Trump Hits Pause on Iran
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President Trump giving diplomacy a shot, granting Iran a two-week window. Can negotiations succeed with missiles still flying? Plus, overnight, Israel and Iran continue to trade blows as Iran's top diplomat heads to Europe for nuclear talks. And the Republican rift deepens. Will the president's decision on Iran fracture the party further?

At the top of the hour here is a live look at Tel Aviv, Israel, as strikes between Israel and Iran continued overnight. Good morning, everybody here on the East Coast. I'm Adi Cornish, and thank you for waking up with me.

I want to start with this escalating conflict between Iran and Israel and specifically this new deadline to find a diplomatic solution before the U.S. steps in. Here's the latest. Iran launched more strikes on Israel overnight. First responders are now searching for victims after a missile hit a technology park.

housing Microsoft offices in southern Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he plans to strike every nuclear facility inside of Iran while refusing to rule out targeting Iran's supreme leader.

I instructed that no one in Iran will have immunity. I said we will achieve all our goals, all their nuclear facilities. But the decision to join is President Trump's. If he wants to join or not, it's his decision. He'll do what's best for the United States, and I'll do what's best for Israel.

President Trump now has a two-week deadline for Iran to agree to a nuclear deal and abandon its uranium enrichment program or face a potential U.S. strike. That two-week timeline might sound familiar. I will make that decision, I would say, over the next two weeks. I could answer that question better in two weeks. I'll do this at some point over the next two weeks. I'll announce it over the next two weeks. You know, in about two weeks. It'll be out in about less than two weeks. Maybe in two weeks.

joining me now in the group chat sabrina singh former deputy pentagon press secretary rob louis president and executive editor of the daily signal and lulu garcia navarro new york times journalist and podcast host so we're just playing all the times he's kind of set this 10-day deadline but in the case of kind of defense and security concerns two weeks is a lifetime can you talk about kind of how um white houses or

like how they think about that block of time and what you do with it when you're trying to make this kind of decision. - It's a lot of time and you're already seeing the department move additional fighter squadron into the region. You have F-16s, F-35s already moving into different bases along the Middle East. You also have an additional aircraft carrier that is going to move to the Middle East

to the Middle East, to the central command area of responsibility. So all of this is posturing. And what it's doing is a power projection. We have, in the previous administration, when I served under the Biden administration, I mean, we literally moved an aircraft carrier right outside Iran to show how close not only we can get, but look at the air capability that we have on this aircraft carrier.

This also gives the president a lot of optionality, a lot of flexibility and maneuverability within the area of responsibility that would potentially conduct a strike with Israel should the president choose to go forward. Two weeks is a lot of time, but it takes a lot of time to move a carrier as well. And you can't forget that...

These carriers, it takes an incredible amount of manpower to move. And that's, you know, you're moving a major city, a little city in front of a country. So it's a lot of time. We hear Sabrina saying a lot of words here like optionality, maneuverability. All of that sounds like we need time to figure out what we are doing in response to Israel because as Netanyahu said, he's going to do what he's going to do.

I want to play a clip when the press secretary fielded a question about this two-week self-imposed deadline from the president.

He's used this phrase about two weeks several times in terms of like we expect like a two-week deadline and then you get another two-week deadline. How can we be sure that he's going to stick to this one on making a decision on Iran? Well, in those deadlines, as you've seen in respect to Russia-Ukraine, might I add, these are two very different complicated global conflicts, as you know, that the president inherited from our previous incompetent president in the weakness of the previous administration.

Yeah, it's... Eyebrows up. Tell me, Rob. Eyebrows up. President Trump's doctrine is peace through strength. And so I agree with Sabrina that he's trying to project power in the region. He would ultimately like to reach a diplomatic solution. I think he treats this as a very serious matter. He does not want to put American lives in harm's way if he doesn't need to. And so that's why you're seeing him drag this out. Now, I do have concerns that

what can Iran do in the next two weeks? I mean, we will continue to see death there in not only that country, but in Israel. And so every day that passes is another day that you give the Iranian regime an opportunity to strike back on Israel. - That's the generous interpretation of what's happening.

