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Hegseth Says, Our Blockade is Growing and Going Global; Indictment Says, U.S. Soldier from Maduro Capture Won $400,000 on Raid Bet; People Injured, Homes Destroyed After Tornado Hits Central Oklahoma. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired April 24, 2026 - 10:00   ET

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

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PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, breaking news going global. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports is growing and he insists no one sails from the Strait of Hormuz to anywhere in the world without us permission.

Plus, tornado strike, shocking video shows the massive storm tearing through Oklahoma, leaving a path of destruction.

And then later, a new probe of the Epstein files, the DOJ's internal watchdog is looking into how the Justice Department gathered material on the convicted sex offender. A lawyer for multiple Epstein survivors will join us.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: And betting on classified information? A U.S. Special Forces soldier is charged with wagering on Nicolas Maduro's capture in Venezuela, making more than $400,000. The U.S. Justice Department says the soldier was involved in the raid.

Plus, humanitarian crisis, as a fragile truce in Lebanon has been extended, officials are sounding the alarm about the toll on civilians. A spokesperson for UNICEF will join us from Beirut.

And later, new details emerging on the deadly LaGuardia runway crash, what a firefighter in the truck told investigators about all of that only moments before this collision.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer with Pamela Brown, and you're in The Situation Room.

We begin with the breaking news. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports is expanding. He's describing a clear escalation as the range of the war now extends thousands of miles.

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PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: This growing blockade has also gone globally. Just this week, we seized two Iranian dark fleet ships in the Indo-Pacific region that had left Iranian ports before the blockade went into effect. They thought they'd made it out just in time. They did not. We seized their sanctioned ships and we will seize more. Our blockade is growing and going global.

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BLITZER: And it comes as the U.S. makes plans if the ceasefire were to fail, multiple sources are telling CNN that the military is developing plans to hit Iranian forces in the Strait of Hormuz. The targets would include Iran's small attack boats and mine-laying vessels.

BROWN: And the Pentagon says the ship, the George H.W. Bush, is now the third aircraft carrier to arrive in the Middle East, and let's say that's the most U.S. carriers deployed to the region in more than 20 years. And President Trump is now saying as ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon has been extended another three weeks, but both Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon exchanged attacks yesterday.

BLITZER: We're covering all the latest developments from the Middle East to right here in Washington. Let's start with CNN's Senior National Security Reporter Zachary Cohen. Zach, walk us through your reporting on the U.S. military's plans right now for the Strait of Hormuz.

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yes, Wolf. I'm told by multiple sources the U.S. military is drawing up new strike plans in the event that the current ceasefire with Iran ultimately falls apart. And among these options are some with an emphasis on targets around the Strait of Hormuz, which obviously is at the center of the current standoff between the two countries.

This does reflect a narrowing of focus based on the circumstances on the ground at the moment, even though for now bombs are not dropping. But if they do, if the fighting does resume, the U.S. military does have a range of options. And I'm told that in particular these strikes would focus on hitting those small attack boats that Iran uses to terrorize ships in the Strait of Hormuz, also those mind laying vessels that we've heard both the president and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth both reference in recent days as a point of concern.

So, again, this is, in some ways, a typical preparation by the U.S. military, but it comes at a particularly tense moment. Pete Hegseth up today during a Pentagon press conference saying that Iran does still have a window of time to make a deal with the U.S., to effectively bend to the demands that President Donald Trump has put forward.

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He also was very clear in echoing the president in that the U.S. is not in a hurry to agree to some sort of a resolution. Take a listen to what Hegseth has said about the timeline for U.S. involvement.

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DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: I don't want to rush myself, you know, because every story says, oh, Trump is under time pressure. I'm not. No, no. You know who's under time pressure? They are.

PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: We have all the time in the world and we're not act anxious for a deal. And I hear him say it every day in private as well. Iran knows that they still have an open window to choose wisely.

The choice is theirs, but with this blockade, the clock is not on their side.

And as the president said, we have all the time in the world.

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COHEN: So, this coming though as the U.S. is still surging more military assets into the Middle East, a third U.S. aircraft carrier is entering the CENTCOM area of responsibility. Hegseth today that it is expected to join this effort to blockade Iranian ports and prevent Iranian vessels from entering and exiting the Strait of Hormuz.

