Quiet at the Washington Hilton 4/27/26

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1:25We all need to take a step back. I need to take a step back. Everybody in the media needs to take a step back and say, you know, are we amplifying hate and fringe elements? And the rest of this week's news beyond Washington, Iran, the committee room of the Federal Reserve, and the California courthouse hosting the fight between Elon Musk and Sam Altman on the future of open AI. When can a charity switch to being a for-profit entity and how does that take place? And who are you supposed to protect? Is the public getting a benefit here? And who determines whether the public benefit is appropriate enough, too little, and the like?

2:02It is Monday, April 27th. Squawk Pod begins right now. Stand Becky by in 3, 2, 1, cue it please. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Squawk Box right here on CNBC. We are live from the NASDAQ market site in Times Square. I'm Becky Quick along with Joe Kernan and Andrew Ross Sorkin. President Trump addressed Saturday night's attack at the White House Correspondents' Dinner on 60 Minutes. In fact, aired an interview with the president last night. Eamon Jevers joins us now with the details. Good morning, Eamon. Yeah, good morning to you, Joe. President Trump went on 60 Minutes last night to give his first thoughts about the attack that happened at the White House Correspondents' Dinner on Saturday night.

2:48He struck a philosophical tone when asked about the idea of the prevalence of political violence in American life. And he also blamed Democrats. Here's what he said. You go back 20 years, 40 years, 100 years, 200 years, 500 years. It's always been there. People are assassinated. People are injured. People are hurt. And I'm not sure that there's any more now than there was. I do think that the hate speech of the Democrats, much more so, is very dangerous. I really think it's very dangerous to the country. And Joe, the president reacted angrily when asked by CBS's Nora O'Donnell about the alleged attacker's alleged manifesto in which he had said that the president was a pedophile, a rapist and a traitor to the country.

3:35O'Donnell read that part of the manifesto to the president directly. He reacted with anger, not at the attacker, but at Nora O'Donnell. Here's that moment. You should be ashamed of yourself reading that because I'm not any of those things. Mr. President, I was never. Excuse me. Excuse me. You shouldn't be reading that on 60 Minutes. You're a disgrace. But go ahead. Let's finish the interview. The other thing that he wrote in. You're disgraceful. So an angry response from the president when read directly the allegations from the alleged attacker to him. Ultimately, here's what we know about this alleged attacker.

4:14His name is Cole Allen. He's from Torrance, California. He's a graduate of the California Institute of Technology with a degree in mechanical engineering. He was a teacher at C2 Education. We do expect him to be arraigned later today. We might hear more about the charges that he'll face, the details and evidence that have been gathered against him so far, Joe. And as you know, both of us were there, a very scary moment on Saturday night. And I'm left with the thought that it could have been much, much worse, except for the quick action of the Secret Service and security teams there. Definitely.

4:53We heard the I thought it was about I thought it was five. It was probably six. Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop. And everybody hits the ground aiming at that point. and chaos ensues with Secret Service jumping up on top of the tables. We were at the table next to each other. Jay Clayton was sitting next to me, but he had left right before to go talk. You know, everybody's walking around. If you can get around between the chairs, because remember, I think it's 2 ,600 people. I think there's 2 ,600 people. So it's a very, very large room. And my initial thought was just a worry that with that many people, you don't know initially that it's directed at the president.

5:36You're not sure it's an assassination attempt. It could be just with all those people. You're not sure if other doors are going to open and five people are coming in or, you know. But after about a minute, Eamon, wouldn't you say there were no more shots and, you know, on the floor, you're starting to look around. And it was about a minute of terror, two minutes maybe. But at that point, there were no subsequent shots. And it started to calm down at that point, although there was still quite a bit of chaos. Yeah. And the thing that struck me, Joe, was just the shocking quiet in the room in those moments when everybody dove under the table.

6:14And you could hear, I mean, all you could hear, 2 ,600 people in that room was the clinking of dishes and the rattling of glasses as the tables rustled. and the Secret Service officers shouting to one another across the room. And that was it. I mean, you've never heard a room go deathly quiet as quickly as that room did as people processed what was going on. A couple of scattered USAs, Eamon, that didn't get, didn't really, people were too shocked at that point. But amazing that they knew where every... I think people really focused on what's happening here. They were, you know, amazing that Secret Service knew where every cabinet member or administration official was.

6:53You can't get through. Even if you're trying to walk between those chairs, you really can't unless, you know, you have to go. So many, it's like a maze. They just went over the tables at that point. Yeah. You know, when the dust was all settled, we were talking with Lloyd Blankfein, this former CEO of Goldman Sachs, who was there. About his salad. He was in great spirits. I mean, he was completely unfazed by it. he said he just sat there and finished his salad. And he pointed out that, you know, there's this new status tier in Washington, right, for the ultimate status conscious room that that room always is.

