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Trump's Iran Agreement Draws Backlash; Batya Ungar-Sargon is Interviewed about the U.S.-Iran Agreement; Grand Opening for Obama Center; New York Prepares for Knicks Parade. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired June 18, 2026 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: With "SS26." A lot of initials there. Bruce Springsteen's "Streets of Minneapolis," which was released after the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents, came in the number two spot. The rest of the top five include Ella Langley's "Choosin' Texas," Olivia Rodrigo's "Drop Dead," my son loves her new album, and Harry Styles' "Season 2 Weight Loss" at number five.

So, Kevin Bacon wants to be known as Kevin Bean, but only on Wednesdays. This is because he's helping launch a new plant-based initiative, encouraging people to swap meat for beans at least one day a week. Wednesdays will become Beans Days. It's a partnership with Humane World for Animals in their effort to help animals and reduce environmental impact.

A brand-new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

All right, breaking this morning, some Republicans accusing the president of surrender after signing the agreement with Iran. The president has been lashing out with a pre-dawn tirade against his critics.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Sara Sidner, live here in Chicago. We are here for the opening of the Barack Obama Presidential Center behind me. We are listening to Stevie Wonder practice, getting ready for this huge celebration that will be here. We will bring it all to you live.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN ANCHOR: And talk about huge celebrations. We are live in New York City as the Knicks celebrate something the city has not seen in more than 50 years. The fans are out. We'll tell you what they are saying on this historic day.

Kate is off. I'm Omar Jimenez, alongside John Berman and Sara Sidner. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

BERMAN: All right, the breaking news this morning, President Trump defending the agreement he signed with Iran, defending himself from fierce backlash. And a lot of it coming from conservatives. We can put some of this up on the screen here. This is just a smattering of what people have been saying here. Pradeep Shankar, "Trump caved and surrendered." David Raboy, "it's even worse than the Obama deal. Back then we had to wait for Kerry to testify in front of Congress. These guys say it as if it's amazing." Marc Thiessen, "300 billion to Iran under any circumstance is a disaster. Like offered the Marshall plan to rebuild Germany while the Nazis were still in power." Batya Ungar- Sargon, "the greatest superpower to ever exist, brought to its knees by a few minds. Just a disaster for America."

We will be speaking to Batya Ungar-Sargon very shortly here.

And this is just a small taste. You need to go online for, you know, 30 seconds and you can find all kind of reaction like this from Republicans. Republican lawmakers, too, voicing some concern.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BILL CASSIDY (R-LA): This will go down as a tremendous foreign policy blunder. Iran ends up stronger.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): Now, I don't want to see theocratic Islamists who want to kill us made stronger. So, if this deal is giving them $300 billion, that's a mistake.

TREY GOWDY, FOX NEWS HOST: They're better off than they were before the hostilities began. And that should not be the consequence of war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Trey Gowdy was talking about Iran being better off.

Now, all this criticism has provoked a furious response from the president. This is what he wrote before dawn. "These fools who think I haven't been tough enough on Iran, they're just either jealous, bad people or stupid."

Now, the White House just announced that they will hold a briefing at 11 a.m. with president -- Vice President J.D. Vance, who has been very closely associated, we should say, with this deal. We will see how he reacts to all of the criticism that we've been hearing.

Let's go to CNN's Betsy Klein, live at the White House with the very latest.

Betsy, what are you hearing from inside?

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE PRODUCER: Well, John, yesterday, when President Trump went to hold a press conference in France, he had one very critical goal, and that was to make clear that this agreement that he has reached with Iran is different from that Obama era Iran deal that he has been so critical of, and that this was a good agreement for the United States and tried to convince the skeptical American public, that includes so many Republicans, as you just so clearly laid out. The president said that this deal ensures that Iran will not procure or produce a nuclear weapon. It says it will reopen the Strait of Hormuz, that critical oil thoroughfare. He also defended the waivers that allow Iran to export oil, as well as

a provision that will have the U.S., along with regional partners, help develop a $300 billion economic development and rebuilding fund for Iran.

[09:05:03]

The president making clear, though it still remains unclear exactly how this will work, that the U.S. will not be providing money directly there. He also said that ending this conflict is going to avoid very notably, in his words, economic catastrophe. And he warned that that would have happened if this conflict kept on going, said he didn't want to be compared to Herbert Hoover. Notably, that's the U.S. president who presided over the Great Depression.

Now, the president signed a hard copy of this agreement at the Palace of Versailles before traveling back to Washington. And what's really unclear right now is whether the 60-day clock for the very challenging technical negotiations ahead is actually already started, or if it will start later this week when Vice President J.D. Vance heads to Switzerland for a signing ceremony.

