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G7 Summit Begins in Canada; Israel Strikes Iranian State TV Studio; Minnesota Shooting Suspect in Court. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired June 16, 2025 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:00]

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: Everybody is so used to back-and-forth. You mentioned the proxies, which kind of drive that.

This is war. And I think the Israelis were very clear-eyed about that when they started this, when they launched this particular conflict. And people need to recognize that.

DANA BASH, CNN HOST: Thank you. Thank you all. What an hour. Appreciate it.

Please stay tuned. CNN NEWS CENTRAL is going to start next.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: We do have breaking news that we are following out of the Middle East. Israel has identified incoming missiles from Iran, as we are here in this fourth day of this back- and-forth.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: And sirens, we're learning, have been activated in Northern Israel. Civilians have been advised to seek shelter.

Let's get a view of the situation on the ground right now in the Middle East with CNN's Nic Robertson, who is live for us in Tel Aviv.

Nic, what are you hearing about what's happening?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, those -- that early warning is what gets people to the shelters before the missiles come in.

Now, that's -- the IDF gives that if you go to the whole country, but what we're learning is that it does seem to be that this salvo of Iranian ballistic missiles is headed to the northern -- in the direction of the north of the country potentially and, as we saw Iran do last night, target the port city of Haifa.

Three people were killed in Iranian ballistic missile strikes there overnight. It is a city that Iran has shown an intensity of effort to try to target. It's an important port city. Within that northern area, there are oil-refining capabilities. We don't know what Iran is targeting. We don't know precisely what gets hit there in the port areas, how -- but what we do know is that Iran has been going after that.

Now, it's not clear yet what they're targeting tonight. It's not clear yet how many missiles, but what is clear from the track record that we have seen so far, Israel says that it's able now so far to destroy one-third of Iran's ballistic missile launch capability. That leaves two-thirds in play.

More than 50 ballistic missiles fired last night by Iran into Israel, statistically, the government saying that more than one in 10 of those will get through. We saw several land around Tel Aviv, and also in the early evening yesterday one land in the -- at least one land in the port city of Haifa.

This is the picture. This is the trend that's emerging. Iran tends to launch most of its ballistic missiles at night because refueling and putting the fuel in those missiles is difficult to do in the locations that they're hidden in, underground tunnels in many places, during the day, because, during the day, Israel has better capability.

We have heard the prime minister say that they have aerial dominance over Iran's defensive air mechanisms. Certainly, in the west of the country, Israel has stronger and better and clearer eyes on the areas where Israel -- where Iran is launching its missiles from. Israel says, last night, it destroyed 20 missile launchers on the ground before they were able to send salvos into Israel.

But, right now, that early warning, if you will, from the IDF, that detection, no sirens here where we're located in Central Israel. And it does appear to be that these incoming missiles focus on the north. And this does seem to be the direction we're going in.

And the language, the political language coming from Iran calling for the U.N. to condemn Israel, saying that they won't get involved in negotiations until Israel stops its missile strikes and until they have had their full retaliation that they say that they want to have.

President Trump questioned at the G7 today, will he weigh in, as politicians here in Israel believe he should do, to support Israel in their effort to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities? That's political discussion. It's not leading to an off-ramp. And I think we're seeing again tonight the beginning of another round of intense Iranian missile barrages here; 24 people have been killed so far, more than 590 injured in Israel from these strikes since Friday.

KEILAR: Yes, and Canadian officials clearly holding out hope that they can maybe get Trump to agree to something, even though at this point he is not planning to sign on to any joint statement that would call for this de-escalation between Iran and Israel. We do have some live pictures of Trump there at this summit.

I also, though, Nic, want to ask you about a moment that was seen in Iran, the national broadcaster. So, the state TV, state news agency was actually on air when there was a hit there or nearby by an Israeli strike and it was actually audible. I don't know if it was visible. Can you tell us a little bit about this and some of the targets that have been hit there in Iran?

[13:05:07]

ROBERTSON: Well, the targets Israel says that it's going for our regime targets, government targets. They say that they're going for the missile production facilities, the missile launch facilities, and, of course, the nuclear facilities.

