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Polls on the Republican Party; Israel Says Iran's Leader Cannot be Allowed to Continue; Two Women Share Juneteenth Connection. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired June 19, 2025 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00]

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Because it's in support of the defendant. You know, Sara, think about these -- these huge trials that we cover. There, many times, are people all around the courthouse because people learn about these cases, but they're all against the defendant. That's the focus. Presumption of innocence, OK, but a defendant can be hated in this country even before they go to trial. You never see this. This is something that is -- I've never seen before in my career.

Now, let me tell you how this was born because it was grassroots effort. The defense started representing Karen Read, a stellar defense team. They started coming out saying, as they were gathering information, that she was framed, that the investigation was not above board, that it was controversial. That resonated with people in this area because they believe their hometown police department, the Canton Police Department, and believe me, Massachusetts State Police came in to on this. They believed that they were not above board, that there was corruption in their local government and their local police force.

So, Karen Read became this figurehead where they could mount their concerns for their own community. But that grassroots level grew with leaps and bounds. There were hundreds upon hundreds of people out there yesterday. And that's how this support came. And the jury spoke yesterday.

But there is another side to this. The victim. He's gone. John O'Keefe, deceased. What will happen here? We don't know. We don't know if someone will step forward. We don't know if there will be more investigation.

Here's what we do know. The family filed some time ago a wrongful death suit against Karen Read. Wrongful death is a civil court suit. There's a different standard. Preponderance of the evidence. More likely than not, did Karen Read hit John O'Keefe? Let's see where that goes. That could go all the way to trial if there is not a settlement.

Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Jean Casarez, thank you so much for bringing us this story. It is stunning. A lot of people responding this morning to it. Really appreciate all of your reporting there. All right, we are staying on top, of course, of our breaking news this

morning. Israel hit by a new wave of Iranian missiles. A major hospital damaged. And response from that now that Israel is calling for regime change, or at least the assassination of Iran's supreme leader.

Plus, several men charged and accused of pulling off the largest jewelry heist in American history. How they managed to take off with $100 million worth of gold and gems.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:37:13]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, this morning, there is new CNN reporting that director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, is seen by the president as off message and perhaps falling out of favor because of past statements she has given that may indicate she's not as in support as the rest of the administration on the government's actions in Iran.

Then there's this guy, Tucker Carlson. All the things he's been saying, weighing in heavily against military action in Iran.

So, what does this all mean? With us, CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten.

So, Tucker Carlson with a very public stance against the possibility of military action.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Yes.

BERMAN: Tulsi Gabbard, may be behind the scenes, we're just not sure here.

What do we know about people who stand up against Donald Trump? What happens to their favorability?

ENTEN: So, this is what we should point out. This is Donald Trump's GOP, not Tucker Carlson's.

Now, you mentioned, what happens when you go against Donald Trump. I mean this sort of says it, right? We have had these fights in the past. We had it between Mike Pence and, of course, Donald Trump, over the 2020 election. We had it most recently. Elon Musk against Donald Trump.

GOP favorables polls, pre and post-Trump fight. Look at this, pre- fight, Mike Pence, very well beloved by Republicans, an 84 percent favorable rating. Look at where he is now, 36 percent. When you go against Donald Trump and you're a Republican, you go down.

How about Elon Musk? Remember, he was beloved by Republicans. He had a 78 percent favorable rating with Republicans. But then he fought Donald Trump. And what happened? He went down. The bottom line is this, Donald Trump's favorable rating stayed steady

or actually even went up when he went into these battles against Mike Pence or Elon Musk. Well, if you go up against Donald Trump and you're a Republican, or Republican affiliated, your favorable ratings with Republicans they go down traditionally speaking.

BERMAN: Where do things stand right now for the director of national intelligence and Tucker Carlson? And again, I want to point out, Carlson's been very public with what he's saying.

ENTEN: Yes.

BERMAN: Tulsi Gabbard, we haven't heard from her in a little bit.

ENTEN: Yes, this is Donald Trump's Republican Party. The favorable rating among Republicans, you could see it here, Donald Trump beloved, 88 percent favorable rating among Republicans, near his apex.

Now, Tucker Carlson is well liked among Republicans, but not anywhere in the same universe as Donald Trump, at 64 percent. Tulsi Gabbard, 55 percent. The bottom line is this, as I said at the beginning, this is Donald Trump's Republican Party, not Tucker Carlson's, not Tulsi Gabbards. Republicans, traditionally speaking, go along with Donald Trump. And as we saw in that last slide, when you go against Donald Trump, you go down while Donald Trump stays quite, quite high.

