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Trump on Iran, We're Going to Hit Them Hard Tonight; Trump Says, Maybe We'll Take Over Kharg Island; Sources Say, Platner, Team Strategizing Exit from Maine Senate Race. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired July 08, 2026 - 10:00   ET

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

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[10:00:00]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, breaking news. President Trump says the Iran ceasefire is, quote, "over," and will, quote," hit them hard again tonight," his words, hit them hard again tonight. A major development in the Middle East unfolding. We're tracking all the late-breaking developments.

Also, live from aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, our Pamela Brown is the first American journalist reporting from that aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea. We're going to bring you her exclusive reporting straight ahead.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in The Situation Room.

And we begin with the major breaking news on the war with Iran. President Trump angrily declaring the ceasefire with Iran is over, and I'm quoting him now, we're going to hit them hard tonight, his words. Listen to the president at the NATO summit in Turkiye.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: They're scum. They're sick people. They're led by sick people. And they're vicious, violent people. And if they had a nuclear weapon, they'd use it. As far as I'm concerned, it's over. I'll speak to our negotiators. They want to negotiate, they're good people, Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner, but they have to come back to me. As far as I'm concerned, it's just a waste of time dealing with them. They're liars.

We hit them very hard last night, very, very hard. I'll probably hit them hard again tonight. I'll give them a little warning we're going to hit them hard tonight. But we'll see how it all works out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: This is video coming in of the U.S. strikes in Iran just last night. CENTCOM saying 80 Iranian targets were hit. The U.S. says it was retaliating for Iranian attacks on ships near the Strait of Hormuz. In addition to the strikes, the U.S. re-imposed sanctions on the sale of Iranian oil. Iran vowed a, quote, crushing response, and launched missiles and drones at 85 U.S. military targets across Bahrain and Kuwait. And as a result, oil prices have surged and stock markets are sliding. Oil jumping more than 6 percent just this morning.

The president also used the NATO Summit to lash out at key allies whom he accuses of not spending enough on defense and not helping with the war. He specifically targeted Spain. President Trump also revived his ambitions to annex Greenland, even suggesting that he could pull U.S. forces out of Europe over his unmet demands. Greenland, by the way, is a self-governed island that's clearly part of Denmark, a key fellow NATO ally.

Let's begin our coverage this hour in Turkiye and go live to CNN Senior White House Reporter Kevin Liptak. Kevin, with the president saying the ceasefire is over and the U.S. will launch more strikes against Iran tonight, does that mean an imminent return to a full- scale war is now likely?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, the president was pressed on that very question multiple times in that session with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and he didn't give a clear answer, although he did indicate that he is now willing to go further and hit Iran harder than he was previously. He even listed some specific sites, including bridges, desalination facilities, and Kharg Island, which is that key export point that U.S. officials have said would require a significant ground operation for the United States to take.

Now, President Trump has threatened those facilities before and he didn't follow through. Whether his newfound anger at Iran for, in his mind, violating the ceasefire leads him to take this step, I think, is an open question.

And it seems as if the president is now at another decision point. He was at this place in June before the memorandum of understanding was signed. And now he is there again having to decide whether to allow diplomacy to continue, which he says he will do. He says he will encourage Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner and J.D. Vance to continue trying and get nuclear concessions for the Iranians, or does he go back to conflict?

[10:05:00]

Does he revive the Operation Epic Fury in the same manner that was underway at the beginning of the war?

Now, remember, three weeks ago when this memorandum was signed, the president said that continuing the war would cause economic catastrophe. It doesn't seem as if any of the political pressures on the president have changed since then. And so it seems as if this will be a very, very difficult choice for the president to make into how this will proceed going forward.

We have not yet heard specifically from the Iranians and how they will respond to this, and I think it's difficult to imagine the Iranians coming to the negotiating table if the president revives this war as the way it was going when this all began in February. Wolf?

BLITZER: And he clearly said that the ceasefire is over and the U.S. will strike additional targets inside Iran tonight, very significant statement from the president of the United States.

