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Iranian Foreign Minister Meets Putin in Russia; Homeland Security Committee Requests Secret Service Briefing; Soon: WH Correspondents' Dinner Shooting Suspect in Court; Melania Trump Reacts to Kimmel Calling Her an "Expectant Widow". Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired April 27, 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]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, the Iranian foreign minister is in Russia meeting with President Vladimir Putin. Their talks come after the Iranian diplomat sat down over the weekend with key mediators in both Pakistan and Oman. Negotiations with the U.S. have stalled after President Trump canceled special envoy Steve Witkoff's and Jared Kushner's trip.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: CNN International Diplomatic Editor Nic Robertson is in Pakistan. Nic, Iran's foreign minister said his trip is a, quote, "good opportunity" consult with Moscow on war-related developments. Of course, Russia has been a critical ally for Tehran during the war with the U.S. What are you hearing about their talks?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: We don't have specificity from the Iranians about what they're discussing there. But we do know what the Iranian foreign minister discussed in Oman. And it seems that the Iranians are trying to sort of break down into phases the deal that they might be able to get with the United States. And it seems that each stop on the trip so far has been to try to deal with that.

Obviously, the foreign minister came to Pakistan first, put forward Iran's position, President Trump said that wasn't good enough. The Iranian went to Oman on the Strait of Hormuz. And there, it was a real focus on the issue of the Strait of Hormuz. Iran wants a new legal sort of dispensation for the Strait of Hormuz. They want to have legal rights there, it appears. They want to have the possibility to extract tolls for shipping that passes through. And this fits into the narrative that the Iranian state media is releasing of how they want to break down, segment, phase the talks with the United States.

First of all, they want a clear guarantee of a permanent ceasefire. Then they want the United States to accept their terms about the Strait of Hormuz, not just lifting the blockade, but Iran's apparent right, it appears, to make money from the transit of ships through the Strait of Hormuz.

Only if the United States agrees to those two phases, it appears, will Iran be prepared to go on to the last phase, which would include the nuclear issue. And this is where the trip to President Putin comes into play. We know that the last time the U.S. and Iran got a nuclear deal, 2015, the medium-enriched uranium that Iran wasn't allowed to keep was sent to Russia.

Is there an effort for those two countries that, as you say, are so tightly bonded in this war, Russia, the major backer of Iran in many ways in this war, is there a way that Russia might be used to take the highly enriched uranium that Iran has right now that is so contentious with the United States? President Trump has said he wants it, and it shouldn't be in Iran. Is this part of the picture the Iranians are trying to develop? And at each step of the Iranian foreign minister's travels, we've seen him come back to Pakistan and then sort of iterate out a new communication to go to the United States, a new version of Iran's red lines, if you will. What comes out of Russia potentially will be the next step in the next iteration.

BLITZER: Nic Robertson in Islamabad for us. All right. Nic, thanks very, very much.

BROWN: And just ahead here in the Situation Room, our next guest was at the Correspondents' Dinner when shots rang out just upstairs. He says the Secret Service needs to rethink its protocols for incidents like this. Republican Congressman Michael McCaul joins us right here in the Situation Room to explain.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:35:00]

BLITZER: Breaking news. The FBI director, Kash Patel, says the bureau will work with federal and local law enforcement agencies to discuss lessons learned from Saturday's shooting at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KASH PATEL, FBI DIRECTOR: This was a matter that needs to be heavily scrutinized because it almost took the lives of dozens, if not hundreds of people. And -- but for the quick reaction of our law enforcement. And we're going to be talking about how we improve the security, not just for this event, but for all events going forward. We're going to learn from this one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: And joining us now, Republican Congressman Michael McCaul of Texas. He's the chairman emeritus of the House Homeland Security Committee. Congressman, as usual, thanks so much for joining us.

REP. MICHAEL MCCAUL (R-TX), CHAIRMAN EMERITUS, HOMELAND SECURITY COMMITTEE: Thanks, Wolf.

BLITZER: I understand your committee has requested a formal briefing from the Secret Service about this latest Saturday night incident. Do you have any updates, first of all, on that front?

[10:40:00]

MCCAUL: No, I urged the chairman to conduct oversight on this whole matter. And we are proceeding the committee on Homeland Security as a committee of jurisdiction. And we will be providing oversight. I think, you know, there are several areas that could be improved as I look back on the events of that night.

BLITZER: You were there at the dinner when all this happened. I was there as well. But share with our viewers what you experienced Saturday night at the dinner, from security screening just before the event to the moments of the actual shooting and the aftermath. In hindsight, did anything seem unusual, first of all, before the incident?

