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White House Set to Host UFC Fight; Judge Blocks Trump Anti- Weaponization Fund; Deadly Texas Shooting; Iran Deal Close?. Aired 1- 1:30p ET

Aired June 12, 2026 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:00]

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN HOST: It makes a lot of sense. Credit to them for doing that.

The book is "Future Rich Person: The New Rules for Building Wealth." It is out now.

Haley Sacks, thank you so much. I really appreciate your time.

HALEY SACKS, AUTHOR, "FUTURE RICH PERSON": Thank you for having me.

MATTINGLY: And thank you for joining INSIDE POLITICS.

"CNN NEWS CENTRAL" starts right now.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Do they have a deal? Pakistan saying the U.S. and Iran have a final text of a peace agreement. The country's prime minister saying peace has never been this close.

And IPO fever. SpaceX's launch on Wall Street turning Elon Musk into a trillionaire, as the company goes public. But is SpaceX more about the sizzle than the stake?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: And the World Cup comes home. Team USA taking the field for the first time just a few hours from now. How will Americans do against the world's best?

We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

We start this afternoon with breaking news on the war with Iran. After hours of tense exchanges on what appears to be an emerging agreement, Pakistan's prime minister just posted this -- quote -- "We can confirm that a final agreed-upon text of the peace deal has been reached and Pakistan is now working closely with both sides to finalize the next steps. Peace has never been this close as it is now."

Let's go live with the White House with CNN's Alayna Treene.

Alayna, what are you learning?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, look, we are hearing a lot of different things now from the president, the vice president, from the Iranians.

But I think what we saw the president reshare, he reshared a post actually from the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, saying -- echoing that post that you had just shared that a memorandum of understanding has never been closer.

Trump shared this on his own TRUTH Social page, I think in line and what this shows is really that they are confident, there is a lot of optimism that they are closing in on finalizing this deal.

Now, as for what is in this, a senior administration official told me and our colleague Kristen Holmes that essentially the deal would include provisions to dismantle Iran's nuclear program and end Tehran's funding of terrorist groups.

I'm going to walk through these bullet points. One in which they had outlined is that, one, nuclear material will be destroyed and removed, nuclear -- the nuclear program will be dismantled, none of their money released until they perform, referring to, of course, the frozen funds that Iran says that they want to be unfrozen immediately, and that the Strait of Hormuz will be open.

They add that Iran will no longer be funding terrorist groups. The official told us that essentially this would be a performance-based deal. One thing to keep in mind through all of this, with this memorandum of understanding, is that this is really a deal to make another deal.

If this does get signed, we are told it could be signed in Geneva as early as this Sunday, that would then trigger another negotiating period to really work out what we have heard from the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, say would be highly technical talks about the specifics of how they would implement all of these different bullet points.

Now, the other thing I do want to mention as well is what we heard from the president this morning. He lashed out really at Iran for what they were reporting was in this agreement. The president had decried Iran as -- quote -- "dishonorable" for what he said, again, were inaccurate descriptions of this agreement.

I would note that Iranian state media outlets had reported earlier that Iran would not commit to ceding management of the strait and that the agreement would demand the release of $24 billion of Iran's frozen funds.

So, look, I think where we stand, and I have been talking to officials throughout the Trump administration, Boris, all day about this, is that they are very confident that they are closing in on this. There are, of course, still some small things that they need to be worked out, but the goal and the hope is that they can get this done and have this signed in person in Europe in just a couple of days.

We will have to see whether or not that's actually -- if they're actually able to meet that, but that is the hope that they currently have. SANCHEZ: Yes, the next few hours are going to be critical toward that

end.

Alayna Treene, live at the White House, thank you so much -- Brianna.

KEILAR: We turn now to a CNN exclusive, some new reporting on just how close the U.S. came to launching a secret ground operation in Iran, top military officials reportedly rushing to meet late last month, but then President Trump put the plans on hold.

CNN's Natasha Bertrand has these exclusive details here.

Tell us what this plan was.

