Israel Attacks Iran
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We're, of course, following breaking news out of the Middle East, going live to Tel Aviv as Israel has targeted Iran's nuclear program in a massive attack. And overnight, Iran striking back. Good morning, everybody. I'm Adi Cornish. I want to thank you for waking up with me. And let's begin with that breaking news. Essentially, Israel launched a

A stunning attack against Iran's nuclear program and its military leadership, killing three of the country's most powerful men. And now Israel says Iran is retaliating. One of Iran's main enrichment facilities was hit. And this all ushers in a dangerous new chapter in the Middle East with a heightened risk of a regional war. Iran has taken steps that it has never taken before. Steps to weaponize this enriched uranium.

If not stopped, Iran could produce a nuclear weapon in a very short time. It could be a year, it could be within a few months, less than a year. This is a clear and present danger to Israel's very survival. So the Israeli strike killed the commander-in-chief of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard, along with six nuclear scientists. Then overnight, an Israeli military official said they were shooting down drones from Iran.

Iran's supreme leader has vowed retaliation. In the name of Allah, the most gracious, the most merciful great nation of Iran, the Zionist regime opened its dirty and bloody hand to a crime in our beloved country this morning and revealed its evil nature by striking residential centers more than ever before. The regime must expect severe punishment.

Iran accuses the U.S. of helping Israel with this, but Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the United States was not involved. Christiane Amanpour, CNN's chief international anchor, joins me now. Christiane, I'm glad you're here because I know you know a lot about this nuclear program and have even visited some sites in the country.

Indeed, I have already. Of course, years ago, one was around Isfahan, one of the key uranium adjacent facilities. We have not been inside Natanz. Natanz was hit. That's where the most centrifuges are spinning to enrich uranium. We understand from the IAEA, the watchdog, that apparently there is no extra detection of radiation. We know that Fordow, which is another site,

very, very deep, deep down in the mountains near Rom, the religious site, if you like, that apparently has not been hit. And we understand that in order to hit Fordow, which is considered one of the main Iranian nuclear sites in terms of its enrichment capacity,

There would need to be much bigger bombs, these bunker-busting bombs that apparently Israel doesn't have and that U.S. does have. And we think, and it's said from the United States, that they have not taken part in these raids. The other facility that I have been to is Bushehr, which is on the Persian Gulf area, and that was—

was also apparently not hit. That is considered to be the center of Iran's civilian nuclear program. So this is what's been going on. We understand that Israel has also taken action to take out some of the, or as much as they can, of Iran's anti-air defense systems, like it did the last time when it went in after Iran had sent a whole load of missiles and drones into Israel in that tit-for-tat that took place this time last year. And so you know that

Prime Minister Netanyahu and his hardliners have been itching to do this for many, many years. The prime minister of Israel has made many unilateral trips to Congress to address Republicans mostly. He's always complained about the nuclear deal that the Obama administration struck with Iran, which was essentially an arms control agreement to limit Iran's nuclear capacity. President Trump pulled out of that

when he was in his first term, and now President Trump has been trying to revive some kind of nuclear deal with Iran, to the point that they were due to have talks in Oman, the mediating country, this weekend. We don't know, we've heard from Iran that they don't plan to send their high-level executives.

So the truth is we don't know where this is going. We do know that this is something Israel has wanted to do for a very, very long time. And Israel has been denied that ability by various U.S. presidents in the past. And now it has taken this action, and we will see where it leads. If Iran has only sent—and I say "only"—

because it's relative, 100 drones in retaliation. That is nowhere near the kind of retaliation it took about a year ago when Israel did strike various Iranian targets and assassinated some key Iranian officials, if you remember, in Damascus and elsewhere. But Israel is also bolstered by the fact that its actions over the last year have defanged Hezbollah and Hamas and other Iranian proxies in the region. So maybe it just thought this is the time to do this.

Right, and yes, a significant moment, of course. We're also noting the killing of the Iranian general, Zain Salami. Christiane Amanpour, thank you. Appreciate this.

Okay, we're going to continue to monitor the developments coming out of the Middle East. Former Navy SEAL commander and member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Representative Ryan Zinke will be here to discuss how and if the U.S. should respond. Plus, a late-night ruling keeps the National Guard in California under the control of the president. But for how long? And a senator forcibly removed, on the ground, cuffed, all during a news conference.

