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Comey Arrest Warrant Over Social Media Post; King Charles Uses Humor in Speech at State Dinner; UAE to quit OPEC. Aired 6-6:30a ET
Aired April 29, 2026 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[06:00:12]
AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: Today in the group chat, another day, another indictment of James Comey. Is this time are we going to see a solid case or a rush to appease the president?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TODD BLANCHE, ACTING U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: Threatening the life of the president of the United States will never be tolerated.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: All right. So, can these writings in the sand be considered a threat?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You either stand up for the First Amendment or -- and -- and freedom of speech, or you surrender it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: The FCC has ordered a review of ABC's broadcast licenses after Jimmy Kimmel's widow joke. Will Disney's new boss blink?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KING CHARLES III, UNITED KINGDOM: Dare I say that, if it wasn't for us, you'd be speaking French?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: King Charles brings the jokes and some thinly-veiled jabs. Did this charm offensive work?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Republicans decided not to pass it. We own title for the shutdown right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: And that standoff over money for DHS, it continues. I'm going to talk to one of the Democrats leading the fight. Will they get anything that they wanted?
CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.
Now we are seeing tornadoes, hail, and flooding leave a trail of destruction across the Southern Plains overnight.
Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish. I want to start with this breaking news, because you're looking at new video from Texas. Parts of a small town have been flattened.
You're looking at homes, buildings, vehicles, power lines torn apart by a tornado in Mineral Wells. That's just a few hours out of Fort Worth.
At least two people had to be hospitalized.
In Oklahoma, another possible twister shredded structures. It also bent power lines sideways.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just kind of tough to open that shelter and see it, because you don't realize it. You know, being that impactful. You see it on the online all the time, houses being destroyed. But then when you really see it being your own, it makes you want to vomit.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Hey, that was in Oklahoma. In Arkansas, they were dealing with both tornadoes and flooding.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've got to get out of here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: In Missouri, massive hail pelted cars in Springfield. Video from the airport showing windows smashed, and there were reports of hail from anywhere from a quarter-size to the size of a baseball.
Unfortunately, the threat has not passed. Severe thunderstorms could hit parts of Arkansas, Missouri, and Texas. Damaging winds, large hail, and a few more tornadoes are all still possible.
We're also following this developing story out of Washington. The new arrest warrant issued for former FBI director James Comey.
Right now, it's unclear if he's going to be taken into custody by law enforcement or if he's going to get to turn himself in.
Comey is now facing a second indictment, and it's over This post from last year. This is when Comey shared this image of -- those are seashells, and they spell out "86-47."
A grand jury has now charged him with making a threat against the president And transmitting a threat in interstate commerce. This morning, Comey remains defiant.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMES COMEY, FORMER FBI DIRECTOR: Well, they're back; this time about a picture of seashells on a North Carolina beach a year ago. And this won't be the end of it. But nothing has changed with me. I'm still innocent. I'm still not afraid.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Now, if sentenced, he could face up to ten years in prison, if he was found guilty. And this is how President Trump has talked about it back then.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: He knew exactly what that meant. A child knows what that meant. If you're the FBI director, and you don't know what that meant, that meant assassination. And it says it loud and clear.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: So, Comey actually removed the post that same day. And at the time he called it a political message, saying that he, quote, "didn't realize" that some folks associate those numbers with violence.
So, the big question this morning is, will this even make it to court? If it does, how will prosecutors actually prove intent?
[06:05:03]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BLANCHE: There has been a tremendous amount of investigation. And how do you prove intent in any case? You prove intent with witnesses, with documents, with the defendant himself, to the extent -- to the extent it's appropriate. And that's how we'll prove intent in this case.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Joining me now is Bradley Moss. He's a national security attorney.
All right. So, this is not the first go-around for Comey. But what makes this case different?
BRADLEY MOSS, NATIONAL SECURITY ATTORNEY: What is odd here -- and good morning, by the way.
CORNISH: Yes.
MOSS: What is odd here is how preposterous this case is, even more so than the first case they tried against former Director Comey.
Let's be clear here. There would be two elements that they would eventually, essentially, have to prove to win this case at trial. They not only have to prove that this is a true threat, that this is not just political hyperbole, which everybody and their mother knows it was.
But they also have to prove -- they also have to prove subjective intent. They'd have to prove that he consciously disregarded and recklessly disregarded a substantial likelihood that this would be viewed as a threat by others.
