Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Satellite Images Show Damage At Iranian Nuclear Sites; U.S. Ambassador Damage To Iran's Nuclear Sites After Strikes; Trump Warns Of Future Attacks If Iran Does Not Make Peace; Trump Suggests "Regime Change" Is Possible In Iran. Aired 10-11 pm ET

Aired June 22, 2025 - 22:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[22:00:31]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN HOST: Hello and welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Kaitlan Collins in Washington and we're covering breaking news out of the Middle East tonight as the United States is still assessing the impact of last night's strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.

Here in D.C., President Trump has been closely tracking the coverage I'm told by sources as he's also openly floating regime change in Iran contradicting his officials who just hours ago said the United States wasn't looking to topple Iran's government.

Right now what we do know is the Pentagon is trying to learn the extent of the damage to Iran's nuclear program after Saturday's U.S. strikes. The White House says the B-2 bombers that you see here that carried out those strikes have now returned to the United States. You can see them landing here in Missouri earlier today.

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff says it is too early at this moment to determine if Iran still has nuclear capabilities but we're seeing new satellite images that show some of the damage that you can see here from the satellites. A CNN analysis of these images found that the attack on Fordow, the biggest nuclear plant that is one of the most deeply embedded underground, left behind at least six large craters. Those are of course from the U.S. bunker buster bombs that the United States confirmed they use. They're designed to go deep underground before detonating. They've actually never been used in combat before until now.

There is a dramatic difference in the before and after images that you can see here in Isfahan. This is Iran's largest nuclear complex. It was hit by more than a dozen cruise missiles as you can see from these images. According to one senior U.S. lawmaker the key question tonight is if Iran moved any of its highly enriched uranium stockpiles before the strikes and if so what the state of those stockpiles is right now.

The president said last night the goal of this mission was to end Iran's nuclear program and the vice president J.D. Vance said earlier today that the United States is not at war with Iran. The U.S. is at war with Iran's nuclear program.

But look at what President Trump is saying today. He posted on his Truth Social earlier when it comes to the leadership in Iran saying, "If the current Iranian regime is unable to make Iran great again why wouldn't there be regime change."

Anderson Cooper is live on the ground in Tel Aviv for CNN. And Anderson, we've been asking questions about what this damage looks like, what the assessment is here? The President just posted on Truth Social I want to read it for everyone where he said that "monumental damage was done to all nuclear sites in Iran as shown by satellite images. Obliteration is an accurate term. The white structure shown is deeply embedded into the rock with even its roof well below ground level and completely shielded from flame. The biggest damage took place far below ground level" and then he wrote, "bullseye" at the end.

Obviously the president reacting there, Anderson, to questions about just the extent of the -- the damage these strikes did. What are you hearing tonight from Israeli officials?

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Yeah, I think he's talking particularly about what that one satellite image in which you see a structure that still appears, you know, to remain above ground and the question would be well why is there a structure above ground that remains after this heavy bombing.

Clearly, the -- the purpose of that bombing was focused on deep underground in the Fordow facility and as you showed those you know those -- those holes in the ground that would seem to be where those bunker buster bombs enter. We don't know the extent obviously of the damage that is still being done.

The president as, you know, Kaitlan came out an hour or two -- two hours or so after the attack saying it had been a bullet, you know, these sites had been obliterated. Their nuclear capabilities had been obliterated. Bomb damage assessment is still being -- being done as we heard earlier and that may take days or longer.

It's obviously there's satellite images these are public satellite images which we have access to. The U.S. government has their own satellite images as well as Israel as well as perhaps signals intelligence unification intercepts human intelligence. That may take time to kind of sort through and figure out exactly the extent of the damage.

The other question which you've raised and it's a really important one is was all the nuclear material the rich uranium was that actually at these sites still? There's been a number of suggestions that the material would have been moved elsewhere to unknown sites elsewhere in the country. That remains to be seen and even how would the U.S. or Israel figure out where those sites are how much material is -- is actually missing from -- from these facilities.

[22:05:14] So, there's a lot of questions that remain about the actual scope of that which is probably what President Trump is responding to tonight with that latest posting. There was one incoming rocket fired at Israel about an hour or so ago.

