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Erin Burnett Outfront

Trump Warns Iran, Attacks Threaten Deal, 60-Day Clock Ticks; PM To Trump: We Never Beg; Team USA Beats Australia, Advances To World Cup Knockout Stage. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired June 19, 2026 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:19]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next:

Breaking news, Trump tells Iran make an agreement or else -- as talks between the two countries are once again derailed after more fighting.

Plus, quote, "completely fabricated". Italy's prime minister slamming Trump after he claimed that she begged him for a photo.

And a KFILE exclusive, a candidate in a key Senate race, has been attacking Trump's crackdown on undocumented immigrants, but our KFILE uncovered his role in once alerting ICE.

Let's go OUTFRONT.

(MUSIC)

SANCHEZ: Good evening. I'm Boris Sanchez in for Erin Burnett.

OUTFRONT tonight, the breaking news. President Trump putting Iran on notice as he tries to salvage his deal to end the war, now 112 days in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's 60 days. They have to make a deal. Otherwise, we -- we will do things that won't make them happy, but I don't think it's going to get to that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Those discussions, though, of not yet started. In fact, they were supposed to be taking place right now, but Iran backed out after one of the deadliest days since the start of the war. Vice President J.D. Vance also scrapping his plans to attend the talks. And now countries across the region are scrambling to get the negotiations back on track.

Meantime, at home, Republicans are not letting up their criticism of the deal. Just listen to Senator Ted Cruz today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): I think if the Ayatollah gets $300 billion, that money will be used to fund terrorism and to murder Americans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Now, Trump claims that $300 billion fund is not coming from the U.S., but money to Iran is still money to Iran, and importantly, that money is an important part of what helps seal this deal, even as Trump continues to attack former President Obama for using similar incentives.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Remember this -- if I don't terminate the JCPOA road to a -- remember, that was a road to a nuclear weapon. Legally, it says right there, and Obama thought he could pay them off. He gave them billions and billions of dollars, $1.7 billion in cash. You know, it was a well-known story, but it didn't work. You can't bribe your way out of it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Obama responded. Just listen to what he told NBC News.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: We've now fought a war, spent billions and billions of dollars, you know, put enormous strain on our military. A lot of people have died. And it feels like we're back where we were before we started the war, except maybe a little bit worse off.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Kevin Liptak is OUTFRONT live outside the White House.

Kevin, where do negotiations stand tonight?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah, I would describe the status at the moment as pending. You've heard the Iranians say that they're working through the mediators to try and get these talks back on track. The White House has said that J.D. Vance, the vice president, is essentially ready to go whenever they say he'll leave at the first available opportunity.

And I'm just learning now that Steve Witkoff, the president's envoy is also on his way to Switzerland to try and get these negotiations up and running. But still, at this point, there's no indication that Vance is leaving tonight, and we're now at another day that has gone past where these negotiations over these very difficult issues on nuclear matters, not to mention the proxies and the missiles, have gone by.

And that, I think, is causing some heartburn among American officials. You know, 60 days was already a very compressed timeline to have some very technical discussions Remember, it took the Obama administration two years to work out some similar issues. We're now 58 days before the war could potentially be reignited. And President Trump is threatening that as a possibility. He wrote on

True Social earlier, quote, "We didn't meet out of desperation. Iran did. They are finished. We'll play out the 60 days. They get no money, not 10 cents."

Now, of course, we know Iran actually does stand to benefit just from this memorandum of understanding. The U.S. will apply waivers on some of its oil exports. It will be allowed to sell the oil almost immediately.

And even though President Trump is framing all of this as an exercise of Iranian desperation, he himself said two days ago that he wanted the war over because he was worried about economic catastrophe and he didn't want to be compared to Herbert Hoover.

So clearly, the president, I think, has reason to get these talks back on track. He'll need these technical talks to work. He'll need the nuclear issues resolved if the critics of this deal, including his own supporters, are going to be quieted who claim that this deal gave too much to Iran without getting much in return for the United States -- Boris.

SANCHEZ: Kevin Liptak at the White House, thank you so much.

Our panel is with us now.

Alex Plitsas, the clock is ticking, and you just heard Kevin report that Steve Witkoff is on his way to Switzerland. What are you hearing from your sources about where this stands right now, what Witkoff is about to walk into?

