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The Situation Room

Interview With Rahm Emanuel; Aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln; Iran Cease-Fire Over?. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired July 08, 2026 - 11:00   ET

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

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WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Happening now, breaking news: threatening more attacks on Iran. President Trump says the cease-fire with Iran is -- quote -- "over" and that the U.S. will hit Iran again tonight. He's about to speak from the NATO summit in Turkey, and we're going to bring that to you live. Stand by for that.

Plus, reaction from crew members aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier. Pamela Brown is aboard that aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea right now. We're going to bring you her exclusive reporting just ahead.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BLITZER: And breaking news right now, at any moment, President Trump will speak, and we will bring you his remarks live. You're looking at live pictures coming in from that NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey.

All this comes just a short time after the president said the cease- fire with Iran is over, his word, and he warned -- and I'm quoting him again now -- "We're going to hit them hard tonight" -- end quote.

Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They are behaving very badly, as they have for 47 years. But they launched a couple of drones and one rocket, one missile, and -- at ships, because they were in the strait, which they have every right to be.

And so we hit them very hard last night, very, very hard. Probably hit them hard again tonight. I will give them a little warning. We're going to hit them hard tonight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: "I will give them a little warning. We're going to hit them hard tonight." That's what he said.

This is video of the U.S. strikes in Iran just last night. The U.S. military Central Command says 80 targets were hit. The U.S. says it was retaliating for Iranian attacks on ships near the Strait of Hormuz.

The U.S. also reimposed sanctions on the sale of Iranian oil. Iran vowed -- and I'm quoting now -- "a crushing response." That's what they're saying. And Iran launched missiles and drones at 85 U.S. military targets based along Bahrain and Kuwait, key U.S. allies.

CNN senior White House reporter Kevin Liptak is joining us from Ankara, Turkey, right now, where this two-day NATO summit has been happening.

Kevin, with the president saying the cease-fire is, in his word, over and that the U.S. will launch more strikes against Iran tonight, does that mean a return to a full-scale war?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, the president was asked that multiple times in his meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He didn't necessarily answer it directly, but he is signaling that he is now more willing than he was previously to take actions against Iran, very tough actions, in his view.

And he is listing some specific targets that he is considering going after, including bridges, desalination plants, and Kharg Island, which is that critical export point for Iranians' -- Iran's oil. Now, the president has threatened those locations previously, but he has stopped short of bombing them.

We should note that civilian facilities like bridges and desalination facilities would be considered a war crime if the U.S. targeted them. And so we don't know yet that the president has actually made a decision on that, but he -- certainly clear here that the president does not see an avenue for diplomacy going forward.

Yes, he says that he would allow his negotiators, Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner, and the vice president, J.D. Vance, to continue their attempts around a negotiating table to get nuclear concessions from Iran,but he said just point blank that he thinks it's a waste of time and that he thinks the Iranians have been dishonest with the U.S. over the course of this three-week cease-fire.

[11:05:15]

The president signed this exactly three weeks ago. At the time, he was a lot more favorable in his descriptions of the Iranians. Back then, he said they were smart. He said that they were more reasonable from the previous regime. Now he's calling them scum and he's calling them cuckoo, so clearly the president very upset that this is not going perhaps the way he thought it would, and saying that these strikes will continue for the foreseeable future -- Wolf. BLITZER: All right, Kevin Liptak at that NATO summit in Ankara,

Turkey, thank you very, very much.

CNN global affairs commentator and former Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh is here with me in THE SITUATION ROOM.

Sabrina, the administration says it struck Iran for its attacks on commercial ships going through the Strait of Hormuz. Will these strikes by the U.S. deter the Iranian regime?

SABRINA SINGH, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: I don't think these strikes are going to deter Iran. I think Iran has become more emboldened.

They -- I mean, because of some of the language of the MOU, it was confusing on who is actually responsible, not only for demining the strait, but who is going to manage traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. And because of that, Iran basically interpreted the MOU as that they are going to own some of the traffic and managing that traffic through the strait.

So they feel emboldened that, as ships transit and they're not coordinating with Iran, they're going to respond. And, of course, you saw the U.S. respond last night. I think the miscalculation here that this administration is making is that we have seen that bombing Iran into some type of submission doesn't actually work, that they do retain and maintain their capabilities.

So can we get back to the negotiating table? It remains unclear, but the president seemed pretty direct in the fact that he is willing to resume kinetic action.

BLITZER: And despite declaring the cease-fire effectively over...

SINGH: Yes.

BLITZER: That's what the president used, the word over. Trump also said peace talks with Iran potentially could still continue. Now that military strikes have resumed, though, how difficult will it be to keep negotiations alive?

SINGH: It's going to be very difficult, I mean, especially with the president's re rhetoric today, calling them cuckoo, calling them scum.

I mean, that's not really going to help bring the two parties back to the negotiating table, when both sides actually are disparaging each other. So I think it's going to be really, really difficult to get these conversations back on track.

