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Trump Says Iran Has Taken Too Long To Negotiate, Will "Pay The Price"; Inside The White House Freakout Over The Epstein Files; Karmelo Anthony Sentenced to 35 Years for Texas Track Meet Murder; Storm Risk This Week For The Midwest, Great Lakes; The Social Security Trust Fund Will Run Dry In 2032; Anti-Immigration Violence Flares Over Northern Ireland Knife Attack. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired June 10, 2026 - 07:30   ET

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

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[07:31:12]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: So just in this morning, there is a new warning just out from President Trump after the U.S. and Iran traded new strikes following the downing of that Army Apache helicopter.

President posting on social media just this morning that Iran has, quote, taken too long to negotiate a deal as he says that would have been great for them. And then the president says now they will have to pay the price, offering no further detail this morning quite yet.

Iran has said before this that it has launched strikes on U.S. targets in the Middle East, including a base in Jordan and the 5th Fleet in Bahrain.

While Iran's state Media says that U.S. strikes hit two reservoirs, cutting off drinking water to 20,000 people. Tehran now says it's reviewing negotiations with the United States after all of this.

Joining me right now is CNN political and global affairs commentator Sabrina Singh and CNN global affairs analyst Kim Dozier. Guys, thanks for being here.

Sabrina, let's start with this new warning from the president. What do you make of this truth of this social media posting now?

SABRINA SINGH, CNN POLITICAL AND GLOBAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: Well, what's interesting about the social media post is when CENTCOM launched the retaliatory strikes from the Apache that was shot down, they said it was proportional in nature.

Now this truth social post this morning could really change that. But I think the paradox here is that both sides do not want to go back to a full scale war. So what you're seeing is Iran strike again and the U.S. you know, they're trading barbs back and forth. How long can this go on and continue? We don't know.

But clearly the president is signaling today that he might be willing to engage in more kinetic action.

BOLDUAN: I think the question is --

SINGH: Yes.

BOLDUAN: -- is he saying what we've done now shows --

SINGH: Right.

BOLDUAN: -- there -- that's the price they paid, or there's something now about to come?

SINGH: That's right. And we don't know. We don't -- we don't have more information.

BOLDUAN: Yes. Kim, what do you think of this and what this could now mean?

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: I think it could be another rhetorical flare from Trump that is just a typical example of what has stymied the negotiations. According to the New York Times and other outlets, there are -- they are making progress behind closed doors on everything from nuclear enrichment to and suspending that for several years to allowing intrusive inspections of Iranian sites.

But the moment you have Trump either make a threat or reveal some of this progress in public and then often take it further. Yes, we don't want them to agree to 10 years. We want them to agree to 20 years without enrichment. And saying that publicly, that always makes progress behind closed doors that much more difficult because then the Iranians feel like they have to publicly make a repast to that just out of pride.

BOLDUAN: Let's talk about this back and forth retaliation here, Kim. Iran now says 20,000 Iranians have lost access to drinking water after two reservoirs were struck. Iran blames this on the United States. CNN has reached out to Central Command for comment on the strikes.

But Trump has threatened to hit water treatment plants in Iran. He started saying that back in April. That faced backlash then because civilian infrastructure sites like water plants are banned as targets by international law. If that's what the United States is now doing, and that's an if, CENTCOM has not responded yet. What do you make of that?

DOZIER: Well, under U.S. military law, you can strike this kind of a target according to proportionality, according to, you know, did this particular water reservoir or these two reservoirs mostly feed into military facilities? In that case, you could make a legal argument that they were okay to strike. But what we're hearing from Iran is these fed large civilian districts and you have many Iranian military sites next to or co-located with civilian areas.

[07:35:09]

So it is hard for me to understand why this was okay, why not hit one of their drone factories or part of the military arm that's allowing them to continue with the war fighting because it takes decades to repair a water reservoir in a country that has struggled with drought. This is a real blow.

BOLDUAN: What do you -- what questions does this raise for you in this moment?

SINGH: I agree with Kim. I mean, right now there is -- there could be a legal argument that CENTCOM could make, and that if this was, you know, a water facility that was, you know, assisting military facilities or military infrastructure in some way. But, you know, there's a lot of questions here.

