Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Six States Count Votes From Tuesday's Primary Elections; Why Trump Picked Acting Intel Chief With No Intel Experience; U.S. And Iran Exchange Biggest Strikes In Weeks Amid Ceasefire. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired June 03, 2026 - 07:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:32:40]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, primaries in six states across the country.

They're still counting out in California, but we have some results from Iowa that are pretty interesting and revealing. This is the governor's primary there where the Republican candidate endorsed by President Trump, Randy Feenstra, conceded. He didn't win. He lost to Zach Lahn, a farmer and businessman. This is really a first. Zach Lahn, I should say.

This is one of the first times that we've seen this -- one of the candidates the president endorses losing -- and it's happening in a very interesting state, Iowa.

With us now CNN chief political analyst David Axelrod, former senior adviser to Barack Obama. And for those of us old enough to remember, OK, Iowa was a state that Obama won twice. Iowa was a state that was super important for Barack Obama in the primaries.

DAVID AXELROD, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST, FORMER SENIOR ADVISER TO PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: And a president, arguably, won the Iowa caucus. So he spent a lot of time in Iowa.

BERMAN: You know a little bit --

AXELROD: Yes.

BERMAN: -- about Iowa is what I'm getting to here.

AXELROD: Yeah.

BERMAN: So what does it tell you that here we have a candidate the president endorsed that didn't win?

AXELROD: Yeah. I mean, I don't want to read too much into it but, you know, his name has been magic everywhere else. And I think it reflects a little bit of what Iowans are going through now. Iowa is probably a state that's been hit harder by the tariffs, harder by the war. They've been really -- it's been really hard on the farm economy -- soybean, corn -- and not being able to be sold. Now the cost of fuel, the cost of fertilizer. And it has really hit the Iowa economy hard.

So Trump is not trading well there. He won the state by 13 last time. He is underwater in polling now. And not only does this have implications for a primary endorsement but also for a general election. There's a -- both a Senate race and a governor's race in Iowa this year that may well be affected by this.

BERMAN: I was going to say let's talk about the Senate race here. This was seen as a potentially close race.

AXELROD: Yeah.

BERMAN: Josh Turek, state senator, Paralympic athlete beat Zach Wahls. Endorsed by more progressives as Wahls was. This is seen as sort of the more of the mainstream Democrat running there.

Do Democrats have a chance because as we've said, Iowa has been drifting red?

AXELROD: Yeah, no. Look, if I were to pick an upset special for 2026, this would be -- this would be the race.

[07:35:03]

Turek is a really interesting candidate. He's been in a wheelchair all his life. He campaigns in a wheelchair. Wheels up to people's porch and climbs up with his wheelchair, and that's how he goes door-to- door.

But more than that he is from the western part of the state in a district that Trump carried twice. He is -- he knows how to campaign in reddish areas of the state.

And I think the combination of that and the fact that his opponent -- a good candidate, Ashley Hinson, who is a congresswoman from the eastern part of the state -- yes, there. She won her primary yesterday.

But she has tied herself very closely to the president and said she wants to be his top ally in the Senate. I'm not sure that Iowans are going to necessarily want their candidate -- their senator to be his to ally in the Senate. She spoke up for the tariffs. Not well received.

BERMAN: All right. We'll look out to California if we can here and switch to the governor's race there which received so much attention.

AXELROD: Yeah.

BERMAN: And right now -- again, Steve Hilton, who is the Republican, in the lead. Xavier Becerra in second. Tom Steyer in third. The key, of course, in California, is the top two people in this election -- in this primary election that advance to November. The other key is that only 56 percent or 58 percent --

AXELROD: Yeah. BERMAN: -- counted.

The chance that Tom Steyer leaps one or both, I suppose --

AXELROD: Yes.

BERMAN: -- of these people here.

But what is this on its face tell you?

AXELROD: Well, what it tells me is it is unlikely that Steve Hilton will grow in terms of his percentage once these additional votes come in because Democrats -- there was a flood of Democratic voting late.

