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IDF: Iran Retaliates After Israeli Strikes On Nuclear Program; Netanyahu: Iran Presents "Clear And Present Danger" To Israel; Appeals Court Pauses Ruling That Would Have Forced Trump To Return Control Of California National Guard To State; Trump: Parade Protests Will Be Met With "Very Big Force". Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired June 13, 2025 - 06:00   ET

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

[06:00:00]

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I thank you for joining us here on "Early Start." I'm Polo Sandoval in New York City coming up next, "CNN This Morning" starts right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: We are, of course, following breaking news out of The Middle East, going live to Tel Aviv as Israel has targeted Iran's nuclear program in a massive attack. And overnight, Iran striking back.

Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish. I want to thank you for waking up with me, and let's begin with that breaking news. Essentially, Israel launched a stunning attack against Iran's nuclear program and its military leadership, killing three of the country's most powerful men. And now Israel says Iran is retaliating.

One of Iran's main enrichment facilities was hit, and this all ushers in a dangerous new chapter in the Middle East with a heightened risk of a regional war.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: Iran has taken steps that it has never taken before, steps to weaponize this enriched uranium. If not stopped, Iran could produce a nuclear weapon in a very short time. It could be a year. It could be within a few months, less than a year.

This is a clear and present danger to Israel's very survival.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: So the Israeli strike killed the Commander in Chief of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard along with six nuclear scientists. Then overnight, an Israeli military official said they were shooting down drones from Iran. Iran's supreme leader has vowed retaliation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ALI KHAMENEI, IRANIAN SUPREME LEADER (via translator): In the name of

Allah, the most gracious, the most merciful great nation of Iran, the Zionist regime opened its dirty and bloody hand to a crime in our beloved country this morning and revealed its evil nature by striking residential centers more than ever before. The regime must expect severe punishment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Iran accuses the U.S. of helping Israel with this, but Secretary of State Marco Rubio says United States was not involved. Christiane Amanpour, CNN's Chief International Anchor, joins me now.

Christiane, I'm glad you're here because I know you know a lot about this nuclear program and have even visited, some sites in the country.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Indeed, I have, Audie, of course, years ago. One was around, Isfahan, one of the key uranium adjacent facilities. We have not been inside Natanz. Natanz was hit. That's where the most centrifuges are spinning to enrich uranium. We understand from the IAEA, the watchdog, that apparently there is no extra detection of radiation.

We know that Fordow, which is another site, very, very deep, deep down in the mountains near Qom, the, the religious site, if you like, that apparently has not been hit. And we understand that in order to hit Fordow, which is considered one of the main Iranian nuclear sites in terms of its enrichment capacity, there would need to be much bigger bombs, these bunker busting bombs that apparently Israel doesn't have and that U.S. does have. And we think, and it's said from the United States that they have not taken part in these in these raids.

The other facility that I have been to is Bushehr, which is on the Persian Gulf area, and that was also apparently not hit. That is considered to be the center of Iran's civilian nuclear program. So this is what's been going on.

We understand that Israel has also taken action to take out some of the or as much as they can of Iran's, anti-air defense systems like it did the last time when it went in after Iran had sent a whole load of missiles and drones into Israel in that tit for tat that took place this time last year.

And so you know that Prime Minister Netanyahu and his hardliners have been itching to do this for many, many years. The Prime Minister of Israel has made many unilateral trips to Congress to address Republicans mostly. He's always complained about the nuclear deal that the Obama administration struck with Iran, which was essentially an arms control agreement to limit Iran's nuclear capacity.

President Trump pulled out of that when he was in his term, and now President Trump has been trying to revive some kind of nuclear deal with Iran to the point that they were due to have talks in Oman, the mediating country, this weekend. We don't know. We've heard from Iran that they don't plan to send their high level executives. So the truth is we don't know where this is going. We do know that this is something Israel has wanted to do for a very, very long time, and Israel has been denied that ability by various U.S. presidents in the past. And now it has taken this action, and we will see where it leads.

