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Congress Split Over Portayals of Iran Strikes' Aftermath; Video Shows Daytime Fireball Falling Across Southeast. Aired 6-6:30a ET
Aired June 27, 2025 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[06:00:12]
AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: It is Friday, June 27. And here's what's happening right now on CNN THIS MORNING.
"Obliterated." It's been the word of the week. But how do lawmakers see it after their intelligence briefing on the bombing in Iran?
Plus, this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're going to have to redraft all of it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: It's back to the drawing board in the Senate. A key provision on Medicaid violates the chamber's rule. Can they get it done by the president's July Fourth deadline?
And a rare fireball streaks across the sky in the Southeast. A big question this morning. Could more be on the way?
It's 6 a.m. here on the East Coast. A live look at New York City.
And good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish. I want to thank you for waking up with me.
And here's where we're going to start: with that intelligence briefing that lawmakers finally got, the one they have been asking for about those U.S. strikes against Iran.
Coming out of it, they're split on just how effective the strikes actually were.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. TOM COTTON (R-AK): I believe that this mission was a tremendous success and that we have effectively destroyed Iran's nuclear program today.
SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): I just do not think the president was telling the truth when he said this program was obliterated. SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): I don't want people to think that the site
wasn't severely damaged or obliterated. It was. But having said that, I don't want people to think the problem is over, because it's not.
SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-CT): I think obliterated is much too strong a word. Certainly, there was serious and perhaps severe damage done. But as to how much damage was done, we really need a final assessment.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called the press corps and the Pentagon for a public briefing and scolding on the strikes, where he continued to insist the attack set back Iran's program for years.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETE HEGSETH, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: The reality is, you want to call it destroyed, you want to call it defeated, you want to call it obliterated. Choose your word. This was an historically successful attack.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Joining me now in the group chat, Jackie Kucinich, Washington bureau chief for "The Boston Globe"; Rob Bluey, president and executive editor of "The Daily Signal"; and Maria Cardona, CNN political commentator and Democratic strategist.
Welcome, you guys.
ROB BLUEY, PRESIDENT AND EXECUTIVE EDITOR, "THE DAILY SIGNAL": Thanks.
CORNISH: So, I want to actually show you something. Israel Katz, who's the Israeli defense minister, said, "It was clear from the beginning that the strike would neutralize the surrounding infrastructure. It wouldn't eliminate the material itself."
And now they're talking about, in the future, what they want from Iran.
So, do the semantics matter about what happened? The "obliterate" versus "severely damaged" versus all of this? Or are we now just looking at a political discussion?
JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I think. Well, I think -- I think it does matter what happened. But I think when you're talking about the language that's being used, yes, it matters very much to Donald Trump what the party is saying, which is why you're hearing that word "obliterated."
That is -- that has been the adjective he's used. And you've heard that message coming consistently out of the Republican Party, because it has everything to do with the audience of one.
CORNISH: Yes. I mean, I went into this week thinking it mattered, because for further decision making. Do you have to do more strikes? But like, as time goes on, it feels like it's -- as you're saying, it's like the perception is the problem.
BLUEY: Sure. And I think that it might take weeks. I mean, these initial assessments are often wrong. They don't contain all of the information. You heard that in some of the briefings that the senators gave in terms of what -- what Secretary Hegseth said.
And as a member of the news media, myself, I want to say thank you to the servicemen and women who put their lives on the line and the sacrifices they've made to carry out this mission. I mean, it was extraordinarily complex, 15 years in the planning in terms of building this -- this bomb and making the precision strike to take out as much as they could in that nuclear facility remains to be seen.
What Iran was able to move out beforehand. And if they were able to get all of that nuclear material.
CORNISH: Here was the focus. Hegseth at one point was lashing out at reporters, as you said, just about the very leaking of what is -- and no one has said differently. A preliminary intelligence assessment. It was an early assessment, but the administration has been very upset at the amplification of that assessment. I think we have that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HEGSETH: When someone leaks something, they do it with an agenda. And when you leak a portion of an intelligence assessment, but just a little portion, just a little portion that makes it seem like maybe the strike wasn't effective, then you start a news cycle.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[06:05:17]
CORNISH: Maria, it does feel like Democrats are getting to enjoy this question and talking about this question and raising doubt.
MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think what Democrats are doing is what they should be doing, which is, like you said, raising questions. Questions about what exactly? Not just what does the intelligence say, but what does the administration actually believe happened?
To your point, to everyone's point, that's what really matters. And I think what the -- the problem with the obsession with the word "obliterate" or "obliteration," right. You can kind of equate it to when Bush said "Mission accomplished," because it all came back to, well, no, it wasn't.
