leighton, it's good to see you. thank you so much for coming in. you say this strike confirms that word. a watershed moment in the middle east explains cedric yeah. >> what good morning. the basic difference here is from what we've seen before and in recent years is that for the first time, israel and iran are attacking each other they're sending nat proxy forces. they're sending themselves through their weapons directly into battle from their respective territories. now, that doesn't mean that this is going to escalate out of control or anything like that. but what is different is that these two countries are doing away with the pretense of working through proxies you're working in the shadows such as with cyber campaigns and things like that, those things in the shadows are still going to go on. but now things are a bit more out in the open and in essence, there's a bit of a fig leaf that has actually disappeared from the way these countries conduct their conflict. >> and what do you think of tony blinken? respons

colonel cedric leighton, thanks so much >> vice president kamala harris tore and two former president donald trump, blaming him for the erosion of reproductive rights in the coming up a white house is looking to keep the issue front and center for voters in this decisive presidential election cycle also, two of trump's co-defendants in the classified documents case are trying to get some of their charges thrown out. >> why the >> judge in the case? signals some skepticism. plus baseball superstar shohei ohtani, his former translator, has turned himself into police he's posted bond, but with conditions, we will have the latest on the sports betting scandal there's debris in this guy, erez, husbands and wives sky wish i could've done >> something differently you can just make it better for those that follow space shuttle columbia, the final flight, two part finale tomorrow at nine on seat, the future is not just going to happen. you have to make it and if you want a successful business, all it takes is an idea. and now becomes the future. a future where you grew a dream into a reality i

yeah. >> you mentioned the cycle and it's true i was just talking about this with cedric leighton. i mean, israel says it's retaliating for iran's launch of missiles and drones, which iran says was retaliation for israel bombing its embassy compound in damascus a few days before that, the question is, where does that retaliation stop? and will it's dark before things really get out of hand? >> well, again, if the iranians down play this and then treat it as something that does not deserve to be responded to. >> an an open, escalatory cycle will end the conflict between iran and israel will continue. >> unfortunately, but it would likely go back into the shadows where it once before there's fin, a shadow war going on between the two of them are quite some time that's not necessarily great news, but it has one significant benefit, a shadow war does not run the same risk of escalation towards a regional war as this open exchange of fire between is willing iran does always great to get your analysis treaty policy reston, virginia. thanks so much good to see thank you for having all rig

colonel cedric leighton retired us army, is joining us right now. you're military analysts. what's your assessment of what what's happening on the ground militarily and over the skies. and not only of jerusalem, but elsewhere in israel. >> well, >> it will one of the big things about this is that this is really a changes nick was mentioning in his reporting and alex had mentioned as well, this is going to really change the way in which the armies of the middle pleased face each other there's going to be a different style of warfare. there's going to be in essence see using swarms, what the iranians have talked about for a long time. now, they're actually putting this in into practice and we're seeing, i think maybe they've learned some lessons from ukraine where some of the things that have happened in the ukrainian war are now being use transferred by the iranians to israel. and i think the key thing here, wolf is that with the way in which the iranians are doing this or doing a multi-layered attack that multilayered attack is going to have a major impact on how your defens

all right, kernel, cedric leighton, thanks so much. >> that jessica opening statements could begin monday in the historic hush money case of donald trump had today's order of business finding the last two or so alternate jurors that they're pointing next, we'll talk with the jury consultant about what both sides are looking for. >> say was cnn-news18 the, sinking of the titanic. >> how would really happen? >> special to our premiere sunday, april 28, did nine on cnn. >> okay. yeah, we got orders coming in, starting a business is never easy, but starting at eight months pregnant that's a different story. i couldn't slow down. we were starting a business from the ground up. people were showing up left there, right. and so did our business needs the chase e car made it easy when you go for something vague like this, your kids need it and they believe they can do the same, urn and limit 1.5% cash back on every purchase. but the chase ink business unlimited card from chases for business, make more of what's yours with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, my skin was no longer mine. >> my activ

we will find out colonel cedric leighton is joining us now at the magic wall about all of this. the options available to israel at this point, what do you think that they are considering and weighing and is one of them too? not do anything at all? do you think well, actually, i've a yes that is definitely a possibility, but let's take a look at basically, we've characterized these as basically three types of response. one is small and the other is medium, and the other one, the last one is a large type of response. so a small response could mean a discrete use of cyber attacks or commando grades or something like that medium response. cyber attacks may be with weapons like an attack on a city or on an installation. more likely they would go after the israelis. would go after military installations. and then if you have a large response it would include basically everything plus more conventional things. bombing runs against certain big military installations basis for example, you could have the attack, some of the naval installations that are on the coast here. you could attack