ALEX PLITSAS, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: So from what I'm hearing, a lot of the blowbacks seem to come from Israeli operations in Lebanon, but the Iranians seem to forget that that's in response to Hezbollah attacks inside of northern Israel. One percent of the Israeli population has remained displaced since October 7th. The projectiles have continued to fly. And that is part of the problem with having two parties who are subject to an agreement, yet neither one of them are signatories to it.

And that's where we find ourselves in the sense that Israel is not a signatory, neither is Lebanon as a sovereign country, and neither is Hezbollah, which is a designated terrorist organization.

SANCHEZ: Nazila, the supreme leader is putting Trump on the defensive. You saw what Kevin put up as a response to the ayatollah, saying that the U.S. made this agreement out of desperation, Trump posting, "We didn't meet out of desperation. Iran did. They're finished. They got no money, not 10 cents."

And then you also had the official White House account posting, "Iran is finished."

What are you hearing from folks inside Tehran about how they see the situation? NAZILA FATHI, FORMER NEW YORK TIMES CORRESPONDENT: Boris, what I'm hearing is also a lot of skepticism on the ground. And it's very interesting because these are a lot of ordinary Iranians who are very skeptical about the deal, partly because they say President Trump is unpredictable, President Trump is unreliable. And they're asking whether he's going to hold Washington's end of the bargain.

On the other hand, there are a lot of hardliners inside the country who are watching the clashes in Lebanon, and they are urging the government to close the Strait of Hormuz again because they want to see those clashes and they want to see a ceasefire in Lebanon as well. And I think that's why Mojtaba Khamenei put out a statement last night, and he sort of distanced himself from the deal. But inside Iran, on the ground, people see steal as a shaky deal, and they're not sure if either side would hold their end of the bargain.

SANCHEZ: Robert Kelley, you were the chief nuclear inspector in Iraq for the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, today Iran actually denied claims by Trump officials that Tehran has invited inspectors to all of its nuclear facilities to identify where that highly enriched uranium is held.

I wonder how difficult that process is going to be? Is that something that at this point seems realistic to you?

ROBERT KELLEY, DISTINGUISHED ASSOCIATE FELLOW, STOCKHOLM INTERNATIONAL PEACE RESEARCH INSTITUTE: I think what we can do is dispose a part of this very quickly. The Bushehr reactor in the southern part of the country was built by Russia, and it's got to be remained under safeguards. It was under safeguards for the period between the 12-day war and the second war.

So I think the inspectors will be going back there. As regards going other places, I'm sure that Iran would like to take them to the places they've already been so that Iran can show off the amount of damage, damage that there was and damage that there wasn't, and so that they can have the upper hand in terms of the discussion about the nuclear program.

SANCHEZ: Alex, when it comes to Trump saying that he can prevent Israel from attacking Lebanon, he said, They do as I say. I wonder if you think, as you talk to your sources, there are concerns that Israel may undermine this deal.

PLITSAS: I think there's genuine concerns over a couple of parties potentially disrupting the deal. So Israel has made it clear that if they are attacked by Hezbollah, they are going to respond. And if we saw the last couple of responses, they were not proportionate. So this was a massive attack in the suburbs of Beirut. We actually saw them assassinate a Hezbollah member who had actually been in U.S. custody in Iraq, somebody he'd personally met with in jail cells when he was there, because he was responsible for the deaths of five U.S. service members that he quite literally summarily executed when they were in a vehicle.

That being said, those types of disproportionate responses have the ability to draw a counterattack from Iran and sort of disrupt the process. Hezbollah could also disrupt, and then I'm also hearing that there's concern that there's still conflict within Iran, where the IRGC itself could disrupt some of these civilian negotiations that are going on by the civilian government.

So, three different parties that have the potential to disrupt these negotiations, two of which are not part of the negotiation.

SANCHEZ: To the point about Hezbollah potentially being a disruptor, I wonder, Nazila, if you are seeing the same sort of approach from Tehran that the United States is now taking with Israel, where it's saying that, as J.D. Vance said, it should not be attacking its largest backer in the world, that it should be, in the words of Donald Trump, sane.

[19:10:16]

Are you seeing any attempt by Tehran to restrain what Hezbollah is doing?

FATHI: That's not been public. But obviously, Iran wants an end to this conflict, too, and there are forces inside Iran that would want to restrain Hezbollah.

But, you know, Hezbollah is a proxy force, and it hasn't always followed instructions from Tehran. So that's to be decided.

