Return to Transcripts main page

The Source with Kaitlan Collins

Trump Urges GOP Allies Not To Rebel Over His Election Bill; Supreme Court Hands Trump Two Massive Wins On Immigration; Iran Rejects WH Claim That Unfrozen Funds Will Buy U.S. Crops. Aired 9-10p ET

Aired June 25, 2026 - 21:00   ET

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

[21:00:00]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHARON STONE, AMERICAN ACTRESS: --and I had to make peace with the fact that my mom was not going to do that. In order for her to die in peace, I had to release her. And sometimes, the person that the person is meanest to, you find out is the person they're most attached to because they feel safest to take it out on you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, ANDERSON COOPER 360: Well, you can listen to the full conversation wherever you get your podcasts, or watch the entire episode at CNN.com/AllThereIs.

That's it for us. The news continues. "THE SOURCE WITH KAITLAN COLLINS" starts now.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, CNN HOST, THE SOURCE WITH KAITLAN COLLINS: Tonight. Was more than three hours at the White House, enough time for House Speaker Mike Johnson to convince President Trump to sign that bipartisan bill he's refusing to put his name on.

I'm Kaitlan Collins. And this is THE SOURCE.

And as we come on the air tonight, there is a big question hanging over the White House. Did President Trump just reverse course, again, after stating, 24 hours ago, that he was refusing to sign that major housing bill, which had passed overwhelmingly in Congress.

After one of the more chaotic days, on Capitol Hill, during the President's second term, we saw House Speaker Mike Johnson inside the Oval Office for hours today. Here he is entering the West Wing. As he was attempting to get things back on track with the President, who canceled a bill signing as he was touting said bill yesterday.

Here's what Speaker Johnson said on his way into this meeting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): We have a -- we're in an era with small margins and small majorities, and we've got to get things moving. There is a frustration the President has expressed about the unwillingness of Senate Democrats to do anything that follows commonsense.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: But it's not really Democrats who are the President's current problem, or at least not his entire problem. It's Republicans, members of his own party, who keep telling the President that there just aren't enough votes to pass the voting bill he is demanding they pass.

Now, this is where the intrigue happens tonight, and still a big question that we're left with as we come on air this evening. After that meeting with the President, House Speaker Mike Johnson said he is sending that housing bill, that Trump refused to sign yesterday, over to the White House, presumably for his signature.

But what we don't know is whether the President agreed to sign it. Or if the 10 days will pass until it becomes law without the President having to sign it. Or another option, none of the above, and the President potentially threatening a veto if the SAVE Act, that election bill that I was talking about, doesn't come first.

Speaker Johnson only said this about the President and himself. He said, quote, "We are on exactly the same page. He," meaning Trump, "wants to ensure that we stop any blockade in the House. Congress has work to do, and that's what we are going to do."

It's a question of what that work is going to look like. That's because the Senate just left town until mid-July, and a contingent of House Republicans have brought their chamber to a standstill, refusing to move on anything until the Senate does what the President is demanding.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ANNA PAULINA LUNA (R-FL): I'm totally fine with keeping it shut down as long as possible until they can get off their butts, go vote.

REP. TIM BURCHETT (R-TN): We keep saying we're going to put them in a bind, and we never do. And it's -- this is the most popular piece of legislation out there. The President supports it. I think we ought to go to the mat for it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Now, When it comes to Republicans who have been shutting down activity on the House floor, the President seemed to post a message directly to those House Republicans today, telling them to let up, while others have been criticizing outright their colleagues' tactics.

This is how the Republican Congressman Nick LaLota put it to Politico. He said, It's like beating your dog because your neighbor won't cut his grass.

Or, Congressman Thomas Massie said it this way. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. THOMAS MASSIE (R-KY): I think it's ironic that we control the House, the Senate, the Supreme Court, and the White House, and we're yelling election fraud? I mean, we won all the damn elections, and we're in charge, and what are we doing with it?

The problem is, we're wasting our opportunity that the voters gave us, and the Republicans are going to pay for that in November. It will be an absolute shellacking if they don't wake up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Now, while that drama is playing out back east. Vice President JD Vance was out west today, at the Nixon Library, in California, for an event promoting his new book.

While he was on stage, he made a series of statements about the Nixon era and the Trump era that -- well, you listen to for yourself.

[21:05:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JD VANCE (R), U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: I'm actually fascinated by Nixon as a character in history. I think that his historical legacy is enjoying a bit of a renaissance, but I think deservedly so. As I joked with Robert backstage, if Watergate happened tomorrow, it would be like a 12-hour news story.

(LAUGHTER)

VANCE: Like, the idea that it would have taken down a presidency is crazy.

And by the way, if you look at the story of how the deep state took down Richard Nixon, it's not all that different from what the same groups of people, the same institutions tried to do to Donald Trump in the first Trump administration. There is a parallel.

