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10 Million People Along Gulf Coast Under Flood Watches; U.S.- Iran Talks Delayed After Israel-Hezbollah Clashes Strain Truce; Luigi Mangione's Attorneys Withdraw Psychiatric Defense Plans; Team USA Takes on Australia in Their Second World Cup Match Today. Aired 2- 2:30p ET

Aired June 19, 2026 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: -- risk across the Central Plains. Wind gusts, over-hurricane force, gusts, Omar, large hail, even the potential of tornadoes. We're going to keep an eye to the sky from North Platte into Colby as well as Wichita.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Yeah, keep an eye out this weekend, folks. Some serious weather heading your way in some parts of the country. Derek Van Dam, really appreciate it, as always.

A new hour of "CNN News Central" starts right now.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": There are now renewed efforts to keep the tentative peace deal between the U.S. and Iran alive after talks that were supposed to start today got delayed. There's a new ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. We'll discuss that and what Iran just said about the talks with the U.S. after those meetings got postponed and J.D. Vance canceled his trip.

Plus, a sudden shift. Luigi Mangione's attorneys now say they will not be arguing a psychiatric defense at his murder trial. That decision coming one day after they indicated that they would.

And a crucial game for Team USA. They're about to take on Australia in Seattle, the second game for the U.S. at this World Cup. They will be though at a major disadvantage today. We'll explain as we follow these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to "CNN News Central."

JIMENEZ: So a bit of Breaking News on the delayed talks between the United States and Iran. The Iranian Foreign Ministry says Tehran is now working with mediators to reorganize the first round of negotiations after sources tell CNN Israel and Hezbollah have agreed to renew a ceasefire there following a deadly 24 hours. Vice President J.D. Vance postponing his trip to Switzerland amid the escalation.

Now, earlier, Lebanese officials reported the second deadliest day since the war began. The health ministry saying Israeli strikes killed at least 47 people in Lebanon, and Israel launched the new attacks after it says Hezbollah killed four Israeli soldiers. I want to bring in CNN's Nic Robertson who's live in Switzerland where talks were supposed to be taking place.

And Nic, I remember, when we first got details of this Memorandum of Understanding, we talked about this dynamic between Israel and Lebanon and how it might play into some of the U.S.-Iran talks. What is the latest that you were hearing on that front, but on the talks overall as well?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yeah, this idea that the Iranians are working with the mediators to overcome their issues about Lebanon, the conflict there between Israel and Hezbollah, they'd sort of drawn that as a red line last night. Look, it's in the Memorandum of Understanding that Lebanon is supposed to be part of the overall ceasefire and they took that as a red line for their negotiators not to come to the talks here because Israel and Hezbollah were continuing to fight.

Now they would blame Israel of course, but people would point and say Iran's responsible for what Hezbollah is doing. Be that as it may, and of course that's going to be indicative of the ups and downs and twists and turns I think we're going to see in these talks when they do get going. But the sort of this diplomatic distance that would travel today behind the scenes, Qatari and other diplomats working with the Iranians and then that very important decision of Israel and Hezbollah to sort of go on a ceasefire, pressure of course coming from the White House on Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu to get that into play, all of that is now opening the pathway to get the Iranians here.

Vice President J.D. Vance, late last night, when he canceled his trip said that he was still ready to come when the conditions were set. Well, potentially the conditions are going to be set and of course, the clock ticking. I think interestingly, we've heard from the Foreign Ministry spokesperson in Iran today, Tehran laying out their points, not just Lebanon. They're saying, look, there are other things we want to get done there. The sanctions lifting, the frozen assets unfrozen, they're kind of putting those out front and I think we're getting a sign for them as well about when they do get to the table, some of the other things, they're going to be tricky in the discussions.

Everyone knew that these issues will be difficult but this issue of the nuclear inspectors, the IAEA, which is in the Memorandum of Understanding, the Iranians saying yes, they can come but only to monitor the sites they were monitoring, not to go to any of the sites that were hit in the month-plus-long war. So we can see the fault lines, but the Lebanon fault line, big one, does seem to be bridged for today.

JIMENEZ: Nic Robertson in Switzerland where we expected to see a new phase in these agreements. But today, perfect proof how complicated all of this may end up being. Really appreciate the recording, as always. Boris?

SANCHEZ: Let's dig deeper on this with Michael Allen. He's a former Special Assistant to President George W. Bush for National Security as well as former Senior Director for Counterproliferation in the National Security Council. Michael great to see you, as always.

MICHAEL ALLEN, FORMER SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH FOR NATIONAL SECURITY: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: So do you expect that this renewed ceasefire will be enough to now get the 60 days of negotiation underway?