And in fact, we know that the mission wasn't accomplished. If the mission was to absolutely ascertain and say definitively that Iran is not going to obtain a nuclear weapon. That didn't happen.
And so, it takes away, frankly, from what the administration's message should be, which is we did a lot to keep Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. And now let's figure out what more needs to be done.
But that's not happening. Now we're focused on the word, and were obsessed with, OK, well, what now?
BLUEY: Secondarily, it did bring an end to the 12-day war with Israel, which is a --
CORNISH: I like how you're calling it the 12-day war. Like, you're on it. Is that -- is that the official --
BLUEY: Sure. And I mean, look, and Donald Trump went to NATO. He obviously had a successful week there. There's, you know, a lot to be celebrated over the course of -- of the last week in terms of, hopefully, a diplomatic solution. And, you know, talk again about giving Donald Trump the Nobel Peace Prize -- Audie.
CORNISH: You heard it here.
KUCINICH: Yes. But I do want I do want to caution against, you know, the conflation of it being a criticism of American service members to report about what may or may not happen there. You can -- you can --
CORNISH: It has nothing to do with this.
KUCINICH: One has nothing to do with the other. And that you're hearing the administration do that, in order to exert shame on the news media. And that is -- that's not what's happening here.
Both things can be true. You can think that American servicemen are serving honorably and that, you know, maybe -- maybe the early assessments say X, Y, and Z.
Well, we're going to leave it there for just a second. But as we go, I want you to hear one last piece of tape, and it's around the question of the stockpiles of enriched uranium that Iran already has.
We don't know what's going on with them. I want people to hear it, because this is a part of the final questions. I think Sen. Tom Cotton is here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRAHAM: I don't know where the 900 pounds of highly enriched uranium exists, but it wasn't part of the target set.
COTTON: I will say it was not part of the mission, to destroy all their enriched uranium or to seize it or anything else.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: So, going forward, we will be talking about where has this material gone?
You guys stay with us.
Coming up on CNN THIS MORNING, giving diplomacy another shot. What lengths the Trump administration might go to, to get Iran back to the table.
Plus, it's the end of an era at "Vogue." After nearly four decades at the helm, why Anna Wintour is stepping down.
And families caught in the middle of a funding debate. Why one mother says Medicaid means keeping her daughter alive.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COURTNEY LEADER, DAUGHTER RELIES ON MEDICAID: I do not have my daughter enrolled on Medicaid so that we can have fancy things. I have my daughter enrolled in Medicaid so that we can keep her alive.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:13:12]
CORNISH: It's now 12 minutes past the hour, and here are five things you need to know to get your day going.
This afternoon, the public will pay their respects to the Minnesota lawmaker killed in an ambush attack at her home. Former House Speaker Melissa Hortman will lie in state at the Minnesota Capitol rotunda along with her husband, Mark. Also, their dog, Gilbert.
She is the first woman given that honor.
Also today, the man charged with killing them and shooting another lawmaker and his wife is due in court.
Idaho State Police have issued an Amber Alert for two teens who they believe may be with a religious group in Utah. So, their mother believes that an older sibling may have taken them to a Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints group, a group she used to be a part of.
Law enforcement say they issued the Amber Alert after learning of alarming statements by the FLDS leader.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TONIA TEWELL, FORMER FLDS MEMBER: There are some revelations out that are really concerning from the FLDS Church that talk about becoming translated beings. But they must die first, and they'll be risen like Jesus Christ in two and a half, three days.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: The FBI is also assisting in the search.
President Trump expected to announce a pick to succeed Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell very soon. Trump has been frustrated with the Fed chair for not lowering interest rates.
Powell's term runs another 11 months. If the announcement happens, this would be a first in the 111-year history of the Central Bank.
And Anna Wintour is stepping down as the editor-in-chief of "Vogue" after nearly 40 -- after four decades at the helm. W Wintour is not leaving altogether. She's going to remain on as "Vogue's" global editorial director and global chief content officer at the media company Conde Nast.
Brad Pitt's L.A. home broken into this week. Law enforcement sources say that three suspects got into his home through a front window and ransacked the place.
[06:15:10]
Pitt wasn't home. Nobody's been arrested.
And next on CNN THIS MORNING, closing arguments continue today in the case against Sean Combs. What prosecutors told the jury.
Plus, what was that in the sky? You know, a fireball plunging to the Earth. We've got an expert in next to talk all about it.
