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Artemis II Astronauts Begin Historic Moon Flyby; JPMorgan CEO: Iran War Could Bring an Economic Skunk to U.S.; Trump Doubles Down on Threats to Strike Civilian Infrastructure. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired April 06, 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]

KEILAR: Let's go back to space. I love saying that. So fun.

And the historic milestone that humanity just reached. When do you ever get to say that? Four NASA astronauts, Christina Koch, Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Jeremy Hansen in the Artemis II mission, breaking the Apollo 13 record for traveling the farthest distance from Earth. They went more than 248,000 miles.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: And later today, they're going to see parts of the far side of the moon never before seen by the naked eye. In the meantime, Artemis pilot Victor Glover has been describing to Mission Control what the crew is observing on the moon's surface.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VICTOR GLOVER, ARTEMIS II ASTRONAUT: But you are seeing color variation, albedo variation inside of Grimaldi as well. And even on the west, there's still a very dark part of it, but it is still the darkest, it's not as uniform as it looked when we were farther away. We're starting to differentiate the striations of albedo inside of Grimaldi.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Let's get right to CNN's Randi Kaye at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Randy, the crew is overcome with emotion at crossing that milestone.

RANDI KAYE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, absolutely. And then they were overcome with some more emotion, Boris, when they started to talk about this crater that they wanted to name after the late wife of Commander Reid Wiseman on board. Mission specialist Jeremy Hansen was talking to Mission Control and suggested that they name a crater after her.

Listen to this moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEREMY HANSEN, ARTEMIS II ASTRONAUT: We lost a loved one. Her name was Carroll, the spouse of Reid, the mother of Janie and Ellie. And if you want to find this one, you look at GLUSCO and it's just to the northwest of that at the same latitude as home, and it's a bright spot on the map, and we would like to call it Carroll, and you spell that C-A-R-R-O-L-L.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Carroll Wiseman had passed away in 2020 from cancer. And this crew, of course, has bonded over the last few years of training together. And that was a really, really tender moment between all of them.

But the lunar flyby, well underway now. And in just a few hours, 6:44 p.m. Eastern time, they are expected to lose contact for about 40 minutes with Mission Control here at the Johnson Space Center when the Earth sets behind the moon.

[15:35:00]

They'll regain contact when the Earth rises again. And then at 7:02 p.m., that will be their closest approach to the moon, about 4,070 miles expected. And then at 7:07 p.m. Eastern time tonight, they will reach their maximum distance from Earth, more than 252,000 miles away. They have 35 lunar targets on their agenda, so they have a lot of work to do up there. They're going to be looking at colors, as you heard the pilot Victor Glover already talking about, and textures on the lunar surface.

They're also going to be looking at any new craters they can find, places they can land on the moon when Artemis IV goes up in a couple of years. And they're also going to be hoping that they can see some shots of the South Pole on the moon. And along the way, they'll be taking about 1,000 pictures.

So we hope to see those as soon as they can get them to us.

SANCHEZ: We've got to scope out the real estate for the future, figure out where they're going to put that base. And what a tender moment, as you put it. Such a special moment between those astronauts in the memory of Carroll, Reid Wiseman's late wife.

Randi, Kaye, thank you so much from Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Still to come, a major warning from the CEO of JPMorgan Chase about the Iran war's potential impact on the economy. The details ahead.

[15:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Increasingly, experts are warning of the economic consequences the Iran war could bring, including higher inflation and interest rates. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon took it a step further.

He told shareholders that it could be, quote, the skunk at the party for U.S. stock markets this year. CNN Business and Politics correspondent Vanessa Yurkevich is joining us now to talk about this. Vanessa, what else did Dimon say, and how accurate are his predictions normally?

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Well, listen, the longer that this war drags out, the more of a reality some of these predictions could be. Ultimately, in this letter to shareholders, Jamie Dimon gave sort of a rosy picture of the economy in 2026, at least heading into the year, but then said that the war could certainly change things and it could be problematic. He pointed to the potential of rising inflation and rising interest rates as the skunk at the party.

So something you don't want to happen. But ultimately, he said it could happen or it couldn't happen. And all of this is really tied to just how long this war is going to go on.