I think another interpretation of what's happening, and ultimately we don't know what's in the president's mind because he changes it so often, is that precisely this. We saw Steve Bannon showing up at the White House. We know that MAGA is split over this decision. Basically, President Trump came into power with this promise that there wouldn't be any foreign entanglements. And so politically speaking, this is very dicey for him.

The other thing about this two weeks is that two weeks can be two months. As they wrote in The New York Times, the space-time continuum has no meaning to the White House often because we really don't know what is in the president's mind. This, though, has real ramifications. There are people in Iran who are dying. There are people in Israel who are dying.

And in the meantime, you know, this is not a reality TV show. This is an actual active conflict. But on that, you guys have the same point, which is that just because you want to create some space for yourself to make decisions doesn't mean the situation won't escalate during that time. Right. And that's a concern I hear both of you having. Yeah.

That is a concern. And to Lulu's point, I mean, I do think that there are some prominent voices within the MAGA movement who clearly are trying to signal to President Trump this would be a mistake to take military action. At the same time, as CNN's Harry Enten has pointed out, the

The Republican base is largely going to follow what President Trump does here. So if he decides to take military action, I think that he will generally have support among Republicans. It depends what happens at the other side of that military action. I think, yes, the base follows him until you have one of an American fighter pilot in the air that could get shot down. Or if the United States does join Israeli strikes...

Iran largely has held off on striking Americans in the Middle East, our bases. They use their proxy groups, they use Hezbollah. Should Iran strike with a ballistic missile one of our bases in the Middle East, we do not have the type of air defense and air cover that a base would need

to be overwhelmed. So I think it is incredibly dangerous. And I think this president has said, peace through strength, America first. This does kind of fly in the face of what he promised on the campaign. - Yeah, yeah. Listen, you guys, we are gonna talk more about this 'cause there are many more angles to come, so stay with us.

coming up on CNN this morning. As we monitor this breaking news out of the Middle East, Israel says it hit several industrial sites in Tehran overnight. We're gonna talk about what they were targeting. Also heightened concerns over the safety of lawmakers as a congressman claims he was run off the road by an angry constituent. And the LA Dodgers claim ICE agents were denied entry to their stadium Thursday. Does the team need to do more for the immigrant community? Stay with us.

40% of their fan base is Latino. I am a Dodger fan, you know, and this is, you know, I do struggle with this because, you know, as a sport and as the players, I love, you know, I love all of them. This podcast is sponsored by Rocket.

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It's now 12 minutes past the hour and here is your morning roundup. President Trump has granted TikTok another lifeline, signing a 90-day extension to delay the sale or ban law. The original deadline was in January. The Chinese-owned company now has until mid-September to sell the app.

GOP Congressman Max Miller says he was targeted Thursday morning while on the way to his office in Ohio. He claims a man with a Palestinian flag yelled death to Israel as he ran Miller, quote, off the road. Miller, who is Jewish, describes himself as a staunch defender of Israel.

If you have an issue with a legislator, your city councilman, your mayor, anyone like that, the appropriate thing to do is to reach out to them for a phone call to set up a meeting at one of our district offices. What is not okay is to assault anyone, whether you're a member of Congress or anybody else within our district, while you are driving to work.

The three top Democrats in the House releasing a statement condemning the act, writing, quote, this is a moment of crisis that requires Congress to act decisively in order to ensure the safety of every single member who serves in the people's house.

And severe weather ripped through the Northeast Thursday, leaving behind damage in several states. Near Philadelphia, strong winds ripped up trees from their roots. At least one child was injured. In New York City, a teen was struck by lightning in Central Park. And near Buffalo, a sinkhole opened up after flash flooding.

Now straight ahead on CNN this morning, 4,000 National Guard troops deployed to California after a new court ruling they won't be leaving anytime soon. Plus, if President Trump decides to attack Iran, could his MAGA base revolt? Good morning, St. Louis. You've got a beautiful sunrise under the arch.