Good luck finding evidence for that. I know I heard the clip from the acting attorney general. He said, oh, we're going to have witnesses or documents. What are you going to have people who, you know, talk to him and got his confession? There's going to be nothing.
This is not about a conviction. This is the optics. This is it's 6:05 or so in the morning, and we have a headline that Comey has been indicted. That's what Donald Trump wanted.
CORNISH: It's funny. I had to go look up "86," because I'm like, I remember this from my teen waitressing job at the Ground Round.
MOSS: Yes.
CORNISH: Like, it -- it means to throw out, or to get rid of, or to refuse service to. And speaking of, to refuse service to, do you think that there is a question here about whether the Justice Department, you know, may have questions about this retribution campaign.
I want to show you the lineup of people who have been under investigation.
As you can see, Letitia James. Her indictment was dismissed. But is the journey the destination. Is the point just getting all of these people into the system and forced to stand up in court the way Trump felt he was?
MOSS: Yes, that has been the entire premise of all of this. Look at all these different cases. Look at how many convictions. Zero, zippo, nada. It was never about getting these people in jail.
He wants them to feel the quote, unquote "pain" he felt, because he felt embarrassed. He was insulted, offended that he ever had to be held accountable for something.
And so, in his view, anybody who did that has to be put through this, has to have cases brought against them, if for nothing else, than to get these headlines, to get these optics and say, I'm taking down the people who tried to take me down. It's a joke.
And as you noted, yes, when you go to the -- when you go to the diner, and you say, I'll have a burger and fries. 86 the bacon, the chef doesn't take the bacon outside and shoot it. They just don't include it with the burger.
CORNISH: Yes. I mean, you didn't work at the Ground Round in the 1990s. But yes, I would say that we're in these stories perpetually, right? Of sort of like who's indicted now?
And I guess I just was curious about this case because, I mean, half of the Internet is constantly saying insane things at any given time. And I guess I wanted to know if this opened the door for anything else.
MOSS: It could open the door to so many different prosecutions, if this were to somehow survive. Which let's be clear, the Supreme Court just ruled on this three years ago, including two of Trump's Supreme Court justices that he put on the bench. This isn't going anywhere.
But if its somehow did survive, Jack Posobiec, you know, the famous right-wing influencer wrote the same thing about Joe Biden. He wrote, "86-46." He should be indicted, then. That's going to be exhibit one in James Comey's pretrial motions about selective prosecution.
Donald Trump, as a private citizen, posted images of Joe Biden, you know, tied up and kidnaped on the back of a truck. That could meet this standard if it were to be so ridiculously expanded.
This would be preposterous. It's going nowhere. Donald Trump doesn't care. He just wants the optics.
CORNISH: OK. Brad Moss, thank you so much. Appreciate it.
MOSS: Any time.
CORNISH: Coming up on CNN THIS MORNING, we're going to talk about some daycare centers that were raided. The Trump administration is looking for fraud.
And as federal agents return to Minneapolis, we're going to be watching that.
Plus, is it a Gulf realignment? Why the UAE is leaving OPEC.
And rage bait? The White House trolls America with a "two kings" post before President Trump and King Charles toasts at a state dinner. And I'm sure the group chat is going to have thoughts about that.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:14:08]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KING CHARLES: I cannot help noticing the readjustments to the East Wing, Mr. President following your visit to Windsor Castle last year. And I'm sorry to say that we British, of course, made our own small attempt at real-estate redevelopment of the White House in 1814.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Yes, it was the full-on charm offensive yesterday from King Charles in his visit to the U.S. as they talked about that special relationship between the U.S. and the U.K., which, frankly, has hit a rough patch over the war with Iran.
So, during last night's state dinner at the White House, the president said the king is on his side.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We're doing a little Middle East work right now, too, if you might know. We're doing very well. We have militarily defeated that particular opponent, and we're never going to let that opponent ever -- Charles agrees with me even more than I do. We're never going to let that opponent have a nuclear weapon. They know that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[06:15:11]
CORNISH: But the king had his own view, which he delivered with a delicate touch of British humor.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KING CHARLES: We have had our moments of difficulty, even in more recent history. When my mother visited in 1957, not the least of her tasks was to help put the special back into our relationship after a crisis in the Middle East.
