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Ceasefire Strained: U.S., Iran Standing Down "For Now" After Strikes; Soon: Luigi Mangione Returns To Federal Court For Pretrial Hearing; FAA Investigating After Close Call Between Planes At Miami International Airport. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired June 29, 2026 - 07:30   ET

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

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[07:31:55]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Happening now, let's take a look at oil prices altogether, shall we? Let's look and see where they are at this very moment. We're going to put them up on the screen so I can read to you what oil prices are doing. There they are. You can see up ever so slightly this morning. This after the renewed fighting between Iran and the United States.

Data does show shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz is a fraction of pre-war levels with about 124 ships passing through in the last four days. That's like one day's worth of traffic in normal times.

Gas prices though, have dropped again -- $3.86 a gallon. That's about 88 cents higher than before the war but, you know, a welcome drop from over the last month.

With us now is CNN senior business reporter David Goldman. David, what are you seeing?

DAVID GOLDMAN, CNN BUSINESS SENIOR REPORTER: Yeah. I mean, I'm eating a lot of crow. I think a lot of oil analysts are eating a lot of crow too. We thought that for sure this was going to take a long time for oil to come back down to pre-war prices. Here we are.

And then there were renewed conflicts in the strait. There was an exchange of fire and yet, you know, oil prices are up barely, as you said.

It is a confusing situation, but I think there's three things that you can kind of piece together to explain what's going on.

The first is supply. We had a historic amount of supply going into the war. That's added a cushion.

The second is demand. We had a historic demand destruction, especially from China.

And the third thing is Donald Trump, right? And we know -- President Trump said as much that he understands there is a problem in the U.S. inventory situation where we are about to hit, and in some places have hit, critically low levels. He understands that the strait needs to keep open -- stay open. He's got every incentive to do it and that's what the oil market is predicting.

BERMAN: It also -- it just seems investors are betting and are convinced now that President Trump won't reignite the war in any major way.

GOLDMAN: Right.

BERMAN: There might be back-and-forths, but even when there's renewed fire, they don't believe it's going to get worse.

GOLDMAN: That's exactly right. I mean, I think that the oil market says we can even withstand a little bit of conflict like we had because there is no way that President Trump is going to get back actively into this war. That's what the market thinks. We'll see if that holds.

BERMAN: And just to be clear, there's still Iranian oil now that wasn't there before being sold on the open market.

GOLDMAN: Oh, yes -- to anyone, right, because it has no sanctions left.

BERMAN: All right. So Iran gets money. There's new oil out there. That might be keeping prices down as well.

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

GOLDMAN: Thank you.

BERMAN: Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. So joining us right now are CNN military analyst, retired Col. Cedric Leighton, and CNN global affairs analyst Brett McGurk.

Brett, let me start with you, as the president is up and posting. He just posted a moment ago, "Iran has requested a meeting. It will take place tomorrow in Doha." That has been kind of a big question since this weekend if meetings -- technical meetings -- any kind of meetings were actually going to happen.

We're now four months and a day since the U.S. launched this -- launched this war with Iran and talks in general over Iran's nuclear program are really up in the air and being tested following this fresh run of strikes.

[07:35:02]

Where would you say things are today?

BRETT MCGURK, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST, FORMER MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA COORDINATOR, NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL, SENIOR FELLOW, HARVARD'S BELFER CENTER: Well, Kate, I think we have -- we have an agreement to keep the strait open as a gateway to eventually getting the nuclear talks, to your point. And I think we're still kind of at phase one of what does this agreement mean.

And I had to summarize what happened the last 72-96 hours there's a principle. The Iranians especially hold it. You talk and you fight.

And what we saw here this weekend was Iran reads this MoU on the Strait of Hormuz to say we say what happens in the Strait of Hormuz. Yes, ships will go through, but we actually determine what happens there. Their foreign minister actually said that this weekend. It's kind of what the MoU says. The U.S. says no, it should be unimpeded. It should go back to pre-war.

And Iran used force late last week, hitting a -- using a drone to hit a ship that was using -- not using its route. And then the U.S. responded with military force, saying hey, we're going to -- we're going to ensure there's unimpeded access. So it's using military force to shape the diplomacy and what this MoU actually says.

Kate, I think this is the new normal in terms of where we -- where we are. You'll see these flare-ups. I think they'll remain contained because you do have this diplomatic path.

But to your point on the nuclear agreement, that's a very long way off. I mean, I just don't see that coming together anytime soon.

