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The Situation Room

Benefits of Exercise on Aging; Bezos Wedding; Trump Administration Touts Effectiveness of Attack on Iran; Interview With Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ); DOGE Cuts Threatening U.S. National Security?. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired June 26, 2025 - 11:30   ET

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

SEAN LYNGAAS, CNN CYBERSECURITY REPORTER: However, we've seen from our reporting that, after the U.S. airstrike on Iran, the FBI has told agents who have been dispatched to immigration to come back to focus on Iranian cyber threats, because that's the real and present danger right now.

[11:30:07]

So we're seeing a lot of in flux. People who argue that these cuts aren't a problem say that, well, there's plenty of bloat and overreach from the government and they needed to rein this in. But folks we talk to both in and out of government don't agree and think that is a real problem that could be rear its head in the coming days.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: What is the Trump administration -- I know you're getting reaction to your reporting. What is the Trump administration saying about these cuts, specifically to cyber defense?

LYNGAAS: Right.

They're telling us that, at the Department of Homeland Security, the mission continues, they're not taking their eye off the ball. And they argue that the previous Cyber Agency under the Biden administration was too big and wasn't doing its job effectively.

And then, in terms of the White House they have told us that, look, none of these cuts are meant to directly impact national security. But, again, we found evidence that contradicts that, Wolf.

BLITZER: And the Department of Homeland Security in recent days has issued warnings about potentially Iran launching cyberattacks and so- called lone-wolf attacks against targets here in the United States.

LYNGAAS: Yes, Iran is a really tricky threat because it's hybrid arguably more than some other nation-states. You're talking about the IRGC, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, who has tried to assassinate -- according to the Justice Department, tried to assassinate U.S. officials.

And then you're talking about the same IRGC that uses hacking to potentially aid those missions. So it's a very difficult challenge, Wolf.

BLITZER: Sean Lyngaas, excellent reporting, as usual. Thank you very much for coming in.

And I want to discuss that and much more right now with Democratic Congressman Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey. He's a key member of the House Intelligence Committee.

Congressman, thanks so much for joining us.

REP. JOSH GOTTHEIMER (D-NJ): Thanks, Wolf.

BLITZER: Let me get your immediate reaction to this new reporting we just heard from our Sean Lyngaas about concerns that already DOGE cuts could be hurting the ability of the U.S. to respond to possible Iranian-led cyber retaliatory strikes against the United States.

What's your reaction to that?

GOTTHEIMER: Well, I think we and all of law enforcement and Homeland needs to be on full alert, as I know they have been.

I have spoken to Homeland in New Jersey as soon as the attacks occurred, and want to make sure that we're doing everything possible there to protect all possible targets. And I think the United States has to be across the country circumspect every day right now.

Listen, we know that Iran is a -- one of -- is the leading state sponsor of terror in the world. As you know, Wolf, with -- they have funded Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Houthis, so, many terrorist proxies that have been unafraid not just to attack globally Americans and our bases and our service members, but also have taken action in the past in the United States.

BLITZER: As you know, Congressman, senior Trump administration officials are planning to brief U.S. senators on the U.S. airstrikes against Iran. And, tomorrow, the House is expected to get its own classified briefing from these officials.

This comes as the administration is limiting how much information it's planning to share with members of Congress. You're a member of the Intelligence Committee. Have you been getting information that you need to understand what's going on?

GOTTHEIMER: I have gotten some, Wolf, but obviously I'd like a lot more. And we will see what we get in the briefing tomorrow. And in the Intelligence Committee, I have requested additional briefings and information.

I think, listen, after 12 days of attacks, Iran is cornered. The key is now getting to the bottom of just the extent of the damage and destruction and the impact on their nuclear program, which I want to get to the bottom of. And we have a right to see that information on the Intelligence Committee and to ensure that we're briefed properly.

And so, yes, I have not only requested it, but I hope to get briefed not just tomorrow, but, of course, in the coming days.

BLITZER: What are the risks of limiting information to members of Congress, especially key members like yourself, a member of the Intelligence Committee?

GOTTHEIMER: They're statutorily -- the administration is statutorily required to brief the Intelligence Committee to make sure that we have the information we need for oversight purposes. And that's our responsibility on the committee.

So I'm expecting that they will provide and continue to provide the classified information that we need to make decisions and to understand, like in this case, the extent of the continued Iranian threat in their nuclear program, as I have been focused over the years on the committee on threats from Iran, which remains one of our top adversaries, the government there, and their proxies who have been involved in threatening democracy and freedom, not just here in the United States, but around the world.

