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First Lady on Capitol Hill to Promote Foster Youth Education; U.S. Military: Blockade Has Completely Halted Iran's Sea Trade; People Heard Meowing and Barking on Emergency Aviation Frequency; Baby Elephant Linh Mai to Make Debut at National Zoo. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired April 15, 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]

KATHERINE SCHWEIT, FORMER FBI SPECIAL AGENT: In the school that might be having nefarious intent.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Yes, however, he realized that that principal is a hero, and we hope that he has a speedy recovery. Katherine Schweit, thank you so much for joining us.

SCHWEIT: Thank you so much.

SANCHEZ: Of course -- Jessica.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: First Lady Melania Trump is on Capitol Hill this afternoon pushing her Fostering the Future initiative. She took part in a round table before the House Ways and Means Committee discussing the need for reforms to help young people in foster care earn higher degrees. First lady explaining why foster youth have special challenges when it comes to education.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MELANIA TRUMP, FIRST LADY: These issues include housing instability, educational advocacy, financial barriers, transportation, continuity, access to technology, and other related issues. New legislation for the foster care community is a moral imperative.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Mrs. Trump said some 20 universities are now educating students who are part of Fostering the Future.

Still ahead here, Iran's military threatening to shut down a second waterway if the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports continues. More on that next.

[15:35:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DEAN: The U.S. military says its blockade of Iranian ports has now been, quote, fully implemented. U.S. Central Command saying it's completely halted all economic trade going into and out of Iran by sea. A short time ago, they posted this warning sent to ships on the Strait of Hormuz.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do not attempt to breach the blockade. Vessels will be boarded for interdiction and seizure of transiting to or from an Iranian port. Turn around and prepare to be boarded.

If you do not comply with this blockade, we will use force. The whole of the United States Navy is ready to force compliance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Here with us now is Kenneth Braithwaite. He's the former Navy secretary under President Trump. Thank you so much for being here with us.

It's good to have your expertise, especially on a day like this. I first just want to ask you, how do you think this is going?

KENNETH BRAITHWAITE, FORMER NAVY SECRETARY UNDER TRUMP: Well, I think it's going as well as can be expected. The U.S. Navy is the greatest Navy in the world and that blockade is fully implemented, and we decide who goes through those straits. It's as simple as that, Jessica.

DEAN: And do you think this will be effective in achieving its goals?

BRAITHWAITE: You know, that's a great question and it's debatable. Blockades take a long time. History has shown that, whether it's blockades of the Confederate ports during our early war or the blockade of German ports during World War II, blockades have economic impact, yes, but they take a long time to see that come to fruition.

So, and of course, the president doesn't really have that much time, right?

DEAN: Right, right. So that's kind of the wrinkle in all of this.

BRAITHWAITE: Right.

DEAN: We've heard from CENTCOM there.

BRAITHWAITE: Which by the way, is led by an admiral, Admiral Brad Cooper, who's phenomenal, by the way.

DEAN: Navy guy, yes.

BRAITHWAITE: That's correct.

DEAN: What exactly are those 10,000 U.S. forces doing to enforce that blockade? Take people inside what this is like.

BRAITHWAITE: Sure, well, just like you put up, I mean, there's warning, there's radio, there's other message trafficking. I mean, at this point, I think the whole world knows that that's not a space that you should be entering into. Now, some countries may decide to challenge, but they've already turned away most ships.

I mean, there's a few that have been let through. But again, the Navy controls that space. We have two carrier strike groups in the region.

We have another one on the way. We have over, you know, there's five DDGs there now, guided missile destroyers. So we have quite a presence there.

DEAN: Yes, and so how much do -- you mentioned Brad Cooper, the commander.

BRAITHWAITE: Admiral Cooper.

DEAN: Yes, how much do military leaders think about policy goals and pressure points? How much does that factor into what they're doing? Or are they solely focused on what is the military piece of all of this?

BRAITHWAITE: Well, they provide different courses of action to the command authority, to the President of the United States. And then the President of the United States decides which course of action that he wants to pursue. And then the military commander, like Admiral Cooper, carries that out.

And so that's what he's doing. So when the President decided that he wanted to establish a blockade, the CENTCOM commander came back and then gave him those options. And so it was implemented.

DEAN: And that's that.

BRAITHWAITE: And that's that.

DEAN: And how long can, is the U.S. military equipped to do something like this?