Now, meanwhile, the White House fielding all of this criticism. And as you saw there, the president pushing back, saying that his critics were jealous or stupid.

Now, Vice President J.D. Vance is expected to travel to Switzerland, where some of those initial discussions on the more challenging issues on Iran's nuclear material are going to begin with Iran, as well as mediators, Pakistan and Qatar. He's also expected to face the press just a few hours from now. A lot of questions for the vice president ahead, John.

BERMAN: All right, Betsy Klein at the White House for us this morning, pulling multiple duties.

Betsy, thank you for your reporting.

BERMAN: With us now is Batya Ungar-Sargon, the host of "Batya!" on NewsNation and author of "The Jews and the Left."

Batya, it's always great to see you.

I want to read you, from your own tweet, OK. You wrote, "the greatest superpower to ever exist, brought to its knees by a few mines. Just a disaster for America." Expand on that. Why?

BATYA UNGAR-SARGON, JOURNALIST, HOST OF "BATYA!" ON NEWSNATION: Thank you so much for having me, John. It's always great to be with you.

Look, it gives me, obviously, no pleasure to say this, but I think this deal is a total disaster. I agree with a lot of the people you've been quoting at the top of the show and also last hour. Iran has come out of this stronger than it was before. It's getting $300 billion in sanctions relief. It also, in the MOU, it states that it commits not to charge tolls through the Strait of Hormuz for 60 days, John. Meaning, it has suddenly occurred to them that they can start doing that. They realized that it didn't matter that we had complete military superiority and total military victory over them. If they could plant a few mines in that Strait, they could bring the greatest superpower to ever exist in human history to its knees. And that is just such a disaster. I mean what message do you think that signals to China right now? It's really, really horrifying. And I'm very surprised that this administration would go down this road.

BERMAN: So, you woke up, no doubt, to see what the president wrote about some of his critics, I imagine you included. He said you are "jealous, bad people" and "stupid." That's what he says of his critics this morning.

What would have happened -- imagine a world where a Democratic president signed this memorandum of understanding. What would the criticism have been?

UNGAR-SARGON: I mean, you know, the answer to that, right? There's no Republican who, if a Democrat had signed this exact document, they would blast them to kingdom come. We all know this. The president himself would have done so. And I think what was so distressing was, yesterday in his press conference, he repeatedly said things that were the exact opposite of the things that he had promised when we initially got involved here.

Things like, for example, that Iran should be able to have ballistic missiles because everybody else has them. Of course, Secretary of State Marco Rubio very persuasively argued that one of the most important goals here was to get rid of their ballistic capabilities because they were being used as a protective shield around their nuclear program.

I am a big fan of this president. I think he has done amazing, amazing things in the first year of his second term, which is why I'm so surprised by this.

BERMAN: Again, just to reiterate what you just said, you are a Trump supporter by your own words there.

UNGAR-SARGON: Yes.

BERMAN: You are a fan of this president.

UNGAR-SARGON: Yes.

BERMAN: And again, you just mentioned what the president said about the missiles. I just want to play that for people so they know what you're talking about.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No, I want to -- I'm saying that if other countries have them, it's a little bit unfair for them not to have some. A ballistic missile is not the same thing as what we're talking about, when we talk nuclear. But if Saudi Arabia and Qatar and they all have some, I would say in relative proportion, I think it's OK. That's what I mean.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So, he thinks it's only fair, perhaps, that they have missiles. If that is -- missiles are left out of whatever agreement comes next or if there isn't any explicit language on missiles, how good of a deal would this be?

[09:10:05]

UNGAR-SARGON: Right. Exactly. So, when we first went into this, the president laid out three main goals. He said he wanted to get rid of their navy, he wanted to get rid of their ballistic capabilities, and he wanted to get rid of their ability to achieve a nuclear weapon. I don't see any of that in this MOU.

Of course, they promised not to pursue a nuclear weapon. Guess what? They promised that to President Obama as well, and then they lied and cheated, right? Their word means nothing, which is the whole point of going after them in this military way.

Now, the one thing that I found the most distressing is that Vice President Vance has been the only member of the cabinet who's out there defending this, and he keeps implying that the people who have a problem with it are somehow, you know, war hawks who want an endless, you know, groundswell of ground troops on the ground in order to finish the deal. I find that very insulting. I don't want that. We had them on the ropes. They have never been as weak as they were last Friday right before the president agreed to this exact deal. And I just do not understand why we're letting up the pressure. In 60 days, when they have all their money back, they're going to be much stronger and much less likely to agree to anything that would make this not just better than the JCPOA, but just as good as the JCPOA.

BERMAN: Very quickly, you mentioned Vice President Vance, who will be briefing the press at 11:00 we just learned. How do you think he's being positioned here politically?