And I think CENTCOM statement yesterday said that they drop air defense targets and radars and ground control centers. So there is a bit of discrepancy. I mean, it would be nice if the Pentagon held briefings so we could ask some of these questions and get more clarification on why this desalination plant was hit. But this is going to have a big hit to the 20,000 people who depend on this water.

And that is a catastrophic effect of this war. And of course, as we know also here, the rising gas prices.

BOLDUAN: Yes, absolutely. Sabrina, thanks so much. It's great to have you here. Kim, thank you so much as always. John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. With us now is Marc Short, former chief of staff to then Vice President Mike Pence. Marc, it's always great to see you.

I do want to ask you one question about Iran, because a few days ago, this is after President Trump advised Israel not to retaliate against Iran. You wrote the president looks very weak in this moment.

So now, this morning that he is threatening the Iranian military. Now they will have to pay the price. How do you think the president looks now?

MARC SHORT, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF TO VICE PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE: Well, John, I think he's obviously continuing to vacillate here. I think that there are a lot of people who are supportive of him taking kinetic action against Iran, believing that they've been more than a menace for 47 years. And that actually if this is a moment when he and Israeli leadership took action against the Ayatollah, eliminated their leadership, it was a time for real transformational change. And I think he's appeared to be so desperate for a deal that it's allowed Iran to continue to sort of drag this on as long as they can.

And there continues to be a lot of vacillation. But, you know, at this moment, it's clear that the American military has the force to get the job done. The question is, is whether or not there's the political will to do it.

BERMAN: All right, shifting gears here, Marc, because just a few minutes ago, and I had not even seen this before we came to air, the New York Times published an excerpt from Maggie Haberman, our friend, and Jonathan Swan from the New York Times, their new book, "Regime Change." This is the big book coming out on the President Trump's second term and how he got there.

And the excerpt they release is all about the Epstein files and the handling of it last summer when this really became a giant issue. And they depict sort of frantic situation room meetings with all the senior advisers to the president and all these ideas that were being tossed around.

And one they write about was from Vice President JD Vance, who, according to them, wanted to release all the files. He also suggested that he floated to colleagues an extraordinary P.R. gambit that the White House enlist Tucker Carlson to interview Epstein's longtime girlfriend and co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell in prison. It might help the president if Maxwell was willing to state that Trump had not been part of any wrongdoing with Epstein.

So, I guess Vance reportedly suggested Tucker Carlson. Ultimately, it was Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, now attorney general nominee Todd Blanch. What do we make of this, especially going into confirmation hearings for Todd Blanche?

SHORT: Well, look, I think we know that the JD rose to power in many ways because of the platform that Tucker provided him and their friendship that has been ongoing. I think the campaign throughout the 2024 made a lot of allegations about who was involved in the Epstein files. And they -- once they came to power, they were going to release it all. Remember Pam Bondi's, you know, press event saying she has the files and it's all going to come out.

And so in many cases, this has been a self-inflicted wound from what they promised on the campaign versus the way that it's transpired. Regarding, you know, Blanche's confirmation and nomination, there's a lot that's going to still play out in the months ahead. I think it's really difficult to kind of predict that. But obviously they would like to get him confirmed before the midterm elections and having, you know, a margin that's a little bit broader right now in the Senate.

But I think that the president is also very comfortable with acting nominees, you know, John, and basically he can be in an acting capacity as long as his nomination is open. And if his nomination for some reason got voted on and failed, they would still have another 210 days to be in an acting capacity. And so there's a lot of focus on the nomination. But the reality is that Blanche could be in this role for quite some time, regardless.

[07:40:01]

BERMAN: All right, politics. There were primary elections yesterday. There are still more primaries to come, Marc, including in Colorado, where there's a contested primary for governor on both the Democratic side and the Republican side. One of the Republican candidates who's got a shot is this guy, Victor Marx, who is a -- leads a faith based nonprofit. I want to read this. I want to get it right here because it's a little bit extraordinary. He's made a series of claims, including that he performed exorcisms,

has rescued more than 45,000 women and children from children, and that his abusive stepfather forced him to kill a man when he was 7 years old.

