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U.S.-Iran Talks In Doubt With Time Running Out On Ceasefire; NYT: Iranian Officials Say They'll Go To Peace Talks If Vance Does; Trump: "No More Mr. Nice Guy" If Iran Doesn't Agree To Deal; Average Gas Prices Down From Peak But Still Above $4/Gallon; Poll: 65 Percent Of Voters Blame Trump For Rise In Gas Prices; Trum Keeps Saying War In Iran Will End Soon As It Enters Eight Week; Dems Hope To Gain 4 House Seats With Virginia Gerrymander. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired April 20, 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]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR, THE SITUATION ROOM: And just to be clear, this was not an active shooter call for service. So, it's believed the kids in the nearby schools that they are safe, right?

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: According to police right now, yes, they are. And we've reached out to the school district. We have not been able to get in contact with them at this time, but police are telling parents that if they do want to get their kids, there are certain roads that they can take. But they are saying that at this time, classes continue as normal, and they are continuing their investigation.

BROWN: All right, Dianne Gallagher, thank you so much.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN CO-ANCHOR, THE SITUATION ROOM: And to our viewers, thanks very much for joining us this morning.

BROWN: Inside Politics with our friend and colleague, Dana Bash, starts right now.

DANA BASH, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: Dialog or deadlock? Will the U.S. and Iran meet for peace talks before this very fragile ceasefire expires?

I'm Dana Bash. Let's go behind the headlines at Inside Politics.

We begin with the ticking clock on the U.S.-Iranian ceasefire, less than 48 hours to go until the deal expires. What you're looking at there, behind the trees is Vice President J.D. Vance, who was arriving this morning at the White House. He's expected to leave for Islamabad tomorrow for another round of peace talks with Iran. One problem is an Iranian spokesman says there's no plan for more talks as of now.

Now this morning, President Trump acknowledged, he's not sure whether the Iranians will show up. But in the meantime, oil prices are rising as the Strait of Hormuz remains shut effectively. This morning, the U.S. military released video of marines seizing an Iranian cargo ship, they said was trying to get through the U.S. blockade. You can see a helicopter flying over the Iranian flagship and marines rappelling down to it. The U.S. central command says, they took the ship after it failed to comply with repeated warnings.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voiceover): Motor vessel Touska, motor vessel Touska. Vacate your engine room, vacate your engine room. We're prepared to subject you to disabling fire.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: I want to get straight to the White House. CNN's Kristen Holmes is there. Kristen, tell us what you're learning from your sources about the planning for the second round of talks.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Dana, over here, it's been a real who's on first situation much because of the president himself giving these kind of short one-off interviews, in which he contradicts what we're hearing from U.S. officials and White House officials as to what's actually going on.

We even saw this last week President Trump announcing that Vice President J.D. Vance would not be leading this delegation because of security. He said this in one of these interviews after we had been told by the White House and U.S. officials, senior U.S. officials involved in these talks, that Vance would be on the ground.

The same thing happened today when we heard vice president -- I mean, we heard President Trump saying that the vice president was going to be wheels down in Pakistan at any moment, only to then see him arrive at the West Wing roughly 30 minutes later. So, there's been a lot of questions as to what exactly is going to happen. What these talks are going to look like? As we know now, Vice President J.D. Vance is expected to lead these talks with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.

And just moments ago, an Iranian official told The New York Times that they would be sending a delegation. But of course, there are still questions. There is clearly a lack of trust on both sides, despite the enormous amount of energy that's been going on behind the scenes to try and come to a diplomatic solution. President Trump saying in another one of these interviews that he isn't likely to extend the ceasefire deadline if a deal isn't reached. It was originally going to be that the ceasefire ended on Tuesday night, that was the calculation.

Now he is saying that the ceasefire actually ends on Wednesday night, United States time. Clearly, they would need that extra daytime, particularly given that the delegation is not in route yet. What we are told by these senior officials is that the delegation is going to be leaving soon for these talks. There is still a desperation among these U.S. officials to find some sort of an off ramp here.

I do want to go to something that President Trump said in one of these interviews when he was asked specifically, are the Iranians going to show up? Here's what he said. He said, I don't know. I mean, they're supposed to be there. We agreed to be there, although they didn't say we didn't, although they say we didn't. But no, it was set up, and we'll see whether or not it's there. If they're not there, that's fine too. It's obviously not fine too, if they're not there, since we're trying to come to some kind of diplomatic solution.

But we do know is there's been a frantic working behind the scenes to get the Iranians there, to get the U.S. delegation there, to come up with some kind of solution before the end of that ceasefire, to try and move past where we are right now. As you noted, those gas prices, those oil prices, are continuing to climb, and this is not a good situation, particularly right now for the U.S., but also for the global economy.