Nearly 70 years on, it is hard to imagine anything like that happening today.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: All right. So, in the group chat today, Eleanor Mueller, White House economic policy reporter at "Semafor"; Terry Schilling, president of the American Principles Project; and Antjuan Seawright, Democratic strategist.
Now, Eleanor, I want to start with you, because we are living in the age of -- I call it edgelord diplomacy. Like, I as a reporter, finding things out on Twitter. Yes, the Iranian leadership post, their propaganda is all modern and online in a way that sucks.
So, it was actually very weird to see this moment that is defined by restraint.
ELEANOR MUELLER, WHITE HOUSE ECONOMIC POLICY REPORTER, "SEMAFOR": Yes, we saw Trump do -- opt out of a lot of things in the last couple of days that he normally does. He did not, for example, while the king was here, bring reporters into the Oval Office to field questions on every topic imaginable like he usually does.
And so clearly, he's walking a very careful line for him as far as mending this relationship with the U.K.
And that's what we heard from Republican senators all week that they want, you know, the No. 1 thing they said they hoped would come out of this was an improved relationship. CORNISH: From Republican senators you heard this?
MUELLER: Oh, yes.
CORNISH: Oh, no. Say more. What are they? Because obviously this relationship has been damaged with Keir Starmer's response to the president's requests when it comes to the war on Iran.
MUELLER: Exactly. And there's even more than that. You know, there's Trump's attacks on NATO. There's the administration's accusations that the British government is censoring conservative voices.
And I was speaking to Senator Collins yesterday as she was getting in an elevator. She was asked, what do you want to see out of Trump's visit with the king?
And she said, you know, mended bridges, improved relationships. And so well see whether or not the camaraderie that we've watched in the last 24 hours actually lasts beyond this.
CORNISH: Yes. Although there were some CNN reports with leaked comments from a British ambassador saying the U.S.'s only special relationship is probably Israel.
And I thought that was a very telling kind of thing to leak, right, ahead of this meeting. Just knowing how sources in Washington tend to operate.
TERRY SCHILLING, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN PRINCIPLES PROJECT: Well, look, I think the United States and the U.K. have a 200-year friendship. It spanned that course of history, and it's going well. And I think yesterday was a good reminder that --
CORNISH: It seems not going well. It seems like, if you're Keir Starmer, you're like, this is not going well.
SCHILLING: I understand. OK, but -- but what you just said about the online edgelord discourse is everyone wants to build hysteria. Every little disagreement is going to be a mountain out of a molehill.
And I think it's really important to reflect that we have a 200-year relationship with the U.K. They are our greatest ally, period. No one comes close.
And I think it's important just to know that you have friendships, you have relationships. There's going to be ups and downs, you're going to have disagreement points. This is one of those disagreement points. President Trump's right to keep that --
CORNISH: Yes. Because during the speech I was -- sort of have my eye on J.D. Vance, because he's always going to Europe and going to the U.K. and being like, this is a horrible place. You have no free speech. Like, everything is bad here.
And it was interesting, because Charles and the monarchy, fundamentally, it's very limited the power that they have. SCHILLING: Yes.
CORNISH: And yet, the White House, they see something else. Speaking of the trolling, here's the White House Twitter feed where it says, "Two kings," which I think was designed to irritate you, Antoine. It says, "Two kings." And it was like, ha ha, Antjuan. Is that how you see It?
WRIGHT: Well, they certainly have -- that's -- I think that's certainly how the president wants to present and position themselves at times. But a couple takeaways from his remarks. The king's remarks, I think, are very important.
Is that executive power is subject to checks and balances.
CORNISH: Yes.
SEAWRIGHT: That's a friendly reminder to the Congress that they have an obligation and a responsibility to be oversight to the executive branch, and that democracy should be safeguarded.
We're having serious conversations around democracy in this country, and that's so important.
I also think that democracy is not the will of one. Comments from the king. We've seen this president. We've seen what government overreach looks like, particularly in this iteration of this administration. I think his remarks yesterday were friendly reminders to the American people, but also to the Congress about what we cannot tolerate going forward.
CORNISH: It feels like you're giving the text to this subtext. I'm going to play this last piece of tape before we go to break. This is the king in his speech to Congress, where he references the Magna Carta. And then it ends in a place that nods to today.
[06:20:05]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KING CHARLES III: The Magna Carta is cited in at least 160 Supreme Court cases since 1789, not least as the foundation of the principle that executive power is subject to checks and balances.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: King Charles, speaking to Congress yesterday in a joint session.
