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The Situation Room

Israel-Iran Conflict Leading to Higher Gas Prices; Interview With Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT); Trump Blasts Fed Chair; ICE Detains New York Mayoral Candidate. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired June 18, 2025 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:00]

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Pam, it's 26 Federal Plaza here behind me, the site where Brad Lander, the comptroller of the city of New York, was taken into custody yesterday by federal agents after he tried to escort a man who had been before an immigration judge out of the building.

Now, that man was going to be arrested by immigration officers, and Brad Lander was trying to prevent them from doing so, asking them to show him a judicial warrant for the man's arrest.

I think it's important to know that Brad Lander, who also is running for the Democratic nomination for mayor here in New York City, has been doing this court observation for the past few days, that there's been a lot of activity here at immigration court, like many other immigration courts around the country, where we are seeing an uptick in detentions of migrants who are being taken into custody by federal officials after they show up to their immigration appointments.

Brad Lander said that he wanted to call attention to that issue. He says that people are being denied their right to due process. He is facing some criticism from people who said that he was doing this sort of as a political opportunity because we are so close to primary Election Day here in New York.

Take a listen to what he said about why he had spent the last few days inside of immigration court.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRAD LANDER (D), NEW YORK CITY MAYORAL CANDIDATE: That it was important for me to go down there and stand up for the rule of law and due process in New York City. And, apparently, that is not what the Trump administration wants people to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAZMINO: Now Pam, as you said, Lander is now part of a growing list of Democrats who have confronted federal officials. Some have also been taken into custody. We saw the case of the officials in New Jersey, Congresswoman McIver and Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, when they tried to gain access to a detention facility in Newark, facing similar pushback from federal officials and ultimately being taken into custody.

So we are seeing just as more and more representatives, namely Democrats, including Representative Padilla, who was also taken into custody a few days ago, confronting these federal officials and trying to get some answers, all of this in response to Trump's immigration crackdown -- Pam.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: All right, Gloria Pazmino, thank you so much -- Wolf.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: All right, happening now also, everyone from Wall Street to the White House will be listening to one man.

The Fed chair, Jerome Powell, is slated to speak later this afternoon on the Central Bank's latest decision on interest rates. President Trump is ramping up his demand to lower interest rates. Here he was just last hour. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have a stupid person, frankly, at the Fed. He probably won't cut today. I call him too late Powell, because he's always too late. I mean, if you look at him, every time I did this, I was right 100 percent. He was wrong. Maybe I should go to the Fed.

Am I allowed to point myself, Doug? I don't know. Am I allowed to appoint myself at the Fed? I would do a much better job than these people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: But economic uncertainty still remains high.

CNN's Matt Egan is here with us in THE SITUATION ROOM.

Matt, the expectation is rates will remain unchanged, but that cuts are coming later this year. What should we listen for? Give us some guidance, what we will be hearing from the chair.

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well, Wolf, the president, all year, he's been pounding the table for interest rate cuts that he believes will turbocharge this economy.

But I have got to tell you, all signs point to the fact that the president is likely to be very disappointed by what happens today and perhaps all summer, right, because the market is only pricing in less than a 1 percent chance of an interest rate cut at today's meeting, so basically a slam dunk that the Fed keeps rates steady for the fourth meeting in a row.

Even at the next meeting in July, there's only a 14 percent chance of a rate cut. Go out to September, two in three chance. And I know this is disappointing to the White House and to a lot of everyday Americans, because interest rates are still elevated. They have come down a bit, but they're still near-two-decade highs. And that makes an expensive time to have credit card debt, right, to

try to get a car loan, to try to take out a mortgage. And to the president's point, inflation -- despite those sky-high tariffs, inflation has been lower than expected. It's actually moving closer and closer to that 2 percent goal.

But every economist that I talk to, they believe that this is the calm before the storm when it comes to inflation, that, in the coming months, all of these tariffs are going to drive up prices. And I talked to Moody's economist Mark Zandi today, asked him to respond to the president's comments.

And Zandi said he thinks the Fed is doing exactly what it's supposed to be doing. He said it doesn't make sense for the Fed to be cutting rates. All the forecasts suggest that inflation is going to rise. And Zandi warned that premature interest rate cuts, that could backfire because it could really unnerve investors. They could sell U.S. debt. And that would actually drive up long-term interest rates, the rates that are really influencing mortgage rates.

[11:35:09]

One other point here, the president, he didn't just suggest that there needs to be an interest rate cut. He said there should be dramatic interest rate cuts. He said 2 to 2.5 percentage points lower than now. There's some people that do argue the Fed should be cutting soon, but I haven't heard anyone argue for massive interest rate cuts at that scale.

And we should also just note that Jerome Powell, who the president did attack, he was appointed to this job. He was nominated by the president himself back in 2017.

