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Tornadoes Leave Trail Of Damage In Texas And Oklahoma; DOJ Charges Comey With Threatening Trump In Seashell Post; Today: Royal Couple Visits New York City; Kimmel Pushes Back On Trump Again In Last Night's Monologue. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired April 29, 2026 - 06:30   ET

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

FAISAL ABBAS, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, ARAB NEWS: You know, a decision to fire $4 million Patriot missile or $2 million Tomahawk missiles to bring down $20,000 Iranian drones every time they were -- they were fired because the priority was to protect citizens and residents, not to mention the impact on tourism and business.

[06:30:23]

So it's only natural for countries to take corrective measures or take measures that it is in their best interest to help rebuild their economy in such circumstances.

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: Well, we'll see what that means for the cartel and therefore for global production.

Thank you for this context, Faisal, thanks so much.

Now, straight ahead on CNN this morning, the FCC is decided to step in and order a review of ABC's broadcast licenses after Jimmy Kimmel's joke about the first lady. We're going to question whether or not this is a scare tactic.

Plus, the extreme weather continues in the south as the sun comes up, communities are looking at a lot of damage after a possible tornado.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:35:31]

CORNISH: Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish. I want to thank you for joining me on CNN THIS MORNING. It is half past the hour.

And we continue to follow this breaking news out of the Southern Plains. Yet a possible twister that destroyed parts of a small Texas town. You're looking at homes that had been splintered, vehicles flipped over, power lines snapped in half. This morning, authorities plan to survey the damage in mineral wells, which is just outside of Fort Worth. At least two people have been hospitalized.

In Oklahoma, the cleanup continues after a possible tornado leveled buildings and left power lines bent in half. One man watched as heavy machinery cleared out what was left of his home, which was basically just debris

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHASE HUNTER, LOST HIS HOME: I almost busted into tears. I mean, it's just -- it's not something you ever really expect to have to see I mean, you know, you see people being distraught about it, but you don't realize how distraught it makes you until you just see everything in a pile of trash. Man, it's -- it's not something anybody should have to go through.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: That's in Oklahoma. The threat is not over yet. Across the region, damaging winds, large hail, and a few more tornadoes are all possible again today.

Now also happening right now. We are waiting to see if former FBI Director James Comey will turn himself in after getting indicted again. The Justice Department saying this post from last May, in which a group of seashells spell out the phrase "86 47" was a threat. Now, at the time, Comey actually removed the post and said he didn't realize people associated "86" with violence.

And King Charles and Queen Camilla head to New York City today. They're going to begin their trip just a few hours from now with an event at the 9/11 memorial. They'll eventually head back to D.C. tonight.

And Jimmy Kimmel not backing down after the FCC ordered an early review of ABC's broadcast licenses. Kimmel made a joke about Melania Trump being an expected widow. It was a few days ago, before the White House Correspondents Dinner and the attempted attack there.

Now, the lone Democrat on the FCC, Anna Gomez, wants ABC's parent company Disney to resist the Trump administration on this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNA GOMEZ, FCC COMMISSIONER: What we need is for broadcasters and networks like Disney and ABC to push back and to stand up for the First Amendment, because that is the choice. You either stand up for the first amendment or and freedom of speech, or you surrender it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Kimmel is not letting up. And he was basically throwing the presidents words back at him last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They were married for 63 years. And excuse me, if you don't mind. That's a record we won't be able to match, darling, I'm sorry. It's just not going to work out that way.

JIMMY KIMMEL, LATE NIGHT HOST: Wait a minute. Did he just make a joke about his death? My God. You should be fired for that.

Only Donald Trump would demand I be fired for making a joke about his old age. And then a day later, go out and make a joke about his own old age.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: All right. Group chat is back.

I wanted to talk about this because it's obviously not the first go around for Kimmel in the White House. And last time around, the backlash was so big that I feel like you're seeing Kimmel emboldened.

ELEANOR MUELLER, WHITE HOUE ECONOMIC POLICY REPORTER, SEMAFOR: You are. And he's doing this under a CEO who's only had the job for about six weeks. He would not have made those comments last night if the CEO hadn't given him some kind of signal. I think --

CORNISH: Oh, I see, you mean so its even a different CEO from the last time this battle happened.

MUELLER: So, it is. And I think the consensus is that if the FCC indeed rule against Disney and they take this to the courts, the courts will be on their side. And so, theyre proceeding accordingly.

But I think it's worth reiterating just how much we've seen the Trump administration try and pursue legal action like this. That has not been borne out by the justices. When it comes time. And I think that this will be no exception.

CORNISH: Yeah. And of course, you know, interestingly, Carr was at the White House correspondents dinner, I think, sort of smiling at everyone in that face that said, I'll yank your license if you say the wrong thing.

