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Trump Trades Threats With Iran's Supreme Leader; Trump Repeats Demand For Iran's "Unconditional Surrender"; Iran Says It Will Never Surrender As U.S. Considers Strikes; Trump: "Nobody Knows What I'm Going To Do" On Iran; GOP Hawks Clash With MAGA Isolationists On Iran; Third U.S. Aircraft Carrier Set To Deploy Close To Israel; Ayatollah: U.S. Action Will "Result In Irreparable Damage". Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired June 18, 2025 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN CO-ANCHOR, THE SITUATION ROOM: Welcome to a special edition of Inside Politics. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington, in for Dana Bash.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR, ERIN BURNETT: And I'm Erin Burnett in New York. And we are following the breaking news. Officials telling CNN, the U.S. will deploy a third aircraft carrier wolf near Israel and Iran as the U.S. weighs a larger role in the escalating crisis.

BLITZER: And it comes as President Trump and Iran supreme leader are trading very, very searing threats. Here's what they said earlier today about the possibility of the U.S. joining Israel's mission to dismantle Iran's nuclear ambitions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: You don't know that I'm going to even do it. You don't know, I may do it. I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I'm going to do. I can tell you this, that Iran's got a lot of trouble, and they want to negotiate. And I said, why didn't you negotiate with me before, all this death and destruction

AYATOLLAH ALI KHAMENEI, IRANIAN SUPREME LEADER: The Americans involvement in this matter will 100 percent be at their loss. The loss they receive will probably be much more than the damage Iran will bear. If America have a military presence on the ground without a doubt, it will be an irreparable loss.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: President Trump was asked about the Ayatollah's warning that Iran will, quote, never surrender. To which he responded, and I'm quoting now, good luck. CNN is covering all the breaking news from all angles. Right now, Kristen Holmes is over at the White House for us, Clarissa Ward is in Tel Aviv. Let's start with Kristen. Kristen, President Trump is on the cusp of what could be one of the most consequential decisions of his second term, maybe even his own life. What more are we learning about his thinking at this hour? KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Wolf, that's absolutely right. We know that President Trump knows how important this decision is, and so do his aides and his advisers. And we're told by administration officials that he has yet to make up his mind. And when he says, nobody knows what he's going to do, that right now, that is accurate.

He is hearing from a wide swath of people who have differing opinions and coming to a conclusion on his own. But one thing that is clear, his language has grown increasingly aggressive, as you noted, when he was asked about the supreme leader saying wouldn't back down. He said, good luck.

At one point he said that he had already given Iran the ultimate ultimatum. And you could hear the frustration when he was asked to explain one of his social media posts and wished he had posted unconditional surrender. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Unconditional surrender. That means I've had it. OK. I've had it. I give up. No more. Then we go blow up all the military, you know, all the nuclear stuff that's all over the place there. No, they had bad intentions. You know, the -- for 40 years, they've been saying, death to America, death to Israel, death to anybody else that they didn't like. They were bullies. They were school yard bullies, and now they're not bullies anymore.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: And one thing to point out here is that part of what he's talking about with I've had enough. We had reached out. You know, we know that Donald Trump was looking for a diplomatic solution at one time that wasn't just rhetoric. They were trying to bring Iran to the table. They were trying to still have these talks, even after Israel launched its first wave of strikes.

Now on Israel, Donald Trump was asked about Benjamin Netanyahu. He said that he talks to him every day. His message to the prime minister of Israel is to keep going. And he was also asked if he'd given any indication to Netanyahu that the United States would aid in any additional way than they already were. And he said, they had not, but clearly, they're still giving the go ahead to Benjamin Netanyahu.

BLITZER: Clarissa, you're there in Tel Aviv. The U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, we now know is closed for the next few days. So, what's the situation like on the ground in Israel right now?

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, I had actually been hearing from some Americans who were stranded here and who were feeling very frustrated that they were not able to get out essentially. And now, we have a tweet from the U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, who says, urgent notice U.S. citizens wanting to leave Israel. The U.S. Embassy is working on evacuation flights and cruise ship departures. Now we know that the U.S. Embassy is closed today, tomorrow and Friday. No specific reason has been given for that, Wolf, but needless to say, it's of course, fueling speculation that if potentially the U.S. or President Trump makes the decision to intervene in Iran, that that could then pose a threat potentially for security personnel and anyone working at the embassy.

