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Katie Couric Shares Her Bout With Temporary Amnesia; U.S. & Iran Trade New Strikes After Trump Says Ceasefire is Over; Iran Says It Hit U.S. Military Sites in Kuwait, Bahrain & Qatar; Video Statement of Key Witness Played in Utah Court; Platner Drops Maine Senate Bid After Rape Accusation; NASA Wants Volunteers for Yearlong Moon & Mars Simulation. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired July 09, 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]

DR. DAVID LANGER, NEUROSURGERY CHAIR, NORTHWELL LENOX HILL HOSPITAL: -- what it means to be conscious. I think when you go through this, it's -- I mean, it's like, if you have a spinal cord injury and you can't move your arms or your legs, you have this experience where you realize how poor the spinal cord is.

Certainly when you have these situations, it's very scary because there's a complete disconnection between your sense of who you are and lack of control. And there's loss of something that you'll never regain again. And particularly with people who are really like Katie Couric, who's a very verbal, intelligent person, who's very insightful obviously, and it's loss of control. And also, you start to sense it's a loss of the humanity of like your own consciousness, which is just what makes the brain so interesting.

I think the only one I have had patients come to me or I've treated them, you know, it's a reminder of our humanity, a reminder of how fragile our lives are and how we're so dependent on our sense of consciousness of the persons that we are. But by the same token, in some ways, it's kind of wonderful, like, oh my God, this brain of mine, it's so incredibly amazing, and I'm going to be fine because these things never happen again and there's no repercussions.

So I think that's the best answer to that.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Yeah. And now that she's writing about it, I think there's a lot of people out there who, if it does happen to them, their loved ones, and ultimately they will go, oh, that's what that was. Maybe they won't be so alarmed.

LANGER: Yeah.

KEILAR: Dr. Langer, great to speak with you about this. Thank you.

LANGER: Thanks a lot.

(CROSSTALK)

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": A new hour of "CNN News Central" stars right now.

KEILAR: A new hour of "CNN News Central" stars right now.

(LAUGH)

KEILAR: The ceasefire is crumbling and attacks are ramping up. The U.S. and Iran exchanged strikes for a second day while mediators scrambled to get Tehran and Washington back to the negotiating table.

SANCHEZ: And the search is back on. Democrats need a new nominee after Graham Platner exits the Senate race in Maine, and the clock for them now is ticking. Plus, a dangerous heat wave about to hit the West Coast. Some cities could see temperatures rise into the triple digits.

We're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to "CNN News Central."

We start with Breaking News in the Middle East. New strikes across the region as the shaky ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran appears to be collapsing. Iranian officials say the U.S. hit several locations today along the Persian Gulf.

KEILAR: At the same time, officials in Jordan say 10 Iranian ballistic missiles were fired at a U.S. military base there, but they were intercepted.

Sources say key mediators from Qatar and Pakistan are scrambling to try to get both sides back to the negotiating table. CNN Anchor, Pamela Brown is traveling with American forces in the Arabian Sea as this new exchange of fire unfolds. She's actually on board the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, where the flight deck has been very busy throughout the day.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT & ANCHOR: What I can tell you is that the stakes are raised. They have been in this conflict and engaged in some way for five-and-a-half months now or been ready to jump back in to go to war. I can tell you today, given the fact that there were overnight strikes on Iran just these last (inaudible) are taking on a new meaning.

I asked the admiral who oversees the ship as well as the destroyers, if there is a heightened threat alert. He said, look, you know, we are always looking for threats, and he didn't necessarily say that there was a heightened threat alert, but I do think it is notable that you have the destroyer here coming close to the ship in this moment of high intensity, right?

You had the ceasefire. Things calmed down. There was the funeral in Iran where there was a pause in the negotiations, and these last few days have really changed the calculus. And so we'll have to wait and see if there will be more strikes. We know that the two aircraft carriers are capable of that as well as these destroyers that we know have been used since the beginning of the war with those Tomahawk missiles targeting land targets in Iran.

But also that destroyer right there, among several others, it has intercepted ballistic missiles and drones that were directly targeting the Abraham Lincoln. This ship I'm on right now is considered a high- value target, and that destroyer right there has intercepted multiple threats from Iran with Iran trying to hit this ship.

Now also, it's worth noting that part of Iran's military strategy has been this sort of cost imbalance with these cheap drones and the military using more expensive ballistic missiles and other ways of taking it down. I'm told that they're trying to evolve and use cheaper weapons, but it's a very active dynamic environment out here.

KEILAR: Our thanks to Pamela for her reporting there.

[14:05:00]

Let's talk more about all of this with former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, General Wesley Clark. He's also the Founder of Renew America Together. General, thanks for being with us here.

The U.S. military says it's carried out about 170 strikes over the last two nights, so this is an increase by a significant factor of what we have seen here recently. They say they're targeting things like Iranian air defense systems, missiles, drone storage sites, military logistics infrastructure. How are you seeing where we are right now?

