Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Iran Agrees to Let Inspectors Back In; Rep. Greg Stanton (D-AZ) is Interviewed about Iran Talks; Vandals Force Drainage of Reflecting Pool; Storm Threat Shifts East; Jim Geraghty is Interviewed about Iran. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired June 22, 2026 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

LILIANE BURKHARD, LEAD AUTHOR, SAN ANDREAS FAULT STRESS STUDY: That to make it even better.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: I have used that shake app, and it does actually work. It has actually worked in the last one. It was very small, but it -- but it did detect it just a few seconds before.

Liliane Burkhard, thank you so much for your work there. But it is kind of a scary prospect that it's a thousand years since you've seen this fault this stressed.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking this morning, Vice President J.D. Vance says Iran has agreed to let weapons inspectors into that country. But the major concession that Barak Ravid just told Kate that the U.S. made along the way.

Deadly tornadoes tear through the Midwest, and there is the threat of even more storms today.

And then just incredible video. A beach resort up in flames. We have a new update on the people that were inside at the time.

I'm John Berman, with Kate Bolduan and Sara Sidner. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SIDNER: All right, breaking this morning, Iran has agreed to allow international nuclear inspectors back into Iran, according to Vice President J.D. Vance, who this morning hailed it as a major milestone from the first round of new talks between the two countries that's happening in Switzerland. He spoke this morning from the site of the summit.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is probably what we're most excited about as Americans. The Iranians have agreed to invite IAEA inspectors back into their country. That is a major milestone for the American people. And the first step in permanently denuclearizing or permanently ending a nuclear weapons program in Iran.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: All right, Vance also said the two sides had made good progress in laying a foundation for a final deal, and denied that President Trump really threw a major wrench into the works by threatening the Iranian delegation. The president had said the U.S. might take over the Strait of Hormuz and charge tolls if a permanent deal is not reached, and he told Fox that he warned Iran, quote, "you can close the Strait and you won't have a country. You won't even make it back to your f-ing country."

CNN's Kevin Liptak is live this morning at the White House.

What stood out to you from what you heard from Vice President Vance's remarks, not just on Iran, but also vis-a-vis Lebanon and Israel?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Right. You know, I think clearly the headline was this announcement that Iran would allow these inspectors back into the country. The U.N. nuclear inspectors have not been allowed to the Iranian enrichment sites since the U.S. bombed them almost exactly a year ago. So, that would be significant. Although Vance didn't say what kind of access they would have, what sites they would be able to see. And we should point out that Iran has not confirmed this agreement just yet. But he did say that arrangements would be made for them to potentially get in there as early as today. So, pretty significant announcement there.

I also thought what Vance said about this sort of arrangement that he said was devised by Jared Kushner about the unfreezing of Iranian assets was quite interesting. Vance suggesting that the U.S. and Qatar would ensure that that money only be used to buy American agricultural products. I think that's partly an attempt to sort of allay the concerns of certain critics of this deal who say that Iran will be getting money from the U.S. as part of this arrangement.

I don't know that that's necessarily going to ease all of their concerns because, of course, if they're getting the money, even if it's just for humanitarian purposes, it could free up money already inside of Iran for more malign motives. And so, interesting there.

You know, on the Lebanon front, the vice president said that the two sides had arranged this deconfliction system to try and bring about an enduring ceasefire in that country. Of course, bringing an end to the war in Lebanon was the first paragraph of that memorandum of understanding that was signed last week. But Israel, Hezbollah, Lebanon, none of them are signatories to that agreement. So, this could prove, I think, more difficult than perhaps Vance is letting on here.

Yes, he was asked at one point whether the president's sort of bombastic statements over the weekend had thrown a wrench in the discussions that stretched into the evening up there in Switzerland. Listen to what he said on that front.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What we told the Iranians yesterday is, when you guys engage in what us millennials might call "trash talk," you can't expect the president of the United States not to respond and not to correct the record. So, when they say things that aren't true, the president is going to respond to it. I'm going to respond to it. Americans are going to respond to it. When they make threats that aren't rooted in reality, they have to accept that the president of the United States is actually going to set the record straight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[09:05:02]

LIPTAK: So, he said at one point that, yes, there was threatening and whining from the Iranians that caused the talks to be paused. But at the end of the day, when you only have 60 days, and, in fact, only 55 days now to resolve some of these very tricky issues, you really don't have a lot of time to lose.

Sara.

