to the Iran war, and this week has seen a return to active fighting. US bases in Jordan, Kuwait, and the UAE, Bahrain, and Iraq have all been targeted since just Tuesday. Just yesterday, the United States conducted its own multi-faceted operation that involved striking nearly 60 military targets around the Strait of Hormuz.
Those targets included Iranian air defense and communication sites, radar systems, and its mine-laying capabilities. At the same time, US naval forces were escorting ships through that danger. We've described what is happening in the Middle East since February as a war because that's what it is: armed conflict between two nations.
But the United States government has still not officially declared it one, which matters. It matters to the family of the late US Air Force Major John Alex Clinner, who was killed in an aircraft crash over Iraq back in March. This week, his widow, Libby, shared on social media that her family was not eligible for some benefits because, she says, the US hasn't officially declared this a war. In the briefing room today at the White House, I asked the Vice President JD Vance about what the Trump administration will do to ensure that his wife and their three young children get the benefits they deserve.
The widow of an airman who was killed in the Iran war says she's having trouble getting some of the benefits that they should have access to because it has not been officially declared a war. Can you and the president personally ensure that the family of Alex Clinner gets all the benefits that they deserve given he died serving the country?
Yeah, so what's her name? You said his name is Alex Clinner?
Yeah, he was an airman who was killed in the plane that went down over Western Iraq.
So what I'd say, Caitlyn, is please, especially if you have the private contact information, we will reach out to her directly as soon as this is over and make sure that she gets what she's entitled to. Obviously, our heart breaks for every single person who lost their lives in this operation, and as much as our heart breaks, I can't possibly fathom what a young widow is feeling and dealing with. And so we want to be as helpful as we can and ensure she gets everything that she's entitled to. So we will certainly work that on the back end as soon as that. And my message to her would be: we love you, we're grateful for the sacrifice, and we very much take very seriously our commitment to get you what you need to get.
Tonight, a spokesperson for the Air Force tells CNN that officials spoke with Mrs. Klenner on Monday, quote, 'to ensure that she is receiving all eligible benefits that she and her family are entitled to, as well as to ensure all her questions are fully addressed.' Department of the Air Force officials have also confirmed that all eligible combat theater benefits were included in the arrears of pay she has already received. The spokesperson says the Air Force is committed to providing continued support for Mrs. Klenner and all the families of the airmen who died in that March crash.
In the briefing room today, back there, when I followed up with the vice president about the timeline of this war overall with Iran, he actually contested even calling it a war.
In terms of the war and the timeline, given this administration has put timelines out there before, what you just said about no negotiations happening with Iran, will this war be over by the time of the midterm elections?
Well, Caitlan, again, I wouldn't call it a war. Right now there is no active shooting. I recognize there have been places where this has flared up. Major combat operations again, major combat operations lasted for about six weeks, and since then we destroyed, of course, their nuclear facilities with Midnight Hammer. With Epic Fury, we destroyed their defense industrial base for producing weapons and also a lot of their conventional military, and then we made it harder for them to rebuild that nuclear program. But when you ask when will this end, you're asking me a question like when will the Iranians stop shooting at ships? I think the reality is I don't know the answer to that question. You would have to ask the Iranians. When will the Iranians shooting at ships stop having an effect on world energy markets? And the answer is it has less effect day by day. So what we're going to do is not depend on the Iranians behaving responsibly or negotiating in good faith. What we're going to do is use the tools that we have at our disposal to ensure that the American people, one, never have to deal with the threat of an Iranian nuclear program, and two, that world energy markets are properly supplied.
But so it's up to the Iranians when this war ends?
Well, if the Iranians keep on, but Caitlyn, if the Iranians keep on shooting at commercial ships, again, we have, I think, a responsibility, but certainly we're the only ones with the capability to ensure that the Iranians are not destroying world energy markets. And our attitude is we're not going to set an artificial timeline. Because let's just say hypothetically, let's say I told you three months. Say I told you three days, okay? And then the Iranians start blowing up oil and gas ships, and the United States is the only country with the capability to ensure that those oil and gas ships get to market. Well, what I would say is it would be irresponsible for us to write out our strategy and our timeline for an Iranian nation that simply cannot honor its commitments and cannot stop shooting at commercial ships.