BRAITHWAITE: As long as we need to.

DEAN: As long as we want, essentially.

BRAITHWAITE: That's absolutely right. We literally command those seas.

DEAN: Wow. And so how might this, in your assessment, with all of your experience, how might this affect the balance of power, the negotiations, everything that's going on right now? What kind of ripple effects do you think it could have?

BRAITHWAITE: Well, put yourself in the shoes of the theocrats in Tehran and ask yourself, you know, this formidable military force that's being built up on your doorstep. I mean, it's got to make you think twice. Now we have three carrier strike groups, and we will soon, right?

We have another amphibious readiness group. The USS Boxer is on the way there. I mean, this is a formidable force that the president is directing towards this region. So that's going to put a lot of pressure on Tehran.

And I think Nic Robertson really summed it up, because at the end of the day, this is about one thing. And that's what the message should be from the White House is, it's about that enriched uranium. We need to make sure this does not work for us.

Strategically, we lose if we don't secure that enriched uranium.

DEAN: Right, and that is complicated, getting that.

BRAITHWAITE: Unbelievably so, because unless the Iranians want to give it up, which is what the hope is here, the only other way to get it is to put boots on the ground and to go in. And that's, I think, the last option that the president or anybody would want to select.

DEAN: In the meantime, Iran's military has threatened to shut down shipping operations in the Red Sea over this blockade that's now in effect.

BRAITHWAITE: Yes, they don't control that, so.

DEAN: Right, so that doesn't seem like you really --

BRAITHWAITE: Well, they do have anti-ship missiles. So, I mean, and some of them are long range, some are up to 1,000 kilometers. So yes, arguably, perhaps they could, you know, try one of those, but probably not going to go well for them.

[15:40:00]

DEAN: And what about the -- how do the Houthis figure into that?

BRAITHWAITE: The same way they figured into this last year in the Red Sea, not very much.

DEAN: Yes, that's your assessment. OK.

BRAITHWAITE: Yes, that's my assessment.

DEAN: All right, Kenneth Braithwaite, great to see you.

BRAITHWAITE: Great to see you, thank you for having me.

DEAN: Thank you so much, we appreciate your time.

Still ahead here, the strange noises captured on an emergency radio frequency. Mysterious stuff, we'll be right back.

[15:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DEAN: Audio from an emergency aviation frequency is raising some eyebrows. After strange animal noises, specifically someone meowing, were captured near Washington's Reagan National Airport.

[15:45:00]

SANCHEZ: CNN aviation correspondent Pete Muntean is here. Pete, I think we're all for a little bit of fun and even foolishness sometimes in the workplace, but this is actually pretty serious.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: You know, as a passenger, you'd probably never think that your pilots have to deal with people being irritating on the radio.

DEAN: I would hope not.

MUNTEAN: But the reality is this is not new, and when I fly, I hear this all the time. This recording, captured by ATC.com from over the weekend, is from the emergency radio frequency, 121.5 common land frequency, commonly known as GARD. Pilots are supposed to have it on in the background all the time.

It's meant to be silent unless a real emergency is taking place. So the fear here is that someone could get annoyed, turn down the radio, and then miss a real emergency taking place. I want you to listen now to this recording and judge for yourself whether or not you think this is irritating, as so many commercial pilots tell me it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED: Meow.

UNIDENTIFIED: Meow.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You guys got to, you need to be professional pilots.

UNIDENTIFIED: Meow, meow, meow.

UNIDENTIFIED: Woof, woof, woof.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is why you are still flying RJ.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MUNTEAN: That's the diss, why you're still flying a regional jet, not at the mainline carriers. This recording captured near Reagan National Airport. 67 people killed near there at a midair collision last year.

And then TSB investigators cited communication problems there, although the GARD frequency was not being used. It's not clear in that recording who is doing the scolding, who's doing the meowing. But the genesis of this is said to go back about 25 years to a bit from the movie Super Troopers released in 2002.

Seems harmless, but commercial pilots underscore to me this is just downright unprofessional, especially in a time when radio communication between pilots and between air traffic control is under the microscope. The Federal Aviation Administration and the Federal Communications Commission prohibit what's called superfluous chatter on aviation radios, and fines can range up to $19,000 or more. But I've been flying my entire life. I've never heard of the

government fining anybody for this, likely because it's really hard to actually find who's doing these annoying sounds. In fact, when I was a kid, I heard somebody play like a Beavis and Butthead recording over the radio, and I was like eight years old. I thought it was funny at the time.