GEN. WESLEY CLARK (RET.), FORMER NATO SUPREME ALLIED COMMANDER: Well, first, let me just say I'm really proud of the men and women who are out there on those ships. They've been out for a long time, they're doing a great job, and just seeing that really makes me feel really proud of them.

But where we are right now is, we're going after the Strait of Hormuz. And the more the Iranians push back at us, the more we take out in the Strait of Hormuz. This is the strategic center of gravity of this operation.

So they're very foolish to come back and give us the opportunity to go strike, and we are taking out those targets. Will we eventually get all of the targets out, everything that could hurt shipping? Probably not, but we'll get close to it. We'll take their bargaining leverage down, and that's the way to move forward to some kind of a negotiation.

As long as they feel they're totally dominant in the Strait, they have no reason to come to the table, really.

SANCHEZ: A big part of the question, General, is how far the U.S. would have to go with strikes, because even President Trump, before the MOU was signed, acknowledged that bombs only go so far in negotiating an outcome to the Strait reopening. So what options does the president have to get Tehran to offer those concessions at this point?

CLARK: Well, first of all, it is about getting the Straits reopened. And so at this point, I would not recommend that we go after energy infrastructure or Kharg Island, hold them hostage to further non- compliance by Iran. But step by step, strike by strike, we are reducing Iran's ability to affect shipping through the Gulf. There's a lot going on that we're not seeing. There's things happening underwater. There's reconnaissance. There's other stuff that's going on.

And there is a finite target set that we're going after. We're working it every day. We've collected it. We're a long way down the road from where we were when fighting stopped officially like six weeks ago, because we never stopped building our target deck. We never stopped watching the Iranians. We never stopped planning on what we could do.

So I'm relatively optimistic that this is the right course of action. This will either get the Straits permanently opened or bring the Iranians back into the table to open the Strait. And I think it's perfectly appropriate the president talks about going after Kharg Island and so forth.

But right now, the center of gravity isn't Kharg Island. It's really -- it's not the Iranian economy. It's the Strait of Hormuz. And it is vulnerable. It's in a fixed location. We have air superiority. We've got other means of striking in there. So they exposed themselves. They could be seen, they could be hit, and they could be destroyed.

KEILAR: And how concerned are you about these U.S. bases in Qatar, in Bahrain, in Jordan, in other U.S. allies in the region?

CLARK: Well, we've had plenty of warning time now to take care of our exposed personnel. So I'm sure we're well protected in there. We don't have people out in the open in those connects like command centers where we lost our troops there early on in Kuwait.

But still, you have to intercept every missile, and maybe one will get through. So yes, there's some concern about this. But the thing is, Brianna, this is a war that was going to happen. It was just inevitable that the Iranians would push this and push this and push this. They still got an enormous missile capacity. They're going to be very hard to move on giving up their nuclear capacity.

So I think we're in for quite a struggle here. But the first step in being able to sustain that is to get the Strait of Hormuz open and keep it open.

SANCHEZ: Retired General Wesley Clark, thanks so much for sharing your perspective.

CLARK: Thank you very much, Boris. Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Of course. Still to come, prosecutors in Utah playing a videotaped statement from the former roommate of the man accused of killing Charlie Kirk. Why Kirk's family wants that evidence made public.

KEILAR: Plus, back to square one. Democrats are searching for a new candidate in the Maine Senate race after their scandal-plagued nominee bows out. We'll discuss their replacement plan. And then later, NASA is recruiting volunteers. The mission, spend a whole year living like you are on the moon and Mars. We'll have that and much more coming up on "CNN News Central."

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[14:14:37]

KEILAR: A short time ago, prosecutors in Utah presented what they consider some of the most important evidence in the killing of conservative activist, Charlie Kirk. They showed a recorded statement by the former roommate of Kirk's suspected killer, Tyler Robinson. This is a video from September of 2025, and prosecutors say their communications show Robinson admitted to gunning down Kirk on September 10th last year at Utah Valley University.

[14:15:00]

SANCHEZ: A Utah judge is holding this preliminary hearing all week to determine if there's enough evidence for Robinson's case to proceed to trial. CNN's Nick Watt has been following all the developments inside the courtroom. Nick, tell us what the roommate has been saying in this recording.

NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Boris, the defense tried very hard to have this not shown in court. It has been shown, redactions, et cetera. But we have seen Lance Twiggs is the name that we are using. There has been speculation that Twiggs was undergoing a gender transition.

Both prosecution and defense have alluded to that. But Twiggs says, introduced as mister, uses the name Lance, said that Luna (ph) was used at some point to some people, but not an overall thing. Anyway, it appears Twiggs and Robinson were dating from sometime in 2023. They shared an apartment, but not a room.

And Twiggs says that Robinson didn't talk a lot about politics, did mention Trump and a few votes occasionally, but never heard Robinson talk about Charlie Kirk. Now, we want to show you, want to play a little bit of this when Twiggs is talking about when Tyler Robinson returned to their shared apartment the day after Charlie Kirk was killed.

