Completely and Totally Obliterated?
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It's Wednesday, June 25th, and here's what's happening right now on CNN This Morning. Completely and totally obliterated, that is how the White House has been describing the damage to Iranian nuclear facilities. But a new assessment sheds some doubt on that. Plus, right now, President Trump attending a one-day NATO summit, and he's questioning Article 5. Is the U.S. committed to defending NATO allies?

And the Middle East on edge as a tenuous ceasefire enters a second day. Can it continue to hold? It's 6 a.m. here on the East Coast. Good morning, everybody. I'm Adi Cornish. I want to thank you for waking up with me. We're going to start today with President Trump lashing out at an early U.S. intelligence assessment, which found that U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear sites may not have destroyed them completely.

Now, seven people briefed on the intelligence tell CNN the strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan severely damaged the above ground structures. But the early Defense Intelligence Agency assessment finds Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium material was not destroyed. Another source tells CNN the centrifuges are still largely intact.

Now, the early assessment finds the strikes likely set back Iran's nuclear program by a few months, contradicting public comments by Trump administration officials who declared Iran's nuclear program to be obliterated. Trump once again pushed back on the intelligence report a short time ago during the NATO summit in the Netherlands.

What they've done is they're trying to make this unbelievable victory into something less. Now, even they admit that it was hit very hard, okay? But it wasn't hit hard. It was hit brutally, and it knocked it out. The original word that I use, I guess it got us in trouble because it's a strong word. It was obliteration, and you'll see that.

Joining me now in the group chat, Margaret Tulliv, senior contributor at Axios, Joel Rubin, former deputy assistant secretary of state during the Obama administration, and Doug High, Republican strategist and former communications director at the RNC. Thank you guys for being here. And Doug, welcome back because you were actually in...

Right. For a time. Yeah. And so tell me a little bit about the significance of this Intel moment, because to me, it seems like everything rests on this. The moves from Israel or the U.S. Well, everything we see from Donald Trump from day one, when he took that escalator ride was, as we're talking about legislatively, big and beautiful.

So we have a big, beautiful bill that's in front of the House and the Senate right now. He's talking right now about big, beautiful bombs, which is why he's talking about things like obliteration. And what we see in initial assessments may be true, may not be true, but they certainly contradict what Donald Trump has said. It's why he's angry about it.

Ultimately, so much of what we do in politics and unfortunately foreign affairs is the basketball game is over. What happened and what does it mean moving forward in the next round of the playoffs? I think we need to take our time and wait and see what happened and what it means both here and obviously in Iran and in Israel.

Joel, I want to ask you about an op-ed actually written by the former Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who served under President Biden. And he was writing this, that the strike on three of Iran's nuclear facilities by the U.S. was unwise and unnecessary. Now that it's done, I very much hope it succeeded. Now that is a question mark in some ways, or rather, what does it mean to succeed is a question mark. Can you talk about how to think about this now?

Sure, Adi. So a couple of things. First of all, success is whether or not Iran's nuclear program has been fully set back and leads to, I believe, verifiable strong negotiations that conclude this chapter of the Iran-U.S. battle over the future of, frankly, these weapons of mass destruction. But for Secretary Blinken, you know, what he was making the point is that there are high risks involved. And we're seeing it now in the discussion about the intelligence industry.

But I do think, and I agree with Doug on this, let's wait to see what the full intelligence community assessment is. One leak from one out of 16 intelligence agencies is not definitive. Say that again. One leak. One leak out of 16 intelligence agencies is not definitive. So you're listening for more?

I'm listening for more. Do you trust what you hear if the president casts doubt on the intelligence that he's been hearing? I trust the intelligence community's full assessment more than anything. I think that President Trump is probably continuing to make and articulate an argument that, quite frankly, makes a lot of sense. But until we have the full data, we don't know. And it's also very important to point out that we do not have full information either prior to these strikes. So to assume that there's some computer out there that's going to spit out the exact answer,

That's unrealistic. - Margaret, lawmakers were supposed to receive a classified briefing. That's been delayed by a week. Senators are talking about what they know. They're worried about what they don't know. I wanna play for you Senator Lindsey Graham and Senator Rand Paul, 'cause I think they both have some interesting insights here. - I'm glad we have a ceasefire, but does it lead to peace or is it just a way for Iran to rearm?

and come back at it another time. This will either be heralded as the greatest military strike in recent history, or if they make a sprint to the nuclear weapon, people will look back, you know, in retrospect and say, oh my goodness, what happened here? I don't think it's known yet. There is a legal obligation for the administration to inform Congress about precisely what is happening. What are they afraid of?

