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Five People Charged In Alleged Plot Against White House UFC Fight; Source: Secret Service, FBI Uncovered Messages Discussing Attack Plot On UFC Fight At White House; Vance Explains Why Text Of Iran Agreement Hasn't Been Released Yet; WAPO: Ballroom Costs May Rise To $600M, Half Coming From Taxpayers; Today: GA Voters Choosing GOP Nominee For Gov, Key Senate Race; Eight Crew Members Killed After B-52 Bomber Crashes In California. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired June 16, 2026 - 15:00   ET

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

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: And if you're in Chicago for instance, we're also monitoring the potential of a severe weather outbreak for the day tomorrow so this is going to be occurring concurrently with our landfalling tropical system. We've got our in- house team of meteorologists that will give you detailed breakdowns of the weather, what you can expect, the confidence we have in what type of severe weather will unfold, and that all happens here within our event hub and all the detailed information you can get on the latest CNN Weather App.

Go download it now. I believe there's a little QR code that you can see on your TV screens. This is an opportunity to go beyond the forecast, get the information you need to keep your family safe and ahead of a storm. Brianna.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Yes, fantastic app. If you are weather- obsessed, as I am, Derek, thank you so much for telling us about that.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Why the wait? President Trump vowing to publicly release the text of the Iran memorandum of understanding in a couple of days, this despite some of the President's Republican allies pushing for details on the framework now.

Plus, an attack thwarted. Federal investigators reveal new details about an alleged plot to target last weekend's UFC event at the White House, what we're hearing about those arrested.

And President Trump has claimed that the construction of a ballroom on the White House's East Wing could cost up to $400, that private donors would pay for all of it. A new report, though, is revealing that may not be the case, whether taxpayers are on the hook, an important question as we follow these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

KEILAR: The FBI and Secret Service are looking for more suspects behind an alleged plot to attack a UFC event attended by nearly 100,000 people at the White House. Newly unsealed court documents reveal the Justice Department has charged five people, and one of them is identified as 19-year-old Tycen Proper of Ohio. According to court filings, his mother contacted police after becoming alarmed by his behavior, including firearms purchases and his involvement with an online group whose members identified as ex-military and expressed ultra-religious and anti-government sentiments. Proper faces several charges, including attempted murder of a federal officer and conspiracy to commit an -- an offense against the United States.

The court documents allege that the group discussed using drones and snipers to attack Sunday's event, where President Trump and his family were among the crowd.

Let's talk about this now with retired FBI special agent Daniel Brunner.

Daniel, first off, I think a lot of people will notice that the initial call coming from Proper's mother is something that really stands out. How critical was that?

DANIEL BRUNNER, RETIRED FBI SPECIAL AGENT: Well, it is incredibly critical if somebody noticing that there's a discrepancy, if there's a red-flag warning. This is the key to breaking up. So, sometimes you have someone inside the group that will become an informant and provide information. Sometimes it's somebody that's just watching from the outside and says, hey, this doesn't appear right. And good on -- you know, bravo to the mom, to -- to contacting law enforcement.

And that's why something of this magnitude, something of this size, where there's plotting, there's planning, sometimes there's going to be a leak. And a lot of these plots are thwarted by law enforcement because there is something. It's the lone wolf attack, the individual who's inside themselves, those are the most dangerous. But this is, this was a very dangerous attack by a right-wing extremist group, that -- that far right, that was -- well, who's plotting to do some serious damage.

KEILAR: Yes. What do you think about that? Because in the follow-up interview with the FBI, the mother paints this picture of Proper being radicalized by this group, who describes them, or who is described, as ex-military and Christian-based. She said that they expressed, quote, "grievances about government corruption, the handling of the Epstein files, data centers taking up all the water in communities, and other government actions," according to the criminal complaint. What does that raise for you?

BRUNNER: Well, I spent four years on a domestic terrorism squad hunting, investigating individuals just like this group, just like this extreme -- right-wing extremist, ultra-extremists, who believe that their cause is just so important. They believe they will be the one to bring about the -- the full revolution, just like Timothy McVeigh, when he attacked Oklahoma City.

His -- his bombing believed that he would start the revolution. This group, in -- in that indictment, it read he specifically stated that he thought that his attack would start the revolution. He would begin the revolution of attacking those, the individuals, these -- these individuals. They believe that those who were in power, that they needed to take down to bring forth their movement, their ultra-right- wing extremist movement, into society.

[15:05:09]

That they believe that others would join them in the attack. So, it -- it's extremely concerning.

