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Graham Platner's Chance to Win the Maine Senate Race; Strikes in Lebanon After Trump has Heated Call with Netanyahu; Newark Mayor Ras Baraka Calls for Closure of Delaney Hall ICE Facility; Florida Accuses OpenAI CEO of Utter Disregard for Risk to Humans. Aired 9:30- 10a ET

Aired June 02, 2026 - 09:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[09:30:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, Maine Senate hopeful Graham Platner headed to Washington meet with Democrats who are backing him after new revelations that he had sent sexually explicit text messages to multiple women after he was married. That story came out in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal on Saturday. So how has his position in this main Senate race, not for the primary so much next week, but for the general election in November? How is that position change?

CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten is here. So what's new for Graham Platner lately?

HARRY ENTEN, CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Yes, I mean, look, there have been a lot of revelations about Graham Platner as this campaign has gone on from tattoos to sexually explicit text. But this one might be different. And the reason I say that is take a look here.

Google searches for Graham Platner remain up significantly over the past few days. We're talking about up 275 percent in the last three days versus the three month average. And more than that, more people search for him on Sunday in Maine than at any point that I could find, even given the past revelations about the tattoos as well. So it seems to me that this time may in fact be different where Mainers focus on Graham Platner is higher.

BERMAN: This is interesting because people might say, oh, there have been so many scandals. They're inoculated to it. Nothing new to see here. This might indicate otherwise.

ENTEN: This might indicate otherwise. More people searching for him on Sunday than ever before. And the search is way up versus the --

BERMAN: OK, how are the prediction markets changed?

ENTEN: Yes, OK, so one of our first glimpses into how this might affect Platner's electoral fortunes is from the prediction market. So you can see this right here in the Kalshi prediction market chance to win the main Senate race. Now, of course, there's still that Democratic primary that Graham Platner is heavily favored to win. So we have Dems, Republicans, the likely Republican nominee, of course, being Susan Collins, the incumbent.

You go back, you go back, you know, May 22nd was about 10 days ago. Democrats had a 70 percent chance. That's essentially Platner at a 70 percent chance of winning the general election. Now that number has fallen. It's fallen rather significantly.

Look, he is still the favorite according to prediction markets, a 59 percent chance, but you're basically going from about a seven in 10 shot to about a six in 10 shot. This is now a race that if you were projecting it out, I would say would be with well within the margin of error. I dare say too close to call, although Platner still favored, but his chances have gone down significantly and Collins have gone up.

BERMAN: In part of the reason this number here will make Democrats in Maine nervous, I think is because of the incumbent Susan Collins her history. She's been very resilient despite being seen as vulnerable for decades.

ENTEN: Despite being seen as vulnerable for decades. What she was first elected back, I believe in 1996. But if you look at the last three times that she has run. Take a look at the polls underestimate Collins of Maine. In 2008, the polls underestimated her by eight points. 2014 the same thing. The polls underestimated her by 12 points.

In 2020, the polls estimated her by 12 points. Oh my goodness gracious and she was down about 10 points before any of the revelations came out this weekend, which according to the past polling years, she would be well positioned to make it quite the race. And if in fact the prediction and the Google searches suggest that this race will, in fact, tighten. Well, then Graham Platner's lead may very well be lower than the past errors that have, in fact, allowed Susan Collins to win like they did in 2020 when she was trailing the pre-election polling.

[09:35:00]

BERMAN: It was always going to be difficult for Democrats to take the Senate in this election. But really, any path to taking the Senate goes through Maine. So what are we seeing about the chances of taking the Senate right now?

ENTEN: Yes, if you take a look, the chance of getting the Senate right now, look back, you go back two months ago, it was about a 50/50 split, right? Now, Republicans, again, it's close, but Republicans are now slightly favored to take back the Senate, no doubt, in part because of what is going on in Maine, which just makes that path, which is already difficult, a little bit more treacherous.

BERMAN: This feels like a Platner tax right now in those overall stances to take the Senate. Harry Enten, thank you very much.

ENTEN: Thank you, my friend.

BERMAN: We got a lot of news this morning. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, new this morning, new video from southern Lebanon. Smoke rising from an Israeli strike there. Overnight, the Israeli military and Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah exchanged fresh strikes. Israel's campaign against Hezbollah has threatened peace talks between the U.S. and Iran. And it led to President Trump yesterday, speaking to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Sources tell CNN that call became really heated with lots of expletives as Trump pressed the Israeli leader to scale back plans for an operation in Lebanon.