If Iran has only sent, and I say only, because it's relative, 100 drones, in retaliation, that is nowhere near the kind of retaliation it took about a year ago when Israel did strike various Iranian targets and assassinated some key Iranian officials, if you remember, in Damascus and elsewhere.

[06:05:00]

But Israel is also bolstered by the fact that its actions over the last year have defanged, Hezbollah and Hamas and other Iranian proxies in the region. So maybe it just thought this is the time to do this. Audie?

CORNISH: And, yes, a significant moment. Of course, we're also noting the killing of, the Iranian General, Hossein Salami. Christiane Amanpour, thank you. Appreciate this.

OK. We're going to continue to monitor the developments coming out of the Middle East. Former Navy Seal Commander and Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Representative Ryan Zinke will be here to discuss how and if the U.S. should respond.

Plus, a late night ruling keeps the National Guard in California under the control of the president. But for how long?

And a senator forcibly removed on the ground, cuffed, all during a news conference.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir. Sir. Hands up. Hands up.

SEN. ALEX PADILLA (D-CA): I'm Senator Alex Padilla. I have question for the secretary.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:10:00]

CORNISH: OK. So back to a bit of domestic news now, because the president's deployment of troops to Los Angeles has ignited a flurry of legal action. Now he no longer has to return control of California's National Guard back to the state because a Federal Appeals Court put a previous order on hold. And this is somewhat of a win for Newsom as this legal battle is far from over.

This as L.A. emerges from a straight night of curfews. Several people were detained. Police say the protest remained mostly peaceful. In Newark, New Jersey, video shows protesters outside an ICE detention facility appearing to block an unmarked SUV.

Joining me now in the group chat, Sara Fischer, CNN Media Analyst; Michael Warren, Senior Editor at the Dispatch; and Margaret Talev, Senior Contributor at Axios.

Sara, I want to start with you because this has been the one of the kind of ultimate split screen stories where for a lot of people, they may be on their social media seeing, you know, mass ICE -- unmarked ICE, you know, detentions. They may be thinking they're seeing something that looks like a protest.

And then for someone else, it's total descent. It's escape from L.A. It's fires and disorder. How are you processing how this is coming across?

SARA FISCHER, CNN MEDIA ANALYST: Sort of the misinformation split screen reminds me a lot of January 6th when in some cases you had people who said, no, this is Antifa, this is left wing, you know, chaos. And others on the other end were saying, no, no, this is right wing folks who are seizing the capital.

We had a very similar dynamic as well during the George Floyd protests, where it was a question of whether or not this was left wing Antifa destroying stores, destroying glass fronts, or if it was folks on the right.

And when I look at what's happening with ICE, there's one interesting through line, which is that there tends to be a lot of innocent bystanders who always get caught up in this. And their stories also get misconstrued.

You know, during George Floyd, it was one of the most chaotic times for the press at cover media. There were an unprecedented amount of local arrests of, you know, journalists who were just trying to cover the protests. We're seeing a very similar thing here.

The one optimistic point, though, Audie, we've learned from those two incidents that I mentioned to you before --

CORNISH: So you are saying there have been arrests of journalists --

FISCHER: Not for ICE necessarily --

CORNISH: -- detention -- OK.

FISCHER: -- but there was so much that happened during George Floyd.

CORNISH: Yes.

FISCHER: And a lot of laws and rules were passed so that now even though journalists are being targeted, I'm sure you've seen the viral imagery of someone getting hit by a rubber bullet. You're not having as many arrests. There's a lot more protections for journalists, and so that's something that's a little bit different this time around than in the past. CORNISH: Michael Warren, you've been writing about how you think that most Americans still want Trump to deport illegal immigrants, that they haven't wavered on the interest in his goal. Of course, they're now not approving of the way he's doing it. What's your indication of that, though? Just so some of the recent polling, or are you starting to see more in the worlds you write for?

