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The Situation Room

Iranian Strike Hits Israeli Hospital; Trump Mulling Attack on Iran. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired June 19, 2025 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:00]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Happening now, breaking news: escalating threat. Israel's defense minister says Iran's supreme leader cannot continue to exist. This comes after Israeli officials say an Iranian missile caused extensive damage to a major hospital.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: We want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer with Pamela Brown, and you're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BLITZER: And we begin this hour with breaking news this morning. The Israeli military says Iran fired more missiles at Northern Israel.

This was just about an hour or so ago, when sirens sounded in Haifa. The shelter alert has since been lifted.

BROWN: And it comes hours after Israeli officials say an Iranian missile caused extensive damage to a major hospital in the southern part of the country. And right outside this hospital, Israel's defense minister made this shocking statement:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ISRAEL KATZ, ISRAELI INTELLIGENCE MINISTER (through translator): I want to say that a dictator like Khamenei who leads a country like Iran and has engraved on his flag the annihilation of the state of Israel, this terrible goal of destroying Israel cannot continue to exist.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: First, right now, we're following all the latest developments out of the White House, as President Trump continues mulling, mulling whether to enter this growing conflict. Officials signal, all options remain very much on the table.

I want to go live to our senior White House correspondent, Kristen Holmes, for the latest developments.

Kristen, what are you hearing this morning?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Wolf, what we're being told is that President Trump has reviewed all of the options, including an attack plan for Iran, but he's holding off currently to see if Iran backs away from its nuclear program.

Now, he said this in some terms yesterday, saying that the door was still open to have talks with Iran, actually at one point indicating that Iranians had shown interest in coming to the White House, something that Iranian leadership has said is untrue.

Now, one key part of all of this, of course, is U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, who we just saw going into the White House. He is scheduled to have a meeting with the United Kingdom's foreign secretary. Now, this is crucial because that same United Kingdom foreign secretary is expected to meet with the Iranian foreign minister on Friday with several other countries, including France and Germany and the E.U.

So this is a critical point here, Steve Witkoff not right now slated to attend those talks, which are happening in Geneva. Now, one of the things that we have been continually reporting is, as Donald Trump, as the president continues to review these various attack options, one of the things that he has been asking the people around him is, is it possible to get in and out?

Is it possible to do one strike or a limited amount of strikes without engaging in a long-term war? One of the things Donald Trump has told the people around him, as well as promised on the campaign, is that he didn't want the United States to get involved in another war, and especially one that was going to go on for years and years.

Now, there are some people around him who are telling him that it is easy, they can go in, they can make a strike, strike a nuclear facility in Iran, and be done. But there are a lot of people on the other side of that, Wolf, who are advising the president that that is not possible, that, once you make that strike, you're going to be really on a slippery slope to getting involved in this longtime tension in the Middle East.

So, right now, Donald Trump, still we are being told, has not made up his mind on what the U.S. involvement and escalation is going to be, but, again, a White House official telling us today all options are on the table.

BLITZER: All right, Kristen Holmes reporting from the White House for us, thank you very much.

Also this morning, we're getting an inside look right now at the increasingly strained relationship between President Trump and his top intelligence official. Sources telling CNN that Tulsi Gabbard has not only struggled to carve out a role for herself in the Trump White House, but that the president also sees her as -- quote -- "off- message" when it comes to the Middle East.

BROWN: And those frustrations on full display this week, as the president publicly rebuked Gabbard's recent testimony on Iran's nuclear capabilities.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TULSI GABBARD, U.S. DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: The I.C. continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't care what she said. I think they were very close to having one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: So, for more on this, CNN senior national security reporter, Jack Cohen joining us now.

Jack, clearly we got a hint of what was going on -- Zach, we got a hint of what was going on there. But, of course, the questions about Gabbard and the administration have been brewing for quite some time.

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yes, they have.

And just a month ago, the White House officials were insisting that Trump liked Tulsi Gabbard and that she was being given the leeway to sort of learn on the job, even though the director of national intelligence is obviously the top intelligence official in the United States. She was given that chance to sort of pick up, learn the ropes as she went.

[11:05:00]

But the tone has shifted, and it shifted in just the last week or two, kind of coinciding when the conflict in the Middle East really started to ramp up in the lead-up to the Israeli strikes, the first round of Israeli strikes.

