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Damage to Iran Strikes Still Unclear Despite Assertions; Protests Ahead of Highly Secretive Jeff Bezos Wedding; Sen. Murkowski on Navigating Polarized Political Climate. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired June 26, 2025 - 06:00   ET

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

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: It's Thursday, June 26, and here's what's happening right now on CNN THIS MORNING.

[06:00:43]

So, how badly damaged is Iran's nuclear program? Early U.S. intel and the White House sending contradicting messages. Today, the Trump administration is looking to set the record straight.

Plus, where is the ayatollah? Iran's supreme leader has not been seen publicly in more than a week. His silence raising questions about his well-being.

And the Senate taking on the president's agenda. One GOP holdout, Senator Lisa Murkowski. In a one-on-one, we talked about her biggest sticking points.

It's 6 a.m. here on the East Coast. This is a live look at Venice, Italy, where a highly secretive and star-studded event kicks off today. Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez will be getting married there this weekend.

Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish. I want to thank you for waking up with me.

And here's how we're going to start the day. This major question that continues to swirl in Washington: Did last weekend's U.S. bombing raid against Iran's nuclear program leave it obliterated or just set it back a couple of months?

President Trump spent much of his time at the NATO summit in the Netherlands refuting an early intelligence assessment from the Pentagon, which suggests the damage may be limited.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: The documents said it could be very severe damage, but they didn't take that. They said it could be limited, or it could be very severe. They really didn't know, other than to say it could be limited or it could be very, very severe.

And you didn't choose to put that, because it was very early after. Since then, we've collected additional intelligence. We've also spoken to people who have seen the site. And the site -- the site is obliterated, and we think everything nuclear is down there. They didn't take it out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: The president's now back from the NATO summit, and his top defense officials are going to hold an all-Senate classified briefing later this afternoon.

And that briefing will include CIA Director John Ratcliffe, who issued a statement on new intelligence collected by his agency saying, quote, "A body of credible evidence indicates Iran's nuclear program has been severely damaged by the recent, targeted strikes."

Now, Senate Democrats are demanding to see that evidence and proof, which justifies the use of force.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARK WARNER (D-VA): If you start trying to cook intelligence or try to manipulate it in political fashions, that you don't have a good history with, that this is how you destroy trust with your friends and also with your foes. If people are misrepresenting or lying about the effects of this attack, who's going to trust us going forward?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Joining me now in the group chat, Jerusalem Demsas, contributing writer at "The Atlantic"; Evan McMorris Santoro, national political reporter for "NOTUS"; and Jasmine Wright, White House correspondent at "NOTUS," as well. They're the coauthors of the "NOTUS Morning Newsletter."

Welcome, you guys.

JASMINE WRIGHT, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, "NOTUS": Thank you.

EVAN MCMORRIS SANTORO, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, "NOTUS": Hi. Thank you.

CORNISH: All right. I'm actually going to start with Jerusalem, because this conversation has moved back to the states, in a way, because everybody now wants to know what happens next.

But what happens next is kind of contingent on whatever happened on the ground in Iran. So, how do you see the way that the president has been defending his strikes?

JERUSALEM DEMSAS, CONTRIBUTING WRITER, "THE ATLANTIC": I mean, it's a difficult situation for people who are trying to figure out the facts like ourselves, because every party has an interest in saying, oh, we moved the nuclear material before the bombing happened. That's Iran's line.

Or the Trump administration, obviously, admitting that the bombing was a failure is -- is really embarrassing, because Trump loves to get a deal and have that done immediately. And I mean, right now we're -- we're seeing a situation where this, of

course, leaked Pentagon report, I mean, leaks happen for a whole number of reasons.

CORNISH: But it's an early assessment.

DEMSAS: Early assessment. But leaks often happen because someone feels like there's important information that needs to be understood and known by the public.

Now, who knows? They're also saying that it's possible that it was politically motivated from someone inside who -- who wants to damage the administration. That's certainly possible.

But I think right now, particularly if you look at it from a partisan's perspective, Democrats are really divided on the question of Iran and Israel, where there's not really a unified message coming out of the party.

CORNISH: It's interesting. CNN's Stephen Collinson was arguing that the whole controversy is basically being created by the administration, calling it "frantic spin," saying it was inevitable and saying, "Any contrary evidence would mean an embarrassing reversal and challenge to his ego and credibility."

[06:05:14]

What does the Trump administration need to show, so to speak? And I know, Jasmine, you follow the White House a lot, about how aggressive they've been in this.

WRIGHT: Yes, I mean, they've been incredibly aggressive. I've talked to sources who've been, you know, at times surprised at how hard they're going against this early assessment, which they call low confidence in their own messaging.

I think, frankly, the White House wants President Trump to get the credit for the strike, fundamentally. And anything that contradicts that or goes against that, they are going to push very difficultly on.