MICHAEL WARREN, SENIOR EDITOR, THE DISPATCH: So there is this polling, right, that's essentially 55 percent of people said in the CBS YouGov poll that was released this week that they like Donald Trump's goals on deportation. And then almost the exact same amount, 56 percent said that they don't like the way that he's going about doing. They don't like the approach that he's taken to doing this.

That tells me that there is some number of people, a significant number of people who want him to do this, and they're not comfortable with the way he's doing it. You can see some other clues as well.

David Valadao is a Congressman from the Central Valley in California, a Republican, a moderate Republican. He came out earlier this week, gave a statement that said the violence in Southern California is bad. Also, I'm concerned about these --

CORNISH: Also he's very close to --

(CROSSTALK)

WARREN: Exactly. I think that is very significant. He has signed on to a letter with four or five other members -- Republican members of the House, asking for information about are there people who are not violent criminals being pulled up in this dragnet? That tells me that --

CORNISH: Say that again. So you now have a Republican saying, we need data on who actually has a criminal record here.

WARREN: To the administration. We provide you with the funds to do this, please tell us who you're pulling up and trying to deport here. That tells me that there is a concern in communities that may have supported Donald Trump that this is going -- this could go too far for them. That's what I'm going to be watching.

CORNISH: Good.

WARREN: Yeah. Yes.

CORNISH: Margaret, I'm going to let you jump in.

MARGARET TALEV, SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR, AXIOS: We're starting to see some of that it with a couple of Republican members in Florida as well.

[06:15:00]

You know, Axios is a monthly swing voter focused group. And, this month, we were in North Carolina just on Tuesday talking to swing voters. And these are voters who voted for Joe Biden in 2020 and then moved to Donald Trump. So they have that bias.

But we try to get a sense of how are they feeling about both the deportation, ways that deportations are being executed and the deployment of National Guard and the Marines. And what we saw is that, overwhelmingly, a majority of these swing voters say they're mostly OK with it even though they have some concerns about civil liberties infringements or, you know, Trumping to extreme or abusing executive power.

But why are they OK with it? Well, really for two reasons. One, these are people in North Carolina who lean center right. And so they don't really jibe with Californians. They think California is far away and crazy and liberal, and they don't like Democratic Party politics. And so they are processing this as an immigration issue. These are people who don't support, undocumented migration and think that people need to leave the United States who aren't supposed to be here.

They are not primarily seeing this as the wave of what will later be an infringement on their civil rights or, abusive executive power or Trumping --

(CROSSTALK)

CORNISH: Yeah. I'm glad you're making this distinction. We're going to talk later in the show actually about people in the more progressive end who are starting to think about those other issues. Group chat, please stick around.

Coming up on "CNN This Morning," we're going to follow-up on those new strikes from Israel on Iran. More on what those strikes could mean for U.S. nuclear talks with Iran as it vows no limits to its response.

And all hail, no kings. Protesters are getting ready to respond to the president's military parade with no King's Day demonstrations.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:20:00]

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And if there's any protest that wants to come out, they will be met with very big force, by the way. And for those people that want to protest, they're going to be met with very big force. And I haven't even heard about a protest. But, you know, this is people that hate our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: President Trump there with a warning to protesters ahead of tomorrow's military parade in DC. The parade is set to mark the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army. It, of course, also coincides with the president's 79th birthday.

So to see, like, tanks and heavy vehicles displayed on the streets might remind you of military parades and monarchies or authoritarian regimes, and that's striking a nerve with many Americans. A mass protest is being organized called No King's Day. The Group Indivisible, the Indivisible Project is doing it. And given president Trump's willingness to use military force against protesters in cities like Los Angeles, the group's now offering safety and de-escalation trainings to those who want to participate.

So how do you get mainstream support with that kind of fear hanging over the day? That was my "Assignment" for the podcast this week, and I spoke to one of Indivisible's cofounders, Leah Greenberg.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: What does that mean for inviting people out into the streets to protest like this weekend when all week they've been watching on the news a government that is prepared to respond violently.

