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Italian Prime Minister Blasts Trump; D.C. Reflecting Pool Plagued With Algae; Bill Pulte Takes Over as DNI; Iran Talks Delayed. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired June 19, 2026 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:00]

ANDREW KACZYNSKI, SENIOR EDITOR, CNN KFILE: Driving down wages to boost their own profits while undercutting American workers -- Phil.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN HOST: Andrew Kaczynski with the latest KFILE exclusive, thanks so much, my friend.

And thank you for joining INSIDE POLITICS.

"CNN NEWS CENTRAL" starts right now.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: A deal deferred. The first round of technical talks between the United States in Iran permanently and the war has been postponed. But will a renewed cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah get things back on track?

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN HOST: And then meet the new boss. Bill Pulte takes over as acting director of national intelligence. And sources say he could be looking to slash hundreds of jobs.

And then pool problems, because it's not just algae. There's something else in the water.

We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SANCHEZ: At any moment, we could hear directly from President Trump as he departs the White House for Camp David this weekend, as sources tell CNN that Israel and Hezbollah have agreed to renew a cease-fire, a fragile cease-fire, but a highly critical development after talks between the United States and Iran were delayed mere hours after that 60-day window for negotiations open, with Vice President J.D. Vance ultimately postponing his trip to Switzerland shortly before we learned that Israel launched new strikes in Lebanon.

As recently as this morning, Israel was hitting targets in Southern Lebanon after it says that four Israeli soldiers were killed by Hezbollah. Iran has viewed strikes in Lebanon as a red line for talks.

Let's go now live with the White House with CNN's Kevin Liptak.

Kevin, what are you hearing about the state of the cease-fire and how it was reached?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Right.

And American officials say that it was set to take place at 4:00 p.m. local time. So that was about four hours ago. They say they had gotten signals from the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, that he had wrapped up the Israeli strikes inside of Lebanon. We haven't heard public comment yet from Hezbollah.

And we know that efforts to get a lasting truce in place here have been very, very difficult. And so we will have to see how this proceeds going forward. It all, I think, just underscores just how fragile this arrangement that the president has with Iran actually is.

Remember, the very first paragraph calls for a cessation of the hostilities across the conflict, including in Lebanon. But, of course, Israel is not a signatory to the deal. And Netanyahu is under extraordinary political pressure to continue going after Hezbollah in this country.

And so it remains to be seen whether all of this will be enough to get those talks that had been set to begin today under way. The vice president very abruptly canceling his trip to that ultra-exclusive resort overlooking Lake Lucerne.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry does say that talks are now under way through the mediators to try and get this conversation back on track. The White House says that Vance is prepared to go at the first available opportunity, and so clearly both sides, I think, intent on trying to get these discussions back going again.

But it just, I think, goes to show how difficult all of this will be. The things that they are set to discuss in this 60-day period were already the most difficult ones that they weren't able to resolve in the preliminary round of discussions, thorny issues of nuclear enrichment that they were not able to resolve in the first round of talks.

Clearly, President Trump has every reason to get those resolved, because he's coming under enormous political pressure from even some of his own allies, who say that this deal amounts to a capitulation and offers concessions to the Iranians.

Now, the president has been responding to some of that, insisting that in fact it is Iran who surrendered as part of this arrangement. Listen to what he told Axios:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION: Beginning of the conflict, you had talked about you only wanted unconditional surrender. And...

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well...

QUESTION: ... the MOU doesn't look like unconditional surrender.

TRUMP: Well, it really probably is unconditional surrender.

QUESTION: It is?

TRUMP: I think so.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIPTAK: Now, the president is arguing that U.S. military dominance brought Iran to the negotiating table, that the U.S. wiped out their air force and their military.

But we should note, just this week, the president also said that it was concerns about the economy, concerns about oil stockpiles that also brought him to the negotiating table. And so clearly the president had himself been facing pressure to reach some kind of truce with Iran.

And so when those talks to begin the next round of discussions actually get under way remains to be seen, but I think it's evident that both sides have an interest in seeing those discussions get going very quickly.

[13:05:12]

SANCHEZ: Yes, and a lot of still open questions about the future, not only of the nuclear program, but the Strait of Hormuz, support for proxy groups, et cetera.

Kevin Liptak, live at the White House, thank you so much -- Omar.

JIMENEZ: Well, new today on the domestic front in the United States, sources tell CNN that President Trump's pick for acting intelligence chief, Bill Pulte, is looking to cut hundreds of jobs within the department.

Now, Pulte arrived for his new role yesterday, which was a day early, reportedly asking for a list of every employee in the office, so he could assess whether to fire them.

CNN national security reporter Zach Cohen joins us now.

So, Zach, just what do we know about Pulte's plans here?