Ben Shapiro on Monday had a comment about this, and I want to play it for you because you and I have talked on set before about the idea of like, it's free speech.

[06:40:03]

We only care about free speech. In London, they don't have free speech until it comes to saying certain things about Trump. And here is how he talked about it online.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEN SHAPIRO, HOST, "THE BEN SHAPIRO SHOW": I'd be the first person to celebrate Jimmy Kimmel being on the unemployment line for being bad at his job, and for some of the other things that he said. But getting Jimmy Kimmel for saying what he said on Thursday is like getting Al Capone for tax evasion. You're hitting him with the wrong charge.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: How do you guys walk this line? TERRY SCHILLING, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN PRINCIPLES PROJECT: Well, first

of all, I just got to say I do feel bad for all my Democratic friends who have to pretend that Jimmy Kimmel is funny. He is a far cry from --

(CROSSTALK)

CORNISH: Hey, we're not here for comedy critiques. I mean, okay --

SCHILLING: No, no, I just got to say that --

CORNISH: I'm here for free speech arguments. What is the argument now that Republicans are in power about how to deal with free speech?

SCHILLING: Well, the reality is, is that theyre playing a game. Jimmy Kimmel is obviously playing a game. He's getting as close to that line as possible to cause controversy, to get more eyeballs. But the reality is, is if you make jokes about the president's death, you get looked at, you get investigated.

The FBI, the Secret Service, comes to your door. But this, its just kind of annoying to me because you have James Comey and, Kimmel like running from the bit. If you're going to make the joke, commit to it.

Don't be a coward. You made the jokes, you said the things you were trying to be edgy, own it.

ANTJUAN SEAWRIGHT, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Respectfully, I don't think you want to address the real issue here. And the real issue is convenient speech. Republicans want to celebrate and uplift convenient speech. What this says to me is this is another page in the catalog to silence and suffocate the voices of people who do not agree with the president and this administration. We've seen this at the ballot box with some of the tactics --

CORNISH: What do you mean by convenient speech? Can I ask you a follow-up?

SEAWRIGHT: Because they uplift free speech when it's convenient for them or when it fits the mold or the mold? They wanted to. But yet when someone criticized the president or we see resistance to the idea of what conservatives who are in charge believe, then all of a sudden, it becomes a problem.

CORNISH: Yeah.

SEAWRIGHT: And I think state run media is what Republicans in this moment are aiming for.

CORNISH: What's the complication for Democrats, who for many years, especially on the progressive left, used -- were like, words are violence?

SEAWRIGHT: Well, there's a difference between using violent words at the same period of time, criticizing those who are in power. The king referenced it in his speech yesterday. Checks and balances, checks and balances does not always have to come from the Congress. It can come from the American people.

CORNISH: Yeah.

SCHILLING: I just got to say, like, the convenient speech thing is rich, because I'm old enough to remember when Biden's DOJ was going after parents as domestic terrorists simply for showing up at their school board meetings to voice their concerns about what was going on in their kids' schools.

CORNISH: So having been to some of those meetings, it was pretty intense. But yes.

SCHILLING: It was. But like, okay, it's one thing to criticize Trump. I think we're all okay with people criticizing him after these 10 years. We've seen a lot of criticism. We're used to it by now. But this is crossing a line.

SEAWRIGHT: But --

SCHILLING: The Democrats go after the people.

SEAWRIGHT: Name a time when anyone from the Biden-Harris administration threaten the license of a TV network.

SCHILLING: Because the TV networks are all on them. And there were calls to go after Fox, period. There were calls to go after Fox networks.

CORNISH: I don't think networks treated Biden with loving care. I mean, they could have easily complained about coverage in the same way.

SEAWRIGHT: They raised hell to get positive coverage about things like the Biden-Harris administration were doing on behalf of the American people.

SCHILLING: We were told that Joe Biden was at the height of his game while he's clearly suffering --

SEAWRIGHT: You still cannot name a time in which the Biden-Harris FCC --

SCHILLING: Name a conservative that was doing that --

SEAWRIGHT: -- Went after a TV network, or threatened a TV network for their license. You certainly cannot name a time Joe Biden or Kamala Harris posted on social media threatening.

CORNISH: Let me stop you guys for one second. One, we have to go to other topics. But two, because I think it's pretty clear that in the in the age of the attention economy, the sheer volume of people saying things that people in power wouldn't like, I mean, clearly, the president is even dealing with that right now on the MAGA, right over the war with Iran.

And I'm hearing some pretty vicious things being said there. So to me, you're either a free speech absolutist or you start -- oh, well -- when there's a new --

(CROSSTALK)

SCHILLING: That's not new, calls for violence --

MUELLER: The FCC obscenity has indicated that this is not actually related to what --

CORNISH: I think --

MUELLER; That's part of the problem is that we're litigating a different issue than free speech, with the subtext being free.

