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Israel-Iran Conflict, Trump Weighs U.S Options On Sixth Day; Putin Not Backing Iran Military Despite Tehran's Help In Ukraine; Jury Reaches Verdict In Karen Read Murder Trial. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired June 18, 2025 - 14:30   ET

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

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[14:33:00]

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Welcome back to our breaking news coverage of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran, which we are covering because President Trump said today he is encouraging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to keep going with the Israeli attacks against Iran's nuclear facilities and leaders. But President Trump still declining to say if the United States will get involved militarily on strikes within Iran.

With me now, CNN global affairs analyst Brett McGurk and CNN national Security analyst Beth Sanner. So, Brett, let me start with you. The Israel Defense Forces chief today said striking Iran means hitting the entire axis, referring to Iran's proxies in the region, obviously, the Houthis in Yemen, Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon. I guess there are other militias in Syria and Iraq. What would the end of this Iranian regime mean for the Middle East?

BRETT MCGURK, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: End of this regime, Jake?

TAPPER: Yes.

MCGURK: I think that's really getting ahead of things. I think, I mean, right now we're focused on and I've been really stressing this. If the president decided to do this strike at Fordow, and it looks like we're getting all the preparation.

TAPPER: At the Fordow.

MCGURK: At the Fordow underground facility.

TAPPER: Yes.

MCGURK: We have to have alignment with the Israelis. This is really important. If we're going to do this, we need to agree with the Israelis. This is about the nuclear program and missiles. This is not about regime change, is not militarily imposed regime.

TAPPER: Do you think the U.S. is aligned with the Israelis on that? It sounds like the Israelis have certainly been calling for Iranians to take to the streets in some ways. Right? MCGURK: So I have no doubt. Look, this is post October 7th. This gets to your question. I mean, Israel's national security doctrine after October 7, they will no longer allow threats to fester, period. No matter what we might think, no matter what the U.N. might say, that is our national security doctrine.

Now that they have air superiority over Iran, I think they are going to maintain that for, frankly, the foreseeable future. They will continue to strike against threats they see in Iran. They will hope that this might lead to a regime unraveling.

[14:35:04]

I just think that cannot be a declared objective. That really is for the Iranian people. It is so fraught with unintended consequences. This has to be if this is where we're going, the nuclear program and missiles, when it comes to military power.

TAPPER: Yes. Beth, the U.S. is moving a third aircraft carrier into the region. Is this posturing? Is this just giving actual options to President Trump? Is there a B2 bomber one of these that can carry one of these giant bombs that could destroy the Forte plan? Or at least that's the hope. What do you think? Is it a bluff or is it real?

BETH SANNER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Both. I think it's both. Right. I think that there's some reporting out there, I don't know if it's true or not, that Israel is running out of some of its air defense interceptors. Right. This wouldn't surprise me given how much was expended in April and October even by us. We shot off like a year plus worth of munitions at that point.

So when you move these aircraft carriers in, you're moving in whole groups, destroyers, aircraft. These can provide the kind of cover for air defense and particularly to protect our bases in the region because these bases still can be hit by the short range missiles and by cruise missiles that can't hit Israel effectively or at all.

So I think there's that, but there's also just the sheer power of that comes with aircraft carriers. And Iran sees this and it says, wow, maybe we can't shut off the Strait of Hormuz and choke off the world's oil supply because they're moving this aircraft carrier. It limits Iran's options.

The B2 bombers though, do not have anything to do with the aircraft carriers are way too big. They fly long distances, they have refueling, all of that. So that's still in the offing.

TAPPER: Where are they?

SANNER: They are either in the United States and maybe in Diego Garcia.

TAPPER: Diego Garcia, that little island in the middle of it all. Brett, something that seems interesting to me is that -- so the United States has been involved in the defense of Israel, shooting down some of the missiles, shooting down some of the drones, et cetera. In October, correct me if I'm wrong, in October during the Biden

administration when Iran fired 100 missiles and drones into Israel, the United States, I believe, also was involved in shooting them down with jets. Right? U.S. pilots were flying and shooting them down. And I don't think they are now. I don't think the U.S. Air Force is involved in shooting them down from planes. Is that right?

MCGURK: Well, Jake, when it comes to ballistic missiles, that's really the interceptors that Beth just mentioned. That's the THAAD battery aerosystems, the missile destroyers. When it comes to drones. So in April of last year, Iran fights incredible. Remember this? They fired 120 ballistic missiles, 30 cruise missiles, 170 drones, slow flying drones.

TAPPER: Okay.

MCGURK: Our aircraft are in the sky shooting those down.

TAPPER: That was in April of last year.

