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Sources: Search And Rescue Operations Underway For Two Pilots After U.S. Fighter Jet Shot Down Over Iran; Sources: One Rescued, One Still Missing From Downed U.S. Jet; Sources: Justice Alito Was Taken To Hospital Last Month After Becoming Ill At A Federalist Society Dinner In Philadelphia. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired April 03, 2026 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR, INSIDE POLITICS: Welcome to Inside Politics. I'm Manu Raju in for Dana Bash. We begin with major breaking news on the war in Iran. Three sources tell CNN, a U.S. fighter jet has been shot down over Iran, and a search and rescue mission is underway for two pilots. This video, video verified by CNN, appears to show planes conducting that search and rescue operation in Iran.

It's the first time since the war began, just over a month ago, that a U.S. aircraft has been downed by enemy fire. We're also getting in this new image published by Iranian state media, it appears to show a damage ejection seat that is consistent with the US F-15 fighter jet, according to a CNN analysis.

We're covering this story from all angles. CNN senior White House correspondent, Kristen Holmes at the White House. But I want to start first with CNN's chief national security analyst Jim Sciutto in Tel Aviv. So, Jim, first, what do we know about the downed jet and the rescue effort that is now under way?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well Manu, we're arguably in what is one of the most serious circumstances in wartime, which is U.S. forces down on hostile territory. As you mentioned, the latest reporting is that a U.S. fighter jet, an F-15E shot down over Iranian territory, southwestern part of the country, on the Persian Gulf. And that a search and rescue operation is still underway for two downed pilots who it's believed were able to eject you.

Showed that image earlier of an ejector seat, which you -- which weapons experts, aircraft experts have looked at and says it's an ejection seat consistent with the F-15 in the U.S -- in U.S. forces that search and rescue mission still under way. Previously, Iranian state TV, in addition to reporting that the jet had been shot down, was encouraging residents in the area to report back if they were to find the pilots, even offering a reward for them turning the pilots in.

You might call what's underway now a race between those U.S. search and rescue teams and Iranian authorities forces who want to capture it seems the pilot, or pilots themselves as well. It does show one additional danger, and that is despite the fact that U.S. officials right up to, including the defense secretary have claimed that the skies over Iran are effectively owned by the U.S.

We now know that those U.S. aircraft still face danger seeing one of those jets shot down. Granted, this has not happened often. This is the first time during this war. If you look back to previous wars, the Gulf War, for instance, many more U.S. jets were shot down, but this is a flight crew put in danger, their jet down, having to eject, and now that search and rescue operation still under way.

The other point I would make, Manu, is that this is consistent with our reporting last night, which is that Iran maintains a significant missile capability despite nearly a year of war, our reporting indicating that they maintain some 50 percent of their mobile launchers, 50 percent of their one-way attack drones. And the danger that this U.S. aircraft faced is consistent with Iran still, despite all that damage, all those many thousands of targets hit, maintain serious and dangerous capabilities.

RAJU: And Kristen, we've learned President Trump has been briefed on the down jet. Is the White House saying anything else right now, and can we expect to hear from the president anytime soon?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Look, we can always expect to hear from the president. But I am told right now they are intentionally not saying anything, that they are streamlining all communications through U.S. Central Command and through the Pentagon. They want to make sure everyone is on the same exact page. They don't want their messaging to be convoluted in any way when it comes to this and the sensitivities around this.

And as Jim noted, this is coming at a time where President Trump has repeatedly said that the war has been essentially won by the U.S. They have said that they have destroyed most of the air forces in Iran. I want to read you a direct quote. I was looking at earlier. It says, we literally have planes flying over Tehran and other parts of their country, and they can't do anything about it. That was President Trump telling that to reporters in the Oval Office.

So, that has been the drum that they are beating. But obviously, now we are in an entirely different situation here, which is why you're seeing the White House again, essentially scrambling, trying to get the messaging out there. And I will note Vice President J.D. Vance just arrived at the White House, who just walked into the building. So clearly, again, all hands on deck situation here.

RAJU: All right, Kristen Holmes at the White House, and Jim Sciutto from Tel Aviv, thank you so much. I'm here at the table with CNN national security correspondent Natasha Bertrand and retired Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton, a CNN military analyst. Good to see you both.

So, Colonel Leighton, first to you, obviously, this is hugely significant, very concerning indeed. But can you put this in perspective for our viewers, especially at this juncture of the war where Trump has been saying continuously, it's almost over. We're two to three weeks away. This suggests this could be a much longer effort. And what does it mean overall for the scope of this war?

