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Inside Politics

Sources: Trump Sending Witkoff, Kushner To Meet With Iranians; Trump: High Gas Prices Are A Trade For Iran Without A Nuclear Weapon; Poll: 77 Percent Of Independents Disapprove Of Trump's Handling Of Iran; DOJ Drops Criminal Probe Into Fed Chair Jerome Powell; Trump: World "Has Become Somewhat Of A Casino". Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired April 24, 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]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN CO-ANCHOR, THE SITUATION ROOM: After the first Gulf war, I was invited on, and when he introduced me, he said, a man who needs no introduction because he was watching me everyday.

MATT FRIEND, COMEDIAN AND IMPRESSIONIST: That CNN young demo were afterwards. Yeah, absolutely.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR, THE SITUATION ROOM: That's right.

FRIEND: That is so cool. That is amazing.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: You're old enough to remember Johnny Carson?

FRIEND: I was born in 1998, so no. But I mean, I love watching him on YouTube, but that's what I'm after, just, you know, those great moments where you don't really know what's going to happen.

BLITZER: Matt, thank you very much.

FRIEND: Thank you for having me.

BLITZER: We're actually doing this special. And to our viewers, you can catch Matt's political comedy special later tonight, entitled America Laughs with Matt Friend. It premiers tonight, 11 Eastern, right here on CNN. You can also watch on CNN -- on the CNN app.

FRIEND: I'm not wearing (Ph) any pants right now. Do they know that?

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: To our viewers, thanks very much for joining us this morning.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR, THE SITUATION ROOM: Inside Politics with our friend and colleague, Dan Bash, starts now.

DANA BASH, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: Welcome to Inside Politics. I'm Dana Bash in Washington. And we start with exclusive breaking news. Sources tell my colleague Alayna Treene that President Trump is sending his special envoy Steve Witkoff, as well as Jared Kushner to Pakistan this weekend for new peace talks with Iran.

I want to get straight to both CNN international diplomatic editor, Nic Robertson, who is in Islamabad, and also Alayna at the White House, who is breaking this news. Alayna, tell us more about your reporting?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. Look, it's all just very quickly developing here at the White House. I can tell you this morning, when they were learning of the Iranian Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, his plans to travel to Pakistan for talks. They were figuring out what they were going to do and who they were going to send, but from two administration officials, they now tell me that they are planning to send Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who have obviously been very involved in these talks from the start. They were in Pakistan just a couple of weeks ago for that first round of talks.

One thing notable, though, is that they are not sending the vice president J.D. Vance. Now, it was widely expected, and they had planned for this. I mean, we saw Air Force Two sitting on the tarmac the other day at Joint Base Andrews, that Vance was expected to also travel to Islamabad for a second round of in person talks.

But the reason I'm told that Vance is not attending, he's not going on this trip is because the speaker of Iran's parliament, who's really widely viewed internally at the White House, as kind of Vance's counterpart in all of this. They view him as the leader of the Iranian delegation. Since he's not going, Vance is not going to attend.

My sources tell me essentially that he will be on the -- on the phone, participating in calls as needed, and he is going to be on standby. Should he end up needing to travel to Islamabad, and if these talks actually do progress further. Now I'm also told that Vance has a number of staff who are also on the ground already in Pakistan who are going to be participating in this as well over the weekend.

So, a lot of news. And I think clearly this is moving a little bit quicker than we had anticipated, particularly when you take into account. What we've been hearing from the president just as recently as yesterday, telling reporters not to rush him, not wanting to put a deadline on this. But this is definitely, I think, welcome news to the White House, which has really been pushing for more diplomacy and another round of in-person talks to try and get some sort of deal together as soon as possible, Dana.

BASH: Yeah. A terrific reporting, Alayna, very significant indeed. And it comes just, I don't know, maybe minutes after Nic you reported that Iranian officials were going to head to Pakistan at the time. You were reporting that they were going to be talking with the Pakistani negotiators, or those who are facilitating the negotiator. But this obviously takes these talks to a totally different level.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: It really does, and this news is very fast paced and incoming literally come from a meeting with government officials here, who I don't think were even aware that Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff were due here over the weekend. Now, what we'd heard from Pakistani officials earlier was that they hoped that their bilateral meeting with the Iranian foreign minister would lead to more U.S.-Iranian face to face talks. But the impression had been created by the Iranian foreign minister because he said he was going to come first here to Islamabad. Everything we were understanding about that visit that was going to happen in the coming hours was going to be short.