I do think though, both sides, both Iran and the United States, do not want a resumption of a full-scale war. The president has a clock that is ticking towards the midterms. Gas prices, we know shot back up as soon as these kinetic strikes started back up again yesterday. So he has a political calculation to make.

Iran can run out the clock a bit longer than the U.S. and can make us feel the pain here at home and the global economy. But the president is going to really have to make a calculation. Do you still -- do you want to resume this war, which Secretary Rubio, Secretary Hegseth said had concluded, right before voters are about to start going to the polls heading into November?

BLITZER: You know, I thought it was interesting. The president said his negotiators, the men who have been talking to Iran, Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner, they can continue their talks if they want...

SINGH: Right.

BLITZER: ... although President Trump clearly said it's a disaster, it's a failure, nothing is going to happen because the Iranians, as he calls them, are scum.

SINGH: It doesn't really help with negotiations. And I think every day that you have Steve Witkoff, you have Jared Kushner going to the table to try and negotiate some type of deal.

The president is sort of throwing cold water on it and saying basically, well, I will blow up the deal if I feel like it. They're not really working with us.

And I think he has a point. Iran is willing to drag this out as long as possible, and they are willing to go back and forth on this fine print for as long as it takes. You have seen -- the president, today, I think you saw the frustration that he that he expressed at that bilateral meeting.

So it's going to be really hard to get negotiations back on track. We have seen it happen before, and we have seen J.D. Vance pulled into these talks to try and get things back on track. But it's going to be really hard with the actions that we just saw over the last 24 hours.

BLITZER: You know, it's interesting. The government of Prime Minister Netanyahu in Israel is pleased that these negotiations seem to be over right now, the cease-fire is over, because they want to continue their effort to try to achieve their objectives, specifically just trying to destroy Hezbollah and Lebanon and destroy whatever is left of Hamas in Gaza, whatever.

SINGH: Yes.

BLITZER: They want this war to continue because their objectives have not yet been met. So that would presumably please the Israelis that this war is now going to not only continue, but might even escalate.

SINGH: That's right.

Prime Minister Netanyahu was pretty open about the fact that he objected to this MOU that the United States signed with Iran.

BLITZER: Memorandum of understanding.

SINGH: Correct, the memorandum of understanding.

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So the fact -- the United States had to get Israel to pull back on continuing their strikes in Lebanon. That hasn't exactly worked out as planned, but Lebanon was part of this larger MOU that was signed. Israel does want to continue its war. They feel that this is unfinished. They feel like the MOU will make them less safe.

And so they want to continue kinetic action. So the fact that, if potentially this cease-fire is falling apart, Israel's ready to go. And I think they're ready to stand with the United States if President Trump decides, let's start this war back up.

BLITZER: Yes, I assume they will be ready for that.

SINGH: Yes.

BLITZER: All of this is happening while the president has been at the NATO summit in the past day or two in Turkey.

SINGH: Right.

BLITZER: And this morning, President Trump once again slammed NATO over what he claims is the organization's unwillingness to help with the war in Iran.

What effect could these criticisms actually have on the NATO allies? Do you think NATO will get more involved in what the U.S. has been trying to do with Iran?

SINGH: I don't think you're going to see NATO allies get involved in offensive kinetic actions when it comes to Iran. I think you have seen commitments from NATO allies like the U.K., like France to help with the demining efforts.

But the rhetoric from the president of disparaging our allies -- I mean, NATO is the greatest defensive alliance in history with 32 countries that has stood as a deterrent factor to Russia. We need NATO right now, and NATO will outlive and outlast this president.

So comments like this are not only harmful to our relationships, but it's also going to turn off our allies from working with the U.S. You're already seeing European countries turning to other countries for technology, for relationship-building.

That on the geopolitical stage and strategically hurts the United States in the long run.

BLITZER: What sort of air defense capabilities does Iran right now still have as far as U.S. strikes are concerned?

SINGH: Well, we -- I mean, just recently, we saw Iranian defenses take down one of our Apache pilot -- an aircraft. So they do retain not only air defense capabilities, but they also maintain a huge drone swathe that we know has caused extreme damage to our bases in the Middle East and to our allies. So Iran does retain capabilities that threaten the region, and that's

why it's really important to get some type of cease-fire, longer-term agreement, because, ultimately, I don't think the U.S. military can sustain this force posture that we have for months to years.

I mean, we have expended through our stockpiles, and Secretary Hegseth even in his own hearings has said it's going to take years to backfill our stocks. So this war has had an impact on the U.S. and our allies, and it's going to take a while to rebuild on all sides.

BLITZER: And the Iranians are still launching drone and missile strikes against U.S. bases inside allied countries like Kuwait and Bahrain, for example.

SINGH: Right, Kuwait and Bahrain, yes.

BLITZER: Just overnight, they were doing that. And so there's concern that that will continue as well.

SINGH: That's right.