Sir, sir, hands up, hands up. I'm Senator Alex Padilla. I have questions for the Secretary.

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Okay, so back to a bit of domestic news now because the president's deployment of troops to Los Angeles has ignited a flurry of legal action. Now he no longer has to return control of California's National Guard back to the state because a federal appeals court put a previous order on hold.

And this is somewhat of a win for Newsom as this legal battle is far from over. This is L.A. emerges from a third straight night of curfews. Several people were detained. Police say the protests remained mostly peaceful. In Newark, New Jersey, video shows protesters outside an ICE detention facility appearing to block an unmarked SUV. Joining me now in the group chat, Sarah Fisher, CNN media analyst.

Michael Warren, senior editor at The Dispatch, and Margaret Tulliv, senior contributor at Axios. Sarah, I want to start with you because this has been one of the kind of ultimate split-screen stories where for a lot of people, they may be on their social media seeing, you know, mass ice, unmarked ice, you know, detentions. They may be thinking they're seeing something that looks like a protest, and then for someone else, it's,

total dissent, its escape from LA, its fires and disorder. How are you processing how this is coming across? - Sort of the misinformation split screen reminds me a lot of January 6th, when in some cases you had people who said, "No, this is Antifa, this is left-wing chaos." And others on the other end were saying, "No, no, this is right-wing folks who are seizing the Capitol." We had a very similar dynamic as well during the George Floyd protests,

where it was a question of whether or not this was left-wing Antifa destroying stores, destroying glass fronts, or if it was folks on the right. And when I look at what's happening with ICE, there's one interesting through line, which is that there tends to be a lot of innocent bystanders who always get caught up in this. And their stories also get misconstrued. You know, during George Floyd, it was one of the most chaotic times for the press. I cover media. There were

an unprecedented amount of local arrests of journalists who were just trying to cover the protests. We're seeing a very similar thing here. The one optimistic point, though, Adi, we've learned from those two incidents that I mentioned to you before. So you're saying there have been arrests of journalists? Not for ICE necessarily, but there was so much that happened during Judge Floyd that a lot of laws and rules were passed so that now, even though journalists are being targeted, I'm sure you've seen the viral...

of someone getting hit by a rubber bullet, you're not having as many arrests. There's a lot more protections for journalists. And so that's something that's a little bit different this time around than in the past. Michael Warren, you've been writing about how you think that most Americans still want Trump to deport illegal immigrants, that they haven't wavered on the interest in his goal. Of course, they're now not approving of the way he's doing it. What's your indication of that?

though, just some of the recent polling, or are you starting to see more in the world you write for? So there is this polling, right, that's essentially 55% of people said in the CBS YouGov poll that was released this week that they like Donald Trump's goals on deportation. And then almost the exact same amount, 56%,

said that they don't like the way that he's going about doing it. They don't like the approach that he's taken to doing this. That tells me that there is some number of people, a significant number of people, who want him to do this, and they're not comfortable with the way he's doing it. You can see some other clues as well. David Valadao is a congressman from the Central Valley in California, a Republican, a moderate Republican. He came out earlier this week, gave a statement that said the violence in Southern California is bad.

Also, I'm concerned about these... Also, very close to a but. Exactly. I think that is very significant. He has signed on to a letter with four or five other members, Republican members of the House, asking for information about are there people who are not violent criminals being pulled up in this dragnet. That tells me that... Say that again. So you now have a Republican saying, we need data on who actually has a criminal record here. To the administration. We provide you with the funds to do this. Please tell us who you're pulling up.

and trying to deport here. That tells me that there is a concern in communities that may have supported Donald Trump that this is going...

This could go too far for them. That's what I'm going to be watching. Margaret, let me let you jump in. We're starting to see some of that, a couple of Republican members in Florida as well. You know, Axios is a monthly swing voter-focused group. And this month we were in North Carolina just on Tuesday talking to swing voters. And these are voters who voted for Joe Biden in 2020 and then moved to Donald Trump. So they have that bias. But we tried to get a sense of how are they feeling about both the deportation issues

ways that deportations are being executed and the deployment of National Guard and the Marines. And what we saw is that overwhelmingly a majority of these swing voters

say they're mostly okay with it, even though they have some concerns about civil liberties infringements or, you know, trumping to extreme or abusing executive power. But why are they okay with it? Well, really, for two reasons. One, these are people in North Carolina who lean center-right, and so...