But inside Iran, now that the blockade has been lifted, the economy is starting to show some signs of improvement. And Iranian authorities definitely want to see an end to the conflict, to the direct conflict. So I'm pretty sure there is a big group inside the government that is trying to rein in Hezbollah.

SANCHEZ: Robert, getting back to the enriched uranium for a moment, in a new interview with "Axios", President Trump suggested again that Iran is unable to reach that highly enriched uranium after U.S. strikes last summer, after Operation Midnight Hammer, saying that those strikes collapsed a mountain on top of it.

What do you think nuclear inspectors are going to be able to do with that buried enriched uranium?

KELLEY: Well, the first thing is it's probably not buried under a mountain. It's probably been dispersed around the country in the number of small containers, not much bigger than the fire extinguisher.

General Caine gave a very clear description of what the bombing accomplished in the first round, and it was very clear from that that the bombers didn't go to the site where the uranium was known to be. The IAEA saw the uranium for the last time in, I think it was early June, and 22 days later, the bombing started and Iran had plenty of time to move that material somewhere else.

So I think finding the material is going to be essential for Iran to say, we decided we want to show it to you. If they don't do that, no one's going to find it. It'd just be too hard.

SANCHEZ: Nazila, lastly to you, as President Trump has sort of hedged the idea that Iran would not be allowed to enrich any uranium, he's more recently said that it's hard to make the argument that they can't have some for the purposes of energy. Do we know what the new supreme leader wants to do with that 60 percent enriched uranium?

FATHI: We don't know anything about his position on that, partly because he's never spoken in public, and we don't know about his position. The fatwa against nuclear weapons, which was issued by his father, mostly for internal players, for hardliners who were seeking nuclear weapons, has expired.

So we need some clear positioning from Iranian authorities, and we have no idea what Mojtaba Khamenei's position is.

SANCHEZ: And Nazila Fathi, Robert Kelley, Alex Plitsas, thank you all so much.

FATHI: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: OUTFRONT next, Italy's prime minister calling out President Trump, accusing him of making up a story about her begging the president for a photo.

Plus, going green? Trump's $14 million reflecting pool project, not only a slimy shade of green, but that brand new blue liner at the bottom now appears to be coming apart.

And Trump's new acting director of national intelligence making it clear what some of his priorities are, mass terminations and a government jet.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:18:07]

SANCHEZ: Breaking news, Italy never begs. Those are the words of that country's prime minister bluntly calling out President Trump after he told an Italian TV station that Giorgia Meloni, who you see here with Trump at the G7, begged him for a photo at the summit and that he felt obliged because he felt sorry for her.

Meloni now says that is all made-up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GIORGIA MELONI, ITALIAN PRIME MINISTER (through translator): Donald Trump's statements are fully made-up statements. I'm frankly stunned. But he has to remember one thing. Me and Italy, we never beg.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: And in the wake of this spat, Italy's foreign minister abruptly canceled a planned trip to the United States, set for just a few hours. Doug Heye and Sabrina Singh are both OUTFRONT.

Doug, you say that this dispute between Trump and Meloni is an embarrassment.

DOUG HEYE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: It's an embarrassment and it comes at the very worst time I think possible that it could for the president and frankly for the global coalition that the US has put together over decades now. If we think about when Meloni was first elected, she was viewed as sort of like an Italian MAGA candidate.

So her and Trump are going to get along famously. And unfortunately, I think she's learning the lesson that so many other people learn about Donald Trump if they get close to him. And that's what Donald Trump doesn't give points. He only takes him away one at a time.

And the problem here is the ramifications on this, whether you're talking about Europe and, by the way, things aren't terribly stable in England right now either and what that means for Iran and thus the whole world are really important right now.

I would want to keep our allies as close as possible. Donald Trump, for whatever reason, doesn't think he needs to do so. It's a huge gamble.

SANCHEZ: Sabrina, this is far from the first time that Trump has clashed with a U.S. ally as president. How big of a problem is this?

SABRINA SINGH, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, I totally agree with what Doug said. I mean, this is becoming more of an issue, and I think this president and this administration is further isolating the United States on the world stage. The reality is that we need our allies and partners everywhere that we go in every crisis that we face.

I mean, just look at the war in Iran. We are going to need European partners to help us clear the Strait of Hormuz. They have those capabilities. We actually have less of them right now, and so we need to rely on our partners and allies to help us do that.