Let's play that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LANCE TWIGGS, TYLER ROBINSON'S FORMER ROOMMATE: Did he talk about what he had done?

Didn't go into detail. He just -- I just asked him in person if what he said was true than I before. And he said it was. He started crying a little bit and said he wishes he hadn't done it, and then kept going around and just doing stuff, I think, to keep himself busy or distracted or something.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATT: Now, also in court, an agent with the State Bureau of Investigations talked the court through some of the text messages between Tyler Robinson and Twiggs. Let's play a little bit of that as well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm still OK, my love, but I'm stuck in Orem for a little while longer yet. Shouldn't be long until I can come home, but got to grab my rifle still. To be honest, I had hoped to keep this secret till I died of old age. I am sorry to involve you.

And then Lance replies, you weren't the one who did it, right? And Tyler says, I am, I'm sorry. To that Lance says, I thought they caught the person. And then Tyler says, no, they grabbed some crazy old dude and interrogated someone in similar clothing. I'd planned to grab my rifle from the drop point shortly after.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATT: So this whole hearing is for the prosecution to try and put evidence to the judge to convince the judge that there's enough evidence to actually put Tyler Robinson on trial. This evidence that we saw today, the interview with Twiggs and those messages exchanged back and forth, key to the case that the prosecution is trying to mount against Tyler Robinson. Guys?

SANCHEZ: We'll see what comes next in this preliminary hearing. Nick Watt, thank you so much.

Still to come, Iran says they are targeting U.S. bases in the Middle East after U.S. forces hit targets along Iran's coast. We are live in Tehran, after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:22:59]

SANCHEZ: Regional sources have confirmed to CNN that Pakistan and Qatar are working to bring the U.S. and Iran back to the negotiating table following dueling airstrikes.

KEILAR: Iran accused the U.S. of launching new overnight attacks and said it responded with missiles directed at a U.S. base in Jordan.

CNN Senior International Correspondent, Frederik Pleitgen is in Tehran. We do want to note that CNN operates in Iran only with the permission of the government, but maintains full editorial control of its reports.

Fred, what more have you learned about Iran's response?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, it certainly seemed as though there was a lot of escalation going on, Brianna, between the United States and Iran, really over the past 48 hours, if you will.

You recall, of course, in the overnight hours from Tuesday to Wednesday, there were those strikes by the United States against coastal areas, especially in the Strait of Hormuz. And then last night, the U.S. even broadened that and hit some areas in the northern part of the Persian Gulf, around the town of Bushehr. Now, the Iranians then hit back.

But today, the Iranians said that during the daylight hours, that area around Bushehr was hit again and there's a nuclear power plant there. And the Iranians say that the vicinity of that was also hit. We don't have confirmation of that from the United States yet, but that's what the Iranians are putting out there and definitely saying that there were airstrikes going on.

As far as Jordan is concerned, the Iranians are actually confirming that they launched 10 ballistic missiles at a U.S. base in Jordan. The Jordanians are obviously saying that they dealt with that, but we're hearing sirens going (inaudible). I'm still saying that there are difficult waters, if you will, between the United States and Iran, with the Iranians using some of those heavier ballistic missiles that don't just travel into the Gulf region, but further into the Middle East towards Jordan.

The Iranians are saying that there will continue to be strong responses if all of this continues. Nevertheless, as you guys noted, the Qataris and the Pakistanis, others trying to bring down the temperature. All of this, of course, happening, very important hours here in Iran as Iran's slain Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei being laid to rest in Mashhad, one of the holiest cities of Shia Islam, guys.

[14:25:00]

SANCHEZ: And Fred, to that point, there are questions about whether the public will see his son, Iran's new Supreme Leader, Khamenei, for the first time. He's not yet made a public appearance.

PLEITGEN: Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, you're absolutely right, Boris, has taken the reign shortly after his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed. And so far, not even that he's not been seen in public, he's only communicated through written messages so far. Nevertheless, the power center here and supporters of the Islamic Republic of Iran, who of course have been on the streets here over the past couple of days as these funeral ceremonies have been going on, insist that he's in charge, that he's running not just the country, but of course also the dealings with the United States, trying to get those negotiations going, so far has not made a public appearance.

You're absolutely right, Boris. There was some talk of him possibly appearing today. But we are now in the pretty late evening hours, those ceremonies pretty much coming to a close very soon, so highly unlikely that we are going to see him today. But again, over the past couple of days, at various of these events that we've seen for those extended funeral ceremonies, that question has been raised time and again, guys (ph). KEILAR: All right, Fred. Thank you so much for that report from Tehran.

And coming up, we'll have more on our Breaking News. The uptick in the U.S. and Iran trading strikes and new scrutiny over the ceasefire agreement that was supposed to prevent this. We'll discuss that next.

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