They don't really jibe with Californians. They think California is far away and crazy and liberal. And they don't like Democratic Party politics. And so they are processing this as an immigration issue. These are people who

and think that people need to leave the United States who aren't supposed to be here, they are not primarily seeing this as the first wave of what will later be an infringement on their civil rights or abuse of executive power or other things like that.

or Trumping out of control. - Yeah, I'm glad you're making this distinction. We're gonna talk later in the show actually about people on the more progressive end who are starting to think about those other issues. Group chat, please stick around. Coming up on CNN this morning, we're gonna follow up on those new strikes from Israel on Iran, more on what those strikes could mean for US nuclear talks with Iran as it vows no limits to its response.

And all hail "No Kings," how protesters are getting ready to respond to the president's military parade with "No Kings Day" demonstrations. If there's any protest that wants to come out, they will be met with very big force. By the way, for those people that want to protest, they're going to be met with very big force. And I haven't even heard about a protest. But, you know, this is people that hate our country.

President Trump there with a warning to protesters ahead of tomorrow's military parade in D.C. The parade is set to mark the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army. It, of course, also coincides with the president's 79th birthday.

So to see like tanks and heavy vehicles displayed on the streets might remind you of military parades and monarchies or authoritarian regimes. And that's striking a nerve with many Americans. A mass protest is being organized called No King's Day.

The group Indivisible, the Indivisible Project, is doing it. And given President Trump's willingness to use military force against protesters in cities like Los Angeles, the group's now offering safety and de-escalation trainings to those who want to participate. So how do you get mainstream support with that kind of fear hanging over the day? That was my assignment for the podcast this week, and I spoke to one of Indivisible's co-founders, Leah Greenberg.

What does that mean for inviting people out into the streets to protest like this weekend when all week they've been watching on the news? Yeah. A government that is prepared to respond quickly.

Well, let me talk a little bit about how we've prepared, and then I'll talk about the reaction that I'm getting. So, you know, we've got about 1,900 events around the country. We have been doing intensive safety and de-escalation training, both for hosts and making trainings available for attendees, including, you know, traditional know-your-rights, but also more intensive around, you know, how do you handle various kinds of scenarios and escalations in the event of law enforcement, in the event of counter-protests, in the event of agitators. Right.

We take those responsibilities to prepare people to have these events enormously seriously. And so we're in regular contact and support with the organizers of these events all over the country. Now, what I would say in terms of how do you talk to people about risk in this moment is

We can't, we're not going to tell people that there's no risk. We're not going to tell people there's no reason to be concerned. What we are going to say is that we are collectively going to be more powerful together. We are collectively going to embrace that commitment to nonviolence.

Okay, group chat is back. You know, we went on to talk about the idea of what makes for a mainstream opposition, what makes for a moment or tipping point where more people come together and feel less fear about doing that. Are we any closer to that tipping point? We've talked so much about not seeing the kind of protests that were seen during the first Trump administration. When it comes to misinformation, the way that we figure out what a tipping point is is if it has reached

10% of the population's knowledge, then we consider it in the zeitgeist and about to reach a tipping point. And if it doesn't reach that point, Audie, that's how we as journalists know not to cover it because it might be inadvertently making it bigger. I think in this case, if at least 10% of the population is aware of the fact that there are counter protests, that's when it has become a movement. Mm-hmm, counter protests that are not violent, counter protests that are just sort of on their own merits. How are you guys hearing this? It's a weird moment because...

a bunch of Republicans are actually not going to the military parade. So clearly there is some discomfort here. Well, I do think

It's noteworthy that they appear to have organized these protests not in Washington, not next to, not alongside. So these are all over the country and in this D.C. metro area where we're talking right now, I think they have a number of them planned in sort of like the suburban towns around the city, but not in the city itself. I say, how do you judge the success of a protest?

protest movement, do you judge it by how many people are on the streets or do you judge it by the coverage they're getting? If it's by the second, they've already gotten that name out there. No Kings, you hear it in news coverage, all over Facebook and social media. So as an organizing movement, it

may have already been successful, but success to what end? I mean, what is the measure of success you have? Is it midterm elections? Is it to get the president and the administration to curb their policies? - Yeah, I mean, her argument is it's showing people that there is not inevitability to Trump policies and their approaches.

