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Erin Burnett Outfront
U.S. Official: Iran Still Has "Thousands Of Missiles" & Attack Drones; Artemis Astronauts Speak To OutFront; RFK Jr. Dodges Question On Report He Sliced Off Raccoon's Body Part. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired April 16, 2026 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:24]
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next:
The breaking news, a top Trump intelligence official warning Iran still has thousands of missiles, as Defense Secretary Hegseth compares Trump to Jesus as he attacks reporters for their war coverage.
And a top MAGA voice asks, quote, "What the F are we doing with this war?"
Plus, a very special interview OUTFRONT, the crew of the Artemis II. I'll sit down with the four astronauts who made human history circling the moon. What was it like to be 250,000 miles away from the Earth, where no human has ever been, and their unbreakable bond with each other?
And RFK, Jr. questioned about a new book which claims he once wrote in a journal that he chopped off the genitalia of a dead raccoon. The author of that new book, and there's a lot of insight in here, is our guest.
Let's go OUTFRONT.
(MUSIC)
BURNETT: And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.
And OUTFRONT tonight, we begin with the breaking news. A top Trump official warning about Iran tonight. It is the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, the DIA, Lieutenant General James Adams, testifying to Congress that Iran still retains thousands of missiles and attack drones capable of threatening American forces. This obviously, of course, despite a weeks-long bombardment by the U.S. and Israel on Iran.
It may be one reason that the president is trying to change the subject tonight on day 48 of the Iran war. You're looking at pictures where Trump is about to speak in Las Vegas. He's there to talk about the economy and his no tips on taxes plan. He's trying to change the conversation away from the war, which he seemed to suggest again today before he left for Vegas is all wrapped up and done.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Iran wants to make a deal, and were dealing very nicely with them. They're willing to do things today that they weren't willing to do two months ago. It's looking very good that we're going to make a deal with Iran, and it's going to be a good deal. It's going to be a deal with no nuclear weapons.
Now they have a new set of leaders, and we find them very reasonable. They've agreed to give us back the nuclear dust. Its way underground
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Of course, it's unclear what the reality is, but if Trump is trying to move on, his Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, did not get the memo. Listen to Hegseth, during an extraordinary 30-minute press conference today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: We are locked and loaded on your critical dual use infrastructure, on your remaining power generation, and on your energy industry. We're ready to go at the command of our president and at the push of a button.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: He's saying this to the leaders of Iran, the very same people that Trump just called very reasonable.
And Hegseth continued to use God to justify the war, as he has done from the first day, even today, equating Trump with Jesus Christ, comparing reporters who cover the war to pharisees who conspired against Jesus.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HEGSETH: Our press are just like these pharisees, not all of you. Not all of you, but the legacy Trump-hating press, your politically motivated animus for President Trump nearly completely blinds you from the brilliance of our American warriors. The pharisees scrutinized every good act in order to find a violation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: And it's not just today. Weve heard Hegseth hide behind Christianity many times when it comes to this war.
But yesterday, the lines he quoted from the Bible -- well, they weren't. They were actually from Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction".
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SAMUEL L. JACKSON, ACTOR: The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men.
HEGSETH: The path of the downed aviator is beset on all sides by the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men.
JACKSON: Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and goodwill, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness. For he is truly his brother's keeper, and the finder of lost children.
HEGSETH: Blessed is he who, in the name of camaraderie and duty, shepherd the lost through the valley of darkness. For he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children.
JACKSON: And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger. Those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers.
[19:05:02]
HEGSETH: And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to capture and destroy my brother.
JACKSON: And you will know my name is the lord, when I lay my vengeance upon thee.
HEGSETH: And you will know my call sign is Sandy1 when I lay my vengeance upon thee.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Kristen Holmes is live at the White House.
And, Kristen, I know you have new information tonight about Trump's thinking around his team in the negotiations. What are you learning?
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, well, we've learned actually quite a bit about the way President Trump is presenting this. And what he's saying behind closed doors.
In terms of presentment, we know President Trump is saying that Vice President J.D. Vance is leading these talks. He has basically said that he's going to go back to Pakistan. Weve talked to the White House about this. And this is really the first time that the vice president has been thrust front and center with these negotiations.
But at the same time, President Trump, behind closed doors is asking allies and advisers how J.D. Vance is doing, asking them to rate his performance when it comes to these negotiations and just overall as vice president, even at times, he's trying to compare Marco Rubio and J.D. Vance, which gives you a little bit of an insight into what the next several months is going to look like as these people start gearing up for a potential presidential run in 2028.
So, we see this kind of President Trump playing kingmaker behind the scenes. And for the vice president, this is probably one of the biggest moments in his tenure as vice president. At the same time, it's not clear just how much actual backing or confidence he has from president Trump to the point where president Trump, who often does this, is asking others for their -- for their input as well.
BURNETT: All right. Kristen, thank you very much, at the White House. And everyone's here with me now.