But at the same time, that question still remains, will Iran blink first or will the fighting start back up again?

BLITZER: Yes. This war clearly could escalate big time, but let's see what happens.

Zach Cohen, thank you very, very much. Pamela?

BROWN: All right, Wolf. Now, let's go to CNN's Alayna Treene at the White House. Alayna, tell us more about President Trump's latest remarks about the timeframe of this war.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Look, he's really been trying to take some of the pressure off of him and his administration, Wolf and Pamela, about, you know, when is this war going to end, to end purposely, not trying to put a definitive timeline on how long he's going to allow the extension of that ceasefire between Washington and Iran last?

I want you to listen though to some of what we've heard from the president, particularly going back to the start of this war to what he's been saying this week.

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TRUMP: We're already substantially ahead of our time projections. But whatever the time is, it's okay. Whatever it takes, we will always -- and we have right from the beginning, we projected four to five weeks. But we have capability to go far longer than that.

I would say that within two weeks, maybe two weeks, maybe three. We're hitting them very hard. Don't rush me, Jeff. You know, guys like you, you want to say, oh, so we were in Vietnam like for 18 years. We were in Iraq for many, many years. We're in for all the -- I don't like to say World War II, because that was a biggie, but we were four-and-a- half, almost five years in World War II. We were in the Korean War for seven years. I've been doing this for six weeks. I don't want to rush myself, you know? Because every story say, oh, Trump is under time pressure. I'm not. No, no. You know who's under time pressure? They are. I'm not under any pressure, whatsoever.

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TREENE: Now, I would note, Pamela, that he's put this time pressure on himself clearly that you could see in that clip. He has been saying from the start of this war that it would last four to six weeks. We are now approaching the eight-week mark of this war.

And, of course, there's a lot of political pressure as well. He has said repeatedly that he did not want this to be a long-term foreign entanglement. But right now the negotiations are kind of at a standstill. And it's very much unclear when it will end, even as I'm hearing from my conversations with people at the White House that they do not want the Iranians to be given this time to really drag out the talks.

But I think the president is really trying to take the pressure off of himself, even as, of course, we know that these negotiations are happening behind the scenes.

BROWN: Yes. And clearly send a message to Iran that he's not under a time crunch.

Alayna Treene, thank you so much. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right. I want to turn right now to the newly extended ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon.

CNN's Oren Liebermann is in Jerusalem for us. So, Oren, President Trump is inviting Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to meet together with him here in Washington at the White House. What are you learning about that, the three-way meeting?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF: Well, President Donald Trump said that meeting had gone or went very well, posting on his Truth Social that he would be inviting and trying to host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun at the White House.

But that seems still a very far away from where we are right now. Don't forget Aoun had declined to have a call with Netanyahu as this was getting underway and after Washington had hosted the first round of direct talks between ambassadors from Israel and Lebanon. This meeting that happened yesterday afternoon on Thursday was the second round of such talks, but there is still a long way to go here before the White House can achieve what it's looking for here. That is a more permanent ceasefire agreement and peace between Israel and Lebanon, two countries that haven't had diplomatic relations in years.

There is an extension of the ceasefire. It'll now be roughly a month or so, but these are still very difficult diplomatic talks.

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And getting to a more permanent agreement remains a very tall order, especially from where we're sitting right now. That's because the agreement itself is between Israel and Lebanon, but the fighting is between Israel and Iran's proxy, Hezbollah, with Israeli forces entrenching themselves in a larger and larger part of Southern Lebanon.

So, there are a lot of issues that have to be dealt with, and this isn't quick negotiations. These are difficult issues that have to be sorted out in multiple rounds of talks. And it's unclear how much of that would have to advance before the Lebanese president sees that he's in a position given the domestic politics in Lebanon and in Israel for him to be able to meet Netanyahu. That would, of course, be a landmark photo if it's President Donald Trump in the middle, surrounded by the leaders of the two countries. But, Wolf, we are a long way away from that happening.

BLITZER: Yes, we'll see what happens on that front. That could be really, really significant, potentially.

Oren Liebermann in Jerusalem for us, thank you very much. Pamela?