So that's my job on the Intelligence Committee. I intend to continue to do my job. And the intelligence community and the administration have a responsibility to provide that information.

And one of the failures of this administration in the last days, although while I agree strongly with their decision to bomb the nuclear sites, they should have briefed the Gang of Eight, meaning the leadership, both sides, because it's not a partisan issue, both sides of Congress, and the Senate and the House leadership as well as, of course, the leadership of the Intelligence Committee.

[11:35:19]

Those are -- that's customary for a reason, to have that information, to have those briefings. And the administration has a responsibility to do that.

BLITZER: We will see if they do.

I also want to get your reaction to this talk about the president's massive policy bill that's currently making its way through the Senate. It's going to be coming up for a vote at some point. That bill has now hit a major setback in the Senate after a key Medicaid change was ruled out of order by the Senate parliamentarian to pass with a simple majority vote.

What do you think this means for this legislation, what the president calls his big, beautiful bill, going forward?

GOTTHEIMER: I mean, listen, this is a big problem for the Republicans, right, I mean, not just the latest parliamentarian ruling, as you just pointed out, but overall.

This is a deeply unpopular bill, right? It hurts seniors. It hurts children. It goes after Medicaid. It goes after food for hungry children. It's -- on aspect after aspect, issue after issue with this bill, the public has made it clear they do not like this bill. The Republicans are dealing with that. Their backs are against the wall on this, and they keep having problems with the decisions they have made in the bill. But, overall, this is just an unpopular piece of legislation. It hurts

families, it hurts seniors, it hurts children. It's going to add massively to the debt, $4 trillion, right? So it's not fiscally -- it's fiscally irresponsible.

So, Wolf, they have got a big problem here, the Republicans. It's up to them to solve this because they have not reached out to Democrats to try to work together on this, despite many of us saying, listen, if you want to work together on a piece of legislation of this nature, let's talk, let's sit down, as we have in the past.

They have decided to go their own way. And this is what happens when you just throw in a bunch of stuff that's not only unpopular, but it's not going to pass muster of what's allowed.

BLITZER: Democratic Congressman Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, thanks very much for joining us.

GOTTHEIMER: Thanks for having me, Wolf.

BLITZER: And just ahead: The Defense Department is sharing brand-new details about its attacks on Iran in a bid to try to illustrate that they were historically successful, their words.

Up next, we're talking with a retired U.S. Air Force general and former NATO Europe commander about the latest comments from the Pentagon.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:42:06]

BLITZER: President Trump is responding to reports that Iran may have moved enriched uranium from the attack zone before the U.S. struck that area.

He posted this on TRUTH Social. Let me read it to you: "The cars and small trucks at the site were those of concrete workers trying to cover up the top of the shafts. Nothing was taken and -- out of the facility. It would take too long, too dangerous, and very heavy and hard to move" -- end quote.

The Trump post came only moments after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said something similar this morning at the Pentagon.

And the retired U.S. Air Force General Philip Breedlove is joining us right now. He's also a former NATO supreme allied commander in Europe.

General, thanks so much for joining us. I want to work on your expertise right now and get your reaction to what Trump and Hegseth are saying about nothing being taken out of the nuclear target zones before they were struck by the U.S.

How can the administration make that determination at this point?

GEN. PHILIP BREEDLOVE (RET.), FORMER NATO SUPREME ALLIED COMMANDER: Well, thanks for having me on, Wolf.

Rather than sort of reply to what they said, let me tell you what I think we absolutely know, and that is, for the period leading up to this strike, during the strike and after the strike, my guess is that our -- all of our assets, overhead and other places, were in a persistent stare at this site.

So those who are looking at the data that comes from these various intelligent sources, I believe, have a very good understanding of what happened on the ground. I am not exposed to that data, and neither are anybody that I know of in the press. So we will know very clearly what happened with those trucks, I'm sure, as this plays out.

BLITZER: I suspect you're right.

You told my CNN colleague Anderson Cooper that you believe the strikes went off magnificently. This morning, a very defiant Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, said the president created the conditions to end the war. Let me play this clip and get your reaction.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE HEGSETH, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: 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)

BLITZER: So, General, this is despite an initial DIA, Defense Intelligence, assessment that was reported first by CNN, which suggested that the U.S. attacks did not obliterate Iran's nuclear program, but rather set it back a few months. That's what the original DIA report suggests.

[11:45:00]

How are you making sense of these conflicting reports?

