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Trump Comments on Ceasefire; Jeffrey Lewis and Dana Stroul are Interviewed about the Israel/Iran Conflict; Trump Heads to NATO; Congress Gets Briefed on Iran. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired June 24, 2025 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

BOLDUAN: "Still your policy to destroy the state of Israel and refuse to acknowledge its right to exist? A ceasefire that leads to peace is wonderful. A ceasefire that allows Iran to regroup and re-arm is a step backwards. How can you tell the difference? If Iran recognizes Israel's right to exist."

It's an important perspective given Lindsey Graham's very clear stated, you know, hawkish views on Iran and his support and closeness with Donald Trump on this. I do wonder what that perspective means going forward.

VAN JONES, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I mean, I think it's -- I think he has a good point. I mean, here's what -- the problem is, Iran has, as its slogan, death to America and death to Israel. They have 60 percent enriched uranium, which is literally just a bump from -- from weapons grade. And we don't know where that stuff is. So, we're still in a lot of danger.

And now if you -- if you had a functional government, the smartest people in the Democratic Party, smartest people in the Republican Party, and Trump will be sitting down trying to figure this out together, trying to come up with a creative solution. The problem is, the president is on his own. He's not listening to any Democrats. Congress is not being briefed. So, the best wisdom in --

BOLDUAN: Yes, and Democrat -- Republicans got a heads up that the operation was going to happen. Democrats did not.

JONES: Democrats didn't. And so the -- so -- this is -- this is a -- this is a period of maximum peril for the world. And we are not functioning as a -- as a collective democracy to solve the problem, which means some good ideas are not on the table, which means we're going to make mistakes.

Now, I don't like a country that says death to America and death to Israel. And I certainly don't want them to have a bomb. But how we get out of this mess -- mix is not obvious to anybody.

BOLDUAN: Yes, it's definitely not clear cut. Just take a look at how things have progressed this morning.

JONES: This morning.

BOLDUAN: Exactly.

It's great to see you guys. Thank you both very, very much.

LEE CARTER, STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS EXPERT: Thank you so much.

JONES: Thanks. Thank you.

BOLDUAN: A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Really breaking news on top of breaking news this morning.

President Trump, a little while ago, lashing out, accusing both Israel and Iran of violating the ceasefire that he triumphantly announced just hours before. And he spelled out his anger with four letters. This is what he told reporters just a short time ago. And a warning, you know, there is some dirty words.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Israel, as soon as we made the deal, they came out and they dropped a load of bombs, the likes of which I've never seen before. The biggest load that we've seen.

I'm not happy with Israel. You know, when -- when I say, OK, now you have 12 hours, you don't go out in the first hour and just drop everything you have on them.

So, I'm not happy with them. I'm not happy with Iran either. But I'm really unhappy if Israel is going out this morning because of one rocket that didn't land, that was shot, perhaps by mistake that didn't land. I'm not happy about that.

(CROSS TALK)

TRUMP: No, what we have -- we basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don't know what the fuck they're doing. Do you understand that?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right, this morning, Israel did admit its forces struck a radar array in Iran after the ceasefire took effect. But it also accused Iran of violating that ceasefire by firing missiles, which Iran denies.

A frustrated president did call the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, moments after those comments, while he was on Air Force One, on his way to the Netherlands. Israel now says it will refrain from further strikes after that call. That's according to the White House. A White House source describes the conversation as, quote, "exceptionally firm and direct."

Now, again, before the ceasefire took effect, before the ceasefire took effect, both sides did trade deadly attacks.

We have video from the moment of impact from an Iranian missile strike in the -- in southern Israel. At least four people were killed after a residential building took that direct hit.

In Iran, again before the ceasefire, authorities say at least nine people were killed in Israeli strikes on residential buildings. That's in the northwest part of the country.

And it all caps off the 48 hours which saw the United States strike Iranian nuclear facilities. And the Iranians respond to that with attacks on a U.S. base in Qatar.

With us now, CNN's Alayna Treene at the White House, Jeremy Diamond in southern Israel.

Alayna, let's start with you from what you're hearing on the ground, but also reporting back from Air Force One, which is in the air right now.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, look, I mean, it has been a crazy morning here and a lot of twists and turns to the state of the ceasefire. I will say, last night, when the president had announced that he had -- had this agreement, he wanted to celebrate this. And he -- his plan for today was to, you know, leave the White House, talk with his supporters, laud that deal, and then head over to the NATO summit in the Netherlands and continue to kind of applaud those efforts and how he was able to try and tie up this -- this escalating conflict in the Middle East with a ceasefire agreement.

