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Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) is Interviewed about the Iran War Powers Resolution; Inflation Hits Highest Level in Three Years; Former New York Mayor's Top Adviser Arrested and Charged; Gulf Oil Chief Energy Adviser Tom Kloza is Interviewed about Oil Prices; MSG Permit Fuels Swift-Kelce Wedding Rumors. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired June 25, 2026 - 08:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:30:34]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, we do have some breaking news. I'm told we're getting new video just in -- I have not seen this yet -- of the moments that this powerful back-to-back series of earthquakes hit Venezuela. More than 160 people have been killed so far. That death toll is rising and rising quickly. A thousand injured.

We want to warn you -- again, I haven't seen this yet -- that this video might be disturbing.

Watch.

(VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right, you can see there. I don't know where that video was from, but that's from Caracas or La Guaira (ph) where it struck much more powerfully. OK, it's from a different place.

But again, you can see the power, the suddenness and the fear of everyone who was in that. I don't know if that was the first quake or the second one. Either way, either way, it has been devastating.

We don't have full eyes on the situation yet. We have spoken to someone on the phone from inside Caracas who said that she felt the building she was in literally creaking, cracking beneath her as the earthquake struck.

Again, they were 40 seconds apart, measuring 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude. The second quake was the strongest to hit that country in a century.

Kate

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Wow, that video is something. We're going to continue -- we're going to -- as the time passes, we're going to be able to get more video and get a clearer view of exactly what is playing out, because you know that there -- it's the hardest hit areas that they're likely still not even able to get a full scope and full view of what's happening there in Venezuela right now. We're going to stay close to this.

We're also tracking developments on Capitol Hill, which is just hours after getting into a shouting match with President Trump over the war in Iran, Republican Senator Bill Cassidy helped deliver the president a win by voting to defeat a measure to limit the president's war powers. Cassidy had voted for and helped to pass essentially the identical bill the day before. The senator says a personal briefing by the vice president changed his mind. But remarkable coming after the closed-door lunch where Trump apparently called Cassidy a lunatic.

Here is what they said right after that meeting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BILL CASSIDY (R-LA): I felt like I was trying to get answers for the American people. And I'm not going to be bullied when I'm trying to get answers for the American people. And so, it escalated from there.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We like our leader. We like everybody really in the room. I don't like a few people, but that's OK. I think you know who they are.

REPORTER: Who are they?

TRUMP: But we -- I'll give you -- I'll give you that information someday. But, for the most part, we have a really well unified party.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Joining me right now is Democratic Congressman Gregory Meeks from New York. He's the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He was the author of the original war powers resolution that passed.

Congressman, the maneuver does not undo the vote from the day before. That's one thing that we do know, which was the first war powers measure approved by both chambers since the war began. What does it do, though? Where do things stand? This was a symbolic move to begin with. So, what now?

REP. GREGORY MEEKS (D-NY): Well, there are options. And I think that's what the president knew and knows. And that's why he went there to terrorize the senators in this meeting and to intimidate Senator Cassidy, because there's some legal options that we have also. And I would be talking to members of the Senate because in the war powers resolution it states that we could go to court because it's the statement of Congress, who is a separate but equal branch of government, saying that we want the president to come and have Congress authorize this war and have Congress -- and have the president tell us what the plan is, why we are there, how do we get out of this. We've got none of those things. And if he chooses to go back to bombing, that he must come to us first.

So, we -- I'm going to talk to -- continuing to talk to members of the Senate. But it's a clear message to the president where the American people are. Also, we know that this war of choice by the president is -- has brought the American people, cost them a lot. It cost 14 lives. It cost a rising prices of gas all over the world.

[08:35:01]

But here in the United States, it caused inflation to happen. It caused food. You know, when you talk about fertilizer, the American farmers are suffering.

So, we know that this has negatively affect the war -- I mean the world, as well as the people, the hard-working people in the United States. And they want their Congress to step up and do what the Constitution demands that they do and abide by the war powers resolution.

BOLDUAN: Speaking of lives, the president yesterday deflected when asked about the strike on an Iranian school that happened in the first day of the war. It's thought to have killed 175 people, mostly children. It's been under investigation by DOD ever since. The reporting has suggested that it was a U.S. missile that had hit the school. But again, DOD saying that simply they're still investigating.

