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Trump and Netanyahu to Speak Today After Israeli Strikes on Iran; Israeli Strikes Kill Three Top Iranian Officials; Trump Tells CNN Israeli Strikes on Iran were Very Successful. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired June 13, 2025 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: We have a lot of breaking news this morning. President Trump, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, will speak today after Israel's unprecedented strikes on Iran, Israel hitting nuclear sites, and taking out basically all of Iran's top military leadership. The U.S. says it was not involved.

President Trump tells CNN, though, that the U.S. supports Israel and calls the attack, quote, very successful. Here's video from overnight showing massive explosions at the site of some of the strikes in Northwest Iran. Iranian State T.V. says the large scale attacks also killed several nuclear scientists.

Israel's spy agency, the Mossad, sharing this extraordinary video with CNN showing operatives, they say, smuggling weapons into Iran ahead of the strikes. Iran is vowing a, quote, powerful response. Israel says, Iran initially retaliated by launching a hundred drones.

CNN Global Affairs Analyst Brett McGurk, though, adds this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRET MCGURK, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: This shows just total intelligence, dominance, and penetration by Israel into Iran. And that really limits what Iran can do in response here. The people who would have met this morning to figure out how to respond are all dead. And there will be no surprise.

Israel will know clearly exactly what Iran is going to do. I think they'll be ready for it. There will be a response. But the ability of the Iranians to organize a coordinated response is significantly degraded.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Now, in a phone call just this morning, President Trump told CNN's Dana Bash that Iran should have listened to him when he gave them 60 days back in April to cut a nuclear deal, and that, quote, today is day 61. He also told Dana that Iran should now come to the table.

We have full team coverage of this as it continues to unfold this morning with CNN's Matthew Chance and Frederik Pleitgen.

Matthew, what's the latest you're hearing about this first wave of Israeli strikes?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Katie, it very much is just the first wave because I've just got off the phone from the Israeli military and they've said, well, look, I mean, we are planning more raids. This operation could go on for days. The intention, the objective is to remove what they say is an existential nuclear threat by Iran and a missile threat as well towards Israel and they're saying they won't stop until that threat has been essentially removed.

It's been a remarkably comprehensive operation involving all sorts of intelligence assets and airstrike assets being brought to bear by Israel on Iran. They've been attacking nuclear facilities, including the uranium enrichment plant, Natanz, other nuclear facilities as well, missile strikes, air defense facilities. And so that's the sort of military dimension of this.

At the same time, they've been sort of carefully targeting individuals within the Iranian regime, including military officials, senior military figures of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, for example, have been targeted and killed, as well as nuclear scientists, Iranian television, saying at least six scientists have been identified and killed as a result of these strikes.

And there's pictures all over Iranian television of destroyed buildings inside the capital of Tehran where the Iranian authorities say women and children have also been killed in what, I think, was, I suppose, is collateral damage.

Much of the emphasis right now is on retaliation and the potential for that. There's already been a hundred drones launched by Iran towards Israel, but they've been intercepted. It's a pretty muted response I think as we've been broadly reporting.

But, you know, look, given that Israel is preparing itself for carry out more strikes in the days ahead, as it sees necessary, at the same time, it's also bracing itself for a much more stiff retaliation from the Iranians as well. And so, you know, this is just at the start of what potentially could spiral in something much, much bigger regionally in terms of the conflict. Kate?

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Thank you so much, Matthew Chance. Now, let's go to Fred Pleitgen.

You heard Matthew speaking there of the -- some of the most powerful people in Iran, military leaders in Iran have been taken out by Israel.

[09:05:05]

So, do they have the ability to have a robust response with the decision-makers and the commanders dead? FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, one of the things, Sara, about the Iranians is that, especially in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, they do have the capability to replace a lot of those leaders. It's something that they have done in the past when senior figures, for instance, have been killed in military operations, or in 2020, for instance, when Qassem Soleimani, of course, a big general for the Iranians, for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was killed by a drone strike ordered by the Trump administration, he was also replaced fairly quickly.

But at the same time, of course, the Iranians do acknowledge that these are pretty big blows for them. You have Hussein Salami, who was the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, he's been killed. He's already been replaced by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the head of the general staff of the military, who's also a senior, an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander, was also killed. And then you have the head of Iran's aerospace forces, also an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander, Ali Hazijade.

Now, he's someone whom we've taken a closer look at in the past, who really is the father, many say, of Iran's ballistic missile, drone and also air defense programs as well. So, certainly a very important figure as far as developing those programs, which is, of course, what the Israelis say. They are going after right now, air defense capabilities, missile capabilities, and then, of course, the nuclear facilities also. Ali Hazijade is someone who basically came up with Iran's strategy for all of that.