There was a widespread alert in Israel people going down in bunkers then got the all cleared and seemed like it seemed like that had been intercepted or at least no reports of any damage from that so far. Some people have pointed to that. I talked to former Israel ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren in the last hour who pointed out it was just one missile is actually you know much less than has been fired in past attacks even 24 hours or so ago.

So, it remains to be seen what capabilities still exists for Iran. The IDF had said days ago that they had eliminated at least half of the launchers for ballistic missiles. There's still the short-range missiles which obviously there's a lot of concern about U.S. bases military facilities military personnel throughout the region who may be vulnerable to those short-range missiles.

So, obviously a lot of questions about Iranian capabilities but the attacks by Israel still continue in the skies over Iran in the overnight hours there have been more sounds of explosions in -- in -- in various locations in Iran.

Kaitlan?

COLLINS: Yeah and the Israeli prime minister saying earlier that they had intelligence about that enriched uranium but not obviously disclosing it. Anderson Cooper live on the ground in Tel Aviv. Thank you for that. We'll check back in with you throughout these next two hours as we're following the latest developments including in Iran and what is happening there. We saw crowds of Iranians gathering in Tehran to voice their anger over the U.S. airstrikes on these -- on the nuclear sites inside their country.

CNN's Fred Pleitgen reports from the protests inside Iran's capital city tonight.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: There still is a lot of public anger unloading here on the streets of Tehran. Thousands of people have come here to Revolution Square first and foremost to criticize U.S. President Trump and to vow revenge for those strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities.

One of the interesting things that we're seeing on the ground now here is that it's not only conservatives and hardliners who are here but also people who say they're probably quite critical of the Iranian government.

(Voice-over): "Even if missiles rain down on my head I will stay here,' she says, 'and I will sacrifice my life and my blood for my country." "This member of Parliament' he says 'a lot of those standing here

chanting slogans against the United States may have been critics of the policies of the Islamic Republic but today all of us are standing in one line behind the Supreme Leader."

PLEITGEN (on camera): People now chanting "Death to America" here at Revolution Square. And you can really feel who angry a lot of them are towards President Trump. Of course, the Iranian government has said that it reserves the right to retaliate for those strikes on the nuclear facilities saying that it is their right to have nuclear enrichment. It is their right to have a nuclear program and it's not something that they're going to allow the Trump administration to take away from them. And that is certainly also the sentiment that we're seeing here on the streets of Tehran.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Tehran.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: Thanks to Fred for that report. And obviously we'll continue to follow what is happening on the ground in Iran and how they are reacting to this especially with the president's call and suggestion that there could be regime change in Iran. And this also comes tonight as we're learning new details about the president's thinking behind that supposed two-week window that we just heard from the White House on Thursday when they were saying it was a chance for Iran to return to the negotiating table.

What we've really learned was behind that directive from the president is from several sources familiar the plans who tell CNN that timeline was actually meant to conceal the president's attack plans and throw off the Iranians. I'm told that the president had already been largely leaning towards striking Iran and having the U.S. get involved with Israel's military campaign for a few days. But the president was frustrated by coverage telegraphing that he planned to strike.

And this was the statement that he ordered his Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt to give Thursday signaling to the world that his mind had not been made up yet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Based on the fact that there's a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future. I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: That was the statement from Karoline Leavitt on Thursday. I want to bring in CNN's Chief U.S. Security Analyst Jim Sciutto following developments here in Washington.

[22:10:00]

And Jim obviously essentially just to explain further what we are told, what I'm told is that the president wanted Karoline Leavitt to come out and make that statement from him to basically throw people off. Throw the Iranians off certainly of what he was doing because he felt that the coverage was -- was too clearly leaning toward the fact that that he was planning to -- to likely strike in Iran. We hadn't made the final call yet. Jim what do you make of -- of this reporting?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF U.S. SECURITY ANALYST: Listen, it's interesting Kaitlan on a number of levels. First of all U.S. presidents and other leaders when military action is involved there will be influence operations, right? They will -- they will attempt to even misinform right or disinform to obscure their plans. We've seen this before.

