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Manhunt For Assassin Stretches On As Minnesota Mourns Lawmaker; Huge Washington Parade Celebrates U.S. Army's 250th Anniversary; Iran And Israel Trade Strikes As Conflict Rages; India Launches Inspection Of Boeing 787s After Air India Crash. Aired 10-11p ET

Aired June 14, 2025 - 22:00   ET

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

[22:00:00]

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: That we're also the U.S. is giving some length here to Israel. So as we sort of reset this day, boy, the challenges for this administration, the applause from the parade will end and the reality sets in tomorrow.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Natasha, Jeff and Jamie, thank you so much for your reporting and all of your expertise tonight. And thank you so much for staying with us for what has been a very busy evening and of course, a happy 250th anniversary to the Army. I'm Brianna Keilar here in Washington.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: And I'm Boris Sanchez. John Berman picks up our coverage right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN Breaking News.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: All right. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. I'm John Berman live in New York. We are following multiple breaking stories at this hour. In Washington, the U.S. Army's 250th birthday parade just wrapped up. At the same time, across the United States, thousands rallied in anti-Trump demonstrations. They are still going on. We'll have a live look at some of them very shortly.

In the Middle East, Israel and Iran carry out new strikes and we are getting new reports of fatalities from inside Israel. But we begin in Minnesota where a manhunt is underway at this late hour after two state lawmakers and their spouses were shot. Two people are dead. Governor Tim Walz says it looks like a politically motivated assassination. The FBI released these photos of the suspect, 57-year old Vance Boelter.

Authorities believe he may have been disguised as a police officer during the attacks and they are investigating the possibility that he wore a latex, a rubber face mask. We're now learning that SWAT teams and officers from multiple agencies are searching his property.

Melissa Hortman, the former top Democrat in the Minnesota House, was killed in her home Saturday morning along with her husband. Officials say the suspect also targeted state Senator John Hoffman and his wife, but they survived the shooting and have now undergone surgery. Let's get right to Blaine, Minnesota. CNA's Whitney Wild's been

covering this from the beginning. Whitney, what are you learning at this hour?

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: At this point, John, law enforcement is still very much on this absolutely massive manhunt as they try to find out where Vance Boelter ran to. What we know, John, is that this all started at 2 this morning when Vance Boelter, according to law enforcement, went to the home of state Senator John Hoffman. And he was dressed just like a law enforcement officer.

In fact, his uniform, his fake uniform looked so realistic that even the law, local law enforcement when they were discussing this with media earlier today said if he was in this room, you would think he was a real cop. He banged on the door. He presented himself as law enforcement and that's when State Senator John Hoffman opened the door for him. And that's when he unfortunately was hit with so many rounds of gunfire.

As you said, he is going to be OK. That is the miraculous good news. What law enforcement said happened next was that the 911 calls came in and then it was actually a neighboring police department that helped that local police department at John Hoffman's home. And it was an astute sergeant on the shift who when he found out the State Senator Hoffman had been targeted, said, let's go to the representative in our district, Representative Melissa Hortman's home. And so that's when those shift patrols went to Melissa Hortman's home.

John, at this point, this was around 3:35 in the morning and it was those patrols that encountered the suspect as he was exiting Hortman's home, again dressed like a police officer. He had an SUV that had lights on it, very much looking like real law enforcement.

But it was in that moment that he exited the home when he saw the real cops that he opened fire and then he ran. Unfortunately, we know that, as you said, states State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband both died. There are many more questions to answer here, John, but our fantastic investigative team has done a very deep dive on Vance Boelter.

And what we know is that he was the director of security patrols for a company called the Praetorian Guard Security Services. And this is really critical, John, because they offer random armed patrols, which suggests that's how he might have had access to all of this gear that looked very much like enforcement. This firm was also registered to Boelter's home address and enlisted a woman who is apparently his wife as the president and CEO.

She's not responded to CNN's outreach, but earlier today our affiliate Carol Levin spoke with a man who knew Vance Boelter very well. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID CARLSON, SUSPECT'S FRIEND AND ROOMMATE: Baby dead shortly. So I just want to let you know I love you guys both and I wish gone this way.