[12:05:00]

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yeah, Manu. There are several factors here. One of the key things is the enemy always gets a vote, as we say, right? It's kind of a trite phrase, but what it really boils down to is the fact that the Iranians maintain a certain capability to shoot down our aircraft. The F-15 is not a stealth aircraft, but it is a highly capable aircraft and does have the ability to suppress enemy fire and to prevent these kinds of things from happening in most cases.

But every now and then, something can go wrong, and they may not see a particular missile that is directed at them, or it may be something that they just can't evade for whatever reason, and that's something that an investigation would actually -- finally, you know, get to the bottom of, potentially. But what it shows for in terms of the war fighting effort is that this is -- we're basically in the middle stage of one of these things.

Now, we have to keep it in mind that this is one aircraft. It's not a whole bunch of aircraft that have been down here. However, the U.S. has prided itself on maintaining air superiority. Some people have talked about air supremacy over Iran. But even with air superiority, these kinds of events can still happen. You know, in comparison, the Iranian Air Force has been decimated as the Iranian navy.

However, the Iranians have other capabilities, and the fact that they have those capabilities and they're willing to use them, indicates to me that this is something that is still going to continue. They are going to continue the conflict, even if we want to end it. So, this is where we're getting into that, that area and --

RAJU: In two-to-three-week timeframe may not be realistic.

LEIGHTON: It's not realistic and it's something that we always have to keep in mind. You know, when we set timelines, the enemy really has the time. We might have the watch, but they have the time.

RAJU: Yeah.

LEIGHTON: And that's going to be a real problem, because we have to realize that the time is a factor on their side. It's their territory, and that's going to be a much more difficult thing to do, especially if we're just doing an air campaign.

RAJU: And listen to what Trump, you mentioned how Trump has talked about the impact that the U.S. military campaign has had on the Iranian navy, the military and the like. Just listen to his messaging.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Their navy is gone. Their air force is gone. Their missiles are just about used up or beaten.

(END VIDEO CLIP) RAJU: Now, Natasha, your reporting with Jim Sciutto and Haley Britzky said that roughly half of Iran's missile launchers are still intact, and thousands of one way attack drones remain in Iran's arsenal. According to recent U.S. intelligence assessments, according to sources that you guys spoke with, so clearly what we saw here is consistent with that.

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. And this is the problem with this administration, repeatedly overstating and boasting about the kind of military supremacy that they have over the Iranians. I mean, we saw it last year, of course, when they said that they completely decimated Iran's nuclear facilities. Now it turns out that Iran has been trying to rebuild their nuclear facilities, and the U.S. has a problem with well, how are we going to get the enriched uranium that they still have.

And now we're seeing it, of course, with from day one of this conflict, essentially, maybe a couple days in, they were saying we have achieved significant air superiority. President Trump saying just the other day that they're essentially totally uncontested over Iranian skies. That is also not true. We saw just last month, another U.S. fighter jet was actually hit by Iranian missiles, and it did not get down. It did not crash. It was able to land safely.

But this is the second time at least that a fighter jet has been hit over Iranian skies. And this time, of course, the consequences were much more devastating. But the bottom line here is that we're told that U.S. intelligence assessments just in the last few days have said that despite the last five plus weeks of war, relentless U.S. military strikes, targeting over 12,000 targets inside Iran. The Iranians are still capable of a significant, you know, use of their missiles, their missile launchers, their drone capabilities.

Saying that the Iranian navy has been completely decimated, also ignores the fact that the IRGC Navy still has thousands of boats that they are able to use to hold the Strait of Hormuz at risk. Missiles are still flying over the Strait of Hormuz. So, this is the problem with the rhetoric that's coming out versus the reality.

RAJU: Yeah. It gets more complicated than the rhetoric. No question about it. And Colonel, given your experience, can you explain how this kind of search and rescue operation for these two pilots? What is happening? How does that take place? What is transpired, particularly if we're talking about over Iranian soil?

LEIGHTON: Yeah. Iranian soil, Iranian territory, hostile territory, you know, in terms of the rescue mission. So, what we're looking at here is an operation. The video that we played earlier showed the aircraft helicopters being refueled by AC-130. That C-130 is, is basically their flying gas tank. And what its gas station. And basically, what it does is, it allows the Pave Hawk helicopters, which are used by Air Force Special Operations units to go in and mount the search and rescue missions.

[12:10:00] So, those helicopters are going to then go and look for the downed air crew members. They will have beacons on them, the equivalent of beacons that allows for there to be communication between the rescue forces as well as the individual pilot and the other air crew members, the weapon systems officer.