So the prospect of U.S. involvement in the conflict between Israel and Iran is dividing the MAGA base. President Trump's two-week negotiating window announced after a visit to the White House from former adviser Steve Bannon. A source tells CNN he had lunch with the president. Bannon has repeatedly warned Trump not to join Israel's military campaign against Iran. He's not alone. Some of the loudest voices in conservative media now taking sides.

I can tell you right now, our MAGA base does not want a war at all whatsoever. They do not want U.S. involvement.

They do not want the United States to be engaged in this. This is a country that tried to assassinate our president. You know, in the good old days, that would be enough to blow them off the face of the earth. They tried twice. We haven't done anything. I think it's going to happen. I don't know. Who cares what you think? Do you think we're enjoying the combat offensive combat? Well, we have to. We have to. We can't. We have to stop that.

The group chat is back. The reason why I wanted to talk about this is not because the Internet loves watching a good fight, although that is clearly what is happening, but because the president is known for, this is the reporting, kind of whoever's last in his ear kind of having, do you agree, kind of having not the last say, but certainly influence. So every lunch, every tweet, every conversation is going to be reported. Rob, how are you seeing how this is playing out?

Sure. The president pays close attention to all those voices we just heard, plus Tucker Carlson and others who've talked to him just within the last few days. But he was dismissive of Carlson, and Carlson had to, I guess, apologize. So clearly, and he said, America first is what I say it is.

So that's what I'm trying to interpret. Do you see a president listening to this stuff or saying let the grown-ups talk? I think no matter what issue you're talking about, Audie, President Trump is listening to those particular voices because he recognizes that's who the MAGA base is getting their news and information from. So he has to keep in touch with them. I think at the end of the day, though, this president is going to base his decisions on the national security advisors and the intel that he gets on the Middle East.

probably not somebody who's broadcasting on a podcast platform. No, Lulu doesn't know. Okay, look, let me play. Maybe, I don't know. Listen, I fully don't know who the president listens to, but what is instructive, for example, is what happened over immigration. And I'm using this for a reason, not to just veer it away from the Middle East. But, you know, we had a situation where

You had the Secretary of Agriculture saying this is going to be a problem, getting rid of workers is going to affect our food supply. Immigrant workers provide a lot of America's food, true, hotels of which Trump has, et cetera, et cetera. Please don't deport these people. Trump listens to her, tweets it out, says we're not going to be touching these people again. And then I guess Stephen Miller gets in his ear and then sort of 48 hours later, it's like, actually, no problem. Go after these people wherever they are.

And so what this shows is not only are the heads of the departments in the United States government really having no sovereignty over what is actually being implemented. This is all being run out of the White House. But Donald Trump changes his mind all the time. So it's very difficult to know what he's going to do. And then meanwhile, for Democrats, here is how this is being talked about. I want to give you an example, starting with Senator John Fetterman.

I absolutely, I think I was maybe the only one that said we really have to fully support him taking out Iran at this point. We can't ever allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon. What is really the agenda with Netanyahu is to go beyond that and get us involved in a regime change war with Iran. And I adamantly oppose that. This is an opportunity for the Democratic Party to be the anti-war party again.

During the Bush era, Democrats established themselves as being like anti those wars in the Middle East. You also had, obviously, with the campus protest, a sort of renewed conversation about Israel. What do you see in how Democrats are talking about this? Yeah, I think there is a bit of consensus here that we do not want to get dragged into a larger war. And Israel certainly, as we are Israel's closest, one of Israel's closest allies, Israel is going to use this moment

to say to the United States, look, Iran is severely economically and militarily weakened. This is the time to strike. But is it really? Because then what happens next? What happens to that nuclear facility if you don't damage it? What happens if you actually do need boots on the ground to put explosives to actually further, you know, destroy the Fordo facility? So are you seeing a horseshoe politics here where...

There is a group in each wing asking those questions. I think what Democrats are asking is what's actually the plan? Because there does not seem to be a plan. There certainly is not a plan in Gaza. In Lebanon, there is a ceasefire holding. And I think Democrats want to say or want to know if the United States does join Israel in these strikes, what comes next? Because Israel is clearly not going to stop unless there is a diplomatic off-ramp.