Schumer, of course, among those pushing to have the conversation that's more about powers, right? Who can declare what? But interesting, Rand Paul raising this issue, could it make a sprint to a nuclear weapon? Like he's raising more what ifs.

This issue really is, it's not just factually complicated, it is also politically complicated. There are divisions among every political faction, including the Republican Party and many Democrats who don't like President Trump, don't like the way he did this, but think, you know what, Iran was awfully close to being ready with the weapon, and maybe there should have been some intervention like this. I think

what Lindsey Graham is talking about. And with Paul and Graham, you really see the difference between interventionist and what are we doing. But what Graham is talking about is quite interesting because the question is, even if the ceasefire holds, does that mean that Iran has changed its mind and is like, oh, never mind, not doing the nuclear weapon thing anymore? Or does it just have no incentive now

to negotiate? Is there nothing to negotiate? Is it going to remove itself from any inspections regime and kind of take the North Korea path? And did President Trump's actions push them further? And the North Korea path meaning doing a surreptitious program. And much faster than people

people thought they could. And so all of these questions are really moving targets. They're quite important. And the irony is you're going to see Trump now at NATO for this very quick visit, basically saying, Article V, whatever, leaving a lot of questions about the US role with the allies. But if Iran does take that sort of quiet path

away from negotiations, it probably is only a NATO ally, not the United States, that has the even theoretical capacity to bring them back to the table. The politics are huge here in Israel as well. When I landed in Israel, the conversation politically was, will there be a vote of no confidence on Benjamin Netanyahu? And will it be a round of three? How far does it go? We met with Yel Lapid, who's the opposition leader. And that's half of what it

our conversation was was a vote of no confidence not always he not talking about that right now he's saying job well done Benjamin Netanyahu that doesn't happen very often I stay with this and we're actually gonna hear both from the Netherlands and from Iran because this fragile ceasefire between Israel and Iran seems to be holding at least for now you're getting a clearer picture of the damage left behind by Israeli war planes across Iran and we have CNN senior international correspondent Fred like 10

uh... who's been on the ground in tehran and he joins us now uh... fred can you tell us what you're seeing this morning rather are you actually have one of the sites where these are strikes took place the iranians are saying this happened a couple of days ago i'll show you a little bit this is a building in the western tehran where the iranians say several people were killed in an airstrike on this building and not say who these people were but they are saying that several people are also still in hospital but the damage was significant one of the things

that they've been trying to show us is with these strikes in the residential areas that, of course, some of them took out some high-value targets, but they also say there was significant collateral damage as well. And what we saw in this building, there's actually a bakery in the bottom floor that seems to have been significantly damaged. They also said there was a beauty salon that was damaged and a psychology clinic

but also two residential units as well that were also damaged. So the Iranians are saying that there is significant damage to a lot of the buildings that were hit, obviously, in these Israeli airstrikes. And at the same time, you're absolutely right, the ceasefire is still very much tenuous. It's been interesting to see Iranian politicians

over the past 24 hours since the ceasefire has been in place, namely the president of Iran, Massoud Pesachian, who said Iran wants to resolve its differences with the United States. At the same time, the Iranians saying, as they put it, that their finger is still on the trigger because they don't trust the ceasefire that is in

in place now and obviously in the early hours of that ceasefire was really tenuous whether or not it was going to hold. At the same time, you have areas like this where I am right now where the damage is significant, where people are picking up the pieces. And certainly if you look at Tehran this morning, we've been sort of around the city a little bit,

you can also see that a lot of people are now coming back hoping that the ceasefire will hold businesses opening up again so there are of course a lot of people also here in iran who are breathing a sigh of relief hoping that all this could be over now very early in this process of trying to rebuild fred plaikin cnn senior international correspondent thank you

Coming up on CNN this morning, the U.S. attack briefings canceled on Capitol Hill. Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Dingell calls that unacceptable. She's going to join me later to discuss. Plus, an attack on one is an attack on all, but does President Trump plan to keep his commitment to NATO's Article 5? And Israel's prime minister gets a firm talking to from Washington about keeping the peace with Iran.