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so let's set the scene a little bit.

So, General Dan Caine, who is the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the U.S.' top general in the country, he made a very secretive and rushed trip to U.S. Central Command headquarters late last month on May 19, rushing all the way from Europe, where he was attending a senior NATO ministerial in Brussels.

[13:05:08]

To rush back to U.S. Central Command headquarters to receive in-person briefings on this operation that was very close to being green-lit for the U.S. military to go in and forcibly seize Iran's highly enriched uranium stockpile, which is spread out across multiple locations, we're told, the majority of which is at the Isfahan nuclear facility inside Iran.

An extremely risky and high-stakes operation that we are told General Caine had to be briefed on in person. It was extremely sensitive. The briefing was so urgent that he had to fly to Tampa, where he was only on the ground for a matter of hours, before he then returned to Washington, D.C., to brief President Trump on all of the options for this operation.

Now, according to one of our sources, this operation was so high risk that it was deemed potentially extreme risk of high, high rates of casualties, because, according to the source, we'd have to set up a massive presence inside Iran of U.S. ground troops. Essentially, we would have to invade.

KEILAR: OK, that is stunning, right? Ultimately, though, the mission didn't happen. I mean, is that why?

BERTRAND: Two reasons.

The first is that President Trump essentially hit pause on this operation after being briefed on it, because he was warned that it would prolong the war, Iran would seriously retaliate, it would plunge the global economy into further turmoil. That's one reason. And then the second reason is that potential for extremely high

casualties. And we kind of saw him hint at this yesterday when he was talking to FOX News about a potential operation to take Kharg Island, which is that oil export hub that is so key to Iran, where he said he's not sure if the American people would be able to stomach such an operation, because that would also be a very high casualty potentially operation for the U.S. military to undertake.

So he was very aware in these briefings that this could cause a significant number of dead and wounded American troops. And that's not something that at that moment he was prepared to authorize. But it's still very much on the table.

Depending on how these talks go, obviously, we see the administration coming out and saying, look, they're saying they're going to relinquish their highly enriched uranium, which is the key to making a nuclear weapon. But if these fall apart, this operation isn't -- it's been planned. It is very much still in the works, we're told. It's on the table.

KEILAR: Wow. And now Iran knows about it.

Natasha Bertrand, thank you for that reporting.

Still to come: a federal judge indefinitely blocking President Trump's nearly $2 billion anti-weaponization fund. So what happens next?

Plus, we're days away from fight night at the White House, but even some allies worry that it comes with more risks than rewards.

First, though, we're following a deadly standoff in Texas, where at least 11 people have been shot and one person has been killed.

These important stories and more all coming up on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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KEILAR: We are following some breaking news out of Midland, Texas, where we have just learned the suspect in a mass shooting has been found dead; 11 people were shot in this. One person was killed.

SANCHEZ: Let's get the latest from CNN senior national correspondent Ryan Young.

Ryan, what are you learning?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Boris and Brianna, look, the standoff started around 8:00 this morning.

And from what we're told, shots were fired, 11 people shot, one person dead, police shutting down this area in Midland, Texas, as they rushed in. In fact, we have video from the scene where you could hear the gunshots being fired over and over. Let's first take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(GUNSHOTS)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: Yes, as you can see there, an eyewitness tells CNN that someone else was so concerned about this, they actually used their truck, a good samaritan used their truck to block the exit so other people wouldn't get caught in this crossfire.

SWAT teams from around the area came in to shut this area down as they had that standoff. You can see these officers using their cars, their SUVs as they blockade, as they maybe traded shots with that suspect. We now believe that suspect is dead.

Within the next 10 minutes or so, we're expecting an update from the mayor about exactly what happened here. This is all really taking place on West Wall Street, Midland. It's about five hours away from Dallas. As you can understand, people in that area were scared and concerned about exactly what's going on.

We don't have a motive yet and whether or not what business was involved when the shooting took place or a description of the suspect. All that should be coming within the next hour or so. Our entire newsroom is working on this as we speak.

