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Pentagon Refers Questions On Iran Damage To Intel Agencies; Senate Parliamentarian: Parts Of Bill Don't Meet Strict Rules By A Simple Majority, Avoiding Filibuster; Senate GOP Divided Over Changes To Medicaid Program; New Vaccine Advisers Recommend Preservative-Free Flu Shot; Republicans Hoping to Pass Bill by July 4th; Iran Says It has No Plans to Resume Nuclear Negotiations; Crowded New York Mayoral Race; Palestinian Town Reels from Settlers' Attack; Kim Jong-un Celebrates Opening of New Beach Resort. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired June 27, 2025 - 01:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:00:30]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all over the world. I'm Jim Sciutto in Washington. And ahead on CNN Newsroom, senators finally get an intelligence briefing on the U.S. airstrikes on Iran as the Pentagon offers up two distinct assessments of the operation. President Trump's massive spending bill has hit a procedural snag in the Senate.

And one of the most secretive countries on earth, most repressive as well just unveiled what a new beach resort. Is North Korea trying to make a push for tourism?

We begin this hour in Washington with the ongoing discussion about U.S. airstrikes on three nuclear facilities in Iran and what seems to have become President Trump's word of the week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They hit the target and the target has now been proven to be obliterated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Obliterated. The president promised an interesting and irrefutable news conference from the Pentagon. What we got on Thursday was the top U.S. General explaining the logistics of the U.S. strikes. He played test video showing exactly how bunker buster bombs work. But when asked about the latest assessments of the resulting damage to Iran's nuclear facilities and sites, he deferred to U.S. Intelligence agencies. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says those final assessments could take weeks. However, he forcefully defended the president's maximalist claims about the damage.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) PETE HEGSETH, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETATY: There's been a lot of discussion about what happened and what didn't happen. Step back for a second, because of decisive military action, President Trump created the conditions to end the war. Decimating, choose your word, obliterating, destroying Iran's nuclear capabilities.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: We are getting more information on the actual damage to those sites from U.S. senators who received their first classified intelligence briefing. Lead us to say Democrats and Republicans had different takeaways.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TOM COTTON (R-AR): I believe that this mission was a tremendous success and that we have effectively destroyed Iran's nuclear program today.

SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): I just do not think the president was telling the truth when he said this program was obliterated.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): I don't want people to think that the site wasn't severely damaged or obliterated, it was. But having said that, I don't want people to think the problem is over because it's not.

SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-CT): I think obliterated is much too strong a word. Certainly there was serious and perhaps severe damage done. But as to how much damage was done, we really need a final assessment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Yes, I mean what they agree on is serious damage was done. No question. No one is claiming the program has been eliminated forever. Not even the Israeli assessments back that up. More now from CNN Julia Benbrook reporting from the White House.

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine emphasized that the operation against three of Iran's key nuclear facilities went as planned and that the 30,000 pound bombs dropped, quote, "functioned as designed." He highlighted that it is not the joint forces job to do battle damage assault. The U.S. Intelligence Community determines the extent of the damage caused but detailed what he is able to share about the mission.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. DAN CAINE, U.S. JOINT CHIEF OF STAFF CHAIRMAN: Here's what we know following the attacks and the strikes on Fordo. First, that the weapons were built, tested and loaded properly. Two, the weapons were released on speed and on parameters. Three, the weapons all guided to their intended targets and to their intended aim points. Four, the weapons functioned as designed, meaning they exploded.

We know this through other means, intelligence means that we have that were visibly -- were visibly able to see them. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BENBROOK: As experts have questioned whether Iran was able to move any of its highly enriched uranium stockpiles from the attack zone ahead of time, President Donald Trump claims that nothing was taken out of Iran's nuclear facilities before the U.S. strikes last weekend. The President and his top officials have repeatedly said the strikes, quote, "obliterated" the nuclear sites but full impact assessments are still ongoing.

At the White House, I'm Julia Benbrook.

SCIUTTO: Joining me now from Glendale, California, retired U.S. Army Major General Mark MacCarley. Good to have you on, sir.

[01:05:02]

MAJ. GEN. MARK MACCARLEY, U.S. ARMY (RET.): My pleasure.

