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Sources, Justice Alito, 76, Was Taken To Hospital Last Month After Falling Ill At A Federalist Society Dinner In Philadelphia; CNN Poll: Dems Up 6 Points On Generic Congressional Ballot; Sources: U.S. Rescued One Of Two Crew On Downed Jet; Artemis II Officially Out Of Earth's Orbit And Heading To Moon. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired April 03, 2026 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00]

JOAN BISKUPIC, CNN CHIEF SUPREME COURT ANALYST: Good to see you, Manu. Yes, about two weeks ago, Sam Alito was at a federal society dinner in Philadelphia when he became ill and was taken to the hospital. There, his condition was evaluated and doctors administered fluids for dehydration and then eventually he was released and able to go back to his home in Virginia.

Now, the Supreme Court has not said anything about his current condition or -- and it didn't report the incident at the time. I have seen Justice Alito on the bench in the two weeks that we're intervening here and he appeared healthy and engaged in his usual back and forth with the lawyers.

But let me tell you why this matters. Justice Alito, who just turned 76 on Wednesday, has been mulling whether to retire. Friends say that he has not made any kind of imminent decision, but he's certainly been the subject of a lot of speculation about whether he would step down after being on the bench 20 years.

If he does, that would give President Donald Trump a fourth appointment to the high court. Remember, the Supreme Court decides the law of the land and, you know, what's in the Constitution that would govern the lives of all of us. And if he were to step down, it would certainly be significant, again, for President Trump's presidency.

I don't think this is in any way an indication that he is, but I'm just telling you why it matters what his health is like. He appears just fine, and all indications are that this was just an isolated incident. But the Supreme Court is very reluctant to ever talk about the health of justices, even in situations that could appear more serious.

You probably remember, Manu, back in 2020, when Chief Justice John Roberts fell at a country club near his home, injured his head, and was taken by ambulance to the hospital. That was not discovered by reporters until The Washington Post got a tip because the court just did not want to release information on it.

But as I say, these individuals serve for life, and they determine what the law is that all of us live under. Manu? MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, no question about it. Good that he's feeling better, but if there is a Supreme Court retirement, of course, that would be a huge, huge fight here in Washington.

Joan Biskupic with the latest exclusive reporting. Thank you for that.

And it is just seven months until midterms that could shake up President Trump's agenda for the rest of his term. CNN has a new poll that gives a snapshot of how voters feel about this White House. It should leave the President worried.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:37:08]

RAJU: Exactly seven months from today, we'll be counting votes. The midterms on November 3rd will be a referendum on President Trump's second term. And we have brand new CNN poll with more evidence, if you needed it, that most voters are giving a Trump -- giving Trump a thumbs down at this point in his presidency. Democrats lead Republicans on a generic ballot by six points, 48 percent to 42 percent. But even more concerning for the GOP might be this data point.

Democrats are far more motivated to vote. 67 percent of Democrats, or those who lean Democrats, say they're extremely motivated to vote. Just 50 percent of Republicans, or those who lean that way, say the same.

My excellent panel is back with me. David Chalian, who knows these numbers better than anybody. How worried should Republicans be right now?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: I mean, clearly worried. I mean, the -- we could have said that without this poll result, that just given the historic trends, what happens to the incumbent party during a midterm of a President's term.

RAJU: Like all the special elections that have happened.

CHALIAN: Exactly, but that enthusiasm factor that you just pointed to, the -- that 17-point advantage, that's what we've been seeing play out in every special election since Trump has been back in office. That's what's delivered a lot of this Democratic overperformance.

I would just say, what is interesting to me in this poll is that, unlike in 2018, where Democrats had a big wave year, they were seen in 2018, roughly, half the country saw Democrats favorably, half unfavorably. That's not the case now. Their brand is in the toilet.

They are at a low favorability, as are Republicans. There are folks in this country who just really, a lot of them, about a quarter of the folks in our poll, dislike both parties. These so-called double haters. This is what we've seen in American politics in the last 10 years. Those folks fell to Trump in 2016, 2024, helped deliver him the White House. What we're seeing in this poll is that this anger, this palpable anger that you have at both parties, the American people, and they dislike both parties, those folks tell us they're overwhelmingly still likely to vote for the Democrats this year.