UNGAR-SARGON: You know, I wrote a piece on my Substack called "J.D. Vance is Being Border Czar-ed." You remember when Joe Biden gave Kamala Harris the job of border czar, at the moment when the border was the most important grief (ph) in the country, it hung like an albatross around her neck throughout her campaign. And I wonder if something similar is happening to J.D. Vance right now. He's being given this very difficult thing and doing a very poor job of it.

BERMAN: Pretty possible that I read that Substack, which is why I wanted to get your take on it. Batya Ungar-Sargon, thank you for being with us this morning.

UNGAR-SARGON: Thanks, John.

BERMAN: I do appreciate your time.

UNGAR-SARGON: Thank you so much.

BERMAN: Thank you.

UNGAR-SARGON: God bless. Thank you. Thank you.

BERMAN: Sara.

SIDNER: All right. Thank you so much, John.

I am live here in Chicago. We are here for the festivities that are about to take place for the opening of the Barack Obama Presidential Center. It is a huge complex, the largest one of a library of this sort. It really isn't just a library. There is so much here to see.

And we've been listening all morning to Stevie Wonder preparing for his performance. We are going to see Bono. We are going to see Christina Aguilera. But we're also going to see some of the former presidents. We're going to see President Biden and the first lady. We're going to see President George W. Bush and President Clinton and all of the first ladies. Who we will not see, though, is President Trump. He was not invited. You can imagine why, with some of the rhetoric that you've heard from him, not just throughout the years, but just in the last few hours against Barack Obama.

This is a celebration that the Obamas hope will be another message of hope and change.

There is a lot inside this complex. So, let's bring in our Jeff Zeleny, who has been here taking a tour, one of the few people who has seen the inside of this building.

Can you give us a sense of what it is the Obamas are trying to impart here?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think, Sara, one of the things that the Obamas made clear was that they want this to be more than just about his candidacy and his presidency, but sort of a lesson of history, but also a reminder that, you know, to generations to come, that -- what leadership can do.

And, in fact, last night, when the former president, Barack Obama, was talking to some former campaign and White House staff, he said, don't be nostalgic because that means we basically like settle for what has happened.

Nostalgia, he said, is not something he wants this to be about. He thinks it should be a lesson of what is possible.

Now, of course, every presidential center and library has, you know, the crafting of the legacy as they would like to do. But one thing I was struck by walking around the center here was some unfinished business. And that was talking about immigration reform. We well remember that President Obama, and President Bush before him, tried to do comprehensive immigration reform.

SIDNER: Yes.

ZELENY: It did not happen. Also talking about gun control reform in the wake of Sandy Hook. I think one of the most moving exhibits here is watching President Obama talking with those families of the Sandy Hook victims after the Senate failed to pass that legislation. And so that's the unfinished business sort of chapter of this.

So, it's not all accomplishments. It's some things that didn't get accomplished. He does essentially blame it on congressional Republicans and some Democrats, but it's notable, I think, that he includes some things that were not finished as well.

SIDNER: That is very notable. But he also was one of the youngest people to become president. And so, he is looking forward instead of looking backwards, although this library looks at many different things. There's even things like a garden where people can actually grow things and use it, learn how to cook.

[09:15:05]

But you mentioned something. This is not part of the National Archives.

ZELENY: It's not. So, technically, this is not a library. There is a branch of the Chicago Public Library here, which is part of this sprawling campus. But this is the first presidential center to not be part of the National Archives and Records. All of his actual official documents are stored in College Park, Maryland. There are not archivists here on site for presidential scholars to come look.

And the reason for that is twofold. One, the Obama Foundation is running this center, and they say most of the documents are electronic now. But there's also some concern from presidential historians, including our historian Tim Naftali, who believes that the Obama folks have made a mistake by not becoming part of the Archives. We'll talk about that more as the day goes on.

SIDNER: All right, thank you so much, Jeff Zeleny.

ZELENY: You bet.

SIDNER: It's good to see you.

We will be live throughout the day, giving you a look at this entire, very big ceremony here.

John.

BERMAN: Yes, it is so great to have you there. You can feel the excitement really beginning to grow.

So, A.I. companies concerned that Washington might destroy their business model. And one airline is betting that passengers are just going to love 20-hour flights.

All right, let's go to Shimon on the streets of New York.

Shimon. SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so we're waiting. The parade

is just moments away here. The crowd is ready, John. We'll have a live report from here shortly.

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[09:21:15]

JIMENEZ: Welcome to our live coverage of the New York Knicks parade. Getting ready to get going. And it is historic in nature for a number of reasons. One, the NYPD has been preparing for millions to come and celebrate something the New York Knicks and this city have not seen in more than 50 years. The parade is getting ready to get going.