[22:05:00]

I don't want to say anything more and implicate you in any way because you guys don't know anything about this. But I love you guys and I'm sorry for all the trouble this has caused.

I mean, he was a loving, caring guy, you know, loved his family, loved his friends and loved God. And I don't know why he did what he did. It's just -- it's not Vance. No one will believe this. No one that grew up. He had lots of friends. Trust me. I wish I could have been there to stop him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WILD: John that sentiment was echoed by other people that our investigative team spoke with. For example, Vance Boelter was an outspoken evangelical Christian who had also traveled to Africa to tell his faith story. And you know, people who knew him in that capacity were absolutely stunned.

At this, law enforcement is still trying to define more specifically the motivation for this attack, John, but they say absolutely this was a targeted attack. As you heard Governor Walz say, absolutely this was a politically motivated attack. And they are leaning on that long list of names as the, you know, basically definitive piece of evidence that is leading them toward this.

Absolutely. Again, this definition that this was a politically motivated attack. That manifesto, that list of target names was it was around 70 people. It was mostly Democratic lawmakers and people with ties to Planned Parenthood. John, many more question, namely where is he? Back to you.

BERMAN: Where is he? Indeed that is the story tonight. Whitney Wilde in Blaine, Minnesota. Please keep us posted as this manhunt is very much full on. With us now, CNN chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst John Miller. John, what are you learning about the manhunt and the suspect at this hour?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, they are looking at what is his network, what is his circle of friends, what is his ability to put distance between himself and this crime? This happens as Whitney described in the predawn hours.

But after the shooting, even though he flees the scene of the crime, allegedly, leaving behind his fake police car, additional weapons, more ammunition. Interestingly, in a bag of ammunition found in the car, they say they found a Father's day card signed by Jenny, the same name as his wife. But where does he go?

The next time they see him? He's in a commercial location in Minneapolis. That's an 18 minute drive or about 11.1 miles away from that crime scene. So how did he get there? And once he did get there, what was he doing in Minneapolis? Was it to disappear into the big city? Was it to blend into the crowd and get away from the very intense

manhunt, house to house and door to door, or does he have additional targets planned with the weapons he still has on him, or is he looking to get a vehicle and put more distance between them?

All of these are open questions now that the people behind that manhunt are facing.

BERMAN: Yes, John, what is the concern for the people who were on that list? What's being done to protect them? And what are the specific fears that he may still be hunting?

MILLER: Well, there's a duty to warn anybody who is on that list. So starting early this morning, federal agents, state police, local police went to their homes, found these people, notified them of the threat, contacted other agencies, including the U.S. Capitol Police, to reach out to the representatives who were on that list from Congress, reached out to Planned Parenthood and certain medical providers to tell them, and provided special attention in terms of a patrol car in front of the House or state police, bodyguards for legislatures -- legislators.

But that's basically the posture they're going to be in until they figure out what happened to this suspect. Did he go somewhere? And as we've seen in many other cases, not having gotten through the rest of his hit list, did he take his own life? Has he figured out a way to cross a border? Has he figured out a way to get to another city? And in that interim period, you know they'll be protecting all of those people till they know for certain he's in custody.

BERMAN: A lot of concern. It will be a long night. John Miller, we appreciate your help on this. Again, keep us posted when you get new leads.

In Washington, D.C. a huge military parade celebrating the Army's 250th birthday just wrapped up Saturday. Also just happened to be, maybe coincidentally, maybe not, President Trump's 79th birthday. He did speak at the event a short time ago.

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Thousands of soldiers, dozens of military vehicles took part in the parade, which highlighted eras of army history going back to the Revolutionary War. CNN senior White House correspondent Kristen Holmes was there and has this report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: On Saturday, President Donald Trump delivering apolitical remarks when he celebrated the 250th anniversary of the Army. He came over from the White House to stand by as a parade of really hours went by showing all of the military's hardware. We saw era of different soldiers in uniform, from the Revolutionary war, World War II to modern day.