I, it strikes me that the, the best tactic here, the, the, the places where the sort of anti-Trump, uh, resistance, uh, succeeded in the first term, you know, were where it sort of

called on and evoked sort of Americanism, for lack of a better term, sort of American principles about the freedom to protest. I mean, the idea, right, that we heard from President Trump that, you know, protesters will be met with force. I mean, that really is sort of counter to the American idea that, well, of course we have the ability to stand up and say we don't like what our government is doing today or now or in the future. That's where I think a

a movement is going to find success when they seem to be extreme, when they seem to sort of, it's, there's no King's idea. I don't necessarily love the name of it. It doesn't roll off my tongue, but it does sort of evoke that American idea that, oh, we're a Republic. We don't have Kings. We don't have people who just make these decisions

and nobody can protest. If they continue to call on that history, they'll probably have a lot more success in appealing to regular Americans. - Yeah, something for people to respond to. Okay, you guys, stick around. And if you wanna hear more from Leah Greenberger, any of our other episodes, the assignment drops every Thursday. Get them wherever you get your podcasts.

Now, after the break on CNN this morning, President Trump did not want Israel to strike Iran. They did it anyway. So how will this impact the U.S. and Iran's nuclear talks? Plus, a miracle in seat 11A, the sole survivor walking away from a plane crash. This morning, his family is speaking out. And of course, more from our friends in the group chat after this.

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We both push back against these authoritarian tendencies of a president that has pushed the boundaries, pushed the limit, but no longer can push this state around.

Governor Gavin Newsom praising a federal court's ruling that President Trump unlawfully federalized members of California's National Guard. But overnight, that ruling was appealed. Good morning, everyone. I'm Adi Cornish. Thank you for joining me on CNN this morning. It's half past the hour. And here's what's happening right now.

The federal appeals court paused a ruling that would have required President Trump to return control of the California National Guard back to the state today. There's another hearing over this early next week.

And Democratic California Senator Alex Padilla was forcibly removed, pushed to the ground and handcuffed at a Homeland Security news conference. The administration claims he pushed and shoved to try to get to the podium where Secretary Kristi Noem was speaking. He says he was just trying to ask a question. Noem later said she met with Padilla and the two agreed to continue to talk.

And Iran launched more than 100 drones at Israel overnight, according to the Israeli military. That's after Israel targeted its nuclear program and military leaders. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says this attack will last many days.

The White House insists Israel acted alone. President Trump convened a cabinet-level meeting last night. Sources tell CNN it was focused on the administration's response to the attack. Nuclear negotiations between the U.S. and Iran were supposed to resume on Sunday. Before Israel's strikes, President Trump said he hoped the Israelis would show restraint. I don't want them going in because I think it would blow it. It might help it, actually, but it also could blow it.

And this just in. The president posting this on Truth Social saying in part, I gave Iran a chance, chance after chance to make a deal. I told them in the strongest of words to just do it. But no matter how hard they tried, no matter how close they got, they just couldn't get it done. Joel Rubin is here. He's a former deputy assistant secretary of state in the Obama administration. And as we said, that Truth Social post just happened. So I hate to put you off.

in the hot seat. But yeah, follow up on that wow. What are you thinking as the president makes this response? Sure. I mean, what the president is basically saying is that he didn't buy what Iran was offering at the table. And what he's saying is that when he called for a deal that had zero enrichment, he felt like Iran's response was stringing

them along, stringing us along. And there is some validity to that. You know, Adi, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the nuclear watchdog of the whole global nuclear infrastructure around the world, they

They provided a censure resolution against Iran just yesterday. Yeah, declaring it to be in breach of its nuclear nonproliferation obligation. So it has been for years continuing to enrich uranium. But that doesn't help us understand this moment when talks were set for this weekend, right? Oman called this reckless in this moment for Israel to do, given the talks. Did anyone have faith in these talks?