[12:05:00]

And obviously, unusual for the embassy to be closed for three days at a time like this, when there are so many Americans here who are trying to get out of the country. Israel's leaders are not commenting at all on whether President Trump will or will not decide to get involved, but they are starting to relax the sort of overall security posture here.

Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz calling it a message of victory to Iran that starting tonight. They will start to reopen the economy, which basically means that people will be able to go to work for the most part, more stores will be able to be open. And they said they will begin a sort of phased approach, essentially of getting back to some semblance of normalcy.

I want to add, though, that this is still very much not a normal situation. We haven't had any alerts or sirens yet today, but throughout the night, we had multiple alerts, roughly 30 missiles came over from Iran, 30 missiles the night before. That's down a lot from 200 missiles on Friday night.

But still, a very fluid situation, and people prepared for the possibility that even though they believe the Israeli Air Force has done a lot of damage to Iran's capacity to launch these ballistic missiles, that anything is still possible, particularly given the messaging that we've heard from Iran's supreme leader, who is promising severe punishment. Wolf?

BLITZER: Clarissa, what are Israeli officials there where you are saying about what might come next?

WARD: Essentially, Wolf, they're prepping people for the possibility that this is going to be weeks and not days. But privately, they're saying, that it's weeks and not months. Now, what they aren't articulating exactly is what the end goal is, or what the end game is. They've said they want to dismantle Iran's nuclear program.

But what does that look like? Does that entail completely destroying it? Does that entail setting it back several years? We already heard, Prime Minister Netanyahu saying that that objective essentially has been achieved. And others, of course, speculating that Israel is hoping for a complete regime change in Iran, Wolf?

BLITZER: All right, Clarissa Ward in Tel Aviv for us. Kristen Holmes, over at the White House. To both of you, thank you very, very much. Erin?

BURNETT: All right, Wolf, Full as President Trump is weighing whether to use U.S. military assets in this war. There is a staunch divide within the Republican Party about what to do. And our Washington Bureau Chief David Chalian, joins me now, along with Seung Min Kim, a White House correspondent for The Associated Press. And I appreciate both of you so much.

David, let's just start with what Clarissa just said. We have not heard a clear end game from Israel, right? One could surmise from various things they're saying, but they have not put out a formal. This is the end game of this conflict, whether that is regime change fully or ending the nuclear program.

But in terms of dismantling it. Prime Minister Netanyahu has already said that days ago, they succeeded in setting it back many, many years. And it sounds like that's not going to be enough for them.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF: Yeah. And you heard President Trump say on the south lawn to reporters today that indeed, nothing is finished until it's finished. And he would not -- he was not suggesting that this was already done, while he reasserted his long-standing statement that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.

So, while as you noted, he has not come out with a decision yet, and we're not going to get ahead of that. He certainly was giving a lot of insight based on those daily conversations with Bibi Netanyahu, as you're saying. Based on what his team has presented to him, giving us a lot of insight into his current thinking, and letting us know that his patience with Iran on the diplomatic side has basically run out.

BURNETT: Right, right. And of course, you know, it's clear the goal post has moved here on the nuclear program. I think we can all just call that as it is. Seung Min the president spent the morning, he made those comments that we played. But he also spent it doing this, raised a new flagpole at the White House and attacked the Fed chair, Jerome Powell, the California Governor Gavin Newsom, and, of course, Joe Biden.

So, he's doing all of those things. As from your reporting, how focused is he right now? How much time is he actually spending sitting, thinking, focused on this massive now, not just American but worldwide crisis?

SEUNG MIN KIM, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I mean, we know that he spent a chunk of his time yesterday in the Situation Room. He did cut his G7 trip in Canada, short to tend to this growing conflict. He said, he much -- would much rather do these things in person that he doesn't want to rely on the telephone as he talks with advisors and other world leaders, as he can -- as he mulls on what to do with this conflict.

