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U.S. Blockades Iranian Ports To Cut Off Oil Exports; Oil Surges Back Above $100 A Barrel After Peace Talks Fail; Trump: "I Don't Want A Pope Who Criticizes" The U.S. President; Pope Leo: "I Have No Fear Of The Trump Administration"; Swalwell Scandal Could Trigger Series Of House Expulsion Votes. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired April 13, 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]

DANA BASH, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: From bargaining to blockade when diplomacy fails. President Trump tries to cut Iran off from the world.

I'm Dana Bash. Let's go behind the headlines at Inside Politics.

The U.S. military blockade on all Iranian ports and coastal areas is now in effect. President Trump announced the move over the weekend, after 21 hours of peace talks in Pakistan ended without a deal. Now, President Trump has a new warning to any Iranian boat that tries to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. He wrote this morning on social media. Quote, if any of these ships come anywhere close to our blockade, they will be immediately eliminated using the same system of kill that we used against the drug dealers on boats at sea. It's quick and brutal.

The idea is to put more financial pressure on the regime by blocking Iran from selling its oil. At least publicly, Iranian leaders are shrugging it off. The speaker of Iran's parliament, who helped lead their negotiations over the weekend, had a message for Americans. Quote, enjoy the current pump figures. With the so-called blockade. Soon you'll be nostalgic for $4 to $5 gas.

I'm joined here by a terrific group of reporters on this Monday. Kristen Holmes, you cover the White House for us. What are you hearing behind the scenes on the strategy of this blockade and beyond the blockade?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, when it comes to the blockade, and we're looking at a dwindling set of options here. The administration really wanted these talks to work out. They really want an off ramp here. They don't want to be contending with -- it's not just the administration. It's also Republicans as a whole. Higher gas prices going into the mid-terms.

This is seen as one of the last few attempts that the United States has in terms of options to try and punish the Iranians. And it's still not clear who is actually going to suffer more here, the United States or the Iranian. And we believe the United States will suffer. And we heard President Trump just over the weekend, being interviewed about gas prices, saying essentially that perhaps the prices would stay the same or even go up before those mid-term elections. They are already incredibly high, and that was really the only thing Republicans had to point to when it came to the mid-terms in terms of inflation and pricing.

BASH: Yeah. Go ahead.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: We've watched a lot of different kinds of asymmetric warfare during this, but this is yet another one. Dictatorships can probably absorb more economic and political pain than democracies, right? I mean, the Iranian political system is not going to be as responsive to citizens feeling squeezed by the fact that this is likely just to, you know, kind of constrain their economy compared to the price that not only Americans are literally going to be playing at the pump, but that Trump and his party could pay.

So, this is a real -- I mean, this is certainly going to impose costs on Iran, but at a high cost here. And the question is, which side can outlast the other in the cost? And as I say, dictatorships are somewhat more inelastic, shall we say, than democracies in responding to public discontent.

BASH: Yeah. I mean, we've seen that over the past six plus weeks. The president's announcement about this blockade came like 30 seconds before our Sunday show State of the Union started yesterday morning. Mark Warner, who is the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, was our guest. Here's what he said about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARK WARNER (D-VA): This has been absolutely one of the reasons why, for 47 years, no American president took this action because the Iranian regime is bad, but we know they were going to take those, close the Strait and go after the Gulf allies. But I don't understand how blockading the Strait is going to somehow push the Iranians into opening it. I don't get the connection there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEIGH ANN CALDWELL, CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, PUCK: Yeah. He's not the only one. Why do (Ph) aren't getting the connection here? I mean, maybe they're -- the president has the plan. We do know that that he likes to take extreme actions to hopefully rebuff what could happen or make the Iranians back down. But I will say that on Capitol Hill, when I'm talking to Republicans, the strategy seems to be, among everyone I talk to, almost is they are literally hoping and praying that it just ends soon, and that the president, the U.S. gets past this.

[12:05:00]

There is a lot of complaints on the Hill that they're not getting enough information. There was a briefing that was requested for this week to brief on the ceasefire, that doesn't look like it's happening just yet. And so, while the Hill seems to be left out of these -- are left out of these conversations. Republicans have really just thrown their hands up and said, look at the beginning we trusted this president.