I think we're seeing no. And I think a big question is, were the talks a ruse? Quite frankly, look, you know, when the president says what he said just now, and you combine that with the response from Israel and the response from the IAEA, one can only assume that the goals of the talks were so hard for Iran to meet that really the United States was just sitting there and legging out these discussions.

There was not a deep, I have to say this, from looking back at Iran nuclear diplomacy for well over a decade, there was not a deep, detailed negotiation underway from the United States team. Unlike in the Obama administration, we had a 300-page nuclear deal with Iran that was very annotated and very specific. And so I really am questioning whether or not there was really going to be detailed negotiations. It was either Iran get rid of your nuclear infrastructure, or we're going to let the Israelis bomb.

What are you going to be listening for now? I assume in Iran, we're talking about retaliation, but they also lost several military leadership. You have hardliners in that government that are only strengthened in this position. So what are you listening for?

Yeah, look, the response right now has been very modest. Israel clearly had a plan, and that plan was to prevent Iran from retaliating strongly. There's also a major fog of war inside Tehran by decapitating Iran's military leadership, which is what Israel did. Meaning we don't totally know what's going on just yet. We don't know, and we don't know, and the Iranians probably don't know either, and they're all probably wondering who's going to be targeted next. So this is where Israel has a very open window, but not a foggy,

very long window to try to strike as much as they can. The big question is going to be, are these effective strikes? That's been the debate all along. What's the best way to constrain Iran's nuclear program? Diplomacy has always been thought as the fail safe, but if the strikes go forward, we need to make sure that we know what happened because after a strike, diplomacy seems very unlikely. Okay. Joel Rubin, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State.

Okay, a flight recorder has been recovered from the rubble of Air India Flight 171 as we wait to learn the cause of the deadly crash. India's Prime Minister visited the wreckage earlier today, called it an unimaginable tragedy. He also visited with the sole survivor who's in the hospital. He's a British man who walked away from the burning debris with only a few injuries. The overall death toll is at least 290 people.

And that could still rise. The London-bound jet hit a building when it crashed. CNN's Salma Abdelaziz is following this from London. Salma, tell us more about what we're hearing from this survivor's family.

I mean, this is absolutely nothing short of a miracle. As you said, I think those images of him walking around looking mostly OK with a bloodied shirt have been absolutely astounding. Now, he told reporters that he found an opening essentially after the plane crashed. It seems that he found an opening in the wreckage of that plane and was able to push his leg through and crawl out. He was sitting in seat 11A, which aviation experts say is not normal.

the best place to be in a plane crash. So it's absolutely astounding to people. But you have to remember there's a tragedy within this as well, because his brother was on board that flight and is among the 241 others who were killed

in what is now being described as one of the worst aviation disasters in history. You have to remember, of course, that there were dozens of people on the ground who were killed in this horrendous accident, which happened almost upon departure, right? The plane gaining very little altitude before it nosedived to the ground and causing this huge explosion and fires and carnage and chaos and, of course, deaths.

and injuries, again, on the ground. I think what's setting in today, of course, is that grief, Adi. Yesterday, there was that sense, especially with that sole survivor, that families could cling on to hope. And that hope has, of course, now faded and given

way to a reality that is absolutely heartbreaking. You have to remember this is a global tragedy. There were four different nationalities on this plane, and this plane was bound for London. So there's also this connection to this city here. If I may just share one story very quickly of one of the victims. This is Sangeeta Kusama, whose 19-year-old son, she was hugging him, giving him his final goodbyes. He was about to start a new life.

going to university here in London, when of course, moments later, she found this crash happening and taking away from her her only son. She is now one of the dozens of family members who are giving DNA samples to identify the remains of their loved ones. That's Salma Abdelaziz in London. Salma, thank you.

Now, we've seen two rulings in the past 10 hours in the standoff between President Trump and California Governor Gavin Newsom. The question is on how much, say, states have over the federal government's ability to mobilize National Guard troops in emergencies.

