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MAGA Civil War?; Artemis II Set For Reentry; Israel Continues Strikes in Lebanon. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired April 10, 2026 - 11:30   ET

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

NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We have been speaking to families on the ground, many of whom, of course, are desperate for an end to the war and are, of course, reeling still from Wednesday's devastating attack, where we did see that large-scale wave of aerial attacks by the Israeli military, not just across the country, but also here in Beirut.

[11:30:10]

And what was very different about that attack was that we saw parts of Central Beirut being targeted, areas that weren't under evacuation warnings.

And now, of course, while there is questions around the potential for a cease-fire here in Lebanon, the messaging that we have been hearing from the Israeli prime minister's office, from the Israeli military, and also, of course, from Hezbollah forces in the south is that clearly the fighting is ongoing, despite that the Lebanese prime minister's office, the Lebanese government has been very clear that, while there is that push for negotiations, these talks cannot continue under fire.

And it's really important to underscore here the desperate humanitarian situation. Of course, the Lebanese government and many humanitarian organizations have continuously pushed for a diplomatic resolution, given the dire situation on the ground.

We have seen residential buildings and homes destroyed. Just on Wednesday alone, we saw more than 300 people killed and hundreds more wounded, and, in that death toll, we have just learned from UNICEF, at least 33 children, a staggering figure for just one day across the country.

And, of course, the overall death toll since the beginning of the war, just over a monthlong period, is now over 1,800. But, of course, in addition to that staggering death toll, we are also seeing an unbearable amount of displacement across the country.

We have seen now some one million people at least displaced. That's 20 percent of the entire population of this country. And there are fears that the escalations that could develop will only make the situation much worse.

ERICA HILL, CNN HOST: Yes, absolutely.

And where -- as you're walking us through that, Nada, we're looking at some of these pictures, people setting up camp, essentially, close to a beach because they are part of that more than -- you said more than a million people, some 20 percent of the population, now displaced.

It is really important to have you there and to stay on top of this, Nada. Really appreciate it. Thank you.

Stay with us. We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:36:32]

HILL: Tonight, the Artemis II astronauts will face one of the riskiest parts of this historic mission, their reentry into Earth's atmosphere.

CNN's Jackie Wattles asked the crew about that earlier this week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VICTOR GLOVER, ARTEMIS II PILOT: I have actually been thinking about entry since April 3, 2023, when we got assigned to this mission. At one of the first press conferences we were asked, what are we looking forward to? And I said splashdown.

And it's kind of humorous, but it's literal as well, that we have to get back. There's so much data that you have seen already, but all the good stuff is coming back with us. There's so many more pictures, so many more stories. And, gosh, I haven't even begun to process what we have been through.

(LAUGHTER)

GLOVER: We have still got two more days. And riding a fireball through the atmosphere is profound as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: CNN's Tom Foreman now has more on today's mission home.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As Orion comes back into Earth's atmosphere, there may be no other part of this that is more important than the heat shield on the bottom of the space capsule here.

Why is that so important? Because this is coming in at 25,000 miles per hour. That means there's going to be a tremendous buildup of heat on the bottom of the craft, about 5,000 degrees, half the temperature of the surface of the sun.

Now, this is an ablative shield. What does that mean? That means it is supposed to erode off against all of that intense heat. But, in the Artemis I mission, one of the things they noticed was that it was not eroding so evenly. That's it right over there.

And that raised some safety concerns. So what they did was reconfigure the exact way that they're going to bring this back, thinking that that might avoid that problem again, or at least mitigate it, and allow the craft to slow down, slowly pop its 11 different parachutes, and, doing so, get to a speed where it can safely splash down in the ocean with the four astronauts aboard.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HILL: So, right now, the final wake-up call for the crew of the Artemis II mission around the moon.

And what are their wake-up songs this morning, you ask? I'm glad you asked. "Run to the Water" by the group Live as they prepare for the last day of the mission and their reentry into the Earth's atmosphere. And they have been woken up really by so many different songs.