CNN's Alayna Treene is at the White House. What are you learning about this? This phone call has piqued people's interest for sure. as the president is trying to get some sort of peace deal done with Tehran.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: No, absolutely. I mean, essentially, Sara, we were told that it is a very tense phone call that took place between these two leaders, with President Trump essentially telling Netanyahu to back off with his plans for Israel to strike that Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut.

Now, of course, I will tell you that this has always been a very tenuous part of this entire negotiation. The Iranians really do view having the fighting between Israel and Lebanon ceased as a core part to whatever is going to happen with this Memorandum of Understanding that we know the president is working very hard on trying to finalize with the Iranians.

And really, what Netanyahu was proposing, having Israel go in and expand in Lebanon, that clearly hit the wrong note with the Iranians who threatened to completely stop and halt negotiations with Washington in order to have that be worked out first. They said essentially, we're not going to continue with negotiations if Israel moved forward with those attacks.

Well, President Donald Trump picked up the phone and we're told he was very frustrated. He was very angry with Netanyahu. He had, you know, a string of curses that he used in this phone call to describe that he was not happy with he was doing in his view was really something that threatened to upend negotiations at a critical point.

Now, I'd remind you, Sara, that this is not the first time we have heard about a very tense phone call between these two leaders. I asked the president a couple days, maybe a week or so ago, of whether he believed Netanyahu would be willing to end the war when he was, because at this point, we've seen that Israel and the United States have a bit of a diverging paths here in how they see this going. The president essentially said he'll do whatever he tells him to do.

Clearly, you could see Trump trying to communicate that yesterday, saying that there was a little glitch today, but he turned it around and that he expects a potential deal with Iran to be reached over the next week. So we'll see whether or not they'll actually be able to get there, Sara.

SIDNER: And whether or not Netanyahu complies with what Trump is asking. All right, Alayna Treene, thank you so much -- Kate. KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: So just a short time ago, we brought you to a press conference by officials in Newark, New Jersey. The mayor of Newark now promising new legal action over the ICE detention facility that has been the site of protests for days. The city now threatening to expand its lawsuit against the operators of that facility called Delaney Hall.

The mayor making clear that the goal for him is to get that facility shut down as he calls the conditions and treatment of detainees inside inhumane. We've been bringing you also reports for days now of the sometimes violent clashes between protesters and federal agents outside of the facility. Many arrests have been made.

Newark's Mayor Ras Baraka put in place a nightly curfew to try and calm things down over this weekend. That nightly curfew remains in place and fresh off that press conference, Mayor Baraka joins us now. Mayor, thank you so much for jumping on.

We saw the we saw some of your announcement in your press conference just a short time ago. You're making a new push to shut down this facility. How is this time this expanding of the lawsuit, how is this going to be different this time?

RAS BARAKA, (D) MAYOR, NEWARK, NEW JERSEY: Well, the first time we were our argument was based on the code enforcement. You see, our inability to have access to the facility. You know, saying that some of the conditions may be inoperable and it should be shut down because they didn't go through the normal procedures. Right now, we have a letter from detainees that speaks specifically and outlines some of the conditions there. So we actually have plaintiffs.

[09:45:00]

We have, you know, the health department from the state and our health department demanded access and was denied access to these facilities. So we're expanding it now on the health and human conditions that are in there. And we believe that it should be shut down because we have actual irrefutable evidence now that the place is uninhabitable.

BOLDUAN: I'm going to take this in two parts. Let's start with the goal of shutting it down. Tom Homan, the White House borders czar, he spoke out late last night and he said it is not going to close. He seemed very confident of that. Let me play this for you, Mayor.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM HOMAN, BORDER CZAR: That facility isn't going anywhere. We're going to enforce your law. We're going to detain people and remove people. Matter of fact, a lot of people in that facility, we couldn't release because they're mandatory detained by federal statute, so we couldn't release them if we even wanted to. But we're not going to release any of them. Everybody in that facility I have ascertained is legally being detained.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: And Mayor, how do you respond to that?

BARAKA: Well, you know, they don't have the jurisdiction to keep the place open or even close it down. It's not a federal facility, which is why we're going after the GEO Group. They don't have federal jurisdiction and no federal employees there. All they have is a contract with a private prison firm to house detainees, which is why we are going after GEO because they are the proprietors, they are the owners of this property, and they are subject to local and state law.

