Return to Transcripts main page

The Situation Room

J.D. Vance Defends Iran Deal; New York City Holds Championship Parade For Knicks. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired June 18, 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)

[11:00:36]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Let's get to that breaking news.

We're awaiting the start of a news briefing at the White House. We're going to join it live as soon as it gets under way. And we know that Vice President J.D. Vance will be there. This briefing, of course, comes during a critical and controversial week of the U.S. and Iran signing an agreement to work toward ending the war.

I want to go live to our Kristen Holmes there at the White House as we await this briefing.

What can we expect, Kristen?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Pamela, look, we know that the vice president has been the face of this deal, of this memorandum of understanding, so that's what we expect today's briefing to be about.

And there are still a number of questions, one, in particular, whether or not this 60-day negotiating period has actually begun. If you listen to Iran, the spokesperson for Iran, they say that it started last night. But we have not heard that officially from the United States yet.

And there are a number of reasons of why that is critical, because there are several things that go into place immediately when that 60- day negotiating period starts. That includes waivers for oil for Iran, Iran clearing the strait of any -- quote, unquote -- "obstacles," those obstacles being mines, likely, and the United States removing their naval blockade of the strait, none of which we understand to have started yet, unless we're going to hear it here today.

The other part of this is, what exactly is Vance going to be doing on the ground in Switzerland? One of the things that we had been told was, he was going to be part of an official signing ceremony. However, what we're hearing from both sides is that the document has already been signed. We reported that last night, that Trump signed it, the president of Iran has signed it.

So what is Vance doing? Is this the start of negotiations, or is there also going to be some kind of signing ceremony when he gets on the ground there? We will expect him to lay that out.

But we also have other questions. We have heard from U.S. officials on this idea of gentlemen's agreements. What are in those gentlemen's agreements that are not written out in this memorandum of understanding? What is giving the United States the level of confidence that they say they have?

And one question that shouldn't be overlooked is the idea of the fact that Vance has been the face of this. One of the things we heard President Trump say -- and, yes, he said it jokingly, but every joke has a little truth in it -- the idea of, is this doesn't go well, he's going to blame J.D. Vance.

Does J.D. Vance feel any pressure for the fact that he has taken on this role of head narrator of this MOU?

BROWN: Yes, I think that that's a key question, right. We will see if he answers that question.

Joining us now -- stick around, by the way.

Joining us now is national security reporter Jennifer Hansler.

So, Jennifer, tell us more just on the heels of what we heard from Kristen. This is with the vice president, J.D. Vance, not with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, as far as we know. Can you help us better understand what Marco Rubio's role in all of this is?

JENNIFER HANSLER, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Well, that's right, Pam. He's been conspicuously quiet when it comes to this portfolio.

We have not seen him taking this very forward-looking role that we have seen him take on in other issues, for example, Venezuela and Cuba. When it comes to Iran, what we have heard from the State Department is that he has been working behind the scenes with some of the regional allies, as well as the European allies, trying to put together these plans for once this MOU was in place potentially having this coalition that was going into the Strait of Hormuz to help demine.

We also are told that he is the one who is deeply involved on the Lebanon angle of all of this. Of course, we saw numerous rounds of Israel-Lebanon talks that happened here at the State Department. Rubio himself did attend the first two rounds of those. He stopped in to those working-level talks.

So we have been told that this is sort of what he has been focusing on. However, it is notable that we have not really seen him come out in a very public way since the signing, since the finalization of this MOU. Of course, he was there with the president at the G7. We saw him in the background of his press conference yesterday. But he has not really done his own engagements on this front. He has really left that to Vice President Vance to sort of be the public face and the public ownership of this agreement. So it's interesting to see this here, Pam.

BROWN: All right, let's go back over to the White House.

And, Kristen, I'm just curious about the timing of this briefing, because it is going to happen around the same time of the Knicks parade that we have. We have been covering it on this show. What's going on there?