[14:05:00]

ALLEN: Well, I think maybe it's given them a few moments in time to negotiate something that would be more stable, but this is a real fulcrum going forward and that is what will Israel do if fired upon by Hezbollah? The United States and others say, of course, you have not relinquished your right to self-defense. You very well can go at them, but then you juxtapose that with what the vice president said in his press briefing recently.

He was very negative towards Israel. He said you can't kill and shoot your way out of everything. So I mean, I think we're setting up for another divergence between the United States and Israel as Israel feels like we have to go after them. And on top of that, it's the Israeli elections later this year and arguably, Netanyahu has to keep being aggressive or he's not going to win.

SANCHEZ: To that point, where do you see the incentive for Netanyahu to uphold this end of the deal with the United States if Israel isn't a signatory to the Memorandum of Understanding and you have President Trump saying that he has to keep him sane. He also has domestic politics to consider.

ALLEN: Oh wow, I mean this is a lot of pressure. He's in between a rock and a hard place because I think that the one thing any Israeli leader cannot get rid of and that is -- or put into any question whatsoever, is the durability of the U.S.-Israeli relationship. It's absolutely vital for the long-term and even medium-term viability of the Israeli state.

They need the United States and I don't think voters would be forgiven -- would forgive Netanyahu for having that blow up on a permanent or even a semi-permanent basis.

SANCHEZ: Yeah. Conversely, the reason that the ceasefire broke earlier was according to the IDF, there were these four Israeli soldiers that Hezbollah killed when they fired upon them. Theoretically, if the U.S. is putting pressure on Israel to cease hostilities, shouldn't Tehran also be putting pressure on Hezbollah to do the same? Do you see that as something that is likely to happen?

ALLEN: They definitely should be doing that. They have the power to do that. I really doubt, however, that they're going to do it in a big way. I think they may pay lip service to this, but I think at the end of the day, and we've talked about this before, the Iranian regime is ideological, they're revolutionary, and they want to ultimately eliminate Israel. So it's hard to imagine them tangibly restraining Hezbollah over a long period of time in their campaign against Israel.

SANCHEZ: As part of his defense over the memo, the Vice President J.D. Vance made the argument that there were these gentlemen's agreements in place sort of saying that there were these handshake understandings with Tehran of how these talks were going to move forward. I mean, is that enough to persuade you that these talks are going to head in the right direction? Because it appears that the U.S. has given up some leverage and that Iran, for example, in the Strait of Hormuz feels very strong in its position.

ALLEN: Yeah, yeah, I mean this gets back to why many of us wished we had done Project Freedom to directly negate the leverage that they had over us in the Straits because if we're in a position where we've got to trust the Iranian word and it's not even written down --

SANCHEZ: Yeah.

ALLEN: it's hard enough when it is written down, then I think it does lay into serious questions. I mean the way they are betting here is that they're betting the sanctions relief or at least the ability for them to sell oil in the short term will get them in a better place over time for us to gradually lift more sanctions, unfreeze more assets, et cetera, in exchange for returning some of the nuclear material, well, at least to sites outside the country. I mean that's dubious.

I don't know that they want to be able to do it in the long run, so we've got to work on verification. We've got to get our intelligence system and the Israeli intelligence system to stare very closely at what the Iranians are doing going forward because I think they're a flight risk.

SANCHEZ: Just to point out that, there is some vagueness to what we have regarding these agreements with Iran that go beyond the MOU. Vice President Vance indicated that at least some of them were written, whether that makes a difference or not, we haven't seen them so we don't know.

To the last point that you were making, President Trump recently has sort of hedged on the idea that Iran should not enrich any uranium and that the U.S. should go in and remove the 900 pounds or so of highly- enriched uranium that are buried underground. How do you see those public statements? Doesn't that in itself hinder the position of the United States? That now he's seeming to relent on getting rid of all of it?

ALLEN: Yeah, seeming to relent. I think that he would insist, if asked, that he's going to try to put this back on the table in the 60- day period, but I think the Iranians don't want to give it up. I think they would see that as a blight on their national honor. They may say, well, you know what, we'll down blend it, but that of course invites the question of, well, if it's easy to down blend, it must be easy again if you have the right centrifuges to up blend it.

[14:10:00]

And so this gets to another intelligence question, what is their centrifuge capability going forward? What is maybe buried in some of these different sites that we hear about all the time? And so, these are really critical questions about the future viability of the Iranian nuclear program. I do think that us and the Israelis have severely degraded it. So this is not all a bad news story, if you think of June and you think of the last few months. But at the end of the day, we've got a lot of questions moving forward, and we're not exactly in a green meadow of joy and happiness.