Now, there are legitimate questions as to whether that was misleading to the American people, right, from the White House podium. But the other question looking forward is this one. If the president is saying here that he deliberately raise the possibilities in Leavitt's words there of substantial chance of peace talks et cetera to conceal military -- military action he had already decided on. How do Iranian leaders now take the president's comments that he wants to end this military exchange here right that this is a one off and get back to the negotiating table.

What -- what level of confidence do they have that the president is sincere in those intentions. And there's another actor right involved in that is Israel and many Israeli officials have made quite public their intention for regime change in Iran even prior to the president's own tweet.

So, it does raise quite severe doubts I think one can say about the chances of a diplomatic path going forward given that the president's own advisers are saying he deliberately misled Iranians and others about his true desire right for -- for diplomatic talks prior to ordering this strike.

COLLINS: Yeah. Even though I've been pretty clear from his own statements where he was kind of leaning on this. But on the regime change call Jim what I'm so struck by with the president that they're floating that this is an open possibility essentially saying it's the leadership there that the Supreme Leader is not doing enough to show that they do want to come to some kind of agreement now that they've struck.

I mean, we just heard from the defense secretary at the Pentagon this morning and from the Vice President J.D. Vance who said this was not a goal of the United States. This was not something that they were seeking. And then hours later the president comes out and says actually this is what I think about this.

SCIUTTO: Listen, it's not the first time the president's changed course, right? I mean even just in the last 72 hours right. Prior to this he was interested in peace talks and then had ordered this strike. But if you look at his -- his threats and occasional retreats during the trade war right. He's made quite outlandish threats that he's -- he's backed away from. He's made commitments he's side trade -- trade deals that he pulled out of and demanded more. So, this is a president who does this, right? He changes. And sometimes changes from his own previous positions and big picture of course. One of his longest held positions, right, is that he would not get the U.S. involved in further wars.

Now, he is saying this is not a war that this is just an individual strike. But as we see the strikes continue to go back and forth between Israel and Iran he is not the only one who has a vote in this right.

The war continues. And from the Iranian perspective the U.S. is involved in that war. And based on what we're hearing there are some indications that Iran may be preparing to -- to attack U.S. assets in the region.

So, listen the president dodges and weaves. He seems convinced that that is a workable negotiating strategy. But we should note that in recent days weeks and months it hasn't always worked out the way that he advertised.

COLLINS: Yeah. Obviously so many unknown answers and still questions here about what could be happening next.

Jim Sciutto, thank you for that reporting. We'll continue to check in with you as we're watching our breaking news coverage out of the Middle East following the latest developments. We'll have much more when we return including exactly how the United States carried out these strikes. It is fascinating. We have an entirely detailed moment to show you just how this went down.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[22:17:57]

COLLINS: I want to take a closer look now at how the United States did what it did last night, how they carried out these airstrikes on Iranian nuclear sites and what has been dubbed by the Pentagon as Operation Midnight Hammer. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff that we heard from this morning says the strike package involving these B-2 stealth bombers carrying two crew members each launched from the U.S. overnight on Friday. Some headed to the West and over the Pacific as a decoy. But the seven planes launched a total of 14 of these so-called bunker buster bombs onto the Fordow and Natanz facilities.

A U.S. submarine also launched more than two dozen Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles on the Isfahan nuclear site. You can see there, of course, the return of those B-2 bombers back to Missouri where they landed earlier today.

Joining me now on this remarkable moment is Peter Mansoor, retired U.S. Army Colonel and former Aide to General David Petraeus. He is now a Professor of Military History at The Ohio State University and is joining me from Columbus tonight.

And it's great to have you here, sir. Just as we're looking at this, first off on these, the bunker buster bombs as they are known, they've actually never been used in combat before. As we were talking about this -- this last week, they are incredibly powerful conventional bombs. I just wonder what you make of how many the United States used here and how they decided to carry this out.

COL. PETER MANSOOR, U.S. ARMY (Ret.): Well, by the reporting I've received, there were at least a dozen that were used. You could see six entry points at the Fordow facility. So, it's quite possible that there were bunker buster bombs that followed the initial strikes into the same holes to reach deeper into the facility.

