Natalie Kitroff

When you're first moving into your home, make sure that you change the batteries in your smoke detector.

From The New York Times, I'm Natalie Kittroff.

This is The Daily.

It was a chaotic weekend of news out of Washington.

There was a shooting at an event where President Trump and top cabinet officials were gathered, which we're following and we'll update on later in the show.

And also, Trump abruptly and dramatically called off the latest round of peace talks with Iran at the very last minute, leaving the fate of the ceasefire in limbo.

One of the main reasons Trump gave was that he doesn't think Iran is sending credible negotiators to the table and says he has no idea who's actually in charge of the country.

Today, my colleague Farnaz Fasihi takes us inside the world of Iran's leaders and explains what her reporting reveals about what they really want.

It's Monday, April 27th.

Farnaz, it's wonderful to have you back on the show.

Thank you for having me, Natalie.

So what do we know about what just happened, where we saw Trump suddenly back away from face-to-face negotiations with Iran?

It almost seemed like over the weekend, he kind of turned the team of American negotiators around as they were basically on their way to the airport.

And what about the president's claim, which he made on social media over the weekend and he's made before, that the Iranian regime is in complete disarray and that he doesn't even know who's making the decisions in the country?

Okay, you're saying something that's actually pretty stark, which is worth just lingering on for a moment, which is that the Supreme Leader is not the one calling the shots here.

And so I have to ask, when we say the Revolutionary Guards are, who are they?

Who are we talking about?

That's fascinating.

So this ubiquity of the guards, that's something that's been developing over time, their presence everywhere.

This isn't new, per se.