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Man Arrested for Allegedly Planning New Orleans Mass Shooting; Patel Responds to NYT's Report; Source: Pentagon Told Lawmakers Strait Could be Closed Six Months; Warner Bros. Discovery Shareholders Approves Proposed Merger. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired April 23, 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]

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Law enforcement recovered a handgun and about 200 rounds of ammunition. So, obviously a really concerning situation that law enforcement was able to get in on the front end for.

But the other thing to note here is the local county sheriff's office said that they learned he was in the area through the county's flock camera system. Which, if that sounds familiar at all, it's actually what police in Providence, Rhode Island credited in finding the shooter at Brown University and the person who they say killed that MIT professor as well. It's a private company. It works with law enforcement in a lot of places.

And their flagship product is a camera, what they know as their LPR camera, that uses -- where law enforcement can use A.I. to track vehicles in many places. So, the county sheriff credited it there. It's been used in other spots. And now, this person is awaiting extradition to Louisiana. Wolf.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Omar, thank you very much for that update. Appreciate it very, very much. Pamela.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Wolf, happening now, FBI Director Kash Patel is responding after a New York Times report suggested the bureau investigated a reporter who wrote a story about Patel's girlfriend. According to the Times, quote, "The FBI began investigating a New York Times reporter last month after she wrote about the bureau's director, Kash Patel, using bureau personnel to provide his girlfriend with government security and transportation, according to a person briefed on the matter." Here's what Patel told Fox News last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KASH PATER, FBI DIRECTOR: Same reporter delivered a baseless story which caused a direct threat of life to my girlfriend. And that's not me saying this individual has been charged, arrested and is in court. And he said as a direct result of the New York Times reporting, he wanted to take a rifle and canoe my girlfriend's face.

We are going to protect not only me and my loved ones, but every American that is threatened. And the baseless New York Times came in over the top today and tried to delete that past reporting, refused to accept our comments and refused to turn the attention to the actual court pleadings and the myriad of threats that have resulted to me and mine based on this baseless reporting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: An FBI spokesperson posted on social media in part, quote, "While investigators were concerned about how the aggressive reporting techniques cross lines of stalking, no further action regarding Williamson or the reporting was ever pursued by the FBI."

Also happening now, a court is hitting pause on Virginia's new congressional map. Tuesday, voters in the Commonwealth approved a redistricting plan that would give Democrats a chance to flip for Republican held seats. A judge in the rural part of the state ruled in favor of the RNC blocking the map certification.

Judge Jack Hurley called ballot language put to voters, quote, "flagrantly misleading," barring state election officials from proceeding with that new map. Virginia's attorney general is promising to appeal. Wolf.

BLITZER: And just ahead, it's one of the sticking points to a deal with Iran. But how hard will it be to actually remove Iran's enriched uranium? We'll talk to an expert that's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:35:00]

BLITZER: We're following breaking news. A source tells CNN Pentagon officials briefed lawmakers this week on a U.S. intelligence assessment that found it could take up to six months to fully clear the Strait of Hormuz after the Iran war ends. A Pentagon spokesman called a six-month closure a, quote, "impossibility and completely unacceptable." President Trump posted this morning he was ordering the U.S. Navy to, quote, "shoot and kill" any boat that is putting mines in the waters of the Strait.

Joining us now is Andrew Weber, senior fellow for the Nonpartisan Policy Institute, the Council on Strategic Risk. He also served as an assistant secretary of defense for nuclear, chemical and biological defense programs. Andrew, thanks very much for coming in. Does this new intelligence surprise you that it could be the repercussions of a prolonged closure?

ANDREW WEBER, SENIOR FELLOW, COUNCIL ON STRATEGIC RISKS AND FORMER ASSISTANT DEFENSE SECRETARY FOR NUCLEAR, CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL DEFENSE PROGRAMS: No. I mean, mine sweeping is extremely complicated. It's easy to lay mines, but it's very, very complicated to clear them. So, it will take a long time.

BLITZER: One of the hang-ups in these negotiations is Iran's possession, as we all know, of enriched uranium. A lot of it was destroyed, but a lot of it is still there, right? So, given your experience in dealing with it, and you spent a few years in Kazakhstan dealing with enriched uranium that had to be removed from that former Soviet Republic after the collapse of the Soviet Union, how big of a challenge is it to get rid of all of the Iranian enriched uranium?

WEBER: Well, first of all, I think it's the most important issue in terms of preventing Iran from having a nuclear weapon is to remove that over 440 kilograms of 60 percent highly enriched uranium. We had a project called Project Sapphire that I was involved in as a young man to remove 600 kilograms of 90 percent enriched HEU from Kazakhstan. It was a huge, complicated operation. It took almost six weeks of people working on the ground, a whole team, to package that material for safe transport in military cargo aircraft, C-5 aircraft, back to the United States. And that was a permissive environment. We had the full cooperation of the Kazakhstani government and security services. So, this will be much, much more difficult.

