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Trump Threatens Iran: "A Whole Civilization Will Die Tonight"; Vance In Hungary To Help PM Orban Ahead Of Tough Re-Election; Dems Work To Make Inroads With Groups That Shifted Toward Trump In 2024. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired April 07, 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]

BETH SANNER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: -- that went through my head was, you know, here we are in the middle of holy week time, Easter, Passover, and we're talking about ending a civilization after the beginning of this war was supposed to be about saving it by helping the protesters, and now we're talking about eliminating a civilization.

It's just -- to me, it's so unpresidential, and it's wrong. And I -- you know, so I do wonder what, you know, is this a bluff? Is this just maximum pressure? And then it's, you know, like a throwaway line, but, you know, a president isn't supposed to have throwaway lines.

And I think that it's fair for all of us to ask ourselves whether, you know, this is really what we want our country to stand for after the pride we all had about what we stood for in rescuing that airman and not leaving anyone behind. And now we have this juxtaposition that I just find so jarring and upsetting.

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: Beth, let's just assume, and I think it's safe to assume for now, that it is a negotiating tactic to have that kind of rhetoric out there. Knowing what you know about how the Iranian regime operates, given your vast experience in the intelligence world, how do they take in that kind of threat, never mind the threats that we saw over the weekend and since?

SANNER: Right. So, I mean, the Iranian regime did react already by cutting off direct negotiations, but continuing negotiations behind the scene. But I think that the bottom line is, you know, when you ask the question, why -- how did we get here? You know, we're all maybe wondering, how did we get here?

Well, the reason we're here and the reason you asked your question, the whole basis is that, is this misreading, both Netanyahu and President Trump, misreading the enemy, misreading the Iranians, not understanding that this regime is built literally on the foundation of resistance to us, to Israel, to the West.

That is their raison d'etre, that is their purpose in life. And martyrdom is the means of achieving that. And so when you're doing this mirror imaging, you are messing up. So we can't expect this to work. It will boomerang and make them more resistant.

BASH: I think that's such an important point. We're going to have to leave it there, Beth, but it's such an important point that in the West, in the United States of America, most -- not most, all people, the sanctity of life is number one. And for the regime in Iran, martyrdom, dying for that cause, is number one. And they're not mirror notions at all. They're polar opposite, as you were just saying.

Thank you so much, Beth. Appreciate your time.

SANNER: Thank you.

BASH: Coming up, President Trump just moments ago called into a rally to stump for a key political ally. That rally was not in the United States of America. That rally was in Budapest, Hungary. And it was for a candidate who is a sitting leader, an autocrat.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JD VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Mr. President, you are on with about 5,000 Hungarian patriots, and I think they love you even more than they love Viktor Orban.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I can't believe that. I can't believe that, because I love Hungary, and I love that Viktor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:38:20]

BASH: It's not unusual for President Trump to endorse a right-wing candidate in an election somewhere else in the world. But for the first time, he dispatched his Vice President to stump for an ideological ally, Hungary's strongman Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

JD Vance just wrapped up headlining a political rally in Budapest. He's getting out the vote for Orban ahead of Saturday's election. Orban is in danger of losing that. And while the Vice President was on stage, he dialed up his boss.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I'm a big fan of Viktor. I'm with him all the way. The United States is with him all the way. You don't have problems with all of the problems that so many other countries have because they let their countries be invaded. And you don't have that problem because of Viktor Orban. That's the only reason you don't have that problem.

There was a lot of pressure on him to do it. And those other countries made big mistakes. So I wish you a lot of luck and I love you all.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BASH: And my smart panel is back. I know this is the second time I've done this in one show, but they both -- these -- both of these examples deserve it. Like, this is not normal at all. We've all covered the White House. We have all sort of, you know, been living, breathing people on planet Earth during the United States of America and the sort of norms for what a president does and does not do.

And certainly in recent history, the norm has been you don't openly endorse somebody on foreign soil and you certainly don't go to a political rally. Never mind who Viktor Orban is. Yes, he might be ideologically simpatico with the President and Vice President. But he's done a lot of things that past presidents would push back on as backsliding on human rights and, you know, freedom of speech.