BERMAN: Um-hum.

AXELROD: A lot of ambivalence about the choice among Democrats and it broke late. And those are the ballots that will be counted last. In California, if your ballot arrives within a week, it can be -- they can be counted. So you can expect the Democrats to gain --

BERMAN: Um-hum.

AXELROD: -- from that and Hilton to lose.

So one thing that isn't going to happen that was a fear was that there -- among Democrats was that there'd be two Republicans. When Trump endorsed Steve Hilton, I think he ended that question. But, you know, a Trump endorsement in a primary comes with a little bit of a risk in a general election in a state like California, which is overwhelmingly Democratic. And so I think it's likely that he will be paired with a Democrat. It's very likely that Democrat will win.

But there's some -- you know, Tom Steyer is a billionaire who spent almost a quarter of billion dollars on the race. It helps -- he was flaying billionaires. But it helps to flay billionaires when you're a billionaire and you can pay for all those ads to flay billionaires.

BERMAN: Whatever happens he's going to be OK after this election.

AXELROD: Yeah, I think so. No (INAUDIBLE).

BERMAN: Just very quickly give us a second to load. We can see where the results are right now in mayor's race in Los Angeles. You can see Karen Bass ahead. We project she will move on to the runoff --

AXELROD: Yes.

BERMAN: -- in November. Who comes in second is still TBD. Now, Spencer Pratt is a Republican here. Nithya Raman is a Democrat here.

To a certain extent, what do you think Karen Bass wants more? Would she rather face the Republican Spencer Pratt, or would she race face a progressive Democrat?

AXELROD: Well look, I think she's well-positioned here because she is -- she can -- she is sort of a center-left and she can go both ways. But Pratt I think would be her preferred candidate. I think this was the best possible result for her because L.A. is an overwhelmingly Democratic town.

Pratt has gotten a lot of attention as a kind of human expression of rage and there's a lot of anger in L.A. about homelessness; about the way the fires were handled. He's not exactly a font of solutions. He's a, you know, former reality show bad guy. And I think -- I don't think time necessarily is going to be helpful to him.

So I think if she's rooting for candidate, she's probably --

BERMAN: Yeah.

AXELROD: -- rooting for him to survive.

BERMAN: It is interesting though even though more people voted against an incumbent mayor. That's not something you like to see as an incumbent but still, this may be the order she is most happy about.

AXELROD: Yes.

BERMAN: David Axelrod, great to see you this morning. Thank you very much.

AXELROD: Always good to see you, John.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you, gentlemen.

BERMAN: Kate.

BOLDUAN: Shall I move here? Yes, I shall.

Red flags and a whole lot of head-scratching going on right now in Washington over the president's new pick to be acting director of national intelligence.

Now, Republicans and Democrats alike are truly asking where is Bill Pulte's national security experience to make him fit to be the top intelligence adviser to the President of the United States? This morning they say they're still looking, and they still see none of it. And they're now worried on both sides of the aisle of what it will mean to have the man who has been at the forefront of Trump's retribution campaign moving into this important and sensitive role.

[07:40:00]

One source tells CNN that "Trump wanted a true loyalist" in the job. And another says that "Pulte is a move-fast-and-break-things kind of guy."

CNN's Alayna Treene tracking this one for us. A lot more to come but what are you hearing about this now from over there?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah. I think what's important is to keep in mind -- and we have some great reporting in the story I did with our colleagues Kristen Holmes and Jeremy Herb about why the president selected Pulte in the first place -- especially, of course, because he does have no demonstrated intelligence experience.

And part of that was because look, as soon as Gabbard announced that she would be leaving her role by the end of June, a lot of jockeying began behind the scenes. Some people going to the president, as they tend to do, getting in his ear and jockeying for this position saying, you know, you should really have someone with far more intelligence experience in this role.