CORNISH: And we're also going over to Europe and telling them that phrase you just said, there are limits. It's like, whoa, slow down. What are you doing? I don't think people have settled on what their actual argument is here.

SCHILLING: But the United States law on, on, on free speech is very clear. The First Amendment has never protected libel, seditious libel or obscenity.

[06:45:01]

And I would count death threats under obscenity. But there have always been limits to the First Amendment. The Founding Fathers were clear about that.

CORNISH: I'll bring you back because I think there is a couple very strong conservative and right wing voices who would question where who draws that line and what that means.

All right, you guys, stay with me because we've got a Democratic Congressman, Bennie Thompson, who actually has dealt with a lot of death threats and things like that himself. So, I'm going to ask him about this so-called retribution campaign against current and former intelligence officials. What that does for the safety of America.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CORNISH: Okay, we're bringing into the chat, Congressman Bennie Thompson. He's a Democrat of Mississippi, and he is also a ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee.

We've talked in the past, and I know just from covering you that you have dealt with death threats.

[06:50:02]

You have dealt with language -- threatening language.

But Democrats have often in the past talked about language as being threatening. So where do you stand on that line of like, what's free speech and what are the limits of that?

REP. BENNIE THOMPSON (D-MS): Well, first of all, thank you so much for having me.

CORNISH: Of course.

THOMPSON: I'm a firm believer in freedom of speech.

As a young African-American from Mississippi, I was often subjected to threats even back then, but just arguing for the fact that people should have the right to vote, people should be able to assemble anywhere. People should be able to eat anywhere, ride public accommodations and sit anywhere, and was considered a radical or troublemaker. So, we have to be careful on how we label people.

And so, fast forward to where we are now, it appears that the government is being weaponized against people who say things that the current administration doesn't like.

CORNISH: Yeah.

THOMPSON: Whether it's challenging the license of a station. For someone like me, pretty much every time I'm on the air and something is said that another individual doesn't like, I get all kind of calls, threats, and what have you just for being able to say anything.

CORNISH: Can I interrupt you here? Because right now, James Comey is facing another indictment for this image he posted in seashells that say, "86 46" and has -- sorry, "47"and, the Trump administration is saying, look, real credible threat.

I don't know if you've seen the charging documents. Is there anything that convinces you that could be the case?

THOMPSON: Well, that's a good example of weaponizing government against an individual you don't like. It's no secret that the president does not like James Comey, but that's no reason to try to craft charges against him.

You know, if that was the standard, Audie, we wouldn't have enough judges to accommodate all the charges.

Politics is a contact sport, but you can't throw a punch and not receive a punch. And so, what our president needs to do is just -- become an adult in the room and understand that where he is, he has to take punches and he gives punches.

CORNISH: Yeah. But even with the number of, you know, actual attempts on his life, doesn't it have new stakes when we have seen very publicly that he is under threat?

THOMPSON: That's right. And let me let me be clear, any of those type threats, we have to use the fullest extent of the law to prevent it. There's no question about it.

But sometimes, we also have to look at the other side and say, well, when you're saying that when someone dies, I'm glad they're dead. You know, you're the president of the United States. You have to set the high watermark for who we are as Americans. CORNISH: Right.

THOMPSON: So you can't run government at 2:00 a.m. in the morning. You have to talk to people. You have to be able to respond. You can't call people nasty and vile names because they ask tough questions.

You ask for the job of becoming president of the United States. So now that you're in the number one position in this great country in terms of election --

CORNISH: Yeah.

THOMPSON: -- you are expected to answer the tough questions.

(CROSSTALK)

CORNISH: Now, I have a -- let me jump in here. I have -- yeah, I have one other question for you because it's related to another Justice Department indictment. I want to make sure I get it in. I'm sorry to interrupt you.

I know that the DOJ has indicted the Southern Poverty Law Center for alleged donor fraud. Now, they've long been a group that has a lot of purchase on the left because they go after extremists, people they deem extremist. And now the Justice Department is saying that they had a paid informant program.

Are you going to accept their endorsement of you, their political endorsement?

THOMPSON: Oh, absolutely. They've done a lot of good work in this country. And look, work that had it not been for the Southern Poverty Law Center, a lot of good things would not have happened and a lot of bad things wouldn't have come to light.

[06:55:02]

My information is that it was a cherry-picked indictment that did not include all the information necessary for the grand jury to look at it. So that is up for consideration at this point. And look, FBI has used informants. Other law enforcement agencies have used informants. We in the South, many of the people we've charged with heinous crimes would not have been solved had it not been for the work of informants. Informants are part of the investigative process.

So now, just because you don't like the group, you're trying to come up with some charge --

CORNISH: Yeah.

THOMPSON: -- that is just like the charge. It will get thrown out in a court of law.