BLITZER: He didn't just attack him. He called him stupid.

EGAN: He called him stupid and he suggested that he could do the job himself. That was an interesting suggestion, that the president said maybe -- he asked if he could nominate himself.

I do think that we should just stress that the Fed is designed to be independent from politicians. And, obviously, the president running the Fed, if that was even possible, if the Senate somehow even confirmed that the president to do that, that would be something that would likely not sit well with investors.

BLITZER: Yes, he shows no respect for the chairman of the Federal Reserve.

All right, Matt Egan, thank you very, very much -- Pamela.

EGAN: Thank you, Wolf.

BROWN: And it was interesting. He said, yes, I have tried all the tactics. I have tried to be nice. I have tried to be mean. Nothing works, because, as you noted, Matt, the Fed's supposed to be independent. All right, just ahead, we're talking with Vermont Senator Peter Welch,

one of several Democrats in Congress pushing President Trump to avoid going to war with Iran.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:41:04]

BLITZER: We're continuing to follow the escalating tensions between the U.S. and Iran.

Just moments ago, the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, said he wants the White House to give -- quote -- "all senators" a classified briefing on the unfolding situation.

Joining us now to discuss this and more is Democratic Senator Peter Welch of Vermont.

Senator, thanks so much for joining us.

I know you say the U.S. should not be directly militarily involved in this. What should the U.S. be doing right now?

SEN. PETER WELCH (D-VT): Well, first of all, let me give a little context.

Number one, we support a non-nuclear Iran, and Israel does. And we're united in that. And I supported Obama's JCPOA. I supported Trump's negotiations with Iran. But now the Netanyahu government has an additional desire, and that is regime change.

And what I see happening right now is Netanyahu is trying to lull Trump into abandoning his opposition to another Mideast war and have the United States, with its pilots, its B-2 bombers or B-52s, and with its bombs, take out Fordow. And that, of course, is an act of war, but it's also about regime change.

And we have some really bad history with Middle East wars. Iraq, Afghanistan, we lost over 15,000 troops and contractors; 1.8 million troops are suffering from that, $5 trillion. And what both of those wars did was destabilize.

Do we want to get lulled by Netanyahu into us participating in a regime change agenda? And I say absolutely not.

BLITZER: I know, Senator, you have joined with several other Democrats as co-sponsors of a bill prohibiting the use of federal funds for military actions against Iran, unless formally officially authorized by Congress.

Are you concerned, Senator, that the president won't seek congressional approval for a strike against Iran?

WELCH: He won't. I mean, that's not what Trump does. And it's really on us in Congress the demand that he do it. The war-making power under the Constitution belongs to Congress. One

of the things that I'm finding very discouraging about this Congress is that we're abdicating our power, led by the Republicans, really, our Article I authorities. This would be really profoundly important, because it's putting the men and women of our country in harm's way.

It would be a third regime change war, when there's been very vivid and recent experience about how catastrophic that is for the well- being of our country. So, yes, Congress should do its job in demand that we have a vote and a debate.

BLITZER: I interviewed Senator Adam Schiff in the last hour, and he says that there must be congressional approval if the U.S. is going to go formally to war with Iran.

So if Trump doesn't get Congress' approval, Senator, what recourse, if any, do you have?

WELCH: Well, the reality is, we don't have that much recourse. The system of checks and balances requires the -- each branch of government to assert itself and not abdicate its authority.

And we have a Republican-led Congress that is willing to cede its authority to the executive. Whatever Trump wants, they're going to give them. Just take a look at how the Trump administration is impounding money that was appropriated by Republicans with their support.

So I don't have a lot of optimism about it, but I do believe it's really important for those of us who are standing up for checks and balances that we do all that we can to reassert congressional responsibility.

BLITZER: Israel says Iran having a nuclear weapon would pose an existential threat to Israel. Many Israelis have said to me in the past few days they believe, if Iran had a nuclear bomb and put it on a ballistic missile, on a warhead, and launched it towards Tel Aviv, it could kill a million Israelis with that one bomb.

[11:45:06]

What do you believe? Do you believe -- do you disagree with that fear that the Israelis have?

WELCH: No, I don't. I think that's a well-founded fear. And we have had that fear.

And that's why the Obama administration made such an effort to get an agreement to denuclearize Iran. I supported that. Netanyahu opposed it. Trump unraveled it. And then, of course, Trump saw the wisdom of having an agreement and diplomacy and was actively involved in negotiations. They were essentially sabotaged by the actions that Netanyahu took.

So we have to keep Iran from having a bomb. I do agree with that. But what is really the agenda with Netanyahu is to go beyond that and get us involved in a regime-change war with Iran. And I adamantly oppose that.

