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The Situation Room

House Fails to Pass FISA Extension; Trump Escalates Threats Against Iran; Severe Weather in Midwest; Historic NBA Comeback. Aired 10:30a-11a ET

Aired June 11, 2026 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Fans, as you see right here, took to the streets of New York to celebrate. And even this subway conductor got in on the fun.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(CHANTING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: "Go, New York, go, New York, go," that's what we heard.

Let's go to CNN Sports anchor Andy Scholes right now.

Andy, what an amazing game. It continued almost until midnight last night. I assume you were up. I was up. We were all watching that game.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Oh, yes, Wolf and Pam.

Yes, this was a game you had to see to believe, right? It was one of the most incredible things I have ever watched. It was absolutely nuts. And making the drama even more amazing, right, it was all the A- list celebrities that were there courtside just experiencing it all.

It was not a party, though, as MSG early on, as the Spurs had the largest half time lead by a road team in NBA history. They then led by 29 in the third quarter, but this Knicks team has proven they're never out of a game, no matter what.

O.G. Anunoby was incredible. This three here cut the Spurs league to four. Taylor Swift, the Haim sisters, in Mariska Hargitay just jumping up and down, going crazy. Under 2.5 to go, Jalen Brunson hits this three in Wemby's face. And at the bottom of the screen, you can still see Swift and her buddies jumping up and down, as was everyone else.

The Knicks were then down one under 30 seconds to go. Brunson drives. His shot here doesn't go. The ball gets tipped out, and this is a play that's going to haunt Spurs fans forever. Instead of dribbling it out, De'Aaron Fox, he went for a layup, got blocked by Anunoby.

Then, after a timeout, five seconds left, Brunson three, no good, but Anunoby, like a superhero, flying in, tips it in with one second left to give the Knicks the lead, MSG going absolutely bonkers. Look at the faces, Jerry Seinfeld in disbelief. David Zaslav, Larry David were in shock.

The Knicks were then hold on to win, completing the largest comeback in NBA Finals history. They take a 3-1 lead in the series. So, Anunoby, he was going nuts afterwards too, right? He was a little more laid back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OGUGUA "O.G." ANUNOBY JR., NEW YORK KNICKS: Feels cool. I mean, everyone's pretty excited. I'm excited too.

(LAUGHTER)

(CHEERING)

KARL-ANTHONY TOWNS, NEW YORK KNICKS: This is a testament to them, the great -- the resiliency, the way of New York. And we, from the mud, found a way to get it done in the second half. And if anyone who lives in New York knows, if you want to make it in the city, you got to be OK getting out the mud. And we did that tonight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: Yes, and the U.S. men's national team also celebrating the win.

So, Tyler Adams, he's a huge Knicks fan, so they were all going crazy during the comeback. The team is set to kick off their World Cup journey tomorrow against Paraguay in Los Angeles. That one kicks off at 9:00 p.m. Eastern.

And, Pam and Wolf, the World Cup kicks off in just a little bit, Mexico and South Africa 3:00 Eastern from Mexico City. What a week for sports.

BROWN: I mean...

SCHOLES: The NBA Finals is amazing. The Stanley Cup Final has been amazing. And now we have got the World Cup kicking off.

I mean, boy, you're in for a treat.

BROWN: Yes, nothing better for sports fans.

BLITZER: Yes, if you love sports, this is the time to be watching and enjoying every single minute, every second, for that matter.

Andy Scholes, thank you very, very much -- Pamela.

BROWN: I can't get over that, like you said, like a superhero, just came in at the last second.

BLITZER: In the last second, yes. BROWN: Wow.

All right, just ahead here in THE SITUATION ROOM: round two. Millions of people in the Midwest face another day of severe weather after strong storms with tornadoes and hail tour through several states. We are tracking it all, and we will cover it next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:37:54]

BROWN: Happening now: Federal prosecutors will not seek the death penalty and a plea deal with the man charged with killing the top Democrat in the Minnesota House, along with the attempted murder of a state senator.

Vance Boelter is expected to plead guilty next hour. He is charged with killing Melissa Hortman and her husband, along with shooting and injuring John A. Hoffman and his wife back in 2025.

Well, several states are bailing ahead of the Great American State Fare. Officials from Oregon, Washington and North Carolina say they declined an invitation from the Trump administration to showcase their states at the giant fairgrounds being built on the National Mall.

Washington and North Carolina say their decision is largely based on the costs. Also, a spokesperson for Oregon's governor pointed to concerns about the growing partisan nature of the event.

And boaters off the coast of England helped rescue a dog lost at sea. They joined the search after hearing a Coast Guard call for help. They eventually found the inflatable kayak with the German shepherd still on it and got the pup to safety. He was later reunited with his owner, so a very happy ending there.

BLITZER: It makes me happy too just to see that.