It is the first time they've been used in combat. Of course, they've been tested extensively and they appear to have worked as advertised, although we won't know for several days the actual extent of the damage.

COLLINS: How do we find out what the extent of that damage looks like in terms of obviously the Iranians immediately were coming out downplaying this, saying nothing to see here, really. They did that after Israel struck last week. We later learned just the extent of what Israel had done there.

[22:20:06]

What does that look like for -- as we're watching and seeing what the president is asserting on social media, but also what the Iranians are saying, what the Israelis are saying? How do we determine that?

MANSOOR: So, there are at least three ways that U.S. intelligence will determine the effectiveness of the strikes. One is satellite imagery. We can see what we can see from above. The second is signals intelligence. So, the Iranians will be chatting about what happened and will be intercepting those communications and perhaps decrypting them.

And then finally, the Israeli intelligence services have human intelligence operators on the ground and paid informants, and then they'll get some information that way.

So, between the three methods, you know, the hope is that we'll have a pretty good handle on the extent of the damage and whether the nuclear program has survived in any form.

COLLINS: Well, and in terms of what we reported earlier, which is the president was kind of trying to throw the Iranians off by having his staff say there was a new two-week window that he would decide what action to take here. I mean, before that, it had been a clear signal coming out of the White House that he was leaning towards the U.S. getting involved. If Iran had that time to move the enriched uranium, the material that they had. How does the United States determine, you know, how much of that was still in these sites that they struck, where it is now, if it was moved? What does that look like?

MANSOOR: Well, you could, again, take the overhead imagery and see if there were trucks that were moving to and from the facility and where they went to. Again, you also have the other two methods of intelligence signals, intelligence and human informants. But if this material was moved, it's going to be harder to track for sure, because theoretically, at least, it has been spread around the country to make it less vulnerable to a single strike.

COLLINS: And can I ask you, the Joint Chiefs chairman was very clear as he laid out that very detailed timeline of when these bombers took off, when they dropped these bombs and how they returned. One thing he made clear to me was as the planes were on the way in, he said they were not fired upon by the Iranians and the same on the way out. They were essentially able to come into Iranian airspace relatively easily is what it sounds like. What does that tell you about Iran's capabilities as of this moment?

MANSOOR: It's pretty clear that the Israelis have taken out the bulk of Iranian air defense systems. So, even if the planes could be seen on radar, they probably would not have been engaged. But these are B-2 stealth bombers. They were accompanied, I think, by F-22 stealth fighters. And the Iranians simply don't have the kind of radar that can track those planes. Almost no radar in existence can track the stealth bombers during hours of darkness. So, it was a fairly easy strike in that regard. They simply were in a very permissive air defense environment.

COLLINS: Yeah, it's remarkable to look at how this went down. Colonel, it's great to have you. Thank you for -- for your expertise and for joining us tonight. I really do appreciate it.

MANSOOR: Thanks, Kaitlan.

COLLINS: Also here tonight is CNN Political and Global Affairs Analyst Barak Ravid of "Axios," one of the best sourced reporters in the region.

Barak, just tell me your first thoughts and the latest on what you've been hearing, either from the White House or from Israeli officials as they're assessing this moment and where it stands now that we're -- we're just over 24 hours into this.

BARAK RAVID, CNN POLITICAL & GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Hi, Kaitlan. I think both sides are still in the midst of their battle damage assessment. It seems that President Trump has already finished his battle damage assessment. He just posted on True Social that the nuclear facility in Fordow was mostly damaged below the ground, and he analyzed some kind of a satellite image that I guess he has on his table. It's unclear exactly what you can see in that image, but he described it in his post as monumental damage to this nuclear facility.

And I think that when I spoke to Israeli officials earlier today, they said that both nuclear facilities in Natanz, the one above the ground and the one below the ground, were basically completely destroyed, but the two other facilities, the one in Isfahan and the mega facility in Fordow, were badly damaged, but it's still unclear exactly if you can define it as destroyed or not.

COLLINS: And what do you make of the reporting coming out tonight? And I believe you had similar reporting, Barak, about the two-week timeline that was offered by the White House on Thursday that was never really a genuine two-week window. I mean, the president obviously could have changed his mind. We've seen him change his mind on -- on Iran in action there before, but he was so heavily leaning towards this, and we're told essentially wanted it to be a front to make the Iranians think that he had not actually made a decision yet.

