Trump: Iranian Civilization “Will Die” if Deal Isn’t Made by 8PM ET

26:42Every month, he invites employees to a Christian prayer and worship service at the Pentagon. The non-profit Global Project Against Hate and Extremism said Hegseth's prayer campaign, quote, threatens the constitutional bedrock of religious pluralism that has sustained the American military since George Washington's Continental Army, unquote. Others who support it say that it is bringing a refreshing change to the Pentagon. Joining us now, Matthew Taylor. He's a visiting scholar at Georgetown Center on Faith and Justice. Matthew, what's your reaction to how Hegseth is folding his particular Christian beliefs into his job as Secretary of Defense?

27:21I think it's extremely dangerous. He is taking the language of religion, which has deep meaning, obviously, has very deep connections for a lot of people, including a lot of Americans, about 62 % of Americans identify as Christian, but he's layering that into the cause of a war. And in doing that, he is sacralizing. He's making holy that war. And this is not a new thing with Hegseth. He has at least three tattoos on his body that reference the Crusades. He has written a book called American Crusade. He's very comfortable with this language of holy war, that gets very, very tricky when you are actually in an active war.

28:01And he is using, taking all this language, layering it into the briefings that he's giving about the war. The Iranian regime is a theocratic regime. It's a radical Shiite regime rooted in certain theological ideas, certain ideas of martyrdom. And this is only threatening to ramp this up further. Well, we had an Iranian, an Iranian Brit on the show earlier today who said that she was worried that all this invocation of religious theology in the war is playing into the hands of the Iranian regime that constantly portrays the United States as crusaders come to kill Muslims. Yeah. How could it not?

28:51I mean, Pete Hanks, Hegseth is, I can't name another person that I've even heard of who's a contemporary who is as obsessed with the Crusades as Pete Hegseth is. And in 2001, after 9-11, there was a moment, it was just a few days after 9-11, where George W. Bush in an offhand comment made a reference to the Crusades in talking about the war against terror. and there was a massive reaction and Osama bin Laden wrote an entire treatise about how see this proves that the Americans are always doing these crusader wars and the White House walked it back and said that wasn't what he meant we aren't talking about civilizational conflict we aren't talking about religious conflict we are Pete Haysef and Donald Trump are exactly speaking about religious conflict and civilizational conflict they're framing this war in terms of holy war and and yeah maybe that does play into the hands of the Iranian regime maybe their gravely miscalculating and misunderstanding this war as well.

29:46And maybe it leads to escalation that neither side can really control. This is the thing with holy war. It breaks the boundaries that we have put on war in the 20th and 21st centuries. And it starts to bleed into some of the worst episodes in Christian history. And I would argue some of the worst episodes in human history. Take a listen to President Trump's former supporter, Tucker Carlson. He released this blistering attack on the president last night over his Easter Sunday vulgar post where he threatened the civilians of Iran. This is a mockery not just of Islam, it's a mockery of Christianity.

30:24To send out a tweet with the F word on Easter morning promising the murder of civilians and then saying praise be to Allah without explaining any of it, you are mocking me and every other Christian because we're Christians. What's your reaction to that? It's very rare that I agree with Tucker Carlson, but he is correct on this one. I mean, the idea that on one of the holiest days in the Christian year, a day where we are supposed to pause, and I am a Christian, on Easter, I want to pause. I want to be with my family. I want to think about the death and sacrifice of Jesus, about the meaning that the resurrection brings to my life.

31:05And instead, Donald Trump is brandishing weapons and warfare and profanity and then making this insulting comment to Islam. I care deeply about my Muslim neighbors. They are my fellow Americans. I don't want them being alienated. I don't want them being pushed out by the rhetoric of our president. And yet somehow they keep defaulting and falling back into these patterns of using religious language. And I think it's because the president has surrounded himself with Christian extremists. Matthew Taylor, thank you so much. Appreciate your time. As President Trump's deadline on Iran takes closer, the prime minister of Pakistan says good news is expected soon.

31:44We hope he's right. We're standing by to see what it might be. We'll be right back.

31:56Our sports lead over the weekend, the Professional Women's Hockey League set a new attendance record at the league's Madison Square Garden debut. A sold-out crowd of over 18 ,000 fans packed into the iconic venue to watch the New York Sirens take on the Seattle Torrent. CNN's Bryn Gingrass has more on this historic game. All right, New York City, who's ready for P.W.A. Hockey? Do you hear that? That is the sound of a sold-out crowd at Matthew Square Garden. The longest crowd winning professional hockey you have ever seen in the United States. And at center Manhattan zone, number 26, Casey O 'Brien.

32:44For New York Sirens' Casey O 'Brien and her family, this night is a dream come true. Your daughter is playing on the ice at MSD right now. Well, I mean, unbelievable. I don't even think I've processed it yet, because even three years ago, I did not think this would be possible. Women's professional ice hockey is having a moment. Building momentum off the U.S. Women's Team gold medal win this Winter Olympics. It's grown so quickly and so fast and the fan base has been amazing. You know, the market is there.

33:22I remember when I was maybe seven years old skating in between periods at a Rangers game out here with my youth team. And so, you know, I never really thought that I'd be back out here because it was, you know, just for the Rangers. It feels like a total full circle moment. The professional women's hockey league known as the PWHL started in 2023. It now consists of eight teams in the U.S. and Canada, with some games televised on major networks. I have a daughter also, and I was watching it on TV, and she goes, oh, is this men's or women's? Like, to her, it's natural that women are on TV playing hockey.

33:56It's not just for little girls. It's for everybody. It's witnessing excellence. It's top of the line for this sport. I don't know why you deprive yourself. And this historic game at MSG, well, it's bigger than those on the ice. It can make you emotional looking out in the stands and see some of the young girls that are following our sport and getting into hockey because of it. What does this mean for women's hockey? Crazy now when you see like a boy saying my favorite team is the sirens. I think it means that every little girl can start playing a sport and have a dream. You're going to get paid to play first of all and then people are going to come and watch and cheer you on.

34:33It's always been about, you know, inspiring the next generation of younger girls. Bringing Grass, CNN, New York.

34:42And our tech lead, a new CNN original series explores the science, the money, and the ethics of living longer. The series is called Kara Swisher Wants to Live Forever, and it follows our own Kara Swisher, tech journalist, podcast host, as she experiments with all kinds of wellness gadgets. Here's a preview. You're going to steal my face for Face Off right now, aren't you? Yes. You're going to switch them. And then you're going to be me, and then I'm going to be you. That's my favorite movie, Face Off. So I'm going to come out 72. So it's looking at eight different characterizations. The face, like UV damage, browns, reds, a bunch of other markers.

