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Lawmakers Furious Over Canceled Briefing; Trump Defends Strikes on Iran; Senate to Vote on Pick to Lead FAA; Trump Speaks at NATO. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired June 25, 2025 - 09:30   ET

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

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[09:32:51]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, anger is mounting on Capitol Hill after classified briefings scheduled for both the House and Senate yesterday on the Iran strikes were abruptly canceled. The White House says the delay was due to, quote, "evolved circumstances in the Middle East." Democrats on Capitol Hill think otherwise.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. PETE AGUILLAR (D-CA): It is completely unacceptable that Congress has not been briefed on this in a timely fashion. We need evidence, we need details, and we need to know them now.

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): Is it, in fact, the case that Iran's nuclear program has been completely and totally obliterated? There apparently are reasons to believe that that was a blatant misrepresentation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Lauren Fox tracking this one from The Hill for us once again, of course

Lauren, those meetings now have been rescheduled for the end of this week. Congressman Jason Crow was just on the show and told me that he has actually seen this preliminary intelligence assessment from the Pentagon. What are you hearing there this morning?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kate, I mean, obviously, lawmakers may be able to access certain information in the SCIFs. That's certainly a possibility. But one of the keys here is the fact that lawmakers like to be able to have a dialogue about exactly what they know on the intelligence front so far.

I mean there are a myriad of questions, not just about the impact of these strikes, but also what intelligence led up to the decision that Donald Trump made to carry out these strikes. And I think the frustration that you're hearing, mostly from Democrats, is that this has been a request of theirs now for several days. And Chuck Schumer pointed out, the minority leader in the Senate, that if there is a desire to have Rubio and Hegseth involved in these briefings, they're happy to have further briefings down the line. But they did want to go ahead with this Tuesday briefing so that they could get preliminary information that they've been asking for, for three days.

Kate.

[09:35:05]

BOLDUAN: Lauren, you also have new reporting about the president ramping up pressure on Republicans over that massive domestic policy bill that has -- it's been working its way through Congress, but it's definitely hitting a -- quite a few obstacles.

FOX: Yes, that's exactly right, Kate. I mean this is a key priority for President Donald Trump. They have nine days until July 4th to get it passed. And right now, Republican leadership is banking on what they hope will be a strong sense of pressure on Republican members to not delay Trump's agenda, even though you are hearing so many concerns right now form both conservatives and moderates, concerns that we should note are really difficult to square because they run right up against one another's request. You have Republicans who believe this bill is too expensive. You have other, more moderate Republicans who are arguing that they are concerned about some of the cuts in this bill, especially to health care programs like Medicaid. So, that tension exists right now in such a huge way. And yet Republican leadership does think in the Senate that they could potentially vote on this bill by the end of the week given the fact that they do not want to be on Trump's bad side by missing that July 4th deadline.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: All right, we will see. Much more to come.

Lauren, thank you so much.

Omar.

FOX: Thank you.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: All right, with me now is Maura Gillespie, founder of Bluestack Strategies and press advisor to then Speaker of the House John Boehner, and CNN political commentator and Democratic strategist Maria Cardona.

Good to see you both.

All right, let's start with -- with Iran, because early U.S. intel supports the Iranian nuclear capabilities weren't completely destroyed. Now we're hearing from the Israel Atomic Energy Commission. They assess the site's critical infrastructure was destroyed. Iran's foreign minister also speaks -- or the spokesperson also speaks of the site being badly damaged.

So, but -- but what we've heard from President Trump a little earlier is, he suggested he would be open to further strikes if needed. I guess I'm assuming that means if these sites weren't further obliterated.

So, Maura, I'm going to ask you, does it concern you that there may still be a potential for the United States to get further involved, or do you think this is where it stops?

MAURA GILLESPIE, FOUNDER AND PRINCIPAL, BLUESTACK STRATEGIES: My concern is the lack of transparency. I think that for so many in the MAGA space they demanded transparency, you know, and Trump did too. I mean when he was candidate Trump, he was constantly calling for more transparency. And yet we deserve to know. We, the people, deserve to know why the president of the United States violated the Constitution, international law, and the U.N. charter in doing this.

JIMENEZ: And --

GILLESPIE: Listen --

JIMENEZ: Yes, keep going.

GILLESPIE: No one is crying for the nuclear regime -- the Iranian regime. No one's crying for them, as opposed to they're losing any amount of their nuclear, you know, stronghold there. But what we do have concerns with is the repercussions that's going to impact generations. So, I am concerned about the lack of an answer and a reasoning, justification for this attack.

JIMENEZ: And, Maria, let me bring you in on that because, you know, to this point we've seen some criticism, including from Democratic members of Congress, that -- that haven't gotten a full -- yes, some criticism, but haven't gotten a -- a full briefing on -- on what actually happened here. Does that concern you? What needs to change on that front?

