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Trump Taps a Leader of His Retribution Effort as National Intelligence Director; Graham Platner Meeting with Democratic Senators Today; Trump Signs Executive Order Asking for Access to new AI Models. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired June 02, 2026 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: ... He has been overseeing the Federal Housing Finance Agency. He's played a huge role in pressing for federal investigations into some of President Trump's perceived political rivals. We're joined now by CNN National Security Analyst and former Deputy Director of National Intelligence, Beth Sanner.

A very good person to talk about this, indeed, considering your former role here. This is an unusual pick by sort of, I think, any estimation here. What does it mean to have someone without intel experience taking over as DNI?

BETH SANNER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes, I was trying to think about what an equivalent of this would be, and I think it would be like putting me in charge of his job because I own a house and I have a mortgage, because that's about the amount of connection that would have. I can run an organization, but I literally know nothing about the housing market and how to do things. The intelligence community is arcane, it's complicated, and it matters, not just being able to figure out that spreadsheet, but what do you do and why are you doing it?

And someone that comes in will be just like, I don't even know how to begin to explain what it is that they would be looking at and how to make a decision, but that's not why he's there.

KEILAR: Well, Lynn, let's talk about that in a second, but the importance of why a person should be there, the origin story of the DNI, because of 9-11, I mean, this culminating event that has touched all of our lives so much, that it was a cautionary tale, right? That's why we have the DNI.

SANNER: Completely, right? So 9-11 was about agencies, individual agencies having information and not having the capacity or the interest or the mechanisms to share that information.

And so ODNI came out of that to solve that problem. So that's why my organization was called Mission Integration. It was literally about how do we connect and raise all boats among the 17 other agencies?

It's a complicated system. How do we get them to work together, to share information, to fill gaps, to identify gaps, to put budget where there are problems? And here we are in a situation in the United States where I would say our threat environment is quite high, right?

We have Iran threatening us. I mean, yes, it's below the radar, but that's exactly the space that this works in. And we have the resurgence of the threat of a caliphate in Africa.

I mean, there are real threats and we have a shifting of resources in FBI, even in CIA. But just because those organizations work well individually doesn't mean that that combination of things. And this is where the problem is going to come.

And to me, Pulte is a divisive figure. CIA might not want to share information with somebody that has no background. Already ODNI wasn't getting along with FBI because under Tulsi Gabbard, they wanted access to a database that was about counterintelligence, but that had all Americans' information in it, which is not what the foreign intelligence should do.

And FBI said, no.

KEILAR: So this concern you're raising about him -- Republicans, we have to be clear, it's not just Democrats who are. A lot of Republicans are raising questions about this pick. Democratic Senator Chris Coons said this about Bill Pulte as the pick for acting DNI.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHRIS COON (D-DE): He is wildly unqualified. He has no previous experience. The only thing that might qualify him in the eyes of Donald Trump is his enthusiasm for going after his perceived political enemies, something he has done in his role as the head of the mortgage financing agencies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: So if he used FHA as, you know, you see this like marriage with the retribution campaign. Now he's going to DNI. What are the concerns about how DNI, intel, could be used as part of that retribution campaign?

SANNER: Right, I mean, you know, the whole idea that came out of the 1970s, the Church committee, was that the foreign intelligence part of the U.S. government should never have access to US citizens' data. This is what the fight about 702 and bulk data collection is about, to put guardrails there. Because Senator Church himself said, we have walked up to the abyss and we have seen the power of the federal government and what could be done by intelligence agencies to prevent anyone who stood up against the government from being -- and they would be discovered and they would be, you know, sidelined.

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So, you know, we don't want -- we decided in the 70s as a country, we didn't want our foreign intelligence to be involved in domestic things. And this is why Tulsi Gabbard going to Georgia is so important and so wrong. She did not have authorities to do that. And so, you know, when we call Antifa or, you know, people who are

standing up against ICE and identify them as Antifa, and they're declared as a foreign terrorist organization, that gives then some place like NCTC the right to go after U.S. citizens.