The Iranians at some point coming to the conclusion that these international sanctions against Iran made it almost impossible for them to develop their own air force, as far as manned planes are concerned. So, they decided to go the way of missiles and drones. So, those are exactly the leadership of those capabilities are what the Israelis seem to be targeting.

And we've been speaking to folks in Tehran who said in the middle of the night they heard these strikes happen. They said the ground was shaking, that, of course, this is something that pretty much woke everybody up in Tehran. We saw some of those images of residential buildings having been hit. The Iranians saying that several people were wounded, possibly some killed on the ground as well.

And it seems to be the case, Sara, that these strikes are still ongoing in various parts of the country, including Tabriz in the north of the country, but also targeting some facilities apparently in Western Iran also. So, certainly, it seems as though this is far from over and you know, again, we've been talking about the Iranians vowing that there will be a strong response for their part.

They are -- of course, they do believe that they still have the military capabilities to do that, especially some of their missile facilities that are deep underground. Right now, however, the Iranians certainly acknowledging that if they are in a pretty difficult situation, as these strikes by the Israelis seem to be ongoing. Sara?

SIDNER: All right, thank you to you, Fred Pleitgen, and to our Matthew Chance as well. John?

BERMAN: All right. With us now is CNN Senior Military Analyst, retired Admiral James Stavridis. Admiral, thank you so much for being with us.

Based on what you're hearing and seeing yourself this morning, how degraded is Iran's military power, both in terms of power and personnel?

ADM. JAMES STAVRIDIS (RET.), CNN SENIOR MILITARY ANALYST: Significant would be the word. This is a very sweeping first launch by Israel. And you really have to admire the trade craft here. It kind of reminds me of what we saw the Ukrainians doing a couple weeks ago, John, as we discussed Operation Spiderweb. This is Israel with deep penetration into a huge country.

Iran is 2.5 times the size of Texas. Look at all those potential targets you're showing on the screen a moment ago. And this is kind of full spectrum. And as we are hearing, it's only the beginning. So, I'd look for five to seven days and that, to your question, I think will knock the Iranian military back 50 percent in its capability overall. That's quite significant.

BERMAN: So, a 50 percent reduction in capability. How -- would they be able to respond then, if at all?

STAVRIDIS: Here's a word for you, asymmetrically, meaning, rather than launching jets to do a mirror of the strikes they're experiencing, they'll use different means. As discussed a moment ago, they still have thousands of ballistic missiles that can reach out and hit Israel. A launch of 500 of those simultaneously potentially could overwhelm Israeli defense facilities. They could use cyber. They could use terror attacks, targeted assassinations.

And here's one that since shivers up the back of the global economy. They could close the Strait of Hormuz. They have that ability with mines, small boats, missiles.

[09:10:03]

They couldn't keep it closed for more than a month or two, but that's a huge spike in energy prices. Iran still has options here.

BERMAN: I would say, we keep hearing about the ballistic missile capability, but if they have that capability, and if you have the supreme leader saying, Israel declared war, why has Iran used it yet?

STAVRIDIS: I think the short answer would be three initials, USA. What Iran is seeking to do is avoid pulling the United States into this as an active participant. That's what Israel wants and that's what Iran doesn't want. And, yes, the Israelis can do a lot of damage to the broad military industrial complex, but there are still many deeply buried, hardened targets, particularly their nuclear facilities that can only be truly destroyed by the U.S. using strategic bombers, our big, bunker buster bombers. And those would be the ultimate nightmare for the Iranians. So, today, the calculus in Tehran is how hard do we hit back? Do we do it in a way that avoids drawing the United States into this conflict?

Final thought here, John, you heard Ambassador Bolton a bit earlier on the program. There are a lot of voices today saying, U.S. jump in there right now. I don't think so. I think there is still an opportunity to deescalate and get back to the negotiating table. That's clearly what the Trump administration really wants, but it's going to require some artful diplomacy and some restraint to get us back to that track.

BERMAN: Admiral, how does Israel keep doing this, between the beepers that exploded and killed Hezbollah officials, to smuggling over into Iran some explosive capabilities? The Mossad released video of it overnight. How do they keep pulling this off, targeting military commanders, the head of the Revolutionary Guard? How do they get these people?

STAVRIDIS: I'll add one to your shopping list, which is, remember at the inauguration of the Iranian president, the Israelis assassinated a very senior Hamas commander right under the nose of complete Iranian security.