Here's the president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Have you seen the report into the Minab school attack, sir? And can you tell us --

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have not seen it. No.

REPORTER: Why not?

TRUMP: At some point -- well, I have to wait for it to be completed. I don't know that they're ever going to solve that problem. And you can ask me, but I don't know that they're ever -- they say -- they're going to say it was one of our missiles. Pete, I don't know that they're ever going to solve that problem in terms of, whose fault was it? Because there were missiles flying all over the place.

REPORTER: So, you won't (INAUDIBLE).

TRUMP: And it's horrible what happened. But there were missiles flying all over the place. And somebody said it was our missile. Well, maybe it wasn't our missile. But I've seen nothing to lead me to believe it was.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Have you seen any report? Do you have any answer for why, four months into this war, the result of that investigation has not been released.

MEEKS: There is no answer to that because it should have been released. And I believe they know the results of it. And that's why it's not been released. We have a president, unfortunately, that continues to lie and that

continues to change the story. Look, we are supposed to be the leaders of the world, yet we don't -- when we make a mistake, we should admit that we made a mistake. If someone happened somewhere else, we would do that.

BOLDUAN: You believe it was a U.S. missile?

MEEKS: From all of what I have been able to obtain thus far, that's where the evidence points to. Now, I would love to be able to, and I wish, if I was the chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, I would be subpoenaing to get the information in. I would demand that we're having hearings before the committee so we can get those answers. But, unfortunately, the way we are right now in Washington, D.C., the committees are not doing that. They're not trying to hold the executive branch accountable. That's what our job should be doing, to oversee what is happening, so that we're not leaving someone out there to just make statements as this -- as Donald Trump is doing.

BOLDUAN: Well, and you say, if you were the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee. I know --

MEEKS: And I can tell you one thing, when we take the majority --

BOLDUAN: I was going to say, I know that you are hopeful to be possibly the chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee if Democrats take the majority, which is exactly what I wanted to ask you about.

After the primaries in New York and the results, which ousted two sitting Democratic House members, you had said in an interview that the result, what you're seeing and have heard from the people who won in the primaries, these Democrats, you're worried for the city of New York.

The question now, though, is, where is the political power of the Democratic Party, especially coming out of New York? Here's how "The Atlantic" put it, and I want to read this to you. "The insurgent victories exposed a striking dynamic with significant implications for national politics. America's two most powerful Democrats, Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer both hail from New York City, but they are not the dominant force in their own hometown. For the moment, the distinction belongs indisputably to Mamdani." Obviously, the mayor of New York City. Do you accept that?

MEEKS: No, I don't. Look, it is a New York City problem that we've got to be focused on, because I think it is clear that when you listen to at least some of the statements that have been made, that they don't want to be a part of the Democratic Party. They want to divide the Democratic Party.

That's not going to happen nationally. We are focused on -- we know that if you want to get things done, if you want to help people, you want to help those that can't afford to have food on the table or pay their rent, that you -- we have to be in charge and you have to be able to get 218 votes to get anything done in these chambers. And based upon what many of those individuals that got elected, what they have said in the past, they don't want to do that. So, they can't help anyone in that regard. And I think that the mainstay of individuals here in Washington, D.C., understand that. You can't pass a bill, you can't get anything done without 218 votes and bringing people together and not dividing people.

And you cannot be going after, for example, an individual like Adriano Espaillat. You know, you talk about immigration. Here's a man that came over as an undocumented immigrant, who then became legal, worked hard in this system, first Dominican to get elected to the Congress of the United States. And you're going to say that he --

BOLDUAN: So the changes then that Mayor Mamdani is now a kingmaker, would you agree with that?

[08:40:02]

MEEKS: I would say that -- not a king -- he, in certain districts in New York, in certain districts, with low turnout, those are the areas in which he did, in fact, win. And we've got to stand up and make sure that, you know, because I still believe in the American dream. You know, I'm -- too many people died for us to be in a position to make sure that we are now included. And when we get excluded, this is when we stand up as a Democratic Party.

