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CNN This Morning

Israeli Hospital Hit by Iranian Missile Attack; Iran: We will 'Retaliate' Against U.S. Military Action; Trump Waiting to Green Light U.S. Attack on Iran; SCOTUS Upholds Ban on Trans Youth Gender- Affirming Care. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired June 19, 2025 - 06:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: It is Thursday, June 19th, and here's what's happening right now on CNN THIS MORNING.

[06:00:43]

We're following breaking news in the Middle East. Dozens of missiles soaring in the early morning hours, a nuclear facility hit in Iran and a hospital damaged in Israel.

Plus, this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Unconditional surrender. That means I've had it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: President Trump, weighing his options. Can the U.S. get involved in the Iran-Israel conflict without causing a wider war?

And the hawks versus the isolationists. GOP infighting over whether the U.S. should assist Israel. But who has the president's ear?

It's now 6 a.m. here on the East Coast, but here's a live look at the damage in Tel Aviv after an Iranian strike earlier this morning.

Welcome, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish. I want to thank you for waking up with me. And we are going to begin this morning with that breaking news on the escalation between Israel and Iran.

So, both sides are firing more weapons at each other overnight. That's a hospital in Southern Israel getting hit by an Iranian missile attack. Video taken inside the hospital shows extensive damage. Several injuries were reported, including a 60-year-old woman, who is now in stable but serious condition.

Israeli officials called the strike a deliberate attack against a civilian target. Iran claims it was targeting a nearby military site.

Now, that was just one of several missiles which hit Israel in the past few hours. Another missile got through air defenses in Tel Aviv, striking a high-rise building. In total, at least 65 people have been injured across Israel.

Iran is also dealing with a punishing barrage from Israeli warplanes. The IDF targeted Iran's national police headquarters, sending smoke billowing into the sky.

Israeli officials say they've launched dozens of strikes, which they say will continue until Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs are destroyed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YECHIEL LEITER, ISRAELI AMBASSADOR TO U.S.: There are ballistic missiles coming into Israel now. They're not carrying nuclear warheads. I mean, these things are the size of a semi-trailer packed with TNT, and they come cruising out of the sky and create incredible damage. That production capacity has to be eliminated, as well. It's very simple.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Joining me now is CNN's Nic Robertson. He's actually outside the hospital that was hit in Southern Israel.

Nic, we can hear some of the gathering of the refuse there. Can you tell me what's going on? The current situation?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, Audie. Good morning.

The Soroka medical center. That's where we're at. Just look around me. Sanjiv's (ph) got a wide-angle lens on here. You can just see, looking here, the damage to this building.

And Sanjiv (ph), if you can just pan up there to the higher floors, the medical center director here told me it was a fifth-floor direct impact on the cancer and urology ward.

He said very fortunately, the 25 patients, bedbound patients that they had there until yesterday had been taken to the basement for their safety. That had been a precautionary measure.

This direct impact on the hospital, he said, has caused extensive damage. 40 casualties here, most of them with light injuries from broken glass. Most people taking shelter inside the hospital.

But to give you a sense of this place, the children's ward is over in that direction. There is a maternity ward in this hospital. I've seen pregnant ladies outside the hospital, having to leave with other patients already today.

This is the biggest medical facility in the South of Israel. It serves a million people.

I can hear water raining down. It looks like the fire crews are still up there above us. So just dousing. They're dousing the building.

We know that the fire crews, I just saw them going back inside the building. There. The recovery mission, the search mission for people who might be injured or trapped inside the hospital. That is over.

But now there's a complete mechanical, structural assessment going on here.

And as I was saying, 1,200 beds in this hospital. The community it serves, both Arab and Jewish. There are a million people in the community here that use this hospital on a regular basis.

[06:05:09

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, guys. We've got to get out.

ROBERTSON: The -- the fire guys up here are telling us we've just got to move back a bit, so we're -- we're going to stay. Keep talking to you. We're just going to move back a bit here.

But Audie, if you just follow me and Sanjiv here, you get a sense of the destruction. Look at all this twisted debris around here. Fire trucks backed up as far as you can see.

This has really raised the temperature on this conflict. The politicians have been coming here, have been talking very clearly: this was an intentional strike on the hospital by Iran and the prime minister, very clearly calling for an uptick in strikes on -- on Iran.

