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Israel and Iran Trade Attacks as U.S. Considers Intervention; Iran Says We Have No Choice but to Retaliate if U.S. Strikes; Senate GOP Holds Hearing on Cover-up of Biden's Mental Decline; Federal Reserve Leaves Interest Rates Unchanged; Netanyahu Says Strikes Are Damaging Iran's Nuclear and Missile Capacity. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired June 18, 2025 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Hello and welcome to our special coverage of the Israel-Iran conflict. I'm Jake Tapper in Washington Anderson Cooper is live in Tel Aviv, and right now, Israel and Iran are trading more aerial attacks. President Trump is, as of now, refusing to say whether he has made a decision on using the U.S. military to strike inside Iran.

But sources familiar with ongoing discussions at the White House tell CNN that he is souring on the prospects for a diplomatic solution. Here's President Trump earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You say you don't know, sir.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: You don't that I'm going to even do it. You don't know. I may do it. I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I'm going to do. I can tell you this, that Iran's got a lot of trouble and they want to negotiate.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Have Iranians reached out to you?

TRUMP: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And what did they say?

TRUMP: I said, it's very late, you know? I said, it's very late to be talking Mr. President.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President?

TRUMP: We may meet. It's -- I don't know. There's a big difference between now and a week ago. Right? Big difference.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, you said you --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: During a national address today in Iran, the supreme leader of Iran said his country will not surrender, and he warned the U.S. against intervention. Right now, the U.S. State Department is trying to arrange evacuation flights and other ways out of Israel for Americans there who want to leave as soon as possible. Let's go right now to my co-anchor here, CNN's Anderson Cooper on the ground in Tel Aviv. Anderson, tell us what you're seeing there.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CO-HOST OF "ANDERSON COOPER 360": Yeah, we should point out that the embassy is doing that because obviously aerospace over Israel has been shut over the last six days since this conflict began. We just got here earlier today by driving overland through Jordan. But some flights, the Israeli government has organized some flights for Israeli citizens who wanted to come back here from Cyprus for early Wednesday morning.

Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister sat down for an exclusive interview with CNN Christiane Amanpour just a short time ago. I want to go to Christiane Amanpour. She joins us. Now, Christiane, what did he say about the potential for U.S. involvement?

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Well, clearly, he tried to head that off and he said that if it did happen, they would have no choice but to react. But he was also very clear about feeling that they had been on a negotiating track, and he was very clear that he didn't really understand that there was a only a 60-day deadline as President Trump and the Israelis have said because they were on their way, as you remember, to that next round of negotiations in Oman on the Sunday. And the Israelis struck on the Friday before.

Also talked about the people who are in a state of fear. I have family and friends there who I'm in touch with. They're not quite sure where to go, what to do because there's a lot of bombing all around and there's -- roads are clogged and there's no gasoline for people who are trying to escape. But on the issue of would America join, this is precisely what he told me would happen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJID TAKHT-RAVANCHI, IRANIAN DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER: If the Americans decide to get involved militarily, we have no choice but to retaliate wherever we find the targets necessary to be acted upon. So, that is clear and simple because we are acting in self-defense. If another country joins the fight, so that is another instance for our self-defense. You do not expect Iran to be -- to not use its right of self-defense based on Article 51 of the U.N. Charter.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: Anderson, he also said though, that if this war ended, they still want to go to -- back onto the negotiating track, but who knows whether that'll be an option.

[14:05:00]

COOPER: You also asked him about those negotiations with the U.S. and the claim that President Trump made just this morning that the Iranians had asked to come to the White House.

AMANPOUR: Well, he told me point blank that wasn't true. Here's that bit of the exchange.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: You know, this is obviously a very fluid situation. The Israeli airstrikes continue. America is weighing, or Trump is, whether he will get involved. He's now saying that you, the Iranians, have suggested that you come to the White House to negotiate. He says you're totally defenseless. You have no air defense whatsoever. He says, next week will be big and he says that unconditional surrender, means that I've had it. Your reaction?

