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U.S. Enters Conflict Between Iran And Israel; U.S. Uses "Bunker Buster" Bombs To Strike Iran Nuclear Facilities. Trump: U.S. Strikes On Iran A "Spectacular Military Success"; Trump Announces Air Strikes On 3 Nuclear Sites In Iran; Sources: Trump Briefed Republicans Before Strikes, But Not Democrats; Iranian Foreign Minister U.S. Decided To Blow Up Diplomacy. Aired 6-7a ET

Aired June 22, 2025 - 06:00   ET

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

[06:00:33]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. I'm John Berman. This is CNN's special coverage. Events are unfolding this morning after President Trump put the U.S. firmly into the Middle East conflict. For the first time, we are hearing from senior Iranian officials.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABBAS ARAGHCHI, IRANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: Silence in the face of such blatant aggression will plunge the world into an unprecedented level of danger and chaos. Humanity has come too far as a species to allow a lawless bully to take us back to the law of the jungle.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right. Last night, the U.S. bombed three key Iranian nuclear facilities Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. President Trump spoke shortly after, saying he is not afraid to strike again.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This cannot continue. There will be either peace or there will be tragedy for Iran far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days.

Remember, there are many targets left. Tonight's was the most difficult of them all by far, and perhaps the most lethal, but if peace does not come quickly, we will go after those other targets with precision, speed and skill.

Most of them can be taken out in a matter of minutes. There's no military in the world that could have done what we did tonight, not even close.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked the president saying, the targeted strikes will change history.

Hit Israel with new strikes this morning. One missile tore apart an apartment building in Tel Aviv. Israeli officials say 86 people were hospitalized after those strikes. The chief of the United Nation's nuclear watchdog group is calling an emergency meeting for tomorrow.

We have team coverage on this breaking news from the White House to the Middle East. Let's start with Nic Robertson in Tel Aviv. Nic, what are you seeing there this morning?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes. John, this is a scene of complete devastation and destruction of many, many apartments in several apartment buildings here. We were taken in about an hour ago to the center of the area where the blast actually happened. We've had to leave that area. I hope we've got some video there we can show you of it. But there was a long sort of four-story apartment building, three-story apartment building that was about eight apartments long, three or four apartments high. On the other side of the pathway, there were a number of different houses. All of them, John, just ripped apart, twisted rebar, concrete rubble.

Over the past week here, I've seen a number of different blast sites. This was significant. This was very, very heavy damage over a wide area. There were at least 20 casualties here.

And we saw one building there. And I remarked on it during our last broadcast that the only piece of that building that had any structure left to it was the hardened bomb shelter room inside the building. It had the metal shutters on the windows.

And this one room, the walls were standing. The rest of the house around it is shredded. And I think that's testament to why Israeli officials here told people to be in their safe rooms. Most houses or many houses have these safe rooms.

And I was told by the police spokesman the fact that the family was inside this hardened room, inside their house, the rest of the house shredded around it, quite literally. I mean, it was -- when you looked at it, it really made that point about just how safe the safe rooms are. And he said -- he told me the family were inside that room.

There were some things inside the room, some equipment that moved around when the blast happened. They were hurt by the movement of that equipment a little bit, but they survived because they were in that room. And that continues to be the government message.

But the damage here very significant. And the missile came in about five hours after the United States targeted those nuclear sites inside of Iran.

[06:05:04]

There are about 30 missiles in that wave. They impacted two other sites in the center of Israel, and another site in the in the north in Haifa. Again, as you said, 86 people taken to hospital. Fortunately, the vast majority of those, John, with minor injuries. BERMAN: We can see the facade, the front of that building completely ripped off. Extensive damages there in Tel Aviv. Nic Robertson, thank you so much for being there. Please keep us posted. Obviously, events unfolding in Israel as well.

So, it was the U.S. B-2 bombers that dropped several -- 30,000-pound bombs, known as bunker busters, on two Iranian nuclear sites. That's the first known instance of these weapons being used in conflict.