[12:05:00]

BASH: Kristen, you set up your report and our state of play perfectly. By saying, it's a who's on first situation. It's exactly where we are right now. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

Joining me now is Nate Swanson, who served as President Trump's negotiator, one of those on the negotiating team, I should say, last year, and he was a former director for Iran at the National Security Council. Thanks for coming back and helping us make sense of this. We were just told right at the end of Kristen's report that the Iranians are now saying, well, if Vice President Vance goes, we'll go.

NATE SWANSON, DIRECTOR OF THE IRAN STRATEGY PROJECT, THE ATLANTIC COUNCIL: Well, thanks for having me. Look, the bottom line is, Iran will probably show up. This is a pretty common tactic of, they will come, they won't come. But it is in their interest, and it's in the U.S. interest to ultimately get this done. And so, I think a lot of what we're seeing now is mostly just posturing. You know, he could -- who knows, there's a lot of risk for both sides, but at the end of the day, the bottom line fundamentals are unchanged, is which both sides should get a deal.

BASH: OK. So, assuming that it they actually happened, what do you think is the best likely scenario at this point in time for the U.S. in these talks?

SWANSON: I mean, the best scenario for the U.S. is the war is over, right? Full stop. And so, whatever --

BASH: And how do you get there?

SWANSON: Well, look, I mean, from Iran's perspective, it's simple, right? I mean, they want the security guarantee, which they have through the Strait. They want some kind of financial compensation for the Strait, which we can talk about, or -- and they want Lebanon, right? So, they basically have the three of this.

And so, the question is, what does Trump want? Trump wants the Strait, and he wants something on nuclear, right? And so that -- so how you get there is basically, how much are you willing to pay for those things on Iran -- on the U.S.? Iran side is fairly clear, which is what does -- what Trump want on the nuclear side.

BASH: Who has the stronger negotiating position right now?

SWANSON: It's diminishing returns for both sides. You know, time is not on either of our side, but I think Iran's perspective is they can outlast Trump. And so, to that extent, time is on their side, but if this goes on indefinitely, they both lose.

BASH: The president was asked this morning what he wants out of the Pakistan negotiating team? And he said, we're not negotiating anything other than the fact that we will not have a nuclear weapon. That is more narrow than -- forget the Strait of Hormuz, which is a problem for the U.S. and for the world. That is a consequence of the war because that's the -- that's the way that Iran is retaliating. But in terms of the initial goals of the U.S. and Israel in this war, it wasn't just the nukes program.

SWANSON: No, it was changing objectives by the day. You know, it was regime change. It was total surrender. It was degrading the military capabilities, and now in negotiations, just the nuclear program, but that was never the aim of the military campaign.

BASH: And so, but do you think that in reality that is the sort of narrow scope from the U.S. point of view of where they are right now, as they head into these talks tomorrow?

SWANSON: Every indication seems to be focused on the Strait and nukes, and that's it.

BASH: OK. I want to just ask about a little bit of reporting as somebody who has been on the negotiating team and kind of really understands, not just the way these work in general, but away the way that this current president works. You remember, because everybody remembers that the president put out a social media post on Easter and it was really, he blasted the Iranians and he used the f word. He called them crazy bastards. He said they were going to be living in hell. He said, praise be Allah.

There's a great Wall Street Journal story out that includes an author on it, a reporter, friend of the show, Josh Dawsey. Where they say, when one advisor later asked him about it, he said he came up with the Allah idea himself. He said he wanted to seem as unstable and insulting as possible, believing it could bring the Iranians to the table. So that's sort of kind of the definition of the mad man theory, which some people say is the ace in the hole that Donald Trump has as somebody who's been in these rooms. Do you think that's true?

SWANSON: There is certainly an element of his unpredictability that's an advantage. I don't think it ultimately works in his favor, though, because Iran's positions aren't changing. Iran's positions have been the same. And so, ultimately, when he makes these wild threats that are, you know, basically genocidal, you know, he's ultimately hurting the U.S. perspective overall, our USDA and overall, with minimal to no gains with Iran. So, I don't think they're having much of an impact.

BASH: Yeah. And that I think you're probably talking about another post where he said that he was going to annihilate this. It's hard to keep track of them. SWANSON: Yeah, exactly.

BASH: Yeah. It's same kind of thing. Thank you. Look forward to talking to you as these talks begin tomorrow, allegedly, and certainly as they wind down.

SWANSON: Thank you very much.