We think he knows what he's doing when it comes to foreign policy, even though it is unconventional. But as time wears on, we're past the six-week mark, when he said it was going to end. And as you mentioned, it's tax week, and they would much rather be talking about lower taxes that many Americans received this year than a blockade on the Strait of Hormuz.

BASH: Yeah. They have a whole strategy to talk about that. I mean, let's see how much that breaks through. And I think that you mentioned the unconventional strategy and character that is Donald J. Trump. But just even for him in the last week, let's just say. The way that he has careened from I'm going to bomb you into oblivion and civilization to, you know, we're winning to -- we're going to get this deal and back again has been -- has been really remarkable.

And a lot of people are -- well, let me just actually play what the president said last night when he came back to Washington, and we'll talk on the other side.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I don't care if they come back or not. If they don't come back, I'm fine. Their military is gone. Their missiles are largely depleted. The manufacturing capability for missiles and drones is largely defeated. We've been very nice. We haven't ripped down too many bridges. We did one only because they broke their word. They broke their promise. And remember their promise was that they were going to open the Hormuz Strait. They didn't do it. They lied.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: It's no surprise to anybody who has dealt with Iran over the past 47 years that they don't always tell the truth on things like this. It's also important to remember that the Strait of Hormuz was an open waterway that allows for 20 percent of the world's oil before the U.S. attacked Iran.

HOLMES: Yes. And I think just a couple of things. One is, what you're hearing there is really what Republicans are expecting from Donald Trump at this point because there are a lot of people who are very afraid that he has boxed himself into a corner that he can't get out of.

And just to Ian's point, these Republicans, even if they don't -- even if they didn't agree with him in the first place, a lot of them feel like there's no choice, but to go along with what he's doing because he is the party now and they need him going into the mid-terms, regardless of whether or not the American people support him, they don't know how to break away from him. And look at the people who have, they just go down a spiral and it becomes, you know, you're on a war path. You're on Donald Trump's war path.

But when it comes to what he's doing here, he is trying to claim victory in this war overall, saying, the navy, but those were not all the objectives from the beginning. On top of that, we now have, as you noted, this fight over the Strait of Hormuz, which didn't exist before, which is impacting oil prices.

And I think that Mark Warner's point is taken because it is true. It is why every president who has sought to get involved in the Middle East has failed, and that is exactly why it's not just Iran. It's trying to control the region as a whole because it is unpredictable, because it is difficult.

BASH: Yeah. And sort of going back to the idea that Trump kind of is, you can see him searching, trying to grab on to some way to push this forward, both in terms of strategy, militarily and message wise.

BROWNSTEIN: Look, Trump is always surprised when his target finds a way to push back. You know, I wrote a couple of weeks ago that -- or maybe the most famous sentence I've written about the presidency, power of the presidency is the power to persuade. Richard who said, Trump believes the power of the presidency is the power to coerce. And he believes that he controls escalation dominance in every situation.

That's what you heard again in that quote. I am deciding how tough this is going to be and I can always make it tougher. That was his vision in Minnesota. We'll just send in more people. He is always surprised when his targets find a way to push back. In Minnesota, it was just cell phones and whistles. And here it's all sorts of asymmetric warfare led by this attempt to control the Strait.

The problem he's got. None of us are the military strategists. But is there a military solution that can reopen the Strait in a way that will bring down oil prices? Is there any set of military actions he could take that would achieve that? Or can that only be achieved by some kind of political, you know, a deal with Iran in which they agree to do it, because if he can't do that and gas prices stay high, what looked like a bad election could become a very bad election.

HOLMES: One of the things that military strategies say can be done is boots on the ground and nobody wants boots on the ground.

[12:10:00]

BROWNSTEIN: Yeah.

BASH: All right, everybody standby. Coming up. The president versus the pontiff. Pope Leo says he has, quote, no fear after President Trump attacks him. Plus, Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell is facing mounting bipartisan pressure to resign after multiple accusations of sexual misconduct, including rape, allegations he denies.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:15:00]

BASH: Today, Pope Leo is repeating his message. God desires peace. That message is certainly in conflict with President Trump's agenda, as the latest in a rather stunning trading of words continue overnight. President Trump declared, quote, Pope Leo is weak on crime and terrible for foreign policy. It was a very lengthy post.