But one of the narratives that's emerged, particularly from Prime Minister Netanyahu and others in his Cabinet, is that this -- these strikes could lead to a regime change in Iran. And this is something that Prime Minister Netanyahu has said in several speeches to the people of Iran: This is your moment. Use this as an opportunity to rise up and overthrow your leadership.

And in any, if you will, coup scenario, or in any leadership overthrow, one of the principle tactics, whether it's Israel, if that's what it's doing in Iran, or any other country around the world where this happens, is to overthrow the national broadcaster, because it takes the government's message offline from the government's audience, and that therefore helps precipitate the potential for regime change.

But it's far from clear that that's the direction that Iran is headed in. The population could go either way. What we often see in conflicts is, when a population feels that they, not the government, are the targets -- and we have heard officials in Iran, medical officials, government officials, state media say that there have been hundreds of civilian fatalities, many, many casualties in Iran.

Often, what we see is, this drives people to the flag. It drives them to the leadership of their country. So it's not clear precisely what happened at state media. It's not clear precisely why that may have happened, but it is clear that Israel would like to see regime change in Iran.

SANCHEZ: Nic Robinson in Tel Aviv, please stand by and keep us updated with what you're seeing there.

Let's actually now go to Nick Paton Walsh, who's been tracking the Iranian response to all of this.

And notably, Nick, we're hearing from President Trump as he is in Calgary meeting with the G7, and he was asked specifically about any indication from Iran, perhaps through intermediaries, that Tehran wants to de-escalate the conflict and get back to negotiations, the president saying, yes, they would like to talk, but they should have done that before.

I wonder what you're hearing from your reporting on where the Iranians stand right now.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, the latest we have heard -- and this is obviously a constantly fluid situation, changing -- is that they told regional mediators that until essentially the Israeli airstrikes had stopped and possibly also too Iran have felt it had had its response play out through its own missile strike, that they weren't willing to engage in diplomacy.

But, I mean, clearly, according to President Trump, that is something which may also be accompanied with suggestions they do want to talk. He said earlier that they are indeed talking. And so, there is, obviously, some bid here to allow diplomacy to take hold at some point.

But the public stance of Iran, of course, is exceptionally complicated for it, because it can't engage in complex diplomacy from a position of such military weakness as this, with the Israelis saying openly that they have control of the skies around Western Iran and the capital, Tehran, and clearly from the strike on the IRINN state broadcast of the images from which you just saw there, a degree of freedom of movement for the Israeli air force, as far as we can tell.

As Nic was saying, we don't know explicitly what caused this, but, frankly, a matter of hours earlier, an evacuation warning was given by the IDF in Farsi to leave District 3, the area where that state broadcast indeed is. And images now in fact emerging of the exterior of that building on fire.

Highly unlikely that this was an accident, given the explicit threat against parts of -- a paraphrase here -- but the sort of propaganda broadcasting arm that were put out by Israel's defense minister, Israel Katz, a matter of hours earlier as well. So it does seem as though the state broadcaster may have been targeted.

At this point, we don't know the extent of the damage or any injuries caused as a result here, but now I think we enter into dark hours, where, clearly, Iran's officials are suggesting that they will deliver some kind of response to this, but, increasingly, it seems their capabilities diminished by this persistent series of Israeli airstrikes.

And so, yes, the -- just to read from you here, Iran state television IRINN is saying it was attacked by Israel on Monday. And, indeed, you saw the images there of its presenter, Sahar Emami, speaking on air and being interrupted by the blast behind them.

So, continued signs that Israel's airstrikes are hitting more of Iran's infrastructure and indeed that this is taking an increased toll. We have been reporting on the civilian losses here, Iran's Health Ministry saying that of the over 200 who've died since the beginning of these Israeli strikes, 90 percent, they say, have been civilians.

That's 224 in total. They don't provide as regular updates, as we hear from Israel, but some remarkable numbers indeed showing the scale of this Israeli onslaught.

[13:10:04]

KEILAR: Yes, certainly.

