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Hegseth: U.S. Strikes On Iran Were "Historically Successful"; Hegseth Berates Media For Asking Questions About Iran Strikes; Key Medicaid Change Violates Senate Rules In Major GOP Setback; GOP Hits Procedural Roadblock On Bill Ahead Of July 4 Goal; GOP Remains Split On Key Parts Of Trump Domestic Policy Bill. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired June 26, 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]

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It's important to work on your core strength and your coordination. Balance exercises like stretching and yoga are also good options. Overall experts recommend 150 minutes a week of exercise and say its good to mix it up and do a variety of activities. And you can hear more about how to optimize your health and chase life wherever you get your podcasts.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF THE SITUATION ROOM: Excellent advice from Dr. Sanjay Gupta as usual. Thanks, Sanjay, very, very much. And to our viewers, thanks very much for joining us this morning. You can always keep up with us on social media at Wolf Blitzer and @pamelabrowncnn. We'll see you back here tomorrow morning, every weekday morning, 10 am Eastern. Inside Politics today with Manu Raju is coming up next.

MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR & CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Today on Inside Politics, full court press. The Trump administration is laser focused on telling Americans that the U.S. strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities were an unequivocal success. Even as questions remain about whether the regimes capabilities were actually eliminated.

Plus, a big, beautiful sales pitch. Republicans are running out of time to get their massive policy bill over the finish line by July 4. So today, the president is bringing food driver -- food delivery drivers and border agents to the White House to pressure the Republican lawmakers who are still hesitant to support it.

And Mamdani's message, Democrats in New York and Washington are racing to understand Zohran Mamdani's rise from obscurity, whether he will help or hurt their efforts to win back power next year.

I'm Mana Raju, in for Dana Bash. Let's go behind the headlines in Inside Politics.

We start at the Pentagon with the defense secretary and America's top general, are defending the president's message on the U.S. strikes in Iran. Joint Chiefs Chairman, General Dan Caine says, the operation went as planned. And Secretary Pete Hegseth attacked the media for reporting on a preliminary intelligence report that found the attack may not have been as successful as Trump had claimed. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE HEGSETH, UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: There's been a lot of discussion about what happened and what didn't happen. Step back for a second because of decisive military action, President Trump created the conditions to end the war. Decimating, choose your word, obliterating, destroying Iran's nuclear capabilities.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: CNN's Zach Cohen is at the Pentagon joining us live. So, Zach, while Hegseth was attacking the media, Dan Caine actually provided some more details about the mission. What did we learn?

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yeah, Manu, that's right. At times, it was like participating in two different press conferences. As you mentioned, Hegseth spent the majority of his remarks, criticizing the media and also reemphasizing what President Donald Trump has been saying since the hours after these strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, that they completely obliterated the country's nuclear program.

Now, that was even before this initial intelligence assessment that we first reported earlier this week was produced, and it's one that was produced in low confidence because it was such an early -- an early assessment. But it did raise more doubts and at least inject some uncertainty into how effective the strikes really were on setting Iran back as far as its nuclear capabilities go.

But meantime, Dan Caine did provide those new details that you mentioned about mostly this Massive Ordnance Penetrator, the big bomb that they dropped about 12 of them on the nuclear site of Fordo. And he walked us through the history and the 15 years of planning that not only went into testing the capabilities of the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, but also specifically how it was designed for an operation like the one carried out over the weekend.

Take a listen to what Dan Caine said about how this massive bomb was specifically used on Fordo and why the military considers that operation a success.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. DAN CAINE: JOINT CHIEF CHAIRMAN: Here's what we know following the attacks and the strikes on Fordo. First, that the weapons were built, tested and loaded properly. Two, the weapons were released on speed and on parameters. Three, the weapons all guided to their intended targets and to their intended aim points. For the weapons function as designed, meaning they exploded.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: So, Hegseth really leaning into the idea that because they believe this was an operational success that means that the end result would be equivalent to Iran's nuclear capabilities being obliterated. But those are really two different questions, and one that Hegseth and Caine both sort of sidestep today when they were pressed by reporters on the current assessment of Iran's nuclear capabilities.

