Trump: 'Stop Shooting!'

CNN breaking news.

So we are following the news out of the Middle East. That's where Israel and Iran are engaging in a barrage of fresh strikes. It is a major test for negotiations that President Trump said just yesterday were very close to being done. So we're going to start with a new wave of Iranian missile strikes that were launched towards Israel. This is new video into CNN overnight showing damage inside a home in the West Bank.

Audi, we just got a briefing a short time ago from an Israeli military official who said that Israel is preparing for the possibility of several days of fighting, and beyond that, the potential for this to become A more prolonged conflict, and that's important because it gives you a sense of of what Israel is preparing for. Meanwhile, Tehran is has also said they're prepared for a week of conflict. So both Israel and Haran are clearly signalling right now.

Um you said it seems like he's trying to do so, uh going as far as saying that he calls the shots, um saying that Net Yah will have no choice but to accept a deal with Iran. How is this being telegraphed? Are people hearing the way Trump is trying to rein Netanyahu in? And what has the Israeli government talked about?

It's safe to assume that if Trump posts something related to Israel on on his social media or makes a public statement about it, it gets circulated here very, very quickly.

Okay, that's Orin Lieberman speaking to us from Jerusalem. Thank you. And our breaking news coverage is going to continue next as we talked about Israel and Iran trading new strikes.

I'm CNN Tech Reporter Claire Duffy. This week on the podcast Terms of Service. CNN digital senior writer Eric Levinson, he's following several cases that are the first of their kind. Cases seeking to use AI conversations and content as evidence. How have we seen chatbot conversations playing into court proceedings?

We've seen a few big cases recently and chat GPT messages and conversations have helped show the mindset of certain people. So there was the case last year, the big Palisades fire in LA that destroyed a lot of LA and the Pacific Palisades, they arrested a suspect who had been at a mountaintop nearby on New Year's Eve, like a week before, and had messaged

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So we are following the latest developments out of the Middle East where the ceasefire is teetering after Iran and Israel traded the worst strikes in months. Despite the renewed strikes, Trump says he did not violate one of his core campaign promises, no new wars.

One of you.

Your consistent campaign promises.

Yeah.

going all the way back to twenty fifteen. Did you break that promise to the American

People.

I had to stop. a country, very powerful, very dangerous country, from having a nuclear weapon because they'd use it. They'd blow up the world, they'd blow up the Middle East, they'd blow up Israel, they'd come here, they'd blow up Europe. It's America first. Our country, a service. When you say I promised, I didn't promise anything, I don't like these endless wars, this is not an endless war.

Joining me now in the group chat, Sarah Fisher, CNN Senior Media Analyst and Senior Media Reporter at Axios, Elena Schneider, National Political Reporter at Notice, and Sung Min Kim, CNN political analyst and White House reporter at the Associated Press. Now this ended up being a pretty testy interview for a variety of reasons, but I want to talk about this part about no endless wars.

Right, right. And when you ask Trump about it, especially um, you know, in these gaggles or in the interview yesterday, he says no endless words. He says he's talking about, you know, extricating ourselves from conflicts such as Afghanistan. Exactly, exactly. And you saw that kind of messaging even s you know, even a couple of months ago. I remember when he was talking about

And

He he's struggling to get out of it and that's why that's where that sensitivity is coming from because it's kind of out of his question.

It's the getting out that Americans are most politically sensitive to. I was watching the Platner um Sunday rally in Maine. He's obviously sort of in a very political fight, uh, because of the allegations against him. But he talked about war and he talked about war as suffering, pain, violence, and he says one of the reasons I want to go to the United States Senate is I want to be a strong voice to stand up against war.

It is a Trump vulnerability and it's especially fascinating because if you take a look at uh midterm advertising, very little talks about foreign policy. Iran or the war. It's not a kitchen table issue that typically impacts these types of races at the local Now that it's we've gotten this engaged in the war, we're starting to see some of this trickle in. So there's a an element of surprise that veterans are leaning into this because it's not typically something that sways people.