[12:10:00]

But you're certainly right that at any certain event, his attention can go elsewhere. You know he is, you know, his advisors say he is very much focused on Iran and what next step to take? But at any given moment he can veer off into, you know, thoughts on immigration, thoughts on domestic politics, certainly thoughts on Jerome Powell. I think those were the remarks that he actually began the flagpole event with today, just really ripping on the Fed chair again for his reluctance in lowering interest rates. So, this is -- I mean, this is Trump. His mind is everywhere, all at once. And in the middle of a crisis -- in the middle of this conflict, it's really -- there's a lot of competing factors for his attention.

BURNETT: Yeah. And David, you know, within this, there's this -- there's a divide, right? There's a schism within the Republican Party, that between Iran hawks, MAGA isolationist. I mean, there's a -- I mean, in a sense, there's no one in this country who isn't looking at this nuclear weapon goal post moving and recalling back to WMD, right? It would be irresponsible to not have that conversation. And that conversation is being had at the heart of the Republican Party.

I am surely not alone in having watched several times the Q&A between former Fox News Anchor Tucker Carlson and Republican Senator Ted Cruz. It was a two-hour conversation. Here's what Tucker posted.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TUCKER CARLSON, FORMER FOX NEWS ANCHOR: And by the way.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): I don't know the population.

CARLSON: At all?

CRUZ: No, I don't know the population.

CARLSON: You don't know the population of the country you seek to topple.

CRUZ: How many people live in Iran?

CARLSON: 92 million.

CRUZ: OK.

CARLSON: How could you not know that?

CRUZ: Why is it relevant whether it --

CARLSON: Well, because --

CRUZ: It's 90 million or 80 million or 100 million. Why is that relevant?

CARLSON: Well, because if you don't know anything about the country.

CRUZ: I didn't say I don't know anything about the country.

CARLSON: What's the ethnic mix of Iran?

CRUZ: They are Persians and predominantly Shia. OK.

(CROSSTALK) CARLSON: You don't know anything about Iran, so --

CRUZ: OK. I'm not the Tucker Carlson, expert on Iran.

CARLSON: You're a senator.

(CROSSTALK)

CARLSON: -- you don't know anything about the country.

CRUZ: No. You don't know anything about the country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: David, I have to say that was one of the most stunning moments I have seen in a long time, stunning to see that conflict, and stunning to think that Senator Ted Cruz, one of the most established, prominent, knowledgeable senators on foreign policy in America, does not know the population of Iran. It's stunning.

CHALIAN: Yeah. I was at -- I attended a reporter roundtable breakfast with Steve Bannon this morning, who's you know much in the Tucker Carlson camp here. He brought up this clip that you just played Erin with reporters this morning and said that this was a larger problem as to why he's so skeptical about U.S. military action years that nobody seems to have thought through the next steps after that.

That being said. I want to tell you what was really interesting to me hearing from Bannon this morning, Erin, which is that, while he still remained completely, sort of opposed or deeply skeptical about U.S. military action. He did seem to be almost heeding the call from J. D. Vance's tweet yesterday about giving space, because he started to say that if indeed President Trump does decide to launch U.S. military strikes.

He thinks that the MAGA wing of the party will rally around their guy, President Trump, on this. And he started laying out the groundwork of the argument that he anticipates President Trump would need to make to the American people to bring them along.

BURNETT: So, Seung Min, we know where -- which faction has his ear the most right now.

KIM: I mean, it's hard to -- it's hard to deny that he has his tone at least has become considerably more hawkish in recent days, in recent times. But you do -- you are kind of really seeing this tussle in real time as it comes to President Trump. And I think, David's point about whether, you know, his supporters, the MAGA faithful, will really follow him. I think that's kind of an open question.

I was looking at comments from Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is a stalwart of a Trump supporter as they come. And she made it very clear that on this dispute, she is on Tucker Carlson side and not the president.

So be fascinating to see if the U.S. goes ahead and takes significant action as it regards -- as it relates to Iran. What kind of argument, what kind of messaging that this administration, that this president, will have to make to really assuage his supporters who really got on board with him, partly because of his views on the Iraq war all the way back in 2015 and 2016.