And, look, this really spilled into public view this week with Donald Trump's comments on Air Force One, really dismissing Tulsi Gabbard's testimony in March that ran counter to his view that Iran was very close to obtaining a nuclear weapon.

And that's raising really serious questions about Tulsi Gabbard standing in the administration at a time when a president would typically lean on the director of national intelligence to be a very key adviser and intelligence briefer and somebody who would really have the expertise to help navigate the situation.

But Trump's real problem is that he believes that Tulsi Gabbard has been -- quote -- "off-message." And that's something that Donald Trump really does not like in his senior officials. One adviser put it this way: "When the president thinks you are off-message, he doesn't want you in the room," which sort of captures the way Trump views it.

So, ultimately, Gabbard still is present in some of these White House meetings, but it remains to be seen what her future holds, because, as we know, things can change quickly in the Trump administration.

BLITZER: She's the highest ranking U.S. intelligence official, the director of national intelligence. She's in charge of not just the CIA, but the DIA and all the various intelligence agencies.

How has President Trump's view of Tulsi Gabbard impacted her role right now, especially when it comes to advising on the Israel-Iran conflict since it started?

COHEN: Yes, Wolf, it's a big job. And it's one that allies of Gabbard said that really hasn't been impacted. They point again to the fact that she's been in every meeting in the Situation Room since the conflict started.

But we're told also that she's on the outside looking in, that while she's physically in these meetings, that Trump is not really weighing what she's saying and her advice in the same way that he is some of his more experienced advisers, like CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President J.D. Vance.

One adviser said this about Gabbard and whether she could be fired -- quote -- "Trump, he's not interested in firing her at this moment because she's not doing any harm. I think he's questioning her viewpoint as a value, especially after that video," referring to this video that Gabbard posted in -- really in the same time frame as the U.S. learned that Israel was going to strike Iran.

So she subsequently was left out of a meeting where top officials were discussing those plans, and it's played out...

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: And, very quickly,she kept referring to the I.C., the intelligence community, that believes that Iran was not close to having a nuclear weapon or anything along those lines.

Have you checked with the intelligence community as a whole? Is that what the intelligence community believes, what she said?

COHEN: Wolf, our understanding and reporting earlier this week was that the assessment that Gabbard was referring to still stood in the immediate lead-up to the Israeli strikes.

Mark Warner, the chairman -- or the ranking member of the Senate Intel Committee, reaffirmed the same thing yesterday on our air. So there is definitely a gap and a disconnect there. Obviously, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, sees things a little differently, has been pushing that in his conversations with Donald Trump.

BLITZER: Yes, he sees things very, very differently, if that in fact is the view of the intelligence community, as she says it is,.

All right, Zach, excellent reporting. Thank you very, very much -- Pamela.

BROWN: Thank you, Zach.

And, coming up, Israel leaders -- Israeli leaders are railing against Iran and its strike on a large hospital in Southern Israel that left dozens injured.

CNN's Nic Robertson is right outside that hospital, one of the largest in the area.

Nic, tell us what's going on there, quite the scene behind you there, the devastation.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: It really is, and it's not just here. And this is sort of ground zero. It's all around the hospital. There's broken glass in buildings, broken vehicles all over the place, a lot of the hospital areas, really just glass scattered through the corridors.

But take a look at this. I mean, this was ground zero. This is where the missile came down. You can see this area of the hospital just ripped apart. And if Sanjif (ph) is able to pan up the building here, look, every floor ripped out. And it's the top floor. You can see the blackened-out part of the concrete structure up there.

That was another floor of the hospital. That's completely pancaked. That is gone. That was, by the way, the ward for cancer patients and urology patients. That's what the hospital director told me. He said, until yesterday, they'd had 25 patients inside of there. They'd been moving them out as a precaution.

They put them in the basement in a safer area yesterday. He said, if they hadn't been moved, then this would have been so, so much worse, 40 minor casualties here. But can you imagine how it would have been if those patients were still there?

The hospital is in cleanup mode. This bit has yet to be cleaned up, but they're repairing pipes. They're repairing cabling. But it's also been the scene today of a huge political focus. This is a motive, a hospital being hit. The president's been here. The foreign minister's been here. The head of the Knesset has been here. The prime minister's been here.

