Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Interview With Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH); Will Trump Order Attack on Iran?. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired June 18, 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]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:00:33]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Hello, and welcome to special coverage of the Israel-Iran conflict. I'm Anderson Cooper in Tel Aviv, alongside Erin Burnett in New York.

There is a lot to get to in the hour ahead. We start with the breaking news. We just left a bomb shelter after Israeli officials gave the all-clear. There were warnings that -- a short time ago that Iran had just launched a new wave of missiles toward Israel. It comes as the relentless barrage between both countries is now in its sixth day.

New videos from Iran show the aftermath of several explosions across the country. Now, the IDF confirms it is striking targets in the capital of Tehran. Iranian state media reports one of those attacks hit near a Red Crescent facility. Right now, there is a near-total Internet blackout in Iran.

Despite the onslaught, Iran's supreme leader vowed today in a prerecorded message that his country will not surrender and warned that U.S. military actions against Iran would result in what he called irreparable damage. Sources tell CNN that President Trump is increasingly open to the idea of using U.S. military assets to strike Iranian nuclear facilities, as we have been reporting now over the last day or so.

Sources also tell us that the Pentagon is deploying a third aircraft carrier group to the region. But, as of this morning, President Trump was still noncommittal on whether the U.S. will get more deeply involved in offensive operations in the conflict.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You don't know that I'm going to even do it. You don't know. I may do it. I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I'm going to do. I can tell you this, that Iran's got a lot of trouble, and they want to negotiate.

QUESTION: Have the Iranians reached out to you? TRUMP: Yes.

QUESTION: And what did they say?

TRUMP: I said it's very late, you know? I said it's very late to be talking.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: It's -- I don't know. There's a big difference between now and a week ago, right, big difference.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: So let's get you -- let's go right to CNN's Alayna Treene at the White House.

Alayna, you spoke directly there with the president today about the ongoing campaign in Iran. What more did he tell you?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, look, he essentially was keeping his cards close to the vest, Anderson, not really wanting to share more about his decision-making process on whether or not he would give the go-ahead to have the U.S. use its military firepower to strike Iranian nuclear sites.

Now, I also asked him if it was too late for the Iranians to make a deal with the United States to seek a diplomatic off-ramp to this escalating conflict. And at first he said it is very late, but then he still said it's still potentially on the table.

Now, you mentioned this, Anderson, but in my conversations with White House officials here, they tell me that he is increasingly warming to this sense of wanting the U.S. to get involved more directly in helping Israel take out Iran's nuclear capabilities.

Now, I also asked the president what his conversations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have looked like and whether he's indicated that he wants the United States to get more involved than they have already . Take a listen to what he told me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: Mr. President can you share some of what you have told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu?

TRUMP: Said, keep going.

(CROSSTALK)

TREENE: Have you given him any indication...

TRUMP: I speak to him every day. He's a good man, doing a lot. Been very unfairly treated by his country, I think, very unfairly treated.

TREENE: Have you given him any indication that you may seek to aid them more than you have already?

TRUMP: No, no, I haven't. So far, he's doing a good job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: So, you could hear him say there, Anderson, he's arguing that he is not given Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu any sense that they are going to move forward in helping them more than they already have.

All to say, look, it's very unclear what the president is actually going to do here. Despite him being closer to wanting to have the U.S. potentially strike some of these facilities than he has been before, I am continuing to hear in my conversations with people here at the White House that if the Iranians come to him in a more forthcoming way, if they come to him with concessions for a potential deal, the president would still be open to considering that -- Anderson.

COOPER: All right, Alayna Treene, thanks very much.

We're going to continue to monitor events at the White House. As I mentioned, in spite of President Trump's calls for Iran's unconditional surrender, today, the supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said his country would never surrender.

[13:05:06]

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh is monitoring developments from London for us.

Nick, how much have Israel's attacks degraded Iran's military capabilities?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: I think it's fair to say significantly.

There's no way you can look at the onslaught of the past five to six days and not perceive an Iran who's clearly lost significant amounts of its military hierarchy, its nuclear program, brainpower as well, and then persistent continued strikes, not only on their successors, but also on military infrastructure as well.