BURNETT: Right. Couldn't have been more clear and worse, and especially and specifically in the middle east. Thanks so much to both of you. And standby please. We will be back with you later this hour, as our breaking news coverage continues here. We'll be back in a moment breaking down potential options for the U.S. military wolf at the wall as the president decides whether to join Israel's battle against Iran. Stay with us.

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[12:15:00]

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BLITZER: U.S. is not preparing to deploy a strike group to Europe next week. They're moving the U.S.S. Ford aircraft carrier battle group to the eastern Mediterranean, closer to Israel. It will be the third U.S. aircraft carrier nearby the conflict between Israel and Iran. And that move follows a very intense night in the region.

More than 50 Israeli aircraft carrier carried out a wave of strikes on key Iranian missile and military sites. We have new images of the damage to these critical locations, and we'll share those images with you shortly.

[12:20:00]

Retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton is joining us right now. He's at the wall for us to break it all down for us. Cedric Leighton, I want to get to those satellite images in a moment. But first, why would you send a third aircraft carrier battlegroup to the region if the U.S. were not getting ready to actually use that aircraft carrier battlegroup, which includes a bunch of destroyers as well.

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALSYST: Exactly, Wolf. Well, that actually is a great question, because normally it takes a lot of fuel to bring an aircraft carrier into any place that is far from its home port. And that's exactly what we see with the Ford. And probably what you'll see is the Gerald Ford will end up right around here in the eastern Mediterranean.

It was originally scheduled to deploy to Europe, but the basic idea for the Ford's deployment, with its 75 or more aircraft, and the fact that it also has the largest -- basically, it's the largest aircraft carrier in the world, and has the largest complement of aircraft on that. The reason you bring that in there is to project power. And when you project power, you can project power all across the middle east, if you're stationed in the eastern Mediterranean.

BLITZER: Yeah. There's a lot of power from those aircraft carrier battlegroups and the accompanying destroyers that are there, right there. Walk us through what we're seeing right now as far as the latest Israeli strikes?

LEIGHTON: So, one of the key things here is the before and after of a strike like this. And this is what we call battle damage assessment. And when you look at this, you have the before picture. This was taken in May, the end of May in this year. And you see here Tabriz missile base in Iran. Everything here is basically intact. Everything that you see is functioning. It's an operational area.

But over here, this is now June 17, the Israelis have taken out all of this area right here. So, when you compare these images, you can basically see that it is, in essence, a completely eviscerated area. Same thing happened with Mashhad air base. This was taken at Mashhad airport. This was taken in May, end of May, same date as the other image.

Again, the tarmac here is perfect. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it. That aircraft is perfectly functional. But when you look right here, it's a smoking hole in the ground. And what the Israelis did was they took out a tanker aircraft. The Iranians have tanker aircraft, and that tanker is now gone and cannot support anything that the Iranians are planning to do.

BLITZER: We're told, Colonel, that the U.S., the Trump administration, is considering sending more military equipment to Israel to help Israel target various Iranian nuclear sites. What does that entail?

LEIGHTON: So one of the key elements here, Wolf, is the fact that, when you have all of these different sites and there actually are a bunch more, but these are the main ones. So, you've got both enrichment areas that are shown in red and research areas that are shown in green, plus a civilian site right here at Bushehr.

So, what they're trying to do is they're trying to bring forces to bear to potentially conduct air operations against each of these sites. Now, the Israelis have already conducted a major attack right here on Natanz. This area right here, it is just southeast of Tehran. That site in particular was very important. But here's the difficult one, and that's the Fordow site. It's a little bit closer to Tehran.

But one of the key things about the Fordow facility is it's a hardened, deeply buried target. And as this graphic shows right here, the satellite image shows, it's under a mountain. It's about almost 300 feet under this mountain.

And in order to do anything against this particular target, you need to be able to attack, maybe points of vulnerability, like these tunnel entrances right here, potentially checkpoints and the security perimeter. But that's not as important as the entrances and the actual facility itself.