But what we were told, the shooting happened early this morning, again, 11 people shot. People are at Midland Hospital right now getting emergency surgery, those who have suffered wounds from this shooting, one person dead. And then, again, we believe that shooter is dead as well.

So we're continuing to get information about this shooting that happened in Midland, Texas, as all these SWAT teams and emergency personnel swarmed in the area. The good news is here, and as I talked about before, good samaritan stepping in, blocking that highway exit to stop other people from being involved in this.

We're still gathering information, our team working to get the extra details. We will bring it to you a little later on -- guys.

SANCHEZ: Yes, we hope those victims turn out OK.

Ryan Young, keep us posted with the latest. Thank you.

This just in: A federal judge says she does not believe that President Trump's plan for a $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund has been permanently sidelined, so she's issued an order indefinitely blocking that proposal.

KEILAR: Yes, the Justice Department has argued that the fund was dead and a court order was not needed.

[13:15:03]

CNN senior justice correspondent Evan Perez is here with the latest. Evan, what can you tell us?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, the idea of whether this is dead or not, you can see judges are not buying it, and there's a reason for that.

The president himself, the president of the United States himself has said that, even though the fund that Todd Blanche, the attorney general, acting attorney general, had proposed last month and which he withdrew earlier this month, even though that's not going forward, he still believes that people need to be compensated, and he has made that clear.

And behind the scenes, we know that those discussions have continued. I will read you just a part of what the judge said today.

She said: "When the president of the United States says he wants something to happen, that's a pretty good indicator that there will be an incentive and motive to make it happen."

And so the question now is, what happens with this? Now, let's listen to what Todd Blanche has said when asked about whether this is going forward and what the status of it is. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TODD BLANCHE, ACTING U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: We are not moving forward with the fund, period. We -- the reasons for the fund is something that President Trump talked about for a long time, which is the fact that there were a lot of people in this country who had their government weaponized against them.

The reasons for the fund, I think, were -- remain as important as they were before, but we are not moving forward with the fund.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Me, personally, I think the weaponization fund is a great idea. And so do many other Republicans. You have to get it approved. If they get it approved, that's great. If they don't get it approved, I'd be disappointed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREZ: And so there you go. That's part of what the judges are looking at and what we know are behind-the-scenes conversations that are still ongoing about how to approach this, maybe not call it the weaponization fund, but to find another way to do that.

SANCHEZ: So, to that point, this order by this judge, what does it mean for the future?

PEREZ: Well, it means what she is trying to do is to block this from being done in any way. And one of the concerns she raised was to compensate January 6 -- people who participated in January 6.

And one of the pieces of reporting that we have that we're publishing shortly on CNN.com is that one idea is to try to collect money from banks. There's an investigation ongoing by the Justice Department for so-called debanking of people who participated in January 6, people who had their accounts closed.

And the idea is that those people should be compensated by those banks for debanking them. Here's the wrinkle. Those banks that did that were doing it because of the risks that were associated with that, which were existing regulations. They were essentially following the rules at the time.

Trump says that they should never have closed the banks -- the bank accounts of those people. His own bank accounts were closed after January 6. And so there's this investigation that is now ongoing by the U.S. attorney in the District of Columbia.

And the idea that is being discussed in the administration is to perhaps use that money to try to pay those people, again, for what happened after January 6.

KEILAR: Yes, that doesn't sound...

PEREZ: So, the idea -- again, the idea is, it's not dead until it's dead.

KEILAR: Yes, maybe there's another reincarnation of it, right?

PEREZ: Exactly.

KEILAR: Evan, thank you.

PEREZ: It shall rise again.

KEILAR: It shall.

All right, Evan, thank you.

Still ahead: reports of an agreement. The latest on negotiations with Iran to end the war.

SANCHEZ: But, first: They're about to get it on, on the South Lawn. We're going to be joined by two-time UFC champion Dominick Cruz, AKA the Dominator, ahead of this fight night at the White House.