[11:05:04]

HOLMES: I think more likely it's that there's been an enormous amount of pushback to this memorandum of understanding, specifically over the last couple of days.

And, yesterday, we heard on the Hill Republicans saying that this was a bad deal, that they can't trust the Iranians, that they shouldn't have gotten into this. We have also heard criticism that this deal is no better than the Obama deal, that, as we heard Jenny just say, that there's criticism that this was something that President Trump got himself into, and this deal just gets him out of something that he started himself, but doesn't actually do any advancement.

So it seems likely that Vice President J.D. Vance is going to come out and address some of that criticism, as well as some of the questions we still have about why this is a better deal than the Obama deal. In plain text, it doesn't seem to be.

But we have also heard that criticism from people who are close to President Trump, saying they're not really quite sure what this does. Now, we had heard from sources close to the decision-making that there really had come an agreement between all these top officials that any deal was better than no deal.

We heard President Trump yesterday saying that they were worried about global economic ramifications if the war continued, something we know they have been watching very closely, at least in terms of the United States' economy.

So all of those are going to be questions for the vice president, and he's likely to want to get ahead of all of the things that we have been hearing, particularly that pushback, before the United States, before the administration briefs those lawmakers as to what exactly is in this deal and perhaps some of the unspoken parts of this deal that we haven't seen in writing.

BROWN: All right, thank you so much. Kristen and Jennifer, stick around. You're going to be very busy as this briefing gets under way, hopefully soon, with the vice president, J.D. Vance.

And coming up: The Knicks faithful are out of full force. The team is making its way to City Hall to celebrate its first NBA championship win in more than 50 years. We're going to head out live to the celebrations in the Big Apple.

You're in THE SITUATION ROOM, and we will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:11:42]

BROWN: Welcome back on this very busy Thursday.

Right now, we are awaiting a press briefing there at the White House about the U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding. It's expected to be held by the vice president, J.D. Vance. Of course, when that happens, we will bring it to you live.

Also, we will be covering the Barack Obama Presidential Center opening this morning. That is coming up shortly, and, of course, the Knicks parade happening right now, with more than a million people celebrating their championship win.

And we find our Omar Jimenez, who has been covering this since the very early hours this morning.

So much excitement, just quite the vibe there in the city, Omar.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So much excitement.

Actually, as you were talking, you're seeing the bus there. I'm at City Hall, which is where the parade will end. And they are on this block. They just passed us to the right there, that blue bus. You're not going to be able to see it from my vantage point, but that blue bus that you are seeing on that feed that's following the actual parade itself as they begin to make their way behind me.

There's Governor of New York Kathy Hochul right next to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and the team behind them, O.G. Anunoby, the hero of much of the series, particularly game four, the largest comeback in NBA Finals history.

Everybody has been waiting for this particular day, one, because it's just fun to celebrate your team. It's fun to celebrate when your team is doing well, but they're also celebrating something they have not done in more than 50 years.

And as the NYPD told us that they were preparing for millions of people, we haven't counted every single person, but it sure does feel like millions of people, as you see some of the ticker tape behind there as well. And people -- we are next to the Brooklyn Bridge as well, the Brooklyn Bridge also packed out with people.

Everywhere you can see, there is orange and blue, including where we find our Shimon Prokupecz, who has been out on the parade route talking to fans.

What have you been seeing? I know they have been restless. Are they getting -- how are they feeling now? SHIMON PROKUPECZ, SENIOR CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Oh, my

God, I mean, the screams the cheers, O.G., definitely one of the loudest cheers for.

Jose Alvarado actually got off the float and came into the crowd. It's so nice to see that they're able to do that and interact with so many of the fans. This is the closest that many of them will be with these players, with their heroes, who brought such happiness.

And you could see it on everyone's faces here. This is such an incredible moment. And one of the things that's been so nice to see are the city workers who are participating in this moment, in this parade, the Sanitation Department workers who are going to clean all of this up and have been cleaning things up after every party that we have had in the streets here, the police officers, the firefighters, the Department of Transportation workers who are all able to participate.