That's typical Trump. He really does not want to get into war. On the contrary. So, it's like a parent scolding the child. He's scolding us.

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Right now, President Trump is in the Hague, Netherlands, working to clear up concerns about his commitment to NATO's alliance. He's also meeting with NATO leaders his first summit since returning to office. Questions about Trump's stance on NATO's mutual defense started coming up after he made these comments on his way to the summit yesterday. It depends on your definition. There's numerous definitions of the article. You know that, right? But I'm committed to...

being their friends. You know, I've become friends with many of those leaders and I'm committed to helping them.

Now he says, quote, we're with them all the way. Joining me now live from The Hague is CNN correspondent Claire Sebastian. Claire, I understand there are some protests outside as people are talking about this conflict and then these comments from the president going in, you know, the implications of which when you talk about Article 5 are pretty stark. Can you talk about how European allies are responding and how that's affected things?

Yeah, look, I think on the one hand, we've seen a real wholesale charm offensive to try to get to this point, certainly from the NATO Secretary General, who, of course, his text message to President Trump was published by the president on Truth Social yesterday, giving him full credit for this 5% of GDP defense spending pledge that we're expecting to have signed off by NATO allies today, praising him for his actions in Iran, saying European allies, when referring to defense spending, are going to pay up

big time using the sort of Trump style block capitals. And that charm offensive, which so far, given the mood of the president that we saw this morning, seems to be working, continued into the leader's arrivals this morning. One particularly strong example of that was the Lithuanian president. Take a listen.

I think we should choose the motto "Make NATO Great Again". I would like to extend my gratitude to President Donald Trump because without his engagement, I can imagine that we would discuss probably the level of 2.5%. With no clear outcome and positive outcome, probably those discussions will lead to nothing.

So all of this, of course, is about maintaining the appearance of unity in NATO, which is a critical part of the very deterrent that they're trying to create here. But on the flip side, of course, we do have these comments that President Trump made on his way to the summit, refusing essentially to fully endorse Article 5. And leaders this morning have faced countless questions on that. The Dutch prime minister, for example, saying actually Article 5 is very clear, but of course no one wanting to overtly criticise

President Trump, because I think if anything is clear from the way this summit has been structured, tailor-made to the president, the way we've seen those sort of flattering comments from the Secretary General, is that they absolutely cannot afford to lose U.S. support. Audrey? Claire Sebastian, thank you so much. Coming up on CNN this morning, is the ceasefire truly the end of this conflict or a band-aid to cover up what's boiling underneath? Plus, the big, beautiful bill, will it get passed by the 4th of July?

So now that there's a ceasefire in place, what's next? Well, it's complicated. Both the U.S. and Israel are trying to get a better understanding about what's left of Iran's nuclear program and what happened to its uranium stockpiles. And they're also trying to figure out whether Iran is still capable of moving quickly to make a weapon, something that could invite more strikes from Israel.

Meanwhile, Iran has suffered massive intelligence, military, and leadership losses. The 86-year-old supreme leader was reportedly making succession plans while sheltering in a bunker during the U.S. strikes. Joining me now to discuss is columnist and geopolitical analyst Bobby Ghosh. Bobby, welcome back to the program. Hi, Audie.

One of the reasons I wanted to talk to you is because on social media you were pointing out that what's happening in Iran now is trying to understand the intelligence failures, etc. You described it as a night of long knives as the regime apportions blame for the disaster. And how much of that is going to stick to the Supreme Leader? You also talk about how they're going to go after spies or opposition. Can you talk about how this might move forward?

Well, you have to understand that from the point of view of the Supreme Leader, from the point of view of Khamenei, this has been an enormous blow, not just to his nuclear ambitions, but to his personal prestige and his credibility as a ruler of Iran. The whole concept of the Islamic Republic is built around

The idea that this group of people, these theocrats are capable of protecting Iran from foreign invasion. Well, they have been bombed in their own homeland relentlessly by Israel and now by the United States. Somebody has to be blamed for this national disgrace, which is how they would see it.

