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Trump: Memorandum of Understanding with Iran is 'Over'; Michigan Senate Candidates Clash Over Future of Democratic Party. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired July 08, 2026 - 06:00   ET

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

[06:00:08]

BRAD SMITH, CNN ANCHOR: That does it for CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS. I'm Brad Smith. CNN THIS MORNING with Audie Cornish starts right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: We are following breaking news right now out of the Middle East, where President Trump says the memorandum of understanding with Iran is over.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: As far as I'm concerned, it's just a waste of time dealing with them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish, and this is where we begin.

Details out of the NATO summit. Now, the comments this morning from President Trump come after the U.S. military hit more than 80 Iranian targets on Tuesday and, in its biggest move yet, reimposed sanctions on Iranian oil in retaliation for attacks on ships near the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran said it would deliver a, quote, "crushing response." But as far as Trump is concerned, he is done negotiating with Iran.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: To me, I think it's over. I don't want to deal with them anymore. They're scum. You know what scum is? 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CORNISH: So, we're bringing in CNN senior White House reporter Kevin Liptak, who is in Turkey for this summit.

Kevin, can you talk about what this means for the state of what was known as a ceasefire, even though it was just a memorandum?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I think it's clear that President Trump thinks this deal has totally collapsed.

But what that actually means for the negotiations and for the war are a little bit unclear.

You know, the president said that he would allow the negotiators to continue these discussions with Iran to try and get some nuclear concessions. Most accounts suggest that those talks had been very, very slow going, even though they were up against this 60-day deadline.

But the president sort of shrugging that off as a waste of time and really entering this summit furious at Iran for being dishonest negotiators, in his view, because they were firing on those commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.

He called them scum. He said that they were cuckoo and suggesting that he's prepared to resume this conflict. But what that looks like, not particularly clear.

Remember, it was only three weeks ago that the president signed this agreement and said that, if the conflict continued, it would result in economic catastrophe. You know, none of those political pressures on the president to end the war have gone away.

And so, how he proceeds from here at this point, not exactly clear.

We did see last night the president ordering up those retaliatory strikes on Iran. He also pulled back those sanctions waivers that he had put on the sales of Iranian oil.

And you've already seen the Iranians sort of list out the ways that they view the United States having violated this agreement.

And so, this is all, I think, falling apart rather quickly. Although the president does say that there's a glimmer of hope that these negotiations can continue.

You know, it all adds up to a furious President Trump. He was angry at Iran, but he's also angry at NATO. You know, there had been some hope, a glimmer of hope, perhaps, that perhaps a more conciliatory president would come here, because he's in a country that's governed by a friend of his, the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

He said that that's the only reason that he came to this summit at all. But it was evident, listening to him this morning, that all of his grievances and all of his frustrations at NATO have not waned one bit. Listen to what he said here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We're having the big meeting in a little while, and I'm going to -- I'm going to relate my -- my problems.

When we wanted them -- we didn't want them badly. But we did say, if you want to join us. And they all said, no. But when they could have, they weren't there for us. And we've been there for them.

We're going to work something out, I think, one way or the other. But we've been treated unfairly. We pay disproportionately.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIPTAK: So, this is all sort of exactly the scenario that the NATO chief, Mark Rutte, other European leaders had wanted to avoid at the summit.

But it seems pretty clear that President Trump is going to be airing all of these grievances as he's now meeting with NATO leaders behind closed doors -- Audie.

[06:05:05]

CORNISH: OK. That's Kevin Liptak, speaking to us from Ankara in Turkey.

I want to bring in now Kurt Volker, former U.S. ambassador to NATO.

Thank you so much for being here on what is now turning into an eventful day. The president saying that the ceasefire that they had negotiated, their memorandum of understanding, is over after some attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

I want to play a bit for the president, for you to hear, and then we'll talk on the other side.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: They can talk, but I think they're wasting their time. Frankly, I don't want to waste my time with them. Now, I'll let our wonderful negotiators keep talking if they want, but I don't see it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: OK, Ambassador, you know what it's like to have to keep talking. What does this mean for people who had been tasked with continuing this conversation?

KURT VOLKER, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO NATO: Right. I think President Trump is just trying to ratchet up the visible frustration; try to put more pressure on the Iranians; see if he can get them back to a situation where they're not attacking anything.

What happened is the Iranians attacked some vessels that were trying to go through the Omani side of the Strait of Hormuz. The Iranians don't want that. They want them to go through Iranian waters, where they can gradually establish a regime of control.

Of course, we don't want that.

But the problem is that we may want it or not want it. But if we are not prepared militarily, physically to defeat the regime and prevent them from doing this sort of thing, this is where this is going to go.