We saw the mayor on the float with O.G. Just an incredible moment to take in and to see and to watch the pure joy and happiness that people are experiencing at this moment. Of course, at this moment everyone is waiting for Jalen Brunson. That's going to be the big one.

[11:15:15]

That's going to get probably the loudest cheer here. This is who everyone is waiting for. And he is making his way up. There he is on your screen making his way up the Canyon of Heroes. And Jalen Brunson and what he's going to represent to this city forever, many people calling for a statue to be built of him outside Madison Square Garden.

What this man did for this city, for this basketball program will never be forgotten. And I think seeing him on that float coming up the Canyon of Heroes, as that ticker tape is falling over him, it's going to be a lasting memory for many of us out here just because of what he's been able to do, but also what he represents as a person, as a professional basketball player.

I was fortunate enough to attend the games working for CNN. And I went to a press conference. I will never forget this moment that Jalen Brunson did at the end of that incredible game four. When he came to the podium at the press conference -- I'm just remembering this because it has stayed with me.

He opened the press conference by talking about someone who died. Through the Knicks work and his work with the Make-A-Wish and the Knicks organization to help sick kids to give them a moment of happiness, he chose in that opening press conference to talk about the loss that he had just learned about this kid who he talked to.

And that just shows the kind of person Jalen Brunson is. That was such a selfless act to begin that press conference in that way, given what the Knicks had just accomplished, that miraculous comeback, 29 points down, to come back and win that game.

And for him to open that press conference in that way, and the way he carried himself throughout the playoffs, and throughout the time he has been with the Knicks, will stay with fans forever, and has changed really the Knicks organization, has changed the lives of many.

And I think that's going to be the moment here that it's really -- that's really going to stay with so many of the fans who have been here since 4:00 in the morning just to get a look, and so many kids out here I'm seeing who took -- basically, parents said, OK, no school today. You can come here.

I'm just trying to get a sense of who's coming here. But we're seeing some floats, Omar, heading towards our way here. We're not far from where you are, Omar. But there's so much energy, so much excitement here. It's incredible to see. It's just truly spectacular. And it's just a moment...

JIMENEZ: And, Shimon, you were talking about -- I just want to jump off of what you were saying about the humility of Jalen Brunson, just to continue on that point, because we were talking to his college coach, Jay Wright at Villanova, and he talked about that exact thing, about how even when the Knicks won the championship here, everybody started celebrating in those final moments.

And Jalen Brunson, at least initially, stoic, goes over to the Spurs head coach, shakes Spurs coach Mitch Johnson's hand, and then goes and celebrates with the team. And I asked his coach, what is that? Because his college coach actually did the same thing when Villanova won the championship in 2016.

Everyone's going crazy. There was a buzzer beater to win the championship against UNC. Everyone's going and celebrating, and the coach goes over, stoic, and shakes the opposing coach's hand. And the coach just said that, for someone like Jalen Brunson, it's a humility of understanding that he could easily be on the other side of this.

He could easily not be the one celebrating and watching a celebration in a similar fashion going on in San Antonio. And, as you talked about, we're not far from you, as we're seeing Patrick Ewing, Knicks legend, on the screen here as well.

At City Hall, people are starting to file in, including Knicks legend Walt Frazier, who is a part of the parade route as well. But, Shimon, you have been out through a lot of this NBA Finals series, both inside the arena and out with fans. I know you and I spoke after the Knicks actually won the series late on that Saturday night.

[11:20:06]

Can you just compare a little bit the growing feelings of these fans as each game progressed and as this increasingly became a reality?

PROKUPECZ: I think, for a fan, it did increasingly become a reality, but no one ever believed it fully.

It was -- no one wanted to get overly excited, because, quite honestly, I mean, after last season and just everything that fans have been through, it was hard to believe that, oh, my God, we actually are going to do this. We actually are going to get to the Finals.