7:32The new status tier is whether you get evacuated by the Secret Service or not. If you don't, you know, you're right. Tier B. And if you're tier A, you know, you have a team coming to get you out. And then there were I would say we were there for at least another hour and a half waiting to see whether it was going to continue. The president wanted it to continue at that point, but it was a crime scene, obviously. And, you know, we heard, oh, there's a body out there. It wasn't, it was just the guy that they had, were holding down. That hadn't happened. You know, the thing about the Nora O'Donnell piece that you ran, I was bothered by it.

8:06Anyway, I saw it last night, but when she said, oh, do you think he was talking about you. That was such a horrific comment. Okay, Nora, but, you know, whatever. I was surprised that the president decided to go to 60 Minutes for that. Maybe he thought 60 Minutes was changing, but not at this point. So when did you finally... Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead. Yeah, I mean, he clearly bristled at that, right? I mean, he did not like being read that description of himself on national television. Someone calls you a treasonous pedophile rapist. That might be, you know, even if it's from the ravings of a complete lunatic.

8:48Right. I mean, you're obviously dealing with somebody who's mentally disturbed if they're going to, you know, do this in the first place, right? I mean, so these are the ravings of somebody who is an alleged shooter. I mean, I don't see... Hard to take them personally, right? There's no way that this gets rescheduled in the next 30 days, in your view, is there? It's going to be really difficult. I mean, the logistics around that, just even booking that room again, the security around that. I mean, one of the thoughts that I had in that minute where we really didn't know what was going on, Joe, was, you know, this is a nation that's at war.

9:22And we get a little complacent here in Washington, D.C., because war has not really touched our soil in our lifetimes, despite all the combat that American troops have been in overseas. But you're in a war now where you have drones, you have decapitation attacks, you have strikes on leadership. You know, my worry in that first minute was, you know, is this an Iranian team and how many teams are there here? Because that could be an opportunity for the Iranians to do to the U.S. A lot goes through your head. So I think given all that, right, I mean, I'm not sure how you can reschedule that dinner in this environment right now.

10:01You know, I think they're going to try. They're going to put on a good faith effort to do it. But the security might be, I think they will try, but I think the security concerns might overwhelm it and they might not be able to do it. We'll see what the secret service says. I was thinking about the cost. The president said last night he absolutely wants to do it. All the parties and all that. No, no, no. It's not that you redo the parties. The White House. The White House Correspondents Association. They don't have that money to do that. And is the Hilton. It comes from everybody who buys a table.

10:23Well, the question is the Hilton giving the money back. Was it an insured dinner? So on a big event, you could actually insure against this. I don't know if they have insurance, but that would be a question you'd ask. So there was a lot of food that didn't get served. And it might be important to the Hilton to continue. What did you say, Ammon? Yeah, it might be important to the Hilton to continue. This is a big revenue item for the Hilton every year. It's a big national prestige item for them every year. If the president wants to do it, you could see them making a corporate decision to simply eat whatever the costs are.

10:56if they can't be forced onto insurance to say we're going to carry on with this because they want to preserve access to this dinner in years to come, right? If it doesn't happen this year, there is a real open question about whether that dinner can happen again. Well, amen. By 2028, if you believe the ballroom is going to be open, this may not be a long-term business for them. Well, it may not. So a couple issues with that. One is the ballroom, I think, would be about half the size, even as big as it is in terms of capacity. So that's a challenge. You'd have to cut the guest list. and Joe and I might not make the guest list if you cut it down by half.

11:30So that could be a problem. You might. The other problem is that it's it's right. Right. Fair enough. The other problem is that it's not a White House event. Right. This is an event thrown by the White House Correspondents Association. That's a private association of journalists. And the journalists invite the president to their event. It's not the president inviting the journalists to his event. So having it on White House turf is sort of counter to the whole enterprise. I mean, I guess you could do it, But it's certainly awkward. And you'd have to cut that guest list, which could be so tragic for all those who wouldn't make it.

12:04Is there another space in Washington that holds? I thought it was 2 ,600. It certainly looks like it's a vast sea of people. Is there another place? It's huge. It's enormous. There are a couple of very, very big ballrooms. I think that's the biggest. Don't quote me on that. there are a couple of very very big hotel venues in dc and a couple new ones so there are some options for other places but they would all have the same problem and actually moving it to a new place might be more challenging for the secret service they've been doing it there for decades decades and they they know every hallway every closet in that building you know they have that building mapped and wired completely so to move to a new building you just throw in some uncertainty around yeah right right so they know what to do and clearly they were effective on saturday night there's a lot of second guessing but that first line of security held there's a lot of people that are at the pre-parties that don't have tickets to the the dinner itself and as a result the security until you actually got right outside the ballroom and it's there's a lot of other areas where are really packed with people and parties there's at least 10 what parties going every news service as a party.