Kevin Liptak at the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkiye, thank you.

I want to go to a CNN exclusive right now and go live to my co-anchor and good friend, Pamela Brown, who's on the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea. Pamela is the first American journalist reporting from aboard that aircraft carrier.

Pamela, it's been, what, an eventful 24 hours in the escalation of this war. Bring us up to date on what you're observing on that aircraft carrier, which is so critically important in the wake of all of these developments.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, I can tell you, Wolf, things are rapidly shifting. In fact, this ship left a port yesterday early so that it could be back out to sea and ready to support any missions possible.

And there's a lot of activity here on the flight deck where I am now. This is really the heart and soul of this aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln. It has a range of offensive and defensive options, including these missiles, these armaments right here that were pulled out.

Now, I'm told that typically before flights take off, which is expected tomorrow, there will be flight missions tomorrow. What they are remains to be seen. They do make sure that the planes are loaded up and ready to go.

But, of course, all of this takes on new meaning after you heard the president say that there will probably be some strikes tonight. What that looks like, I'm told by a source familiar, is they're still trying to figure it out. Tactical commanders are right now getting together, working out different options.

I can tell you, for one thing, there will be defensive missions coming from here, the USS Abraham Lincoln. Will there be another blockade imposed, something the Abraham Lincoln had been involved in previously? That is unclear as well. It is very dynamic, this source said.

And the source also told me that in the wake of those three vessels being hit yesterday, the Iranians continue to harass vessels trying to get through the Strait of Hormuz, particularly that Omani route because the Iranians want ships to go to the route closer to its coastline.

So, what I'm told the Iranians are doing right now is getting over the radio to these vessels trying to pass and saying, we're going to attack you. We're going to hit you with drones if you continue to move forward. Now, the source says that it did degrade Iranian capabilities around the strait and those overnight strikes that took place on both land and sea, including aircraft from another carrier here at sea. And so because of that, the Iranians are not as capable of attacking these vessels as they had been previously, and that some of the traffic there in the Strait of Hormuz has gone up a little bit today compared to yesterday after those attacks on those three vessels.

But things are very fast-moving here. The posture here is definitely on high alert. And I sat down with several Marine fighters today who shared that sentiment, that they're ready to go at a moment's notice, Wolf.

BLITZER: You know, Pamela, the president, as I've been reporting, said very clearly this morning that the ceasefire with Iran is, quote, over. Is there a sense aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln where you are what that means in practice? What's going to happen in the coming days and weeks?

BROWN: Well, what it means in practice is a lot of the aircraft you see right here, they're going to be utilized on this flight deck.

Now, again, at least for defensive missions, we don't know what else is in store, but this is going to be a very busy aircraft over the coming days.

And I can tell you, Wolf, that this ship has been at sea for the longest deployment in terms of consecutive days at sea in history. Folks have been on this ship, a lot of them, since last November. They're tired. They have been working around the clock. Many of the crew members I met today have never met their kids that have been born over the last several months.

And as I asked them, well, what do you think about this, the ceasefire falling through now? Does it make you lose hope that perhaps this deployment will end earlier? They said, look, there has been so much change, so much pivoting throughout this conflict. It's really no surprise.

One crew member telling me they feel sort of numb at this point and that this is the job they signed up for.

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They feel like they've been tethered 24 hours to restart the conflict and those offensive strikes, if need be. And so they're definitely in a ready posture here on the ship.

But, certainly, Wolf, you can imagine, as one crew member told me, they haven't slept off this ship since last November. And now with all of this uncertainty, with the memorandum of understanding going away, per the president, that could very well prolong the deployment of these crew members here on the USS Abraham Lincoln. Wolf?

BLITZER: And, Pamela, bring our viewers up to date on the strikes on commercial vessels transiting through the Strait of Hormuz, not far from where you are right now.

BROWN: Yes. So, we're around the Northern Arabian Sea. And not far from here, you have the Gulf of Oman, you have the Strait of Hormuz. And yesterday actually, the boat was supposed to leave port today, but it left early. It left yesterday because of those strikes on those three vessels. One was a Qatari vessel.