SCIUTTO: Forgive me, but I've begun to find this whole back and forth somewhat silly because at the end of the day what folks agree on, right, is that serious damage was done. The combination of U.S. and Israeli strikes over the course of several days did severe damage to Iran's nuclear program. The thing is, none of the assessments are saying they wiped it off the map, right? So what's going on here? What's the point of this?

MACCARLEY: You know, the great thing is you took the words right out of my mouth. But I'll repeat what you've said, and that is that we cannot deny that substantial damage was caused by reason of U.S. intervention and engagement last Saturday night. And we've seen photographs, we've heard information from informational sources that we've had significant damage. But that said, I just want to make a comparison between our two most senior military leaders, and that's Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and our chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and that's Dan Caine. Two different approaches, same room earlier this morning, and Secretary Hegseth went forward in the same sort of euphoric, I almost call it hyperbolic explanation of the huge success that the United States gained, and as a result, Iran is no longer a military or at least a nuclear threat to any of its neighbors.

Now, on the other hand, and at the same time, just after the conclusion of Hegseth's remarks, you've got Dan Caine, and he's up there in a very nuanced way, and, boy, do I appreciate this is something I'm so terribly familiar with, he is restrained by the obligation to provide the most accurate data available at that time. And what he had, in order not to misrepresent to the American people, is he exclaimed about the actual success of the systems, the bunker busters worked perfectly, the planning was superlative, all targets were hit, and the men and women of the Air Force and the Navy returned to their home stations with no loss of life, and we achieved something of an objective. But, you know, he came back and said, yes, all we have is substantial damage. Just another thought, and this is one where I'm walking what I call walking on glass. But this is not the first instance in which we had and have an administration shaping intelligence data as a support policy. And I can't restrain myself from going back to Donald Rumsfeld in 2002, I heard it at that particular point in time. And he said, no civilized nation in the world doubted that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. And this was about a month before we invaded.

SCIUTTO: It's such a great point. I mean, that's the bigger worry here, because -- that's a major worry, is that you line up or attempt to line up the facts behind a position that either the president wants, right, even if those facts don't line up, right? And that -- then you begin to worry whether folks are going to speak truth to power or send difficult or inconvenient information up the chain. I mean, that's someone like yourself who served in a military command. I imagine you wanted the most accurate information, not the information that suited your views.

MACCARLEY: Hundred percent, because any commander, any military leader responsible for the lives of his or her soldiers or sailors, Marines, has to have the clearest understanding of the threat and what was accomplished by means of, let's say, military bombardment, that sort of thing. So it's very critical, and as I get the opportunity to go back to General Caine and he was quite clear, we're not there yet. We've got to do a lot more battle damage assessment. The chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a couple hundred people that are in the office in the Pentagon aren't going to do that. But we have our defense intelligence agencies and hopefully we'll get some degree of clarity.

But the final statement to me, as somebody who has once or twice been in a position where I got to make this type of decision, the only information to me from a relevancy standpoint is what's coming from Israel, because Israel suffers the existential threat. If something was wrong, if we didn't hit it, Israel is the first target. And that information is what I want to listen to.

[01:10:05]

SCIUTTO: Fair enough. Setting that aside for a moment, big picture, what is remarkable here is that Israel and the U.S. did enormous damage to Iran's nuclear program without losing a soldier or an airman, right? And --

MACCARLEY: Yes.

SCIUTTO: -- without the blowback that everyone had feared, that successive presidents of both parties had feared, they feared you'd be in a war and U.S. forces in the region would get might very well lose their lives in Iranian retaliation. I mean, that bottom line is remarkable.

MACCARLEY: I have to concur with that. If you give any credit to the administration, the fact that at the conclusion after Fordow and Natanz and Isfahan, the Iranians came through Mohammed Al Thani out of Qatar and indicated an interest, of course, encouraged by Al Thani, Sheikh Al Thani, to participate and so did the Israelis under pressure from Trump, we have an opportunity. And so my view is we can't really get ground up in the intel data right now because we have an opportunity to maybe, just maybe, move toward a more peaceful resolution of this because if it's not resolved by negotiation, then at the end of the day we might see conflicts like this in the next couple of months or years.

SCIUTTO: Retired General Mark MacCarley, thanks so much for joining.

MACCARLEY: Thanks.

SCIUTTO: Well, Iran is set to enact a law that would suspend cooperation with the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency. The bill now only needs the president's signature to become law. It was approved on Thursday by Iran's 12 member Guardian Council, which vets legislation. The bill passed the Iranian Parliament's National Security Committee on Wednesday. The IAEA says it is aware of that legislation but has yet to receive an official communication about Iran suspending cooperation.