It's also worth noting too that today's press conference really only focused on the one facility of Fordo. I don't believe I heard the other two facilities targeted in this operation, mentioned a single time.

And also, two, it's important to note as well that Defense Secretary Hegseth often character the preliminary assessment and as something that was should not be taken seriously, because it's too early to really know what the actual damage underneath the surface was. But at the same time trying to justify Donald Trump's characterization that Iran's nuclear program was obliterated in some ways, trying to have it both ways.

[12:05:00]

RAJU: All right. CNN's Zach Cohen from the Pentagon. Thank you so much. And I'm joined by a terrific group of reporters and analysts, Zolan Kanno-Youngs of The New York Times, Margaret Talev of Axios, former Deputy Director of National Intelligence, Beth Sanner, and CNN global affairs analyst, Kim Dozier. Nice to see you all.

Beth, you've worked in this field for a very long time, intelligence. Do we have the intelligence now to know whether or not this was -- how effective this emission actually was?

BETH SANNER, FORMER DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: We probably have enough intelligence now to give us a better preliminary than what that first DIA report is and that will probably come into. That's why I think, you know, the delay of this briefing to Congress until today. So, I think that there will be enough concrete there that they can say that it's been severely damaged, significantly set back.

And Ratcliffe's statement that he made, where he said that several of the nuclear sites were destroyed. That is true. So, we have preliminary but it's going to take, I think some time to get an overall view, which would include more than a bomb damage assessment. It would include things like, where does the scientific community lie? Where does all this knowledge lie in Iran because you cannot bomb that away.

RAJU: You say the same way?

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Yeah. I was somewhat reassured though that the Defense Intelligence Agency did not pull its punches. It came out with a report saying, we think we might not have gotten everything that we needed to hit. And there was no fear in sending that not just to the Pentagon, but out to the wider world, which is, of course, how the White House says it was leaked.

But two things can be true at the same time that the strikes were successful, the pilots did their job, the bunker busters did their job, but only a few sites were hit. And what it leaves out is all the activity we saw at those sites, ahead of the U.S. bombing and even ahead of some of the Israeli strikes, including the long line of trucks at Fordo that we keep talking about. That we saw on satellite, they were taking things out.

RAJU: And they didn't quite say -- Hegseth didn't quite say whether or not --

DOZIER: Sidestep, the question about where was the uranium? He said, everything that was supposed to be there was there. We have been talking and talking with the IEA, first started talking about, where is the 440 kilograms of uranium that's been refined to 60 percent. The Iranians told us they'd move it, and we don't know where it is now.

RAJU: I mean, and there are -- go ahead.

SANNER: But that was not at Fordo. That storage site was mainly at Isfahan, just to be clear. And so, the question is whether they moved it before, as you were saying, Kim, all this happened. What may have come out of Fordo, you know, maybe some centrifuges, maybe some 60 percent, I don't know, maybe nothing. Maybe we trace those trucks.

RAJU: Yeah. And Zach was saying, it was almost like we're watching two different press conferences. And one, providing very specific operational details about what happened in this very significant and unprecedented military strike that happened over the weekend, another trying to lay out a PR campaign against the media.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HEGSETH: In hunting for scandals all the time in trying to find wedges and spin stories. This press corps and the press corps miss historic moments. Whether it's fake news, CNN, MSNBC or the New York Times, there's been fawning coverage of a preliminary assessment. I've had a chance to read it all. Every outlet has breathlessly reported on a preliminary assessment, because you want him not to be successful so bad. You have to cheer against the efficacy of the strikes. You have to hope maybe they weren't effective. Maybe the way the Trump administration has represented him, isn't true.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Just to be clear, he confirmed what the preliminary assessment was, was that raising questions about how much Iran's nuclear capability was set back. There's been no dispute about what the actual report was. And even the initial reporting from CNN and others made it very clear, these were preliminary analysis, and further intelligence could develop the U.S. understanding of the strikes. But Hegseth very much sees himself in this role, someone to attack the media and be in a more political role than past defense secretary.