And this is what we did. I mean, people talked about when, for example, especially in the African American community and the African American leadership, that when we've had, what took place in -- with Breonna Taylor, for example, with the no warrant, no search warrant going in, we passed a law to change that. The same thing when we talked about no chokeholds. When, in fact, we were in charge, we wanted to make sure that consumers were protected. We created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

And what happened is, individuals who did not like -- well, they say they didn't like Kamala Harris or they said bad things about Joe Biden, or they said things about Barack Obama, all of who was moving this in the net -- in the right direction. But immediately after, when they did not accept those individuals, that brought us Donald Trump. That brought us the individuals who wanted to roll back the accomplishments that we had, in fact, made to make us continuing to move to a more perfect union.

BOLDUAN: OK.

MEEKS: We need to be bringing people together, not dividing them. This is what, you know, I think the direction we have to go, and that's what we got to do in New York City.

BOLDUAN: Congressman, it's good to see you. Thanks for coming in.

John.

BERMAN: All right, we do have breaking economic news. Brand new inflation data just in. This is the Fed's preferred gauge of inflation. And it's not good. The highest level we've seen in years.

David Goldman is with us.

DAVID GOLDMAN, CNN BUSINESS SENIOR REPORTER: Yes, the highest in three years. And the concern is that obviously high gas prices are starting to have a real effect on the economy, John. So, I mean, when you look at 4.1 percent, that's a little bit scary, right? The Fed wants that at two percent. But here's the good news. Oil has fallen considerably since May. We are looking backward in time. Every time we do one of these economic reports. And so, it is definitely good news that oil and gas are falling.

There's a couple things in this report that we need to be careful about. The first is that spending fell in the month. That's unusual. And in a separate report, in a GDP report, we also saw an estimate of spending fall from where it was before. That's not what we want to see. Consumer spending is the lifeblood of our economy. We need to make sure that that's rising. Those are things that we need to keep an eye on.

BERMAN: Those two signs separate from one of them in this, one of them separate, shows that people might be backing off spending. Consumers might be backing off spending. And that's something that has an overall impact on the entire economy.

GOLDMAN: It could be I mean, when gas prices start to rise, people might not have the money to spend on other things. Although I will give that a big caveat, that there isn't a tremendous amount of evidence that people are really reining in their spending. They're spending just not at the rate that they were before. So, that's something that we need to keep an eye on.

The other thing is, just when you think about inflation, there's two ways to measure it. There's overall inflation and what we call core inflation that strips out volatile things like energy and food. And that one increased more than we thought. That's a concern. If -- even without energy, we're rising to the highest in three years.

BERMAN: PCE, the reason the Fed likes this, it tends to be a little less volatile. It isn't gas prices. It isn't food. It isn't the thing people are complaining about right now. Even without that, inflation is over four percent.

GOLDMAN: You got it. And this is something that the Fed is going to watch carefully. They've already said they are going to commit, double down, on price controls. So, if they can't get this in place, then we're in big trouble.

BERMAN: And again, it's just a notable environment given that the president did not sign a housing bill yesterday that gets to some issues of affordability. Just tonally here, there is a contrast with the data we're seeing, what people are saying and maybe some of the actions being taken.

David Goldman, great to see you. Thank you very much.

Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Thank you, John.

The Feds are zeroing in on former New York Mayor Eric Adams' inner circle. His former chief of staff and top advisor, Frank Carone, Carone's brother and two others pleaded not guilty in court Wednesday to charges. A federal indictment, unsealed the same day, revealed they are accused in a, quote, "scheme to exploit the city's migrant crisis for profit."

Of course, Adams himself was dodged -- dogged by bribery and other finance-related charges but saved by Donald Trump after they dropped charges before the trial.

CNN legal analyst Joey Jackson is here with me to look at where the case could go next.

Let's start with the charges. Prosecutors alleging bribery, money laundering, conspiracy charges, all tied to migrant housing contracts.

[08:45:04]

What needs to be shown here by the prosecution and what is the potential defense here? I mean these are really big charges.

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes. Sara, good morning to you. They are indeed.

So, unpacking this, what the Feds are alleging is that there was this scheme. If you remember, there was a real major migrant crisis where migrants were coming seeking asylum. Well, where are you going to house the migrants as they do so? Because the current existing, at that time, shelter system did not provide for that, you needed to look elsewhere, to hotels.

What does the indictment say about this? Well, the indictment says that there was, once upon a time, this particular hotel in Long Island City. It was not sufficient to house the migrants nor, you know, in terms of facilities and other things.

SIDNER: Yes.