[09:05:04]

But then, of course, when he first came out, I was out there on the South Lawn with the President when he came out and talked to other reporters and I, and he was very visibly frustrated and honestly downright angry, John, with what had unfolded this morning in the early hours where we saw, you know, Iran launch a missile -- he called it a single rocket -- at Israel and have Israel's defense minister argue that they wanted to respond in full first. That's why you heard him say he was not happy with either country. He used profanity to say neither country knew what they were doing. And then said, as soon as he left us, he was going to go and try to stop this from escalating further.

And at that point, the president said he hoped that the ceasefire would hold, but that he wasn't sure. And then we saw him actually post on social media, kind of sending a warning to Israel, telling them not to drop any bombs, any further attacks on Iran. But then I was told, and you referenced this, John, a White House official told me that the president was able to get on the phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and essentially, as you said, they said that it was an exceptionally firm and direct call. And essentially that he told Netanyahu what he believed was needed to sustain this ceasefire. He said Netanyahu understood, quote, "the severity of the situation and the concerns that the president expects." That's according to the White House official.

All to say, after that, we saw the president then post that, "Israel is not going to attack Iran," and that all planes would "turn around and head home." So, this is clearly very fragile. A lot that has been happening this morning.

But as of now, and you heard the president while he's on Air Force One, he did speak again with some reporters. We're getting some of that sound. He is in a much more optimistic place now that he has gotten off the phone with the Israeli prime minister and believes now that the ceasefire is going to hold. All to say, again, things are very fragile with this. And the Israelis and the Iranians are clearly unhappy with each other. The president himself, very unhappy with how they have done this.

And part of the thing that I think is so interesting about this as well is that he was very frustrated, he said specifically, about Israel. They had that ceasefire. They had a couple hours until it was going to go into effect. He said they dropped a barrage of missiles on Iran, and he was unhappy with that. So, unclear kind of, you know, the -- where this goes from here. But for now, the ceasefire is holding, John.

BERMAN: Really a minute by minute, hour by hour situation.

Alayna Treene at the White House.

Let's go to Jeremy Diamond in southern Israel at the site of one of the more recent Iranian attacks there, again, before the ceasefire on what you're seeing, but also what you're hearing from the Israeli government on the current situation.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John.

Well, what you see behind me, I mean, it really doesn't get more tragic than this. This missile that impacted the building behind me struck in the last hour before that ceasefire went into effect. Meaning, between the time when the ceasefire was announced by President Trump and before it actually took hold, a missile slammed directly into this residential building, killing four people who were inside. The final victims in Israel of this conflict, it would seem.

Actually, three of the people who were killed, John, we're told, were actually in one of these safe rooms. You can see this kind of column that is relatively intact on the right side of this building. That is where the safe rooms are located. And on the very top floor is where I'm told that three of those victims were inside one of those safe rooms. But because the impact of that missile struck directly onto the building, right by that safe room, three people were killed. We're told by paramedics that the other individual who was killed was actually just on the outside of the entrance of this building. Dozens of other people were injured.

And, of course, in Iran, we're seeing a very similar picture in terms of the tragedy of those final deaths before the ceasefire went into effect. More than 104 people were killed, according to Iran's health ministry, in Israeli strikes overnight. We know that there was particularly heavy bombing in the Iranian capital of Tehran.

And then, as you note, there is this question of what happened in the hours afterwards. President Trump clearly vocally angry at both Iran and Israel. But really you heard him direct a lot of that anger at the Israeli government. And we know, of course, now that he got on the phone to the Israeli prime minister and told him not to retaliate any further. No further strikes in Iran.

There's still some question about whether or not the Israeli air force actually carried out some of those strikes because we do know that there were reports of explosions in Tehran -- or in -- in Iran, I should say, in recent hours. But clearly a very firm message from President Trump to the Israeli prime minister and one that, going forward, we'll have to wait and see whether or not it's being heeded.

John.

[09:10:02]

BERMAN: Yes, we will.

Jeremy Diamond, on the ground in Israel at the site of what could be one of the final fatal strikes inside Israel in this 12-day conflict.

Jeremy, thank you very much.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: And joining us now to discuss where things stand at this moment, Jeffrey Lewis, a nuclear policy analyst, professor at the Middlebury Institute. And Dana Stroul, a 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 for being here.

Jeffrey, they have or have not a ceasefire, have or had, or it's fragile to say the least. What happens from here, do you think?

JEFFREY LEWIS, EAST ASIA NONPROLIFERATION PROGRAM DIRECTOR, MIDDLEBURY INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: Well, I mean, I think a lot of it depends on whether the ceasefire holds. But if it -- if it does hold, I think you're going to see expectation from the Trump administration that there are some kind of talks.

You know, the strikes, as impressive as they have been, have left a lot of nuclear capacity still in Iran. And, at the end of the day, that's going to have to be dealt with diplomatically.