Whether he was radicalized or whether he just found other individuals online of likeminded, where they were able to talk about it and work together, that's what the investigation will reveal and that's what I'd like to see. But I don't know about him being radicalized online. You -- you need to find these people.

KEILAR: Yes, no, that's a very good distinction that we have to keep our minds open to there. Law enforcement found a chat on his phone where there was this detailed imagery of D.C. with sniper locations and what's described in this complaint as potential drone launch locations and other detailed tactical planning. What's unclear here is how much actual preparation for the alleged plot existed beyond these private messages. How does law enforcement assess the actual threat level when they're looking at messages like that?

BRUNNER: Well, they're going to be looking at every single person that's in that chat, every single person that's in that, in those chat groups, whether it be on Signal or whether it be other platforms. They're going to -- FBI will be looking at each individual, look at that phone number, who's the owner, and then they're going to go be interviewed and possibly charged additionally as part of a conspiracy, a much larger conspiracy to commit murder of a federal employee, a federal, you know, officer of the -- of the -- of the United States.

So, this is going to be an ongoing investigation, the multiple divisions looking into this, and to determine how deep it goes. And then once they execute search warrants at their homes, they'll find out, did they have the drones? Were they -- were they gathering or would -- was this just a discussion?

You could see that there was a detailed plan, from the initial attack to getting snipers to excelling, to getting to escaping. They were planning their escape across the Potomac River. They were -- they knew that they wanted -- this was not a suicide attempt. This was an attack, and they wanted to continue on afterwards because they were planning on escaping and attacking other targets.

KEILAR: Daniel Bruner, thank you so much. Really appreciate your insight on this. Boris.

SANCHEZ: Breaking news, as President Trump holds off on releasing the full text of his agreement with Iran, Vice President J.D. Vance just shared some insight as to why it's not being made public yet. Listen to what he said on Megyn Kelly 's podcast.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The reason why we haven't released it yet is there are some delicate diplomatic things going on where the Iranians, and not just the Iranians but some of our mediators, the Pakistanis and the Qataris, have asked us to sequence this in the right way. Fundamentally, does it really matter if the deal comes out on Wednesday versus Friday? No, that -- that's why we haven't emphasized it so much, is because at the very latest, the text is going to be out on Friday.

MEGYN KELLY, THE MEGYN KELLY SHOW, HOST: Okay.

VANCE: Yes.

KELLY: Yes. I mean, you've already signed it, but it's not, like, legally binding to where you can't undo. It's a diplomatic agreement ...

VANCE: Correct.

KELLY: ... so it's ...

VANCE: Correct.

KELLY: ... if people freak out, there's an utter meltdown here in the United States, it could always be undone ...

VANCE: Yes.

KELLY: ... if you change your mind.

VANCE: Yes, exactly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: CNN's Kevin Liptak is live for us in Geneva, Switzerland, covering the President's trip to the G7.

Kevin, the Vice President there saying more than President Trump has said so far, right?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Right. It really was kind of the most robust explanation for why no one has seen the text of this agreement that the President and the Vice President signed virtually on Sunday, and I don't know that his explanation of it is simply a -- a facet and a product of sequencing questions is necessarily going to tamp down on some of the criticism that you're hearing even from some of the President's allies, that this deal seems to be shrouded in secrecy.

You know, here at the G7, one of the objectives of the President's counterparts in Europe and the rest of the G7 is to try and figure out more details about what exactly is in this deal. They've spent essentially hours and hours doing it at dinner last night, at lunch today, trying to ascertain what specifically this deal portends, for example, for the Strait of Hormuz. We don't really have a good sense of that yet because the two sides have been saying different things.

President Trump has said that there will be no tolls going forward in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has said that it reserves the right to charge fees in the strait going forward. And that's just one example where the two sides seem to be offering contradictory explanations of what exactly is in this deal.

Now, we did hear from President Trump today explaining when he wants to release the full text. He didn't mention this idea of sequencing and diplomatic niceties with Iran. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's so much interest in the text of the document. Why not -- why not release the document?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I will.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why not release it before Friday?

TRUMP: I'll release -- well, because I -- I'd like to get a formal setting first before we do that. I'll not only release it, I'll probably have a press conference and read it to you word by word so that the press covers it accurately.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[15:10:06]

LIPTAK: So, we may hear the President reciting the document word for word. Based on what we know about its length, which is about a page and a half, that may not take particularly long. You know, amid all of this uncertainty, there is one aspect of this deal that I think is becoming clearer and clearer as time goes on, which is that a lot of the very sticky issues are not actually brokered in the agreement. They're put off for this 60-day negotiating period.

