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Inside Politics

Supreme Court Upholds Ban on Trans Youth Medical Care; Iran Says It Will Never Surrender as U.S. Considers Strikes; Trump Asks Benjamin Netanyahu to Keep Going. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired June 18, 2025 - 12:30   ET

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

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WOLF BLITZER, CNN GUEST ANCHOR OF 'INSIDE POLITICS': All right. The U.S. Supreme Court has just upheld a Tennessee law that bans gender affirming care for minors, even if it's prescribed by a doctor. Our Chief Legal Affairs Correspondent Paula Reid is following all these developments for us. Paula, what can you tell us about the Supreme Court's decision?

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is one of the big cases we've been watching this term because roughly half of states have a ban that is similar to the one in Tennessee. And this focuses on access to certain medications that can facilitate a gender transition. After Tennessee banned minors from accessing these medications for this purpose, families of transgender youth, they brought a lawsuit saying, Hey, this violates the equal protection clause because other minors who are using the same medication for different purposes can still have access to it.

But today, in this 6/3 decision, it fell along party lines, Supreme Court affirmed this law in Tennessee. And in the majority Chief Justice John Roberts wrote, this case carries with it the weight of fierce scientific and policy debates about the safety, efficacy, and propriety of medical treatments in an evolving field. Now, the three liberal justices dissented. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, she wrote the court "abandons transgender children and their families to political whims." And she wrote, "in sadness, I dissent."

Now going forward, what we'll be looking for is the impact that this decision has on other possible laws because, over the past several years, we've seen a lot of laws targeting transgender individuals, specifically minors. And after this decision, we now know that those laws, they're going to be reviewed under a lower standard, making it easier for them to pass judicial review.

BLITZER: What major cases are we still waiting for this Supreme Court to decide on before they take their summer break?

REID: So, we still have over a dozen outstanding cases, but there's three big ones. The biggest one is their decision on birthright citizenship, which is really a decision about judicial power. Can one judge anywhere in the country block a policy that has been implemented by the White House, by the president for the entire country? President Trump's lawyers, they tell me this is the number one thing they are watching because we know President Trump, he uses executive action, executive authority a lot, and those are often blocked by judges.

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We're also looking at a case that asks whether parents can opt out of curriculum or instruction that has to do with LGBTQ books or other curriculum items. That's a big one. And also, a requirement in Texas that you have to verify your age by providing your identification in order to access pornography. Now, a lot of terms, they have over a dozen major cases. This term has only had a few, but again, any of these cases would have an enormous impact on the lives of especially millions of Americans.

BLITZER: You're going to be very busy over these next few days. Paula Reid, thank you very, very much. And David Chalian and Seung Min Kim are back with us right now. David, 27 states, as you know, have passed bans on gender affirming care. The issue of trans rights was maybe, maybe the most important culture war issue of the 2024 election. Will it continue to be?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF AND POLITICAL DIRECTOR: It was certainly one of them, and it is continuing to be. If you look at advertising on the Republican side, even this early on, we're still a year and a half or so from the midterms, Wolf. And you can see a lot of Republican candidates are making sure to put trans issues from their perspective into their paid advertising. I think, listen, you got to separate out the politics of this from the real human impact of this. I think, as Paula noted, we're going to learn what the human impact is of this court decision among families across the country.

But in the politics of it, I think the two things to watch are how Republicans will sort of hit the gas on this issue, what they believe is a winning culture war issue for them. And watch how Democrats, especially those considering a 2028 presidential campaign, respond to this court ruling. Have they learned to message around this issue in a way that's more politically palatable than what Kamala Harris was able to do back in '24.

BLITZER: Seung Min, after years of making transgender rights a key campaign issue, many elected Democrats have taken a step back right now. Do you see this ruling potentially galvanizing the party?

SEUNG MIN KIM, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, ASSOCIATED PRESS: Well, it's hard to see. I think David is spot on with the balancing act that these Democratic leaders will have to take when it comes to this issue. I have Republicans tell me over and over how winning politically of an issue transgender rights issues for their -- is for their party, particularly when it comes to the issue of transgender women participating in sports. They feel like that is a complete, you know, political winner for them.