And the way they dominated, simply dominated after the Atlanta series especially, was really stunning to many. And it was a time when you really were able to start to believe one sweep, then another sweep, and just the wins kept coming, and the way the teams played together as one and just their appreciation and love for each other.

I'm trying to see. We're seeing a float here come by me. Oh, it's Josh Hart, so another fan favorite, of course. And what Josh Hart represents is pure tenacity, right, Omar? This is a guy who just hustles for rebounds, defense, and just works so hard on the court.

There he is passing us. And you can hear people screaming his name, trying to get his attention. But, my goodness, for these players, what this must mean to be able to enjoy themselves after working so hard to get here.

And -- oh, there's another -- there we go. Wow. Wow. Incredible moment here, Omar...

JIMENEZ: This is Shimon's camera.

PROKUPECZ: ... for so many of the fans just standing here, being able to scream the players' names and try to get their attention, trying to get them to look at them.

And there's Stephon Marbury. I went to high school, Omar, with Stephon Marbury. He was a year ahead of me. Of course, Larry Johnson, we all know Larry Johnson, Mike Breen. Oh, and that's Timothee Chalamet...

JIMENEZ: We're seeing Ben Stiller on the screen as well.

PROKUPECZ: ... who, of course, was such a big part of the Knicks fan base. Wow.

And then the other beautiful thing that we're seeing out here that the city has done, they're allowing marching bands from different schools to join in the parade, truly spectacular and really...

JIMENEZ: I mean, it really is a celebration.

PROKUPECZ: ... so incredible for so many of these kids.

JIMENEZ: It really is a celebration unlike any other.

It's one of those things, Shimon, as you were talking about, that, I mean, look, you're someone who grew up here. So many people that are watching this and experiencing this parade firsthand grew up here. And seeing a moment like this, again, after decades of not being able to climb that mountaintop, it really is something special.

We're going to continue to monitor your camera because I know the floats are coming by and the parades are coming by.

I want to bring in Christine Brennan quickly for some perspective on this. We were talking a little bit about the composure of Jalen Brunson, but

also he's got teammates in Josh Hart and Mikal Bridges that have been his teammates for years now -- well, not for years, but since going back to 2016, when they won a national championship together.

Talk a little bit about their journey and how they were separated, they came together, and were finally able to climb this mountaintop.

CHRISTINE BRENNAN, CNN SPORTS ANALYST: Absolutely.

Omar, this is a story years in the making, and many people have watched them in college, as you said, and that by itself is a great success. But then to come to the pros and to a team that, again, had just done nothing, had been nothing but a disappointment -- when I say nothing, obviously, they had played well at times, but no championships.

And I think, when you saw what happened in the series where, each game, the Knicks were behind by 10 or more points in the first quarter, in other words, they started poorly, we know about the great comeback in the 29-point comeback. We know that they had to come back to win.

They always had to come back, the comeback kids, the grit, the determination. When you have teammates -- you know this well from playing sports yourself. When you have teammates you trust, when you have people around you that have been around you for a long time, it's easier.

You look at each other in the huddle. You're listening to coach Mike Brown. We can do this. You get the sense about it. All of this is that grittiness, that desire, that passion, and the confidence that the Knicks showed that they could pull this off, even with all the odds stacked against them, as the Spurs took those big leads, as the Spurs looked like they were going to win game after game, and then were denied as, of course, the Knicks came back at those key moments.

[11:25:19]

Omar, I think that is the essence of sports. And for people watching around the country, they have got their kids playing sports, playing high school ball, whatever, girls, boys -- we -- this nation loves sports -- I think one of the reasons this is resonating around the nation, not just in New York, is because it is the essence of sports.

When sports are good, they're great, and we are seeing that greatness right now, Omar.

JIMENEZ: It's one of those things where -- and some of the players have talked about this, where, especially when you're growing up playing a sport like basketball, there's a lot of emphasis on scoring, obviously, and trying to be the leading scorer.