Iran's foreign minister says Tehran has no plans to resume nuclear negotiations with the U.S. at this time. Iran's supreme leader delivered a defiant message in his first public speech since the ceasefire between his country and Israel. In a pre-recorded statement, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Tehran will never surrender, rebuking earlier comments from President Trump. Khamenei also declared victory over Israel and the U.S.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AYATOLLAH ALI KHAMENEI, IRANIAN SUPREME LEADER (through translator): I would like to congratulate the great nation of Iran. I want to congratulate them for a few reasons. First, I would like to congratulate them for victory over the fake regime of the Zionist regime. With all those claims that the Zionist regime were making, they almost were crushed under the blows of the Islamic government.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: CNS Fred Pleitgen has been reporting from Iran since the conflict erupted. He spoke with Muslim clerics to get their reaction to the ongoing tensions between Iran, Israel and the U.S.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is the holy shrine of Masumeh in the holy city of Qom, which is the second holiest site in all of Iran. Now, this place is extremely important for the Islamic Republic of Iran. There's a lot of religious schools here, a lot of religious seminaries, and, of course, a lot of the thinking, the religious thinking that underpins the actions of the Islamic Republic is developed here. All of that even more important now that Iran is in this massive standoff with the Trump administration and with the Israelis. So we went out and we asked a couple of clerics here how they feel about that standard standoff and what could happen next. PLEITGEN (voice-over): If Trump ever has goodwill, do not mess with countries and let people live their lives, he says.

This promise has been made by God, he says, that if you believe in God, he is the one who guides your arrows to the hearts of the enemy.

And he says they think they are able to stop us from our chosen path through bombing, killing, and terror. This is why these terrors and wars will only strengthen our faith instead of weakening us.

PLEITGEN: Now, there's one other reason why this part of Iran is so important. The province of Qom is also where the Fordo nuclear enrichment plant is located, which, of course, President Trump claims to have, as he put it, obliterated with those U.S. bunker buster bombs that were dropped a couple of days ago. The Iranians acknowledge that their nuclear program has been damaged, but they say that it is still very much alive. And they also say that they're not going to back down from what they call their right to nuclear enrichment. And they also say that they are going to stay defiant in the face of pressure, both from the U.S. and from Israel.

[01:15:13]

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Qom, Iran.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: Closing bell there on Wall Street, the Dow and Nasdaq each closed up nearly 1 percent on Thursday. Big story, the S&P 500, it closed near an all time high. It has now regained nearly $10 trillion since President Trump started his trade war four months ago when the markets dropped precipitously. U.S. stock market futures now, well, they're all looking up in the green.

President Trump's domestic agenda, however, is facing a major setback after the Senate parliamentarian struck down key provisions of what he likes to call the Big Beautiful Bill. Members of Congress plan to work through the weekend to try to retool it. They still hope to pass it by July 4, as the president has demanded.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN THUNE (R-SD), MAJORITY LEADER: We're plowing forward and when we actually get on, it still is an open question. But rest assured, we will.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you think this will make it harder to get this passed by July 4th?

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), HOUSE SPEAKER: Well, it doesn't make it easier, but you know me, hope springs eternal and we're going to work around the clock and try to meet that deadline.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you ruling --

JOHNSON: I think that's the way we should do it. (END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: The parliament says certain provisions do not meet rules which allow such a bill to be passed by a simple majority. CNN's Manu Raju explains.

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Donald Trump's massive domestic agenda is hanging by a thread. He is demanding this on his desk in just a matter of days by July 4th. That is a self- imposed deadline. But it's running into all sorts of problems. The United States Senate and the U.S. House right now is bottled up in the Senate because of procedural issues.

Remember, this bill they're trying to pass along straight party lines through a budget process known on Capitol Hill as reconciliation. The reason why majorities like to use that process is that it can -- bills cannot be filibustered by using the budget process. But there's a catch. The bills need to meet the strict budget rules of the United States Senate in order to use that process, which cannot be filibustered, meaning just Republican senators can approve this plan. Typically, most bills could be filibustered, meaning 60 votes are needed, Democrats and Republicans would be needed to overcome a filibuster.

