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Trump Says U.S. Strikes Set Back Iran's Nuclear Program by Decades Despite U.S. Intel Suggesting Limited Impact; Interview with Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO): Trump Defends Strikes on Iran, Says Nuclear Sites Destroyed; Zohran Mamdani Poised to Win New York City's Democratic Primary. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired June 25, 2025 - 08:00   ET

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

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JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Was this what the statute was designed to protect? Those are all open questions.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Ah, no further questions, your honor. Appreciate it. Joey Jackson --

JACKSON: Thank you.

JIMENEZ: -- always good to see you -- Kate. New Hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, President Trump pushing back against a preliminary intelligence assessment of U.S. strikes on Iran. Big question still, how much destruction does nuclear facilities suffer? Where is the enriched uranium these strikes were targeting, and how far has the nuclear program been set back?

Right now, the president is at the NATO summit, and we could hear from him again soon.

There's also a major upset happening in America's biggest city. A relative political newcomer poised to win New York City's Democratic primary for mayor. The state's former governor, Andrew Cuomo, conceding the race, but this is still seen as not over yet.

And also today, senators pushed for a delay, yet HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is pushing ahead today with the first meeting of his newly stacked vaccine advisory committee. The major concerns from Democratic and Republican senators about the damage this one panel could do to vaccines in America today.

I'm Kate Bolduan with Omar Jimenez. John and Sara are out today. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

Breaking news this morning. We are expecting to hear again from President Trump this morning at the NATO summit in the Netherlands. What we have already heard today is a forceful defense of his interpretation, his take on the U.S. strikes in Iran, amid questions of how destructive they were. CNN was first to report on a preliminary assessment by U.S.

intelligence with all the caveats that assessments can be updated. According to seven people briefed, it found that the strikes set Iran's nuclear program back not by years, though, but by months.

The president disputes that. He says it's decades and he's now shifting his language a bit, still saying that the strikes caused obliteration, but now adding at times virtual obliteration, while also saying the intelligence was undetermined and inconclusive. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, the intelligence was very inconclusive. The intelligence says, we don't know. It could have been very severe. That's what the intelligence says. So I guess that's correct. But I think we can take that we don't know. It was very severe. It was obliteration.

And to think that a media outlet would say, isn't that a great thing? I mean, more importantly for the pilots, for the military, you take their guts out, you take their absolute guts out. They had a tremendous attack. It was a complete obliteration.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Show you now some before and after images from one of the sites that was targeted and hit. This is a Fordow nuclear facility dug into a mountain and underground that U.S. dropped those 30,000 pound bunker buster bombs on. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, they were by the president's side when he was speaking earlier this morning.

Hegseth called the strikes flawless, and both he and Rubio suggested that someone leaked this intelligence report for political reasons. Hegseth now says an FBI investigation into the matter is underway.

Let's get back to the region. Erin Burnett standing by. Erin, we're going to hear again from the president. We're also hearing more from Israeli intelligence on their assessment of what their strike -- their strikes accomplished even in the days before the U.S. strikes. What's the latest you're picking up?

ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, yes, absolutely. I mean, this is this is what we're seeing, Kate. The president is pushing back hard. He's saying that he believes that Israelis have people who go in there implying that Israelis have maybe sent people already into Fordow to assess the damage. We don't know anything about that, whether he's being literal or or just general in what he's talking about there.

But, yes, the initial assessment, as you've been talking about, Kate, indicates from the Pentagon that maybe only set back a couple of months the U.S. strikes themselves in terms of what they accomplished in Iran. But Israel has been clear, both the prime minister as well as defense ministries -- ministers there, that that their strikes prior to the U.S. strike had already set the program back two to three years. So that's the general sense that we have right now.

Let's go to Kristen Holmes at the NATO summit in the Netherlands, because, Kristen, we are expecting to see Trump maybe in just a few minutes, along with the Dutch prime minister.

Unclear, perhaps they'll take questions from you and other reporters. And we'll hear more about about that in just a moment.

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But for now, Trump is is on defense and punching back, saying that the strike, sticking with his words, obliteration in terms of describing what the U.S. accomplished.

KRISTEN HOLMES, SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Erin, and I'd be surprised if he doesn't bring it up again, because he's clearly fixated on this. Now, he is doubling down on the effectiveness of these strikes, but he also acknowledges that they've seen that intelligence, that intelligence report that we reported on. Saying that they believe it's inconclusive, saying it's preliminary, and that they're waiting for a larger, fuller picture.