But really like this happens so often nationwide, like multiple times an hour everywhere in the United States. And when pilots are doing this at high altitudes, the spread of their radio broadcasts can go really, really far. So likely dozens, if not hundreds of pilots are hearing these broadcasts at any one given time.

It's pretty annoying.

DEAN: Like, are you guys OK out there? Obviously not. Can anyone listen to this radio frequency?

MUNTEAN: You know, if you had a portable aviation radio, you can listen to it. If someone on the ground was broadcasting this, it's probably not going to go very far. This is kind of 1930s technology, line of sight.

So if you're on the ground broadcasting out, it's only going to go maybe to your neighbors. If you're in the air broadcasting out, it's going to go really far.

SANCHEZ: Pete, be honest. Are you hearing it all the time because you're out there barking and meowing?

MUNTEAN: You know, here in the D.C. area, we have to listen to this frequency because if you wander and stray into D.C. area airspace, they give you a nice fair warning even from the Air Force saying, hey, you're flying into restricted airspace. You may want to turn around.

And so it's good insurance here, at least for us little airplane pilots, to listen to it all the time. But I have to admit, I've never meowed. I don't plan to, although for a while, there was a let's go Brandon thing.

SANCHEZ: Notice he didn't say that he doesn't bark. You know he's got that dog in him. Pete Muntean, thanks so much, man.

So still ahead, we get up close and personal with Linh Mai, the Smithsonian National Zoo's newest addition.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBBIE CLARK, ELEPHANT MANAGER, NATIONAL ZOO: Want to see something cute? Here it comes. 430 pounds of joy. Linh Mai.

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: There she is.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good girl.

BASH: Hi Linh Mai. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good girl.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[15:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DEAN: It is almost debut day for the newest addition to the Smithsonian's National Zoo here in Washington. Baby Asian elephant, Linh Mai, is the first calf to join the National Zoo in nearly 25 years, and she's currently bonding with her herd and preparing for her public debut. That's happening April 22nd, a week from today.

SANCHEZ: Now, don't worry if you're not in the district for that. Fans of Linh Mai will also be able to watch her from the zoo's elephant cam on the Smithsonian website. You can also watch CNN's Dana Bash spend the day with Linh Mai right now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Ahh.

ROBBIE CLARK, ELEPHANT MANAGER, NATIONAL ZOO: Linh Mai.

BASH: There she is.

CLARK: Good girl.

BASH: Hi Linh Mai.

CLARK: Good girl. Hi.

BASH: You're so cute.

BASH (voice-over): Meet two-month-old Linh Mai, the first Asian elephant born at the Smithsonian National Zoo in nearly 25 years.

CLARK: Come on, Linh Mai, let's go. She's motivated about her. Good girl, come on.

You're going to come through the pool? You are. Come to us. Let's go.

BASH (voice-over): That's the sound of a very excited baby elephant who knows she's about to be fed. And on this special occasion, I got to prepare her bottle.

CLARK: So this is our bottle feeding station right here.

BASH (voice-over): Robbie Clark is in charge of the elephants at the zoo.

[15:55:00]

He leads the team caring for baby Linh Mai. CLARK: So the first thing we're going to do is weigh out the water. You're going to pour in approximately 275 grams of the powder. So if you could do a really good whisk of that.

BASH: OK. Just a regular day making baby elephant formula. No big deal. How many times a day does she get this?

CLARK: Every two hours.

BASH: Every two hours?

CLARK: Every two hours.

BASH: Even through the night?

CLARK: Even through the night. So our team is here 24 seven.

BASH: It's truly having a newborn.

CLARK: It is. Let's do it. Sure, she's hungry.

You're just going to place that bottle up over this so she can drink it.

BASH: Here you go, sweetie. Here you go.

CLARK: And lift the end of the bottle up. Fantastic. You can see how fast she consumes it.

BASH: Yes, it's really fast.

CLARK: You're her best friend in the whole world right now.

BASH: I've never had a friend like you.

CLARK: There we go.

BASH: There we go.

CLARK: It's like you've done this before.

BASH: I don't have to burp her, do I?

CLARK: No, luckily you don't have to.

BASH: This is one of the coolest things I've ever done. Hello. This means that she's saying hi.