In the past, the way they have dealt with this is to basically try and use this opportunity to crack down on all kinds of domestic opposition, real opposition as well as imagined opposition, any potential threat. Now, we're already seeing reports coming out of Iran that they are

hunting down so-called Israeli spies and collaborators. Some of those, I'm sure, are genuine Israeli spies, but more than likely, they will use those terms, spies and collaborators, much more broadly and attach them to anybody that they feel opposes the regime. This will be a chance for the regime to test

loyalty of the people around it to understand who it can trust. And it's already historically been a fairly paranoid kind of regime. And so the capacity to trust is actually quite small.

In the meantime, we've been talking so much about these intelligence reports. CNN was reporting about an early assessment about how much damage was done to the nuclear ambitions. And one of our panelists even raised the idea of a sort of North Korea-like response, meaning does Iran find that it is panicked into sprinting towards the creation of a weapon? How do you hear that discussion and what are you looking for?

Well, I'm sure there are hardliners within the Iranian regime who will argue for that, who will say, look, this would not have happened if we'd already had a bomb. And if they have the capacity to sprint toward creating that bomb, there will be a strong lobby within the regime that will want to do that.

hopefully more saner voices will prevail. Hopefully more saner voices will be able to say, if we hadn't been pursuing a bomb, we wouldn't have come to this place already. We would not have been bombed. This national humiliation, two different countries sending their planes into our territories, bombing our infrastructure, killing our people. This would never have happened if we hadn't been pursuing a bomb in the first place. So that's the debauchery

the debate that will be taking place within the country. There's a strong anti-war sentiment among ordinary Iranians. We've also seen good reporting coming out on that. Ordinary Iranians do not want to see the war prolonged. And that may have some bearing on what the decision making of the leadership is. But there will be people

very powerful people in the regime who will be arguing very strongly if the capacity exists. It's a very big if at this stage, Adi, we really don't know. But if the capacity exists, there will be a constituency within the establishment that will want a bomb quickly. That's Bobby Ghosh, columnist and geopolitics analyst. Thank you, Bobby. Anytime, Adi.

Next on CNN this morning, Trump claims U.S. strikes obliterated Iran's nuclear sites. We'll tell you more about the new intel, which finds that could be a stretch. Plus, President Trump says he's not happy with Israel. More on the ceasefire violations that triggered the lash out.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Adi Cornish. Thank you for joining me on CNN this morning. It's half past the hour and we're going to go back now to our top story as the White House this morning continues to reject reports that it failed to fully destroy Iran's nuclear capabilities. That's despite an early U.S. intelligence assessment, which concludes it was only set back by a few months.

White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt in a statement dismissed the assessment as flat out wrong and described the source as a quote low level loser. President Trump along with other senior cabinet officials slammed the intel leak at the NATO summit this morning.

You would think they'd want to say this was an unbelievable success. And the thing that hurts me is it's really demeaning to the pilots and the people that put that whole thing together, the generals. That was a perfect operation. You can't even find where it used to be because the whole thing is just blackened out. It's gone. It's wiped out. It's wiped out. Then we dropped 12 of the strongest bombs on the planet right down the hole in two places.

All this as the Trump administration vows to find the source of what it calls an unauthorized disclosure of classified information. Joining me now is one of the reporters behind that story, Zachary Cohen, CNN's senior national security reporter. Good morning, Zach, and thanks for bringing your reporting here. Yeah, thanks for having me. I want to play one more thing from NATO because it's a little different from this clip we just heard when the president was asked about that intelligence and basically said, well, it shows that it's inconclusive, but...

But he says, "The intelligence says we don't know. It could have been very severe. That's what the intelligence says. So I guess it's correct. It was very severe. It was obliteration." There's a big difference between very severe and obliteration. What did your intelligence sources say? There is. And I think it's important to also point out that the President and the White House

all of their responses to this reporting have really been only disputing the content of the intelligence assessment that we reported on, but in doing so also acknowledging the existence of this assessment, acknowledging that the intelligence finding, the first finding on this military operation does exist. So it is important to distinguish between what the White House is taking issue with and what they're not, and that's

you know, center around this intelligence assessment. So it's really also important to note that this is a very preliminary early intelligence assessment from specifically the Defense Intelligence Agency. And while that's just one of about 18 intelligence agencies here in the United States, it's also the one that has the experts in analyzing battle damage assessments. That's what this analysis was based on. And it's really the first conclusive but, you know, an official analysis

proclamation from an intelligence agency about how much damage these strikes really did. So obviously the president is at odds with what the president has been saying publicly. It does not line up necessarily with complete obliteration, but also acknowledges and leaves open the idea that this assessment will continue to evolve and change as more intelligence is collected. - He says low level, you obviously say it's preliminary and there are many more agencies to go, but what's hanging over this is

To me, the president has in the past been doubtful or dismissive of comments from the Intel community, whether that's Tulsi Gabbard or the community at whole. So do you get the sense these comments are also reflective of that? Does he trust them?