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Oh, absolutely. Omar. The fact that the administration, first of all, did not even brief the Democratic members of the Gang of Eight before they went in, that they only chose to brief the Republican members of Congress, is egregious enough. But now to refuse to brief them, to postpone the briefing after the fact is completely unacceptable, Omar. This kind of aggressive act of war should be something. And, you know, the Constitution spells it out very clearly, needs to come from members of Congress supporting that kind of aggressive act of war.

And so now it absolutely screams for a briefing as soon as possible. What is the administration afraid of, Omar? Are they afraid that, in fact, the intelligence and the information is going to show that not a whole lot was done, that, in fact, it only pushed back Iran's nuclear program months. Is it going to show that perhaps Trump was way too quick to pull the trigger on this, and that there really wasn't the necessity for this here in terms of an imminent acquiring of a nuclear weapon on behalf of Iran. If we listen to Israel before these bombings, they said that their attacks pushed back nuclear -- Iran's ability to acquire nuclear weapon by years.

So, there are so many questions here, Omar.

JIMENEZ: Yes.

CARDONA: And then to your point about what you mentioned is, is Trump going to decide to go in again, you know, very shortly because he's going to understand that this actually wasn't the obliteration that he says it is.

[09:40:10]

JIMENEZ: Well, I didn't think --

CARDONA: So, absolutely --

JIMENEZ: Yes.

CARDONA: Congress needs to be briefed, and now.

JIMENEZ: Well, I didn't think I would get you both to agree with each other on transparency so quickly. We're doing so well.

I want to ask you, Maura, because Republican congressman from Kentucky, Thomas Massie, he recently sponsored a resolution to -- to rein in the executive power to go to war. It doesn't seem like it's going anywhere at this point. But do you think Congress should have had more of a say here?

GILLESPIE: I think the Congress should have been briefed. And so I -- I will agree with Maria. I do think that Congress, both sides of the aisle, should have been briefed. But again, I think that the president, when he spoke that night, let's also remember, he was out playing golf Saturday at Bedminster at his course, and then hours later ordered this attack, this strike on Iran's nuclear facilities. And then his address to the nation really didn't explain very much. We didn't under -- we didn't get an understanding of what was happening. So, I -- I do think that the biggest issue here is the justification for it, because we will feel this for generations to come. The fallout from this, unfortunately, will go to our proxies first, our -- our men and women in the military, they are first, but we will certainly feel this impact. And so, we need to know why.

And I do worry that it was just an ego driven trip. And, listen, I think that across the board Republicans and Democrats alike should be OK to say that. Republicans especially need to be OK to say, listen, if this is just about your ego and you wanting to win some sort of Nobel Peace Prize, or to do something that Netanyahu told you presidents before you had failed to do, so this is your chance, go and do it, just say that. Be honest with us and then call him out for it. It's OK to disagree with the president of the United States. It doesn't make you any less Republican.

We have to get back from -- get away from this personality politics, identity politics, and assuming that one person is going to dictate our entire political system. We can't operate like that. We need to stand for our principles, our values, and our moral compass.

JIMENEZ: Maura Gillespie, Maria Cardona, I have to leave it there. I really appreciate you both. Thanks for being here. CARDONA: Thank you.

JIMENEZ: And we are showing some of the images before. We are continuing to monitor any moment we're expecting President Trump to speak at NATO in the Netherlands. We will bring you that live. This is a look inside the room right now. A whole lot of topics he could hit. And again, once he steps up to that podium, we'll bring you that live.

For now, we'll be right back.

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[09:46:56]

BOLDUAN: All right, you're looking at live pictures from The Netherlands right now. The NATO summit is very clearly and very much underway. We've heard from President Trump already this morning, but we are looking at that podium right there where we're expecting President Trump to be coming to hold what looks like a very big press conference in the coming moments. We're going to keep an eye on this and bring this to you when it begins.

But also happening today, we're keeping an eye on a Senate committee hearing is set to vote -- set to vote on President Trump's nominee to lead the FAA. If confirmed, Bryan Bedford would oversee an airspace which has been, well, plagued with issues for months and months. Close calls, mid-air disasters, major shortages when it comes to air traffic control, a huge and important job ahead for whomever it is.

CNN's Gabe Cohen is watching this one for us, joins us now.

Gabe, what's expected today when it comes to the man nominated to now run the FAA?

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so, Kate, we expect that this Senate committee is going to vote on whether to advance Republic Airways CEO Bryan Bedford's nomination to the Senate floor. And that, of course, would put him one step closer to becoming the new head of the FAA. We know that some prominent Democrats have already said they're going to vote against Bedford, who is Trump's pick to run the FAA. And it's really over concerns that he might lower the amount of training hours that co-pilots on commercial jets are required to have.

But that opposition likely is not going to matter much because, of course, Republicans control the Senate. But as we have seen in recent weeks, the focus of Bedford's nomination process has really been centered on aviation safety. He has fielded a lot of questions about modernizing the air traffic control system, about beefing up staffing given some of these system issues that we have seen in Newark in recent weeks and months, as well as, of course, that tragic crash that happened here in Washington back in January.