TAKHT-RAVANCHI: There is a famous saying that nobody can threaten Iranians. They should not dare to threaten Iran. We'll do whatever necessary. Although there are hardships, no doubt about it, but Iranians are known to be very hard at defending their territory and this is exactly what we are doing.

AMANPOUR: Did you ask --

TAKHT-RAVANCHI: American (ph) decide --

AMANPOUR: Did you ask to go to the White House? Has your government asked for access?

TAKHT-RAVANCHI: Not -- Christiane, not at all.

AMANPOUR: OK.

TAKHT-RAVANCHI: Not at all. We are not begging for anything. What we are saying -- what we are saying is that stop this aggression, then we'll have time to do whatever needed. As long as the aggression continues, as long as this brutality continues, we cannot think of engaging.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: So Anderson, there you have it. It was really difficult to get this exclusive interview, as you can imagine, because the internet, the phones, the fear of being tracked, I assume, by using phones is quite acute, as you know. And we've been reporting a whole layer of military leaders has been wiped out. And so, there's this constant fear going.

On the issue of regime change and the Iranian people, he said, look, there may be a lot of dissatisfaction with our government and with our policies, but when we're attacked by a foreign nation, we tend to coalesce and defend ourselves and our country. Anderson?

COOPER: It's interesting because that is something that Prime Minister Netanyahu has talked about directly talking to the people in Iran days ago, saying, essentially encouraging them to try to rise up. Christiane, I'm just wondering from the people you talk to in Iran, what they have said about that possibility.

AMANPOUR: Yeah, Israel has been saying from the beginning that this wasn't about regime change, but it clearly is, and it's about even something that analysts are talking about now, regime destruction. So, what does that mean? It means trying to take advantage of this moment to encourage or force, or whatever the right word is, the people to overthrow their leadership and get out from under this basic general global opprobrium.

They're doing things like disrupting and hacking into the banking system. People are having trouble getting any cash out. It's a sort of a cash society. They need to be able to have access to their accounts. There's -- they're bombing around certain areas, as we've heard from friends, north, south, east and west, for instance, of the capital. Even asking people to evacuate. People don't know where to evacuate to because there is no gasoline, not enough to evacuate and leave the cities. And there's massive, massive gridlock on the highways.

But the people who I'm talking to, they are afraid, but it has to be said that the majority of the Iranian people would like an end to this particular regime and to the strictures of this regime. They want freedom and they want to be able to have relations with the rest of the world. But it's really an open question --

COOPER: Yeah.

AMANPOUR: -- as to whether they're rallying around the Israeli flag or as we're seeing online, as much as we can gather, around the Iranian flag at this moment.

COOPER: Interesting. Christiane Amanpour, thanks very much. Jake, let's go back to you.

TAPPER: Thanks, Anderson. As President Trump weighs his next moves, a deep division is expanding among members of his own political party, many of whom are totally against U.S. involvement in another Middle Eastern war in any way. It's a stance that up until recently, President Trump seemed to share. I'm joined now by Republican Senator from Alabama, Katie Britt.

Senator Britt, always good to have you on. Thank you so much. So back in February, you introduced a resolution saying that the United States should keep all options on the table to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Where do you stand on this issue today? As President Trump weighs whether or not to order a military strike in Iran against the nuclear weapons program there. What do you think he should do?

[14:10:00]

SEN. KATIE BRITT, (R-AL) JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: Look, I think President Trump has been crystal clear on this. He has said, under no circumstances can Iran have a nuclear weapon. He has not wavered in that at all. He has also said that his very first option and what he would like for -- how he would like to achieve that is through peace. He has talked to them about coming to the table. He has said, not only can you not enrich uranium but we want to dismantle that program. I think that is still on the table, and I think we're all hopeful that that's the pathway that we will go down. But ultimately, the president is in control here, and he will ensure that Iran doesn't have a nuclear weapon. When they say death to America and death to Israel, they mean it. And for how long can we allow them to enrich their proxies across the region? Attack U.S. forces, put us and Americans in jeopardy. And I think we will see President Trump be strong. I think he has still said, there is optionality for a peaceful way forward. But, if the Iranians don't come to the table in a truthful and forthright way, which we haven't seen them do that ever, then I think he will take other recourses to ensure that we are safe.