Well, Tulsi Gabbard is a good example because when Donald Trump was criticizing her recently over the intelligence community assessment on Iran's nuclear program, our reporting reflected that his main issue with her was that she was off message. It wasn't necessarily that the content of what the intelligence community was saying was necessarily wrong or right. It was that it did not line up with what the president was saying publicly. And we've learned over the years that that is effectively the most important thing

uh... for him and what he looks for in the intelligence community that's not what is the opposite of what the intelligence community feels about it. Their job is to inform policymakers give them the best uh... information that they possibly can and then it's up to the policymakers to decide what they do with that intelligence but it doesn't change

the nature of what they're giving those policymakers. Speaking of which, we know that there are lawmakers who want to hear more. What else are you hearing from them? Yeah, there's a lot of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle who are very frustrated with the administration, especially after those classified briefings were delayed and they weren't really given a reason for why. And so, again, that's why this reporting does seem to be prompting such a

A dramatic response from a lot of different corners of Capitol Hill and Washington, D.C. is because effectively lawmakers have not seen and heard from the administration about any sort of evidence from these strikes. And do they line up with what the president and the administration is saying publicly at a time when things are moving very quickly with the ceasefire being so tenuous? And the justifications matter, right? Absolutely. And, you know, they want answers to that. And so far they've not been given them. All right, Zach, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

All right, President Trump now attending his first NATO conference of his second term as he flies into Amsterdam with a new ceasefire between Israel and Iran. So the NATO alliance also seems ready to agree to one of his longstanding demands that they all increase their military budgets. The president also posted what seemed to be a private message from NATO Secretary General Mark Root.

which reads in part, you are flying into a big success. It was not easy, but we've got them all signed on to 5%. So the president spoke alongside the secretary general just a short time ago. I've been asking them to go up to 5% for a number of years, and they're going up to 5%. That's a big, from 2%. And a lot of people didn't even pay the 2%. So I think that's going to be very big news. NATO is going to become very strong with us.

And I appreciate doing it. Joining me now from that NATO summit in The Hague is CNN political and national security analyst David Sanger. David, I want to first just ask you about some of the comments that the president has made about the mutual defense aspect of NATO while he was traveling on Air Force One. It's known as Article 5. Just to give you a sense of what he was saying. It's our defense of NATO.

So, David, many definitions there. What definitions are you hearing from some of the other countries? Well, you'll remember that during the president's first term, he kept saying,

deleting references to Article 5 out of the script of his speeches, including one at the opening of the new NATO headquarters to the frustration of his national security advisor and others at the time. So in the first term, he didn't want to make a commitment at all.

Now, by saying it depends on the definition, I think everybody has been reading that as it commits me to helping in some way, but not necessarily sending troops and so forth. And of course, he has frequently said that countries that don't pay up to the amount that they've committed

on defense, he keeps talking about their dues to NATO. There are no dues to NATO, but those groups he might not come to defend. But, you know, he gained a little credibility, I think, over the weekend because, obviously, he was willing to commit U.S. forces

to help Israel. That's not only one reason that he did the attack, but I think this is going to be a lot less contentious. The 5% is a little flexible because it includes 1.5% of GDP for roads and domestic projects that, by a stretch, you could say, are helping in their defenses.

He also sort of implied the U.S. is going it alone. I mean, that's been his approach. Do they feel like they have his ear again?

It'll be interesting to see. This is really the first day that this starts up. And, you know, I think that the new NATO Secretary General, Mark Rutte, kept this so short in part because he didn't want to leave time for a Trumpian kind of disruption of this. He wanted to deliver the 5%, have everybody congratulate each other and leave.

But what you also did here, and this goes back to the conversation that you just had, Audie, was the president and really Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State and National Security Advisor,

laid out the most detailed accounting of why they think the Iranians will not be able to rebuild their facilities. The president did it just by assertion. Rubio made the argument that wiped out in the attacks as a key conversion facility. This is where you turn the nuclear fuel into a form that you could use in a warhead.

and that that was wiped out and that that's a key bottleneck to this whole system. So I think they're beginning to recognize that you can't just send the president to run out and say obliterate and expect that that ends the debate. Angry as they were, of course, about the leak of the report. That's David Sanger at that NATO summit. We'll be hearing more from him today. Thanks, David.