CLARK: Yes.

BASH: With her trunk.

CLARK: So the trunk is her nose and her upper lip. It's the most important thing in an elephant's life. They use it to eat, drink, breathe, bathe, and communicate.

And obviously she uses it to pick things up.

BASH: Hi, are you playing with me? This is the cutest thing I've ever seen.

CLARK: There's more muscles and tendons in her nose than our entire body.

BASH: Really?

CLARK: And when she's an adult, she'll be able to pick up 2,000 pounds with that nose.

BASH: 2,000 pounds? She weighs like 400 pounds right now.

CLARK: 440.

BASH: And she's going to get to be?

CLARK: As an adult, she'll be close to 8,000 pounds.

BASH: I have to ask you about what happened with her mom. And try to do it without crying.

CLARK: So her mother, Nhi Linh, is a first-time mom. And where she came from, she did not have the opportunity, really, to grow up with other young elephants. We kind of had the contingency that there might be a chance that she wouldn't be interested in being a mom.

BASH: Her mom rejected her.

CLARK: She did. And that's not common among elephants, but it's not unheard of.

And in fact, Nhi Linh's mom rejected her at first. Over the last couple months, we've been doing our best to do what we call howdy by giving them access to each other through a fence and hoping that over time, that relationship continues to build. We haven't actually seen the spark just yet.

BASH: The whole world fell in love with Punch the Monkey.

CLARK: Yep.

BASH: After Punch the Monkey's mom rejected her.

CLARK: I hope that the world falls in love with her too, understanding her story, not necessarily feeling bad for her, but recognizing that nature does have consequences to it. And one of the benefits of her being here at the National Zoo is that we have the resources and staff expertise to help her thrive.

BASH: She has a mother figure, an older member of the herd.

CLARK: Kind of like an adoptive mother.

BASH: Yes. CLARK: Yes.

BASH: That takes care of her.

CLARK: She is typically with her aunt, Swarna. They're not related, but Swarna was an elephant in our herd that has experience raising elephants from a young age. She has delighted us by stepping up to the plate and taking on a parenting role.

BASH: She couldn't have babies.

CLARK: Correct. She's never been able to cycle.

BASH: And yet she has that maternal instinct --

CLARK: Yes.

BASH: -- with Linh Mai. That's amazing.

CLARK: It is amazing. And that's just the testament of how socially and biologically complex elephants are. It's important because they are an endangered species.

If we're not careful, they could be extinct within our lifetime.

BASH (voice-over): There are only an estimated 30 to 50,000 Asian elephants left.

CLARK: Being at the National Zoo, Linh Mai and the herd of elephants are ambassadors for their wild counterparts. The connection that people get to make when they see her, hopefully sparks the interest in elephants, the passion to protect them.

BASH (voice-over): Linh Mai will steal your hearts. She stole mine.

BASH: Yes, I know. I'm in love. What can I say?

CLARK: We are too.

BASH: Oh my God.

CLARK: We hope the rest of the world falls in love as well.

BASH: I mean, how could they not?

BASH (voice-over): Dana Bash, CNN at the National Zoo in Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: Aw, look at her go.

DEAN: So cute.

SANCHEZ: Our thanks to Dana Bash for that.

That's not her step-mom. That's the mom that stepped up. We'd love to see that.

DEAN: Wow, Boris, yes, that's right. What was Aunt Mai, Aunt Mai?

SANCHEZ: I forgot the name, but it's adorable.

DEAN: Good, good lady elephant there, yes. Wait, the fun fact that baby elephants are like human babies. They can be clumsy while running around and they can trip on things and they suck on their trunks like pacifiers for comfort.

SANCHEZ: Aw, that's so sweet.

DEAN: That's sweet.

SANCHEZ: Every two hours.

DEAN: I know, that's like having a real newborn as I'm preparing for this.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

DEAN: Yes.

SANCHEZ: You can have one of those big protein shakes ready every two hours.

[16:00:00]

DEAN: To measure it up, I'm going to call Dana and see if she can help me whisk it. Yes.

SANCHEZ: Yes, she did a great job there. Thanks again to Dana Bash. Thank you so much for joining us this afternoon. Jessica always great to be with you.

DEAN: Good to see you, I'll be back tomorrow.

SANCHEZ: Yes, we're excited for that. "THE ARENA" with Kasie Hunt starts right now.

END