MCCAUL: Well, before the incident, when I go to, say, the Munich Security Conference in Munich, there are magnetometers outside the hotel before you even go in to the hotel. That was not the case at the Hilton Hotel. So, in other words, there is a soft perimeter, they call it. It's not hardened, where anybody with an I.D. can walk in. And, of course, there are guests in the hotel as well. So, it's very open. Again, it was not a hardened perimeter. And so, you had a lot of people that could go in all the way up to where the ballroom was and a downstairs escalator before they would hit a magnetometer. I would argue that that's one issue that is of concern to me.

The second one, Wolf, was that after the shooting, to see the president and the vice president both at the head table, sitting together, and the speaker of the house and the secretary of state in defense, all in the line of secession, in the event an explosive device went off in the room, it could take out, literally, the line of secession from the president on down. And not to mention a large amount of the federal government in terms of cabinet officers, secretaries, and members of Congress.

BLITZER: And a lot of journalists, to be sure, as well. On that note, Congressman, you told my colleague, Dana Bash, yesterday that the U.S. Secret Service may need to reconsider having members in the presidential line of secession in one place together. As you know, there's always what's called a designated survivor when the president delivers a State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress, just in case of an emergency and a bomb exploding the whole place.

Are we at a point where there should always be a designated survivor for these kinds of high-profile events going forward?

MCCAUL: Well, I think so. I do think this event highlighted the lack of that attention. Because, again, an explosive device would have taken out the president, the vice president, the speaker of the house, and yet other very important cabinet members there, as well. So, I do think in an event like that, they should.

Look, I think moving forward, you know, you're going to have these in very secure places. Certainly, when we do this in the chamber of the House, you know, it's very secure. But, you know, when you have the outside rallies, for instance, political rallies, it's very difficult to harden that kind of target. At this event last night, you couldn't drive but six blocks to the hotel before you'd have to get out of your car, out of your vehicle. And yet the individuals could walk right into the hotel without going through a magnetometer. I think Secret Service is going to take a look at that and try to fix that problem.

BLITZER: Yes, you could walk into the hotel, if you just had a card showing that you had a reservation, that you were accepted at the dinner, and it showed what table you were at. Congressman, Pamela has a quick question for you.

BROWN: Yes, and we were also at the pre-dinner parties where, you know, anyone could have come in there with a gun. I just want to follow up. You were talking about the line of succession and your concern. Senator Grassley is the president of the Senate, so he would have been the fourth in line. He would have been the one, the, quote/unquote, "designated survivor." He is 92 years old. Do you think that that was a sufficient plan?

MCCAUL: No, I don't. You know, again, when I looked up at the head table, even before the shooting, to see the vice president up there as well, I mean, I've got a security background, so that concerned me. You know, and then, of course, the three gunshots go off at that point in time, and Wolf was three feet away from the shooter. I cannot believe you were that close to him and survived it, and I'm glad you're in the land of the living.

But, you know, you don't know if it's going to escalate at that point. Is it going to be an AR-15 spray, or are you going to have an explosive device? All those things should have been taken into account.

[10:45:00]

And if I could add, the audience were, except, you know, members of Congress were escorted out, but the rest of them had to stay in the ballroom. The audience were, except, you know, members of Congress were escorted out, but the rest of them had to stay in the ballroom, which was also dangerous, because you have all these people who were captivated in that room, and if a bomb had gone off, they were completely sitting ducks, you know, at that point in time.

BROWN: Yes, I felt that way. I was hiding under the table at one point, and I just wanted to get home to my three kids, and it was quite scary. But, again, we had Secret Service --

BLITZER: Yes. I happened to be on the second floor, just above the ballroom at that moment, when I see a guy on the floor with a shotgun firing weapons, and I hear these loud bangs. It was obviously very, very frightening. Thank God I'm OK, and thank God nobody else was --

MCCAUL: And thank God you are.

BLITZER: Yes.

MCCAUL: Thank God you're OK.

BROWN: Yes, thank God.

BLITZER: I'm grateful for that.

BROWN: That officer who came on top of you to protect you.

BLITZER: There was one law enforcement officer who saw me standing there looking at this guy as he was firing this shotgun, and all of a sudden, he said, get down, get down, and like an idiot, I was still standing. But he came over to me, then he tackled me, pushed me to the ground, and got on top of me, and he wanted to save me. He wanted to protect me. I'm grateful to that law enforcement officer for doing what he did. Who the hell knows what could have happened.

I want to just ask you a question before I let you go, Congressman. You and I have had a long relationship over the years. The Washington Post is reporting, it's a big front page headline this morning, that according to U.S. officials familiar with the plan, the Trump administration provided a lower-level security for the White House Correspondents' Dinner than it has for other gatherings of high- ranking officials. There's the headline, dinner lacked highest security level, across the front page of the Washington Post. What's your view of that?

MCCAUL: I think that was a failure. That is exactly the kind of evidence we'll be looking at in the Congress. I don't know why they would lower security when you do have the president of the United States there, and the vice president, and the speaker all in one room. That seems very negligent to me, and that will get a lot of scrutiny.

