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Trump Lashes Out On "60 Minutes" As Host Reads Suspect's Manifesto; Trump Cancels Envoy's Trip To Pakistan For Peace Talks; Trump Administration Pressing Democrats To Fund DHS After Shooting. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired April 27, 2026 - 05:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL)

[05:32:10]

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: We're continuing to follow this breaking news on the attack at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. The suspect is actually facing a judge later this morning on two separate charges.

President Trump sat down for an interview on "60 MINUTES" the day after the dinner appearing hopeful it could lead to a reset on his relationship with the media.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Let's use the word liberal -- liberal press. But I was just really -- I was really happy to see the -- I don't know how long it'll last -- the relationship, the friendship, the spirit after a very bad event took place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: All right. That kind of went of the window when the interviewer started reading quotes from the suspect's alleged manifesto.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NORAH O'DONNELL, CORRESPONDENT, "60 MINUTES": He writes this. "Administration officials -- they are targets." And he also wrote this. "I'm not longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes."

What's your reaction to that?

TRUMP: Well, I was waiting for you to read that because I knew you would because you're horrible people -- horrible people. Yeah, he did write that. I'm not a rapist. I didn't rape anybody. Uh, I'm not a pedophile.

O'DONNELL: Oh, you think -- you think he was referring to you?

TRUMP: Excuse me. Excuse me. I'm not a pedophile. You read that crap from some sick person. You should be ashamed of yourself reading that because I'm not any of those things and I was never -- excuse me.

O'DONNELL: Mr. President, these are the gunman's words.

TRUMP: Excuse me. You shouldn't be reading that on "60 MINUTES." You're a disgrace.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CORNISH: OK, we're bringing in now Sara Fischer for two reasons. She's a CNN senior media analyst and senior media reporter at Axios.

And, of course, you were in the room, and you are someone who knows that this relationship between Paramount, CBS, and the Trump administration is, as they say, complicated. So can you talk about leading up to the dinner what was going on between Trump and CBS?

SARA FISCHER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA ANALYST, SENIOR MEDIA REPORTER, AXIOS (via Webex by Cisco): It's been a long, tenuous relationship, Audie. CBS' parent company, Paramount, is seeking regulatory approval to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, which is also the parent company to CNN. And leading up to that a lot of outsiders believe that CBS News and Paramount made certain concessions to be able to ensure that they could be in Trump's good graces to get that regulatory approval.

So, for example, they settled for $16 million. A $20 billion lawsuit that legal experts believe they could have won with the president. They canceled Steve Colbert's show, which they said was for financial reasons. And then they hired this woman named Bari Weiss. They acquired her website, The Free Press, and put her in charge of CBS News. And people feel like all of these moves were done to placate the administration.

[05:35:00]

So then for Donald Trump to come out now on live air and bash "60 MINUTES," it's a really great example of the fact that you could do everything that you want to try to game the system. To try to develop a strong relationship with the president. But ultimately, at the end of the day, it serves him to continue to call the mainstream media fake news and bash the press.

CORNISH: At the same time, he talked pretty positively about the dinner experience itself kind of before the attack. And it did seem like somehow CBS, especially with the White House Correspondents' Dinner president being from CBS, had opened a door to him for the White House Press Corps for a relationship that has been so acrimonious.

FISCHER: Donald Trump is an opportunist. He is one of these people who understands very well how to work the media to be able to get what he needs out of the media. And as a result of that he can have it both ways. He can say that this was becoming a very, you know, improved relationship on one end and then when it doesn't serve him -- when he's being tossed a question he doesn't like just revert back to the talking points that the mainstream media is fake news and that they're not nice to conservatives. And so that's the reason you're going to always see that polar

response. He's done that in so many different situations. I think one thing that the president does very well -- he picks his moments where he knows that unity is a winning message not just for him but for the entire country. And in a moment where. there's potentially a very serious attack, he knew that was the moment to continue on this message of unity as opposed to continuing on this message of fighting between the Press Corps and his administration.

CORNISH: Sara, where were you in the room and how are you feeling today?

FISCHER: Thank you for asking, Audie. I was in sort of the center to stage right and we had a cabinet official who was sitting with our table. We saw the Secret Service running and pulling them out, and it was a very tense moment. I'm feeling much better now in part because I think that the security and the police did a really good job of making sure we all remained safe.

