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U.S. & Israel Escalate Attacks Against Iran; Sources Say Russia Giving Iran Intel On U.S. Military Targets. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired March 06, 2026 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[13:30:00]
YUSEF JACKSON, SON OF REV. JESSE JACKSON: Thus, it is in his name that we have committed ourselves that the Rainbow Coalition will continue. We have recommitted ourselves to its founding principles, reached out to engage new leaders across the country, and restructured and revived its operations.
And we'll put the good reverend, my father, to rest today and will honor him by building upon his work and taking up the challenge. And so while he would be delighted to witness this gathering of friends and allies, and sorry to not be here to conduct it personally. He would be intent that we save the course and carry on the struggle for justice.
I thank you all for being a part, not just of his work over the years, but to the shared commitment of our future together. Keep hope alive.
(APPLAUSE)
CHARLES JENKINS, SENIOR PASTOR, FELLOWSHIP MISSIONARY BAPTIST CHURCH, CHICAGO: Come on, let's celebrate our brother, Mr. Yusef Jackson. I want to apologize in advance to Governor Gavin Newsom, California, Governor Wes Moore, Maryland. Come on, clap your hands and let's celebrate them. So grateful to have you.
(APPLAUSE)
JENKINS: I want to apologize in advance as I introduce the governor of the greatest state in these United States of America, Governor J.B. Pritzker.
(APPLAUSE)
GOV. J.B. PRITZKER, (D-IL): You said it.
(LAUGH)
PRITZKER: Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
CROWD: Yes.
PRITZKER: Justice in a too often unjust world. For Reverend Jesse Jackson, each day, each day was a new opportunity to bring justice in a too often unjust world. His ambition, the North Star of his advocacy, was to shape a world where justice is not an anomaly but a constant, where fairness and equity and dignity are so ubiquitous in our lives, they simply flow amidst us like water.
Reverend Jackson was at once a mighty roaring river, able to create movements and galvanize masses with his words and his passion, and a gentle brook, able to provide guidance and comfort to the beleaguered and the bereaved. He could lift up and connect with an audience of millions with the same intimacy and fervor that he could with an audience of one.
He inspired us not just in his conviction but in his joy, not just in his righteous anger at injustice but in his boundless love for communion, not just in his words but in his deeds. He kept hope alive.
(APPLAUSE)
PRITZKER: Now, I find it somewhat difficult to memorialize a man whose presence always looms so large among us. You could still feel his presence in this room with us here at the House of Hope.
(APPLAUSE)
PRITZKER: You can still feel his presence in so many ways. Every day, he would honor us in the way that today we honor him. And you could feel his spirit in the movements for justice that have grown from the seeds that he tilled.
Now to the world, Jesse Jackson was an ambassador of hope for the oppressed who met with kings and queens and presidents and dictators and clergy of all the great religions. But here in Chicago, he was our neighbor.
CROWD: Oh, yeah.
(APPLAUSE)
[13:35:00]
PRITZKER: He was our friend.
CROWD: Yes.
PRITZKER: We were so proud. We are so proud.
CROWD: Yes.
PRITZKER: Here, his message of hope was one he offered in a friendly smile to the child playing in front of their home or the tap on the shoulder for the young man looking for just a little bit of encouragement. He taught us to expand our ambitions and dare to imagine a better world, and to be kind and decent to one another.
He brought enormous pride to the people of this city and this state.
(APPLAUSE) PRITZKER: And on a more personal note, it has been an honor that my relatively short time in public office overlapped with Reverend Jackson's long tenure. And let me assure all of those who are here today that even as his body started to fail him, the reverend's mind remained sharp.
(APPLAUSE)
PRITZKER: He never failed, never failed to pull me aside at an event to ask about something in the news or offer a word of advice or encouragement. He was politically connected. He knew. He shared an affliction common to all those in this room.
He loved the political game all the way to the end. And while we know that we shared him with the whole world, Reverend Jackson belonged to Chicago.
(APPLAUSE)
PRITZKER: And Chicago belonged to him. He was ours and we were his. I am somebody that wasn't just a slogan, it was his credo. It was Jesse his blessing on each of us, on all of us.
A pronouncement of pride and accomplishment, pride and determination. It was his reminder of the incredible power that each of us has to lift ourselves up. The gift of dignity in our personhood that God had bestowed upon us.
The power that each of us wields that can change the world. I am somebody.
To his beloved wife, Jackie, to his loving children, Santita and Jesse Jr., Jonathan, Yusef, Ashley, Jacqueline, and the entire family, M.K. and I and our whole family grieve with you in your loss. While Reverend Jackson meant so much to the world, you were the world to him.
(APPLAUSE)
PRITZKER: We will forever be grateful for your sacrifice in sharing him with the rest of us.
(APPLAUSE)
PRITZKER: To honor his legacy, let today be a new beginning, not an ending. Let's follow in his footsteps and be trailblazers and not just pathfinders. Let's bring justice to a too often unjust world, until it rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.
May Jesse Jackson's memory be a blessing to us all.
(APPLAUSE)
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": You have been watching our coverage of the homegoing service honoring the Reverend Jesse Jackson. Presidents Obama, Clinton, and Biden will be speaking later, along with former Vice President Kamala Harris.
