Return to Transcripts main page
The Situation Room
U.S. Set For Second World Cup Match; Social Media Bans For Kids?; Some Republicans Criticizing Iran Deal. Aired 10:30-11a ET
Aired June 19, 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]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:30:30]
PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Well, new this morning, we're seeing new evidence about one of the suspects investigators say wanted to attack the UFC event at the White House.
The Knox County, Ohio, Sheriff's Office released these photos of what they took from Tycen Proper's home after his worried mother called them. Her concerns were also heard on newly released bodycam video.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why do you need so many (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What did he say?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He said you can never have enough.
He said that you're fighting evil. (INAUDIBLE) evil. I know (INAUDIBLE) files and all the search traffic and all that is upsetting, and all the data centers and all the green (INAUDIBLE)
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right. So we're just making sure you don't want to go confront these people and harm these people. That's not your intent. Is that your intent?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're just upset with them, and rightfully so?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Deputies say they took two guns, a lot of ammunition and some tactical gear. Proper is among five men arrested in connection to the alleged plot. And Luigi Mangione's attorneys have now withdrawn their plan to argue
that he killed UnitedHealthcare's CEO while having an extreme emotional disturbance. The notice came one day after they indicated they would argue a psychiatric defense. No word on why they changed their plan.
And a small town in Georgia shot down a proposal to turn a warehouse into an ICE facility capable of holding 10,000 people. Officials in Social Circle filed a lawsuit in May against DHS claiming the department violated multiple public safety and environmental laws.
And a heroic scene in Washington state. A deputy rescued 2-year-old little boy left in a hot car for more than half-an-hour.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come here. Here, come on out. Come here. Come here. Come here. Come here. Come here. Hey, come here, bud. Come here. Can you come out with me? I got a sticker for you. Come here. Come here.
Don't go that way. There's glass. Come here. Come here. Come here. Come here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Makes your heart drop, right? The child was found unresponsive and sweating with his head slumped over. The deputy broke the windows and got him out. It was 92 degrees outside, so you can only imagine how hot it was inside that car. The parents now face charges of reckless endangerment.
Well, breaking news, sources tell CNN Israel and Hezbollah have agreed to renew a cease-fire, and it comes as the U.S. and Iran look to have more negotiations. Still, the so-called memorandum of understanding faces another stress test back in Washington.
President Trump says he thinks it's an unconditional surrender by Iran, but the agreement is drawing a rare rebuke from members of Trump's own party on Capitol Hill.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. TOM COTTON (R-AR): I do have concerns that certain aspects of this deal might be a step in the wrong direction.
SEN. JONI ERNST (R-IA): I have to know where that money is coming from, because I don't think my constituents are going to be really happy about it if that's all U.S. taxpayer dollars.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: CNN congressional correspondent Lauren Fox is here in THE SITUATION ROOM.
And I have to say, Lauren, it is rare to hear this kind of pushback and rebuke from so many Republicans.
LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, this is a wide swathe of the Republican Party, Pam.
BROWN: Right.
FOX: We are not just talking about maybe Senator Lisa Murkowski or Senator Susan Collins, who sometimes will break with their party on certain issues. This is Senator Tom Cotton. This is Senator Joni Ernst. I talked yesterday to Senator Ted Cruz.
And they have specific concerns with this deal. And one of those key concerns is potentially sending money to Iran and what the country will do with it. Take a listen to what some of the concerns were yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BILL CASSIDY (R-LA): Iran's left stronger. We are left weaker. There's a lot of stuff in there that's bad.
SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R-TX): Everything I have heard about it causes me concern.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): Whether or not you can land this deal with Iran, I don't know.
SEN. JOSH HAWLEY (R-MO): I certainly would want to give Iran money.
SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): History demonstrates that giving billions of dollars to theocratic lunatics who want to murder us is an exceptionally bad idea. And I think, unfortunately, the president is receiving some really bad advice on this deal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[10:35:00]
FOX: And I continued pressing Senator Ted Cruz in that scrum yesterday.
And he was asked repeatedly, what about some of the provisions related to ballistic missiles that Iran can continue having? And he said over and over again he really thinks the president's getting bad advice on this deal.