Harrison Mann, former Army major, so you resigned from your post at the Defense Intelligence Agency over then-President Biden's stance on Gaza. But it is the head of your former agency, the DIA, that today, testified at Congress -- to Congress that Iran still has thousands of missiles and attack drones capable of hitting American forces. What does that tell you
MAJ. HARRISON MANN (RET.), FORMER EXECUTIVE OFFICER, DEFENSE INTELLIGENCE AGENCY'S MIDEAST CENTER: It tells us that we went into a war against a country that was not really a threat to the United States and did not have a proper plan to defeat them, if that's what we really wanted to do.
You know, Iran's government and Iran's military has been preparing for this. You could say at least since Trump's war against them in June. But really for years, if not decades.
How long have Trump and Hegseth been planning for this war? I don't know, January, maybe since the beginning of his term, whenever you want to say that Netanyahu or Lindsey Graham or whoever talked them into doing it. So, it's really not surprising that a country for whom this is an existential fight for survival is much better prepared than Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth.
BURNETT: Right. And when they're saying thousands of missiles, obviously that's significant. And I know there's been a lot of strikes, right, from military perspective. The military has done its job brilliantly, as Pete Hegseth says, they've done what they're told to do. But strategy is what determines the outcome of war.
MANN: Yeah, they've bombed the things that they were -- they were ordered to bomb. Yeah. But yeah, that's -- that's no substitute for strategy. That's no substitute for knowing where things are. And that really doesn't do anything. If you've got tons of missiles and drones deep underground, which is something we knew before the war.
BURNETT: Right, right. And all the places where they -- where they are. Obviously, if there's thousands left, Karim -- I mean, so far, Iran has not used the missiles that the DIA was talking about today, right?
They've got thousands of them. They haven't used them to strike U.S. ships in the blockade of the ports yet, right? Or to strike regional oilfields. They've threatened to do that.
And obviously, they have said it's going to be a, you know, tit for tat should the U.S. do what Hegseth is threatening to do, right? Hit all those power plants?
What is Iran's willingness to use those missiles and drones right now?
KARIM SADJADPOUR, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: You know, Erin, in the first -- let's say, five weeks of this war, I thought the most important deliberations that were happening were not between America and Iran, but between President Trump and himself as to what his strategy was going to be. Some days, he threatened to annihilate Iran, destroy their civilization. Other days, he wanted to declare victory and end the war.
I think now were in the most consequential debate is still not between America and Iran. It's within Tehran, between those who say, listen, we're under dire economic straits. Let's do a deal with the United States. And those who say, no, we need to resist. We can't trust the United States.
So far, we haven't seen, as you said, any missile attacks on either American ships or oil installations in the Persian Gulf. Nor have we seen the Houthis intervene to sabotage Saudi oil exports in the Red Sea.
[19:10:00]
But it's too early to say that the blockade has been successful.
BURNETT: So, Evelyn, when you think about these thousands of missiles and drones that are still in Iran, according to the DIA in that context, I want to play an exchange that just happened between Joe Rogan, obviously, the crucial podcaster who was instrumental in Trump's election, who is now very critical of this war, and the comedian David Cross.
Here's the exchange.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID CROSS, COMEDIAN: What do you think of what's going on in Iran?
JOE ROGAN, HOST, "THE JOE ROGAN EXPERIENCE": It's terrifying.
CROSS: Yeah.
ROGAN: All of it's terrifying. Anytime you're involved with -- you're shooting missiles into towns and blowing things up, blowing up infrastructure, blowing up bridges, you know, and Israels blowing up Lebanon now. It's like, what the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) are we doing?
CROSS: Yeah.
ROGAN: Like, how is this still going on?
CROSS: It's -- well, it's also clear there was no plan.
ROGAN: No.
CROSS: Zero. None.
ROGAN: No.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Evelyn, as I said, Rogan was crucial to Trump's reelection here, right? And what he's saying and the detail with what he's saying. Right. He's very clearly talking about civilian targeting. What the F are we doing? As he says? And obviously he said he used the full expletive.
What's the significance of that?
EVELYN FARKAS, FORMER DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR RUSSIA, UKRAINE & EURASIA: Well, I think he's saying, Erin, that, you know, the president clearly didn't have a strategy. Now we're -- seem to be stuck in this war or at least in the stalemate with the Iranians, which is costing us a lot in terms of our military presence. And it's risky because the Iranians could use these missiles. They could decide, of course, to launch them at U.S. I don't think they will, because I think they want a negotiation.
But it's basically showing that the president doesn't know how to match the various tools of American power with one another in order to achieve an objective, because he should be using his military -- he should have -- at the outset, first of all, continued the negotiations. Let the Iranians withdraw from the negotiations, then we actually might have a cause to use military force, but I would also have advocated for a blockade first before bombing the Iranian people and their military, even at that point.
BURNETT: Yeah. Well, and obviously, there's -- there's the humanity of it. There's the strategy of it. There's also just the sheer logistics of the serious weaponry that the United States burned through those Tomahawks as example number one.