TAPPER: So the question is, Iran, of course, has a nuclear program, nuclear power program, they will say. And for that, they say they have enriched uranium. The question is whether the enriched uranium they have, especially at the Fordow site, is weaponized to be delivered on a missile potentially.

BRITT: Right.

TAPPER: And there seem to be conflicting narratives about the facts behind that. I want you to take a listen to what President Trump's Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, told Congress back in March when asked what the IC, the intelligence community, what their assessment was. And then right after that, President Trump asked about it on Tuesday. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TULSI GABBARD, DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: The IC continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: How close do you personally think that they were to getting one? Because Tulsi Gabbard --

TRUMP: Very close.

COLLINS: Tulsi Gabbard testified in March that the intelligence community said Iran wasn't building a nuclear weapon.

TRUMP: I don't care what she said. I think they were very close to having one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: I'm not sure how well you could hear that, but he basically said, I don't care what Tulsi Gabbard said. I think the Iranians are very close to having a nuclear weapons program. So, which is it?

BRITT: Look, I trust President Trump. He is our Commander in Chief. He is the one that will make this decision. He both created and leads the America First policy, the America First movement. He understands about keeping us safe both here and abroad. I trust his instincts and certainly stand with the president. TAPPER: So, you think the intelligence community assessment that Tulsi Gabbard shared, Director of National Intelligence Gabbard shared was inaccurate? Or how do you reconcile it?

BRITT: Well, Jake, what I think is -- what I think is, in under no circumstances should Iran be enriching uranium. I mean, we know that they are untrustworthy adversary, if I may. And so, making sure that they cannot continue to do that, that we have complete dismantlement of that program has to be the goal. We cannot walk away from this and leave them with the ability to achieve and get a nuclear weapon. That's not only bad for Israel, it is bad for America, and it is bad for the globe.

This is a moment in time. We will look back at this. If we walk away without ensuring that that program is dismantled or destroyed and unfortunately, Americans will pay for that. And so, this is the time for us to come together, to look for a peaceful pathway forward, to try to get them to the table, to agree to no program and absolutely no enrichment. There is no need for enrichment with Iran. And if not, then we'll have to look at other options. And ultimately, President Trump is in charge there.

TAPPER: Yeah, I mean, it's not as simple though, obviously, and I'm not telling you anything you don't know, but it is not as simple as President Trump orders the strike on the Fordow plant and ends the nuclear enrichment program, and then everyone goes back to how things were. Obviously, we've been through a number of wars, this country. President Trump's pledge to not have the United States enter wars in the Middle East is one of the reasons why he was elected. Are you concerned at all about that? All the members of the MAGA movement who say I voted for him exactly to not do this.

BRITT: Jake, that's exactly why he started with peace. He said come to the table. He told Iran, here's your opportunity. Let's talk about a pathway forward. There were many that did not want him to give them that opportunity, that believed them to be untrustworthy actors, who believed them and know them to have, funded Hamas that, ultimately, we saw what happened on October 7th. We know what the Houthis are doing in Yemen. We know what Hezbollah has done across Lebanon and beyond.

We could go on and on and on about their intentionality, what they have funded, and what they have actually done. So, there are many people who thought that him taking that first extension of like, there is a peaceful pathway forward.

[14:15:00]

They wanted action immediately. He absolutely did the right thing. President Trump said, come to the table and let's figure out if we can make this work. Iran walked away and if I were them, I would heed his warning. Do not touch U.S. military, do not touch U.S. personnel. At that point, it is absolutely and totally game over. But at this point, if you want to come to the table, and it is not just about enrichment, it is complete and total dismantlement of this program, Jake. This is a moment in time and we must seize this moment. We want to a peaceful pathway forward first, but if that cannot be achieved, then all options are on the table.