Senator Lindsey Graham, interestingly, told me yesterday that he believes that the administration needs some space to try to iron out a fuller negotiation. It's really interesting to me that Senator Lindsey Graham is one of the only Republicans on the Hill defending this deal, or at least trying to give the administration room to negotiate, given where he has been in the past.
BROWN: Yes, very much a hawk on Iran.
All right, Lauren Fox, thank you for bringing us the latest on Capitol Hill.
Let's discuss this with CNN political and global affairs analyst and Axios correspondent Barak Ravid. Also with us is retired Lieutenant General Ben Hodges. He is the former commander of the U.S. Army in Europe.
Barak, let's kick it off with you.
I want to start with just this renewed cease-fire we're learning about between Israel and Hezbollah. And it comes after a U.S. diplomat told CNN that Iran asked for guarantees that Israel -- Israeli attacks in Lebanon stop. We know there was some back-and-forth recently. Do you think this will appease the Iranians? How will this impact the 60-day window of negotiations?
BARAK RAVID, CNN POLITICAL AND GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: So, first, I would just add the word alleged before renewed cease-fire, because the cease-fire was supposed to come into effect at 4:00 p.m. local time, 9:00 a.m. Eastern.
And, as we speak, I think, just like half-an-hour ago, they were still fighting. They were still fighting in Southern Lebanon. And what I hear from Israeli officials, from Israeli defense officials, is that the guidance, the directive that they got from Israel's political leadership is to halt their attacks northern of what's called the Yellow Line, which means that 10-kilometer buffer zone that Israel occupies in Southern Lebanon.
So, everything north of that is a cease-fire, but everything south of that is business as usual. And the IDF has been directed to continue taking military action against threats in this area. So, I think that there's a -- quite a big difference in interpretation between Israel on the one hand and Hezbollah and Iran on the other hand when it comes to what the cease-fire actually includes.
BROWN: And I think it's right to be skeptical always when it comes to this, right, alleged cease fire.
And just given what you laid out, General, what do you think that means? Because, in this memorandum of understanding, one of the first lines is about stopping the war in Lebanon. So how do you think what he just laid out could impact the negotiations?
LT. GEN. BEN HODGES (RET.), FORMER U.S. ARMY EUROPE COMMANDER: Well, obviously, this memorandum of understanding has so many holes in it that even the Republicans are criticizing it, as Laura just told us.
The fact that it alleges that Israel and Lebanon will do certain things, or implies it, yet neither of them are actual parties to the negotiations in the agreement, so I think it's naive to think that Israel is going to do something that's not in its interest or that Hezbollah is going to do something that's not in its interest, unless it is -- they are compelled to.
So I -- the idea of a cease-fire never seemed likely to me. BROWN: And, Barak, the president recently sat down with your outlet,
Axios, to talk about a variety of issues, including the United States' relationship with Israel.
We have seen the president in recent days, including the vice president, take a harder line against Israel with their rhetoric. Listen to what the president had to say here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If it weren't for Donald Trump, Israel would have been eviscerated.
QUESTION: What's your relationship with Netanyahu?
TRUMP: It's good, but we have to keep him a little bit sane.
QUESTION: Are you going to be able to control Israel from attacking Lebanon?
TRUMP: Yes, I will be. I mean...
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: How?
TRUMP: They have a lot of respect for me. And they do as I say.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: So, a lot to unpack there. Trump says Israel will do as he says, Barak.
Is that the view inside the Israeli government?
RAVID: Well, the Israeli government is not monolithic. It has different parties and different elements and different characters.
And Netanyahu is definitely much more leaning towards accommodating Trump's request this way or another, even if not 100 percent of the time. But he's not the only one calling the shots, or at least he's dependent on hard-line ultranationalist politicians that he has put in key positions in his government.
[10:40:12]
And he has an election in less than four months. So this dependency on those extreme right elements is even higher. And this is why people like Itamar Ben-Gvir, the minister of national security, or Bezalel Smotrich, the minister of finance, or even Netanyahu's minister of defense, who is in his own party, when they do things or when they say things, Netanyahu is not really saying anything against it.
He's not going out against them. He's not forcing them to change course, especially because he knows that a lot of his political base supports what they say. And this is why, even if he wants to accommodate Donald Trump's request, he's not always able to do so.