(APPLAUSE)

VANCE: I also just, at a personal level, you know, OK, young senator, Vice President, writes some best-selling books, is hated by the media. It kind of sounds like JD Vance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: With that sound bite there, leading us off tonight are some of my top political sources.

The Co-chair of American Bridge 21st Century, and a senior adviser to the Harris-Walz campaign, and also the former Mayor of New Orleans, Mitch Landrieu.

And also, former Special Assistant to President George W. Bush, Scott Jennings.

I mean, Scott, there's a lot to unpack there, when it comes to what the Vice President said today, when he was speaking at the Nixon Library. Do you agree with him?

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, FORMER SENIOR ADVISER TO MITCH MCCONNELL, FORMER SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO PRES. GEORGE W. BUSH, HOST, "THE SCOTT JENNINGS RADIO SHOW" ON SRN: Well, about what? I mean, he said a lot -- he said a lot of things.

COLLINS: That Watergate would be a 12-hour--

JENNINGS: I will say there is -- I do think the Nixon--

COLLINS: --12-hour story today.

JENNINGS: Well, hard to say. I mean, things happening in a historical moment at different points in time, it's hard to say. I mean, it was obviously a huge story. But again -- then again, the media and politics worked different in the 70s than it works today, so hard to play the what-if game.

I do think, just, you know, I think a lot of Republicans, a lot of people are reviewing the Nixon era. I mean, his era and his presidency was not without accomplishments. I mean, they opened China, had the Vietnam peace accords, there was environmental legislation, Title IX, desegregation. I mean, a lot of things happened on Richard Nixon's watch, apart from just a Watergate, and I think a lot of people are looking at that and looking back on it and saying, You know, this wasn't all bad.

So, it was an interesting conversation. I took note of his comments. But I also noted at the beginning of it, he said I was joking with, who I assume was, the director of the library backstage.

COLLINS: I mean, but Mitch Landrieu, obviously, it's not that -- JD Vance was not making the point that there were also accomplishments that Nixon had. Of course, I think everyone can recognize that. He was saying that it wouldn't be a story that took down a president, and he said it was the deep state that took down Richard Nixon.

I'm pretty sure it was Richard Nixon who took down Richard Nixon, and the Republicans who said he needed to basically resign.

MITCH LANDRIEU, CO-CHAIR, AMERICAN BRIDGE 21ST CENTURY, FORMER NEW ORLEANS MAYOR, SENIOR ADVISER, HARRIS-WALZ CAMPAIGN: Yes, well, for historical accuracy, a number of Republicans found their courage and went to a president of their own party and said, You violated the oath to the people of the United States of America, and you can't be president anymore.

That kind of courage is sorely lacking right now, in the Republicans in the Senate.

Now, just a couple things. Sometimes, when people like JD Vance say those things, you should just let their words speak for themselves. I think every American will listen to that, and of course, acknowledge that President Nixon did a couple of really good things. But that doesn't excuse the fact that he violated the law, and he violated his oath to the people.

And the fact that JD Vance thinks that's a 12-hour story now says everything about the view of the Trump administration's relationship with the truth and their appetite for corruption. You think about the pool, the ballroom, the plane, just the chaos, the confusion, the corruption.

The one thing that the President will not focus on is cost, which is on this housing bill. Like, he said to Zelenskyy he doesn't have any cards. The President has no cards to play here.

The number one issue for the people in America is costs, and the biggest cost that they have, aside from the gas tank right now, is housing. He has a bipartisan bill that the House and the Senate passed together, and he's threatening to not sign it. Well, first of all, he doesn't have to sign it. The law says, after 10 days, it's going to become law anyway. So, he's got no cards to play on this thing.

Plus, politically, it's kind of insane for him to basically hold up the first bill that he passed that actually is going to help working- class people make their lives a little bit easier.

COLLINS: Yes, I mean, but also just, Scott, on the Nixon comment. When Vance compares himself to Nixon, saying, That sounds a lot like me. Is that a comparison you would want made if you were the Vice President?

JENNINGS: I mean, that's up to him. He was sitting at the Nixon Library, I assume, talking to an audience full of Nixon aficionados. So, I assume there was some amount of playing off the crowd there. So, hard for me -- hard for me to say. I also think some of it sounded a little tongue-in-cheek to me.

Look, Richard Nixon has a presidential library. They host a lot of big events. They host a lot of major speakers. Republicans, and I think even some Democrats go there and make speeches. And so, I don't think the Vice President is alone in doing that, and I don't think it's really out of line to say something nice about the person whose name is on the building.

[21:10:00]

If I might debate my friend, Mitch, on some of what he just said. Look, gas prices are not up, they're down, below $4 a gallon, nationally, oil is trading at $71 a barrel. We don't run the gas price tracker on the screen anymore, for a reason, you know? I mean, it's because it's a non-story.