At the same time, Iran, right now, is not enriching uranium because of the military strikes a year ago, last summer, which were, I think, probably more effective than its current campaign.

So that's where we are. Contested domain on the Strait of Hormuz. There's a diplomatic path. But the nuclear talks -- that's still way down the road.

BOLDUAN: Yeah.

And Colonel, I want to get your take because what the president -- what the president says this morning that they're asking for talks, but what the president has been trying to project is he's written over and over again things like there are no tools, no insurance costs, no other charges of any kind are going to be sought or received by Iran on ships traveling through the strait.

But The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Iran clearly has a very -- is at least looking to have a different view on this, reporting now that "The Islamic Republic estimates that charging for security, safety and environmental services in the strait would bring in $40 billion a year in revenue for states involved, according to officials familiar with the matter. The idea, if implemented, would give Tehran cash flow and control that it did not command before the war."

And Brett said it, but it's -- it is the question. If this is the new normal -- a different type of new normal -- what does it mean for the Middle East and the West? COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST, U.S. AIR FORCE (RET.) (via Webex by Cisco): Well, it means quite a few things, Kate. And actually, you can extend the meaning not only to the Middle East and the West but really to the entire world because the potential is there that this is going to change the way in which commerce is conducted.

You know, up until this point the United States has stood for freedom of navigation, especially through areas like the Strait of Hormuz -- chokepoints that are in several places around the world where it's basically a naturally occurring phenomenon where you have to go through. It's not a canal like the Suez Canal or the Panama Canal, but in naturally occurring phenomenon. So the principle has been that there would be no tolls charged through areas like that, even if it's controlled by just a couple of states.

So that is something that if that changes and if Iran gets those $40 billion or whatever it ends up getting, that could be a huge change not only economically, but also geopolitically because the U.S. Navy's mission has been -- or one of them has been to secure freedom of navigation through those areas.

BOLDUAN: You know, Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, Brett, was asked in a recent interview about his statements. You know, he's called the war the worst foreign policy blunder on record and I want to play his perspective on why he thinks this. Let me play this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARGARET BRENNAN, CBS MODERATOR, "FACE THE NATION": You said America lost the credible use -- the credible threat of force, which is another way of saying that President Trump's threats to return to bombing are empty threats.

SEN. BILL CASSIDY (R-LA): I don't know if they're empty threats because he can certainly return to bombing. But the fact is that a medium-sized power at this point is perceived to have fought a superpower to a draw --

BRENNAN: Um-hum.

CASSIDY: -- requiring some measure of accommodation of we, the superpower. Uh, and we've spent $29 billion and we have 13 Americans dead.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Brett, is that a lesson from this so far?

MCGURK: I think the perception right now, including in the Middle East, is that Iran came out of this with more advantage than we did. And going into the war Iran was perceived to be in its weakest position since the '79 revolution. You had the uprisings. You had, again, the effective military campaign last summer, which was very different than this one. So that is the perception. But I have to say, last week, you know, Iran was taking a victory lap. We controlled the strait. Lebanon -- we kind of have sovereign say of what happens. And they were tripped up a little bit late last week both by the U.S. demonstrating hey, we're going to actually have a say. We're willing to use force to control -- to enforce our understanding of the Strait of Hormuz.

[07:40:08]

And then in Lebanon, the Lebanese government said hey, we -- we're sovereign over our territory and they negotiated an agreement with Israel with I think very good diplomacy by the State Department, which kind of undercut some of what Iran believes is in the MoU for its influence in Lebanon.

So the bottom line, this has a ways to play out. I wouldn't just --

BOLDUAN: Yeah.

MCGURK: -- kind of take a snapshot now and say it's locked in place. But yeah, that is the perception as we talk here this morning.

BOLDUAN: A ways to go.

It's good to see you both. Thank you so much -- Sara.

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

Accused healthcare CEO killer Luigi Mangione back in court today here in New York for a pretrial hearing. Sources are telling CNN his attorneys discussed a possible plea agreement with federal prosecutors, but those talks ended without a deal.

At today's hearing, jury questionnaires and jury selection will be the focus ahead of Mangione's federal trial.

CNN legal analyst and criminal defense attorney Joey Jackson is here with me now.

Look, CNN learned that the prosecutors and defense were exploring a potential plea deal. The defense team, though, is denying that.

So the question to you is why is the defense team denying something like a plea deal, and why would prosecutors, who say they have all this evidence, entertain the idea of a potential plea deal?

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY, FORMER PROSECUTOR: Yeah. So, Sara, good morning to you.