And so he's been doing interviews and asked about this. And he was asked the other day whether he's killed anyone as an adult. Whether he's killed anyone as an adult. Listen to the exchange.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you think that you've killed people as an adult?

VICTOR MARX (R) COLORADO GOVERNOR CANDIADTE: Does it matter?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I'd say so.

MARX: Why?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Killing somebody's a pretty weighty thing. So I'm just asking you, how many people have you killed?

MARX: Well, if I did, I wouldn't be telling a reporter sitting here, my training center.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How about voters? Would you tell voters?

MARX: There's no need. I don't think that's important.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: The rest of it is just like that. And he's been in debates that have been sort of like that as well. The other two Republican candidates say they will not support him if he wins the nomination. Bigger picture, Marc, just what does it say now that there are candidates like this who have got all kinds of issues on both sides that can be successful?

SHORT: Well, look, John, I mean, I think those comments, obviously you're pretty disqualifying. But, you know, we're spending -- we're spending a lot of time on a potential candidacy versus what you have, I think, in Maine.

And a candidate who actually won a nomination last night, who, you know, has made a case to the voters to say that Susan Collins is not qualified because of her vote for Kavanaugh, when in fact, there are stories that he's very specifically had violence against women, that he's active on an app that has been cited as the National Center for Sexual Exploitation as a predator's paradise for going after young children, is a candidate that, you know, Democrats constantly refer to MAGA and Republican voters as flirting with racism when he actually has a Nazi tattoo and the Democrat party is unifying around him.

I mean, you just showed that the contrast is that in Colorado, they're saying they won't support him. Whereas in Maine, Democrats are rallying around this candidate, which I think shows the enormous hypocrisy in the Democrat party today.

BERMAN: We'll see if that lasts. Marc Short, always great to see you on a range of subjects today. Thanks for rolling with it. Appreciate it. Kate.

BOLDUAN: So a Texas teenager was just sentenced to 35 years in prison for fatally stabbing another teenager at a high school track meet last year. 19-year-old Karmelo Anthony was found guilty in the death of 17- year-old Austin Metcalf. Immediately after the verdict was read, protests erupted outside the courthouse. The jury rejected Anthony's defense that he was acting in self-defense during a confrontation under a team tent during a rainstorm.

CNN's Jean Casarez joining us now. This case really seems to be, if not tearing a community apart, really stretching it and really bringing to the surface a lot of racial tensions.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Polarizing --

BOLDUAN: Yes.

CASAREZ: -- is what you're saying. You know, I think when we look at this case, we need to look at the facts because that's the backbone of any case. Right. So let's talk about the facts for a minute that this jury had.

This happened just last year in April and it was at a stadium in Frisco, Texas between two teams. They were going to have a track meet and the teams have a tent where the team members stand under. So the National High School had their tent and the team members were there and Austin Metcalf, who was the victim, was there and Karmelo Anthony came in and just sat down on the bleacher right there under the tent.

Austin said, can you get out of our tent, this is our team's tent. And he said, according to the arrest record and the witness testimony, touch me and then you'll find out. So Austin, according to the arrest report, touched him and then it kept going and he said, push me and then you'll really find out.

And so Austin pushed him and this is where the students came in. And there were black and white students on that track team and they testified for the prosecution, even for the defense. And they all said that Karmela was the aggressor. But they varied in the push. The push was a light push, a medium push, a heavy push. But that formed the bulk of the evidence, the eyewitnesses.

I want you to listen to the district attorney following the sentencing last night when he spoke to all those students that were heroic, really and brave and testified for both sides.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GREG WILLIS, COLLIN COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: We thank all the parents and their brave kids who did the right thing.

[07:45:00] Despite the trauma of witnessing the senseless murder at a school track meet, they cooperated fully and testified truthfully. Their courage was essential to securing justice in this case.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: And the defense here was self-defense. And under Texas law, as most jurisdictions it is that in your mind you believe death or serious bodily injury is imminent. In self-defense cases the defendant always takes the stand. I hardly know of any case where they don't. They didn't put him on the stand.

The jury wasn't able to find out what was in his mindset and why he rummaged through that bag, picked up a knife, put it in two and a half inches according to our affiliate WFAA, straight into the ventricle of the heart and he was dead moments later.