And as all of this is happening, Kate, just yesterday we also heard this remarkable testimony from the head of the National Transportation Safety Board, who said that after investigating that door plug blowout that you may remember from last year, that happened on that Alaska Airlines flight when the door plug just blew out mid-flight, well, the head of the NTSB said that blame does not just lie with Boeing, who built the plane and, of course, should have been in control of the structural issues around the aircraft, but some blame also falls on the FAA, which should have been on top of its oversight of airline safety.

So, that is a key issue. As this process plays out, Kate, we know that aviation safety, in many ways, a bipartisan issue. The Trump administration has promised billions of dollars in investment to improve the air traffic control system. But it will be interesting to see how much opposition Bedford gets, given that in the past FAA administrators, the last one was unanimously approved by the Senate.

BOLDUAN: All right, it's definitely something to keep a very close eye on because it has been quite a rough year already when it comes to the flying skies, as we well know, and you have been covering so well.

[09:50:02]

Gabe, thank you very much. Gabe is going to keep an eye on that for all of us today.

We'll show you live pictures once again from The Netherlands. That podium standing by for President Trump and a press conference with a room full of reporters, as you can see, at the NATO summit with very -- with one -- many issues at hand, including the war in Ukraine, but also the level of defense spending among NATO members. And also overshadowing much, if not all of this so far, is the Israel-Iran conflict., U.S. strikes on Iran, and what we're now learning about all of it. We've got much more on that ahead.

Also this. Millions of people along the East Coast are facing another day of seriously hot and dangerous weather. We're going to have a look at the forecast.

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[09:55:16]

JIMENEZ: Welcome back, everyone. You are looking at live pictures out of The Netherlands right now where we are expecting President Donald Trump to come out and answer questions from that room full of reporters. A big room full of reporters. It could happen any moment now. So, when that happens, we're going to bring that to you live.

Again, a whole host of topics to hit, from Iran, to Israel, Russia, Ukraine and more. We'll bring that to you when it happens.

But we're also following some other stories, including this morning, another day of brutal heat for those on the East Coast. And while it's not quite as bad as yesterday's record temperatures, take a look at these heat alerts today. Still well above normal. And CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam joins us now, who's going to bring in some of those heat alerts and more.

Derek, what are we looking at? DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, what do they always say about

Philadelphia? It's always sunny in Philadelphia.

JIMENEZ: Yes, (INAUDIBLE).

VAN DAM: Unfortunately this sun -- yes, that's right. This sun's creating a very steamy day. If you were on the ground yesterday in the city of brotherly love, you know that it was just downright balmy, almost dangerous. We actually saw the warmest temperature in over a decade, topping 100 degrees in Philadelphia. It's already 90. So, therein lies the problem.

The heat, the overnight temperatures are not bringing any relief to the heat. So, it has just been so warm. It's already 88 in New York City. They dropped to about 82 overnight. Keep in mind, that is the average daily high for the day. They had three consecutive days of temperatures above 80 degrees overnight. That is tied for a record as well.

And we have to go back over 100 years, over a century, when we actually saw the last time the temperature yesterday reached above 96 degrees. So, that really puts it all into historical context. We still have hundreds of millions of people still impacted by this heat.

The heat alerts blanketing much of the megalopolis across the eastern seaboard. D.C., you're going to feel like 106 today. That is when you factor in the temperature and the humidity. We call that the heat index.

But there is some relief in sight. We have to wait another 24 hours. Look at that dramatic cooldown for Boston, New York, as well as Philadelphia. Cooler weather is coming, unfortunately. Can't say the same for the south.

Omar. Kate. We'll take it while it comes.

JIMENEZ: All right. We will see. Hopefully relief soon.

Derek Van Dam, really appreciate it.

And thank you all for joining us. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL. "THE SITUATION ROOM" up next.

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WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. We're standing by -- it's just beginning right now, the president of the United States at the NATO summit in The Netherlands, beginning to hold a news conference. I want to listen in.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Conclusion of a highly productive NATO summit in The Netherlands. I want to thank them for the royal treatment they've given us. Couldn't -- couldn't have been nicer. And it's a beautiful country. Really a beautiful country. Coming in I saw the most beautiful trees. In fact, I want to bring some back with me.

I want to also thank -- I had -- I had breakfast this morning with the king and queen, and they're incredible people. I called, I said, you're central casting. Beautiful people. Great people. Big, beautiful heart. And I enjoyed that.

And also NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, who's been terrific. He's been a friend of mine. He used to be right here running this wonderful country. Now he's the NATO secretary general. He's doing a fantastic job. And the prime minister. We appreciate everything you've done.

And, as you know, last weekend the United States successfully carried out a massive precision strike on Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities. And it was very, very successful. It was called obliteration. No other military on earth could have done it. And now this incredible exercise of American strength has paved the way for peace with an historic ceasefire agreement late Monday.

[10:00:03]

And we call it the 12-day war. I spoke to a few people. I guess that just sounded like the right