And this is why I think we got to the point that we got with the vice president of the United States basically saying the quiet part out loud from the podium in the White House and saying what many people around Donald Trump think for a long time, that what this current Israeli government is doing is contrary to U.S. national security interests.
BROWN: But, of course, Israel has its own interests, the U.S. has its own interests.
And, on that note, General, during that interview, President Trump was also asked about whether he's experienced any limits of his power during the Iran war. And he said he hasn't, that he hasn't experienced limits on his power. What do you think about that?
HODGES: That's exactly the right phrase. We saw the limits of American power.
No matter how professional and effective our great Navy is and our great Air Force and all of this, the fact is, we still could not secure the Strait of Hormuz. The Iranians are still -- I mean, everybody knows what the actual situation is now. And despite the amount of money, the resources, the losses, we couldn't do it.
We saw the limit of American power. And part of this, of course, is how the administration treats our own allies, not only in the region, but also elsewhere and across Europe. Our power has always been tied to a strong network of allies.
And so we saw it now. When we try to go alone, it's not going to happen.
BROWN: But just to follow up with you, the president said he didn't experience any limits on his power. So, then why do you think he didn't do more, the military didn't do more to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and sort of take that leverage away from the Iranians?
HODGES: Because we couldn't.
I mean, the only way that -- I have to say, that's a ridiculous assertion that there was no limits on his power. If he really was serious about it, they were going to have to put troops on the ground. There's no other way to secure the strait.
And, of course, that's nothing that any American president would want to do. And, certainly, this president would not do it during an election year. So, that is one limit right there. We could not protect our partners and allies in the region from Shahed drones that were hitting facilities all over the Gulf, not to mention our own aircraft and radar and facilities that were hit.
The fact is, the Iranians still control -- they can make the decision about whether or not anything goes through the Strait of Hormuz. They still have capabilities. And they still are sitting on top of about 500 kilograms of highly and heavily enriched uranium that could be used at some point.
BROWN: All right, Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, Barak Ravid, thank you both.
Coming up here in THE SITUATION ROOM: Should kids under 16 be on social media? We will ask a children's health expert, as more countries nix access to teens' access and states are looking to limit their access.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:48:34]
BROWN: Happening now: The U.K.'s proposal this week to ban social media for people under 16 has American parents, kids and officials asking if it could happen here too.
This means children in the U.K. will no longer be allowed to access TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X, Snapchat, and YouTube. And the move has gotten a wide range of reactions, from praise to rebuke.
Joining us now to discuss is pediatrician and spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics Dr. Molly O'Shea. She's also an ambassador for the Center of Excellence on Social Media and Youth Mental Health.
Thank you so much for coming on the show, Dr. O'Shea.
First of all, what is your takeaway from U.K.'s social media ban, based on the research that you have studied?
DR. MOLLY O'SHEA, AMERICAN ACADEMY OF PEDIATRICS: Any ban that is absolute in this way often backfires.
And I think that a lot more thought and collaboration with youth and with parents needs to be done in order to ensure that the goals that the U.K. has in order to have youth use social media in a very positive way actually gets achieved.
BROWN: And it's interesting you say the bans can actually backfire.
There was this recent study by the Molly Rose Foundation that discovered that over 60 percent of Australian kids between the ages of 12 and 25 years old still had access to one or more of their accounts despite the ban there in Australia.
[10:50:00]
I mean, how do you actually enforce these sorts of bans when you hear that kids will still find a way?
O'SHEA: Yes, I mean, this is a story as old as time, I mean, let's face it.
Whether it's low-tech issues or high-tech issues, if kids have a strong interest in something, they're going to find a way to achieve that end, right? And kids -- childhood has changed a lot over the last 30 years. I have been in practice for 30 years.
And I'm here to tell you, childhood has changed a lot. And the digital space has become today's playground. Everything in early childhood, middle childhood, through middle school, it's proctored by adults. And the place the kids experience their most free, independent play is now in the digital world from the time they're in childhood in elementary school.
So to suddenly put a ban on a lot of those next-step experiences for adolescents, the vast majority of whom actually use those spaces quite well and successfully, is going to result in kids finding a way to get there.
BROWN: So I wonder what you have seen anecdotally and in the research about what that does to kids when they're using their phones as their playground?