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[13:23:18]

SANCHEZ: Breaking news on the octagon on the South Lawn. Just moments ago, a federal judge rejected a request to block President Trump from hosting a UFC fight at the White House.

Finishing touches on the unprecedented event are now under way. The UFC is putting on a series of mixed martial arts matches on Sunday, and, tonight, they're actually holding weigh-ins with fighters facing off at the Lincoln Memorial, all of it part of the celebrations to commemorate the nation's 250th birthday. The event, of course, is a massive undertaking, transforming the White

House into an arena, preparing for over 4,000 people on the South Lawn, more than 100,000 from the general public close by at a watch party at the Ellipse and potentially millions watching on the air and online.

With us now, someone who spent a lot of time in the octagon, the Dominator, two-time UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz. He's the host of the "Love & War" podcast.

Dominick, thank you so much for joining us.

You're going to be working this event as an analyst. I wonder what you think folks at home should be watching for, especially those that aren't as familiar with MMA.

DOMINICK CRUZ, TWO-TIME UFC CHAMPION: Well, anybody who's not familiar with MMA gets to learn that we take ourself to the bitter end to make sure that we're prepared for high-level competition, and it's really about discipline, pushing yourself to the edge, and so many things that everyday Americans go through, which is working yourself to the bone.

And that's what we do in order to get to this position. Anybody who's on this card is an elite-level athlete.

SANCHEZ: And being on this card also means that you're part of a night that has been unlike any for the UFC, because it's not just that you're fighting on the South Lawn of the White House. You're going to be outside in D.C. summertime humidity. It's going to be hot.

[13:25:02]

There's probably going to be bugs. The canvas is probably going to be slippery. What does this mean for the fighters? How should they adjust to those conditions?

CRUZ: Well, as prize fighters, we're some of the toughest human beings on earth. We make it through sweaty days, hard days, beat-up days. So a little bit of bugs and some heat is just another day for us.

A lot of times, we're training in saunas anyway. So we're used to 110- degree heat while we train. So I think they will handle it no problem, whether the canvas is slippery or not. We're some of the greatest athletes on earth that can adjust to everything.

SANCHEZ: I wonder what having this huge event at the White House means for UFC and for combat sports in general.

CRUZ: Well, for combat sports, it's epic, because when I started this thing 20 years ago, it was illegal in every state in the United States. And now, 20 years later, we're on CNN and we're breaking through to the entire world. So what I think the main focus is freedom, that this is the 250th year

of America. And that's the neutral ground that we all are, which is, we all love each other. We're all together. And as fighters, we get to go out there and beat each other up to the bitter end and then shake hands at the end of it.

And I think that's a great symbolism for what this world can use. We don't always have to get along. We don't always have to agree, but we can shake hands at the end of it and come together. And if anything else, that's the great thing that we get to represent in freedom.

And for the military and for the men and women in the land, the water and the sea, they make it possible so that we can even have this event, so that we can have freedom of speech, so we can have freedom in general.

Without these people, without this military, we couldn't even hold this event. So, I'm so grateful for that as well.

SANCHEZ: Dominick, before we go, we actually had Georges St-Pierre on yesterday, GSP. And I asked him this question. I'm curious to get your response.

If you had to pick one president in U.S. history that you think would dominate in the octagon, who would that president be?

(LAUGHTER)

CRUZ: Well, let's say Lincoln.

Let's say Lincoln, because this guy was tall. He was lanky. He had the height. He had the range. And if we're just talking about only fighting abilities, I'd say maybe him because of his reach and how tall he is. That would really support him. He's got the frame.

SANCHEZ: I feel like that's the easy answer.

Legend has it that he won something like 300 fights and only lost once. He was a wrestler. A lot of people don't know that.

Dominick Cruz, thank you so much. Good luck to you on Sunday. And that's bad timing for that glitch to happen right there.

Either way, we have plenty of more news to come.

Ahead: Pakistani negotiations -- negotiators say that the U.S. and Iran have finalized the text of a peace agreement. We have breaking news right after this.

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