35:21And they'll give you a single number for your biological age. Good job. You scored one year younger. Well, I actually am 62, but it's so good. Okay, so you're... It's amazing. Yeah. So that's not amazing. Your pores are fantastic. So you're in the 90th percentile. I'm one scary p***er. He gets that he's a circus act in a freak show. And I like that about him. At the same time, it's vaguely sad. I find it sad. I do. I have so much to say, Kara Swisher. First of all, quite a gig. Second of all, a fellow Face Off fan. Yes, I love Face Off. I made the finest movie in the last. Insane movie. They don't have the same body.

36:01Not at all. Type. Stop. Okay, anyway. No details. You tried so many things in this series. What did you learn about your own health? Well, you know, it's interesting. It was sort of that there's, it's a lot simpler than it's made to be. And that there's a, you know, I got interested because of all the misinformation online about everything, but health is a real area that is a problem. And then all the Silicon Valley guys sort of body hacking their way to eternity. Oh, my God. The blood of pigeons. The whole thing. Whatever. And so that's what got me interested in it. And also Steve Jobs, who talked about the importance of understanding and accepting death to be innovative.

36:35And so it was all these things crashing around. And what bothered me is that there was so much charlatanism and at the same time so much promise around living better, living longer, including with AI and other technologies. And I wanted to find out what was worth it and what wasn't. Interesting. People want instant results when it comes to their health. Forever. It's me too. This I'm wearing right now is an aura ring. which keeps back of my exercise, my heartbeat, and my sleep. That's why I really have it for my sleep. How are companies that own these kinds of products tapping into this trend?

37:06Well, they are. They're interested in data, all that information. I'm not sure how much that data means, really. It interests you because you might like numbers, right? I just want a good sleep. That's what I want. Right, but one of the things Zeke Emanuel, who used to be a top official at NIH, he's written a book about longevity, said, when I said, well, I like to know my sleep thing, he goes, well, don't you know it when you wake up in the morning, if you had a bad night's sleep. And I'm like, yes. Ish. Ish. But it's interesting to get some data. The thing is, if you obsess on measurement and data, you don't, you live short, I mean, you waste your life doing that.

37:39And so the question is what's useful and what's not in certain things. That's vaguely useful. I think VO2max is a really interesting. What's that? This is how efficiently your muscles and your heart work together. And you want to get the number up. I got mine up, actually, by doing something. But it shows the efficiency of your heart, essentially, and your muscles. Has anything changed in just the past decade that's made people care more about tracking their sleep and their steps and their heart rate almost constantly? Well, online. These online influencers who are mostly information-free, but they are always pushing something like red light or now it's peptides, peptides, peptides, peptides.

38:15It's insane. And it's actually, much of it is untrue and unproven. And so, you know, that's a little bit. And people used to be sort of the yo-yo diets, the diet, you know, the grapefruit diet, the olive oil diet, this and that. Intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting went on. And then years, 100 years ago, you know, like the snake oil salesman that would sell you, you know, Coca-Cola or Kellogg's was started like that. This isn't a new thing. It's just surrounding you with all manner, mostly bad information. I used to do intermittent fasting and then somebody pointed out it was actually just an eating disorder.

38:47Yeah, that's right. Let me just make the point. When women have this as an evening order, when men talk about body hacking, it's really noble. So it's really kind of... I'm not saying it's noble. I'm just saying. I'm not saying. As we see in the show, some technology worked for you, other stuff did not. What advice would you give consumers looking for something to try something new? It's a lot simpler in buying things. If there's a lot of money attached to it, it probably doesn't work as well. If they're really hawking it, it doesn't work as well. They're very simple things. Diet, exercise, sleep are critically important, but not the most important.

39:15Two things are the most important. And it's a terrible thing to say, but one is don't be poor. But poverty adds stress, food issues, sleep issues, all kinds of things, and health issues that cascade beyond it. The second one is friends and family. There's a real, you know, it's not correlation. It's causation of being around friends and family and also people you don't know and trying new things and interacting with humanity. And, in fact, you know, I've written a lot about chatbots and the dangers of them. These synthetic sycophantic relationships are bad for us. our brain plasticity, our feelings of isolation.

39:49Loneliness indeed leads to shorter lives, and so does isolation. And so some very simple stuff is actually much more important. And then secondly, some of the scientific breakthroughs are astonishing around CRISPR, around gene editing, around mRNA vaccines. GLP-1s. GLP-1s. So I look into all that because that is really, these are groundbreaking. And if combined correctly, we all can be healthier rather than just the top 1 percent. I can't wait to watch. Kara Swisher, looking forward again. You're looking good. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. It's all lighting. Again, the all-new CNN original series.

40:25Kara Swisher wants to live forever. If only. If only we could get you forever. It premieres Saturday at 9 here on CNN, then the next day on the CNN app. As attacks continue tonight in Iran, we are learning of late-night calls in the region, trying to rush diplomacy as President Trump's 8 p.m. Eastern deadline creeps ever closer. He has threatened to wipe out the Iranian civilization. We're going to go live to the region for up to the minute updates next.

40:59This is CNN Breaking News. Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper. Breaking news in the world. Lead intense talks are underway. We're told by the White House to find a path to peace ahead of President Trump's 8 p.m. deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, or he will destroy the Iranian civilization. A source inside the region now tells CNN that good news is expected from both sides soon, after President Trump said the U.S. was still embroiled in heated negotiations. The White House is preparing a response, we're told, to the Pakistani prime minister's proposal that both the U.S. and Iran begin a two-week ceasefire, adding that Iran would open, reopen the Strait of Hormuz during that time.

41:40This offer comes, as I noted, after President Trump threatened Iran this morning on True Social that, quote, a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again, unquote. It's a shocking threat of obliteration and, frankly, mass murder from an American president to a country with a population of 93 million people. Coming after days of similarly violent threats. From this not safe for work truth social post on Easter Sunday, where he promised today would be, quote, power plant day and bridge day all wrapped up into one, unquote, if Iran didn't, quote, open the fucking strait, unquote, to this moment in his nationally televised address last week.