MCGURK: I was in April. We were ready to do that in October. I assume we're ready to do that now. The threat now is the ballistic missiles and we're seeing a significant reduction.

TAPPER: So you don't think it's a decision to -- because obviously involving a jet is a risk of the pilot's life, not a serious risk, maybe necessarily with when it comes to shooting down a drone, but it is a risk nonetheless. You don't think there was a cost benefit analysis saying by the Trump administration, we're not going to risk a pilot?

MCGURK: I have not heard that. I think we have American personnel manning an air defense system in Israel. This was deployed in October. And actually when President Biden made that decision to deploy that system was the right decision. We're going to help defend Israel. Putting American personnel on the ground to help defend Israel. We also had a very strategic conversation with the Israelis about what they were going to do to counter that missile attack.

Israel did a very effective airstrike into Iran, taking out their strategic air defense systems. We are not a part of that operation, but were a part of the consultation.

TAPPER: Yes.

MCGURK: We knew exactly what these Israelis were going to do.

TAPPER: So, Beth, Iran's supreme leader is vowing his country will not surrender. Is there an off ramp here?

SANNER: Maybe, but we may have already crossed the Rubicon. We were talking about this in the Green Room. This is a country that's about resistance. Its entire kind of idea of itself, this axis of resistance. And the group, you know, October 7th, this is a resistance group. So, when President Trump says, you must unconditionally surrender to a

group who sees itself as resisters, even if we put ourselves in those shoes, what do you think we would say if someone said, America, Trump, you need to unconditionally surrender, they have to say, no, right?

TAPPER: Yes.

SANNER: We are going to resist. Now, I do think that at this point, I didn't think this last week, on Friday, but I think at this point they are actually interested in starting a negotiation.

TAPPER: The Iranians.

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SANNER: The Iranians. But, you know, it has to be done very delicately. And that window, in a way, the more we pressure, the harder it gets. The more we push them into a corner, the more we kind of force them into extreme reactions.

TAPPER: And on the good cop, bad cop of this, initially, the statement that Rubio put out, Secretary of State Rubio was, this is an Israeli operation. We're not involved. But since then, for whatever reason, the Trump administration has associated itself more with that operation, making that kind of diplomacy more difficult. Right?

MCGURK: Well, I think the enormous success of an oppressive scope and execution of the Israeli operation was unclear in the night operation, really in full next 24 hours. And it truly is extraordinary.

TAPPER: Right.

MCGURKL And I think President Trump obviously saw that and said, you know, let's see what we can do to help both defend Israel and then increasingly, let's see what we can do to actually dismantle the nuclear program. That's where we are. But I would say in the time, you know, it takes time to get an aircraft carrier strike group into the Middle East from another part of the earth takes a few days. We probably have some days here.

Use that time wisely, not only to get ready if this operation is coming, but try to see if there's a diplomatic off ramp. I think the demands on Iran now are going to be much higher than they were a week ago, probably. President signal that's right. But there is still some time here for diplomacy, and we have to see otherwise I think this operation is coming.

TAPPER: All right, Beth Sanner and Brett McGurk, thanks to both you. Really appreciate your expertise. Russia is condemning Israel strikes in Iran, but Vladimir Putin is apparently not offering his Middle Eastern ally any military support. Why? We'll dig into it right after this.

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[14:45:59] ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to Tel Aviv. Russia has condemned Israeli attacks on Iran and warned other countries against getting involved in the region. Yet despite being a key ally of Tehran and receiving Iranian missiles and drones for its war in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin has apparently yet to offer Iran anything beyond his verbal support.

I want to turn now to CNN's chief global affairs correspondent, Matthew Chance. Matthew, why isn't the Kremlin returning the favor of Iran aiding Russia against Ukraine?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: That's a good question. I think one answer to that is that, well, you know, Russia doesn't have a formal military alliance with Iran. It has something called a strategic partnership. And so the Russians would argue they're not under any legal obligation to provide military assistance in a situation like this.

But I think the real reason is, one of the real reasons is that, you know, it was a couple of them. One is that they don't have a lot of extra equipment. Yes, they're fighting a war of their own. They've been in heavily hit when it comes to losses in material and equipment. I don't think they have the extra capacity, frankly, the Russians, to provide the Iranians with, for instance, small surface to air missile systems. They need them to protect their own sort of forces and installations from Ukrainian attack.

There's another factor as well, which I think the Russians would be much more reluctant to talk about, which is this idea that this war in the Middle East between Iran and Israel is actually really playing into the hands of the Kremlin, you know, in the sense that, first of all, you know, Putin is casting himself as a power broker in the Middle East. He's the only leader in the world that has been able to reach out directly by telephone to the U.S., the Israeli and the Iranian sort of leadership. And so he's in that unique position. And he's been trying to leverage that to say he could play some sort of mediatory role.