And the Iranians, according to sources we've been speaking with basically went rogue. There had been this quiet period during the funeral of the former supreme leader, but then they decided to get aggressive. And as the source said, that has shifted everything by attacking these vessels.

And, fortunately, there were no casualties, but that chain of events, we're seeing it play out now with the president shifting his move, his posture, saying that the ceasefire is over, that there will likely be more strikes tonight. And so, Wolf, it's very dynamic.

But I did mention earlier, the ships -- there are ships continuing to go through the strait on the Omani side of things, I'm told by that source. We'll see if that continues, particularly with these continued attacks from the Iranians.

BLITZER: All right. Pamela Brown, stay safe over there. We'll be in touch with you in the next hour as well, and you'll update our viewers. Thank you very, very much for doing this.

I want to continue our breaking news coverage right now with CNN's Fred Pleitgen. He's on the ground for us in Tehran with reaction to President Trump's latest comments. And we want to note this, CNN operates inside Iran only with the permission of the government, but maintains full editorial control of its reports. Fred?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The Iranians are lashing out at President Trump after the US president said he believes that the memorandum of understanding between Iran and the United States that, of course, guarantees a ceasefire between the two countries is, as he put it, over. One Iranian official that I spoke to said that he believed that President Trump's words as he announced all this were, quote, disgusting.

Other Iranian officials also ripping into the United States and into President Trump, especially after those overnight U.S. airstrikes, and, of course, the U.S. also revoking those sanctions waivers for the export of Iranian oil. In fact, the chief negotiator for the Iranians with the United States said that the time, as he put it, of bullying and extortion by the United States is over.

As you can imagine, a lot of folks here on the streets in Tehran speaking about the events that have been unfolding over the past hours. Here's what they told us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm criticizing the authorities of my own country. When they were supposed to give the right response to those people overseas, they didn't do so. Negotiations were against the will of the nation. They will have wasted all the efforts of our armed forces.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For the last 47 years, we have seen this type of threat so many times. And on the basis of these threats, day-by-day, we are getting stronger and more experienced.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PLEITGEN: It was a very kinetic night in the Persian Gulf area with the U.S. accusing Iran of targeting several ships looking to transit the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. then hitting several Iranian targets, they say around 80, around the Strait of Hormuz area, for instance, in the port town of Bandar Abbas. The Iranians themselves then saying that they hit back at U.S. military assets in this region themselves, striking 85 targets, that according to Iranian officials.

But one of the other things that makes all of this even more difficult is that right now, Iran is still very much in a period of mourning as the funeral commemorations for the late supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, are still going on. In fact, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's body is set to be laid to rest in one of the holiest cities of Shia Islam in Mashhad in eastern Iran on Thursday. And so therefore, the Iranians are saying this standoff at this point in time for them makes everything even more egregious.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Tehran.

BLITZER: And thanks to Fred for that excellent report.

I want to continue our conversation right now with CNN Military Analyst, retired US Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton, who's here with me in The Situation Room. Colonel, thanks very much for joining us, as usual.

The U.S. says it was retaliating for Iranian strikes on vessels near the Strait of Hormuz, as you know. The Trump administration sees that flow of shipping traffic as central to any potential peace deal, temporary or permanent.

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In your opinion, will Iran ever willingly cede that control over the Strait of Hormuz?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: It's going to be really difficult, Wolf, for the Iranians to cede control because what they've discovered through this war, this conflict that they've had with the U.S. and with Israel, is that once they get that leverage over the Strait of Hormuz, it's even more profound than any other leverage that they've had in the past.

They have done things in the Persian Gulf going all the way back to the 1980s, really to the beginning of the Islamic Republic, but none of them have been as effective in terms of actually shutting down or potentially shutting down the flow of oil and the flow of liquefied natural gas from the Persian Gulf. And so they realize that they're in basically a catbird seat when it comes to influencing the global economy, and this is a critical thing that the Iranians won't give up willingly.