Now, the suggestion has been from Israel that it's taken out about a third of the missile launchers that launched possibly the 2,000 missiles that Iran had before its phase of conflict over the last 15 months against Israel. And, indeed, certainly 700 to 800 missiles have been fired. Many may have been destroyed before they even left the ground here.

And so even the most optimistic estimates have Iran with possibly 1,000 ballistic missiles, maybe 1,200 or so left, maybe even in the low hundreds. That is going to be playing significantly on the mind of its leaders. They need to retain some kind of deterrence and ability to strike back potentially against any further Israel attacks.

But now Israel says it has air supremacy. That's another key factor here. And it may some way explain the rhetoric we heard from Ayatollah Khamenei today, fiery perhaps, but not 10 out of 10 in terms of what we have heard from combative words from Tehran in the past, talking about the irreparable damage that would be done if the U.S. joined Israel's campaign, but not threatening U.S. bases, not really railing against President Trump by name.

And so I think there is certainly in the minds of Iran's leadership here the recognition their capabilities are massively degraded. Their capital is under persistent attack. We have heard just now their air defenses appear to be in operation over Tehran, Israel saying the same just in the last hour or so too.

So, a moment in flux certainly, but I think when you hear Iran talk about how it could never surrender, you have to bear in mind that they have for decades portrayed the United States as the Great Satan.

COOPER: Want to go over to the White House right now. President Trump is taking some questions from reporters. Let's listen in. All right, he walked off.

Nick, I apologize. We will continue to monitor events from Washington. Nick, we will check back in with you in London as well throughout the evening hours.

Minutes ago, Iran issued an evacuation warning written in Hebrew to residents of the Israeli coastal city of Haifa.

CNN international diplomatic editor, Nic Robertson, is in Haifa.

Nic, what are you seeing?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, it's pretty quiet here, Anderson.

I mean, look, people have been rattled, as they have been in other parts of the country, by the strikes here. This is an important city in the country. But, this evening, it's quiet. And, actually, as you drive into the town, I think people are responding to the government sort of feeling that this war or conflict with Iran is sort of on a -- getting on a better footing.

The size and scope and scale of the Iranian barrages is coming down. It's reduced last two days, no casualties, so the intercept system is doing a sufficient or perhaps better job coping with the limited now lesser number of munitions coming in.

And the government has told people that they can now gather in groups of up to 30, that if they have a workspace office or whatever it is that's got a shelter close by, they can begin to use that again. Obviously, schools are not open yet. So these are some of the restrictions that the government has announced today as a result of how well, if you like, the situation is going.

That relieves some of the pressure on people. And we're seeing that here. Look, here, there's people out jogging, people out having a stroll, couples out having a stroll. It's almost as if none of the previous six days had happened. Go to the stores, where we were here before, and people are out. They're relaxing.

It can change on a dime. Everyone knows that here. Everyone knows what the government says about staying close to shelter, listening out for the sirens. But I think, when you look around now this evening, compared to several days ago, there's a lot less stress around, people still concerned about what's coming, but they're more at ease with the situation.

They have they have seen it over a few nights, and Iran strikes are getting less.

COOPER: Yes, that certainly seems the situation of people I have just talked to walking around in Tel Aviv over the last several hours.

Nic Robertson, thanks very much. We will continue to check in with you.

Erin, obviously, the night is falling now here. We will see what the coming hours bring.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Yes, of course. And we're here with you Anderson.

And let's go now to David Sanger of "The New York Times," also our political and national security analyst, a career covering Iran.

So, David, just to talk about some of the things that Nick and Nic were talking about, can we just start with the e-mail that just came from the Israelis? They are saying that Iran has fired 400 ballistic missiles so and 1,000 drones. Now, they did this during the Gaza conflict. They would total up every single number, OK?

[13:10:15]

So, this is their number, 400 ballistic, 1,000 drones. Does anybody know or what's your best guess of how many ballistic missiles and of what power they have left?

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, it's a really great question. I think that's why they're turning out these numbers.