The pool was vandalized. You keep bringing up the pool. It was vandalized by people who were so broken-brained about our politics, that they went out there and vandalized the pool. It's in the court documents, which you can read yourself today.

And, as it relates to costs. The Republicans cut taxes. Working people all over this country got major tax refunds. We have a booming job market. We have a stock market that's up. Right now, we have an economy that's on the upswing because of Republican policies. And we've got insane Democrats winning primaries, promising socialism all over this country.

Those are the facts, and that's the argument that will be carried to the election.

COLLINS: And Mitch, I'm going to let you respond.

But Scott, on two things.

One, on the gas prices. I mean, the President doesn't think they're a non-story because, he was sounding like President Biden yesterday, saying that these companies are gouging people, saying the DOJ, he needs -- he wants to look into it, as he was arguing yesterday because, he doesn't think prices are coming down fast enough. So, he's been talking about that.

But two, Scott, I am kind of taken, though. Just because people who watch you every night, you know, we have you on the show a bunch, you are not very defensive of those comments that were made at the Nixon Library. You seem to be saying, you know -- you don't seem to be defending them very much.

JENNINGS: I mean, look, it's up to him how he wants to define himself and compare himself to historical figures. It's up to every politician to do that. There's some things about the Richard Nixon presidency that I think are worthy of mention and worthy of admiration. And obviously, they did some things that are not worthy of admiration. And we know how history played out. It's hard for me to--

COLLINS: But Scott, my point is that's not what -- that's not the point the Vice President made. He didn't say, Look at what Nixon did with China, we're doing something similar to that. He was saying, Look at Watergate, it would have never taken down a president today. It would have been a 12-hour story, and actually, it was the deep state who took Nixon down.

I mean, he was specifically talking about Watergate. He wasn't talking about Nixon's other achievements--

JENNINGS: No.

COLLINS: --of which I agree, there are several.

JENNINGS: Yes. Look, it's interesting academic conversation.

LANDRIEU: I can make--

JENNINGS: I mean, I -- you know, if something like that had happened today, does our politics work the same way today that it worked then? It's an interesting academic conversation. But that's really all it is. It's academic. It happened in history, and we live at a different point. So, I, you know, I don't know how to analyze it beyond that, really. COLLINS: Mr. Mayor.

LANDRIEU: But let me -- as Scott said, let me -- let me kind of contradict my friend Scott.

Richard Nixon started the EPA, that was a really good thing. He also started revenue sharing. He was actually pretty good in working with the mayors across America to help rebuild the country, and for that, he should be given credit.

But that's not what JD Vance was doing. JD Vance was dismissing corruption that Richard Nixon engaged in, that created an impeachable offense, as though somehow that -- you know, that's not a big thing. And if it happened today under Donald Trump -- maybe that's what Donald Trump said because he's done things that are worse than that. There's no question about that.

But that's that -- that comment, you will see that comment many, many times in campaigns going forward. When you consider the chaos and the confusion and the corruption coming out of the Trump administration, and the Vice President dismissing it, I think the American public's ears go up.

And look, I'll let him defend himself. I think Scott's right. The Vice President has the right to define himself any way that he wanted. That was not a wise thing for him to say, if he wants people to think that he might be President of the United States one day.

COLLINS: Yes, it's just notable that it comes on a week of Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan's book coming out, where Trump was comparing himself, quoting someone to Mao, Stalin, Hitler, and their power. Nixon, and the JD Vance comment.

Scott, on the affordable housing bill that Democrats and Republicans want. I mean, Elizabeth Warren was here last night, talking about why it's such a good bill. Obviously, that doesn't happen very often. Do you want the President to sign that bill?

JENNINGS: Well, a lot of Republicans want him to sign it because they voted for it. There's a handful of conservatives that don't like it, so there's a little bit of political resistance out there. But it did get overwhelming votes.

In a perfect world, he'd be able to sign the housing bill, and he'd eventually be able to sign the SAVE America Act, and get both of what he wants. I think that's what he's trying to do here, is create some leverage for himself.

And look, the President's part of the political process and the legislative process. He has to sign bills. He has a say in how this goes down, at least as a matter of the calendar. And so, he's doing what he thinks he needs to do to show his base that he's fighting for the issue that he thinks they care about the most, which is the SAVE America Act. And I have to say, he's not wrong about that.

I go all over this country. It's the first, middle, and last thing that I get asked at virtually every event that I go to. People want to know why Republicans can't seem to get this done. So, I think for the President to look like he's giving up on that would send a terrible signal to the people who voted him and the Republican majority into office.

COLLINS: Yes.

[21:15:00]

Mayor Landrieu, can I ask you on something else just that caught our eye today?

LANDRIEU: May I -- to that, just for a second, though.

COLLINS: Yes, go ahead.

LANDRIEU: When you get elected president, you say, I'm going to bring everybody together and get something done to achieve a goal that you want me to achieve.