That is what is at the heart of this new ruling that paused the order requiring the president to hand back control of California's National Guard. So what could it mean for protests in other states? President Trump reacting to the appeals ruling on Truth Social moments ago, saying in part, the appeals court ruled last night that I can use the National Guard to keep our cities, in this case, Los Angeles safe.

safe. To answer that, CNN legal analyst Elliott Williams joins me now. Hey there, Elliott. Thanks for being here. So first, what the president just said, is that true? I think this can all be confusing for people when there's an order, a reversing an order, a pausing of that order. What do we know right now? Right now, everything remains as is. The National Guard can't stay there, at least through the next hearing on the case, which is Tuesday. So right now, there's been a temporary pause.

So the judge is like, I need more information. Yes. But he has not said, you're right, you're wrong. Right. And the appeals court says, hold on, let the National Guard proceed for now. We've got more legal back and forth to take care of. But I'm always looking for sort of kernels of information about how the judicial branch is thinking. And this judge raised some questions about the administration's arguments that it had the right to do this because it believes that what's happening on the streets, the fireworks, the rock throwing, that it's a rebellion. And the judge didn't agree. He said, look,

The evidence that of any violent protesters were attempting to overthrow the government as a whole is not there. But he also said violence is necessary for rebellion, but it's not sufficient. What does he mean by that? So interesting window into how judges work. The first thing judges do when analyzing a statute is actually start with the dictionary. And he goes through Merriam-Webster and Black's Law Dictionary. So if the government says this is a rebellion, he goes and figures it out.

And the law itself, the statute uses the term rebellion. So what do we mean with a rebellion? And where he lands is that ultimately there is a taking up of arms in an organized manner against the government. Now, what the point the judge makes is that certainly people here took up arms, throwing a brick, let's be clear, at a police car is taking up

arms in some way, but was there the level of organization and was it targeted as perhaps overthrowing the lawful authority of the United States? That's not the case here. That's people who are breaking the law and ought to be prosecuted for it and even stepping outside their free speech rights. But that's not, per the definitions, a rebellion. That's where the judge went. And then I want to get back to this other thing, free speech rights, because we're having more protests coming up this weekend, peaceful protests that are more organized.

But the judge also talked about this idea about whether or not you get in this situation means First Amendment rights are over. What did you hear and what he described? - So it's important to note the judge did not base his ruling on the First Amendment, but merely says,

in a page or two at the end, we have to be very careful here when it comes to regulating anything that happens at protests. It's a core right enjoyed by Americans now, or everybody, not just Americans, anybody in the country. Now, anytime someone steps outside the protections of the First Amendment with the violence, with the acts of misconduct, they should be dealt with accordingly. But the

When we start policing acts of free speech and pushing them into the bounds of rebellion, we have a huge problem as Americans. And cases need to be analyzed on a case-by-case basis. But the simple fact is when people protest lawfully, even if you don't like it, that does not rise to the level of an act of

The reason why I'm bringing all this up is because it's in the fine print, so to speak, right? Like the headline is between Newsom and Trump and control of the National Guard. But these things buried in there have implications. It is. If you want to dazzle at cocktail parties, you can say it is in dictum in the opinion. It's dicta. It's sort of persuasive, interesting arguments the judge is putting out there, but the

ultimate ruling that he makes is based on the 10th Amendment of the Constitution on states' rights, not on this free speech stuff. It's just important to read it. Yeah, but we'll see kind of where this goes with all of the appeals that are ahead. Elliot Williams, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

All right, ahead on CNN this morning, Israel launches strikes on Iran targeting its nuclear program and military leadership. We'll be joined by Congressman Ryan Zinke to discuss the escalation and whether there's a potential threat facing the U.S. Plus, a new musical about Luigi Mangione, and it's already sold out.

Back now to the breaking news of the Israeli strikes on Iran. Now, Iran is calling for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council. Israel targeted Iran's nuclear program and military commanders. Iran then launched more than 100 drones at Israel. That's according to an Israeli military official. The IDF released images showing U.S.-made fighter jets that were used in the strikes.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio says Israel took unilateral action against Iran and that the U.S. was not involved. Joining me now to discuss is Montana Congressman Ryan Zinke. He's a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which surely is going to want to be briefed on what's going on right now. First, I just want to talk to you about this unilateral action as it's being described by U.S. officials.