(LAUGH)

SANCHEZ: Not exactly in a green meadow of joy and happiness, that's a good way to put it. Michael Allen, thank you so much.

ALLEN: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Appreciate it. Still to come, a new twist in accused CEO killer, Luigi Mangione's case. His lawyers now changing their defense strategy in this state murder trial. We'll explain that.

Plus, the president's controversial pick as Acting Intelligence Director shows up to work a day early asking for a list of employees.

And Team USA looking to keep momentum going as they face off against Australia in their second game of the World Cup. Doing it, though, without arguably the team's best player. We'll talk about it in just a few minutes.

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[14:15:53]

JIMENEZ: A surprise shift in strategy from Luigi Mangione's attorneys. His lawyers just informed the judge that they won't argue a psychiatric defense at his upcoming state murder trial and their decision came just a day after signaling they'd argue Mangione killed the UnitedHealthcare exec while suffering an extreme emotional disturbance.

CNN's Kara Scannell joins me now. So Kara, what more are you learning here?

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Omar, all we know so far is this one sentence notice that Mangione's lawyers had sent to the judge informing them that they were withdrawing their notice that they would invoke this sort of defense at this time. Now under that defense strategy, Mangione would have admitted to murdering the UnitedHealthcare CEO but saying he did it basically because he had snapped, because he had lost control in a profound way.

And that defense though would cause an admission and that was something that is also legally risky for them to do. It came though, this withdrawal, just 24 hours after they had confirmed that they were going to pursue this defense and on the same day that they were facing a deadline to turn over to prosecutors their expert report, any medical records and other materials from that as well as the theory of what had caused Mangione to snap.

Now that is the posture right now. This had been under seal for the past nine months since September. Mangione's lawyers had said that this was under seal because of the potential prejudice it could inform the potential jurors if they had known that he was considering this defense with this admission and then changing his mind which is what has now happened. But also she said she was concerned it could prejudice his federal trial which will go after the state trial.

Now the prosecution in this case, they have declined to comment, Mangiones have declined to comment, but prosecutors have said repeatedly in court hearings that they think Mangione's lawyers are trying to stall this out and get the trial postponed. That is something that they have raised in this past few hearings. The judge though saying that he's intending to go to trial in September. Omar?

JIMENEZ: Kara Scannell, following every development, appreciate the reporting as always.

All right. Coming up today, very shortly, Team USA fans gearing up for another exciting match, this time against Australia. But what can the U.S. expect from their opponents down under as the Americans go without their star player, Christian Pulisic. We'll break it down. Coming up.

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[14:23:00]

SANCHEZ: Last October's World Cup warm-up match between the U.S. and Australia was anything but friendly, to say that the game was heated would be an understatement.

JIMENEZ: Yeah, I mean, buckle up though, because now we got round two. Let's see how this goes. It starts next hour. Soccer fans are going to get to see both teams go at it again. The Group D matchup kicks off at three o'clock Eastern, but there is one big difference this time. Star player, Christian Pulisic will not play for Team USA because of a calf injury.

I want to bring in soccer commentator, Chris Whittyngham of CBS Sports Golazo Network. He's here. Let's start on that news, because it's the biggest news of the day, at least for Team USA. Christian Pulisic not playing. Striker Ricardo Pepi will take his place in the lineup. For those that watched the Paraguay match, I mean, Pulisic seemed like, at least in the first half, he was involved in almost every goal scoring opportunity or assist. What does this mean for the U.S. strategy for this match?

CHRIS WITTYNGHAM, CBS SPORTS GOLAZO COMMENTATOR: I think it completely affects the way that they play because, as you say, not only was he involved in all of the goals, but it was the manner in which he was involved in all the goals. He was fantastic off the dribble. He was fantastic taking multiple players on in a low- defensive setup, and that's exactly what they're going to need.

And based off of the change that they make in bringing Ricardo Pepi in, there isn't a player who directly replaces that skill set. So I actually am a bit worried about how that affects the game plan. But I think by bringing Pepi in, you're basically saying we're going to overwhelm them in the middle of the penalty area rather than out wide.

And you're going to play with a two striker system in the goal is to get full backs out wide and to get them into good crossing positions and see if you can create threat that way, because I think the manner in which they're going to attack is going to look different than it did against Paraguay.

SANCHEZ: Witty, great to see you, by the way, as always.

WITTYNGHAM: Good to see you too.

SANCHEZ: I wonder how you compare -- how you compare Australia to Paraguay. Is it the same level of competition? How are you anticipating the U. S. is going to handle a different opponent?