You're right, they do it again and again. It's a combination of three things. One is motivation. If you're a small nation of 7 million or so, maybe 10 million, and you're surrounded by potential adversaries, you get very motivated to get very good at your security. Number two is technology. It's kind of the David and Goliath theory here. Israelis know their Bible pretty well. They know they're always going to be smaller, therefore they have to use technology. Think David and his sling. And then, thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, it's motivation. They look at the long history of strikes and attacks against Israel, the Holocaust itself in Europe. There's very much a never again philosophy in Israel that I have admired over the years. When you put those three things together, they are quite formidable.

BERMAN: Admiral James Stavridis, thank you so much for being with us this morning and helping us assess what has happened overnight. I appreciate it. Sara?

SIDNER: All right, more of our breaking coverage is ahead of these Israeli strikes, which they say are not over yet. We are going to be speaking with our Dana Bash, who had a conversation with President Trump over all that has happened over the past 12 to 24 hours. That story coming up.

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[09:15:00]

SIDNER: President Trump, we are learning, will speak with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later today in the wake of Israel's unprecedented strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities and the assassination of some of the most powerful military leaders in the country. The president spoke with CNN's Dana Bash just a short time ago. Dana Bash joining us live now via phone. What did he say to you? What stood out in your conversation?

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Sara. Well, you know, the way that I started the conversation was with the question about the U.S. posture, specifically given the Secretary of State Marco Rubio's statement, very carefully worded statement that they released as the Israeli strikes were hitting Iran last night. And that statement, of course, I know you've been talking about it all morning, said that the U.S. was informed about Israel's plan. The U.S. does not want Iran to retaliate against the U.S., but notably did not say the U.S. support Israel in this attack or Israel's right to defend itself, which is usually boilerplate language for U.S. administrations, particularly this one.

So, I started the conversation by asking the president about that and whether there was something to that. And he immediately responded by saying, no, we support Israel. And he said that in the context of that question. He said, we, of course, support Israel and obviously supported it like nobody has ever supported it.

And then he went on to issue a warning to Iran, saying they should now come to the table to make a deal before it's too late.

[09:20:01]

It will be too late for them. And then he told me that the people that I was dealing with are dead, the hardliners, I said, meaning, Israel got them, killed them in the strike. And he said, sarcastically, they didn't die of the flu. They didn't die of COVID.

But the other thing that he said, Sara, was something that I know Oren Liebermann has been reporting and others, is about the timing of this. And he underscored that. He said, Iran should have listened to me when I said I gave them a 60-day warning, and today is day 61.

It was a very brief conversation, a lot more that I wanted to ask him, but he had other calls to make, as you would imagine. But the idea that what he was trying to get across was twofold. Number one, they support Israel. And, again, my question was very specific about Marco Rubio's statement, which omitted that, you know, usually boilerplate statement, and second about how successful he believes the strikes against Iran were. And maybe third most importantly, he's saying, you got to get back to the table, Iran. And that is in the context of the fact that the U.S. had Steve Wtikoff and other negotiators who were supposed to go into another round of those negotiations this weekend. And, obviously, that is, to say, it's very up in the air is an understatement.

SIDNER: Yes, I mean, a very good point what Israel saying, it is going to continue its strikes, one has to wonder. And President Trump pointing out that many of the people in the high levels that are making these decisions militarily are -- have been assassinated by Israel. It is a wonder whether or not these talks can go forward, certainly this weekend or at any time. We will have to wait and see.

Dana Bash, great talking to you, thank you for that great reporting this morning.

BASH: Thank you, Sara.

SIDNER: All right. John?

BASH: Thanks.

BERMAN: All right. With us now, CNN Political Commentator Alyssa Farah Griffin, also former Biden White House director of message planning, Meghan Hays.

And if we can, I want to shift this discussion to the domestic political implications of what we're seeing here. And, Alyssa, Politico asks the question, are we about to see major fault lines in the MAGA coalition over what's happening between Israel and Iran? The suggestion is that maybe for some MAGA supporters of Donald Trump, America first means we don't want more involvement in the Middle East. What kind of pressures do you think might exist there?

ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. There have been some very stark lines in MAGA world over engagement with Iran. So, you have the less hawkish, we'll call them, side of things, Tulsi Gabbard, the director of National Intelligence, as well as many others who have been strongly warning against any kind of engagement with Iran, as well as not wanting Israel to get involved. There's also been this sort of purging within the National Security Council of people who were seen as more traditional hawks who wanted to take on Iran directly.