[22:25:21]

RAVID: Yeah, so I think that by midweek, Trump was very much leaning towards the military option, mostly because he tried to organize this meeting with the Iranians in Istanbul. It did not work out. All the messages he sent the Iranians, did not really get a positive response.

So, I think that on Tuesday, after his national security meeting, the Situation Room, and towards Wednesday, he was more leaning towards an attack. And on Thursday, when he said that he will make a decision within two weeks, he was basically almost all the way there into the military strike, although he was ready to abort it at any minute if the Iranians came and said, you know what? That's it. We give up. We surrender. Let's get a nuclear deal.

And the last moment that Trump had to give a green light was Saturday afternoon, when the planes, when the bombers were supposed to go into radio silence right before the strike. And he got a call from Secretary of Defense Hegseth, who told him, OK, this is the last moment to abort. Do you still want to continue? And Trump said yes. And he was then in Bedminster in his golf club, and he went to the White House Situation Room to see the bombs fall on the nuclear facilities.

COLLINS: So, he got a call from Secretary Hegseth Saturday afternoon, said here's your last moment to basically say we're not doing this. The president obviously said yes. We saw a return to the White House in that period. He didn't speak to reporters and clearly went to the Situation Room, as you're seeing these pictures here.

Barak, what else are you hearing just as you're reporting on this, and what could come next, which is obviously the big question here?

RAVID: So, first, one of the most interesting things, I think, that I learned today was how coordinated the Israelis and the Americans were during the strike. Because President Trump told Netanyahu on Wednesday that it most likely is going in, and then Netanyahu said, how can I help you? And then Trump told them, we need you to clear the way, meaning take out all the remaining Iranian air defenses, mostly in southern Iran, to open the way for the B-2 bombers.

And the Israelis did it on Thursday and on Friday. And when the bombers arrived on Saturday, there were no air defenses in the area. But I think the big question now is not only what the damage to the facilities is, but also where is the stockpile? The Iranians had 400 kilograms of 60% enriched uranium. This is -- this close to weapons grade. Nobody knows where it is. The Iranians know, obviously, but not the IAEA, not the U.S. intelligence, not Israeli intelligence. Netanyahu said today that he has interesting intelligence on where this material is. At least the people I asked said we are not sure where it is.

COLLINS: Yeah, that moment really stood out from the Prime Minister earlier. We'll obviously continue to wait to see what they say. Barak Ravid, excellent reporting as always. Thank you for joining tonight.

RAVID: Thank you.

COLLINS: And we have much more to come in our breaking news coverage this hour as we are following live developments on the ground in the Middle East, including major questions and also reaction from members of the United Nations Security Council on these strikes inside Iran. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[22:32:39]

COLLINS: We're continuing to follow developments from the Middle East tonight where Iran has now activated its air defenses over the capital of Tehran. Shortly after Israel said that it had intercepted a missile launched from Iran toward Israel earlier this evening. All of this is playing out as the United States is assessing the damage to Iran's nuclear sites following the strikes last night ordered by President Trump.

A CNN analysis of these images that you see here found that the attack on Fordow left behind at least six large craters, as you can see on the screen. These show the damage at Isfahan, Iran's largest nuclear complex. And an assessment by the Institute for Science and International Security says the complex was, quote, "heavily damaged."

The United Nations Security Council met earlier today to talk about these U.S. strikes on Iran. Three council members, Russia, China and Pakistan, have proposed a resolution calling for an immediate end to the conflict. And the council also heard from the ambassadors of both Iran and Israel.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMIR-SAEID IRAVANI, IRANIAN AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N.: The timing, nature and scale of Iran's proportionate response will be decided by its armed forces. Throughout history, the resilient and United Iranian nation has withstood, deeper wounded and faced more vicious enemies. And this time too it will show its dignity, strength and greatness to the world.