TAPPER: You're changing subjects now. You're on the Senate Judiciary Committee which held a hearing to investigate what happened exactly with President Biden and his acuity and whether or not there was a cover-up. What questions do you still have following today's hearing?

BRITT: Yeah, well, first off, I am incredibly frustrated and disappointed in my Democratic colleagues. This is a moment in time to actually get answers to the questions that we have. It is clear that we had a Commander in Chief who was not in command. It is clear that someone else was making decisions and/or covering up for his lack of mental acuity. If we want to ensure that this doesn't happen again, we have to get to the bottom of actually what happened over the past four years, and as we've seen, even longer than that.

So, I'm frustrated, I'm disappointed that they wouldn't come to the table and be a part of the solution moving forward. I think we have to take a look at the 25th Amendment, Section 4 in particular. Is there too much ambiguity there? Do we need to create constraints? Do we need to define what unable means? There's a lot of questions around that. Additionally, there's questions about not just cabinet secretaries and their role in the 25th Amendment, and how we put the proper guardrails in place to make sure this doesn't happen again. But there's also a question about senior staff.

Look, as a senior staffer myself, you come in and you have a duty and obligation to the country and to the people you serve. And I think we have some real questions for the people who are around him day to day. So, I find it incredibly discouraging and truly disgusting that we have an opportunity to get to the bottom of this, to have a conversation, and yet they chose to not show up. So, don't lecture me about democracy if you aren't worth -- if you won't come and sit at the table and try to get answers to how we can make sure that this doesn't happen again.

TAPPER: Senator Katie Britt of Alabama, thank you so much. Always good to have you on.

BRITT: Thank you. I appreciate it.

TAPPER: We have some breaking news for you now. The Federal Reserve has just announced its latest decision on interest rates. They are leaving them unchanged for now. Let's get right to CNN's Matt Egan. And Matt, this is clearly not what President Trump wanted.

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: That's right, Jake. No change in interest rates. The Federal Reserve deciding unanimously to keep interest rates steady for the fourth meeting in a row. And to your point, this is despite the intensifying pressure from the White House to slash interest rate, but the Fed, they're clearly still in wait and see mode as they look for more clarity on how much damage the trade war is doing to the economy. Now, this decision was well telegraphed. It was expected widely by investors and economists, but there were some significant changes.

Let me talk about what happened in the Fed's statement. New line in the statement says that uncertainty about the economic outlook has diminished, but remains elevated. I think that is a nod to the fact that since the Fed last met in May, tariffs on the United States and China have come down dramatically. And so, that has helped this outlook. But the Fed also put out some new economic projections for 2025 and all of them moved in the wrong direction.

Fed officials are now projecting slower GDP growth. They're anticipating slightly higher unemployment and significantly higher inflation than they were back in March. Again, all of that reflects the damage from the trade war that they're expecting. But one last point here, Jake, the Fed is still penciling in two interest rate cuts this year. Back to you.

TAPPER: All right. Matt Egan, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

Coming up next, the key to destroying Iran's nuclear program would be to take out the Fordow Center. That's Iran's highly guarded secret fuel enrichment plant. It's a facility built deep inside to the side of a mountain. Its main halls are believed to be almost 300 feet below ground. The United States is the only country with a bomb potentially powerful enough to destroy it and a plane big enough to carry that bomb.

We'll bring you the analysis of this right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:23:55]

COOPER: And welcome back. We're live in Tel Aviv. This just into CNN. Israel's prime minister has released a new video statement. In it, he says and I quote, "We control the skies of Tehran. We're severely hitting the Ayatollah's regime. We are damaging the nuclear missiles headquarters and symbols of power." He finishes the statement by saying, I wish to thank President Trump for the backing. I want to talk about the escalating conflicts. CNN's Anchor, Boris Sanchez, who's at (inaudible), CNN's Military Analyst and Retired Air Force Colonel, Cedric Leighton. Boris?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Yeah, Anderson. Colonel Leighton, obviously, a lot of activity in the skies over both Iran and Israel. Give us a picture of where things stand right now from the Israeli side, what they're targeting in Iran.

