Return to Transcripts main page

The Situation Room

Source: U.S. Officials Discussing Possible Second Meeting with Iran; Reps. Swalwell and Gonzales Prepare to Resign; Protests in Tehran Target U.S. Blockade of Iranian Ports. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired April 14, 2026 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: And we are following breaking news. A source tells CNN members of the Trump administration are internally discussing details for a potential second in-person meeting with Iranian officials after negotiations failed this past weekend in Pakistan. And it's still unclear whether this meeting will materialize before the fragile ceasefire between the countries expires next week. And this morning, according to Iranian state media, there is still no agreement to hold another round of talks.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: You know, it's really interesting that the talks were making some progress, but not enough. And so, they decided that they were going to end the talks, at least for now. But the U.S. wants Iran to commit to 20 years of a freeze on nuclear enrichment. Potentially it could build a bomb. The Iranians are ready to go with five. So, the question is, is there some middle ground in the next round, assuming there is a next round, that they'll be able to do that?

BROWN: Yes, there's a lot of daylight right now in terms of what both countries want. So, we'll have to see.

BLITZER: And joining us now to discuss what's going on, Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware. He serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Senator, thanks so much for joining us. Are you at all encouraged that there may be more negotiations between the U.S. and Iran before the already tenuous ceasefire expires?

SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-DE), VICE CHAIR, ETHICS COMMITTEE: Yes, Wolf. I think we should be at the table negotiating, because bluntly, after more than 45 days of war, we've probably spent more than $50 billion on this. We've achieved a few narrow military goals, sinking a lot of their Navy, attacking a lot of their ballistic missile launchers.

But President Trump's ill-considered war of choice hasn't accomplished any of its major goals. We haven't really seen regime change. We haven't really seen an end to their nuclear enrichment program or clarity about whether it was or wasn't obliterated, as Trump has too often said. And frankly, we've empowered the Iranians with a new tool, closing the strait of Hormuz. And for President Trump to say, well, you close it, now we're going to close it, isn't really a solution. So, rather than keep giving the Iranians the chance to choke off global commerce and trade and to make more money off of their oil trade, getting back to the table and trying to negotiate a reasonable deal that will prevent enrichment for a long time, I think is a good step.

BROWN: Senator, Israeli and Lebanese officials will sit down next hour for direct talks mediated by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. You've praised Rubio, your former Senate colleague in the past. Are you confident he can convince these two countries to get on the same page in this war?

COONS: Well, look, this has been a very difficult, decades-long conflict. Lebanon went through a brutal civil war, and Hezbollah is one of the most capable and most aggressive of the proxies for Iran over decades. Hezbollah is now badly weakened. There is a critical moment here for the Lebanese armed forces and for the new government of Lebanon to step up and take responsibility for disarming Hezbollah and delivering security in southern Lebanon, south of the Litani River, to implement U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701. But the Israelis have got to give them the room and the time to do it, and the Lebanese have got to show the capability and the political will to do it.\

Look, Secretary Rubio, who's also the national security adviser, who's also the archivist, has a lot on his plate, but if he deserves to be Secretary and national security adviser, he ought to be able to deliver a reasonable peace deal in this setting. It's complex, but possible.

BLITZER: You had all encouraged that Israel and Lebanon, potentially down the road, might be able to do what Israel did with Egypt, for example, in Jordan, establish full diplomatic relations. Lebanon, as those of us who have been there, and I'm sure you have as well, Lebanon has a very influential Muslim Shiite population, Muslim Sunni population, but also a very influential Muslim, excuse me, a very influential Christian, Lebanese Christian population as well. So, what's your assessment?

COONS: Look, it's a very difficult and complex country. One of the things that is helping is what's happened immediately next door in Syria. The brutal regime of Bashar al-Assad has fallen, and Syria is no longer an Iranian proxy. So, a lot of the resupply for the weapons and the funding for Hezbollah from Iran was coming through Iraq, through Syria, and into Jordan, excuse me, into Lebanon.

[10:35:00]

And the fact that Syria is now controlled by a government that is trying to reach a neutrality or a peace with Israel, and is trying to expel Hezbollah and all the IRGC elements from that country, that's a positive, as Lebanon also tries to secure a future that is Lebanon governed by Lebanese, rather than Lebanon deeply divided by an Iranian proxy Hezbollah, and by the Lebanese Christians and the Lebanese Sunnis. Lebanon's an amazing country with a great history, but a really tragic last several decades. We should do everything we can to give them this moment.