BLITZER: Earlier this year, just a few months ago, the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, told Congress during official testimony that Iran wasn't building a nuclear weapon.

She said U.S. intelligence assessments also concluded Iran was years away from being able to produce one. But President Trump says he doesn't care what Tulsi Gabbard says, claiming Iran was very close indeed, his words, very close to having a nuclear bomb.

What do you make of the president going against the director of U.S. national intelligence?

WELCH: Well, see, this is my apprehension about the impact that Netanyahu is having on lulling Trump into relinquishing what has been a long-held position about keeping us out of more Middle East wars.

He ran on that. I actually agree with him on that. But Netanyahu is telling him, this is an opportunity to show your muscle. And I fear that the president is being lulled into something that is going to really be detrimental to the United States.

Israel has the capacity to do what it wants, and it has the responsibility to make its own decisions about what requires to be done for its own self-defense. But we have our own responsibility. And getting engaged with Netanyahu on a regime change, taking out the ayatollah, getting our pilots, our bombers, our bombs directly involved in an act of war, with who knows what happens after -- Iran is a country with 90 million people, many different factions.

We saw what happened when we got rid of Saddam. All hell broke loose. Ultimately, ISIS came in. Do we want to risk that, particularly when there's another option, and that's getting back to the Trump negotiations?

BLITZER: You have been a critic of Israel's war in Gaza, voting earlier this year to block certain offensive military weapons sales to Israel. Israel, of course, is a close ally of the U.S., is now engaged in a direct military conflict with Iran.

Do you still want to block those military sales to Israel?

WELCH: I did oppose those military sales.

And this brings up an issue. Part of my apprehension is Netanyahu. I was appalled by what Hamas did on October 7, but I was really apprehensive that Netanyahu would be totally over the top in terms of his war on Gaza. And we have seen how he's destroyed -- almost 60,000 people died, the housing obliterated.

And President Biden gave him unconditional support and regretted it. Now that -- it's that same Netanyahu is talking to President Trump and trying to persuade him, President Trump, let's take out Iran. It's time to get rid of the ayatollah.

That's regime change. And do we want to get engaged in Netanyahu's policy, when there's no restraining what he ultimately will do? We should be taking care of America first.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Vermont Senator Peter Welch, thanks for spending a few moments with us. We really appreciate it.

And we will be right back.

WELCH: Thank you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:53:18]

BLITZER: New this morning, the ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran leading to higher prices at the pump.

BROWN: CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich joins us now to explain.

This is something out of our minds, right? What can you tell us, Vanessa?

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, gas prices follow oil prices, and oil prices in the last week or so have really jumped significantly.

Today, at last check, I saw that -- oh, here we go. They're actually up right now. Earlier this morning, they were down slightly, but you can see the global benchmark for oil up 2.5 percent, and -- excuse me -- that's the U.S. benchmark for oil. And Brent crude oil, that's the global benchmark, that's up nearly 3 percent.

And, really, since the beginning of May, oil prices have been up $15 a barrel, and investors are really nervous about where this conflict between Israel and Iran is going to go. Could there be a situation where the United States gets involved? Could Iran's oil fields be targeted? Could Iran choose to block the Strait of Hormuz? This is a critical passageway for 21 million barrels of oil every single day.

Those are unknowns, but what we do know, Wolf and Pam, is that gas prices, they're rising, and they have risen significantly just in the last week. Take a look at that, up 7 cents in the last week, today, the national average for a gallon of gas $3.19, down from a year ago, but we could be creeping up higher to that level of $3.44 a gallon.

Gas prices have risen in every single state in this country except California in the last week. And, according to GasBuddy, their suggestion is then -- is that, over the next few days, we're going to see about a 1 to 3 cent increase every single day. And for the next two weeks, that totals around 12 to 20 cents over the next two weeks.

[11:55:09]

So consumers should expect higher prices. You're probably already seeing higher prices as you fill up at the gas pump. But, obviously, the biggest concern is just how high oil prices will go. Some economists and some leading banks even estimate that we could see oil cross $100 or $125 a barrel if things escalate dramatically.

But, right now, as it stands, we're going to see prices rising at the gas pump, even if they don't -- even if oil doesn't hit that level. Right where they are right now, we're going to see prices continue to rise over the next two weeks -- Pam, Wolf.

BROWN: All right, Vanessa Yurkevich laying it out for us.

Thank you so much, Vanessa.

And thank you all for joining us this morning. You can keep up with us on social media @WolfBlitzer and @PamelaBrownCNN. We will see you back here tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. Eastern.

BLITZER: And stay with CNN.

Right after a very short break, I will be back, along with Erin Burnett, for a special edition of "INSIDE POLITICS," as our breaking news coverage continues.

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