I don't think President Trump really wants to restart the war. He may get forced into it, but I don't think he really wants to. So, he's trying to be tougher now to back up his negotiators, to see whether he can get things back where they were with this MOU a few weeks ago.

CORNISH: Yes. You were asked, I think, just last night about Greenland. And you said that Trump has a kind of routine. He complains, he criticizes. He says people aren't doing enough, and he keeps threats on the table. And I thought, gee, that's kind of applicable to this exact moment.

VOLKER: Yes, it is. No, that is the playbook here. He will do that, and he'll never concede anything.

So, even with Greenland, for example, I don't think he was planning to bring up Greenland at the summit at all. But somebody asked him about it. So, he says, yes, of course, it's still on the table. Of course it should be ours.

And I think that is what he's going to do with the Iranians here, step by step. Keep putting the pressure on about the strait. Keep putting pressure on about the nuclear issue. Try to get to something that he can actually live with, which is no fighting, so that oil prices and gasoline prices stay down.

CORNISH: If the ceasefire is over, Does that mean Israel still has a kind of green light to continue its fight with Hezbollah in Lebanon?

Volker: Well, I think that's a very good point, because the Israelis will certainly take it that way. I think President Trump would like to feel that he's in the driver's seat. And so, if Israel is going to attack or not, he would like to be the one who says so.

But I think the Israelis are going to look at this and say, OK, if anything happens, Hezbollah does anything at all, We have a green light. We feel free to go after them again, now.

CORNISH: It's interesting that this NATO summit is happening -- is happening in Ankara. People look at Turkey, in a lot of ways, as a sort of gateway between the East and the West. And it is at the center of this kind of Gordian knot of international issues, right?

You've got Zelenskyy there, trying to get support in its war against Russia. You've got Turkey asking the U.S. for access to F-35 fighter jets, kind of the most advanced fighter jets, and Israel saying, no, don't give it to them.

It feels like the president actually -- there's a lot of spinning plates here. VOLKER: Yes, well, there are. And just look at the geography. I mean,

if you pull up a map, you've got the Black Sea, Ukraine and Russia to the North. You've got Iran and Iraq to the East. You've got Syria and Lebanon to the South.

Further down, you've got Israel on the other side of the mediterranean.

It is a region that has a lot of issues. And Turkey is a very large country, very capable country, militarily, economically. And they play a role in all of these issues that we care about.

Most of the time, U.S. and Turkish interests are actually aligned, but there are few cases where they diverge. And in all of these cases, it's really important that we are talking to the Turks and working with them, because it could go very badly if we don't.

CORNISH: And we should say, despite their requests, we're seeing reports, CNN reporting now that the defense secretary, Hegseth, has actually canceled his trip to Israel, where he was supposed to sort of soothe concerns about this potential sale.

What are you going to be listening for now? Is it J.D. Vance that has to come out and say technical talks are still going, if the Iran -- Iranians play nice? Is it Hegseth? Kind of what are you expecting to see today?

[06:10:02]

VOLKER: Well, a couple of things. One of them, let's not forget it's the NATO summit meeting. So, I think it would be important for NATO to say something condemning the Iranian attacks on shipping and supporting freedom of navigation in the Persian Gulf.

Very important that NATO stay aligned with the U.S. as we go through this, even if they're not contributing militarily to show the direction that we want to go in.

The second thing is, I think the Iranians are going to listen to President Trump and try to judge: is this just one more threat that he then winds down a couple of days from now? Or is it going to be something different this time?

They're going to be watching that. And in -- and in doing so, I think they're going to stand down on any attacks for a little while.

They had, you know, a quick one just recently, but I think they're going to stand down and see whether the U.S. really wants to escalate this or not. They're probably betting that we don't. And I think things will 00 will be quieter for a while.

CORNISH: OK. That's Ambassador Kurt -- former ambassador Kurt Volker. Thank you so much for your time. Appreciate it.

VOLKER: It is appreciated (ph). CORNISH: And coming up on CNN THIS MORNING, we are monitoring the situation in New York. Construction crews are working to stabilize a high rise.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was crazy. And everybody -- everybody was panicking.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Why officials are confident that they can keep a building from buckling.

Plus, Democrats still trying to answer for Israel. Now it's coming to a head on Michigan's debate stage.

And why Senator Mitch McConnell's team is being secretive about his health. Questions being raised about whether they owe it to voters to explain what's going on.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mitch McConnell talked to the GOP leaders on the phone. I feel like we have a "Weekend at Bernie's" situation going on right here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:16:28]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABDUL EL-SAYED (D), MICHIGAN SENATORIAL CANDIDATE: If you want somebody who's electable, the last three polls in a row show that I'm the most electable Democrat in November. Why? Because you got to actually fight for something.