BOLDUAN: I definitely want to ask you about that in just one second, Jeffrey, your take on that, because I thought -- I found that very interesting when you wrote that. Dana, what does -- and these are like unanswerable without more information, I readily admit that as I'm asking you this, but what does all of this mean in this moment for not just Iran's nuclear program, but for Iran's nuclear ambitions?

DANA STROUL, RESEARCH DIRECTOR, THE WASHINGTON INSTITUTE FOR NEAR EAST POLICY: Bottom line is, we just don't know. But what we can tell from the strikes that Iran sent at a U.S. air base in Qatar yesterday, they were intending to kill U.S. service members. And it's very unlikely with the regime still intact that Iran's strategic ambitions have changed. One is to dominate the region and influence the trajectory of events across the entire Middle East. And secondly, is to -- is to compel the United States, and especially the 40,000 forces across the Middle East, to leave the region and to challenge Israel's right to exist. And today it's unclear that any of those strategic ambitions have actually changed.

BOLDUAN: And, Jeffrey, I want to read your own words back to you, because this is what I was mentioning I found quite interesting. As you said, "why am I so unimpressed by these strikes? Israel and the U.S. have failed to target significant elements of Iran's nuclear materials and production infrastructure. Rising lion and midnight hammer are tactically brilliant, but may turn out to be strategic failures."

Explain more.

LEWIS: Well, when the conflict started, Prime Minister Netanyahu identified the fact that Iran had enough nuclear material, he said, for nine nuclear weapons. What he was talking about was 400 kg or 800 pounds of highly enriched uranium that Iran had stored under tunnels in a mountain near a place called Natanz. That material was not struck. Those tunnels are not destroyed. There are pretty credible reports that the Iranians have moved it. They're still in possession of that material, as well as a number of facilities where they are able to make centrifuges, as well as at least one facility where they were planning on installing centrifuges just a few days ago.

So, the reality is, is Iran can still make centrifuges. It still has the material it started with the war -- the war with and -- and it still has underground facilities that have not been struck. So, the things they hit, they hit brilliantly. And it's -- I -- I am very impressed. But you got to hit it all, you know? You -- you -- you can't just hit part of it.

BOLDUAN: And on that exact point, Dana, I mean, you have the IAEA saying that it's not sure where Iran stashed, essentially, 900 pounds of enriched uranium. If that remains a huge question right now, how does the world, at this point, get a trustworthy assessment to kind of answer what Jeffrey is getting at, which is, if they didn't hit it all, what's left and where is it?

STROUL: Right. So, first of all, the airstrikes that we've seen from Israel and from the United States are not going to answer that fundamental question, which is, how much of the nuclear program remains intact and what the Iranians decide to do next, what the regime decides to do. So, the military strikes we've seen over the past 12 days were a test of whether or not the regime is now willing to make meaningful concessions on its nuclear program. And that's the big question we have today.

So, the first thing that needs to happen is, they need to let the IAEA and its inspectors on the ground in Iran so it can actually verify what the state of the nuclear program is.

BOLDUAN: I want to play for both of you something that the vice president said yesterday. He described -- describing the impact of the strikes as, of course, he continued to say obliterated Iran's nuclear program. Obviously, we say this is unknowable at this moment. But he was also asked directly, essentially, whether the administration knows if they destroyed all the enriched uranium, where it is, if not destroyed. And he deflected.

[09:15:00]

Let me play his answer to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think that's actually not the question before us. The question before us is, can Iran enrich the uranium to weapons grade level? Our goal was to bury the uranium. And I do think the uranium is buried. But our goal was to eliminate the enrichment and eliminate their ability to convert that enriched fuel into a nuclear weapon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Jeffrey, do you think that is the -- the question at hand now? I mean, what's the measure, in your view, of whether or not the nuclear program was obliterated?

LEWIS: No. No. No, none of that. None of that is true. Yes, no, none of that is true.

The -- the reality is, is the Iranians had lots of time to move things. We watched them bring trucks to the site. They buried the entrances to protect the site. So, if they had wanted to move the material, they certainly could have.

And again, there are a number of underground facilities in Iran. Iran still has the ability to make centrifuges. You know, I -- I think what you're seeing is the strike started and the administration wanted to get involved with it. And so they're putting basically lipstick on a pig, you know. They do not have the ability to go after all this material. And they are ultimately going to need the cooperation of the Iranians. They're going to need some kind of diplomatic process.

BOLDUAN: Yes, and what -- what all of the last 48 hours has meant for diplomatic -- any -- any diplomacy, we're going to see maybe in the coming hours.

It's -- thank you both very much for coming on. John.

BERMAN: All right, we're getting word that President Trump had been speaking to reporters on Air Force One. We're getting a read on some of those new lines.