Harrison, I played those some earlier comments from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth today. He threatened Iran, saying that the U.S. is locked and loaded, which of course fits with his self-referral, which is secretary of war. He equated Trump with Jesus, okay? And talked about the pharisees, right? That Jesus is to Trump as the pharisees are to reporters.
You served in the military. What do you make of that sort of rhetoric?
MANN: I think it's really easy to dismiss or ridicule some of what Secretary Hegseth does, because it is it is silly, and I have no doubt that this behavior has lost him the respect of both the senior ranks and the rank-and-file in the military. I think that was clear from the date that he forced every general officer to come to a big pep rally with him at the start of the Trump administration.
But I think he's actually a little scarier than he looks. No, he's not competent to run this war. He's not able to protect U.S. troops in this war with really obvious measures like drone nets or bunkers that are missing from a lot of the bases where -- where hundreds of U.S. troops have been wounded. We've got to remember that.
But he is trying to inject a very dangerous brand of Christian nationalism into the Pentagon. And I don't know if he will succeed, but it's clear like, this can't be separated from his mass firings of officers who won't demonstrate personal loyalty to Trump. His firings of black officers, female officers. So, he is -- I'm worried this is maybe a comical reflection of
something much darker, which is him trying to transform the military as best as he can into really, a militia that's personally loyal to Trump. There's a lot of institutional resistance to that, but I think that's the direction he's trying to move.
BURNETT: So, Karim, you know, people deeply involved in the negotiations in both the U.S. and Iran. And when I say deeply, I mean core to the entire thing. Trump said today that Iran has -- his words were, Karim -- a new set of leaders. And we find them very reasonable.
How would you characterize the current set of leaders?
SADJADPOUR: You know, Erin, I think he's trying to coax the Iranians into a deal. And essentially, Trump has two audiences here. On one hand, he wants to calm the markets by saying new leaders in Iran, the war is winding down. Oil prices should go down.
And at the same time, he does oftentimes threaten the Iranians to say, if you actually don't compromise, we're going to go back to war.
But what I think -- I think misunderstands is that Iran is not a -- is not an individual.
[19:15:02]
There's not an entire system, and 47 years of ideology that can just change overnight. But I do think that these negotiations are probably starting some difficult conversations in Tehran, as I said, between those who want to continue with revolutionary purity and those who say, you know what? Let's do a tactical compromise so we can live to fight another day.
BURNETT: Yeah, compromise, I guess so far looks to be like the deal that was in place under the Obama administration.
Evelyn, final word.
FARKAS: Yeah, I mean, I would just say that I think the reason also that Secretary Hegseth is making so much noise is because I think the Trump administration is afraid that the Iranians will just wait them out past whatever deadline for a ceasefire President Trump will put on the table, and then we will look like losers.
So, I think it's really important for us not to put any more deadlines on the table. The Iranians will exploit them to make us look weak.
BURNETT: Thank you all very much. I appreciate you.
And next, our very special conversation with the Artemis II crew. I'm sitting down with all four astronauts to talk about their mission and their relationship from what it was like to lose contact with mission control for 40 minutes, to that unbelievable splashdown.
Plus, RFK, Jr. confronted about a new book claiming Kennedy once wrote in a journal that he chopped off the body part of a dead raccoon. The author of that new book is our guest with new insight on RFK, Jr. and what's motivating him now. And we're just getting in new details from the moment police arrived at the home of the former Virginia lieutenant governor, Justin Fairfax, where police say he killed his wife and then took his own life.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:21:05]
BURNETT: Tonight, the Artemis II crews speaking out in their first interview with CNN after their history making trip around the moon. I had a chance to speak with the crew just before our show tonight.
They're extraordinary. And they've become overnight household names. Social media sensations, of course. All of us were following every post, every update, the workouts, the group hugs and come on, we all know about the toilet, right? As they travel deeper into space than any human being has ever done before, a record breaking 252,756 miles away from Planet Earth before blasting back down to Earth at almost 25,000 miles an hour.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: OUTFRONT now, the crew of Artemis II, Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen.
Just wonderful to speak to you.
Reid, you know, you said after landing, we are bonded forever and no one down here is ever going to know what the four of us just went through. I mean, now you've had a few days back on earth to process maybe just a small bit of it. Do you have words to try to explain to us what you just went through?
REID WISEMAN, ARTEMIS II COMMANDER: It's the -- we were 250,000 miles away from our home planet. We saw the far side of the moon. We saw the sun go behind the moon and create this unbelievable eclipse with a halo.
At that moment, I turned to Victor in the spacecraft and I said, I don't think the human mind has evolved to the point of being able to understand what we are looking at. And he fully agreed. We were living in such close quarters that we were -- we would just -- we would I would say, crawl all over each other, but we would utilize each other as a single entity to get the job done at all times.
And then we would, we would just hand the baton across. Whoever had the operational lead would take it. They would run with it, and then we would come back together as a crew.