But if this meets the budget rules, it doesn't -- can't be filibustered. But if it does not meet the budget rules, that means certain provisions will have to come out of this plan on Thursday. A big setback because one key provision to help finance this massive proposal in dealing with deeper Medicaid cuts was stripped from the proposal by the Senate parliamentarian to who said that the provision does not meet the Senate's strict budget rules. So Republicans behind the scenes have been scrambling to try to resurrect that plan. There are other provisions also struck out by the parliamentarian as Republicans tried to put this bill back together.

But that's just in the process. Then there are the deep divisions between moderates and conservatives. There are some moderates who are worried about this bill cutting too much into the Medicaid program. Remember, that's the health care program for the disabled and for low income individuals. They worry that those cuts could hurt their constituents.

And then there are some of the more conservative members who are concerned about the more -- the sweeping tax overhaul, multi trillion dollar tax overhaul. That along with the new spending in this plan for border security, national security programs, deportation policies of Donald Trump, this -- all bill could add more than $3 trillion to the national deficit over the next decade according to some official estimates. Some of those conservatives want to cut deeper into spending, they don't want to spend more. That division has been playing out for months and is now coming to a head as Republican leaders are trying to get this bill on the floor, make sure it complies with Senate rules, but also get the votes where they can only afford to lose three Republican votes in the United States Senate and they can only afford to lose three Republican votes in the United States House. And one Republican Congressman, Eric Burlison, told me that he is threatening to vote no on this plan unless it meets his concerns about the deficit. And he warned Republican leaders not to jam the House.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Do you think it's responsible for them to cut this deal behind closed doors and drop it in your lap and say take it or leave it?

REP. ERIC BURLISON (R-MO): No. I mean, that's what Washington is good at, is kind of jamming people last minute giving you something you haven't had time to read, haven't had time to get reflection or input from your district. And so, yes, it's not ideal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: But Mike Johnson, the House speaker, still believes this could get to President Trump's desk by July 4th. But a lot has to happen from now until then in order to make it over the finish line.

[01:20:06]

Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.

SCIUTTO: Joining us now from Los Angeles, Benjamin Radd, a political scientist senior fellow at UCLA Merkel center for International Relations. Good to have you on. Thanks for taking the time.

BENJAMIN RADD, SR. FELLOW, UCLA BURKLE, CTR. FOR INTL. RELATIONS: Thank you for having me.

SCIUTTO: So big question I have is given that the CBO has already estimated that this bill will add $2.8 trillion to the federal deficit over the next decade, given that parliamentarian has struck down some of the pay fors in this bill, how much more do we expect, unless Republicans can find other room to cuts not clear that they have, how much more do we expect this to add to the debt?

RADD: Well, that's exactly what's trying to be determined. I mean, we've seen a Quinnipiac poll that came out today indicating that the majority of the public is not in favor of it. And the debt -- the contribution to the debt being one of the bigger parts where there seems to be broad disapproval for the bill. It's difficult to see how the Senate Republicans are going to maneuver around that without really undermining one of their key pledges or their key goals, which is to reduce the federal deficit. So indeed, this is going to stand out as one of the bigger challenges.

SCIUTTO: There's a long history of parties coming into power, Democrats and Republicans passing big bills right after those elections that end up damaging them in the next round. I mean, you think Obama 2008, the Obamacare bill, Republicans certainly have run into similar headwinds. Do you see the ingredients for that with this bill? RADD: Indeed. I mean, we can even go back to Bill Clinton and the attempt to reform health care, the bill there. And what ends up happening is these parties come into power, whether it's the executive branch or Congress, and they generalize these broad sweeping mandates that they feel give them authority to really wholesale attack major social concerns and issues and they get bogged down with procedure. They realize that, OK, it's a bit more difficult than they anticipated and that whatever public may they have, and in this case it's a very narrow one given how the votes turned out in last election, it doesn't give them necessarily the leverage they think they have to push these bills through.

SCIUTTO: Yes, it's always struck me that parties always habitually overestimate their mandate. The Medicaid cuts seem to be one of the biggest Achilles heels here. And that's because even Republicans, right, are raising alarm bells about this, Susan Collins in Maine, you're hearing from Josh Hawley. I spoke to Republican Congressman Corey Mills earlier today who said similar that he's concerned about the degree of Medicaid cuts. Where does that end up in this bill?

Are Republicans just going to push forward because they're intent on getting the tax cuts through?