The last thing we saw were robotic dogs and drones, all of that showcasing what the army was best at or its best gear and what the future really looked like.

Now, there were a lot of questions and really controversy around this parade in general, particularly given that it is falling on Donald Trump's 79th birthday. Now, the White House pushed back on that, saying there was always going to be a celebration for the Army's 250th anniversary.

But were told by officials that this was a much larger scale. President Trump has wanted a military parade of this scale since he was in office back in 2016. In 2017, he went to France. He saw a military parade there. And our reporting has that he told President Macron, president of France, that they were going top it in the United States.

But during that first term of Donald Trump's, it never really came to fruition. There were generals and aides and staffers, all of whom really pushed back on this idea, saying that it would look too political. But that itself gave lent credence to the fact that this was an opportunity for Donald Trump, the 250th anniversary of the Army, to actually go through with this parade. And what we saw, again, it's hours of the best of the military come by.

And I talked to a number of veterans who emailed me saying that they were honored that Donald Trump was doing this. Again, it's marks. There was a lot of looking and focus on those remarks that he gave because there were questions as to whether or not he was going to make it political. We've seen two recent speeches he gave at the graduation in West Point, both at Fort Bragg, where it became political, something that the army, the military tries to stay out of.

They were cheering President Trump at times, they were booing President Joe Biden. But this was a focus on the army, as it should have been the anniversary. And I will mention one part here, because again, the pushback from the White House saying it just happened to fall on his birthday.

There was a mention of Donald Trump's birthday at the very end of his speech, they came up to him, they sang happy birthday to him and presented him with a flag. But overall, the people we spoke to on the ground, the people who are watching at home, they said that they were in support of this kind of parade to honor the men and women who risked their lives. Kristen Holmes, CNN, Washington, D.C.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: All right, so before, during and after the parade, there were protests all around the country denouncing what organizers describe as President Trump's authoritarian policies. It happened at thousands of locations. Organizers emphasized that they intended the demonstrations to be peaceful. They canceled planned protests in Minnesota for safety reasons after the assassinations there.

But there were other gatherings in Minnesota, we should note. In Los Angeles, the atmosphere became tense as police used chemical irritants to try to clear areas as the nighttime curfew approached. Police say people have been throwing fireworks and bottles at officers there. City officials say more than 20,000 people rallied in Los Angeles

during the day. CNN's Michael Yoshida is live on the streets there. Michael, tell us what you're seeing and what's been happening.

MICHAEL YOSHIDA, CNN REPORTER: Hey, John, we're less than an hour to that curfew that's impacting some part of downtown la. I want to have our photographer walk up here so you can see. It was about an hour and a half ago, we heard law enforcement give a dispersal order to some of the protesters that had remained following a massive march and protest for No Kings.

You can see at this point we have a line of Los Angeles police officers just on the other side, you'll see some people waving flags, some of those that have remained following this dispersal order. This is what we've been watching play out for the last hour and a half.

Law enforcement slowly moving through the streets, at times using flashbangs, other less lethal options as some of these protesters as well have been throwing rocks, other items towards the law enforcement officers as well. This a much smaller crowd, considerably so than what we've seen throughout the day.

We've been out here since early this morning as we started near City Hall here in downtown L.A. with this protest in march. You can see now things this is have started to get more tense. Obviously, again, we're less than an hour to that curfew, which is in fact about one square mile area here in downtown LA.

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And at this point, these protesters are slowly making their way through law enforcement on this street. They've been on the side streets as well, slowly moving them further and further away from the federal buildings as well as City Hall here in downtown Los Angeles.

Obviously, we've been out here all day. We'll stay out here all night, continue to watch as things develop, keeping a specific eye once we hit that curfew and see what happens to him here in downtown LA. John?

BERMAN: Yes, Michael, if you can hear me, and I know communication is hard and you've been out there a long time. Are the demonstrations and the people on the streets confined to that downtown area, particularly around the area where there will be a curfew very shortly or at this point, have the people there were some 20,000 people on the streets of Los Angeles earlier. Have they started to fan out and go to other places?

