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Trump: New Peace Proposal Is "Significant" But "Not Good Enough"; Trump: If No Iran Deal By Tomorrow, "I Am Blowing Up Everything"; Iran Rejects Temporary Ceasefire, Demands Deal To End War; Average Gas Prices Hit $4.12, Up 38 Percent Since War Began; Trump: Both Rescued U.S. Airmen Are "Doing Well". Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired April 06, 2026 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

ELI THOMPSON, AUTHOR OF WSJ CO-ED ON GEN Z SPORTS BETTING: Yeah. Thank you very much for having me.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR, THE SITUATION ROOM: All right.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN CO-ANCHOR, THE SITUATION ROOM: Very impressive, young man indeed. And we thank him for everything he's saying. very important indeed.

BROWN: It is.

BLITZER: And to our viewers, thanks very much for joining us this morning. You can always keep up with us on social media @wolfblitzer and @pamelabrowncnn.

BROWN: We'll see you back here tomorrow morning and every weekday morning at 10 eastern. Inside Politics with our friend and colleague, Dana Bash, starts right after a short break, or actually right now. You don't even have to wait.

DANA BASH, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: Welcome to Inside Politics. I'm Dana Bash.

The clock is ticking toward President Trump's latest deadline for Iran, make a deal to end the war and open the Strait of Hormuz, or face what he described as hell on earth. President Trump says the Iranians have until 8 pm eastern time tomorrow, that's Tuesday. In the next hour, he's going to go to the White House briefing room to take questions from reporters.

Now he originally announced that news conference to talk about the remarkable rescue of an air force service member whose plane went down inside Iran on Friday. But that was quickly overshadowed by his own Easter message to Iran, posted on social media yesterday. And I'm quoting the president of the United States here. Open the eff-in Strait, you crazy bastards, or you'll be living in hell.

Moments ago, at the White House Easter Egg Roll, we heard a new message about the state of peace talks and possible -- possibly an escalation from President Trump. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: They made a proposal, and it's a significant proposal. It's a significant step. It's not good enough, but it's a very significant step.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: They have made, they're negotiating now, and they have made a very significant step. We'll see what happens. We are obliterating that country, and I hate to do it, but we're obliterating and they just don't want to stay uncle. They don't want to cry as the expression goes, uncle, but they will. And if they don't, they'll have no bridges, they'll have no power plants, they'll have no anything.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: I'm going to get straight to CNN's chief national security analyst, Jim Sciutto, who is live for us in Tel Aviv. You just heard the president moments ago talk about the latest 45-day ceasefire proposal and then other comments that the president made. What are you hearing from sources there in the region?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR & CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: So, Dana, we don't know the substance of those negotiations, how far each side is going, or to what degree as the president described there, Iran is prepared to make concessions. We should note that previously in the war, President Trump has claimed progress in peace negotiations, but of course, the war has continued.

At least in public statements, so far, it appears that Iranian officials are opposed to a ceasefire. They want a more formal end to the war, and they seem to be insisting on some control of the Strait of Hormuz, as opposed to completely reopening it, which is of course, the president's demand, as he said with that -- with that tweet yesterday. Now in negotiations, might he soften that position, we don't quite know.

The other issue that seems to be motivating Iranians here is the complete lifting of sanctions. Of course, that would mean an enormous financial windfall for Iran in terms of selling oil to the world. It's not clear that the Trump administration is willing to go there, although they have relaxed some sanctions on some ships already, which has added money to Iranian coffers.

So now you have, well, little more than 24 hours to see if to the president's satisfaction. There is progress in those negotiations. But the pace of the war in the meantime has not let up. Israel in the U.S. resuming attacks on Iran following the rescue of the pilot, and Iran continuing to attack its neighbors, not just in the Gulf, but here in Tel Aviv.

We were again in the -- in the bomb shelters multiple times today. There was one a couple of hours ago when we were in there for three successive air raid warnings, hearing multiple explosions over our head, and sadly, some of those missiles and bombs get through. Four people were killed in the last 24 hours when one of those bombs hit a residence in Haifa, north of Jerusalem, north of Tel Aviv, I should say.