Now, Vice President Pence may not want to call this a war, but at nearly the same time that he was saying that to me in the briefing room, the president was saying this in an interview that was airing on British television.
Now we have a war with Iran. We've defeated their Navy. We've defeated their Air Force. We've defeated them. Their leaders are gone. Their everything is gone, just about. You know, we just hit them again last night and we took out their radar.
My congressional source tonight is the co-chair of the Problem Solvers Caucus, New York Democratic Congressman Tom Suozzi. And sir, I mean, obviously when it comes to this, do you believe it matters if the administration describes this as a war or not?
I mean, it's really irresponsible. I mean, there are people dying. There are bombs being fired. Everybody's life is being upended. We see what the effects here domestically with oil prices going up so dramatically, gas prices at the pump. It's just irresponsible. This is serious business. This is life and death business. And the problem I have with all these, you know, we hear these rumors about we may not have enough munitions. We're losing senior personnel at the Pentagon. This is really serious stuff, and nobody's talking to each other. The administration is not reaching out to Congress and working with Congress to advise them what's going on, to help work together with some of the greatest minds in the country that know this stuff pretty darn well, to work together to actually address the very real problems we're facing in our world.
You know, but you're a Democrat who works with a lot of Republicans. I mean, hence by the name of being the co-chair of the Problem Solvers Caucus. Do you think that Congress though has just totally abdicated its role in the Iran war?
I think that the Republicans have not done enough to hold the president accountable. I think the Democrats want to work with the administration to try and figure out a way to get us out of this war. I mean, you know, when this first happened, I'm of a certain age. I first voted for the first time in 1980 and, you know, the Iran hostage crisis. And I was like, yeah, we know these guys are bad. These are bad guys. We got to get these guys. And, you know, they've been saying death to America all these years. And that was my emotional reaction. But I'm a member of Congress. So I go to a briefing and I listen to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Secretary of State and different military leaders. And it's like, hey, but what's the plan? Do we really have a plan here? Doesn't sound like we have a plan. And then we hear about the Straits of Hormuz and it's like, wow, shouldn't we have thought of that before? And it's just been no plan. And then the president, you know, attacks our allies because they won't team up with us. You're supposed to talk to your allies before this and work together. This is serious, sophisticated life and death world issues that require people to work together. Not semantics, you know, I wouldn't call it a war with the vice president. I mean, that's just irresponsible. This is...
Judging by what you heard today, do you think this war will be over by the midterm elections?
No. No. I mean, there's probably a great desire by this administration, unfortunately, because they want to try and do something in time for the elections. They want to try and affect the gasoline prices, but that's no way to conduct international relations. And it should really be, you know, I grew up at a time when people said politics have to stop at the water's edge. And to do that, you have to communicate with each other. You have to figure out this is our shared goals to work together. Not my way or the highway, I'm going to shove it down your throat. And we need people to work this, we need people to work together to make our world safer, to build relationships with our allies, to defeat our strategic adversaries.
Well, and your party is trying to make the case that you guys should be in power in November. And you wrote in an op-ed this week saying that you believe your party should reject the rise of the Democratic Socialist candidates that we've seen. But we have seen the rise because Democrats are voting for them. So, I mean, is this not what it's the will of the Democratic voters who are saying that these are the candidates we want to have?
