimous, and you get well over 50 percent. So, it's important to actually understand the justices, their judicial methodology; why Gorsuch and Kavanaugh, both appointed by President Trump, both very conservative, actually only agreed with each other 50 percent of the time last term.

Kavanaugh was more likely to agree with Kagan and Sotomayor, two Democratic appointees.

CORNISH: Can you help me understand, then, the shadow docket? Why are we seeing them take up more and more cases? An emergency basis, right, which are requested, but then issuing these rulings, just talking amongst themselves?

And I asked because "The New York Times" did this big investigation where they pointed to a case over Obama's clean energy law, where you see Roberts in his writing, in these leaked documents, almost speaking as though he's an advocate, right. Kind of saying, no, we need to stop this, because this reason and that reason.

How do you make sense of what they were talking about?

ISGUR: There weren't really any surprises in these documents, obviously, except for the fact that they leaked. Roberts is the justice who oversees the D.C. circuit. So, he is supposed to be the one to bring it to the whole court with his opinions.

This is how they speak to each other behind closed doors, which was fascinating to see.

The problem with the shadow docket, as it's called, or the emergency docket, the interim docket, is that there are problems with it. But what is the alternative when we have presidents trying to run the government by executive order, as we saw from Obama, from Trump, from Biden, and now Trump again, but on steroids.

And the Supreme Court has pushed back over and over again against Trump, whether it's the Alien Enemies Act case or, as I expect we're going to see in this birthright citizenship case. We need them to move quickly when presidents are massively overstepping their authority without going to Congress.

CORNISH: You've got Pew studies showing that the court's favorability has fallen really sharply. So. 2020, it's around 70 percent of us are like, yes, the court seems fine. And -- and by 2025, I think this was, its 48 percent.

And I'm wondering if -- is the problem an imperial court, an imperial presidency? Like, sort of who's at fault, so to speak?

ISGUR: Well, we have a few things going on from approval rating standpoint. We're in a populist moment where all of our institutions are losing approval from the American people.

And the Supreme Court is supposed to be counter-majoritarian, right.

[06:30:00]