[12:40:19]

Just some examples, and I'm going to bring you in, Jeff. He calls it an illiberal democracy. He passed a new constitution on a party line vote. He expanded the highest court to add allies and restricted its power, put loyalists in charge of independent agencies, rewrote local election laws to favor a majority party in gerrymandered districts, restricted opposition campaign ads, took direct control of public television and radio, wealthy allies took control of many private media outlets, control over local school staffing and curriculums and restrict NGOs with any foreign funding.

I don't -- well, I'm just going to let you take that.

JEFF MASON, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, BLOOMBERG: With that list, is there any question why President Trump feels aligned with him? I mean, we could spend the next 15 minutes talking about the similarities there. But you're right to lead with the fact that norms are gone. This is another exhibit A of that.

I covered the European Union in Brussels for three and a half years before becoming a White House reporter. And I can also say that Hungary and the leadership of Hungary is creating major rifts within the E.U. as well. All of those lists are not in line, or all the things on that list are not in line with most European Union values, which puts right now both the President and a majority of traditional U.S. allies at odds with this election.

Also, I think worth noting, really interesting, aside from the norms being cast aside, that they're worried that he may lose --

BASH: Yes.

MASON: -- because --

BASH: Exactly.

MASON: -- they wouldn't be dispatching, he wouldn't be dispatching his Vice President right now to help him if that weren't the case.

BASH: Yes, that's such an important point. Viktor Orban spoke this morning in Budapest. And if you listen to what he said, it's part of his campaign platform. It's also going to sound familiar.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VIKTOR ORBAN, HUNGARIAN PRIME MINISTER (through translation): There is a continuous discussion between us, an exchange of experiences related to government work, especially in four areas. One, migration. Number two, gender ideology. Number three, family policy. And number four, global security.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Migration, as he calls it, is a wedge issue in this campaign. And he's banned and criminalized public discussion of LGBTQ people and their identities.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, I mean, this is a Trump ally. He's a MAGA ally, you know, sort of the hardcore base of MAGA will appreciate this and like it. But I think most Americans will wonder why JD Vance and the President aren't focused on the problems that Americans face right now, right?

Mainly the cost of living. Obviously, the cost of gas is uppermost in people's minds. But for months and months, polls have shown that average Americans think that this is a president and administration that is completely distracted, that is much more focused on foreign policy and foreign affairs than what's going on in average Americans' lives.

And, you know, we talked about Marjorie Taylor Greene in the last segment. And partly that's one of the things that she was so critical of this President over. Make America Great Again, that was the slogan. They wanted to be America first, America only. And I think a lot of Americans agree with that sentiment, that these are officials that are meddling far and wide rather than really focusing on bettering the lives of average Americans.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: I think that there is -- what is very clear is this administration, and this was the case with Argentina, it's been the case with other countries around the world with similar populist MAGA aligned leaders, that there is a recognition inside this administration, and they have made a concerted effort throughout the course of the second term to where there are leaders that align with us that we believe can help build kind of our dynamic globally. They are going to do anything they can to help them.

Again, think about Argentina and the swap loan that they were able to try and bail them out financially. That's happening again here. I think what's most fascinating about this as Jeff's point, like the fact that Orban could lose, I think over the course of the last decade, it wasn't something that I expected to ever see in large part because of all the changes he had made to insulate himself as he pushed the country further towards autocracy.

And what happens if he does lose and Vance was there shortly before? Like that's a risky play here. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out.

BASH: Yes, absolutely.

All right. Don't go away. Up next, President Trump nearly doubled his support from black voters between 2020 and 2024. Democrats are still asking themselves how and how to win them back. We'll talk about that after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:49:24]

BASH: It's been nearly a year and a half since President Trump won the White House and Republicans seized control or kept control of the House and the Senate in 2024. Among the reasons were small but pivotal shifts inside demographic groups, long seen as loyal to Democrats. For instance, in 2020, President Biden won young black voters by 79 percentage points. Just four years later, Vice President Harris won by 12 percentage points less.

Democrats still have work to do to bring them back into the fold. Listen to this focus group of black voters under 40.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[12:50:04]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If Democrats were like in power for the last, let's say, a decade, I feel like some things that in my vision of, I guess, the country and if that's the party that black people mainly lean on, I feel like they didn't really like perform as like we were hoping.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They do just enough. Just at the bare minimum to get the vote. It's like -- it's almost like they're like the opposing side. They kind of hide it a bit, but because they want our vote, they're willing to do just a little bit more.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Joining me now is Terrance Woodbury, the president of HIT Strategies, which moderated that focus group you just saw. Nice to see you again, Terrence. It is really striking that we're not that far out, but we're far enough and out. And there have been -- this has been enough hand-wringing among Democrats that there hasn't been as much work successfully done with voters like the ones that you talked to by Democratic Party candidates or just by the party in general.

