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U.S. Unleashes New Strikes on Iran; Historical Look at Democratic Losses; Preliminary Hearing for Man Accused of Killing Charlie Kirk. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired July 09, 2026 - 09:30   ET

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

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[09:32:42]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: The breaking news that we have coming in, really been all throughout the show, but we have new images coming in this hour. Iranian state media posting an image of boats they say were damaged in a U.S. airstrike this morning.

Meanwhile, Jordan says it intercepted Iranian missile fire after air raid sirens rang out just hours ago. The U.S. embassy there issued an alert telling people to seek shelter immediately.

Also from Iranian state media, they've been reporting new daylight strikes from the U.S., including reports of attacks on the perimeter of a nuclear power plant along the coast.

Joining me right now, CNN political and global affairs commentator Sabrina Singh, and CNN national security analyst Alex Plitsas.

It's good to see you both.

Alex, what -- the strikes on the perimeter of this nuclear power plant along the Persian Gulf -- the Persian coast is -- the gulf coast is, I don't know, it's sticking out to me this morning. What do you make of that as a target from the United States in this what seems to be a real escalated round of fire?

ALEX PLITSAS, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Sure. So, there seem to have been attacks along power infrastructure along the coast altogether. So, it wasn't an attack necessarily on Iran's nuclear program and some of the elements of that, which is what people were waiting to see. It's in line with the rest of the targets. So, power. We just heard, as you mentioned, boats along the coast. It really was targeting all of their capabilities to launch offensive operations against boats in the Strait.

BOLDUAN: Alex, is it -- is that a -- the U.S. says it's a retaliation for what was -- what Iran started up this week with attacking ships in the Strait.

PLITSAS: Right.

BOLDUAN: But do you see this as just that, or is this ceasefire now ceased, as we've heard a U.S. official say?

PLITSAS: So, speaking to U.S. officials yesterday at both the Pentagon and the State Department, the answer was, it largely depends on the Iranians. So, the last round before this one, the Iranians had basically fired on a boat off the coast of Oman because they thought the Omanis were backing away from what they thought was an understanding about mandatory tolls and fees. The Omani said very clearly, we don't support mandatory.

This time around, now they went after three boats in a 24-hour period. And what I'm told is it all relates back to Iran trying to impose its understanding of the MOU, that it controls the Strait, which what mediators told me they were stuck on right before we took a break for the ayatollah's funeral.

BOLDUAN: So, on that, Sabrina, negotiations, off the rails, or is it possible diplomacy is still happening behind the scenes despite what we're seeing here and President Trump's new -- really aggressive new level of threat?

[09:35:00]

SABRINA SINGH, CNN POLITICAL AND GLOBAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: Well, there's always a path for diplomacy. And I think both sides, both the U.S. and Iran, do not want to resume a full-scale war. But it is very clear the ceasefire has now ended. I mean in the last 48 hours, the U.S. military has struck about over 170 targets. That's nearly 14 times as more the targets they struck than they did in June when that first -- when the ceasefire was first broken. So, you know, diplomacy can always get back on track. But how difficult is that going to be now going forward? I think that remains to be seen.

I mean, I remember Vice President Vance saying, you know, the Iranians know that they can just call us and pick up the phone. It's really not that easy. This MOU was always very murky. It's being misinterpreted by both sides. So, to get things back on track, there's going to have to be more clarity, not only with the MOU, but both sides are going to need to come to the table. And we did see Iran actually attack Qatar, which is, we know, an interlocutor in these negotiations. So, kind of an interesting tactic that they're taking there as well.

BOLDUAN: On the Strait of Hormuz and when it comes to the MOU, Alex, what Amos Hochstein was speaking out after this -- after Iran started firing on ships earlier this week. And he said what this shows is that Iran still believes that it has control over the Strait of Hormuz and can continue to exert control over the Strait of Hormuz. That has been -- that is the central issue, as you highlight, with -- that when -- that needs to still be said, it's very clear, with any memorandum of understanding. Why would Iran now ever give up that leverage? Like, what -- this really has become, well, it didn't exist as a problem before the war. This has become a central focus here.