So, listen, the pace of the war on the ground continues. The president is claiming progress. Iranian officials are saying they're not sharing any progress publicly, and by the way, they're responding to the president's threats of attacks on bridges, power stations, et cetera, by saying they would respond in kind with punishing attacks on Israel and other Gulf neighbors. So, it's certainly an escalation of the rhetoric. We'll see where that stands by that evening deadline tomorrow.

[12:05:00]

BASH: All right. Thank you so much, Jim, for reporting for us. And I'm joined here at the table by a team of excellent reporters, including New York Times David Sanger, whose best-selling book, New Cold Wars, comes out in paperback tomorrow, so be sure to get that.

David, I'm just going to start with you and quote your story from this morning, from the Times. And I thought it was always a very interesting take. But this in particular, I'm going to read and ask your take on it. You wrote, would Mr. Trump take that kind of risk, meaning ground troops, and escalating even more. Not in his first term, say his former national security aides, but something has changed the second time around. After more than five years in the Oval Office, his confidence in his own judgment, quote, my gut, as he likes to say, has built with time.

How does that reporting and that analysis inform where we are right now on the eve of this deadline that he set?

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL & NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, you remember in the first term, he surrounded himself with a lot of expertise who were supposed to give some credibility to the administration but also acted as a brake on the president. Think of Jim Mattis, the first secretary of state, who had been among other things, the commander of central command which is running this operation. Think of his level of experience and his caution about doing this, even though he was a real hard liner on Iran versus, say, Pete Hegseth.

Today, who is not considered to be someone, whoever says to the president, you know, there's another way to go about this. And so, I think that sort of explains, and you're hearing it in the president's contradictory statements each day, the box he has put himself in. We're going to hear again today, I'm sure, at the press conference at one o'clock where I think he's going to have some members of the military leadership with him that they've hit 11,000 targets, or whatever it is today. How many -- how much the Iranian military has been decimated?

But what we've learned over these past five weeks is that's not the right measure. The Iranians are there for resistance. They're there for creating the chaos that comes from shutting off the Strait of Hormuz. And they have a pretty straight on strategy here. BASH: Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Just to wait it out. Is, I think, Jamie, you've said many times. I mean, this country is about to celebrate the 250th anniversary that civilization has been around for centuries and centuries. You mentioned this press conference. The formal press conference is going to happen in about 50 minutes.

The president this morning has been having kind of a rolling press conference as he's walked around during the Easter Egg Roll at the White House. That's happening now. He keeps talking to reporters as we've been speaking. He was asked by a reporter whether or not bombing the airfields -- the oil fields rather, in Iran, would be equivalent of a war crime. And his answer was, well, letting them have a nuclear weapon would be a war crime.

Let me just place something else that the president said earlier this morning, which is about the oil in Iran.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We've had total regime (Audio Gap) unfortunately, the American people would like to see us come home. If it were up to me, I'd take the oil, I'd keep the oil, it would bring plenty of money. And I'd also take care of the people of Iran much better than they've been taken care of. It's been horrible. They've killed 45,000 people as of a month and a half ago, 45,000 protesters. We don't do that. So, if I had my choice, I'd keep the oil. But I also want to make the people of our country happy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: First of all, that message with the smooth jazz in the background and the Easter Bunny looking on is really something, but let's try to stay focused on the substance there. It was kind of an amazing statement, even for President Trump, especially in the last 48 hours, in a series of amazing statements.

JAMIE GANGEL, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: Every day a new amazing statement. Look, I just want to say yesterday's post was beyond the pale, even by Donald Trump standards. When people saw that, everybody I've spoken to, first of all, thought it was a fake, then went and checked it -- then went checked it again. So, I do think that you have to bring that into the conversation.

But when we talk about Iran, over the weekend, I spoke to national security experts, intelligence experts, they all said, do not underestimate Iran here. And there's a saying we've talked about that in the West, time is money. In the Middle East, time is time. We replaced an 86-year-old hardliner Ayatollah with a 56-year-old one who seems to be even more hardline.

[12:10:00]

So, I just think that we hear President Trump say these things, but it lacks the context of the other side. Iran is known to like to come to the table to talk, but there is a difference between talking and reaching substantive negotiations. And what I'm hearing from national security experts is, don't expect them to fold anytime soon.