So a couple of things, right? The defense is denying it because they have to, and you have to because you have a jury pool that's going to be convened for this trial. If a jury gets wind of, right -- people are tuned in, whether it's social media --

SIDNER: Yeah. JACKSON: -- whether it's CNN watching you, you know, people are tuned in to what happens. And if you're entertaining a plea deal it means you're guilty, doesn't it? Um, I say not.

Look, the issue is that we always look and determine whether or not it may be in the client's interest to entertain the deal. What is the plea deal? Should we cut our losses? Would it be more favorable than going to trial? And so oftentimes plea deals are entered into because it's the best course of action.

As to why a prosecutor having all this evidence may do that -- look, there's always an interest as opposed to going forward full bore, right? There's resources that are involved.

SIDNER: Right.

JACKSON: There's a lot of things that go into a trial. If you can negotiate a deal which is reasonable enough for public safety and security and it meets the interest of the victim's families, et cetera, you think about it. Prosecutors are under no obligation to do that. Defense is under no obligation to take a deal. But certainly it's the dynamic and most often than not in cases that plea deals and discussions at least are entered into.

SIDNER: I cannot help but ask you about another case that is expected to be in court. Alex Murdaugh, for the first time since his murder convictions were overturned --

JACKSON: Yeah.

SIDNER: -- heading into court.

What do we expect from this? I mean, this is a very -- this doesn't happen every day, let's just put it that way.

JACKSON: You know, interestingly enough, when you're facing, really, life on two particular -- two life sentences and all of a sudden it gets vacated, that's a big deal.

SIDNER: Yeah.

JACKSON: But people have to slow their roll. Why? We know that he's already in jail for, what, almost 40 years, right --

SIDNER: Right.

JACKSON: -- not that he's served that, but he looks to be based on pleas to federal cases dealing with financial crimes in addition to state cases.

So the issue for me, if a prosecutor is -- is it worth moving forward to retry him on this state case when you could fold it into time. He's not going anywhere and based on what he's facing now could be in jail for 90 years.

Having said that, certainly, the state has an interest, right? These are two murders -- one of his wife, one of his son.

SIDNER: Yeah.

JACKSON: He's denying it, of course.

However, they're in court today. What are they hashing out? They're hashing out whether there should be a change of venue moving forward if there is a trial. They're hashing out whether they get to independently test DNA analysis on certain items that were found. They're, you know, talking about the issue of whether or not he should wear street clothes --

SIDNER: Right.

JACKSON: -- or, you know, clothes --

SIDNER: Jail clothes, right.

JACKSON: -- or jail clothes --

SIDNER: Yeah.

JACKSON: -- though the defense has, you know, since withdrawn that. But they'll be discussing some things.

And finally, whether you should have a computer in jail. And that's important because your client needs to be a partner in their defense, Sara.

SIDNER: Right.

JACKSON: So interesting developments there.

SIDNER: Um, slow your roll should be added to legal jargon, I feel. I think that that's a really good way to put things. Slow your roll, jury.

JACKSON: I do agree.

SIDNER: Joey Jackson, we're changing the law right now as we speak.

Thank you so much. I do appreciate it.

JACKSON: Always.

SIDNER: John.

BERMAN: The Boston Red Sox could not beat anyone this season until they played the New York Yankees. They just swept them four games in a row in Boston. That's baseball.

As for soccer, the powerhouses play today -- Brazil, Netherlands, Morocco, Germany. This after Canada proved it's not just for hockey anymore.

[07:45:00] Let's get right to CNN's Amanda Davies for the latest on the dramatic Canadian win.

AMANDA DAVIES, CNN SPORTS REPORTER: Good morning.

A new generation of heroes is what they've been dubbed by Coach Jesse Marsch after his Canada team became the first side into the last 16 at the World Cup. The knockout stages have official begin and the tournament co-host not only beat South Africa in the round of 32 but won their first-ever World Cup knockout game.

Now, despite the fact they were playing outside of Canada in L.A., captain Alphonso Davies said it brought tears to his eyes seeing so many Canadians at a soccer match. They did leave it late, but it was 29-year-old LAFC player Stephen Eustquio who scored that dramatic winner in the second minute of time added on at the end of the 90, putting Canada through to wait for the winner of Monday's encounter between the Netherlands and Morocco.