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST AND CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": And we will return to Chicago and the service in just a moment. Please do stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:43:59]
KEILAR: We go back to Chicago now and the public homegoing service for the Reverend Jesse Jackson.
SCIUTTO: Just moments from now, Presidents Obama, Clinton, and Biden will be speaking, along with Vice President Kamala Harris, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson. He is speaking right now. Let's listen in.
MAYOR BRANDON JOHNSON, (D) CHICAGO: -- brother on the south side to become President of these United States, it was his instincts.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JOHNSON: See, I had the privilege to accompany Reverend to Selma one year. And while we were there, he recounted the days and weeks that were spent organizing to get folks to walk with them across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. And he said, now that history has proven us to be right, he said that everybody and their mama was on that bridge.
(LAUGH)
JOHNSON: But he knew the struggle from going town to town, and he was calling people out of isolation and into community, understanding that the bridge is a symbol that burdens all of us. It's what connected us, it's what was waiting for us on the other side.
[13:45:00]
He had a feel, his instincts understood that that bridge was a representation of the cross. See was the bull counters of the world and state sanctioned violence that they unleashed on our people. It was a cross brought to bear by the most egregious alignment that can materialize in a fight against inequality.
Reverend Jackson's instincts understood the words of James Baldwin, who said that ignorance and power alive is the most ferocious enemy of justice. But his instincts understood that if there's a cross to bear, we need a symbol of a promise. And that's when he formed the Rainbow Coalition that said that whosoever will let them come. It would be necessary for the movement to build the future that he saw where America could finally live up to her ideals.
And when I think of Selma and that storied march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, I know that Reverend Jackson knew exactly how much wickedness and hatred waited for them on that bridge, beaten, abused, intimidated. They marched anyway. They bore the cross because they understood that on the other side of the bridge, his instinct said there's a win. (APPLAUSE)
JACKSON: You see, in America, we find ourselves at a bridge, and we are confronted in this moment, and that bridge is now described as borders, where borders get to determine how human dignity is determined by which side of the border you live on.
He understood the bridge, and so now we are in the midst of a choice to choose hope over despair, light over darkness, love over hate, because he knew there was too much to gain on the other side of the bridge, Bishop Sheared, I think I feel my help coming.
(APPLAUSE)
JACKSON: Because on the other side of the bridge, Rodney, housing as a human right. On the other side of the bridge, health care for all. On the other side of the bridge, safe and affordable cities, accessible transportation, finally fully funding our public education system. It is time to cross the bridge, you all, to build an economy that works for all: Black, brown, white, Asian, young, old.
It is time for the ultra rich to pay their fair share in taxes on the other side of the bridge. Reverend, you've crossed your bridge. We know our assignment. We see you on the other side. God bless you.
(APPLAUSE)
JENKINS: Reverend Mayor Brandon Johnson, everybody. And the whole church said --
CROWD: Amen.
JENKINS: Amen. Thank you so much.
Before we get ready to bring the next set of speakers, and we look forward to what you will share, straight ahead is a clock. It's a clock. We would love for you to help us as we press towards our goal.
Hasn't this been fantastic thus far? Can we thank all of our speakers and participants?
(APPLAUSE)
JENKINS: Can we please welcome one of Reverend Jackson's favorites, Ms. Opal Staples.
(APPLAUSE)
JENKINS: Come on, put your hands together real quick with me.
OPAL STAPLES, SINGER: Come on, sing it with me if you know it.
(SINGING "HIGHER GROUND")
[13:53:17] KEILAR: That was Opal Staples with an amazing rendition of "Higher Ground." As you've been watching our coverage of the homegoing service for the Reverend Jesse Jackson. In moments from now, President Barack Obama will be speaking.
SCIUTTO: That was a powerful performance.
KEILAR: Sure was.
SCIUTTO: Certainly, captures the energy of the moment there, so much support for the late Reverend Jackson.
We are going to return to Chicago and the service after a quick break. Please do stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:58:18]
KEILAR: We are stepping away from the celebration of life for the late Reverend Jesse Jackson for just a moment.
There is major Breaking News on the war with Iran. President Trump, just a short time ago, laying out his terms for the war to end as U.S. and Israeli strikes ramp up. The president telling CNN, quote, "Iran is not the same country it was a week ago. A week ago, they were powerful, and now they've been indeed neutered."
Minutes later, he then posted, "There will be no deal with Iran except unconditional surrender. After that, and the selection of a great and acceptable leaders, we and many of our wonderful and very brave allies and partners will work tirelessly to bring Iran back from the brink of destruction. "
SCIUTTO: Inside Iran, in the capital Tehran, residents say that last night was the worst night of U.S. and Israeli strikes on the capital. In retaliation, Iran today is claiming responsibility for a fresh wave of drones fired at Kuwait. There have been no reports from Kuwait of damage or casualties.
Remember, that's where six U.S. service members were killed days ago. And as the war with Iran rages, so too does Israel's bombardment of Hezbollah in Lebanon. Explosions rocking southern Beirut just a short time ago.
CNN Chief International Security Correspondent, Nick Paton Walsh, he is live in Tel Aviv. Nick, as you know, Natasha Bertrand, myself and colleagues confirmed that Russia is now providing intelligence to Iran to target U.S. forces in the region, ships, ground positions, aircraft. I wonder what the reaction is from the region, given that this is, among other things, an expansion of the war.