We're going to be shifting gears now to a major upset in New York City's Democratic primary for mayor. Former Governor Andrew Cuomo, who was considered the frontrunner in the race, has conceded. And a 33-year-old state assemblyman, Zoran Mamdani, is on track to win. I will fight for a city that works for you, that is affordable for you, that is safe for you. I will work to be a mayor. You will be proud to call your own.

Okay, it's important to note that Mamdani did not reach that 50% threshold of the vote. So the race will be decided by ranked choice votes that begin July 1st. The group chat is back. I wanted to talk about this because it is even...

the strikes in Israel and how to talk about Israel came up in this New York race and it's also a moment where you have a democratic socialist has come to the fore I don't know what it wants to take this first but what your initial reaction sure well first of all candidate quality clearly matters and this is one high quality candidate me spoke to issues that the base voters in the Democratic Party to a former governor I mean this is a guy I mean everybody watching this was wondering where he was on the subways mum

Mamdani was everywhere, right? He was very energetic, very effective at messaging, spoke to core issues that people care about. When it comes to Israel and Jewish issues, though, he did freak out to be a little loose in the words about it, but he freaked out at the Jewish voters in New York.

And there's a lot of concerns that he's hostile to Israel. And there are a lot of concerns that he's going to sort of look the other way when Jewish New Yorkers feel threatened. And I think he's going to have to address those a lot more directly. He skated around that quite a bit. There's so many elements here because on the one hand, you have a 33-year-old democratic socialist,

And it feels like this is an AOC, Bernie Sanders, young movement wing of the Democratic Party. And she did support him, so this is not, yeah. Is it going to have, does it say anything about our national politics? And I think that's why we are sitting here talking about it. Is he going to become...

a lightning rod that Republicans nationally are going to say this is the Democratic Party and can Republicans use that in the midterms? And then on the other hand, I think there is the candidate quality issue. You have Eric Adams, extremely compromised, now running as an independent. Cuomo, very compromised over the sexual harassment problems. And this young, vibrant candidate who walked the length of Manhattan and is talking about... So just not compromised, basically, is the bar in some ways. Well, he's not those two. Let me bring Doug in for the...

- He's compromised because essentially New York is the largest Jewish city in the world. Bigger than Jerusalem, bigger than Tel Aviv, more Jews in New York City than either of those cities, maybe even combined. So Mandani does have a problem moving forward there, but on the issue of candidate quality, yes, very clearly Andrew Cuomo had a lot of personal issues, but what was the reason for him to run?

What was his real campaign message? It seemed that the only reason he was a candidate was because he wanted back in. That's not a real good selling point to voters. And we saw that. - Yeah, and Democrats wanted back in, right? I mean, there was a lot of big establishment Democrat voices who went behind him. I want you guys-- - But Schumer and Jeffries didn't say a word on this one. - Okay, stay with us. We actually have a guest who can help us understand this a little bit more. Still ahead on CNN this morning, we are going to talk about that upset in New York City. Debbie Dingle is here after the break.

Back now to that surprising primary out of New York City and what it says about the state of the Democratic Party. 33-year-old State Assemblyman Zoran Mamdani is on track to win the Democratic primary for mayor. Former Governor Andrew Cuomo, who was considered a frontrunner, conceded the race last night. Mamdani did not reach 50% of the vote, so the race will be decided by ranked choice voting, which...

starts on July 1st. Joining me now to talk more, Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Dingell of Michigan. Thank you for being here this morning. - Great to be with you. - One of the reasons why I'm excited to talk to you is because you are a leader in the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and this is a moment where you have a Democratic Socialist who has kind of moved to the forefront, where establishment Democrats had backed Cuomo.

Why do you think those establishment Democrats were backing Cuomo, and was that a misread of the room, so to speak? So this is one of the things that I've been saying for years. You're starting to hear more people say it. You will recall that I predicted that Hillary Clinton was going to lose in 2016 and was the bad girl of the Democratic Party and the Debbie Downer, and unfortunately I was right.

