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Shifting Views on Middle East Conflict; Mamdani Responds to Trump; Musk Praises Trump; New Images of Nuclear Site Damage. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired July 02, 2025 - 08:30   ET

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

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[08:32:23]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, Zohran Mamdani is officially the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor. And he's now facing new attacks from President Trump. The president is now threatening to arrest Mamdani if he blocked immigration -- blocks immigration arrests in New York City, something that Mamdani has promised to do.

But there is a lot more and a lot more questions about, as he is now continuing to campaign, that Mamdani is also facing, continued and serious questions about his stance on Israel.

CNN's Harry Enten is joining me now and is running the numbers on this, taking this and looking also more broadly because it speaks to the broader views in Democratic politics specifically. Also speak to what's going on with Mamdani and this race for mayor in New York City.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Yes, absolutely true. I mean, look, Andrew Cuomo, during the primary, attacked Mamdani as being insufficiently pro-Israel. I'm not quite sure the former governor understood how much the politics have changed around this issue among Democrats.

What are we talking about here? All right, who Democrats sympathize more with, Israelis or Palestinians? In 2017 the Democratic Party was a pro-Israeli party. Look at this, they sympathized with the Israelis by 13 points. More with the Israelis than the Palestinians.

But look at this sea change. Now Democrats sympathize more with the Palestinians by 43 points. Oh my God, that is a change in the margin of 56 points over the course of just eight years. So, all of a sudden, it's the pro-Palestinian position that actually reigns supreme in Democratic politics, not the Israeli position. And that is part of the reason why Mamdani was able to do so well in this primary because those attacks over Israel, simply put, did not ring true for Democrats. They are now on the side of the Palestinians, not the Israelis.

BOLDUAN: I mean, this is a much bigger issue, specifically with Mamdani though. I mean an outspoken critic of Israel. He's facing continued criticism, though, for not being outspoken enough against anti-Semitism, that is for sure.

But, on this, what is -- talk about Democrats and how -- broadly how this really is shifting.

ENTEN: Yes. So, you know, you see this, you see this among Democrats overall, right, but we know that Mamdani's base was younger voters within the Democratic Party. And so I want to break it down for you.

BOLDUAN: Well, with young -- with younger Democrats.

ENTEN: Correct. So, take a look here. Who age 18 to 49 Democrats sympathize more with, the Israelis or the Palestinians? Again, in 2017, younger Democrats sympathized more with the Israelis by 14 points. Look at this shift now. Palestinians. They sympathize more with the Palestinians by 57 points. That is an over 70-point shift in the margin in just a matter of eight years.

So, the bottom line is, Mamdani's base within the Democratic Party, and the base of the Democratic Party of younger voters, younger Democrats, have changed tremendously on this issue in eight years' time.

[08:35:09]

I rarely ever see shifts like this, Kate, in which you see one side of the equation leading by 14 points eight years ago, and then all of a sudden, the other side of the equation leading by 57 points.

The bottom line is, the politics around the Israelis and the Palestinians have shifted tremendously among Democrats, and they've shifted specifically tremendously among Democrats who are under the age of 50. Younger Democrats, who are Mamdani's base, and also the base of Democratic socialists, like himself, like Bernie Sanders, like AOC, they have just shifted more so than I think that anyone could possibly have imagined say eight years ago.

BOLDUAN: Yes. Harry, thank you so much. Taking a real closer look at Democratic politics and how you're seeing that shift transition. It's good to see you. Thank you.

ENTEN: Nice seeing you.

BOLDUAN: John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, with us now, "Axios" senior contributor Margaret Talev, and Spectrum News political anchor, and host of "The Big Deal" podcast, Errol Louis.

I want to take a tangent to that discussion right there. I still want to talk about Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee to be mayor of New York City, but I want to focus on a little bit of an exchange he has had with President Trump. Because President Trump, yesterday, was asked, what would happen if Mamdani stood in the way of ICE arresting undocumented immigrants or apprehending undocumented immigrants in New York City. I want you to hear what the president said and threatened, and then I want you to hear the response from the Democratic nominee for mayor.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We'll have to arrest him. A lot of people are saying he's here illegally. He's -- you know, we're going to look at everything.

