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Dems Push Back on Efforts to Build West Coast Emergency Oil Reserve; CNN Obtains 14-Point Draft Agreement Between U.S. and Iran; Trump Cancels Today's Senate Hearing for DNI Pick Jay Clayton; Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool Overrun with Algae. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired June 17, 2026 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, a CNN exclusive. Two Senate Democrats are pushing back on White House plans to build a West Coast Emergency Oil Reserve as the country's stockpile of emergency oil falls to its lowest level since the Reagan administration.

Want to get right to CNN's Matt Egan, who's been covering this. Matt, what are you learning?

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, John, all eyes have been on this shrinking federal pile of emergency oil. But behind the scenes, there is this battle brewing over California's energy security. So, last month, oil company Sable Offshore, it reportedly proposed what's been described as a West Coast Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

And the energy secretary, Chris Wright, he told Politico that, yes, there are active dialogues over this idea. And he talked of the need to protect California's energy security because of all the military facilities there. But now a pair of Senate Democrats, Alex Padilla and Patty Murray, they are trying to slam the brakes on this idea.

In a letter to the energy secretary first shared with CNN, the Democrats, they argue that the energy department should be focused on reinforcing existing reserves, which are reaching historic lows due to announced withdrawals, not pursuing costly new proposals driven by political considerations rather than strategic need.

Now, the lawmakers are requesting that the energy department, quote, cease all work on this project. And they argue that existing law, it really prohibits the energy department from going forward with building a regional reserve unless, A, they request funding ahead of time and, B, Congress approves it. And the lawmakers, they argue that neither of those things have happened here.

Now, I reached out to the energy department to Sable Offshore, neither of them have responded to requests for comment. But look, it's no secret that the West Coast in general and California in particular, they do face some energy challenges, right? First, of course, the gas, the price of gasoline is so much higher there. In California, the price has come down, but you're still looking at about $5.68 a gallon, well ahead of the national average of $4.03. And California has been described as something of an energy island, right? Because they have this very specific pollution fighting fuel specifications. They've lost refineries as well. And they don't really have the pipelines connected to them to the rest of the country.

And so, that is what is driven this concern and this idea of a strategic petroleum reserve for the West Coast. But I talked to Tom Kloza. He's a veteran energy analyst. And he told me he really doesn't think this idea is going to gain any traction. He described it as something of a, quote, "pipe dream." And he said that since this idea is about a stockpile of oil, not gasoline, and that the real issue in California is a lack of refineries, he says that it really would do nothing to solve the underlying problem.

[07:35:00]

Look, John, bottom line here, the war with Iran, the Strait of Hormuz, all of this has raised the tension on energy security. And I think we're going to see this debate continue to play out in California, other parts of the country, and really around the world about energy security going forward.

BERMAN: Yes. Again, if the strait does remain open, the urgency may back off just a little bit. But the discussion clearly has begun. Matt Egan, thank you very much. Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Thank you, John. Breaking news this morning, CNN has obtained a draft of that 14-point agreement between the U.S. and Iran. And it leaves some of the biggest questions unanswered. The language states broadly that Iran, quote, "reiterates that it will never produce nuclear weapons." But on Iran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium, one of the big sticking points, the draft has no specifics. And there's a lot more in it to discuss.

Joining me now to do just that, CNN National Security Analyst Beth Sanner and Peter Bergen. Thank you both for being here.

Beth, to you, U.S. officials saying that the text itself is intentionally vague. But one of the things that appears to be the case is that Iran, upon signing this MOU, can start selling its oil. I mean, what do you make, what stands out to you about this 14-point memorandum?

BETH SANNER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST AND FORMER DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: I think the main point here is that we're paying Iran to open the Strait. So, we're literally giving them sanctions relief so they have the ability to sell oil right away. Two supertankers already cleared past the U.S. blockade yesterday, Iranian tankers. So, this, I think, has already begun with maybe the signing -- the docu signing on Sunday. But I -- or on Sunday.

But I think that the other parts of this in terms of complete sanctions relief, about release of the frozen assets. So that could be anywhere from $24 billion to $74 billion if China releases all of the 20 to 50 that they have. And then the promise of a $300 million reconstruction fund and the parameters of that agreed within the next 60 days. So, all of that relief happens within the 60-day ceasefire and opening the strait, whereas all the nuclear information and discussion is literally said will be done in the next phase. So, I'll stop there because Peter, I'm sure, has a lot to add.

SIDNER: I do want to ask you, Peter, as you know this region so well, it doesn't take U.S. intelligence agencies to tell us that Iran now has demonstrated it can shut down the Strait of Hormuz kind of whenever it wants to. Did this war, just in the immediate term at least, give Iran a new power?

PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, short answer, yes. I mean, this was a spectacular own goal by the Trump administration. Not only can they close down the Strait of Hormuz, but they could theoretically also get their Houthi proxies to close down the Red Sea approaches to the Suez Canal if they really wanted to up the ante.

You know, I agree with everything Beth said. I think this is an agreement that is pretty favorable to Iran, particularly these waivers on the existing oil sales and also waivers on their banking system that allows them to really pick up their economy, which is in freefall. The last time I checked, inflation in Iran was at 67 percent. So, they have some real economic problems that this will help them with.

The other big thing, you know, in this agreement is that the war will stop, including in Lebanon. Very clearly says that's the first point of the agreement, which I have in front of me. There's a reason that CNN reported that Israel didn't get a look at this agreement when it requested, because, of course, Israel would not be happy with this. And Prime Minister Netanyahu faces a dilemma, which is he has an election coming up. The people on the right in his parliamentary coalition want him to continue fighting Hezbollah in Lebanon. At the same time, he wants to placate Trump, who's been very clear that he wants this war in Lebanon to stop. And Trump is quite popular in Israel.

So, this poses a bit of a dilemma for Netanyahu. And he's going to be presented with a fait accompli, which is that the United States has said that the war should end in Lebanon.

SIDNER: Yes. I mean, does he, you know, upset the far-right in his party or does he upset the United States? Those are two things as he is facing re-election that he has to grapple with. Beth, I'm curious, you know, so far that the administration has not actually released this. This is reporters getting a look at drafts. What would be the reason not to release the text?

SANNER: Yes, well, unlike J.D. Vance, who said he can't understand why there's so much sensitivity and the mediators don't want to release it. And he didn't really understand that.

[07:40:00]

Well, I think it's pretty clear why, as Peter said, Prime Minister Netanyahu would break a gasket if he saw this and could very well upset the apple cart by, you know, going, maybe doing more action in Lebanon. We already saw a continuing bombing in Lebanon today. And so, that is huge.

But also, in Iran, you know, this isn't a complete fait accompli in Iran and they're hardliners. Certainly, I will call them ultra- hardliners because all of them are hardliners. They are not easy to deal with moderates, as the president has described them, but they're ultra-hardliners who absolutely don't want this deal.

And then in the United States, right, we've already had even Republican stalwart supporters of President Trump, like Lindsey Graham, speaking out. So, we know why it's quiet. It's because it could scuttle the whole thing if they released it.

SIDNER: It's so good to have you here to talk through this. Both of you know these details so well. The ones that we have, and we've also seen what happened with the JCPOA, this doesn't look that different, in some ways, the start of this from what was already there that the president tore up. Beth Sander, Peter Bergen, thank you both so much. John.

BERMAN: All right. Breaking overnight, President Trump yanked his pick for intelligence chief to be head of the Department of National Intelligence -- director of National Intelligence, I should say. Jay Clayton, I guess, will not be at a Senate hearing today. It seems to put the nomination process on hold. And the president says that Bill Pulte will remain as acting director of National Intelligence for now.

The president also said he refused to approve FISA, the surveillance law, without a voter ID bill, the Save America Act, attached to it, which is a no-go for Democrats. As Punchbowl puts it, all of this together spells disaster for Senate Majority Leader John Thune.

With us now, White House correspondent at USA Today, Francesca Chambers, and Margaret Talev, senior contributor at Axios.

And, Margaret, I don't want to necessarily get into the nitty-gritty of FISA or Save America Act, but the bottom line here is, is that the president keeps pulling the rug out from under the Senate Majority Leader John Thune. And I wonder what Senate Republicans, how they feel about this?

MARGARET TALEV, SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR, AXIOS AND DIRECTOR, INSTITUTE FOR DEMOCRACY, JOURNALISM AND CITIZENSHIP, SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY: Well, John, I think they feel on two levels. Number one, frustrated politically because there's concern that this puts downward pressure on them, you know, heading into midterm elections, but also, not to get into the real nitty-gritty of FISA, but there's a lot of members in the Senate and both parties, including the Republican Party, who are concerned that, you know, national security law not get gummed up with in fighting over U.S. elections.

Now, I will say that as this controversy was going on, you know, a week ago, before the Clayton nomination looked like it was going to come in and save the day, the fine print is that there's actually a lot of several months of running room for FISA, so it can kind of operate in an emergency situation, probably until early next spring. So, then the question becomes what it was a week ago, which is, is President Trump interested in having his pick for a temporary DNI in place through the midterm elections? That's the question a lot of Democrats were raising. That's sort of tactical, right?

But the longer-term issue is, is the president going to pit his own party against him in trying to balance the needs for national security law against his desire to kind of get into it over how much control he wields over who his nominees are or what the voter laws are heading into pivotal midterms?