We've actually done that with the housing bill. And for the President not to sign that, people are going to go, I don't understand what you're talking about.

The SAVE Act can either stand on its own or fall on its own. People can argue the merits one way or the other. But to hold that up and to stop people from having something that's going to reduce their costs, which is their number one priority. It's not to pass the SAVE Act. It's to save their pocketbook. It just seems to me to be a, you know, an error in judgment, unnecessary.

And by the way, the President doesn't have any cards. He can veto the bill if he wants. They're going to override his veto. And if he doesn't sign it, it's going to become law. So, I think the folks on the Hill know that.

By the way, Massie is right. You know, the Republicans control the presidency, the House, and the Senate. So, this is a clown show, essentially.

COLLINS: On that note. Mayor Landrieu. Scott Jennings. It's great to have both of you here tonight to weigh in on everything. We'll see what happens, and if the President does put his name on that.

Up next today. We're also following this headline out of the Supreme Court, and a pretty remarkable exchange, where Justice Alito was accusing Justice Sotomayor of blindsiding him. Highest court in the land just delivered two huge wins to the President on his immigration agenda.

And also tonight, we're following the latest news out of Venezuela, where it is a race against time, as rescuers are trying to reach people who are trapped under rubble after rare back-to-back major earthquakes. We'll take you there, live.

[21:20:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Tonight, the White House is celebrating not one, but two major Supreme Court decisions that could allow the administration to deport hundreds of thousands of immigrants, and also turn away scores more at the southern border.

Both cases were decided by the conservative majority in a six-three decision. In one, the justices greenlit the administration's efforts to end the Temporary Protected Status of Syrian and Haitian immigrants who have sought refuge in the United States, after enduring war and natural disasters back home.

And the court also ruled that Trump officials can restart a controversial policy known as metering. It first began under President Obama, it was ended by President Biden, and lower courts had previously allowed any immigrant approaching a border checkpoint to file for asylum. Under this policy, though, federal agents can now turn away asylum seekers before they even step foot on U.S. soil.

In the majority opinion, the Justice Samuel Alito wrote, quote, "We hold that an alien who is standing in Mexico does not "arriv[e] in the United States" by attempting, and failing, to set foot in this country. An alien "arrives in the United States" only when he crosses the border."

Well, that comment prompted a rare and pretty remarkable rebuke from the liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who read her dissent aloud from the bench, and she warned her conservative colleagues of this. She said, The consequences of today's decision are predictable. More people will die.

My legal source tonight is CNN Senior Legal Analyst, Elie Honig.

Elie, I mean, I want to talk about the tension in the court. Because, basically what we were hearing is that Justice Alito felt like he was blindsided by her. First off, on the tension, what do you make of that?

ELIE HONIG, FORMER ASST. U.S. ATTORNEY, SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NY, FORMER STATE & FEDERAL PROSECUTOR, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, it's high drama on the Supreme Court, what happened today. The court usually tries to maintain decorum and proper manners. But today, you could see some of the friction that's really broken out between the six conservatives and the three liberals.

When Justice Sotomayor read her dissent, which is a very strongly- worded dissent. She invokes the Holocaust. As you said, she says people will die because of this ruling. That happens sometimes where a justice reads the dissent from the bench, but rarely. And it's meant to make a point. It's meant to make the point that, I strongly object to this, I have deep feelings about this.

And then what happened after that, which never happens, is Justice Alito retorted on the spot. He basically said, You took me by surprise, and if I knew you were going to read that much, I would have had something else to say.

Now, I know it may not seem like much. But it's the Supreme Court version of a benches-clearing brawl in baseball. And there is a real tension here that you can see coming to the surface between the six conservatives and the three liberals, especially as we get into the really higher-stakes ruling now towards the end of the term.

COLLINS: Yes, we still have many more big ones, major ones to go.

When you look, though, at these two decisions today, and what it says about the court in deference to this administration on immigration policy. What stands out to you?

HONIG: I actually don't see it as deference on policy. To be sure, the Trump administration won two big cases today.

But if you look at the rulings, the court's not saying, Well, we agree with the Trump administration that this is good policy on asylum or on Temporary Protected Status, or that it's bad policy. What the majority says is, That's not our job. We're judges and we're justices. If we wanted to be policymakers and lawmakers, we would run for Congress.

Instead, both of these cases turn entirely on how do you interpret the words of the statute, the words of the law. So, for example, in the asylum case, the key phrase there is, what does it mean to quote, Arrive in the United States? Because the law allows a person to seek asylum once they've arrived in. If they are stopped just feet short of the border, have they arrived in? And in the majority opinion, Justice Alito, I think, persuasively says, No, you're close, but he makes an analogy to a running back in football. He says when he's at the one- yard line, he has not arrived in the endzone.

So, the majority says, We're just interpreting the law. The dissenters, though, do make, look, a compelling case that there will be negative policy consequences. But that's not really the role of a judge or a justice.