And, of course, the rising price of oil and the rising price of gas. When President Trump spoke earlier, we saw markets kind of not move that much. I mean, you see there on your screen, WTI, that's U.S. crude, just up about one percent. Looks like that's up about one percent or so right now and trading at about $112 a barrel at last check. In terms of what that means for gas prices, though, they have been climbing.

So the national average today is 4.12. That is up significantly from just a week ago, up more than 10 cents and then up well over a dollar from just a month ago.

And really, this creates a problem, obviously, for everyday consumers, but also the overall economy, where businesses do have to start to make choices about how they absorb a lot of those rising energy costs. We also heard from OPEC plus over the weekend who said that they were going to increase the output of oil by 206,000 barrels every day.

Brianna, the problem is that the size of the outage. So the amount of oil that's kind of being taken offline by this closure of the Strait of Hormuz is 12 million to 15 million barrels a day. So just a small drop in the bucket there.

And we really didn't see oil markets react too much to that. No cooling off of prices. And then, of course, gas prices. We've been just watching them go up every single day.

Analysts we've been speaking to really say the only way to soften where oil markets are going and ease gas prices for consumers is the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, something that the president has been clear he wants to do, but just unclear when and if that's going to happen anytime soon -- Brianna.

KEILAR: All right, Vanessa Yurkevich, thank you so much.

And still to come after a strongly worded threat on Easter, what is President Trump demanding from Iran now?

[15:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) SANCHEZ: President Trump holding a lengthy press conference today where he gave a lot of new details on that daring U.S. mission to rescue two pilots downed behind enemy lines in Iran. He said that both were injured but are doing well.

The president also doubled down on his threats to bomb key infrastructure if Iran does not reach a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz by tomorrow's deadline.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

Your messaging on the war has moved from the war is coming to an end, to we're going to be bombing Iran to the Stone Ages. And we've heard a range of those kind of messages. So are you.

So which is it? Are you winding this down? Are you --?

[Speaker 8] I can't tell you. I don't know. I can't tell -- it depends what they do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Let's bring in Marc Short, former chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence. He was also the White House legislative affairs director during the first Trump administration. He's currently board chair of Advancing American Freedom.

Marc, great to see you as always.

MARC SHORT, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF TO VP MIKE PENCE: Thanks for having me.

SANCHEZ: I wonder what you make of Trump's approach here. Not really getting into the details of any negotiations what he's willing to accept or not other than saying that the Strait is a top priority but not really tipping his hand as to how serious he is about potentially striking power plants and bridges, etc.

SHORT: Well I think that opening the Straits is the most important thing here, Boris. I think he knows that already there's economic calamity in Asia because they don't have oil and gas. Europe is next and it could be a continual impact across the globe.

And so I think the president understands how important it is to get the Straits open which is why you've seen the rhetoric ratchet up and threats ratchet up unless they open the Straits. And I think that would certainly include bombing campaigns beginning tomorrow night.

[15:50:00]

SANCHEZ: I think the progression that we've seen from Trump might reveal something about his thought process going into this now six week old conflict because initially he said that there was no urgency to reopen the Strait. He said that it would open on its own. He said that our European allies should go do it. He said that at any moment the United States might decide to do it. He said that we might leave the situation altogether without reopening it. And now he says it's a top priority.

Do you think the U.S. realize the leverage that Iran would have by simply having the threat of action against these vessels and tankers that are crossing the Strait.

SHORT: I think so. I think the reality is anybody who would have contemplated this would have understood how important the Straits of Hormuz are.

SANCHEZ: So then why all this wide net of messaging. If you had an objective and you had a thought of what might happen why not just --

SHORT: Well again I think the objectives have been communicated in different ways. Whether or not at first there was regime change. And then it was, we want to make sure they don't have a nuclear weapon. And then it was, we want to make sure that they don't have military capability to create conflict across the Middle East. And so I think there's been differencing different messages about what the objective was.

But I think there's no doubt as far as the global economy is concerned how important the Straits are. And so I think the president is committed to making sure that that gets resolved sooner rather than later.

SANCHEZ: Do you think that there's a difference perhaps in the way that these two parties in this conflict define success. Because Trump says we've won the war, and all that Iran has to do is like lay out a mine. And then --

SHORT: You mean two parties between --

SANCHEZ: Well, I guess you would say the United States and Israel.

