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King Charles To Address Joint Meeting Of Congress; White House To Review Security With Secret Service; Oil & Gas Prices Spike As Iran Peace Negotiations Stall. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired April 28, 2026 - 06:30   ET

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

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[06:34:04]

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish. I want to thank you for joining me on CNN THIS MORNING.

It's half past the hour. And here's what's happening right now.

King Charles and Queen Camilla are on day two of their four day state visit to the U.S. Today, the king will deliver a speech to a joint meeting of Congress. He's expected to discuss the special relationship between the U.S. and the U.K., as the U.S. marks 250 years of independence.

Opening statements begin today in the trial between Elon Musk and OpenAI Sam Altman. Musk is suing OpenAI and Microsoft for $150 million, arguing that they conned him into investing in OpenAI, claiming it was only a nonprofit company. Both tech titans are expected to testify early on in this trial.

And then I want to show you some images out of Missouri. This is storm cleanup this morning because there was severe weather.

[06:35:01]

And that threat continues for millions of people today. Storms hit overnight. And parts of Illinois were also hit by suspected tornadoes that damaged homes and trees, knocking out power for thousands. The biggest threats, which remain today are damaging winds, hail and tornadoes across the Mississippi and Ohio Valleys.

The White House now set to review its security protocols after Saturday night's close call at the correspondents' dinner.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We view it as a great responsibility to ensure the maximum safety of the president and the vice president and the entire cabinet. And so, we're always looking for ways to improve security. I think if you just sit here and say everything is perfect all the time, that's not a good way to operate.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CORNISH: White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles will meet with DHS and Secret Service to discuss their methods, and that's especially important ahead of a summer of high security events. When you look at the president's calendar, you've got the world cup, the country's 250th anniversary celebration in the next few months, then you've got the midterms and the rallies up to them in the fall.

Joining me now to talk about this is Juliette Kayyem, CNN senior national security analyst.

Before we get going quickly, I want to find out from you something, Juliette, which is that the suspect Cole Thomas Allen, he has been charged in federal court.

And when I look at the charges, I see attempted assassination of the president, interstate transportation of a firearm, right, carrying a firearm over state lines. And then it says discharge of a firearm. It doesn't say shot a secret service officer.

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes. We don't know yet just -- on the timeline. And DOJ has not said yet whether the secret service agent was shot by Cole Allen, which would have been one of the charges, or whether its friendly fire, which sometimes happens in a -- in a situation like that. I think if he's not -- if Cole Allen is not charged with, you know, trying to shoot or shooting a Secret Service agent, I think we should assume that it was friendly fire that happens.

But, you know, we should -- the government should be very transparent about what happened over those minutes and hours because as Susie Wiles, the chief of staff is going to do, there's going to be a thorough review. If friendly fire is one of the threats or one of the consequences, we have to you have to adjust for that.

CORNISH: When I look at his writings as well, one of the things he said was a criticism of the Secret Service. You read this, he said, what the hell is the Secret Service doing? I expected security cameras at every bend, bugged hotel rooms, armed agents every ten feet, metal detectors out the Wazoo and he says what I got was nothing. And he said all the security was outside.

It's like when you have the actual suspect doing the review here.

KAYYEM: Yeah, yeah. Doing the after action. There's something very interesting about that part of the manifesto, and this is true of many of these sort of isolated men who become radicalized and then turn to violence. And that's the sort of performative nature of what theyre saying. So, it's sort of, look, I'm the judge, I'm the -- I'm the chorus in the play, and I'm going to reflect on what's happening out in the world.

And so then he comes, you know, he sees that and his, his idea of how security works is very sort of antiquated that there's going to be, you know, guns every ten feet and people walking around surveying everyone. And I think that's part of his radicalization process. He begins to sort of perform the role of the assassin, which then becomes the role, becomes the reality of the -- of the -- of the attempted assassin.

