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Trump Administration Outlines Prospective Agreement With Iran; Trump Administration Confident That Israel Will Get On Board With Peace Agreement; ICE Bust In Front Of Kids Arriving For Pre-K & Kindergarten Ceremony; Pope Borrows King Of Spain's Plane After Technical Issues; SpaceX Goes Public With Historic Offering Of Stock. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired June 12, 2026 - 14:00   ET

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

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[14:00:40]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": It's all in the details. The White House outlining a possible agreement with Iran to end the war. We're going to look at what that could look like.

Backlash in Baltimore. ICE detaining two people at a school and in full view of children waiting for kindergarten graduation ceremonies. Now school and city officials want answers about what happened.

And meet the world's first trillionaire, SpaceX going public with a historic IPO, but there are questions about whether Elon Musk and his company can deliver on some big promises.

We're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to "CNN News Central."

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": We're following Breaking News on the framework of a possible peace agreement with Iran. Here's what a senior administration official just said it includes: Reopening the Strait of Hormuz, lifting the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports and the U.S. obtaining Iran's enriched nuclear material. In return, if Iran complies, it would be relieved of a lot of economic pressures.

If signed, this would trigger a 60-day period for technical negotiations to take place. Let's get reaction from the region with CNN's Jeremy Diamond, who's in Tel Aviv for us. So, Jeremy, as we've heard now from both sides, this is the closest we've come to a deal actually being finalized.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, that's exactly right, Boris. I mean, we've heard President Trump in the past say that a deal is within reach within a matter of days. But this time does feel different because it's not just President Trump who is saying it. You have all of the different players that are participating in these negotiations, indicating that they are basically at the five-yard line here when it comes to this deal. We've heard from the Iranian foreign minister himself, who tweeted that the two sides have, quote, "Never been closer to a deal." The Pakistani prime minister, who's playing a key role in mediating these negotiations, says that the two sides have reached a final agreed-upon text and that they're now working to finalize the next steps. We've also heard from sources indicating that a deal could be signed as soon as Sunday with a potential signing ceremony in Geneva, Switzerland.

But in terms of what's actually in this deal, that's where things start to break apart a little bit more because different sides are spinning this yet unreleased deal so far in very different ways. If you listen to Iran's state media, then you hear one story. If you listen to U.S. officials, you hear a very different story altogether.

A senior administration official just briefed reporters on this emerging framework agreement between the United States and Iran. This official said that it would include the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and the lifting of the U.S. blockade on Iranian ports, that it will lead to the dismantling of Iran's nuclear program, and that the enriched uranium in Iran will be taken out and destroyed, and also that Iran will only get financial relief once it complies with the terms of this deal.

Iran's state media, again, on a number -- on almost every single one of these points, is spinning a very different story. And U.S. officials are still insisting that Iran won't get any financial relief unless they comply with the deal and not immediately upon the signing of this memorandum of understanding. That had been one of the key sticking points in negotiations in recent weeks. All of this, though, does seem to have caught the Israeli prime minister and top Israeli officials off guard.

In fact, when President Trump tweeted yesterday that they were, you know, very close to a deal here, the prime minister was in a security consultation with some of his top officials, talking about Iran and was completely caught off guard by that pronouncement from the president. He and President Trump subsequently got on the phone, and then the prime minister tweeted that he had gotten assurances from Trump about this deal, addressing all of the things that Israel wants to see addressed in this deal as well.

And a senior administration official just now telling reporters that they are confident that Israel will be on board with this deal once they see all the details. Boris? Brianna?

SANCHEZ: Jeremy Diamond, thank you so much for that update. Brianna?

KEILAR: We're joined now by Democratic Congressman, Adam Smith. He's the Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Committee. Thank you for being with us. And just what is your understanding here of this memorandum, this agreement, what's in it, and how much we can take this to the bank?

REP. ADAM SMITH (D-WA), RANKING MEMBER, HOUSE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: Yeah, it's really hard to tell just because, as you know, President Trump has been saying similar things for, gosh, weeks, a couple of months now, that it turned out not to be true. I agree with your reporter. It seems like the folks in the region now are saying similar things. So I think it's more likely that there could be something coming out of this.

But at this point, it's really too soon to tell. I will say that this deal is desperately needed by all sides. Thomas Friedman had a great column this morning basically saying how this is a war where basically everyone is losing.

[14:05:00]

We need to end this, bring some peace to the Middle East, and begin to rebuild.