42:26We're going to bring them back to the stone ages where they belong. Earlier today, foreign officials said Trump's genocidal musings combined with the strikes overnight on Iran's Karg Island, key to the nation's oil exports, were impacting, harming the diplomatic pathways toward an end to the war. Let's go live to Jeremy Diamond in Tel Aviv and Matthew Chance in Doha, Qatar. Jeremy, an Israeli security source tells CNN that the Israeli military is waiting on a green light from President Trump to launch strikes on Iran as the deadline approaches. Yeah, that's exactly right, Jake. The Israeli Security Cabinet has approved a new list of targets, infrastructure, energy targets that the Israeli military would strike should President Trump give the green light for these massive strikes on infrastructure targets inside of Iran.

43:18And we have already seen the Israeli military today beginning to conduct a limited range of strikes on infrastructure targets, everything from bridges to railways, highways inside of Iran, which the Israeli military says Iran is using to move ammunition and ballistic missile launchers. And we've seen other signs of potential regional escalation, everything from multiple countries in the Gulf warning residents to shelter in place, the U.S. Embassy in Bahrain doing the same thing. But at the same time, what we are witnessing now over the course of the last couple of hours appears to be some last ditch efforts at diplomacy, trying to seek an 11th hour resolution to all of this with the Pakistani prime minister tweeting this proposal for a two week ceasefire, Iran reopening the Strait of Hormuz and effectively forestalling the president's deadline here of massive strikes inside of Iran.

44:13We understand that the Pakistani prime minister, the Pakistani foreign minister, I should say, is having calls with regional leaders right now. So there's some real momentum for a potential breakthrough in this diplomacy. We will learn the truth of that, of course, in the coming hours. And Matthew, you spoke with a Qatari official earlier today who warned that he's afraid that the war could, quote, spiral out of control. What else did he tell you? Yeah, I mean, well, they're very concerned about the impact this is going to have. And in fact, within the last couple of hours, there have been multiple missile strikes inside Qatar for the first time in a couple of weeks.

44:50And alarms went off telling people to take shelter inside. We understand from Qatari authorities, at least four people have been injured as a result of those missiles being fired into Qatari airspace. We don't know what they struck it or what they were trying to target. But I mean, it underlines just how much jeopardy this entire region sees itself in because the Trump threat to attack Iran, to escalate the war there, it also has consequences for the for the broader region because Iran has vowed to retaliate in kind and to really step up its retaliation attacks and its missile and drone strikes against energy infrastructure in the entire region.

45:29Earlier, I spoke to the Qatari Forum Ministry spokesman and, you know, we addressed exactly that issue. Take a listen to what he had to say. Given that we're now approaching President Trump's latest deadline, I think it's his fifth deadline. Do you have any reason to be confident that this crisis can be diffused before it's too late? We have been warning since 2023 that escalation left unchecked will get us into a situation where it cannot be controlled. And we are very close to that point. Yeah, a concern there from the Qatari foreign ministry spokesman that the situation cannot be controlled if it goes any further.

46:15So I expect there'll be a lot of relief if that Pakistani initiative, which the Qataris say they support, actually comes off. All right, Jeremy Diamond, Matthew Chance, thanks so much. Let's bring in Democratic Congressman Seth Moulton from Massachusetts. He's on the House Armed Services Committee and is a Marine Corps veteran who served in Iraq. Congressman, good to see you. The White House is now saying that President Trump has received a two-week ceasefire proposal from Pakistan when it comes to the war with Iran. As a veteran, what do you make of the president's threat from earlier today and how all of this is unfolding?

46:57The president is totally unhinged, but this is deadly serious. Because when the commander in chief threatens war crimes executed by our troops, but in the name not just of himself, but of all Americans, we all have to be concerned. We have to be concerned for the safety of our troops, for the safety of our nation, for the moral reputation that we have in the world. And at the end of the day, the bottom line is he does not have a way out of this mess. He does not have a strategy to end this war. He does not have an endgame. And that should be concerning not just to our troops, but to all of us who do not support the war in Iran.

47:33So what would you say, and this is not my view, but what would you say to a supporter of the president who says, look, obviously he's not going to destroy the Iranian civilization. He's not going to kill 93 million Iranians. But this is just a negotiating tactic to end the war. What would your response to that be? My response would be, what is his strategy to end the war? Because he's only made it more difficult as time has gone on for the Iranians to come to the negotiating table in the first place. To begin with, in his first term, he ripped up the agreement that prevented them from having a nuclear weapon and that his own administration had certified Iran was following.

48:14Now in his second administration, he's bombed the Iranians every time they've come to the negotiating table. And yet at the end of the day, unless he wants to take over Iran, literally occupy the country and change the regime the way we did in Iraq, then the only endgame here is to have a negotiated agreement. He should be doing everything he can to get to the negotiating table before Iran gets more cards on its side. Right now, let's be clear, Iran has more leverage by closing the strait, by causing a lot of damage to our GCC allies, by doubling oil prices. Iran has more leverage than they did when Trump started his war.

48:54You're among more than a dozen Democrats now calling for President Trump to be removed or impeached over his threat to Iran. Here's just a sampling. You posted that this is not just Trump being Trump. Congresswoman Yasemin Ansari says that Trump has crossed every line. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar calls him an unhinged lunatic. Congresswoman Melanie Stansberry says it's time for Republicans to do the right thing. Are you hearing anything from your Republican colleagues in the House or the Senate about President Trump's threat? Behind closed doors, yes. Now, we haven't been in Washington in the last week.

49:31One of the things I'm calling for is for Congress to be called back into session because some of the most candid and honest conversations I have in Congress are behind closed doors in classified sessions of the Armed Services Committee. And in the last classified session that we had, a lot of Republicans asked tough questions of the administration officials just as Democrats were. But that seems to be the only place Republicans are willing to have honest conversations because they're so scared of doing so on TV or before the American public where they might get attacked by their own president.

50:05You said earlier that Iran is in a better situation, a stronger situation than it was at the beginning of the war. I'm sure there are plenty of people in the Pentagon who would take issue without assertion, given how many of the military assets that Iran had have been destroyed by the U.S. They're making a tactical argument. And I would just say to them, well, that's great. And I'd rather have 95 percent of their ballistic missiles destroyed than 90 percent. But either way, they're going to rebuild them. And what really matters in the long run is what is their plan for rebuilding them and how will they use them in the future?