BLITZER: President Trump conferred with his advisers at the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkiye, as you know, before ordering these latest strikes on various Iranian targets. What would those discussions be like before deciding to actually launch a major attack like this?

LEIGHTON: Yes. You know, it depends of course, on the personal chemistry between the various individuals involved. But the way -- it seems the way President Trump was describing things was that he didn't necessarily get permission from the Europeans, European NATO members to do anything like this. But they realize that this is a kind of a fait accompli. This is something that is going to happen regardless of what they say.

So, they're basically waiting to, you know, potentially join things, like mine sweeping operations in the Strait of Hormuz and perhaps other parts of the Persian Gulf. But the key thing for them is that they want this over with, because right now what they're depending on is that flow of oil and gas from that Persian Gulf region.

BLITZER: I just heard the president say at that news conference in Ankara, Turkiye, that the U.S. was going to attack Kharg Island, which is a critically important Iranian oil base, for all practical purposes. But he then said he told the military not to attack the oil facilities on Kharg Island because the U.S. may eventually wind up taking over Kharg Island. What do you think about that?

LEIGHTON: So what he's talking about basically, Wolf, is taking over potentially things like the airfield that's on Kharg Island, all the military installations, knocking out the surface-to-air missile sites that may still be there or may have been replaced on Kharg Island. And so those are the things that he's looking at. He's looking basically at military targets and potentially other infrastructure targets like, let's say, desalination plants or, you know, water supply, you know, other types of water supplies.

So, those are the kinds of things that he must be looking at, perhaps cratering the runways at the airfield there. Those would be those kinds of targets that could be hit, but he definitely wants to preserve that oil infrastructure because 90 percent of Iran's oil gets processed through Kharg Island.

BLITZER: And he says the U.S. may eventually wind up taking over all that oil as well.

Before I let you go, quickly, the president by declaring the ceasefire over, for all practical purposes, does that now give Israel the green light to really step up its attacks on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon?

LEIGHTON: Yes, potentially because the Iranians definitely see Lebanon as part of the overall peace process, and they believe that if Hezbollah is not covered in this, then Hezbollah has a full range of possibilities to attack Israel, and the Israelis will feel justified in going after Hezbollah at this point in time.

BLITZER: It looks like this whole Iran situation is heating up dramatically right now. We'll, of course, watch it very, very closely.

LEIGHTON: Yes, we will.

BLITZER: Colonel, thanks very much for all that information, excellent information.

Coming up, new CNN reporting coming in, new insight from those close to Graham Platner about where his candidacy now stands.

Plus, working on a permanent fix. Crews say a Manhattan high-rise is stable, at least for now, as several buildings in the area remain evacuated.

Stay with us here in The Situation Room.

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BLITZER: All right, there's breaking news just coming into The Situation Room, Iran now pushing back very hard on President Trump's threats to attack Kharg Island. That's a key hub for Iranian oil exports. A spokesperson for the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee just wrote this and posted it on X. This is what he said. We are waiting for you, and we promise that not a single American soldier will return alive, end quote, all that coming in.

Much more coming up on the dramatic developments unfolding in the war with Iran.

But there's other important stories we're following right now here in The Situation Room. There's more breaking news. CNN is now learning that Maine's Democratic Senate nominee, Graham Platner, and a small team of strategists are working to try to navigate his exit from the race, and that could come via a video message perhaps as soon as later today.

Pressure is clearly mounting big time for Platner to drop out. A former girlfriend, for the first time on camera to CNN, is describing Platner's alleged violent behavior, which he denies. Lyndsey Fifield is saying she was inspired by Jenny Racicot's bravery in coming forward with an allegation of rape. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: When Jenny told her story, what, if anything, aligned with your experiences?

LYNDSEY FIFIELD, PLATNER ACCUSER: The eyes.

TAPPER: The dead eyes, where he couldn't hear your protests?

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FIFIELD: I just know exactly what that looks like. I know exactly what it looks like, and it's -- that is something that I feel like people need to understand is it was almost like looking at like a pit bull, where they just -- there's -- it's nothing, like but not just nothing, but like a capacity for violence, and you see it. And you know it's there, and it's terrifying.