cedric leighton, thank you for hopping all with us on this breaking news.e to monitor the monitor this story other if there are any more developments in this hour, we will bring them to you as we continue to wait for that, though, just in the next few weeks. the other thing we've been watching and paying very close attention to the supreme court. they are going to be deciding a handful of high-profile cases that have profound consequences for all americans. whether or not donald trump is immune from prosecution if he can face charges and his federal trials. whether prosecutors went too far and charging some of the january 6 rioters, and also so the availability of mifepristone, the primary drug that is being used across the us by many women for medication, abortions. i want to bring in my inside source tonight, joan biskupic, who is also seen as a senior supreme court analyst and th of the excellent book, nine black robes and hi the supreme court's drive to the right and it's historic consequences out in paperback on april 16th, if you don't already own it,

leighton, kylie, you've got these documents, you've been sifting through them.hat have you found? >> hundreds of pages. and what's new about this briana is that these state department officials are on the record in their own words describing how chaotic was behind the scenes. we were reporting on it in real time. we were seeing the images of these afghans trying to get into the kabul airport. are these americans tried to get into the kabul airport as the biden administration it was carrying out that withdrawal from afghanistan. and what these state department officials say is that they were rushed into the scene, into the heart of this chaos with one very little time to prepare and to very little clear plan that they were following. so we know that embassies are supposed let's to have non combatant evacuation plans. that's a complicated term for essentially a plan for them to get out if they need to, and what they said is that the situations on the round required them to essentially make up a plan as they were going along on the fly because of how dynamic, how v

leighton kernel leighton, we were on the air together last night as this attack was unfolding, it was not clear at the time this gael of the attack. we now know that it was more than 300 of these attack drones of ballistic missiles, of cruise missiles. what do you make of how israel and the us and other allies managed to shoot the vast majority of them down yeah. >> good morning, al-aqsa. yeah. last night, we weren't quite sure how this would unfold. and at the moment, what we see is a tremendous ability to unify not only the israeli and american military, but also other militaries both on the european side of the events such as the uk as well some regional allies that very quietly helped with this. so this was basically the idea of in essence an integrated air defense system that not only is integrated in the technical sense, which is what one normally thinks of when you talk in those terms. but also in integration of the national militaries. and that proved to be very pretty successful with approximately 99% or so of the missiles and drones and other devices that the iranians were t

leighton, who is back with us >> kim, do >> you first we have seen prime minister benjamin netanyahuar in gaza time and time again, ignore the please, and they're urging of the biden administration primarily around the question of aid getting into gaza, as well as avoiding palestinian casualties. so in this moment, as israel considers its response, to what extent do you think the us now has leverage over israel? as it tells israel that it would not support a strike against iran well the. >> problem with that is that israel has proven itself perfectly willing and capable of doing unilateral strikes without us support. that said, it has been the common thinking that israel would need some sort of refueling if it were to to do a direct attack on iran of any sort of sustained sort. the problem also is that israel's deterrence has been in the past. if someone's strikes, israel, it strikes back twice as hard. i had israeli officials and middle east officials laying that to me as they were watching what was unfolding in gaza, that after the hamas attacks of october 7 israel felt the need to

there is 60% currently, i was talking to colonel cedric leighton earlier today about that and he was telling me it's only within a couple more months that they can potentially be at close to 90%. we don't want that possibility for israel i also think with ukraine we certainly cannot allow genocide on our watch, me, bill clinton, do you remember the african issue he came late years later? died were wanda for not taking action? i don't think that will be good for the republican party to appear to not support our allies during their time of need. we know that there is a reduction in democracies around the globe right now. so i would argue and republicans may disagree with me, but we have to stand firm. we're protecting the democracies that remain and they're going to need our help and leadership to do so. >> after nine 11, this idea that if we are able to as a country stop threats overseas, at home is a very potent idea that is a message that president and allied republicans can lean into. this is all about determining the challenges and keeping them overseas. >> so the divisions in the

leighton and retired colonel in the air force. colonel late and it's always great to have you on right now. ukraine, a short on troops and ammunition. is there an opportunity to win on the battle? is their opportunity to win on the battlefield, slipping away well, just gets good to be with you and it's pains me to say this, but yes, if ukraine in stone get the aid >> that they need, it's going to be a real problem for them because at this particular point in time, we're looking at munitions scrooge's weapons shortages, troops shortages, things that you've basically outlined get the crissman zelenskyy has talked about and those things are very difficult to overcome if you don't have some way of resupplying. and that's going to i think be the critical factor for this year and possibly the next year as well >> this week, denmark said work is now underway to begin a plan to donate f 16 fighter jets let's to ukraine this summer what kind of impact could that have for ukraine >> so in a localized sense, it could have a significant impac