You guys stay with me. We have more to talk about today.
After the break on CNN THIS MORNING, we're going to talk about that bad weather, that twister that flattened parts of a small Texas town. Then you've got a lot of damage this morning.
Plus, cocaine hippos have become a big problem for Colombia. I did not make that up. Now a new group is stepping in to save them.
In the meantime, good morning to Philly. Congrats to the 76ers, surviving elimination last night against the Boston Celtics. Game six tomorrow in Philly.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:25:18]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you see 6.75 on that sign, what do you think?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's killing me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just came for the drinks, you know? I mean, because it's cheaper to get a drink here than it is to get, you know, gas.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: OK. Needless to say, gas prices are up because oil prices are up again this morning as the Strait of Hormuz remains closed.
And there's now a new blow to the global oil production world as the UAE announced it is leaving OPEC. And that's that group of about a dozen oil-rich countries. They coordinate oil production policies. They influence the global supply. And that includes Iran, Iraq, Libya and Saudi Arabia.
And the UAE wants to up its oil production. That's long been prevented by OPEC's quotas. The UAE says the timing is right for their exit.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SUHAIL AL MAZROUEI, UAE ENERGY MINISTER: The timing, we believe, is right because it will not impact significantly the market and the price, because the Strait of Hormuz is closed, and it's restricted. So, everyone is constrained, including us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: So, joining me now is Faisal Abbas. He's the editor in chief of "Arab News."
Good morning. Thank you for being with us.
FAISAL ABBAS, EDITOR IN CHIEF, "ARAB NEWS": Pleasure to be with you, Audie. Thank you.
CORNISH: So, I think most of us hear about OPEC because it has such a say in the global supply. What does it mean when a country leaves? What can they take advantage of as a result? And does it actually affect the supply for the rest of us?
ABBAS: Well, look, to start with, it is -- you know, the United Arab Emirates is a sovereign state. It is absolutely their decision.
To broadly define what OPEC does, it's a coalition of the willing, if you want, for countries coming together to try and stabilize energy markets. That is the core purpose of OPEC.
This is why there are regulations in place. There are production caps. Sometimes they increase production. Sometimes they're lower productions. And the main aim is to stabilize the energy markets.
As for the UAE deciding to leave, you know, as I said earlier, it is their sovereign right. There has been precedent of other countries leaving OPEC, including countries from the GCC.
But, you know, as I'm coming to you today from London, where I happen to be visiting, it's the equivalent of the United Kingdom deciding to leave Europe. It's completely within their rights. And they must have done their own calculations and cost and benefits.
CORNISH: Yes. But I want to know the context of this. We have the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed with this blockade on both sides.
We have Saudi-UAE tensions, right, and the regions. Maybe they've always wanted to leave.
And then just this morning, pretty much while you and I are talking, Donald Trump puts out this tweet. And it's an image of him, and it says, "No more Mr. Nice Guy." The image is doctored with him with a weapon in his hand.
He says Iran can't get its act together and that they don't know how to sign a non-nuclear deal. They better get smart soon.
This does not say to me that talks will resume soon. The Strait of Hormuz will open again, and oil will flow.
ABBAS: Well, I mean, allow me to unpack that. There's -- there's a lot there.
First of all, you're rightly pointing out that some people might be reading that there is possibly geopolitical tensions behind the decision of the UAE leaving.
As I said earlier, it's purely a mathematical economic decision and unsurprising given the postwar economy many Gulf countries now have to face.
In fact, President Trump, just a few days ago, is on the record saying that the U.S. is considering offering the UAE financial support. There's been talks about a currency swap between the Emirati dirham and the U.S. dollar.
This is not surprising that the UAE wants now to make decisions to help reshape its economy. Two factors are at play here.
One, as we've -- you've alluded and we've seen in the clip earlier, there's been a shortage or a limitation of the ability of Gulf countries to export oil.
The UAE produces around 5 million barrels a day. That's a lot to be held, to be constrained.
CORNISH: Yes.
ABBAS: Or to be held.
The other fact is, like all Gulf countries, there has been a decision that no cost or effort should be spared in protecting citizens. And that meant, you know, a decision to fire $4 million Patriot missiles or $2 million Tomahawk missiles.
[06:30:00]