I know the Trump administration has long voiced unconditional support for Israel. Why is it distancing itself here? Well, there's a difference between taking a part of it and being informed. The president no doubt was informed that Israel was going to strike. And it really isn't the basis of a tipping point. This has been a long, long time coming.

But when we believed that they were weaponized and they believed they were ready to strike, at that point in time, Israel had no choice. The president was aware of it, but we did not participate. And there's a difference. And now we're looking at what is Iran's response.

If they target U.S. troops, there will be another series of retaliation, this time no doubt fatal to Iran. And the point was made is, look, we tried to negotiate. The president was personally involved with it. It went nowhere again. You're saying they tried to negotiate. Oman today saying, look, this was reckless to do ahead of talks, that it was a sensitive time. Why have negotiations?

scheduled those talks. Earlier, Joel Rubin, Obama administration official, saying, was it a ruse? What was the point of implying you were going to negotiate if Israel was going to go ahead and do this? Well, this is not the first negotiation. This has been a long position of the U.S., long position of Israel, that if you weaponize, if you continue your

or nuclear program, there will be consequences. So was it the UN vote of the nuclear officials censoring Iran that you think pushed things over, that kind of took things off course? I think it was an analysis that if they didn't strike now, they would continue, and they could have launched. I think that was the tipping point.

And there was no throwing or holding back on Iranian production, on what they were going to do, the intent, certainly. So I think it got to the tipping point where strike happened.

And now we'll see what the response is. If Iran relieves and gives up their nuclear capability, as far as weaponized weapons, I think you'll see a relaxation. If they continue, then it's going to continue to escalate. And Iran's going to lose this war.

Yeah. There's no doubt that the U.S. has the force. And the president has said just as much. Meaning the U.S. I mean, how far does the U.S. go to support Israel in the event of retaliation? I think a lot of folks at home are wondering how and when the U.S. will be drawn into this. And at the end of the day, what is the Trump administration strategy here? We've heard what the Obama era was, right, about talks.

It seems like that has all been undermined in this moment. So what is it that we should be hearing from this administration? I think the administration has been very, very clear, is that Iran will not have nuclear weapons, period. But has it been clear on what it'll do to prevent that? We know what Israel will do, but I don't... This is what's on the menu, all right? Iran could lose their refining capability. Every catcracker, every distillation tower could be immediately...

you know, eliminate it. They could lose their Navy, they could lose their Air Force, they could lose every piece of military hardware they can. And the U.S. has that capability. There's no doubt we have that capability. Do we do it alone or unilaterally or with allies? There are other allies in the region that also understand the threat of Iran. Certainly Saudi Arabia does, certainly UAE does, certainly Oman. All the countries understand that the threat of the matter has been Iran.

And with Israel, remember, who's funding Hamas? Who's funding the Houthis? Who's funding Hezbollah? Yes, the proxies in the region. So what are the risks for the Trump administration in this moment? The risks are this, is that escalation and no one wants a war.

Certainly, now their top leadership is no longer with us. They are dead. I think that the risk is that more people die. And every time a war happens, there's also innocents. Let's be clear. Not everyone in Iran supports a regime. Not everyone in Iran is a terrorist. There are wonderful people in Iran that go about their daily business, but a war will have consequences. That's the risk.

All right, Congressman Ryan Zinke, thank you so much for being with us. My pleasure.

Okay, it is now 54 minutes past the hour. I want to give you your morning roundup. Happening today, a hearing for Kilmar Abrego-Garcia. He's the man who was wrongfully deported to El Salvador but recently returned. Today, he could plead not guilty to charges that accuse him of transporting undocumented migrants across state lines. Fireworks in the final debate before New York City's Democratic primary for mayor.

Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and 33-year-old progressive state assemblyman Zoran Mamdani are considered the Democratic frontrunners. That vote is scheduled for June 24th.

And the tagline reads, "Welcome to a story of health insurance hash browns and murder." Luigi the Musical premieres this weekend in San Francisco. It's inspired by the social media frenzy surrounding Luigi Mangione. He's pleaded not guilty in the shooting death of a UnitedHealthcare CEO. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the musical is sold out.