YOSHIDA: Yes, definitely. We've seen groups dispersing go into different directions while we've been out here. Obviously we're with this group right now. I can tell you when were closer to City Hall, where most -- where the march ended earlier today.

I saw a large group there. Once we saw law enforcement start to use flashbangs, some other items, that's when we saw them taking to other streets. But once they've been able to, at least what we've been watching here, get them onto this street. You see, we have a line here. Once we get further up, you'll see there are lines officers on all of the side streets, connecting streets. So at least for this group now contained within this group of law enforcement.

But yes, we have seen groups start to make their way into other areas as the afternoon has now started to turn to night here in Los Angeles.

BERMAN: All right, Michael Yoshida for us on the streets in downtown Los Angeles where the curfew is fast approaching. Michael, we'll check back in with you. Please stay safe.

With us now, CNN senior political analyst Ron Brownstein, who does also join us from Los Angeles, though not on the streets. We're on quite a day. I mean, what a day to wake up to these assassinations in Minnesota and then to have the parade in Washington which was, I think, respectful but contained, maybe not as boisterous as many people had expected. And then the demonstrations all day. Just what's your big takeaway?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, I think if you look at all of the events of today, like all of the events really of the last few years, it just tells you at what a historical precipice we are at as a country. I mean, we are looking at, I think, the greatest level of internal division we have faced since the Civil War.

The unifying theme, I think, of the Trump coalition and the coalition that is opposed to Trump is that they view a victory for the other side as an existential threat to America as they understand it. I mean, I was out today at one of the. The rallies in Los Angeles. Elsewhere on the west side, there's another one in the Valley.

John, we're talking about millions, probably millions of people across the U.S. out protesting today, because almost universally, they view Trump as someone who is fundamentally undermining the character and rules of American democracy. And much of his coalition believes that he is standing between them and some kind of, you know, woke transformation of America into something they don't recognize.

I believe that most Americans do not want to live this way. I think they recognize the depth of their ideal, of the ideological disagreement that we are living through as a country. But they also understand that they find ways to get along with people they disagree with all the time in other aspects of their life. Their neighbors, co- workers, their family members. And I do think most Americans want to climb down from this battlement.

But today was just a reminder of how deep the divides are and how vividly and in some cases violently they are now being expressed.

BERMAN: Do you think the president got what he wanted from the parade itself in Washington? How do you think that ultimately did play?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, you know, I think, you know, you can say that, you know, every president since from Clinton through Trump the first time, and certainly Biden came into office thinking that they were going to narrow the nation's divisions. And the centrifugal force proved so powerful that were more divided when they left than when they came. I think Trump obviously is different. He is someone who jumps up and

down on the fault lines in the country that preceded him. No question. I mean, these divisions were widening before him. And I think even today is kind of a strange example of that.

Though his remarks were largely apolitical and appropriate for a commander in chief, the way he did this in a way that would maximize the disagreement over doing it in the first place, and, of course, did it after his speech to, you know, military forces earlier in the week that were astonishingly partisan and dragged them in to his political battle the state of California.

[22:20:10]

Trump believes polarization benefits him. I think full stop. And almost at every opportunity, he looks for ways to kind of clarify the contradictions, as the Bolsheviks would have said a century ago. And so, you know, although today was fine in the way that he spoke, just the very act of it. And having tanks rolling down American streets when Marines are detaining people in L.A. and the National Guard is being federalized over a governor's objections for the first time since the civil rights era in a very different set of circumstances, you know, I think another president would have done this differently.

Obviously, other presidents have done this differently. No one's ever done a military parade like this before.

BERMAN: And Ron, I got to look at you, let you go. But just in 20 seconds. The pall that these killings in Minnesota cast, not just over the day, but I think the political establishment. How do you see it?

BROWNSTEIN: The day after January 6 in 2021, one of the former top Department of Homeland Security officials under Trump said to me, we are moving into our version of the troubles, which was the kind of backbeat drumbeat of violence that characterized Northern Ireland for decades.