[12:10:00]

ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: And show his loyalty to the president. This press conference was one, a tale of two press conferences, right? You know, we did have one that -- one sort of goal of dictating the narrative of this operation and keeping the focus on the military operations that occurred. But the other was a reminder that loyalty is one of the, you know, more prioritized primary sort of measures of success in this administration, particularly when it comes to political appointees, even in something like the defense department.

You've had in recent days the administration and the White House really go on the offensive. You've seen that this report on this preliminary assessment has really hit a nerve among the president them, those around him, as well.

And you've seen them more so than other stories really in this second term, really go after reporters, really attack the press, and almost frame a certain situation that objective journalism and asking questions that many in the public have right now about this operation, almost amounts to undermining patriotism, which we know not to be the case.

RAJU: And before you jump in, because I just want to ask Kim about this, because you covered Iraq. You mean you had harrowing experiences covering Iraq. And you have to ask questions about, I mean, you almost died in Iraq.

DOZIER: Here's one of the things I learned about covering the military. When you first start learning about them, there is a tendency to go, oh, they're letting me along on embeds, et cetera, et cetera. And you become a little bit of a cheerleader. And then you learn, oh, these guys screwed up, and because I was busy cheerleading, I didn't see what they were doing.

And then you start holding them to account the same way they hold themselves to account. They're tough on themselves, and we in the media are supposed to be equally clear eyed on behalf of the American people who are sending them into harm's way.

RAJU: This is what our colleague Steven Collinson wrote. He said, Trump's entire presidency is set up to reflect glory and his own strong man persona, feeling a narrative of courageous, unique and infallible leadership, information that contradicts the myth -- the myth is not welcome.

MARGARET TALEV, SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR, AXIOS: And I think President Trump has some clear political goals here. He would like this to be one and done, and to make it true what he's been saying, which is this decades long conflict, and I solved it in 12 days or 12 minutes or whatever he say.

And that that is a different political goal or strategy than whatever the facts on the ground are, which whatever is true will be true, regardless of how the media covers it or the spin the president puts on it. We're beginning to see early public opinion research. I was just looking at YouGov poll, I think with CBS News.

But everyone is going to have their own polling that shows that the initial American reaction is one of overall disapproval. Even if they're, you know, happy that it was tactically successful, they feel that this should have gone through Congress, Americans are very concerned about getting pulled into another war.

And so, for the president's political goals, he wants to erase those doubts, to turn public opinion around toward him, and not to have Republicans split. Because right now, it is Republicans that are rallying around this and that do approve it, independents by about two to one do not or are unsure about it.

And so, any questions, any suggestions, any preliminary analysis that undercuts this narrative that it was successful runs counter to his political goals, but the intelligence analysis will eventually come out. And I've heard it said many times this morning that Hegseth was speaking to an audience of one.

Actually, I think he was speaking to an audience of maybe 150 million people. He is speaking in ways that can be clipped and put out and metabolized into conservative media mainstream, so that viewers and consumers of this will say, the problem is not the mission. The problem is the press.

RAJU: And it's also -- yes, it is also to ensure loyalty among the base, among Republicans, and that's what Trump is trying to do as well. All right, speaking of which, next President Trump's big, beautiful sales push. Republicans are still divided over his massive bill to cut taxes and key government programs. So today, he's having them over to the White House for a pep rally.

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[12:15:00]

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RAJU: President Trump knows how he wants to spend the 4th of July, signing a historic piece of legislation to extend his tax cuts, fund deportations and fulfill core promises to end taxes on tips and overtime. But with just eight days to go, Republicans in Congress are facing a major procedural setback that is putting that timeline in serious doubt.

