The content discusses the escalating tensions surrounding Iran's internal crackdown on protests, the international response, and the potential for U.S. military action, highlighting a perceived shift in the U.S. president's stance from strong warnings to a more cautious approach.
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We begin tonight with Iranian authorities closing their airspace for several hours this evening and
the world waiting for what, if anything, might come next. The airspace reopened just before
airtime, but take a look. This is what the skies over Iran looked like also as of a few
moments ago. As you can see, air traffic is going north and south of the country, not over it. Now,
a number of Western countries have also advised citizens to leave Iran using, as Spain's
government put it today, any available means. Additionally, some personnel at the US air base in
Qatar have been urged to leave, according to a US official who spoke to CNN earlier. Also tonight,
a warning from Iran and a chilling assessment from its hardline regime of its crackdown on disscent,
which has now taken upwards of 2400 lives. That's according to a US-based human rights group. The
full number may not be known. Here's what Iran's foreign minister told Fox News's Brett Bayer.
My message is do not repeat the same mistake that you did in June. You know, if you if you try a
failed experience, you will get the same result. Well, the foreign minister is talking about the
strikes on his country's nuclear sites, which Iran claims did not significantly set back their
effort. The President Trump uh says otherwise, obviously. And here's what the foreign minister
said about his government's bloody repression of the biggest uprising since the revolution that
swept Islamic hardliners into power in 1979. After 3 days of terrorist uh terrorist operation, now
there is a calm, we are in full control. Whether that's true or not, graphic evidence has certainly
emerged showing what the regime has been doing to try and regain control. Images like these,
the dead in body bags overflowing morgs lined up row after row outside. Amnesty International,
which analyzed video and photos, from 10 Iranian cities, including Thrron, said today that quote,
"Mass unlawful killings, in their words, are being committed on what it calls a quote unprecedented
scale," which, as you know, the president has repeatedly suggested could trigger an
American military response. On Iran, have they crossed your red line yet to a trigger? Well,
no, they're starting to, it looks like, and there seem to be some people killed that aren't supposed
to be killed. These are violent, if you call them leaders, I don't know if they're leaders or just
they they rule through violence, but we're looking at it very seriously. The military
is looking at it and uh we're looking at some very strong options. We'll make a determination. That
was Sunday night. By yesterday morning, he was on social media saying, quote,
"Iranian patriots keep protesting and telling them in all caps, help is on the way." Now,
he repeated those words on camera later that afternoon. To all Iranian patriots,
keep protesting. Take over your institutions if possible and save the name of the killers
and the abusers that are abusing you. You're being very badly abused. I say save their names because
they'll pay a very big price. And I've canceled all meetings with the Iranian officials until
the senseless killing of protesters stops. And all I say to them is help is on its way.
The president also said the United States would take quote very strong action if the regime hanged
a 26-year-old protester named Sultani. Tonight in that interview on Fox, Iran's foreign minister
said there will be no hanging in his words today or tomorrow. As for the president, he signaled as
much this afternoon appeared to back away from any red lines. We have uh been notified and and pretty
strongly, but we'll find out what that all means. But uh we've been told that the killing uh in Iran
is stopping and it's stopped. It's stopping and there's no plan for executions or ex an execution
or executions. So I've been told that a good authority will find out about it. I'm sure if
uh happens we'll all be very upset, including you will be very upset. But that's just gotten to me
some information that the killing has stopped, that the uh executions have stopped. They're
not going to have an execution, which a lot of people were talking about for the last couple of
days. Today was going to be the day of execution. Well, that said, when pressed, he declined to take
military action off the table, saying instead he would quote, "Watch and see what the process is."