Now, in his comments earlier this morning, he went on to compare using those missiles, using those strikes in Iran over the weekend, saying it was the same as the United States using the nuclear bomb in Japan in World War II, saying that they were both used to, quote, end wars. He also doubled down on this idea that they were completely effective. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I think basically decades, because I don't think they'll ever do it again. I just don't think they're going to, I think they're going to take their oil, they're going to have some missiles, and they'll have some defense. I think they've had it.

I mean, they just went through hell. I think they've had it.

It was, I believe it was total obliteration. I believe they didn't have a chance to get anything out because we acted fast. If it would have taken two weeks, maybe, but it's very hard to remove that kind of material, very hard and very dangerous for them to remove it. Plus, they knew we were coming, and if they knew we were coming, they're not going to be down there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: So you hear him there. He's talking about how he believes that Iran did not move the uranium from underground, that it was still there when the U.S. struck those facilities.

But the other thing I want to point out here, because we are at NATO, is that President Trump, after he meets with the Dutch prime minister, he's going to sit down for a bilateral meeting with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy. The reason why we're watching this so closely is twofold. One, the Ukrainians have been hoping that President Trump was going to sit down with Zelenskyy at the G7. Trump had to leave early.

But the other part of this is that Trump kind of opened the door for Zelenskyy and for the Ukrainians on his way to NATO, saying that he wanted to make a deal between Ukraine and Russia, saying that he was pushing Putin to come to terms to make some kind of deal. Unclear what he meant exactly by that, but that clearly was a little bit of a door opening there. And so you're going to see, certainly, the Ukrainians try to step in there.

BURNETT: Right, absolutely. And, of course, President Trump trying to talk to Putin on the heels of Putin fully embracing Iran, the Iranian regime and the nuclear program in Iran this week with those crucial meetings in Moscow. Kristen Holmes, thanks so very much to you in the Netherlands.

Kate, back to you.

BOLDUAN: Erin, thank you so much. We're going to be getting back to Erin Burnett in the region for us. We're so glad that she's there.

Joining us right now to talk more about where things stand, what we know, what we don't, Democratic Congressman Jason Crow of Colorado. He sits on the House Intelligence and House Armed Services Committee. Congressman, thanks for coming in.

This CNN reporting that several people briefed --

REP. JASON CROW (D-CO): Thank you.

BOLDUAN: -- on an early U.S. intel assessment from DIA told CNN that the U.S. strike did not destroy the core components of Iran's nuclear program, likely set the program back, but likely by months, not years. Again, an early assessment can be updated, as you well know. The president pushing back -- pushed back hard this morning, said he doesn't believe that.

And I saw in the Journal that several members of Congress, how they were reporting it, including full committees, have seen or have access to this report. Have you seen it yet? Have you had a chance to?

CROW: I have, and I'm not going to speak to this specific intelligence. All I'm going to say is that Donald Trump has a long history of distorting and, you know, putting his own take on U.S. intelligence assessments, regardless of what it actually says. And, you know, we are going to see in the days and weeks to come the truth and the reality of these reports and these assessments.

But Donald Trump's, you know, continued distortions about what happened and what didn't happen, you know, that's what he does. He continues to just do whatever he wants to do, which is unfortunate because I went to war three times for this country. I went to Iraq and Afghanistan, deployed as an Army Ranger. And, frankly, we spent 20 years and trillions of dollars at war as a nation because the politics drove that decision instead of the intelligence. It's a very dangerous position to be in.

BOLDUAN: This is important, Congressman, because you have seen this assessment that is now kind of at the center of a swirling amount of questions. Do you believe what we hear from President Trump this morning and he has said previously since last night when this started being reported on, you believe he is distorting the intelligence?

CROW: I think Donald Trump has a long history of distorting intelligence and saying things that are not corroborated by the truth and the reality. So, you know, we are going to see in the weeks to come what actually the truth is. But right now, you know, let's not take our eyes off the ball that this strike was an unauthorized, unconstitutional strike, that he is pulling the United States into yet another Middle Eastern conflict that Americans have no appetite for.

[08:10:00]

America does not want to spend more time, more blood, more treasure, fighting them in the Middle East. And that's why he went around, he skirted around Congress because he didn't want to actually have that debate.

BOLDUAN: From what you've seen, and again, I say this with all of the humility of understanding you cannot speak about classified information, but how would you characterize, if you can, how far back Iran's nuclear program may have been pushed, may have been set back given these strikes? Years or months?

CROW: Yes, I can't characterize intelligence. I don't have the authority to do that. But let me use this example.