Wimbledon returns this week and so does 44-year-old Serena Williams getting set for her first singles match in four years, having been given that wildcard and reversed her decision to evolve away from tennis after the U.S. Open in 2022. A 7-time champion in the singles events at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, she'll take on Australia's Maya Joint on Tuesday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SERENA WILLIAMS, 7-TIME WIMBLEDON SINGLES CHAMPION: Who knows if I'll ever make it here again. This could be it, you know. And so I was like what am I -- what's wrong with me, Serena? What are you thinking? Like, are you nuts? Like, you really should do this. People live to be an athlete, and I have this great opportunity to showcase what I do -- what I do best, I suppose. I think ultimately, I was like that is pretty cool, so I should do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DAVIES: Something very, very special about seeing Serena on those hallowed courts of SW19, John.

BERMAN: Yeah. I mean, imagine being so talented you can just decide to go play Wimbledon and maybe even have a good chance of doing pretty well.

Amanda Davies, great to see you. Thank you very much.

BOLDUAN: It's going to be great to see her play again.

BERMAN: So exciting.

BOLDUAN: So exciting.

All right. Still ahead for us, another close call on the runway after a private jet almost crosses in front of an American Airlines plane attempting to take off. And you also -- those tense moments -- you can -- it can be heard on air traffic control radio.

Plus, a new video of rescuers pulling a driver from a pond. What led to this.

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[07:51:25]

BERMAN: So this morning, as Politico puts it, a week that could electrify the left. Democratic primaries in Colorado tomorrow could tell us whether this leftward lurch we just saw in New York City is going national.

With us now, Andrew Desiderio, senior congressional reporter for Punchbowl News. Good morning, Andrew.

And really, like --

ANDREW DESIDERIO, SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, PUNCHBOWL NEWS: Good morning.

BERMAN: -- every level -- congressional races, a Senate primary out there, a gubernatorial primary -- you know, we are waiting to see if the left is even ascendant out there.

DESIDERIO: Yeah. So you're seeing it happen in these deep blue cities obviously, right? We saw it with New York City last week. This coming week we'll obviously see it potentially play out in another deep blue city in Denver, Colorado.

But I think the statewide primaries are actually more interesting to me because you look at a state like Colorado. Yes, it's a blue state, right, but it's got pockets of red and a lot of sort of moderate voters and registered Independents unaffiliated.

And so, you know, the -- for example, the gubernatorial primary -- you've got incumbent Sen. Michael Bennet who is seen as the frontrunner who was going to cruise to the nomination. He's having a really hard time right now against an insurgent progressive in the sitting attorney general in Colorado.

Senator Bennet has missed nearly every Senate vote actually for the last month or so because he's been at home in Colorado campaigning. That's something, if you talk to Senate Democrats, they were not expecting.

But I think it's this overall backlash we're seeing from voters of both parties, frankly, to Washington, D.C. in general -- both parties.

BERMAN: Yeah. Talk to me more about that. I want to quote Dan Pfeiffer from Pod Save America -- and a hat tip to Axios for pointing this out. Dan said, "It's very clear that groups of the left, Justice Democrats, Democratic Socialists of America, Our Revolution, are out-organizing, out-fundraising, out-working, out-maneuvering the traditional party institutions. That is happening. They have captured the energy." He goes on to say, "...if you are someone in the Democratic establishment, you should be deeply concerned about that."

What do you think?

DESIDERIO: I think he's absolutely right. Look, we've seen in so many races, so many primaries so far this year, that has obviously been the case.

And look, there is a sentiment among a faction of the left -- I would say a pretty significant faction of the left who believes that the current crop of Democrats who are in charge in Washington are not fighting hard enough. We saw that play out last year on Capitol Hill, for example, with those government shutdowns that we saw.

You know, earlier last year, just after Trump was first elected president, we saw some Democrats in the Senate approve some of the president's cabinet members, for example. That is coming back to bite a lot of Democrats.

For example, Sen. John Hickenlooper, who has got a primary challenger in Colorado tomorrow -- he's probably going to win that primary. It's not going to be an issue for him.

But this is something that, you know, the left progressives are using against incumbent Democrats and people who are viewed as part of the establishment because early on in Trump's presidency Democrats were a lot more contrite. They helped Republicans pass some legislation, too, and they even voted for some of his nominees as I mentioned as well. And now Democrats looking back on it obviously wish they hadn't.

But, you know, progressives -- these insurgent leftists are reminding voters that, you know, the incumbents -- the "establishment" has helped in their view enable Trump.

BERMAN: But the fact that Hickenlooper is even being mentioned in a sentence on the eve of a Democratic primary in Colorado shows you some of the trends here, even if he might emerge.

DESIDERIO: He famously never wanted to be in the Senate.