REP. HALEY STEVENS (D-MI), MICHIGAN SENATORIAL CANDIDATE: I worked really hard to make sure that Kamala Harris was going to get elected, and that Donald Trump would be stopped. And my opponent did nothing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: You're looking at the last two candidates remaining in the Democratic primary for Senate in Michigan. They were in a heated debate on Tuesday night. This is ahead of their primary, which is on August 4th.

Abdul El-Sayed and Congresswoman Haley Stevens are fighting to replace retiring Senator Gary Peters. The race is critical for Democrats, who are hoping to flip the Senate in November. It's also exposing a rift in the national party between more moderate establishment party forces and a progressive insurgency. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EL-SAYED: Chuck Schumer desperately wants one of us to be the next senator, and it's not me. So, if you want your politics dictated to you by AIPAC or Chuck Schumer, then I'm not your guy.

STEVENS: There are many who want to make this run for U.S. Senate about Washington, D.C., insider deals and what's going on with our party leadership. Friends, this is about the future of Michigan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: So, joining me now in the group chat, Isaac Dovere, CNN senior reporter; Terry Schilling, president of the American Principles Project; and Antjuan Seawright, Democratic strategist.

Isaac, I want to start with you, because there's a handful of Senate races were all watching very closely. And yet you call this one the apex for Democrats? Why?

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Well, look, this is really where you see, in this primary, especially now with Mallory McMorrow dropping out at the beginning of the week, this just playing out in full contrast of the different things that are going on in the Democratic Party, this fight that is happening. The fight for both the hearts of Democrats and the minds of Democrats, who they want to believe they are.

Is it a bipartisan, workhorse version of things, the way that Haley Stevens supporters sell forward, or is it this progressive fighter model that that that Abdul El-Sayed has put himself forward as? And in the minds --

CORNISH: Whether or not those things are even at odds.

DOVERE: Exactly.

CORNISH: I'm sure the moderates would say, like, we're fighting up a storm.

DOVERE: They would. And there's a lot that overlaps in terms of policy for both of them.

And then it's also about the minds, where they're thinking, this is a race. There is no way that anybody really can see that Democrats can take the majority of the Senate, which is already a stretch, if they lose this seat in Michigan.

And so, part of what even played out on the debate stage, what you're playing before we started is this conversation of who will be the strongest candidate to go up against Mike Rogers, former congressman who very nearly won the Senate seat against Elissa Slotkin in 2024.

CORNISH: OK. I want to play for you guys a little snippet of the debate, just so the audience can hear a little bit about what was talked about. Here's an exchange they had about -- even though it's the state of Michigan -- U.S. policy on Israel.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EL-SAYED: For too long, our foreign policy has been handed to us by the likes of the state of Israel and AIPAC, who has made sure that Democrats and Republicans are doing their bidding.

I don't take that money. They are spending against me, because they've called me the most dangerous candidate for the U.S.-Israel relationship.

STEVENS: Well, Abdul, I would say no one is afraid of you. And in fact, the GOP is spending thousands of dollars to prop up your campaign, because they think it -- they will make it easier for Mike Rogers to win if you are the nominee.

EL-SAYED: Well, you know, if Congresswoman Stevens makes it or Mike Rogers wins, either way, Israel will win. AIPAC is perfectly fine with either of my two opponents, because they know that they will have a comfortable, reliable vote in the U.S. Senate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: I wanted to play that, one, because the "no one is afraid of you" was like, kind of quite the dig. And I want to be clear for the audience, it's not like we're verifying the claims they're making in this debate.

[06:20:10]

Antjuan, what do you see in sort of how they're going at each other? Is it reflective of anything or is this a Michigan race?

ANTJUAN SEAWRIGHT, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: This is a race solely about Michigan. But I will add, this is a race solely about the future of our country. Take Michigan out of it.

I think where there's no pathway for the majority and for us to have the majority in the Senate without us maintaining the state of Michigan in our column.

I would also add, we continue to have these conversations of style versus substance in our primaries. And quite frankly, I think it's doing a disservice to the overall goal. And that's to win in November.

Say what you want about the Republicans, but they seem to be united after primaries. We have a problem doing that. And I hope that Michigan is not one of those examples.

The truth of the matter is Michigan is a battleground state in 2028. And so, we have to set the tone in 2026. That's why this primary is so important.

CORNISH: Yes.

SEAWRIGHT: I think people forget that there were strong divisions within Michigan in the 2024 election cycle that caused us not to put Michigan in the winning column for Democrats.

CORNISH: Are you guys united?

TERRY SCHILLING, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN PRINCIPLES PROJECT: Look, yes, no. Mike Rogers, the party's aligned behind him.