What I noticed about these two candidates, one was out, one was about, they were talking with people, they were using new forms of media, they were using podcasts, social media, and

Governor Cuomo ran a very traditional consultant ad, used paid media, and you didn't see him out and about. So while I do think some of his ideas are exciting people, people are worried about the—looks be clear. People are worried about the cost of living. They're worried about caregiving. They're worried about they could have a job. They can find affordable housing. You know, all those issues were there, and he talked about them.

People, I'm afraid, are going to try to turn this into, you know, what does this mean? I think it shows that Democrats have got to start getting out and listening to people. Is this a New York win, or can you see more candidates like this gaining traction around the country? I think that what we have to look at is how he campaigned and the issues that he talked about

and his ability to meet with a lot of people. - Right, he was talking about free buses, talking about freezing rents, but affordability. - Affordability is what we need to be talking about. Some people are gonna try to pin it up. He's a communist, he's,

What he is, is talking to people about what they care about, and he's talking to people. He's out and about. It's what I'm trying to encourage in my Democratic caucus. I want every member of the Democratic caucus to walk into a union hall or go to a meeting with union workers in the month of August. Get out there. I want to ask you one more thing. That full House briefing on the strikes on Iran, that's been pushed back, but what

questions do you want to see answered by this administration? First of all, I want to tell you how outraged I am that it is Wednesday, that they summarily canceled that briefing, which should have been held over the weekend. The Gang of Eight, for those who don't know, the senior members of the committees, national security cleared, everything still have not been briefed.

And that's why we started to cause disruption on the floor. And if we don't have a time and place for the briefing today, I think you're going to see some more people demand it. We need to know why did they—the Constitution requires the president to talk to the Congress, to tell—if you're going to use military—if you're going to—

attack, if you're looking at going to war, you've got to talk to us. So do Democrats disagree with the strikes themselves, or is it just trying to seize back some sort of congressional power? I think a lot of people are very worried about a nuclear Iran. But did we...

I think when we can, we want to use every diplomatic tool available. What was the evidence that required them to go in? Obviously, we're all hearing very mixed stories. We've not had any kind of briefing, so we know what you know. We're reading it in the press. Did they destroy it? How close are they? There are people that I know that are very smart that are saying it wasn't all destroyed and we're still very -- they're very close to being able to have that capability.

We want to—we've got to get the facts. We need to—I've got young men and women in my district that don't—are already panicking. They're going to be drafted. People are worried about an endless war. But we also want a steady and stable Mideast. It's complicated. You've got to talk to the Congress. You've got to brief the Congress.

We are part, the Constitution was set up, there are three branches of government. And I'll say something else. Politics, famous senator from Michigan, Republican in the 40s, said politics should stop at the water's edge. We all need to be working together on something that's a threat to American security, global security, and the Mideast. All right, Congresswoman, we'll see if that briefing happens. Hope we can check back with you. Thank you for being here. Thank you for having me.

All right, it is now 54 minutes past the hour. I want to give you your morning roundup. In just a few hours, RFK Jr.'s new CDC vaccine advisors will meet for the first time. Earlier this month, the Health and Human Services Secretary dismissed the entire panel on the agenda today, a presentation about concerns with the flu shot from a former leader at an anti-vaccine group.

And today, the man who was previously deported by mistake to a prison in El Salvador will have a federal hearing. Kilmar Abrego-Garcia is expected to be released from a Tennessee jail only to be taken into immigration custody. He's facing charges of human smuggling. A judge decided he didn't need to stay behind bars ahead of the trial.

And just a few hours ago, Axiom Space launched a crew of four people towards the International Space Station from the Kennedy Space Center. The astronauts include a NASA retiree and three crewmates from Hungary, India and Poland. The two-week mission is a first for the countries who have never sent anyone to the ISS before. And before you go, you might have heard President Trump pulling no punches yesterday when asked about Israel's decision to strike Iran shortly after the ceasefire took effect.

We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don't know what the f*** they're doing. Do you understand that?

While he was also upset with Iran for reportedly firing back as well, something Iran has denied, Trump has since warned Israel not to attack Iran again while this fragile ceasefire remains intact for now. We're told the president gave a firm talking to to Israel, to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Meanwhile, Netanyahu, for his part, says President Trump expressed his immense appreciation for Israel, which achieved all of its goals. The group chat is back.

