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Trump to Decide on Action in Iran Within Two Weeks; Netanyahu: Committed to Destroying Nuclear Threat of Iran; SpaceX Starship Rocket Explodes During Ground Test. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired June 19, 2025 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: The White House says President Trump will decide whether to launch U.S. strikes on Iran within the next two weeks. In a statement read by the press secretary, Trump says he wants to allow diplomatic efforts to proceed before making a final decision. A source tells CNN the president is holding off to see whether Tehran will take a step back from its nuclear program.

There is conflicting intelligence, though, over the exact status of Iran's nuclear ambitions. The U.S. intelligence community has said that Iran could still be up to three years away from obtaining a nuclear weapon. But just last week, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog adopted a resolution declaring that Iran was in breach of its nuclear nonproliferation obligations. Israel launched attacks after that, claiming that Tehran was racing toward a nuclear bomb.

It's worth noting that Israeli intelligence has proven remarkably accurate in the past 18 months, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been making similar claims about Iran's nuclear capabilities for close to 30 years, including during an address to Congress back in the 1990s.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: I believe that only the United States can lead this vital international effort to stop the nuclearization of terrorist states. But the deadline for attaining this goal is getting extremely close.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Let's talk more about this now with former U.S. ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Laura Holgate. She served in that role during both the Obama and Biden administrations. You're the perfect person for us to pin this timeline down.

And pardon my long question, because we've heard so many different things. May, the IAEA report analysis says that Iran can convert its uranium to weapons grade in three weeks. Trump says Iran was a few weeks away from a nuclear weapon.

But then you have Senator Warner saying the intel community assessment remains the same, that Iran has not moved towards an actual weapon. That was on Monday. Are these just different readings of the same intel?

How are you seeing it?

LAURA HOLGATE, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY: Yes, these are all -- they they can all add up to all being true. When the IAEA report talks about how quickly you can make nuclear material, that's just the material part. And that's just going from 60 percent to 90 percent in a gaseous form.

You still have to translate that gas to to powder and then to metal. And then you have to manufacture that metal into a weapon shape. The Iranians were trying to do this back in the early 2000s, late 1990s, but they haven't been working on that with actual material since then.

So it will take them some time once they have the metal to turn it into something that can actually be used as a weapon. How much time that is, you know, it's going to be weeks and months. It's not days.

KEILAR: OK. And then so fit into that what DNI, Tulsi Gabbard, said in March, the assessment that the U.S. intelligence community continues to be that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and that the supreme leader has not authorized a nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003.

HOLGATE: Yes, that is also consistent with this. The Iranians have been dancing on this cliff. They've been ambiguous intentionally about what their capabilities are.

But there still has not -- all the intelligence I've been seeing for the last 20 years is of a piece with with what was reported earlier this spring is the decision to actually make a weapon has not yet been made. But they are using their enrichment levels to communicate to the West to create -- to keep our attention on their activities and to indicate that they could if that decision were made. But it's clear -- clearly that decision, the assessment is that that decision has not been made.

KEILAR: That's OK. And so as we're hearing from the White House that the president is now saying he's going to decide what to do in two weeks as he's weighing whether there will be U.S. intervention in this, which would be, by all understandings, a strike on the Fordow enrichment site. How do you view that, that two week comment?

HOLGATE: Well, hopefully it creates space for some kind of a negotiated off-ramp here. The attack on a Fordow facility is only going to delay. You can't permanently eliminate this Iranian program.

You can't eliminate the know-how that's been gained by its technicians. You don't need always, you know, these top scientists that are have been killed over the years and most, you know, several in the last few weeks.

[13:35:02] There's a system. There's a community of people that have now mastered centrifuge technology who know how to work with this kind of material. That's not going to go away. And so the question is, if there were to be some kind of an attack, further attacks on the program, on the facilities that they have, what will Iran learn from that about their ability to deter Israel and other regional enemies?

They might then make that fatal decision to move to a weapon in a completely hidden way. Right now, the reason we know how much enrichment they have and how much of material they have is that the IAEA, the International Atomic Energy Agency, has had inspectors all over Iran for all of these years. Iran continues to have its Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement apply to these facilities.

And so that's how we know what's happening. If they decide to sprint to a weapon or to create a clandestine weapons program, those inspectors are gone. That visibility is gone. Our ability to understand what they're doing is gone.

KEILAR: How do you think Iran views this moment right now in hearing from the White House that the president is setting this two-week deadline?

HOLGATE: Well, I'm not a good one to read the minds of the Iranians, but what I hope they will do is to see this as an opportunity to sit back down at the negotiating table, even to get into the direct negotiations. You know, even the conversations that have been had over the last couple of years have been indirect through emissaries in Oman.

KEILAR: Do you see the will to do that right now?

HOLGATE: Not yet. We haven't seen how the Iranians have reacted to this little, you know, perhaps gap in time that was put on the table today. So I think the question is, can they see this as an opportunity to avoid that kind of significant challenge and destruction to their last remaining facility and perhaps find a path forward that is acceptable to both sides.