Of course, there's the playlist, Artemis II wake-up songs, "Sleepyhead" by Young & Sick, "Under Pressure" by Queen and David Bowie, "Pink Pony Club" by Chappell Roan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS HADFIELD, RETIRED ASTRONAUT: "Pink Pony Club"?

(LAUGHTER)

HADFIELD: What a choice. How funny is that? You try and choose something that kind of sets the tone for the day, gets everybody out of their sleeping bags, kind of raring and ready to go for the morning and something that's kind of fun and will be playing in their heads all day long.

It's kind of fun to hear that first thing through a tiny little speaker getting blared out by some music from Houston, but it's sort of a welcome home as well. And, yes, it's a nice tradition. I'm glad they had that for the crew on this flight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: A little Bill Withers' "Lovely Day" also a great option.

Joining us now, CNN senior national correspondent Ed Lavandera at the Johnson Space Center.

There is so much excitement for this moment. There's been so much excitement over the last several days, as I don't have to tell you, Ed. Walk us through this timeline of the final day of the mission. What can we expect throughout the day?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, as a Gen X'er myself, I picked, "It's a Beautiful Day," U2. I missed out on the office pool there, unfortunately, for this final wake-up song.

[11:40:06] But this is the moment. What, we're now about eight hours or so away from this historic moon -- mission to the moon coming to an end. But the tension will only increase throughout the day. As the crew wakes up, they will begin reconfiguring the cabin, having to move gear around, so they can set up all four seats.

They will eventually get into their spacesuits, obviously. But then they need to make sure that the trajectory that this capsule is returning to through the Earth's atmosphere is exactly on target.

There is not a lot of room for error here for this mission, because the angle by which this capsule comes through the Earth's atmosphere could determine whether or not that heat shield withstands the punishing conditions that Tom Foreman laid out for you there, the extreme temperatures, the extreme speed.

We saw some of the damage that was done to the heat shield after the first uncrewed Artemis mission and how that capsule returned to space. But NASA officials insist they have done all the testing, all of the analysis, that the astronauts signed off on this plan and all of this before this mission even launched last week.

But, even with all of that, they know that they are under pressure. And the astronauts themselves seem to be in very good spirits. Listen to Reid Wiseman last night talking about how he wants to inspire younger generations to follow in their footsteps.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REID WISEMAN, ARTEMIS II COMMANDER: That the students of today, they have got to be willing to fail. They have got to be willing to take some risk in their school.

Straight A's, that might be important to some, but really expanding your horizons, going out and doing things that are difficult, things that scare you, things that you might have to try a few times before you get them right. That's all well and good, and that's a huge part of the learning process.

And one of my biggest takeaways from life is, it's not how well you succeed. It's how well you fail. And when you have a tough spot, you got to get up and get back on the horse and keep on going. And I think that's so critical for the youth across the nation and across the world today.

Just keep driving and keep trying and keep innovating.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: Erica, I got to interview this crew almost exactly three years ago, when they were first announced that they'd be part of this mission.

It's astounding that we are sitting here today. Their family members will be watching in Mission Control. For six minutes, they will be out of communication. You can imagine the tension and the feelings of apprehension inside that room desperately waiting for those comms to get reconnected so that everyone here on the ground can hear their voices after they come through the atmosphere -- Erica.

HILL: Yes, that is going to be a long six minutes.

Ed, really appreciate it. Thank you.

And, Ed, I do want to give a shout-out to you and your incredible team there at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, who have all been covering this Artemis II mission, Jackie Wattles, Devon Sayers, Joel De La Rosa, Deblina Chakraborty, Gabe Ramirez, as well as our dear friend Randi Kaye, Jonathan Schaer, the entire team.

You guys have been incredible, bringing us along on this historic mission, and to Tom Foreman as well.

Joining me now, former NASA astronaut Scott Parazynski.

Scott, great to have you with us.

So, you have been on five space shuttle flights. What is it like when you reenter Earth's atmosphere?

SCOTT PARAZYNSKI, FORMER NASA ASTRONAUT: Well, today for the crew, it's really Super Bowl Sunday. This is a really exhilarating experience that they're about to commence, amplified.