CNN's senior White House reporter Betsy Klein is with us now live from the White House this morning. Betsy, what do we know about how these decisions were made and what the White House is saying this morning?

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE PRODUCER: Well, John, President Trump really spent the better part of the last 10 days deliberating on whether to get the U.S. involved in this conflict. He was hearing from such a wide range of allies and advisers, really divided between that MAGA isolationist wing of his party advocating against the possibility of a broader military conflict, as well as the more hawkish conservative voices who wanted the U.S. to get involved here.

Ultimately, the president making that decision. He described these attacks as, quote, "a spectacular military success." And he is calling for Iran to come back to the negotiating table, even as he warned, as you laid out a little while ago, that there could be future attacks if they do not do so.

Now, as you mentioned, the U.S. used six of these B-2 bombers and dropped a dozen of those unique bunker busting bombs on the Fordow military site. Experts say this is the only type of bomb that can destroy a site like this, and it is the first known instance of this bomb being used for this specific operation.

Trump has been adamant all along that he believes Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, and we heard him lay out a little bit of his rationale last night. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: For 40 years, Iran has been saying, death to America, death to Israel. They have been killing our people, blowing off their arms, blowing off their legs with roadside bombs. That was their specialty.

We lost over a thousand people, and hundreds of thousands throughout the Middle East and around the world have died as a direct result of their hate, in particular, so many were killed by their general, Qasem Soleimani. I decided a long time ago that I would not let this happen. It will not continue.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KLEIN: Now, the president made clear that he made this decision after it became clear that diplomacy was not moving forward. But we also have learned that the White House and the president informed top congressional Republicans but did not inform top Democrats there. The president is now here at the White House, where we do expect him to meet with his national security team. The White House, of course, closely monitoring how Iran responds. We are also awaiting a press conference with more details on this attack at the Pentagon in a couple of hours, John.

BERMAN: Yes, those B-2 bombers in flight for some 37 hours to make those strikes, dropping those 12 enormous bombs on those two facilities. Betsy Klein at the White House this morning with the latest, we thank you very much.

All right. As you heard, Iran's foreign minister says the U.S. strikes will have everlasting consequences. With us now, CNN chief international anchor Christiane Amanpour. So, we did hear for the first time out loud from the Iranian foreign minister since the strikes, everlasting consequences, he says. What will those be?

I know we are standing by to see if there will be a direct military response from Iran. What are you looking for?

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Well, yes. I mean, the reporting you've done on the response to Israel is par for the course. They are in a war, and there has been a strike on Iran and retaliatory strikes on Israel for the last eight days.

The key question now is, since the United States has come in, will Iran attack any U.S. targets, bases, personnel, any U.S., you know, targets in that region or wherever? And I think that will be the big question that everybody is waiting for. Because clearly, if you listen to President Trump's words last night, if that were to happen, then there would be massive retaliation. Iran is clearly in a corner.

[06:10:01]

It's clearly much, much weaker than it was, you know, even a year ago. And that's all since Israel started to really massively degrade its anti-aircraft and its missile defense systems back in November, and then these last eight days has just continued that military degradation, including the removal of top layers of the military there.

So, the question is, is Iran's leadership actually able to direct any kind of response, and how will they do it? Sources inside Iran say that their supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, is still directing the response from whatever shelter he's in, that he has also -- and this is reporting from "The New York Times," he has, you know, replaced and named all the replacements for all the military leaders who have been taken out. And he's also put forth names to replace him should he be taken out.

Foreign Minister Araghchi was in Istanbul after these failed talks in Geneva over -- on Friday. And he was very robust in his response. He said this was a betrayal of diplomacy. He said he and the Iranian negotiators had thought last week that they were heading to another round of diplomacy with Steve Witkoff and with the U.S. team and all the other mediators in Oman. And they thought that this -- on Friday was also going to be a possibility to get back to the negotiating table. Iran had said that they couldn't negotiate and they wouldn't while the attacks were underway. At this time, the U.S. hadn't got involved, but the Israeli attacks. But they said that they were interested in -- well, they wanted to keep negotiating.