You know, we -- we sort of understood that was true of the nuclear program and some of the sticky issues about enrichment, but it also appears to be true about the future of the Strait of Hormuz. J.D. Vance just said yesterday that the question of tolling would be worked out in those technical talks.

Also, the question of sanctions relief and financial relief and unfreezing assets for Iran, all things that will be determined going forward in this next round of negotiations. President Trump said today that he thought that that second round would be easier than the first round. That's not something that I have heard from officials who are involved in this process, Boris.

SANCHEZ: Kevin Liptak, thank you so much for the update from the G7. Appreciate that.

Still to come, primary voters are heading to the polls today in several states and the nation's capital. We're going to bring you the key races to watch.

Plus, all eight crew members are confirmed dead after a B-52 military plane crashed during a routine test flight in California. We have the latest on the investigation into that incident.

And later, a new report says that American taxpayers could be on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars for the President's new White House ballroom. We'll discuss that report when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:15:51]

KEILAR: A new report from The Washington Post reveals President Trump's White House ballroom could cost far more than he has previously said, with taxpayers on the hook for half of it, contrary to what he has previously said.

According to The Post, the project is estimated to cost $600 million, and you'll recall President Trump said the project would be paid for by private donations. But this new report suggests that might not be the case.

Let's bring in CNN Senior Reporter Daniel Dale.

Daniel, what else can you tell us about this?

DANIEL DALE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: A couple big takeaways here. First of all, as you said, is the cost. That $600 million estimate is higher than the $200 million, $300 million, and then $400 million figures that President Trump has used over the past number of months. And I'll note that that $600 million may not be the final total because, according to The Post, these internal documents they obtained from a contractor involved in the project were from March. We're now three months later than that, in June, so we don't know that $600 million will be the final bill.

And second of all is the reported taxpayer contribution. President Trump, we've heard him say over and over that this project will be funded by some combination of himself and generous donors. Well, according to these documents obtained by The Post, taxpayers are now supposed to be on the hook for at least half of that, more than $300 million, and in addition have been known to be contributing to this project from the very start.

So, this is not a new development, according to these internal documents obtained by The Post. Taxpayers were envisioned to contribute at least $100 million from the very beginning, even when the overall cost estimate was much lower than it is now, at just $270 million.

Now, I will note, in fairness, that we don't know that these are all of the documents involved in the project. There may be others The Post didn't -- didn't obtain. I'll also note that the White House says this project is not just a ballroom. It also involves various underground security measures that they say are important to the security of the President and the country, including what Trump has said is a hospital. But all that said, Brianna, there is a lot in this Post report that is very much at odds with how the President has been describing the project in numerous public appearances this year.

Listen to just some of what he said about this ballroom.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: And I'm paying for it. I'm paying for it. The country is not

...

We're donating a $400 million ballroom. Myself and donors are giving them free of charge for nothing.

We did this in no charge to the taxpayer whatsoever. Rich people and people are putting up the money. Zero taxpayer dollars.

It's going to be $200 million. I've doubled the size of it because we needed it. We're on time, on budget. It's going beautifully. I have all the money I need. We're making a gift to the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DALE: So, we'll see what the final tally is. This project is not complete. But from what The Post reported, it simply is not the situation that President Trump has described over the course of a number of months.

KEILAR: No, it's sort of like a gift you might get from your child, your small child, on your birthday. Well, yes, you do end up paying for it, but, yes, I think that's not exactly what we had in mind for this one here. Daniel Dale, thank you very much.

Boris.

KEILAR: More states are holding primaries today, and that means another test of President Trump's endorsement power. Voters are heading to the polls in Washington, D.C., Alabama, Oklahoma, California, and Georgia. Well, we're keeping an eye on two important races.

In the Republican Senate primary runoff, Trump-endorsed Congressman Mike Collins is facing Derek Dooley, the former University of Tennessee football coach being backed by Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, who has a history with Trump. The winner, of course, will face Senator Jon Ossoff in what will be one of the most closely watched Senate races come November.

Let's discuss with Tia Mitchell. She's a Washington bureau chief for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Tia, thank you so much for joining us. Is that how you are seeing that Senate Republican primary, as a test of Trump versus Kemp as a proxy in the Peach State?