i'm joined by cnn military analysts retired us air force colonel cedric leighton, and cnn national security analysts, peter bergen. peter, first of all, do you expect the iran will quickly retaliate for what happened in damascus? >> well, if you think about what, how they reacted to the assassination of soleimani, who was that main military leader would, by the united states in early 2020. there's a reason that secretary of state mike pompeo and also the former national security adviser, john bolton both have 24/7 security details, secret service, so they turn they wanted to react to that how they react, they need to react in their own mind and so i think because these are the leaders of sort of a praetorian guard who've been killed. how they react to beat tbd might well involve hezbollah, because obviously hezbollah has the most capacity. so i expect they will, there will be some form of retailing palliation because they have a lot of proxy groups in the region, not just hizballah in southern lebanon, but the houthis in yemen. and hamas of >> course, i'll, these groups have been supported

leighton. now, i want to ask you a technical question because now we have this reporting from the israeli media that it's not just these drones. and now we're putting the number at more than 100 attack drones, but also cruise missiles. i don't think there's a number on the cruise missiles, just yet it's going to take hours for those drones to get to israel. >> how soon >> could those cruise missiles get to israeli airspace and how much more complicated does this make it for the israeli air defenses when you've got this combination of weaponry being used in this attack >> yeah, alex, that's going to be one of the biggest difficulties that didn't challenges that the israelis are going to face because there's cruise missiles and could basically get to two israeli airspace in about a little less than two hours. from launch soon travel. what about five to six times the speed of these drones that we believe the iranians are using probably from the head family, the same kind of family that is being us

leighton. w we've got a map here which shows iran, which shows the israel, which shows the region lited in scope. what could that mean? >> role drawing there lot of different possibilities here. for example, the israelis could decide to go into iran with some airstrikes along the coast. one possibility that doesn't feel limited though, not really. but the other thing that they could do is use something when the cyber realm i and if you do something like that, let's say you attack networks in tehran and in some of the other areas around here, you could perhaps have a limited impact. and then that would be it. but that doesn't go boom. there's not a kinetic thing. and if it doesn't do that, if it doesn't have an explosive effect, there may be limited political utility to something like that, which is also a concern for this kind of a responses. >> there's obviously a political strategic component to this that goes beyond the military here. i just wanted day to be nations and the washington post s

leighton joins us now kernel leighton. >> your response? to what chef jose andres is saying >> i know you >> have analyzed countless conflicts all over the world, but in every case and just about every case, there are humanitarian workers, aid workers, people like the heroes at the world central kitchen, people like the folks at the red cross who go into these war zones. and they're supposed to be allowed access to do the work, the important work that they do that did not happen here without a high price for the world central kitchen organization, your response to what chef jose andres is saying this morning >> yeah, good morning, jim, one of the big things that was on dresses mentioned in his in his comments is the fact that they coordinated with the israelis, with the idf. and what that tells me is this tragedy could have been avoided by this tragedy could have been avoided if proper communication procedures had been in place within the israeli military. and if a new organization like world central kitchen gives you there, i january in es

kaitlan, brianna were >> joined now by cnn military analysts, retired air force colonel cedric leighton when you hear they're having these discussions about an alternative rafah, what could be on the table? >> well, briana, i think several things could be on the table. one of them maybe that they'll do it in circle monday rafah, and move things into position, but not go into the camp itself. that's one possibility. the other thing is that they might not do rafah at all. they may position their forces in a way that it looks like they might go into rafah, but they won't do it. and that might be because they want to set different conditions for the israeli defense forces. and of course for hamas. i could also be that the international community will exert so much pressure on israel that they won't move forward with something like this. >> that's the south. when you look at the north and the al-shifa hospital, this two-week siege that has ended and just the apocalyptic scene there it's interesting because back in mid-january, the idf was saying the high-intensity operation in northern gaza

leighton. this was really quick that the idf is out with there preliminary investigation. they're expected to actually publish details of it into this strike that. killed seven world central kitchen aid workers by tomorrow morning. i wonder what you think. having seen how quickly this has gone, what you realistically expect to learn? >> yeah, not much. actually, briana, because it's way too small a timeframe for there to be an effective investigation in the situation like this, when an incident of this type occurs in the military and in may and the other militaries, there's a very thorough investigation that's convened and that has a lot of different branches and sequels. and in this particular case, it's fine to issue some preliminary statements. but the way the israelis are doing this right now is i think more of a pr effort really to get this out of the way. i don't think it will be successful because they're going to be so many more questions about how this happened, how this could have hap