And here's where I think those arguments in the MAGA wing, right, they sound very similar. Yes, and there are, I mean, from Tucker Carlson's perspective, he sees what's happened over the course of decades and the migrant crisis in Europe. And then you have Steve Bannon who's saying this is a distraction from what Trump needs to accomplish here domestically at home, particularly with deportations if we're distracted. So there are a whole number of factors. And I think you hit a good point, Sabrina. I mean,

Conservatives criticize the Biden administration for a lack of a plan for Afghanistan, right? And so I think that it's justifiable to say, we need to make sure that if we're going to do this, we know what the outcome is going to be. And there's a lot of unknowns if that regime were to fall on Iran. Okay, people are obviously asking many more questions. Group chat, stay with me. We're gonna talk a little bit more about

this ahead on CNN this morning. Israel and Iran are going at it for an eighth straight day. Both countries are now taking heavy damage. We're live on the ground in Israel where a hospital and a technology park have been bombed. Plus, one too many holidays. Why Juneteenth went uncelebrated in the White House.

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Israel's Iron Dome working to repel a new missile barrage from Iran. In southern Israel, fires broke out at a technology park that houses Microsoft offices after Israel said it intercepted a missile. At least six people were injured.

President Trump can maintain control over the National Guard in LA, at least for now. Last night, an appeals court granted another extension. This comes after California's governor sued the president for what he calls an overstep in power. Today, the two sides will be back in court for a hearing.

And one person is dead after Hurricane Eric slammed into Mexico's Pacific coast as a category three storm on Thursday. Powerful winds and heavy rain battered the region. Eric is expected to break down today.

And from suggesting the U.S. wouldn't be getting involved in Iran to floating a possible deal, then demanding Iran's unconditional surrender, it's been a dizzying shift of positions from President Trump on Iran. Now, the White House has set a two-week timeline before potentially taking action alongside Israel.

I have ideas as to what to do, but I haven't made a final. I like to make the final decision one second before it's due, you know, because things change. I mean, especially with war, things change with war. It can go from one extreme to the other. This is the president contradicts his own national intelligence director. Tulsi Gabbard testified in March that the intelligence community said Iran wasn't building a nuclear weapon. I don't care what she said. I think they were very close to having one.

So the president seems to be relying less on some of that data and some of his instincts, which are shaped by a wave of pressure from many directions. Here to talk about that is Mark Mazzetti, Washington investigative correspondent at The New York Times. You guys have got a report out now about this, what you're calling an Iran shift. To help us understand this, what did you come to understand about the relationship between Trump and Netanyahu?

Well, they certainly project this great political alliance and they are on more on the same page than previous American presidents in Netanyahu. However, there is this deep mistrust between the two sides. I mean, President Trump's still angry that Netanyahu acknowledged Joe Biden's election win in 2020. And more recently, uh,

Trump has said that he is worried that Netanyahu is going to drag him into another war in the Middle East. He's told his allies that. Yeah, that as Israel's initial military success became evident, that, again, was one of the many things that was sort of pushing the president. Yeah, and

And by late May, the US intelligence was pretty stark that Netanyahu was going to do this strike, these strikes in Iran, with or without the United States, which is a big change from the years of pushing Netanyahu has done on several American presidents who basically knew that Netanyahu probably wasn't going to do it alone because there were all these factors.

Hezbollah was in southern Lebanon who could retaliate against Israel if they strike Iran. Iran's missile capabilities, Syrian regime, all these things, a lot of these things changed last fall, shaping the contours of what Netanyahu then believed the risks were lower to him. And so then if Netanyahu was gonna start the war,

he may have believed that he could bring Trump in to finish it. I want to understand our national security intelligence apparatus in this scenario. We played that cut of the president sounding dismissive of comments from Tulsi Gabbard earlier. In your writing, you don't describe her being a key part of this conversation. What are we looking at? Who is he listening to? And what's your sense about the president's confidence in the intelligence he's getting?

Well, first of all, Tulsi Gabbard, I mean, we know her general philosophy on American intervention overseas. She's skeptical. But she's just up there echoing the intelligence, which is pretty stable for years and years. There is the belief that Iran has this pile of highly enriched uranium that they could use if they made a choice to weaponize a nuclear bomb. But the intelligence community doesn't believe they've done that yet.