50:42I think we've made a pretty powerful case to Iran that they should rush to a nuclear weapon. And we've actually succeeded in installing a new leader of the regime, the Ayatollah's son, who by all reports is more hardline and seems more interested in developing a nuclear weapon. So those tactical successes do not mean strategic victory. And at the strategic level, Iran has doubled oil prices, so they're making more money off their oil. They have closed the Strait of Hormuz, which was open before we started this war. They have decimated the economies of our allies in the Middle East. They've forced Donald Trump to beg China and Iran itself for help reopening the strength, our biggest adversaries.

51:27They've actually succeeded in even removing the sanctions on their own oil. It's hard to believe that this has happened, Jake. But yes, Donald Trump released the sanctions on Iranian oil. So it's very hard to look at this and not say from a strategic level, Iran is winning, even if at a tactical level we've had some victories in dismantling some of their military capabilities. Democratic Congressman Seth Moulton from Massachusetts. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Good to see you, Jake. Much more in our breaking news in moments. President Trump says that heated negotiations are going on right now ahead of his 8 p.m.

52:02deadline for Iran to acquiesce to his demands or else he will destroy their civilization. Plus, Iraqi officials say an American journalist detained by a pro-Iran militia group, they say she has been released from captivity. When could we get independent confirmation of her freedoms? Another rare bit of good news. Stick with us.

52:31We're back with the breaking news and our world lead President Trump saying that heated negotiations are underway as the White House weighs a peace proposal, or at least a ceasefire proposal from the Pakistani Prime Minister that the U.S. and Iran agree to a two-week ceasefire. It's a deal that the Prime Minister says would give time for peace talks. Joining us now to discuss the CNN National Security Analyst, Alex Plitzis, who's also the director of the Atlantic Council's counterterrorism program. Alex, much more on Iran and the president's threat in a second, but we have this breaking news because a senior Iraqi official says that American journalist Shelly Kittleson, who's a friend of yours, she's now in the Iraq government's custody after she was kidnapped by an Iranian proxy group, a terrorist group, Khatib Hezbollah.

53:14You were her point of contact while she was reporting in Iraq. What can you say about her status right now? Is there confirmation that she is in the hands of the Iraqi government and no longer in the hands of the militia? So we don't have confirmation that she's been handed over to the U.S. embassy and speaking to U.S. government officials. We're waiting on that official transfer. We've been in touch, you know, throughout the duration of her detention. You know, there were initial reports that she'd been handed over to the Iraqi government, but we are waiting for confirmation. And so is the United States government.

53:42So we are waiting for that call, which hopefully should come shortly. All right, Alex, keep us posted on that. And obviously anything we can do to bring attention to her and help her out, because I hope she gets, let's just say, I hope she gets to safety soon. Let's talk about Iran. The U.S. president, Donald Trump, is threatening to wipe out an entire civilization. That's the latest escalation in the rhetoric of this war. You speak to people inside the White House, inside the Trump administration. What are they saying? Do they think that there's a method to this madness? Yes, the president is known to use bombastic language that doesn't necessarily always translate to action in that sense.

54:19You know, I do think that the threat of increased military action is incredibly real. And the last word that I got in speaking to administration officials is that the negotiations are, in fact, ongoing, as the president described, heated and quite intense. They are not at an agreement yet, but things are trending in the right direction, is what I was told. It was about as far as they would go. So not a done deal by any means. The next couple of hours will be very telling. and everybody is sitting on pins and needles waiting. So it does seem quite obvious that the president is looking for an off-ramp to this war.

54:49The Pakistani prime minister is asking President Trump to extend his deadline for Iran by two weeks. Earlier today, the Iranian government said Trump's threats are not going to open the door to dialogue. Where do you see diplomacy standing right now? So up until today, the Pakistani process hadn't really yielded any results. And what we were hearing from a lot of folks is that the Turks were actually going to try to step into a more primary mediating role, because the Gulf countries who normally do that, that being Qatar or Oman, had sort of taken a step back. And the Qataris, after, had been asked by the Iranians at one point if they would at least consider it.

55:22And they said no, not until the Iranians stop their attacks on all Gulf countries, not just Qatar or one or two. And since that hasn't happened, it left the number of interlocutors at a small number. I was also told that the Iranian foreign minister has been speaking regularly with the Chinese foreign minister, and it also sort of signaled that they were open to discussions. But the Pakistani president and the Turkish president, or prime minister, sort of stepped in, and that's because the new circle inside of Iran, which is Mushtaba Khamenei's inner circle as well as the IRGC intelligence folks, have a very good relationship with both Turkish and Pakistani intelligence, and so therefore there was a natural relationship there, and that sort of lent itself towards negotiations.

56:01The Israeli military struck eight Iranian bridges that they say are used to transport weapons and military equipment. These strikes happened today after the U.S. hit Karg Island overnight. Karg Island, obviously a major thoroughfare for Iranian fuel to the rest of the world, their lucrative oil process. So Trump is now threatening to strike bridges used by civilians, energy infrastructure used by civilians. What do you make of the latest strikes amid Trump's threats? So the latest strikes, particularly along the rail lines, you know, if they are actually, in fact, being used for weapons, as the Israelis had alleged, then those would be valid military targets.

56:40Those would have to undergo legal review. And it would be the same thing for the other infrastructure you just mentioned. They have to have a military connection, part of a strategy to defeat that in order for it to pass a legal litmus test for targeting purposes. If you recall, a couple of weeks ago, there were two major oil storage containers that were hit south of Tehran that sort of upset the U.S. But when I spoke to the Israelis about that the last time, they said, look, we only hit two of about 30 that were in the area because those two were being used to fuel missiles. We really do not want to see the Iranian people suffer because we want to be able to see them become independent and rise up at some point.

57:12So the U.S. and the Israelis have been avoiding, I've been told, infrastructure targets for the last few weeks to try to avoid any impact to the Iranian people. but it's getting to the point where those additional targets may need to be hit. And that's the narrative that I'm hearing from both Israel and the U.S. separately. Thank you so much. Alex Plitz is our national security advisor, commentator and analyst. Thank you. Really appreciate it. We just got an update from NASA as the crew from Artemis II travels back toward the Earth, what we're expecting in the coming days. And when they splash down at the end of the week, that's next.

57:48In our Out of This World League, we're looking right now at live images from inside the Orion spacecraft. As the Artemis II astronauts are on their way back home to here on Earth. After their record-setting trip further into space than any man or woman has ever gone before. Today, NASA shared some images of exactly what the crew saw during those 40 minutes on the far side of the moon, during which there was a communications blackout yesterday. Stunning, stunning photos of the far side of the moon. CNN's Ed Levandera is live for us at Johnson Space Center in Houston where mission control is located.