In addition, Wolf, to every one of these cases that I've seen, these shootings, you always have flags and warning signs that have gone off prior to the event that don't come out publicly until after the event. I don't know why we can't have a system. You know, we talked a lot about gun control. This is a shotgun. You're not going to make that illegal, but why can't we have a system where these flags along the way can be collected by law enforcement and then allow a fusion center, if you will, that can connect dots so that if an individual like this is headed towards the event, at least more scrutiny can be placed upon them. To me, that just makes a lot of sense from a guy that was a federal prosecutor after 9/11 trying to connect the dots.

BLITZER: Yes. And he was a guest at the hotel. He had checked in the day before. He had a suitcase full of bullets and weapons, a shotgun, a pistol, and a whole bunch of knives as well. When you're checking into the Washington Hilton Hotel, or other hotels for that matter, you don't go through metal detectors. You don't have to open up your suitcase and let someone see what's inside. Just go up to your room, and he's got all these weapons there. So, he's already in the hotel at the time of this major White House Correspondents' Dinner, and they got to learn from that as well. Congressman Michael McCaul, as usual, thanks very much for your expertise. Thanks for joining us.

MCCAUL: Thank you, Wolf. Thanks for having me.

BLITZER: Pamela.

BROWN: And I think, Wolf, we were fortunate in that we had Secret Service, one who apparently jumped on top of you, we believe was from Secret Service. I felt like, wow, there's so much security here. This has to be somewhat safe. But I think about kids in classrooms and in other areas where they don't have security like that, and how frightening that must be.\

BLITZER: It was very frightening for me. I can tell you that. But --

BROWN: Of course, you saw it happen.

BLITZER: Yes. You could see a guy shooting, you know, a few feet away from where I was standing, coincidentally. And all of a sudden, you realize this is just outside the ballroom where this dinner is going on. And God forbid, if he was inside there starting to shoot a shotgun with a couple thousand people inside, who knows what could have happened?

BROWN: Yes, it's really terrifying. And these questions that we're asking are pertinent because we're in a high threat environment. And there's so many events planned for the president himself, at least, with the lead up to the 250th anniversary.

We have more news to cover here. Coming up here in the Situation Room, we're going to speak to a woman who was just feet away when the gunman opened fire, just like Wolf was. We were just talking about that. She says he fell at her feet. Her firsthand account of the chaos at the Correspondents' Dinner coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:50:00]

BROWN: We are following breaking news. First Lady Melania Trump just released a scathing statement about Jimmy Kimmel calling for ABC to, quote, "take a stand." This comes after Kimmel said this last Thursday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY KIMMEL, HOST AND COMEDIAN: And of course, our First Lady Melania is here. Look at her. So, beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Let's go live right now to CNN's Chief Media Analyst Brian Stelter. Brian, the First Lady rarely speaks out like this, but what do you make of her latest statement on Kimmel?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: That's right. The comment that we just showed from Kimmel that aired last week on ABC. Kimmel put together a dinner-style roast specifically because there was no comedian performing or scheduled to perform on Saturday night. It was going to be that mentalist Oz Pearlman instead. So, Kimmel pretended to put on a roast and he made that comment about Melania Trump referring to her being an expectant widow.

[10:55:00]

Here's what the First Lady has just said in response. Explicitly pressuring ABC to punish Kimmel. She said, Kimmel's hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country. His monologue isn't comedy. His words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America. People like Kimmel shouldn't have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate. A coward, Kimmel hides behind ABC because he knows the network will keep running cover to protect him. Enough is enough, she says. It's time for ABC to take a stand. How many times will ABC's leadership enable Kimmel's atrocious behavior at the expense of our community?

So, in other words, we're right back where we were here last September when the government pressured ABC to punish Kimmel over a segment on the television show. You remember how that went down. Disney suspended Kimmel, then brought the show back amid public pressure. It became a major First Amendment test in the U.S. and we're about to go through the exact same thing.

Now, it's not really fair to say had no immediate reaction to the first lady's comment because it was literally just shared online a few minutes ago, but I expect ABC will respond later today. Disney has a brand-new CEO, Josh D'Amaro. This will be a big test for him. And this is more broadly a First Amendment stress test in America. Because after all, comedy is protected under the First Amendment. And many others around the world are jealous of those American First Amendment rights.

But at the same time, Kimmel's joke is creating a lot of controversy online. Many Trump allies do want to see him punished. So, this is going to be a test for ABC and Disney.

BROWN: Another test. All right. Brian Stelter, thank you so much. Coming up here in the Situation Room, a royal visit to Washington begins soon. It's moving forward despite the weekend shooting. Why this state visit could be a tough test for the British monarchy.

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