RADD: Well, what's interesting about the Medicare aspect is the work requirement component is --

SCIUTTO: Yes.

RADD: -- one of the elements that actually has broader political support than the other parts of this bill. So maybe there is somewhere there for them to find how they can make this work. But it seems to be where they have the most amount of leverage given the challenges they're facing from the opposition overall.

SCIUTTO: So does this get through in the end? I mean, this July 4th deadline has always been somewhat artificial, but it's one of those artificial deadlines set by this president that his party likes to deliver him. Are they just going to kind of fudge the numbers perhaps as parties do?

RADD: It's -- yes. It's difficult to see -- yes, it's difficult to see how they're going to make this work given this sort of self-imposed deadline where the Senate ends up to sort of tweaking the numbers to get it to the parliamentarians approval point and then assuming that there isn't any difference here, that has to be then reconciled by the House and we start this process all over in a different way. It's really hard to see how that happens given where we are.

SCIUTTO: Benjamin Radd, professor, thanks so much for joining.

RADD: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: New vaccine advisers appointed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy are pushing for changes to the flu vaccine, which many Americans get each year. We have a report after the break.

[01:24:11]

Plus, a Palestinian town in the west bank tries to come to grips with a deadly attack by Israeli settlers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: A newly formed group of advisors to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending a new shot that can protect babies from RSV. The respiratory virus is the most common cause of hospitalization infants. The advisors were appointed by U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy earlier this month. They also voted to recommend that people receive flu vaccines that are free of a preservative that contains a form of mercury, even though there is no evidence that's harmful. CNN's Meg Tirrell has more.

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this two day meeting of this newly assembled group of vaccine advisers to the CDC concluded with probably the most controversial topic that was on the entire agenda and one that had been added as kind of a last minute addition by this new group of advisers. And it concerns a preservative in vaccines called thimerosal. This was actually taken out of vaccines about 25 years ago from most vaccines over theoretical concerns that there may be a safety risk because it contains a form of mercury. But no risk had ever been seen from this preservative and no one has actually been seen since. However, it became a focal point of people who believe that this vaccine preservative could be linked to neurodevelopmental issues like autism. And decades of research and multiple studies have found no link. But people like Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have focused on that.

He actually published a book about this vaccine preservative in 2014. And so this new panel of advisors that he handpicked added this to the agenda and they took a vote recommending that people in the United States not receive vaccines with the preservative thimerosal in them.

[01:29:44]

We should note that it's still only in very few vaccines, multi-dose vials of flu vaccines, and only about 4 percent of influenza vaccines given last season Actually contains this preservative.

Still, there was concern around this vote, including from one of the panelists, Dr. Cody Meissner, who's a pediatrician at Tufts and probably the best-respected panelist when it comes to vaccine expertise by peers in public health.

And here's what he had to say about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. CODY MEISSNER, MEMBER, ADVISORY COMMITTEE FOR IMMUNIZATION PRACTICES: The risk from influenza is so much greater than the non- existent, as far as we know, risk from thimerosal.

So I would hate for a person not to receive the influenza vaccine, because the only available preparation contains thimerosal. I don't -- I find that very hard to justify.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TIRRELL: He was the only panelist to vote no on this recommendation.

We should also add that groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics worried about the addition of this topic to the agenda, saying that, quote, "False information and faulty science about thimerosal are frequently used to mislead parents in an attempt to scare them out of vaccinating their children."

The American Academy of Pediatrics has typically participated with this panel in terms of guiding vaccine policy in the United States, but this week they were breaking with that, saying that they were concerned about its scientific integrity.

Meg Tirrell, CNN -- Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: So what will it take for Iran to rejoin nuclear talks with the U.S.?

CNN has exclusive new reporting on what the Trump administration may be offering Tehran, just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: Welcome back. You are watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Sciutto in Washington.

[01:34:46]

SCIUTTO: The U.S. Senate Parliamentarian ruled that key parts of President Trump's Big, Beautiful Bill do not meet strict rules to pass with a simple majority, what's known as the reconciliation process.

Now, some Senate Republicans are considering trying to overrule here. However, Republican Senator Josh Hawley says he does not think that can happen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOSH HAWLEY (R-MO): Oh, I can't -- I just can't imagine that you'd get people to overrule her.