BASH: Thanks, Nate. Up next. President Trump slams his energy secretary over a grim outlook that he gave to CNN on gas prices. Here what he told Jake Tapper and what the president is saying, next. Plus, new reporting on a toxic culture on Capitol Hill. One lawmaker calls it a quote, cesspool of inflated male egos that breed predatory behavior.

[12:10:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: The average price of gas is still above $4 a gallon. As we enter week eight of the war in Iran, now that price is down since last week, but still far higher than before the war began. So, when could Americans see gas prices down below $3 a gallon again? Here's what the Energy Secretary Chris Wright told Jake Tapper on State of the Union.

[12:15:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS WRIGHT, ENERGY SECRETARY: I don't know, that could happen later this year. That might not happen till next year, but prices have likely peaked and they'll start going down. Certainly, with a resolution of this conflict, you'll see prices go down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: This morning President Trump talked to the Hill and undercut his own energy secretary, rather. He said, quote, no, I think he's wrong on that. Totally wrong. I'm joined by a very smart group of reporters today, CNN's Manu Raju, Emily Davies of The Washington Post, and Astead Herndon with Vox, who also has a brand new podcast, America, Actually with Astead Herndon.

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I love the cartoon.

BASH: Yeah, that's good.

ASTEAD HERNDON, HOST AND EDITORIAL DIRECTOR, VOX: Yeah. The best- looking version.

BASH: I love that. By the way, new episodes hit on Saturday morning. OK. Let's talk about energy and gas prices. Manu, that's -- it's not surprising that the president hears one of the people who work for him, talking and probably saying something that is, I mean, not probably, almost definitely saying something that is true based on the data that he's looking at, that gas prices are not going to come back down and gets upset about it.

Never mind that, I remember watching the president's interview with Maria Bartiromo last Sunday, and he said something similar. He said, it could be around the mid-terms, they could go up, they could go down, or it could be even higher. It could be higher, he said.

RAJU: It could be even higher. That's exactly what I was just about to say. He literally said that at that moment. When he said that, I mean, I immediately stuck out because the message from the Republican party since the onset of this war has been, don't worry, gas prices are going to come down. It's OK. They don't have a plan to deal with gas prices. Their plan is to hope the war ends and that Americans will start seeing relief.

So, when the president started saying something that completely undercuts that, that's one thing. And then, he hears his energy secretary speak the truth. Because gas prices, as we know, they go up very quickly and they take a very long time to subside. And this is going to be a real political problem. The speaker knows it, the party knows it, which is why they're not quite sure how they're going to deal with it.

BASH: Emily, I know you've been traveling out. I know you were in Iowa. Maybe you've done other traveling since you and I last spoke. But talking to voters who are going to decide whether or not to blame Republicans for the way that they see the economy going gas prices specifically. And as you answer, I just want to show a latest poll from over the weekend.

This is a Quinnipiac University Poll. How much do you blame President Trump for rising gas prices? 65 percent say a lot, or some?

EMILY DAVIES, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON POST: Yes, I was in Nevada and Arizona last week, and Iowa the week before. So, I feel like I've talked to people from a lot of different parts of the country who feel different ways about the gas price issue. But one thing I will say is it feels still a little bit early to draw conclusions, because, to your point, gas prices go up so quickly that I think voters intuitively believe the president that they will also come down quickly.

Like it doesn't really make sense to somebody who's not following the intricacies of the market that it would take so long for them to fall. And so, it's still been a relatively short period of time. They're believing him that the second he kind of decides to end the war, gas prices will fall. But right now, there's certainly, as you see, there a lot of frustration and that's reflected in conversations I've had.

HERNDON: It feels like this, you know, the back and forth with the energy secretary speaks to something. I think it's hurt Trump consistently on the second term. You can't really acknowledge reality, and even his energy secretary, doing so in words that he has similarly said, has caused some of his ire. And I think it just speaks to some of how Trump's, a lot of these crises are self-imposed, like, you know, voters can, I think, and I've heard some make the association between tariffs and the rising inflation. And Donald Trump has really made that easy for folks, because it's not as if these crisis are -- were imposed on him. They're ones that he has driven. And so, I think it's been reflected not just in the polling you show, but his approval ratings now in the 37 percent lowest he see, and we see some signs of disapproval rating rising among some Republicans too.

BASH: Let's show, we actually have him here, we're going to show. Let's put it up on the screen. This is from NBC. This is about President Trump's handling of the war, and this is approval which I think probably is driving the rest of his approval ratings. Go ahead.

HERNDON: Absolutely. And I was saying that there was the right track, wrong track numbers in that polling are the highest since it's been in his second term. And you know, as I was mentioning the Republican approval rating, the amount of Republicans who say they strongly approve of him is going down too.