58:24Ned, we just got an update on the mission. What do they have to say? Well, they are kind of updating us on it as we continue to see all of the images that are coming through, all of the scientific data, they have an enormous amount of data to work with. So far, they've gotten more than 50 megs of data that they are continuing to pour through. So all of that work continues. And there's just so much that they need to process and they will continue sharing. Remember, there's also hours of audio files that we haven't even heard yet that the astronauts were making of their observations as they were flying around the moon.

59:03But this crew now is on its way back home, and they have now since passed the lunar sphere of influence. So they're back being pulled toward the Earth because of the Earth's gravitational pull. And over the course of the next several days, that crew inside will continue working various tests and reconfiguring the cabin, working on some of the radiation shelters and testing some of that out that is being used. because when you travel into deep space, there's obviously a lot of exposure to radiation. So they're testing out some of the protective systems involved with that. And then they need to reconfigure the cabin for reentry, which means moving all of the stuff inside that small capsule so they can recreate the four seats that the astronauts will need to reenter the Earth's atmosphere.

59:49And, Ed, what are we learning about the big plans for Friday, the reentry and splashdown? Well, that's a huge moment. And obviously, this is the most critical part and the most dangerous part of this mission is going to be that reentry and how exactly this space capsule is going to handle the extreme conditions of reentry. You know, temperatures of more than 5 ,000 degrees, but all of the parts are already moving into place. There's a Navy ship off the coast of California that departed out today getting into place for where this capsule is expected to land. The landing zone is several hundred miles wide.

1:00:29Obviously, there's a great deal of coordination that will take place. The process of getting the astronauts out of the capsule, onto a ship, and back onto dry land is a process that could take two to three hours. So this is expected to happen this Friday evening, 8 p.m. Eastern time, around 5 o 'clock Pacific time. It will be daylight hours, so hopefully everything goes smoothly and you'll see the spectacular images of this crew returning home. All right, Ed Lavendera at Johnson Space Center. Thanks so much. Check this out. A few minutes ago from NASA, they reposted this tweet nine years ago. This is from astronaut Reid Weissman, who's the commander on the Artemis II lunar mission right now.

1:01:11Weissman snapped a picture in 2017 of his fortune cookie. Check out the caption, quote, I choose to believe this fortune I received tonight. perhaps the moon, or a hashtag journey to Mars. I guess now probably a good time to take down his lucky numbers there, 47, 31, 22, 9, 19, and 35. It says a visit to a strange place will bring you renewed perspective on that fortune cookie fortune. A strange place. Investigative journalist Ronan Farrow spent the last 18 months digging into Sam Altman, who leads one of the biggest AI companies in the world. What Ronan Farrow found is raising some serious concerns about Mr.

1:01:49Altman, and he's going to join us live to explain next.

1:01:59In our tech lead, the CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman, is a household name. He's probably the most powerful person in a field that is transforming the world and our future. Investigative journalist Ronan Farrow of The New Yorker and his colleague Andrew Morantz conducted hundreds of interviews for an article entitled, Sam Altman May Control Our Future, Can He Be Trusted? And yes, that is AI being used in that illustration on the right, which is freaking me out. Ronan Farrow joins us now. Ronan, you worked on this story for more than a year and a half. You talked to all these people. I guess the main question I had after I read the story, because it's the fundamental thrust of the piece is, do you trust Sam Altman?

1:02:46Well, we offer a range of answers to that question from people who have worked closely with him for years. You know, more than 100 interviews gives you a wide swath of views. And the piece is very forensic. It's very fair. But what emerges is that there are people who say Sam Altman lies to a degree that is dysfunctional for any chief executive of a company this significant. And there are people who say that lying is so significant that against this particular backdrop that you mentioned of a technology that has truly transformative stakes and about which Sam Altman was one of the initial alarmists, said that it really could wipe us all out, that this becomes not just dysfunctional, but dangerous.

1:03:34Silicon Valley is built on hype and promises before deliverable products. We all know this. So the fact that this trait, which is kind of amorphous, right, that someone is untrustworthy, is so pervasive that it transcends even that expectation and becomes something noteworthy, it is really something, Jake. So Altman's response, as I can best sum up, and if you disagree, please correct me, is basically the people who don't trust me are wrong and they're bitter and etc. And also that there's a misunderstanding. He's just a pleaser. So he tells people things, but he's not trying to lie. He's just trying to make people feel good because inherently he's a pleaser.

1:04:18Is that fair, do you think? that that's really the crux of it you know the piece is very very careful about actually filtering for the very thing you just mentioned it acknowledges how cutthroat the race to dominate ai is um there is so much money there are so many vested interests and we really separate out okay what's coming from competitors what should we cast a skeptical eye on and try to be as generous as possible to Sam, to be frank. It's interesting to note that it's not just competitors and rivals. Even amongst his most ardent defenders, there is some acknowledgement that this is a trait.

1:04:57Opinions differ on how much we should care about that trait. Sam's explanation is as you described. He talks about having grappled with this, it having cost him problems. And he says, look, I have an issue with avoiding conflict. I'm a people pleaser, especially earlier in his career, he says, that created these issues. And, you know, he describes it as something that he is working to move past, essentially. Ronan Farrell, congratulations on the piece. Everyone should read it. It's at thenewyorker.com. Thank you so much for being with us. We have some breaking news for you right now. This is CNN Breaking News.

1:05:34And President Trump has just posted that he has agreed to that two-week ceasefire in the war in Iran. Let's bring in CNN's Kristen Holmes at the White House. Kristen, what's the news? Just an hour and a half away from that deadline, President Trump seconds ago taking to Truth Social to say that he is talking to Pakistani officials. And based on that conversation, he will agree to stop bombing for two weeks. He also says that Iran has agreed to open the Strait of Hormuz for that time period. So I'm going to read part of this to you. It says, subject, and he says, subject to the Islamic Republic of Iran agreeing to the complete immediate and safe opening of the Strait of Hormuz.

1:06:13So they still have to agree. I agree to suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks. This will be a double sided ceasefire. The reason for doing so is that we have already met and exceeded all military objectives and are very far along with the definitive agreement concerning long-term peace with Iran and peace in the Middle East. We received a 10-point proposal from Iran and believe it is a workable basis on which to negotiate. That's also news, Jake. Almost all of the various points of past contention have been agreed to between the United States and Iran, but a two-week period will allow the agreement to be finalized and consummated.