Nick Paton Walsh, thank you so much.

Let's go back now to Tel Aviv and Nic Robertson, where you have an update there, Nic?

ROBERTSON: Yes, we do, the IDF saying the instruction from the Home Front Command -- this is the sort of network that tells people where to go, what to do when there's going to be an expected strike -- they're telling the people in the north who they'd sent to the shelter, because, as we understood, that Iranian ballistic missile salvo was headed towards the north of the country, the message has been given, essentially, for all-clear.

People can come out of their shelters. So that salvo is done. That appears to be over, but it also heralds the beginning of the night. And so people here will be waiting again, listening for those Home Front Command messages, their heads-up from the IDF to get in their shelters. And that's what the IDF says saves lives. Get in the shelters. That's the best way to keep the casualty numbers down.

That's the best way that Israel can weather the ballistic missiles that are coming its way.

SANCHEZ: Nic Robertson, live for us in Tel Aviv, thank you so much for keeping an eye on that for us.

Back to the United States now, in the next hour, the man accused of shooting two Minnesota state lawmakers and their spouses is set to make his first court appearance; 57-year-old Vance Boelter is expected to face first-degree state murder charges. He was arrested in the woods Sunday night following a sprawling 43-hour manhunt.

The charges stem from the killings of State Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, and the shootings of state Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Hoffman. The two lawmakers, both Democrats, were shot inside their homes.

KEILAR: Authorities are now looking into whether anyone participated in the crimes, including those who may have helped or assisted Boelter in any way.

We have seen CNN's Danny Freeman in Minneapolis.

And Danny, as we're awaiting Boelter's first appearance in federal court, what are investigators saying?

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, Boris, we actually just got a tremendous amount of new information from a press conference that just wrapped up with the acting U.S. attorney here in Minneapolis.

We now know that he, the suspect, 57-year-old Vance Boelter, is facing at least six federal charges at this time, including murder and stalking charges. But I got to be honest, the headline that we took away from that press conference was the stunning new revelation that, in those early hours of Saturday morning, when this attack took place, Boelter allegedly also visited two other lawmakers' homes that night in the greater Minnesota rather Minneapolis area.

According to a new statement of probable cause from again the U.S. attorney's office, Boelter first went to the homes of state Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette. He proceeded to then knock on the door, again impersonating a police officer. He was wearing a mask. He was wearing tactical gear.

And I want you to take a listen to how the U.S. attorney described that initial visit, and then I will tell you about the other visits that took place right after that. Take a listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE THOMPSON, U.S. ATTORNEY: When they opened the door, Boelter shine the flashlight in their faces and said there had been a shooting reported in the House. Boelter asked if they had any weapons. When Boelter lowered his flashlight, which he had shined in their face, they realized that he was not a police officer.

They shouted out: "You're not a cop. You're not a police officer."

Boelter then announced "This is a robbery" and forced himself into their home. When Senator Hoffman attempted to push Boelter out and stop him from entering his home, Boelter shot him repeatedly. Boelter then shot Ms. Hoffman repeatedly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FREEMAN: So, again, just terrifying new details described there again by the acting U.S. attorney here.

Then what happened though, which, again, we just learned in this press conference, was Boelter allegedly got into his car, which was decked out with police-style lights, a license plate that actually said police on it. He then drove to a second lawmaker's house, knocked on the door in a similar fashion, but that lawmaker was apparently on vacation, so no one was home at the time.

Then Boelter apparently went to a third lawmaker's house, but a police officer, a local police officer, a real one, was already there doing a welfare check on that particular lawmaker because this incident of this initial shooting at the Hoffmans' house happened.

And this amazing moment is described by the U.S. attorney where this local police officer pulls up alongside Boelter in his fake police car, tries to communicate with him. He doesn't say anything. And this local police officer says, listen, I have to go and can you try and protect this local lawmaker.

Then Boelter goes to the final victim's house in this particular evening, again, the early hours of Saturday morning. That's state Representative Melissa Hortman and ends up killing her and her husband.