The other factor is that, look, I mean, the truth is with all the tension of the world now focusing on the conflict in Israel and Iran, with the possibility of the United States increasing its involvement as well, it's taking the attention off Ukraine, not just the scrutiny in terms of what Russia does. And it's doing a lot over the course of the past couple of days.

It's been really increasing and intensifying its drone and missile strikes on Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, but also it's sort of diverting U.S. military attention, military aid away from Ukraine and towards the Middle East. And so all of that are things that Putin sort of is benefiting from, if you like.

COOPER: Matthew Chance, thanks very much for that. We're going have more from Tel Aviv ahead. Just in here to CNN. Israel's president says a 7-year-old Ukrainian girl who fled to Israel for cancer treatment has been killed in an Iranian airstrike just south of where we are now. The president writing quote, Nastia Borik came seeking life and said

she was murdered. We're told four members of her family were also killed. Stay with CNN. We'll be right back.

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TAPPER: And we have some more breaking news for you on this breaking news packed Wednesday afternoon. The jury has reached a verdict in the Karen Read retrial. Karen Read is facing murder and other charges for allegedly striking and killing her boyfriend, John O'Keefe, a Boston police officer back in 2022. Let's bring in Jean Casarez right now, who's outside the court. Jean, a lot of chaos out there. Tell us what you know.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we are hearing a verdict. It is confirmed. CNN was able to confirm it. And the amount of people here, supporters of Karen Read has only grown. Let me show you what court officials have just allowed them to do, allowed them to go closer to the front door of the courthouse. If you can see this, you see just the maze of people all in pink here.

And they have not been allowed to get this close to the front door before of the court, but they are allowing them to because the judge and we understand the court personnel are saying that at any moment that verdict will be read in that courtroom.

Now, we have cameras in that courtroom. We'll be able to hear it. Of course, there are three main charges in this case. Second degree murder Karen Read accused of clipping John O'Keefe with her car, causing his death. The intent to put her foot on that accelerator 75 percent of the way, in reverse, 90 feet, striking John O'Keefe. We then have vehicular manslaughter involving alcohol. That is the second count that has the lesser included which have been at issue in this trial already. Jury questions around those lesser included. The third count leaving the scene of an accident causing death.

We know this jury has been deliberating over 20 hours now. The questions were very pointed in on those lesser included. And also if we find two not guilty counts, but we can't determine what a third count is everything hung.

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The judge refused to answer that. But we are hearing now there is a verdict. So we need to see what that verdict is. Is it a mixed verdict? Is it a true verdict on all counts? And that is what we are waiting for. Judge Beverly Cannone initially summoned them into the courtroom just minutes ago, saying that. And no jury was present, but saying that during the lunch hour, there had been a knock on the door. Court officials opened it. They said there was a verdict.

Then a few minutes later, a second knock on the door. They said, no, we do not have a verdict. But there was a verdict slip because Judge Cannone open court with the attorneys took that verdict slip minutes ago, put it in an envelope, sealed it said it is now legally sealed.

And at this point, I don't think anyone knows what that verdict slip said. But then just minutes later, they determined, and we have confirmed there now is an actual verdict.

TAPPER: All right, we're going to come back to you in a second, Jean. But in the meantime, let's bring in former litigator Lisa Bonner. Lisa, while we're waiting for this verdict, this has been a very complicated case. Obviously two trials. What are you expecting?

LISA BONNER, FORMER LITIGATOR: Well, from what we heard from the jury instructions yesterday and the questions that they were going back and forth with the judge, it is possible that they could come back with a mixed verdict. That would not be unusual from everything that we've heard thus far. And we're just waiting to see.

I mean, there was a lot the defense put on a very good case this year. I mean, this retrial. And they really pushed back and put some effort into showing that Karen Read was allegedly framed. So, anything can happen with respect to this. And I think we're all just waiting on pins and needles to see what's going to happen. But I personally do expect some type of mixed verdict in this court.

TAPPER: Interesting. And just to remind our viewers, Karen Read has pleaded not guilty to second degree murder, vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, and also leaving the scene of a collision resulting in death. She has pleaded not guilty to that.

Prosecutors have called nearly 40 witnesses as part of this case, which is the second trial that includes friends and family of O'Keeffe, the victim, first responders and investigators, a slew of expert witnesses as well.

Read's defense contends that she was framed, that off duty law enforcement officers were actually the ones responsible for the death of O'Keefe. Allegations that these off duty officers strongly deny. She did not take the stand, as is a defendant's right to not testify in his or her own trial. We are standing by for the verdict. We're going to squeeze in a very quick break. We'll be right back.

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