BROWN: All right, Wolf. Still ahead, a Special Forces soldier under arrest, accused of using secret intel to win a big bet on a bold mission he was part of.

BLITZER: And a new investigation into the U.S. Justice Department's handling of the Epstein files led by its own watchdog. I'll ask an attorney for multiple Epstein survivors what they hope will be discovered.

Lots going on, stay with us. You're in The Situation Room.

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BROWN: Well, new this morning, a U.S. Special Forces soldier involved in capturing Venezuela's president has been arrested and charged for betting on the raid. The indictment alleges that Master Sergeant Gannon Ken Van Dyke won about $400,000 through Polymarket with a long shot bet that Nicolas Maduro would be out by January.

CNN's Kara Scannell is joining us right now. Kara, you've been doing a lot of reporting on this. Tell us more about what the indictment actually says.

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, Pamela, good morning. This Special Forces officer is expected to make his first appearance in court in North Carolina at some point today where he will face these charges. And what he is charged with are five criminal counts, including using confidential government information for his personal gain. And what authorities allege is that he was involved with and part of the execution and planning of this mission to go into Venezuela and capture their president, Nicolas Maduro. What authorities allege is that with that knowledge in hand, Van Dyke made these bets on Polymarket, one of these prediction market sites. He bet $32,000 just hours before he was deployed to go on that mission. And that bet was that Maduro would be out of the country by the end of January. So, once the U.S. had extracted Maduro, Van Dyke had won that bet. Authorities say he won more than $400,000 from that bet alone.

Now, there is a lot of activity on these prediction markets. It's come under a lot of scrutiny for these very well-timed bets that have been made from a range of topics. It's gotten the attention of authorities quite clearly here. And Polymarket said, when we identified a user trading on classified government information, we referred the matter to the DOJ and cooperated with their investigation. Insider trading has no place on Polymarket. Today's arrest is proof the system works.

Now, authorities say that this is not just about insider trading but it's also about the national security because this officer, by putting these bets in the marketplace, could have endangered the safety of his colleagues. Donald Trump was asked about this yesterday. He said that it was similar to Pete Rose who bet on the Cincinnati Reds games, and Trump did ultimately posthumously pardoned Rose. But Trump also said that he was aware of all of these trades that were taking place, not just in prediction markets, but also in oil markets around the globe. He said, it's a global problem. He said, it's like a casino. And he said, I'm not happy with it. Pamela, Wolf?

BROWN: All right. Kara Scannell, thank you so much.

We want to note CNN has a partnership with prediction market Kalshi and uses its data to cover major events, but editorial employees are not allowed to participate in prediction markets. Wolf?

BLITZER: And coming up tens of thousands of acres now ash and dozens of structures, including homes, destroyed, as wildfires ravaged South Georgia. Our Derek Van Dam is there.

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That's right, Wolf. Mandatory evacuations continue and a new curfew has been set in place here in the southeastern parts of Georgia, where the Highway 82 Fire continues to smolder. We've got new updates from authorities we'll share with you after the break.

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BROWN: Breaking News, the FDA is now accelerating review of certain psychedelic drugs for treating mental health. The agency is issuing national priority vouchers to three companies studying psilocybin. That is the active ingredient in magic mushrooms and methylone. That's a drug similar to MDMA. They will study if these could be used to help treat depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. We'll have a live report on this in the next hour of The Situation Room.

BLITZER: And there's more breaking news coming into The Situation Room. People in Oklahoma waking up to devastation after a violent tornado ripped through the state. It was on the ground for more than 30 minutes causing significant damage, ripping homes and businesses to shreds. It also shut down a U.S. Air Force base. The mayor of Enid, Oklahoma, says no deaths have been reported so far, and people who were hurt have minor injuries.

I want to bring in Storm Chaser Brandon Clement. Brandon, thanks very much for joining us. I know you recorded this truly terrifying video. Walk us through what was going through your mind as you were recording this.

BRANDON CLEMENT, STORM CHASER: Well, first, I was just trying to stay safe. We had a very violent tornado on the ground, just a few hundred meters away from us. So, whenever you have that, the first priority is staying safe and then trying to capture the footage as it passed over across the road. As you can see the bottom left of that footage, a house is actually getting completely ripped up and destroyed.