BROWN: Yes.

BLITZER: Thank you.

There's more breaking news we're following, President Trump clearly escalating his threats against Iran this morning. He posted just a short time ago that the United States will hit Iran -- and I'm quoting him now -- "very hard tonight," his words, "very hard tonight."

And we will be taking -- and he says the U.S. will be taking Iran's key oil hub, Kharg Island, in the not-too-distant future, once again, his words. The two nations traded strikes for the second straight night while mediators from Qatar were in terror on to help with U.S. talks.

CNN global affairs commentator and former Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh is here with us in THE SITUATION ROOM.

What's your reaction, Sabrina, to this new post from the president saying the U.S. will take Kharg Island very, very soon.

SABRINA SINGH, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: Well, a few things from this post.

One, this post is incredibly unhinged and incredibly dangerous. It is previewing U.S. military action before it actually takes place, which puts the lives of our pilots at risk and our Navy and Marine -- our sailors and Marines who are operating in that area of responsibility just outside of Iran.

[10:40:07]

So, previewing military action before it's actually happened, one, you're losing the element of surprise, and, two, you're putting our troops at risk.

But, two, you will remember, just a few weeks ago, Marco Rubio, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, said the war has concluded. This is clearly not the case, as we're seeing. I mean, the cease-fire is not holding. We're back at kinetic action.

So I think to say that the war I even concluded back then was a silly statement. And now it's proven so, even more so. But the third thing here about Kharg Island, taking Kharg Island would require an -- so many capabilities and resources that the U.S. is continuing to draw down every single day, including long-range capabilities.

And it's not just taking Kharg Island, which we know is the crown jewel of Iran's oil hub and exporting. It's also holding Kharg Island. Essentially, our military would have to hold that. And it would require an incredible ground force that would basically be sitting ducks for Iran to target if they have to -- for however long they have to hold that island.

BLITZER: Because Trump, in his post, he said: "The United States will be hitting Iran very hard tonight."

He's giving specific national security classified information, releasing it publicly. And then he goes out to say: "At some point in the not-too-distant future, we will be taking Kharg Island and other oil infrastructure points."

Now, you were a senior Pentagon official.

SINGH: Right.

BLITZER: If you had said that publicly, outlining a U.S. military operation involving U.S. troops in advance and giving the enemy, in this particular case, Iran, advanced warning about a specific military operation, what would have happened to you?

SINGH: I mean, I think I would have probably been fired. I think we would always have issues when it came to media outlets reporting on actions that hadn't been taken, even though we were leading in that direction. It's incredibly dangerous to signal to the enemy that, one, when you're going to conduct strikes and potential targets. And so the fact that it's the president of the United States doing that not only just puts our men and women and in uniform at risk. It is just so unprecedented.

I could not imagine Secretary Austin or President Biden doing something like this and not having just such tremendous bipartisan blowback. And I'm not really seeing that today from the Republican Party right now.

BLITZER: And if you had done that, I don't think you would have just been fired. I think you could have wound up potentially in jail.

SINGH: I think I would have faced...

BLITZER: Charges.

SINGH: Charges, yes.

BLITZER: Yes, definitely.

SINGH: Yes.

BLITZER: All right, take -- I want to take a break for a second.

SINGH: Yes.

BLITZER: The speaker of the House is now speaking about the future of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, FISA, as it's called. This is significant. I want to listen to what he's saying.

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): Well, I don't know if the American people just saw what happened on the floor, but it is shameful and it is very, very dangerous.

Let me just tell you what's happened here. Today, we just offered a simple, clean three-week extension of the FISA national security law. The Democrats, 199 of them, voted against a clean three-week extension for political purposes. And when the bill went down, they applauded. They applauded it.

That record and that video is going to live in infamy. I pray that we do not have a serious calamity on our shores over the next few weeks. We have done everything we possibly can. House Republicans are trying to govern.

We're trying to keep the American people safe. On April 29, we passed a three-year extension of the FISA national security law. It has been sitting over in the Senate. And because the Democrats and the Senate are playing political games as well, they're unable to pass it.

So we did everything within our power to try to ensure that this statute does not expire, and the Democrats are using it as a political hostage. Now, this is their custom in the 119th Congress. This is what Democrats do right now. You will remember that earlier this year, they took the Department of

Homeland Security, two of its most important agencies, and turned those into hostages. They shut down the government. They shut down TSA agents and border security and cybersecurity capabilities and the Coast Guard.

Why? Because they were insistent that we no longer secure the national border. They wanted to give zero dollars to that. And they were insistent that we do not continue to remove criminal illegal aliens from American communities to keep the American people safe.

That is what the current Democrat Party stands for in Washington. They are willing to jeopardize the safety and the security of the American people to make a cheap political point.