Well, that's happening in the deep blue states. I mean, the same as you see MAGA Freedom Caucus people in deep red areas, you're seeing the rise of the DSA on the deep blue areas. And the reality is that the status quo is not working. People are not happy. And the president when he first ran tapped into that anger that people have. And Zohran Mamdani in New York City tapped into people's economic anxiety. And they say they both have the same sort of message, which is the system's not working for you. Let's blow the whole thing up. The leftists want to get rid of capitalism. The president doesn't think democracy works and just wants a strong chief executive without talking to the Congress or the Supreme Court. So, these two great systems of capitalism and democracy are under threat from the far left and the far right. That's not the answer. I'm not defending the status quo. The status quo is broken. We have problems in the United States of America, but we need to work together as we have throughout our history to fix those problems, to address the real problems in people's lives. When we don't do that, we end up with these extreme voices taking over the conversation in our country, which is what has happened.
If there are Democratic Socialists in your caucus, if Democrats retake the majority, can you work with them?
Listen, I say every day I'll work with anybody. I say I'll work with the president. I'll work with Republicans. I'll certainly work with Democrats. I'll work with anybody who is a person of good will who wants to actually solve problems and make people's lives better. And that's what everybody in politics should be doing. It shouldn't be about your party or your label. It should be about what can we do to make people's lives better, make people's lives more affordable because people are freaking out right now about how expensive everything is in their lives, whether they go to the gas pump or the grocery store. And the policies of this administration. There's five things that are making prices higher that everybody knows are part of this administration. Tariffs, everybody knows it's tariffs are making things more expensive. That's this administration's policy. The war, everybody knows that's this administration's policy. It's making gas prices higher. The debt, the debt is causing higher interest rates. That's just the reality of the situation. Energy prices, health insurance, all directly related to policies of this administration that said they would reduce prices on day one.
Congressman Tom Suozzi, thank you as always for joining us tonight. Appreciate your time. Also joining us tonight is the Republican who is running for governor of California. That's Steve Hilton. And thank you, sir, for being here. When it comes to what we heard from the briefing room today, do you think your voters, people in California, care whether or not it's called a war?
No, I think you got it exactly right, Caitlyn, which is the important point is what actually happens in the real world. And if the labeling of what's going on denies someone the benefits they're entitled to, then that's a problem. And you raised it and it looks like it's going to be fixed. I think that's what matters, what happens in the real world. But I just want to say I completely agree with what the congressman just said, which is that people want problems solved. They want people to work together. That's my attitude in this race and will be as governor. I probably will be working with a Democrat, strongly Democratic legislature, but I would just add one thing to his list of things that are driving up costs across the country. Here in California, it's the Democrat policies that have given us the highest cost of living, highest housing costs, highest gas prices, electric bills, and so on in the country. And that's what I'm fighting to change.
Well, gas prices are obviously extra high in California. That is in part because of California's policies, but they are high because of the war in and of itself. And you know, when the month before the war started in California, I think it was $4.64. Now it's $5.78. But when you hear from the briefing room today, I mean, do you believe that's Democratic policies in California that drove that price up or is it the war with Iran?
Well, even with the war, you're completely right. It's elevated prices across the country, across the world. But you can find gas prices today in other states, in Arizona just across the border. Actually, California produced oil sold just across the border for $2 less than you buy it here. So while it's correct that the war has elevated prices, and of course we want to see that come down, even without that happening, there's a lot we can do here to lessen the pain, especially on working people and small businesses who are really suffering as a result of these high energy costs, not just gas, but electric bills as well.
There's also another issue that is playing in a lot of races, but also something you've talked about a lot in your campaign, which is AI data centers and the backlash that we've seen growing to them across the United States. This is what the vice president said today when he was questioned about the polls that show seven in 10 Americans don't want an AI data center in their community.
And I've seen the same polls that you're talking about, that the political backlash over data centers, a very large chunk of it, not all of it, of course, but a very large chunk of it is that people associate data centers with my neighborhood's going to get worse, in particular, my power bills are going to go up.
You've said that data centers are essential. Do you think that there should be federal guidelines on this so that all states are working on the same playing field?