And he also said, I don't want a Pope who criticizes the president of the United States. I'm doing exactly what I was elected to do. If I wasn't in the White House, Leo wouldn't be in the Vatican. Leo should get his act together as Pope. Now, Pope Leo had this to say when asked about the president's criticism.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

POPE LEO, HEAD OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH: I have no fear, neither the Trump administration nor speaking out loudly about the message of the gospel and that' what I believe. I am called to know what the church is called do. We're not politicians. We're not looking to make foreign policies policy with the same perspective that that we might understand it, but I do believe that the message of the gospel, blessed are the peacemakers, is the message that the word needs to hear today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Our smart reporters are back. Leigh Ann, I covered the Bush White House, Bush 43. And it was during the Iraq war, and I remember being at the Vatican with him and Pope John Paul II had some words for him about the Iraq war, and it was -- they were pretty subtle, but he knew what he was saying. And that was it. Fast forward to where we are now, and this is just.

CALDWELL: Yeah. I mean, Donald Trump doesn't like anyone who disagrees with him, right? He immediately attacks. He can't let anything go. But what the Pope just said is, I think, very clear, maybe that Trump doesn't understand is that his job is not to fight wars or win wars or take sides in wars. His war, from a religious perspective, is to promote peace.

So, the fact that the president is fighting with the Pope, we do -- J.D. Vance also had tough words for the Pope months ago. So, it's been a very tenuous relationship between the U.S. and the Vatican, you know, but it's almost a war that's pointless between the two other than it could very upset some very devout Catholics around the world.

BASH: Let me just show our viewers some numbers, which I'm sure, Ron, you know by heart. The catholic voters who attend religious services monthly or more often. How did they vote? 2016, they voted for Donald Trump by eight percentage points. In 2020, when the president was up against a Catholic candidate, he lost by one percentage point to Joe Biden. Then in the last election against Kamala Harris, he was -- he won by 12 percentage points.

BROWNSTEIN: First of all, was the Pope doing a gaggle there --

BASH: Yes.

HOLMES: Yeah.

BROWNSTEIN: -- Pope gaggling. You know, Catholics are an important part of the -- of the Trump coalition. I mean, you look at the exit poll, he won 59 percent of Catholics. I think in the Pew data that you cite, he won 55 percent. They were about a quarter of his voters in 2024 were Catholics. And most of those voters, Catholics who voted for Trump would probably be to the right of Pope Leo on most issues.

But you know, when you are at a point where your coalition is already fraying, like, do you want to take on another fight like this? I would point to one group in particular. To me, the key to how bad this election gets for Republicans or how good it gets for Democrats really are going to be those, you know, perennial working class white voters, particularly in places like Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, where there are a number of House seats at stake, as well as Senate seats --

BASH: Big Catholic.

BROWNSTEIN: And exactly. Outside of the south, where many of the non- college whites are evangelical Christians, they are blue collar Catholics. And you know, picking a fight with the Pope again is kind of an interesting strategy, when you're already suffering some erosion with those voters.

BASH: OK. Getting beyond Catholics and just thinking about Christians in general, and to be specific, Jesus Christ. Let's look at a photo or not a photo, a certainly not a photo, an image that President Trump posted on his Truth Social platform. This is last night. It speaks for itself. He is presenting himself as Jesus, healing somebody, and didn't go over so well, to say the least.

There were posts on just by random people on social which means -- which means that, by definition, they're supporters of the president. Take this down. I don't think so. False God. I support you. But this is inappropriate. Here's what Bishop Robert Barron, who is on the White House religious liberty commission, said.

[12:20:00]

He said it has been a high honor to serve on the religious liberty commission. No president in my lifetime has shown a greater dedication to defending our first liberty. All that said, I think the president owes the Pope an apology. And also, I was not clearly happy about this. Now, here is the kicker. The president, just in the last hour, took that post down. He deleted it. Without comment, but he deleted it.

Kristen, the last time, maybe, and only other high-profile time in recent memory. We have seen him delete something in the face of criticism was when he posted that racist image of the Obamas as --

HOLMES: That took forever for him to pull --

BASH: Yeah.

