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Iran Says Strait of Hormuz is Fully Under Its Control; Artemis II Crew Inside Orion Space Capsule Ahead of Launch; NASA Moon Mission Set to Take Humans Farther than Ever Before; Speaker Johnson Now Says House Will Vote on DHS Funding Bill. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired April 01, 2026 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Here in a matter of hours, President Trump will deliver his first major address on the war with Iran. And Iran's president has just released a letter addressed to the American public, urging people to look beyond political rhetoric and reconsider their view of Iran. That's according to state media.

Earlier today, Trump said Tehran was seeking a ceasefire, but that any deal is contingent on the Strait of Hormuz reopening. The Iran's foreign ministry is denying Trump's claim. In his speech tonight, Trump tells Reuters that he will criticize NATO, threatening to withdraw the U.S. from the alliance.

CNN's Jim Sciutto is with us now from Tel Aviv. Jim, it's been a very active day. Where you are, missiles have been flying over Israel tonight.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes. Yes, Brianna, I think you could say that Iran responded to the president's comments about progress and negotiations in two different ways. The first, literally ballistic.

Iran sending multiple ballistic missiles towards Israel today, including here in Tel Aviv. There was a period of time around sunset, which notably was right around the time of the Passover Seder, beginning the Passover holiday here in Israel. It was the busiest series of attacks on Israel, one of the busiest since the start of the war.

And many people were injured in Israel today as a result of these attacks. So that was one Iranian response, if you can call it that, to President Trump's discussion of negotiations. The other came in the form of a series of statements.

One of the first from the Revolutionary Guard commander saying that Iran will maintain control of the Strait of Hormuz, that, in other words, that's not negotiable from Tehran's position. As you noted, the Iranian foreign ministry denied outright that there are, in fact, negotiations underway. But I find the president's letter to the American people just in the last several minutes in a way one of the most interesting messages from Iran, because he is attempting to appeal directly to the American people, perhaps in advance of President Trump's address tonight, using terms that they might recognize, saying that how is this war America first?

How is this war serving the interests of the American people? Attempting to inject their own message into the political messaging we're expecting to hear later tonight. The open question, of course, Brianna, is that Iran's own posturing for negotiations, much like President Trump, threatening both force and negotiation? Or is it a sign that these negotiations are nowhere near the way the president is describing them? We just don't know.

But from where I'm sitting here right now in Tel Aviv today, the evidence has been this war is still very much a hot war and, in many ways, at least in attacks on Tel Aviv, escalating.

KEILAR: All right, Jim, thank you so much for the very latest there from Israel on what is a really critical day when it comes to American policy in this war.

And ahead, we're just hours away from the launch of Artemis II, which is NASA's first human moon mission in more than 50 years. We'll be going back to Cape Canaveral.

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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Breaking news to CNN. These are images from moments ago. The first hatch of the Orion capsule on the Artemis II mission has now been closed.

Another step in what is a series of steps as we get closer and closer to the launch window opening now, fewer than two and a half hours away. The Artemis crew is inside that 16 foot and a half wide capsule and they're making final checks. So let's discuss with someone who has been integral to the part of putting this spaceship together.

We're joined by Robert Lightfoot now. He served as acting NASA administrator, had a 30 year career almost with NASA. He is now the president of Lockheed Martin Space, which was the lead contractor on putting the Orion capsule together.

Robert, first, congratulations. I know it's preliminary. We've yet to see if we're even going to launch tonight.

But just getting here is a feat in itself.

ROBERT LIGHTFOOT, FORMER ACTING NASA ADMINISTRATOR: Thanks for having me. I really appreciate it. It's an exciting day, as you can tell by the energy here at the Cape.

And we're excited to get Orion on orbit and test her out. And we've got 10 days ahead of us, 10 pretty exciting days for the crew to really put us back in that position of leading exploration like we should be.

[15:40:00] SANCHEZ: To the point of leading exploration as we should be, I got a lot of feedback from folks online on my social media accounts and just folks that I was talking to regarding this assignment. And one of the things I heard over and over again that I have my own reasons for, but I want to hear yours, is why the United States is now so eager to go back to a place where they say it was five decades ago. You can make the case that it's very different, we're going further than before.

But I wonder why space exploration, deep space exploration, should be a priority for you.

LIGHTFOOT: Yes, I think I've heard this question my whole career. And I believe the bottom line is, as humans, it's written in our DNA to explore, to press forward, to press further out than we ever have before. We went to the moon in the 60s and the early 70s, and that was just short trips.

Now we're going to stay. The things we will learn, the technologies we'll have to develop just to live there will be technologies we bring back to Earth. Any of the missions that we do, they typically answer questions, but they create many, many more.