I want to get CNN congressional correspondent Lauren Fox here to explain. So, Lauren, what are you hearing about the chances that this bill could get to Donald Trump's desk by July 4?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. There was a major ruling this morning by the Senate parliamentarian that cast into doubt one of the key pay for that Republicans had included in this bill, dealing with Medicaid provider taxes and it's really important issue for Republicans.

Because without this pay for, now they're sort of scrambling, trying to find out if they can go back to the drawing board and trying to finalize legislative text, as well as get all the votes that they need in line in order to move this bill by the end of the weekend, which had been the goal of Republican leadership.

John Thune making clear just a few minutes ago to our colleague, Ali Main (Ph), that this is really in flux at the moment, and it's not clear whether they're going to be able to do this in short order because they don't control how quickly the Senate parliamentarian, who is the arbiter of Senate rules deals with these issues. Here's a couple other Republicans on the fact that this timeline could be slipping, Manu?

[12:20:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You think that changes the timeframe here at all?

SEN. JOSH HAWLEY (R-MO): That could. I don't know. That's a good point. The leader would know. I just don't know how quick they can redraft, and they'll have to go back in front of her. So, this is the Arcania part of the Senate procedure.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you think that this potentially sets you back in terms of your timing? Can you really pass this by July 4?

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): After the leadership and say about that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOX: And Manu, you know, as well as anyone, this has to get through the Senate, but then it has to go back over to the House of Representatives, where speaker Johnson is going to have to wrangle his Republican members in order to get this through his chamber. That all would have to happen in just a little over a week's time. Next Friday is 4th of July.

RAJU: Yeah. They have to get to meet the procedural issues and get the votes and rewrite parts of the bill. Very difficult to do all that by that timeframe. Lauren Fox, thank you so much. And here at the table, Marianna Sotomayor of The Washington Post joins us as well. And Marianna, you also walk those halls with Lauren and me every single day.

This is what the speaker just told our colleagues on Capitol Hill. He said, it doesn't make it easier. This is the ruling against a key portion of the bill that was just struck out because it does not meet the budget rules. Of course, that needs to be met in order to pass the bill along straight party lines in the Senate, meaning just Republican votes.

He says -- the speaker said, it doesn't make any easier to make it to the July 4 deadline but hope springs eternal and we're going to work around the clock to try to meet that deadline. But what are you hearing about the challenges ahead to meet that deadline?

MARIANNA SOTOMAYOR, CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON POST: Oh. We always talk about how difficult these hurdles are. I think this is probably the biggest obstacle to come that either of us have experienced so far, and the reason why is because the Senate has really changed this bill.

You add this parliamentarian, who, of course, is arbiter of all the rules of what can be included in this, and a lot of things are being taken out, and it's really angering a number of Republicans on the House side, obviously on the Senate. That's the first hurdle. But House Republicans are really not liking how this bill has been changed. For the most part, the math is not mapping.

RAJU: Yes.

SOTOMAYOR: And that really upsets the Freedom Caucus, who for years have been saying, we need to reduce the size of the federal government, and we need to reduce the deficit. You also have moderate --

RAJU: It does not, does neither.

SOTOMAYOR: No, no. And with more that we're seeing, including this latest ruling at the parliamentarian said on this Medicaid provision, essentially what it does is it's -- what she's saying is that you should not include any provision that would allow some of these states to pay for undocumented immigrants being able to access healthcare. That's been a huge just talking point for a number of Republicans.

It's going to be for -- it's going to make for an interesting afternoon where at the White House, there's going to be this huge messaging pitch where they're trying to sell this bill to the American public, all while both Senate and House Republicans are really bickering over a number of these policies to make beautiful.

RAJU: And there's so much, this bill we call it a MAGA bill, a policy, because there's so many issues and just a handful of them. It not only would it extend the 2017 tax cuts permanently business and individual tax cuts, which would cost trillions of dollars, but also new work requirements from social safety net programs, dealing with no taxes on tips and overtime, phasing out those Biden era green energy tax credits, money for the Pentagon, hundreds of billions dollars the Pentagon, border security and the like, and then raise the debt ceiling the senate plan what by $5 trillion.