So, that's where we are right now. Araghchi was very robust. He said that, you know, Iran reserved the right under international law to defend itself and to defend its sovereignty and independence, as he said.

He accused the United States and Israel, of course, of violating international law by attacking a country in this regard, violating the IAEA clauses of attacking the nuclear enrichment facilities. But more to the point, we haven't seen battle damage assessment.

I spoke to the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Admiral Mike Mullen, this past -- last few days. And he said, you know, lot is talked about the MOP, the big bomb that can only be delivered by B-2s. But it's unclear because they've never been used before. This is the first time.

Just how much penetration? Iran's Fordow is very, very deeply buried. And what damage they can do? Lasting damage.

Natanz may be slightly easier because it's less deeply buried. And the U.S. apparently did drop the MOPs on Natanz as well. But the question is, what has actually, you know, taken place? And we will wait to see that as well.

But right now, the real issue that everybody is waiting for is, how will Iran respond? And just finally, apparently, according to CBS administration officials said that they had warned Iran of this strike but said that it was not about leadership change.

So, is the U.S. and Israel's endgames aligned? Israel clearly wants regime change and is still bombing.

BERMAN: Israel clearly wants regime change, is still bombing. Iran is still shooting missiles at Israel. The question is, will Iran launch attacks on direct U.S. interest? Not yet, but we are waiting to see that very carefully.

You did hear the Iranian foreign minister say this was a betrayal of diplomacy. What incentive does Iran have now to get back to the table? Was there anything in his statement that makes you think that there's -- there's a path to discussions?

AMANPOUR: Well, at this point, you know, they just kept talking about the value of diplomacy, how diplomacy actually worked, how the U.N. Security Council, all the members which never vote together on anything in 2015, did approve the so-called JCPOA, that was the nuclear deal in 2015, and how that worked.

And it was a -- you know, a concerted campaign to bust it up. That caused President Trump to pull out, you know, under stiff lobbying from Benjamin Netanyahu and some of the Gulf states back in 2017. Basically, Trump 1.0.

So, they did think that there was room for diplomacy and diplomacy would potentially work this time around in Trump 2.0, because Trump kept telegraphing as well that he wanted to make a deal. So, things really did change and accelerate to change.

President Trump's mind over the last week, he has publicly said that he was impressed by the success of Israel's operational ability, of its intelligence ability, of its tactical ability. But the thing is, what is the actual strategy? Where is the off ramp? Where is the exit strategy? What are you trying to achieve?

[06:15:01]

And I wonder, because of what Trump apparently said to the Iranians, whether the two countries' goals are aligned and what this will -- you know, what this brings. Iran clearly needs to come to some kind of negotiating table because it is -- it has been militarily weakened.

The parameters that the president has put out, and Israel, is that Iran can have no enrichment at all, period, end of story. There was apparently a consortium idea that Steven Witkoff, his special envoy, had presented that threaded that needle to satisfy potentially all sides. That apparently was going to be responded to by Iran in that June 15th, sixth session of talks in Oman. But that was obviously negated by the by the military strikes.

So, Iran is now saying, you know, it was a deception. All of this was clearly a deception just for military strikes.

We will see what happens. But it has been quite a verbally ferocious, you know, fight back. He called, you know, President Trump's administration lawless and warmongering. He said, they call us bullies of the region. Well, this bully is now taking us back to the law of the jungle.

So, it'll take a lot of will and creative diplomacy and harmony, Netanyahu and Trump. These three are in charge of whatever decisions happen right now, and we will see where it -- where it leads.

BERMAN: In terms of concrete actions, the Iranians could take, I know for decades there's been concern about the Strait of Hormuz, where so much oil passes through. I know there are a lot of people -- be a lot of people focused on that region over the next several hours. What could Iran do?