And this is the heart and soul of exploration and what we want to go do. And I think the difference now is we've got American industry, Lockheed Martin and others are here to help make that vision true. And I think Jared Isaacman has put us on a path to create a permanent presence on the moon.

We don't even know what we're going to learn there yet, the things that we're going to need and that will come back here. So that part of it is so exciting. And then the other part that's important, honestly, is we have to have that inspiration for the next generation.

I mean, I need somebody to be sitting here in 30 or 40 years, right, that was inspired by this mission and said, I want to go do that, I want to be part of that. And I think that's part of the fabric of our nation is that science, technology, engineering, mathematics base that actually lets us lead the world in where we go.

SANCHEZ: There's almost no doubt that this launch tonight is going to launch hundreds, if not thousands of careers in STEM. I also wanted to get your thoughts on all the work it took to get here and specifically from the astronauts that are inside that Orion capsule right now. You're talking about, what, thousands of hours, tens of thousands of hours of just practice, practice, making sure that every procedure is muscle memory.

LIGHTFOOT: Yes, I think people don't realize how much time is spent simulating the mission. We'll go through everything that could possibly go wrong. It's not just the crew. It's also the ground team that is there to support them.

And it is hours and hours and hours. I had a text earlier that somebody sent me that said, hey, I remember we did this in 2007 on a particular ship. And that was a joke, right?

But the point is, we have simulated everything that can possibly go. And so we're ready. We're ready to go do this.

And the crew's ready. What you find when you do it the way we do it is when something happens, it's just natural. It's not new.

It's a natural thing. And so I know Reid and the team are ready to go and we're ready to support them. We're pretty excited about this.

SANCHEZ: We're so excited for them. I was sharing with you a moment ago, Robert, that I was here for a launch back in 2020. And my understanding is that that one is roughly about a million gallons of thrust -- or a million pounds of thrust.

This one is going to be eight million pounds of thrust, so exponentially larger. And we sitting here are going to feel a physical effect. Talk to us about that.

LIGHTFOOT: Yes, that's one of the most exciting things. I said I was jealous about your location where you're going to be sitting. And I think what you'll find is you're going to feel it in your body, especially the solid rocket motors when the booster, when it gets here, and you're going to see your shirt is going to literally flap from the acoustics coming off of that.

It's a visceral thing. And as I say, you don't just see a launch, you feel a launch. So that's what you're going to -- that's what you're going to get to experience.

And we couldn't be more excited about where this journey is going to take us as a nation.

SANCHEZ: Yes, no doubt. There are a few thousand folks gathered here on the space coast of Florida who will feel the effects of this launch and however many billions more that we'll be watching at home. History being made here at Kennedy Space Center.

Robert, thank you so much for joining us.

LIGHTFOOT: Thanks for having me.

SANCHEZ: I appreciate your time. Let's go Artemis. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back with the latest from Kennedy Space Center.

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KEILAR: We have breaking news into CNN. House Speaker Mike Johnson is now committing to a vote on a bill that would end the partial government shutdown and largely fund the Department of Homeland Security. It's a bill that last week he called a joke.

That's the quote. He called it a joke. But this is just part of a bigger plan that Republicans are working on. So let's get details on this now.

Lauren Fox is covering the latest on this. Lauren, what can you tell us?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, we don't know exactly when the House will move on this Senate bill, but that remains a top question, obviously, because TSA workers continue to want additional certainty passed with the president promised in terms of continuing to give them pay. Here's what we know. Tomorrow morning, the Senate is going to hold a pro forma session and essentially, they're going to pass their bill once again.

There are some procedural reasons that they will have to do that. Then it is an open question when the House will come back. But they will pass that same legislation that funds all of DHS minus the immigration enforcement piece of that, including ICE and CBP.

[15:50:00]

Now, there is a separate agreement that Republicans are going to work together on separate tracks in the House and the Senate to pass funding for immigration enforcement through a procedural process that allows them to pass a bill with just a simple majority in the United States Senate. Now, how quickly that's going to move, how easily that's going to move. Those are huge question marks because there are a lot of items in that package that Republicans and conservatives in particular may want to add in addition to immigration enforcement that could slow that entire process down.

So this is really a two step process. And it does closely mirror the plan that Majority Leader John Thune put forward in the early hours of Friday morning. And that was rejected by conservatives in the House of Representatives who attacked Thune for zeroing out funding for immigration enforcement. But the underlying reality here all along was that Thune had to work with Democrats because he needs 60 votes in the United States Senate.