I mean, I just think -- I think you get the votes for that. So I just -- I just don't -- I mean, I think Thune himself has said he wouldn't vote for that. So I don't see that happening.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Overseas, one week after dropping bunker buster bombs on Iran's Fordow nuclear facility, the U.S. may be making plans to replace it. Exclusive CNN reporting lays out the details of secret diplomatic

efforts to get Iran back to the negotiating table. Sources say they include helping Iran access up to 30 billion to invest in a nuclear energy program for civilian use. No enriched uranium to make weapons.

Other incentives discussed removing sanctions on Iran and unfreezing 6 billion in foreign bank accounts. Iran has said publicly it has no plans to resume nuclear talks with the U.S. however.

Earlier, I spoke with Republican Congressman Cory Mills about President Trump's agenda and the Iran strikes. I started by asking him if he thought so much of this week's drama could have been avoided if President Trump simply said the U.S. did serious damage to Iran's nuclear program, as opposed to obliterating it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REP. CORY MILLS (R-FL): You know, the thing I've heard From CNN time and time again, each hit is your hang up on the vernaculars, whether it was obliterated, whether it was significant damage, whether it was destroyed, whether it was damaged. This is such a foolish thing that you guys continue.

Again, I've said it once before. If President Trump walked on water, CNN's headlines would be that he can't swim.

The bottom line is, is that we moved Iran from a significant position of strength that the IAEA had waved the red flag and beat the drum on to a point now where they're willing to sign a ceasefire, which they had not said they would do before, and come to the negotiation table.

If it had not done a tremendous amount of damage to cripple their program they spent over +ACQ-2 trillion on, I can tell you that this malign regime would not be willing to come to the negotiation table. They would not have signed a ceasefire. They would not have called no mas.

And so I think that we're continuing to hang up on this vernacular of what the president said or didn't say as far as the terminology, but this is foolish, Jim.

We know this is a successful strike --

(CROSSTALKING)

SCIUTTO: To be fair --

MILLS: -- and we know the heroes and heroines of those B-2 pilots had done an amazing job and our military should be applauded, that our chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Caine had done an amazing job. Our SecDef had done an amazing job and the president had the backbone to actually do what was necessary that everyone else to include the Obama administration had said, this is a red line, but did nothing about.

SCIUTTO: Listen, I've said that on the air that successive presidents, Republican and democrat, have chosen not to strike Iran.

To be clear, I've been to Whiteman Air Force Base, I've talked to B-2 pilots. I've been to Iran. I've been to nuclear -- I've been to nuclear facilities as well. I am not contesting the damage done to the program. But the point is that it does matter what remains, right, because, for instance, if Iran still has and this seems to be the assessment, a great deal of highly-enriched uranium, that influences then what you have to do next.

What are you negotiating over? Do they still have the ability to, you know, take that uranium and try to turn it into a bomb? I mean, that's why I'm asking the question here.

MILLS: Absolutely. But that wasn't the question you asked, Jim. You asked about the terminology utilized from "obliterated" as opposed to the leaked information. And I'll say the same thing that's been said multiple times.

People leak information. They cherry pick. They won't give you the whole document, the whole context of actually what was being said. So we know for a fact that they were from one of the intel reports from Five Eyes, they were weeks away from actually having that full blown capability.

We know they violated JCPOA, this brainchild of Jake Sullivan in the previous administrations, which had failed miserably. And we know for a fact that Iran would not even have this capability if the Biden administration hadn't released an unfrozen $10 billion in fungible assets and allowed oil to continue to export at a higher rate than ever before to the Chinese.

So let's go ahead and start first painting it back to where we started from to where we are today. I believe that President Trump has actually eliminated an existential threat that was continuing to grow.

I believe that this regime would not have come to the table, and there would not have been a ceasefire. And a lot of civilians, unfortunately -- Iranian people and Israeli people would have died as a result of collateral damage on warfare.

The president has been able to make this strike that has actually saved lives. And that's what should we be focusing on right here.

SCIUTTO: I want to ask you about the budget bill, because the Senate parliamentarian, by taking some of these measures out from a reconciliation process, has in effect, taken away some of the Republicans' pay-fors right for not just extending the 2017 tax cuts, but adding other ones, like no taxes on tips, et cetera.

MILLS: Right.

SCIUTTO: Are you -- as you know, the CBO already estimated that the bill in its previous form, the House-passed form, would add 2.8 billion -- sorry trillion -- to the deficit over the course of ten years.