BROWN: Senator, I want to ask you about something else. Two of your colleagues in Congress, Democrat Eric Swalwell and Republican Tony Gonzales, announced yesterday they would resign their seats amid allegations they had inappropriate sexual relationships with staff. Swalwell says he'll fight the more serious allegation of sexual assault, but admitted to making mistakes and judgment.

Both of those men faced investigations by the House Ethics Committee. As the top Democrat on the Senate Ethics Committee, do you worry at all they may be avoiding accountability by resigning?

COONS: Look, my gut reaction is good riddance. If these are members of Congress who violated their oaths and mistreated and had inappropriate relations with their staff, having them continue in Congress is no blessing to Congress or to their constituents.

From press accounts of what's happened, these were really shocking incidents. Everyone has a right to make their appeal and to push back on lawsuits and investigations. In this country, you're innocent until proven guilty, but in these two cases, given the allegations, I think they're deciding to resign. Yes, it removes them from the jurisdiction of the House Ethics Committee, but I suspect there will still be legal matters that will pursue them after they leave Congress and, frankly, having them not serving here is a positive.

BROWN: Yes, and we know the Manhattan D.A.'s office is investigating the rape allegation that CNN reported that Swalwell has denied. Just to follow up on that, what can and should Congress do --

COONS: Let me just remind you that the issue around sexual abuse by the wealthy and powerful, the Epstein files, continues to not be resolved. And shockingly, last week, the first lady of the United States, in an apparently impromptu press conference, came forward and said that the victims should have to testify more in front of Congress. I think who ought to be testifying is Attorney General Pam Bondi, who, although relieved of her post, has not been relieved of her role in slow-walking and covering up the details of the Epstein files.

BROWN: OK. And I know a lot of Democrats feel that way. That's an ongoing issue, right? But just as it pertains to members of Congress, what more can Congress do to ensure that lawmakers are held to the same standards as everyone else? Do you think the current rules in place are sufficient?

COONS: Well, in the Senate, which is what I'm responsible for, we receive lots of allegations against members of the Senate. We investigate all of them. We review them. We have a nonpartisan career staff. It is the most bipartisan committee here. And we push very hard on transparency and accountability. And where there are instances where it is necessary and appropriate for the Senate to investigate, we do.

And when it can and should be handled by outside law enforcement, that's what happens. The House is a different body, much larger, different procedures, different functioning for their ethics committee. But the American people expect accountability for their elected officials. And we should expect it for the President and his family, as well as for members of Congress.

And bluntly, if I could, one other thing. You know, I'm from a family, my wife and children are Catholic. There are 70 million American Catholics, 1.3 billion globally. In the last week before we came back from Easter recess, President Trump engaged in some shocking conduct, both threatening to extinguish the ancient Persian civilization of Iran, threatening apparently to kill all the Iranians, which got almost no pushback.

And then when Pope Leo, the first American pope, spoke out against that and challenged not really personally President Trump, but generally anyone who would use violence and the weapons of war to oppress others and to deprive them of their lives. President Trump punched back and attacked the pope personally in a way that I think was shocking, and then followed up with an A.I.-generated image of our president as Jesus.

I'm waiting to hear from my Republican colleagues that they found this as offensive as I did, and that, frankly, our president needs to tone this down and apologize, not just to American Catholics, but to their spiritual leader, Pope Leo.

BLITZER: You know, of course, that he deleted that picture of him supposedly looking like Jesus. You know that?

COONS: Yes. And frankly, when pressed by reporters about it, he said, oh, I was trying to put up an image of me as a doctor.

[10:40:00]

I have a lot of friends who are doctors. They don't have angels and halos above them. They don't wear flowing robes and togas. And they don't have shining hands that they lay on the heads of people who seem to be sick. It was clear that that was intended as a I am Jesus. And it follows in a long line of Trump generating A.I. images of him as all sorts of heroic and historic figures. But this one should be off limits.

And it is particularly concerning to me when Trump, through Secretary Hegseth, just fired the chief of the Army Chaplains Corps. He has been taking steps in the conduct of the Pentagon, in the introduction of Christian nationalism, into how members of his cabinet are conducting themselves and meetings with their staff. To me, this was not a positive signal.

And in a country that was founded 250 years ago on freedom of worship, on religious liberty, I think all of us should be calling for our head of state to be less vocally, frequently combative with religious leaders of all kinds around the world.