I want to bring in Shimon Prokupecz, who's out on the parade route as well, because, look, fans have been out here for hours. The viewing pens have already been closed by the NYPD because so many people have showed up. What are you seeing and hearing from fans out there on the parade route?

PROKUPECZ: Well, I was just talking to some people. They're getting a little restless. I mean they want to get this thing going. They want to get the party started. They want to see the players.

I was just -- this man here. You've been here since what time?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 4 a.m., baby. Four a.m. for my Knicks.

PROKUPECZ: How are you feeling?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A little tired, (INAUDIBLE).

PROKUPECZ: Yes. Restless yet or what?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, we good. We good.

PROKUPECZ: Ready to get the party started?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's get busy. Let's get busy.

PROKUPECZ: Yes, I think they're all just -- they want to get -- they want to get started. People have been out here from the early, early morning, and they're just waiting for those floats. We expect 50 floats to make their way up Broadway to where you are, Omar, up the Canyon of Heroes. Tens of thousands of pounds of confetti that is going to just rain down Broadway, rain down the Canyon of Heroes. And everyone here is just waiting.

I mean, for some, this will be the closest they will ever get to their heroes, the Knicks, the players. They have been part of this journey with them. And for many, they just want to keep the joy and the happiness alive that they have felt now for several weeks as they made this playoff run.

But we should be getting started here in about 40 minutes or so. And once you guys start seeing your players, you're going to get really excited I'm sure, yes?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. Definitely.

PROKUPECZ: You're going to be -- yes, OK.

So, here we are. So, we'll wait now for the parade, Omar. I mean there's a lot of anticipation.

The security here is unprecedented. I've covered many parades. I've never seen anything like this. There's a lot of concern, obviously, over threats that are out there. Not particularly tied to this parade. But certainly just the NYPD is very concerned. Ten thousand officers on patrol here. Many of the streets blocked off. They're even limiting our access to try and roam around. So, we're limited to specific spots. And so far, so far everyone is just standing here and just waiting, Omar.

JIMENEZ: And, you know, as you were talking, we were showing some of the players interacting with fans as they were getting onto the busses and getting ready to make their way down the route, and, obviously, make so many people happy as they celebrate together.

And to your point, you were talking about the massive police force here. I mean, it's equivalent almost to the size of the entire Chicago Police Department. And you can see Coach Mike Brown for the Knicks just hyping up these fans. It really is going to be a day of celebration.

And, Shimon, you know, you were out for a lot of the finals, out in the crowds, hearing from fans who were emotional as well when the Knicks finally crossed that threshold and became champions for the first time in 50 years. How would you describe the environment leading up to today?

PROKUPECZ: A lot of joy. You know, this is a city -- New York City is such a special place. And I'm not only saying that because I, you know, grew up here, lived here my whole life, but certainly we see the city get together during times of sorrow and during times of pain, 9/11, other incidents. You know, this city finally, I sort of felt, found some joy.

[09:25:03]

A reason to be happy, to be together.

You know, the pandemic was a very difficult time. And we certainly all got together and supported each other during that time.

This was something so special and so different because it was the happiest of times and a time for everyone to enjoy themselves, to come out into these watch parties that were just made, you know, spontaneously on the streets of New York. In all five boroughs people were showing the game, projecting it on buildings. And thousands and thousands of people came out to be together. Complete strangers who became friends. And everyone here today, you could see it, the joy, the happiness.

They're trying to hold on to that moment, to what they felt, and to continue this moment. And that's what we're seeing out here. And no doubt that's what we're going to continue to see out here today, the happiness and the joy that these players, that this team has given this city. It's just remarkable to talk about and to show. It's like nothing we've seen in quite some time.

JIMENEZ: It's such a unique feeling -- yes. And I was just going to say, it's such a unique feeling. Mayor Mamdani talked about how it turned the biggest city in the country into the smallest town in the world, just what you're talking about there.

Shimon Prokupecz, along the parade route. We'll come back to you shortly.

John, look, a lot of excitement here. No one here wants to hear about your Boston on a day like this. They are all New York City -- all New York Knicks ready to celebrate their champs.

BERMAN: You know, it's about the friends you make along the way. Friends like Shimon Prokupecz, befriending strangers along the streets in the Canyon of Heroes.

Omar, great to see you.

We are just moments away from the opening bell on Wall Street. The Dow, Nasdaq, S&P, all up this morning in pre-market trading after all closing down yesterday when Fed policymakers signaled a possible interest hike is on the way.

And a freak accident in Central Park here in New York. An 18-year-old tourist dies after being thrown from a horse drawn carriage.

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