KEILAR: Earlier this month, Senator Murphy asked Secretary Rubio if the Trump administration was willing to release sanctions or release frozen money as a trigger for getting to a negotiation on Iran's nuclear program as part of a Phase II, and Rubio said no. He said if Iran agrees to give up uranium enrichment and their nuclear activities, quote, "There will be sanctions relief associated with their commitment and compliance with those agreements."

Today, you have Iranian state media saying that the agreement would demand the release of $24 billion dollars of Iran's frozen funds and half of that would come immediately upon signing, so that's obviously the agreement or commitment part there. Does what we've learned about this apparent agreement comport with your expectations of what the administration and Marco Rubio laid out about a week and a half ago?

SMITH: Well, these are the gaps and this is the problem is, you know, Iran's got their spin on it, we've got our spin on it. You can sort of walk through the issues when it comes to how much money Iran is going to get. Iran is going to want to say more, basically more sanctions relief, more areas. We're going to want to downplay that and that's fine when you're, you know, sort of arguing about it rhetorically in the public spaces.

But what's in the agreement? What does it say? How is this issue going to be resolved? Similarly with the nuclear program, you know, we, President Trump has insisted that the deal will be Iran gives up all of the nukes.

Iran has said, well, it'll be a framework to talk about that. So that's where I think we're narrowing down. OK, how do you work out those differences? How much money does Iran get? What happens to their nuclear program? And then there are also details around the opening of the Strait of Hormuz. I haven't heard Iran say anything recently, but in different times during this negotiation, they've said the Strait will be open and we will be running it, which are two sort of contradictory points.

And it's hard to say. We don't know. We don't know what's going on in negotiations. Are they narrowing these points? Are they getting to, you know, actual points of agreement as opposed to spinning each side? You know, President Trump says they are, but he's been saying that for two months now, so we will see. KEILAR: Yeah, because to your point, Iranian media outlets are saying Tehran would not commit to ceding management of the Strait or restore conditions to their pre-war status, but it says that the memorandum of understanding discusses the normalization of maritime traffic, so that is sort of unclear as the Trump administration is saying Iran is agreeing that the Strait will be open.

I do want to ask you about some other reporting that we have, which is that CNN is reporting there was a U.S. ground operation planned to seize Iran's uranium last month, according to two sources. This was at the point where the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff had to race to Tampa from a meeting in Brussels to get briefed in person, instead of remotely, so that he could brief the president in Washington. Were you aware of these plans?

SMITH: I'm aware of the plans. The specifics of it are classified, but we've had contingencies for quite some time, you know, to go in and seize their uranium. It's an extraordinarily difficult operation. I don't know of any point where we were leaning towards doing it. I don't know of the details of that.

The plans are on the books. It's a high-risk, very, very difficult operation. I think it is highly unlikely that President Trump would want to launch it, you know. But look, logically, I'm sure they're having conversations about it, but no, I have not seen anything specific that said there was, OK, we're going, we're going to do this.

KEILAR: Ultimately, the president chose not to go forward with it, and I understand you're saying, obviously, details of this would be classified. But, you know, just to give us a sense of when you're talking about risk here, your understanding of risk for an operation like that and the casualties that you would expect the U.S. would undertake launching a ground invasion like that.

SMITH: It'd be very high risk because you're in Iran, hostile territory, and the problem is the uranium that they want is buried. It's not like you're sneaking into a warehouse, grabbing a couple canisters, throwing them in a helicopter and going.

If this was going to happen, we'd have to be there for some period of time in order to dig down and access the uranium, and that entire period of time, obviously, if our forces are on the ground in Iran, they are vulnerable. So, very, very high-risk operation if we were to undertake it.

KEILAR: Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister, caught by surprise by Trump's announcement yesterday. Israel has also said that it's not going to back down in Lebanon. How do you see -- and they've talked, we should be clear, they have spoken. And you have a senior administration official saying that once all the details are apparent here, they're confident Israel's going to be on board.

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But there is some daylight here. How do you see the divergence of U.S. and Israeli interests affecting these negotiations? SMITH: Well, I think initially, both Trump and Netanyahu, and I criticized both of them for having this viewpoint, took the viewpoint that we're strong enough to basically crush all of our adversaries. So we're going to rely on our military, whether it's defeating Hamas in Gaza, defeating Hezbollah in Lebanon, defeating Iran overall. And Trump bought into that. That's why he launched the war.

