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Former Presidents Obama, Biden, Clinton Attend The Homegoing For The Late Reverend Jesse Jackson In Chicago; Sourcces Say Russia Giving Iran Intel On U.S. Military Targets; Trump Says No Deal With Iran Until Unconditional Surrender; Iran's Leadership Gathers People In Tehran To Protest Airstrikes. Aired 2-2:30p ET
Aired March 06, 2026 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST AND CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": I wonder what the reaction is from the region, given that this is, among other things, an expansion of the war.
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Obviously, I think the relationship between Russia and Iran, no secret. Obviously, Russia being on the receiving end of Iranian help of those cheap Shahed drones for many years now, and that did spark public acceptance between the two of strategically shared goals, treaties or agreements between them, which intelligence sharing was part of it.
But I think what's key here is that since this conflict has began, it appears according to reporting you guys have been doing that we're seeing satellite imagery -- good, strong satellite imagery that is in Russia's possession being available to the Iranians, assisting possibly in targeting, which may have already been something the Iranians had assessed they wanted to do.
But there's potential there for a live stream of real-time information that could indeed assist Iran. Outside of that, though, we're not seeing particularly muscular amounts of practical physical Russian armament help at this particular stage. And given, of course, air superiority over the skies that the Israelis and the Americans feel they're very close to, that would seem like a pretty difficult prospect for Moscow.
But it's, again, another example of the sort of unintended consequences or more important, say, the global spiraling of all of this. Add to that, too, an Iranian ship taken down in Sri Lankan waters, drones hitting Cyprus, NATO air bases there. We're seeing, as this war continues, slowly its footprint spreading in other areas with the capacity to, as you pointed out in that reporting, for Russia's intelligence sharing to involve them in a more strident way in this particular war.
Some perhaps might view that as a kind of revenge from Moscow for the assistance that the United States has given Ukraine during that war. But it is startling today, Jim, to hear President Trump speaking of this war and find his demand for an unconditional surrender quite quickly qualified by the White House press secretary, saying that President Trump himself would define what unconditional surrender looks like.
That's not unconditional surrender, just to be clear. So an element of walking back there from the president's comments, he's clearly wanting maximum leverage and to secure the most bellicose place they can be, perhaps because in the end of this, the constant talk about who the supreme leader will be. Remember, we're nearly a week from the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
And in this fraught wartime situation, we do not have a public figurehead leading Iran. Now, that's key in a sort of theocratic establishment like that. I'm sure anyone who takes that job will be terrified of being killed, as the Israelis have pledged that they will indeed do. But that in itself is a startling development this far in, Jim.
SCIUTTO: Yeah. And listen, it also is Israel that has opened up another front in this as well, because they're now attacking targets in Lebanon, ending what was a ceasefire, tentative ceasefire there, but a ceasefire, therefore, that lasted a number of months. Nick Paton Walsh in Tel Aviv, thanks so much.
Well, demonstrators took to the streets of Tehran as the government is attempting, at least, to put on a defiant face in the wake of this war.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": CNN is the first U.S. network inside Iran since the beginning of the war. And we should note, CNN operates in Iran only with government permission.
Our Fred Pleitgen is in Tehran and filed this report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Iran's leadership has gathered thousands of people here to Tehran after Friday prayers to voice their anger about the U.S. and Israel's bombing campaign across the country, but, of course, also to mourn Iran's late Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
And thousands of people have indeed turned out here. At the same time, we have to keep in mind this is just a small snapshot of Iran's society. And the people who come to Friday prayers here in Tehran usually are political conservatives and religious hardliners.
At the same time, it does show that the government here is still able to mobilize masses.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): We believe that if we are killed, we are martyrs, meaning that whether we stand by the revolution or become martyrs, both are a victory for us.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): The blood of our martyr leader has been shed, but his path continues.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): With these killings and these martyrdoms, they will not achieve greatness, and they will not be able to take even the smallest piece of our land.
PLEITGEN: All this is happening, of course, as the U.S. and Israel continue their massive bombing campaign, not just here in Tehran in the vicinity, but indeed in the entire country. The U.S. says that it's hitting military positions and trying to hit Iran's religious and also political leadership, while the Iranians say at this point in time, they are not willing to negotiate with the United States.
And they also say that they have a missile supply and drones to carry out military operations for an extended period of time.
So this is the Gandhi Hospital here in Tehran, which was pretty badly damaged after an airstrike.
[14:05:00]
It seems as though a different building was struck in the vicinity, but then this building also was damaged very badly.
I spoke to the head of Iran's Red Crescent about this. Here's what he had to say.
PIR HOSSEIN KOLIVAND, PRESIDENT, IRANIAN RED CRESCENT (through translator): Can you imagine if you were hospitalized in one of the wards here while it was attacked, how would you feel?
PLEITGEN: The people on the ground who feel these airstrikes, who hear these airstrikes, hear the jets overhead, of course, for them it's a really, really difficult time to go through.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KEILAR: All right. Our thanks to Fred Pleitgen for that report. And let's go back now to Chicago, where CK Hoffler from the Rainbow PUSH Coalition is speaking at the homegoing for the late Reverend Jesse Jackson.