And how those leading contenders really massage this issue by making sure that this is a party that is sensitive to LGBTQ people and their needs and their rights, but while trying to kind of not pigeonhole themselves into a broader -- just a party that seems to be focused just on that issue will be a balancing act, because the Trump campaign really was able to successfully kind of characterize Kamala Harris based on her answers from the 2020 primary campaign as really singularly focused on that issue and not focused on the issues of the broader American public, on the economy, et cetera, and really will be a challenge for the '28 candidates.

BLITZER: David, just like abortion rights, we're about to see transgender rights become very different depending on whether you live in a red or blue state. What could that mean for the country?

CHALIAN: Well, you note the abortion rights example. I mean, you are going to see a patchwork of laws and you're going to see in the states where there are Democratic controlled legislatures, probably try to legislate and insulate from this court ruling in some ways. But when you have a Supreme Court ruling that paves the path, you see nationwide standards start to take place. And so, I think that's likely this ruling's impact across the nation will go beyond just red states.

BLITZER: David Chalian and Seung Min Kim, thanks to both of you very, very much. Up next, there's more breaking news. We're following Israel's military, now says Iran has launched new missiles into Israel. We're going live to the region when we come back.

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ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR OF OUTFRONT: And we're following the breaking news. The Israeli military just detecting new missiles, they say launched from inside Iran. The IDF says their defense systems have been activated for that. Let's go to Tel Aviv. Anderson Cooper and Oren Liebermann are there. And I know, Anderson, you all are basically now underground. I mean, you're in a bomb shelter because those sirens have gone off.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR OF "ANDERSON COOPER 360": That's right. We got the early warning signal that came across people's phones in the location we're in. They also made an announcement I hear, with Oren Liebermann. How rare is it that this happens during the day? I've seen a lot of this at night.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF: It is much more common to see this at night. We'll get them at one, two, four in the morning. In fact, last night they came just about 20 minutes apart. Something like at 12:30 in the morning and then one in the morning. They have come during the daytime several times. This is probably the third or fourth time over the course of the past six days. But it's rare and is in and of itself a statement that they can threaten during the day and at night.

COOPER: It's also a statement how organized it is and how calm people are. Everybody who is in this hotel has come down to shelters. There's a number of shelters. So there was a warning about 10 or so minutes ago that there would be incoming.

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Then there was a more of a red alert just about a minute or two ago.

LIEBERMANN: And that's the idea. There's a -- there's essentially a 15-minute flight time thereabouts for ballistic missiles from Iran. So, they give the first warning that they've detected them, and then they give the one or two-minute warning, which is the -- it's really incoming and it's quite close. That's when everybody heads to the shelters. And then generally, 10, 12, 15 minutes later, you'll get the all clear and you'll see people head out. This has become the pattern of life here for the course of the past six days, and you have seen what was more chaotic and disorderly at first is simply something everyone has now done across the country. It's not just here.

COOPER: And this is, I just got here a couple hours ago. This is the first time this has occurred. If it is a drone, is it a different warning?

LIEBERMANN: Yeah. You don't get the, essentially, the phone blast. Drones have come over from the east, essentially from Iran over Jordan. It is not an alert across the country. They're quite specific in terms of their location. The vast majority, if not virtually all of them, have been intercepted. It is not the same level of concern or threat, or danger that the ballistic missiles are, and therefore, it is the ballistic missiles where you see the wider threats. This is all over central Israel essentially. And that's where everybody has the shelters.

COOPER: I mean, I was just out getting a coffee 30 minutes ago. There's people on the beach, there's people walking around, there's people gathered to watch the sunset. Life in Tel Aviv, at least in this little area on this day, seemed quite calm.

LIEBERMANN: It's a big change. 48 hours ago, the beaches were emptier, the roads were emptier. People, like I said, are getting used to the pattern here, so they feel more comfortable being out. In fact, I was here yesterday and went for a walk late at night and there was an alarm. I was near a completely different hotel and just ran into that bomb shelter and nobody thought twice about it. People ran in off the beach to whatever bomb shelter essentially is closest. You're in there for 20 minutes or so, and then you're back out.