CORNISH: You've been writing about the fact that we've got the World Cup, we've got all these events around the 250th anniversary. I think there's going to be like a naval review where a bunch of ships come. There's a lot coming up this year. And I used to think of these events as like hard targets, maybe because of my experience with political conventions. I thought the bigger the event, the more security. It feels like I should adjust my expectations.

KAYYEM: Well, I think it depends on where you are in the event. So I mean, and so i, you know, I sort of got into this field to sort of get away of all the bad news. And now, you know, I'm now, you know, I'm in event planning and then the and then now we're worried about that this summer.

And one of the reasons why is because there's this consistent high profile events in the space we call mega events. When I say to you, it depends on where you are, is that each piece of these events is going to have different security.

The way we think about it is, you know, you're trying to minimize risk, but you're never going to get to zero. The word safe does not exist, right? It's safer. Can you make things safer? You try to get all parties to unify on defenses.

But the thing I wanted to make clear in my "Atlantic" piece was just, look, there's a reason, you know, there's a reason why we have these events. It's because we like to be together. We like to have fun. We like to have that kind of freedom.

We like to celebrate the media or celebrate a democracy, you know, complex -- complicated democracies, 250th.

[06:40:07]

We like to invite the world for big World Cup. And we have to remember that when we're -- when we're doing safety. You know, it's making something a fortress. We call it the three G's -- guns, guards and gates, right? That's the easy part. The hard part is sort of, you know, accepting our vulnerabilities because we want the experience of being out in the world.

And I just guess I wanted to remind people of that. I know it's scary, but there's also something about humanity that that is vulnerable. And I think that's something that even a security person should say every once in a while.

CORNISH: Well, I know there's a lot of people out there watching now who may be rethinking what theyre going to attend and how and bring their families to. So, Juliette Kayyem, thank you.

KAYYEM: I'll be there. So don't -- still go. Still go.

CORNISH: All right. I want to follow up about another big event that's happening today, day two of the royal state visit. You're going to have the king going to the Hill. King Charles is going to deliver a speech before a joint meeting of Congress.

So we're asking whether or not he could be the one to smooth things over for relations between the U.K. and the U.S. Iran has been the boiling point for President Trump in recent months, and the U.K.'s prime minister has refused to give the U.S. a hand when it comes to the military.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The prime minister of U.K., United Kingdom yesterday told me. I'm meeting with my team to make a determination. I said, you don't need to meet it with the team. You're the prime minister. You can make your own.

KEIR STARMER, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: This is not our war. We will not be drawn into the conflict. That is not in our national interest

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: So the Group Chat is back and I want to come to you, Sabrina, because we know that the president likes King Charles, you know, like he likes to meet a king and to be on that level of relationship. But is that relationship so good that it can counter, you know, the position that Keir Starmer is in?

SABRINA RODRIGUEZ, POLITICS REPORTER, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: I mean, not really. That's -- that's the short answer of it all here. I think, you know, we've seen the president has been very excited about this for weeks in the lead up to it. You've seen him make references to King Charles's visit, talking about their friendship, talking about how he's a great guy, a great gentleman, very much.

CORNISH: But the U.K. is trying. Otherwise, wouldn't Keir Starmer be giving this speech before Congress?

RODRIGUEZ: No, this is a. This is a very positive step to have him coming here, especially knowing that relationship with Donald Trump. Trump's affinity toward the king. And we're going to hear him speak today before Congress. And I'm sure were going to hear a lot about easing tensions, a lot about the friendship, the longstanding relationship between the two countries.

I think that that doesn't change because there is a moment of tension right now with the U.K. I think two things can be true. The longstanding friendship between the two countries and that relationship, and having this moment of tension when it comes to Iran and when it comes to some points of disagreement.

CORNISH: Yeah. And also, it's not based on vibes. I mean, the king is not elected. Keir Starmer is.

And I just want to show Trump's popularity in Europe. Not that he cares about that, but giving the audience some context. You've got people there. I think his unfavorability is quite high for Trump.

So what is the value of this conversation, right? He doesn't bring with him military support. He doesn't bring with him the things Trump actually needs.