TRICIA "CK" HOFFLER, CHAIR, RAINBOW PUSH COALITION: -- each and every day, because it is because of you that he had the courage, the energy, and the inspiration to do what he did.
And to our mother again of the movement, we thank you. We thank you.
(APPLAUSE)
HOFFLER: So to our presidents, my, my, my.
(APPLAUSE)
HOFFLER: To President and Dr. Biden. To President Barack Obama. And we're going to recognize Michelle Obama as well.
(APPLAUSE)
HOFFLER: To President Bill Clinton and Secretary Clinton.
(APPLAUSE)
HOFFLER: Yes. Yes. And to Madam Vice President Kamala Harris.
(APPLAUSE)
HOFFLER: We want to thank you. Thank you for all that you did. Thank you for all that you do. Thank you for your solidarity, continued solidarity with Reverend Jackson. Rainbow PUSH Citizenship Education Fund, PUSH, PUSH Excel.
And Reverend Jackson, yes, I was his lawyer for 38 years. I am 37 years old, you see. And I want you all to know, for those of you who don't know, that Reverend Jackson, like Dr. King and those giants before him, understood the synergy between activism, freedom fighting, and the law. He understood that you had to have lawyers behind you, not all in front of you, behind you. Because what do lawyers do? You protect.
You get people, if you have to, out of jail. You help to get permits. You organize. You are behind the great iconic leaders. And just as Dr. King had Thurgood Marshall, the incomparable Constance Baker Motley, Charles Hamilton Houston, and all of those magnificent jurists, Reverend Jackson had a legal team. John Bustamante, Willie Gary, my mentor Johnnie Cochran.
You see, all of these people and more, I think I saw Cleo Fields in the audience. Janice Mathis, I could go on and on and on. He understood the significance and supported lawyers. Barbara Arnwine, Daryl Jones, and I say that because the National Bar Association, I'm a past president, we celebrated 100 years recently.
55 of those years, Reverend Jackson was our inspiration. We can trace Reverend Jackson's role with the National Bar and the building and development of our organization back to Senator Arthenia Joyner, who's in the audience, who was also his representative in Tampa, Florida, by the way, in 1984 and 1988. We had presidents like Lawrence Bose.
We had presidents like Junius Williams who, when they didn't want to put him on the ballot in New Jersey, he was his lawyer. And then, of course, for 38 years, I have, along with others, been his lawyer. And I want to tell you the first time that I met Reverend Jackson.
So in 1988, I met him maybe before with groups of people, but in 1988, Reverend Jackson was the most popular person in the world. As my kids used to say, in the whole entire world, everybody wanted to talk to him.
[14:10:00]
And the president of a small Central African country, Gabon -- Yusef, you remember this -- President Bongo said, we would like him to come to the continent. And that is just when we had changed from becoming Black or Afro-American to African-American. And so, Reverend Jackson, we negotiated this.
And I was a baby lawyer, my first year out of law school. And we negotiated Reverend coming to Gabon with a team. And Reverend, you know, back in the day when he landed, there would be a press conference and there were thousands of people there to greet him, to welcome him back to the motherland.
Some of you are nodding at the audience because you were on that trip. And when Reverend got off the plane, they had like four or five translators for him because, you know, this was the Reverend Jesse Jackson. And he got off the plane and he started talking and the translators were looking like, Oh my God, what is he just saying? And they could not quite translate the essence of Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson.
And so, the translation in the first 15 seconds was not right. And as a baby lawyer, one thing I knew, one thing I knew was that we weren't going to let history go down in that way. So I stepped in and I translated for Reverend Jackson.
And he said, say that, say it, that's just what she said. And that was in 1988 and a one-time assignment that I thought would last at the end of that trip became a 38-year journey where I've had the pleasure of, thank you, I've had the pleasure of working with the incomparable mother of our movement, his daughter Santita, his son Jesse, his son Jonathan, his son Yusef, his daughter Jacqueline and his daughter Ashley. That is why I am here today to say, ladies and gentlemen, he is a global icon.
And so as I close, because Yusef is giving me that look, I'm going to close by saying this. [Foreign Language] I say that to the grandkids, you know what I'm saying. And translated into English and to our new president and CEO, you must hear me and hear me clearly.
The struggle continues, but with your magnificent leadership and support of the Rainbow PUSH family, CEF family, PUSH Excel family, PUSH family, and all of the magnificent volunteers and people who stand by you, victory is certain.
(APPLAUSE)
KEILAR: That was CK Hoffler, the Board Chair of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, speaking at the homegoing service for the Reverend Jesse Jackson. And moments from now, President Barack Obama will be speaking and we'll be bringing that to you live when it happens.
SCIUTTO: We're going to be hearing a series of former presidents, three of them speaking to honor the late Reverend Jesse Jackson. We'll return to Chicago and the service after a quick break. Please do stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:18:51]
KEILAR: We are back now at the public homegoing service for the Reverend Jesse Jackson in Chicago. Right now, NBA Hall of Famer, Isiah Thomas is speaking.