On the shuttle, we would travel at the equivalent of, say, 25 times the speed of sound, Mach 25. They're coming back at Mach 32, so, much more significant, speeds involved, the larger fireball, hotter temperatures. And, of course, this is a shakedown cruise for this vehicle, the Orion, first time that humans have come home with it from the moon.

And so it'll be a really exhilarating ride. I know the crew is extremely well prepared for any contingencies that they might face. But they will be strapped in tightly. They will have a g-suit on to help them withstand the g-forces on their body and to help them with tolerance as the acceleration continues.

But, hopefully, we will see them actually right out over my shoulder here. I'm in Del Mar, California, right now. And this evening, they will be splashing down, and can't wait to see them home.

HILL: So much excitement for that moment.

After they do get home, we're told by NASA it's going to be some time before they are made available to the media again. Obviously, they want to spend some time with their families. They have a whole lot of debriefing that they have to do with the folks back at NASA.

What is it like? I mean, I know you were in zero gravity a little bit longer. What is it like, both the physical and the emotional readjustment?

PARAZYNSKI: Great questions, Erica. Well, first off, the physical stresses on the body are pretty well

understood now. This is the equivalent of, say, a space shuttle flight. So they have been in space, microgravity for about 10 days. So there are adaptations that the body undergoes that are pretty well counteracted with exercise and fluid loading that the crew will be doing before they come back home.

[11:45:15]

So they shouldn't have real issues with orthostatic hypotension or lightheadedness upon landing, maybe a little bit of wobbly legs for the first three to four hours after landing. But it's not the equivalent of, say, a long duration International Space Station flight in terms of the rigors on the body.

But I think the real challenge or opportunity, I would say, that they have is processing this extraordinary life experience that they have had that they have so eloquently shared with all of us. I think we'd have to agree that the crew has done an amazing job bringing us all along on this journey.

But how they assimilate all that information and then go out and tell the world about their exploits, they will be talking with, obviously, the technical folks who built the Orion spacecraft and the mission controllers, but also the science team. So there's a lot of in-house things that have to happen.

But I know that they're really excited, you could hear it in Reid's voice, but to go out and talk to young people especially and inspire them.

HILL: Yes.

They have done -- and, look, you have been a part of this too, right? They have done such a wonderful job of really being ambassadors for space, for science, for all the possibilities that are out there. And it has just been wonderful to witness over the last week-plus. Much more of it to come, I hope.

Thanks so much for joining us, Scott. Really appreciate your insight.

PARAZYNSKI: Thank you so much.

HILL: CNN's coverage of Artemis II's return begins tonight at 7:00 Eastern right here on CNN. Not home, not by your TV? Don't worry, my friends. You can also catch it streaming on the CNN app.

Still to come here in THE SITUATION ROOM: a MAGA media feud, some of President Trump's biggest supporters now turning into his biggest critics over the war with Iran. The president making it clear he's noticed.

We're going to discuss with Michael Smerconish up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:50:36]

HILL: America's outlook on the economy plummeting to the lowest level on record. New numbers just released by the University of Michigan show, as you see it there, consumer sentiment now down nearly 11 percent from March, tumbling to 47.6. And that reflects Americans' mounting fears over rising inflation and the long-term effects of the U.S. war with Iran.

Here now to discuss, CNN political commentator and the host of CNN's "SMERCONISH," Michael Smerconish.

Always good to talk to you, Michael.

So, when we look at this, that consumer sentiment reading coming in shortly after the latest inflation numbers that we got today, inflation up to 3.3 percent -- it was just 2.4 percent in February -- this is not setting the table well.

MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Erica, nice to see you.

Two words, gas prices. I think there are a lot of economic metrics that are out there that are hard for us to wrap our heads around. So, a GDP figure comes out. What does it really mean to someone in their life? Gas prices, we all understand. There's no avoiding them. Even if you drive an electric car, you're going to feel it at some point.

So I think, more than anything else, that's probably what's driving that, and that's directly tied to the war.

HILL: Yes, absolutely.