So the way I see it, Manu, is the Democrats have a brand problem, but it may not be an electoral problem --

RAJU: Yes.

CHALIAN: -- in 2026.

RAJU: And to that point, just to look at the -- just specifically on the numbers that David was mentioning, just 28 percent of Americans favor the Democratic Party. And 55 percent of those who dislike both parties will vote Democratic. But the voters clearly don't like Democrats.

And so when you zoom back out, you talk about the generic ballot, they test which party voters want to control Congress, and you compare that to past wave elections. Let's look at these numbers, because right now it's at six points. Democrats have the advantage in March of 2026. And you look back at some of the past elections.

In April 2022, Republicans at this point had a one-point advantage. They picked up 13 seats in that midterms. Dems picked up 41 House seats in 2018 when they had a six-point advantage.

[12:40:06]

And in 2010, Republicans had that big wave year when they had a four- point advantage in the generic ballot. Similar time frame, 62 seats. But 2014 was an anomaly, John Bresnan, because in this poll back then, March 2014, Dems had a six-point advantage in the generic ballot, but Republicans picked up 13 seats. So it doesn't -- so perhaps Republicans should say, OK, there's some time to possibly turn this around, but it's going to be tough.

JOHN BRESNAHAN, CO-FOUNDER, PUNCHBOWL NEWS: It is tough, and I think that, going into what David said, I think the biggest issue overall always is the economy. Trump had a good jobs report today. He needed it badly because the last job report was terrible. But the economy is the key. Gas prices are huge, you know, they have a huge link to this. We'll see it.

If the economy doesn't turn around in the summer and they're still fighting over, you know, homeland security funding and spending hundreds of billions of dollars more from the -- for the Pentagon while they're cutting, you know, social programs, this is a bad place for Democrats.

I haven't seen anything, really, since January 1st that's really gone Republicans' way. It's just one thing after another, and that's when you start to feel like a wave election. This feels like, you know, 06 or something or 010 when just bad news piles on bad news, and they really need the economy. Trump really needs the economy to turn around or the perception of the economy to turn around or else Republicans are a huge trouble.

RAJU: And what are you hearing from within the White House about the fears about the midterms, and does that -- does the President share those concerns that a lot of Republicans are voicing publicly and privately?

JASMINE WRIGHT, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, I think before that special election last week in Palm Beach, President Trump's backyard, the narrative was, talk to me in the summer. Gas prices will go down, the economy will rebound, and people will go into the midterm feeling better like President Trump promised.

I think after that special election in Palm Beach, you know, people are a little bit spooked. I think the reality here is that Republicans are looking to the President for a resounding message, and they're looking for the President to create them the optics that help them in the midterm, and in the prolonged war in Iran does not help them.

It upsets Americans, clearly, from these polls. It keeps prices higher, and it does all the things that Republicans don't need from this administration going into November. And so I think that there is concern. I think that there are some questions from Republicans who won't say it publicly about whether or not the President is as engaged in creating those midterm optics as he should be.

But again, when you talk to folks, they say --

RAJU: Yes.

WRIGHT: -- wait until the summer.

CHALIAN: But he's clearly a drag on the party right now, because if you look at our poll, and we asked, like, the Trump factor, right, and I think it was 42 percent of registered voters in this poll say they're going to cast their ballot in November in opposition to Trump.

Only 21 percent, half of that amount, said they're going to cast their ballot in support of Trump, right? And a little more than a third say Trump is not a factor at all. But that two-to-one disparity of people saying they're going to cast their vote in opposing Trump versus in support of Trump, that, to me, is the drag that he is on the party.

RAJU: Yes, and there was, as Jasmine mentioned, there was a good jobs number. 178,000 jobs were created in this past month. It was higher than what economists had expected. But we're not hearing much from Trump about -- you'd think that this would be the one thing they talk about constantly, but there's just so much else going on, and so much other controversy, that the party can't sell its economic message effectively, or at all.

BRESNAHAN: That's what David was just mentioning. Today, they got a great jobs report. And what are we talking about? We're talking about these two down pilots in Iran, OK? As this war continues, this is a problem. Trade wars continue, this is a problem. What Trump is focused on is not good for winning elections, at least for Republicans, fighting with Congress over Homeland Security funding, TSA lines, what everything is against them. And if you look at members, they're voting with their feet. They were retiring at a huge margin, House Republicans. And these Senate races, they look tough.

