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Knicks Lead Series With Spurs 1-0, Game 2 In San Antonio Tonight; WSJ Reports Trump Wants Acting DNI Pick To Begin Process Of Firing Employees; Platner Accusations Forcing Democrats Into Tough Decision; New Video Shows Scale Of Fire Damage To USS Gerald Ford; Texas Student Charged With Murder Claims Self-Defense; Kennedy Center Orders Staff To Remove Trump's Name. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired June 05, 2026 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: And listen, if the Knicks were probably, weren't in the playoff, in the Finals, I'd probably, weren't in the playoff, in the Finals, I'd probably be rooting for San Antonio because I have a lot of connection to San Antonio and Texas, of course.

But this is exciting, right? This is such an exciting time in New York City. I mean, everywhere you go, there's a lot of nervous energy, but people are certainly very excited. We're standing in the middle of what's going to be the watch party. The watch party is back here tonight, where thousands have been gathering here outside Madison Square Garden, and they're setting up here.

But actually, Boris and Brianna, there's already someone here waiting. He's been out here now. George, when did you get out here?

GEORGE SULLIVAN, KNICKS FAN: Probably about 12:30, one o'clock.

PROKUPECZ: But the game's not until 8:30.

SULLIVAN: Right.

PROKUPECZ: Why was it important for you to be here so early?

SULLIVAN: Well, my dad always told me, he was a little kid when the Knicks won a championship, and he didn't remember it. So I want to be here for the next generation. I want to record everything in my head so I can tell the stories of this great run, and hopefully we go all the way, "Knicks in 4."

PROKUPECZ: Do you have a ticket for the game for Monday?

SULLIVAN: I don't, but if anybody wants to give me one, I'd really appreciate it.

PROKUPECZ: What would you do for a ticket?

SULLIVAN: Anything. Literally anything. You name it, I'll do it. PROKUPECZ: I mean, the ticket prices are ridiculous now, and so most fans who want to come, this is where they're going to have to come. They're going to have to come outside the Garden, and later tonight, that's what's going to happen. It's going to be thousands.

I mean, there's tens of thousands. It's Friday night here, too. If they win, it's going to be quite intense out here tonight.

For you guys, I don't know, though, but have fun.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": I'll be booing at home. Yeah, if they win, the series is kind of a lock.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": I just want George to have some good luck here.

SANCHEZ: Would he trade his bolo tie? That was a pretty sick bolo tie. I don't know if you saw it, but --

PROKUPECZ: Yeah.

KEILAR: Yeah.

SANCHEZ: Shimon?

PROKUPECZ: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I see it now.

(LAUGH)

SANCHEZ: Playing both sides.

KEILAR: Shimon, we love you, bud. No love lost here, OK?

(LAUGH)

PROKUPECZ: Love you, guys. Look at my nails. I even painted my nails. This way, I'm ready to go. I'm ready to go. Let's go.

KEILAR: We're going to have to smooth this -- we're going to smooth this over later. Shimon, wonderful report. Much adoration and respect --

PROKUPECZ: Thank you.

KEILAR: -- for you and your team. And a new hour of "CNN News Central" starts right now.

(LAUGH)

KEILAR: A green light to move fast and break things. President Trump telling his new pick to lead the intelligence community that he should fire large numbers of people. An alarming order for an office created after September 11th.

And mounting scandals. Democratic Senate candidate, Graham Platner facing some new allegations, and his party is facing a problem. The race could decide the balance of power in the Senate.

SANCHEZ: And a looming threat in Texas and beyond. A parasite that was once eradicated is now back with the potential to drive up already high beef prices. We're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to "CNN News Central."

Today, President Trump is spelling out the reasons why he picked Bill Pulte, a wealthy businessman with no national security experience, to be the new Acting Director of National Intelligence. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, the president said he wants Pulte to begin the process of firing a large number of employees.

KEILAR: President Trump telling the Journal today, quote, "I'd like to see it smaller. I think there are a lot of people in there that shouldn't be there." The president also told the newspaper that the DNI's office should, quote, "maybe even be terminated." We're joined now by Brian Schwartz. He's a White House Reporter for the Wall Street Journal who just interviewed President Trump.

Brian, tell us more about the president's thinking on this. And if he is concerned about what the stakes could be here in some of these firings.

BRIAN SCHWARTZ, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Well, look, guys, I don't think he's really thinking too deeply into the stakes. I think he's looking at the person that he selected for this job, Bill Pulte, now the acting head of this Office of National Intelligence, and thinking what he did at the Federal Housing Agency where he cut over 100 employees.

And he believes that he can take that same model and bring it right into that same pivotal office. And of course, as the Director of National Intelligence, he's overseeing, what, 18 or so agencies and different divisions that are for our intelligence gatherings. And the president made very clear to me that the message he gave to Bill Pulte was he believed it was time to winnow down that agency, and it was time to really start looking at further cuts to personnel.