ASHLEY DAVIS, FORMER WHITE HOUSE OFFICIAL UNDER PRES. GEORGE W. BUSH: Right. And he doesn't make those decisions. But I think this is just a show of diplomacy, obviously, on our side and their side.

But one of the things he's supposed to be talking about today in Congress is NATO, and he will bring up the importance of NATO. So I think that would be his number one issue in regards to kind of poking the bear a little bit. But I think this is going to be a very pleasant visit. Obviously, we have a very complicated but positive relationship.

CORNISH: Is this president going to revive the Epstein conversation in the news cycle.

DAVIS: There's going to be a lot of people -- Ro Khanna, I think, is going to be doing something around --

CORNISH: Yeah. Just to remind people, the British prime minister facing resignation calls because he had appointed Peter Mandelson, U.K. ambassador to the U.S. I just want to mention this.

DAVIS: And his brother.

CORNISH: Yes, of course. And Prince Andrew -- and Prince Andrew, of course. But the point is, he's in the middle of like an apology tour.

Here's Keir Starmer just last week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STARMER: I should not have appointed Peter Mandelson. I take responsibility for that decision and I apologize again to the victims of the pedophile, Jeffrey Epstein, who were clearly failed by my decision.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Iran, Epstein -- I don't know how this couple of days happens without these issues coming up.

CHUCK ROCHA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I roll my eyes because I think that the president -- I don't know if he likes King Charles or not, but I know he likes the pomp and circumstance. And to your point, being on the same level as a, quote/unquote, "king", thinking about all the No King rallies, that's funny.

[06:45:00]

Anyway, another point of this is that you never saw the queen, his mother, be that involved, but in politics.

CORNISH: Yeah.

ROCHA: -- in front of the camera, she probably was. I don't know how -- CORNISH: She dealt with Trump. They had conversations.

ROCHA: Absolutely. I think this is a different time. And I think its people have wrote about this week about how the king, through his youth and through his adulthood, has been like on opposite sides of Trump on lots of issues, especially the environment, green energy and those kind of things.

So, see if that and what that's talked about tonight, I think the NATO thing is another big angle for both tonight and seeing how he plays politics when he don't do politics.

CORNISH: Okay, you guys stay with us. We want to talk about, you know, one of the consequences of the war with Iran, which is that oil prices are up $110 a barrel.

So will this all pay off for the president in the end, if things stabilize?

We're bringing in "Shark Tank's" Kevin O'Leary into the chat.

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[16:50:01]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Iran's economy is very dependent upon oil, and when you pump oil every day, you got to ship oil every day. Right now, they can't ship it. So, they don't want to turn off their wells. They got to find a place to put all the oil and theyre running out of options.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: So President Trump and his allies claim that the strategy in the war with Iran is working, that theyre blocking Iranian shipments of oil. And at the same time, could those ripple, those rippling economic shocks also be a ticking clock for global markets? And we're talking about that because this morning, global oil prices are climbing back above $110 per barrel for the first time in three weeks. And this is happening as, of course, peace talks are stalled.

So the average gallon of gas in the U.S. at this point is now $4.11.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to have to take a less trips and stuff like that because it's getting ridiculous.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I live in Rhode Island, so driving home for the weekends is going to make it harder. So I might not make as many trips home because of it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's making me frustrated. And, you know, so you think, oh, I'm going to get it on the way home. And now it's -- it could be, five, 10 cents higher.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Price per gallon of gas, it's -- so it's killing us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: All right. Joining us now in the group chat, Kevin O'Leary, chairman of O'Leary Ventures.

Thank you so much for being here. Thanks for entering the chat.

I want to talk to you about this global recession, the threat of, that people are talking about, especially with the dueling blockades in the Strait of Hormuz.

KEVIN O'LEARY, CHAIRMAN, O'LEARY VENTURES: Right.

CORNISH: Do you think that this is going to pay off? Do you think that there's an off ramp that does not lead with the Strait of Hormuz being a toll road that inflicts economic damage around the world?