BERMAN: And we keep on monitoring where Republican support is for the possibility of strikes. What's the latest you're seeing?

ENTEN: Yes, I mean, look, what we saw -- what we see in the data, you know, and I've looked at a number of different polls, they've asked it different ways, but the clear majority of Republicans in any poll that you look, GOP on U.S. airstrikes against Iran, if Iran's pursuing nuclear arms, you see it here, the Republican Party, again, is with Donald Trump, 69 percent in this particular poll from the Chicago Council that was taken a few months ago, compared to 27 percent who were opposed.

[08:40:13]

But again, even if you look at the other polling data, it all points in the same direction, Republicans are with Donald Trump on this particular issue, and they're with Donald Trump at large. And when you go against Donald Trump, you go down.

BERMAN: Harry Enten, thank you very much.

ENTEN: Thank you.

BERMAN: Sara.

SIDNER: All right, to keep the discussion going, joining me now, CNN global affairs commentator and former deputy Pentagon press secretary, Sabrina Singh, and Dana Stroul, research director at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and the former deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East. Thank you both so much for being here.

Dana, I'm going to start with you.

We -- we have just heard from Israel's defense minister after an Iranian missile struck an Israeli hospital. He said Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, cannot be allowed to continue to exist. We know that Donald Trump had vetoed a plan that Israel had before all of this to take out the supreme leader. Does this change the calculation as Trump weighs whether to get the U.S. militarily involved in this conflict?

DANA STROUL, RESEARCH DIRECTOR, THE WASHINGTON INSTITUTE FOR NEAR EAST POLICY: It absolutely should. So, first of all, whether or not the Israeli minister of defense, Minister Katz, actually speaks for the Israeli government and Prime Minister Netanyahu is something that needs to be rigorously questioned at this moment in time. But this is an expansion of the Israeli objective from taking out and dismantling Iran's nuclear program, to regime collapse or regime change. Very different. Not what President Trump is talking about when he talks to the American people. And so, his National Security Council, to the extent that they're actually running a regular process, should be discussing exactly what the implications are for the United States joining, giving this very big change in the Israeli mission.

SIDNER: Yes, going from saying this was about taking out Iran's nuclear capabilities, to talking about regime change. And it is not the first time.

Sabrina, how should the president be going about determining if the U.S. should get involved?

SABRINA SINGH, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: Well, I think what's being presented to the president is a number of different options, most likely by the Central Command commander, who is going to present different options of what U.S. involvement could look like. Ultimately I think, as you've been discussing, you know, today, and throughout the week, this is also a political question for the president, does he want to draw the United States further into a larger, wide scale war because there's no guarantee that, one, even using one of those powerful bunker busters to destroy that nuclear facility in Fordo, that it would fully be destroyed. But, two, Iran will retaliate. And the U.S. has significant interests in the region, including multiple bases throughout the Middle East. And if Iran does strike one of our military bases, you know, there is air defenses there, but they are not at the capacity that Israel has with its Iron Dome.

And, you know, in the past, Iran has used its proxy groups, like Hezbollah or Shia militias in Syria and Iraq to attack American forces. If Iran retaliates to the United States directly, that really will pull the United States into this war. And ultimately, I'm not sure that's what the president seeks at this time.

SIDNER: Dana, you had brought -- brought up the idea of mission creep when talking about regime change. What are some of the potential pitfalls if this turns into a mission about trying to change the regime in Iran?

STROUL: Well, first of all, the United States has been here before. We've attempted this in Iraq and in Afghanistan. And whatever the military said before, how it articulated its military objectives, and then what the political leadership of the United States thought they were doing, what we found over and over is that we don't actually understand the internal dynamics, the different centers of power within these countries that are so far away from America's borders and rarely do things go as planned. So, we're not really talking about regime change anyway. What Israelis are talking about is regime collapse. And nobody actually knows exactly what would happen on the other side of that, nor do we have any confidence that the current, you know, thug mafia government in Tehran wouldn't be replaced by just another set of goons committed to the nuclear program, to exporting terrorism, to all the ways in which Iran is a real destabilizing force.

So, without any articulation of exactly what the United States seeks and whether or not it could deliver or affect any sort of more peaceful and (INAUDIBLE) stable, better for Israel, better for the United States, we should really be thinking twice about joining a mission if the objective is regime collapse.

SIDNER: Sabrina, what level of military force do you think it would take if the United States did get involved to just affect -- effectively knock out Iran's ability to continue with its nuclear program?