I want to bring in, though -- Pamela Brown, I want to go back to you as we continue to follow this parade.

BROWN: All right, let's go over to the White House. That's where vice president J.D. Vance speaking on Iran.

J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: ... is already bearing real fruits for the American people.

Last night, 12.5 million barrels of oil went through the Strait of Hormuz. That is a high since the beginning of the conflict. Oil prices are down nearly at their level from the prewar conflict. Gas prices dropped below $4 a gallon today for the first time since the conflict.

And, importantly, they're going to keep falling further, given how low prices -- low oil prices are. On the military side, the Iranians for the second night in a row did not shoot at any ships in the Strait of Hormuz. So, so far, they are honoring their end of the commitment.

And on the blockade, CENTCOM has allowed north of a dozen ships to go through our naval blockade, and so we're also honoring our end of the early part of the agreement. On the military side, a couple of things that are still true and will be true whether the Iranians comply with the rest of the deal or not, number one, their nuclear program has been completely destroyed.

Their capacity for enrichment, the facilities at which they were using to develop enrichment and develop a potential nuclear weapon, those facilities are still destroyed. Their conventional military is still destroyed. Their capacity to threaten their neighbors is still largely gone.

And now we see whether they are willing to comply with the next step of the president's peace plan. As you all know, the part of the peace plan, the part of this MOU that I think have been most misrepresented by certain parts of the media is the idea that the Iranians get all these benefits. You will hear things about $300 billion or $24 billion or this or that number of money or amount of money.

And the simple fact is that the only way the Iranians get any of those resources, not a single penny, by the way, from the United States of America under any circumstances, but the only way that they would ever get any benefit of the bargain is if they comply fully and change their behavior.

And so you really have a win-win situation for the United States of America. If the Iranians don't change their behavior, their military and their nuclear program is still destroyed. If they do change their behavior, then they are going to have a transformative relationship with the Middle East, and the Middle East will have a transformative relationship with the people of Iran.

That's a win for the American people and for the president of the United States, regardless of which option the Iranians ultimately choose. We obviously want them to choose the right option. The interesting thing about their system -- and I think it's important for the American people to appreciate this point in particular -- is that there are real divisions within their country about how exactly to proceed.

And what we have seen over the last couple of months is that the pragmatists within the Iranian system, the people who really do want to transform their relationship with the Middle East and with the world, those people are winning the argument.

The United States wants those people to win the argument. The United States wants to have a better relationship. But in order for that to happen, the Iranians have to perform. And if they don't perform, as we have said before, they don't get any of the benefits of the bargain.

So what I'd ask all of you is just to report honestly that the United States isn't giving up a cent of money to Iran, and even the economic benefits, the sanctions relief and so forth that comes along with this bargain only happens if the Iranians perform.

So, with that, I want to say thanks to all of you. It's good to be with you this morning, and I will kick it over to questions. Let's start right over here to the right.

QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. Vice President.

I wanted to ask a follow-up on something you just mentioned. You talked about the possibility of the current Iranian leadership fundamentally changing their behavior. Do you think that the current Iranian leadership recognizes the leverage that the U.S. holds over itself economically and militarily enough to actually go forth with fundamentally changing their behavior over the long term and going about things differently?

VANCE: So, I certainly think they recognize the leverage that the United States has over them. We have seen that in a number of our conversations.

We have seen that just in their behavior over the last couple of days. They certainly recognize that the United States has great leverage. Will that ultimately lead to a change in behavior? I don't know.

I have seen skeptics of the deal. People say, the Iranians will never change their behavior. Well, maybe that's true. And, if so, they don't get any of the benefits of the bargain.

But isn't it worth trying? Isn't it worth seeing whether this incredibly weakened position that the president of the United States has put the Iranians under, whether that motivates them to change their behavior, not just vis-a-vis the West, but vis-a-vis the Middle East?