And I thought this statement or this made-up story by Donald Trump, it's -- I mean, what do we get for that? I think people think that, after this president, a new administration will come in, whether it's a Democrat or Republican, and the president will be able to repair these relationships.

And that's really not going to be the case. You are going to see our partners and allies turning to other superpowers for security, for economic support. And they are our competitors. They are countries like China and Russia, India.

And so, this -- it's this type of language that's further not only isolating the United States, but it is going to make us very hard to keep diplomatic relationships up going forward for whoever comes in, in the next administration.

SANCHEZ: CNN's Daniel Dale actually pointed out that this is not the first time Trump has also claimed that someone that he was feuding with has come begging him for something. Here's just a few examples.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Romney came to see me, and he begged. He begged me for my support. He begged me.

Jeff Sessions was a disaster. He came to see me four times, just begging me to be attorney general.

I called him to sanctimonious 'cause he would've never been in poli -- he was finished. He was out. The election was virtually over. He came, and he begged me for an endorsement.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Doug, why is this apparently a go-to for Trump?

HEYE: Look, he likes to talk in big, bold terms. We've seen that now for a decade. So this language isn't surprising. Trump can be very consistent with his language when he wants to be.

The problem here is with the examples that you just showed are very trivial. And at the end of the day, global affairs are not going to be impacted by anything that he said about Mitt Romney or Ron DeSantis or what have you.

But the trivial here with the Italian prime minister also sends a message to every other prime minister in Europe or every ally that we have. Every other member of the G7 who was meeting and talking behind Donald Trump's back with each other just last week are hearing these as well. And the stupid and trivial that comes from Donald Trump on this is going to have very real impacts globally and also potentially here in the United States.

SANCHEZ: Sabrina, I want to get your thoughts on Trump today unveiling his new presidential plane, this luxury jet that he very controversially accepted as a donation from the Qatari government. It's now painted red, white, and blue, long gone as the baby blue bottom that Jackie Kennedy liked and picked out.

Here is Trump praising his new plane.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: This is very unique. This is considered the world's most luxurious plane. The workmanship of this plane is -- when you see it, you won't believe it, actually. The quality of woods, the quality of the materials, the quality of the engines, these engines are the finest and the best in the world. Nothing like it. So, it's really an honor and I want to thank, the emir of. Qatar. He's a fantastic guy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: What do you say to all that and specifically that praise for the emir? SINGH: I mean, it is remarkable that the President of the United States accepted a new aircraft that is now Air Force One from a foreign country. Our Air Force spent hundreds of millions of dollars to retrofit the plane so that it could carry the very sensitive and secret communications that the president needs at all times. And it is on the taxpayer that is paying for all of that.

So, you know, truly, this is a waste. The president says that he's now, you know, it's a gift to the nation, but it's going to also be part of his presidential library. This is not a benefit to the American public, and it's not a benefit to presidents that come after Donald Trump. I mean, this was not an investment in U.S. manufacturing and our fleet that now still has to be maintained, even though we have this new aircraft that the president is touting.

The old Air Force One aircraft are still going to have to be maintained by the U.S. military, and that's a huge cost to the taxpayers. So I think this was -- you know, we talked about it when this first was announced last year. It's just a waste of money.

HEYE: And, Boris, it's also, I think, a real waste of political opportunity for the president. Any minute that he spends not explaining what we're trying to do and how we define victory in Iran.

[19:25:00]

And what we're trying to do to solve prices and take-home pay for Americans is a wasted opportunity and hurts every single Republican who's on the ballot this fall.

SANCHEZ: Doug Heye, Sabrina Singh, thank you both. Appreciate your time.

HEYE: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: And tonight, Trump is touting all of his multimillion-dollar projects across the nation's capital, even as some are facing issues.

Here he is with Marc Caputo of "Axios".

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: This place, when I got here, was a death trap. And now it's one of the safest cities in America. I beautified it, new grass, got rid of all of the graffiti, 48 fountains and monuments have been, I mean, so bad. Graffiti all over, 50 years, they weren't touched. And now they're all beautiful.

(END VDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: One project in particular, though, is causing headache after headache. His renovation of the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool, more blue material was found peeling off at the bottom of the pool just days after it was repainted and refilled.