CORNISH: Okay. Congressman Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, thank you for your time.

THOMPSON: Thank you

CORNISH: All right, you guys, I have to ask, what did you think of his argument about free speech?

SCHILLING: Well, I -- it goes back to what we were actually just discussing, which is I heard him say, I fully support the First Amendment and freedom of speech. But then as soon as it crossed over to the threats category, we need to use the full extent of the law. Those are two contradicting positions there, and it seems to contradicting, but there is a limit on free speech.

Believe it or not. Seditious libel, libel and obscenity, they aren't protected by the First Amendment.

CORNISH: All right. We're going to talk about what is in our group chats, because its been a week and its only Wednesday, folks.

So, Antoine, what's going on in your world?

SEAWRIGHT: So my mother on January 11th had a massive hemorrhagic stroke in which blood settled on her midbrain. There were medical experts who did not think she would make any type of recovery, but I'm happy to report her trache has been removed. My mom has started.

CORNISH: Is this a recent photo we're looking at?

SEAWRIGHT: Last year, her birthday. My mom turned 70 on April the 3rd. Good Friday. Trache has been removed. She's starting to sample with liquids including water, applesauce and we just moved her to her second rehab facility. So, the prayers of the righteous availeth much, and I'm just so thankful.

CORNISH: Well, I appreciate you. I'm glad to hear that she is.

SEAWRIGHT: Doing this is on the heels after I lost my father on November 20th of 2025. So it's been a journey.

CORNISH: It has. Thank you, Antjuan.

I hear we have another -- more family news in our chat.

SCHILLING: Well, we -- my wife and I --

CORNISH: Baby emoji, baby emoji.

SCHILLNG: Yeah, that's right. So, my wife and I just had number eight a little boy. It's our fifth boy. And we got him baptized this past Sunday. And --

CORNISH: What -- can we just zoom in on his face? What is the moisturizer situation? You have eight children. What? What? Oh, is that a skateboard? I'm here for it.

SCHILLING: Well, we had a punk rock concert in our backyard to celebrate.

CORNISH: What was the name of this band?

SCHILLING: Holding a Grunge, huge shout out to them?

CORNISH: A shout out to Holding a Grudge.

SCHILLING: Holdingagrunge.com, I think is their website. They were so good with the kids. They played amazing music.

It was a really great time and there were so many young kids there and families.

CORNISH: And all of them yours.

SCHILLING: Half of them, half of them. Half of them were --

CORNISH: Was there a mosh pit?

SCHILLING: Yeah. There was -- sorry to be one, but I had to break up the four-year-olds.

CORNISH: Yeah.

Okay. Welcome to the chat. What's in your group chat?

MUELLER: Well, nothing but "Summer House" drama.

CORNISH: Oh my God, you're a "Summer House" person. Team Ciara. But continue.

MUELLER: Team Ciara. They leaked audio of the reunion.

CORNISH: I know. All right. So here's a news story -- basically these reunions are big money makers. And someone leaked audio from the taping ahead of the actual airing. And I know people were annoyed because you're messing with the bag then, right? Not because it's not like a journalistic crime.

MUELLER: Yeah. They say Andy Cohen on the person, he was like, you can't be doing this.

CORNISH: Yeah.

MUELLER: But yeah, lots of drama.

CORNISH: There's like Watergate. And then there's like the "Summer House" reunion league basically.

MUELLER: And the Venn diagram of reporters and people who watch "Summer House" is really a circle. Oh, there's a lot of mutual interest there. So that's what's happening in my group chats right.

CORNISH: Now in my group chat is this picture of the new image of Trump on passports. I, I already have an image of him on my National Parks annual membership card, which I kind of made sense because it was like Washington to now. Is there anything he won't put his face on that we pay for as taxpayers? SCHILLING: Well, look, first and foremost, my daughter is 14. We just

got her a passport and I was disappointed, but I am --

CORNISH: You wanted to get one of these?

SCHILLING: I wanted to get one of those 100 percent but I'm just disappointed that they didn't use his mugshot as the as the picture in there, because that's --

CORNISH: His chyron. It needs to say Republican.

SEAWRIGHT: I wish Barack Obama -- I wish Barack Obama, the first African American president, would have had these opportunities to put his name.

SCHILLING: He did. Oh, everyone knows.

CORNISH: Before we go, I have to show the example to see if this is comparable. Barack Obama on, you guessed it, an inaugural card. Not quite the same thing. I'm sorry to say.

SCHILLING: He's not as good looking.

CORNISH: Doesn't last as long as, you know, a passport. But listen, you got plenty of kids. One of them is going to get one.

SCHILLING: No. Well, we might even redo passports for the whole family.

CORNISH: All right. Thanks for being in the group chat. Thanks for being with us.

The headlines are next.

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