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The Situation Room

Alaska Airlines Door Plug Blowout Investigation; President Trump Lashes Out at Israel and Iran. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired June 24, 2025 - 11:00   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 HOST: Happening now, breaking news: President Trump's fury, using obscene language as he rails against both Israel and Iran.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer. Pamela Brown is off today, and you're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BLITZER: And we begin this hour with the breaking news.

A furious President Trump delivers a stern message to friends and foes alike that neither Israel nor Iran can violate the cease-fire he brokered between them. We want to warn our viewers the president drops the F-bomb right here. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Israel, as soon as we made the deal, they came out and they dropped a load of bombs, the likes of which I have never seen before, the biggest load that we have seen. I'm not happy with Israel.

When I say, OK, now you have 12 hours, you don't go out in the first hour and just drop everything you have on them. So I'm not happy with them. I'm not happy with Iran either. But I'm really unhappy if Israel is going out this morning because of one rocket that didn't land, that was shot, perhaps by mistake, that didn't land. I'm not happy about that.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: You know what? We have -- we basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don't know what the fuck they're doing. Do you understand that?

(END VIDEO CLIP) BLITZER: The president has clearly frustrated that both countries have launched attacks that jeopardize the cease-fire. Iranian state media is saying Israel struck Tehran.

Our reporter on the ground there saw anti-aircraft fire lighting up the sky over the Iranian capital. Before the cease-fire took effect, Israel warned of six incoming waves of Iranian missiles. One got through and struck residential buildings in Beersheba in Southern Israel, killing at least four people in those buildings.

We have a team of correspondents and analysts from around the world following all the late-breaking developments for us.

Let's begin with seeing a senior White House correspondent Kristen Holmes. She's in the Netherlands. That's where the president is headed for the upcoming NATO Summit.

Kristen, the president was very clearly unhappy with Israel and Iran, seemed to be more unhappy with Israel than Iran. What more are you learning?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, Wolf. He was more unhappy with Israel than Iran. You heard him there very angry talking about how Israel shouldn't do this, asking them not to let go of any more bombs because he believed that they had violated this cease-fire and he believed that the onus was on them.

And we were told that he did reach Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shortly after this statement. And then he posted this on TRUTH Social. He said: "Israel is not going to attack Iran. All planes will turn around and head home while doing a friendly 'plane wave' to Iran. Nobody will be hurt and the cease-fire is in effect."

And we were told by the White House that he was exceptionally firm with Netanyahu. You have to remember, Wolf, they really want this to work, they being the White House. This is a signature part of what he believes, ultimately, his legacy will be in the first step in getting what he wants to be an Iran nuclear deal.

So this is a key component of that is getting the cease-fire to take place. We also had confirmation from the prime minister's office saying that they did strike one radar of Iran's, but then, after Netanyahu spoke to Donald Trump, there will be no more bombs being released.

The other part of this is the backdrop of where we are here. President Trump was celebrating last night. We know that he wants to come and do somewhat of a victory lap with these other NATO leaders. He wants to show that he is -- quote -- "a peacemaker," something that he's been saying for a long time.

And the thing to keep in mind here is that he does think differently from the NATO leaders. So he wants to come in here with a victory.

BLITZER: The president is also attending this week's NATO summit. And there's a question right now. And I want to know what you have learned. Is he going to be meeting directly with President Zelenskyy of Ukraine while he's at the NATO Summit?

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HOLMES: We are told they're likely to meet. And he actually answered this question, President Trump, when he was aboard Air Force One, saying that they'd probably see each other.

Remember, they were supposed to sit down with each other at the G7 in Canada. But President Trump left early after we started seeing an escalation in the Middle East. And we know the Ukrainians had been disappointed about the fact that Zelenskyy wasn't able to sit down with President Trump at that time.

They do believe that there's going to be somewhat of either a pull- aside or a sit-down. Unclear what it's going to look like exactly at this time.

BLITZER: All right, Kristen Holmes at the NATO summit for us, thank you very much.

I want to find out a bit more right now about the president's very stern call with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, just a little while ago, as the cease-fire was hanging in the balance.

CNN political and global affairs analyst Barak Ravid is joining us right now. He's also a global affairs correspondent for Axios.

Barak, thanks so much for joining us.

I want to read what the president posted on his TRUTH Social site earlier this morning after cursing out both Israel and Iran. He wrote this, and I'm quoting Trump: "Israel is not going to attack Iran. All planes will turn around and head home, while doing a friendly 'plane wave' to Iran. Nobody will be hurt. The cease-fire is in effect."

Barak, what did you learn about that conversation between Trump and Netanyahu that led to that post?

BARAK RAVID, CNN POLITICAL AND GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Hi, Wolf.