I mean, just a stunning amount of new information. I asked the question, by the way, as to motive. Still no clear answers then, other than, in the words of the U.S. attorney, he clearly wanted to murder people -- Boris, Brianna.

[13:15:03]

KEILAR: All right, Danny Freeman, thank you so much. Just a lot of information that we have just gotten in from authorities there.

Let's talk about it now with former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. And we're also joined by us criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor Mark O'Mara.

Andy, just this awareness that we now have of just how much Boelter was preparing, planning, surveilling the homes of these lawmakers and others as well, what did you think learning that?

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: I mean, it's a stunning amount of premeditation, planning. You're talking about a highly organized, motivated, driven offender here, right?

We know that he stalked his victims for some period of time before the attacks, conducted multiple surveillance at different locations, to likely confirming that they lived in the homes whose addresses he'd looked up online. We know they got that from his online searches from his devices.

He wrote, according to the prosecutors, extensive notes and plans in many notebooks that were recovered both in his car and in his house, identifying numerous victims, where they lived, what he intended to do with them, and then, on the night that he chose for his -- to take action, an incredibly determined series of events.

He goes and attempts to murder Senator Hoffman and his wife at their residence. Immediately, I think 24 minutes later, he is seen at the home -- at a home in maple grove. This is the home of the state representative who was not there at the time. That's where he interacts with a law enforcement officer who is there doing a welfare check based on the report of the shooting at the Hoffman house.

He leaves that area without interacting with the cop. And then, 10 minutes later, at 2:36, in a neighborhood referred to as New Hope, is where he shows up at a state senator's home. It's just amazing, an amazing depth and breadth of the attack plans for one person. He's got five -- something like five different weapons in his vehicle, including three AK-47s.

It's just a remarkable amount of violence that was averted, largely because law enforcement was proactive in seeking out these other politicians, sending patrols to their homes to conduct wellness checks, knowing that they had someone potentially out there on the loose who might be looking to harm lawmakers, really remarkable story. I have never heard anything like this.

SANCHEZ: Mark, what's your reaction to the federal charges that were announced in the last hour?

MARK O'MARA, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, first, it's a frightening attack on the political system, and I think it's proper at this point for the federal government to take at least the lead on it.

And what they're going to do -- Minnesota does not have the death penalty. However, if the federal government charges him with murder and adds on the terrorism aspect, which we know they're going to do because of, as Mr. McCabe said, this well-thought-out intent and plan and now taking -- carrying some of it out, I know that the federal government is going to take the lead, seek death probably.

Interesting, though, the federal government's criminal system is much quicker than the state system. Normally, the federal system, you move quite quickly from arrest to a pretrial and then to a trial. There could be some continuances granted, but they're much more limited than in the state system. So I anticipate that the federal government is going to take and keep charge of this case moving forward.

There can be concomitant prosecutions on both sides, the state side and the federal side. But I see the federal prosecutors taking lead and moving forward. And I probably anticipate they're going to be seeking death, because not only the premeditation Mr. McCabe talked about, but just the assault on the political system and the way that this has that chilling effect on politics. And they're not going to stand for it.

KEILAR: How does the level of premeditation that we learned about today that is alleged by the government here, Mark, affect the defense of this person?

O'MARA: So, one, the prosecution, it affects in a way because that level of premeditation is what's called aggravation. So, whenever the government, whether it's federal or state, if Minnesota had the death penalty, would consider imposing death or even seeking death, they have to look for those aggravating circumstances.

One, going after an institution like politics, the political institution of government, that's an aggravator. Two, the level of premeditation and planning took it -- so, in effect, what this really does is make it much more difficult for the defense team to come together and try and come up with some explanation, what we call mitigation, as to why he shouldn't get death or why he shouldn't get a life sentence, which is on the table as well in both Minnesota and federal.

[13:20:17]

So it really makes the defense team much more difficult, because that level of premeditation, with the notes, with the planning, with everything that he did, with having at least four targets, and maybe many more -- my understanding was he had a list of more -- it's going to make it that much more difficult.

It may turn out to be some attempt at a mental health mitigation, something to try and explain away this very well-thought-out and somewhat bizarre behavior.