CNN's Tom Foreman is OUTFRONT. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORREPONDENT (voice-over): For a couple of protesters and a chorus of the curious, the reflecting pool glistening green is D.C.'s hottest new tourist distraction.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's a total waste of tax dollars.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It looks pretty gross.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah, it's terrible.

FOREMAN (voice-over): The most recent issue, portions of what appear to be that brand-new blue liner coming apart.

FOREMAN: This is what we're talking about, and I'll try not to disturb anything, but just show you pieces like this, flapping up from the bottom, where some tourists are even coming along and tearing them away as souvenirs.

FOREMAN (voice-over): It was supposed to be memorable in a different way. When the White House fast-tracked the renovation through a no-bid contract for $14 million, seven times the cost originally pitched, President Trump insisted it would be better than anything any previous president had tried, leaving the pool clean, pristine, and with a fresh new paint job just right for the nation's 250th birthday.

TRUMP: It'll be blue water, dark blue. We call it American flag blue because that's the name of the color that we chose, American flag blue. Can't do better than that.

FOREMAN (voice-over): But the algae came on so fast and furious, just as it had for years. And just as outside experts said it likely would, that official claims the water is now crystal clear seem laughably false.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All I see is green, so, yeah.

FOREMAN: No blue.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No blue. There's nothing. It's just bright green.

FOREMAN (voice-over): The company that installed a new liner says it had nothing to do with the water, but amid claims that the liner may be failing in places added, there's several things that we've got to address when we come back for maintenance, and anything like that will be addressed if it's a problem.

For now, pumps are working around the clock to push oxygen into the water in hopes of preventing even more algae growth, and dozens of workers are vacuuming up the green goo gone to ducks.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOREMAN: The thing is, algae comes from microscopic spores that can be in water that otherwise looks clean. So even as they are cleaning up the current algae bloom, another one could be forming right behind them -- Boris.

SANCHEZ: Tom Foreman, thank you so much for that report.

OUTFRONT next, Trump's controversial new acting spy chief now on the job, apparently fixated on accessing a government jet and a security detail.

Plus, one Senate candidate criticizing Trump's immigration crackdown.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are seeing business owners get hurt by this immigration policies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: But as our KFILE found out, he was saying something quite different just years ago.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:33:34]

SANCHEZ: Tonight, Bill Pulte, the Trump loyalist and federal housing official who started today as acting director of national intelligence, despite having no intelligence experience, using his first public comments in his new role not to talk about U.S. intelligence, but to tout government-owned mortgage entities Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It comes as CNN reports that Pulte, after visiting DNI headquarters yesterday, requested a list of every employee in the office so he could determine whether to fire hundreds of them. Sources say that Pulte also asked if he'd have access to a government plane and a security detail, and whether he would receive top-secret security clearance.

OUTFRONT now, John Sipher, a 28-year veteran of the CIA's clandestine service who was warned about the danger of Pulte overseeing U.S. intelligence.

John, thanks so much for being with us.

What does it tell you about Pulte when he's asking about a security detail, an access to a government plane?

JOHN SIPHER, FORMER CIA NATIONAL CLANDESTINE SERVICE SENIOR EXECUTIVE: It says he's unserious and unqualified, but for me, the bigger issues, it shows that the president doesn't take the intelligence community seriously. If he continues to put these kind of people in there, who clearly are there just to do his bidding and to try to sort of use the intelligence community as his own detective agency to declassify information, to create conspiracy theories, it shows that the president doesn't take the intelligence community seriously. And if he doesn't want to declassify information, to create conspiracy theories, it shows that the president doesn't take the intelligence community seriously.

And if he doesn't want unfiltered intelligence, then there really is no reason to have an intelligence community directly.

[19:35:03]

SANCHEZ: Wow. I'm Pulte asking for the name of every employee to see whether to potentially fire hundreds of them. I mean, Trump clearly wants to alter the way that the ODNI functions.

SIPHER: Yeah, I don't know how a list of people can show anybody who's loyal or not loyal or what party they belong to. As you know, public servants are, you know, work for all different -- for Republicans and Democrats, different presidents. And in no way does anybody in the intelligence community show their partisan support or is it written down or in their thing.

So I don't know what a list of employees does for him. And if his job is just to fire everybody in the Directorate of National Intelligence, it goes to the question of do we really need a director of National Intelligence.