And it's going to be really interesting to see how far Pulte is willing to go. But based on his track record that we at The Wall Street Journal have been covering extensively for almost two years, this is kind of his, Pulte's M.O. This is what he does, in part, over at the Federal Housing Agency itself.

SANCHEZ: When he was named, we were questioning how lawmakers on Capitol Hill would feel. You had more than a half-dozen Republican Senators expressing skepticism about a confirmation process. From your reporting, President Trump isn't even thinking about a confirmation process. He says that being acting director is a feature, not a bug.

SCHWARTZ: Yeah. Similar things that we've been wondering at The Journal ourselves. Why is he going with Pulte in this acting role? Well, it turns out, at least it seems like, that was by design. It was basically, you know, to put him in there so he can be unshackled.

[14:05:00] And so Congress will, of course, have oversight in a way over this, but there's not going to be some sort of confirmation battle over his actions or anything the president says that he expects him to do.

And of course, for the White House, for the president, for Pulte, that's a big bonus if they're going to go after people within the intelligence apparatus of the United States. And I think you're going to see a lot more outcry from the same Republicans on the Hill.

But I'll also point out, right before I came on here, Tom Cotton put out a social media post making it very clear, of course, you know how important he is in the intelligence world, especially in Trump's world, that he supports pretty much everything the president told us that he expects Bill Pulte to do. So it'll be fascinating to see where everybody lands on this on the Hill.

KEILAR: It's one thing to look at tightening things up, reducing bloat, increasing cooperation --

SCHWARTZ: Right.

KEILAR: -- and if that requires winnowing down, that's one thing. It's another thing though that the president sort of sees the intelligence community as playing host to the deep state and he's got to beef with them. So how much of that is playing into this? And does he see the utility of the intelligence community and the DNI in what it does to keep America safe?

SCHWARTZ: Well, I think it's kind of a little bit of both, right? He did tell me that he believes that there are people there who should not be there. And then he started talking about past administrations and the people in that office from those administrations, working in national intelligence, that they should not be there as well.

But I do think there's this kind of, there's a bit of him that is thinking about that kind of so-called deep state. That's still in his mind, something he really does believe in looking back into his past political career and how that so-called, you know, piece of the intelligence world may have impacted him in some way. And I think that's still in his mind greatly and that's partially maybe why he's bringing Pulte to handle this for now.

SANCHEZ: And he says he wants Pulte to release classified documents on an array of issues, including the 2020 election. And you asked him what kind of documents he should consider releasing. He said, I would say everything.

SCHWARTZ: Everything. Yeah. I went through a whole litany of different topics.

One of them, of course, is the election. I talked about -- I asked him about like anything around COVID-19. Remember this was something else that got brought up after he was president or questions around that, conspiratorial things around that.

And that led to him saying what you just said, I want him to declassify everything. And that's something else to really watch here. I mean, Tulsi Gabbard did that in a way, right? She did things around, I believe the 2016 election and the Mueller probe or things around that nature, or maybe the larger investigations into the president at that time.

And now, it appears the president wants Pulte to go much further than that.

KEILAR: Brian, really insightful interview. And thank you for joining us today. We appreciate it.

SCHWARTZ: Thank you.

KEILAR: We're turning now to new fallout for Democratic Senate candidate, Graham Platner. Hours from now, the presumptive nominee in Maine is set to make his first campaign appearance since he denied new allegations of some disturbing past behavior.

According to THE NEW YORK TIMES, six women who dated Platner are now speaking out, three of whom raised allegations of heavy drinking, infidelity, demeaning behavior, and in one account, physical intimidation.

SANCHEZ: Platner is set to return to the trail at a rally alongside California Congressman, Ro Khanna, who appears to be standing by his support. Khanna last night saying, quote, "The behavior described in The New York Times story was wrong and toxic. Graham has acknowledged that and sought redemption."

Platner also released this statement to CNN, quote, "Throughout this campaign, I've been open about what was a very dark period of my life where I struggled with undiagnosed PTSD, too often self-medicated with alcohol and was a far from perfect boyfriend. I take responsibility for all of that and wish I had been better. Any characterization beyond that is false and, I believe, politically motivated. I'm not proud of who I was then, but I am proud of the work I've done since and the movement we are building in Maine. "

We're joined now by the Deputy Editor of the Midcoast Villager newspaper in Maine, Alex Seitz-Wald. Alex, thank you so much for being with us. Obviously, Maine is a politically unique place. How are voters there reacting to this latest spate of allegations regarding Platner?