1:06:54On behalf of the United States of America as president and also representing the countries of the Middle East, It is an honor to have this long-term problem close to a resolution. So a couple of things that we're going to still be asking questions about. What is in that 10-point proposal? What has actually been agreed to? And I will go back through that language because I said that Iran had agreed to open the Strait of Hormuz. It does sound as though he's still leaving it there as that he's only agreeing, if that is in fact the case, that they will fully open the Strait of Hormuz. This, of course, again, coming as President Trump has been threatening to wipe out an entire civilization, saying that he was going to bomb bridges, to bomb civilian infrastructure, saying at one point that the Iranian people wanted him to continue bombing.

1:07:41And we knew behind the scenes that there were ongoing conversations, negotiations between the two parties, between Pakistan was serving as an intermediary between the two countries at various times. Now, there is going to be a big question here as to what happens with J.D. Vance, the vice president, who's currently in Hungary. There had been a lot of talk two weeks ago about him going to Pakistan to sit for these conversations. That would be the first face-to-face conversations between U.S. officials and Iranian officials. Now, of course, it's going to be a question as to whether or not he is going to actually go there after his trip to Hungary.

1:08:16We are asking about that as well. Are they actually going to have these in-person conversations, which they have not had yet? But right now, evading that deadline, evading potential war crimes, because, of course, that is what we were hearing from the United Nations, from various countries, saying that his actions, if he was to take them to bomb the civilian infrastructure, would be considered war crimes and international law. avoiding all of that and saying that he's going to give this two-week grace period of a double ceasefire, of course, as long as Iran continues to leave the Strait of Hormuz open or reopens the Strait of Hormuz and allow ships to pass safely.

1:08:52It's interesting, Kristen, because I'm reading the statement from President Trump as well, and there are a couple things. First of all, it's been very obvious for the last few days that the president was looking for an off-ramp. Yes. Also, he is he is casting this peace proposal or ceasefire proposal from the Pakistanis in light, in the shadow of his rather stark threat this morning where he threatened to wipe the Iranian civilization off the face of the earth. President Trump saying wherein they requested that I hold off the destructive force being sent tonight to Iran. We don't know how seriously the Iranians actually took his tweet, but he's trying to cast it in that light.

1:09:35And we should also just note that it has been very obvious to people that President Trump is looking for a way out of this war. Let's go live to the region right now. Jeremy Diamonds in Tel Aviv. Jeremy. Yeah, Jake, this is huge news. Obviously, we have been watching today as there were a number of indicators pointing to the very real possibility of escalation tonight, not only in terms of U.S. and Israeli strikes in Iran, but also in terms of what Iran might be able to do in retaliation, in terms of oil facilities, desalination plants in the Gulf, and also here in Israel, where the Israeli military even sent out a message to citizens warning them of a potential significant uptick in Iranian ballistic missile fire towards Israel.

1:10:18But it seems like that has all now been averted with one social media post from the president following hours and days really of diplomacy led by the Pakistanis as the intermediaries in this case, with the United States and Iran on either side of that. Now, one of the critical questions to see as we are now, Jake, getting another early warning, actually, for ballistic missiles aimed at Israel just coming in on my phone as I'm speaking to you. The other question will be, is Israel also going to abide by this two week ceasefire? You know, it was only a couple of weeks ago when I asked the Israeli prime minister this very question.

1:10:58Should President Trump agree to a ceasefire with Iran? What will you do? Will you continue to carry out strikes inside of Iran? The Israeli prime minister did not answer my question directly, but what he did say was that the United States and President Trump is the leader and he positioned himself as the ally, the secondary, suggesting that Israel would go along with President Trump's direction here as to this war, whether that is escalation, as we thought we were seeing earlier today, or now as we are seeing heading towards a ceasefire. But obviously, I'm asking Israeli officials right now, and we'll bring you that reaction as soon as we get it.

1:11:35Matthew Chance is in Doha, Qatar. Matthew, tell us more. Yeah, well, Jake, I mean, look, I mean, President Trump has already set five deadlines on his threat to, you know, wreak destruction on civilian infrastructure inside Iran. And so I guess it's it's not that outrageous that is he's done it for another time. certainly it will be a massive relief to this region because you know I've been in conversations with various officials from across the region over the course of the past couple of days as this deadline the latest deadline had started to loom and people are genuinely fearful about were genuinely fearful about the economic impact that an escalation of that kind would have in the region already.

1:12:25Qatar alone, I'm talking to you tonight from Doha, the capital of Qatar, has suffered billions of dollars a day in economic losses since the war began. You can replicate that all over the region, of course. It's been a massive catastrophic economic loss that the whole region has suffered. But that was only a taste of things to come if this war had escalated in the way that President Trump had vowed, if civilian infrastructure, energy infrastructure in Iran had been targeted in the way that President Trump said he was going to target them. The Iranians, of course, vowed to retaliate in kind. And this whole region of energy-rich states have a collection of very vulnerable oil and gas installations that are easily hit with ballistic missiles and drones and are very difficult to repair and take a long time to repair.

1:13:14So that would have caused massive effects in the regional economy and of course a knock-on effects to the global economy as well. So a great sense of relief that President Trump has stepped back from the line tonight. Certainly from the threat to destroy the entire Iranian civilization. Kristen Holmes back at the White House. Alex Plitzis, but let me, Kristen, before I go to you, let me go to Alex Plitzis. Alex Plitzis, give us the analysis that you have of this breaking news. So it's in line with comments from White House officials that I was talking to earlier today, as well as some foreign intelligence partners of the United States.

1:13:50They were expecting this to trend in the right direction. No one was quite sure we'd reach a deal. But what's interesting in the president's statement there is he makes a contingent upon the Iranians agreeing to open up the straits. And so far, we haven't seen a comment, at least that I've seen until right before coming on. So we'll see what the Iranians have to say about this, the impact overall, the strategy of the war effort. Up until this point, U.S. Central Command had struck somewhere around 13 ,000 targets. They said they had about 3 ,000 left or about two weeks left of bombing. And this was all based on years-long intelligence collection efforts to try to take out the drones, the missiles, the associated industrial base, the Navy and the Air Force, etc., basically stopping Iran's war-making capability.