When it comes to the war, these peace talks are set to begin, of course, tomorrow in Pakistan. There's been a lot made of what the U.S. -- basically what cards the U.S. has heading in here and whether the leverage is really on the side of Iran, given that it currently controls the Strait of Hormuz, which was not the case six weeks ago.

How would you assess these sides heading into the negotiations?

SMERCONISH: So, the Strait of Hormuz and the status of enriched uranium are the two biggies.

I think that it's a critical moment for J.D. Vance. It's interesting the reason that he's playing this pivotal role. I think it's probably because he's seen as more of an honest broker than anyone else who could show up for the Americans, given that it's well-known that he had some strong feelings in opposition to an all-out attack.

At least, that's the picture that emerges from the reporting of that deep dive from "The New York Times" from the forthcoming book by Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman.

HILL: Yes, which was certainly something, as they did lay all that out in the reporting earlier this week.

I want to ask you about the Israel angle of this, because we have some new reporting in as well, sources telling CNN that President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, they had what's described as a tense phone call yesterday, just before Israel announced that it would seek cease-fire talks with Lebanon.

There seem to be different objectives, right, from each country involved here in these negotiations. Is the situation specifically involving Israel and Lebanon, is that complicating things when it comes to this cease-fire and ultimately the negotiations?

SMERCONISH: I don't have any original reporting. I just have hopefully a well-informed perception of what's going on.

I don't know that they're on the same page in terms of wanting to shut this down. And I think that President Trump has allowed Prime Minister Netanyahu to operate largely without guardrails for the duration of Trump 2.0. And maybe that's changing because now Trump realizes he wants to shut this down, and, to a certain extent, Netanyahu has a different agenda.

HILL: When we look at how all of this is playing out for the president, it has been striking this week to hear the backlash from a number of voices in conservative and MAGA media when it comes to the president, specifically his threats involving Iran and annihilation of a culture.

Take a listen to some of that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MEGYN KELLY, CONSERVATIVE COMMENTATOR: I don't know about you, but I am sick of this (EXPLETIVE DELETED). I'm just -- I'm sick of it. Can he just behave like a normal human? I mean, honestly, like the president, 3-D chess, shut up. (EXPLETIVE DELETED) shut up about that (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

You don't threaten to wipe out an entire civilization.

TUCKER CARLSON, CONSERVATIVE COMMENTATOR: It is vile on every level. "There will be nothing like it. Open the effin' strait."

How dare you speak that way on Easter morning to the country? Who do you think you are?

ALEX JONES, HOST, "THE ALEX JONES SHOW": How do we 25th Amendment his ass?

(CROSSTALK)

JONES: If I was the Democrats, I'd stop poking Trump and messing with him. That only makes it worse. Like, you guys need to watch out. This isn't a guy acting like he's crazy. This is real.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: So there you have some of the backlash, which is -- based on what we're seeing from the president, it's making its way to him.

SMERCONISH: I see no altruism in any of it. I'm sorry to be so cynical. It's all about clicks. Look, President Trump is never one to turn the other cheek.

[11:55:02]

So, when they engage him, of course he was going to respond in kind. But this is exactly what makes that part of the media industry, sadly, thrive. It's all about clicks and eyes to Web sites and so forth.

And something has changed. There's a very fragmented media landscape now. It used to be that, on the right, it was a world of terrestrial talk radio and FOX News. There were corporate interests. And there were some parameters around behavior. Now it's individuals who are entrepreneurs with very few guardrails, and it's fueled toxicity.

HILL: Toxicity, outrage, a whole lot of hatred.

SMERCONISH: Yes.

HILL: Yes, I'm with you on that one.

SMERCONISH: Good for business, bad for the country.

HILL: I will -- I will second you on that, my friend. I will take a Michael Smerconish show any day over that.

Always nice to see you.

SMERCONISH: Thank you.

HILL: Appreciate it. Thank you.

SMERCONISH: Thanks, Erica. Thank you.

HILL: And just a reminder, you can catch "SMERCONISH" right here on CNN tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. Eastern.

Thanks to all of you for being with us on this Friday.

Stay tuned. "INSIDE POLITICS WITH DANA BASH" starts after a quick break.