HOLMES: -- and he defended it, saying that it wasn't meant to be that. He had a team out there, saying a staffer put it up and it was supposed to be funny. He didn't think of it that way. Everybody is in the jungle, la, la, la. And then eventually the cries got so loud that he took it down. This clearly, the cries are coming from inside the House because he took it down of his own accord, or staff, or took it down, but quickly, in response to what we believe is this enormous amount of pushback to posting an image like that and getting in a fight with the Pope.

And I do want to just, you know, yes, Catholics do make up a big contingency of his voters, but there is an all-around feeling in Christianity that it is a respect for the position of the Pope as a Catholic and a religious figure. I mean, that is why, really, the world tunes in to see who the next pope is going to be. It's seen as somebody who is not a political figure. He leads the religion.

And so, I do think that even when we talk about Catholics turning against President Trump, there is a lot of Christians who would look at that and think, I don't like that. He's going after their religious leader.

BROWNSTEIN: And there's a burden, and the psalm is greater than the whole of the parts. In the sense that for many voters, again, as during the first term, there's just too much chaos. There's just too much fighting, and it almost doesn't matter who you're fighting with. You know that every day the president is going to be in a high-profile fight with someone, just as someone changes every day.

BASH: On that note, as we go to break. I just want to go on the Inside Politics wayback machine. This is Senator Lindsey Graham during the president's first term, January 2018.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): You could be the Pope and criticize him. It doesn't matter. He'll go after the Pope. You could be Putin, and say nice things, and he'll like you. It's not the content of your character. It's whether or not you show him respect and like him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: And seen. Up next, multiple sexual assault allegations. And Democrat Eric Swalwell's campaign for California governor, allegations, he denies. The question right now here in Washington is, will he be forced out of Congress? Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: Congress is back from spring break this week, and an immediate question is, what are they going to do about Eric Swalwell? He ended his bid for California governor and he's facing bipartisan calls to resign after multiple women accused him of sexual misconduct, including a former staffer who says Swalwell raped her. Now Swalwell denies those allegations but does admit to what he is calling mistakes in judgment. If he doesn't quit, there will be a push to expel him as soon as this week, which could trigger multiple other expulsion votes. GOP Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna is pushing a combined effort to expel Swalwell, along with Republican Congressman Tony Gonzales, who admitted to an improper sexual relationship with a staffer who later died by suicide. And two other House members who are in the midst of House Ethics Committee investigations, who could get caught up in the group expulsions, talking about Florida Democratic Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick and Republican Congressman Cory Mills.

OK. Let's talk about this. Leigh Ann, you are on the House, on the Hill a lot. I know you're talking to your sources. How quickly do you think this could happen and how many people are we talking about?

CALDWELL: So, the timeline is unclear still. Republican leadership is meeting tonight. Democratic leadership is meeting tonight. There's going to be a lot of discussions that are happening. I am told by my sources that with Swalwell, first they thought it was going to be the frontliners, who are the people who are in tough swing districts who are really going to push for his expulsion. But that is expanding far beyond that. There are progressives who are calling for it too.

And so, the question is, is it going to be a tit for tat type of situation, Swalwell, for Gonzales. And you know, not to be -- not to discount any of the horrific things that both of these men are accused of doing. But there is the House margin that is being taken into consideration, Republicans have, you know, one, sometimes two seat margin. And if you get one Republican for one Democrat, it doesn't change the balance of power.

BASH: I was going to say when you said tit for tat. That's one way to put it. Another way to put it is a kind of --

BROWNSTEIN: Checkers.

BASH: Yeah, exactly, checkers.

BROWNSTEIN: Yeah, yeah.

BASH: Exactly. That's a way -- that's a good way to put it. I want to play. You mentioned Democrats of sort of all stripes coming out. Eugene Vindman, who is a democratic Congressman from Virginia, was also on with me yesterday. Here's what he said.

REP. EUGENE VINDMAN (D-VA): The accusations are absolutely heinous, and his admissions betraying his family are deplorable. So, Eric Swalwell needs to resign. He needs to drop out of the race.

BASH: And just to be clear, because he's also running for California governor. You're saying that he should not only drop out of that race, but he should resign his seat in Congress.

VINDMAN: Yes?

BASH: Ron?