We're moving now, because we're being given very firm instructions to leave the area. You can stay with me, Audie, if you like. We're just going to pull back. Thanks, guys. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.

We'll try and give you a better perspective of what's going on when we get back down here.

Sanjiv, I know you're working the camera as best you can. The fire trucks here, they've been the relief and support. These guys are some of the first on site here.

We can turn around and take a -- take a look now where we had to pull back from. Audie, you can see up on the top level, the fifth floor, you can see the firefighters up there giving that inspection the hospital director told me was going to happen. They're pouring water on that level. It's all black and charred.

When you get a little bit away from the building, maybe. Sanjiv, you can pull up, see the side of the building there. You can see the concrete ripped back, toppled down. A 1,200-bed hospital.

Like all hospitals in Israel, this one, as a precautionary measure, had been moving patients to the basement. And that's why the director said that the casualty toll here was not worse. It could have been -- it could have been far worse. And I think when you try and look at this. And, you know, the question at the moment is diplomacy. Is diplomacy -- is diplomacy going to work? Is it -- is it possible at the moment?

Days like today, when such an emotive site as a hospital: the cancer ward, the urology ward, a pregnancy clinic here, as well, children's wards part of this hospital. When that happens, that raises the temperature. And it does feel, on this seventh day of the conflict, clearly diplomacy is -- it's -- it hardly seems it's a question at the moment, Audie.

CORNISH: Yes, Nic. Thank you so much. I mean, it's kind of shocking to see such a direct hit by Iran there.

Nic Robertson is going to be joining us from Israel throughout the day.

Now, the leaders and the people of Iran are striking a defiant tone as they wait for President Trump to decide whether the U.S. will get involved in attacking them.

Late last night, a motorcycle parade of Iranians waving flags filled the streets of Tehran just hours after the country's supreme leader and other high-ranking officials vowed to never surrender.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJID TAKHT-RAVANCHI, IRANIAN DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER: If the Americans decide to get involved militarily, we have no choice but to retaliate wherever we find the targets necessary to be acted upon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Joining me now is CNN's chief national security correspondent, Nick Paton Walsh.

Nick, we just heard him say whatever targets would be necessary. What kind of U.S. Targets could be vulnerable to an Iranian counterattack?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Certainly, all eyes will point towards U.S. bases in the region, but you have to bear in mind two things. The extensive and lengthy telegraphing of that as a possibility. If the U.S. did get involved, which is a big if still, then the multiple military bases in the region have had plenty of time to prepare themselves and to evacuate.

And secondly, too, you have to ask yourself, as well, what capabilities indeed Iran has left that could penetrate more sophisticated U.S. air defenses, given the bulk of resources the U.S. seems to have shifted to that area, too.

So, I think you also have to take in mind, as well, whether Iran really wants to extend its potential adversaries and conflict in the region at a time when we've seen them reduce over the past few nights, the volume of ballistic missiles fired.

Unclear quite why what Israel refers to as dozens indeed got through and caused that damage. But be in no doubt, as well. The Israeli strikes persist on targets across Iran.

That display of defiance, yes, but at the same time, as well, our colleague Fred Pleitgen reporting Tehran streets predominantly deserted.

Iran said that its Arak heavy water -- Arak heavy water plant was hit. That has been linked in the past with the possibility of producing plutonium, another path to a nuclear weapon. It was described as inactive.

But the fact Israel hit it now, after days of hitting other nuclear facilities, suggests perhaps they're working through their target list and getting to a point where they're hitting things that might potentially be a threat in the future, rather than the things they consider to be an immediate threat.

[06:10:11

So, the damage to Iran's military infrastructure clear. Just another example. They've now appointed the third land forces commander of the Revolutionary Guard Corps in since this conflict began, the first killed in the first night, his successor killed recently. The third now in position.

So, the turmoil clear. The limitations on Iraq's [SIC] -- Iran's abilities clear, as well. And also, too, their foreign minister confirming in the last minute he will be going to Geneva to meet with his European counterparts. That's a possible diplomatic off ramp here, if indeed it's a process that the United States will actually listen to or has some agency in -- Audie.

CORNISH: CNN's chief international security correspondent, Nick Paton Walsh. Thank you, Nick.