They believe that this is one of the four most important decisions that the president has made. They believe this is a legacy-defining decision, and then ceasefire that he then negotiated with -- between Israel and Iran through intermediaries. And so, they want him to get the credit.

But I was talking to one source who has actually reviewed these battle plans in the past and said that one of the reasons why administrations haven't gone forward with it. One of the reasons is because it's just incredibly difficult to verify due to the depth that that Fordow site is underground.

CORNISH: We're hearing from some military voices, including Pete Hegseth today, who is supposed to come out.

WRIGHT: Yes. And so, I think it was very difficult for previous administrations to -- to decide what was actually the measure of success. And so, you're seeing the White House struggle with that in real time, whether or not it was obliterated, severely damaged, we set them back months, or we set them back years.

CORNISH: You've covered Congress for a long time, as well. I mean, what do you make of how they're responding to this?

MCMORRIS-SANTORO: Well, I don't know much about, you know, battle planning or flying an airplane or any of that sort of stuff. But I do understand how words work in politics.

And the important thing to know is the only person who has said "completely obliterated" is the president. Every single other person, including Pete Hegseth in that press conference the morning after the strikes, the general at that press conference, John Ratcliffe in the -- in the quote that you just gave, has not said those exact words. Right?

So, we are kind of in one of these spin zones of what -- how much do you want to be? What do you want to believe? But that basic idea of totally obliterated, that first word used, that has not been repeated.

And that's the important thing people need to look at when they think about war. We know how this works, that the government will try to sort of spin things up in their direction.

CORNISH: Or make their case. Yes.

MCMORRIS-SANTORO: But you have to listen to the words that they're using and really parse them out. And right now, nobody that I have heard is backing the president up 100 percent with what he said.

WRIGHT: But I think that that may change at this press conference at 8 a.m. Obviously, Donald Trump is putting Pete Hegseth in this really high-profile moment, really looking past all that Signal-gate stuff, because he felt that he did a good job yesterday in NATO. And he --

CORNISH: And Hegseth is using the term literally.

WRIGHT: He dressed down the press. And so, we're going to probably see that again. And you may see him adopt the language.

I think it will be interesting whether General Cain, who is probably the furthest away from adopting that language on Sunday, adopted this morning.

CORNISH: Yes, interesting. Group chat, stay with me. We've got a lot more to talk about today.

Coming up on CNN THIS MORNING, House lawmakers are soon to be briefed on U.S. airstrikes in Iran. Republican Congressman and former Navy SEAL Ryan Zinke is here with the questions he wants answered.

Plus, closing arguments begin in the Sean Combs trial. Why prosecutors are amending the case. And it' s the hottest ticket in town. Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez

getting married in Venice. Some Venetians are not happy with them taking over the city.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARTA SOTTORIVA, PROTESTER: As Venetians, we are sick and tired of seeing our city used as a -- as a landscape, as a background landscape for these sorts of, you know, multi-billionaires' private parties.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:13:25]

CORNISH: And there is your sneak peek of the city of Venice. Wedding festivities are now underway for billionaire and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

His wedding to aviator and journalist Lauren Sanchez is expected to be a multi-day, celebrity-studded affair, with the average cost per person reportedly clocking in at 50,000.

So, for a bit of context, the average American wedding costs 33,000 total. Like altogether.

Anyway, not a lot of detail about the schedule of events, but some Venetians say the nuptials are not welcome. Protesters going as far to say no space for Bezos in a city that already struggles with too many tourists.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SOTTORIVA: This man is not welcomed in Venice. He's not welcome for this wedding. He's not welcome to rent a whole city with the arrogance that is coming to. But this man would -- is someone that we want to contest for what he represents, for the symbol that he represents, of everything that is going wrong in this planet at this moment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: We've got Melissa Bell, CNN senior international correspondent, there in Venice. So, what more can we expect today, protests or otherwise?

MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Protests for sure, Audie. We've seen them these last few days, as you just said.

And in fact, what we understand is that one of the main events on Saturday actually had to be moved, because protesters were threatening to actually throw themselves into the canals to prevent the guests from arriving by water taxi.

But you're seeing some of these early live pictures here coming from Venice, that you're going to see over the next few days. Because let's be clear: whilst everything has been shrouded in secrecy, we understand this is going to be a star-studded event.

[06:15:03]

Already spotted here in Venice, Gayle King, Oprah Winfrey, several of the Kardashians, also Jared Kushner, and Ivanka Trump.

As to the exact details and locations. Again, a great deal of secrecy. You'll understand because of the protests. What we do understand is that one of the early events that's due to take place here tonight, the Madonna dell'Orto Church, we can see people beginning to set things up. It's in a fairly remote part of Venice, so I guess they're hoping for a bit of privacy.

We understand that it's inside the cloisters of this 14th Century church, that that opening bash is being set up. But clearly, they've had to be very careful about the details that are coming out of the wedding because of the opposition that we've seen already.