[01:39:50]

SCIUTTO: Are you comfortable voting for a bill that would add more given some of these pay-fors are taken away?

MILLS: Well, let me just say that this is actually one of the biggest tax cuts for the working-class Americans and for our middle class.

We know that TCJA, the Tax Cut Jobs Act, if that sunsets is going to take our corporations and small businesses from a 21 percent to a 43.4 percent tax hike. That is a massive, massive break. That would actually hurt and cripple many of these businesses.

We know that there are things that we could actually sharpen a little bit more. Could we make more cuts? Sure. I'm all for making more cuts.

But we can't cut our way to prosperity in this, Jim. We have to grow our way out of it. That's why we have to give enough liquidity, market capabilities, and we have to go ahead and invest in American innovation, American industry and the American workers so that we can actually go ahead and grow our GDP at a ratio of 3 -- 3.5 percent. That allows our GDP to national debt ratio to invert.

That's the key here. We can't cut our way to prosperity. We have to grow as a country. We have to stop being less reliant on adversarial nations, and we have to start building America and serving America.

SCIUTTO: I get that argument, but to repeat the question, as you know, the debt is already at about 130 percent -- I think I have that right -- of U.S. GDP.

MILLS: Right.

SCIUTTO: Are you comfortable with that number rising --

(CROSSTALKING)

MILLS: Of course, I'm now comfortable with that rising --

SCIUTTO: -- to, as you say, invest in America?

MILLS: -- but we have to go ahead and try and understand. Look, I'm the one that's been arguing and flying the red flag for a while, which is that there's only 28 empires and nations in the worlds history who's exceeded 130 percent GDP. One of those was the Roman Empire, who was also a Republic who couldn't serve its debts any longer, not because of its failure of military expansionism.

I understand the threat of a growing deficit. I would say that our national debt is one of our greatest existential threats in America.

But you cannot cut your way to prosperity at this current rate. Any business owner will tell you, I have to have more revenue. I have to have more business in the door.

This allows us to be able to go ahead and protect businesses, get less on the federal government's hands and start handing things back to the states and individuals that our 10th amendment was intended.

So if you really want to go back to the actual problem of this, I would go to 1913, the ratification of the 16th -- 17th amendment of Woodrow Wilson.

But what I can tell you is that this president is a negotiator and a businessman. We're going to grow our way out of this with American businesses, American industry, and American oil and gas.

SCIUTTO: Listen -- well, you and I are both fellow fans of history, and I made the comparison to the Roman Empire myself, so I appreciate the comparison.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: My conversation there with Republican Congressman Cory Mills.

Well, the New York mayor's race is getting more crowded. Incumbent Mayor Eric Adams officially launched his own bid Thursday for a second four-year term as an Independent candidate.

In a speech on the steps of city hall, Adams attacked the likely Democratic nominee, Zohran Mamdani, saying the state assemblyman has, quote, "record of tweets" whereas Adams claims a record on the streets.

Mamdani won New York's Democratic primary on Tuesday in a huge upset. He tells CNN he has no intention of following Adams' path.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZOHRAN MAMDANI, DEMOCRATIC MAYORAL CANDIDATE FOR NEW YORK CITY: Unlike the current mayor, I'm not going to be working alongside the Trump administration to build the single, largest deportation force in American history.

I'm going to actually represent each and every New Yorker, and that includes immigrant New Yorkers. And that means standing up for the laws of this city, like our sanctuary city policies, which have kept New Yorkers safe for decades and were defended by Republicans and Democrats alike for years until we got this mayor who fear-mongered about them so extensively.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Does that involve the NYPD?

MAMDANI: It means that the NYPD would actually serve New Yorkers and not assist ICE in their operations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Despite conceding the Democratic primary to former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo may not be exiting the race. Sources say he is likely to stay on the ballot for the November election as an independent, hoping to provide a safe harbor for moderates and progressives nervous about Mamdani's policies. Still ahead, a lavish weekend wedding celebration underway in Venice,

an expensive one too, where billionaire Jeff Bezos and his fiancee will tie the knot.

[01:43:40]

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SCIUTTO: 15 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a market in central Gaza, that according to local health officials who say several others were injured. The market was crowded as food in Gaza remains deeply hard to come by. Only a fraction of the amount that's necessary is coming in.