1:14:25So there's still some residual targeting that hasn't been achieved. What that actually means in terms of Iran's capabilities is unknown. I believe Central Command had been prioritizing the major targets first. So we'll expect a military update over the course of time. There's still a lot to work out over the next two weeks, but definitely a positive trend. Kristen Holmes, back at the White House, the deadline for Iran to agree to, and President Trump has kind of been confusing about what he was demanding, actually, that they agree to, whether it was just opening up the Straits of Hormuz or a ceasefire plan or whatever, but it had to happen by in one hour and 15 minutes.

1:15:02It's rapidly approaching, and it looks like that deadline is going to be, in fact, extended for two weeks. Yeah, and I do want to go back to something that Matthew Chance was just talking about, because I think it really goes to how we saw today unfold. And Matthew was talking about the fact that President Trump has extended this deadline over and over and over again and gotten to a point where many Republicans, many of the people close to him that I was talking to, felt that he had boxed himself into a corner. Could he actually go out there and extend again? What would that look like, given the fact that he just has continually done this at the same time where he's saying that he's going to destroy an entire civilization?

1:15:36And then what we saw today was this kind of public plea from the prime minister of Pakistan, which gave a lot of people around President Trump that I was talking to almost a sigh of relief, because they believe that President Trump now had a little bit of cover here when it came to doing another extension. It wasn't just him saying that diplomacy was happening. It was another official on the ground who we know has been hosting these kind of diplomatic discussions, saying that they needed more time. And that allowed for President Trump to go with that two weeks, because as you reported, we were speaking to so many people close to President Trump, and it did seem obvious from the president himself that he did not want to go through with this, that they are looking for an off ramp to this war overall, but also the bombing of the civilian infrastructure.

1:16:22He was getting calls from the Gulf region, from allies in the Gulf region, saying this is a huge escalation, that this could really change the trajectory of this war and of the entire region. There were a lot of people that were deeply concerned with this idea of hitting civilian infrastructure. This gave him a little bit of cover to actually have that extension, that ceasefire, because we saw this public plea from the Pakistani prime minister. And that was when we started hearing people within the administration, people close to President Trump, signaling that they believe this was his way out of this.

1:16:56Now, it was unclear if he was going to take it because it is President Trump and he can make any decision he wants at any time. And we've obviously seen him do that. But there was a lot of people who believe that this was an off ramp that was given to him. And Kristen, just to just to reiterate the point, President Trump refers to these, quote, 10, 10 point proposal from Iran. We don't know what is in those 10 points and we don't know. We're going to go to Jeremy Diamond right now. Jeremy, the word Israel does not appear in this Truth Social post from President Trump. And you're still getting sirens there?

1:17:34Yeah, there were sirens that just went off east of Tel Aviv near the Jerusalem area. Between here and Jerusalem, basically, we just saw one of those ballistic missiles coming in, actually, and it did appear to be intercepted by one of Israel's air defense systems. I could not tell as it passed behind the cloud whether it was a cluster munition or whether it was one of those ballistic missiles carrying a single warhead. But obviously, the timing of that does not appear to be coincidental. You know, sometimes we see this in the hours before a ceasefire goes into effect. Both sides tend to increase their fire.

1:18:12In this case, perhaps Iran sending one final message here. It is important to note, of course, that we have not yet heard from the Iranians as to whether or not they have agreed to the terms of this ceasefire, whether they will hold up their end of the bargain, which is indeed to ensure that the Strait of Hormuz is completely and immediately reopened in order to allow for a ceasefire over the course of the next two weeks. And then, of course, as you were just asking, we have also not yet heard from the Israeli side as to whether or not they will ceasefire for the coming weeks if indeed a ceasefire does go into effect.

1:18:51But all signs are trending in that direction. I don't think we'd be seeing this kind of a tweet from the president, unless it was clear that there was at least, you know, the contours of an agreement here to be fully announced. Yeah, the president called this a double-sided ceasefire, not a triple-sided ceasefire. It doesn't mention anything about Israel. Kristen, just to go back to the point I was making, the president claims we received a 10-point proposal from Iran, and we believe it's a workable basis on which to negotiate. We do not know what's in those 10 points. And we do not know if there actually is anything new in these 10 points or if it's just President Trump wanting to end this war, at least in the short term.

1:19:34We don't. But Jake, I do want to tell you, we have a bit of breaking news here. A senior White House official telling our Elena Treen that Israel is part of this ceasefire, that they have agreed to suspend its bombing campaign while these negotiations continue. Now, of course, we don't know where that ends. We don't know if that's for two weeks. It's not specific. But Israel is part of this starting point, which is this ceasefire. So all three sides are participating, at least that is according to a senior White House official. Now back to what your point is about the 10-point plan. I mean, we've been hearing about a 10-point plan from Iran for weeks now.

1:20:05The idea was that the United States presented a 15-point plan, that several of the points on that plan, Iranians, Iranian officials were saying were unrealistic, they were impossible to meet, and they came back with their own plan. We are still at a loss as to what exactly was in that plan. What are the actual points? What exactly is the U.S. now saying that they are willing to work with? President Trump had gone back and forth on the idea of reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Clearly, he has focused on that as a top priority after last week saying he didn't need to reopen the Strait as part of a deal to end the war in Iran.

1:20:40So whatever it is, Iran is likely to have said long term the free and fair passage through the Strait of Hormuz, because that is something President Trump just two days ago, or just yesterday, said was a top priority. Kristen, Jeremy, Matthew, Alex, thanks to all of you for your insights. Let's talk about this now with our panel in studio. We have, in addition to Sochi and Kevin, who you all know, Zach Cohen from our Pentagon team. Give us your insights into this, because right now it just seems, from the cheap seats, like President Trump wanted to end this war, or at least have a ceasefire, and he's grabbing an opportunity to do that.

1:21:15And look, I'm not criticizing it. Peace is good. Lack of killing people, good. But is there anything different today from yesterday? Fundamentally, no. I think that this promise to reopen the Strait of Wormuz or the demand to do so is really the most pressing challenge that Trump seems to finally have realized does impact the United States in terms of the global energy markets, you know, the price of oil continuing to increase. But also really on a shot clock of sorts, We've heard from shipping industry executives who have said, look, if this remained closed for a few more weeks now, you could see prices increase to a crisis point.

1:21:49But there's also this reality that you can't just snap your fingers and say, OK, the Strait of Hormuz is now reopened and reassure the shipping industry that they can now sail their tankers through that very narrow passage. It's going to take some time and there's going to be residual effects to the closure. And there's also the fundamental reality that if Iran agrees to reopen the strait, they could, in theory, reclose it again at a certain point. So there's still a lot of unanswered questions here from a diplomacy standpoint, from a posturing standpoint. Does Donald Trump see this as an off ramp to the entire conflict?

