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The Situation Room

At Least 1,450 Killed in Venezuela Earthquakes; Status of U.S.- Iran Talks Unclear; Trump Loses Federal Reserve Case at Supreme Court. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired June 29, 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]

CULLY STIMSON, SENIOR LEGAL FELLOW, THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION: Because the real question, to your point earlier, is, is misconduct, if it happened, that took place before you assumed office sufficient to have you be fired while you're in office?

Because what is the limiting principle to that? If you commit misconduct while you're in office, that's different, OK? But if you mis -- if you do mortgage fraud or some other misdemeanor or something before you assume office, and then you get confirmed by the Senate, the time to stop that person from becoming -- in the government is during the Senate confirmation process, right?

That didn't happen here.

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes.

I'd go even further than that. It's does misconduct that does not tie to one's performance specifically on the job? Like, we all are in agreement that showing up drunk to work or being abusive in the workplace or whatever else would be the kinds of things that under I guess a more traditional notion of being fired for cause would be enough to get someone fired for cause.

That -- one of the central questions certainly at the oral arguments and in the papers around Lisa Cook's case was, this was not conduct that was specifically tied to her work at the Fed. Now, look, it is related to mortgages and money and finances, and one could say it is grossly negligent of someone to be accused of this misconduct.

And so I'm not justifying it in any way, but it's not her work at the Fed.

STIMSON: Right.

WILLIAMS: And I think that's the open question. How do they handle that?

(CROSSTALK)

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: To get some more analysis, I want to bring in Treasury Department economist Natasha Sarin.

She also worked under Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

I'm wondering just if you could tell us how the markets are responding to the outcome here.

NATASHA SARIN, YALE LAW SCHOOL: Well, I mean, we're still in sort of early innings here, but the markets are likely to respond very positively because you're in a situation where the Supreme Court did what it was expected to do, but very clearly articulated that the Federal Reserve in some ways is special relative to other agencies.

And it's special because it needs to be clear of political influence and only make decisions based on the trajectory of interest rates and what's happening with the employment picture. This attempt to remove Lisa Cook was not consistent with that idea of a Federal Reserve that is independent and free from political sway.

And, as a result, the court very clearly concluded that she's entitled to a set of procedural steps before any idea of potentially removing her for cause is at play.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: All right, Natasha, I want you to stand by. I want everybody to stand by.

We're getting some major decisions from the United States Supreme Court. We will have much more on that coming up.

We have this programming note for all of our viewers. CNN All Access will host a special on today's Supreme Court action at 1:00 p.m. Eastern later today. CNN's Paula Reid will break down the decisions, try to answer your questions. You can submit them right now by e- mailing us at CNNAllAccess-questions@CNN.com. Once again, that's CNNAllAccess-questions@CNN.com.

And be sure to join Paula, along with her expert guests, on CNN All Access at 1:00 p.m. Eastern later today.

BROWN: Very big day at the High Court.

And still ahead: incredible rescues from the rubble, an 18-day-old baby and his mother found alive among the devastation. We are on the ground in Caracas, where desperate search efforts are under way.

BLITZER: And catastrophic floods devastating Kentucky right now. Rescues are under way.

Stay with us. Lots going on. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

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[10:37:58]

BROWN: Happening now: Negotiators for the U.S. and Iran are scheduled to meet in the coming days in Qatar. That's according to a diplomatic source with knowledge of the talks.

Iran has yet to confirm that it has agreed to any meeting, even though President Trump on TRUTH Social said they requested it. The framework agreement was supposed to end any fighting between the two sides for 60 days while talks were held to hammer out a formal end to the war.

And, in Lebanon, attacks continue despite an agreement last week between Israel and Lebanon to end the fighting. Iran-backed Hezbollah says it won't sign on to the agreement.

We have full coverage of these developments.

Let's go live now to Paula Hancocks in the UAE. And Jeremy Diamond is in Jerusalem.

Paula, first to you.

So, Trump says Iran requested this meeting tomorrow. Iran has yet to confirm these talks. Where do things stand right now?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pamela, it's certainly not the first time that we're hearing something different from both sides.

What we have heard earlier in the day -- now, this was before we had that TRUTH Social post from Trump. We heard from the deputy foreign minister in Iran saying that no working-level technical talks are planned for this week, saying that reports say that there were going to be talks in Doha are yet to be confirmed.

Now we're waiting to hear if there is any update on that. But certainly what we have seen over the past several days is the most serious escalation between the U.S. and Iran since this MOU was signed. We have been hearing consistently from Iran, when it comes to the Strait of Hormuz, they believe that they are in charge.

They believe that they control the vessels that are going through this very critical waterway, and also saying that the vessels going through have to go through the Iranian route, so closer to their coastline. In fact, what we're actually seeing is many vessels trying to go through the Strait of Hormuz hugging the Omani coast.