They're all putting their mark, their political mark on what this signifies for Israel. The prime minister has called for an uptick in strikes against Iran. And I asked him, what sort of message does he think this sends to President Trump as President Trump considers whether or not he will bring U.S. forces in to support Israel in striking Iran's nuclear facilities.

[11:10:16]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: We are committed to destroying the nuclear threat, the threat of a nuclear annihilation against Israel. He gave them the chance to do it through negotiations. They strung him along. And you don't string along Donald Trump. He knows the game.

And I think that we're both committed to making sure that Iran will not have a nuclear weapon. (END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: And I think that's a very important message for Prime Minister Netanyahu, that he is trying to convey there, as President Trump considers, the prime minister of Israel is putting in his head the idea that, if Iran is talking about diplomacy, he is being strung along.

Today's one of those days where you feel that diplomacy disappears over the horizons. Emotion, anger, they take center hold. And, definitely, the politicians were here to make sure their friends around the world understand that.

BROWN: Nic Robertson, thank you -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Horrible, what happened to that hospital.

Still ahead: As President Trump mulls a U.S. strike on Iran's Fordow nuclear facility, experts are weighing in on the possible radiation consequences.

BROWN: And we will discuss the many military factors the president has to consider before he makes the call, which he says could come at the last second.

You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:16:19]

BROWN: As President Trump weighs whether to enter the conflict between Iran and Israel, experts are weighing in on what we could expect to see in the aftermath of a potential U.S. strike in Iran's Fordow fuel enrichment plant. The key nuclear facility lies deep underground that officials say it is only reachable by U.S. bunker- buster bombs.

Let's go live now to CNN's Jennifer Hansler at the State Department for more.

Jennifer, what do experts think we could see following a potential strike?

JENNIFER HANSLER, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT REPORTER: Well, Pam, there's obviously risk and concern if a facility housing enriched material is damaged or destroyed.

However, experts say this would not be the same level of catastrophic risk we would see from hitting an active nuclear reactor. Instead, experts say it is more likely that there would be a limited radiation leak within the vicinity of the Fordow facility.

One expert, Kelsey Davenport at the Arms Control Association, said she would not expect there to be a significant, widespread health or ecological impact from damaging or destroying Fordow. However, she did explain that, if you were to attack a facility that has this uranium hexafluoride gas, which is the material that's fed into Fordow's centrifuges, that would likely to create a chemical toxicity and low- level radiation leaks.

However, she said this is likely to be able to be managed if people are wearing proper protective equipment as they are dealing with that sort of leakage. Another expert, Scott Roecker at NTI, noted, because Fordow is so deep underground, there are questions whether there would actually be any sort of leak beyond the immediate site because it is just that far underground.

However, they said that, if there was to be a hit on an active nuclear reactor, Bushehr, for example, in Iran, that would be absolutely catastrophic. Davenport said that is a whole different ball game. She noted there could be a nuclear reactor meltdown, widespread radiation. That would be incredibly, incredibly damaging to the region.

We should also note, Pam, that any sort of attack on a nuclear reactor is an international war crime -- Pam.

BROWN: All right, Jennifer Hansler, thank you so much -- Wolf.

BLITZER: I want to continue this conversation right now.

Joining us, retired U.S. Army Lieutenant General Mark Schwartz. He last served as the U.S. security coordinator of the Israel-Palestinian Authority.

General, thanks so much for joining us.

President Trump, as you know, is reviewing various U.S. military options as far as Iran is concerned right now. What do you think are some of the leading factors he and his military advisers are considering in coming up with a final decision?

LT. GEN. MARK SCHWARTZ (RET.), U.S. ARMY: Good morning, Wolf. It's great to be with you.

I think, first and foremost, they're looking at how to reduce the risk to U.S. forces and also our partners in the region, based on the military options that the CENTCOM commander, working through the secretary of defense, have developed for the president to consider.

BLITZER: A key voice in the presidency, of course, will likely be General Michael Kurilla. He's the commander of the U.S. military's Central Command, which is in charge of the entire Middle East region. About 40,000 or so U.S. troops are based at various bases in the Middle East.

You served with General Kurilla. Tell us a little bit about him.

SCHWARTZ: Well, yes, we served together in multiple rotations in Afghanistan, as well as the Joint Special Operations Command.

And, really, I know of no better war fighter on active duty today and certainly no general officer with the level of experience that General Kurilla has in the Central Command area of operations, from the time he was a lieutenant colonel during the run-up to Afghanistan and then the Iraq War, so extremely competent.