[21:25:00]

COLLINS: On the Temporary Protected Status case. I mean, that is going to affect a ton of people who are living in the United States right now, potentially.

HONIG: Yes, hundreds of thousands of Syrians and Haitians who are the beneficiaries of this status, which allows people to seek refuge here in the United States, if there are terrible conditions in their home country. Many, many people have been relying on that status since 2010 when it was extended. But now, it is over.

And again, it goes back to the text of the law. The law says, These decisions about when to extend Temporary Protected Status or withdraw it are not subject to judicial review, meaning the courts cannot block this, they cannot overrule what the executive branch does. Now, the dissenters said, Yes, but we can still review the procedures. But that's a stretch, linguistically. So, whether it's good policy or bad policy, the justices here, the majority, the conservative majority, took a very strict view of their role as judges.

COLLINS: Elie, the plaintiffs at one point, tried to point to past comments by the President.

HONIG: Yes.

Yes, on the temporary--

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Eating the dogs, the people that came in, they're eating the cats, they're eating -- they're eating the pets of the people that live there. And this is what's happening in our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Elie, when you hear the President's words that the plaintiffs used, what was the court's response to that argument?

HONIG: So, this is -- the dissenters in the Temporary Protected Status case said, Whether we are allowed to review this statute or not, we're always allowed to look and see whether it is unconstitutionally racially discriminatory.

Now, the majority, the conservatives, sort of glossed over it. They said, Well, he never says anything explicitly racist.

And in the dissent, the dissenting justices say, You know, they gloss over the words, but we're going to show you exactly what he said. And the dissenting liberal justices argue, when you look at phrases like the one you just showed, Kaitlan, and many other things that the President has said, they say, he is acting, especially in pulling the status from Haitians, he's acting because of racial animus.

The conservatives in the majority disagree. They say, he's motivated instead by his views of the country, of their economic scenarios, of poverty, of crime in those countries. So, it's simply a difference of interpretation.

But when you do see those words all laid out as they are in the dissent, it makes a powerful case. But six to three, that's -- it's a numbers game in the Supreme Court, and that's how it comes out.

COLLINS: Well, I mean, I thought what the Republican governor of Ohio, Mike DeWine, said. You know, he said the ruling was a mistake. He said over 10,000 Haitians who have been living in Ohio, mostly in that Springfield area, legally through TPS, will now be subject to immediate deportation.

I think that is a question. Do we see immediate deportations because of this? Or will there be further legal challenges? Or not really? HONIG: Well, the legal argument is over now. The Supreme Court has argued that people who have that TPS status can, in fact, have that status removed. What that status does is it protects a person from deportation. Now that status is gone.

And the Governor of Ohio, DeWine, is absolutely correct. This will have massive consequences. It will do damage to people, it will do damage to families, and it could, in fact, lead to those people being deported.

There's still a question of whether the executive branch then follows through and starts deportation proceedings on these folks. But yes, when the Supreme Court speaks, that is final, and it can have major consequences.

COLLINS: What are the other -- I mean, every decision day we're kind of waiting to see what's going to come down. What are the other big ones that you're still waiting on?

HONIG: Yes, my thumb is tired from hitting refresh all day long at the Supreme Court site.

So, get ready. Next week is going to be monumental. There are eight decisions left to come down from the Supreme Court. We're going to get them in batches, starting on Monday morning at 10:00 a.m., there are major cases ready to come down.

First of all, birthright citizenship, where I think the Trump administration's effort to narrow birthright is probably going to be rejected. There are cases on mail-in ballots. There are cases on transgender athletes participating in girls and women's sports. And there are cases on presidential power. When can he fire the heads of agencies?

So, massive questions will be resolved. Really, by middle of next week, I think we should have all of those.

COLLINS: OK, all of that will happen by next week?

HONIG: Yes, Monday is the first day.

COLLINS: All right.

HONIG: We'll get a second decision day. It'll probably be Tuesday or Wednesday.

COLLINS: Elie Honig, you're going to be busy. We'll talk to you next week.

HONIG: Ready to go.

COLLINS: Coming up. We've heard from both the President and the Vice President, who've talked about unfreezing Iranian assets. They have hundreds of billions of dollars that they want. The White House has been arguing actually it's going to benefit American farmers. Iran is like, No, not so fast. My congressional source, a top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, will join me right after this.

[21:30:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Tonight, U.S. officials believe that Iran is responsible for a new drone attack on a cargo ship that passed through the Strait of Hormuz. No casualties were reported. But it did prompt a United Nations agency to pause its evacuation of over 10,000 people, aboard hundreds of ships that have been stranded in the Persian Gulf for months now.

[21:35:00]

So far, Iran has not claimed responsibility for the attack. But it comes just days after the United States and Iran signed that preliminary peace agreement that called for the safe passage of commercial vessels for the next 60 days. It's obviously not been 60 days.