[07:55:00]

BERMAN: No. Well look, I don't think he wants to get his wish the hard way here though tomorrow.

Andrew Desiderio, thank you very much for that -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: So there's an investigation underway right now after a skydiving plane crashed in the northeast of France on Sunday. The crash killed everyone on board -- a pilot and 10 passengers. Officials say the plane crashed almost vertically, is how they described it, and right next to a housing development. Thankfully, no bystanders or anyone on the ground were among the casualties.

This also comes just weeks after another skydiving plane crash that we reported on. You're probably thinking you've heard of this. That one crashed right after takeoff in Missouri. Twelve people were killed there.

There's also this. NASA is racing to save a telescope that could potentially crash back to Earth. It's called the "Swift" telescope. It's been apparently sinking in space because of recent intense solar activity. Now NASA is teaming up with a robotic spacecraft company for a $30 million salvage operation essentially pushing Swift back into higher orbit. Officials say that the -- that this operation -- this mission will take around three months.

Kate Middleton climbed the three highest peaks in the U.K. over the weekend. Here's a little picture of it. She did it all solo and she did it to raise awareness for cancer. More than a year after she announced that her cancer is in remission, the Princess of Wales completed the national Three Peaks Challenge. She climbed 23 miles over the three highest mountains of Scotland, England, and Wales all within 24 hours -- Sara.

SIDNER: That's impressive.

BOLDUAN: Um-hum.

SIDNER: Good for her. That's good to see. Thank you so much, Kate.

This morning the FAA investigating after an American Airlines flight had to abort its takeoff Friday evening. The American flight, which was headed to Bermuda, aborted takeoff when the flight crew saw a business jet on the runway leading to this tense exchange between air traffic control and the business jet pilot.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL: 4 Quebec Sierra.

BUSINESS JET PILOT: 4 Quebec Sierra.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL: 4 Quebec Sierra, you just crossed an active runway. Hold short of runway 8 left.

BUSINESS JET PILOT: You just told me to cross the runway, sir.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL: No, we said Amerijet 461.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Yikes. The close call is the latest in a string of recent incidents as we head into the busy July Fourth travel weekend.

On Friday, a United Airlines passenger jet nearly collided with a drone as it was coming in to land in New Jersey, according to its pilot.

Joining me now, CNN safety analyst and former FAA safety inspector David Soucie. It is so good to have you when these sorts of incidents happen.

I do want to ask you about -- first, about this drone. The pilot described it as about three feet in size, which is pretty big. If that would have hit the plane what could the consequence be?

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST, FORMER FAA SAFETY INSPECTOR: Very significant, particularly if it got into the engine itself because that kind of material -- you've got hard materials, plastic materials, composite materials, and metals going directly into an engine and can cause significant damage -- probably an engine out and perhaps a back -- a backflash of the engine power going back out through the front of the engine causing fires.

SIDNER: Um, terrifying -- the thought of it. And I know this has become a real issue.

How common or how dangerous is it? Or as pilots are trying to navigate, the fact that people are flying drones in areas where flights are taking off and landing -- which most drones, if they're doing it legally, they won't even -- they are disabled from being able to do that. So clearly, there's a problem here.

SOUCIE: Yeah, definitely there is.

One of the situations is back in the mid-2005-2007 area we were really pushed at the FAA to try to get drones into the airspace by Congress, and we did do that. I think that there was a lot of things that were overlooked.

For example, if you're doing things right. If you have a licensed pilot -- I'm a licensed pilot for remote aircraft -- you know the airspace. You know how to get in and out of the airspace where you can and can't safely do that. What we didn't do was anticipate the number of drones that are out there right now that have the capability to get into that airspace. And so there's not a lot we can do to mitigate people that are not playing by the rules from being in those airspace areas.

So I think that's -- to me, that's one of the largest concerns I have about air safety at this point is the fact that there are so many drones that can potentially get into that airspace.

SIDNER: Yeah. It is a -- it's kind of a terrifying prospect because so many people have access to drones -- both people who are professionals who have taken the test and people who are novices who are just playing with them.

Um, now to the planes ending up on the runway and that business jet sort of crossing over into an active runway.

Does this seem to you like just a -- you know, a miscommunication that sometimes happens or is this something that is indicative of a system that's really stressed to the max with so many flights and not enough air traffic controllers?

SOUCIE: Well, first of all, Sara, I'd like to point out the fact that this pilot was heads up enough to see what's going on and make a go- around --

SIDNER: Yeah. SOUCIE: -- to make sure that didn't happen.