ALEX SEITZ-WALD, DEPUTY EDITOR, "MIDCOAST VILLAGER," NEWSPAPER IN MAINE: Well, Boris, what I'm hearing is that partisanship is a very powerful force in American politics. No surprise, but it's amazing to see it happening here. My newspaper, the Midcoast Villager in Camden, Maine, we have a cafe that's right beneath our newsroom where I'm talking to you from right now.

And every Friday morning, we have open office hours where the public can come and talk to editors, pitch stories, complain about a headline. And this morning, I was down there and of course, this came up. We had four women, so I wanted their take. All four of them left leaning. They read the coverage. They don't think it's fake. They believe it. They found his behavior gross as one put it, icky as another put it. And they really didn't like what he's doing to his wife, putting her through this as they perceived it. And they didn't like the way that he is kind of casting aspersions on the media or as they felt not really taking ownership.

[14:10:00]

That said, despite all that, one of them was about to go leave and vote early for Graham Platner in Tuesday's primary. And all four of them said that they were sticking with him. They want to beat Susan Collins. They think the stakes are so high for control of the Senate, for Supreme Court justices, and they feel like Platner is their only and best choice to do that.

There is a provision in Maine state law where the nominee could be replaced, but he would have to drop out by July 13, and there's so far no indication that that's going to happen. But they're uncomfortable with this. They are worried that there's another shoe that's going to drop.

And Susan Collins wins this state by winning ticket splitters. In 2020, she won about 57,000 votes from people who voted for Joe Biden at the top of the ticket and then moved down the ballot and voted for her. So she doesn't need that many Democrats to break from Graham Platner in order to still win in November.

KEILAR: So interesting that you're talking to them and they're saying they're holding their nose as they do this. We should note that Platner did an interview on MS NOW last night, and the host, Chris Hayes asked him about his recollection by Lyndsey Fifield, his former girlfriend of Platner, referring to his tattoo. The tattoo of Nazi symbolism has really been a big issue in this election.

And she said that he referred to it years earlier as "My Totenkopf," a reference to the skull and crossbones emblem used by Nazi SS units. Platner, of course, maintained he didn't know that this tattoo had this kind of affiliation before last October when he said he first became aware of it. I want to play more of their exchange.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS HAYES, HOST, HOST OF "ALL IN WITH CHRIS HAYES", MS NOW: The Times basically reported that they saw texts of hers, including a text in August, I believe August 3rd of last year. This would be before October of last year, in which she has basically said that you had a "Nazi tattoo" and she joked about how she's going to go volunteer for Collins. Now, again, this is a text that got sent so like we can place the time, right? This is in August. How does she know it's a Nazi tattoo in August of last year and you don't know it's a Nazi tattoo in August of last year?

GRAHAM PLATNER, (D) MAINE SENATE CANDIDATE: Well, she certainly didn't send that text to me. So whoever she had sent it to and was talking to, that's -- I can't say why, but I will say that I certainly didn't know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: How are voters talking about this tattoo issue and the fact that it appears perhaps he knew as they are thinking about their votes?

SEITZ-WALD: Well, for the people who have been supporting him, I'm hearing a lot of disappointment. One called it heartbreaking because they really thought he was a different kind of person, a real person, honest, authentic. And now, they are kind of feeling cynical about politics in general that even this guy seems to have, you know, not been totally truthful about everything.

He also said there'd be nothing else coming out. And of course, more things came out. And then for people on the other side, you know, they've been saying that this is the case all along, that Platner either is a secret Nazi or, you know, lied about it and that he's not trustworthy. But it's just, Maine has had a political climate that has been very civil, very high-minded, very substantive.

And of course, that's eroded along with the rest of the country. But it's going to make these next five months here really ugly on both sides, as the accusations, the allegations that if you're supporting him you're endorsing this kind of behavior, just get more and more intense.

KEILAR: Yeah. Alex, great to see you and love to hear what you're hearing at your office hours. Sounds like a very interesting way to kind of get a temperature check of where voters are. So we appreciate you sharing that with us.

SEITZ-WALD: Thanks so much.

KEILAR: Still to come, some new video exposing extensive fire damage aboard the world's largest aircraft carrier.

SANCHEZ: Plus, the trial of a Texas teen accused of fatally stabbing another track meet competitor gets underway with conflicting stories about what happened. We have the latest from inside the courtroom.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:18:30]

KEILAR: Now to a CNN Exclusive showing just how badly a fire damaged the country's largest and newest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford. This happened in March. It was much more severe than what officials described at the time. Just take a look at these pictures.

CNN's Brian Todd has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): New video exclusively obtained by CNN shows the extensive damage to a section on board America's newest and most expensive aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford. Bunk beds charred, wires hanging from the ceiling, twisted metal and piles of ashes, this is what was left behind after a fire tore through the ship's laundry area in March during its mission fighting the Iran War.