SCIUTTO: Detroit Pistons legend. Moments from now, we're going to hear from President Barack Obama. Let's listen in.
ISIAH THOMAS, HALL OF FAME NBA PLAYER: -- honor the five presidents who are sitting here today.
(APPLAUSE)
THOMAS: President Harris, President Clinton, President Bill Clinton, First Lady Jill Biden, President Biden, and Chicago's own South Side, President Barack Obama.
(APPLAUSE)
THOMAS: Thank you. Now, I got to set the stage because a lot of us in here are a little older than some of the generation below us.
[14:20:00]
So I was born in 1961 on the west side of Chicago, Cook County Hospital.
(APPLAUSE)
THOMAS: But for those of us who were here living during that period of time as little young men, young women, 1961 to 1971: '63, Medgar Evers was assassinated. '65, Malcolm X was assassinated. Fred Hampton assassinated '69. Martin Luther King assassinated '68. The Kennedy brothers assassinated. We had just come out of Jim Crow.
I was the first one in my family to live outside of Jim Crow. Angela Davis was on the run. I had a 'Free Angela Davis' pin. And those of us who are sitting in this audience understood what Chicago was like.
CROWD: Yes.
THOMAS: Us Chicagoans on the west side and the south side, from the '60s to the '70s, when every store was burnt down, there was no place to go.
There was one man, again, our Nelson Mandela at that time, stood tall. And I remember my mom and I standing in a soup line on Madison and Kedzie. One of the most humiliating times of our life. We had no food. We had moved four or five times. And this beautiful man, this legend, this hero, came walking down the street.
And I as a young boy, when society was telling me I was a nobody, when society was telling me, we don't even want to go to school with you, this man walked down the street and walked up to me and my mom. And my mom had marched with him before.
He said hello to my mom. And then he did the unthinkable. Mama Jackson, your husband kneeled down and he looked me in my eyes. And that man said, "You are somebody."
(APPLAUSE)
THOMAS: At that time, I couldn't quite understand the feelings and emotions that I was having as a young kid, walking, trying to find food, looking for a place to go. But when he said I am somebody, it resonated with me that there was a whole world trying to make me a nobody.
(APPLAUSE)
THOMAS: And when he knelt down and looked me in my eye and said, you are somebody. And then he said, say it again. Say, I am somebody.
I am somebody. I am somebody.
I looked up, my mom is crying. She's proud. But we couldn't get out of the soup line. Right, Jonathan? We lose our spot. You -- you all know it. You stand in that soup line. Your friends walking by, teasing you and everything, but you can't get out.
Then he lifted me up, emotionally, on his shoulders, them broad shoulders that we all have stood on.
[14:25:00]
Emotionally, spiritually, we all stood on that shoulder, on your family's shoulders. Then he left. And I was like, mama, that's the man we see on TV. She's like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So for us Chicagoans, right, when Muhammad Ali said, I'm the greatest on a national stage, that resonated to everybody. But for the kids in Louisville, Kentucky, oh, it hit different. When Nelson Mandela said in Soweto, South Africa, let my people go and free them.
When he walked up and he spoke, oh, it hit different there. When Reverend Jackson said in Chicago, I am somebody and keep hope alive. Oh, for us, it's different.
(APPLAUSE)
THOMAS: Years later, in one of my most triumphant moments, he's running for president, 1988. We trying to beat the Lakers. We trying to dethrone the Lakers.
My father-in-law, Gordon Kendall, is head of Secret Service for the family. We get a call, midnight, one in the morning. Hey, I'm coming to the game. I said, how are you going to get to the game? You got to -- you know, you are running for president, people -- no, I'm coming to -- who just said he was the most popular man in the world in 1988? Who just said that? Was that you? 1988, he's the most popular man in the world and he coming to my game.
(APPLAUSE)
THOMAS: He shows up at the game in my most triumphant moment. We win. He walks in and he kneels, and he says a prayer. Then he lifted me up on those big, broad shoulders again. And he left.
Years later, my mother passed away. And when my mother died, all of Chicago came out, representatives showed up, and we were at our lowest moment. And Reverend Jackson walked into the church.
(APPLAUSE)
THOMAS: I remember sitting there with my brothers and sisters. And it was like this man, this man who's been there my whole life, and we didn't know what to say, what to do on that day. We had no words for my mama.
That man walked up to the stage and said, I got this.
(APPLAUSE)
THOMAS: And he sent my mama off, beautiful words and everything else. When we were at our lowest, again, he came and he lifted us up on those broad shoulders.
Fast forward, all of us will remember the day when you was elected president of the United States.
(APPLAUSE)
THOMAS: And I'll never forget that day when you walked out on the stage with your family, with our First Lady, Michelle, my former teammate, played bitty basketball with Craig, the pictures and the images, and those of you who were there, the tears that were in the audience, the long struggle.
CROWD: Yes.
THOMAS: And if you can remember, the camera panned from our president to your husband, to your father, to your grandfather. And he stood there with tears in his eyes.
CROWD: Yes.