So, as soon as that happened, we stopped. My partner, Jonathan Petramala, jumps out and immediately started checking around the house. I was using my light to help him search. So, we had a search and rescue going on the right side of my car. On the left side of the car, we still had that tornado there.

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And like you said, it was on the ground for 30 minutes, but it only traveled a few miles. So, it was moving very, very slowly and the path was not exactly predictable. It was kind of wiggling around.

So, quite a hairy situation that could have been -- it was very bad situation for Enid, but it could have been much worse. So, you know, you take that tornado and just put it a mile to the northwest side and it goes right to the primary part of town, and it could have been a much worse situation. But it was still a very bad outcome.

BLITZER: How did this tornado compare to other storms you've witnessed over the years?

CLEMENT: Yes. I've seen hundreds of tornadoes, but whenever you get close to a violent tornado like that, it's -- you know, you can start feeling the ground start to move and shake and you can hear the roar outside and you start getting hit with debris. It's a harrowing situation, harrowing to be in that. And, I mean, there's just no way to really describe it to people who've never experienced it.

BLITZER: So, Brandon, having personally witnessed the aftermath, just how destructive was this storm and what will recovery look like for the area?

CLEMENT: It's going to be a high end tornado. I mean, I'd say easily EF-3, probably EF-4. But we won't really know until they get out and survey it. But whenever you see, you know, homes completely gone from their foundations, it's a bad sign. The damage, like I said, it's probably a three or four mile swath of damage, luckily missed the main part of town, but it still hit a neighborhood and hit some rural houses on the outside of town. It's going to cause problems for a long time for the people that were impacted the most.

BLITZER: Brandon Clement thanks for all your good work. Thanks very much for joining us.

CLEMENT: All right. Thank you for having me.

BLITZER: Pamela?

BROWN: All right, Wolf. Coming up, breaking news, a new curfew and more evacuations expected as crews (ph) battle explosive wildfires across the southeast. Most of Georgia is right now under extreme drought conditions, which are making these fires worse. Officials say too massive fires in southeast Georgia have scorched more than 34,000 acres combined. One has burned dozens of structures and homes.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My house is gone.

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BROWN: CNN Meteorologist Derek Van Dam is in South Georgia right now. What are you seeing there, Derek?

VAN DAM: Pamela, as we were setting up for this live shot, the winds shifted and changed. We put on a mask because there's this absolutely putrid chemical burning-type smell from something that is smoldering in the distance over my left shoulder. We didn't have that smell just moments ago, but the wind shifts brought that back into it and it started to make us feel a little bit nauseous and lightheaded. So, we put on the mask for that particular reason.

But I think it really illustrates the point that the shifting winds are what making -- what's making this firefighting effort so challenging on the ground for the firefighters.

I'm going to paint the scene and then we'll talk about the updates that we just received from the authorities. Look at these scorched vehicles. Again, we're in Brantley County. This is Southeastern Georgia on the scarred area from the Highway 82 Fire. I mean, I'm going to have my photojournalist just kind of look inside of this vehicle, look at the destruction that something of this magnitude can do.

But this was absolutely astounding. The windshield, the back windshield of this vehicle, yes, that glass melted. You need temperatures over 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit in order to melt glass. So, it just gives you an idea of how hot it was.

So, just a few moments ago, we talked to authorities. What was the latest information on this fire that we saw grow in size last night during a media briefing? We watched this plume of smoke just erupt in front of us because the winds picked up. Even right now, you can feel the winds picking up and starting to push around the smoke.

So, they say that there's 59 firefighting agencies on this particular fire alone. 220 personnel, including their Red Team, this is a federal premier firefighting agency that is now on the ground. So, they're ramping up the resources to get a handle on this fire that continues to spread. There are mandatory evacuations still in place. And this is also new. They now have a curfew that will begin tonight in the affected areas here in Brantley County starting at 8:30, going through 6:30 tomorrow morning.

The air is extremely dry. We are desperate for rain. This landscape is just completely parched. And talking to authorities, something that struck as a meteorologist, to me, as they talked about how this encroaching front of the wildfire actually creating its own weather patterns, shifting and altering the winds, making it.