And so, this also comes as a top Iranian official is denying the White House's claim that this entire deal will result in a payday, as the White House has described it, for United States' farmers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VANCE: If there is any frozen Iranian assets that are unfrozen, then we have approval over that process.

The money would actually go to buy American soy, American corn, and American wheat, for the benefit of the Iranian people.

TRUMP: And we have another one, a new market coming up and that's called the lovely country of Iran.

We're going to be taking some of their money and we'll spend it, and we're going to be buying wheat, soybeans, and corn, a lot of it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Well, Iran's chief negotiator responded to that, and said, America falsely claims our unfrozen assets will buy their agriculture. The only crop we're harvesting is what you planted: decades of mistrust. And apparently the U.S. only exports GMO soybeans, broken promises and trash talks.

Joining me tonight is my Democratic source, Congressman Jim Himes, who's the Ranking Member on the House Intelligence Committee.

I mean, putting aside the rhetoric of the Iranians on social media, which has obviously been high ever since this war started. Do you think United States' farmers are actually going to benefit at all from unfrozen billions of dollars that could potentially go to Iran?

REP. JIM HIMES (D-CT): Of course not, Kaitlan.

Look, the President, the Vice President, and their supporters are, I think, the expression is, doing their best to put lipstick on a pig. The President realized that it was absolutely politically untenable to continue to have the Strait of Hormuz, which the Iranians showed just today that they continue to control, they can continue to create the fear that will stop energy from flowing through those Straits, and as a consequence, they're just putting lipstick on a pig here.

Look, I mean, what's funny for me is that I was actually around Congress in 2015, when President Obama reached a real agreement that resulted in the shipping out of all of the uranium from Iran to, you know, out of the country, et cetera, et cetera.

And at the time, the Republican line was, Every single dollar is going to terrorists. Because there was money involved, right? The freeing up of Iranian funds. And every single dollar was going to terrorists, the Revolutionary (ph) Guards, et cetera, et cetera. Now, we get to they're -- It's going to buy corn from American farmers.

Look, the Iranian regime is not known for their truth-telling either. But no, of course they're not going to use this to strengthen the American farm sector.

COLLINS: Yes, and I mean some people would argue that the money that the Iranians got, at the time of the Obama deal, did go to funding terrorism. But that doesn't mean, obviously, that it won't now either.

You wrote to Secretary Marco Rubio, you want a briefing on the memorandum of understanding, this preliminary agreement.

Yesterday, there was a huge shouting match, at the Republican Senate lunch, between Bill Cassidy and President Trump. After that happened, he was in the Sit Room, he got what he said was a thorough briefing on Iran from not only Steve Witkoff, but also the Vice President, JD Vance. He later changed his vote on the War Powers Resolution.

Is that what you think it takes to get a briefing on Iran from this administration?

HIMES: Look, I have no idea what was said to Bill Cassidy in the Situation Room.

I can tell you two things to your question, which is that two weeks ago, the House and the Senate both passed War Powers Resolutions. I know because, on the House side I was one of the authors with Greg Meeks, and Adam Smith. Both passed, in bipartisan fashions, War Powers Resolutions, which require the President to withdraw the American armed forces from the region. Now, is he going to do that? Of course he is not going to do that. But again, it doesn't -- it doesn't really matter.

What really matters is that there is not a single Republican that I know of, anyway, and I spend a fair amount of time with them in my workplace, that is trying to defend this deal. Because they know they just -- you know, they spent a decade, after the real deal of 2015, the JCPOA, which, again, resulted in, in actually a stoppage of the Republic -- the Iranian progress towards a nuclear weapon, they spent a decade criticizing that for 10 percent of the money that they are now committed to flow into Iran without any guarantees whatsoever.

The Iranian position is it's like that old Popeye Cartoon, you know, Give me a cheeseburger today, I'll pay you tomorrow. The Iranians have basically said, Yes, maybe we'll talk about the nuke stuff, two months from now.

In the meantime, the administration is doing all they can to set up a $300 billion rebuilding fund, allowing for the flow of Iranian oil out of -- I mean, again, for a guy who wrote a book called The Art of the Deal, it is hard to imagine a deal that was more friendly to the Iranian regime.

COLLINS: As I mentioned Secretary Rubio. There was a picture that stood out today, it came out yesterday, from his meeting with other leaders from the UAE.

[21:40:00]

You're seeing everyone sitting around the table. The person who is highlighted in this picture is not someone who works in the White House, or in the administration, or on Capitol Hill. It's President Trump's son-in-law and the businessman who is married to his daughter, Tiffany Trump, and you can see him sitting here next to Secretary Rubio.

And when Secretary Rubio was asked why he was there, why he was in the room. This is what he told reporters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Can you clarify what the role of Michael Boulos was today?

MARCO RUBIO, SECRETARY OF STATE: Michael was just -- Michael Boulos?