KEILAR: National Counterterrorism Center.

SANNER: National Counterterrorism Center. So we need to make sure that there is oversight here and that we keep the ODNI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in their lane and focused on real threats that we have as a nation and not let them go and do the retribution mission. And so there's a danger from not doing that, which is that we have threats going unaddressed and there's a danger for the retribution, which is an invasion, potentially, I'm not saying it's going to happen, but of U.S. citizens.

KEILAR: Yes, and look, if they're supposed to be watching threats, you have to keep your eye on the ball.

SANNER: And this is how 9-11 happened and we need to have that focus.

KEILAR: Beth Sanner, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

Still to come, fallout growing around Senate candidate Graham Platner in Maine, with one candidate who suspended her campaign now telling voters, no, she's still in the race.

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BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Now to the Democratic dilemma over Graham Platner, the party's likely nominee for U.S. Senate in Maine. A source says the controversial candidate is supposed to meet with Democratic senators today in D.C. just days after reports that he was sexting other women in the early days of his marriage. The firestorm is now prompting calls for his former Democratic rival, Governor Janet Mills, to get back in the race with a primary just a week away.

Remember, Mills suspended her campaign in late April because of a lack of money. On Monday, she told the Portland Press that she, quote, simply suspended active campaigning and that her name is still on the ballot.

Now, Platner's supporters are not retreating though. Here's Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders just a short time ago.

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SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): That Republican super PACs controlled by the wealthiest people in this country are spending a hundred -- plan to spend $100 million in a very small state like Maine. Extraordinary amount of money. Now why do the richest people in this country want to defeat Graham Platner?

That should tell you everything you need to know because he doesn't stand up for working people. Is he a saint? I guess not. I don't know too many saints here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Let's discuss with CNN chief political analyst, David Axelrod, a senior advisor in the Obama administration. David, thanks so much for being with us. You heard Senator Sanders there brushing off questions around Platner's character.

On one hand, he checks a lot of boxes that appeal to groups that Democrats want to grow among. Right, he's a white rugged man presenting himself as working class. He obviously comes with some baggage and Democrats have spent years attacking not just President Trump, but other Republicans for lacking moral character.

So I wonder what you make of his candidacy more broadly.

DAVID AXELROD, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Look, I think there are concerns. This main seat is going to be really important in determining who controls the United States Senate after November and I think for that reason and other reasons, there's a great deal of concern about, you know, how many bricks can the load take. There were previous stories that were concerning about him.

That said, he has made a -- you know, he was 30 points ahead of the governor of the sitting governor, a popular governor among Democrats when she suspended her campaign and he was for a reason, Boris, because there is a great deal of jaundice about the status quo, about a system that a lot of people feel is rigged against them as they struggle in this economy and Graham Platner really spoke to those people as he moved aggressively around that state. And so it becomes -- and there is a -- you know, the feeling there is Senator Collins, the governor herself, are part of that system, not people who are going to change that system.

That is what propelled his candidacy. So it becomes sort of a question of personal character versus public character and what people value and whether they're thinking about their own lives or his life and he has to go out and not just resolve these questions but resolve the question of how people are going to weigh all of that in the end. So, you know, I think it -- but there's no doubt I think these are, the stories we're concerning and the handling of the story over the weekend I thought was less than optimal and this, you know, so we don't know how this is all going to work out.

SANCHEZ: How would you have handled that story coming out differently?

AXELROD: Well, I don't think I would attack the media for reporting the story and I wouldn't have attacked the woman. A former aide did an interview and disclosed the presence of these sex.

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She had quit, former legislator in the state, I think well-regarded and he basically called her a liar. Even though the day before his wife had essentially acknowledged that there were problems, that she had confided in this woman, she was disappointed that she had disclosed them. And the dispute seems to be about how many of these messages he sent to how many women, not over whether they were sent or not. So you're just extending the story and inviting people to continue to explore the story.

Just acknowledge, you know, he's acknowledged in the past some of these other things. He's not a perfect person for sure and in this case, I think, I'm not sure that I would have advised the sort of victimization of myself as part of this story.