JACKSON: And so it would be the least likely to get the contract. Enter the chief of staff, all allegations of the mayor, enter two business people associated with this hotel, the owner and the business manager of the hotel, say, hey, look, we got $120,000. In the event we forwarded you $120,000, can you get us this $6.8 million contract? OK. And so, if contracts are predicated upon a bribery quid pro quo, that becomes highly problematic.

Now, again, all allegations. But here's the point. When you have cases like this, Sara, they're really paper cases.

SIDNER: Right.

JACKSON: And what that means is, you have to examine the money trail. Was there this $125,000? Well, the Feds say, yes, there was. And you know what you did, chief of staff, your brother happened to have a law firm. And so, in order to filter the money to make it look legal, this particular hotel ownership entered into a retainer agreement with the firm, right?

SIDNER: Ah.

JACKSON: And that, as a result of kicking it back to the brother, you would pay the brother's credit card bills.

So, all those things, the money trail, has to be followed to determine whether or not this is factually accurate or not.

With regard to defending it, I mean, look, it depends upon ultimately what the discovery shows because once you have all the papers, the documents, the text messages and everything else --

SIDNER: Yes.

JACKSON: And by the way, did you pay taxes on it, it becomes a, you know, a difficult nut to crack.

SIDNER: Yes, it's follow the money, always, right? And in these cases, all of that is paperwork and forensic accounting.

JACKSON: Yes.

SIDNER: It's a lot, but surprising. And we'll see if this gets wider and wider.

Joey Jackson, it is always a pleasure. Thank you, sir.

JACKSON: The pleasure is mine.

SIDNER: Appreciate it.

JACKSON: Thanks.

SIDNER: John.

BERMAN: All right, we have dramatic footage this morning showing the moment a plane made an emergency landing in rural Alaska. Look at that.

And the internet is convinced it knows where and when Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are having their wedding celebration. All the new clues that point to basically this neighborhood. We're not going anywhere.

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[08:51:40]

BOLDUAN: This morning, oil prices are falling, hitting their lowest level since before the war with Iran began. The U.S. benchmark is trading below $70 a barrel right now, which is the lowest in four months.

Gas prices are also falling. The national average now $3.92 a gallon. But President Trump says that is not fast enough and is now accusing major oil companies of keeping prices high. Intentionally price gouging.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We should be, in my opinion, at $2.25 right now at the pump. And we're higher than that. And we are doing a big investigation on it. Yes. They're not reducing the prices commensurate with what -- what's happening.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Joining me right now is Tom Kloza. He's a chief energy advisor of Gulf Oil.

It's good to see you again, Tom.

Are the oil companies to blame for gas prices not dropping faster?

TOM KLOZA, CHIEF ENERGY ADVISER, GULF OIL: No, they're not. As a matter of fact, I think the president believes this is maybe 40 years ago when the major oil companies owned a lot of the real estate and set the gasoline prices. You know, the majority of the 160,000 places that sell gasoline in this country are owned by other companies, smaller companies. So, he's really kind of blaming little oil and middle oil, you know, as being kind of in cahoots with big oil.

BOLDUAN: Yes. He says, "customers are being gouged. Gasoline prices better start going down a lot faster than what I'm seeing," is what he wrote on social media.

As part of this, can you factor in kind of just the refinery problem that we're seeing right now as well, which is part of this? I mean, how much can gas prices come down when a constraint in the system is refineries? I mean, what can oil and gas companies do about this that they aren't already?

KLOZA: Well, Kate, this reminds me of what's happened with the primaries. When the president sees a candidate that's clearly going to win, he tends to endorse him and then brag about the fact that, you know, only the candidates he endorses win.

Gasoline prices are dropping. And in the next 30 days, you're going to see them drop, not at a, you know, rapid pace, a penny or two cents each day. And I think the people in the White House know that. They know that, you know, for the moment we're going to be dealing with a mini glut and with lower prices over the next 30 days. After that, it changes drastically and we could see higher numbers.

Refiners are doing great in the United States. They've been terrific beneficiaries of this. The retail companies have been the beneficiaries. But it's tough to operate a gasoline station. You know, of that 160,000 that I mentioned, probably half of them or close to half of them are owned by single, individual operators. And, you know, they're paying ten and 12 and 13 cents a gallon to the credit card companies to process the payments. BOLDUAN: You know, it's interesting seeing the president talk about

price gouging and saying he's investigating because that is -- has very clear echoes of what we heard from President Biden after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, saying the same, that they're now going to start investigating price gouging. It does seem to be something that a president does lean on when they don't have control of the situation in order to exert more control.