And new details in the criminal sex trafficking trial of Sean Combs. Sources tell CNN he will not take the stand in his own defense.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:21:18]

BERMAN: All right, happening now, President Trump is on his way to the NATO summit in the Netherlands. You see pictures behind me of when he was departing a short time ago. The trip comes after he accused both Israel and Iran of violating the ceasefire agreement he announced just hours before. But if this fragile agreement ultimately holds, the president is hoping it will be seen as a vindication for the U.S. strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.

CNN's Kevin Liptak in the Netherlands this morning awaiting the president's arrival.

What are you hearing from there?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and really the centerpiece of this summit had been this pledge by NATO countries to boost their defense spending. But, obviously, the crisis in the Middle East will now overshadow that in some ways. And President Trump is coming here with this ceasefire in hand. And I think he hopes and believes that this could be vindication for his approach to global affairs. Certainly, that has generated a lot of questions among his counterparts in Europe. But I think he wants to come here to put some of the skepticism to rest about how he is approaching global affairs. And so the president will have a lot to talk about with these leaders.

You know, ordinarily, for the last several years, the centerpiece of these NATO summits has been Ukraine. But in a lot of ways that has been put on the back burner this year. And the summit has really been tailored to President Trump specifically. It has been shortened in some ways. Really the bulk of the summit will only last for tomorrow morning. President Trump will only spend about 24 hours in the Netherlands.

The defense spending boost is also a big win for the president. He's been agitating for NATO countries to do that, really going back to his first term. And so, this will all sort of culminate in the summit tomorrow.

You know, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, is here in the Netherlands. We've been seeing him speaking this morning. He'll attend a leaders dinner tonight hosted by the Dutch royal family. But he won't have a seat around the NATO table tomorrow. And in a lot of ways, I think this all meant and designed by the NATO leadership to prevent any sort of open discord from breaking out while the president is here in the Netherlands.

You know, I was talking to some European officials over the weekend who were wondering whether President Trump would even decide to come here to the summit. Remember, he skipped out early from the G-7 summit last week. There had been some concern, as the Middle East was really kind of flaring up, that he would decide not to attend, but he is attending. He's on his way here now.

And he was speaking to reporters on Air Force One. And he was asked about his commitment to NATO's Article V. Remember, that's kind of the centerpiece of NATO, the attack against one is an attack against all. He stopped short of full-throatedly endorsing that. He said it would kind of depend on your definition of Article V. But still, he said he was looking forward to seeing his friends from Europe here at this summit. So, certainly a lot for these leaders to talk about.

John.

BERMAN: The president has long had a complicated relationship with Article V there.

Kevin Liptak for us in the Netherlands awaiting the president's arrival. Kevin, thank you so much for that reporting.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: And today on Capitol Hill, members of the House and Senate are now preparing for a classified briefing on the situation in Iran. This will be the first time the Trump administration will brief all members of either chamber on the crisis.

This also comes as -- well, they were -- what John and Kevin were just talking about, after President Trump lashed out at both Israel and Iran this morning, accusing both of violating the ceasefire already.

CNN's Lauren Fox on Capitol Hill following all of this for us.

Lauren, what are you hearing this morning?

[09:25:02]

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this is an extremely fragile situation. And lawmakers are watching really closely as to whether or not this ceasefire is going to hold because it really does dictate, in part, how they respond to Trump's actions over the course of the last 72 hours.

Now, this -- this briefing, both in the House and the Senate, this is going to be an all members briefing, both Republicans and Democrats, will be the first opportunity that many members have to get insight into the rationale for the strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities on Saturday night. Obviously, there were a lot of questions about why some Democrats on the Gang of Eight maybe were not contacted before those strikes. So, there's a lot of concern right now among some Democrats as to whether or not Trump had the authority. And I should note a couple of Trump's closest allies on Capitol Hill share those concerns as well.

So, there's a big question right now what's going to come out of those briefings. Obviously, a lot can change before late this afternoon when these briefings are scheduled, both at 3:00 in the House, 4:00 in the Senate. So, it's a really fluid situation right now on Capitol Hill. And lawmakers are really anxious to get briefings on what exactly transpired over the course of the last three days. A lot of questions up here from both Democrats and Republicans.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. Lauren Fox, thank you so much. Obviously, going to be getting back to you as the focus transitions very quickly to Capitol Hill this morning. Thank you.

We're going to have much more of our breaking news that we've been following on this situation, this fragile ceasefire, this crisis continuing to unfold in the Middle East.

But we're also watching this closer to home. What was a tight race sure seems like a tight race now in New York City between a former governor and a political newcomer. Where the mayoral primary race stands as voters are heading to the polls this morning.

We'll be back.

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