AMANPOUR: Well, what it did in the -- you know, the historic time was during the Iran-Iraq war, when it did close it, when it had limpet mines, when it essentially disrupted very important shipping, and particularly oil transport through that vital waterway. That obviously would also hurt Iran. And Iran is incredibly weakened economically and has been since the global sanctions. And so, it's very difficult but that is a possibility. The other possibility, which is a pretty scary one because it goes to the North Korea model, is if all this survives and if Trump says it's not about regime change, and if they haven't completely obliterated, as he said, the nuclear facilities, and if Iran can or wants to rebuild, then it goes dark that they pull out of the NPT, the Non- Proliferation Treaty of the IAEA, as North Korea did in the early 2000s.

And now North Korea has built, according to intelligence, certainly has enough material and apparently has bombs. So that is a -- that is a fear. Today in his press conference, Araghchi, the foreign minister said, for 20 years we've been accused of either having the bomb, being on the verge of the bomb, wanting the bomb, ordering the bomb, et cetera. And we haven't done it.

But now the worst-case scenario, people think that paradoxically the military action could cause them to move to a darkened program and actually make nuclear weapons because they see that, you know, their entire conventional deterrence has been obliterated by Israel. And so, that's -- that's one option that they could do that analysts are talking about.

The whole thing makes the whole place much more dangerous. There's no real opposition inside. And more to the point, Iranian people who pretty much have had enough of their regime and have made it very clear each of their uprisings have been put down.

But now, if you look online, if you talk to people inside Iran, like I've been doing, the rallying around the nationalist flag is very, very intense. There's a huge amount of anger at Israel, and we'll see what happens in their reaction to the United States.

But at the moment, at the moment, there is no evidence that the people are mobilized against their government. Now, there might be a reckoning, and there probably will be a reckoning down the road. But right now, there's no evidence that that is happening. So, those are all the stakeholders and the pieces in play right now.

BERMAN: Obviously, the next few hours are crucial. Christiane Amanpour, thank you so much for being with us. We'll check back in with you again shortly.

The breaking news coverage continues. Next, with reaction coming in across the international community, what we're hearing from leaders around the world.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:24:33]

BERMAN: All right. Just moments ago, we learned President Trump has no public events scheduled for the day. He is at the White House. There will be a very public military briefing, and we are hearing from international leaders.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the bombings, calling them, quote, "righteous and awesome," and said that the United States may change history. The British prime minister, Keir Starmer, wrote that the Iranian nuclear program was a grave threat to international security and that the U.S. took steps to alleviate it.

[06:25:02]

CNN's Paula Hancocks is live in Abu Dhabi this morning. What are you hearing from world leaders?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, leaders here in the region had been actively lobbying the U.S. president not to go ahead with these strikes. But now they have gone ahead we are seeing condemnation from some of the countries.

Saudi Arabia was one of the first to respond, criticizing the fact that this violates Iran's sovereignty, also calling for restraint and de-escalation. It's worth pointing out that Saudi Arabia and Iran only just reestablished diplomatic ties a couple of years ago, so there's no love lost there.

But the wider region does not want to see this escalate. They don't want Iran to have this nuclear program. They don't want Iran to be supporting militarily its proxies around the region because they believe it destabilizes this neighborhood. But they did not want to see these U.S. strikes.

Now, it's not just for fears of reprisals against U.S. troops in the region as many countries here in the UAE and also across the whole of the Gulf have a U.S. military presence. But there's also a concern about environmental contamination. These are nuclear facilities that are being bombed and there is a concern that this could spill over into the environment itself.

Bushehr National Nuclear facility, for example, on the west coast, we don't believe this was one of the targets at this point. But if there was an attack there, there are concerns from leaders here that that could cause contamination into the waterways. The Persian Gulf, which some 60 million people in this region rely on to survive. Desalination is the way people here have their drinking water and their water to survive.

And that probably goes to the point that we heard very quickly from the IAEA, and also from Saudi Arabia, that they did not believe that there were any unusual radiation levels around these sites. That is really one of the key concerns that this region has, John.

BERMAN: All right. Paula Hancocks for us in Abu Dhabi this morning. Keep us posted as to what you hear.