[08:45:11]

SINGH: Well, you're already seeing some assets move into the region. The Department of Defense announced another carrier strike group moving into the region. And so that's going to really bolster the force posture within the area that Central Command operates in, which is the Middle East.

And you're also seeing more fighter squadrons move in to -- to different bases around the country. These are assets that are going to be used to protect our military installations across the Middle East, but of course to also protect Americans. We have to think about the many Americans, not that just live in Israel, but across the Middle East. These are some of the assets that will be able to defend and protect the skies.

But at the end of the day, you know, Iran being able to retaliate against one of our bases will draw the United States into this war, and that is going to commit more assets to the region. And I think what we have to think about here is, we can't take our eye off of what's happening in the Indo-Pacific. And with these different carriers moving into the region, you are stressing the system and you are pulling assets away from what is this administration's priority theater, which is China. So, it's just a calculation that the president is going to really have to think through.

SIDNER: Yes.

Sabrina Singh, Dana Stroul, thank you both so much for your analysis this morning.

John.

BERMAN: All right, developing overnight, a SpaceX Starship rocket exploded into just a huge fireball. SpaceX said the rocket experienced a, quote, "major anomaly." Yes. It was preparing for a flight test. SpaceX says no injuries were reported. All of its employees accounted for.

A hiker has been rescued after going missing for three days near an Arizona campsite. The campsite, known as the Edge of the World, is full of steep cliffs and rocky terrain. KPHO reports the 32-year-old hiker was found at the bottom of a canyon, alive, with only minor injuries. Authorities still unsure if she was intentionally descending the canyon or if she fell. Her sister says it is, quote, "nothing short of a miracle" that she survived.

This morning, seven men have been charged in connection with what prosecutors called the largest jewelry heist in U.S. history. According to a newly unsealed indictment, $100 million worth of gold, gems and jewelry were stolen from an armored truck in California in July of 2022. Prosecutors say the group followed that truck nearly 300 miles and robbed it when the driver pulled into a remote rest stop outside of Los Angeles.

Just in, Hurricane Erick slammed into Mexico a short time ago as a dangerous category three storm. It is the strongest hurricane ever to make landfall in Mexico this early in the season. It should weaken as it runs into the mountains there and dissipate tonight or early Friday. It's really hitting the same area that was hit by Hurricane Otis a couple years ago.

We've got brand new reporting out this morning on how director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, is seen as off message and growing out of favor with the president.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:52:26]

SIDNER: Today, the nation celebrates Juneteenth, a federal holiday marking the day in 1865 when enslaved people in Texas finally learned they were freed by the Emancipation Proclamation that had happened two years earlier. But two women have recently discovered they have a very special connection to each other and what happened on June 19th 160 years ago in Galveston, Texas.

CNN's Victor Blackwell is joining us now with more on what is truly an incredible story.

What did you learn about these two women and their deep connection to one another and to our history?

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Sara, good morning to you and happy Juneteenth. You know, for the last few years I have told my family's story and the

search for freedom. But this year, something different. The story of those two women. They are their family historians of sorts. And they now know about their connection to that space, that church, and general order number three delivered on June 19, 1865.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL (voice over): Kelley Tealer has been to this church before, but the person waiting for her on this day is a first. Not just for her. There's never been a meeting like this.

KELLEY DIXON-TEALER, DIXON FAMILY HISTORIAN: I'm jittery right now. I'm excited. And I hope they're just as excited to meet me.

BLACKWELL (voice over): Now, to appreciate the excitement, you need to know Kelley's story. For years she's been researching her genealogy.

DIXON-TEALER: That is a gift that keeps on giving. I don't sleep sometimes at night because I'll wake up trying to find more.

BLACKWELL (voice over): She used a website to trace her maternal line back to a man born about 1837, once enslaved and freed in Galveston, Texas.

DIXON-TEALER: Hawkins Wilson is my third great grandfather on my mother's side.

BLACKWELL (voice over): Then she hit a wall until a genealogist reached out to her with letters that Hawkins wrote in 1867. He was looking for long separated relatives just a few years after emancipation.

DIXON-TEALER: Dear sir, I'm anxious to learn about my sisters from whom I have been separated many years.

BLACKWELL (voice over): But there was more.

DIXON-TEALER: Some of the details that was in the letters, and those historians are the ones that told me that he was, you know, a part of the very first Juneteenth.

BLACKWELL (voice over): Not just at the inaugural Juneteenth celebration in 1866, but that he was also at Reedy Chapel on June 19, 1865, where enslaved people in Galveston learned for the first time that President Abraham Lincoln had freed them more than two years prior. Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, but in Texas, enforcement was inconsistent.