BLITZER: All right, Sabrina, as usual, thank you very, very much.

SINGH: Thank you.

BLITZER: Sabrina Singh helping us.

Still ahead: Our own Pamela Brown is aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, a key U.S. aircraft carrier in the Middle East. She's the first American journalist to report from that ship, as the war with Iran clearly is escalating right now, with President Trump declaring just in the past few hours that the cease-fire with Iran is over, his word, over, and threatening more strikes against Iran tonight.

Lots going on. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

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BLITZER: At any moment now, President Trump will speak over at the NATO summit in Turkey, which is just wrapping up. You can see live pictures coming in from the podium there. We will have live coverage of that once it begins. Stand by for that.

In the meantime, we're getting exclusive reporting from aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea,after President Trump said the cease-fire with Iran is -- quote -- "over" -- his word -- he said over -- and that the U.S. will hit Iran tonight.

Our Pamela Brown is the first American journalist aboard the aircraft carrier. Here's her report from aboard the flight deck.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: So here we are on the flight deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln, and there's a lot of activity tonight, just as President Trump says there could be more strikes on Iran. This is one of two aircraft carriers in the region. And you see behind

me what's called the bridge, the flight tower. This is where all the shots are called. And you see the planes. Here they are on this deck. There's F-35s, F-18s, Growlers, E-2s. All of them play certain roles in the conflict.

Now, what we know for sure, per a U.S. official I spoke to, is that there will be defensive missions happening on the USS Abraham. And, in fact, there has already been a shift in operational plans in the wake of the Iranian tax on those vessels.

This ship left port early yesterday so that it could be out here at sea and ready to go in case orders are given. So you can see some of that preparation happening right now. There's some maintenance happening over here on this helicopter.

And then, if we pan over here, you can see they pulled out some armaments, some missiles to put on the flights. Now, I'm told that would be standard operating procedure because tomorrow is a flight day. But, of course, this takes on new meaning in the wake of the latest rhetoric from the president and the Iranians as well.

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So we will have to wait and see. As one source said, it is a very dynamic situation here.

BLITZER: You know, Pamela, the president, as I have been reporting, said very clearly this morning that the cease-fire 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 appointment 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 had 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 cease- fire falling through now, does it make you lose hope that perhaps this appointment 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. They feel like they have 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: All right, Pamela Brown aboard the Abraham Lincoln, stay safe over there. We will continue to check in with you throughout this week.

She's live from aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier.

And still ahead this hour: Military sources give us new insight into a U.S. airstrike on Iran that killed nearly 200 people at a school, most of them little girls. CNN's exclusive new reporting on why that attack happened, despite warnings about what's described as dated information.

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BLITZER: At any moment, President Trump will speak from the NATO summit in Turkey. We're showing you live pictures. We will have live coverage of that once it begins.

In the meantime, though, polls show U.S. support for Israel is on a steady decline among American voters in both political parties.

Rahm Emanuel just gave a speech at Tel Aviv University calling on the government to make changes to ensure America's continued support. We're talking about the Israeli government. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAHM EMANUEL, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL AND GLOBAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: I came here from Chicago to tell you directly where things need to head if we are going to maintain the historic alliance between two democracies.

To maintain the strength of our ties, this alliance needs significant changes and a new direction.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: And joining us now is Rahm Emanuel, CNN senior political and global affairs commentator, former U.S. ambassador as well.

You said that the U.S.-Israeli alliance right now is at a crossroads and can't survive as it has been, at least not now. What did you hope to accomplish with this major speech you just gave at Tel Aviv University? EMANUEL: Yes, my basic point was that the alliance is at a tipping

point. The status quo is unsustainable for the United States and for Israel, as its principal ally.

And if it doesn't change, it comes apart. And I not only made that observation, but, more importantly, offered ideas of a 23-state solution, economic integration, so Israel no longer is a pariah that stands apart from the Middle East, but stands as an integral part to the Middle East.

And my goal was to understand -- have them understand the depth they have lost the American public. This government has failed Israel's security interests by losing American public support. It has failed by losing Europe, its most important economic market.

And the only country they picked up in the last three years was Somaliland. That's not in Israel's strategic interest, and it's not in America's interest to have its principal ally become a pariah around the world.

And not just making that criticism of the Netanyahu -- and I do have that and lay that at his doorstep -- but here are the things I would do from a 23-state solution, to the India, Mideast, Europe economic corridor that would allow Israel economic integration and a breakout to become more integrated and partner in its own peace and security, because the present course is failing on each of those measures.

BLITZER: And I just want to explain. When you say a 23-state solution, I know you have been referring to a two-state solution, Israel and a new state of Palestine, which would be very significant, but a 23-state solution would be peace between Israel and all of the Arab states. Is that right?

EMANUEL: All the Arab -- in 20 -- 2000 -- early 2013, the 21 Arab countries that make up the Arab nations said, we will recognize Israel and give you full diplomatic recognition if you come to an agreement with the Palestinians.