With us now, retired Major General James Spider Marks, and retired Colonel Cedric Leighton. Cedric, I want to start with you only because this was an air operation, and you're Air Force guy. So, I want to ask you, when you heard the six B-2s, 12 bunker busting bombs, used in this operation, your reaction to that type of attack?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes. John, that's an extraordinary amount of ordnance. That's 360,000 pounds of ordnance on the Fordow site alone. Plus, there were two other bunker buster GBU-57s that were dropped on the facility at Natanz.

So, this is an extraordinary amount of ordnance. It, you know, would invariably destroy anything that it came into contact with. And basically, what this was designed to do is obliterate the Fordow site as much as could possibly be done, given current technologies. So, this was a massive effort.

This bomb had never been used in combat before. And now we'll, of course, have to see what the battle damage assessments are. But it seems to, at least initially, based on initial reports, seems to have worked in, you know, at the present time.

BERMAN: The battle damage assessments. And, General Marks, Spider, this is -- you know, you were decades in military intelligence. So, what's happening today? What's happening right now to figure out how successful these attacks were?

MAJ. GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS (RET), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, there are multiple intelligence sources that are going to try to establish the extent of the damage. As Cedric described, that BDA process will be not only from space-based capabilities, there will be imagery of the site that will allow -- and there will be requests for that imagery, not only from DoD. DoD will direct it. Then there are also commercial imagery capabilities that will be available as well.

But also bear in mind that I think it's fair to say, based on the decision that Netanyahu made to begin this campaign, he had -- the Israelis had inside information, intelligence in terms of the development process and why they decided -- the Israelis decided to strike now, which means they've penetrated. They've penetrated into the nuclear development process within Iran.

So, there will be folks on the ground that will enter into the facility, obviously taking necessary risk, but there will be folks on the ground -- we should anticipate that there will be information that will be firsthand. You know, primary research type capabilities on the ground, doing some assessments. So, it's a combination of the human intelligence that I think we can expect over time. Once that information is derived, it now has to be extracted.

[06:30:04]

That's going to be very, very carefully done. And also, we've got some electronic capabilities that will give us a better sense of what took place.

But it'll be a process to see what the next steps are.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And just, Spider, what do you think the specific risks are to U.S. personnel in the region? And who do you think might be under the greatest threat?

MARKS (on-camera): Well, we certainly have military capabilities. We've increased our presence in the region, but we know how to protect that. I mean, that is an incredibly, you know, those carrier strike groups have immense capabilities of self-protection.

And also, as a result of that deployment, we've thickened the air defense capabilities. In Israel, we've had a presence for a while that's now become that much more robust, which is great.

But we have, as you've described on this graphic, there is a U.S. presence in the region. All of those are vulnerable. There is a heightened sense of force protection that goes with those in every location based on what just occurred.

So the Iranian -- the IRGC, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Quds Force, they have capabilities. They're still in play. Leadership has been damaged. But the organization still exists, and they can conduct operations against U.S. presence. But those would not be just limited -- I mean, you couldn't just drive up and do a emotional immediate response and try to achieve a result. If Iran wants to achieve a result against the United States, it's going to be very, very difficult in the region, both by way of the IRGC and by way of missile launches.

BERMAN: Cedric, obviously, given the distance traveled by these B-2s, this was an operation that was put in play, you know, days ago, really days ago. Walk us through how that would have happened, all the way to this report that came out late yesterday that there were B-2s launched in the other direction, headed toward the Pacific. Just explain all that to us.

CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST (on-camera): Yes. So what seems to have happened is the -- these B-2s, as you mentioned earlier in the program, they traveled for 37 hours to conduct this mission. So they left Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, and they may very well have proceeded west toward Guam and then gone on from there. That is possible. They would have had to refuel on a journey like that, and then they would have basically reached their -- basically their target point over Fordow and Natanz and released their bombs at that particular moment when they were directly over the target area.

So that is the kind of thing that happens. They would have gotten their orders to activate their process. The planning process, of course, preceded the flight probably by weeks, if not months. And that was something that they were practicing really for quite some time, those B-2 crews. And those B-2 crews are very adept at not only navigating over long distances, but they were also very adept at delivering the ordnance as they were supposed to.