SANCHEZ: We actually just got sound from Minority Leader Chuck Schumer being asked about Graham Platner. Here was his response.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY), MINORITY LEADER: Him, right here, Senator.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On Graham Platner. Are you satisfied with explanation he's given for the controversies his campaign is faced right now? Are you concerned about what we've heard?

SCHUMER: I met with Graham Platner today. We're going to beat Susan Collins and take back the Senate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you satisfied? So you're saying that Janet Mills, your preferred candidate, has been rambling that she should get back in. You're standing behind Graham Platner, are you serious?

SCHUMER: We're going to beat Susan Collins and take back the Senate.

Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When Schumer does -- Democratic get behind Graham Platner. Is that perfect credibility against attacking Ken Paxton?

SCHUMER: We're going to take back, we're going to beat Susan Collins and take back the Senate. Any other subject you got? Any other subject?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: Schumer exhibiting real discipline there.

AXELROD: It feels like he had a plan there, Boris.

SANCHEZ: Yes, yes. But it's interesting that he responded that way in part because, as you alluded to before, part of the controversy around Platner had to do with this Nazi tattoo, one that he had covered up and he tried to explain, one that he still had for 18 years. And you're talking about one of the most prominent Jewish members of Congress, someone who wrote a book about antisemitism that I think was published last year. So it's interesting that the Senate minority leader didn't want to get into that aspect of things.

It seems like he agreed with whatever Platner told him in private.

AXELROD: Well, look, I don't know what happened in private, but Senator Schumer had concerns from the beginning. He wants to win that seat. He persuaded the governor to run for that seat.

And so it seems to me like he's sort of saying, let's see how this all works out. And he wasn't going to commit to a path here. He didn't condemn Platner. He didn't defend Platner. And I think that means TBD.

But I'll say this, if the governor was hinting that people should vote for her and not Platner, it's kind of a flawed strategy, I think, because she's not going to beat him in a primary.

She may actually incentivize his supporters and she may just weaken him as a candidate. But if there are further developments, I think you're going to see some very, very overt moves to try and get him to leave the race. I think there are a lot of pages to be turned on this story.

But just getting back to the first point, there is a lot of frustration in the state with Senator Collins because she has been seen as sort of straddling the line, accommodating -- in one focus group that I heard about, someone said, you know, she's bipartisan when it doesn't count. In other words, that she is a performative bipartisan, but when the key things happen, she's not there. And she's been there for a very long time, which is a plus because she knows the state and she knows everyone, and a minus because long-term incumbency is not a great advantage in an environment when people are very upset with the system.

SANCHEZ: Yes, it is going to be a fascinating race. David Axelrod, thanks so much.

AXELROD: Good to see you, Boris.

SANCHEZ: Of course -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Just into CNN, President Trump has signed an executive order asking for access to new AI models before they launch. The order comes as powerful models like Anthropic's Mythos have raised security concerns both on Wall Street and within the government. So let's get right to CNN's AI correspondent, Hadas Gold.

Hadass, what are you learning about this?

HADAS GOLD, CNN AI CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Brianna, this was the executive order that was supposed to be signed just about two weeks ago. It was postponed at the very last minute because President Trump said that he was worried it would get in the way of AI development. It was postponed so much so at the last minute that I was told by sources there was at least one executive for an AI company who was literally on their way to the White House on the train when this got postponed and had to turn around.

[14:50:00]

But the main point of this new executive order that instead of a big ceremony was signed privately by President Trump at the White House today is that it asks AI companies who are working on these really advanced frontier models to give the government early access to these models up to 30 days before they're released to others. And that's because, as you noted, some of these models are so good when it comes to cybersecurity that it could be like having a million hackers who are the best working 24-7 with you.

And so the government needs to have access to these models to help prepare critical infrastructure and critical industries. What's interesting is that there's a difference between the draft executive order that I saw according to sources just a few weeks ago and the one that was released today, and that's the time period.

