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Lawmakers Say U.S. Strike in Iran Not Intended to Destroy Uranium; Interview with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI): Supreme Court Ruling Limiting Lower Courts' Power; Iranians Express Anger Over Israel and U.S. Strikes During Friday Prayers. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired June 27, 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]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: We hear from some Republican senators that getting rid of that highly enriched uranium, it's enriched far beyond, just to be clear, what it would need to be for energy. It's not quite as enriched as it would need to be for weapons. You have these Republican senators, some of them saying, no, no, that wasn't actually the goal to get rid of that uranium.

How do you see it?

COL. PETER MANSOOR, U.S. ARMY (RET.): Well, I think the primary goal was to get rid of the enrichment capability and destroy the centrifuges and the plants that operate them. So they're right in that regard. But a secondary goal was to get rid of the 60 percent enriched uranium, which is enough to make a dirty bomb, if not an actual bomb that can explode like the ones that took out Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

You know, the enriched uranium, 400 kilograms of it, or about 900 pounds (INAUDIBLE) negotiated through whatever talks occur in the future. But again, you have to get by the red line of both sides. Can Iran enrich uranium in the future?

Iran says yes. United States, Israel says no. And they're stuck there right now.

KEILAR: Colonel, it is great to get your perspective. Colonel Peter Mansoor, thank you so much.

MANSOOR: Thanks for having me on.

KEILAR: Still ahead, the president is set to stay in Washington this weekend, trying to keep the pressure up on Congress, on Republicans, to pass his sweeping policy agenda bill. But this is happening as the bill is facing big headwinds in the Senate. We'll have the latest on the status of that big bill, next.

[14:35:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Back to our breaking news. President Trump is now outlining his next steps after the Supreme Court ruled limiting nationwide injunctions by lower courts, which have temporarily blocked some of the president's agenda.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thanks to this decision, we can now properly file to proceed with these numerous policies and those that have been wrongly enjoined on a nationwide basis, including birthright citizenship, ending sanctuary city funding, suspending refugee resettlement, freezing unnecessary funding, stopping federal taxpayers from paying for transgender surgeries and numerous other priorities of the American people. We have so many of them. I have a whole list.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Let's talk about this now with Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island. He is a member of the Judiciary Committee. So thanks for being with us.

Your biggest concerns with these rulings today?

SEN. SHELDON WHITEHOUSE (D-RI): Well, I think the end to nationwide injunctions creates a bit of confusion when the government is a party, because the United States government is nationwide and it should have a consistent policy across the nation. So this allows for considerable delay and confusion in the early stages of litigation. On the other hand, once a district court has ruled in a particular district, that ruling is the law of that district.

Once a ruling has come down in the Circuit Court of Appeals, that ruling is the law of that entire circuit. And once three or four or five district judges have all ruled the same way, then the Department of Justice is bound by those rulings or potentially vulnerable to sanctions for vexatious and frivolous litigation. So there are restraints within the court system on the way in which the Trump administration intends to abuse this ruling.

KEILAR: You are, of course, the former AG of Rhode Island, and you speak like one there for sure. But as President Trump is previewing there, we just heard it, his intention to move forward with so many policies via executive action because of this ruling in this birthright citizenship case. What are Democrats prepared to do to counter that?

WHITEHOUSE: I think litigation remains the best option against these executive orders where they are illegal or unconstitutional or both, which is so often the case in this administration. And I think we've seen Democratic attorney generals and also just regular litigants having whopping successes against the administration.

The substance of those successes doesn't change. You just have to go to more places to expand and enforce those successes. And there comes a point fairly early where the government can no longer litigate its position in good faith because it is lost over and over and over again.

KEILAR: So there's the legal avenue, of course. There's also the political avenue on this. I wonder, as you are reflecting on what Democrats can do here politically, it's pretty clear the history books are going to look back on this period in time as a time when this president expanded the powers of the presidency, consolidated so much of it.

But I wonder, do you also think -- and you've heard -- you've heard, right, the criticisms from voters, criticisms from donors. Do you think that history books might also look back on this period of time as one where Democrats in Congress and the Democratic Party could have done a better job as a minority party to offer voters an alternative vision or more compelling leadership?

[14:40:00]

WHITEHOUSE: Actually, I think the problems in the Democratic Party were some years ago when so many of us saw the enormous apparatus of misinformation and political influence that the far right, and particularly the fossil fuel industry, was building up. And we didn't build countermeasures countermeasures to that apparatus.