They're shielding themselves under this contract, but we are asking Judge Semper and imploring him to enact the law as it would any other facility in the state of New Jersey. So Homan really has no authority to determine whether that facility stays open or not. The only thing that he's in charge of is the contract that they have with them.

BOLDUAN: Homan also said that he met with you and other officials last week and that he also went back to Delaney Hall this weekend for an unannounced visit. He said to check out the allegations of inhumane conditions and the reports of an ongoing hunger strike among detainees and Homan says he sat and ate with detainees and had the same food as they do in the cafeteria. Let me play what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOMAN: I made sure my tray equaled their tray. I had spaghetti and meat sauce. I had beans. I had green beans. I had bread and rolls. I had drinks. I had dessert. The food was good. It's all a false premise. There was never a hunger strike.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: He says there was never a hunger strike. And you say?

BARAKA: Yes, I don't know how he could determine that, but I was out here with Senator Andy Kim, with Congresswoman Analilia Mejia, McIver, Menendez, and their characterization of what's going on inside of that facility is markedly different than what he said, which at least sparks our ability to go inside and inspect. And I'm sure that Homan's visit is different than normal day-to-day procedures that take place in this facility. You know, when the VIPs come, I'm sure they get VIP treatment.

BOLDUAN: A lot of questions still remaining, a lot still in dispute around this facility. Mayor Ras Baraka, thank you very much for coming in from Newark, New Jersey. Let's see where this now goes -- John.

BERMAN: All right, Florida launches a first-of-its-kind lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging its chatbot poses a danger to children.

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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: This morning, OpenAI facing a lawsuit brought by the state of Florida, really the first of its kind, saying ChatGPT is dangerous for children, helps mass shooters and encourages suicide. With us now CNN's Hadas Gold, who covers all things AI. So what's

unique about this? What's going on here? What does it mean?

HADAS GOLD, CNN AI CORRESPONDENT: This is the first time that a state has brought a civil lawsuit, not just against OpenAI, but against OpenAI CEO Sam Altman personally. And what Florida is alleging here, they say that ChatGPT was marketed as family friendly, as safe for everyone, when actually they accuse OpenAI of knowing that ChatGPT was dangerous and prioritizing what they called profit over safety.

They go through a litany of accusations here. They say that OpenAI knew ChatGPT was unsafe for children, that it helped mass shooters, encourages suicide, has caused public humiliation, that it addicts minors to a tool that they say has very little to no parental oversight and that it causes minors to lose what they called critical thinking skills. Essentially all of the criticisms we've heard about ChatGPT about AI chat bots they've put into this lawsuit that's really alleging negligence and product liability.

Take a listen to the Florida Attorney General.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES UTHMEIER, FLORIDA ATTORNEY GENERAL: Sam Altman and ChatGPT have chosen the AI race over the safety and security of our kids. They have chosen profit over public safety and we're not going to stand for it here in Florida.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GOLD: So I do want to get to what open AI has said in response to this, and they say that they believe minors do need significant protection, which is why they have put in place what they call industry leading protections and policies. In particular they say, they've built safety for minors directly into our products, including a more protective experience specifically for minors, an age prediction tool, and defaulting users whose age we are not confident into our more protective experience, and giving parents the tools to monitor their kids use of AI.

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But in this lawsuit, Florida is saying that those tools don't actually do enough. Don't give parents enough insight to what their children are doing. Don't alert parents to when there might be concerning behavior. And they say that there's not really good age gating on these tools.

This is really interesting because Florida has set itself apart in terms of how aggressive they're willing to go against these AI companies, specifically OpenAI. Because if you remember back in April, Florida and the same Attorney General launched the first ever criminal investigation into an AI company. They accused ChatGPT of essentially aiding and abetting the man accused of that mass shooting at Florida State University last year, killed two injured six. And the Florida Attorney General said if ChatGPT had been a human being on the other end of that screen, they would have been criminally charges.

And so it's really interesting to see how Florida is deciding to go the route of lawsuits versus government regulation, because there's a bit of a tension between the federal government has tried to prevent states from issuing their own rules and regulations over AI. So instead, Florida, it's going through the courts to try and get something done.

BERMAN: Any legal decision that we get on these issues going forward will really be precedent setting.

GOLD: And they definitely are.

BERMAN: And we're just all looking for signs about which way it's going. Hadas Gold, great job explaining all that. Thank you very much.

BOLDUAN: Thank you, Hadas, and thank you all so much for joining This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL. "THE SITUATION ROOM" is up next.

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