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January 6 Debanking Probe Floated as Way to Pad Anti- Weaponization Fund; Trump Administration Outlines Prospective Agreement with Iran; Senators Express Concern About USDA's Screwworm Response; IPO Makes Elon Musk the World's First Trillionaire. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired June 12, 2026 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Judges calling out, there's been this investigation that's been ongoing by the U.S. Attorney here in Washington, D.C., Jeanine Pirro. They have subpoenaed banks, as many as 10 banks have been under investigation for allegedly closing the accounts of people who were involved in January 6th. The idea being, according to the Trump administration, that conservatives were being targeted by these banks.

And so what has been discussed in the administration is perhaps using that funding, using money from those settlements, from those banks, payments from those banks, to compensate people like this who were a part of January 6th. I have a comment that we just got from Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney. She says, "Bringing justice to those who have been previously debanked," which is the term that they use, "has absolutely nothing to do with anything else. The American people deserve financial institutions that won't cancel them for their political or religious views."

And so the issue here is that some of these people, their accounts were canceled in part because of the regulations that were in place at the time, which was that banks were required to essentially make sure that they didn't have reputational risks involved in their customers. So they were following the rules, the banks were.

And so now they're being told that they may have been essentially broken the law, at least according to the Justice Department, because they followed those rules. That's the reason why this investigation is now still ongoing. We'll see where this goes.

And again, to Katelyn's point and what this judge is raising, I think a lot of people don't believe that the Justice Department is done with this because Donald Trump keeps telling everyone that he's not done with it.

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And there still seems to be other ways that they could come up with a plan.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Katelyn Polantz, Evan Perez, thank you both so much. Still ahead, the Pakistani Prime Minister is saying the U.S. and Iran

agree to a final text of a possible agreement. Questions, though, remain about the details.

Don't go anywhere. We'll be right back.

[15:35:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: We continue to follow major breaking news on U.S. talks with Iran. A senior Trump administration official tells CNN that negotiations include Iran committing to never procuring or developing nuclear weapons. The framework of the proposal also includes reopening the Strait of Hormuz and the destruction of Iran's enriched nuclear material. If Iran complies, it would then be relieved of some economic pressure.

If both sides sign this memorandum, it would trigger a 60-day window to negotiate how to implement and carry out the details of the agreement. Let's discuss with CNN National Security Analyst Beth Sanner. She's a former deputy director of national intelligence.

Beth, I apologize, I just sneezed and my throat is really rough. So both sides have made contradictory statements about what is in this agreement. How do you discern what they've actually agreed to?

BETH SANNER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: I don't think we can. Honestly, I think we're just at a point where we have to wait and see what exactly comes out. I think that both sides have a real incentive to be kind of pushing out these bravado kind of statements in order to make it look good for both of their domestic constituents.

Both sides have to deal with hawks. And so they're both trying to sell it. I would suspect that the U.S., what we've seen the U.S. officials talking about is probably a little closer than what we've seen in the Iranian press because we haven't actually seen an Iranian official statement that outlines. But there's still some issues here. I mean, we don't know yet. We don't know yet.

SANCHEZ: When you say that, what do you mean exactly? Because some of these statements from U.S. officials regarding what Iran has agreed to seem to be quite eye-opening to ending funding of terrorist groups, to relinquishing its nuclear program. I mean, that is huge.

SANNER: Yes. So, I mean, there are things that are easy. One is the declaration that they will never build or acquire a nuclear weapon.

They've made that many times. They're members of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. So OK, no big deal, easy.

Not giving money to terrorist groups, think about that wording. What we consider a terrorist group versus what Iran considers a proxy group, an allied part of the axis of resistance, they don't consider those groups terrorist groups. They consider ISIS a terrorist group. So, you know, like this is why words matter and why I think we can kind of say those things. But then when it comes down to, this is the pre-agreement. And look how long it's taken us to get here.

Now I am happy, I am more than happy if we can actually get through this stage. And I think it's actually correct that they are doing a performance-based kind of you get money when we see you do X, because otherwise we lose all of our leverage. But this is not going to be over until the fat lady sings.

And all we are hearing right now is kind of the warm-up. You can hear her humming quietly in the background. But she hasn't walked out on stage yet.

So we'll have to wait.

SANCHEZ: One of the questions I have is how that structure is going to work in terms of unfreezing assets. Because Iran had said that there is no memorandum unless these assets are unfrozen. Now at least in the statement from Iranian media it was like half of that 24 billion.

But the U.S. has maintained that they won't do that until we see sort of some movement.