I would somehow be different. Yeah. You know, it's interesting watching Trump also navigate the domestic politics of this where on his right there is a very strong, loud, public kind of MAGA wing. that really felt important uh that this pledge was important about no endless wars. They can't be happy right now.

Of course not. And look, I mean, we had a poll last week that came out that seven in ten Americans want America to get out of Iran as soon as possible.

That's not just Republican.

Exactly. That really speaks to the the breadth of the concern here and it's not only being felt uh in in Democratic primaries where it's not uh too far to then take that next step of We don't want more wars, and this war is affecting your gas prices, which is a very easy tie in to the affordability message that we know Democrats want to make in this moment. But Republicans too feel this. Marjorie Taylor Green Um was at the front lines of saying that there this was some broken promises here.

don't that's what's interesting to me. They don't just talk about gas prices. They specifically talk about Trump His relationship with Netanyahu and their concerns about where the US priority is. Is it abroad or is it at home?

Because it was a very sticky, very effective message for him. I think it really mattered to a lot of young people that he was making these kinds of promises. Because remember at the time, Joe Biden was tied, you know, at the time the Biden administration was tied up in Ukraine, and the idea was why can't we focus at home and that was part of a key plank of what he was able to do in winning those younger voters by by margins that we had not seen Republicans do in quite some time.

And ironically I remember a time maybe you remember this in the media, there were these moments where people would say, Well, Kamala Harris is gonna drag you into a war with Iran. There was this concern that the do you remember this? The sort of connection being made between the Biden and uh Harris stance on Israel at that time, which was causing a lot of trouble in its primaries and with huge parts of its base.

Yes, and going back to what you were saying on the Ukraine war, the big tension there was that why are we footing the bill to defend Ukraine? Well it's a very similar situation here. You're asking Congress to approve billions of extra dollars for this war. Why is the US putting the bill to fight Israel's war? One can make the argument that both are a national security issue for the US to defend our allies. However, in the instance of Ukraine.

Okay, you guys stay with me. We're gonna bring in more folks to help us make sense of this this morning, and our breaking news coverage continues after the break. We're gonna talk about from Lego propaganda to messages on missiles.

It's 22 minutes past the hour. This is your morning roundup. Democratic Senate primary candidate Grant Plattner held an event in Maine in front of an enthusiastic and cheering crowd just two days before the primary. And he declared he is quote very much just some random guy from Sullivan, Maine.

In a moment like this in history, if we can show that a regular person from the regular world Who simply comes out with a message saying that we all have to work together to push back against all of the structures of power that have been exploiting and oppressing us for generations? If we show that that works, we get to show this country the way forward.

Now Platner is still favored to win Tuesday's primary even after the New York Times published a report from three of his ex-girlfriends who described, quote, volatile and toxic relationships. in one account physical intimidation, which he denies. A deadly 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck in the Philippines. Video from the area showing you right here massive damage, including crumbling buildings.

Personally I think it's kind of a shame. I really wouldn't like it, you know, because we've been waiting for this for like how long? And you know, a lot of people can't afford to get into the game. I'm one of those people. So I was actually looking forward to going to one of these watch parties.

This is a monumental day in New York City and you're gonna cancel it. It's alright, we're gonna find a way, okay? If you guys know real New Yorkers, we're gonna find a way.

Um I don't want to mess with New Yorkers on that but they finally get does he I hadn't actually thought about it until I heard that little clip of someone being like, some of us can't afford tickets.

It's true and by the way, live experiences are becoming so much more expensive. You saw people on social media saying it's cheaper to fly to San Antonio for some of those games as a New Yorker than it is to go down the street.

Street. Is Trump still the ultimate New Yorker? Like is he popular there?

I mean, I I think it's fair to say that if there are loud boos tonight when he's in Madison Square Garden, I don't think any any of us would be surprised. But

I've been at Nick's games plenty over the years. We're showing him here, but you know, let's just say

might be the ultimate sports president. You know, he keeps sh popping up at all of these big games, right? He was at the Daytona five hundred, he went to the Super Bowl, he's been to the Ryder Cup, he went to the US Open. I mean, I don't know if any other president

Has uh

leaned on the uh the privileges of being able to attend some of these major games quite the way that he has during his presidency.