Direct surrender is probably not on it. Total abandonment of enrichment capacity is also probably, even now, not on it. But they may be more willing now to take some kind of a compromise of a regional-based enrichment facility to which they have access.

Maybe even they supply the centrifuges for that. Do it somewhere outside of Iran, but where they can guarantee access to enriched uranium that is appropriate for their civilian program, which is under 20 percent or even under 5 percent, depending on the facilities. There may be some creative solutions that people have been talking about for a while now, but they haven't been really on the table.

So maybe this is a way out.

KEILAR: Really interesting. Obviously, we're at a very telling moment. Ambassador Laura Holgate, thank you so much for being with us. Really appreciate it. HOLGATE: Great to be with you, Brianna.

KEILAR: And it's a setback for SpaceX as one of Elon Musk's Starship rockets explodes on the test stand in just a spectacular fashion. We'll have details about what happened right after this.

[13:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: It's a new setback for SpaceX. The rocket, its rocket, was undergoing a ground test overnight when this happened. Elon Musk's Starship bursting into just a gigantic fireball. This explosion lighting up the sky at the company's Starbase facility in South Texas. Musk seemed to joke about the failed test, posting just a scratch.

SANCHEZ: Quite the firework spectacle. SpaceX says the rocket experienced the quote, major anomaly on a test stand that fortunately no one was hurt and there were no hazards to people who live nearby. You would certainly hope not.

CNN Space and Defense analyst Kristin Fisher is here. Kristin, the Starship was being prepped for its 10th flight test. Do we know what that anomaly is that Musk is talking about?

KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SPACE AND DEFENSE ANALYST: Well, we know what happened. We don't entirely know the cause but we have a good idea. So basically this Starship -- it's called Ship 36.

It was on a test pad, so not the launch pad, but a test pad about a few miles away from the launch pad. So none of that was damaged. But what it was preparing for was its 10th flight test.

And in order for that to happen, it has to pass a static fire test, which is where they essentially hold the Starship down on the test pad and ignite its engines to make sure they work. Well, shortly before igniting those engines in this static fire test, just after midnight local time, that is when that big fireball happened.

So Elon Musk says that, you know, it's likely due to a COPV in the payload bay. That's a container that holds highly pressurized nitrogen gas. But we don't know for sure.

The good news, Brianna and Boris, nobody was injured. I mean, that is -- that is remarkable, given the size of that explosion. You could feel it, according to some locals in the area, from up to 30 miles away.

KEILAR: Yes, I mean, the the video from far away is almost as impressive as that video from up close. But Kristin, just put this into context --

FISHER: Yes.

KEILAR: -- because now we keep seeing it's like a string of failures. And I think the reference point for so many people when it comes to -- and I know this is unmanned -- but when we think like sort of pre- SpaceX, we're not used to so much stuff blowing up.

[13:45:00]

So put this into context for us about whether this is really something to be shrugged off as Elon Musk is doing or if it is something that, you know, you look at and you say, oh, my goodness, what's happening here?

FISHER: Well, you know, 2024 was a great year for SpaceX and Starship. They were hoping to continue on with this progress in 2025. And this is now their fourth consecutive failure with Starship.

So, you know, I would never count SpaceX out. They have some of the best engineers on the planet working for that company. But this is now a pattern. This is now a big problem for SpaceX.

I was talking to a bunch of NASA astronauts today, people who work inside NASA. And you know, they're looking at this because this is the vehicle that they're hoping to put NASA astronauts on in just a few years to return American astronauts to the moon for the first time since the Apollo program. And oh, by the way, beat China there.

Look at that explosion. I mean, and the three previous ones before that, whether they were explosions or Starship breaking apart as it reentered the Earth's atmosphere, those are big issues with version two of Starship, all different things, but you add it all together.

Certainly not the end of the Starship program, not the end of SpaceX. I think they're going to go on and do quite well with this program. But they're certainly in a pretty difficult spot in the vehicle's development.

SANCHEZ: The silver lining of the difficult spot. Some really cool video we get to check out. Kristin Fisher, thanks so much for the analysis.

FISHER: Sure.

SANCHEZ: Much more to come on our breaking news. The White House says President Trump will make a decision on whether to intervene in Iran within the next two weeks. We'll break down the implications next.

[13:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Today we're celebrating Juneteenth, commemorating the day in 1865 when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas finally learned they had been freed despite the Emancipation Proclamation being signed two years prior.

KEILAR: That's right. Two women recently discovered they not only have a very special connection to each other, but also to what happened on this very day, 160 years ago. CNN's Victor Blackwell has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (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.

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?

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?

[13:55:00]

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: Yes.

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)

KEILAR: Our thanks to Victor Blackwell for that. Just an incredible story. And still ahead, access denied.

We're looking at some live pictures now. A source telling CNN, ICE agents -- and those are some pictures of them -- were attempting to enter Dodger Stadium today, but they were actually stopped by the team. We'll have some details.

Obviously, a lot of questions about this. We'll have that ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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