Now, Trump is realizing that it wasn't that easy. Iran's still there. They're still standing. Hezbollah's still there. And Trump, I think, is more aggressively now looking for a way out, looking for a way to try and stop this war. I think Prime Minister Netanyahu is still operating under what I believe is a dangerous misconception that he can somehow eliminate all of his adversaries.

What Israel needs to do, what Netanyahu needs to do, they've got to find partners for peace. The Lebanese armed forces, the Lebanese government, they don't like Hezbollah. Work with the Lebanese government. There are Palestinians who clearly don't like Hamas. Find partners to work with. Netanyahu is still intent on just doing it, but through military force.

I think he's got the cart before the horse. He needs partners for peace if he's ever going to get to the point where Hezbollah and Hamas are under control.

KEILAR: I do just want to close the loop on something because, yesterday, you told my colleague Jake Tapper on this announcement that you didn't think that really anything had changed. He asked you if you thought it was real this time and you said you didn't. Today, I'm hearing you say, now that you're hearing things from other partners in the region, it does appear that there's more to this deal. Can you tell me a little bit more about why you have some more confidence in the fact that there's some there, there may be?

SMITH: Well, first of all, let me be very clear here. We're jumping over a very low bar. Right?

(LAUGH)

SMITH: I still don't have a high amount of confidence that anything has fundamentally changed because although the partners in the region are saying things, and that's good, that's the reason for it more than anything, is that it's not just Trump saying it for the first time. There are actually the countries that are working on this are saying it as well. But crucially, Iran is not and that would maintain that skepticism.

So sorry, yeah, I was overstating a little bit early on, except to say that it is a little bit different this time. Now, on a scale of one to 10, what was the likelihood before? It was probably about a one. Now maybe we're at a three. But that's at least moving in the right direction.

KEILAR: That is certainly illuminating of your thinking on this. And I appreciate that. Congressman Adam Smith, thank you so much for being with us. SMITH: Thanks, Brianna.

KEILAR: Still to come, the Pope has flight problems. He's just like us. Why the pontiff is having to grab a seat home on the King of Spain's plane. That part not so much like us, but nonetheless.

Plus an ICE takedown in front of children, sparking major controversy about immigration crackdown practices.

Then later, tornadoes cause devastation in the central U.S. as the storm threat shifts to the east. We'll have that and much more coming up on "CNN News Central."

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SANCHEZ: We've got some papal plane problems to tell you about. Pope Leo's returned home from Spain's Canary Islands requiring a change of plans. The pope, his staff, and about 80 journalists were on board a commercial flight, ready to fly home to Rome, when the captain told passengers there was a problem starting one of the engines, and then everyone was asked to disembark.

KEILAR: So this is where the king of Spain stepped in, as he does when these things get tough, right? He offered the pope his personal plane. So much Ps --

(LAUGH)

KEILAR: So many Ps in this story, while staff and journalists waited for another offered by Iberia. The pope returning from a historic week-long visit to Spain, advocating for migrants and global peace. There you have it.

Backlash growing after immigration agents in Baltimore detained two people outside of a school, just as little children were arriving. Agents could be seen pulling a man and a woman from their SUV in the school's parking lot, and children were just a few feet away. You see it there.

They were actually getting ready for pre-K and kindergarten promotion ceremonies.

SANCHEZ: A state senator says there were also two children inside that SUV, and they were taken out of the car by teachers as it was happening. CNN's Priscilla Alvarez joins us now with the details. What happened here, Priscilla?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, clearly, from what you described, this was an incident that drew a lot of concern from state officials and also school officials because these arrests happened on the school grounds and as the preparations were underway for these ceremonies, and as children were being dropped off, so they were witness to this arrest unfolding of these two adults. Now, according to authorities and witnesses, this is what we understand to have happened. Particularly with the Department of Homeland Security, they say they had targeted a man for arrest. He's been identified as Jesus Acevedo-Sanchez, and he, quote, "Refused lawful commands, violently resisted arrests, and used his vehicle to evade law enforcement, dragging an ICE officer in the process." I mention that because then what happened is a pursuit.

That pursuit led them to these school grounds. You're seeing video of that there, where ICE conducted the arrest.

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ICE also, in that video, was heard saying some of these agents that the vehicle had earlier hit an agent. We also know from the Department of Homeland Security that this individual had evaded arrest in April. So this is a situation according to the Department of Homeland Security that they have also conveyed to state and school officials where there was a pursuit that unfolded. It ended at -- resulted on the school grounds and that is where the arrest happened of the father and then of the woman in the vehicle, so the two parents were detained. They were given an opportunity to reach a relative and the two children who were in the backseat and taken by educators out of the car are now in the custody of their aunt.