Okay, well shout out to the New Yorkers who are not gonna get to go to the watch party. I hope y'all find a way, okay?

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So if you're just joining us, we are following breaking news out of the Middle East. Israel saying it's preparing for several days of fighting with Iran. Speaking with reporters, the Israeli military says it is also preparing for the possibility of a prolonged campaign. That's according to the IDF. Iran fired close to 30 ballistic missiles since its first attack.

So Iran has decided that it is going to essentially bail out one of its proxies rather than one of its proxy groups, Hezbollah, bailing it out. And that's a change in how things have been done. But I think what's notable about Iran's response and its attack is that it launched over 10 medium-range ballistic missiles on an Israeli airbase.

Yeah, everybody's talking about going for days, getting ready, digging in, and then the president had a truth social this morning saying Iran saying Israel and Iran must immediately stop shooting, you know, signed the president. It feels as though um he's saying one thing and everyone else who also has a vote is really planning to dig in.

And I mean President Trump wants out. That is very clear. This was an ara this was a war of his making.

But he doesn't want out on at any cost. No, no.

on his terms and he wants something that is face-saving and to him a deal that kicks the can down the road with some of the most important critical issues is face-saving enough. But as you said, Iran gets a vote. Israel gets a vote, and I think with Israel in particular, we're seeing one of the things that comes up with alliances, which is alliance entanglement.

So when I think back to twenty fifteen, the criticism on the Obama administration was that the Iran deal kicked the can down the road. So if Donald Trump were to broker another deal that kicks the can down the road. Are we better off with this deal now than we were with the Biden deal in twenty fifteen, or are we worse off? Did he manufacture a crisis that has made it worse, or did he address something that needed to be strengthened and will make it better?

In 2015 was the Strait of Hormuz closed. And so even if there is some type of deal, an MOU, something more lasting, in theory the Strait of Hormuz could be reopened. But it truly is going to be closed. There's going to be a reticence to send commercial shipping through it. There's going to be Iran continually demonstrating that it can control the strait, that it can close it at various times.

Oh jumping in here now you've got the Houthis talking about trying to stop Israeli flagships in the Red Sea. To your point earlier, is it because they feel emboldened? It's because they're looking at what's going on and saying, you know what? It looks like Iran will jump in and help us after all.

I think it's more for the Houthis. They've sought this one out. They've they've kept their powder dry in part because they haven't had to. For one, commercial shipping for the most part has rerouted at least initially from the Red Sea. Now there's a return of traffic. as folks are rerouting from the Strait of Hormuz and sending ships to the Red Sea, particularly because Saudi has an oil pipeline that goes through Yanbu, which is located on the Red Sea.

Авіасюда now where this ceasefire is done. And I know I hear from voices in Israel saying, No, no, no, Hezbollah has been acting, this has always been precarious. But is there something about the exchange over the last twelve hours? that really has linked the US to Israel in a way that this could be considered a violation of the ceasefire.

I think if we're looking at linkages, we are seeing the linkage of the Iran war to what Israel is doing against Hezbollah. That is the biggest linkage, and Israel's tried to delink those two and say that those are two separate conflicts. Now they're quite clearly the same. But I do think that some of the diplomacy and the negotiations are imperiled, especially if things escalate.

Wait, I have to stop you because as we are speaking, Trump posted on Truth Social about this issue. Becca, here's what he says. Both sides, Israel and Iran, are looking to do an immediate ceasefire. Final negotiations on peace are proceeding subject to ignorance or stupidity getting in its way. The blockade will remain in place and in full force and effect until a final deal is reached.

I mean he is up early this morning for some reason, especially when I was a little bit more.

Not for some reason.

Or that's what I mean. Like so I think this is this could potentially be the reason and we'll be asking the White House whether there has been some sort of communication.