No, I think we've got far too much federal guidelines and policies and regulations on everything. The whole, you know, the 10th Amendment of the Constitution is very clear that things that aren't in the Constitution should be decided at the state level, and that's the genius of our country, that you can try different approaches. The problem we have here in California, we're leading the AI revolution. All of this is generated from within our state, and I strongly support that. It's an iconic and important industry right now, basically keeping our budget afloat. The problem is the jobs that are associated with this leading AI revolution from California, they're all being created in other states, in Texas, in Arizona, Ohio, everywhere but here, because we've made it so expensive to build anything, to run a business. That's what I want to change. One last point, Caitlyn, on this. I made an announcement yesterday in the spirit of what the congressman was talking about. We just saw in San Francisco the very first instance anyone can track of a human being being fired entirely by AI in a store, in a retail store in San Francisco that's run by AI. I just think that's completely unacceptable. We can't have that kind of dehumanization of the workforce. And actually, on this, I found myself in agreement with a union leader here in California and against the Chamber of Commerce. I think that we've got to be really careful. We want to lead the technology and AI revolution, but we can't be led by it.
You're agreeing with a lot of Democrats in the last five minutes. Let me ask you...
I know I'm going to get in trouble.
We moderated your debate, obviously, as you when you were running for governor, and everybody was on that stage. The president is taking credit for you being on the ballot this November. I have to ask you about something he told Battleground Republicans who are running for House and Senate seats last night at the White House.
And I'm really going to be in particular interested in Congress and the Senate. I love you governors, but good luck, you know. If you happen to be in the audience, we'll give you a shout out.
Do you want the president to come and campaign for you? Doesn't sound like he's offering.
Well, I'm not sure they see my race on the target list to be honest. Look, as I've said before, I appreciate the endorsement. It's an honor for me as a new American citizen to be endorsed by the president. I think it's a useful thing to have a governor who's got a good working relationship with the administration rather than what we have now, which is this very antagonistic relationship. Gavin Newsom and the attorney general constantly fighting and suing the administration. I think that's not helpful for California, but I think that, you know, in this race, we're already closing the gap with my Democrat opponent. We're going to keep going in that direction with a very clear message about how we're going to cut your taxes, lower gas, make our state Califordable. That's what's going to do it for us here in California, I think.
Yeah. Well, let's say the fight goes back and forth between the federal government and California. Steve Hilton, thank you for joining us here on The Source tonight.
Thank you. Great to be with you.
And up next, we are following breaking news because there's a rare loss for Republicans tonight as Missouri's Supreme Court has just blocked that state's new congressional map two months from the midterms, and President Trump is not happy. We're going to have a legal source weigh in right after this.
Hey, I'm Anderson Cooper. On my podcast All There Is, we explore grief and loss in all its complexities. My guest is Lil Jon. He's a rapper, DJ, and producer known for hits like Get Low and Turn Down for What. In February 2026, his 27-year-old son Nathan went missing near Nathan's home in Georgia. Three days later, his body was found in a pond nearby. Lil Jon has a memoir that just came out called I Only Shout So You Can Hear Me.
It takes time to heal and I kept myself busy that I didn't let myself mourn. I needed to laugh again. I needed to be silly and interact with people and feel other people's energy and make people happy too. We have to share so other people can see that they can get through it too.
Talking grief, building community. That's what the podcast is all about. This is All There Is. Listen and follow wherever you get your podcast.
I'm Dr. Sanjay Gupta, host of the Chasing Life podcast. You may have noticed gambling doesn't require a casino anymore. You can just open up your phone. It's designed to keep us coming back or maybe never even leaving in the first place. We're going to talk to Dr. Timothy Fong, co-director of UCLA's Gambling Studies Program. You're going to learn what your brain is really chasing when you place a bet and also importantly, how to keep the game from playing you.
Gambling addiction, gambling disorder is the hidden addiction. You can't smell it, you can't taste it, you can't see it, you can't have a urine drug test.
Who are we talking about here, Professor? Who's the most likely demographic to be affected by this?