We start tonight with Caitlyn Collins, CNN's chief White House correspondent and the anchor of the
source. So, is it clear where the president stands tonight on possible military action,
why he seemed so confident that the Iranian regime won't execute protesters? Not really,
Anderson. And that moment was from when we had first gotten in the Oval Office. The president
gave us that update on Iran. Later, when he was taking questions from reporters, I asked
him who it was that relayed that information to him that the killings have stopped there because
obviously there's been a major blackout, a huge internet outage there. We we really haven't been
able to get a ton of reliable information out of what's happening on the ground in Iran. We've seen
snippets of it. The president never disclosed who told him that the killing had stopped. He
said it was from a a source with information. He made the reference that it was coming from
Iran. And obviously the question is is raised by that that if it is the Iranian regime whether or
not the president can trust them given they have been um historically incredibly unreliable and and
have lied outright about a lot of the things that they're doing. And so we know what we've seen on
the ground. We've seen these images of the body bags that have already been out there. And just
to be clear on where the president's line on this was over the last two weeks, Anderson, it
wasn't if there are executions for people who have been demonstrating and protesting that then the US
would get militarily involved. The president had already said about 12 days ago that if Iran was
using lethal force and killing these protesters that he said the US military would intervene. That
was a threat that he repeated multiple times. something that we know that has happened given
we've seen the body bags that have been on the streets. And so that already in and of itself has
changed. And so the question was how the president would respond, what that would look like. There's
not a lot of military buildup in the area like there was last summer during those strikes. And
so right now it's just not clear Anderson on what this next step is going to be and whether or not
the president was looking for an off-ramp with those comments that he made to us today. Yeah,
Kaitlin Collins, thanks very much. Uh Kaitlin will be back obviously at the top of the hour with
the source. Joining me now is John Bolton, former national security adviser during President Trump's
first term. He also served as US ambassador to the UN under President George W. Bush. Um,
Ambassador, how do you read what the president is now saying versus what he has been saying? Well,
I think that's the sound of uh Donald Trump walking backward. That that doesn't necessarily
indicate what he's going to do. I think this is this is Trump saying one thing one day and
another thing the next day. There there's no doubt that there were mass murders. uh of of protesting
civilians on Saturday and Sunday night and the the figure of 2,00 2,500 dead I think will turn
out tragically to be very low 10,000 15,000 when you get reports from all over the country it was
bad now the number killed on Monday and Tuesday night uh was much lower because people were not
going out in many of the places that western uh journalists and others can identify because
they didn't want to get killed so it doesn't mean that the conduct of the regime has gotten better.
It means people stayed indoors. Uh but I think without some American action uh to to underline
what Trump has previously said, uh if we basically do nothing, I think it will be a blow to his
credibility because he did draw red lines and the regime did cross them and as of right this moment,
we haven't done anything in response. Yeah. Yeah, I mean to Calin's point, he had said, you know,
if you're killing people in the streets, that was one kind of red line and then suddenly it
became executions essentially. I mean, they have been executing people in the streets,
um the security services as as as we know, as you said, we don't know the the full number,
but whether it's execution by hanging, as was going to be the case in in Mr. Sultani,
uh by by all reports, um or whether they're being slaughtered in the streets, it's still
executions. Sure. But it's Trump looking for the off-ramp. Yeah. To what extent do you think has
the president backed himself into a corner with those vows on social media, you know, telling
Iranian protesters to keep doing what they're doing to try to take to get into the streets, to
keep protesting. Yeah. Look, the famous Obama red line in Syria was if I see them moving chemical
weapons around, uh, we're going to do something about it. And he didn't to to our detriment. And
I think the same thing applies here. Look, it it is true and and I think acknowledged almost
universally at this point that the regime is at the weakest point it's been since it came
to power in the revolution in 1979 for a variety of reasons. the economic reasons we see manifest
in these protests. But because of uh disscent by the youth, ethnic conflict, the women who
uh staged massive protest over two years ago after the murder of Masiamini, uh the the regime is uh
deeply unpopular. It's thoroughly corrupt inside. This is a moment when we could have regime change.
I think the US could assist that in multiple ways, which we're not doing. uh and if we miss it this
time uh there may not be another occasion until the supreme leader uh dies and and they have to
find a new supreme leader and in the meantime uh Iran will continue its nuclear weapons program
continue its support for international terrorism and continue repressing the people of Iran. What
do you think the US options would be militarily or you know through intelligence means or or or other
means in terms of trying to get about regime change? Right. Well, I think first you have
to decide on your objective and and my objective would be regime change. So, what I would look for
would be strikes at least uh the opening strikes that would impair the power of the regime to
repress the Iranian people and that would instill in the people the feeling that at least the United
States is prepared to do something to help them. So, that would seem to me after clearing away
whatever air defenses Iran uh may have uh to to safeguard any any uh planes we're going to be
sending in, I would go after headquarters for the Revolutionary Guard and their besieging militia
uh who are really the thugs killing most of the people in the streets. I'd go after their bases
and facilities and I' we'd be very discriminate in how we tried to do that. Uh, I would go I
would go again after the nuclear program, the ballistic missile production program. I'd go
after the Iranian Navy. I'd say to the regime, "We are going to take you apart piece by piece.
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