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yes, Omar, I think the fact that Bill Pulte showed up a day early for his new job and one of the first things he did was request this list of employees so that he could assess whether or not he wanted to fire them is a reflection of how empowered he feels to start aggressively pursuing this mandate that he's received from President Donald Trump, which is to dramatically shrink the size of the U.S. intelligence community.

But I think, at the same time, we're hearing a lot of concerns from sources that Pulte's lack of national security experience, specifically lack of understanding of how the intelligence community works, could lead to problems and, in a worst-case scenario, arbitrary firings of intel analysts and other employees who are working on active issues and threats, trying to analyze and monitor things related to the World Cup, for example, threats related to Iran.

These are things that are mid-process, midstream, if you will, and that Pulte is walking into really fresh with no baseline understanding of it. And that is something we have heard from multiple sources as well about their initial interactions with Pulte just a day into his tenure, is that his lack of national security experience really has come through, his lack of understanding of what the acting DNI is supposed to be responsible for.

One example, a source said, was that Pulte asked if he could take the president's daily brief, the classified compilation of national security issues home with him, which really alarmed a lot of intelligence, we're told, because it demonstrated that he didn't really understand how classified information works.

And we obviously reported that Pulte didn't have a security clearance prior to being appointed acting DNI, which is normally a prerequisite for anyone picked to lead the intelligence community, even temporarily. And he's since received an interim clearance, I'm told, but still he's asking questions about what level of security clearance he has.

Is it top secret? What does that give him access to? So all that together, I think, is really a source of concern for many in the intelligence community who are seeing this job that's supposed to be apolitical in nature being occupied, at least temporarily, by a very politically motivated individual.

JIMENEZ: And when you zoom out a little bit, this was someone, by even just naming him as acting DNI head, I mean, it upset people on both sides of the aisle, but to the point where Congress didn't even want to pass legislation around FISA, which obviously important with the World Cup and all sort of those sorts of things going on.

But sort of the response to that was saying, well, why don't we put forward SDNY U.S. attorney Jay Clayton? What is the status of his nomination? How do you think that plays into this dynamic?

COHEN: It's sort of ironic. The bipartisan sort of pushback against Pulte's appointment and then the issue over FISA and its lapsing has kind of prolonged Pulte's potential tenure as acting DNI, because Jay Clayton, President Trump's pick for the permanent DNI role, Trump told him this week not to show up to his own confirmation hearing, which is highly unusual.

And something that prompted really frustration from some of the president's really core allies, including Tom Cotton, the Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who rarely speaks publicly in a critical way of the president, but was very clear, that he said -- quote -- "It's regrettable that the president has directed Jay Clayton not to appear at his confirmation hearing."

So it sort of puts things in limbo as far as Clayton's nomination is concerned, but also how long Pulte will be in the acting role and what he will strive to do while he's there.

JIMENEZ: Yes, fascinating dynamic to keep an eye on.

Zach Cohen, really appreciate the reporting.

Still to come: President Trump's comments to an Italian media outlet about the country's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni spark a diplomatic incident. We're going to share with you what exactly he said and what's being done in response.

Plus, a new report finds over one billion barrels of oil have gone missing during the Iran war. Ahead, we will tell you what this means for you the next time you fill up.

And then, later, widespread flooding wreaks havoc across the Gulf Coast. There are still huge threats to safety for millions of people in the storm zone.

We will have that and much more coming up on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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[13:14:13]

SANCHEZ: Italy's prime minister is publicly accusing President Trump of making false and offensive statements about her.

Trump claimed that Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni begged him to take a picture with her at this week's G7 summit in France. Meloni has since fired back in an online post. And, today, her foreign minister canceled a trip to the U.S., where he was set to meet with Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

CNN's Jennifer Hansler is here with the details.

So, Jennifer, what is going on between the two leaders?

JENNIFER HANSLER, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Well, this is really a remarkable spat, Boris, coming just days after the two of them sat down face to face at that G7 summit.

What happened here is, Trump did one of his phone interviews with this Italian outlet. And according to this outlet, Trump told them -- quote -- "She begged me to take a picture with her. She wanted a picture with me so badly I wouldn't have taken it, but I felt sorry for her."

[13:15:02]

So this came out in that outlet in the early hours of today. And then we saw Meloni quickly fire back in this very strongly worded video post that she posted on her X account. And I want to have you take a listen to a little bit of what she fired back with.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GIORGIA MELONI, ITALIAN PRIME MINISTER (through translator): Donald Trump's statements are completely made up. I am, frankly, astonished. I don't know why the president of the United States behaves like this toward his allies. It's not the first time, moreover.

I can only say it is disappointing that he does not show the same determination with the enemies of the West and of the United States, whose leaders he instead treats with far greater indulgence. There is one thing he should remember. Neither I nor Italy ever beg.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANSLER: So, really strong words coming from Meloni in response to those reported comments from the U.S. president.