TIA MITCHELL, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION: Yes, in a lot of ways it is, but it's also a test of whether someone who's truly an insider and was -- outsider and was virtually unknown can make inroads solely based off of the endorsement of Governor Kemp.

[15:20:02]

That would be Coach Derek Dooley. Like Kemp campaigned with Dooley. It's almost like they were a package deal. So that was a very kind of somewhat unusual way when you think about U.S. Senate campaigns. And, of course, for Mike Collins, the test is can he overcome some of

those stumbling blocks, some of his controversies, some of those things that may even give conservative voters pause, and still rise to the top riding on that Trump endorsement. So, there are a lot of little subplots in this Republican runoff for the Senate race.

SANCHEZ: In the governor's race, Trump and Kemp actually aligned behind Burt Jones, who's facing a stiff challenge from Rick Jackson. Are you anticipating a potential upset in that race?

MITCHELL: So, this is the race that I think is even more competitive, perhaps, in that Senate race, because you do have Burt Jones who is very well known because he's the lieutenant governor. He had some money of his own, some family money, so he was pretty well financed. And he had Trump's endorsement. In a lot of ways, that would be a winning, you know, a winning equation in a -- in a state like Georgia among Republicans.

But Rick Jackson came in. He's a billionaire, with a B. He spent over a hundred million dollars of his own money. He has been bombarding voters with mailers. He's been bombarding the airwaves. He came in very late to the race, relatively, and he's catapulted to the top two, and he really could win today.

So, again, that's an -- a -- a true outsider who's never held office before, but had a lot of money to spend, and we'll see if it paid off with voters.

SANCHEZ: Yes. So, how do you see that general election shaping up? Because whoever wins that is most likely going to take on the mayor of Atlanta, Keisha Lance Bottoms, right? Who -- who would she rather have as her opponent?

You know, it's interesting. I think -- I think the Democrats would rather have Burt Jones because, A, who wants to have to go up against Rick Jackson and all his money that seems limitless. But also, Burt Jones was one of the Republicans that participated in President Trump's "Stop the Steal" efforts. So, I think Democrats would like to go up against an opponent that they could say continues to spread lies about the 2020 Election and someone who can't be trusted, someone who is truly aligned with Donald Trump.

Now, of course, Rick Jackson is very conservative and says he would support Trump as well. But because he's an outsider, he doesn't have the record and the baggage that Democrats would be able to attack. Plus, he has those deep pockets.

SANCHEZ: Yes. And, Tia, before we go, on the Democratic side, obviously the Senate primary is just a formality. There are actually more questions about Senator Raphael Warnock and Senator Jon Ossoff, looking at 2028. There's a lot of chatter out there about potential presidential ambitions. What have you heard?

MITCHELL: So, both of them are great on the stump. They both, you know, are great orators. Of course, Senator Warnock has this kind of moral leadership that he's been pushing. He has a new book to that end. Jon Ossoff is young and good-looking and -- and very sharp on the stump and is great -- they're both prolific fundraisers.

I think for Ossoff, people are energetic about him, and if he wins in November, that just will put more eyes on him. But we have to remember he has two young children at home. He is a relatively young man, and I -- and he does not believe it is his time. He -- and I think he's not just saying that the way politicians say, "Well, no, I'm not thinking about that right now." I think he really means it, that his family's too young and he's not ready for that stage. I think Warnock is more likely to be open to those conversations.

SANCHEZ: Tia Mitchell, always great to chat. Appreciate your time.

MITCHELL: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Of course. Still ahead, officials are investigating what caused the tragic crash of a B-52 bomber in California, leaving eight crew members dead. We'll bring you the latest on that investigation when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:29:02]

SANCHEZ: Military officials have been investigating why a B-52 bomber crashed moments after takeoff yesterday in Southern California. The crash at Edwards Air Force Base killed all eight crew members on board. They had been conducting a routine test mission.

KEILAR: Let's get the latest now from CNN Senior Correspondent Josh Campbell.

Josh, tell us what else you're learning here.

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Well, the investigation now underway, and you know, when we saw those just really harrowing images yesterday of that thick plume of black smoke and that long black burn scar there along the side of the Edwards Air Force Base airfield, it seemed almost likely that, you know, if someone hadn't ejected, that there would have been survivors here. The U.S. military now confirming that all eight crew members that were indeed on board that flight are deceased.

We're still waiting for information about what exactly occurred, which is part of the investigation. We don't know if that air crew had radioed any type of signal that they were in distress.

[15:30:00]

We know this happened as the aircraft was taking off there as part of this routine flight mission.