SHORT: Yes.

SANCHEZ: -- and Iran.

SHORT: Yes. SANCHEZ: Because from Iran's perspective they have the leverage. They rejected this ceasefire in part because all it takes is somebody on a mountain with, you know, a shoulder mounted weapon aiming at these tankers and they can freeze the world economy or make it hurt.

SHORT: Well I mean I would even say regarding United States and Israel, frankly, I don't think Israel has had a closer ally than President Trump to his credit. But I think Israel is more committed to regime change. I do think that Israel ever since October 7th, 2023, the world has changed for them because they know Iran was the one funding Hamas and Hezbollah.

And they've made it clear that they're going to change the map. And so for them there is a commitment to regime change. And I'm not sure that's exactly where our goals align.

SANCHEZ: Do you think that potentially this is a political weakness for the president for Republicans because they've been criticized repeatedly based on statements that now Secretary of State Rubio made when he was briefing lawmakers on Capitol Hill that the U.S. effectively was trying to respond to the potential of Iran attacking Israel. It made it seem as though Israel was leading the way into this.

SHORT: Look I think there's some who are social media influencers that have made that claim. I think the reality is for most Republicans they understand how cherished an ally Israel is and they support the president's efforts here. I think you've even seen those who self- identify as MAGA like 95 percent support the president's efforts.

So yes, I think that some of the social media influences have proven they don't have as much influence as they thought they did on this. And so, but I think that right now as far as Republicans on the Hill and Republicans in general I think support the president's efforts here because they understand the threat that Iran has been for 47 years and want to encourage his efforts here.

SANCHEZ: Social media as we've seen many times not real life. What is real life is the potential for the U.S. to go after some of these critical infrastructure sites. He talked about bridges and power plants.

He was asked specifically about the potential for attacks on things like schools and he would not rule out potentially committing war crimes. He said the real war crime would be leaving Iran to have a nuclear weapon. I mean that's a pretty serious threat for the president of the United States to put out there not just isolated to this conflict but it's a message being sent throughout the world about what his White House what his leadership represents.

SHORT: Boris, he's not going to attack schools. But I think the president always has had it clear to say I'm not going to tell you what I'm not going to do. He feels like that is a strategic advantage.

America holds itself to a higher standard. But there's no doubt that again Iran has raped and murdered young women and children. And so, you know, they certainly hold themselves to a very different standard too.

Will the president take out power plants. I would imagine that he probably would.

SANCHEZ: Wow. Marc Short, we'll have to wait and see the deadline again, 8 p.m. tomorrow. We'll be watching closely. Thanks so much.

SHORT: Thanks, Boris.

SANCHEZ: Still to come. We will check back on that historic mission to the far side of the moon happening right now. Don't go anywhere. We'll be right back.

[15:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Right now the crew of Artemis II is bearing sole witness to the far side of the moon.

KEILAR: Officially traveling further into space than any human before them. And now they're getting a view that no one has ever had. Listen in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTINA KOCH, MISSION SPECIALIST, ARTEMIS II: And Houston another observation the whole moon. When you look at the moon something I've never seen in photographs before but is very apparent. All the really bright new craters some of them are super tiny.

Most of them are pretty small. There's a couple that really stand out obviously. And what it really looks like is like a lampshade with tiny pinprick holes and the light shining through.

They are so bright compared to the rest of the moon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Very neat. But there is some more breaking news. That's not so cool.

Don't use the toilet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So we just wanted to let you know that the toilet right now is no go for use as we stick with the predetermined limit for now. All crew members please use CCUs. Otherwise Orion --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Got to use those CCUs.

KEILAR: Toilet is a no go.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

KEILAR: What is that CCUs?

SANCHEZ: I wish I knew. I don't know that I want to describe it for a live audience right now, but I imagine it's like a --

KEILAR: Repeat Margaret? Collapsible urinal.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

KEILAR: Wow. That's not so great.

SANCHEZ: At least they don't have to hold it. KEILAR: Hey, at least the view is unbelievable.

SANCHEZ: Redundancy is --

KEILAR: Right.

SANCHEZ: -- part of the plan.

KEILAR: Amazing.

SANCHEZ: Yes, yes.

KEILAR: "THE ARENA" with Kasie Hunt starts now.

END