And then -- but there are the sticking points, and Medicaid cuts are sticking points. How to deal with state and local tax deductions. That is a huge fight that could actually derail the bill in the House. And then phasing out the tax credits and those Freedom Caucus members that Marianna was talking about. They want those out immediately. Senate Republicans, not so sure.

There are so many issues. But here's my question, you cover the White House, Trump is demanding this by July 4. There is no reason for this to be done by July 4, other than the fact that he wants to just have it done by July 4. Will he be open to delaying this past July 4?

KANNO-YOUNGS: We have seen him, you know, move the goal posts. You know, in situations like this before, particularly when something is going through Congress, like this. But the sense of urgency is also rooted in that. This bill has so many things in it, but also it has funding for some major parts of his domestic policy agenda, right? Money for immigration, enforcement and those mass deportations. That's this bill.

Also, a lot of provisions, just to zoom out, that impact his supporters as well. When you talk about Medicaid, when you talk about SNAP benefits. You know, not only does it expose different fissures in the Republican Party, but also when you talk about the funding that he needs to accomplish many things that he campaigned on, that's also this bill.

[12:25:00]

I'm also interested, just in terms of this White House event today. I'm going to be there, going to that event. How much actually he uses this moment to push for this bill, and not for some of the things that we talked about in the previous segment as well, maybe criticizing the media, media coverage as well. But look, they want this thing to be pushed. They're feeling the sense of urgency. We don't often see an effective pep rally at the White House for a bill. That still we don't know what's going to be in it.

RAJU: They're gambling that, but betting the Republican leadership is that Trump's pressure campaign will be effective, and these members don't want to endure his wrath by voting against it. But this bill is just not popular to the public because they have not been able -- the Republicans have not sold it effectively to the public.

Just as a one poll has been consistent with other polls as well, just 38 percent of the public favor this plan, in part because people really don't understand what's in it. They call it a big, beautiful bill, but what's in it? The members themselves that they have to vote on this by this weekend or next week. They won't even have time to read it either.

TALEV: Yeah. And I'm going to put a caveat and say, depending on what passes, some of what I'm about to say might change, OK. But we are all understandably in the weeds. If you're covering this, you need to know exactly what's in it, what the parliamentary situation is, all that stuff.

If you're a member of the public and you're thinking, why should I care about this? One of the big selling points that the president and his team are going to make, the Republicans will make, is tax cuts, because everybody likes the sound of a tax cut. But what the early analysis have shown is that if you're kind of in the middle band of Americans, you're earning maybe, I think, up to about $120,000 or less. This is going to mean $1,000 in your pocket over the course of a year, about $40 per paycheck, $40 for $4 trillion in deficit spending.

And so -- and if you're lower income, if you're $50,000 or below, this might net you 300 bucks in tax cuts per year. So about $1 a day, less than $1 a day, but will reduce your accessibility to Medicaid and social welfare provisions.

And so, one of the big political questions if this passes, the reason the president wants it to pass is, so he can show he can get things done. Because one thing we hear again and again from centrist voters as well as base voters is, you might not like everything Donald Trump does, but he's getting stuff done.

But the flip side is, the minute this thing passes, if it passes, you're going to have a massive messaging campaign where critics of the president are going to be saying, this was a wealth transfer to wealthy people away from people with less money, and it reduced the safety net of people who rely on the services.

RAJU: And that's going to be the debate as we head into the midterm. It's going to define the entire midterm elections, when and if this does pass. The question is, when it passes? If it does it does.

(CROSSTALK)

RAJU: The real deadline is really before the August recess, because they need to do something to avoid a debt default by probably the middle of summer and early fall. And there's a that debt limit increase that's in the bill. So, we'll see if Trump agrees to delay this -- his own self-imposed deadline.

All right. Coming up next on Inside Politics. The secrecy and the drama. The blockbuster day being teed up by the Supreme Court that could affect who is a U.S. citizen.

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