ZOHRAN MAMDANI (D), NYC MAYORAL CANDIDATE: What we're seeing in President Trump's rhetoric is an attempt to focus on who I am, where I'm from, what I look like, how I sound, as opposed to what I'm actually fighting for. Because to do so would be to display the stark contrast in our sincerity and actually delivering for the very working people who've been left behind by our politics.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: It just so happens that that interview that you saw with Zohran Mamdani was conducted by Errol Louis. Part of an extensive discussion last night.

So, Errol, what do you make of the back and forth here and how each of those two gentlemen are positioning themselves?

ERROL LOUIS, POLITICAL ANCHOR, SPECTRUM NEWS: Well, John, good morning.

As is often the case, what we have is a Republican who wants to beat up on a Democrat and sort of demonize him and use it to rally the Republican base and raise money and do all kinds of things. And, frankly, Zohran Mamdani can kind of do the same thing in the opposite direction. Donald Trump is very unpopular in New York City. He lost New York City twice when he ran for president, even though this is his hometown. And Zohran Mamdani is aware of that. And it never hurts a Democrat to bash Donald Trump. And so, I think we're going to see a lot of that going back and forth as each tries to exploit the political vulnerabilities of their -- of their -- their adversary.

BERMAN: Margaret, it sounds like what Errol is saying is you have a president who wants to bash a Democratic candidate and a Democratic candidate who wants to be bashed by the president in a way.

MARGARET TALEV, SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR, "AXIOS": Yes. And to Errol's point, they do both get something political out of it. There's another trend developing too, where we're seeing the president talk more and more about this idea of like forcing denaturalization, trying to really test the limits of what he can do as the executive in terms of the immigration status or the citizen status of people who were born in other countries, became U.S. citizens, did the things that, you know, are so often talked about as playing by the rules. You wait your turn. You study what it means to be an American. You take the citizenship test. You do all the right things. You become a citizen.

And increasingly now, he and the Justice Department are talking about increasing denaturalization for naturalized citizens who, in some ways, are seen to have sort of betrayed U.S. ideals. And right now, this is, to some extent rhetoric, but we have actually seen a huge uptick since the beginning of the first Trump administration since 2017 in the number of cases being discussed for denaturalization. You saw him sort of float this as a threat against Elon Musk, who, of course, is originally from South Africa, when -- now that he is tangling again with the president. So, I'd keep an eye on that also.

BERMAN: That's a really interesting point, the comparison between Elon Musk and Zohran Mamdani and the mutual threats made against each of them there.

Errol, just one more point on Mamdani. You know, for all the differences between him and President Trump, there's also some really interesting similarities in the way that they campaign.

LOUIS: Oh, absolutely. I mean, look, both of them focused on affordability with an almost obsessive focus. And it's really very interesting. We're -- we're looking at the numbers. We just are getting preliminary numbers. But there are some Trump/Mamdani voters out there. We've identified some areas of New York City where they went for Trump just a few months ago, and now they're voting for -- for Zohran Mamdani.

[08:40:05]

And it's a wake-up call really to both parties that something that will go beyond any other kind of traditional political consideration is that gnawing feeling of not being able to pay your bills on a daily basis. The voters have signaled every way they possibly could that that will override almost every other consideration. And politicians ignore that reality at their peril.

BERMAN: Margaret, I want you to weigh in on this, but also I want you to weigh in on this new social media post from President Trump on this huge bill that could get a vote in the House today. He talks about growth and everything else, but he also issues a little bit of a threat here. He said, "Republicans, don't let the radical left Democrats push you around. We've got all the cards," he says. What jumps out to you there?

TALEV: That line actually jumps out to me. When I saw that tweet, or whatever we're calling that, is the idea that this really goes to his state of mind. He's saying, I'm controlling the levers now. I'm the president. I'm in control of Congress. And right now he's got a Supreme Court that's delivering several favorable six-three rulings in terms of bolstering his ability to use executive power, and the federal district court judges constraints in -- in being able to push back on it more broadly than case by case.