DANNY DANON, ISRAELI AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N.: To those who now fake concern and cry escalation, we say this is what the last line of defense looks like, when every other line has failed. Make no mistake, the cost of inaction would have been catastrophic. A nuclear Iran would have been a death sentence just as much for you as it would have been for us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: And joining me now is Iran expert and Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Karim Sadjadpour. And it's so great to have you here because obviously the president is now calling for peace with Iran after these strikes, saying that they should come to an agreement. He said last night that there could be other targets available for the United States if they don't. What -- how does Iran see that? Does that make officials want to come to the table? Or what do you believe the reaction is as they're also assessing the damage to their nuclear sites?

[22:35:07]

KARIM SADJADPOUR, SENIOR FELLOW, CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE: Well, the Iranian regime has been deeply humiliated by this unprecedented bombing. And they, for 46 years, resistance against America, death to America, has been very much part of the identity of the system. And so, I think that we're just entering another chapter, a new chapter of that enmity. As long as this supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, remains alive and in power, which may not be that much longer, Iran's hostility towards the United States is not going to be changing.

COLLINS: Well, the president is suggesting regime change. Obviously, the supreme leader has very strong survival instincts in terms of his rule and how long he has been in power. I mean, for him personally, to see a message like that, and to also wait to see what the Iranian people do in response to this, I think is another huge question coming out of this.

SADJADPOUR: Yeah, he's always believed that it's been U.S. policy to try to subvert Iran and bring down its regime. So, that's nothing new. But he's in a very dire situation right now, most dire situation of his entire life as an autocrat, because he's in a bunker. He's 86 years old. He has limited physical, cognitive bandwidth. Most of his top military commanders were assassinated. He doesn't control his own airspace. Israel controls it. And, you know, there's no way out of this war. He can't win this war. He's outmatched militarily, financially, technologically. And as you alluded to, Kaitlan, his two instincts are in tension with one another. He has survival instincts, but he also has defiant instincts. And he's having a real struggle, in my view, reconciling those two.

COLLINS: Well, and just -- I mean, this moment, not even just for Iran, but for the Middle East in general. I mean, this could be transformational. We just don't know what this is going to mean going forward. And I think as I was just thinking about this now that we're 24 hours in, that's been one of the biggest questions. And I wonder in the immediate future, what are you watching for the most?

SADJADPOUR: Well, let me say something about the order in the Middle East. So, after the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, the removal of Saddam Hussein from power, that really created a power vacuum that Iran filled. And Iran over the last two decades from 2003 up until October 7, 2023, was more effective than any other country in the Middle East in filling these regional power vacuums, not only in Iraq, but in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Gaza and the Palestinian territories. Iran overreached on October 7 after the Hamas invasion of Israel. They were the only country in the world to endorse that attack. And so, I do think we've now entered the post-Iran era in the Middle East. We just don't know what is going to be coming next in the region.

COLLINS: And, you know, obviously that's the huge question here in terms of what this looks like and how they've calculated here. I think one analogy that's being made today between what the United States is getting involved here is with Iraq and what that looks like. I've seen some people say that's not a completely fair comparison, obviously given boots on the ground and the differences there and the Americans who were killed.

When you look at that and you look at the U.S. involvement here, and we're seeing some anger even among the president's base, or at least confusion, and not sure what to say in response to these attacks, how you see the U.S. role here?

SADJADPOUR: Well, my friend Barak Ravid in your earlier segment made a very important note about this fissile material of highly enriched uranium, which is unaccounted for in Iran. It's almost like the equivalent of robbing a bank after the money has already been taken out. And if we can't account for this highly enriched uranium, there's a real danger that Iran could continue to advance towards a nuclear weapon.

And so that is, in some ways, the parallel with Iraq, was that we were trying to track down Saddam Hussein's weapons program and ultimately led to American boots on the ground. Everyone in the United States wants to avoid that scenario. But we're now in a dangerous situation. If we've invaded Iran, bombed its nuclear sites, but we can account for its highly enriched uranium.

COLLINS: Yeah. Karim Sadjadpour, those are great insights. Thank you for joining us tonight as we are following this breaking news.

SADJADPOUR: Thank you.

COLLINS: And still to come here on CNN, I mentioned that divide that is happening in MAGA. It's growing tonight over the president's decision to get the United States involved in Israel's military campaign in Iran.