So we think they had a couple thousand initially. That number may be high and could be imprecise because you don't know what's hidden away. But the most important thing out of this, Erin, is that, back in October, when the Israelis took out so many of the air defenses...

BURNETT: Right.

SANGER: ... they also took out a facility that produces the solid fuel for new missiles. And it's Chinese-made equipment. It's pretty complex to go do, but we don't think it got replaced since that time. It takes a while.

BURNETT: Yes. SANGER: And so that raises the question of whether the Iranians are shooting off fewer missiles to Tel Aviv, as you just heard from Nic Robertson...

BURNETT: Yes.

SANGER: ... because they know that, everything they shoot, they cannot replace. And it's possible that what the Israelis are trying to do now is just make them use up as much...

BURNETT: To run it down.

SANGER: Yes.

BURNETT: OK, and so now -- and I have just received this, the request for an emergency Security Council meeting from the Iranians.

And I just wanted to say to you, David, some of the wording that they're saying in here. Let me pull it up and get it a little larger here. All right, so they're talking about: "The situation has dangerously escalated due to mounting an undeniable evidence of direct United States involvement in this unlawful campaign."

All right? And then they also talk about the Israeli regime in full coordination with the United States has launched a deliberate premeditated and large-scale act of aggression, OK, and then they're requesting it to stop in all the ways that they're requesting.

OK, what do you hear when you hear that?

SANGER: So they believe, and they're not 100 percent wrong here, that the United States is complicit in this attack. Do I think that President Trump thought it up and wanted it now? No.

But by the testimony of the president himself, from the reconstruction you read...

BURNETT: Yes.

SANGER: ... by many of my colleagues in "The Times" this morning, at some point, Bibi Netanyahu called and said, I'm not holding off anymore. And he went ahead on his own, betting that the United States would end up coming in.

Now, that's why we're at this sort of critical hinge point. Could the Israelis keep doing what they're doing and degrade the missile capability? Yes. Can they hit a number of the nuclear sites? Well, yesterday, it looks like they took out two of the factories that make the centrifuges, the machines that spin and produce uranium.

BURNETT: Yes.

SANGER: What they can't do, we think, unless they have come up with a covert or on-the-ground way to do it, is take out Fordow, the underground site.

BURNETT: Yes.

SANGER: And that's the decision the president has to make. Does he take the risk of being fully involved, at which point the Iranians would be 100 percent correct?

BURNETT: Right, right.

And, of course, by -- there is still a question as to whether even the U.S. bunker-buster bomb would be enough to take out Fordow.

SANGER: That's right. We don't know. And...

BURNETT: This is like taking it as, oh, OK, we do it and that's out, is not a sure thing.

SANGER: It sure isn't.

BURNETT: There's also the question of, what is the endgame for Israel? OK, and as Clarissa has been reporting, they don't have one that they have explicitly said.

Bibi Netanyahu is who is the first to -- whatever word one would like to use, but to lay down the gauntlet on the Iranian nuclear program and where they really are, he himself has said that they have already set them back by many, many years. And clearly that's not enough.

So is this a regime change or nothing situation?

SANGER: Well, first of all, I'm not sure he's right on the many, many years. I mean, what we have usually discovered is that countries can reconstitute their nuclear capabilities faster than we think.

Now, it's possible that Prime Minister Netanyahu was thinking, then they go back and they mow the lawn again, but we don't know how far they have set them back.

BURNETT: I like that, mow the lawn.

(CROSSTALK)

SANGER: And that's a phrase actually they use, right?

BURNETT: Yes.

SANGER: But it does raise the question, if you are President Trump, do you go ahead and do the operation at Fordow, or do you say, look, you said you set them back many years?

And the history of the Iranian nuclear program has been the U.S. and Israel setting them back by sabotage, by cyberattack, by negotiation.

BURNETT: Yes, Stuxnet, we remember, yes.

SANGER: Yes, all of those.

BURNETT: And so what would -- when you also heard Nic Robertson talking about the supreme leader, that his rhetoric is fiery, or, actually -- I'm sorry -- I think it was Nick Paton Walsh.

SANGER: Right.

[13:15:00]

BURNETT: Fiery, but not a 10 out of 10. How would you describe it?