But I think that this argument about growth is a bit of a preview for what we're going to see once the bill, formally known as the big, beautiful bill, gets final passage. And this really turns into a 2026 midterm messaging contest. You're going to see Democrats talk about the reality that over the next decade this is going to strip health care coverage for millions of underinsured people. But you're going to see President Trump try to make the case that overall this will fuel his -- his growth plans. Never mind the ballooning debt. You know, don't pay any attention to the man behind the curtain. So, this is the messaging battle that's shaping up. And it's -- we're

starting to see the contours of it today, even before the final passage.

BERMAN: Margaret Talev, Errol Louis, great to see you both this morning. Thank you so much.

Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, whiplash. After slamming the president's bill and promising to start a new political party if it passes, this morning, Elon Musk is praising Trump on another issue, saying credit where credit is due. We'll have that story ahead.

Plus, Columbia University reaches a deal in a high-profile lawsuit brought by former students over the Ivy League's college rankings.

Those stories and more, ahead.

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[08:47:15]

BOLDUAN: So, there's a new twist in the new and latest Trump-Musk feud. Elon Musk giving the president some praise. Musk now saying this, quote, "credit where credit is due. Donald Trump has successfully resolved several serious conflicts around the world." As you can see, that was in response to the president posting about conflicts in the Middle East.

The praise, though, really seems a brief reprieve from the biting attacks that the two men have been trading over the tax cut and spending bill of late. Musk saying that Republicans who support the bill should hang their heads in shame, calling it a disgusting abomination, even declaring that he would fund primary challenges against Republicans who vote for it.

And the president not holding back and attacking Musk just the same. Now suggesting that he may seek Elon Musk's own creation, DOGE, against him and his government contracts. Here's the quote that sticks out from the president. DOGE is the monster that might have to go back and eat Elon.

Joining us right now, CNN media analyst Sarah Fischer and CNN media correspondent Hadas Gold.

Great to see you guys.

OK, Hadas, let's start on this latest twist. What do you do with this latest twist overnight from Musk?

HADAS GOLD, CNN MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: I mean, you know, Elon Musk giving credit where credit is due. But I'm not sure how much this will actually mend any bridges, mend the fences with President Trump. Because what Elon Musk has said he is going to do over the last few days is a direct threat to President Trump, to his power, to his party and to the people and the candidates that he supports. He said that he was going to primary any member of Congress who has talked about cutting government spending but then voted for this bill.

And he talked about creating a completely new political party. And if you look at the breakdown of the types of people who will I -- a, either run with this potentially new America party, or the voters who would vote for them, they will almost likely take votes away from Republicans, away from President Trump, and away from the candidates that President Trump supports. And President Trump, as we know, has a stranglehold over the Republican Party and over their candidates.

So, again, you know, great -- I'm sure President Trump is -- is happy that he is giving credit to what President Trump is doing with these foreign conflicts. But whether this will actually any -- really do anything material to the relationship, I sincerely doubt it.

BOLDUAN: I also sincerely just don't know how serious Musk is about all of this. I mean, and, Sara, then you've got Trump threatening to have DOGE target Musk. And how real do you think that threat is?

SARA FISCHER, CNN MEDIA ANALYST: I don't think its super real because we are so heavily reliant on SpaceX, especially NASA. We rely on SpaceX to basically bring all of our supplies back and forth to the International. Space Station. You've had members of Congress say that it's very unlikely we cut those subsidies.

But we cut some of the government subsidies to EVs, potentially, and that would hurt him, but not as much as it would if we impacted SpaceX.

[08:50:03]

Starlink has been considered for bigger contracts at the FAA, but those have not materialized. So, I don't think that the subsidy question is a huge threat.

But to your question, Kate, on how serious is Elon Musk, I'd like to remind people, you can have all the money in the world. Look at Michael Bloomberg's campaign in 2020. Unless you have a vision, a strategy, and you're willing to be committed to it full time, it's very hard to build up a new political coalition. We haven't had much success with third parties here in the U.S. And so I feel like Elon Musk's threat is a little bit of an empty threat in that regard.

BOLDUAN: Yes. Yes. I mean, and also even this round, I also kind of leave out there, I wonder how much impact he's even having like amongst Republicans on Capitol Hill in Washington because they're not slowing down with regard to this -- this bill just because of what he's saying this time.