So according to Israeli U.S. official, this call was pretty difficult. One U.S. official told me Trump was very direct and firm with what he told Netanyahu. He basically told Netanyahu, abort mission. And Netanyahu, according to Israeli officials, told the president, look, I can't abort mission. The Iranians violated the cease-fire. They fired the missile. I have to do something.

So at the end Netanyahu told Trump that he's going to scale back this attack and from a list of a dozen targets, many of them in the center of Tehran, at the end, the IDF struck one target, one radar outside of Tehran, which I think it's a pretty unprecedented thing, that the president of the United States goes out in public calling on Israel to abort mission, and Israel does it.

I think it's quite extraordinary. And if we -- if there's one thing that showed us how angry Donald Trump was is that he used this morning on camera the F-word in the context of the Israel-Iran war. And we remember, when is the last time Donald Trump used the F-word about Benjamin Netanyahu?

So I think it shows how angry and frustrated he was.

BLITZER: Do we know what came first, that Iranian strike on that residential apartment building in Beersheba that killed four Israelis, or the Israeli strikes that took place in Tehran?

RAVID: So, as far as I understand, according to the sequence of things, the Israeli strikes in Tehran happened before, but -- and the Iranian missile strikes happened afterwards.

But according to the timeline that President Trump himself laid out, both were still before the cease-fire came into effect. I think what created the problem was that the Iranians fired the missile once, one time six minutes into the cease-fire, let's say. That's borderline.

But the second time they fired a missile three hours into the cease- fire. And while the missile was intercepted, didn't hit anything, it was still something that Israel saw as a violation and threatened to strike in retaliation in the center of Tehran.

BLITZER: In a statement after the phone call with the president, Prime Minister Netanyahu's office said this, and I'm quoting: "In the conversation, President Trump expressed his great appreciation for Israel, which achieved all of its objectives for the war, as well as his confidence in the stability of the cease-fire" -- end quote.

What objectives is Israel claiming and achieved during the course of the last 12 days?

RAVID: So, I think there's no doubt that Israel achieved almost completely its two main objectives, which were, number one, destroying the Iranian nuclear program. I think the program, even if it's not 100 percent destroyed, it has been severely damaged, and it would take the Iranians a long time to bring this program back to a place where they can produce -- they can even try to produce a nuclear weapon.

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The other thing is the Iran -- Iranian ballistic missile program. While the Israelis set out an ambitious goal of removing this threat completely, they did not. But they, I think, degraded Iranian ballistic missile capabilities significantly. At least 50 percent, maybe even 60 percent of Iran's launchers were destroyed.

A lot of Iran's ballistic missile production lines have been destroyed. And Iran is in a different place on its ballistic missile capability today.

BLITZER: Let me just get a final quick answer from you, Barak. You agree with me that President Trump seemed more anti-Israel than he was anti-Iranian in his public remarks this morning?

RAVID: I don't know if it was anti-Israel, but he was definitely much -- he was definitely putting the onus on the Israeli side. There is no doubt about it.

BLITZER: Yes, much more than the Iranian side.

All right, Barak Ravid reporting for us, thank you very, very much.

RAVID: Thank you.

BLITZER: We're going to continue our breaking news coverage in just a moment.

But first: What caused that terrifying door plug blowout on an Alaska Airlines plane during the flight? The NTSB is about to reveal its official findings.

Plus, possible cyberattacks, acts of violence, and antisemitic hate crimes, new warnings coming out right now about the growing risk of attacks on U.S. soil, what the Department of Homeland Security is saying.

Much more coming up right after this.

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BLITZER: Breaking news: The U.S. military's second most senior officer overseeing the Middle East told lawmakers he believes Iran has been weakened and that Israel's campaign has helped American national security. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VICE ADM. BRAD COOPER, CENTRAL COMMAND DEPUTY COMMANDER: At the strategic level, I think they have been weakened since the events of 7 October. At the tactical level, I think they have been degraded. And I think the degree to which that degradation has taken place, particularly in the last 12 days...

SEN. ROGER WICKER (R-MS): Would you agree with me that the remarkable effectiveness of Israel's military campaign against Iran and against its terrorist proxies has directly affected in a positive way American national security?

COOPER: I would, sir.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Joining us here in THE SITUATION ROOM is Karim Sadjadpour, an expert on Iran, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Karim, thanks so much for joining U.S.

Based on what you heard from this deputy commander of the U.S. military's Central Command, which is in charge, of course, of the Middle East, do you think that that's what pushed Iran right now to accept this cease-fire with Israel?

KARIM SADJADPOUR, CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE: It's no doubt, Wolf, that this is an Iranian regime fighting for its survival. They're up against the world's greatest superpower, the United States. They're fighting the Middle East's greatest military, the people -- the government of Israel.