And so, I think although there has been some question about whether the schism and MAGA among, you know, the Megyn Kelly's or Tucker Carlson represented his true coalition. It could be that they're more of a leading indicator, and that we're going to see the public, particularly as gas prices come through the summer, might show more of that split on the Republicans.

[12:20:00]

RAJU: I mean, the real problem is they never even from the beginning of this war, ever really sold it to the American publics. And when he came in, knowing with very low -- people didn't want to go to war to begin with. And typically -- and when we've seen in conflicts past war, support for war decreases over time. And this is exactly what happened here.

He already started at a low point. It's getting worse, and especially as people are getting hit with high gas prices. I hear some members of Congress tell me, well, as a pat -- members, constituents' voters, they're OK with, it's a patriot -- patriotic duty to pay more for gas because of prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. But that is not the message that a lot of Republicans are saying right now.

BASH: And it's about the expectation game. One of President Trump's ticks, if you will, has historically been two weeks. Anything has going to happen in two weeks, whether it's a plan or something is going to end or going to begin. That has been the case since the beginning of this war with Iran. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: It's going to be finished pretty quickly. I do see a deal in Iran, yeah?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President --

TRUMP: It could be soon. We are going to finish the job, and we're going to finish it very fast. We're getting very close. I think it's close to over here. I mean, I view it as very close to over. I will say the war in Iran is going along swimmingly. We can do whatever we want, and it should be, it should be ending pretty soon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: It's going to end soon. So that's what the people are hearing and it's not happening.

HERNDON: It's here. It's going to end soon. It's going to end tomorrow. It's going to end in two weeks. And I think Manu's points important one that comes after they never laid out a clear reasoning to the American public going into this, never coordinated with allies. And I really think Trump, across the board, has lost a lot of credibility and narrative setting power in the second term.

And so, I think he's used to being able to say, oh, I'll do this then, or I'll do that then. And you know, the base only of will follow along. And it's not as if we're seeing like a huge thing in terms of the numbers, but I think that power, that determine the power is getting less so. And so, you're seeing some of those cracks among Republican caucus, and I just think more so, his MAGA coalition went beyond the strict party. And so, those type of people he brought in are the ones most likely to be upset by some of these actions.

BASH: Yeah. I mean, when two thirds of people responding disapprove of the way you're handling the war, it's not great. And obviously, they know that at the White House, which is why they have talks coming and they're trying desperately to wrap it up.

Up next. Who is playing fair? Who isn't. When it comes to redrawing the congressional maps. Virginia voters are going to choose in a decision that could tip control of Congress. That is going to happen tomorrow. We'll tell you what's going on behind the scenes today after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: If you are registered to vote in the Commonwealth of Virginia, you almost certainly know that tomorrow is an election day. Why? Because you are getting bombarded with calls, with text. You see ads on your phone, ads on your TV. It feels like November of an election year and not April. Well, Democratic and Republican PACs are spending a lot of money on a ballot measure. That's what the vote is going to be tomorrow, and it could decide who controls Congress next year.

How to vote may be a lot less clear for voters, because both sides are making pitches that sound similar, that their side is the one for, quote, fair elections. That gerrymandering is bad and that Barack Obama backs their position. The two groups donating and doing most of the spending even have similar names. Virginians for fair elections is for redistricting. Virginians for fair maps is against it. You got that? You don't. OK. Well, we'll dig a little deeper. And by the way, if you don't, maybe you're a Virginia voter. Maybe you're not, but if you're not, you're lucky.

The Washington Post is here. So, we'll start with you, Emily. What do you think that this means for -- well, let's just start with Virginia. Because Virginia is a purple state, and the new Democratic governor is pushing forward ahead on this, just like Gavin Newsom did in California, in order to try to, they say, counteract and counterbalance, what President Trump asked Republican led states to do, the most successful one was in Texas.

DAVIES: I mean, it is -- it is a good example of how a newly elected Democratic governor has to choose between how they're going to govern, who ran as a moderate, who ran, you know, as a certain brand of Democrat, but now needs to sort of take on more of a fight role. And this puts, I mean, if it passes, Virginia is in some ways, like, less politically interesting. There's less money in the state. There's, you know, candidates who are now, like fighting tooth and nail for a seat, will start campaigning in, you know, college towns and real blue senators.

It was interesting. I've heard a lot from Republicans recently using Spanberger as like a real boogeyman, which I had not heard, you know, in the last few months, that she ran as a moderate, but as governing as a progressive, pointing to redistricting. And this is what we're going to see from the Democratic Party moving forward. And that's scary and dangerous. So that's how they're using it.

BASH: And I mentioned a lot of money is being spent. Just check this out. This is the Virginia redistricting referendum spending.