But the argument that really won out with him was that he should have a loyalist in there, and that's exactly who Bill Pulte is. He is a very close ally of the president. He's shown in the past that he is willing to go there. That's actually a term one of the sources who is familiar with the president's decision used with me -- that Bill will "go there" unabashedly to do the president's bidding. And he has a direct line to Trump. They are -- you know, have a very good relationship.

And so that's really what went into this. And I think it's important as well to know that the president, under really his second term, he has reimagined the role of the director of national intelligence. He sees it as much less significant and less important than past presidents have.

I'd remind you that ODNI, the office which Bill Pulte will now be working out of -- it has typically been seen as one of the most important roles in all of government and overseas, 18 intelligence agencies that include the CIA, the FBI, the National Security Agency. But Trump sees it as less significant. Instead, he kind of puts all the intelligence -- he looks at all of the intelligence being under his CIA director John Ratcliffe.

And now he wants this role to be something that kind of goes after things like election security. And, you know, some people said they believe the Pulte will be able to move faster to declassify certain documents that the president wants and views as more politically advantageous.

But I do want you to listen because we have heard some backlash from Republicans as well on Capitol Hill -- and Republicans who are allies, I should say, of Trump. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN THUNE (R-SD): I'll defer to the chairman on that. We were just made aware of -- made aware of that appointment this morning. Obviously, it's something that if the administration decides to pursue a permanent appointment to that position it will have to come through the Congress and have confirmation hearings, and ultimately a vote here in the Senate.

SEN. TOM COTTON (R-AR): We have four more weeks with Director Gabbard as the DNI.

REPORTER: Pulte?

COTTON: I have no observations on the matter.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: And look, that is from, you know, Sen. Tom Cotton and Senate Majority Leader Tom Thune (sic), not people who are, you know, not behind the president or have supported him. So very interesting indeed.

And look, Pulte is going to be in an acting role from the conversations I've had with people here at the White House. It's unclear how long he will remain in that but definitely controversial and likely to cause some big moments down the line I think -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: I know one thing. I am now officially going to use Tom Cotton's line for everything. "I have no observations on the matter" will officially be what I say to everyone from husband to child to work alike. It's such a line and quite loaded.

It's great to see you. Thanks so much, Alayna -- Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Thank you so much.

Will -- when Bill Pulte takes the helm as the nation's spy chief, he'll be thrust into an ongoing feud between the CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Reuters is reporting the infighting has been going on for more than a year over turf, intelligence sharing, and who is responsible for what.

CNN senior national security analyst Juliette Kayyem joining us now. I mean, when you look at this, how bad is this for the safety of America when you have these two agencies squabbling with one another, arguing over who does what for whom when?

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST, FORMER ASSISTANT SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY (via Webex by Cisco): It's not good. And just to remind people, the ODNI, the director of national intelligence, was created in the post-9/11 restructuring of the federal government to align a number of intelligence agencies that were not sharing. So its sole purpose is to make everyone play well.

So when it's at war, as we've seen, against the CIA, it tells me two things. One is that the CIA is just basically doing what it wants to do, ignoring its responsibility to sort of play with the other intelligence agencies. The other -- and we're not talking about it enough -- is that clearly, Donald -- the president has favored that approach.

[07:45:00]

And no one -- in the last year all of us in the field have well known and it's obvious just from the pictures of where Tulsi Gabbard never was, right? She was never in the room in the Iran and Venezuela -- any of it. That the president preferred that approach, which was supporting John Ratcliffe is his efforts in Iran, Venezuela, maybe Mexico, possibly Cuba, and sort of sidelining the ODNI.

SIDNER: I do want to ask you about Pulte. It said that he is going to do both of his jobs. His job in finance in the --

KAYYEM: Yes.

SIDNER: -- housing department and the director of an intelligence agency.

Is this even possible?

KAYYEM: Yes.

SIDNER: Is this a dangerous idea?

KAYYEM: I mean, everything -- I do have observations and anything about this -- everything about this is dangerous.