Obviously, political violence had been with us for a long time. We've had multiple presidents assassinated. It is becoming more regular, more routinized, and we are becoming numb to it in many along the same kind of process that we've become numb to school shootings. We don't want to allow this to take root. And yet, by all evidence, is that it is.

BERMAN: It would be truly horrible if we did get numb to this. Ron Brownstein, always a pleasure to speak with you. Thank you so much.

BROWNSTEIN: Thanks.

BERMAN: Right, and again, as if that's not enough, even more huge breaking news out of the Middle East. Casualties inside Israel, inside Iran as this conflict escalates, we have the very latest.

And still ahead, a growing death toll among civilians in Israel and devastating attacks on the heart of the Iran's military.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[22:27:00]

BERMAN: Israel and Iran are trading heavy fire for a third straight day and taking damage as this fighting escalates. That's what it looked like in Tel Aviv in recent hours after the military warned of a new wave of missiles coming from Iran.

Officials say the latest barrage killed at least seven people and left more than 100 others injured in Israel.

Earlier, a rocket struck a residential building in northern Israel, killing two women and a girl. That came on the heels of heavy Israeli strikes across Iran which caused this huge fire at an oil depot in Tehran. Iranian media says Israel also hit the country's Defense Ministry in the capital and the world's largest natural gas field in southern Iran. White House and Israeli officials now say the Israeli operation against Iran is expected to take weeks, not days.

And CNN's Natasha Bertrand is with us now live with some new details on the administration's stance on the Israeli plans. Natasha, what are you learning?

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: John, Israeli and White House officials are telling my colleagues Kylie Atwood and Elena Treene that the US is fully aware of what the Israelis plans are for this weeks long operation against Iran and they are implicitly approved -- approving of it.

And they are not, in private conversations, according to our sources here, telling the Israelis that they need to scale back or limit the extent or scale or scope of their operation, not critiquing the timeline either.

Now, all of that raises some questions, of course, about the extent to which the U.S. is going to get involved in this. And that remains to be seen. The U.S. has been pretty -- saying pretty strongly that the military is not going to start engaging in this conflict in any way.

And in fact, a White House official did say that while the administration is aware of Israeli operations and implicitly supportive of them, the administration, quote, firmly believes that this can be solved by continuing negotiations with the U.S., but they said the U.S. is not going to direct Israel to do anything but defend itself.

In other words, they are not going to pressure Israel to wind this down, essentially giving them the green light to do what they have to do, John.

BERMAN: Latitude to perform as they want, which is interesting in and of itself. Natasha Bertrand, thank you for the new reporting. Thanks for staying up late. I know it's been a long day for you. Appreciate it.

All right. We are also following breaking news in Minnesota where a manhunt is underway after two state lawmakers and their spouses were shot. That's next.

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[22:34:02]

BERMAN: All right. Police in Minnesota are searching for this man accused of impersonating an officer and shooting two state lawmakers along with their spouses. They identified Vance Boelter as the suspect, and investigators are now searching his property.

Melissa Hortman, who was the top Democrat in the Minnesota House, was killed in her home Saturday morning along with her husband. The governor is calling the attack a politically motivated assassination. A state senator and his wife survived a second shooting.

So on top of that, Washington, D.C. just held its largest military parade in decades, marching the U.S. Army's 250th anniversary. Coincidentally or not, it just happened to be President Trump's 79th birthday.

Dozens of tanks and fighting vehicles rolled down the streets of the U.S. Capitol. President Trump has wanted this parade or a military parade for some time. And it does come on a day that protesters held thousands of demonstrations across the U.S. what they're calling No Kings demonstrations.

[22:35:10]

Earlier in the day, Los Angeles police threw tear gas canisters into crowds of protesters. Some of them failed to deploy, and some protesters began throwing them back toward the officers. Protests took place in all 50 states over the course of the day. Organizers say they were the strongest display of opposition to President Trump so far in his second term.

With us now from Maryland is Joel Payne. He is a Democratic strategist and chief communications officer for MoveOn, a progressive policy group which is also part of the No Kings Coalition. Joel, thanks so much for being with us. How do you think these protests went today?