It was -- it was the most fluid and well-supported thing you could ever imagine. And the reason I say people just won't ever understand is I think people can look at the video and they can see for humans and they can see them living, but there's always that latent fear that that one false move, one wrong thing where 250,000 miles away from our families and our home, you just -- you always have this, this thing that is underneath the surface that is keeping you focused and keeping you alive and really making sure that you don't let your crew down and you don't let your families and the folks on earth down.
And maybe that's the best I can do, but I haven't had too much time to reflect on that yet. We've been pretty busy here back in Houston.
BURNETT: Christina, you know, with what Reid said, you know, you saw things that no human has ever seen before. Parts of the moon. And I know you took a lot of photographs that showed the earth and the moon in ways that we've never before seen.
When -- do you see now -- I guess, what do you see now, Christina, in your mind's eye, the most? You know, when you're asleep and you're dreaming. Maybe still thinking. You're floating. What goes before your eyes that you just saw?
CHRISTINA KOCH, ARTEMIS II MISSION SPECIALIST: I think the thing I see the most out the window is Planet Earth. We saw it in so many different phases. We saw it in different sizes. We were close in proximity. We used its gravity to propel ourselves along with our translunar injection burn to the moon.
We saw it as a crescent as it set behind the moon and rose behind the moon and the idea that every human experience that we've invented, that we've gone through, that means something to us as people. Everything that keeps us alive, that's the same is all in that small orb that's hanging like a lifeboat in so much blackness and the unifying power of that, the perspective of seeing the earth as one of many places, one of many existences, when it's next to the moon, in your perspective, when it's not an absolute, but it's just one of many in the universe.
[19:25:01]
That is something that you can only see when you look out the window. And it's what I take with me every day. When I go to the beach, I look up and I see the blue sky and I think about what it looks like from the other side, against the blackness of space.
BURNETT: Victor, you know, it was -- it was during our show when you had the lunar flyby. So, we were watching you all live. Anybody watching the show, they were -- they were watching you guys that night. What was it like in that moment? You know, we -- all of a sudden, your feed breaks up and you're completely cut off from mission control for 40 minutes.
I mean, I'll be honest, we were -- we were sitting here on set, and we were nervous, you know, and it felt like a miracle when communications resumed. And I understand its science, right? But it felt like a miracle. What was the silence like when it was truly just the four of you and your hundreds of thousands of miles away, and you have 40 minutes alone?
VICTOR GLOVER, ARTEMIS II PILOT: You know, it was -- it was silence between our spaceship and spaceship Earth. But it wasn't silence on board. We had a few human moments, some levity. We shared a cookie and some choice words. And then I said a prayer and I was back into the window describing the pieces of the moon that we could see out the window.
And, you know, I'm a big fan of "The Terminator". And it was just such an amazing and captivating scene to try and describe that we, we went right back to it. It was very busy.
But you know, I think the moment was more leading up to it when we had a chance to speak to Earth and just to say, hey, we're getting ready to go into the blackout and we look forward to talking to you on the other side. And I actually thought of saying something else that just when I spoke, spoke about love, I almost wanted to make a comparison to physics, quantum entanglement, and how it doesn't make sense that I can feel the love from here, but I can. And we want you to feel the love from the moon.
And so, I -- you know, that it's spooky action at a distance maybe muddied the picture. And so, I just said something that's very familiar to me about love. And then right back to work. And it was quite active in that in that capsule. But we were very excited to hear from earth when we initiated that comm check on the other side.
BURNETT: Your extraordinary accomplishment and who you are is inspiring to so many, for all of you. So it's hard to imagine being any of you.
But, Jeremy, perhaps some of us could imagine seeing this through your eyes best because it was your first time in space. What was most unexpected for you, even though obviously you were trained, you were prepared for everything. What was most unexpected?
JEREMY HANSEN, ARTEMIS II MISSION SPECIALIST: For sure, seeing the eclipsed moon -- when the sun went behind the moon, we had prepped with science, we'd seen some images of what we thought it was going to look like, but it just -- it was close, but it was not like that. And it was weird and it was eerie. And the blackness, I've seen some of the pictures that you saw here and they -- that's not what it looked like exactly to my eyes. It was different.
And it was sort of like how sometimes movies try to portray a black hole and, but it was also three dimensional. It wasn't just a disk and it wasn't flat and it was -- it was just a crazy thing to behold. That definitely surprised me. And then also just how much fun it is in space.
I -- I was hoping it would be fun in space, but it was so much fun in space. I loved every moment of that journey.
BURNET: Reid, one of the most emotional moments of the mission was when we heard, you know, the crater dedicated -- Jeremy dedicating the crater to Carroll, and your two daughters were watching that dedication from Earth. Your brother Bill was here with us the night that that happened.
What do you think Carroll would have thought about this mission and knowing that you had accomplished this? WISEMAN It's -- when she was starting to get -- try to get through this. When she was starting to get sick, I wanted to get her up to her family in Virginia. And that was the most important thing to me, to make sure she was comfortable and well-cared for. And she just wasn't having it.