First of all, what a slight to the memory of 9/11 and all those not who just perished that but our servicemembers who fought in the wars after, that as we come to the 25th anniversary of September 11 just after the summer, we are now looking at possibly Bill Pulte, who has absolutely no qualifications.

We don't have to caveat that. He has absolutely no qualifications to be the head of intelligence. His qualification is he's willing to use his authority to strike out against what Trump sees as his perceived enemies.

And you'll see online lots of people worried about the elections. Lots of people worried about the classifications of intelligence.

But to your point as well, the idea that the head of every single intelligence agency that are there to protect America, American citizens, and our servicemembers is going to do that while he, you know, determines, you know, who -- what mortgages he's going to release to the public to go after Trump's critics is absurd.

And it's just -- you know, sometimes we run out of words to say and I just -- I think part of this is just it is -- it is -- you know, embarrassment is one of them but it's also just it's such a slight to the men and women who serve this country now. Those who perished for this country. And, of course, for those who may suffer from the harms because you're putting Pulte at the head of this.

So those are my observations.

SIDNER: Yeah. You also have people saying you guys talked about DEI and the fact that you say that people are not qualified. And then you look at his qualifications, and you go I'm sorry, pot calling kettle black here? Like, what is happening? But you're also seeing some response from Congress -- from people in Congress on both sides of the aisle on this particular appointment.

We will see what happens here but there are a lot of people that are watching and worrying. Juliette Kayyem, thank you so much. I do appreciate it -- John.

BERMAN: All right, breaking just a short time ago, a brand-new interview between President Trump and the New York Post. The president said that in negotiations Iran has agreed they will not have a nuclear weapon. And he said the U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz could last until Labor Day.

Still overnight there was the most intense exchange of strikes since the truce began. The U.S. hit an Iranian military station. Iran fired missiles at Kuwait and Bahrain.

Let's get right to CNN's Paula Hancocks for really the latest on what was a really heated night.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, it really was. It was one of the most hectic nights that we have seen since this ceasefire was brought into being.

And what we saw in Kuwait was particularly devastating. Iran firing missiles and drones at Kuwait and Bahrain. They claim that they were trying to target an American helicopter and airbase, and also the U.S. Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain. But in Kuwait it actually hit the airport -- some of these strikes.

Now we understand from officials there that one person has been killed. Sixty-three have been injured. That's one of the highest injury counts of any Gulf Nation since the fighting began and we are technically in a ceasefire.

Now we saw there that the international terminal was heavily damaged. It was only reopened two days ago after a previous strike on the airport back in February. We know that flights and air access was suspended.

Now we also saw -- in the Strait of Hormuz we saw from U.S. Central Command. They said that they had struck a vessel that was trying to access an Iranian port, which was not complying with the U.S. blockade on the Strait of Hormuz. And in retaliation, Iran says that it targeted a ship as well.

So what we're seeing here is really one of the most busy nights of strikes Tuesday into Wednesday here local time since this ceasefire began -- John.

[07:50:00]

BERMAN: All right. It bears watching over the next 24 hours as well.

Paula Hancocks, thanks so much for that update. Appreciate it -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Former New York Congressman George Santos is under investigation again, this time for alleged insider trading on prediction market Kalshi. That's according to two CNN sources.

Yes, this is the same George Santos who was booted from Congress, convicted of fraud, and sentenced to seven years in prison. He served short of three months of that though. As you'll remember, President Trump commuted his sentence.

So here is what we know about the new investigation. Kalshi had a market asking whether Santos would be at Trump's State of the Union address. Santos publicly said he'd be there, but he didn't show -- did not show. Sources say an account belonging to Santos bet against him attending the address. Kalshi froze the account and has referred the matter to the Justice Department and federal commodities regulators.

CNN reached out to Santos but has not heard back. He told NPR that he was not aware of any insider trading investigation. CNN has also reached out to Kalshi and the DOJ. And a disclosure. CNN has a data partnership with Kalshi -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right. The highest layoffs since COVID. A brand new economic report showing the deep impact that AI is having on the job market.

