Return to Transcripts main page

The Situation Room

Investigation Continues Into Potential UFC Attack Plot; Trump Tries to Cancel DNI Confirmation Hearing; Questions Remain Over Iran Deal. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired June 17, 2026 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:00:40]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Welcome to 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.

At any moment now, we will hear directly from President Trump at the G7 summit in France. We will bring you his remarks live. Stand by for that.

Much of his focus there is on the U.S.-Iran agreement that is due to be formally signed on Friday. This is his meeting minutes ago with the Indian prime minister, Modi.

CNN has obtained a draft version of that agreement and can share new details. Here are some of the key elements of this so-called memorandum of understanding.

It calls for regional shipping traffic to return to prewar levels within 30 days of the signing. It ends the fighting on all fronts, including Lebanon, and it guarantees that Iran will never produce a nuclear weapon.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: And here's what's not included in the draft, the fate of Iran's nuclear program, including its enriched uranium, Iran's support for regional proxy groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis that have attacked U.S. allies, and the ballistic missiles that Iran has fired at its neighbors.

Now, it's worth noting that the tech shared with CNN could still change before Friday's signing ceremony. And the president spoke about the agreement earlier during his conversation with the prime minister of India. Here's a bit of that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If they want to send them, I think it's good. QUESTION: Has anyone committed to helping...

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Yes, all of them, all of them.

QUESTION: Which nations?

TRUMP: The ones that have that kind of equipment have. But every one of them have committed to being involved at some point.

QUESTION: And, at this point, do you feel that Vladimir Putin is more responsible for the ongoing conflict in Ukraine?

TRUMP: Well, I don't want to comment on that, because I'm trying to get it settled. And that doesn't make it easy.

QUESTION: Mr. President, you're the cusp of making history with the possible peace in the Iran conflict.

TRUMP: I like this guy.

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: Who he is? Do you know who that is?

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Your reporters are much nicer than my reporters. Go ahead.

QUESTION: But there is also tragic loss of life of Indian sailors recently, sir, in American strikes.

Any words of condolences for the grieving families?

TRUMP: Yes, I do. I heard about that. It's a rough profession. There's no question about it. And we work together on it. This has been happening throughout time. But we work together, yes, certainly. We love all of those people. They're great people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: All right, CNN international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson is in London.

So, Nic, there are still a lot of questions about the details, right, and how this will all be carried out. What stands out to you?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, I think when it comes to the highly enriched uranium and exactly what Iran cannot or cannot do after the sort of final agreement of this second phase of talks, the 60 days of talks, what that looks like, I mean, it's framed only as that it's adequately addressed, that those issues are adequately addressed.

So I think that leaves ambiguity there. I think the president's got what he wants. Iran has stated again that it doesn't want to have a nuclear weapon. Its past practices have indicated that may not be the case, but they have stated it here.

And the Iranians have got something they wanted there, which was that there would be the status quo on their current, as they would see it, civilian nuclear program, no apparent deconstructing of their sites, any of that for the period of these talks. So that's something that Iran wants.

One of the things I do note about this, there's a lot of talk, obviously, about the potential of sanctions being lifted, the potential of the $300 billion development fund for Iran. This is what Iran gets -- and possibility of frozen assets released.

This is what Iran gets if it plays ball on this agreement, if it does everything it says it's going to do. And that seems, as we have stated here, pretty ambiguous, because it's not committed itself to any hard language.

But Iran gets this deal front-loaded with economic benefit. It gets these waivers so it can sell its energy products around the world. And the reason I draw attention to that is, Iran's economy is in a dire state. They desperately need the money. So this is hugely important for them.

And as we heard President Trump say just in the past hour, that if the talks don't go well, he will go back to bombing Iran again, despite the fact that the second clause in this memorandum of understanding says both countries respect each other's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

[11:05:08]

The signal is there for Iran, as they have said all along, that they don't trust the United States. The president is saying, we could go back to war. So what Iran is making sure that it's getting here -- and this is why it's significant -- is money at the get-go. It is making money, so if it does go back to war, it is slightly better ready for it.

But there's so much ambiguity, and, of course, nothing in here about the ballistic missiles or Iran's proxies. That has a lot of people scratching their heads.

BLITZER: But there is, Nic, a specific reference in this memorandum of understanding that we have just obtained a copy of for a 300 -- at least $300 billion for Iran.

It says this, and I will read it. This is article six. "The United States undertakes together with its regional partners to create a comprehensive plan agreed upon by both parties for the rehabilitation and economic development of the Islamic Republic of Iran, while ensuring financing of at least $300 billion. The implementation mechanism of this plan, as part of the final agreement, will be formulated within 60 days."

Three hundred billion dollars for Iran, clearly, Nic, that's a lot of money.

ROBERTSON: Oh, it's a huge amount of money. I mean, it's a huge amount of money for any of the Gulf states. If you look at some of the sovereign funds there, $300 billion would compare significantly well.