This current executive order asks these companies to give these models to the government 30 days before. The earlier draft I saw asked for a 90-day pre-release period. That's forever in the AI world. So it is notable that that leans more towards what the industry wanted, and now it's just 30 days instead of those 90 days.

But what's important is this is one of the first steps we've seen from the Trump administration taking a more active role in, I wouldn't call it regulating AI because they were very clear in this executive order that nothing about this is mandatory, but you are seeing them sort of tiptoe into the regulation of AI -- Brianna.

KEILAR: And Hadas, Florida's attorney general filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging the company and its CEO, Sam Altman, that they knew ChatGPT is unsafe, especially for kids. Tell us about this.

GOLD: Yes, this is actually the first ever civil lawsuit that a state has filed against OpenAI, and actually its CEO, Sam Altman, personally. And what the Florida attorney general is alleging, they say that ChatGPT was presented as a safe, family-friendly chatbot, but that OpenAI actually knew that ChatGPT was dangerous and that they prioritized profits over safety. They say that they went through a litany of accusations.

Everything we've heard about these chatbots, including that they have helped mass shooters, that it encouraged suicides, that it gets minors addicted to a tool without proper controls. Take a listen to what the Florida attorney general said about this lawsuit just yesterday.

(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: And OpenAI has said, in response to this lawsuit, that they have built safety for minors directly into our products, including a more protective experience specifically for minors, an age prediction tool, defaulting users whose age we are not confident into our more protective experience, and giving parents tools to monitor their kids' use of AI.

What's interesting is this civil lawsuit builds on the first ever criminal investigation that Florida launched into OpenAI just this April. That was into whether ChatGPT essentially aided and abetted the man who was accused of that mass shooting at Florida State University last year that killed two and injured six, because the Florida attorney general said that if the person on the other side of that screen had been a human instead of ChatGPT, they would have been criminally charged for helping the shooter carry out that attack -- Brianna.

KEILAR: All right, Hadas Gold, thank you so much. Still to come, a new search for a missing mother after investigators find inconsistencies in her husband's statements to police and his location data.

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SANCHEZ: A new search for an American woman who disappeared off the shores of the Bahamas could begin any day. Lynette Hooker went missing in April after sailing with her husband near the Abaco Islands. He says that Hooker fell off an eight-foot dinghy in rough waters while they were traveling back to their yacht.

Officials, though, say they found several inconsistencies in his statements to police. Let's go to CNN national correspondent, Dianne Gallagher. Diane, tell us more about the search and the concerns that investigators have.

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so Boris, this new search for Lynette Hooker could begin imminently. The Royal Bahamas Police Force has given permission to the U.S. Coast Guard to send divers to an area in the Sea of Abaco, which envelopes Elbow Key. That's where Brian Hooker said they were sailing to.

Now, this is according to a U.S. official who is familiar with the investigation. This comes after CNN reported that investigators found those inconsistencies between Brian Hooker's location data and statements that he made to investigators about where to search for his missing wife. Now, you may remember that Brian Hooker reported Lynette missing on April 5th, telling authorities that she had fallen overboard from the couple's eight-foot dinghy around 7:30 p.m. the night before when they were sailing to their yacht in rough waters. He said that she was wearing the kill switch, so the dinghy lost power, and then he floated and paddled for about eight hours before washing ashore just a few miles across the water the next morning in Marsh Harbor. Now, Lynette's family and her daughter, they said the entire time that story didn't really add up to them. Lynette was a skilled sailor and swimmer, but within days, the Coast Guard had opened a criminal investigation.

Brian Hooker was arrested and questioned for several days, but he was released and has never been charged with anything. He has continued to deny any wrongdoing in connection with his wife's disappearance.

SANCHEZ: Dianne Gallagher, thank you so much for the update there -- Brianna. KEILAR: Now to some of the other headlines that we're watching. New data shows U.S. job openings hitting their highest level in nearly two years. The latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey shows the number of available jobs jumped to an estimated 7.62 million positions at the end of April. The data could indicate the U.S. labor market is not only ...

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