So, this facility being so far underground, requires special munitions, and that would be where a weapon known as the GBU-57 comes into play, and that can only be delivered by the B-2 bomber, and that's only in the United States Air Force's inventory. BLITZER: Yeah. The Israeli Air Force does not have B-2 bombers. Police, not yet. All right, Colonel Cedric Leighton, thank you very much for that update. Erin?

BURNETT: All right, Wolf. And joining us now is the Democratic Congressman Chris Deluzio of Pennsylvania, also an Iraq war veteran. And I so much appreciate your time, Congressman. Since the Colonel was just talking about Fordow and this B-2 bomber as the only way to bomb it.

I just want to take a step back here in a moment like this. And putting aside how far they were or weren't in getting a nuclear weapon and what they were or weren't doing. OK. Just put that conversation aside. If the discussion is down to whether the United States is going to bomb Fordow. It seems that there are many who are trying to oversimplify it along the lines of, well as the U.S. chooses to do it, then there goes Fordow. It's done and it's over.

Now there's another conversation about what happens in a war after that, right and next steps. But I just want to focus on that one moment. Do you have confidence that if the U.S. actually drops one of those giant bunker buster bombs on Fordow. That it would truly be successful in taking everything out there? Or is that too sort of a hope and a prayer?

[12:25:00]

REP. CHRIS DELUZIO (D-PA): I think it's more the latter. We don't know. And I think that's not something as simple as you drop a bomb and nuclear program is gone. And remember, the Trump administration assessed a few months back that the Iranians were not actively working to develop a nuclear weapon. And let's also take a step back of this debate.

The president does not get to decide whether to send Americans to war. And sending a bomber over skies another country and dropping a bomb, is sending Americans to war. The American people get to decide that through the Congress. I have not seen that case made to the American people.

I've not seen the kind of presentation of evidence, intelligence and the basic case that you make to decide whether you send Americans into the hell of war. And I say this as a guy, who's a veteran of the war in Iraq, where the Congress, I think, then shirk its duty in sending Americans off to fight. This is not a small decision, and no president gets to decide that on their own.

BURNETT: No. Well, of course, you know, we all remember, again, that loaded word evidence, right? And that infamous presentation at the United Nations about the weapons of mass destruction. OK. So, we're not there. Can I ask you, though, Congressman, in your conversations with Republican colleagues, do they all agree with you? I mean, is Congress -- is Congress going to actually stand up to the president and say, we demand to have this right as Congress? Or are Republicans going to acquiesce to him making the choice himself? DELUZIO: I think there's disagreement on the Republican side. You see some who are willing to stand on our constitution and assert Congress's role and the American people's role in deciding whether we send Americans to war. And you see who are willing to do whatever the president asks.

And my point here, this shouldn't matter which party the president in -- the president is in. It is up to the American people and Congress to decide whether we go to war. That is a serious, serious decision. One of the most serious we ever will make in the Congress. I hope my Republican colleagues understand that.

BURNETT: So, can I just ask you, in your capacity as a former veteran. When you think about this moment, and you think about what happened to your life, and you think that you were sent into Iraq and your entire life changed. This country changed. When you think about this moment, what really is at stake?

DELUZIO: Look a lot, and you think about we are going to pay the cost of the Iraq war for as long as my generation of veterans is alive. It is a major decision to send Americans to go fight, to spill American blood and spend American treasure anywhere. And we have -- if we've learned nothing, from two decades of middle eastern wars, of regime change. My goodness, what are we doing?

This is not something we should be rushing into. I understand and recognize that we cannot have the Iranians have a nuclear weapon, but there is something short of that that we can do. Diplomacy, of course, should continue. I know the Trump administration was trying through last week. Let's keep trying.

But again, the decision to send Americans to fight, and that's what this is. It's not a video game. There are humans who will be in an aircraft. There are humans who would be sent in to go fight, real people who will bear those costs for a long time. I haven't seen the case made why I should support that, or why the American people should support sending Americans to go fight.

BURNETT: Congressman Deluzio, I really appreciate your time and thank you.

DELUZIO: Thanks, Erin.

BURNETT: The next big decision from the Supreme Court that will sharply limit medical care for trans kids. Wolf has the details right after this.

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