LEAH GREENBERG, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, INDIVISIBLE PROJECT: Well, let me let me talk a little bit about how we've prepared, and then I'll talk about the reaction that I'm getting. So, you know, we've got about 1,900 events around the country. We have been doing intensive safety and de-escalation training both for hosts and making trainings available for attendees, including, you know, traditional know your rights. But also, more intensive around, you know, how do you handle various kinds of scenarios and escalations in the event of law enforcement, in the event of counter protests, in the event of agitators.

We take those responsibilities to prepare people to have these events enormously seriously, and so, we're in regular contact and support with the organizers of these events all over the country.

Now what I would say in terms of how do you talk to people about risk in this moment is, we can't -- we're not going to tell people that there's no risk. We're not going to tell people there's no reason to be concerned. What we are going to say is that we are collectively going to be more powerful together. We are collectively going to embrace that commitment to nonviolence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: OK. Group chat is back. You know, we went on to talk about the idea of what makes for a mainstream opposition. What makes for a moment or tipping point where more people come together and feel less fear about doing that?

Are we any closer to that tipping point? We talk so much about not seeing the kind of protests that we're seeing during the Trump administration.

FISCHER: When it comes to misinformation, the way that we figure out what a tipping point is, is if it has reached 10 percent of the population's knowledge, then we consider it in the zeitgeist and about to reach a tipping point. And if it doesn't reach that point, Audie, that's how we as journalists know not to cover it because it might be inadvertently making it bigger. I think in this case, if at least 10 percent of the population is aware of the fact that there are counter protests, that's when it has become a movement.

CORNISH: Counter protests that are not violent. Counter protests that are just sort of on their own merits. How are you guys hearing this? It's a weird moment because a bunch of Republicans are actually not going to the military parade. So clearly, there is some discomfort here.

TALEV: Well, I do think, it's noteworthy that they have or appear to have organized these protests in -- not in Washington, not --

CORNISH: Yeah. Look at that map.

(CROSSTALK)

TALEV: -- not alongside. Right? So these are all over the country. And in this DC Metro Area where we're talking right now, I think they have a number of them planned in sort of, like, the suburban towns around the city, but not in the city itself.

[06:25:00]

I'll say, how do you judge these success of a protest movement? Do you judge it by how many people are on the streets, or do you judge it by the coverage they're getting?

If it's by the second, they've already gotten that name out there. No Kings. You hear it, on -- in news coverage, all over Facebook and social media. So as an organizing movement it may have already been successful, but success to what end? I mean, what is the measure of success you have? Is it midterm elections? Is it to get the president and the administration to curb their process --

CORNISH: Yeah. The argument is, it's showing people that there is not inevitability to Trump policies and their approaches.

WARREN: It strikes me that the best tactic here, the places where the sort of anti-Trump, resistance succeeded in the term, you know, where it sort of called on and evoked sort of Americanism, for lack of a better term, sort of American principles about the freedom to protest. I mean, the idea, right, that we heard from President Trump that, you know, protesters will be met with force. I mean, that really is sort of counter to the American idea.

Then well, we of course, we have the ability to stand up and say we don't like what our government is doing today or in now or in the future. That's where I think a movement is going to find success when they seem to be extreme, when they seem to sort of -- it's -- this No King's idea, I don't necessarily love the name of it. It doesn't roll off my tongue, but it does sort of evoke that American idea that, oh, we're a republic, we don't have kings, we don't have people who just make these decisions. And nobody can protest. If they continue to call on that history, they'll probably have a lot more success in appealing to regular Americans. CORNISH: Yeah. Something for people to respond to. OK. You guys stick around. And if you want to hear more from Leah Greenberg, any of other episodes, "The Assignment" drops every Thursday. Get them, wherever you get your podcasts.

Now after the break on "CNN This Morning," President Trump did not want Israel to strike Iran. They did it anyway. So how will this impact the U.S. and Iran's nuclear talks?

A miracle in seat 11A, the sole survivor walking away from a plane crash. This morning, his family is speaking out.

And, of course, more from our friends in the group chat after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)