I see that phrase ignorance and stupidity and it sounds like he's maybe you're laughing, maybe losing some patience.

Definitely lost patience. He's lost patience with the war, he's lost patience with Netanyahu based on public reporting, time and time again. And so I think here he wants negotiations to go forward. He wants some form of a ceasefire, even if there is some of this lower level skirmishing within the ceasefire. What he does not want. Is a direct escalation to high intensity warfare like we saw during those 39 days of really intense fighting.

You know, one of the interesting things about this war is the information of it. As we're talking about the president being up early. giving an interview to the Financial Times where he knows markets are up early. Um and there's also been this back and forth online, right? The information war that's emerging. And you've got Iranian outlets circulating video that they say shows ballistic missiles marked with messages. But here's the thing, the messages allegedly referencing Jeffrey Epstein.

I mean we've seen this from conflict to conflict. Uh, you know, in the early days in Ukraine there was actually a bunch of crowdsource fundraising that was put a missile, uh put a message on a missile that's being sent to Putin. You know, even frankly, you've seen this with propaganda with US troops even. where sometimes they will mark maybe missiles, but often, you know, they're airplanes uh that are dropping bombs and marking that up.

I think it's'cause with Ukraine I was thinking that was the first TikTok war where the early you know what I mean, weeks of those war was like so very online and now we're in this what I'm calling edgelord diplomacy, like this total kind of like cutesy memes, videos over this like overlaid over something incredibly serious.

If that was the first TikTok war, this is one of the first true internet blackout wars. We've had so little connectivity to what's been going on on the ground that it gives the Iranian regime power to control the message to put propaganda out as they wish. And so that's a key difference between what happened in Ukraine and Russia and what's happening here. In Ukraine and Russia, they did limit access to American social media. You'll recall they blocked Instagram and other platforms.

What's the difference between, you know, letters dropping over Germany right or German like and this this era where there's this dispersement of meme and meme culture. How do people in military circles um how have they been looking at these videos?

I mean, I think there's a sense of amusement because there's always a sense of black humor, but I think the difference is geography.

So then what's the point? Like I just if why for Iranians what's the point of like

Communicating in the way that Donald Trump likes to communicate. It's answering back in his own language. They're using his own sort of memeified way of, you know, posting pictures of himself as Jesus, which he ultimately pulled down. But you know, the communicating in that sort of uh language it not only seems natural, but it's also a way to sort of skewer him back.

Mm-hmm. One of the things I think I said would uh BBC interviewed some people who are reportedly made these videos and they said we wanted to show we're not like in a cave somewhere. We are fully involved in the sort of modern culture and and that they were trying to somehow show that.

I mean they are more so now because the internet blackouts have been improving. There have been more people coming online. And I also think they want to showcase that they're not rudimentary when it comes to how they as a country and people communicate about this war. We assume that in America, given how online we are.

I have to ask one more thing, Becca, because I have you here and we often talk about Pete Hegseth, the defence secretary, what he's up to. And over the weekend he was in uh Normandy. uh and he was marking the D Day anniversary and people are talking about his speech because he started to talk about Actually I'm gonna play it for you so you can hear. Again, this is supposed to be Memorial D Day. Here is what the defense secretary had to say.

Sadly, today, different European beaches are stormed by different dangerous ideologies. When will European capitals do something about that invasion? Or is it too late? I pray not and I believe not.

So is he like under orders to always talk domestic sort of ideology in these contexts?

I don't know about that, but let me tell you what I do know. That moment was not for politics. That was a moment for remembrance. That was to remember those who gave the biggest sacrifice. So that we in America and those in Europe could be free. And that was also a moment in that speech for remembrance that Secretary Heggseth gave in front of the very few members of the greatest generation that are left.

Um, anybody else? What's going on there with Heg Sat talking about it? I thought it was weird to talk invasion or use language that like, I don't know, Nazis would have used about people invading the homeland. It felt like a sort of dissonance there.