Now, Hakeem Jeffries is the Democrat leader in the House. They put out a statement this morning saying that, what is their reason? What is their excuse for this? Their excuse is that they're upset about a very temporary appointment that the president of the United States has already said would be very temporary in nature while he searches for and selects a new director of national intelligence.

That is an important process. It takes some time and thought and deliberation. And the president of the United States has the right, the ability, the responsibility, the duty to do that well. He has a lot going on right now, as we all know. And the president is deliberate about that.

[10:45:09]

I spoke with him less than an hour ago about it. He is very close to a decision. And the Democrats know that. But they see this as a political moment, that they can somehow score political points. It is detestable. It is dangerous. It is going to jeopardize the safety and security of the American people.

We all know what's going on around the country right now. We're hosting the World Cup, FIFA. We have big soccer matches all around the country, 11 cities around America. We have the America 250, Freedom 250 events going on here in the capital and all around the country.

There are large sporting events, local communities. Those things are in jeopardy right now because the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is exactly what the name implies. It is how we monitor terrorists who are plotting and planning dangerous events in the country, in our homeland.

The reason we have not had a mass casualty event like 9/11 since that great tragedy is because we have this statute. And, today, the Democrats in the House just voted it down; 199 of them voted against it. And they applauded. They applauded when the statute went down.

I think that speaks for itself. I will take a couple of questions.

QUESTION: You have spoken about the importance of FISA and protection (INAUDIBLE) and the important tool that is to the intelligence community.

Given that, is it time for President Trump to pull back his appointment of Bill Pulte and choose somebody else to let this important, critical tool be used?

JOHNSON: The president of the United States is fulfilling his responsibility. The president has named someone who would serve for a very short period of time, while he seeks a new director of national intelligence.

The responsibility, the questions are for the Democrats in the House and Senate, why they're willing to jeopardize the lives of millions of Americans to make a political point. Because they have a disagreement about someone that the president has appointed for a short-term position?

It is absurd. There is no way to defend it. And all the questions that everybody in the Capitol Hill press should be chasing every Democrat before they go get on planes and leave, so proud of themselves that they just jeopardize the safety of every American citizen.

I pray, I'm going to be praying that we do not have -- we do not have an event on our shores. There will be a lot to answer for if we do.

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Why shouldn't Congress have a vote in what is clearly an escalating situation with Iran, with the president now threatening going after the oil infrastructure?

Why shouldn't Congress vote on this?

JOHNSON: Operation Epic Fury was an epic success. It achieved the desired ends, the very specifically and limited objectives of that operation, as were articulated at the time.

Right now, the president has been trying to broker a peace and get the Strait of Hormuz reopened. All of the nations of the world have an interest in that, most more than us. And we have called upon our NATO allies in the Arab states and the region and the neighboring states there to assist in this very important endeavor to get the Strait of Hormuz reopened.

The president is negotiating a peace, and the Iranians continue to provoke us. As you know, they sent a drone into one of our -- two of our pilots were flying one of our helicopters, one of our jets, one of our -- they're firing on us all the time.

The helicopter, as you know, the president described it, this drone lodged into the middle of the -- where they were flying it and they had to take the thing down into the water to put the fire out. Miraculously, they survived. We have the greatest military equipment of any fighting force on the planet.

But that was a very provocative thing for Iran to do. And the president felt -- he's the commander in chief. And his top advisers at the Pentagon, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, they felt that it required a proportional response.

Right now, they are working to have that situation resolved. And they're doing the best they can. And we have negotiators over there, our envoys, who are working around the clock to bring this to a conclusion. But the Iranians have shown, at least for the time being, that they're unwilling to do that.

And so we are hopeful that that works out. We have to allow the space to do it. We're about 100 days into this conflict. And the Congress has to allow the commander in chief to do what it is he's doing. So we will see how that goes.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: On FISA, is there any scenario where you would bring the House back before the recess?

JOHNSON: The question has just been asked, would I bring everyone back to vote on FISA again? Ask -- I'm going to ask you to answer the question yourselves. What would be the point? We passed a three-year extension on April 29.

It is sitting in the hopper over there as a live bill. Just now, I attempted to pass a short-term extension for three weeks, clean extension, no changes to the law, just make sure that the people are not subjected to great harm. And the Democrats, 199 of them, voted against it and applauded themselves as they left the building.

What would be the point of me going through this exercise over and over? The House has done every single thing. The House Republicans have stood and led for the safety and security of the American people, and the Democrats are playing political games. The questions are for them. So I think I have told you everything you need to know.

[10:50:01]

BLITZER: All right, there's the speaker of the House.

Sabrina Singh is with us still.

Very quickly, Sabrina, the Democrats voted against this because they don't trust the acting director of national intelligence, Bill Pulte, a housing official leader who doesn't know much -- doesn't have any experience in intelligence or national security, for that matter.