JOEL PAYNE, CHIEF COMMNICATIONS OFFICER, MOVEONE: John, thanks so much for having me. You know, the protests really were just remarkable. It was so inspiring to see people all across the country, as you mentioned, in all 50 states, you know, we tracked nearly 5 million people in communities large and small, coast to coast, all over the country.

And, you know, affirming this core principle of who we are as Americans, that in America, we have no kings, not now, not ever. And it's against the backdrop of Donald Trump advancing authoritarian rhetoric and taking steps to take rights and take freedoms away from the American people. It was very inspiring to see people peacefully gather all over the country to affirm this today. And I think you're going to see a lot more of these types of peaceful protests as things advance. BERMAN: You know, it's interesting, in his first term, the first term

that he served, there were huge protests the week he was inaugurated. In this, his second term, it's taken a while, I think, for opposition groups to coalesce around visible displays like this. Why does it seem to take more time in this term?

PAYNE: You know, John, it's a good question. I think this time is certainly different than the last time. I think it was unexpected in both scenarios, but the atmosphere around Donald Trump was different. His electoral margin was different. And the way that the Republican Party that undergirds Donald Trump behaves is a little bit different this time as well.

But a thing that's not different in effect, the thing that I think we're seeing that's really heartening is that this opposition has come together, and it feels like it's growing, it's bolder, it's bigger. And by the way, it's not all progressive Democrats and lefties.

You know, I know that if you listen to some of the president's, you know, political allies, they'll have you believe that whether, you know, these people are being paid to show up or these aren't real Americans who are opposed to this. I don't think you can look at the picture today of people all across the country. I don't think you can look at that and claim that is not real, genuine opposition to what Donald Trump wants to do with the presidency.

BERMAN: You know, we just looking at pictures from Philadelphia, we saw pictures from Arizona. I saw some still photos from Little Rock, Arkansas before. But one city where there wasn't a big push to hold a demonstration Washington, DC. Today was the day of this army parade celebrating the 250th anniversary birthday of the U.S. Army, also President Trump's birthday.

Why didn't you push for a larger event in Washington and do you still feel good about that decision?

PAYNE: Well, you know, there were big events all across the country. There actually were people that gathered in Washington. There was just no official No Kings event that was pulled together. And it was good to see that those folks were peaceful and respectful, by the way, respectful of our military who were there to celebrate the Army's birthday.

By the way, the folks who are gathered protesting around the country have no opposition to our service members in uniform being celebrated. It's using them as political pawns against the backdrop of Donald Trump trying to militarize the police in our streets is the thing that people object to. But in terms of your question about why there wasn't a big presence in Washington, D.C., I think it's, we wanted to make a point that, you know, outside of Washington, D.C. is where the real energy is all around the country.

You know, we had a very big activation in Philadelphia where you had upwards of over 100,000 people in the streets in Philadelphia peacefully and big and small communities all across the country. You mentioned Little Rock, Arkansas. There were places in Idaho and Utah. There's one more event that actually will wrap up in about an hour in Hawaii. But it's a really remarkable showing across the country of the energy that's out there.

BERMAN: Surprised you didn't volunteer to oversee the Hawaii event. That would have been a smart move. Joel Payne, thank you for being with us. We appreciate your time tonight.

PAYNE: Thank you, John.

BERMAN: All right.

[22:40:00]

There are no signs of a slowdown or de-escalation as swarms of missiles fly back and forth between Iran and Israel. We're going to look at the military balance of power between the two nations after two days of heavy strikes on both sides.

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[22:45:00]

BERMAN: Sirens blaring over Tel Aviv as Iran launched a new barrage of strikes on Israel. Officials there see at least seven people have been killed in the latest Iranian strikes, more than 100 injured. Iran is also taking fire. An oil depot near Tehran burning after Israeli attacks. Iranian media is reporting the country's Defense Ministry in Tehran has also been struck, along with the world's largest natural gas field in southern Iran.

For more now, we're joined by Negar Mortazavi, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy. She joins us from Washington.