Coming up on CNN THIS MORNING, President Trump's dilemma. Can the U.S. get involved in the conflict between Israel and Iran without igniting a regional war?

Plus, will the threat of bunker-buster bombs lead to diplomacy or more destruction?

And is President Trump ignoring U.S. intel on Iran? A warning from Democrats.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARK WARNER (D-VA): If this president is going to suddenly blow off all of the consensus opinion of the intelligence community, well, what are these folks' job? Their job is to speak truth to power, not cook the books.

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[06:16:02] CORNISH: A plan for the U.S. to attack Iran has been reviewed by President Trump, but he's not quite ready to sign off on it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I have ideas as to what to do, but I haven't made a final. I like to make the final decision one second before it's due, you know, because things change. I mean, especially with war, things change. With war, it can go from one extreme to the other.

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CORNISH: The president is holding off on a military strike to see if Iran decides to step back from its nuclear program. Sources tell CNN he's receptive to using U.S. military assets to strike Iran's nuclear facilities but wants to do it without getting dragged into a full- scale war.

Joining me now, Joel Rubin, former deputy assistant secretary of state, and Colonel Cedric Leighton, CNN military analyst.

I want to come back to the -- the aspect of potential diplomacy, Joel, in a second.

But Colonel Leighton, first, I want to talk about that strike against the hospital this morning. I think the audience is hearing that Iran took out much -- Israel took out much of Iran's sort of air capabilities, military capabilities.

But what are we seeing in what Iran is still able to do?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: So, one of the key things, Audie, is the fact that the Israelis were able to eliminate the types of missiles that attack their aircraft. They've basically cleared the skies of -- of that kind of threat in Iran itself.

But when it comes to Iran's offensive capabilities, the problem that you have is that there were, at the start of this conflict, about 3,000 missiles that the Iranians had at their disposal, and they still have some that they can use against Israel.

And all it takes is one to penetrate the Iron Dome and similar defensive systems that the Israelis have, to potentially create a problem like were seeing in the Beersheba Hospital.

CORNISH: The reason why I'm asking is because there's three U.S. aircraft carriers in the region, which some people are looking at to suggest the U.S. at least positioning itself to act.

And in order for the U.S. to get involved with the so-called bunker- buster bomb, that would have to be delivered by air. So how does that complicate the potential military avenues?

LEIGHTON: So, the most at-risk pieces are going to be the aircraft carriers in the -- probably in the Eastern Mediterranean. They could also potentially be in the Persian Gulf or the Arabian Gulf. But those are the most at risk for offensive operations by the

Iranians.

The B-2 bombers, which would the most -- be the most likely means of conveying the special bunker-buster bomb toward the facilities in Iran, would be pretty safe, based on what we've seen the Israelis do when it comes to destroying the air defense capability of the Iranians.

So --

CORNISH: Yes.

LEIGHTON: -- we would basically be riding on top of that to take care of that mission, if we were to do that.

CORNISH: So, Joel, you've been in the room when the military analyst comes in and says, "President, these are your options."

The president is obviously still looking for options, potentially diplomatically.

JOEL RUBIN, FORMER DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE: But he's facing a lot of pressure. Here is the former Israeli defense minister, Yoav Gallant.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YOAV GALLANT, FORMER ISRAELI DEFENSE MINISTER: In order to create a better future for the Middle East -- not only for Israel, for all the countries in the Gulf and elsewhere in the Middle East, and basically in the world -- there is a potential for the United States to be involved.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Lots of pressure.

RUBIN: That's a lot of pressure. You know, Audie, happy talk is not the best way to run a foreign policy. And my concern with some of the language about regime change, that there's some kind of magic formula that can be used to change all the Middle East for the better, we've heard that before. We heard that before the war in Iraq.

That obviously was not just wrong, but it was devastating to the region and, of course, the United States.

There needs to be a discreet, clear reason and rationale for American military involvement.

As the colonel has pointed out, there are real technical issues that we have to look at: real life and death issues. So, let's stick to those. We don't need to get into the whole conversation about brand- new utopian visions for the Middle East.

[06:20:11] CORNISH: All right, you guys. Stay with us. We're going to talk more this hour.