So, this is basically a realization of a lot of the tests that have been done on the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, plus, of course, an activation of the operational plans that are part of this whole effort to contain Iran's nuclear program.

BERMAN: Again, Colonel Cedric Leighton, we thank you. Major General James "Spider" Marks, always a pleasure to see you. Obviously, these events developing before our eyes, so don't go far.

Iran reacting strongly to the strikes, accusing the U.S. of blowing up diplomacy. More of what we're hearing from Iranian officials. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:38:11]

BERMAN: All right, new this morning. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency is calling for an emergency meeting tomorrow after the U.S. strikes on Iran's nuclear sites. But already, Iran's atomic agency is condemning the attacks and saying Iran's nuclear program will not be stopped.

Back with the CNN chief international anchor Christiane Amanpour.

Christiane, one of the questions here is the timing. Why now? Why was it essential for the United States to strike these targets last night when President Trump had said there would be up to two weeks of diplomacy? Up to two weeks. Not a guarantee of a full two weeks, but up to two weeks. And you put that timing on top of why Israel chose to strike in the first place nine or ten days ago. Talk to me about the timing.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR (on-camera): Well, look, it's hard to actually say why, but certainly from the Iranian perspective, and I had an exclusive interview from Tehran a few days ago with the deputy Iranian foreign minister who's also part of the negotiating team.

They just think it's a big deception. I mean, they just basically publicly say that we thought we were headed to actual talks and, moreover, we thought these talks were going to lead to, you know, to some kind of agreement between us and the United States. There were very serious differences and I think the two sides were quite far apart still, but they wanted to continue and, of course, they took some hope from President Trump's public statements that he was looking to make a deal.

So, they think it's a big deception and that the whole thing all along was a big deception. Nonetheless, they still said they were willing, this is now before the strikes, they were willing to come to the table but that the strikes had to stop, the Israeli strikes. They weren't going to negotiate under a hail of bombardments.

Now the foreign minister in his first comments from -- he's in Istanbul, Turkey, he basically called it outrageous. He said there would be everlasting consequences and he was talking about the U.S. entering. He said the United States, and I'm quoting, has now also opted for a dangerous military aggression against the people of Iran. So it will be responsible for all consequences, including Iran's right to self-defense under the principles of the UN Charter. And he then said Iran reserves all options to defend its interests and people.

[06:40:33]

So the real question, as we've been saying, I think, all morning is what is Iran's next move? Because you can assume that if it does actually retaliate on a U.S. target, then there will be even bigger retaliation from the United States, response from the United States. And I think it's probably different this time around than when Trump ordered the assassination of Hossam Soleimani, who was the head of the IRGC, the Revolutionary Guard Quds Force, and responsible for the external proxies.

Back then, Iran did retaliate, but made it clear that it had to retaliate. It was on a U.S. facility in Iraq. And from my memory, it didn't cause fatalities and that it telegraphed what it was going to do.

I don't know whether this is a similar situation. Who knows? Apparently, according to reports, the United States warned Iran or notified Iran or somehow got a message to Iran that last night's was coming and that it wasn't directed at their leadership.

So there's all these bits in play, which kind of makes you wonder whether they're trying to say that, you know, we need to go back to the negotiating table. But Trump said Iran has to make peace or the rest will be much worse.

So what is peace? What does that look like? What are the parameters around what they're asking Iran to do right now? Does the U.S. have the same end goal as Israel does? So these are all big questions that are out there that we just don't know the answers to right now.

BERMAN: No, we simply don't know the question, answer to the question of what is the end game now? Which one would think is the major question, the biggest question on the table?

Christiane Amanpour, thank you so much. We're going to speak to you throughout the morning.

We are hearing from U.S. lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. The reaction coming in from Washington just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:47:03]

BERMAN: All right, the breaking news this morning. The U.S. enters the Middle East conflict, bombing Iranian nuclear sites. We are standing by for U.S. military briefing shortly.