[22:40:10]

Some of the president's most diehard supporters are criticizing him for the attacks. Some say they're waiting to see what the full assessment is here. Our breaking news coverage continues, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: President Trump's decision to strike Iran's nuclear sites overnight has been facing some bipartisan criticism in the United States. Obviously, it's being widely condemned by Democrats, praised by Republican leadership. But look at what Republican Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky said. He said the move was unconstitutional, and, of course, that was followed by a scathing rebuke by the president in an online post, promising to try to primary Massie out of his seat.

He's been working with Democratic lawmakers, including Congressman Ro Khanna, on a resolution reasserting that Congress has the sole authority to declare war, as stated in the Constitution. But the administration is arguing tonight the United States is not at war with Iran, just their nuclear program, as the vice president, J.D. Vance, put it to "NBC News" today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J.D. VANCE (R), U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: We've got in. We've done the job of setting their nuclear program back. We're going to now work to permanently dismantle that nuclear program over the coming years, and that is what the president has set out to do.

[22:45:00]

Simple principle. Iran can't have a nuclear weapon that has animated American policy over the past 130 days. It's going to continue to be a driving force of our policy in the Middle East for the next three and a half years.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: I'm joined now by Donie O'Sullivan and Jeff Zeleny. And, Donie, let me just start with you in terms of what we are hearing from people in MAGA, because there is a split. I was listening to some people today say, I want to wait and see, you know, what the reaction to this is. But we're also hearing from Marjorie Taylor Greene, other Republicans who say they do not agree with this move by President Trump, which is obviously something we don't normally hear from them.

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Kaitlan. Yeah, and look, I mean, Steve Bannon, his podcast went live last night, streaming live after the news broke. And, you know, obviously he had conversations that we saw and spoke about last week with Tucker Carlson, where they were very clearly saying that the U.S. has no business getting involved in Iran in this way.

A more sort of muted, Tucker -- a more muted Steve Bannon last night. Basically, as you say, sort of saying we will wait and see. They're hoping that this is a sort of one and done, that this is a strike and they leave it to Israel to take the fight from here.

I think that we'll hear some very different insights potentially tomorrow from the likes of Steve Bannon, given Trump's true social post earlier today, where he did mention regime change. I do just want to show you one tweet from Marjorie Taylor Greene, who, of course, is a congresswoman who is one of Trump's biggest supporters. She wrote a lengthy post on X a last -- just overnight, saying, "I can also support President Trump and its great administration on many of the great things they are doing while disagreeing on bombing Iran and getting involved in a hot war that Israel started." So, you know, this is unusual in the MAGA verse, Kaitlan, to see people speak out against President Trump. But as you see there, they're trying to do so respectfully at the moment, at least.

COLLINS: Yeah. I mean, Jeff, part of their argument is that the president, you know, today is tweeting, make Iran great again. He obviously ran on a make America great again platform.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF U.S. NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Right. And the reality is most of his supporters aren't that interested in making Iran great again. That is not what elected Donald Trump to the presidency. That's not what animated his political rise over the last decade.

So, there's no doubt this is one of the biggest, most momentous times for this president in either term, militarily, politically, and diplomatically. But militarily, if this goes well, if the bomb damage assessment is actually closer to what the president said of being obliterated rather than some of the other -- some of the other reports that we're hearing about not being quite as devastating, then it will go fine. If it's -- if it was a military success, I think most of his supporters will come along. But now the challenge for the president is to bring the country along with him. This is not something he did going into this strike.

And to me, that is what is so different here from the Bush administration and the whole Iraq specter that really hangs over all of this is that President Bush, of course, this was after 9/11, but he brought the country along with him before the strike. So, now the president's burden is to explain this, and I do believe he will continue to do that to tomorrow. We did not see him on camera today. We aren't scheduled to tomorrow, but I would not be surprised if that changes when he meets in the Oval Office.

But that's his burden now, to explain all of this. So, I do think his supporters will give him some time here, but I think it depends on the success of the operation.

COLLINS: Yeah, that's a great point. Jeff Zeleny, Donie O'Sullivan, thank you both for joining tonight.