Within about four hours or so, he'd be leaving to go on to Oman for talks there, and then on to Moscow for talks there. So, the narrative coming from the Iranian foreign minister side was this was just touch and go talks with the Pakistanis here, but this is now entering a whole different realm.

As we've seen, the logistics to get a delegation from the East Coast of the United States to Islamabad, Pakistan. Is almost a 24-hour process to get them in place. Is it conceivable that the Iranian foreign minister does his touch and go here, moves off for his other meetings, then circles back into Islamabad to have that face to face with the president's special envoy and his son-in-law Jared Kushner.

[12:05:00]

Is that the frame that we should be looking at here? What the Pakistanis already hoping to get out of this, from what we understand, is really to re-energy the talks, the peace talks that are really appeared to sort of stagnate over the past few days.

BASH: Both of you, just absolutely fantastic reporting. Please come to us if you get more in the next hour. Thank you so much. I'm joined here at the table on this wonderful Friday by a group of terrific reporters. Jamie, I want to start with you. What's your take on this development?

JAMIE GANGEL, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: Look, let's be hopeful. Let's be optimistic. It's moving in the right direction. I think everyone would like this war to end, but we've seen a roller coaster here. And in -- when dealing with the Iranians, I've been told over and over by intelligence experts, they're really good at talking, and they will talk and talk until the cows come home, but getting to substantive negotiations is a whole other matter. So, let's see where this goes. I do think it's interesting that Vice President Vance is not going. I think it says something about where we think this is at the moment.

BASH: Yeah. And the fact that the Iranians, as Alayna was reporting, they're not sending the speaker of the parliament, who they consider sort of the counterpoint in any negotiations. Jasmine, you were pressing President Trump about the timing and timeframe of when this war could end over -- or this week was actually yesterday, and I want to play a bit of that moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do you say to the American people who question how much longer this will take? Obviously, you know that they are having high -- DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: You're such a disgrace. Did you know what I just said. Vietnam? How many years was Vietnam? How many years was Vietnam? Well, I did my act. I took, I took, I took the country out militarily. In the first four weeks, I took it out militarily. Now all we're doing is sitting back and seeing what deal, and if they don't want to make a deal, then I'll finish it up militarily with the other 25 percent of the targets.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: First of all, that's a great question. Second of all, I think I would just use the word grace, not disgrace, because you always have grace when you ask your tough questions, Jasmine. I also would just say that I don't know that comparing anything to Vietnam is necessarily something that the American people want to hear right now.

JASMINE WRIGHT, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, NOTUS: Yeah. And I've heard from a few of the president's allies outside the White House since that clip happened, and they basically said the same thing. Why does he keep saying Vietnam? I think what's clear from that exchange, because I was the third reporter, just so people have context, asking again, what is the timeline?

How long are you going to give the Iranians to come back to you with a unified proposal? Specifically, because he continues to say that they don't actually know who is in charge to make a substantial deal. And it's clear that he is in some ways, at least sensitive about this idea of a timeline, after repeatedly setting his own deadlines and then extending them.

And I think the fundamental part of my question here is that you told the American public that it would be a four-to-six-week effort to get rid of any nuclear ambitions, and that they would have to deal with higher gas prices. It is now week eight, no matter how he kind of does the math, and you're still asking people to wait.

And the question is, wait how much longer? And I think the White House doesn't really have an answer for it, but they wanted to show progress, so it's not exactly surprising that you're seeing Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law go to Islamabad. The question is, what are they going to leave with?

BASH: Yeah, gas prices. Let's listen to what the president was asked about and what he said on that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Does that mean Americans should anticipate spending more on gasoline for the foreseeable future?

TRUMP: For a little while, and you know, what they get for that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For how long?

TRUMP: You know, what they get for that? Iran without a nuclear weapon. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: David, take it away?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR & WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF: Well, I mean, for a little while, is a different answer than he gave when he was interviewed about this week and a half ago, where he said that prices could be higher, maybe in November than they are now, possibly lower. He refuses to, you know, in most things, to be pinned down on this in a specific way. And the answer is also, he doesn't fully know, right? So, that -- what?

BASH: No one does.