So, for Iran, this money, it would give -- brief life into the current leadership, the hard-line leadership, the IRGC, the political figures who are let -- who are sort of more moderate to the supreme leader. The country gets money to rebuild and it gets money to invest where it wants, whether it's defense, whether it's policing, but assuredly investments that will keep this leadership in power for a long time to come.

Whether they can get this $300 billion, precisely where it's going to come from, which Gulf countries would want to put up that kind of money, is open to debate. But I think what is emerging and will emerge as very clear here is that the Gulf countries individually are going to recognize that the protective shield from U.S. military presence isn't as hard a shield as they thought because Iran attacked them.

And they will be looking for bilateral ways to have a relationship with Iran that's going to protect them in the future. So you can see there's a potential here for money to go into this development fund for Iran.

So Iran could get a significant amount of money. It wants to get its frozen assets, but to get those frozen assets, it has to get to this -- sort of the really thorny issues, the nuclear issues, the final agreement, as it's called in the terms of this MOU.

So, a lot -- Iran needs to do a lot to -- if you will, to win this money or to get this money that it would see as that it rightfully deserves. But it's just -- it's still such a lift to imagine $300 billion, huge amount of money.

BLITZER: Yes, it's a huge amount of money. And, as we all know, President Trump has been very critical of the Obama agreement that was put forward, which provided billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets back to Iran. And it seems like this seems to be very similar to what was going on then.

But we will see what happens.

Nic Robertson, thank you very, very much -- Pamela.

BROWN: All right, coming up here in THE SITUATION ROOM, we have some new information about the 19-year-old accused of discussing a plot to attack the UFC event at the White House, plus why the heads of the Secret Service and the FBI are at odds over how the investigation was handled.

BLITZER: And despite the president's attempt to stall the negotiation -- the nomination process of his intelligence chief, Republican Senator Tom Cotton now says the show must go on.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [11:13:35]

BLITZER: And this just in to THE SITUATION ROOM.

President Trump is now derailing the confirmation of his pick to become the nation's next top spy. In a post on social media, President Trump says he's -- quote -- "canceling" Senate hearings for Jay Clayton, who is expected to be confirmed as the next director of national intelligence perhaps as soon as tomorrow.

Let's get right over to CNN's Lauren Fox up on Capitol Hill.

So, why is this happening, Lauren? What's going on and how are lawmakers responding to this?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, lawmakers on Capitol Hill are deeply confused about whether or not this hearing is actually going to go forward or not.

Senator Tom Cotton, who is the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, posted later this morning essentially that he is planning to move forward with this hearing unless Donald Trump makes clear that he's dropping this nominee or he directs Clayton not to appear.

I think that there's just a huge question mark right now as to whether or not either of those two things are going to happen. We tried to press Tom Cotton for further details on whether he's had any conversations with the president or Clayton this morning. Here's what he told us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION: You're forging ahead with this hearing today now, right?

SEN. TOM COTTON (R-AR): No comment beyond the statement we released.

(CROSSTALK)

FOX: Have you talked to Jay Clayton?

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) nomination?

COTTON: No comments yet.

FOX: Can I ask you, have you talked to Jay Clayton? And...

[11:15:03]

QUESTION: Are you going to have -- do you expect an empty chair today if they do that?

COTTON: No comment.

QUESTION: So you will proceed -- to be clear, you will proceed with the hearing and you expect Jay Clayton to be there, despite what the president said? COTTON: Chad, you have our statement.

(CROSSTALK)

FOX: Have you talked to the president?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOX: So, there you have it, Wolf. It is about as clear as mud as to whether or not this hearing is going to go forward in just a couple of hours.

Meanwhile, the top Democrat on the committee, Senator Mark Warner, who was yesterday advocating for this nomination to move expeditiously through the Senate, released a statement saying -- quote -- "National security cannot be governed by social media posts. The president's latest intervention only underscores a simple reality.

"The biggest obstacle to revolving -- resolving these issues has not been Senate Democrats or Senate Republicans. It has been the chaos and confusion coming from the White House."

Clearly, there is frustration from both Republicans and Democrats on this issue. Meanwhile, Democrats are warning that they do not want Bill Pulte to even step into this acting role. They were hoping to move quickly on Jay Clayton's nomination. We will see if that happens in the hours ahead -- Wolf.

BLITZER: And as you point out, though, Lauren, potentially, this could allow Trump's controversial pick for acting director of national intelligence, Bill Pulte, to remain in place for at least several more weeks.

How would that be sitting with lawmakers?

FOX: Well, I mean, the reason that Democrats were willing to move very quickly with this nomination and signaling that they perhaps could vote on this as soon as Thursday or early next week was the very fact that they were deeply concerned about Bill Pulte.

Now, I've talked to a lot of Democrats, including Senator Mark Kelly from Arizona earlier this morning, who said, look, Clayton doesn't exactly have the qualifications that he would typically look for, for someone in this role, but he says he has the respect of a lot of Senate Democrats.