Over 60 years ago, the United States built a compound inside of a mountain in Colorado, not too far from my district, called Cheyenne Mountain. That's the height of the Cold War. This was the command and control center for our nuclear weapons.

Over 60 years ago, we built a nuclear-proof facility. Do you think that technology exists today? Do you think people can still do that?

Of course they can. So the notion that we can bomb our way out of this, that there's any type of bomb or any series of airstrikes that's going to destroy a facility that somebody is, you know, hell-bent on protecting just doesn't stand to reason.

BOLDUAN: The president said this morning that he believes all of the enriched uranium was still down in the facilities at the time of the U.S. strikes. The way he put it was that Iran didn't have time to move any of it to secure locations. He said the way he put it was, it's not like moving a package or I think he said like ripping up carpet. We believe it was all down there.

Do you still have questions of where hundreds of pounds of enriched uranium is this morning? CROW: Well, I would love to see that information and that assessment that proves that either way. I have not seen anything that shows that that is true.

BOLDUAN: One thing that the president and the secretary of defense, they said again today, this morning, and I can say maybe conflating, is saying that if you question the president's assessment of total obliteration, then what you're doing is disparaging the military men and women who carried out this strike mission on part of the United States. You of course are an Army Ranger and paratrooper. Can you respond to that?

CROW: Yes, that is so antithetical to who we are as a country. This notion that you can't question a decision to send our men and women into war because if you do, that's somehow unpatriotic. That's actually the opposite of what our country is based on.

You know, our country is based on civilian control of the military. When I went to Iraq and Afghanistan to do a mission that frankly was based on a lie told to the American people, and then we spent 20 years and trillions of dollars, you know, I had to rely on there being a heavy debate that frankly stopped happening. For years, we stopped having a debate about that.

You know, so I bristle personally whenever anybody says you can't criticize a mission, you can't criticize the commander in chief because somehow that's disparaging our troops. No, our troops rely on people having tough conversations, people in Washington DC asking the tough questions to make sure that when we use them and we send them into harm's way, it is absolutely necessary. It is the right mission, that they have the right equipment, that they have the right support.

So the president is actually taking the opposite position of that. And let's not forget that the president has a long history of actually disparaging our troops, calling us suckers and losers, calling us chumps, not showing up to ceremonies at military cemeteries because it's raining. You know, this is a man who actually doesn't understand the fundamentals of military service.

BOLDUAN: Very important to hear from you directly on -- in this moment and on this topic, especially now knowing you have seen this preliminary intelligence assessment that is now at the center of what is going to be a growing debate as they gather more information and information and intel from these nuclear facilities. Congressman, thank you very much for coming in -- Omar.

JIMENEZ: All right, Kate, this morning, a major upset in New York's mayoral primary race. A political newcomer looks poised to take home the Democratic nomination. We'll get into it coming up.

Plus, the prosecution and defense rest their cases in the Sean Diddy Combs trial. Now they're getting ready for closing arguments. But how soon could the jury begin deliberating?

All that and more coming up, including just hours before Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s brand new vaccine advisory panel is set to have its first meeting. A member withdraws. We're going to tell you why some lawmakers want the event postponed.

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JIMENEZ: All right, welcome back, everyone.

Breaking overnight, a stunning upset in the race for New York City's mayor. 33-year-old State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani is poised to win the city's Democratic primary after former Governor Andrew Cuomo conceded the race late last night.

So how did we get here? I can think of no better person to explain that than CNN's chief data analyst, Harry Enten, who is with me now. So I guess let's just put this in perspective.

How historic was this upset here?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Let me tell you, this was a political earthquake that should have the Democratic establishment running scared. What are we talking about here?

[08:20:00]

Well, New York City primary upsets like Mamdani's. This is truly one for the record books. They're really only two that I could think of that are anything like this. And that was back in 89 for mayor when David Dickens won over third -- three-term mayor Ed Koch. Koch was running for a fourth term. The voters said, uh-uh, there was big turnout then, just like there was big turnout last night.

And of course, more recently, if you want to take a look at a national picture, think back to 2018, New York's 14th Democratic primary, going for Congress, when AOC beat House Dem-Caucus Chair Joe Crowley. This, to me, is very much like that, energizing young voters, energizing voters on the left, and providing what truly was a historic night last night in Democratic circles.

JIMENEZ: And, you know, look, on paper, this is a mayor's race. This is also New York City, special city. But is this more a New York City thing, or is this more of a sign of a larger national trend when it comes to the Democratic Party?