And we're going to take a live look now at Venice, where wedding festivities for Amazon founder Jeff Bezos take place this weekend.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:19:47]
CORNISH: I'm going to go off-script, because what is this?
I've been told we are looking at dashcam footage of some kind of fireball that was seen by people in multiple states, including South Carolina, Florida, and Alabama.
And in Georgia, there were reports of a piece of debris striking a home, where it smashed through the roof, the ceiling, before it cracked the floor inside.
The American Meteor Society received more than 150 reports about it. Mike Hankey is operations manager there. He joins us now.
Thanks for being with us this morning, Mike.
MIKE HANKEY, OPERATIONS MANAGER, AMERICAN METEOR SOCIETY: Hi. Thank you.
CORNISH: So, I learned that this fireball -- I was today years old when I learned this fireball is called a bolide. What is that? Did I pronounce it correctly? And what happened that would, like, allow all of us to see it?
HANKEY: So, a bolide is a very special class of meteor. A very small percentage of meteors are actually bolide, but it's a type of meteor that's large enough that it will break apart and blow up in the sky, and then fragments from it oftentimes will fall to the Earth. And this is one of those times.
It was a little piece of an asteroid that, you know, left the asteroid belt either through some push from Jupiter or maybe another asteroid bumped into it.
But, you know, journeyed towards Earth, you know, collided with us. And we see this light in the sky whenever anything enters the atmosphere, because there's tons of friction. The object's moving very fast. It compresses the air in front of it. That air heats up, glows and, you know, puts heat and pressure on that object.
And the object will either, you know, disappear, be evaporated, or it will, you know, melt. And what some of it will be left and make it to the ground.
CORNISH: NASA actually has some data on these going back to around 1988. Are they considered rare?
HANKEY: I mean, meteors have been -- and bolides have been hitting the Earth as long as the dinosaurs. You know, the dinosaurs were wiped out by a giant bolide asteroid over, you know, a mile wide.
The report that you just showed and the DOD's network of events, is actually a very small percentage of the overall meteors and bolides that hit the Earth. They will only list ones that are over a meter wide.
But you could get meteorites and a nice show from something as big as a softball, or even a baseball will produce a -- could produce a bolide.
CORNISH: I understand that meteorite hunters are on the way, en route, you said, to find out more. I don't even know what that involves.
HANKEY: Yes.
CORNISH: What are they looking for and what would they learn from it?
HANKEY: So, this rock. Imagine that it's the size of a shopping cart, and 90 percent of it was -- was obliterated, blown away. The remaining, which is probably ten kilograms, which is 20 pounds or more, broke up into many different sized pieces, and they got spread over an area called the strewn field, which is about a mile or two wide and 5 to 10 miles long.
So, if you go into that strewn field, you really just -- you walk around, and you'll see black rocks on the ground. And you pick them up, verify that they're actually meteorites, and then, you know, you have a piece of space. You have a rock that was literally in space yesterday in your hand.
It's a very eccentric hobby. And, you know, there's some -- you know, there's a few thousand people in the world that are into it. But, I mean, that's kind of small overall.
But if people in the Atlanta area see these zombie-like people walking around with their heads down in parking lots, you know, I mean, that's what they're doing.
CORNISH: Is this like Christmas in almost July for the American Meteor Society? Are you guys stoked?
HANKEY: We're always happy when these events happen, especially when they're recorded. And both on video, but also when they're found by -- by people.
It's special. It's happened, you know, like only 6 or 7 times in the history of Georgia, where we've had meteor that was seen in the sky, and then people recovered it.
So, every time it happens, it's great.
CORNISH: Well, Mike Hankey, operations manager at the American Meteor Society, thank you for explaining it.
HANKEY: My pleasure. Thanks for having me.
CORNISH: Straight ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, that so-called Big, Beautiful Bill facing a new setback in the Senate. Why lawmakers are being forced to drop some key provisions, sending them scrambling this morning.
Plus, it's a star-studded affair costing millions of dollars. Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez and their wedding festivities are taking over Venice.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:29:21]
CORNISH: Good morning, everyone. I'm Audie Cornish, and thank you for joining me on CNN THIS MORNING.
It's half past the hour and here's what's happening right now.
Today expected to be a blockbuster day at the Supreme Court. It's the last day of their term. The justices will hand down six opinions, among some of their biggest cases of the year.
Some decisions still outstanding include birthright citizenship and LGBTQ books in schools.
And in a couple of hours, closing arguments continue in the case against Sean Combs. And it's now the defense's turn. The prosecution ending their argument yesterday by saying Diddy was able to commit, quote, "crime after crime" because of his, quote, "money, power and influence."