BREEDLOVE: Well, with what I would offer, you may not like, but that is, I think that all your viewers and listeners should pay attention to what the chairman of the Joint Chiefs said this morning.

As you know, I don't do politics in public. And I saw a great chairman this morning who also did not do politics in public. What he did was lay out the military facts of what happened, starting all the way back with what the targeteers were doing as much as 15 years ago, when this site was being built and how that data and those processes took us through developing an incredible targeting and weaponeering package that had a great and very probable chance of fully succeeding.

And what we saw was a military team that pulled that plan off with absolute precision, a joint team. It was bigger than just the B-2 bombers, although they were a magnificent, central part of it, but the Naval strikes, the protection by the F-35s and the F-32s. This package went off without a hitch.

And we can factually report that all of that right up to the point where the bombs hit the ground was perfect. And we should praise those involved. What happened after the bombs went under the ground, we're going to discover over time as the battle damage assessment process truly rolls out concrete answers.

BLITZER: And, on that point, I quickly want to show you what was being described by General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as a test video. They showed it during the news conference and you can see over here it going into the top, the bunker-busting bombs, what it destroyed.

This is test video. The U.N. nuclear watchdog agency says the Fordow centrifuges are no longer operational following the attack. These are clearly very powerful bombs, the images from the test video very powerful, in fact, as well. Does this provide any more assurance of the effects of these attacks?

BREEDLOVE: Well, as you know, we have never used these weapons in a wartime situation, but we have tested them extensively. And this is not the first bomb of this type. It is the first bomb of this type of this size. We have extensive experience with the BLU-109, which is the same kind of bomb, just smaller.

And we have dropped a lot of those around the world to decisive effects. And so we know how these work. And if I could just for one more second, the beauty of this particular weapon, of course, is not only that it penetrates, but we have the ability to set the fusing to go off at a very precise point in the penetration.

So as it penetrates down that air shaft, it will go off at the appropriate level to send the blast back up the tunnels into the operational centrifuge spaces. And that's why people are expecting that this is going to be a very successful attack.

BLITZER: We shall see.

General Philip Breedlove, thanks so much for joining us.

And we will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:52:42]

BLITZER: It takes a pretty big event to get hundreds of celebrities, dignitaries and business executives in the same room at the same time. And a $50 million wedding probably counts as a big event.

That's how much Jeff Bezos is expected to pay for his wedding in Venice. He and Lauren Sanchez are tying the knot this weekend in front of 200 people.

CNN senior international correspondent Melissa Bell has more from Venice. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is in historic Venice, but also in extreme weather conditions, temperatures of up to 90 degrees, that this wedding is going to take place over the course of the next few days, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, marrying, of course, Lauren Sanchez in what we expect to be, even if the details have been kept very secret so far, a star-studded and very glitzy, lavish wedding ceremony over the course of three days.

So, because of the protests we have seen these last few days, not just those protesting Jeff Bezos' extreme wealth, but there are climate activists, there are those that object to the Disneyfication, as they call it, of Venice, many of them have been taking to San Marco Square, to the Rialto Bridge, with their big banners saying "No Space for Bezos."

And they had threatened to jump into the canal for the last parties on Saturday, which is why we understand those events had to be moved. The one thing we do know, or believe we know, is that some of the events, the early events planned for tonight will be taking place here at the Madonna dell'Orto Church.

It's a 14th century church which has a private cluster next door. You can see some of the fruit and vegetables arriving. We have seen security guards and photographers milling about since Saturday, but, otherwise, as with everyone else, we're going to be keeping a very close eye on where the events are taking place, and perhaps, more importantly, whether the protesters manage to get in the way.

Melissa Bell, CNN, Venice.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:59:10]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Dr. Sanjay Gupta, host of CNN's "Chasing Life" podcast.

Aging can be painful. Our muscles begin to lose mass. Our joints deteriorate. Our bones can become less dense. That can make it harder to move, easier to fracture those bones and could lead to chronic pain. But there are some simple exercises that can help your body stand up to the test of time, resistance training.

We're talking about weight lifting and pushups. Those build muscle strength, which in turn burns calories and can prevent weight gain. Cardiovascular activities like walking and biking also burn calories, but have the added benefit of helping endurance, heart health and blood circulation.

Walking is a weight-bearing exercise. So that is a good way to build bone density as well. To help prevent the risk of falling, 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 it's good to mix it up and do a variety of activities.

You can hear more about how to optimize your health and chase life wherever you get your podcasts.

(END VIDEOTAPE)