Because then that means they're not socializing with other kids, they're not running around, getting the exercise. And I ask this because there are several states now that are looking at legislation to improve online safety and put more restrictions in place for kids. And so I wonder where you think that balance is.
O'SHEA: Well, I think a couple of things you said, I want to reframe a little bit. Kids are socializing. They're just doing it really differently.
So you and I might have gone out and knocked on another kid's door and asked them to play. Kids are now chatting and saying, hey, do you want to get online and play a game with me? So they are socializing. It just looks different than it used to. So, socializing and being with other kids is still happening.
(CROSSTALK)
BROWN: Can I just challenge you really quickly, though, Doctor, on that? Isn't there a difference between socializing on a phone than face-to-face and talking to someone and looking at their body language, and understanding what that means, and just creating a human connection, versus over the phone?
O'SHEA: Absolutely, and both need to happen, for sure. You can't exclude the in-person experiences and have them not happen. And those are still happening.
They're happening, though, in an adult-proctored environment. So they're happening in schoolrooms. They're happening at recess. They're happening in youth sports. And so those experiences are still occurring in large amounts, but they are happening in an adult- proctored environment.
So, when issues arise in those relationships, peer relationships, they're being resolved and kind of problem-solved with the assistance of adults. So, kids don't have that independent experience quite as often of resolving those issues on their own. In the digital space, where, true, oftentimes, you don't have that
visual component as often, and although sometimes you do, you still get the opportunity to negotiate those differences, those disputes, those issues, albeit in a different way.
BROWN: All right, Dr. Molly O'Shea, thank you for your time.
O'SHEA: Glad to be here.
BROWN: And we will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:57:24]
BROWN: And we are counting down to kick off for the World Cup showdown between the U.S. and Australia. This is a look right here outside Seattle Stadium, where fans are already lining up, as you see.
Can the team repeat the dominant performance from their first match? That is the big question today.
CNN sports anchor Andy Scholes is in Seattle for all the action -- Andy.
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Well, Pam, before the tournament, U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino, he said, why not us?
And the thought was still, though, that the U.S. had little chance of winning this World Cup. But after that dominant performance against Paraguay, a lot of fans walking around saying, why not us?
But, today, the U.S. is about to take the field for their second group stage match against Australia here in Seattle, just a few hours away. A big question today is, will star attacker Christian Pulisic be able to play? He aggravated a left calf injury in the first half against Paraguay.
He hasn't had a full training session all week long. Pochettino said yesterday they were going to get together late last night to make the decision on whether or not he will take the pitch.
Now, since the World Cup went to three group stage games, the U.S. has never won their first two games. A win today and a Turkey loss or draw would clinch first in the group for the U.S. Now, Australia is also riding high right now after upsetting Turkey. And the U.S. knows they're in for a battle.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TYLER ADAMS, U.S. WORLD CUP PLAYER: We just need to continue the same approach. We can't get too ahead of ourselves. It's time to flip the page. Australia is an incredibly tough opponent. So, yes, that's where the focus needs to be.
TIMOTHY WEAH, U.S. WORLD CUP PLAYER: We know what they're capable of. We have a huge respect for them. And we want to go into the game with the right mind-set and well prepared.
ANTONEE ROBINSON, U.S. WORLD CUP PLAYER: The performance has definitely got the country excited and the world to kind of recognize that we're a really good team and we can do things in this tournament which I don't think people expected us to do beforehand.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: Yes, all the fans certainly excited, and certainly excited about the play they saw from striker Folarin Balogun in that first game.
He was the first U.S. player to score two goals in a match here at the World Cup for the U.S. since 1930. Now, Balogun, he was born in Brooklyn, but only because, while his family was visiting the U.S. from the U.K., his mother was not allowed to board a plane due to safety concerns of her being heavily pregnant.
And he and his parents, they returned to the U.K. when he was two months old. But Balogun, he chose to play for the U.S. over England and Nigeria. And he says he's ready to find the back of the net once again today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FOLARIN BALOGUN, U.S. WORLD CUP PLAYER: That's what I'm here to do. That's what I practice and that's what I try to build my game around, being ruthless, and scoring goals, and making decisions for the team that count. And it's what you practice and it's what you're ready for.
And the rewards for scoring in a competition like the World Cup are going to be huge, so, yes, something to be excited about.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