[15:40:00]

SANNER: Right. And so, you know, there's a report that just came out in Reuters saying that the UAE has agreed to release the frozen funds that it holds up front.

Right. So I don't know. Maybe if UAE releases some up front, it doesn't count.

SANCHEZ: To get the ball rolling. I see.

SANNER: Maybe it doesn't count for us. Like, again, the words matter here. And I really don't think we know enough yet.

But these key things you're pointing out are still barriers for them to agree. The timing of the funds release. Who actually controls the strait?

It's one thing to say it's open and that the blockade's lifted. But Iran's not going to easily give up on that. Are they going to dismantle every single nuclear site they have?

I don't know. I've always kind of suspected they might have covert sites. So we've got to have inspections. We have to, you know, figure out all of the details of enforcement.

That's not going to come. And we shouldn't expect it to come until this next phase. But we have to hold their feet to the fire in order to have any hope of getting to an agreement that would be better than JCPOA.

SANCHEZ: And what is the likelihood that we'll get to that next level of an agreement in 60 days when the JCPOA, as you know, took longer?

SANNER: Look, I think that the 60 days is good to have a forcing function. But I have no doubt in my mind that if we are not out there in 60 days, that we will continue to negotiate this as long as, again, we have this performance-based system of reward. Once that goes out the window, they are going to slow roll us until the end of the Trump administration and we'll never have a deal.

So we should also, Boris, not forget that we still have a hardline Iranian regime who continues to kill prisoners, political prisoners, and they are going to still have a very major role here with the ability to close the strait with their missiles and drones.

SANCHEZ: It's a theocracy that doesn't have to answer to its own people the way that the U.S. democracy does. And if there's a change in Congress, if there's a change in the White House, doesn't that put more pressure on the U.S. and therefore give Iran more leverage and that they can just wait this thing out?

SANNER: Well, sure. I mean, you know, part of a democratic system means that that President Trump has to answer in some way, shape or form to the American people. And it matters to some degree and Iran doesn't care.

But they also are inheriting. So yes, the pressure on us is high. And we know that there's shortages coming because we can't open this up fast enough to probably avoid that. Maybe mitigate it.

But look, Iran is going to be inheriting a country that has been decimated and they will be very weak and they will have difficulty delivering on things for their people. It will be a fragile regime.

So they're going to need this money. So holding that tight and doling it out carefully is going to be key.

SANCHEZ: Beth Sanner, thank you so much for the analysis. Always appreciate it.

Still to come, officials in Texas are taking action against the parasite posing a serious threat to the livestock population.

I swear it feels like I have one of these in my throat. We'll discuss it after the break.

[15:45:00]

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BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Multiple U.S. senators say they're concerned about the federal response to the screwworm outbreak and they want the USDA to do more about it. They sent a letter to Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins urging countermeasures that include the fast tracking of technologies that destroy the flesh eating parasite and ramping up the production of sterile flies. There are at least nine confirmed cases in the U.S. which are mostly affecting cattle in Texas. Screwworms feed on warm-blooded animals like cows, dogs and horses.

They'd previously been eradicated in North and Central America. Lawmakers worry that the parasite could cost the U.S. economy billions and raise beef prices if cases continue to rise.

Let's talk about this now with New Mexico State Veterinarian, Dr. Samantha Holeck. Doctor, thanks so much for being with us. The screwworm that was detected in New Mexico this week was detected in a dog that had recently come from Mexico.

Is that still the only detected case in the state?

DR. SAMANTHA HOLECK, NEW MEXICO STATE VETERINARIAN: That is still the only detected case, yes.

KEILAR: Is there a risk to people's household pets at this point?

HOLECK: Well, it's part of our surveillance that we're trying to determine the level of risk. At this point, we've gone door to door and examined multiple animals in the region and we've not found any additional cases. We've had some cases of myiasis or larvae infestation that have been reported to us.

We've collected those samples and gotten those identified and so far, those have all been negative for New World screwworm.

KEILAR: OK, so there have been reports of possible but they have been confirmed to not be the screwworm. What are you doing on a state level otherwise to prevent this from coming in from Mexico and to prevent the spread?

HOLECK: Well, we've been preparing for this for almost a year now. We've been developing a response plan statewide.

[15:50:00]

Our New Mexico Livestock Board, New Mexico Department of Agriculture, we've been working together with other state agencies such as our Department of Health and Department of Wildlife and especially our New Mexico State University Cooperative Extension to try to get outreach information out to the public, not just livestock producers but all state of the public regarding the risk of screwworm, what it looks like, what to anticipate, trying to prepare them for this incursion.