RAJU: Yes.

BRESNAHAN: You see the polls, we all see the polls. These Senate races are tough, so --

RAJU: Suddenly, a path that looked very, very steep for Democrats looks a little bit less steep. Still steep.

BRESNAHAN: Still steep.

(CROSSTALK)

WRIGHT: The hill has gone from here to here --

RAJU: Yes, yes. We'll see. There's still seven months to go.

All right, just ahead, the latest on our breaking news. One crew member recovered, receiving medical care. Another still not found after a U.S. fighter jet was shot down in Iran. More on the search and rescue efforts ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:48:36]

RAJU: Back to our breaking news. The U.S. has rescued one pilot from a U.S. fighter jet shot down over Iran. Sources tell CNN search and rescue operations continue for the second crew member on that aircraft. That service member's status is not yet known. We have new information about the aircraft they were flying in. CNN can confirm it was an F-15E jet.

With me following all these developments is Retired Air Force Colonel Senator Leighton. Colonel Leighton, tell us about this aircraft and what kind of capabilities it would have. As you can see there on your screen, that F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jet. Tell us about this aircraft, Colonel, and what it would do in case of an enemy fire.

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: So this is an aircraft that is really a multirole capability, Manu. But as we can see here, it's developed for strike and attack missions. But when it comes to saving itself, it's got the capability to do things like dispense chaff.

And what chaff is is basically think of aluminum foil that is spread out in strips as the aircraft goes over a certain part of land. And when it's dispensed, what it's designed to do is it's designed to confuse radars so that the radars don't view the actual aircraft. They view the chaff, which is those strips of aluminum foil. And when they view the aluminum foil, it's designed to confuse the radars and make it difficult for a weapon system like a surface-to-air missile to engage the aircraft. So if the chaff works as intended, it prevents these kinds of things from happening. It prevents aircraft shootdowns or at least makes them more difficult for the enemy in a case like this.

[12:50:11]

RAJU: How is it able to be penetrated in this case?

LEIGHTON: So when it comes -- let's say, to dispense chaff, we don't know exactly what happened in this situation. But let's say the aircrew dispensed chaff like they're supposed to. And for some reason, the missile was able to find the aircraft, which it clearly did.

There are several possibilities there. Chaff is designed to go against radar. When it comes to the actual missiles that are used by Iran, some of them are actually heat-seeking missiles. And chaff may not be able to really prevent the aircraft from being painted by a heat- seeking missile.

So if it's painted, in other words, detected by the heat-seeking missile, what happens then is it actually goes after the exhaust of the aircraft. And when that happens, it's more likely for the missile to hit the aircraft.

RAJU: And talk about this missing crew member. We know that there's a search-and-rescue operation underway for the second crew member. The first one, we reported this hour, has been, is now in U.S. custody, is alive. What are those crew members trained to do in those situations when they are hit by an enemy and they're now trying to hide and get rescued?

LEIGHTON: Yes. So the training that they undergo is SERE training, basically a survival, escape, resistance, and evasion. And so when they go for this training, what they're taught is once they eject from the aircraft, they're taught, first of all, how to eject from an aircraft. But then once that happens and they're on the ground, then they're basically taught to find as much of a hiding place as they can or to run away, depending on the environment that they're in.

And they go through all kinds of training when it comes to not only evading capture from an adversary but also finding places where they can hide and then also ways in which they can communicate with the search-and-rescue teams. The combat search-and-rescue teams are critical in that because they're the ones that, of course, go and pick up downed pilots, downed air crew members.

And in this particular case, they were successful at least with the first air crew member. We hope they'll also be successful with the second one.

RAJU: Yes, let's hope so. Let's see. A lot of questions.

Still ahead and still ahead for us, the crew on Artemis II is about to start day three of their mission, and they're sharing new photos like the ones you see here. These images are breathtaking.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:55:33]

RAJU: That is a live picture of the moon coming from the Orion spacecraft. Now, with so much war and tragedy dominating the headlines, let's try to wrap up this hour with something to feel good about. NASA has released the first images taken by the Artemis II astronauts in space. They captured these absolutely stunning views of the Earth.