BOLDUAN: Jean, thank you so much. Appreciate it. John.

BERMAN: All right. Storms triggered flash floods across the plains. Powerful winds there downing all kinds of trees. Serious problems there across a wide swath of the country and the storm risk is not over today.

The Midwest and Great Lakes are on the lookout for hail, more winds, even tornadoes. Let's get to Derek Van Dam for the latest forecast. Derek, what are you seeing?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, John, this is part of a multiday severe weather threat that has plagued the central parts of the country. Earlier this week we had a wind gust of, get this, 113 miles per hour in Salina, Kansas. This is some of the resulting damage. There were overturned semi-trucks on the highways, trees snapped like toothpicks and then it continued into the day.

On Tuesday we had four tornado reports, two across the Dakotas. But there was also a couple of reports of tornadoes in the greater Detroit region yesterday that caused some minor damage. But you can see the wind and hail reports dotting the central parts of the US. This is what's left of that line of storms at the moment.

Remember we lose the daytime heating overnight so the storms kind of muster out but they will re fire into this afternoon. So there's a secondary line of thunderstorms that will develop behind this batch you saw on the radar just a moment ago. This is the area that we're targeting. The greatest risk, that's a level three of five. Keep an eye to the sky.

La Crosse, Wisconsin into Minneapolis southward to Kansas City. That's the level three of five. But it does include Chicago and we also have a slight risk there. Large hail, damaging winds. We can't rule out the potential of a tornado as well.

So when I talked about the secondary line, look at the timestamp here. We're talking about this afternoon, 2:00 p.m. Central Time right there. Central Wisconsin and into that area near the border of Iowa, Minnesota into Wisconsin and Illinois.

This is the region we anticipate to have the greatest severe threat. It pushes eastward into dinner time. Coming home from work tonight in Chicago, it will be a rough go. You want to plan ahead, plan some extra time to get home because the potential for some stronger storms moving through is certainly in the cards.

Greatest chance if a tornado will form will be right here, this location, especially into the hatched area. EF2 tornadoes or greater could potentially spawn out of any of these storms. And then on top of that, hurricane force wind gusts that's 75 miles per hour or greater could accommodate these storms as well or accompany these storms. And don't forget about golf ball size hail falling from the sky just west of these regions. John.

BERMAN: Look at that map. A lot of people live in those areas you have identified there. All right. People got to pay close attention over the course of the day. Thank you so much for that.

BOLDUAN: Yes, that's a -- that's a non-small part of the country.

BERMAN: No, places like Chicago, Minneapolis, Des Moines.

BOLDUAN: Wait, it keeps going. Look, it's Pittsburgh to Omaha, like oh my God. All right, so also this. For the first time in 20 years, a new kind of sun protection will soon be available in the United States.

It's an ingredient that's been available in Europe and Asia for decades. It's called BEMT. Experts do believe that it is safer than many of the chemical ingredients that are currently in use in the United States. It's not as easily absorbed by the -- into the skin. And an important aspect of this is that research shows BEMT does a better job at blocking UVA rays. There's UVA and UVB. UVA rays that lead to premature aging and are the primary contributor to skin cancer.

I guess the catch here is that the first products won't be available in the United States until later this year, which is after this peak sunscreen season.

Also ahead for us, fires and chaos in the streets as anti-immigration protests erupt after a stabbing.

And the next step in NASA's moon mission is underway. Meet the crew of Artemis III.

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[07:53:56]

BERMAN: Right. A new warning for tens of millions of Americans receiving Social Security benefits and those who will in the not too distant future. You could see smaller checks and less Congress acts. Let's get right to CNN senior writer Tami Luhby. So walk us through this new warning and why it's coming now and when it might happen. TAMI LUHBY, CNN SENIOR WRITER: OK. Well, John, one thing I really want to stress is what it does not mean and the report does not mean that Social Security is going bankrupt and won't be able to pay any benefits. That's a common misperception. But this is the trustees, the Social Security trustees annual report, they put it out every year.

And this year they said that they believe Social Security's trust fund will be depleted in 2032, in late 2032. And what that means is at that time, social media, seniors and others will only be able to receive 78 percent of their monthly check of their standard monthly check.