A lot of Senate Republicans applauded this decision by Donald Trump last week to select Jay Clayton in this role. And so there was sort of this feeling that he was much better than Bill Pulte.

But if this confirmation hearing is stalled out because of the president's insistence that he wants to delay this, that he wants to try to attach a voting bill to this clear spy powers bill, the FISA reauthorization, then that could spell trouble for Democrats, who are deeply worried about Bill Pulte being in that job even for a couple of days, Wolf. BLITZER: Yes, Bill Pulte has no national security or intelligence background, if you will. That's why he's opposed by so many people, including as the acting director of national intelligence.

Lauren Fox, thank you very, very much -- Pamela.

BROWN: We will wait and see if that hearing happens or not today, right?

BLITZER: Yes.

BROWN: All right, coming up: jumping the gun. What CNN is learning about drama between the Secret Service and the FBI director over an alleged plot to attack the UFC fight at the White House.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:22:39]

BROWN: Happening now: Federal officials say they have charged multiple people they claim discussed plots to attack the UFC fight Sunday at the White House.

The Secret Service says several others are still at large. Among those arrested is 19-year-old Tycen Proper. According to a criminal complaint, his mother called police saying she was concerned about his conduct, which included buying guns and communicating with a group of radicals online.

CNN's Brian Todd is here in THE SITUATION ROOM.

You have been covering this case. What more are you learning about some of these alleged co-conspirators?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pamela, we have got some new reporting from our colleagues Holmes Lybrand, Kaanita Iyer, and Hannah Rabinowitz, really good reporting by them, kind of putting all of this together.

Multiple people have been arrested in connection with this alleged plot. Federal officials say they did plan to attack that UFC event at the White House on Sunday.

And some of the bullet points there, we can show you. The attackers plan to use explosive-laden drones and guns and other explosives in the attack. The Secret Service discovered messages discussing a plot between multiple individuals in this case.

According to one criminal complaint, there was a plan to first stage a fake demonstration or some kind of a demonstration on the north side of the White House. And then, while that demonstration was going on, according to this criminal complaint, they were going to fire some explosive-laden drones toward the north end of that temporary arena.

And once those drones impacted and exploded and there was panic and evacuation, then, according to the criminal complaint, the plan was to hopefully get people to evacuate toward the south part of the area and then snipers would then shoot at them.

Now, the criminal complaint does have details about one alleged conspirator in particular. That is 19-year-old Tycen Proper of Knox County, Ohio. That's the one that Pamela just mentioned. There's his picture there.

The criminal complaint says that he was involved in chats with detailed photos of Washington, D.C., that he discussed sniper and potential drone launch locations, and that he amassed tactical gear, guns, and ammunition.

We also have to say that, if it was not for Tycen Proper's mother calling authorities on Wednesday, June 10, four days before this event, this -- maybe this plot may not have been discovered, because she alerted local police first. Then the FBI and the Secret Service were brought in.

But part of this case now is some of the fallout toward FBI Director Kash Patel. Secret Service officials who partnered with the FBI are angry with Patel, saying that he prematurely posted news that people connected to the plot had been arrested.

[11:25:06]

Two sources tell CNN that both Secret Service and FBI officials were frustrated with Patel's post on X, which got ahead of plans to announce the charges after they had been unsealed.

Here is what Secret Service Deputy Director Matt Quinn had to say about this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATTHEW QUINN, SECRET SERVICE DEPUTY DIRECTOR: I will tell you a phrase I learned early in my career in the New York field office, and that's don't choke on your own smoke.

I will tell you, the Secret Service led that investigation from the beginning. I will tell you that it's ongoing. In order to maintain the integrity of the investigation and the security plan, we chose not to leak it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TODD: And according to at least one source familiar with the matter, one Secret Service official told CNN -- quote -- "To put it out and just selfishly tweet it is just poor form," speaking about Kash Patel.

CNN has reached out to the FBI for comment on all of this. And, of course, Pamela, one of the things that they're just so upset about is that this investigation is not done.

BROWN: Right. It's ongoing.

TODD: They -- Kash Patel announced this on X and crowed about it, about them being stopped cold in their tracks. They're still trying to figure out -- as many as 20 other people could be involved in this.

BROWN: Wow.

TODD: They're trying to track down some of these people to see if they were involved. But this investigation is ongoing. And they're upset that he got kind of out in front of his skis, as they say.

BROWN: Yes, I mean, because now that it's announced, it's going to make it harder, presumably, to find the people who are at large.

TODD: Absolutely. People may go to ground.

BROWN: Exactly.

TODD: Right. Right.

BROWN: All right, Brian Todd, thank you so much.

TODD: Thank you.

BROWN: Appreciate it -- Wolf.

BLITZER: And just ahead: The first tropical storm of the year now has a name, and it's Arthur.

Arthur's impact is already being felt on the Gulf Coast. The additional rain and flooding that the storm is expected to unleash, we will share the details with you. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)