SIDNER: It's true, you don't have any time to lose.

Kevin Liptak, thank you so much for your reporting there from the White House for us.

Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, joining us right now is Democratic Congressman Greg Stanton of Arizona. He sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Congressman, thank you for being here.

Let's tick through some of what we have learned from the vice president this morning. An agreement that Vance says that Iran now agrees to send U.N. nuclear inspectors back into the country, allow them back into the country. Do you see that as progress in these talks?

REP. GREG STANTON (D-AZ): It's absolutely progress. Of course, we did have inspectors going into Iran with the original JCPOA that was negotiated by the Obama administration. Trump tore up that document, decided to take a military approach.

Look, we are happy that this president and his administration has made a turn towards diplomacy. That's ultimately the only way to resolve long term and forever the nuclear empowerment of Iran.

BOLDUAN: One of the long-time kind of narratives of criticism Republicans, especially President Trump, had raised against the JCPOA was what they always talked about was plane loads of cash being delivered to Iran as part of that deal. And it seems that J.D. Vance is trying to combat against seeing that narrative face this administration as well, in speaking out about what is going to happen, he says, to the frozen Iranian assets if Iran gains access to it once again.

Let me play this for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If there is any frozen Iranian assets that are unfrozen, then we have approval over that process. The Qataris have approval over that process. And then the money would actually go to buy American soy, American corn, and American wheat for the benefit of the Iranian people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Can the U.S. make sure that that happens?

STANTON: Well, look, this is the exact problem with the MOU that was agreed to by the Trump administration. By its very terms, it provided immediate sanctions relief, immediate access for Iran, for their assets that are being held in banks in the region, and the creation of a $300 billion fund for rebuilding of Iran. That was pretty shocking that all of that was allowed immediately, and yet the part about ensuring that Iran doesn't develop a nuclear weapon was on the back end. That was still to be negotiated. This is why Congress has a lot of questions about this MOU, a lot of questions about this agreement.

I'm flying back to Washington today. The Senate and the House will both be in session this week. We need to be fully briefed on this agreement and the details of it because the MOU was pretty loose. But what is frustrating is that sanctions relief would be given without first guaranteeing that there would be disarmament of Iran from any nuclear capability.

BOLDUAN: Let me ask you about what has become a central issue, which is the control of -- or lack thereof, the Strait of Hormuz. The status of the Strait, I guess the best thing to say is it remains unclear once again. Iran had claimed that it was closing the waterway because of the fighting that kicked up in Lebanon. The U.S. military said traffic, though, continued to flow throughout. President Trump has threatened to now take it over.

And then we heard from a close ally of the president, Senator Lindsey Graham, who suggested this just yesterday. Let me play it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): If this deal fails, President Trump is going to take the Strait of Hormuz over by force. The United States will control the Strait of Hormuz. We'll charge a fee for all those who go through to pay for the operation.

And if Iran contests control of the Strait of Hormuz by the United States, we will obliterate them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: If these negotiations fail, should that be the next step? STANTON: I mean, here we go again. The senator is now threatening to

obliterate Iran, just like President Trump had threatened to obliterate Iran during the early portions of this -- of this war.

Look, the Strait of Hormuz was open before President Trump decided to engage in this war of choice. The Strait of Hormuz and the chaos associated with it, the chaos associated with this president and his administration on anything dealing with foreign policy is the exact reason that demonstrates what a terrible decision this was of this president to enter this war of choice. We're having to give away massive concessions just to get back to ground zero, where we were the day before the war began. That is poor, poor leadership by President Trump.

BOLDUAN: Let me ask you about Democratic politics right now. There's new reporting from "Axios" and others that the Democratic governor of California, Gavin Newsom, is the way they put it, "is gambling that embracing Joe Biden will be more popular among Democrats than running away from him in the party's 2028 presidential primary."

[09:10:13]

That unlike most potential Democratic candidates for president, he spent the last, you know, 18 months courting Joe Biden and his family. Do you think that is what the Democratic Party needs? Do you think a Joe Biden endorsement helps his chances?

STANTON: Well, look, vis-a-vis Joe Biden, we should be celebrating the successes that happened during the Joe Biden administration, particularly the Inflation Reduction Act, which is the largest investment in clean energy and lowering the pharmaceutical drug prices. We should be celebrating the bipartisan infrastructure law, which really helped to move the American economy forward. We're going to be benefiting from that for a long period of time.