BLITZER: As I was there covering the collapse of the Soviet Union, I remember there was a very significant stockpile of nuclear weapons in Kazakhstan and Ukraine, and they were all ready to give it up, both of those countries. I think the Ukrainians regretted that later. I'm not so sure about the Kazakhstanis.

[10:40:00]

WEBER: The first president, Nazarbayev, made a decision early on to join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as a non-nuclear state. So, the nuclear weapons that were on Kazakhstan's soil at independence, they had the fourth largest arsenal in the world at the time --

BLITZER: Kazakhstan.

WEBER: Were all removed under treaties to Russia.

BLITZER: And all that enriched uranium was brought to the United States? It wasn't brought to some other facility in Europe or elsewhere?

WEBER: We flew it directly from East Kazakhstan to the United States, where it was moved to Oak Ridge, the Y-12 plant, and blended down to low-enriched uranium for the nuclear power sector.

BLITZER: So, if the U.S. succeeds in getting Iranian enriched uranium out of Iran now, where should it go?

WEBER: Well, I would suggest moving it to the International Atomic Energy Agency low-enriched uranium fuel bank in Kazakhstan, in a city called Oskemen, Kazakhstan, which actually was created just for this purpose in 2015.

BLITZER: And you think that's reasonable? It would go there because that would be less offensive to the Iranians? Is that right?

WEBER: Yes, I think it would give a face-saving way out for the Iranians to give up this material not to the United States, but to the U.N. IAEA and the International Community.

BLITZER: The International Atomic Energy Agency.

WEBER: And it could be blended down there and then shipped back for the Iranian power sector. They do have a nuclear reactor, which is a legitimate use.

BLITZER: And they claim that that's why they're enriching uranium for their nuclear power, as opposed to a nuclear bomb.

WEBER: That's what they claim. But there's no reason to have 60 percent enriched uranium for the nuclear power sector.

BLITZER: How dangerous is it, let's say, for U.S. experts, and you were one of them at one point, to actually go in and take out this enriched uranium from Iran and send it to an IAEA facility?

WEBER: Well, if it's negotiated and there's support from the government of Iran for this, it would take probably over a month to recover, assess, and transport the material to Kazakhstan. But if it were in a military operation, in a hostile environment, it would be extraordinarily risky to our soldiers.

BLITZER: Trump keeps talking about nuclear dust. This is not necessarily dust. These are highly dangerous products.

WEBER: This is near-weapons-grade uranium that's contained in scuba tank-like containers. Think about large tanks with uranium hexafluoride gas, and it's enriched to 60 percent. So, it could be converted into a weapon relatively quickly.

BLITZER: Given your expertise, would you volunteer to go back and help and deal with this?

WEBER: Well, I was younger then, but whatever I can do to support this type of effort, absolutely. I think it's critical that we prevent Iran from ever getting a nuclear weapon.

BLITZER: Does the U.S. have the expertise now to do all this?

WEBER: We do. In the military, our special forces train for this type of operation, but we also have at the Department of Energy the nuclear security agency that has actually a facility called the Mobile Uranium Facility that can safely package this type of material for transport.

BLITZER: Andrew Weber, thanks very much for coming in. Thanks very much for all your service to our country.

WEBER: Thanks, Wolf. Thank you.

BLITZER: Appreciate it very, very much.

WEBER: Thank you.

BLITZER: Pamela.

BROWN: Really interesting discussion there. Coming up here in the Situation Room, a community in mourning. We're going to speak to the cousin of a survivor of that shooting in Louisiana that left eight children dead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:45:00]

BLITZER: All right. There's more breaking news. Shareholders for Warner Bros. Discovery have voted to approve Paramount Skydance's proposed acquisition of the company. I want to disclose that CNN, as so many of you probably know, is part of Warner Bros. Discovery.

CNN's chief media analyst, Brian Stelter, is joining us right now. So, Brian, what does this mean for the merger?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: That's right. This vote was anticlimactic in some ways because this vote overwhelmingly passed. But it was a crucial moment in that months-long struggle for control of CNN's parent company.

Months ago, it was Netflix that had the upper hand. Then Paramount emerged victorious. And now, this is one of the last remaining hurdles for Paramount before it can actually take over WBD, a much bigger company, and bring together brands like CNN and CBS News and HBO Max and Paramount+.

Now, this was a no-brainer for investors this morning because if you were a shareholder of WBD, you had shares worth about $8 a share this time last year. Paramount's paying $31 per share, so a big win for shareholders. But this deal has been a source of intense controversy in Hollywood and Washington and beyond. Many entertainment industry veterans are warning against media consolidation, and many political activists are warning about Paramount's close ties to President Trump. But this shareholder vote today, a big step for Paramount as it tries to take over CNN's parent company. Wolf.

BLITZER: So, Brian, what comes next now that this vote has passed? Are there expected to be any obstacles in this merger?

STELTER: Yes. Number one, the state-level attorneys general may take action. In fact, opponents of the deal, some of them even gathered and held a protest outside WBD headquarters this morning, urging state attorneys general, Democrats in states like New York and California, to file a lawsuit on antitrust grounds to challenge this deal. Some of those state attorneys general are considering doing so, and they recently had a big victory in another media deal.