BERMAN: How many more days of fights does he want over Bill Pulte, a fight that he seemed to be losing even among some Republicans? That seems to be the question here, and now those fights will continue indefinitely, as far as we know.

Francesca, I want to ask you about a remarkable bit of reporting from the Washington Post yesterday about the White House ballroom. There's a big hole in the ground over there in the East Ring, and right now it's held up in courts. But the president has long said that it wasn't going to be paid for by the taxpayers, and the Post's reporting was, quote, "A detailed project summary prepared for the White House by the contractor," and the Post got this from the contractor apparently, "estimated the total construction cost at $600 million, with more than half coming from the taxpayers." And I just want to remind our viewers what the president has said about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: We're donating a $400 million ballroom. Myself and donors are giving them free of charge for nothing.

We did this no charge to the taxpayer whatsoever.

Rich people and people are putting up the money. Zero taxpayer dollars now.

Now, we're on time, on budget. It's going beautifully. Have all the money I need.

[07:45:00]

It's all donors. There's not one dime of government money going into the ballroom.

We are making a gift of this. This is a gift. This is not going to be paid for by the taxpayer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Again, the Post reports it's been a detailed project summary prepared for the White House by the contractor. More than half does come from taxpayers, Francesca. I wonder how this will play for Democrats and Republicans in the coming months before the midterms.

FRANCESCA CHAMBERS, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, USA TODAY: Well, we've heard from voters that what they're concerned about in this election and the midterm elections is the economy and affordability. And even when we were talking about the president's UFC fight, you even heard from Republicans who were saying that this wasn't something, you know, that they considered to be a priority for the government.

So, the more that these renovation projects, which the president loves to talk about, regardless of what the topic is supposed to be in the Oval Office, you know, keep coming to the forefront, it consistently distracts from the message that the president and the White House want to talk about, or at least the White House wants to talk about, right, about affordability in this election.

And another thing with respect to, you know, the ballroom itself is that there's been this dispute on Capitol Hill about whether or not this is something that should be funded by the government, or this is something that should be funded by private donors. And it was a huge fight as we headed into the big bill that they passed, the Spending Bill and Immigration Enforcement Bill as well. So, you know, even a dispute among Republicans about what to do about this.

BERMAN: Yes. And again, it just puts a debate that perhaps Republicans don't want front and center right again. Francesca Chambers, Margaret Talev, thank you both very much. Sara.

SIDNER: All right. President Trump hoped to turn the Lincoln Memorial's reflecting pole, what he called the American flag blue. That's the color he wanted for the water. But right now, it's green as heck. The more than $14 million renovation was completed just over a week ago. And yesterday, crews of parks workers were spotted dumping gallons of hydrogen peroxide in there to try to get rid of the growth. One worker tells CNN it will take, quote, "an entire lifetime to fix." But this issue is not new.

CNN's Betsy Klein joining me now. Betsy, this is certainly not the color they wanted.

There is already criticism about spending this kind of money on this particular project. What are you learning?

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, Sara, it's been just over a week since that $13 million renovation project to drain, repair, paint and refill the six and a half million-gallon Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool was completed. But almost immediately, a major problem came to the surface. That is algae, the pool growing increasingly murky and green by the day.

And CNN even took an independent sample of this water last week. We consulted with a pool store. It showed that phosphate levels were far higher than what's recommended to keep algae at bay. And since then, it only got greener. Our colleague, Sunlen Serfaty, spoke with an algae expert, and he offered an assessment. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARRETT BROOKS, ALGAE RESEARCHER, THE SMITHSONIAN: We're in Washington, D.C. in the summertime. This is a shallow pool with stagnant water, abundant sunlight that creates a situation where opportunistic algae can really take advantage of the situation. If there's already some phosphate fertilizer in the water, that's really opportunistic, especially for the blue green algae that can fix nitrogen. So, they are having a field day out here, probably.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KLEIN: And this has prompted a major remediation effort from the Trump administration. They sent crews clad in hip waders to vacuum up clumps of algae. And on Tuesday, they dispatched workers to dump gallons of hydrogen peroxide in the pool. Then the Department of Interior says that a state-of-the-art filtration technology known as an ozone nanobubbler has been installed and has successfully destroyed the algae bloom.

But this morning, it's still extremely green. This project we know has been a major priority for President Trump. He personally traveled into that drained pool in his motorcade to inspect its progress. The White House didn't respond to our inquiry as to whether the president is aware of these cleanup efforts, surprised by the presence of algae, or if he's talked to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum about it.

But this is something that has plagued many administrations, including back in 2012 when the Obama administration spent $34 million over 18 months only to have major algae issues. And around that time, the National Park Service found 80 dead ducks inside the pool. But ultimately, the Interior Department says that the nanobubbler and a full-time maintenance crew from the Fish and Wildlife Services are going to make these fixes more permanent, Sara.