A motley crew of protesters, those who are against the extreme wealth of Jeff Bezos and this extravagant wedding being put on right now when so many people are struggling.

And then, of course, there are climate activists. There are a lot of people here in Venice who feel very strongly about the sort of Disneyfication, as they call it, of their city. The fact that there are too many tourists here all the time, and that this wedding is unlikely to help -- Audie.

CORNISH: One other thing. I think we actually have a copy of the Bezos wedding invitation, and it notes that he's donating a lot of money to the city in honor of his guests. I know protesters want him to pay taxes to have his wedding there, but is that sort of an acknowledgment of the concerns?

BELL: I think so, and I think what we've understood is that it is a number of organizations, charitable organizations, Audie, that have seen big donations to their cause.

And these are organizations that specialize in the cultural, architectural preservation of Venice. In fact, what we understand from that glimpse we've had of the invitation is that guests are being urged not to bring gifts and told, rather, that further charitable donations will be made to exactly those causes on their behalf.

And I think that speaks to the understanding amongst the people around Jeff Bezos that there are concerns and that they needed to be addressed -- Audie.

CORNISH: That's Melissa Bell, CNN senior international correspondent.

All right. Coming up on CNN THIS MORNING, "Far from Home." More on the political tightrope Alaska Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski details in her new book, walking a fine line between party loyalty and personal conviction.

Plus, shifting focus. The president says the pilots who dropped the bombs on Iran are devastated. Today, his defense secretary will highlight them.

And these are live images from NASA. Axiom astronauts are minutes away from docking at the International Space Station.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:21:43]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): We believe we're going to be able to get this done and get it done by the deadline of July 4th, so we're moving that along.

I've talked to a countless number of members and senators today, and we're working through the final details. And I'm convinced we'll get it -- get it to the point where everybody can be satisfied with it, and we'll get it done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: The so-called Big, Beautiful Bill is expected to come down to a party line vote. Alaska Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski is no stranger to being one of those tie breakers.

She's made a name for herself, straddling party lines on everything from Supreme Court nominations to controversial legislation.

She's also out with her new book, which is called "Far from Home." And in it, she details the struggles of being a compromise-minded senator in an increasingly polarized and MAGA-driven Republican Party.

I spoke one on one with the senator about the sticking points in the president's spending bill.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CORNISH: People have been very interested in seeing Senator Hawley from Missouri sort of speak up on behalf of Medicaid, of all things.

I wanted to put this to you because, again, thinking about that Tea Party period where people cared about, like, the fiscal hawks. It's not the -- the fiscal hawks that are seen to be leading the obstacles here.

It's the people who are kind of defending a certain kind of spending, which is Medicaid. Help me square that. Like, is that still Republican?

SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI (R-AK): Yes. Is it a different kind of Republican? Yes.

And I've had some good conversations with Senator Hawley about this. Because we're -- we're in this same camp in making sure that we don't see Medicaid cuts that harm the most vulnerable. Right? But -- but he has made -- he has made clear, and you've certainly seen

it in his statements. And I don't want to put words in anybody's mouth here. But the president has, as well, that so many of the people that supported President Trump for president are people who are blue- collar, lower income, for whom Medicaid is -- is important to them. These are -- many of these are, you know, red states where your Medicaid populations are very high, whether they're out of West Virginia or Alabama, and Alaska.

And so, has it changed? Yes. But -- but is -- is -- is there a -- a real reason that you're seeing a -- a focus on -- on Medicaid right now from some of the more conservative members? Yes, because it has impact, significant impact on their constituencies.

CORNISH: Are you worried people will turn to Medicare to look for cuts or changes to get to the math they want?

MURKOWSKI: So, you know, there are -- there are some areas, I think, legitimate areas within -- within Medicare and Medicaid where we can look at and say, you know what?

That -- that is a -- that's a -- that's a method that's being used. That isn't equitable, isn't fair. And -- and needs to be addressed. You put it in the legitimate account of waste, fraud, and abuse.

[06:25:06]

And so, when we say absolutely nothing can be done when it comes to Medicare, Medicaid, it limits your ability to really address some challenges that I think, by all rights, should be now in the eye of the beholder. Obviously, my review of that is it looks like there's some gaming of the system there.

It's -- it's challenging because of exactly what you've said. People don't want to know the details. All they know is what they've heard, which is, oh, you're going after Medicare. You're going after Medicaid.

So, this is why you haven't seen the -- why you really haven't seen reforms.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CORNISH: All right. We've got new episodes of "The Assignment," including this one, out now. You can find it wherever you get your podcasts.

And after the break on CNN THIS MORNING, questions swirling inside Iran about the whereabouts of the supreme leader. He hasn't been seen in -- publicly since before the ceasefire was -- with Israel was announced just a few minutes ago. We actually got a statement.

Plus, former Navy SEAL and Congressman Ryan Zinke joins me. What he wants to hear from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth today.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:30:00]