we've got seen a military analysts and retired air force colonel cedric leighton, kernel, thanks so much for being with us on this sunday afternoon. i just want to kind of lay everything out and it's going to take just a second, but just so we're all on the same page, we know as sources telling cnn that a majority of the call between president biden and israeli prime minister netanyahu today, did focus on the hostage deal and the white house readout of the call said about any israeli operation in rafah that the leaders discussed and the president reiterated his position. we know that the biden ministration has told israel they want to see a plan that includes protecting civilians but an israeli official is now telling cnn that israel will continue its invasion preparations. even if there is a hostage deal. and then we have this today from national security council communications adviser john kirby well look i think again, we have to have a better understanding from the israelis about what they want to do is a matter of fact, we've had several staff talks with them. we intend to do that m

leighton, kernel late and i mean this was shortened to flare up is probably you and i were trying to go to bed last night and we woke up to things not spiraling out of control. so i mean, where did things stand at this? >> so that's a really great question, jim, because i think what we're looking at here is each side is posturing they're doing certain things and yes, there is a possibility of death and destruction with these kinds of actions. but the problem that each side has is they have to play kate internal constituencies and they've got militaries that are actually wanting to go after the other side and so they are doing these things in a way that is somewhat escalatory, but it's escalatory with a certain limit to iran when it struck, it did hit israeli airbase, happens to be the ehr-based worthy of three 40 fives are based. three squadrons of them. and then you also have on the uranian sayyed, the israeli strikes seems to have gone after either an airbase or some other military installations around s4 khan. and that basis where the older four teams or ad, which is also appeared

leighton earlier today about that and he was telling me it's only within a couple more months that they be at close to 90%. we don't want that possibility for israel i also think with ukraine we certainly cannot allow genocide on our watch. i mean, bill clinton, you remember the african issue he came late years later. guys were wanda for not taking action. i don't think that will be good for the republican party to appear to not support our allies during their time of need. we know that there is a reduction in democracies around the globe right now. so i would argue and republicans may disagree with me, but we have to stand firm. we're protecting the democracies that remain and they're going to need our help and leadership to do so. >> after nine 11, this idea that if we are able to as a country stop threats overseas, we can protect ourselves here at home is a very potent idea that is a message that president and allied republicans can lean into. this is all about deterring the challenges. and we keeping them overseas. so the divisions in the republican party one thing there's alsoivisn

cedric leighton, thanks so much as always the gym the white house is using iran's attack to try and light a fire under congress to keep sending aid not just to israel, but also ukraine and taiwan is a bill it's been sitting there for weeks and months waiting for a vote but republican lawmakers are still at odds over what exactly they even want to vote on >> there's new ally in the fight against climate change. this is harvard business blue carbon. we just need to protect nature will do the rest. blue >> carbon plus cnn fill next sunday at nine it's a new de one were are shared values propel us towards a more secure future through august of partnership built upon cutting-edge american australian, and british technologies will develop state-of-the-art next generation that were readings and build something stronger together during, decades of peace and prosperity for america and our allies. we are going forward and staying forward together >> my name is marie and 49 years old, and i'm a business owner i owned a lemonade and ice cream shop in florida, so i can feel and see that my line since

. >> let me bring retired colonel cedric leighton our military analysts into this conversation air forcetalk a little bit about ron's capabilities of aiming these drones, these missiles, these rockets towards israel. do you think when they aim towards as israel, they didn't necessarily realize that they were going to be going over jerusalem, a holy city not just to christians and jews, but to muslims as well. >> well, i >> think they knew that in general where they would be going at jerusalem is such an important area for you through them, not only for the muslim religion, as you mentioned, but for all the monotheistic religions, but the key thing is the precision of their aiming capability and wolf, if you look at how they do this, there are some weapons systems that they have. they can be pretty precise, including the fairly primitive drones with their a fairly primitive engines that are basically like lawnmower engine's. but they are able to do certain things with them. they can guide them in a certain way in real time. and that does make a difference. there missile systems are, have