Now, this is a few months earlier than the trustee said last year. The reasons for the change include President Trump's Big Beautiful Bill, which reduced taxes and reduced the tax revenue going into the trust fund, tax revenue that the trust fund really needs.

[07:55:10]

And the trustees also said that they projected lower fertility rates and lower immigration levels, which are also affecting the trust fund solvency. Now, you may also hear the number 2034. That's if the trust fund for retirement and disability were combined, the benefits would last until 2034. But that would require an act of Congress.

BERMAN: Yes, that's a possible fix or possible, you know, thing that Congress could do. What other options are there to try to shore up the trust fund for more years?

LUHBY: Right. Well, there are a lot of options. A lot of them are very controversial. It could be raising the retirement age or slowing the benefits. The level of benefits that people get. Senior citizens get an annual COLA, a cost of living adjustment. That could be slowed. They could increase the payroll tax or increase the amount of income that's subject to the payroll tax.

All of these ideas have been floated before. Experts have said that it'll probably take a combination of them. But, you know, senior citizens are very important voting blocks. They're very vocal and they don't like a lot of these options that have been floated.

So lawmakers are very hesitant to act. But the report shows that the solvency date is getting closer, possibly in the next president's term. You know, it's only going to be six years away, according to this report. So advocates are hoping that this, you know, March and, you know, ever, ever coming closer insolvency date will push lawmakers to act.

Here's what Dr. Myechia Minter-Jordan, the CEO of AARP, said. She said this should be a wake-up call for Congress needs to act. Americans have worked hard and paid into Social Security their entire lives and they deserve to count on it when they retire. No family should see any cuts to what they've earned in Social Security.

So this really shows how, you know, fervent people believe in Social Security and in the importance of the benefits and how hard it'll be for lawmakers to actually make changes to fix it. BERMAN: Hard. It will be hard. The most difficult thing is political will, which has not been evident for four decades, for decades here. Tami Luhby, thank you very much for that. Kate.

I mean, I will say getting closer and closer.

BOLDUAN: You're like, this is starting to feel personal.

BERMAN: I know. I'm starting to pay closer attention each time.

BOLDUAN: Also making tough choices and putting in place tough policy is their job.

BERMAN: That's what they're there for.

BOLDUAN: That's what they're there for. All right, let's turn to this. Teachers and students at a San Diego high school stranded after a bizarre act of vandalism. Nearly 200 doors across the school's campus were glued shut just ahead of finals week.

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CHRISOPHER GUZMAN, STUDENT: I was walking in, right, and I looked and there was like all these teachers on the floor. They had these little -- I don't know what they were doing. They were like picking at the locks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Oh my goodness. Police say the person was caught on surveillance camera at around 1:00 a.m. entering the school, then spending over two hours in there gluing the door shut, causing about $70,000 in damages. Police say that they are not sure if the suspect is a student, but people suspect that it could be an end of your senior prank. But oh.

Taylor Swift surprised fans last night at the "Toy Story 5" premiere. After performing her new song for the film, "I Knew It, I Knew You." She brought out Randy Newman and joined him for a duet of "You've Got a Friend in Me."

Swift called "Toy Story 5" a masterpiece and her favorite of them all. The film opens in theaters June 19. JB.

BERMAN: All right. Breaking overnight, huge anti-immigration protests sweeping the United Kingdom after a 30-year-old man believed to be from Sudan was charged with attempted murder following a knife attack in Northern Ireland. Crowds gathered across Belfast, setting houses, a bus, several cars on fire.

Elon Musk, who is backing the anti-immigration sentiments posted only by protesting repeatedly and loudly will there be any change. Let's get later some CNN's Nada Bashir. Nada, what's happening now?

NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, those protests have not only been taking place in Northern Ireland, John, but are spread across other cities in the United Kingdom. But as you mentioned, there had been calls on social media, including from notable figures, for protesters to take to the streets following Monday night's horrific attack in which we saw a man in his 40s being attacked repeatedly by, as you mentioned, an individual believed to be a 30 year old Sudanese man who has now been charged with attempted murder.

And of course, the video of that horrifying attack did spread across social media quite rapidly.

[08:00:03]

It was very graphic, very distressing, and was filmed by an eyewitness as bystanders attempted to interrupt --