[08:55:02]

So, Major General Gordon Granger and his troops were sent to Galveston to enforce general order number three, which declared that in Texas all slaves are free.

And General Granger brings us to this woman waiting for Kelley at the front of the church.

CHAMPE GRANGER, GRANGER FAMILY HISTORIAN: He is my great, great grandfather.

BLACKWELL (voice over): The general, as Champe Granger calls him, affirmed that Kelley's three times great grandfather was a free man at this very spot. Champe says the general was always present in her childhood home in portraits and through stories. Granger was a first lieutenant during the Mexican-American war, union general during the Civil War.

BLACKWELL: Did your father tell you the story of General Granger reading order number three here in Galveston?

GRANGER: No, he never did.

BLACKWELL: When did you learn of it?

GRANGER: It's been more recently. People have sent us articles about Juneteenth from different states. And then this is his war service.

BLACKWELL (voice over): She also has letters handwritten by the general. Inherited treasures, but Champe is careful not to overstate the general's role on Juneteenth.

GRANGER: He was a union soldier, so clearly he was not supportive of slavery. But, you know, he was doing his job. I don't want to -- I don't want to give him too much credit, you know.

BLACKWELL: You don't want to paint him as a civil rights icon.

GRANGER: Correct. Correct.

BLACKWELL (voice over): And even with that context, Champe is looking forward to this meeting, too.

GRANGER: I'm excited to hear their history. I love learning from other people and talking to people. And I hope I don't like get in your way, you know. I'll try to stay to the side.

DIXON-TEALER: Hey, how are you?

GRANGER: How are you?

BLACKWELL (voice over): But when the women meet for the first time, we stay out of the way. A few nerves at first, but then a conversation.

DIXON-TEALER: He was sold as a six-year-old boy.

GRANGER: And they started The Freedmen's Board.

DIXON-TEALER: Thinking about where he started --

GRANGER: Right.

DIXON-TEALER: You know, and then where he ended up. GRANGER: So, who was he writing to?

DIXON-TEALER: It really started when both my grandparents were living.

GRANGER: He was brave and I was talking to one of my family members last night.

DIXON-TEALER: And when we learned of him again, he's here in Galveston.

BLACKWELL (voice over): These descendants, these daughters of history, at the historic rebuilt Reedy Chapel, where their ancestors stood 160 years ago.

BLACKWELL: Tell me about the first two minutes of conversation.

GRANGER: I want to go and have a glass of wine with her, right?

DIXON-TEALER: Exactly.

GRANGER: You know.

DIXON-TEALER: I almost didn't know what to expect, right? And -- and just the nervousness behind that.

BLACKWELL: Because your ancestors were at this spot 160 years ago. How important is that story to share today?

DIXON-TEALER: I'm pushing back emotions. I'm sorry.

GRANGER: That's OK.

DIXON-TEALER: People are trying to silence us and silence the history. We cannot allow our history to be washed away.

GRANGER: And I would say, I have had it easier because everything was dropped in my lap. And she's had to search and dig and -- for everything.

DIXON-TEALER: It's important that we continue this conversation. It's important that I'm able to sit here with her.

GRANGER: My father was a history teacher. And he was also Gordon Granger IV. So, it was everything to him.

My father died a year ago. He was 96. But he lived to see Juneteenth become a holiday for the country. And that was amazing.

BLACKWELL: What would your great, great great grandfather think about this conversation?

DIXON-TEALER: You know what I really believe that he would say is thank you. Job well done.

BLACKWELL: Wow.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL (on camera): J You know, Sara, what's interesting about this is initially this story was going to be both of those women but separately. Champe lives in the D.C. area. We were going to go talk to her. And then Kelley lives in Houston, and we were going to do her story. But as we started working it through, the women showed some interest in hearing the other's story and -- and being curious about the other stories. So, we facilitated that meeting.

And -- and I'm really glad we did because my producer, Devon Sayers, checked in just yesterday. We shot it a couple of weeks ago. They're still having conversation with one another. The conversation sometimes are uncomfortable. As we acknowledged, there were nerves at first.

SIDNER: Yes.

BLACKWELL: But they are important for us as a country. You know, I think back to Opal Lee, the grandmother of Juneteenth, who says that June 19th celebrates the freeing of the people. July 4th celebrates the freedom of -- of the land. And this should be a season of -- of discussing and supporting freedom.

[09:00:01]

And so, these conversations have to happen. This is just one example of how they are.

SIDNER: I got to say, it was so touching.