CHALIAN: Exactly. And obviously, his energy secretary was on with Jake, made very clear that these elevated prices could go well into next year as a possibility. And so, now he's in the language of, well, for a little while, and no specifics around that. It sort of goes to your point, though about, it to me it gets again at how little he did in advance of taking this action to prepare the American people for the -- what is the whole vision here?

[12:10:00]

I mean, yes, getting Iran totally free of nuclear ambition and free of a nuclear program is a clear goal. He has stated it many times. But he hasn't -- he just did not take the time to prepare the American people. And I think you're seeing it as to why he doesn't have a ton of support from the American people in this war effort for what that's going to take to accomplish that goal.

BASH: Yeah. I mean poll after poll. I'll just put one up from Fox News on Iran. Disapproval of President Trump's handling of Iran 63 percent, and Republicans almost 30 percent. That's a pretty high number for people in his own party.

GANGEL: I would add to what David said, not only didn't he prepare the American people, but this is why you build a coalition before you go into it. This is why when your military experts say to you, you know, is there a plan for the Strait of Hormuz? Of course, there is a military plan. Is there a reason we don't want to get into this yet mess? Yes, because this is where we are.

And just his messaging has been, if you go back and forth through the timeline, remember when the Strait of Hormuz was going to open naturally, remember when it would be over, when he felt it in his bones. One day he has a deal. The next day, there's no rush. I think that is hurting him politically, and I think Republicans up on the Hill do not like it.

BASH: All right, stand by. Coming up. We've got more breaking news. The DOJ dropped its investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, potentially clearing the way for the president's next pick to lead the Fed. Plus, from celebrity breakups to beltway breakdowns. I'll speak to TMZ founder Harvey Levin about his team's new focus on politicians right here in D.C. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: Breaking just this morning, the Department of Justice is dropping its investigation into Federal Reserve Chair, Jerome Powell. The DOJ launched the probe in January after President Trump accused the man he appointed of mishandling $2.5 billion in a building renovation.

Evan Perez is joining us now with the reporting. So, what was the reasoning that Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney gave for dropping this case.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, the off-ramp that she's -- that she's using, is that she's asking the Federal Reserve inspector general to produce a report, which she says she'll review. And at the end of that, we'll determine whether there is reason for her to restart an investigation. But for now, this is ending, and Dana, this has not been a normal investigation. I'll give you a couple of examples.

The fact is that the FBI has not been involved in this. This has been handled by a couple of political appointees in Jeanine Pirro's office. These were folks who actually showed up at the Federal Reserve headquarters at the construction site to take a personal look at it just in the last couple of weeks, and they were turned away.

You'll remember that they issued a subpoena to the Federal Reserve to try to get to some of these records. The Federal Reserve challenged that, and the federal judge actually agreed with them, because they found that the Justice Department said that they had no evidence to support this investigation. And despite the fact that the department said that they were going to appeal, Pirro said she would going to appeal, they never actually did.

So that really kind of made it clear, at least to Thom Tillis and some of the other Republicans on Capitol Hill, that this wasn't really about an investigation and that this was more about pressure from the president on Jerome Powell, because obviously, he's been pressuring him to lower interest rates.

And you saw some of that play out in the last few days at Kevin Warsh's nomination hearing, where Tillis made it clear that that nomination was going nowhere while this investigation remained pending. So, it was a matter of time. We heard from Pirro on X this morning. She said that she will not hesitate to restart a criminal investigation should the facts warrant doing so. We don't anticipate that that is going to be the case, so long as Jerome Powell leaves office when his term ends next month.

BASH: Absolutely, fascinating. Evan, thank you so much for bringing us that news, and back here at the table. First, I just want to drill down on the Jerome Powell of it all, and then I want to talk more broadly about the president trying to use the Justice Department to go after people he perceives as his enemies.

Thom Tillis, Evan referred to this. He is a senator from North Carolina retiring, so he is definitely in his almost retirement era. And that means that what he is trying to do is push boundaries on a whole lot of issues. This issue in the confirmation hearing for the next Fed chair, Thom Tillis made clear, he's not going to let that go anywhere until the Trump administration drops the investigation that they ended up doing just today. Listen to that.