And coming up on CNN THIS MORNING, a setback for transgender rights. What's next after the Supreme Court declined to treat transgender people as a protected class?

Plus, MAGA mayhem. A closer look at the widening divide in the Republican Party over the president's support of Israel.

And we'll also be going live to Tel Aviv, where we're continuing to monitor breaking news developments out of the Middle East. Stick with us.

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CORNISH: We're following a major decision from the Supreme Court that could shape the future of health care for transgender youth across the country.

[06:25:02]

The court, in a 6-to-3 decision, left in place a Tennessee law that bans transgender minors from receiving gender-affirming care, including puberty blockers and hormone therapy.

More than 20 states have enacted laws banning such care for trans minors.

Advocates are framing this ruling as a devastating loss, including the mom of one transgender youth whose case was at the center of this legal battle.

In a "New York Times" op-ed released after the decision, she wrote, "Our hearts are broken."

Joining me now to help us understand what this ruling means and what could come next, is Alyse Adamson, a former federal prosecutor.

Alyse, so sometimes these rulings can be narrow. Can you help us understand what the judges decided to do? Because Chief Justice Roberts wrote for the majority that the case carries a lot of weight. But also, "we leave questions regarding the policy to the people," to elected representatives.

Meanwhile, you had Justice Sotomayor writing, "By retreating from meaningful judicial review where it matters most, the court abandons transgender children and their families to political whims."

Help us explain those two different views.

ALYSE ADAMSON, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Sure. That's right, Audie.

So essentially, what the conservative majority did here was they found that the law, that Tennessee law, did not single anybody out based on identity or here, transgender status. They said that this was not a sex discrimination case.

Because remember, this law, this challenge to the law was brought as an equal protection challenge to the 14th Amendment. They said this was discriminatory based on gender identity or sexual identity, that being transgender.

CORNISH: That's what the plaintiffs were saying, yes.

ADAMSON: That's what the plaintiffs were arguing. The Supreme Court said, No, this is a neutral law that applies to everybody equally, both girls and boys, and that the class is age. This law applies to minors and those that are experiencing a medical condition, that being gender dysphoria. And it has to do with their medical treatment.

So, that is the way the majority chose to treat this law. And because of that, because they said it was not a sex discrimination case, they were able to apply the most deferential standard of judicial review, that being the rational basis test.

So, so long as a state has a legitimate reason for passing a law, unless it is blatantly discriminatory, they're going to uphold it as constitutional.

CORNISH: Can I come back to this thing you said? Are they -- are they -- have they made a ruling in such a way that other cases where transgender plaintiffs come forward and say, We're a protected class under the law because of gender, that that's, like, off the table?

ADAMSON: Well, Audie, this was a very narrow ruling. I -- I know transgender advocates are framing this, as you said in your opening, as a devastating loss. But this -- this case was really cabined upon medical treatment.

So, I think in the future, the impact, the immediate impact is this ban is going to go effect [SIC] -- into effect in Tennessee. There's over 20 states that have similar laws that relate to this gender- affirming care.

I think when it comes to other transgender issues and potential infringement on their rights -- that being bathroom bans, transgender athletes -- it's going to be a different argument, because this argument was so narrow.

So, the court was essentially able to sidestep this by saying, No, this is a medical issue. This really pertains to medical care.

I also just want to respond to something you said about public policy. What the Supreme Court majority essentially said was this is a states' issue. And if you do not like this law, go to the ballot box and elect other legislators.

That's what rational basis is, essentially. It's very deferential to the states.

The dissent, Judge Sotomayor, was saying, What are you talking about, essentially? This is gender-affirming care. It flies in the face of logic. How could this not be sex discrimination? This is exactly the type of issue that the Supreme Court should take up.

CORNISH: As you said, because it's a somewhat narrow ruling. We may see this issue come up again in some of these -- other transgender legislation.

Alyse Adamson is a former federal prosecutor and host of "At-lyse You Heard It" podcast. Thank you for being here, as always.

ADAMSON: Thanks, Audie.

CORNISH: We're continuing to follow the breaking news in the Middle East. President Trump said he's done negotiating with Iran, but with all the tough talk, are there any back channels still open?

Plus, a major hurricane is about to make landfall in Mexico, doubling in strength overnight.

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