And those two individuals may be in totally separate locations, although they're in the same aircraft, once you eject from an aircraft like that, you end up going in totally different places. Potentially prevailing winds can have an impact. You know, other factors can have an impact --

RAJU: And the Iranians are looking --

LEIGHTON: And the Iranians are looking for them. They have a reward that's out for them. That's very typical for an adversary to actually have a reward out for pilots and air crew members like this. Those are prizes, as far as they're concerned. So, they're basically racing against the hawk to, you know, to find these people on the U.S. side.

RAJU: I'm going to jump in because we actually have some breaking news out of the White House. Kristen Holmes about the status of one of the pilots. Kristen, what can you tell us?

HOLMES: Hey, Manu. Yeah, we are learning that there has been an update to the search and rescue. Right now, we are told that one of the crew members has been rescued, is in U.S. custody and getting medical attention. This comes from three sources who are familiar with the matter. We don't know the state of this person. We don't know how injured or hurt that they were, but we do know that they have been rescued and are currently in U.S. custody and getting medical treatment.

RAJU: All right. Kristen Holmes from the White House, and with that latest update, I'll bring it back here in the room. What's your reaction to that?

LEIGHTON: That's fantastic news. It's brilliant, because what it shows is, and let's hope it also will apply to the other air crew member. So, we're not sure if that's actually the pilot who was rescued or the weapon systems officer, but regardless, this is -- this is a major development. And it shows really the capability that has been honed over the years by the search and rescue community.

The air force members and other members that of the different services that are trained to be search and rescue combat, search and rescue professionals are highly, highly skilled. And when you think about them being able to go into hostile territory and extract somebody and bring them back alive, that is a significant development because we lost so many people.

You know, this grew out of the Vietnam War. We lost so many people in Vietnam to hostile fire, and we've improved steadily over the years on these capabilities and now this shows that we can do these kinds of missions even in denied territory. BERTRAND: Yeah. Look, the search obviously, ongoing for the second crew member, the weapon system officer. This is going to be really tough because as Cedric said, you know, it is possible that they ejected in completely different locations. It is possible that that individual was seriously injured upon ejection, because that is very, very rough for the body, for any pilot or weapon system sponsor to eject. So that's going to be the question, was he injured upon landing? Or, you know, is the search just more difficult because he is in a different location, that's harder yet too.

RAJU: Yeah. A lot of breaking news, good breaking news. Now, just moments ago, this one U.S., one of the people in that air -- down aircraft, American was -- is now in U.S. custody. The big question is, what about the second person in that crew? We will see what the news is.

Mayor, the (inaudible) will check back in with our sources as well. And coming up for us more on the breaking news. We'll look at the stakes for President Trump, who has been saying all week that the Iranian military is already defeated.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RAJU: More now on our breaking news. Moments ago, our Kristen Holmes reported that one crew member has been found after a U.S. fighter jet was shot down over Iran. Two Sources tell CNN that pilot is alive in U.S. custody and receiving medical care. Search and rescue efforts are still under way for a second crew member.

It's important to remember that during President Trump's primetime national address on Wednesday, trying to sell his Iran strategy to a skeptical American public. He not only listed the ways he said Iran's war effort had been degraded. He called them beaten as well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Tonight, Iran's navy is gone. Their air force is in ruins. Their leaders, most of them terrorist regime they led, are now dead. Their command and control of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is being decimated as we speak. We've beaten and completely decimated Iran. They are decimated both militarily and economically and every other way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: I have an excellent group of reporters at the table with me, including Jasmine Wright, who covers the White House for NOTUS. The president has a penchant, shall we say of, to put it, mildly exaggerating from time to time. But now, this is life and death. This is the war. This is military. Is the president completely overstating the case about how bad it is for Iran right now?

JASMINE WRIGHT, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, NOTUS: Well, I think that these things happen all the time --

RAJU: What are your sources telling you?

[12:20:00]

WRIGHT: Hopefully, you know, they'll find the second service member. But when I talk to folks after the president's primetime speech on Wednesday, they told me, and these are people who are allied with the president. They didn't say he did a good job. They didn't say that they had a clear understanding. They said the most important part of his speech is that he didn't say boots on the ground. He didn't mention Kharg Island. He didn't mention -- yes, he mentioned an escalation when it came to air strikes, but he didn't mention crossing a red line in which a lot of people have for him.