KEILAR: So the Secretary of Ag, Brooke Rollins, testified Wednesday before Congress that the agency's taking this threat of screwworm seriously, that the cases in the U.S. did not catch the government off guard. I mean, as you see it, was the USDA prepared for this?

HOLECK: I believe we've all been anticipating this day to happen. You know, we hope for the best and prepare for the worst and I believe that's where our states and USDA both are aligned.

KEILAR: Sterile flies are a big part of containing this. There is a single production facility for sterile flies in Panama that is not keeping up with the spread. There's another facility that should open in Mexico here in a few weeks, according to the USDA, and a planned facility in Texas that is not going to be open until next year. So that's a ways off.

Last week on our show, we had the Texas Agriculture Commissioner and he said that sterile flies, they actually, you know, they don't work on their own. He said that fly bait, what he called SWAS, I'm sure you're more familiar with this, we're learning about it, Screwworm Adult Suppression System, is better and he said that he's launching that himself in Texas without the federal government if necessary.

He said that he's been in touch with the USDA to talk to them about this. Do you agree with him on that approach?

HOLECK: Well, I think that the sterile insect technique is a tried and true technique. I mean, that was very successful in eradicating screwworm from the United States and all the way down through Central America back in the '50s, '60s and into the early 2000s. And I believe it can be a successful technique again.

And while we are limited on the number of insects, we know that in time that population of insects being produced will increase to the limit -- to the number that we need to suppress the population.

KEILAR: Unfortunately, I think we lost Dr. Samantha Holeck there, but we thank her so much for coming on to talk about this important issue.

We do have some live pictures to show you of the Kennedy Center. You can see here crews have been building up their scaffolding. They have been inching closer to reaching the president's name there on the outside. It sits, of course, above the Kennedy name on the Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.

And this is significant because today a federal judge ordered the center to remove any signage that bears the president's name, that bears President Trump's name while a court appeal continues. And this has been much watched all week long to see when this removal might happen. So we are watching this crew at the Kennedy Center as they've gotten up there to the words that say the Donald Trump and those four words that were added above the Kennedy Center title. We'll keep an eye on this and we will bring this to you if anything changes.

It had a historic debut on Wall Street, SpaceX going public, making Elon Musk the first ever trillionaire. We'll have that next.

[15:55:00]

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SANCHEZ: A trillion dollars is a lot of cash. It's one million, million dollars. If you spend a million dollars an hour, every hour, every day, it would take you more than 114 years to spend that much.

KEILAR: That really puts it into context. 114 years and 58 days to be exact. Of course, the dilemma of how to spend that much money only really applies to one guy, Elon Musk, who's now the world's first and only trillionaire after today's historic SpaceX IPO. As they say, must be nice.

SANCHEZ: Must be nice.

KEILAR: Like us. CNN AI correspondent Hadas Gold does not have that problem. Hadas, can SpaceX live up to this IPO when it's facing competition in the AI industry from a lot of places, Google, OpenAI, Anthropic?

HADAS GOLD, CNN AI CORRESPONDENT: Well, I mean, they definitely think so and they think that they differentiate themselves from the rest of those companies. They had the largest IPO in history today, started the IPO at $135 per share. You can see right there that it's up right around 20 percent.

We're at $161 per share with about two minutes left of trading, so it looks like where we're going to settle. And that's a solid, that's a good IPO launch. Most IPOs, they want to be between 10 and 30 percent of a pop.

So obviously, they're very thrilled with this IPO. It values SpaceX at above $2 trillion, the sixth most valuable U.S. listed company. And as you noted, it makes Elon Musk the first ever trillionaire.

He is so wealthy, guys, that just today, the amount of wealth that he has increased by this IPO is bigger than Jeff Bezos's entire net worth. But what SpaceX is selling here is what they just said in their remarks as the markets was closing, is the infrastructure of the future, everything from space to connectivity to AI. There's a question, though, is it just hype?

They are burning through cash. Last year, they burned more than $4 billion. There was another net loss of about $4.3 billion in this first quarter of 2026, driven by an explosion in capital expenditures. Their revenue is not as high as other companies that are in the same valuation as them.

And they're relying on investors buying into this speculative, unproven technologies. The future of these data centers in space, of bringing people to Mars, of a colony on the moon. But it seems as though people are buying into it.

The interest has been sky high in this IPO. Robin Hood, the trading platform, said that they had record breaking traffic that caused some issues with their app today -- guys.

SANCHEZ: A lot of people willing to bet on Elon Musk. Hadas Gold, thank you so much for that update.

Thank you so much for sharing your afternoon with us. "THE ARENA" with Kasie Hunt starts right now.

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