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Absolutely. So Boris, what you're seeing here is really quite an -- a major example here. All of these different areas show where the Israelis have concentrated their firepower. Notice this is all in the western part of the country, the northwest, and basically up to the central part right here. And basically, this is the kind of stuff that it looks like. We have strikes in Tehran. You have all the different areas, this building showing smoke coming from it.

[14:25:00]

You have all the different places like the Natanz site, which has received a lot of different strikes and the area around Isfahan, which has a major air base associated with it. All of these areas really are part of Iran's war efforts. So, what the Israelis did was they came in and they took control of the skies, just like the prime minister of Israel was just saying. The key thing here is to achieve air dominance, basically air supremacy first. And the idea is so that you can fly without any issues. In other words, you won't be shot down or at least the likelihood of you being shot down or your aircraft being shot down is very minimal at this point.

SANCHEZ: Talk to us about Iran's response in Israel. What does it look like so far today?

LEIGHTON: So when you look at the kinds of things that are happening in Israel, it's a different -- bit of a different picture because the Iranians do not have aircraft, manned aircraft that come across and attack Israel. So, for example, they've gone after targets in Haifa and what you see are the Iranian missiles that are coming through the sky, just one shot down by the Iron Dome system, another one right there. That's the kind of thing, that's how the Iron Dome works.

And so, the Iranians have difficulty penetrating that system. Similar type of activity in Tel Aviv. These are the kinds of things that you see if you're looking up at the sky in a place like Tel Aviv where Anderson is right now. And what you're seeing here is, in essence, the Israeli response to the Iranian effort. It's quite spectacular when you see it. And the reason for that is the type of system that has been developed. It's basically a three-tiered system, and that three- tiered system is designed to provide protection against these incoming strikes.

SANCHEZ: The Navy also has a number of assets in the region, and now, we're learning that they're sending one more. Tell us about the mission of the USS Gerald Ford.

LEIGHTON: Yeah, this is perfect because this is the new carrier that's supposed to be coming in. It is actually the largest aircraft carrier in the world. So, it has more than 60 aircraft, can have really up to 75 aircraft onboard. Not just fighter jets, but you've got electronic warfare jets, you've got refuelers, you've got all kinds of capabilities here. There are five ships in the battle group itself, that's including the aircraft carrier. And because it's the largest aircraft carrier, it is very capable as a power projection instrument for the United States.

SANCHEZ: Yeah, it's effectively a military base, a floating one in the ocean. I do want to ask you about where it's going because it's headed to the Mediterranean, right. And this presents defense capabilities as well for Israel.

LEIGHTON: Absolutely. It's certainly does. And Boris, what you see here is, this is the Eastern Mediterranean right here and right in this particular area is probably where the Ford will be deployed, along with the other two aircraft carriers that I briefly showed. This gives the United States a capability to extend its range, basically like this, into this part of the Middle East. And notice a large part of Iran is covered by that. They can even extend that a little bit further out if they need to.

But that would cover almost Tehran and beyond that, in order to actually put that within the crosshairs of any potential U.S. activity. The Israelis can do this with their own capabilities, but they don't have the weapon systems that would be needed to take care of all of this. And then the longer aspect of this, of course, would be the B-2 Bomber and that would be one that would go after the Fordow facility with this, this bunker buster, which is a GBU-57.

SANCHEZ: One of several options the White House is weighing right now. Colonel Cedric Leighton, thank you so much for the analysis. Anderson?

COOPER: Yeah. Boris, thanks very much. Colonel Leighton as well. We're going to have much more on our breaking coverage when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)