TERRANCE WOODBURY, POLLSTER, HIT STRATEGIES: Yes. So, look, this is something that HIT has long warned of, that there's a new swing voter that has been determining the outcome of these elections. And that's some of the voters you saw there, swing voters, like young voters of color, men of color that have been determining the outcome of elections.

We saw Donald Trump improve his support amongst many of these groups. But what we've seen since then is that these voters are, you know, I call them Trump curious. They weren't in love with Trump, but they were willing to give him a shot. And now they've become Trump furious.

They're angry that he's not kept his promises to bring down costs, that the economic war and tariffs have raised cost of everything, that the Iran war is raising the cost of gas. And so these Trump curious voters have become Trump furious in -- by November of 2025, we saw Trump's approval rating amongst black voters dropped by 23 points.

In the same month in November of 2025, we saw Republican support amongst black voters drop by 22 points. And we saw candidates like Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill winning almost Obama level support amongst black voters. And so, my warning to Democrats now is that while they did -- while many of those Trump curious voters returned to the democratic coalition in 2025, they remain swing voters and we have to give them something to vote for and not just to vote against him.

BASH: Do you see this as a through line with voters of all ages, or do you think that this is really specific to young voters who, as you say, were Trump curious and now they're Trump furious?

WOODBURY: Well, the two groups that I'm paying the closest attention to are men of color, where we've seen tremendous swings amongst black men, Hispanic men and AAPI men, but also young voters of color. Where we've seen Republicans, Donald Trump for the first time won a majority of voters under the age of 50. And so these are core aspects of the democratic coalition we cannot take for granted.

And while they have become increasingly frustrated with Donald Trump and the Republican Party, they are, you know -- I sometimes referred -- we've heard them referred to as double haters, right? Because they actually don't like either party. They're not nonpartisan or --

BASH: So is there -- I'm sorry to interrupt you, but you mentioned that there were high levels of black support for the Democrats running in 2025. Do you see a potential for this coming election for those double haters to just stay home?

WOODBURY: Well, that's what we are at risk of, right? One of the things that determines for the double hater, whether or not they vote or not, is personal impact. What is -- how does it impact me? They are less motivated by, you know, partisan control of either chamber, less motivated by defending democracy or opposing fascism, but directly mobilized by what is impacting them.

What we found in a recent poll that we did for the black ops coalition is that 30 percent of black voters and almost half of young black voters still say that nothing that Donald Trump has done has helped them or hurt them. And amongst those voters that say that it's made no difference, they are twice as likely to say that they're uncertain to vote in the midterm. And so we have to connect the dots of the policies that are coming out of this White House and how it's hurting them directly.

BASH: I want to ask about Texas specifically. You just came back from Texas. You were a pollster for Jasmine Crockett's campaign. She lost in that democratic primary to James Talarico. Do you believe that he can drive black turnout in Texas, which is so crucial? WOODBURY: Yes, look, Jasmine Crockett's campaign set out to go after those lost voters or what the late Reverend Jesse Jackson would call those rocks laying around, right? 800,000 registered black folks in Texas that have not voted in two or three of the last three elections.

[12:55:02]

Jasmine Crockett was successful in mobilizing those voters in the primary. She got almost as many black votes as Barack Obama got when he ran against Hillary Clinton, almost 20 years ago. She won 92 percent of black voters. And so, she proved a -- an ability to mobilize these voters that otherwise had not been participating.

And James Talarico now has to bring those voters into his coalition. I do think he has one advantage, something that we have been encouraging Democrats to do more of, and that is to reclaim values that are important to black voters and values like religiosity being able to talk about progressive issues through a religious context in a way that James Talarico has mastered.

And I think that that's going to represent an appeal to black voters, but it's -- he's got some work to do between now and November.

BASH: Terrance, good to see you.

WOODBURY: Thank you so much for having me.

BASH: Welcome back from Texas.

WOODBURY: Thank you.

BASH: And thank you for joining Inside Politics. CNN News Central will start after a quick break.

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