ZELENY: Sure.

COLLINS: And we're going to have more of our breaking news coverage right after the break. We're going to hear from Rahm Emanuel on these strikes. Stay with CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[22:52:17]

COLLINS: We are following breaking news out of the Middle East tonight as we are watching the regent's assessment of President Trump's strikes on Iran as he's defending them and saying that when he said last night that the nuclear sites were obliterated by the U.S. strikes, that that has borne out. Of course, that is according to the President of the United States and what we've heard from defense officials here. The Joint Chiefs chairman said just this morning they were still assessing the damage of what those sites and what that actually looks like.

Joining me now is CNN's Senior Political and Global Affairs Commentator and former United States Ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel.

And it's so great to have you here, Mr. Ambassador. Let me just first get your thought on what we've seen play out over the last 24 hours.

RAHM EMANUEL, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL & GLOBAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: Well, I think the main question here is you have to take a look at where Iran is. The ball's in their court. Their alliance with Russia and China has proven to be empty. Their kind of surrounding of Israel through Hezbollah, Syria, Hamas, et cetera, that's been useless. Their investment of billions and billions of dollars, not only in that effort, but billions of dollars in their nuclear program, that's been obliterated. Their missile production and missile inventory has been obliterated.

So, they have to stand back and say, where are we now? Now, they have a choice here, short-term, long-term, lots of damage, very little damage, symbolic damage. So, that's kind of where their choices are.

I think, obviously, that's in that area. One question I would say that hasn't been answered still in all this kind of last, very active 48 hours or 24 hours, the United States intelligence was on one side of the question that Iran was not close, and so was the international community. Israel had a different level of intelligence, saying they were within weeks.

One of those is right, and one of those is wrong. And we made a decision not based on our own intelligence, but on what Israel provided. And that's a different call for the United States.

Go ahead. I'm sorry.

COLLINS: And on that point, Vice President J.D. Vance said earlier that they trust the United States intelligence community, but he said we also trust our own instincts, when basically asked about that assessment. And he also said this. I want to play this moment for you, Rahm, about why these strikes by this administration are different than involvement from previous U.S. presidents.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VANCE: After 25 years of foreign entanglements in the Middle East, I understand the concern. But the difference is that back then we had dumb presidents, and now we have a president who actually knows how to accomplish America's national security objectives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[22:55:01]

COLLINS: What do you make of that, Mr. Ambassador?

EMANUEL: It's not worthy of a vice president. It's not worthy of a response. That is -- you know, here's a clear example. President Bush started a war in Iraq. The country -- it was bipartisan, it became President Bush's war. President Biden had a lot of bipartisan support defending Ukraine. It became his war.

On the front end, this administration decided to only brief Republicans, not Democrats, which should have brought the country together. That's on him to do. And then to sit there and criticize your own predecessors rather than, and I've seen President Obama, I've seen President Clinton, call President Bush in these cases or other presidents and brief them on major national security moments and times, not only get their counsel, but their support. That has been true for other presidents, to sit there and call-in front of the world your predecessors as dumb. And then to say you made your call not on judgment, not on best intelligence, but on instinct. It's not worthy of a response.

It's below the vice president. It's below the United States. We've made a critical commitment here of America's prestige and putting men and women at risk. We did something at this level on an intelligence that our own intelligence community did not back up. And you're sitting there calling all your predecessors not for their judgment, for their insights, for their questions, but calling them dumb. I think it speaks for itself. The vice president is not wise to do that at a critical juncture when the United States is being tested, not just him, but the whole country.

COLLINS: Yeah, it was quite a reaction. And obviously we did see the White House say earlier they did give Senator Schumer a heads up. They tried to call Leader Jeffries, but he didn't answer the phone immediately.

Ambassador Rahm Emanuel, obviously we'll be watching to see what the fallout of this is and getting your expertise on this as well. Thank you for joining tonight.

EMANUEL: Thanks, Kaitlan.

COLLINS: And of course we are continuing to follow the live developments out of the Middle East. Every moment we're watching to see what the reaction is here, not just in the United States, but also abroad and in the region.

We're going to take a quick break, and then we'll be right back with our breaking news coverage.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)