PLITSAS: It has been. And it's a matter of control. Sabrina was entirely right in the way that she characterized it. And so, for the Iranians, this is a means of trying to exert that, because they realized, before the 12 day war last year, their nuclear program was seen as a strategic deterrence, even though they hadn't chosen to weaponize yet. Then they realized their ballistic missile program could serve as strategic deterrence because it stopped the war short of an unconditional surrender. Now they've realized with a couple of cheap drones they can effectively shut down shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and affect control over it. So, is this to seek additional concessions from the United States? Are they going to continue to do this going forward? Not clear. But the mediators in the region have told me that they've had enough of the divide between the interlocutors that the Iranians sent to negotiate, and the IRGC told them that they needed a common understanding and the Iranians simply haven't gotten back to them as to what that means.

BOLDUAN: Well, that is a critical aspect of this and what happens now in the coming hours.

It's good to see you, Alex. Thank you.

Sabrina, it's great to see you, as always. Thank you so much.

There's new video also in showing the moments after the man accused of killing Charlie Kirk turned himself in to police. What is now expected to happen when court resumes today with his preliminary hearing.

And it was a shocking scene that was caught on camera. A man in a wheelchair attacked at random. Just look at this. What happened here, and how witnesses quickly tried to come to his rescue.

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[09:42:35]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: This summer we have seen Democratic incumbents losing in primaries in ways we just haven't seen before. What, if any, historical precedent is there for this? With us now, CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten.

So, if you squint a little bit --

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Yes.

BERMAN: I know this is somewhat unprecedented, but we've seen something a little bit like it before.

ENTEN: We have seen something like this before. You have to go back 16 years. Remember, it was that Republican Tea Party wave of 2010. I would argue the Democratic version of it is a new Tea Party, but it's on steroids.

Why do I say that? Well, let's just start off with the fact, approve of their own party in Congress. Republicans in July of 2010, it was 52 percent. A very low percentage. But at least it was north of 50 percent. Look at where we are now with Democrats in terms of them approving their own members of Congress. It's actually below 50 percent. Democrats dislike their party more than Republicans did during the Tea Party wave of 2010. Just 47 percent of Democrats now approve of their own party in Congress. As I said, it's a new Tea Party, but it's a Tea Party on steroids.

BERMAN: And we're seeing the impact it's having on some Democratic incumbents.

ENTEN: Absolutely the case. You know, if you look at the number of Democratic incumbents, House incumbents who have gone down to defeat, it's actually higher in the House than it was back in 2010. House incumbents who went -- who lost primaries for Republicans back in 2010, it was one, two. You can count it on one hand. But in 2026, so far, it's already five. It's already five. You have to use up all the digits on your one hand. It's five so far. Even if you include Lisa Murkowski going down to defeat in a 2010 Senate primary. Of course, she then went on to win as a write-in candidate in the fall. And you include the Senate. That only gets you to three. Still, we're dealing with more defeats right now in Congress for Democrats, those Democratic incumbents than you even saw during the Tea Party wave for Republicans back in 2010.

BERMAN: And the prediction markets think it might get even worse.

ENTEN: It could get even worse. In fact, it's likely to get even worse. So, if you look at the Kalshi prediction mark and the chance that six House Democrats go down to defeat, lose their primary in 2026, this number has consistently, over the last week or so, been hovering 80 percent, 90 percent. And when we talk about history books, the history books, right. If, in fact, six House Democrats went down to defeat in 2026, it would be by far it would be the largest number, it would be the largest number in a post-redistricting cycle for Democrats in, get this, over 50 years. That's why I got this picture of the Tea Party on your screen right now because, you know what, it's 250, but also it's a new Tea Party for Democrats.

[09:45:05]

BERMAN: I was just in Boston. I saw where this all took place.

All right, and we're talking about some of the specific races where incumbents might be in trouble.

ENTEN: Yes, I mean there are a number of races where they might be in trouble. How about Missouri One, right? There's a possibility. How about a Michigan 13? That's a real possibility in terms of a House Democrat going down to defeat. And then in Connecticut One as well, another real possibility. And this is just what we've been seeing over and over and over again. We have been seeing that these incumbents have been going down to defeat. And it looks like there are going to be plenty more, at least if you listen to the Kalshi prediction markets, where people put their money where their mouths are.

BERMAN: Could be an historic summer, Harry Enten.

A lot of news this morning. We'll be right back.

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[09:50:16] BERMAN: A federal judge is ordering President Trump to pay up. The judge rejected the president's latest attempt to delay paying former magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll. A jury found him liable for defaming her over allegations of sexual abuse. His legal team had asked not to release the $5 million payout until the Supreme Court decides if it will look at the case again. President Trump says he will also ask the Supreme Court to intervene in a different lawsuit Carroll brought forward, which resulted in an $83 million payout.