The thing was created in 2004 to coordinate between intelligence agencies. It's sort of a process job to try to create standards and make sure regulations across the community work. But ever since it began, the people inside the community that do the real work, the real spying and the analysis, have always rolled their eyes at the DNI and see it sort of as just an extra layer of burden.

And so sure, if they want to fire people, then just get rid of the DNI. I think it would do everybody a good service.

SANCHEZ: MAGA loyalists, who we know have Trump's ear, are encouraging him to clean house.

Here is Steve Bannon earlier today in response to CNN's story on Pulte.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE BANNON, FORMER TRUMP AIDE: Get your guy to walk into everyone in the offices, everybody who's in that room that's not your person, that did not come with you, and you say, "You're fired, you're fired, you're fired, you're fired," and if I need to, I'm going to start a criminal investigation and sweep your phones up and see who talked to CNN and "The New York Times". Fight fire with fire.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Far-right activist Laura Loomer tweeting this as well. Quote, "We are expected to see some well-deserved mass firings soon," adding, "We all know who needs to go."

Criminal investigations, mass firings. To your point about just getting rid of the ODNI, I mean, is this even the most efficient way to do that, if that is what Trump is trying to accomplish? SIPHER: No, of course not. I mean, we want -- I think most Americans agree, we want a professional, serious, an expertise-driven intelligence community. You want an intelligence community that's focused on foreign adversaries. These people are talking about creating partisan people who do whatever the president wants and get involved in domestic issues. I mean, our intelligence community, foreign intelligence community, is very powerful.

And if it starts doing things like getting involved in our elections, in election voting systems and this kind of thing, this is exactly what we've had decades of reform about to make sure that we don't have that. And so, I don't know how mass firings is a sensible way about reforming and creating a professional expertise-led intelligence service and community is just the opposite.

And Americans, when they find out that they don't have people that are working day and night for their own security, they're going to find that they've really made a big mistake here.

SANCHEZ: Trump's nominee to be the permanent pick for DNI, Jay Clayton, that confirmation process is indefinitely on pause right now after Trump upended it by ordering Clayton not to attend confirmation hearings.

How long do you think Trump might let Pulte have his way at DNI before Clayton goes before Senate committees?

SIPHER: Yeah, it looks like there's two things happening. One is he's trying to strong-arm the Congress to get his way, to get his bill through. But he also wants to unleash Pulte to try to declassify information, create conspiracy theories, fire people that they think are disloyal, who, of course, are not disloyal.

And so, you know, the least amount of time that Pulte is there, the better. However, let's be honest, as Jay Clayton is not really qualified for that job either.

SANCHEZ: Walk us through why.

SIPHER: Well, when the Office of Director of National Intelligence was created in 2004, it says right in the legislation that you have to have long experience in national security and intelligence or national security or intelligence. And Jay Clayton may be a great lawyer, but he has no experience whatsoever in intelligence.

And like I said, the Director of National Intelligence is not an operational arm. It is not running spy operations. It is not running our technical operations overseas or creating analysis. What it is doing is it's a process job to try to make sure that the community, the budgets are working across the different agencies to make sure standards are created.

It's very much you have to have a lot of experience and almost be an intel nerd to be good and want to do this job.

[19:40:00] An outsider to come in especially one from the Trump orbit, who's there just essentially to support the president's partisan and personal interests, is not qualified for that job.

SANCHEZ: John Sipher, thank you so much for joining us.

SIPHER: My pleasure. Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Of course.

OUTFRONT next, exclusive KFILE reporting on a candidate in a race that could determine who controls the Senate. He's been attacking Trump's immigration crackdown, but what did he say before he was running?

Plus, celebrations from coast to coast after Team USA rolls past Australia, securing its spot in the World Cup knockout round.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:45:11]

SANCHEZ: Tonight, a CNN K-File exclusive. Dan Osborn, the Democrat- backed independent Senate candidate from Nebraska, has spent months criticizing the Trump administration's immigration crackdown, arguing that workplace raids are hurting businesses and attacking the tactics of masked ICE agents. Yet our KFILE uncovered comments from 2021 where Osborn, then a union leader during a bitter labor strike, said his union had contacted ICE and Homeland Security over allegations that some replacement workers weren't undocumented immigrants.

KFILE's Andrew Kaczynski joins us now.

Andrew, what did you find?