BASH: Yeah. And Isaac just look at some of the other threats. This is in the last 24 hours, the president has talked to several reporters. To Axios, he said, if they don't make a deal, I'm blowing up everything over there. Wall Street Journal, if they want to keep it closed, meaning the Strait of Hormuz, they're going to lose every power plant and every other planet they have -- plant they have, rather, in the whole country. ABC, if it happens, it happens. If it doesn't, we're blowing up the whole country.

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Can I read one more to you?

BASH: Yes.

DOVERE: This is a quote from President Trump. We have a way of getting peace or we think we have a way of getting to peace. He's going to have to approve it. That was of a deadline that President Trump had set back in November for Ukraine and Zelenskyy. He said that in the Oval Office, that was a 28-point plan there. We spent a lot of time then talking about what happens if Zelenskyy doesn't agree to it, by then, he didn't.

Now, we have a 15-point plan, Strait of Hormuz, whatever is going on with that. He says, it's by Tuesday. What happens if they don't do it? He's making these threats. We don't know if he'll follow through on it. He also said, when Ukraine blew through that deadline in November, you know what the deadline is to me, when it's over.

So, the president has this habit of building up these deadlines, and saying, if it doesn't go my way, then all hell is going to break loose. And this time, he literally said that. We'll see what anything -- what if anything comes of it.

MARIANNA SOTOMAYOR, CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON POST: You know, you mentioned some of this mixed messaging by the president or setting deadlines and then moving that goal post. That is what is confusing Capitol Hill. I mean, Congress is out, both the House and the Senate, they're out last week -- this week. They'll be back next week. And they will be facing a lot of questions, and they themselves posing questions to the administration.

This is just a continuation of what we've seen from a number of Republicans and Democrats on key committees. They need more information, especially if, you know, the administration finally puts forth this 200 billion supplemental request. There's lawmakers thinking it might even be higher than that, given that we are still where we are in this war.

The fact that Congress, not that they are doing much to necessarily, you know, make their voice heard on this issue, but the fact that they are really pushing back and need more answers, it's possible that we could see more division --

BASH: Although, it is week six. And there has not been even a public hearing yet to get information from the people who are -- who are running this. David, I want to get your take on another thing that the president said this morning. You mentioned the new regime, which is more hardline than his father's regime. Effectively, the president had a totally different spin on it this morning on what this regime looks like. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We've had total regime change. You know, the people there now are much more reasonable than the lunatics that you had in phase one and phase two. They were lunatics. The people that we're negotiating with now in on behalf of Iran are much more reasonable. You can call it what you want, but I call it regime change, and I think most people are giving us credit for that. The first regime was taken out. The second regime was taken out. Now, the third group of people that we're dealing with is not as radicalized, and we think they're actually much smarter.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: I mean, this is going to be the ultimate test of the Trump marketing prowess to call this new Ayatollah regime change.

SANGER: Right. Well, three quick points on this. First, Ayatollah Khomeini, the father of the current Ayatollah, who we haven't heard from yet in public. He took over in 1989 when basically the founding Ayatollah Khomeini died. Was that regime change? Was there anybody going on TV at that time? Was the White House declaring at that time that there had been regime change as they moved from one Ayatollah the other? I don't think so. That was personnel change, which is what we've had here.

Now maybe this group will turn out to be more reasonable, as the president says, but we have so far not seen any evidence that would suggest that. And in fact, the president has been saying it for three weeks or so, and I haven't noticed that the Iranian have given up much. In fact, they have, as you saw from the opening of the show, continued their attacks and continued their control over the Strait.

The last thing is, the president wants to bring this down to personalities, right, as if, because he always believes that he does best when he's in the room with Putin, with Xi, with whoever it is, but he's not going to be in the room with these Iranians. And so, at this point, sort of the substance of the peace plan, whether or not he gets the nuclear material out of Iran. Imagine for a moment that he declares victory and walks away and they still have 970 pounds of highly enriched uranium.

[12:15:00]

BASH: Yeah.

SANGER: Are we going to say that that was a successful operation?