So, say you support those elements of Joe Biden's agenda, but also say President Biden never should have begun the process of running for a second term are not inconsistent with each other. In fact, they are exactly consistent with each other. President Biden never should have moved forward with the beginning of running for a second term. It created chaos in our primary process, and it really hurt us in the last -- in the last election.

So, you should embrace the parts of the Biden administration where the American people support the agenda. And I think that's the right way to talk about President Biden.

BOLDUAN: Congressman Greg Stanton, thanks so much for coming in.

John.

BERMAN: All right, happening now, what might be the worst pool party ever? President Trump says the Reflecting Pool will probably need to be drained again, and work will begin immediately. This to fix what some consider just to be a really bad repair job. He says it is vandalism. Several people were arrested over the weekend for allegedly vandalizing the pool, including a three-time U.S. Olympian. The president claimed that some of them were pouring toxic chemicals into the water. They say they were just touching the paint at the bottom that was peeling off.

Want to get right to CNN's Tom Foreman.

Tom, I know you spent a lot of time there over the last few days. I'm glad to see you are not in federal custody. You are here to report on what you have seen.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, talk about money literally down the drain. They're talking about draining this thing now. And I guess kind of starting over to repair what happened.

What the White House and other officials are claiming is that people went in there and, at some point slashed, or sort of pulling up this material from the bottom down there, this hard sort of plastic material that's all this blue. You hear it called paint. It seems to be more of a true liner that was sort of formed there.

Nonetheless, it is coming up in some places. We don't know how many, really. And they're fighting the continuing algae problem. And if you listen to the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, they are pledging to use the full weight of the law to go after anybody who's messing with any of it.

Listen to her.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEANINE PIRRO, U.S. ATTORNEY FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: And there are several citations that have been handed out to individuals. And these are cases that will be prosecuted to the full extent. If there are more serious products that are put into the Reflecting Pool to create more algae or a bigger problem, then we'll consider more serious charges.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOREMAN: Here's the thing, there's no evidence being offered by the authorities that any of this happened, especially this idea of adding chemicals that cause the algae. In fact, all the experts we have talked to have suggested from the beginning that the liner itself was perhaps not a great idea. Dark blue would spur more algae growth by capturing more heat. That was one of their ideas. And that algae this time of year has always been very common here, and that nothing they did to renovate this pool would have addressed that issue. That's why it continues to be very bright, bright green.

We do know from one person who was arrested, a former Olympian, David Hearn, a man who competed for this country, he says he was arrested because he was touching the surface there. He competed in the slalom canoe for the United States. He said he was touching the bottom of it because the material -- he's trained in material sciences. He was just curious what the stuff was, but that he made no difference to it. He didn't damage it. He didn't break it. "There was nothing about the Reflecting Pool that was in any different condition after I left there than it had before I went there yesterday. I didn't remove anything. I didn't break, tear, peel or rip or destroy anything." And yet, he says, he was taken into custody for several hours.

We have been trying to get authorities to give us any more information on who the other people are and what exactly they supposedly did. That now has the president of the United States saying they ruined his great big project. Nothing yet. All we know is that this is $14 million, seven times more than the original prediction made by the president for the cost of this. And there are no real signs that the pool is any better off for all of it.

John.

BERMAN: Yes, $14 million already. That's not counting what it will cost to drain it again, maybe paint the bottom again and do the whole thing over again.

FOREMAN: Yes. And they wanted it -- and they wanted it by July 4th, which is closing in really fast.

[09:15:04]

So, it's hard to imagine that all of that could be done fast. And, by the way, the sped-up schedule to get it done fast has a lot of experts saying, well, that was the key problem. This needed to be done slowly, methodically, over time, and you tried to rush it. And that created a problem.

BERMAN: And still no comment from the algae.

Tom Foreman, thank you for your reporting on all of this. Appreciate it.

Sara.

SIDNER: Oh, if algae could talk.

Thank you, John.

A deadly tornado outbreak is hitting the Midwest. Take a look at what they saw and experienced.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Honey, no. Why the -- why are we driving to it? Everyone's getting off the interstate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, dear.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's a tornado.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Always listen to your wife. Honey, no. She is correct. Where that system is headed because it's not over. Plus, major upheaval in the U.K. The country set to get its seventh

prime minister in a decade as Keir Starmer is stepping down.