I mean, she -- that woman loved her children more than anything on Planet Earth. And she wanted those two girls to stay here, to stay in their school system and their friends and where they were comfortable. And she also knew how much this meant to me. And at that point in time, this meant nothing to me, like being an astronaut meant nothing to me.
All I cared about was her and our two kids, and keeping it as stable as humanly possible. But she did not want us to leave this area, and she wanted me to continue -- continue down this path and to just see where this journey took. And I don't know if she felt like she was responsible and therefore, she didn't want me to leave.
But that was definitely her desire and then her family really turned to and my family turned to and they kept me on this, on this train. It took a lot of support because this is not where I expected to be at the end of 2020. I just wanted to run and hide, to be quite honest.
But they all just kept me pointed in the right direction. And then to, to know that that Ellie and Katie were in the back of mission control and that was not planned. That was completely accidental that they were there that morning when Jeremy made that, made that talk, and when he spelled out her name, C-A-R-R-O-L-L, I know that that was really something special for me.
[19:30:05]
But to be quite honest, to speak for the crew, that bonded us right there, right then in a very, very emotional and significant way. And we will never forget that.
BURNETT: Victor, we also -- you know, what is the bond like? I mean, the four of you, you were together in such a small space. I mean, even sleeping, you would have had to be sort of bumping into each other essentially the whole time. How do you describe the human bond that you have to be stuck in a little tiny space together for ten days and you're still best friends?
GLOVER: It was a feature of the mission.
(LAUGHTER)
GLOVER: You know, I think it's -- we worked really hard technically engineering operationally, procedurally. We also worked really hard as humans to understand our limitations and also as a team to understand our team's capability and strengths.
And I think each of us knows we couldn't have done this alone. And we really had to lean on that because you couldn't do anything alone in that spacecraft. Everything was a group activity, and we just got used to passing each other water or cleaning up the water. We spilled a lot of water when we wanted to drink.
And so, it just became natural. And I would say it wasn't learning to -- learning to accept. I think we embraced it and it became fun. I could crawl on Jeremy and, you know, he could just crawl under my leg and get in his suitcase and I didn't have to move. And we just learned to work with it instead of working against it.
BURNETT: Christina, you know, the moment when the capsule came back and it separated, it was like a champagne cork, almost. And we're just looking at it. And then afterwards, you know, when it's charred on the outside, you're inside. Communications go away.
It's a burning ball of flame. Youve got what, a few inches here separating you from that, what was it like?
KOCH: Well, reentry is the most spectacular part of any human space flight. It is truly in every way, coming back to a planet. It is not landing a plane. You see the fireball that you're inside of very clearly.
The windows on Orion and Integrity did not char over. We watched the entire reentry out the window. These guys had the forefront windows. We had the side window and the docking hatch above us. And it was spectacular.
The plasma ball that we were inside of got as bright as an arc welder, to the point where you couldn't even look at it. We were rumbling. We were feeling the Gs. We were hearing it in each others voices.
We had the metronome of Victor's call outs on how we were doing, the stats of our journey, and during the blackout. I just remember thinking to my friends and family who I knew were watching down there, we're okay, we're okay, we're okay, and just trying to take in every single sight, every sound, every sense to be able to carry it back to earth with us, because what it taught us is about ourselves. Nothing is more precious than human life. And we all feel that.
BURNETT: We are so grateful that you're taking the time to try to explain to us the unexplainable. I know to try to put words on it and to share it. Thank you so much for doing that and for talking to me. Thank you.
KOCH: Thank you.
GLOVER: You're welcome.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: Just make you proud to even look at them and to hear them.
Well, next, President Trump is not backing down from his feud with the pope after Pope Leo said the world is being ravaged by tyrants.
Plus, RFK, Jr. confronted about a shocking new claim.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REPORTER: Secretary, what did you do with the raccoon's dead penis? Where is it now?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:38:19]
BURNETT: Tonight, the pope warning about a world ravaged by tyrants without uttering Trump's name.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
POPE LEO XIV, CATHOLIC CHURCH: The masters of war pretended not to know that it takes only a moment to destroy it. Often a life is often not enough to rebuild. The world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: And just hours after those comments, Trump once again said the pope is wrong.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: The pope can say what he wants, and I want him to say what he wants. But I can disagree. I'm sure the pope is a great guy. I haven't met him, but I disagree with the pope.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Jamal Simmons and Bill Kristol are both OUTFRONT.
Bill, let me just start with you, because the pope's comments today really stood out to you. How come?
BILL KRISTOL, EDITOR AT LARGE, THE BULWARK: Well, because he's saying what he thinks and he's an American. And I think for our point of view here in America people talk about it -- the, you know, Trump's having a fight with the pope. Other presidents have disagreed with other popes on foreign policy issues, nuclear power-- you know, Trump -- popes traditionally more pacifists and hostile to nuclear weapons.