ANDREW KACZYNSKI, CNN KFILE SENIOR EDITOR: Well, look, today, Dan Osborn presents himself as a pro-labor populist who is sharply critical of some of the Trump administration's harsh immigration enforcement tactics. But during a major labor strike that he led in 2021, Osborn said his union had turned to federal immigration authorities over allegations involving undocumented replacement workers.

Take a listen here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAN OSBORN, UNION LEADER: Catalogues, bringing in replacement workers, we have it on good authority that they're replacing us with a good percentage of undocumented workers. We have --

INTERVIEWER: So now they're going to be taken advantage of?

OSBORN: We have been in contact with Homeland Security and ICE. We've made our claims. I hope they do the right thing and investigate our claims.

(END VIDEO CLI)

KACZYNSKI: So, at the time, Osborn was the president of a local union representing workers at the Kellogg's cereal plant in Omaha. This strike involved roughly 1,400 workers across four Kellogg's facilities nationwide.

Now, he didn't offer any evidence during this interview that the replacement workers were undocumented. We could not independently verify that allegation in Kellogg's didn't return a request for comment from CNN, but compare those comments to what Osborn is saying now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OSBORN: We're seeing factories get raided, meat cutters get raided. We're seeing people not showing up to work at restaurants. We are seeing business owners get hurt by this immigration policies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KACZYNSKI: So Osborn has also criticized the use of masked federal agents and called some of what he's seeing not humanly decent. His campaign told CNN that he actually never personally contacted ICE or Homeland Security. Instead, the campaign said that he contacted the local sheriff and sought guidance on how those allegations involving undocumented replacement workers should be reported. He then passed that information along to others who they said contacted federal authorities on their own.

This is what they told us. They said, "Dan contacted the Douglas County Sheriff's Department to inquire about the proper procedures for how to investigate and report that the company was replacing their striking workers with undocumented workers. He passed that information from the Sheriff's Office along to members of his team, many of the individuals who raised concerns about Kellogg's replacing the striking workers with undocumented workers contacted DHS and ICE in their individual capacity. Dan never contacted DHS and ICE himself."

But this episode does highlight some of the complicated politics that he does have to navigate in this race. He has called for a pathway to citizenship for longtime undocumented immigrants. And he has said that immigrant labor is important to the state's economy, but he has also supported stronger border security. He's argued that undocumented immigration drives down wages for American workers.

SANCHEZ: Andrew, this also comes as Osborn is relying heavily on Democratic voters in the Senate race.

KACZYNSKI: Well, that's right. The Nebraska Democratic Party decided not to recruit its own candidate and instead back Osborn after he had a surprisingly strong Senate run in 2024. And that's what makes immigration a particularly tricky issue for him here. There's a Pew survey taken last summer that found Democrats view ICE, you can see right there, overwhelmingly negative, while Republicans hold strongly favorable views of the agency. His challenge is going to be holding both of these groups together,

and the campaign is now framing this incident as being about exploited undocumented labor. They told CNN, just a quote from them, members of the community stood up to protect those local union jobs and hold corporate power accountable, adding, "There's a reason we haven't seen real immigration reform in this country: mega-corporations who use Citizens United to fund career politicians in D.C. are benefiting from our broken immigration system by exploiting undocumented immigrants to create a pool of cheap labor driving down wages to boost their own profits while undercutting American workers" -- Boris.

SANCHEZ: Andrew Kaczynski, thank you so much for that reporting.

Also tonight, Team USA beating Australia. After that stunning 2-0 victory, the U.S. men's soccer team officially securing a spot in the knockout stages of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Fans celebrating the win nationwide, which came despite one of America's star players, Christian Pulisic, missing the match because of an injury.

[19:50:01]

And as America gets closer to that ultimate prize, CNN is bringing you an inside look at Team USA.

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PAUL TENORIO, SENIOR WRITER, THE ATHLETIC: When we talk about U.S. soccer history, because this team is still not at the level of the best teams in the world, there have to be these points where you rally around individual brilliance. And that truism has never been more true than in 2014 in Brazil, with Tim Howard in goal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 2014, Tim Howard became the hero, smothering shot after shot in one of the most valiant performances in modern American sporting history.

TIM HOWARD, U.S. MEN'S WORLD CUP TEAM, '10, '14: I had a really good tournament, as did our team.

MATT FREESE, U.S. MEN'S WORLD CUP TEAM, '26: Sixteen saves against one of the best teams in the world. He was, you know, maybe the best goalkeeper at that World Cup. I.