TAPPER: This is a very painful process and has been for a long, long time.

FIFIELD: Yes.

TAPPER: Continues to be. But it's important because you want the voters to know about him. What do you want them to know?

FIFIELD: I think they know now. They needed to know the truth. They needed to know because these things translate. It's not like -- the things that he does in private in his relationships with women, the things that he has done to women, coercive control, lying, deception, abuse, and really horrible things that we've, that we've that we know about him. Sorry.

We know that, that you can't be that way in private and not have it translate into how you would govern or how you would -- you know, when you're put in a position of power. And I think it terrifies me to think of him having any type of power politically because what is he going to do with the women in his office? How is he going to manipulate? How is he going to deceive? When I saw him lying about the Nazi tattoo, that was the first kind of chip in my armor where I was like, I can't let him continue to lie like this.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Graham Platner's campaign says the allegations are categorically false and come from a person with a well-documented political agenda, end quote.

CNN's Chief National Affairs Correspondent Jeff Zeleny is here with me in The Situation Room. What more are you hearing from Platner's campaign?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, we are learning that a small team of strategists surrounding Graham Platner are working to try and navigate an exit from this race. Not trying to stay in or work on a path forward, but to navigate an exit. One source tells me this. This could and should end today. We'll see if it does.

So, the reality is here, time is on the move. He has until Monday, July 13th at 5:00 P.M. to drop out. There's already some many behind the scenes fights going on between the campaign wanting to have a bit of a say in who the Democratic nominee is.

The Maine Democratic Party putting out a very explicit message last evening saying, this is not the Platner campaign's role in this going forward, that they will decide and the people of Maine will decide, the voters will decide. But there are many people lining up here. But none of that can happen until Platner decides to leave.

So, this is going to come, we're told, in a video message. His supporters expect it to come at some point, but, again, he has not yet pulled the trigger on it.

But the reason that this is so important, Maine is one of the most consequential Senate races of this midterm campaign. All the while, Republican Senator Susan Collins, who's running for her sixth term in office, is busy campaigning as this Democratic mess is going on.

BLITZER: They thought she was vulnerable, Susan Collins, and let's see what happens. This is a critical --

ZELENY: Less than four months until midterms.

BLITZER: Yes, this is a critical moment right now, Jeff.

Jeff Zeleny, thank you very, very much.

And joining us now is the chief of -- the Washington bureau chief, I should say, of USA Today, Susan Page. She's a good friend of ours.

Susan, what's your reaction to the breaking news that Platner and his team are currently strategizing potentially an exit strategy from the Maine Senate race?

SUSAN PAGE, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, USA TODAY: So, it's acknowledging the reality that he will not be the next senator from Maine. But it's a delicate process because there's no way for the party to force him to give up the nomination. He won that in the primary. So, they do -- while they're saying he doesn't have a role to play in who the next nominee is going to be, they do need him to make this decision to step aside.

And they also need to unite a Democratic Party that is in kind of a mess. You know, the two-term governor, Janet Mills, suspended her campaign after she made no traction against Graham Platner. He came out of nowhere to win this nomination on a surge of outsider sentiment. So, they've got less than four months for Democrats to unite and defeat Susan Collins, which, as Jeff said, is crucial to their hopes of winning control of the U.S. Senate.

BLITZER: It could be critical indeed. There's an argument, as you know, Susan, that because Platner was a progressive and he won the Democratic primary, that he should be replaced by another progressive. How likely is that?

PAGE: Well, that's going to be for the Maine Democratic Party to determine. But I think that is an argument that may have some resonance with voters in Maine. And there are some of the alternative candidates, including Troy Jackson, who is a more experienced politician, but someone who has progressive credentials, who endorsed Graham Platner and was endorsed by him in Jackson's gubernatorial bid.

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So, someone like that could potentially kind of bridge that gap. But you got a little bit of a process ahead to try to get there.