[12:20:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. THOM TILLIS (R-NC): The problem that I have here is that we had some U.S. attorney with a dream or assistant U.S. attorney, thinking it would be cute to bring Chair Powell under an investigation just a few months before the position was going to be open. Let's get rid of this investigation, so I can support your confirmation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHALIAN: You know, talking to the same Republicans I have talked to up on Capitol Hill about this on the Senate side, that's actually how most of them felt, which is like, can we get done with this investigation, so we can get going with Warsh and get the Fed going. Thom Tillis, as he said, in his retirement era, or near retirement era, is the one that sort of made a stand on this.

I think it was a pretty smart move for John Thune and Tim Scott to schedule this hearing, because I think that is what unlocked this moment when Warsh performed well at the hearing. It kind of allowed this moment of the president. I don't know if he instructed Jeanine Pirro, if Jeanine Pirro read the room and understood, like this had to be folded in order for this to move. And after seeing how he performed, they were ready to have this movement.

BASH: Yeah. That's such -- that was Inside Politics. Can we also just talk about the big picture here? OK. So now, I think we have a list of the people that the president had definitely wanted to retaliate against and that were under investigation. And so far, you see on the left, James Comey and Letitia James, that they hasn't worked. The indictment was dismissed. We don't know what's going to happen with John Bolton. As of an hour ago, you can take Jerome Powell off the list, at least under federal criminal investigation.

And you know, there are Democrats who the White House or the administration, the DOJ in particular, tried to go after, remember Mark Kelly in particular, because of a fight with the Department of Defense and a grand jury wouldn't allow that. They said no. So, there are some guardrails that continue to show themselves in the third branch of government, the judicial branch, as the president tries to push the boundaries.

WRIGHT: Yeah. And you see Democrats really leaning on the judicial branch now that they are out of power. I think fundamentally, though, this goes back to the dismissal of Pam Bondi, the former attorney general, because the president felt, according to folks who I talked to, that not enough was being done to get folks who he believed were a part of targeting him or had just done things that he believed that he wouldn't be able to get away with and putting them under indictment.

And so, he dismissed her. And now we have Attorney General Todd Blanche, who we are seeing, not and certainly in those indictments that we saw on the screen, but seeing in other ways, try to move quicker to do the things that President Trump wants to do as he tries to vibe for a permanent job. I mean, on the Tillis versus Powell thing.

I was asking White House officials just last week, how does this resolve itself? Because it was very clear that Tillis would not drop his being against it, and they didn't really have any answers. Folks who I talked to outside of the White House said that, it would be incumbent upon the president to move on, but they felt that Jeanine Pirro, I mean, of course, she is watching and seeing what Trump is doing and how he's operating with Pam Bondi, but they felt that she was acting a lot on her own. And so, we'll see whether or not Pirro, you know, what goes after another person.

BASH: And real quick, Jamie. You brought up Todd Blanche, because he's in an audition phase right now.

GANGEL: Absolutely. He wants to be attorney general, so he's, you know, I want to add two quick things. There were some grand juries who declined to bring cases. So go grand juries. I also want to go back to Thom Tillis for a quick second. A lot of Republicans have retired. They haven't all stood up to President Trump. And so, I think, you know, he gets credit for that. It's also a reminder to other Republicans, it works. You can do it.

BASH: Coming up, a U.S. soldier was arrested for allegedly betting on the Maduro capture. He helped carry out President Trump's response, while he's comparing the world to a casino.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: All the world is a stage, at least according to the Bard, President Trump has a different analogy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Well, you know, the whole world, unfortunately, has become somewhat of a casino.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Now, the president response was responding to a question about a U.S. special forces soldier charged with using classified information about the capture of Nicolas Maduro to make a series of bets on Polymarket. He allegedly made more than $400,000 with his well-timed wagers that Maduro would be out of office by January. Here's what else the president said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Was he betting that they would get him or they wouldn't get him?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It sounds like he was betting on his removal from office, that Maduro would be removed. It sounds like he was involved in the operation.

TRUMP: That's like Pete Rose betting on his own team. It's little like Pete Rose. Now, if he bet against his team, that would be no good, but he bet on his own team. I'll look into it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: CNN senior legal analyst, Elie Honig, joins the penal. Nice to see you, Elie. What's your take?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: So, it's interesting, first of all, to hear the guy who built and then essentially tore down all the casinos in Atlantic City, say the whole world is a casino.