He can't do this with just Republican votes. And therefore, that's why he cut this deal. So, again, this is a two step process.

It's really unclear at this point how quickly this shutdown could end. But certainly there is light at the end of the tunnel. Both of these Republican leaders are on the same page for the first time in days -- Brianna.

KEILAR: A congressional two step. Good to hear. Lauren Fox, thank you so much for that.

And you are now looking at some live images coming to us from Kennedy Space Center, which is where NASA is about to launch its first crewed mission to the moon in several decades. We'll have that next.

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KEILAR: The excitement is growing for NASA's historic Artemis II mission around the moon. And part of that is because the process of leading up to the launch is just tantalizingly slow. Liftoff is just a couple hours away, but already the crew is strapped in.

And you are looking at live pictures from Kennedy Space Center as they are going to close the second hatch here. That is what they are working on right now as Americans from coast to coast are coming together to watch the big launch here in a couple of hours.

And CNN's David Culver is in Titusville, Florida. David, what are crowds looking like where you are? Because this is a big one.

DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is a big one, and I'm in the middle of a bridge right now. You can see as the excitement builds, you mentioned that, Brianna, so do the crowds. And they're going to, we anticipate, according to police, shut down this bridge at some point because we're already starting to see spillover into the lanes.

And it continues about a mile down. So basically the entirety of the other side of the bridge, which faces the launch site, has now filled up. And as you said, you've got folks from all across the U.S. We met people from Texas who drove in along the East Coast who have come in. But it's not just the U.S. Look, crowds are building in here. We'll let folks pass.

Also, the U.K. We've got Tilly, Kerry, Stephen. You guys were here, or at least you tried, for Artemis I, right? Four years ago?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's right. Back in 2022, yes.

CULVER: And it was a scrub when you came.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was a scrub. The two of us were here, and we spent the night sleeping under this bridge. And it was, I think it was like a 6:30 a.m. launch, and it was scrubbed. And that vacation ended, so we had to go home and miss that launch.

CULVER: And you're getting some better weather than the U.K. right now, which is a good thing for this launch. And you're hoping from here, maybe tonight will be the night.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tonight's the night. We're going to enjoy this. We're confident. And then we can go on and enjoy the rest of the vacation, too.

CULVER: All right. Well, and welcome in. Thanks for sharing.

It's incredible. I mean, you have folks who have just made this their destination, planning to stay. Sure, tonight, if it happens or tomorrow in through Monday, even Brianna, they said whenever it happens, they're determined to watch it.

KEILAR: Yes, certainly. You have a very good seat, a very good view there. Maybe standing room only, but there's nothing like seeing it in person, David.

So I am jealous. I'll tell you that. All right.

Weather, of course, crucial. Yes, you should be. And weather is just crucial.

It really is. But it's looking pretty good in this launch. There's a lot of optimism.

Let's go to CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar, who is tracking the latest conditions. Can we continue to be optimistic? Because it really is just the littlest thing that can scrub one of these launches.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It really is. It really doesn't take all that much. But that's why they have so many experts that keep an eye on these things.

So we look at the radar right now. Yes, there are some storms in the vicinity. But keep in mind, the launch is not set for another two hours.

And then we have a two hour window from there that they can launch at any point during it. So even though we have a couple of showers and thunderstorms around at the moment, they're not -- we're hoping that they won't still be there once we actually get to the launch window. So right now, 76 degrees.

We do have some clouds out there. Light winds about 10 miles per hour. That is within the parameters.

Now, we don't want it to be too windy, but a 10 mile per hour wind is fine. Now, if it does not work out for whatever reason today, any one of these blue box dates you see here, this is where we could have an alternate day for the launch to take place.

So it could be tomorrow. It could be this weekend. It can really go any day up through Monday of next week. And if it still doesn't work out, they'll have to come up with another set of dates.

But we are very much hoping that everything goes well, and the launch takes off today as planned. So the probability of violating weather constraints is only about 20 percent. Now, it's not zero, but it is still on the low end. And that's some good news.

One of the potential weather issues we're looking at is the cumulus cloud rule. Having some of those kind of clouds that could in turn cause some lightning in around the vicinity of where the rocket would go off, but also some ground winds.

There is a limit on how strong those winds can be. And 30 miles per hour is roughly that limit for them right now. We take a look at the forecast again, as you kind of see some of these showers and thunderstorms around the vicinity.

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But again, fingers crossed, everything stays clear at the time of the launch.

KEILAR: All right. I mean, I can't handle this anticipation. Surely the families and the astronauts can't. So let's get this thing off the ground. All right, Allison, thank you so much.

And "THE ARENA" begins right now.

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