I think the big thing that I took away from that debate last night is that it's a lot of style over substance, right? They're not talking about exciting policies that are going to transform Americans' lives. They're talking over about campaign disclosures, financial disclosures. They're talking about who can win, who's best seated to win. Well, the reality is --

CORNISH: Well, maybe because the policies are actually quite similar.

SEAWRIGHT: I disagree with they're not talking about issues, because I think that both candidates are talking about the affordability crisis that Republicans have created. They're both talking about this.

CORNISH: You're saying they're not clashing on it, right? Like they basically --

SEAWRIGHT: Well, that's the point.

SCHILLING: I'm saying, actually, that they're -- they don't have exciting plans.

If I had a plan that I actually thought was going to transform people's lives, I'm not going to talk about my campaign disclosures or my candidate's campaign disclosures. I'm going to talk -- or certainly not AIPAC.

SEAWRIGHT: I think that's where you may be wrong. With all due respect, Terry, they are talking about the affordability issue. They all talk -- they're all talking about health care. They're all talking about the 100,000 manufacturing jobs that have been lost under this administration.

SCHILLING: Well, what's their policy?

SEAWRIGHT: And this -- and this do-nothing majority.

SCHILLING: All right. They talked a lot about it. What was their policy on --

SEAWRIGHT: Costs, care.

SCHILLING: No, how are they going to solve those things?

SEAWRIGHT: Costs, lowering costs.

SCHILLING: How are they going to lower costs.

SEAWRIGHT: For -- dealing with the health care crisis. The 18.2 million Americans --

SCHILLING: How are they dealing with the -- with the crisis?

SEAWRIGHT: Well, they're going to -- I just told you. We're going to pass a --

SCHILLING: Raising taxes?

SEAWRIGHT: No. We're going to pass those ACA subsidies that Republicans refused to pass to make sure that premiums --

SCHILLING: So, raise taxes.

CORNISH: So, hold on one second.

SEAWRIGHT: Premiums, co-pays and deductibles do not rise.

CORNISH: You guys right now are having the argument we plan to listen to in 2028.

SCHILLING: Yes, that's right.

CORNISH: Don't want to jump the gun.

SEAWRIGHT: No, this is a 2026 argument.

CORNISH: We're still -- well, I want to talk about the primaries, because we are not there yet. The argument you're talking about is the argument they have to make in a general. This is what we do different from Republicans.

It's getting there. The journey is the destination right now. And what are we learning?

DOVERE: We're learning that the Democrats have a lot that they're fighting over.

Look, the -- it is not a coincidence that AIPAC and Israel was such an issue in that debate last night. It is an issue that is roiling the Democratic Party right now.

CORNISH: Yes. And Republicans, it's come up here and there. Yes.

DOVERE: And it's an issue. And in Michigan especially, there is a large Arab American population. There's a large Jewish population. There is a lot of different views of what should be done there.

El-Sayed has said over and over that he is anti-AIPAC. And he said to me in an interview I did with him last week that the -- the only way that anybody could support Israel is if there's money supporting them.

There is a lot of AIPAC-related money that's going to Haley Stevens.

But it's also an issue that that El-Sayed has said speaks to deeper progressive values --

CORNISH: Yes. Let me --

DOVERE: -- of where people are. And that's not what Stevens thinks. And it's not clear where voters are on this.

CORNISH: It is not. And let me pause on that particular conversation for this reason.

Rahm Emanuel, someone who has been out there, former Democratic operative, is planning to make a speech and talk about Israel. I think this is going to be an interesting --

DOVERE: In Israel.

CORNISH: In Israel. I think this is going to be an interesting moment for the party, where someone tries to figure out, how do you thread the needle and navigate a conversation around this that is bedeviling both parties?

So, let's pause on this, because we are definitely going to come back to it.

And in the meantime, I just want to give you guys an update on a couple of things. The president's lawsuit against "The Washington Post" thrown out. Why a judge said the Trump administration did not provide enough evidence.

Plus, there's this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(CHEERING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Argentina's epic comeback to keep their World Cup dreams alive.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:29:08]

CORNISH: It is now 28 minutes past the hour. This is your morning roundup.

Now I want to show you right now live images. Construction crews working through the night, because they need to shore up a high rise in midtown Manhattan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're getting reports from the construction that two columns buckled on the 21st floor.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Construction company has done a roll call. All construction workers are accounted for at this time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Did you hear that word, "buckled"? The building was evacuated after two columns bent on Tuesday.

This is the former headquarters of Pfizer, which is being converted into apartments. Several other buildings were also cleared out as a precaution.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was a disaster the way they were -- they were running out of the hotel. It was crazy. And everybody -- everybody was panicking. A lot of people was [SIC] panicking.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: And the New York City building commissioner says crews at the time were trying to add 11 new floors to the building, which already had 22 floors.