SIDNER: All right. For a lot of people, are tax dollars not well spent? We will see about that ozone nanobubbler, something I just learned existed. Betsy Klein, thank you so much for your reporting there. John.

[07:50:00]

BERMAN: The best players in the world playing the best soccer in the world. So many goals yesterday, killing them, Kylian Mbappe, Erling Haaland, and then to cap it all off, Lionel Messi with a hat trick. Let's get right to CNN's Coy Wire. This was like, every game topped the last one. This was stunning.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: One heck of a day, and at this point, you know, Messi is treating father time the way defenders treat his dribbling. They're just completely losing track of him. He's 38 years old, turns 39 next week, and he's doing things we've never seen before. The Argentine icon, now the oldest player ever to score multiple goals in a World Cup match, and first player with six World Cup appearances, that's more than a lot of countries. His World Cup debut came nearly 20 years ago when some of these opponents were learning to walk or weren't even born yet.

Messi turned back the clock again in Kansas City. Three goals, breaking Cristiano Ronaldo's record as the oldest player to score a hat trick at a World Cup. The defending champs rolled Algeria 3-nil. Messi now sitting atop the all-time World Cup scoring chart with 16 goals. And the mind-bending part, John, since turning 35, he's had 10 World Cup goals. That's more than Ronaldo, Thierry Henry, Maradona, and Harry Kane scored their entire World Cup careers. At this point, father time may want a VAR review of that man right there.

Then there was Kylian Mbappe, as John said, already one of the most recognizable athletes on Earth. The face of French football, his jersey can be spotted from Paris to Tokyo to Times Square, and he played like it, scoring twice in France's 3-1 win over Senegal. He now has 14 World Cup goals at just 27 years old. For perspective, he has already passed Pele and briefly jumped ahead of Messi on the all-time World Cup scoring list before Messi's hat trick. For years, fans have wondered who would inherit the crown after Messi and Ronaldo, and Mbappe keeps looking like the answer.

And finally, Norway, 28 years since their last World Cup appearance. Norwegian fans traveling thousands of miles hoping to see one thing, Erling Haaland at a World Cup, one of football's most feared goal scorers in his first World Cup. He said it would be a dream to score. John, 90 minutes later, dream achieved twice. Norway beat Iraq 4-1. Haaland's father, Alf-Inge, played for Norway at the 94 World Cup in the U.S., and 32 years later, here he is watching his son score twice at a World Cup in the United States.

And after seeing Messi's hat trick later that night, Haaland posted a simple message on socials. Messi's a madman. Honestly, Erling, the rest of us are running out of words as well. The tournament has had new hosts, new stars, new stadiums, John, and somehow Messi keeps scoring. We'll see what the 41-year-old superstar Ronaldo can do when Portugal take on Democratic Republic of the Congo later today.

BERMAN: Yes, Portugal, we have England, Croatia later. A big, big day. I don't expect to accomplish anything. Coy Wire, thank you very much for being with us.

WIRE: You got it.

BERMAN: All right. Now this is not the drone you want to shoot at. One owned by the sheriff's department, and it was all caught on camera. And then the great San Francisco shopping cart mystery, how did a giant pile of carts end up in the middle of a marsh?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:55:00]

SIDNER: Happening today, one of the nation's most notorious serial killers is set to be sentenced. Rex Heuermann is expected to spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole. He pleaded guilty back in April and admitted to murdering eight women over a 17-year period. Their remains were found on Long Island.

CNN's Jean Casarez is here. You covered this when it was discovered who this was. A big relief for some, shock for others. All of these families having to suffer over all of this time.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Exactly. That's what I wanted to talk about because think of this. These families lost a mother, a daughter, a sister from one day to the next. They didn't know what happened to them. And they've lived their lives not knowing what has happened to them. So, today, victim impact statements, huge part of the sentencing day.

And you know, I've covered so many serial killer cases and they all have these similar facts. Rex Heuermann, big architect, Fifth Avenue, New York City, very successful, wife, family, two children. By day, by night, he lured working women into his space. And he strangled all of them. He admitted to murdering seven, pleaded guilty to that, admitted an eighth one.

But in 2010, this started because there was discovery of four bodies on Gilgo Beach, Long Island. And they were wrapped in burlap. They were named the Gilgo Four. As investigators and forensic pathologists were doing the autopsies, they discovered hairs in the burlap. They didn't know what to do with them at that point, but they collected them and they preserved them. Then the case went cold.

And then in 2022, the new district attorney of Suffolk County, Long Island, decided we're going to form a task force. Started looking at cell phone records, financial records, computer records. One person popped out, Rex Heuermann. And from there, they said, OK, we need his DNA.

So, the big architect on Fifth Avenue happened to eat pizza one day. They were surveilling him. They got the pizza, tested it.

[08:00:00]