The hawks say, well, it doesn't matter because once they make the decision, it's going to be too late. So that's where the sort of debate over the intel is. Trump, as you played in that clip, echoed this idea that, well, it doesn't matter if they've made a decision. I think they're very close. Clearly, it shows he's not listening very much to the director of national intelligence. He seems to be listening to John Radcliffe, the CIA director. He has, as you know,

a number of different conflicting voices in his head on this debate. And, and he's just asked for more time. So, so we'll see where that plays out. Uh, but it is a little bit of a moment to moment thing about which side is ascendant, uh,

in this debate with the president. - Nevermind the outside voices. I mean, what are you going to be listening for as we step into this window he's given himself to make some kind of decision? - Well, I think the one big question here is how much they think that they could restart the diplomacy, right? Is, did they buy time to give Steve Witkoff and others a chance to see whether Iran is weakened enough to want to accept terms that they weren't willing to accept

a week ago, right? So that's, I think, the biggest question. And if they suss that out and they think there's a path, they might try it. Otherwise, I think that he's clearly keeping his military options open because there's a tremendous amount of military force now around the Persian Gulf and in the Middle East. And he could still make that decision to hit some of these nuclear sites. And it sounds like from your reporting, though, that this opening, this opening,

off-ramp, on-ramp when it comes to diplomacy is real, that they're sincere in trying to make this happen? It seems. It seems like he certainly says, he says, I could take as long as two weeks. There could be some action tonight or tomorrow or the next day, right? The idea is to leave everyone guessing, including us. All right, Mark Mazzetti, thank you so much. You can read his reporting in the New York Times.

So new overnight, Israel says it has hit dozens of targets in Iran, including a missile production site and a nuclear research facility in Tehran. And a new video obtained by Reuters shows some of the damage done by Iran in southern Israel. So there's residential buildings that you can see there are mangled after that missile strike. CNN's Nick Robertson is in Haifa, Israel. He joins us now. Nick, what more are you learning about these attacks?

Yeah, the attacks coming in Be'er Sheva, very close to the hospital that was hit yesterday, a technology park residential area, actually residential buildings.

were damaged in that Iranian strike. 54 people taken to hospital following that, but most of them with moderate injuries. I think the picture across the country is one that's sort of exemplified, if you will, here in Haifa. Last night, for the first time in a week, the sirens didn't go off in this town and people were able to sleep through the whole night. And one of the questions I've been asking people here today is,

about President Trump's decision to wait two weeks before he makes a decision whether to weigh in and support and help Israel on those strikes in Iran against its nuclear facilities. And, you know, the picture from here is, you know, local officials

talk about resilience, they talk about how the community is ready to handle this, that people are ready to sort of go the distance, the country is strong and could go it alone, which is very much the sort of political narrative here. But I'm also finding that echoed by other people that we're speaking to. They're also telling us, look, one important thing to them, is it going to be two weeks of peace before President Trump makes his mind up or two weeks of continued strikes?

But nights like last night helped reset people and here they had a whole night's sleep. They're hoping for more of that. That's what makes the difference at the moment here.

Nick Robertson, CNN's international diplomatic editor. Okay, we're going to go to reports now of the toll of this conflict because we're learning that several hospitals in Iran have been damaged by Israeli strikes and the humanitarian group Red Crescent says at least five hospitals were impacted by the blast. It claims the hospitals were not a direct target of the attacks.

But this is just one day after an Israeli hospital was damaged by an Iranian missile. Iran claims that hospital was not intentionally targeted. Meanwhile, this morning, Iran is giving nuclear talks a chance with their foreign minister set to meet with European leaders soon in Geneva. CNN's Nada Bashir has the latest from London. And Nada, can you first just set us up for this meeting? It's Iran's foreign minister, correct? Who will he be meeting with?