CORNISH: OK, Sara. I'm sure we're going to talk soon. Thank you so much for coming back.

And I want to continue with this news, Iran and the foreign minister there.

FISCHER: Thank you.

CORNISH: He is in Russia. He's saying it's a good opportunity to talk about the ongoing war. Now those conversations, however, won't be happening with U.S. leaders. President Trump is canceling his envoy's planned trip to Pakistan. Now the U.S. delegation was set to be led by White House special envoy Steve Witkoff and, of course, the president's son-in-law Jared Kushner. The trip was abruptly canceled Sunday. President Trump is saying hours and hours of travel would get them there after Iranians had left.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I said we're not doing this anymore. We have all the cards. If they want to talk, they can come to us or they can call us. You know, there is a telephone. We have nice secure lines, although I'm not sure any telephone line is secure frankly. But we have secure lines and if they want, we can talk.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: So joining me now is CNN international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson. He's live from Islamabad. So at this point, Nic, what happens now?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yeah, the big sort of air miles if you will are being done by the Iranian foreign minister. He's just landed in Russia in St. Petersburg. He's met with the foreign minister there and is expected to meet with President Vladimir Putin. And he said there have been developments in the negotiations but is

blaming the failures on the United States for -- you know, for making mistakes. For incorrect approach and excessive demands. That's what the Iranian foreign minister is saying. But he said, "We continue to review the situation."

There has been a lot of behind-the-scenes diplomacy. Friday night, even before President Trump announced that Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner wouldn't be coming, the Iranian foreign minister flew out of Tehran into Pakistan and had talks into the early hours of the morning here. The sun was coming up by the time they finished. He had more talks later in the day Saturday, then flew to Muscat where he met with the sultan and the foreign minister. But we believe on margins met with other regional leaders, particularly on the security intelligence side.

Then flew back to Pakistan and had another late-night meeting here last night with the top negotiator, field marshal Asim Munir and others there -- not, we understand, the prime minister or the foreign minister in that meeting. Then the Iranian foreign minister flew off and flew on to Russia.

The impression that's being created is the Iranians are on a mission to see what support and what help they can get to make this deal happen. Whether or not it's going to be enough really isn't clear.

[05:40:00]

One of the things we've heard coming from the Iranians -- and I think this tells you where their mindset is at -- they're putting more focus on the Strait of Hormuz, not just demanding that the United States should release its own blockade in the Strait of Hormuz but saying that they want a legal review of the Strait of Hormuz. And this is sort of implying that they want to begin to get some legal changes there because it appears they think as a result of the war they have some increased stake. Now, do they want to try to get tolls out of it?

Whatever it is, that really does seem to push the U.S. and Iran further apart rather than closer together.

CORNISH: OK. From Pakistan, CNN's Nic Robertson. Nic, thank you.

And next on CNN THIS MORNING the Secret Service agents working for a department that basically is in the grip of shutdown. So we're going to talk about how Saturday's shooting is changing the debate over that funding on Capitol Hill.

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[05:45:15]

CORNISH: All right. So the Trump administration in the context of this shooting is trying to push Democrats to fund the Department of Homeland Security, which would end the, you know, more than 60-day partial government shutdown.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MICHAEL MCCAUL (R-TX): I predicted that something bad is going to happen and somebody's going to have blood on their hands. And it's very irresponsible. I think we need to pass that as soon as possible. I know the speaker is working with, you know, Sen. Thune on a reconciliation package. I would hope this is a wake-up call to get it done as soon as possible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: So the Secret Service, which apprehended the shooter and got the president to safety, falls under DHS. Despite the shutdown they are still being paid from funding from Trump's "big, beautiful bill." Democrats want reforms to ICE before moving forward with more funding for DHS.

The group chat is back. You know, the president was saying that Democrats are holding up the pay. He was talking about in the context of this shooting. You know, there were so many lawmakers in the room. Do you think this is going to nudge them to act?

ANDREW SOLENDER, CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, AXIOS: Yeah. I mean, one important note is that most of the lawmakers were Republicans. There are a handful of Democrats there who -- you know, Jared Moskowitz, John Fetterman -- pretty bipartisan. Fetterman, in his case, has actually pushed for the party to give a little bit on DHS.