HOWARD: Wish I'd have made 17 or 18, won the game, but I'm proud of that moment.

TENORIO: What the national team represents is what can I do, right? A kid watches and says, I can do that. Oh, you're American like I'm American. I can go to the World Cup and win those games like I saw on television. That job gets a lot harder if the U.S. bombs out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: You can check out the CNN documentary "CHASING SOCCER GLORY: AMERICA'S LONG GAME" this Sunday night at 8:00 p.m., only on CNN. OUTFRONT next, calls growing tonight to ban what has been a mainstay

in New York's Central Park for more than 150 years after a horse carriage crash kills a teen tourist.

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[19:56:08]

SANCHEZ: Tonight, growing outrage in New York City after a teen tourist was thrown to his death from a horse-drawn carriage in Central Park. This marks the eighth horse-related incident in just over a year.

Gloria Pazmino is OUTFRONT now from Central Park.

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GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was supposed to be a leisurely horse-drawn carriage ride in New York's Central Park. but video shows it quickly turned deadly after the horse became spooked and took off with the Mahajan family inside. Eighteen-year-old Romanch was killed after trying to help his mother, who was thrown from the carriage.

The Mahajan family traveled from India to celebrate Romanch High School graduation and were enjoying a day in the city. When the carriage driver stopped to photograph the family, he stepped out of the carriage and the horse took off. The teen's father told "The New York Times", quote, "They clung desperately to each other inside the carriage as the horse sprinted. But when Romanch's mother fell out of the carriage, he jumped after her to help and his head hit the pavement. The driver chased after it, but wasn't able to catch the out of control carriage, which didn't stop until it hit another coach and fell to its side. Eighteen-year-old Romanch later died at the hospital.

PAZMINO: Now days after this shocking incident, Central Park horse carriages are temporarily off the job. On a regular day, you would have seen them lining up here, stopping at the water trough to drink before picking up their passengers. But now, the union representing the drivers says they're conducting an investigation.

PAZMINO (voice-over): The carriage accident is the first human fatality in more than 100 years of the industry operating inside the park. String of horse-related accidents, eight just in the past 13 months, has reignited calls from animal welfare advocates, elected officials, and the Central Park Conservancy to finally ban them.

CHRISTOPHER MARTE, NYC COUNCIL MEMBER, DISTRICT ONE: We had a death two days ago. A week ago, we had a horse that collapsed for 10 minutes and died, and a month before that, we saw a driver be taken in a stretcher. This is long overdue. Are we going to wait for another death, or are we going to take action today?

PAZMINO (voice-over): The carriage drivers argue their livelihood will be destroyed. CHRISTINA HANSEN, SHOP STEWARD, TW LOCAL 100, CENTRAL PARK CARRIAGES: We just are devastated that this happened. People in our business have been doing this for decades. This is their small business. These are their small businesses.

PAZMINO (voice-over): The iconic carriages are a major tourist attraction for those who want to see some of the city's most famous landmarks.

JILL MICHAELS, NEW YORKER: It's historically been available for a long time, and I just think it's part of the ambiance.

PAZMINO (voice-over): Efforts to ban and reform the industry have spanned three mayoral administrations, including legislation requiring mandatory vacation time for horses, temperature limits, and keeping the carriage rides inside the park. It was supposed to be a once in a lifetime trip for the Mahajan family. The memory of their son now memorialized on a Central Park bench.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: Gloria Pazmino joins us now live from Central Park.

Gloria, how likely is that New York City -- is it that New York City is going to enact a ban following this incident?

PAZMINO: Yeah, Boris, you know, as I said, this has been going on for several years to push a ban on the carriages and Mayor Zohran Mamdani opened the door to that potential this week, saying that he wants to work with the union and with the workers to make sure that they are protected. Ultimately, he said he believes the horse carriages should be removed from inside the park.

There are currently two pieces of legislation, two competing bills in the City Council. One would outright ban the industry move. from inside the park. There are currently two pieces of legislation, two competing bills in the city council. One would outright ban the industry. The other one would create some additional protective measures.

Right now, the ban bill has the majority of support -- Boris.

SANCHEZ: Gloria Pazmino, live for us in Central Park, thank you so much.

And thank you for joining us this evening. Erin is back next week.

"AC360" starts right now.