And now it's on to the moon. Yesterday, they cleared a huge hurdle by successfully conducting the translunar injection burn.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REID WISEMAN, ASTRONAUT: When we got to that burn, we just kind of looked at each other as a crew. You know, we had been to the moon before in 1969 -- 1968 through 1972. It's been a long time since we've been back. And I got to tell you, there is nothing normal about this.

Sending four humans 250,000 miles away is a Herculean effort. And we are now just realizing the gravity of that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: All right, joining me now is Retired Astronaut Commander Chris Hadfield. He's the first Canadian commander of the International Space Station and author of the space thriller novel, "Final Orbit." Commander Hadfield, thank you for being here. As someone who has been to space before, what has it been like for you to watch all of this history unfold? And what are you going to be watching for in the days ahead?

CHRIS HADFIELD, RETIRED ASTRONAUT: It's super exciting, Manu. That's a brand new rocket that no one has ever flown before, a brand new spaceship. And to see that burn you just mentioned, that they were in orbit around the world, but that was an old space shuttle motor, actually, that we recycled on board. It worked perfectly yesterday, got them going fast enough to break away from the Earth.

And I'm looking forward to two things. One is them, obviously, safely coming back into the atmosphere. They'll be the fastest humans ever when they re-enter the atmosphere, so that's a lot of heat. But the thing I'm really looking forward to is the Earth gets smaller and smaller, the Moon gets bigger and bigger, and they're going to skim right around the surface, come around the Moon and come back and take some pictures that they've never seen and that we haven't seen for a long time. And I'm looking forward to all of that.

RAJU: Can you talk to people about the significance of this mission? Because some people say, well, why are they doing this? Why are they spending so much time and effort for -- to go around the Moon? But what does it ultimately mean for the future of space exploration and to humanity? HADFIELD: Well, when I was born, no one had ever flown in space. This is all because of new technology that allows us to explore to a place we've never been before. It's like Antarctica 110 years ago. And initially, you go explore it, and people die just trying to get there and back.

But then you realize, OK, the technology is getting better. We can now actually start settling there. And thousands of people live in Antarctica now, where it used to be impossible. And that's the stage we're at now with the Moon. From Earth, space station, Moon.

And over the next generation, we'll start to settle the Moon, much as we have Antarctica for science, for understanding, for human capability, but also eventually for business.

RAJU: Yes --

HADFIELD: And that's where we're alive right now. How quickly do you think that could happen in the Moon to have that kind of, I guess, society, if you would, on the Moon? And how quickly do you think, because the ultimate goal in a lot of ways is to go to Mars, whether humans can actually touch down at Mars. How quickly do you think humans could actually go to Mars?

HADFIELD: I think it's really credible, especially with the new administrator of NASA, Jared Isaacman, that we will have people on the Moon within two or three years. They'll just be, you know, like the first people showing up and unloading boxes and trying to get things set up. It'll take, you know, a bunch of flights, and we've got to learn a bunch of things to get a permanent human settlement on the Moon.

But that's where we're headed. That's what's going to happen. And we've never been able to do that in the past. You know, we could explore there, but not settle there. We didn't have the technology. And we need to develop that technology, get better at it so we can trust it, learn all the necessary lessons to cross the huge ocean in between us and Mars.

Eventually, we'll get there, but we're still, you know, figuring it out small --

RAJU: Yes.

HADFIELD: -- one small step at a time.

RAJU: And very quickly, your, Commander, the astronauts are just about to wake up from a night of sleep. What's it like to sleep in space? You've worked in space. What's it like -- and what's it like to work in space?

HADFIELD: It's the best sleep ever. You can relax every muscle in your body. You don't have to roll over. Your shoulder doesn't get sore. You don't need a pillow. You just float into a sleeping bag, tie it to the corner so you don't float away, and then just relax everything and drift off to sleep. If there's anything that's going to start a space spa, it'll be the beauty of being able to sleep weightless. It's the best thing ever.

RAJU: Oh, I could use a night of sleep like that. That sounds fantastic, Commander Hadfield. Thank you so much for coming on and sharing your expertise. Really appreciate your time.

And thanks for joining --

HADFIELD: (INAUDIBLE)

RAJU: That's right. Thanks for joining Inside Politics. I'll be back on Sunday at 8:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. Eastern for Inside Politics Sunday. CNN News Central starts right now.