A horrible incident in Oklahoma City. A man is now in custody after video shows him throwing a Molotov cocktail at a man in a wheelchair. This happened outside the Oklahoma City Police Department. KOCO reports officers and a bystander jumped in to help, pulling the victim away from the flames and holding down the suspect. The victim is expected to recover.

Near Canton, Ohio, an attempted murder suspect in a carjacked minivan led police on a chase spanning two counties and a golf course.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Holy (EXPLETIVE DELETED), he's coming right at us. (EXPLETIVE DELETED). Holy (EXPLETIVE DELETED). Oh, my God.

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BERMAN: A lot of reasons to swear there. The suspect crashed the stolen van into a police cruiser, flipping it. An officer inside the cruiser was able to get out moments before impact.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You all right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got out maybe five to 10 seconds before.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I saw it.

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BERMAN: This morning, the suspect is facing several felony charges.

All right, the State Department is working on a system that will allow participants -- or applicants, I should say, to take and upload passport photos using their phones or computers more easily. Now, you can already supposedly upload your own passport photos, but they must meet strict requirements, and most people end up paying to get them taken. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the new system will use facial recognition technology to make the process quicker. Renewing your passport is somewhere in between like rocket science and brain surgery in terms of how easy it is. So, any progress would be most welcome, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Much appreciated. Exactly.

So, let's turn to this now. A major development in the case against the man accused of murdering Charlie Kirk. A judge has decided to allow prosecutors to play a portion of the video statement that came from Tyler Robinson's former roommate as part of the ongoing preliminary hearing that's been happening all this week.

CNN's Jean Casarez is tracking this.

Talk to me about this former roommate, how important this is now to, well, just the case in general.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's critical because the charging document has seven counts. Two of those counts are tampering with a witness. And the witness being the roommate.

BOLDUAN: OK.

CASAREZ: And so those charges say that Tyler Robinson allegedly told his roommate, delete all the texts between us. And secondly, if law enforcement tries to talk to you, say nothing. Refuse to answer their questions. So, those are those counts. So, it's critical that the prosecution get into evidence this recording.

And what it's going to be is it's a sworn statement in the form of an interview with law enforcement, April 20th of this year it was given. And the defense fought aggressively to not allow this to be published in the courtroom for them to watch it and listen to it, or to the media. Media attorney aggressively asked for it to be public for everyone to know. So, the judge really sort of did a compromise, and he's -- it's a 37-minute sworn statement on tape. He's going to allow 20 minutes of it to be broadcast.

Now, in the courtroom, you're going to be able to watch it and listen to it. If you're the public, which we are, we're going to be able to hear it. But 20 minutes is a bit of information. There's a lot of -- they had texts, they had Discord messages. There was a message on a piece of paper underneath a computer. And so all of that is going to be critically important.

But the defense said, there's a jury pool out there. The jury pool is going to be tainted. Although a lot of this is already public. And they said they will not concede in any way that this is a confession.

But I think the moment that was unexpected was when the Kirk family -- Kirk attorney stood up right after the media attorney and really aggressively asked the judge to make this public for everyone to see exactly what the evidence is at this point.

Listen.

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JEFFREY NEIMAN, KIRK FAMILY ATTORNEY: The Kirk family believes strongly that if the evidence is being admitted in this preliminary hearing, it should be made public for the world to see, no redactions.

To not be transparent here, to not be open, to not let the world see what happened will create doubt and distrust in the judicial system. And that's not what anybody wants.

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[09:55:06]

CASAREZ: So, this preliminary hearing will be finished. It was solidified yesterday in court on Friday. However, the judge has got to make the decision. And the defense is going to ask that these charges be dismissed, because they're going to argue that there is not probable cause to bind this case over for trial. The judge will have to make his record because if it does go forward, of course, there's going to be an appeal if there's conviction. And so, this is an important part of the case. But next would be the formal entry of the plea of Tyler Robinson.

BOLDUAN: Still, I mean, being able to hear, you said 20 minutes from this statement from the former roommate of Tyler Robinson is going to be quite something, even though it's not the full thing. But it seems the compromise that the judge is trying to achieve here, it's important stuff.

CASAREZ: I think it's definitely going to have information we've never heard before.

BOLDUAN: Thank you so much, Jean.

And make sure -- you can catch Jean's live coverage of this hearing. That kicks off at 11 a.m. on CNN All Access.

BERMAN: That's all for CNN NEWS CENTRAL this morning. "THE SITUATION ROOM" is up next.

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