And they were concerned that he was using mortgage information, housing information to go after critics of President Trump. And now they're concerned that he could use some of the most sensitive national security intelligence information to go after some of the critics of President Trump.

And that's why they didn't want to renew the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which Bill Pulte, the acting director, would have access to.

SINGH: That's right. I mean, what Democrats are doing is using their power right now in

government to basically say, we reject your acting appointee of the Office of Director of National Intelligence. I think this was a self- inflicted wound by the Trump administration, installing someone like that who has no national security experience, has no experience in the international -- the intelligence community, comes from a housing background.

And what Democrats and actually Republicans, some Republicans, are fearful of is the weaponization, that you put someone like this in power and they're going to go after Trump's perceived so-called enemies. And that's why you're seeing a rejection of the Section 702 of the FISA reauthorization, because Democrats are saying, we cannot have this person running our intelligence apparatus.

We actually need a Senate-confirmed individual, someone with the expertise that can not only advise the president, but keep Americans safe, and this is not that person.

BLITZER: Someone who also has security clearances...

SINGH: Right.

BLITZER: ... which Bill Pulte doesn't have.

BROWN: Right.

And there were seven Republicans in the Senate that voted against it. This was the three-year authorization of FISA, so a little bit different. But I think that that's notable as well, because of the concerns about Bill Pulte. And also some of the Republicans said that they were concerned it didn't have better reforms to protect Americans.

I want to go to CNN congressional correspondent Lauren Fox.

Lauren, Democrats have been saying for a while that this was going to be their move, right?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Exactly.

I mean, they have been warning for weeks after the announcement that Bill Pulte had been appointed to that interim post. Mark Warner, who's the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, he actually went to the Republican leader in the Senate, John Thune, and made it clear to him that he had a problem on his hands, that Democrats do support authorizing FISA and ensuring that Americans are protected.

But he argued to Thune that Bill Pulte was an issue for Democrats. And, typically, you would not have much room as a lawmaker to stop the president from making an interim appointment. But timing is everything here.

And as Sabrina pointed out, the fact that you had Bill Pulte named just days before this expiration date gave Democrats a political position where they felt like they could have an impact on Donald Trump.

We should note that Speaker Johnson has been at the White House over the course of the last two days trying to figure out a path forward on FISA. Obviously, what is clear today is that he's sending the House home. They're not planning on coming back until there is further action or a sign that Democrats are going to change their mind -- Pam.

BROWN: And what about any Republicans on the House side? Were there any that defected and didn't vote for it?

FOX: Yes, I mean, there are a number of House Republicans, just a small handful, but still a number of them, who have concerns overall about FISA and have always been pushing for additional warrant protections to ensure that this court doesn't have more ability, in their view, to look into American citizens.

So, certainly, that's a factor here, Pam. But, typically, this is a bipartisan effort. What is new here, of course, is the fact that Democrats are saying, as long as Bill Pulte is in this acting role, we are not willing to move forward with FISA.

BLITZER: All right, Lauren Fox, for that update, thanks very, very much.

And we will be right back with more news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:58:09]

BROWN: Happening now: Just a day after high winds and tornadoes wreaked havoc across the Midwest, people in the region could see even more severe weather.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Up over there, oh...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my God. Look at over there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Here, you can see storm-damaged buildings in Wisconsin, and, here, a train that derailed after strong winds raked parts of Minnesota.

CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar joins us.

So what can people in the Midwest expect today, Allison?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Very similar conditions to what we saw the last 24 hours.

Take a look at this video right here, this coming from Illinois. This looks like -- more like a video you would see from a tropical storm or a hurricane, even, just the intensity of those winds there in that video.

And here, well, this one's obvious. This is a tornado that you can see in Missouri. Now, this was one of several tornado reports that came in from yesterday, not just in Missouri, but several of the surrounding states. This is Ohio, where you can see just an enormous amount of lightning just lighting up that dark night sky as that line of storms continued to slide off to the east and will continue to do so throughout the day today.

In total, we had well over 350 total storm reports in the last 24 hours, all of these dots indicating either a tornado report, damaging wind report, or a large hail report. We are likely going to continue to see more of those dots over the next 24 hours.

Here's a look at where the storms are now. You can see a lot of lightning, especially across the state of Iowa. You have both a severe thunderstorm watch and a new tornado watch that are in effect across that region.

And we're likely going to see more of those continue off to the east as the system moves in the same direction, because we're likely going to continue to see this. This line is not going to go away any time soon. You have got several warnings up and down this line. We have had both tornado warnings and severe thunderstorm warnings off and on the last several hours. Those will continue.

We do have that moderate risk that you see there. That's the red color. That's a level four out of five across portions of Northern Illinois. But even off to the Northeast, areas of the mid-Atlantic, there is still the potential there for some strong to severe thunderstorms.