Now, when it comes to what's actually making it through the straits at this point, we have figures from these maritime agencies saying that 42 got through on Sunday. Usually, you see well over 100 prewar levels.

[10:40:10]

So we're still seeing vessels trying to go through. We're also seeing several larger tankers, according to some of these agencies, reporting they are attempting to get through as well. So, even though we're seeing this heightened level of tensions between the two sides, which the U.S. now says they have pulled back from, we are still seeing a number of these vessels trying to come through and take goods, take energy, take oil out to the rest of the world -- Pamela.

BROWN: All right, I'm going to go to you, Jeremy, for some more reporting, because Israel and Lebanon, as we know, agreed to end the fighting last week. Tell us more about why we're seeing these attacks continue.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, this has really been the story of the various agreements that we have seen in order to try and bring about a cease-fire in Lebanon.

We have seen continued Israeli strikes inside of Southern Lebanon. We have also at times seen Hezbollah attacks against Israeli troops in that area, as well as against Northern Israel.

The story of this weekend certainly has been repeated Israeli drone strikes in Southern Lebanon, with the Israeli military claiming that they were going after either armed Hezbollah militants near Israeli troops in that -- what they are calling a security zone of Southern Lebanon or taking out what they have described as Hezbollah -- quote, unquote -- "command centers."

Hezbollah, for its part, has described these various Israeli strikes, including one on a residential building in Southern Lebanon, as violations of the cease-fire agreement.

And, of course, the backdrop to all of this is that latest agreement between the Israeli and Lebanese governments on Friday that will see the withdrawal of the Israeli military from at least two positions in Southern Lebanon, one north of that critical Litani River, the other one south of it.

These are pilot programs intended to see whether the Israeli military can then hand over control of some of this territory to the Lebanese military and try and prevent Hezbollah from reestablishing itself in these areas.

The Israeli government will point -- as it justifies some of these attacks that it has carried out over the weekend, point to this agreement where it says that the Israeli military can act against -- quote -- "attacks, threats posed by and the hostile intent of Hezbollah," obviously something that's very open to interpretation, and which the Israeli military seems to be seizing on in order to continue to carry out various strikes in Southern Lebanon over the weekend.

The question is how all of this is going to impact, as we know, the broader negotiations between the United States and Iran, as the two parties are set to meet in Doha on Tuesday now to further those discussions, Lebanon almost certain to come up at that table -- Pam.

BROWN: All right, Paula Hancocks, Jeremy Diamond, thank you both -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, I want to continue the conversation with David Sanger right now. He's a CNN political and national security analyst. He's the author of the book entitled "The New Cold Wars."

David, why is the status of these talks so unclear right now, even with this memorandum of understanding supposedly in place? DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well,

Wolf, I think one reason is that the memorandum of understanding was sort of a rush job, as you recall. It's only 14 paragraphs' long.

Only one paragraph deals with the nuclear program, which, of course, was the initial impetus for the American and Israeli attack on Iran, or at least one of the main impetuses. And it never really established some fundamental questions.

Who controls the Gulf? It just said that for 60 days ships would be able to pass toll-free and that Iran would make its best efforts. But it left the impression that it was Iran's responsibility. The Iranians have now leapt on that to say it's Iran's sovereign territory, and that's why you're seeing these continued arguments there.

And then, of course, there are forces inside Iran that dislike this agreement at all. And so they're very capable of conducting these kind of small attacks that only serve to slow everything down and make everyone wonder whether or not this cease-fire is actually just an empty shell.

BLITZER: Iran also has been targeting in recent days several U.S. allies in the region -- we're talking about Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain -- with its attacks.

What is Iran's strategy right now? Are they looking for an escalation?

SANGER: You know, I think what they're doing, Wolf, is that they are looking for ways where they both establish that they have emerged from the war relatively unscathed.

Obviously, they lost their navy, as the president often points out. They lost their air force, but they retain the ability to strike the American Arab allies in the Gulf and American bases there. So one is to show they survived.

[10:45:05]

I think the second is to simply slow down this negotiating period. Now, we don't know whether these technical talks will take off this week, but you heard in one of those earlier reports that they may not. Every week you lose is more than 10 percent of the allotted time of 60 days.

So, none of us expect this agreement to come together in 60 days. I think the question facing the Trump administration is, are they willing to live with this sort of amount of low-level disruption and occasional violence in pursuit of this bigger agreement?

BLITZER: The governments of Israel and Lebanon have been meeting formally here in Washington in recent days, and they signed an actual cease-fire agreement, maybe even more than a cease-fire agreement, the other day.

But the fighting has continued in Lebanon. Hezbollah hasn't signed on to this new agreement, at least not yet. So, what's the point of any agreement if Hezbollah isn't on board? Because, clearly, the Lebanese army can't control Hezbollah, and the Israelis are fighting Hezbollah. The Israelis are reacting to Hezbollah attacks against Northern Israel.