COOPER: Yeah. We anticipate being able to leave here very soon. Erin, let's go back to you.

BURNETT: All right. Anderson and Oren, thank you both so very much, in that shelter right now in Tel Aviv. And coming up, President Trump says his message to Benjamin Netanyahu is to keep going. We'll break down the pressure campaign of what's going on here next.

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[12:51:30] BLITZER: The Israeli military is detecting new missiles launched from Iran as President Trump deliberates potential U.S. military strikes in the region. I want to bring in Avi Mayer from Jerusalem. He's joining us right now. He's the Founder of the Jerusalem Journal, the former Editor in Chief of The Jerusalem Post. Avi, thanks so much for joining us. We just saw our own Anderson Cooper and Oren Liebermann in Tel Aviv in a bomb shelter, as a new barrage of Iranian missiles is heading towards Israel. What are things like for you in Jerusalem right now?

AVI MAYER, FOUNDER, JERUSALEM JOURNAL: Well, Wolf, good to see you again. Jerusalem has actually been significantly quieter than Tel Aviv and other cities. We've certainly gotten our share of alerts and missile sirens over the past few days, but there have been no missiles that have actually hit this city as opposed to Tel Aviv, Haifa and other places where we do know that there has been some devastation where 24 people have been killed over the past few days. That's far lower than the projections had been ahead of time, but certainly devastating nonetheless.

BLITZER: We know that President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu have been speaking on the phone. What are you learning about the kind of pressure that the prime minister is trying to place on Trump to join the strikes against Iran?

MAYER: Well, look, there are several different perspectives here in Israel. On the one hand, you do have certain elements, including of course the prime minister, who are speaking to the President and people in his circle trying to encourage them to become involved in this military campaign against Iran's nuclear program. On the other hand, you have Israeli officials telling the Wall Street Journal that if Israel must, it can go alone, that there is a plan in place to attack even the most fortified nuclear facility in Fordow, that site that many have said can only be attacked by use of these bunker buster bombs that the United States has. That Israel can in fact do that if it really needs to.

So, you have these two different perspectives, essentially trying to figure out what the United States will do and what Israel will be forced to do on its own.

BLITZER: Just days before the attack on Iran, we know that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was hanging by a thread politically in Israel right now. Is that changing? Are the Israeli people in support of what he's doing right now, as far as Iran is concerned?

MAYER: There is wall-to-wall support in Israel for this campaign, which is viewed by Israelis as frankly existential. Israelis know that Iran has wanted this country's destruction for decades. They say so very openly, and we also know that Iran has been developing a secret nuclear program. This is not something that anyone really doubts. And so, I think there is wall-to-wall support in this country. You have leaders of the opposition, including Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz, full- throatedly supporting this effort and saying they acknowledge that this was the moment to act, that Iran has indeed posed an existential threat to the state of Israel. And this is our opportunity to ensure that that threat is removed from our next.

BLITZER: What's your sense, Avi, of whether or not the U.S. will ultimately join Israel in this military campaign? What are you hearing from people in Israel?

MAYER: Well, at the moment, Israeli officials are essentially saying that they believe it is likely the United States will participate in the campaign in some way. We don't know exactly what that'll look like, whether it'll simply be a limited assault on that site at Fordow or something broader. Israel has said openly that its goal is not regime change. That is not why Israel is doing what it is doing. This is simply an attempt to remove the threat of annihilation from the Jewish state.

[12:55:00]

However, if the United States becomes involved, that could indeed expand to something much more significant. When the president talks about unconditional surrender, that sounds like something much more significant than simply removing the threat of a nuclear armed Iran. So, the United States and Israel may not be fully aligned on what the ultimate goal is. I think it's very clear that both are in agreement that United States and Israel cannot allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon. I think that that's what we see happening here.

BLITZER: All right, Avi Mayer in Jerusalem for us. Avi, thank you very much. We'll stay in close touch with you.

And to our viewers, thanks very much for joining this special edition of "Inside Politics." Erin will be back, along with Anderson Cooper, to pick up our breaking news coverage right after a short break.

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