O'LEARY: I'm in the camp that says there'll be a good outcome. If you go back in history and look at what really is the pain point, it's gasoline prices, U.S. domestic above $6. In order to do that, you need to keep oil above $95 for at least three months. So here we are in the 60th day. We have another 30 days left.

On the other side, the economics are more painful -- $210 million per day of revenue lost to Iran. They need that money to pay their militia. That's how they brutalize their people.

You got 150, 000 people running a militia of 250,000 thugs. You got to pay them, and they have a million man army that kills the other 92 million people.

It's a brutal regime. Everybody knows that. But it works with money.

And so the more you strangle their cash, the guy that's killing everybody is not getting his paycheck.

CORNISH: What about people who are looking at this economy and seeing some weakness? Right? Seeing the S&P down, maybe it's like five, 5.7 percent, right? Seeing inflation nudging up. And theyre saying, I don't -- I don't have to wait for Iran's whole economy to collapse for us to start feeling it here or in other places abroad.

O'LEARY: Well, we're hitting new highs in our markets, and there's a singular reason nobody saw this coming.

CORNISH: A.I.

O'LEARY: Well, you know, I think in some ways the Trump administration is very lucky because the productivity gains and margin enhancements of A.I. in all 11 sectors of the economy are proving out to be real. CORNISH: But are they single handedly propping up the economy? And is

that terrifying, given that some people talk about it as a bubble and you've got people like the two titans fighting in court? Like people aren't looking at A.I. and thinking, this is going to work out for us.

O'LEARY: No, I mean, Elon's an eclectic guy. Everybody knows that. And -- but that's a different fight.

The -- actual American economy -- and I have investments in 54 private companies, five to 500 employees, we're having our best quarter in history.

CORNISH: Yes.

O'LEARY: And so, you know, this conflict is an issue. I got it. But the American economy is never shown strength like this before. And I'm giving the credit --

CORNISH: Economy or Wall Street? I want to understand your distinction.

O'LEARY: There is no distinction anymore because most people enjoy their retirements through the S&P 500, which is the index of the American economy, creates all the jobs.

CORNISH: Most people don't have stocks, Kevin.

O'LEARY: Well, think about it --

CORNISH: Some people have stocks and they have become millionaires. You're absolutely right.

O'LEARY: My argument against that is --

CORNISH: Yeah.

O'LEARY: -- 52 percent of all jobs created in America are created by companies, five to 500 employees. That's the backbone of the American economy.

They are enjoying the same the same buoyancy, the same enhancements, the same margin creation, and theyre employing Americans. Unemployment is not a problem.

I mean, every way you try and poke at it, the numbers are stunning. They really are.

CORNISH: So, do you deny that A.I. is a threat to the jobs of many average workers and many sectors? That is a very common belief among American workers.

O'LEARY: It is wrong because it's the same as saying television is going to wipe out radio. It didn't happen.

Everybody loathes change and uncertainty. A.I. is a powerful tool. That's all it is. And I see it every day in every single one of our companies, whether

theyre insecticides or real estate or wireless charging, theyre using A.I. And it's working.

It's doing two things. Productivity goes up, margin goes up, creates more jobs, not less jobs.

[06:55:01]

I'm not --

CORNISH: I don't think it's completely clear what its job creation will be, net value to the average worker. I know exactly what it's creating for the C-suite wealth. I can't -- I'm feeling some pushback. For instance, this data center in Utah.

O'LEARY: Yes.

CORNISH: I know this is something you are in support of.

O'LEARY: Yeah.

CORNISH: The local county delaying it. Protesters -- you know, this is -- Utah is not a blue state. You know what I mean?

O'LEARY: I get it.

CORNISH: I feel like this is something that's cutting across political lines that people do not trust this technology and the industry behind it to take them with them on this journey.

O'LEARY: You're right. You're absolutely right.

So my job is to communicate the facts, and that's what I do. You know, 20 years ago, even 10 years ago, data centers, if you look at Virginia, where they started, the majority of them are still there, it used a lot of water.

CORNISH: Uh-huh.