And Democrats are demanding answers after the stunning take down, physical take down of a U.S. senator. The dust up started at a Homeland Security news conference in L.A. Secretary Kristi Noem was interrupted by California's Democratic Senator Alex Padilla, who says he was trying to ask a question.

and what they have tried to insert into the state. So I want to say thank you to every single person that has been able to do it. Also, I want to ask specifically to the drivers and the health workers. On the ground. On the ground. Hands on your back. Hands on your back. If you let me, if you let my hands go, I'll put them behind my back. All right. Cool. Lay flat. Lay flat.

Democrats are outraged, but many Republicans are defending what happened. Here's how Padilla and Noem see it.

So many kids around the country seeing an administration that puts United States centers in handcuffs. This is not normal. We cannot treat it as normal. This man burst into the room, started lunging towards the podium, interrupting me and elevating his voice and was stopped, did not identify himself and was removed from the room.

- Noam says she met with Padilla for 15 minutes afterwards, and she says the two agreed to keep talking. The group chat is back. Margaret, I'm gonna start to you. We've covered Congress a long time. Senators walk with a certain, not invincibility, but they are not used to being manhandled in any way. - Correct. - Just the sort of social protocol between lawmakers, cabinet members. What's significant about this moment?

Well, it was sort of a made-for-TV moment on both sides. Yeah. You're right. I think especially when a senator... Senators expect to be recognized. They're usually wearing pins. In this case, he wasn't. He did identify himself. You heard her there say that he didn't. But he identified himself crashing her news conference. So I think, is this going to move the needle on the way Americans see what's going on? The purpose of it, from his perspective, I think, was to hold her accountable and...

and become part of the conversation and to try to make the case that the administration will use rough tactics even on senators. But in a way, she's not the one because I feel like there is no cabinet member who has performed

her position the way that Noam has. Like when it comes to political theater, you're standing in front of El Salvador. Am I making this up? - No. - Standing in front of the prisoners in El Salvador. - That's been a criticism of her. Like why are you wearing almost like bulletproof vests to be demonstrating some of these talking points? - But it demonstrates toughness. - It does demonstrate toughness and you're right that she's very good. I mean, you just saw her wearing a baseball cap on TV. Like she knows how to wear the costume. But when I think about what happened with Senator Padilla,

Like, she's in a weird position because she's standing up there at the podium. She's not like a lifelong politics person necessarily that would know who he is if he's not wearing a suit and a pin, to Margaret's point. And at this point, it's the officers that are pulling him out and yanking it out. It's a confusing situation. But to what Margaret said, perfect TV. Yeah, but does it play into the hands? I think on social media we were talking about people are constantly seeing images of ICE taking people down. Yeah.

Yeah, look, there's something here for everybody. It does feel like Kristi Noem and Alex Padilla, Republicans and Democrats, all got what they wanted out of this. It's theatrics.

But for Americans, is it nerve wracking? Like, it's a lot. It is a lot. But you can see this is the problem with all these kind of these these moments is you can read into it what you want to see. Right. You can see, wow, this man was interrupting a cabinet member and being rude. You know, if I were to do that, I would I would be manhandled as well. And you can also see.

"What was this man doing?" Except asking the question, all of a sudden he's on the ground and being handcuffed. You can see what you want to see in it. I think there's no sort of completely honest or good actor in all of this. I was really frustrated to see both the secretary and the department

just make up things about what happened in this scenario. Yeah, there are still facts involved. Exactly. To say he lunged, I mean, look, maybe there's a video that we haven't seen where he lunged. I didn't see it. I think we're going to still be talking about this in the coming days. Group chat, thank you. I'm Adi Cornish. CNN News Central starts now.

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Own the dream. This week on The Assignment with me, Adi Cornish. It's been about a full week of protests and demonstrations against the ongoing immigration raids in L.A. Leah Greenberg is a co-founder and co-executive director of the progressive group The Indivisible Project. We want people to bring their kids. We want people to bring their dogs. We want to create in these moments a sense of community and support together.

How are they preparing? Are they changing their strategy in light of President Trump's willingness to use military force on U.S. soil? Listen to The Assignment with me, Adi Cornish, streaming now on your favorite podcast app.