But, you know, my conversations with Democrats in the, you know, intervening day, I haven't seen any indication that the party is ready to budge at all on funding. I mean, the fact that, as you pointed out, Build Back Better funds -- the paychecks of essential Secret Service agents, along with ICE agents and CBP, reduces the urgency a lot to -- for lawmakers to try to get something done on that. And Dems are really pressured by their base to not give in on their demands to reform immigration enforcement.

CORNISH: I want to turn to you, Mishal, in a minute. But Stephen, very quickly, the president has been pushing to end the filibuster in the Senate in order to kind of get things moving in general, including this funding. Again, like, it's that whole Washington thing about not wasting a crisis.

Like, is this the kind of -- can this pick up steam in this environment?

STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN POLITICS SENIOR REPORTER: Sure, and the president has gone through a very dicey patch politically in the last few weeks.

But the filibuster question -- I think it's been shown that the Republican votes aren't there to change filibuster and the president's dip in approval and the possibility that the Senate could be in play come November for Democrats, that is concentrating minds even more.

And to your point on ICE -- I mean, this whole shutdown started because Democrats are trying to enforce changes to ICE by using the cudgel of homeland security funding.

I don't think anything that happened on Saturday night has changed the fundamental politics of that out in the country.

CORNISH: Yeah.

COLLINSON: Backed up airports and security couldn't do it. Is a White House dinner with a bunch of reporters and officials going to change things? I don't think so.

CORNISH: I want to look forward a little bit because we've got this visit from a royal, right -- and so talk about security.

Do you think here are concerns there? Is there a reason why you think that nobody thought look, maybe we shouldn't do this?

MISHAL HUSAIN, HOST, "THE MISHAL HUSAIN SHOW," EDITOR-AT-LARGE, BLOOMBERG WEEKEND: Well, there's definitely an international dimension to the events on Saturday night. They're a reminder for any visitors to the United States, high profile or otherwise, of how inflamed the political climate is in this country.

There were many international diplomats in the room, including British diplomats, who were immediately thinking about looking again at the arrangements and reviewing the arrangements for the King's state visit. He and the queen, Queen Camilla, arrive today for this four-day visit, which was already complicated on a number of fronts.

CORNISH: Yeah.

HUSAIN: The U.S. has been at war -- a war that the U.K. government doesn't agree with and has only allowed its bases to be used for defensive reasons. Also, the calls of the king and queen to meet victims of Jeffrey Epstein because of his brother's association with Jeffrey Epstein and his recent arrest.

And then -- I mean, ostensibly, the visit is for the forthcoming 250th anniversary of the U.K. So it would have been all good --

CORNISH: Yeah. You brought up two other issues that could -- yeah.

HUSAIN: It would have been all good for many reasons to change arrangements. We now know that it is going to go ahead as scheduled and that obviously feels like the right thing to do. But it does add another layer of complexity to what was already a complex and tricky visit.

CORNISH: OK.

Thank you, guys, for being here very much. It's good to see you all and I'm glad we all came out of that safely.

It is now 49 minutes past the hour. This is your morning roundup. These are some stories that you might have missed in all this coverage.

[05:50:00]

President Trump, and as we said, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer are going to be discussing the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. The two actually spoke on the phone yesterday and Starmer warned of the severe impact that this was all having on the global economy. And it comes as Tehran had warned earlier Sunday that the waterway wouldn't return to its previous state.

And a North Dakota lawmaker one of two people killed in a small plane crash in Minnesota on Saturday. State Rep. Liz Conmy was on the plane when it crashed and caught fire shortly after takeoff. The NTSB is investigating.

And the Supreme Court in Virginia is going to her arguments today about that state's redistricting fight. Last week a lower court threw out that measure that had been approved by voters just days earlier. Now if this is allowed to stand, Democrat could pick up as many as four Republican-held seats in Congress.

And next on CNN THIS MORNING, Secret Service scrutiny while President Trump is applauding the agents. We're going to talk about why some are concerned about their actions Saturday night.

Plus, you've got Texas lawmakers launching new hearings into the deadly flooding at Camp Mystic.