And "House of the Dragon" makes its long-awaited return. We'll speak with one of the show's stars about the season premiere that has a lot of folks talking this morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:20:50]

BOLDUAN: So, it really seems the Midwest has just not been able to get a break from severe weather. Look at this huge tornado we're showing. This is from -- this was spotted in Dixon, Illinois, one of more than three dozen reports of tornadoes across the region. The county sheriff there says at least two people were killed in the storms. They were in separate mobile homes that were hit about two to three miles apart.

And we're also just getting word of a third death that occurred in Kansas. The danger, though, not yet over with this storm system.

CNN's Allison Chinchar tracking this one for us.

So, what is in store now today, Allison?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Additional severe storms, not necessarily in the exact same areas. The system itself is going to continue to push off to the east. And that's a good thing that we aren't expecting quite the same as yesterday because this is what we saw. This again in southern Illinois. You can see that wedge tornado there in the background. And it was one of many tornado reports from yesterday. There were a lot. And not just tornadoes, but also very large hail reports. We had numerous reports of at least tennis ball sized hail. Some even bigger than that. Not to mention damaging wind reports. All of these dots you see here on the map represent some type of severe thunderstorm report that came in, in just the last 24 hours.

Right now we have two clusters that we're keeping an eye on. The first one that's moving through areas of the northeast. The secondary one, farther down to the south. This is the one that has a lot of lightning and has had a lot of the watches and warnings off through -- off and on throughout the morning here. You can see lots of lightning coming through areas of Arkansas, Texas, and even western Tennessee, where that strong bowing out shape is really kind of pushing those storms south and eastward.

There's also a rain component to this. And we're talking very heavy rain. Because many of these areas have already had rain for the last several days in a row. So, anything we add on top of it this morning and this afternoon just exacerbates that flooding potential. So, these areas where you see the red and green, that's where we have the highest flood risk, at least over the next several hours.

In terms of severe thunderstorms, we also still could see more of those develop later on today. It forms this little u shape that you see through here. So, any of the cities that are inside of either the green or the yellow color have the potential for damaging winds. Again, some large hail and even some isolated tornadoes, especially later on this afternoon and into the evening hours.

Here's a look say about 7:00 tonight. Keep in mind, we do have two World Cup games today. One in New Jersey. One in Philadelphia. There could be some rough weather, especially some of those stronger thunderstorms that could be rolling through the area about that time.

In addition to that, Boston, New York, stretching down through areas of Knoxville, Nashville, also looking at the potential for some of those strong to severe thunderstorms later on into the day. By Tuesday morning, a lot of that activity dies down, but not entirely. Again, you still see that line here stretching from Maine all the way back down through Georgia and Alabama that could still have some stronger thunderstorms embedded within that line and a few moving through the Midwest as well.

BOLDUAN: All right, Allison Chinchar, thank you so much. Watching it all for us.

John.

BERMAN: All right, hundreds of tourists stranded after a deadly fire tears through a popular beach resort. Look at that.

And the biggest movie at the box office this weekend. Can cartoons save Hollywood?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:28:34]

SIDNER: This morning, Vice President J.D. Vance is set to depart Switzerland after what he says was a very good day of talks with Iran. In remarks this morning, the vice president said Iran had agreed to allow nuclear monitors into the country. He said a new agreement between Qatar, the U.S., Iran and Islamabad talks between Israel and Hezbollah, though, were still a work in progress. Those new tales come on the heels of stinging criticism among a significant group of Republicans on Capitol Hill.

Joining us now is senior political correspondent for the "National Review," Jim Geraghty.

Thank you so much for being here.

I do want to talk about what we heard from Vice President J.D. Vance first and then get to what some of the lines that you have written about this whole deal in the first place.

Vance touting these new lines, saying, namely that Iran agreed to have nuclear inspections as soon as this week. He also said they are working on an agreement that would basically allow Iran to get unfrozen assets. The money would then be used, he says, to buy American agricultural products for the Iranian people. That's different from what we heard from Iran's foreign minister that said sanctions on his country were already waived, some of its frozen assets already being released. What do you think is really going on here?

JIM GERAGHTY, SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, "NATIONAL REVIEW": I was going to say, when you see such completely different interpretations of what's in there, you don't have a memorandum of understanding, you have a memorandum of misunderstanding.

[09:30:00]

I'm as reassured as anybody to hear the Iranians, oh, sure, we're going to allow international inspectors in then. The Iranians bragged about how easy it was to fool international inspectors.