1:22:22The terms of that 10-point plan, we still don't know. Could Iran still achieve a nuclear weapon based on the existence of that stockpile of highly enriched uranium? Feasibly, it could if the war ended today. So we're going to see how the next two weeks play out. But again, to your point, peace is good. Not fulfilling that promise to end Iranian civilization is also good. Yeah. Lack of mass murder. Good. Kevin, what's your take on this all? Well, I think the I think Zach brings up an important point, which is right now there seems to be a fundamental sort of canyon between what what the White House wants and what the president wants, which is he thought this would happen.

1:22:59Be able to have a military engagement that happened quickly. He wanted it to happen quickly. But the reality is that this is going to be a much longer term engagement. And some of the conditions that are really needed to have a military engagement like this be successful, public support on Capitol Hill, public support from political constituencies, public support from our Gulf allies, those can't really be managed against hourly deadlines and two week increments. And so I think that's the challenge right now for the president is how do you build some of that support back up over the long term?

1:23:30because a military engagement like this is not going to be operating in short-term timelines. Sochi, I want to come to you in a sec, but I just want to show the missile exploding over Tel Aviv that Jeremy was just referring to because we do have some video of that.

1:23:48There it is. You can see it in the distance. I don't think they have the sound on. And even if they did, the sound might have been first. before. That's just how the speed of sound versus the speed of light works. Sochi, your reaction? I mean, I think that there are a lot of questions. Also, Trump's comment from this morning, I'm very interested to see whether there was any Republican outcry going to the White House on whether or not they understood that, hey, this is a war crime, that what you committed, we are getting significant pressure on the 25th Amendment. We're also getting significant pressure to potentially take control of this and do something.

1:24:24Explain to people what the 25th Amendment is. So removing Trump from office, There was a lot of talk about that when people believed that Joe Biden was not fit for his presidency. And I think there's a lot of questions about whether or not Trump is now fit based on his comments earlier today. And his comments earlier today about, you know, wiping out civilization was definitely a war crime, even the threat of it. And so I think there was likely Republican pressure. We'll see if that actually happened. I think the other question here is what did Trump get out of that threat this morning? He didn't get, the straight did not open.

1:24:58We actually don't have commitment from them that the straight will open in the future. He was obviously looking for an out. This 10-point plan could maybe not anything new. So I think the big point, the big question for the White House is, what was the point of that threat? What exactly happened and what did he get out of it? And I think it's absolutely nothing. And so I think there's a big question for Congress. At what point do they take control here? Because this is starting to get out of hand. Well, let me, I wouldn't, I'm not taking issue with the substance of what you're saying, but what did he get out of the threat that he issued?

1:25:32He claims in his Truth Social post that the Pakistanis, quote, requested that I hold off on the destructive force being sent tonight to Iran, unquote. So he has at least a, maybe it's real, maybe it's not, but he at least he can claim that this happened because of that threat. I'm not saying it's true, but he can claim that. Right. Well, I think there's also a lot of X factors here, which is how much of this is really true. How much of what was in the tweet is now going to be backed up with facts, figures, additional statements from the administration. So that's one of the tough parts of, again, of managing this thing in hourly sort of news cycles is the facts on the ground catching up to whatever the president is actually saying on social media.

1:26:16One of the other things that you and your team at the Pentagon, I guess you're not at the Pentagon because of Hegseth's rules, but covering the Pentagon, one of the things you guys have constantly pointed out is how every time Hegseth speaks, he promised that tonight is going to be the toughest, biggest night ever. And it's not necessarily true, but he claims it every time he speaks. He does. And he also claims that this war is close to being over as well in the next breath. And so those two things don't usually line up. But to your point, what does this ceasefire, if it's agreed to, mean for the U.S.

1:26:46military posture in the region? I mean, a two week time frame. What does that mean for the two aircraft carriers that are currently there? Are they going to rotate new service members to replenish or replace the ones that are already in the region as well? So a lot of unanswered questions as far as the U.S. military posture goes. And to the point about the threat, and that's still out there, and that still will impact potentially how the Iranians, Trump's threat, how the Iranians perceive maybe an additional threat down the line when Donald Trump is trying to exert more pressure on them, too. So this does, it's not happening in a vacuum.

1:27:18It will have an impact on talks as they progress. And one of the other things that I think is a question that I have now that I didn't have a week ago. A week ago, President Trump was claiming complete air superiority, and the Pentagon was saying, yeah, we're going to put B-52s over Iran, which are a lot easier to hit than a lot of these jets. They are higher, but they're also bigger. And then all of a sudden, the Iranians had downed two jets. Thank God that the pilots, the service members are okay. But it made me question, I think anybody with eyes and ears question, do we really have air superiority?

1:27:46Yeah, and also their capabilities. I think we have heard from the Trump administration, from Donald Trump over and over and over that he's obliterated their capabilities. And that has not been the case. My other question about this ceasefire is whether it holds. Do we trust Israel on a three way ceasefire here? Do we trust that they're actually going to come through? What happens if they do not? So I think there are a lot of questions and the way that Israel has acted before, I'm not sure that that will hold. But how much, Kevin, as the Republican at the table, how much do you think the Republican coalition was really threatening to tear apart over this war?

1:28:21Because you had the MAGA folks who didn't want any war. You have people like John Bolton who are Iran hawks but think that Trump was going about this war the entirely wrong way. A lot of people in Capitol Hill trying to be loyal, but I don't know how much longer that could have. Well, I think amongst the MAGA sort of coalition, those are problematic. anytime you have any sort of folks coming out and you start to lose. If you lose 10, 15 percentage of your support, that's a problem. But I think I keep going back to the congressional and public support that you need. I think this is one of the hard things is when you're trying to manage this in hourly deadline increments against two-week news cycles, do you ever really have the momentum and do you have the sort of transparency and the information flow to these constituencies enough that you can really keep them strongly in your corner?

1:29:05And I think that remains a challenge for this administration because so much of this stuff is changing in real time. Fascinating stuff. Sochi and Zach and Kevin, thanks for being here. We're going to have much more on our breaking news. Erin Burnett out front starts right now. See you tomorrow.

1:29:35Searching for France premieres April 12th on CNN and next day on the CNN app.