We have not been effective at calling out its mischief and its lies and looking behind the curtain, showing the American people behind the curtain. So I think we could have done far better there. I think that under the circumstances, what we're seeing is that the American public is with us.

The No Kings demonstrations may very well have been the biggest demonstrations in the history of the United States of America. And people came out big time to express their opposition to this administration. We've got an election coming up next November that may very well cement that, that could put the House back in Democratic hands, even the Senate back in Democratic hands. So we're on the right path now.

KEILAR: What do you see, and turning the subject now to this bill, this big Trump agenda bill, the Big, Beautiful Bill, as he calls it, going through the Senate and the House, as we expect it may. You know, when you look at that, and you know that some of your Republican colleagues are actually very concerned about how vulnerable that bill could be for them politically. Do you see your party, you know, seizing on that?

And do you also maybe see some of the parts of that bill, are there any parts of that bill that you could get behind?

WHITEHOUSE: The effects of this bill on the American public, if it goes into effect, are predictably a body blow for the Republican Party. And as it gets closer to game day, and they've got to actually pull the trigger on this, they're seeing that more and more, and they're getting more and more nervous.

Right now, as you and I are talking, a small sort of tea leaves in the Congress measure has just occurred, which is that today's vote has been moved forward from 6 p.m. to 4 p.m. That may seem like nothing, but it means that the Republicans are responding to the desire of their members to get to the airport today and get their flights home. So this is no longer DEFCON 1, stick around the Capitol, we're going to get this done. They have collapsed back to a regular schedule of everybody going home for the weekend while they try to figure it out. That's a big step back.

KEILAR: Could you get behind something like no federal tax on tips and overtime, the increase to the child tax credit?

WHITEHOUSE: If there were any kind of an honest effort to put together a bipartisan bill, of course there are ways that we can find agreement. The House came together on a child tax credit bill, and we would still love to get that done. There are a number of measures that I would like to see passed into law, but you can't get past the destruction of Medicaid. You can't get past the damage that would do to hospitals and nursing homes across America. You can't get past how working class people are going to take it on the chin from this bill, and all for a bunch of billionaires who already have more money than they can count.

KEILAR: Senator Whitehouse, we appreciate your time this afternoon. Thank you so much for being with us.

WHITEHOUSE: Thank you.

KEILAR: So this just in, the man accused of killing -- sorry, the man accused of killing, is this, OK, just to be clear about this, sorry, there's lacking some context and prompter here.

The man who was accused of killing, the lawmaker in Minnesota, as well as his -- as well as her spouse, is actually making his first appearance in federal court today. He's also charged in the attempted murders of a state senator and his wife.

This is Vance Boelter, who was granted a delay in proceedings after his attorney said that she had been having difficulties communicating with him.

In the meantime happening now, the Minnesota community is honoring the late state representative, Melissa Hortman, and her husband. They are both lying in state. You can see those pictures here coming to us from our affiliate WCCO in St. Paul, Minnesota, a community that is so deeply affected and in mourning as they are facing just an incredible tragedy there.

Stay with CNN for more.

[14:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: New today, President Trump says he would not rule out bombing Iran again if it continues to enrich uranium. Meantime, there's anger on the streets of Iran in the wake of these U.S. and Israeli strikes. CNN senior international correspondent Fred Pleitgen filed this report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Here at Friday prayers, the prayer leader has been ripping into the United States and ripping into Israel as well. The Iranians are saying they believe that they imposed the ceasefire on the U.S. and Israel because their military was so strong. Many of the folks here chanting death to America and death to Israel.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): The great nation of Iran showed resistance in these 12 days, he says, bringing the enemy to its knees. God willing, the weak enemy will be defeated even more.

And he says we will roll you out of this region with the permission of God.

PLEITGEN: The concept of martyrdom is hugely important here in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

[14:50:00]

We're currently at an event where hundreds of mothers hold their babies into the air to show that they're willing to offer them as martyrs for God and for Imam Husayn. And this goes back to the early days of Shiite Islam, where Imam Husayn, when he was besieged in Karbala, he held up his newborn baby and asked the enemy that was besieging Karbala to give the baby water, and instead the enemy killed the baby. It's a very important story here in Iran.