REPORTER: Yes.

RUBIO: Oh, he was there to see -- his brother lives here. He was just there to see me and catch up.

REPORTER: But why was he involved in your working lunch?

RUBIO: No, no, no, no.

REPORTER: But there was a working lunch, right? So.

RUBIO: There was but he wasn't -- but the conversations around him had to do with -- he was just here because his brother lives here, and I'm a good friend of Michael's, so we had a chance to catch up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: I mean, what did you make of that answer? HIMES: Look, it's the defining feature of the Trump administration. It's Liberty Financial, where the Trump administration or the Trump family enriches itself with billions of dollars of crypto and meme coin. It's Jared Kushner out there making deals in the Gulf.

What does the UAE have, what do the Gulf monarchies have, apart from a very unenviable geographical position close to Iran? They have immense, immense, immense amounts of money.

So, when the United States Secretary of State shows up, opposite a very small table from people who control literally hundreds of billions of dollars, and there's this guy who's a businessman? You don't have to be a genius to know the signal that that sends to the UAE, about how to get into the -- you know, into American good graces or the Trump administration's good graces.

COLLINS: Speaking of your party and the wins that we saw this week from several Democrats, including races here in New York. We've seen the response and a lot of questions for more establishment Democrats, especially given more establishment Democrats were ousted in those primaries by three Democratic Socialists who were endorsed by Mayor Mamdani.

The Democratic strategist, James Carville, is arguing that one of them, Darializa Avila Chevalier, that she should not be seated in the House Democratic Caucus. He said she's not a Democrat, and she's totally against anything that any Democrat has.

Do you agree with that sentiment?

HIMES: Well, Kaitlan, look, in contrast to Italy or Israel, or anywhere else, in this country of 350 million people, we have two political parties, right? In Italy, they have like 14 or something.

And so, guess what? Inside both parties -- and let's not even begin to talk about the exotic characters in the Republican Party, we could spend an evening on that. But inside both parties, you're going to have a more moderate and pragmatic wing, and then you're going to have some people that are a little bit explosive.

But Kaitlan, look, I've been doing this long enough to know that the assignment is super clear, right? The progressives, the left-wing of the Democratic Party understand something really important, which is that the American people are looking for bold answers to their economic problems. American people want bold answers to the fact that they can't afford their drugs, that they can't get health care. The gasoline prices, thank you, Donald Trump, are a buck 50 a gallon higher than they were three months ago. And so, that's a really valuable role.

The problem is, and this is part two of the assignment, is that in our system, you can't do anything, you can do jack, when you don't have a majority. And to get a majority, you need to speak and communicate in ways that appeal to the people of Michigan, Ohio, North Carolina, I could go on, Florida. And the rhetoric that really works fabulously well in the hipster regions of Brooklyn, and frankly, some rhetoric that is absolutely reprehensible, hatred or bigotry, or whatever it is, you know, not only is that wrong, but that really hurts the larger mission of building a majority that allows us to implement those bold economic policies that the progressives are not wrong to say America needs.

So, my hope is, for these members who have been newly nominated to be the Democratic candidates, likely to be members of Congress is, Be bold, be bold. But remember that boldness without the action that gets you a congressional majority, through places like Michigan, Ohio, North Carolina, is worth nothing.

COLLINS: That was not the answer I was expecting.

Congressman Jim Himes, thank you for joining us here tonight.

HIMES: Thank you, Kaitlan.

COLLINS: Up next. As I noted, we are following what is happening in Venezuela right now. It's a frantic rescue effort because there were powerful back-to-back earthquakes. My next source, who is going to join us, is part of an aid organization that is helping people and is on the ground right now.

[21:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Tonight, there's a massive search and rescue effort underway in Venezuela, after two devastating earthquakes struck yesterday. The first one had a magnitude of 7.2. It was followed by a stronger one, 7.5, just 39 seconds later.

Right now, at this hour, by our count, at least 235 people have been confirmed dead, more than 4,500 are injured, and the death toll is expected to only climb because many people are still missing or trapped beneath the rubble.

Displaced residents of the port city of La Guaira, the capital, Caracas, and the surrounding areas right now have nowhere to go because their homes were completely flattened.

This is how the Doctors Without Borders medical coordinator in Venezuela described what she saw.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HALIMA HUSSEIN, MSF MEDICAL COORDINATOR IN VENEZUELA: There is still a lot of people staying outside in the squares because they could not manage to go back home last night, or they don't have access, or because their houses were affected, and they were evacuated. So they are still on the streets, they have their backpacks, and they cannot move.

(END VIDEO CLIP) [21:50:00]

COLLINS: My source tonight is Claudia Manresa, who is ?Project HOPE's Regional Legal and Compliance Manager, and was part of the team traveling to the affected areas today. She's joining us now from Caracas.

And thank you for being here.