13:18And I was a little bit surprised that there was very little security until you actually got right to the ballroom and then you had to go through the metal detector. So it was... Yeah. The suspect was staying in the hotel. So people understand the ballroom is actually a couple levels below ground level. So when you walk into the hotel on ground level, there are a number of smaller party rooms where news organizations and others will have pre-parties and cocktails. All of that you can walk into very easily just as a person off the street without going through any security at all. The security perimeter is now below that where you actually enter into the large ballroom where the president will be.

14:00Remember, the Secret Service's job there is not to secure all of the parties. The Secret Service's job there is to secure the venue where the president will be and protect the president. So they're not, as crass as this might sound, they're not concerned about us. They're concerned about him. And so they don't need to put the perimeter around that bigger area, which would be much more difficult and complicated to do anyway. Jay Clayton's going to be on later. I was sitting next to Jay. And then, as I said, and then Tom Emmer was there as well. I got a glimpse of him. A lot of people, obviously.

14:34I mean, you can't possibly see everyone that's there. But maybe we'll talk a little bit more about what was just surreal. We'll always remember that, I guess, even until we're dead. Obviously, until we're 90 years old. Okay, in the meantime, I want to get to the latest on the Iran war right now. Axios reporting that Iran presented the U.S. with a new plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. And CNBC's Dan Murphy joins us now this morning in the Middle East in Abu Dhabi. Good morning. Andrew, good morning. Well, the diplomatic track seemed to hit another wall over the weekend. President Trump called off Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner's visit to Islamabad, saying Tehran's latest offer simply fell short.

15:16We saw oil markets open up in Asia well-bid, with the Strait of Hormuz still closed and no clear path to resolution. Andrew, as you mentioned, Axios reporting today. Iran has now put forward a new proposal through Pakistani mediators. It involves reopening the Strait of Hormuz, formalizing a ceasefire, but then deferring nuclear negotiations to a later phase. Now, it's unclear whether this offer to kick the nuclear can down the road is real or whether the White House would ever accept it. For now, Washington seems to be betting that the bloc in Hormuz and the stranglehold on Iranian oil exports will bring Iran to its knees and possibly the negotiation table.

15:58As for the Iranian side, Iran's foreign minister held talks in Muscat and Islamabad over the weekend. He is now preparing to meet President Putin in Russia, seeking to firm up ties that Iran still has left. As for what happens next, I think the Goldman oil call is notable today. GS just upgraded their Q4 crude forecast, and it's now looking at$90 Brent and$83 WTI. This is a big jump that suggests oil is going to stay bid through the summer and into year end. Actually, in a best case bet, Goldman says the normalization window for Gulf exports is probably late June. But it also warned the economic fallout could be worse than what the crude price suggests.

16:42Of course, there's no historical precedent for this moment with the war now on the cusp of hitting the two month mark. Andrew, it's back over to you. OK, Dan, thank you for that. We, of course, are going to keep our eyes on all this and what continues to be somewhat of a disconnect between the oil market and arguably the equity markets. But maybe it's come together. I don't know. I don't know if we want it to come together. Thanks. And the Senate Banking Committee now scheduled to vote on Kevin Warsh's nomination on Wednesday after Senator Tom Tillis lifted his objection. Senior economics reporter Steve Leisman joins us now with an early look at how respondents to the CNBC survey are gaming out the Warsh Fed.

17:25Hey, Steve. Good morning, Joe. Yeah, it's time. Kevin Warsh could take the helm of the Fed on schedule in mid-May, assuming that committee vote on Wednesday that Joe talked about and a quick floor vote by the full Senate. His confirmation would open up a very different era for the Fed with big questions on how he runs policy and, of course, on the policy outlook. Look, respondents to the CBC Fed survey divided over how independent Warsh will be from the administration. 50 percent saying he will conduct policy mostly or very independently. And 46 percent say only somewhat or not at all. Those are high levels of concern over an issue like this, but it's 13 points better than last month.

18:03So Warsh may have made a few converts at his nomination hearing where he did proclaim that he would be independent. 58 percent say Warsh will be dovish when it comes to interest rates. That's up 14 points from March, and 65 % say he will be hawkish on the balance sheet, and that's up 9 points. While Warsh has made reducing the balance sheet a major agenda item for his tenure, there's skepticism that he can do it. 42 % say he'll bring it down in his first year, but 46 % say it's going to remain the same. Among those who see a decline, the average amount would be$800 billion. That's a$6.7 trillion balance sheet.