Also, what in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is going on here? What we know about a group of people seen entering the New York City sewers multiple times. OK.

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:55:55]

BERMAN: All right. This morning a brand new report on AI's impact on jobs. AI driving the number of layoffs to the highest May total since 2020. This is according to one research firm.

Let's get right to CNN's Matt Egan for the latest on this. It doesn't sound good.

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yeah, John. Look, we had another wave of pink slips handed out in May and yes, the fingerprints of artificial intelligence were visible.

So this is coming to us from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas and they are reporting that during the month of May there were 97,000 announced layoffs. That is up only three percent from the same month last year but a 16 percent increase from April. And this is the highest May total, as you mentioned, since 2020 back when COVID had paralyzed the economy.

And when we look at the trend here you can see that there was this major spike last spring. Of course, that was when DOGE was aggressively slashing the federal workforce. Thankfully, it has come down since then. However, we do have three straight months of increases of announced layoffs and they are still elevated.

Now one thing to note is that this metric -- it measures announced layoffs. Economists put a lot more weight on actual claims for unemployment, and those actual claims are thankfully still very low. So that signals this job market is not collapsing by any stretch at all. However, there are a lot of announced layoffs. Now where are the coming? Well, pharmaceuticals and FinTech, about 5,000 to 6,000 each there. Transportation almost 7,000. But look at that last sector, technology -- almost 40,000. That is the most for the tech sector in any month since March of 2023. And that's notable because tech is adopting AI more aggressively than any other sector.

When we look at the reasons for layoffs during the month of May, AI was the leading reason for the third month in a row and for the year. Look at this. Almost 88,000 announced layoffs in 2026 because of artificial intelligence. That surpasses easily the entire total of 2025 even though we're only half -- not even halfway done with the year. So that's a pretty significant figure.

But look, there's a lot of debate here over the role of AI, right? We know some tech companies like Meta and Block -- they have said that AI is leading to layoffs. But Goldman Sachs says that the overall impact on the job market is quite limited at this point. And they note that some of the companies that are laying off workers because of AI -- they're actually hiring them in different places.

BERMAN: Yeah.

EGAN: So look, John, we don't know yet. It's too early to say how many jobs are going to be created and how many jobs are going to be killed because of AI, but this is clearly going to be one of, if not the leading force reshaping the job market.

BERMAN: And sometimes when you do have to have layoffs there's something of a cache of blaming it, in a way --

EGAN: Yeah.

BERMAN: -- on AI. It might make you more attractive to investors in some ways.

EGAN: Exactly.

BERMAN: Matt Egan, great to see you this morning.

EGAN: Thank you, John.

BERMAN: Thank you very much.

BOLDUAN: Hello, gentlemen.

BERMAN: Kate.

BOLDUAN: I'll take it now.

A bizarre mystery to tell you about unfolding under the streets of New York City. Surveillance video from an auto shop in Queens shows a group of people, as you can see right here, in the middle of the street opening a manhole and then going into the sewer in the middle of the night.

And apparently this is not an isolated incident. Security cameras have recorded at least three other -- three times groups of people going in or coming out of sewer tunnels through manholes in Brooklyn and Queen. Some of the people are seen wearing headlamps and carrying what appear to be shovels.

NYPD is investigating but is already saying no, they do not believe there is any threat to public safety. No arrests have been made.

And do you remember that hail storm -- J.B., stay right here -- that hail storm in Colorado that we talked about yesterday? Yes, this one where they were forced to use bobcats to, like, scoop up -- scoop it up and move the hail afterward. There was that much hail that it was that much of a big deal.

There's more to it now. It was also super dangerous. A flood was somehow disguised and hidden under a pile of this said hail. A woman drove into it and then was trapped in her car. An Aurora police officer waded through this knee-deep floodwater-hail mix to save her. The officer carried her out of the car and to safety. The police department says that the officer even gave her a ride home, which was very, very nice.