I mean, just first off, I mean, I can't even imagine what you have seen. And I wonder if you could just describe to us what it is like there right now.

CLAUDIA MANRESA, REGIONAL LEGAL AND COMPLIANCE MANAGER, ?PROJECT HOPE: Thank you, Kaitlan, for having me in these very difficult times for my country.

Situation is horrific. What we have seen today. Part of the team of ?Project HOPE in Venezuela, we got deployed to La Guaira, which is almost 30- -- 40-minute drive from Caracas, the capital city of Venezuela. The images that we have seen are devastating.

As a Venezuelan, these hit us really hard, and it's heartbreaking to see thousands and thousands of people injured, looking for their family members and their loved ones. It is a terrible image. But everyone still on the streets, people keep working with police officers and everyone to find their loved ones.

COLLINS: Where were you when this happened?

MANRESA: I was having lunch with a fellow colleague from ?Project HOPE because, on the 24th, it's a holiday in Venezuela. So, we were kind of enjoying our free time. And we were in Chacao. It was one of the most affected zones in Caracas. Almost five buildings collapsed in the same area. We were having lunch when the earthquake took place.

COLLINS: I mean, what did people do? I mean, did people -- I mean, if you're outside or if you're in such a public space. I mean, obviously everyone sees earthquake training and what you do in that moment. But what did you see when that happened?

MANRESA: It was -- it was terrifying. The earthquake took longer than everyone would expect. I mean, you start like counting in your head to see if this moment ends, but it didn't. It was absolutely long.

I was there with a friend and her dog, we tried to protect him. Everyone at the restaurant we were in, trying to protect all the people that were inside the mall. There was, like, we were in this shopping mall, and there was, like, this huge wall made of glass that collapsed behind us, but everyone were like really trying to make sure that all people around them were saved, and that we all, like, could get out of that place safe.

After that, people started to make in phone calls, but of course we had electricity shortage, problems with communication. It is still hard to try to communicate with your family members and your loved ones, especially with -- for those that are in La Guaira, which, since it was a holiday, a lot of people came to La Guaira to the beach.

COLLINS: I mean, Claudia, I know obviously you're a humanitarian worker, you deal with disasters all the time. But dealing with this that hits so close to home, I just can't even imagine how difficult it is. So, please stay safe, and we're thinking of everyone, and we hope that the recovery can go smoothly, at least. So, please let everyone know we're thinking of them.

MANRESA: It is. Thank you very much.

And if anyone that is watching us right now would like to support the mission of ?Project HOPE, and all the team members that are currently underground, responding to this emergency in Venezuela, I would like to invite everyone to visit projecthope.org to find more information of the work that we are currently doing here in the country.

COLLINS: Yes. Absolutely.

Claudia Manresa, thank you for joining us tonight.

And you hear Claudia talk about what it was like in that moment.

CNN is taking a closer look at the damage that Venezuela has. It's this tragic common thread between many of the buildings that actually came crashing down.

My colleague, CNN's Chief Climate Correspondent, Bill Weir, explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As Venezuela reels from two devastating earthquakes. The rush to rescue survivors is facing a significant challenge because of the way many buildings collapsed.

CNN reviewed dozens of videos of the destruction and noted a deadly pattern common after major earthquakes. Many of those residential towers suffered what's called a pancake collapse. When a building falls into itself with each floor stacking atop the one below.

NECATI CATBAS, CIVIL ENGINEERING PROFESSOR, UNIV. OF CENTRAL FLORIDA: What happens is the first story collapses, and then the others, others, others, and then people are stuck in the -- in the floors.

OSMARY HERNANDEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We are walking in Los Palos Grandes.

[21:55:00]

WEIR (voice-over): CNN was on scene in Caracas after this 15-story residential building crumbled. If you look at a photo of that same building from before the quake, each story was around 10-feet tall. But now, the space between each floor is compressed into just a couple of feet.

That's why pancake collapses are so dangerous. The weight of debris weighing down on each floor doesn't leave survivors as many gaps or air pockets as a building that falls to one side, and a pancake collapse makes rescue all the more complicated. Any movement could bring more heavy debris crashing down.

CATBAS: The search and rescue is a very important and very specialized operation in these cases because, you don't want to put your search and rescue mission people in harm's way.

WEIR (voice-over): Search and rescue teams are beginning to dig into the building, while nearby families of those trapped inside wait, hoping against hope their loved ones will soon be pulled from that debris.

But the scale of the damage is overwhelming, and it comes at a time when Venezuela remains in deep political and financial crisis.

Bill Weir. CNN. New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: And we'll be right back after a short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[22:00:00]

COLLINS: If you missed any of the show, it's available on demand on the CNN app. You can also follow me on Instagram and Twitter @kaitlancollins, where I'm always posting and reposting my latest reporting throughout the day.

Thanks for joining us tonight.

"CNN NEWSNIGHT WITH ABBY PHILLIP" is up next.