The state attorneys general were able to slow down at least the Nexstar-TEGNA merger. They also had that recent result in the Live Nation jury trial. So, we are watching to see now if the states try to challenge this deal.

[10:50:00]

But Paramount, of course, is expecting that possibility and might agree to some concessions or conditions in order to get the deal through. Federal regulators in the U.S. will also weigh in. Although I mentioned those close ties to the Trump administration, there's a widespread belief that the federal regulators will go ahead and bless this deal.

And then there are markets around the world, the U.K., the E.U. Those regulators will also have a chance to weigh in in the coming months. But Paramount is very confident that it'll get all those approvals by the end of September. In fact, it'll have to pay more for WBD if it doesn't get the deal done by then.

BROWN: I want to just follow up on another issue that we've been reporting on this show, and that's what The New York Times says about Kash Patel. There was an article that it put out about Kash Patel and his girlfriend, and then the bureau apparently investigated that New York Times reporter. And it was unusual, Brian, because it was about potential stalking with typical journalistic techniques. Tell us more about this.

STELTER: Right. The FBI apparently started to look into this reporter, Elizabeth Williamson, simply because she was doing her job. She called the FBI director's girlfriend trying to ask for an interview. She talked to associates or friends of the girlfriend and then published a story. And, yes, the story was unflattering, but it was a perfectly fair story.

As a result, the FBI says there was a death threat against the girlfriend, Alexis Wilkins. The FBI investigated that death threat, but then also started combing through databases looking into the reporter. And we've heard this morning from New York Times executive editor Joe Kahn, who says this is a really disturbing, alarming example of the Trump administration, quote, "criminalizing routine reporting." He says, in this case, interviewing people, developing sources, going to public events. That's basic journalism that he says the FBI was trying to treat as a criminal act.

Maybe the good news, though, in this case is that when those FBI agents went to the Justice Department wanting to take the case further, they were stopped. So, in this case, the Justice Department did not let it go along any further. But it's a worrisome example of the FBI targeting a reporter. And it also, to me, it speaks to the importance of having these strong, independent newsrooms who will stand up, who will defend their reporters, and who will speak out when there are these kinds of government overreach episodes that we find out about.

BROWN: Yes, very important. I also want to read the statement that we received from an FBI spokesperson that was posted on social media. It says, while investigators were concerned about how the aggressive reporting techniques crossed the lines of stalking, no further action regarding Williamson or the reporting was ever pursued by the FBI.

All right. Brian Stelter, thank you so much. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:55:00]

BLITZER: Finishing touches are underway in Pittsburgh right now, just ahead of tonight's NFL draft kickoff. Dreams of going pro will be made over the next three days. CNN sports anchor Coy Wire takes a closer look at some of the perspective first-round picks.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: The NFL draft starts Thursday, and Pittsburgh dreams will be made. No touchdowns, no hits, yet the draft pulls in millions, outdrawing most actual games. Why? It's hope on display.

For franchises looking to flip their futures in real time and for the young men who've been dreaming of this their entire lives, your boy was a third-round pick back in the day. And let me just tell you, not much sleep happening this week. You think you will be drafted, but you don't know if or when or where. Suddenly you're imagining a cross- country move in your head at 2:00 a.m. The pressure is real.

Let's take a look at some of the projected first-rounders who might sleep a little better this week, starting with quarterback Fernando Mendoza out of Indiana. This guy processes defense like he has a supercomputer between his ears. Surgical passing led the Hoosiers to their first-ever national title. If his name is not called, first overall to the Raiders, somewhere a GM hit the wrong button and broke the Internet.

Jeremiyah Love running back from Notre Dame. Imagine trying to tackle a 215-pound bowling ball dipped in baby oil. He can run, he can catch, he can block a Swiss Army knife with cleats. His teammates say he's the last guy to leave the weight room, but the first to crack a joke in it, ultimate team player.

Rueben Bain, Miami edge rusher. Now, critics say he has short arms. He says watch the tape because this dude brings nonstop heat. He's a beast. Quarterbacks, consider this your warning. He's one of the most film obsessed players in the class. He studies O Lyman like its finals week.

Finally, Jordyn Tyson, Arizona State receiver. I've seen him play in person. Body control like a ballerina. He has hands, like there are sticky glue on them. He's smooth in space, grew up playing multiple sports, including track, which shows up every time he hits another gear.

So, there it is. Some of the top prospects and stories that are just getting started, maybe one of them will go to your team. On draft night, it's more than picks, lives change, dreams launch and NFL fans everywhere are thinking maybe this will be our year.

BLITZER: What happens. I love that picture of you. A third-round draft pick by my Buffalo Bills. Coy wire, thank you very, very much.

And coming up next hour, the one and only Stanley Cup, yes, the Stanley Cup will be with us right here in the Situation Room. The actual cup as the ice heats up for the NHL playoff action that continues tonight.

BROWN: All right. And turning to the baseball diamond, check this out. This was the Seattle Mariners game last night. Pitcher Logan Gilbert made the pitch, but the ball disappears into his --

[11:00:00]