HUNTER STIRES, FORMER MARITIME STRATEGIST TO SECRETARY OF THE NAVY: Fire and flooding are the two greatest dangers aboard any ship.

TODD (voice-over): This damage was more severe than what the Navy initially suggested at the time when it said the fire had been "contained" and that two sailors received non-life threatening injuries. One sailor on board the ship who helped put the fire out told CNN, quote, "I seriously thought we were going to lose the ship." Their mindset while battling the blaze, quote, "It's either fight or die."

That sailor and a senior U.S. official familiar with the incident tell CNN, the Ford's fire suppression system failed to activate, leaving the sailors scrambling.

STIRES: If you have a failure of the fire suppression system, that is going to make putting the fire out, it's going to make it harder. And ultimately, that brings it back to, ultimately, it's about the people. It is about our sailors. It is about their preparation.

[14:20:00]

TODD (voice-over): It took the Ford's crew about 30 hours to put out the fire and roughly 600 sailors lost their bunks because of it. Asked about the extent of the blaze and about the fire control system's failure to function, a Navy spokesperson told CNN, the investigation of the fire is ongoing.

We spoke to the chief of naval operations about it when the Ford returned to port in May.

ADM. DARYL CAUDLE, CHIEF OF NAVAL OPERATIONS: Big fires are always a challenge and this was significant, laundry and dryer based fire. The crew handled that so well and they fought it brilliantly and courageously and, basically, was back in the fight within a matter of days.

TODD (voice-over): The fire wasn't the only problem on board the $13 billion carrier. The ship's toilets were repeatedly clogged, the sailor told CNN. Other video obtained by CNN shows human waste filled to the brim of toilet after toilet. The sailor said, quote, "If you were in the forward section of the ship, you'd have to walk all the way to the aft section just to find a toilet that worked."

CAUDLE: The sanitation systems on board any ship, submarine, destroyer, cruiser, carrier, all have challenges. It's not whether or not if that happens, it's when it does, how do we attack it, fix it, get it back online. And the team on Ford, you know, is very good at that.

(END VIDEOTAPE) TODD (on camera): Another huge hurdle for the Ford's crew, the sheer length of this deployment, 11 months at sea, the longest deployment of any U.S. carrier group since the Vietnam War. Admiral Daryl Caudle, the Chief of Naval Operations, told us he does not want this to be a precedent. He said these deployments are supposed to last about seven months tops.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

KEILAR: A Texas teenager standing trial accused of fatally stabbing another teen at a track meet. Key moments from day one in the courtroom next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:26:01]

SANCHEZ: Day two of testimony is underway in a murder trial involving a former high school athlete accused of killing another competitor at a Texas track meet. Prosecutors are pushing back against claims that the defendant, Karmelo Anthony, acted in self-defense when Austin Metcalf was fatally stabbed last year.

Prosecutors say that Metcalf's death was a senseless murder and a sneak surprise attack. Let's get more from CNN's Leigh Waldman. Leigh, obviously, this case is being closely watched. What more can you tell us?

LEIGH WALDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Boris, this is a heartbreaking case all around. You have one 17-year-old Austin Metcalf who was stabbed to death at his high school track meet and another now 19-year-old Karmelo Anthony who was facing life behind bars charged with first degree murder. It's been two days so far of extremely emotional testimony here, including from one of the paramedics who responded to this track meet.

After those 9-1-1 calls came in, this paramedic testifying, telling jurors that when he got there that Metcalf was gray, he was unresponsive, he had no pulse. They also played body camera video inside of that courtroom that showed first responders trying to give him CPR, trying to save his life.

Students could be heard crying in the background because this all played out in front of Metcalf's twin brother and in front of the school who was watching this track meet. His parents are in the courtroom. They're holding each other, crying as this testimony is coming.

We heard from officers who arrested Karmelo Anthony on the scene, and when officers identified him as the alleged suspect, they testified that he responded, it's not alleged suspect, quote, "I did it."

Yesterday, we heard from one of the coaches who coached Austin Metcalf, who said that he saw the hole inside of his chest. Another coach put his arm around Anthony and asked him what happened. And at that point, he said he had stabbed someone and quote, "who had put his hands on me."

That's where the defense is arguing, all of this was self-defense. Prosecutors saying that's not the case. That is not true. Anthony is the one who actually was the aggressor in this case, that he refused to leave the tent that was Metcalf's tent that day and that when Metcalf pushed him, that's when he allegedly grabbed that knife and stabbed him in the chest, Boris.

SANCHEZ: Leigh Waldman, thank you so much for that update. We'll continue watching this story as news develops.

So the Kennedy Center has ordered its staff to remove President Trump's name from the building to comply with a court ruling. Why a judge says the name change was illegal and what President Trump is saying today.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)