This latest back and forth, the fact that Israel is now striking infrastructure, including oil and energy infrastructure, and Iran is striking inside civilian centers and killing Israeli civilians. What's the likely outcome next?

NEGAR MORTAZAVI, SENIOR FELLOW, CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL POLICY: Well, it looks like the conflict is only going to escalate. And you know, from the beginning, the first attacks, the Israeli attacks on Iran took a large civilian toll. These residences, apartment buildings were hit. We're still seeing the images coming out and the civilian toll of those attacks, in addition to military and nuclear targets.

And then Iran, I think, had no good options in front of them. If they didn't respond, the calculation was that they're going to get hit harder, which I think was correct. And their response is not going to be at the same level, obviously, because Israel has military superiority in the entire region.

But so they're just using, I guess, whatever they have and doing whatever they can to inflict some pain and in their view, established some deterrence. But looks like so far it's just ongoing and escalating and neither side is planning to stop. And now the U.S. is indirectly helping and there's talk of potentially more even U.S. and now U.K. Involvement.

BERMAN: What is your sense of how much, if at all, Iran's capabilities had been degraded?

MORTAZAVI: Well, very much. It looks like they took major hits as far as the country's own defenses. But I also want to be careful. As far as, you know, I've seen projections that Iran is completely powerless or has absolutely no defense. And I think that's also misleading.

I've seen comparisons, for example, be made to Hezbollah and other paramilitaries. This is not a paramilitary. You know, this is a nation state, 80 million population. It's a large country. So it has ways and resources to sort of push back. Yes, they're the underdog, but nevertheless, they are hitting back.

So my only point is that the escalation is not going to stop this as far as, you know, hitting them hard to the point that they can't get back up. This is just going to spiral into more violence and conflict, potentially expand beyond Iran and Israel into the region. The Arab neighbors, the GCC countries, are really worried because this impacts their countries, their investment, stability and security. The Iraqis are already very upset.

This is all going over their airspace back and forth and so no good will come out of this. And of course, looking back in the past two decades, the U.S. experience in Iraq and Afghanistan should have some indication as far as even the underdog would still be able to inflict pain.

BERMAN: When Israel today is now saying that this will take weeks, their operation will continue not for days but for weeks. One wonders what that could look like at this pace. Any thoughts on that?

MORTAZAVI: It's not going to look good. And when Israel is going to continue, that means the Iranians are also going to continue again because thinking if they don't hit back, they're going to just keep getting hit harder.

I think the off ramp here talking about potential de-escalation can only come through the U.S. and with the help of mediators like Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, these countries who have relations with both sides because I think the United States has still a lot of power and influence over Israel. Basically the Israelis wouldn't be able to sustain this for weeks without the support of the United States.

And so I think one thing the administration can do if they really don't want to be dragged into open war with Iran is to put pressure for de-escalation, a potential ceasefire and then return back to negotiations because the Iranians were at the negotiating table to try to negotiate limits on their nuclear program, if that really is the worry. But if the goal is to just have more conflict and expand it in the region, then that's what this is going to reach.

BERMAN: Negar Mortazavi, we appreciate your time tonight. Thank you very much.

[22:50:00]

MORTAZAVI: Thank you.

BERMAN: Much more breaking news ahead. Stay with CNN.

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BERMAN: Boeing is ordering inspections of all, sorry, I should say India is ordering inspections of all Boeing 700 -- 787 aircraft following the Air India crash, which killed at least 290 people. India's aviation regulators say it will examine assessments of takeoff parameters, electronic engine control tests and engine fuel tests.

[22:55:05]

This comes as the investigation continues into what caused the flight to go down. Both data recorders were recovered from the aircraft yesterday.

The British royal family wore black armbands to honor the crash victims during the Trooping the Color Parade in London. The annual event marked the sovereign's official birthday, although King Charles actually turns 78 in November. So you hold a party in June, I guess.

The event honors the monarch's links to the military and was heavy on pageantry, though no tanks or military hardware. It ended with the royal family watching aircraft fly past over Buckingham Palace.

I'm John Berman. Thanks so much for joining us. Much more coverage coming up.

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