i want to bring in cnn military analysts, kernel, cedric leighton kernel, us officials telling cnn that one of the targets is believed to be the an army radar. you have very deep experience in iran and in this region. how do you assess this attack i think it could be several things. >> laura& radar site is the perfect area to go after because that it once you get the radar site, than blinds the forces that are using them radar picture of for their activities. so weeds, a perfect site for the israelis to go after. the only thing to keep in mind is we've been talking about are fields and won. one of the reasons that a lot of the airports have been shut down as nick was mentioning in his reporting, is because what iran does is it doubles the use of their civilian airfields as airports as also being air force business for the radiant air force. so in the case of isfahan, the airbase is co-located with the international airport in isfahan, and it's the home to iran fleet of f 14 fighters, which they had acquired during the time of the shas. so those aircraft are of course quite old antiquate

leighton, sorry about that. let's start with the first question. do you think robin, that iran anticipated israel's ability to strike down 99% of these missiles and drones that it sent into israel. do you think they knew that their attack was gonna be so unsuccessful? >> they absolutely knew what israel's capabilities are. they knew the prospect that they would get anything through was probably limited. but this was something that iranians felt they had to do in response to israel's killing of senior generals and consulate in damascus the question is how far is iran? i'm going to go into 2010 when the united states kill general soleimani, it was the iranian response was one and done. that's what the united states hopes happens this time that it ends here. but i think we have crossed a threshold, the shadow war that has played out between iran and israel since 1980 pd two is now in the open. there's no going back for a long time. it was rhetorical. and now this red is very real and likely to play out again in the

leighton.ita analysts and you heard it there 40 rockets fired into israel from lebanon, aryou seeing this moment? ow obably not the opening salvo rael'attack on its consulate in damascus. buthat probing action bhezbolla hizballah has been doing aot of these kindsf attacks really ever since the seveh so i've october even before that. sohat we're seeing now is kind of a simmering pot, if you ll, onhe sve of the middle east. but thapart is t boilg over at e prest time, but it could very easily if they're pro mean, is ere something kind of tactical about what 're doing or doing, wthey're trying to do is they're trying to actually see how the israelis i'm going to defend themselves, how goodre they at shooting down these missileswh kinds of weaknesses ahere ithe israeli air defense system in their rar stem those are thnds of things that iran and hezbollae looking at. and if they can trapolate from that, perhaps a path to ey're gng to do that what t, are you expecting that are retaation for thconsula

we're also joined by our friend get cnn military analysts, kernel cedric leighton retired from us air force. jonathan, let me start with you. you're meeting with israeli official talking with folks in israel. >> what do they saying? does it sound like? i mean, what these signals that we're getting from prime minister netanyahu, was that something is going to happen. it's just a matter of time i think that's right. it does look like there will be some kind of an attack whether it is a measured one, whether it is commensurate with the numbers that we saw the other night remains unclear. do think the israelis are still taking their time? i think their rationale is that the iranians took their time and responding to that strike on that facility near the iranian embassy in damascus, it was of course, not an embassy, not a consulate. it which has been a source of set debate. but the israelis are saying, look, they let us do in our juices for a week or two, we can do the same. there's no rush here that does seem to be part of the calculus what is interesting though is they keep saying look,

i'm sure that my colleague cedric leighton will have a lot to say about that being an air force guy. but you can bet there's early warning radars up right now that are tracking these drone systems. and where they're coming from. this is not ukraine they have multiple sensors and shooter's not just from the large plaza that forms that have the radars, but even from the f35 that israel has, that the us has in the area from some of the other electronic warfare platforms. when you're talking about drones, there are multiple ways to shoot those down those are not going to, i don't believe they're going to get into israeli aerospace. they will be shot down long before they get to israel airspace. what i'm very concerned about is what will complement these drones when these drones get 50 to 100 miles away from the border, will suddenly we see hundreds or even thousands of rockets coming out of hezbollah. will we see more cruise missiles coming out of iran proper or from yemen? these are the kind of things that i think is iran could potentially do. not that they will, but they could potentia

i want to bring in seeing and military analysts retired us air force colonel cedric leighton right now, kernel leighton, what do you think the potential options that israel might be weighing as it considers how it will respond to iran's unprecedented attack as we know at some point, israel will respond either militarily diplomatically. >> yeah, that's certainly true, wolf and there are a >> lot of different factors here. first, to quickly recall, there were 170 drones over 120 ballistic missiles and 30 cruise missiles that were fired at israel. so this is one of the things that the israelis have to consider. they will probably look at not only the distance that they have, it's about 1,000 miles from israel all the way to iran in terms of border to border. but one of the things that the israelis could look at is the possibility of aerial attacks against iran for example, they could go into areas where the iranians heavier bases, or naval installations so those are the kinds of things that they could do. wther they will do that onot. of course, depends on how how far they went to escalat