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[05:55:40]

CORNISH: President Trump commended the Secret Service for their quick action Saturday night. On the one hand their response was textbook. Agents shielding the president and whisking Vice President JD Vance to safety. On the other hand critics are questioning why President Trump wasn't taken off stage sooner and why he went after Vance. And while Secret Service stopped the suspect, how did someone with a gun get so close to the president to begin with?

So we're bringing in Secret Service agent -- former Secret Service agent Jeffrey James. Thank you so much for being with us. Appreciate your time.

Now I was there that night --

JEFFREY JAMES, RETIRED SECRET SERVICE AGENT, PRESIDENT AND OWNER, CAPITOL SECURITY CONSULTANTS (via Webex by Cisco): Thank you.

CORNISH: -- and I have to say I walked up to the mags to get screened. I didn't have to actually show the ticket. They certainly didn't ask for my I.D. to be matched to the ticket. It didn't necessarily feel the way I've felt in other security situations like, say, a convention where the security perimeter is also similarly hard and enforced by the Secret Service.

JAMES: Yeah. Screening for tickets happens -- that happens separately. We screen for weapons. So once you get to us it's not up to the Secret Service to uninvite anyone from any event, especially if the president has invited them, unless they do have a weapon. So we make sure you're clean when you come in. If you're not supposed to be there and someone from the host committee sees you, they'll let -- they'll let security know and then you'll be removed. But we purely screen for weapons. We're not about invitations and tickets, and things like that.

CORNISH: The reason why I ask is because this has always been a complicated event, right? It is at a working hotel. When we're walking through the halls, we're seeing people in their jean shorts and, you know, visors because they're visiting the city. And as we learned, the alleged gunman may have just plain gotten a room there.

So what do you see as potential failings here in terms of preparing for the first time this president, who has had other assassination attempts, to walk into that room?

JAMES: Uh, really nothing. So we can't shut down a business. When the president goes to the Super Bowl, we don't shut down the arena -- I'm sorry, the stadium and not let 80,000 people in. And we also don't screen 80,000 people. We do it just like we did at the hotel. We cordon off the area where the president is going to be, and we build our security out from there.

Just so some people have some understanding that you and I have having been there is, you know, this person wasn't even on the same floor of the hotel as the president. So when they got stopped at that perimeter they weren't -- they still weren't even anywhere close the president and certainly not within handgun range.

CORNISH: One last thing. One of the things I saw is the Secret Service very fast to act, pulling out their clients, primaries, all these cabinet members. But the other thing I thought is why are all these folks here? Why is the vice president here? Why is Mike Johnson here? Why is the, like, entire line of succession and top leadership here?

Does the Secret Service actually have a say? Can they argue with the executive about who is -- who goes to something or not in the line of succession?

JAMES: Well, that is -- that's something that our higher-ups work with the chief of staff on. We certainly don't want everyone in succession to be there. If you remember the old show "DESIGNATED SURVIVOR" --

CORNISH: I do.

JAMES: -- with Keifer Sutherland. That's a real thing. There was one person in succession to the presidency who was held out of every major event like the State of the Union address and at the inauguration and things like that.

So while you saw many members, you certainly didn't see everyone. Had there been a catastrophic event there still would have been someone left behind to run the government.

CORNISH: Um, in the meantime, what questions do you have going forward? JAMES: You know, I've got to be honest. I think everything worked exactly how it should have Friday -- or I'm sorry, the other night.

And I know there are some questions, like people saying -- the one question people has -- have are about the pause. Why didn't they rush the president out quicker? And I will tell you that the tactical pause that needs to be taken is real because to be in such a hurry to run out of the situation that you're in that you run into a worse situation.

CORNISH: Right.

JAMES: So that three to five seconds once they surround the president to call out to the cars and say, "Hey, we're going to be coming out. Are we clear? Yeah, the doors are open. Let's get going." That matters before you run yourself out into an ambush.

CORNISH: OK.

[06:00:00]

That's Jeffrey James, former Secret Service agent. I want to thank you for your time. I appreciate it.

Um, I also want to thank you --

JAMES: Thank you.

CORNISH: -- for waking up with me. We've got a lot of breaking news as the suspect in the shooting at the White House Correspondents' Dinner is being charged and being investigated.

I'm Audie Cornish and CNN THIS MORNING is going to continue in a moment.