[11:20:00]

He's worked through multiple contingency plans and longstanding operational plans for the CENTCOM area of operations. So he is well- steeped in not only the threats in the region, but also how to bring all the joint capabilities together to address the options that the president is looking for.

BLITZER: The administration, as you know, General, has been very worried that Iran would retaliate for any U.S. strikes, possibly hitting U.S. military bases in the region. And, as you know, there's a lot of them, whether in Bahrain, the Fifth Fleet of the U.S. Navy in Bahrain, whether in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, elsewhere throughout the region.

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said today that the U.S. is already helping Israel. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NETANYAHU: They're already helping a lot, because they're participating in the protection of the skies over Israel and its cities with THAAD missiles, batteries that are in Israel, with Aegis ships that are on the shore of Israel, with their pilots that are fighting alongside our pilots to knock out drones.

I think it's a remarkable cooperation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: So what do you think, General? Could this U.S. assistance that's ongoing right now escalate the conflict, even though it doesn't go as far as a U.S. military strike?

SCHWARTZ: Wolf, I think if one of Iranian surface-to-surface missiles actually was successful in targeting the air defense capabilities that the United States has deployed inside of Israel, for instance, I think that certainly could escalate it.

If they -- if we saw a significant loss -- as you know, there's hundreds of thousands of U.S. citizens that are in Israel -- that could also escalate the conflict, short of a decision, a deliberate decision to go in and go after Fordow, absent a significant event like that.

And then, lastly, of course, we haven't seen any of the proxies that have previously attacked U.S. forces in the region, whether that be in Jordan or Iraq or Syria. But if that occurs, I think that also could be a catalyst for a quicker decision to get more involved lethally in this conflict.

BLITZER: While I have you, General, I want to ask you about the Israeli drone that Iran says it shot down with its air defense system. President Trump has said Iran no longer controls its own skies. How weakened are Iran's air defenses right now?

SCHWARTZ: Well, from all the reporting I have been tracking since last Friday -- excuse me -- Israel definitely has air supremacy over Iran.

However, there's always a likelihood where one of the launches against airborne assets from Israel and certainly the United States can get lucky. Shooting down a drone is pretty easy. They fly very slow. They don't have the maneuverability. They certainly don't have the countermeasures to defeat a surface-to-air attack.

So I'm not surprised that that has happened, just as it was stated that there's still a significant capability. I think the IDF spokesman two days ago said they assess that they have taken out approximately one-third to one-half of the surface-to-surface and surface-to-air capability within Iran.

So that still leaves a significant amount to go against Iran and certainly the United States resources if they come into the conflict.

BLITZER: Retired General Mark Schwartz, thanks so much for joining us.

SCHWARTZ: Thank you.

BLITZER: Pamela.

BROWN: All right, Wolf, up next in THE SITUATION ROOM: President Trump says it's very late for further talks with Iran, but that's not stopping European leaders from holding what one official calls exploratory talks with Iran's foreign minister.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:28:35]

BROWN: Breaking news: CNN is learning that U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff is now set to attend a meeting this afternoon between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his British counterpart.

And this meeting comes just a day before a group of European nations, including the U.K., are set to hold talks with Iran and Switzerland.

Joining us now to share his latest reporting on this is CNN's chief international security correspondent Nick Paton Walsh.

Nick, what is the goal of these talks tomorrow?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, we're hearing from a Western diplomat close to this European meeting, the U.K., France and Germany meeting with Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Geneva tomorrow, that the goal of this is to sort of feel the room, it was described to me, to assess what is possible, exploratory, really, these talks in nature.

But a lot of choreography beforehand, the idea of Witkoff meeting David Lammy, the U.K. foreign secretary, who will be attending the talks in Geneva, along with Rubio, perhaps enabling a full position of what the U.S. wants out of this to be given to Lammy to then take to the Iranians.

It all sounds relatively relaxed, you might think, given the exploratory nature described to me, but I think we can be clear there's a lot of urgency for some kind of result here, probably for Tehran, frankly, as we see the inventory of missiles clearly, although the devastating blow inflicted on that hospital overnight in Israel.

Over the past night, they have struggled to put as many missiles into the skies against Israel as we saw at the start of this particular conflict.