Absolutely, and we are expecting to see the foreign ministers of France, Germany, the EU's high representative for foreign affairs gathering in Geneva, Switzerland to meet with Iran's foreign minister. And clearly we are seeing some movement on the part of European leaders to push for some sort of diplomatic order.

off-ramp and this comes after of course US President Donald Trump said he would allow for a two-week window for diplomatic efforts before making any sort of final decision on whether the US would engage in direct strikes within Iran. But of course while we are seeing the foreign minister taking part in these talks

In Geneva, we have been hearing from the Deputy Foreign Minister as well as other Iranian officials speaking this morning, according to state media, saying that there can be no hope for diplomacy while Israel's attacks on Iran continue. And clearly, that is what we are still seeing. Overnight, yet more strikes within Iran by the Israeli military. They say around 60 Air Force fighter jets engaged in those strikes overnight.

claiming to be targeting military assets including manufacturing sites and we heard yesterday from the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu saying that israel will continue to target all of iran's nuclear sites until their military objectives are met so that is ramped up concern of course and it's important to underscore that we have been hearing once again from the u.n's international

Atomic Energy Agency speaking to CNN, the head of the IAEA yesterday, Rafael Grossi, once again reiterating that there was, according to this agency, no indication of a systematic program for nuclear weapons. Reiterating that call once again for diplomacy. Nara Bashir, CNN correspondent in London. Thank you for the update.

Now, I want to come back to the states for a minute and talk about the world champion L.A. Dodgers saying that they refuse to play ball when it comes to the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. Federal agents gathered outside Dodger Stadium hours before last night's game against San Diego. Out of Dodger Stadium!

you can see the response protesters quickly rushed to the area began chanting anti-ice slogans then at that point the dodgers posted on x that ice had come to the stadium and requested access to the grounds the request the team says it denied then that sparks this like back and forth online ice officials tweeting back false we were never there turns out it may have been customs and border patrol with car problems our people are under attack

and the largest economic engine in this area is silent! Wake up! So I think that even though DHS, and we can show you this, sent out a tweet saying, look, this has nothing to do with the Dodgers, these vehicles here for this reason or that reason.

It is clear they are not trusted, okay? It is very clear when you see this response. So I don't know who wants to take this on first. Well, the Dodgers also aren't trusted, Hadi. Oh, what do you mean? Because, well, the Latino community there is frustrated that the Dodgers have not been more vocal in support of their efforts. And so you have a situation where I think this sports franchise is trying to balance what its fan base ultimately wants. You have those who wanted to take a political position, and then you have those who would prefer that it probably just sticks to sports. I mean, this is...

of this era. There was a lot of lessons learned during 2020 and the protests against the George Floyd murder.

and some took the message that, hey, we went too far, and we want to pull back. And some took the message that actually we need to stand by our values. And it looks like the Dodgers hasn't decided which team they're on yet, and that is where the Latino community is trying to pressure them. You know, at the end of the day, what the Dodgers do, what they don't do, you know, they are a homegrown team, and there is a big Latino community there, and those Latinos are not...

Happy. Happy. In the meantime, Dodgers star Kike Hernandez posted this on Instagram. I'm saddened and infuriated by what's happening in our country. This is my second home, and I cannot stand to see our community being violated, profiled, abused, and ripped apart. Do you think more people might speak out?

I think it is a good thing that people are speaking out because at the end of the day, what you're seeing happen in L.A. and cities across the country are people are protesting these, you know, ICE raids, which are tearing apart communities. I mean, going into restaurants, daycare centers, schools, tearing people out of their jobs. That is not the way to enforce the laws. And I think what's also, especially in L.A., you're seeing such heightened tensions with the National Guard being there. And, you know, the...

the governor of the state didn't even request the National Guard to come in. So tensions are so high that I think people are also frustrated when an institution like the Dodgers is staying silent. Yeah, it was interesting to hear them talking about it being an economic engine, et cetera, really laying into them in the way Lulu's talking about. You guys, I want you to stay with us. We're going to talk more this hour. Ahead on CNN this morning, President Trump delays his decision on attacking Iran.

for another two weeks. How wise is that if Iran is weeks away from developing a nuclear weapon? Plus the Indiana Pacers force a game seven against the Thunder in the NBA finals. We're gonna tell you who dominated on the court. And of course more from my friends here at the group chat after this. - They should have done the deal. I told them do the deal. So I don't know, I'm not too much into who to negotiate. - I have a message directly from the president and I quote,

Based on the fact that there's a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks.