18:38When it comes to the issue of how the Fed should think about AI-led productivity and monetary policy, Warsh has strong disagreements with the survey respondents, something that might be true also among his colleagues on the FOMC. 81 % saying the Fed should wait until productivity is in the data before incorporating it into current policy. Just 19 % agree with Warsh that the Fed should put it into policy now. Of course, there's also concern about the balance sheet reduction. A 46 percent probability think it could increase interest rates with substantial division about whether it's good for economic growth or bringing down inflation.

19:15So, Joe, a lot of questions about the things that Warsh wants to do. But, of course, what we're talking about is the 26 strategists and economists probably represent the conventional wisdom. And what we're learning is that Warsh does not. Yeah. Well, let's get going. Let's do it. Let's get him in and see what happens at the next meeting. And, you know, let's move forward. Are you up for that, Steve? Let's see what happens. Well, let's see what happens. Joe, there's an interesting question as to whether or not separate out what Warsh would want to do in normal times. But the bigger question is the impact of oil prices and inflation.

19:50No doubt. If Powell was handling was handing Warsh a 2 percent inflation rate and without substantial questions about the outlook for inflation, the outlook and what this group thinks Warsh could do might be very different. But that's why it's not just this group, Joe, but we'll talk about this more tomorrow, what the outlook is for the Fed funds rate. But even the market does not think that Warsh is going to do a whole lot in the first year. And I think it's because of the handcuffs of oil. He's going to turn over the reins to wash and say, don't worry, Kevin, I'm pretty sure this inflation is transitory.

20:30And it's transitory. It's transitory. It's transitory at three percent, not nine percent. So, I mean, but the president did tell us that he'd be disappointed if if he doesn't cut rates right away. Cheese will be next. Still to come on Squawk Pod, another person in the room at the White House Correspondents' Dinner Saturday evening, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton. He considers the role we all play in amplifying hate and division. And he offers a look at the biggest legal proceedings of the week starting today, a courtroom drama about OpenAI's founding mission as a nonprofit.

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22:45Get your podcasts. Welcome back to Squawk Pod from CNBC with Joe Kernan, Becky Quick and Andrew Ross Sorkin. Here's Joe. Joining us now, Jay Clayton, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York and former SEC Chairman of my date to the Correspondents Association dinner. But like so many people, it's just a meet and greet. People are everywhere. And you, after I got on your hotspot, you left me. And I had no Wi-Fi initially. And then it was a couple minutes later when everything happened. So I talked to you later in the evening. You can recount what happened. You went to a place where there actually were important people.

23:33And you were swept away with them. I was swept up with a number of the people because I was standing out. You would have been swept away anyway. You're a dozen district. You're an important person. I mean, they left me for, you know, they're not getting me out of there. It's the office, not the man. It's the office, not the man. But you went to a secret, undisclosed location with everybody else. Yeah. But let me say something that I think we were there. Right. And I've seen the reporting. We all got caught up. I want to make two things clear. They've been reported, but I think undrafted. First is the response of law enforcement.

24:05And the president has championed the response of law enforcement. But think about this. Obviously securing the president and the first lady, the cabinet members, all the other people there, they did that. They neutralized this person without a single, let's just call it civilian, being harmed. That is a remarkable exercise when you think about it. Everyone's talking about how crowded it was and the like. And I'm trying to, you know, there'll be experts, but I kind of looked at the tape. In less than a minute, or around a minute, from the time first noticed to being neutralized, maybe we'll find a little longer, a little less.

24:42But not a single person got hurt. And with all that response, all of those people, heavily armed and everything, to me that was truly remarkable. You had, like, they did an amazing job. The second thing I want to say is I was close enough when I got swept up to see the President of the United States under this kind of personal pressure and the pressure of the nation. And the American people would be so proud. What are the things that are going through a President's mind in times like this? We don't want our way of life altered. It's kind of paramount, right? This was an event to celebrate the First Amendment.

25:22the rights of all Americans to get together in the public square, exchange ideas, and to be protected in doing that. And this was clearly jeopardizing them, jeopardizing the ability of all these poor people to get together. I mean, think about the conversations that were going on in that room and all people exchanging ideas, people of different stripes and the like. And the president was like, we can't alter our way of life. And he's thinking about the safety of himself, safety of his cabinet, safety of the First Lady, continuity of government. And at the end of the day, back to where I started, the safety of the people in the room.