And so, there is concern that perhaps the president wasn't explicitly told how bad some of this could be. There is a concern that the U.S. could stay in Iran for longer than that six-week threshold that the president told from folks I've talked to outside and perhaps inside the administration, but fundamentally, they say that this feels as though it is contained for now, but let's see how that, of course, evolves.

RAJU: And we're seeing how much this the American public is skeptical, downright opposed to this war. And if we see more instances like this, I can only imagine how public opinion will be shaped afterwards. This is what brook thinks currently stand, according to our new CNN poll that came out just a couple days ago. How Trump is handling situation in Iran. Approved just 33 percent, approve is there, 67 percent disapprove.

And then, as Jasmine mentioned, the possibility of sending U.S. ground troops into Iran. If this leads to that, we don't know if it will lead to that, just 11 percent favor that. That is a staggering and it's pretty clear where the American public stands on this.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF & POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, certainly nobody wants to see ground troops. You don't get to 68 percent unless you're getting that across all parties that Republican --

RAJU: Yeah, it's just to add to that. To your point, Republicans, to look at 23 percent, just 23 percent of Republicans favor sending in U.S. ground troops.

CHALIAN: So obviously, ground troops will cross a sort of political line for Trump that will be very difficult for him to come back from. But you know, the war can be unpopular. The country can, as our poll shows, cannot have a clear path. Do not believe that President Trump has a clear path on how to get out of this. And yet, there can still be a lot of military success at damaging Iran's capabilities.

Now, our reporting here CNN obviously shows, that doesn't mean damaging it 100 percent, they're obvious --

RAJU: Even though he's suggesting that. CHALIAN: But clearly, that's not the case. Look at today's events. I mean, it is not the case, nor is it the case in any war that I can think of where 100 percent completely annihilating any possible threat or capability from the enemy, that's not reality. And we're seeing that play out today, that that's not reality that doesn't diminish in any way. The unbelievable military success that Trump and Hegseth like to tout and rightfully so. It just doesn't simplify, though, the complicated nature that the U.S. is not the only one with a vote here on how this plays out.

RAJU: Yeah. And look, why not -- I mean, Trump is Trump. We know how he talks, but why not do what sort of what David is suggesting here, give a more nuanced picture to the American public about how complicated this is. Yes, the American military operation so far has been successful in this way, in this way, in this way, but we have enormous challenges on X, on Y and Z. And there are lots of challenges ahead, level with the American public and tell American voters what to expect. Why can't he do that?

JOHN BRESNAHAN, CO-FOUNDER, PUNCHBOWL NEWS: I mean, (inaudible) Trump is Trump. He's not a nuanced guy.

(CROSSTALK)

RAJU: You know, so many Americans oppose it, probably because a lot of people just don't believe what he's saying perhaps.

BRESNAHAN: No, they're wildly skeptical to say the least. And I go back to David's point. There can be enormous military successes and still an incident like this. There have been thousands of sorties by American and Israeli pilots. We only are aware of this one terrible incident, and hopefully the other pilots recovered.

But that doesn't mean that there is not an overwhelming military victory. And even if there's an overwhelming military victory, you know, the war could still be unpopular. The United States won all the battles in Vietnam and lost the war. I mean, you know, so this is -- this is a very, very difficult situation. He went into this without building up public support. It's not going to build up during the war is happening. It's not -- not this -- they don't see it that.

Plus, the Pentagon is not really turning over a lot of information. Everything they show is this -- within this, this pure effort they had mounted of, you know, unbelievable successes and things blowing up. That's not, you know, you're not going to all start and start talking about, you know, nuance, and you know, how difficult, how complex a situation is in the middle of that. This is not the administration to do that. It's not the president. It's not the secretary of defense to do that. It's just not the way these people operate.

RAJU: You know, especially when people are getting hit with high gas prices, things are going up. Then there's questions about the Strait of Hormuz, now Trump is messaging that, the messaging keeps changing. It's a very confusing picture to the American public, which is probably is reflected in those very bad poll numbers for the president on the war. [12:25:00]

All right, up next. We have breaking news again. This time about Justice Samuel Alito, is a CNN exclusive.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RAJU: We have more breaking news on a very busy day in Washington. It's about the health of 76-year-old Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito. It's a CNN exclusive from CNN's Joan Biskupic. So, Joan, what are you learning?

JOAN BISKUPIC, CNN CHIEF SUPREME COURT ANALYST: Sure, good to see you, Manu. Yes, about two weeks ago, Sam Alito was at a Federalist Society dinner in Philadelphia when he became ill and was taken to the hospital. There his condition was evaluated and doctors administered fluids for dehydration. And then eventually he was released and able to go back to his home in Virginia.