[08:55:02]

But I think one of the key questions that this gets to when you talk about what the next 30 days looks like is, from what you're seeing and hearing, is oil moving through the Strait now? If they were getting, you know, close to a supply shortage, oil companies, as of like next month seems to have been a real concern, is the Strait open enough that they have definitely averted this being a further crisis?

KLOZA: Yes, it's open enough right now so that the next 30 or 40 days I think you'll see a lot of oil and you'll see generally weak prices. You know, we'll have to see after that. After that we run into hurricane season. We run into the notion of, will the vessels that have to go back into the Strait of Hormuz, will they reload?

One other thing I wanted to mention, though, Kate, is that, you know, the president can take credit probably for pushing crude oil prices lower. You know, Teddy Roosevelt had the bully pulpit. Donald Trump has the bully keyboard. And there's no question that crude oil prices would be higher if not for those verbal interventions that the president posted. He might think he could do the same thing on gasoline, but it's much more questionable.

BOLDUAN: That's a really interesting take, Tom.

It's good to see you. I really appreciate it.

John.

BERMAN: All right, dramatic footage this morning showing the moment a small plane made an emergency landing in rural Alaska. Nine passengers and one pilot were on board the plane that ran into engine problems just after takeoff. The passenger who filmed the footage says the plane was in the air for about 20 minutes before they heard a loud noise. That's something you never want to hear. The pilot realized the engine was losing power. Fortunately, no one was hurt. A lot of relief right there.

All right, from Washington state, new video of a Coast Guard helicopter crew rescuing an injured hiker. The hiker fell nearly 120 feet down a steep ravine while hiking Mount Larrabee. The crew searched for about 40 minutes before finding her.

Sara.

SIDNER: That's cool. Sorry, I was distracted by all those great pictures. Thank you, John. This morning, new speculation over the celebrity wedding of the year.

Of course, we are talking about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. Some fans seem to think they will tie the knot at Madison Square Garden here in New York over the July 4th weekend because, as CNN has confirmed, a permit application has been filed to hold a large scale event near the arena.

Here now to discuss, CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister.

All right, there's so many questions. But the first is, this is a huge venue. The Knicks just won in -- after 53 years, they just came back with this amazing trophy. They're the winners of the world. And now Taylor Swift might be there. Is this real or are we just imagining it?

ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: So, Sara, I have been saying this for years. It is just Taylor Swift's world and we are all living in it. She might be the only person on the planet who can actually rent out Madison Square Garden and shut down New York City streets. But we think maybe, possibly, very certainly that this could be real, OK.

The fact is, we don't know, and we won't know until this happens. But we do have some brand-new reporting, which leads us to believe that this really could be happening.

So, first, let me tell you, I heard a while back from a source that when invitations went out earlier this year, that wedding guests were told that this wedding would be held July 3rd in New York City, but they were not given an exact venue. Well, now our colleague, Gloria Pazmino, has some excellent on the ground reporting, and she has learned that Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce have applied for a permit for an event, not for a wedding, for an event. That is the word that Gloria was given.

Now, the permit application was not submitted by Travis and Taylor. Their names are not on the permit application. It's actually an event planning company. But what event does this event plan company usually plan? Well, weddings, Sara.

What is this permit for? It is to shut down city streets around Madison Square Garden. As you said, the Knicks, of course, were just playing there. This is going to be a traffic nightmare in New York City because it's not just around Madison Square Garden, it's also, of course, July 4th weekend in the America 250 celebration.

Now, some other details from this permit. They have asked for the ability to construct a tent or a canopy outside of Madison Square Garden. And the permit also says that anywhere from 500 to 999 guests, that's nearly a thousand guests, will be gathering in this location.

Now, it's not just our reporting. We are not just professionally speculating, Sara. Even the mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, casually dropped a hint that her wedding might be happening in New York.

[09:00:00] Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR ZOHRAN MAMDANI (D), NEW YORK CITY: We are the biggest city in the country. We are used to big events. And we are incredibly excited for this one. We know it.