SANGER: Well, if the Lebanese army could control Hezbollah over the past few years, we wouldn't be having this discussion, right? I mean, the problem would not be there. Hezbollah was not a signatory to the agreement, and thus doesn't feel bound to the cease-fire.

And, of course, every time they go and strike an Israeli target, the Israelis then say, well, we're just reacting to a strike on us. We didn't initiate a cease-fire violation. So, again, it's a result to some degree of the hastiness with which the 14 points were put together, because that document declared that there would be a cease- fire, but Israel wasn't a party to that initial document two weeks ago.

Lebanon wasn't a party to that. That's why they had to try to get this group together. And Hezbollah certainly was not.

BLITZER: If you read closely that agreement that was signed by the governments of Israel and Lebanon the other day, it looks almost like a peace treaty is in place, almost like the agreement that Israel signed with Jordan, the agreement Israel signed with Egypt.

And, potentially, it looks like it could happen with Lebanon. What do you think?

SANGER: Well, if it does, that's a great thing, and it would be a wonderful thing to have a direct relationship between the Lebanese government and the Israelis that, first of all, was active and second was peaceful.

But that still leaves the Hezbollah problem right in the middle of Lebanon.

BLITZER: All right, David Sanger, as usual, thank you very, very much -- Pamela.

SANGER: Great to be with you.

BROWN: All right, here's what's coming up, all new at the top of the hour, Wolf.

Major rulings just in from the Supreme Court. We're going to ask Democratic Congressman Josh Gottheimer and Republican Congressman James Comer about these decisions.

Plus, wildfires ravaging tens of thousands of acres on the Colorado- Utah border. Three firefighters were killed battling the flames. What we're learning about the ongoing threat.

And the new plan to provide millions of Medicare users with cheaper access to weight loss drugs.

That's all new next hour. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:52:50]

BLITZER: Happening now: At least 1,450 people have died in the devastating earthquakes in Venezuela. Crews are desperately searching for survivors in the rubble of collapsed buildings.

Despite the devastation, there have been some incredible, truly incredible rescues. A baby just 18 days old and his mother were pulled out from under a building 32 hours after the earthquake hit. And you can see there a 21-year-old man was pulled from the rubble of a building today. That's five days after the earthquakes hit.

BROWN: All right, let's go live now to CNN Stefano Pozzebon in Caracas.

Despite some of these incredible rescues we're seeing, and particularly this little baby, my goodness, there is growing frustration there over the pace of recovery, right?

STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, of course, there is frustration.

And I think it's understandable, if you think, Pam, that this country has had the most devastating economic crisis that I personally have seen, that any nation has seen out of a war zone in the last 10 years. And so, of course, that is the context that sometimes we tend to forget when it comes to Venezuela and this dramatic catastrophe that has hit the country in the last five days.

However, of course, the reality is that this country is not prepared to deal with this level of destruction. Yesterday, for example, we were in La Guaira, which is the state north of the city of Caracas, which is one of the most hit in -- by the earthquake.

And they have -- they -- the land -- the road to go there was completely congested, for example. They were struggling a lot to move the heavy machinery, to move resources around, to move the assets that they have.

And heavy machinery is what you need. And you can see that here they're using two excavators to clean up that pile of rubble there, Wolf, Pam, because, in order to go through everything, they go through the pile of rubble and remove all of the -- all of the stacked floors, one on top of each other. It's important to have that level of machinery. But this country doesn't have them enough.

[10:55:00]

And, yesterday, we spent a few hours with a rescue team from Fairfax County in Virginia, for example. And the disparity between the equipment that the U.S. crew had compared to the Venezuelan rescue workers was all there to be seen.

So it's understandable that there is this frustration, because a lot of people want answer, and the government is not prepared to give them at this moment. They don't have the resources to mobilize to come up with a response.

And it's also a feeling, Pam, that this nation is having right now because everyone knows that three days is normally the last moment that you can find a survivor alive from an earthquake disaster like this one. It's been five days now.

There are still miracles. And those miracles give us the hope that are fueling the search-and-rescue operation in this country. But everyone is conscious that, the more time progresses, the fewer those miracles will be.

So, there is also a moment of a nation that is coming together to recognize the magnitude of the tragedy that they have just lived through and understanding how to make sense of it. Thousands of people, tens of thousands of people no longer have a place to -- no longer have a place to live.

Tens of thousands have been injured. Tens of thousands have lost a loved one. There is also a collective grief that at some point will need to be addressed. And five days into this tragedy, that collective grief is starting to boil over the surface -- Wolf, Pam.

BLITZER: Yes, let's hope some of those miracles continue.

Stefano Pozzebon, thank you very much for your update.

And for more information about how you, our viewers, can help Venezuela earthquake victims, go to CNN.com/Impact.

And we will be right back.

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