And it's a government which is also fighting a war against its own people. So they're in survival mode. What they want to do is have a cease-fire with America and Israel so they can focus on their internal survival.

BLITZER: It's interesting that the president, President Trump, he accused both Iran and Israel of violating the cease-fire that he helped broker, of course, voicing special anger, as we all heard, toward Israel. What do you read into what we heard from him this morning?

SADJADPOUR: Well, I think that the president is presiding over a Republican base which is deeply concerned about getting America involved in more wars in the Middle East.

I think that's probably the world view of his vice president. And he wants to signal that he's trying to wrap this up quickly. But, as we know, Israel, I think, feels like they still have much more work to be done. And Iran wants to get in a few counterpunches.

BLITZER: Clearly, the Israelis see this as an opportunity to try to destroy as much of Iran's offensive military and nuclear potential as possible.

SADJADPOUR: While they're controlling Iran's skies, absolutely.

BLITZER: And they certainly are, at least right now.

How desperate is Iran's leadership to show at least some strength right now? And what could that look like?

SADJADPOUR: The challenge that Iran's supreme leader has is, if he responds weakly, he risks losing face in the eyes of his people. If he responds too strongly, he risks losing his head. President Trump has actually threatened to even kill him.

And he's an 86-year-old man living inside a bunker right now. Many of his top military commanders were assassinated. And he's ruling what I would call right now a Swiss cheese regime. This is a regime which has been deeply penetrated by Israeli intelligence. And so he's under siege.

And he has to balance between not humiliating himself internally, making himself look weak, versus not provoking the United States and Israel further.

BLITZER: You think the Iranians are going to strike against U.S. targets, whether military targets or maybe even civilian targets here in the United States? SADJADPOUR: I'm skeptical in the near term. I think that they

recognize that's the equivalent of a suicide bombing. They can do damage to America, but the blowback could be very profound for them.

More likely, if they survive this, which is still a big if, Wolf, they buy their time when the world has moved on to other issues. That's when they want to try to strike back.

BLITZER: Karim Sadjadpour, thanks very much for coming in.

SADJADPOUR: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: Appreciate it always.

Just ahead, Iran launching missiles at the largest U.S. military base in the Middle East just hours before President Trump announced the cease-fire. A former U.S. military CENTCOM commander weighs in on what U.S. sites could be most at risk for retaliation by Iran.

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That's coming up right here in THE SITUATION ROOM.

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BLITZER: Happening now, the NTSB, the National Transportation Safety Board, is laying out what likely caused that door plug to blow out of a Boeing 737 during a flight.

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It's been more than a year since that terrifying incident on an Alaska Airlines jet 16,000 feet in the air. The findings could put to rest the question of who is to blame.

Let's go live right now to CNN aviation correspondent Pete Muntean. He's over at the hearing for us.

Pete, the NTSB highly critical of both Boeing and the FAA. Tell us about that.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Very critical, Wolf.

And we got some compelling new details here about the 177 people on board Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 that experienced that dramatic door plug blowout back on January 5, 2024. We know there were three infants sitting on laps on board that flight. Four passengers were what are called unaccompanied minors, meaning very young children.

One of them was a 6-year-old boy who had just celebrated his birthday, was flying on an airplane for the first time when this dramatic and horrific incident took place. NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy says it was a miracle that nobody was killed on board this flight. She lauded the crew and called their actions heroic. She said that this should have never occurred. The NTSB today will put forth 19 different safety recommendations

critical of Boeing's quality control. Remember, this plane left the factory in Renton, Washington, without the four critical bolts that held that door plug in place. The NTSB will also be critical here of the Federal Aviation Administration and its oversight of Boeing and its manufacturing practices.

I want you to listen now to the NTSB chief -- Chair Jennifer Homendy. She says that this incident did not occur in a vacuum.

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JENNIFER HOMENDY, CHAIR, NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD: Since this accident occurred, there's been a lot of focus on human error, on the actions of one or two individual Boeing employees.

Let me be clear. An accident like this does not happen because of an individual or even a group of individuals. Aviation is much more resilient than that. An accident like this only happens when there are multiple system failures.

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MUNTEAN: Homendy also says she will have major questions today for the Federal Aviation Administration. She called them the last line of defense in preventing incidents like this.

One more interesting bombshell revelation we learned today, of those four bolts, the NTSB structures analysis team says, if one of them was in the proper place, that would have prevented this door plug from blowing up and out.

NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy did have a lot of praise here actually for Boeing and new CEO Kelly Ortberg. She says he has done a lot of work to prevent things like this from happening again, but there is still more work ahead -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Pete Muntean reporting for us, thank you very, very much.

Coming up: possible cyberattacks, acts of violence and antisemitic hate crimes -- new warnings just released about the rising risk of Iranian attacks right here on U.S. soil.

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