Despite that, Israel is keeping a tight lid on bringing in more aid. On Thursday, the controversial Israeli and U.S.-backed aid group the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation was the only one allowed to distribute food.

Israel has accused Hamas of stealing humanitarian aid as a justification for those restrictions. Major U.N. Relief groups say there is no evidence a significant amount of aid has been stolen.

Well, violence is also escalating in the West Bank, where Palestinians say a 15-year-old boy was killed by Israeli troops on Thursday. On the same day, a funeral was held for three Palestinians reportedly killed in an attack by Jewish settlers.

Nic Robertson has more on the attack.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: According to the mayor of Kafr Malik, a small town in the Occupied West Bank just northeast of Ramallah, he and a number of residents there say that dozens of masked and armed settlers, that's how they described the people, came into their town, started setting fire to vehicles, setting fire to houses.

Now, they described in that village that they then came out to try to protect their property and threw rocks at these masked armed settlers.

Shots were fired, they say. According to Palestinian health officials in Ramallah, the ministry of health in Ramallah, that three people were killed, three Palestinians were killed, ten were injured.

Now the IDF has a slightly different accounting of what happened. They say that they were called out to a scene where there was a disturbance, a confrontation, they say, between Palestinians and Israelis.

They say that the Israelis were not armed, and they describe a situation where people they describe as terrorists, and the implication here being that in the Palestinian town, people they say were terrorists, then fired shots at towards them, the IDF. And they identified targets and returned fire. So there is a discrepancy in the accounts. But what it does seem to do

is to fit the pattern of escalating settler violence in the West Bank that is aimed at driving Palestinians out of their homes and off their lands.

According to B'Tselem, an NGO that tracks the number of Palestinians killed inside the West Bank, they say that since the Hamas attack on October 7th, 2023, 918 people Palestinians have been killed in this rising violence there, some they say, by the IDF.

[01:49:47]

ROBERTSON: A smaller number -- far smaller number by -- through as a result of settler violence. But this appears to be another spike and trend in this escalating tension inside the West Bank.

Nic Robertson, CNN -- Tel Aviv.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: The Trump administration says that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the migrant it wrongfully deported to El Salvador earlier this year, will still be deported to a third country once he is released from custody.

The Justice Department lawyer revealed the plans during a brief court hearing on Thursday. Abrego Garcia was returned to the U.S. earlier this month, then arrested on human smuggling charges. He has pleaded not guilty but remains in custody.

In 2019, a judge ruled that Abrego Garcia could not be returned to El Salvador for fear of gang violence. That order does not apply if he's sent to another country.

We will be right back.

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SCIUTTO: Billionaire Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez are set to get married in Venice. The event has drawn celebrities and protesters to the Italian city. Reports say the wedding ceremony will be on Friday with a party on Saturday at a former medieval shipyard that now houses art.

[01:54:53]

SCIUTTO: Among the many A-list celebrities attending Oprah Winfrey, the actor Orlando Bloom, singer Usher, Kim and Khloe Kardashian and Ivanka Trump.

But the lavish celebration has also sparked protests from local residents.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CROWD: You are not alone. You are not alone. You are not alone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Anti-capitalists and other activists have draped posters and banners around Venice criticizing the extravagant event.

We'll continue to follow.

It might not rival the French Riviera, Copacabana Beach or Rio, but Kim Jong-un has high hopes for a brand-new coastal resort in North Korea.

Mike Valerio has details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: North Korea's Kim Jong-un is unveiling a new beach resort for up to 20,000 people. But who is going to visit?

You can see Kim here cutting the ribbon himself, fireworks, high rise hotels, a giant seaside celebration. This is a huge contrast to the military parades and reports of human rights abuses made by North Korean defectors and international human rights groups for decades.

So, let's talk about the larger picture of what's going on here.

This could be one of the most secretive countries on earth making a big foray into tourism. In fact, Kim has indicated that himself in this grand opening speech. As far as we know, beginning July 1, this is only open to North Koreans.

But Russia's Ambassador was at the ceremony, and Russian tourists were the first international visitors allowed into North Korea after COVID.

So, we're watching to see, especially as train service between Moscow and Pyongyang just started again.

Could the next stop on a Russia to North Korean itinerary be this beach?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: Quite a place for a resort.

Thanks so much for watching this evening. I'm Jim Sciutto in Washington.

CNN NEWSROOM with my colleague Polo Sandoval continues right after a short break.

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