And what we have seen after this is, the Italian foreign minister, who was supposed to come to the United States to a meeting in Miami with the secretary of state -- they were going to talk about U.S.-Italy business ties, as well as bilateral relations -- that trip has now been canceled.

Now, we don't know what that means for Rubio's travels, of course. But this is a serious downgrading of the diplomatic relation between the two at a time when it seemed that there was maybe a sense that they were moving back to normal periods after such a spat.

SANCHEZ: Yes. It's notable that she sort of tacitly references Vladimir Putin in that post, especially as Italy, as of the last year- and-a-half or so, since Trump has been back in office, has remained one of the closest allies to the U.S., while much of Europe has had their issues with Trump.

HANSLER: Yes.

That's exactly right. And Meloni is a key ally of the U.S. president. She was one of the few European leaders to attend his second inauguration. She was seen as his counterpart in the far right -- the right, sorry, of Europe.

But we are seeing, again, this downgrading. It's not the first time, Boris. We saw them have a similar spat earlier this year when the president was attacking Pope Leo. The prime minister said those were inappropriate comments. And Trump again lashed out and said he was shocked by those comments and more broadly what he said was Italy's lack of support for the war against Iran, so a lot to unpack here.

SANCHEZ: Jennifer Hansler, thank you so much for that reporting.

Still ahead: a mess on the Mall, the iconic Reflecting Pool in the nation's capital dealing with issues both old and new after a multimillion-dollar renovation touted by President Trump.

CNN's Tom Foreman is there.

And, Tom, not only is it greenish, but also there's the stuff coming out the bottom?

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This. If you look right down here, you can see the latest hot spot and the way that this is turning into a six -- a $14 million headache for the White House. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:22:18]

JIMENEZ: Crews are still trying to remove all that algae from the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, and they're also dealing with new problems, including parts of the pool's floor now appear to be peeling off. You can literally see flaps of blue material like these here behind me floating in the water.

It's not clear if that's sealant or paint, but it's happening just days after President Trump's $14 million renovation project was finished.

Our Tom Foreman is there.

Tom, what are you seeing? Are crews out making any progress? I feel like you got your sleeves rolled up. Have you been putting your hands in there, too?

FOREMAN: Well, a bit, yes.

Listen, I just want you to see this, just what you were describing a minute ago. We have been very careful here not to pull at this because we don't want to make anything worse, but this is just a loose flap of what appears to be that sealant down here in the water just flapping like that.

There have been tourists coming along tearing off pieces to take as souvenirs. Now, did they cause this problem? I don't know. Maybe. Did they exacerbate it? Maybe. And we don't have proof exactly that that is the sealant we're talking about, but it sure looks like it.

And the progress on the algae out here, they are working very hard and it is very slow. They're pumping oxygen into the water in the form of ozone to try to break up the chemical process that forms these algae blooms very commonly this time of year in Washington, D.C., and they're using these sort of water vacuums out here, hydro-vacuums, to suck up a lot of the green algae.

But we don't know. It could be forming again behind them because it's basically microscopic in spore form. What we do know is that all the tourists who are coming by are seeing a lot of it. Listen to what they say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It looks bad. I just see green, green slime.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Pouring all that peroxide into it clearly didn't help. I feel for the ducks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOREMAN: And I do want to show you, this is the output from what's going on over there. You can see it is clearly green. This is the water that the federal officials are saying is absolutely clear and perfect at this point.

It very clearly is not. It takes no walking around at all here to see all the debris in the water, the continued presence of algae. Can they get it under control? Maybe they can, but currently they do not have it under control. Whether they can get it done by July 4, we will see.

JIMENEZ: Well, and, look, clearly people are out and about just like normal. I mean, it's a populated tourist area, especially around there.

What is the Trump administration saying about this process, how long it might take and why this is the way it is?

[13:25:07]

FOREMAN: Well, they're tending to point more to areas like this, where most of the cleanup has been done, where it absolutely looks better. If you look at the hose going out here to that worksite, you can see that it looks better.

But that blue color, which was supposed to be there, that was chosen specifically to be American flag blue, it's really quite hard to see any of that anywhere. You see little bits of it here and there. This isn't torn up.

So they're saying it's going well. The company that did the sealant work has basically said they don't know enough from the pictures to say what exactly is going on or what the substance is. But they say there may be continued maintenance. And every expert we have talked to said there will have to be continued maintenance, because this is D.C. and algae comes in the summertime, and that's just the way it is.

JIMENEZ: And, again, one of the most heavily populated tourist areas too. So people are going to be seeing that Reflecting Pool, very much so.

Tom Foreman, appreciate you being out there and rolling up your sleeves for us. Good to see you.

All right, we got a lot of other news we are following, including still ahead: Israel and Hezbollah agree to renew a cease-fire after new fighting threatened to upend negotiations between the United States and Iran. But the question is, will that be enough to put peace talks back on track?

We will get into it.

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