Now in a statement, the Department of Homeland Security said, quote, "ICE does not target schools, but we will not allow criminals to hide in our nation's schools and put the safety of children at risk." They then go on to describe what I just mentioned to you now, which is that this was an individual they said had been evading arrest and that the pursuit landed them on the school grounds again.

Now, we have heard from witnesses who said the children who were -- who saw this were screaming, that they were afraid They were seeing an arrest unfold as we have seen over the last year in this immigration crackdown where an individual was taken down to the ground and then those two children were taken into the school, again, now in the custody of an aunt.

Now, the governor of Maryland has weighed in, Wes Moore. He said this, quote, "Schools are places where children should feel safe, where parents should be able to drop off their kids without fear, and where educators should be able to focus on teaching, not where federal agents carry out immigration enforcement actions in front of children." Now again, the governor's office has been in touch with ICE about this incident and everything that occurred leading up to it. Those two individuals that were taken into custody, the parents, are now facing federal charges.

SANCHEZ: We'll see what comes next in their case. Priscilla Alvarez, thank you so much.

A blockbuster stock market debut, SpaceX going public. We'll discuss.

Plus, CNN tracking down a model scout who sent young women to meet Jeffrey Epstein even after he was registered as a sex offender. Hear his explanation in just moments.

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SANCHEZ: The world's richest man, Elon Musk, just became a whole lot richer. He's now the first-ever trillionaire after his company, SpaceX, made a record-breaking debut on Wall Street. The company is setting its IPO share price at $135, and you can see it's only been climbing throughout the day. Now valued at more than $2 trillion, SpaceX becomes the sixth largest publicly traded company in the country, only behind Nvidia, Alphabet, Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon.

Let's talk to Jacob Ward about this. He's a technology journalist and the host of "The Rip Current" podcast. Always great to see you, Jacob. Thanks for joining us. Why is SpaceX the biggest IPO ever?

JACOB WARD, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Hi, Boris. Well, I mean, I think the short answer is audacity.

(LAUGH)

SANCHEZ: Audacity?

WARD: I mean, it's really -- it's not the financials, right? It is not the profitability of this company. I mean, we think about investing in companies as being investing in the machine that makes money for that business. That machine does not make money for this business, at least not yet. They have aimed for the stars is the jokey way to put it, but, of course, it is the earthly debts that are dragging the financials down here.

You have a company, SpaceX, the rocket company, the Starlink maker, that was profitable. They turned a profit of something like $400 million back in 2024. After sinking billions into building rockets, it seemed like madness at the time, back when they were trying to get something off a launch pad and almost ran out of money doing it.

You know, they turned a profit. Amazing. Then Elon Musk pulls in xAI, his effort to try to get back on top in the A.I. race, and attaches all of its incredible debts to SpaceX. And now, you have a company going public that loses billions of dollars a year. And so this has to do with trying to fund what Elon Musk says the company is going to need, which is enormous amounts of compute, these data centers that he calls Colossus that he's building. He's going to need all of that cash in order to build those, he says.

But now, suddenly, all these rocket customers, all these $66-a-month Starlink customers are actually funding an A.I. company that at one time wasn't even connected to this, Boris.

SANCHEZ: Yeah, to your point, last year, billions of losses compared to only a few hundred million in revenue. How much of this is a bet on Elon Musk himself? And does that mean that SpaceX is now overvalued?

WARD: Well, what it really is, right, it is absolutely a bet on Elon Musk himself, and in a couple of ways. The first is this question of who is this guy? He, once upon a time, was this incredible magician pulling profitability out of what seemed like financially deranged ideas, right? Tesla almost crashes and burns. SpaceX literally almost crashes and burns. And yet, he pulls it out in both cases and makes a real business out of selling electric vehicles at a time that nobody thought there was a market for it and carrying things into space for the government, which sounded like an insane idea at the time.

He's a guy who has pulled this off before, so that's the bull case for this. The question is now, you know, I sat in the courtroom watching him duke it out with Sam Altman a few weeks ago, and this is a guy who's clearly upset not to be on top in the A.I. race. And so is this a true, like, business strategy, or is this a psychological need to be on top of that industry in the same way that he's been on top of these other ones? So that's the first question.

Which guy is this? Is this the old SpaceX and Tesla maker, or is this a new guy who's obsessed with his legacy? And then the other thing that people are betting on when it comes to Elon Musk is the literal control he has over these companies. He is not giving you a voice if you put money into his company.