Clearly a dissonance, and again, as Becca said, I mean, there is a time and a place for politics. However, I mean if you look at all the cabinet secretaries, I feel like Hegseth is the one that is reflecting. reflexive reflective of Trump the most. I mean this is I mean that is a Trump ideology right there saying that, you know, d you injecting politics into an arena where politics may not be appropriate. I mean that's something that the president does all the time. I mean that

So like a Rubio or something.

Right. I mean that is someone that knows that the president is always watching.

Okay. Becca, thank you as always. I love having um your insights. The rest of you guys stick around. Next on CNN this morning we're gonna talk about how six days after the election the reality TV villain Hoping to be the hero for LA, could Spencer Pratt's bid for mayor be crumbling? And later on CNN, Tim Cook's legacy is on the line. Can he get Apple back in on the AI race before he leaves the company?

Okay, it's been almost a week. Votes are still being counted in LA. Nithya Raman now pulling ahead of former reality TV star Spencer Pratt in the Los Angeles mayoral race. Raman, an LA City Council member, gained about 3,000. More votes than Pratt on Sunday. The two are fighting to see who will face off against incumbent Mayor Karen Bass in November. In a contentious interview that Trump abruptly ended with NBC's Meet the Press, he continued to falsely claim fraud in California elections.

Oh it's looking look at what's happening.

Yeah.

It's

Doing well.

In California it's no they're not there. They're dropping fast because it's a rigged election. Let me tell you, it's four days and they aren't even close You know why they're doing that? Because they're cheating on the election.

What do you have evidence?

And I listen and I listen to people and let's see what happens.

Group chat is back. Why did he get so upset about this in particular?

Well he's being challenged on something i uh uh misinformation that he's spreading. But the president has been on this for some time. He has counted he has pointed to particularly California's notoriously slow system. of counting votes, particularly because they allow mail-in ballots that are postmarked on or before election day. That's his

Let me just take it out one more time. They allow mail in ballots that have been posted on election day. So these are people who at least got their They put it in the mail on that day, but because they arrived later,

And they wait until it's not a little bit more. full week after election day. So as of tomorrow will be the cutoff for their arrival. But yes, yes. They they allow for basically a full week sort of grace period for these ballots to show up and 80% of California uses mail in balloting. So it's a lot of of ballots that have to come in and that get processed.

But I just wanted to underscore that because what Trump is saying is very much reflected in the media ecosystem where there are people who are like, look, in this silence, we're going to fill it with the allegation that California is rigging the vote.

Yep, and news organizations have always struggled with how do we handle those types of comments because you don't want to inadvertently elevate somebody undermining an election before the results come in because you are inadvertently amplifying what could be missing.

Do you think that's what happened with Pratt? I mean uh there's so much reporting'cause it's like, oh reality, oh this, oh, he did better than he ever thought he could. But LA is like twenty percent Republican and he had Trump's backing.

It's a great question. I think that people just got overly excited about the fact that somebody novel is breaking through, but I don't think anybody was preemptively saying that he won the election. And that these elections were rigged because Spencer Pratt happened to be doing well. I think the president's comments are taking it a step further than sort of the Pratosphere was.

I the Pratosphere.

Oh my God.

How did we get through all these months without using that phrase? Um, I wanna ask about one more thing. There was a rally, Graham Platner on Sunday. He's fresh off of beating back these allegations of toxic relationships that was reported in the New York Times. And um there was still an enthusiastic crowd there, a reminder that he's someone who fundamentally was put forward, not through the party. Um I wanna play for you a clip. For instance, he was talking about um the war and endless wars.

War is not about money. War is not about political power. War is about suffering. It is about pain. It is about violence. It is about death. And it is awful. One of the reasons I want to go to the United States Senate is I want to be a strong voice to stand up against war.

So is this the kind of message that's resonating in Maine? Is it his the way he's talking about the economy, or is it really Democrats there not liking Susan Collins? What do you account for him being able to ride through some of these scandals?

I think it's a bit of all of the above. I think that he is a unique and dynamic character that has burst onto the scene. He was able to drive out uh former governor Janet Mills, who was sort of the Washington preferred candidate.

said is still on the ballot.