O'LEARY: And it caused prices to go up when it was attached --

CORNISH: And it still uses a lot of power in general.

O'LEARY: Well, you cannot attach the grid anymore. The Utah project contemplates bringing new power to Utah.

CORNISH: Uh-huh.

O'LEARY: All of the power will be created from that gas pipeline that runs through there, and will give back to the community, will generate enough power that some percentage of it will go back to the grid.

CORNISH: Can I show you the polling on this? Quinnipiac --

O'LEARY: Sure. CORNISH: -- was people were asked, do you support the building of an A.I. data center in your community?

Sixty-five percent oppose, 11 percent not convinced. I guess there's your -- the people you can go after that 11 percent.

O'LEARY: I would also ask a question. Would you prefer China leads the race in A.I.? I mean, that's really the problem we're having.

If you want China to overtake our ability to develop cutting edge technology, you stop data centers. So that's the cause and effect of it all.

And I go out and say to people, look, last year alone, China lit up 400 gigawatts of power using coal burning plants. There is no permitting there. There's a big guy that says, build that plant or I'll kill you. And that works really well if you want to live in a society like that.

We have to go through the permitting process here. We've got to compete on power and we need to compete on A.I.

CORNISH: Well, not just a permitting process. People, like freedom of speech. People are able to say to you, unlike in China, we don't want this.

O'LEARY: There's a consequence to it. If you want China to lead, take over our -- let's call it our democracy, our free speech, and the way we live with technology. Just stop building data centers. It's that simple.

There is a downside to stopping this technology advance.

CORNISH: Well, I do think this is going to become an issue in the midterms as more and more people push back.

ASHLEY DAVIS, FORMER WHITE HOUSE OFFICIAL UNDER PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Well, Jeffries came out yesterday and said that that's going to be his number one issue, is to block all new data centers.

I don't -- I think this has become such a political issue that people don't really understand what's happening. I mean, yes, back in the day when we started on these projects, it -- there was electricity being taken off or power being taken off the grid. That's not happening anymore.

CORNISH: I think that -- I think of it differently. I don't think of Democrats in particular as leading indicators on issues that the public cares about, I can see them as lagging indicators, which means people already care about this and maybe a world of workers who feel misled by globalization, which also was supposed to make everything better and was also supposed to lift all boats. And in the end, they feel like they didn't get that are hearing the same exact arguments with A.I. and feeling, I'm good. I've heard this before.

O'LEARY: Yeah. Well, if you actually ask them, do they use it every day? You're going to find out more and more people just daily are using the tool for various things and where it manifests itself the most right now, which is rather remarkable.

And here's a good thing to your job issue. Two years ago, if you were a creator, a video creator or editor, storyteller, a videographer, any of those, your average pay was about $70,000 a year. Today, I hire those people, they make as much as $600,000 a year. If theyre able to reduce customer acquisition costs and increase ROAS, return on ad spend.

I'm not kidding. A kid that's 28 years old that can actually, on a weekly basis, prove that they can reduce the customer acquisition costs, will make $600,000 a year.

CORNISH: So I know it's in your group chat now.

O'LEARY: Well, my point is --

CORNISH: Yeah.

O'LEARY: -- those are A.I. tools they're using to create that content for S&P 500 companies and small companies.

This is a remarkable change. So all of a sudden, it's created a whole new generation of artists that are making money.

CORNISH: Well, given Hollywood's pushback, I think there's a lot of questions there. And I do think you have a bit of an uphill battle convincing the general public, it's going to be for them. I look forward to hearing you make it.

O'LEARY: Well, I'm up for it. That's why they call me Mr. Wonderful.

CORNISH: I believe it, I believe it.

I want to thank you so much for being on the show and for chatting with us.

And we want to let you know we are still following the news of the fallout from the shooter in the White House Correspondents weekend. We are also going to be talking ahead about the visit from King Charles and Queen Camilla.

All that ahead, including a joint address to Congress.

I'm Audie Cornish, and I want you to stay with us because the headlines are next.