In the meantime, we are hearing reaction from U.S. lawmakers, broadly supportive among Republicans, but there is bipartisan condemnation also. Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez calls the action, quote, a grave violation of the Constitution and congressional war powers.

Some Republicans, a few, are also critical. Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia said, this is not our fight.

With us now, CNN's Tom Foreman. I know you've been looking at the reaction from both sides. What are you hearing? TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on-camera): Well, I know what we're going to hear very shortly as the Sunday morning political talk shows come on. This is going to be a big fight. In large part because the White House did not inform, as they traditionally would, the Gang of Eight, which is the leadership from both parties in both houses of Congress and of the intelligence committees.

What they did was they informed the Republicans. And then after the strikes took place, they told the Democrats before they released it publicly. So, the Democrats had no say. There's going to be a big objection to that.

Now, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has spoken up and said, look, this was the right thing to do, basically, that the President was in a position where he had to act on the moment and had to get it done. He made the right call, did what he needed to do.

That's his position on this. However, you can look down the Republican list and also come to Republican Thomas Massie, a representative from Kentucky. His take on it was to say simply, this is not constitutional.

A lot of debates about whether it's constitutional because this whole question of controlling the military at such times has been debated for a long time.

But, John, when you look at all of this, it is just very clear that Democrats may not have a whole lot of power in being able to change what the President does in such a circumstance. But by acting this way and by only informing Republicans before he did it, it seemed like a lot of Democrats are going to now be able to say, Republicans, you own this thing for better or worse. And if it goes badly, that could be a very costly thing to own.

BERMAN: Yes, you point out, Tom, the Constitution does give the power to declare war to the U.S. Congress. But that is a power that has been massaged and stepped on for decades, I mean, for decades and decades now. And it has been a long time since Congress actually voted on (INAUDIBLE).

FOREMAN (on-camera): Simply put, John, Republicans are saying the President stopped something. Democrats are saying we think he started something. And that's a big difference.

BERMAN: Yes. Speaker Mike Johnson used the words urgent and imminent in his statement. We have yet to hear what was imminent in terms of Iranian action.

Tom Foreman, great to see you this morning. Thank you very much.

FOREMAN (on-camera): Great to see you.

[06:50:01]

BERMAN: We are monitoring these developments out of the Middle East.

We're going to go inside Iran, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right new this morning, the Iranian Foreign Minister says the United States decided to blow up Diplomacy when striking his country's nuclear sites. This comes as officials in Iran are contradicting President Trump's claim that their nuclear sites were obliterated by the U.S. attack.

CNN's Fred Pleitgen was the first Western journalist to enter Iran after the conflict with Israel began. He has much more.

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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Iran is deeply condemning the strikes on its nuclear facilities by the Trump administration. Iran's Atomic Energy Organization has come out and called these savage attacks on these nuclear facilities. They also say that they are against international law and have accused the International Atomic Energy Agency of being complicit in all of this.

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But one of the key things is that the Iranians are saying that this will not deter their nuclear program. And there is a senior Iranian parliamentarian who came out in the very early morning hours on social media and said that the United States as he put it can bomb facilities but cannot bomb knowledge. Obviously also saying that Iran's nuclear program and Iranian enrichment will continue.

One of the things that we've been hearing from Iranian officials over the past couple of days is they say that they will continue enrichment in any case. It's a red line for them. They say at the same time of course they are in the standoff right now with the Israelis. We've been seeing over the past couple of hours the skies here right now are fairly quiet. But in the overnight hours there was a lot of activity by air defense systems here over Tehran. Also, some thuds which could have come from airstrikes but could have been the air defenses being active as well.

The Iranians are saying that they have various means of hitting back at the United States. It's not clear how they're going to do that. They do of course say that there are militias that are on their side in the Middle Eastern regions in countries where the United States has bases. But in general, the Iranians are saying there are many methods at their disposal.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Tehran.

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BERMAN: And our thanks to Fred Pleitgen and his team inside Iran in these hours after the U.S. military strike there.

We are standing by to hear from U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. He will brief the media on these attacks. We will bring that to you live.

This is CNN special coverage. Stay with us.

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