And it's kind of remarkable that this significant and historic strike is happening today, which just based on everything I know from having been in government, been at the Pentagon and the White House, there was no way the U.S. wasn't intimately involved in the details of this, whether they had a role, that's a different question, but briefed at all times by the Israelis.

It looks like the hawks are winning right now because this is a very significant movement. I think many folks thought that when Mike Waltz was removed from the NSC and kind of put over to a more quiet role at the U.N. that this meant it was going to be more of a policy of disengagement and only diplomacy with Iran, and that's not what we're seeing right now. And as Dana Bash said, it's really hard to see how these talks that are supposed to take place this weekend are going to pick up in earnest after this very, very significant development.

But I'll say this, Donald Trump has had a price on his head by the Iranian regime. They have targeted former officials from his first administration. If he ever thought that a peaceful deal was going to come without making sure we cripple their nuclear capabilities, I think he's realizing that was an impossibility and is realizing that the hawks may have been onto something.

BERMAN: So, Meghan, there is a train out there in social media this morning that the very first thing we heard from the administration was Marco Rubio saying that the -- the secretary of state saying, this was a unilateral Israeli action to try to place some distance there. But as Alyssa points out, it's hard to imagine this happening without the knowledge, if not approval from the United States. And now President Trump is on the phone, he's on social media, being supportive of Israel.

Is he, in a way, trying to take credit, some credit for what looks like, at least right now, a very successful military operation?

MEGHAN HAYS, FORMER BIDEN WHITE HOUSE DIRECTOR OF MESSAGE PLANNING: Yes, it kind of looks like he's trying to play both sides here. I mean, he has a secretary of state out there saying, hey, we didn't have anything to do with this, and then he's saying, we're very supportive of it and seems to know a little bit more about it than not having anything to do with it.

[09:25:04]

So, it's just kind of interesting. I think he's trying to play both sides, which is very Donald Trump-like, but it does seem to be extremely successful here. So, I think that he's smart to do that. But I also think it's disconcerting because there's a lot going on domestically and now we could be engaging into more activities abroad. And I think that we, as Americans, are being spread very thin here. So, I think we just have to wait and see.

BERMAN: Meghan, you know, we're talking about what's happening domestically here. Something that happened yesterday, which was remarkable, was that there was a U.S. senator who was placed in handcuffs at an event for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Alex Padilla right there, senator from California, as he was approaching, trying to ask a question at this event. What are the lasting implications, do you think, of this moment?

HAYS: I mean, I think it's disgraceful that a U.S. senator, who was allegedly walked into the room by law enforcement and law enforcement was notified of his presence, that he'd be treated like this after being notified or them being notified that he was in the room. So, it's a little bit disgraceful. Also this isn't how we treat elected officials. This isn't how we should be treating people.

And I think that the lasting impacts here are that if this is how they're treating a U.S. senator, what are they doing to people during these raids and how are they treating other Americans? And I think it's just the American people deserve better and they don't deserve this chaos that's happening.

BERMAN: Alyssa, talk to us about the moment from Senator Padilla as it pertains to what we will see tomorrow, which is this military parade in Washington, but also protests, were supposed to be peaceful protests around the country.

GRIFFIN: Listen, the first words in that video that we see out as Senator Padilla's mouth is, I am an American -- a U.S. senator. So, he made that abundantly clear and still they used such a degree of force. I think it's incredibly chilling. This is a man who got 6 million votes. He represents nearly 40 million Californians, where these raids, by the way, are taking place and he has an oversight role in the Senate over immigration and the Department of Homeland Security.

So, I think it's a very chilling moment. Some Republican senators have criticized it as well. I think it speaks to the fact that Donald Trump's been very clear, any form of protest, he is going to respond to. And we've obviously got this military parade celebrating the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army taking place tomorrow. And I think that there are genuine fears over if any sort of demonstrations and protests happen, what they're going to be met with.

And just, again, I said this when you and I last talked, Donald Trump is misreading the room if he thinks that Americans want to see a clash between armed National Guard and U.S. protesters who are assembling. That's just not something that Americans want to see. There's a way to do crowd control. There's a way to do anti-riot responses with police officers that is not bullying up people who are demonstrating their First Amendment right to protest.

So, I think there's going to be all eyes on tomorrow's events and really hopeful that it stays peaceful, but he's certainly conveying that he will tolerate no protesting.

BERMAN: Alyssa Farah Griffin, Meghan Hays, thanks to both of you this morning, a lot going on. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Our breaking news coverage continues. The Israeli military now saying they're preparing for a prolonged operation after this massive attack in scope and scale against Iran's nuclear facilities taking out its top military leaders. We have the very latest coming up.

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