BASH: That's one of the key questions. Another question when we come back, we're going to sneak in a quick break. Is whether the president and his news conference will talk extensively about what you pay at the pump because it is a lot more than it was six weeks ago. Plus, the Artemis II astronauts, they are about to break a record. Human travel from Earth, they are going to pass the far side of the Moon. Pretty cool. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: What President Trump says, next hour will likely have a direct impact on gas prices, already today, the average cost of a gallon of gas is $4.12. It was 2.98 before the war started. It's gone up 13 cents just in the last week. Shutdown traffic in the Strait of Hormuz not only sends gas prices, oil prices climbing, but it has a ripple effect throughout the economy. For example, as you see there on the screen, the cost of transporting groceries is up, fertilizer, semiconductor manufacturing, home building materials, natural gas, cleaning products, paint and pharmaceuticals, they all rely on that vital shipping lane.

I want to bring back my terrific panel to discuss. Isaac, you've been out and about in some of the key battleground states that will determine the balance of power here in Washington after the midterms. I can't imagine that this is not the number one, two and three thing that they talk about.

DOVERE: People are upset that things are more expensive. And you can call it inflation. You can call it the affordability crisis. You can call it just prices, whatever it is. They're paying more for groceries. They're paying more for every kind of goods that they are consuming, whether it's directly or indirectly, through the building materials. Everything's gotten more expensive that way. They've been paying more for their electricity costs, and now they're paying more for gas, and people are unhappy about it.

And consistently we see in our own CNN polls, in any poll it's done, people say that that's the most important issue for them, what the amount of money they're paying for things. And we went into the end of last -- or into the beginning of this year, the end of last year, with President Trump saying that he was going to spend more time talking about affordability, and what his plan was to address it, talk about housing, all sorts of things.

And we are now in April, a whole quarter of the year has gone by, and we have not seen anything out of the White House about it. What we have seen is that prices continue to go up, aside from the gas stuff, and now with Iran, it seems like that is leading to higher prices for people.

BASH: And Marianna, I want to read a story from Maine, from the Portland Press Herald, written by Penelope Overton, that just really gives a sense of on the ground in a really important battleground. State Senator Susan Collins is once again defending her Republican seat in the blue state.

Seth Kroech, an organic fruit and vegetable farmer in Brunswick, just paid 27 percent fuel surcharge on $230 worth of seeds he ordered from New York. That is on top of the $6 a gallon -- dollars a gallon rather, he paid for the diesel he used to fill up his farm truck at a local gas station Friday. Quote, I've already had the conversations about pricing with everybody. He said, if my costs are going up, I'm going to need to change my price. Farms operate at a very low margin. Like single digits. There's really no cushion left.

SOTOMAYOR: That's just one testimonial of how many people across the country, not just in swing, in decisive states for the midterms. But in districts, it's something that I've heard from many House Republicans who privately are like, what are we doing? Even Congress, right? The Republicans are talking about giving more money to ICE and CBP. They're talking about vote by mail changing that because that's a president -- the president's priority. They are not talking about things that actually do have some bipartisan support, housing reform, permitting reform, things that could actually bring down costs.

That's not even something that -- when they come back, they're going to be discussing, and this is what they're hearing back home. And of course, the Republican argument has been, this war is only going to last a short time. You know some it's going to be painful for a little bit. But what happens if that little bit is months from now?

GANGEL: People voted for -- a lot of people said they voted for Donald Trump because it's the economy, stupid. I mean, we saw this in western Pennsylvania. By the way, a block from my house, regular gas is $5.09. Don't ask people in California, but the big number, and we saw it there is diesel. Diesel is so expensive, and that's how all of these products are getting around.

And I spoke to someone yesterday who's involved with the oil tankers. There is going to be a lag, they believe. First of all, they have to get the Strait of Hormuz back open, and you have to get those tankers out. But also, a lot of shipping companies have not sent their tankers into the area. So, even if you settle this, you have to get those tankers in. It could be a long time. The prices are high.

[12:25:00]

BASH: All right. Still ahead, new details about the daring and dangerous rescue of the American airmen shot down inside Iran.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: Moments ago, at the White House, President Trump told reporters that both U.S. airmen rescued in Iran after their fighter jet was shot down, are quote, doing well. At the top of the hour, the president is expected to hold a news conference on that rescue mission to save the pilot and weapons system operator. I want to bring in retired Lieutenant General Mark Schwartz.