Correct.

It's still a possibility for people to vote.

for those around her have certainly reminded people in Maine that tomorrow when they can vote, they can still vote for her.

She hasn't come out. She hasn't been like, hey, surprise rally.

Amen.

No, has not. And and I think it's important though to watch what that percentage is because I think how much Janet Mills wins in this primary could be very telling about the challenge that Grant Plattiner faces in trying to reunite the Democratic Party as it heads into an incredibly contentious.

Yeah. Okay. Um we're gonna do group chats now. Uh in part because Sungman, your group chat somehow still has politics in it. Yes.

It's funny. We are actually talking about it.

Okay, we'll decide that.

Well, so up in Alaska, which I really want I really want to do like on the ground reporting there, but basically there's

Cheers, everybody!

As is everyone else. But there is, so the incumbent there is Republican Senator Dan Sullivan. But now, mysteriously, there is a second. Dan Sullivan running in that race, which has really infuriated the current Senator Dan Sullivan. He's accusing Democrats of trickery and putting this candidate up to running in that race. Democrats deny it.

Yeah, an initial, nothing to help anybody.

One is a J and one is an S. See I can't even remember which one is which.

Sorry to the voters out in Alaska. Okay, group chat from you, Sarah.

So there was a New York Post report out that Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey are going to get married in Madison Square Garden. Is that true? Is it a decoy to throw people off from what they're wishing?

New York's Chamber of Commerce.

Probably because that would draw so much attention. U reportedly, you know, a thousand guests. Whether or not this is true, it's in my group chat because when you see huge, huge celebrities like this, they typically want to go out into more private spaces. They're not leaning in to big venues like

Although Dualipa getting a lot of pushback in Italy from people there for it's Italy, right? Right.

That was the whole thing with Jeff Bezos when we were in Sanchez, you know, sucking all the oxygen out of the room. We'll see how it goes down.

Would they get married in secret?

I mean possibly. I w we don't really know. She's famous for being able to pull one on uh over on all of us.

Can I ask one quick question? I know it's the start of the week. We're all getting our assignments from our editors. What are you working on?

I mean I just got back from Monaco. I was there for F1 Grand Prix. Okay. And you might be wondering like why is a media reporter there? It's because all of the big deal makers in media, technology, and business are flocking to these lifestyle sports.

What about the war?

Not mentioned, which is fascinating because F1 in Monaco, it's all happening on these big yachts which depend heavily on crude oil, which is being stuck in the Hirmu Strait right now. There's not a mention of it. It's like it didn't even happen. And it's fascinating though because this is a place of global commerce at this point. Every big major bank and technology firm, media outlet, they're all there with their executives, and it's like the war doesn't even exist.

Yeah, yeah. Okay. What about you? What are you working on?

I mean there are serious questions about national intelligence debates in Washington this week, so which is what gonna be a large part of what I'm gonna be following. Obviously, the president's appointment of Bill Poulty as his acting uh director of national intelligence is causing serious problems on Capitol Hill. about the reauthorization of these critical ne uh surveillance programs which expires Friday.

On the hill are you like what are you reporting on?

I think the president is just really trying to keep pulti. away from Senate Republicans because Republicans are mad about this. So we're really gonna be following first of all who the president's gonna nominate permanently once Poulti's done with that job, but also the impact on what's happening on the Hill with president because as we know Trump and Congressional Republicans have not been getting along.

Yes, but I would say on a morning like this, uh the people who are in charge of our intelligence communities, there's going to be more questions, not fewer questions. And for you, what is in your reporter's notebook?

It's still primary season, baby. Uh a Maine that's coming up tomorrow. Um there's gonna be more on the horizon. Colorado's one that I'm keeping a close eye on, which people aren't really talking about yet. The governor's primary there, Senator Michael Bennett's trying to become governor, can he actually pull this off?

Yeah. And of course we will be uh keeping an eye out on the president's moves if only because he's supposed to make appearance in New York.

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