SANGER: You know, it didn't strike me as the most fiery thing that he could have done.

We don't know right now...

BURNETT: Right, "Death to America," by the way. I mean, even when I was in Iran, I remember people were very friendly as they were chanting "Death to America," right?

SANGER: Yes. And...

BURNETT: So I just like to put that in context. One can say "Death to America" and not be at a 10 out of 10.

SANGER: In the old days, one could yell "Death to America" and go apply for a visa to the United States that afternoon.

BURNETT: Yes. Yes.

SANGER: But I think that the critical question right here is, how much does the supreme leader actually understand about what they have done, what their reserves are?

We don't know exactly what kind of shape he's in.

BURNETT: You're talking about his mental capacity.

SANGER: Or actually just his overall health.

BURNETT: Yes.

SANGER: I mean, when the nuclear deal was struck 10 years ago, it was struck on the thought that he probably wouldn't be alive today and they would have someone else to go negotiate with for the next stage. That was obviously wrong. So the guy has held on.

And we also don't know who's actually working underneath him. So much of the military leadership and the nuclear leadership have been wiped out in the past couple of days. And I'm sure there's a fair bit of chaos. And usually in the Iranian system there are a lot of factions maneuvering for position.

The question now is, if the president puts an ultimatum to them, are they able to respond that fast?

BURNETT: Yes. Right. And that's crucial in the command and control.

David Sanger, thank you so much.

SANGER: Thank you.

BURNETT: No one knows more and has covered that nuclear program more than David.

And as the world waits to see what President Trump decides, Senator Chuck Schumer is requesting an all-senators classified briefing from the White House.

Meantime, the crisis in Iran has Republican lawmakers now dueling opposite sides of the fence -- details on the crucial developments for those factions just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:21:15]

BURNETT: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is asking the White House for a -- quote -- "all-senators" classified briefing on the situation with Iran, as we're seeing growing division among Republicans on the escalating conflict.

Joining me now from Capitol Hill is Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee.

And, Senator, we all appreciate your time today.

I don't know if you believe at this point this is going to happen, this all-senators classified briefing, if you have a feel for whether this would happen, who would brief. But do you -- what are the questions that you have? If such a thing were to happen, all-senators classified briefing, what information do you need right now?

OK. OK. It sounds like -- well you saw the senator. I think, as I was looking down to get my information, I think she was looking down to try to fix her earpiece. So we're going to take a brief break, because I don't want to...

SEN. JEANNE SHAHEEN (D-NH): Yes.

BURNETT: Oh, no, she hears me now?

Senator Shaheen, can you hear me?

SHAHEEN: I can hear you now, yes.

BURNETT: Oh, OK. OK, I'm sorry about that.

SHAHEEN: That's OK.

BURNETT: I just wanted to ask you. I was saying that Chuck Schumer had requested this all-senators classified briefing on the situation with Iran.

And I was wondering if you knew anything about that. And if such a thing were to happen, what are the pieces of information that you need to get? SHAHEEN: Well, I don't know about the briefing. As far as I know, it

hasn't been scheduled yet. I did request from Chairman Risch, who is the chairman -- I'm the ranking member on the Foreign Relations Committee. I urged him to also request a briefing on behalf of the Foreign Relations Committee.

I think we need to know what the potential is to take out the Iranian enrichment facilities at Fordow. I also think it's important for us to know what the status is of the service men and women who are in the region. My understanding is, we have about 40,000 troops in the region. Many of them are within range of Iranian missiles.

Also, how many Americans in Israel might be affected by further escalation of this conflict? So, I think there are a lot of unanswered questions. And Congress really needs to get the information.

BURNETT: So, when you say the briefing on the Fordow plan, do you know whether U.S. munitions are capable of truly eliminating that facility? I mean, I keep hearing again and again that the answer to that is no, that there is uncertainty as to whether that bomb, the mother of all bombs, as they call it, would actually be successful, even in that very specific way, never mind what came after.

Do you have confidence on the answer to that question?

SHAHEEN: I think we have gotten conflicting answers to that. And that's why I think it would be really helpful to have -- that's information that we need.