ENTEN: Yes, just like AOC's victory in 2018, this did happen locally, but I think you can take it up nationally. What are we talking about here? Well, you know, you think about Democratic establishment, you think about Democratic Party leaders. Pretty much all of them were behind Andrew Cuomo. But the bottom line is the Democratic base is fed up, done with the Democratic establishment. This is true in New York. It's true nationally. Democrats who say their party leaders should be replaced.

Look at this. This is a recent poll from Reuters/Ipsos. 62 percent of Democrats nationally say their party leaders should be replaced. Party leaders like Andrew Cuomo. Party leaders like Jim Clyburn, who, of course, endorsed Andrew Cuomo. You think about all the Democrats that were behind Andrew Cuomo in the establishment. The Democratic base is fed up with them. And the bottom line is nationally, the vast majority of Democrats think that their party leaders should be replaced. But it's more than this, right? Of course, Mamdani ran a left, pretty far left campaign, right, compared to what we normally see in Democratic circles.

But the bottom line is, you talked to me 20, 30 years ago, there was no way I thought a Democratic Socialist could win a nomination for mayor in New York or nationally. But look, Democrats who identify as liberal nationally in 1994 is 25 percent. You go to 2004, 33 percent, 2014, 43 percent.

Now, the majority of Democrats nationally identify as liberal. If there are Democratic establishment folks who think this is just going to be contained in New York, I say this is a warning sign to you. It very much may not be.

JIMENEZ: And obviously, a lot of eyeballs on this race, including what happens next, because now he's just got to match up with an independent incumbent in Mayor Eric Adams.

ENTEN: I'm very much looking forward to this matchup. Could be another one for the books.

JIMENEZ: More numbers for you to dig into. Harry, good to see you.

ENTEN: Nice to see you.

JIMENEZ: As always -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: And as you were discussing, Mamdani, he campaigned on rent freezes, free city buses, raising taxes on the wealthy, some of which he talked about last night. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZOHRAN MAMDANI, (D) NEW YORK MAYORAL CANDIDATE: We have won because New Yorkers have stood up for a city they can afford.

(CHEERING)

MAMDANI: A city where they can do more than just struggle. And it's where the mayor will use their power to reject Donald Trump's fascism --

(CHEERING)

MAMDANI: -- to stop mass ICE agents from deporting our neighbors --

(CHEERING)

MAMDANI: -- and to govern our city as a model for the Democratic Party.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: CNN's Gloria Pazmino joining me now. And you were at the headquarters for the Cuomo campaign last night as all of this was coming in and playing out. What did you hear?

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I think once we saw the former governor come out about an hour and a half after the polls had closed unannounced without anyone coming onto the stage to kind of warm up the crowd, we knew that this was not going in the right direction.

Now, going into last night, Cuomo camp was very well aware that they needed to perform well with older New Yorkers. And that was just a clue of where things were going because Mamdani's campaign really energized young people here in New York City. We saw that last night. We saw it in the campaign.

But I think also most importantly, Cuomo ran a campaign that was sort of performing as if his win was a given, right? And Mamdani simply just outworked him. He was really out there hitting the pavement every single day.

And I think Cuomo saw the writing on the wall early last night. He came out to concede early. He congratulated Mamdani.

I want you to just take a listen as he took the stage last night, where the air kind of left the room as he took that stage. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREW CUOMO, (D) NEW YORK MAYORAL CANDIDATE: Tonight was not our night. Tonight was Assemblyman Mamdani's night. And he put together a great campaign, and he touched young people and inspired them and moved them and got them to come out and vote.

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And he really ran a highly impactful campaign. I called him. I congratulated him. I applaud -- I applaud him sincerely for his effort.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAZMINO: OK, you couldn't hear it there, but there was people in the crowd who were screaming, it's not over yet. And the reason for that, of course, is because this was a primary. There's still a general. And Andrew Cuomo had said that he would consider running as an independent candidate in the general election.

Andrew Cuomo did not sound like he was going to do that last night. He did say his campaign said after his speech that they were going to take a very close look at the numbers and make a final decision.

But it looks like even that possibility is up in the air right now. Remember, Cuomo and Eric Adams, the incumbent, would have to split the same vote. So it's not an ideal scenario for Cuomo going into that race.

BOLDUAN: All right, we will see. It's great to see you, Gloria. Thank you so much for reporting on this. Still ahead for us, we continue to follow breaking news this morning.

President Trump meeting with world leaders at the NATO summit and continuing to answer questions and talk about the U.S. strikes on Iran, still defending them as total obliteration.

And a driver trapped inside a truck as it dangled off a partially collapsed bridge in China. How that man is doing this morning.

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