That was White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt there. So is the president buying himself time? That appears to be the case because this war of words between Trump and Iran's supreme leader has basically set off a diplomatic scramble to tone down the language and get both sides back to a negotiating table, at least for one more time.

Foreign ministers from several European countries head to Geneva today for talks with Iranian officials to try and mend things over. And this after Iran actually rejected terms of the deal that Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff had offered before Israel strikes on Iran began. So how far might any potential talks go this time around? Joining me now is to discuss is David Sanger. He's a New York Times and White House national security correspondent and CNN political and national security analyst. You know a lot of the

So first, I just want to start with something you write in your article where you're saying some experts told you that Trump's announcement might have been an effort not just to buy time, but potentially deceive Iranians. Can you expand on that? Well, he said within two weeks. Now, setting aside the fact that two weeks is always Donald Trump's favorite time period for anything, new health care plans, you know, whatever you have.

It does leave the possibility that there's some strategic deception here and he could just be trying to muddy up the question of when they would take this action and he could act within the two weeks. Do I think that's likely at the beginning here while the Europeans are talking and while he's headed to NATO?

which is early next week? Probably not, but certainly one of the possibilities. But there are many others. There are many others, especially, as you mentioned, with this meeting in Geneva. I know you know some of the players here. You've followed this before. Who's going to be at this meeting? What's significant about it? Well, you're going to have all the European players who were involved in, by country at least, the negotiations that took place

between 2013 and 2015 that resulted in the Obama era deal. And that deal, we should remember,

was the most successful two or three years the United States has ever had in containing the program. The Iranians shipped 97% of their fuel out of the country. They weren't installing new centrifuges. They were enriching a small amount at low levels. Of course, President Trump scrapped that deal later on, and now he's dealing with the backwash.

The other person at the table from the Iranian side is going to be Foreign Minister Arachi, who is known to all of us who covered those negotiations because he was sort of the deputy negotiator at the time and the one who frequently briefed us, talked to us. He knows every inch of the Iranian program. He's an extremely savvy, good diplomat. The question is...

Does he have any negotiating authority here? Because the only one who's going to make the decision about whether or not Iran looks like it's giving up is the Supreme Leader. So it's not a signal that he was sent in particular. We don't know. He's the one who's been negotiating with Steve Witkoff. He's the best interlocutor they have. The question is, how do you get a country that's got bombs falling on it to make a political decision

to basically close down the project. - Okay, David Sanger, thank you so much. Appreciate you sharing your reporting with us. All right, it's now 52 minutes past the hour. I wanna give you your morning roundup. The Department of Homeland Security has a new rule for members of Congress. Give 72 hours of notice before visiting detention centers. The new guidance comes after a series of tense encounters between Democratic politicians and ICE agents.

The top Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee calls the move an affront to the Constitution and federal law.

The National Institutes of Health will fund longer-term health studies for people in East Palestine, Ohio, following the 2023 train derailment. More than a million pounds of hazardous chemicals were released, sparking a rise in respiratory complaints. The new grants will award up to $10 million over the next five years.

And the Indiana Pacers forcing a game seven in the NBA Finals. They dominated the Thunder 108 to 91 last night. The winner take all game seven takes place Sunday night in Oklahoma City. And I understand that you, Rob Luey, are going to be watching.

Absolutely. What's better than a game seven showdown? And particularly these two teams, the Indiana Pacers have been underdogs all season from how they started the year. Even last night. I love it. You're into the story. You're into the story. OK, I want to talk more about celebrations because Americans did just come together to celebrate Juneteenth. OK, federal holiday marks the end of slavery. Some cities scaled back, frankly.

canceled celebrations this year with an eye on the Trump administration's DEI rollbacks. And notably, of course, the president did not sign a proclamation this year observing the holiday. Instead, he took to social media posting, too many non-working holidays in America. It's costing our country billions of dollars to keep all of these businesses closed.