But he's an American. He's the first American pope. I think he -- and I think Trump is worried that Pope Leo XIV could have a real impact here, especially with the criticisms on immigration, the criticisms on the genocidal statements about wiping out Iranian civilization and those kinds of things. You know, he -- there the pope is not speaking entirely simply as a leader of the Catholic Church. He's speaking as one of the most prominent Americans on the international scene.
[19:40:01]
And I think Trump's worried that it's having some effect. BURNETT: Which is the huge significance of it, right? The pope,
Jamal, would always have the point of view that war is bad, right? Would say this, but it is heard in a new way because the pope is American, because he speaks in American English. He speaks in English, right?
So, you know, all this, this back and forth comes in the wake of Trump posting and deleting that images, right? The image of himself as Jesus, which he then suddenly claimed was -- whatever, I'm not even. And then this A.I. generated Jesus embracing him.
Now the Republican Congressman Troy Nehls was asked about this, all of this today, and I wanted to play for you what he said. Jamal, I don't know if you heard this.
JAMAL SIMMONS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. TROY NEHLS (R-TX): I believe that Donald Trump is -- is better than sliced bread. I think he's -- he's -- he's almost the second coming in my humble opinion. I think he's done a fantastic job.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Trump is almost a second coming.
SIMMONS: Yeah. I hope they take that to the ballot box in 2026. I can't imagine in a country where 70 percent of people identify with one of the major religions, most of them are Christian in our country, that people would believe that Donald Trump, who does not seem to hold up any of the tenets of most major religions.
He's not good to his neighbor. He's not turning the other cheek. He's not trying to go out and repair the world. He's somebody who I think most of the world is threatening people, sort of playing really tough negotiator with people.
Here's the thing: you just did a segment with the astronauts who just did a really great thing. We know America can go around the world and do really great things.
BURNETT: Yeah.
SIMMONS: The question is, will America do good things? And I think that is the question the pope is getting at. If America is the strongest country in the world, it's one of the greatest countries in the world. It needs to be one of the good countries too.
BURNETT: Well, the city on a hill, the Ronald Reagan, right, which kind of got the secular spirituality of what you -- of what you're talking about.
Bill, what do you think about hearing that, though, from Troy Nehls? I mean, how -- how much does that reflect what others think? He's almost a second coming, in my humble opinion. I mean, he -- he meant that. KRISTOL: I guess. Well, the Republican Party treats him that way. And
we have never seen in our lifetimes, you know, the kind of deference -- deference is not even the right word. Loyalty is not the right word. Fealty, bowing down to and scraping and desperate attempts to please the leader of the party.
I mean, it just -- it's not democratic with a small D. It's not in the American tradition. We're supposed to be kind of rambunctious, skeptical of authority, speak our mind, you know, and the whole Republican Party has just gone in the other direction.
But, you know, I think the point about astronauts is so important. I watched your coverage of the hour or two before the splashdown, you know, and then interviewing people in Houston and others. And then, of course, the astronauts themselves, they were so -- that was -- that was traditionally American, right?
They were modest. They played -- paid tribute to the international partners. They talked paid tribute to everyone who's worked on this for years, for decades. There was no talk about, you know, Trump didn't get mentioned, I don't think, nor did other presidents, nor did Obama or anyone else.
I mean, it was -- it was -- it was really a tribute to kind of the institutions, the culture, the hard work of thousands, tens of thousands of people that had made this possible in the public sector and the private sector.
It was such a contrast to the day-to-day behavior of Trump and everyone in the Trump administration.
BURNETT: It is just -- I mean, I'm also just saying, I mean, how stunning it is. I mean, you're hearing someone elected to Congress saying that Donald Trump is almost a second coming. I mean, we're talking about the second coming of Jesus Christ. I'm -- I'm sorry, I just -- I'm letting it sink in.
SIMMONS: Yeah. And there's --
BURNETT: Yeah.
SIMMONS: The idea of anointing a political leader that's a really kind of a dangerous concept when you want to combine both the politics and the kind of faith anointing of that leader by the Jesus Christ for those who are Christians.
BURNETT: So, Bill, there was a contentious and heated hearing today. I want to ask about it as well on Capitol Hill with the HHS secretary, RFK, Jr. Right. He had criticism here from both the left and the right. I'll play a little bit of that. Republican Congressman Blake Moore on Kennedy's unfounded claims of a link between Tylenol and autism, which studies have shown to be untrue, and Democratic Congressman Steven Horsford
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. BLAKE MOORE (R-UT): You recall my 10-year-old -- my 10-year-old Winnie, is neurodivergent on the autism spectrum. He's the joy of my life. He's the -- but that's tenfold, for my wife.
My wife was hurt and she felt for a split second until she came to her senses. And we talked about this, that there was any way she was responsible. We don't even know if she took Tylenol during her pregnancy, but that was a hurtful moment for her.
REP. STEVEN HORSFORD (D-NV): That's what you're telling me. You don't coordinate?
ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR., HHS SECRETAR: I say calm down, Congressman.
HORSFORD: Do not tell me to calm down. Health care is real. And if you can't answer basic questions, then maybe come prepared next time.
KENNEDY: People scream when they don't have much to say.
HORSFORD: You obviously don't have anything to say because you can't even uphold what it is you're doing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[19:45:01]
BURNETT: Bill, Kennedy does seem to have solid support to remain as the nation's top health official, even though I thought the comments of Congressman Moore, a Republican from Utah, were very significant.
How do you explain, though, the support, the strong support he still has?
KRISTOL: He's Trump's HHS secretary and they're scared to cross Trump. I mean, they confirmed him in the Senate. They criticize him occasionally at these hearings.
And then, look, Congress could legislate at all these things. Congress could overrule the secretary of HHS on a million topics. They can insist on different panels. They can insist on different treatment of vaccines, right?
These are all matters of legislation, not of executive discretion necessarily, but they are --
BURNETT: Yeah.
KRISTOL: They talk -- few of them talk -- well, a few of the Republicans, a lot of the Democrats genuinely are appalled. Few of the Republicans talk a good game about criticizing particular things. I don't mean to impugn the sincerity of what that congressman said, but then do they do anything about it? Do they change the budget? Do they -- do they -- do they object to different appointments?
BURNETT: Jamal, what do you think explains it? I mean, the food -- it seems to me to be a big part of it. People who are -- would be shocked by some of the things that he says, which are false. The food matters.
SIMMONS: Yeah, the food matters. But listen, it's a -- it's a tough cocktail to take because on one hand, you might agree with them that we should get more preservatives out of our food and food dye.
BURNETT: Yeah.
SIMMONS: But on the other hand, he says, don't take vaccines. You know, we have these hotspots that are breaking out.
He said -- today, Congresswoman Terri Sewell from Alabama mentioned this interview that he gave where he said that black kids get more AD -- get more diagnosis for ADHD and are taking more medicines, and that those medicines end up making those kids more likely to commit violence. And they're going to have to get reparented.
One, he impugned black parents. Two, he went after every kid that might have a diagnosis. And then three, he made up science, which is not supported.
So, I think he's not a serious person. And I think it's very tough for us as a country to have to listen to him, give us advice when we know he's just not a serious person.
BURNETT: All right. Thank you both very much. And that heated hearing that you just saw a couple of clips from coming as a brand new book is just out about Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a book which includes revealing insight into Kennedy based on diaries that he wrote himself.
OUTFRONT now is Isabel Vincent. She is the author of the new book everyone is talking about, "RFK, Jr.: The Fall and Rise".
And, Isobel, I've got a lot to ask you about. But first, the contentious hearings that -- exchanges that we just saw during Kennedy's hearing earlier today, he didn't give an inch. He defended himself. You saw him do that.
How does he see himself in this moment?
ISABEL VINCENT, SENIOR REPORTER, NEW YORK POST: Well, first of all, he's very stubborn and he sees himself as he's always seen himself as on a crusade. He really believes that what he's doing is good for humanity. And he's been told his whole life that he is the heir to Camelot. He's his father's namesake.
After his father's assassination, there was a lot of pressure on him to be -- to go into public service, and he has reached, you know, part of the pinnacle of his dream. He's in the president's cabinet.
So, he believes that what he's doing is, is truly right. And he believes that he's helping people.
BURNETT: So, there's so much in your book, one of the things that people are talking a lot about are these new details from journals where he talks in one case, these, this detail about finding a dead raccoon. He's on a family vacation. He chops off the genitalia to bring it back to study. And he writes, you quote, "I was standing in front of my parked car in I-684 cutting the penis out of a road-killed raccoon, thinking how weird some of my family members have turned out to be.
He was asked about it today by TMZ. Here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Secretary, what did you do with the raccoon's dead penis? Where is it now?
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: So, he laughs it off. We haven't confirmed the story, but I mean, the reason it's getting pick up is the dead bear cub in Central Park. The chainsaw to cut off the head of a dead whale that his daughter has talked about, that he drove back on the roof of the minivan.
And, do you know anything about why the fascination with these things?
VINCENT: Yes, I do, I will put it into context. When he was a kid, he wanted to be a veterinarian. That was his big dream. He had an after- school job at the zoo, at the National Zoo in Washington. He had -- you know, all sorts of crazy pets. There was a seal, that lived at their -- at their home in Hickory Hill.
BURNETT: This is consistent.
VINCENT: It's totally consistent. And you know, I know it's funny. And actually, I didn't think that much of it when I was reading it.
I mean, I liked what you quoted about. I had the same reaction that, oh, he's calling people in his family weird as he's cutting off the raccoon's penis, but he has this whole thing with roadkill that he freezes it, and then he studies it. And it all goes back to, you know, this fascination with animals.
BURNETT: Okay, so you write about the struggles in his life, okay? And that -- and that includes addiction, his own addiction, substances as well as sexual and tragedy in his life.