I certainly hope the president has some definitive information about that before he makes a decision about what he might be willing to do. The fact is, as you all have reported, it's not just that bunker- busting bomb that's involved there. It's the B-2 bomber and the fact that an American pilot would need to pilot that plane, and so that would very directly involve American troops in the conflict.

And we need a lot more answers than we have gotten from this administration.

BURNETT: And do you have any sense of what support Iran is getting or would be getting from Russia, from China, from others that would, of course, escalate this into something much closer to World War III than a single strike from one U.S. bomber?

SHAHEEN: You know, I asked the question. We had a hearing on NATO at the Foreign Relations Committee this morning after the hearing with Secretary Hegseth.

[13:25:04]

And I asked the witnesses about that question, if they were surprised that Russia had not provided weapons to Iran, even though Iran has been requesting them. And both witnesses said, no, in fact, they weren't surprised, that Russia is not a reliable ally and that they didn't expect that to change.

Now, I don't have any information about what China might be doing.

BURNETT: So I know when you mentioned the discussions this morning. You questioned Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth specifically today on whether the Pentagon has provided options for strike, multiple options for what that would be.

And he said to you that any answer would be provided in a classified setting. But you felt it was important that he answer that publicly to the American public.

SHAHEEN: Well, that's right.

I mean, I wasn't expecting him to answer the specifics of any options.

BURNETT: Of course not. Yes.

SHAHEEN: But what I was expecting him to tell us is what -- whether they were having serious conversations, which I assume they are -- but, again, he declined to respond to that -- about not just what kind of action they might be taking, whether they're contemplating very direct action, and what they're doing to protect service members who are in the region.

I'm sure that families watching that hearing who have loved ones stationed in the region are very concerned about what we might be doing. And we need -- the American public needs to be told about what the options are, what we're thinking about.

BURNETT: Right, right. Well, they do, because we could be talking about a big, serious war of many years and a lot of American lives on the line. And we all know that that's the reality of this.

And, in that context, I want to ask you about your colleague Senator Ted Cruz on the Foreign Relations Committee. Senator Ted Cruz is a respected guy in foreign relations, right? He is. We know that.

SHAHEEN: I think so.

BURNETT: Therefore, I just want to play that exchange that he had with Tucker Carlson.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TUCKER CARLSON, FORMER FOX NEWS ANCHOR: How many people live in Iran, by the way?

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): I don't know the population.

CARLSON: At all?

CRUZ: No, I don't know the population.

CARLSON: You don't know the population of the country you seek to topple?

What's the ethnic mix of Iran? CRUZ: They are Persians and predominantly Shia.

CARLSON: What percent?

CRUZ: OK, this is cute. OK.

CARLSON: No, no, it's not even -- you don't know anything about Iran. So, actually, the country...

CRUZ: OK, I am not the Tucker Carlson expert on Iran, who says...

(CROSSTALK)

CARLSON: You're a senator who's calling for the overthrow of the government, and you don't know anything about the country.

(CROSSTALK)

CRUZ: No, you don't know anything about the country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Senator, how many people who are for rah, rah, rah, go, go, go in this situation are doing it because they have always felt that way and are doing it in the absence of basic information, such as knowing the population of Iran is 92 million people?

SHAHEEN: Well, I can't speak to how many people know the specifics.

But, again, that's why I think it's important for the White House to brief us with the Department of Defense, with the secretary of state to talk about what all of the potential ramifications are of the United States taking any action, because Congress is supposed to have the legal authority to authorize this kind of action in a conflict.

And if the White House is not willing to share with members of Congress what they're thinking, then that doesn't speak well for what all of the steps are that happen next, because using a bunker-buster bomb isn't the end of that conflict, clearly. There will be ramifications for that, and people need to understand what those are.

BURNETT: Senator Shaheen, thank you so very much. I appreciate your time.

SHAHEEN: Thank you.

BURNETT: And when we come back, back live to Tel Aviv, as the conflict here continues, and those sirens have been blaring.

Plus, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell about to announce the decision on interest rates, as President Trump has ramped up the pressure to cut rates significantly.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:30:00]