I wanted to end here because this is kind of a rare moment of rebuke. I mean, if you think about how the president talked about Russia and Ukraine, he clearly, when he wants, can hold his tongue. Doug, can I start with you briefly since you were there? This scolding, is it a significant kind of visual?

It's a significant visual, but look, the two statements you read are not mutually exclusive, right? Both parties can agree on privately and disagree publicly on where they are. And I think ultimately Netanyahu is going to move forward with what he needs to do. But is he not vulnerable in country? Right now? In the very short term, no. In the medium term, absolutely. Again, last week started with talks of votes of no confidence. That's off the table for now.

But that's a short timetable. But, you know, to Doug's point, building on that, look, if there were an election tomorrow, Donald Trump would win in Israel as prime minister. He is the single most popular political figure there now. And he could easily push out Netanyahu if Bibi crosses him. And I think the prime minister understands that.

But, you know, this isn't really a lashing in a punitive way. This is a don't embarrass me. I got a ceasefire. I backed you up and you need to hold your horses. And I think that broadly speaking, it's really take away my Nobel Prize. What do you say to be won and done? And he does not want the dissent in his own party. Remember, he ran on the idea of getting out of foreign wars. And this issue splits his base, even if right now everyone is.

UNIFIED. THERE ARE A TON OF PEOPLE IN THE MAGA MOVEMENT WHO REALLY DO NOT WANT TO SEE THE U.S. BOMBING OTHER COUNTRIES OR GETTING INVOLVED IN OTHER WARS. IF THE CEASEFIRE ENDS, IT THROWS ALL THAT INTO UNCERTAINTY. I WANT TO TALK ABOUT WHAT ELSE YOU ARE KEEPING AN EYE ON THIS WEEK, WHAT YOU'RE WATCHING FOR. GOT SO MUCH GOING ON, THE NATO SUMMIT, THE LAWMAKERS TALKING ABOUT IRAN. CAN I START WITH YOU, MARGARET?

I'm going to bring it back home as we look towards the July 4th holiday. Any of you looking to buy or lease a car probably know that there have been $7,500 in theory worth of tax credits available on new cars. That may all end with the big beautiful bill. So as we are watching the final negotiations happen, this could actually have a real implication for people looking at buying cars. All right, Joel.

On the lines of what we're talking about, the War Powers Resolution, a potential vote in the Senate, Senator Kaine leading that. And I want to see the internal Democratic dynamics and Republican dynamics. I bet most Democrats will be unified in trying to prevent future escalation or attacks against Iran. Maybe Rand Paul will join as well. And nothing in the House. But this is really going to split the parties internally, this kind of vote and military action against Iran. So symbolic but revealing.

- It's symbolic and extremely revealing about the path forward over the next year regarding Middle East policy for the Democrats. - Okay, Doug. - Back to cars. We're coming back on July 4th and there are gonna be a lot of people on the highways and what they're paying for gas is going to be a critical factor in how they're viewing things. We've seen prices fall just in the very short term with this ceasefire, but does that stay? We don't know. And I go back to, as we talk about Israel and all this, I go back to when Bin Laden was caught.

Big moment for Barack Obama, big tangible moment. Six weeks later, we were back on the economy. - Yeah, it's an interesting moment. We were talking about the New York primary earlier. That ended up being kind of an economy race, right? With the person coming out ahead talking about affordability and prices.

And I think that's something that's not going away. And what was interesting to your point, Margaret, is that lawmakers have had cover with the Iran strikes, meaning they can deal with the big beautiful bill and have those fights where we're not all focused on that. So people are actually gonna start to see the reality, right, of what's in the bill.

and instant campaigning about Medicaid. Both sides will be messaging this. The messaging strategies for both parties have already begun, and this thing isn't even out of the woods yet. All right, you guys, thank you so much. We talked about a lot today. I appreciate you bringing your expertise to the chat. Thank you for waking up with us. CNN News Central starts right now.

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This week on The Assignment with me, Audie Cornish. For a moment there, the phrase body positivity was everywhere. And then Ozempic entered the chat. The pendulum has swung back to the glamorization of thinness. And the American Society of Plastic Surgeons announced we're entering the ballet body era. Are the drugs the real reason thin is in? Can body positivity and the Ozempic era coexist?

Listen to The Assignment with me, Audie Cornish, streaming now on your favorite podcast app.