[14:25:00]

WITTYNGHAM: I would say in terms of the level of how I thought of them before the tournament, I would say they are roughly the same level. I will say in terms of executing a game plan, Australia were way better at it against Turkiye than Paraguay was against the United States. Australia, they get the early goal. I thought they possessed much more of a threat on the counterattack with pace, with Nestory Irankunda, who is definitely going to be the player to watch for Australia, who is an immigrant to Australia, who grew up there and eventually chose to play for their national team.

He was absolutely brilliant against Turkiye. And so he's definitely going to be the threat that is a level above, I think, what the U.S. faced against Paraguay. But in terms of how they're going to set up, yeah, I think it's going to be very similar. The thing that happened to Turkiye in their game against Australia is they just kept shooting from long distance. They got frustrated. And so they just kept shooting and shooting and shooting and shooting.

They had 30 shots in the game, but none of them were really a massive threat to the Australia goalkeeper, Patrick Beach. So I think the U.S. showed much more cutting edge and incision against Paraguay. And that's what they're going to have to find again against Australia. I think it is going to be up to them to make the game with the ball. The question is, can they do it to the level that they did against Paraguay without Christian Pulisic in the Starting XI?

JIMENEZ: Yeah, who, as you point out, was taking on, who's being double teamed at multiple points. You know what? I'm just going to take them on anyway and try to get some sort of motion going. You know, you talked a little bit about Australia's countering ability, but I wonder how you assess Australia's strengths versus the U.S. strengths, and what you think will actually make the difference in whoever comes out on top here.

WITTYNGHAM: You mentioned that friendly at the beginning that they played back in November in Colorado. And I actually think that is a genuine turning point for the program, because one of the strengths that Australia brings, they've kind of flipped identities under their head coach, Tony Popovic. He's brought a much more defensive intense, grit-it-out attitude rather than the previous managers who tried to play a bit more.

I think he kind of understands that their role at international level, especially World Cups, is as underdog. And you have to have -- you kind of have to play the game that way. And so they brought a level of physicality to that game that the U.S. were not prepared for.

As a matter of fact, this week, Sebastian Berhalter, who will come off the bench today for the U.S., was talking about how that game, that halftime speech that Mauricio Pochettino gave during that game completely affected their attitude. And he basically said, we are America, we don't take any bleep. And that's exactly the sort of message that was able to get through to the players. And that has not only affected their performance in that game, it has kind of affected their performance going forward.

I think he has tried to imbue, it's kind of funny, in Argentine, imbuing an American team with a sense of Americanism, a sense of we are a big team that should go out there and not take anything from our opponents, and go out there and aggressively attack everyone that we're playing and not back down from any fight. There were games at times where the U.S. looked like they weren't up for it, like they weren't up for the fight.

But in that second half against Australia, and in the games that have followed, that is the one thing you cannot question. And certainly you couldn't question about their performance against Paraguay, was their level of intensity. They brought it, and I think it's going to be incumbent upon them to bring it again today against Australia.

SANCHEZ: I feel motivated just hearing Witty describe the speech, like we're going to like break down a wall.

(LAUGH)

SANCHEZ: By the way, these are live images of the stadium in Seattle where the game picks off in about a half hour. Witty, if the U.S. beats Australia, are they a shoo-in for the elimination round?

WITTYNGHAM: Yes, they would absolutely be secured of a place in the elimination round. The question now, Boris, is where they end up in the bracket. The better that you do in the group, the more favorable of a draw that you will get. So if the U.S. win the group, they'll actually face one of the other third place teams at this World Cup.

The most favorite of that team that it could be is Bosnia and Herzegovina, who is a team that the U.S. would be expected to beat. If, for example, they lost or they drew today, and they ended up as the runner-up in the group, you're on a collision course with Argentina. Whereas if you win the group, you're on a collision course with Belgium in the Last 16.

So performing well in this group is absolutely important in terms of setting up your matchups going forward. As you say, no thank you, I'm playing Argentina. Let's put that off as long as possible if we can, especially after what we saw from Messi the other night.

JIMENEZ: Yeah.

SANCHEZ: It's going to be a no for me.

JIMENEZ: I'm going to stay away from Messi at any age, at any age --

(LAUGH)

JIMENEZ: -- based on what he did last match.

SANCHEZ: Chris Wittyngham, thank you so much.

WITTYNGHAM: He could be 80 and I'd want to stay away from him.

(LAUGH)

SANCHEZ: Appreciate it, Witty. Thank you.

WITTYNGHAM: Yeah, thanks guys.

SANCHEZ: Of course. Still ahead, a deep divide growing among the Republican Party as President Trump pushes forward with this framework of an agreement with Iran. We'll take a closer look at the backlash among his own party when we come back.

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