Has the White House had their Juneteenth celebration? Did it happen? Is it going to happen? We have 11 federal holidays. By the way, the workers are fine. They're getting paid time and a half. You don't want the holiday. This holiday specifically. We have way too many holidays. We got President's Day. Dad can go. But maybe that's what he's talking about. Let's just see.

Okay. Black Twitter is not having it. Black social media is like, you can't be at this. No, no. As is said, heavy Negro spiritual side. What do we make of America's short-lived awokening and reckoning? So short that already Juneteenth. Well, President Trump signed this into law in 2020. Let's remember that. Oh, does he remember that? I don't know.

we're talking about. I don't know. And it's definitely an occasion worth celebrating. The Heritage Foundation's president, Kevin Roberts, articulated this. I mean, it's a great moment in American history when word reached those in Galveston, Texas, that President Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation. I think we should celebrate our history. No one believes Trump. Trump is not saying that, Rob. Yeah, well, I can't answer for him. Yeah, yeah.

And actually, the real question is, why not? Why not? And why are you equating black history, American history with DEI? Why are those two things being conflated? And that is a very important question because

Everything is getting sucked into this moniker that the Trump administration wants to kind of, you know, push on us. And this is, as you rightly mentioned, important American history. But Lulu, you mentioned earlier the idea that

when we were talking about the Dodgers, of the corporations and public institutions that felt like, oh no, maybe there was too much. Maybe things pushed into- Oh, what, so Juneteenth is too much? Yeah. As opposed to never having marked the foreshadowing

formal end of slavery in this country, that is somehow not too much. Yeah, because I'm trying to make sense of the cities that are pulling back. I think Lulu made a good point, though. This administration is trying to equate the history and DEI together. And there clearly has to be a moment at some point where we recognize our history. And I think, you know,

a day like Juneteenth, like yesterday, it is a moment to, like, learn about it. And I think, actually, CNN did a great story. I think it was Victor Blackwell did a great story about, you know, connecting these families or ties together. And I didn't, I learned something. Yeah. I think that's really interesting. So that's, like, a day like that is a good time to learn. Yeah, but it's certainly a culmination of politics that we have heard for the last two years going into the election about diversity, equity, inclusion, as you said. But this is it.

One thing that worries me is that, you know, we are losing so much of what makes America America with the fear of speaking out, with the fear that you're going to be punished. Because these companies or these cities or these states are not taking these actions because

they might want to, they're taking these actions because they're afraid of what the federal government will do. But Lulu, can I raise something? So here is the metro section of the Washington Post. This is a crowd celebrating Juneteenth and it's mostly black. And what made that moment what it was, why we ended up with a holiday, was multiracial crowds forcing this kind of cultural conversation. Where are the white people? I mean, this is part of

the conversation, as you said, of standing up. These people are in the street, why not everyone else? - I mean, yeah.

I mean, I don't know what, I mean, I agree with you. I think that it is important for all of us to support a holiday like this, and it shouldn't just be about black people celebrating this moment. - Yeah, there's been a con- - It shouldn't be so political. - It shouldn't be so political, but there is a conversation about solidarity politics, so to speak, like multiracial coalitions coming together. And when you look at what was going out in LA, like, is that still happening? - I don't think it's still happening.

I think among the Latino community, that's certainly everyone. I mean, one of the things that happens when there's a lot of pressure is that people fragment. And so I think you're seeing that. I think every community is sort of fighting for its own survival.

I do think we have a moment here as over the next year we celebrate America's 250th birthday to maybe come together and find those moments throughout our history where we can have these conversations and educate the next generation about things that have happened in our past. And the White House this week unveiled the Founders Museum. They're doing other things over the course of the next year. And so my hope is, Lulu, that they'll look for opportunities to do that. Considering how they've been scrubbing some historical figures from websites recently,

and even naval ships. I don't know, but I have hopes, just like you, Rob, if only for my own kids. I want to thank you to the group chat. I want to thank you for waking up with us. I'm Adi Cornish. We are following that breaking news out of the Middle East, of course, and CNN News Central has those headlines right now.

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