Sara, you also have some new reporting about -- and you've been doing a lot of reporting on this Paramount settlement that was just announced. You've got CBS' parent company agreed to pay $16 million to resolve a lawsuit filed by President Trump over the "60 Minutes" interview with Kamala Harris last fall. This has been percolating for a -- quite a long time. So, what is going on here? FISCHER: OK, so the why it matters, Kate, is Paramount is trying to do

a massive $8 billion plus merger that will essentially be its lifeline to survive. And they were nervous that if they didn't settle this lawsuit with Donald Trump, they wouldn't get the regulatory approval to do it. But in settling this lawsuit, it's setting this very, very bleak press freedom message that we're willing to concede on something we don't even think we did wrong in order to get our business goals accomplished. So, you're seeing press freedom advocates are absolutely distraught over this.

I will say, though, for the Paramount corporate perspective, they probably see this as a pretty big win for two reasons. One, they're only paying $16 million, which, it's still a lot of money, but it's only 1 million more than what ABC, its, you know, rival, settled for. And then, two, they don't have to give an on air apology. One of the things that was really holding up this lawsuit settlement negotiation was whether or not they'd have to apologize. This "60 Minutes" team, the CBS News team, has been going through so much. This has killed morale. An on air apology would have tanked morale probably for good.

BOLDUAN: Yes. All right. Let's see where this goes. Thanks, guys, both of you. Really appreciate it.

John.

BERMAN: All right, this morning we want you to meet Lincoln Wilson. Five years ago he was born prematurely, but now he is in the quarterfinals of the junior ranger championship. And this is what he says he would do with the $20,000 prize money.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LINCOLN WILSON, JR. RANGER COMPETITOR: I'm going to go see the northern lights.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why do you want to go see the northern lights?

WILSON: Because they're so pretty.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: That sounds like a good enough reason.

So, the winner of the competition will appear in "Ranger Rick Magazine," which we love. My son had a picture published in it once a few years ago. He will also get to meet TV personality Jeff Corwin. And we just want to note here that Lincoln, you can see him walking by the pond here, he likes bugs and lizards.

Sara.

SIDNER: Fun fact, I also like bugs, except for mosquitoes and cockroaches.

What about you, John?

BERMAN: I don't have exceptions like that. Carveouts.

SIDNER: You're not an insect guy. They're not pretty to you. All right. Understood.

All right, coming up, less than two weeks after the U.S. strikes in Iran, brand new satellite images appearing to show ongoing work being done at Iranian nuclear sites.

Also, not again. A snake on a plane forced an Australian passenger flight to be delayed for two hours. How the slithering stowaway was discovered.

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[08:58:08]

SIDNER: New this morning, satellite images appear to show Iran assessing and possibly repairing damage to a key nuclear facility. It's after the U.S. airstrikes, of course, on Fordow two weeks ago.

Joining us now, CNN Jerusalem correspondent Jeremy Diamond.

Jeremy, what are you learning and what are we all learning from these -- from these satellite images now?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, Sara, this satellite imagery is really interesting, although perhaps not surprising. It shows ongoing work at the Fordow nuclear facility about a week after the United States carried out those strikes on that facility using those enormous 30,000-pound bombs that were dropped by those B-2 bombers. You can see activity near the ventilation shafts and the holes that were caused by the bombing.

We know, of course, that the majority of those bombs were indeed targeted at those ventilation shafts so that the bombs could get deep underground and then explode once they were near the actual enrichment facility. You can see in these satellite images there is an excavator. There are several personnel next to the northern shaft of the Fordow facility. There is also a crane that can be seen operating at the entrance to the hole, and a pathway that has been created to gain access to this facility, with several vehicles that are parked nearby.

We asked David Albright, a former nuclear inspector, what all of this ongoing work could be. He said they could be backfilling craters. They could be conducting damage assessments and also radiological sampling.

And, of course, this is all part of trying to assess, it seems, the extent of the damage at this nuclear site amid those conflicting intelligence assessments about how bad the damage to this Fordow facility actually was caused by those U.S. strikes.

Israel, of course, has made clear that should Iran try and re-up and rebuild its nuclear program in the future, that it will reserve the right to act and carry out strikes once again.

[09:00:05] We can imagine that discussion about Iran's nuclear facilities, as well, of course, as the fate.