SANCHEZ: And, Andy, given the challenges for both the prosecution and defense in figuring out his state of mind during all of this, one piece of evidence that I found especially notable was that he allegedly said in a text to his family -- quote -- "Dad went to war last night."

How difficult is it for investigators at this point to establish his exact motive?

MCCABE: Well, motive and intent are often talked about in the same breath, but they're not exactly the same thing.

At the end of the day, we don't need to know why he embarked upon this murder spree or attempted murder spree. We just need to know that he intended to do it. And the -- all of the evidence that Mark was just talking about is key to establishing that intent. It shows he was planning. He was acquiring the weapons and the things that he needed to do it. He was doing his research online to make sure he went to the right house at the right time, all these things.

That's solid evidence of intent. It may be that we -- the prosecutor said there is no clear manifesto or political statement about why he did this, what his AKA motive was in doing it. And we may never get that, but, nevertheless, prosecutors have a bumper crop of evidence here.

And I think his statements to his wife and his direction to his family and then the fact that she was then -- her vehicle was searched. She was found in the vehicle with a large amount of cash and passports for her and her children. All these things will go to show this full picture of a very complex criminal effort.

SANCHEZ: Andrew McCabe, Mark O'Mara, appreciate you both for joining us.

Still ahead: As Israel and Iran trade attacks for a fourth straight day, CNN has learned that leaders of the G7 plan to press President Trump on his plan for dealing with the conflict.

KEILAR: Plus, the president's sons announce a new wireless service called Trump Mobile. We'll have more on the ethics concerns that this raises.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:27:00]

SANCHEZ: President Trump is in Canada today, where G7 leaders are meeting for their first day of the annual summit.

And the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran is expected to dominate discussions. There's a growing push inside Israel's government, meantime, for more U.S. involvement. Earlier today, President Trump urged both countries to seek out peace, while remaining noncommittal about the U.S.' role.

And he said this about Iran's intention:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They'd like to talk, but they should have done that before. I had 60 days, and they had 60 days. And on the 61st day, I said, we don't have a deal. They have to make a deal.

And it's painful for both parties, but I'd say Iran is not winning this war. And they should talk, and they should talk immediately before it's too late.

QUESTION: And what would you say? In your opinion, what would it take for the U.S. to get involved in this conflict militarily?

TRUMP: I don't want to talk about that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Let's get some perspective with Ian Bremmer. He's the president and founder of Eurasia Group and GZERO Media.

Ian, thanks so much for sharing part of your afternoon with us.

IAN BREMMER, PRESIDENT, EURASIA GROUP: Sure. Sure.

SANCHEZ: I'm curious to get your perspective on something that I have heard multiple points of view on. And that is the United States' involvement in this from a strategic standpoint. There are folks out there who believe that Donald Trump is actually egging Netanyahu on, and there are folks out there who say that Netanyahu is trying to drag the U.S. into a war with Iran.

How do you see it?

BREMMER: The U.S. is involved. The U.S. is, of course, the principal external military supporter of Israel. It's also providing real-time intelligence. And none of that is going to be cut off or suspended, as it was briefly with Ukraine, for example, despite this war.

So, I mean, clearly, the Americans are waist-deep, neck-deep. What the Americans have not done is directly attacked Iran. And what President Trump is doing very clearly at the G7 today is, he is warning the Iranians that that will come if they are not going to now take a last possible chance for a negotiation. I think the Trump would accept sitting down yet again with the Iranians for a sixth time.

But if that happens and it doesn't pan out, then you're going to see the Americans either directly or providing the materiel to the Israelis directly that would allow for this critical attack against the deep underground nuclear capabilities that Iran has that Israel can't take out by themselves in Fordow.

One way or another, that's where we're going if the Iranians do not back down.

SANCHEZ: To that point, Israel has a window here, right, where they can try to pursue that. Obviously, they can't do it without the United States' help. But if they stop short of that, it seems as though they have given

ammunition to the hard-liners in Iran to justify real pursuit, expanded, accelerated pursuit of a nuclear weapon, using these attacks as justification, no?