BLITZER: And the principle of separation of church and state, so important. Senator Chris Coons, thanks so much for joining us.

COONS: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:45:00]

BLITZER: We're following the breaking news on the war with Iran just days after the U.S. Iran talks collapsed in Pakistan. The source tells CNN the White House is now considering a second round of in person talks. The ceasefire between the two countries is due to expire a week from now.

The vice president, J.D. Vance, walked away from the talks in Pakistan after 21 hours of negotiations. He now says it's up to Iran to make the next move. And in Tehran, crowds have been flooding the streets of the capital, as you see in this video right here. They're protesting the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports in and around the Strait of Hormuz.

CNN's Clarissa Ward is in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. For us, Clarissa, ship tracking data is showing few vessels are moving near the Iranian ports. Tell us what you're learning.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So, according to Kpler, Wolf, which is one of these firms that monitors global shipping, nine vessels, nine, have actually crossed the Strait of Hormuz since that blockade went into effect just over 24 hours ago. Now, it's not exactly clear how the U.S. plans to enforce this blockade, whether those vessels will be facing any kind of consequences for having crossed. We know that at least two of them reportedly have connections to Iran. One of them, in fact, was sanctioned just last year.

Nonetheless, though, the world is still kind of waiting to see how Iran will respond. We've seen a lot of fiery rhetoric. We have seen threats and particularly we have seen threats to this region, the Gulf region. Yesterday night, Iran's IRGC basically saying that if its ports came under threat, that all ports in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman would also be coming under threat. And that's a threat, I should add, Wolf, that people here take very seriously, because when this was in its more kinetic phase, this conflict, there were a number of strikes on ports in Kuwait, in Oman and in the UAE.

So, there's definitely a sense now regionally that people want everyone to get back to the negotiating table, as you mentioned, just about a week left on the clock of that ceasefire. And there had been some kind of optimism that potentially the two sides would meet again, some people floating the idea of them meeting in Islamabad, others Geneva. But then we heard from Iran's state media that so far from the Iranian perspective, at least, there is no intention and no plan of sitting down for another set of direct talks with the U.S.

Of course, it's important for our viewers to understand that some of this is intended as bluster and bravado for domestic consumption. And I would say, based on conversations I'm having with sources in the region, there is a sense that both the U.S. and Iran do want this to end and they want it to end soon. But there are some real sticking points, as you've just talked about, whether it's going to be a 20- year delay on enriching uranium, whether it's going to be a five-year delay on enriching uranium.

And for the Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia, where I am, what they want to be sure of is that any agreement that comes to be, which they would favor, they want to see this resolved quickly and diplomatically. But it cannot end for Gulf countries. It cannot end with Iran maintaining any control of the Strait of Hormuz, charging any tolls to ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz. It has to return to the status quo ante. Wolf, Pam.

BLITZER: Quick question, Clarissa, before I let you go, I hear a lot of sirens going off behind you over there. Are there still rockets or missiles coming in from Iran to Saudi Arabia, various sites in Saudi Arabia where you are right now?

WARD: No, there are not, Wolf, and there have not been since the announcement of the ceasefire, with one big caveat. On the day the ceasefire was announced, there was an Iranian attack on the vital East-West pipeline that cuts across this country and that circumvents the Strait of Hormuz, allowing Saudi Arabia to export something like seven million barrels of crude oil a day.

[10:50:00]

We have seen a few other instances. A few days ago, Bahrain reporting that they had intercepted about seven drones. But for the most part, the ceasefire has been holding across the Gulf, Wolf.

BLITZER: Let's hope it holds. All right. Clarissa Ward in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for us. Thank you very, very much. And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Happening now, a week-long stretch of severe weather is plowing through the central states. Kansas is one of four states that saw tornadoes flip RVs and break apart homes.

[10:55:00]

Plus, flooding in Michigan brought the Indian River right to the edge of one resident's front porch. And today's threats could be the most impactful of the week from Texas to the Great Lakes.

BLITZER: Yes, pretty scary stuff. And moments ago, the Israeli ambassador to the United States just arrived at the State Department. Any moment now, he'll be meeting with the Lebanese ambassador to the United States. This will be the first direct talks in some 40 years between senior officials from Israel and Lebanon. We're live with what both sides want from this truly historic meeting at the State Department.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:00:00]