And of course, all of this takes on an even greater importance now that Iran is involved in that standoff with Israel in the United States.

This is an annual event that takes place every year, but folks that we've been speaking to say that for them this year, it's even more important.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): We want to show them we are not scared of anything, she says, and will support our state until they are destroyed. And she says they need to know that Imam Husayn is our everything, and we should sacrifice our lives for Imam Husayn.

This is a symbol saluting Imam Husayn, she says, who's the leader of all the oppressed who stand against oppressors and don't submit.

PLEITGEN: And just to show how big this is in Iran right now, the crowd here was chanting death to America, death to Israel, and there was even a children's choir that was singing songs as videos were shown of Iran's missile program in action against Israel. And of course, also when the Trump administration carried out those strikes against Iranian nuclear installations.

In total, right now, as this conflict is taking place, all of this extremely important to the folks here.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Tehran.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[14:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: What we really need here is like a Stonehenge of presidential heads.

SANCHEZ: Yes, busts.

KEILAR: Oh, we have one.

SANCHEZ: It's right there. Somewhere in the landscape. It's really interesting.

For a second year in a row, CNN asked viewers to weigh in on their favorite cities in America, and hundreds of our viewers responded. And the CNN travel team then narrowed that list down to a top 10.

KEILAR: This week, CNN's Laura Coates visits one of them, the city of presidents, Rapid City, South Dakota.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is James Madison. He was the shortest president, coming in at, I believe, five foot four.

LAURA COATES, CNN ANCHOR: He just beat me. He just beat me.

COATES (voice-over): Welcome to Rapid City, South Dakota, nicknamed the city of presidents. It's not only the gateway to this familiar landmark, but history fans can find life-size presidents all over town.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All of our presidents are worthy. All of our presidents should be remembered, and all of our presidents are represented here in Rapid City.

COATES (voice-over): Rapid City is also a hub for outdoor adventure. Just down the road is Custer State Park, where you can see hundreds of wild bison.

RANDY ANDERSON, BUFFALO SAFARI JEEP TOURS: You're seeing lots of mama cows and the little cinnamon calves. The small ones are the brand new babies that were born this spring.

COATES: They're not dangerous.

ANDERSON: They are dangerous.

COATES: OK, well, then that's my next question. They're very close.

ANDERSON: They are very dangerous.

COATES: You have to respect and appreciate nature from a bit of a distance. ANDERSON: Even though they're docile acting animals, they're as wild as they can be.

COATES (voice-over): Bison aren't just part of the scenery. They're part of the culture and the menu.

COATES: Is this the famous bison ramen?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is.

COATES: This is wonderful. It's so tender.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you. We tried to crack the code, as it were. The arugula is like as close to like what a bison would eat. It tastes pastoral.

COATES: I've never had ramen this good, and I eat a lot of ramen.

COATES (voice-over): You can't visit Rapid City without seeing the four biggest presidents of all, and there's a treat you'll want to try.

COATES: He was the principal author of Declaration of Independence, and also the first ice cream recipe in America.

Who knew Rapid City? Who knew?

COATES: All right, can I try a scoop of the Thomas Jefferson vanilla, please?

There it is. It even has a nice Thomas Jefferson hair. It's good. Creamy and rich. I don't think he meant to charge $6 for it, though.

COATES: Oh, wow, look at that.

To see it in person and be here in person and to really appreciate what it would take to actually create this. And it really does remind you all the times that so many people think about politics and history coming out of the nation's capital in the Beltway. No, it's here in South Dakota.

COATES (on camera): You guys, I had the best time in South Dakota. I'm from Minnesota. I had never gone before now, and now I regret it because it was so much fun. I wish you could have come with me, but now you got to feel and experience it along with me for "AMERICA'S BEST TOWNS." I hope next time you're with me. Back to you guys.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: Thank you, Laura.

SANCHEZ: She's like on vacation.

KEILAR: I want to go. This is my favorite sort of series that we do.

SANCHEZ: Yes. I feel like we have to explain the Stonehenge of presidents. It was in the wall --

KEILAR: It was.

SANCHEZ: -- and then they took it out of the wall.

KEILAR: It's gone now, but there were just these presidential heads just sticking around, watching over us, making sure we're doing it right. That's right.

So still ahead, the Supreme Court handing the Trump administration a major win by limiting the power of lower courts. What this means for President Trump's agenda moving forward, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

END