[19:50:08]
Okay. His second wife, Mary, died by suicide in 2012 during their divorce. And it was a horrific thing. How much does this impact his life now?
VINCENT: I think he -- I think he is -- thinks very much about that suicide. I don't think it's something that he's just brushed off. I talked to a lot of people who say that it really weighs on him and death weighs on him.
I mean, his father was assassinated when he was 14 years old. He goes to everybody's funeral. He volunteers to give eulogies at everybody's funeral. His diary is full of the funerals he's gone to.
I spoke to somebody who went to middle school with him, whose father died when they were teenagers. And Bobby was on a trip to South America, but he still wrote him a letter of condolence. And the middle school friend, you know, is now in his '70s, remembered that and thought that was such a gracious thing for him to do.
BURNETT: Yeah, yeah. Which it is.
All right. Isabel, thank you very much. It's a fascinating book on so many -- on so many levels with so much detail there.
And next dramatic new video just in from the moment police arrived at the home of the former Virginia Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax, after that horrific tragedy, police say that he killed his wife and then himself
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:56:09]
BURNETT: Tonight, new details about the shocking death of the former lieutenant governor of Virginia, Justin Fairfax. He was once a rising star in the Democratic Party. He shot and killed his wife before turning the gun on himself.
Police say it stems from a divorce, with the shooting happening two weeks before a court ordered deadline for him to move out.
Brian Todd is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A massive police response to a horrific crime scene.
Former Virginia Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax, a once high- profile politician, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot after killing his wife, Cirena, in the basement of their northern Virginia home.
CHIEF KEVIN DAVIS, FAIRFAX COUNTY POLICE DEPARTMENT: It all kind of culminated last night when Justin Fairfax shot and killed -- shot several times and killed his wife, ran to a different part of the home and then killed himself with the same firearm.
TODD (voice-over): Police described the shootings as part of an ongoing domestic dispute, noting the couple was in the middle of a complicated and messy divorce.
Fairfax was recently served with paperwork associated with an upcoming court proceeding.
DAVIS: That may have been a spark, and detectives will figure that out that that led to this tragedy here.
TODD (voice-over): The couple had separated but lived in the home together in separate bedrooms. In court documents obtained by CNN issued on March 30th, a judge ordered Justin Fairfax to leave their home by the end of April and described his deteriorating emotional and mental state in recent years, withdrawing from his family and abusing alcohol.
Police say the couple's two teenage children were at home when the shooting took place. Their son was the first to call 911 around midnight after finding his mom on the ground bleeding.
DISPATCHER: Calling stating that his dad might have stabbed his mom, saying that she's laying on the ground bleeding, can see holes in her shirt.
TODD (voice-over): Police say cameras set up throughout the home as part of the couples ongoing divorce proceedings were used to clear assault accusations Justin Fairfax made against his wife earlier this year.
DAVIS: We were able to go to those cameras and determine that that that never occurred.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, help me God.
JUSTIN FAIRFAX, FORMER VIRGINIA LT. GOVERNOR: So help me God.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Congratulations.
TODD (voice-over): Fairfax served as Virginia's lieutenant governor from 2018 to 2022, and was once considered an up and coming politician, often speaking out on the issue of gun violence.
FAIRFAX: I've lost a lot of friends to gun violence, to the prison system, to drugs, to gangs. And so, I have myself also lived that reality.
REPORTER: Anything to say to your accusers, sir?
TODD (voice-over): In 2019, explosive sexual assault allegations against Fairfax surfaced that led many to call for his resignation. Fairfax denied all the accusations.
FAIRFAX: I cannot begin to tell you the pain that these false allegations have caused me and my family.
First of all --
TODD (voice-over): And when he ran for Virginia governor in 2021, he finished fourth in the Democratic primary. After his loss, Fairfax returned home to practice law.
Today, neighbors are in shock and left wondering why this all happened.
PETER DEMEO, NEIGHBOR: I think a lot about the children. Both parents are gone now. What does that do for them and their futures? KASH ALI, NEIGHBOR: That's the worst. I was talking to my wife about
that. So, we have two kids that are younger. That's scary. Yeah. I mean, did they see it? I hope not.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: I mean, Brian, that part is just impossible to think about. What is the situation with the children?
TODD: Well, Erin, according to the Fairfax County police chief, Kevin Davis, the two teenage children are now in the care of their grandparents and other relatives with support from the Fairfax County Police Department's victim services division.
And to reiterate our earlier reporting, we can tell you that according to court documents obtained by CNN from the divorce proceedings, the judge in that case had ordered Justin Fairfax to vacate this home by April 30th. That would be two weeks from today -- Erin.
BURNETT: Just an unbelievable, unbelievably horrible story.
Brian Todd, thank you very much, reporting from Virginia tonight.
And thanks so much to all of you, as always, for being with us. We'll see you back here tomorrow night.
"AC360" with Anderson Cooper starts right now.
