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Millions Under Threat of Severe Storms; Polls on Josh Shapiro; Sandy Gordon and Scott Dresser are Interviewed about Amazon. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired June 23, 2026 - 09:30   ET

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

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[09:32:52]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: More weather to watch today. Millions across the Rockies and central plains especially are facing a real threat of severe thunderstorms.

Let's get back to CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar with the latest in the forecast.

What are you seeing, Allison?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, there are more storms today. The good news is, we're hoping that for some areas it will be a much bigger improvement compared to where we were yesterday. And that includes much of the eastern half of the country. We're starting to see things wrap back up here across portions of the east, although we do still have some chances for rain there. The next big system is really going to be the one that impacts areas of the central U.S.

But when you look at the last 24 hours, we've had a significant amount of storm reports that have come in. Again, you've got the cluster here from yesterday across portions of the mid-Atlantic and the southeast. And then the more recent one, this is the one that's really starting to fill in here over the last couple of hours across areas of the Rockies and down through the high plains. That's where we also have the greatest threat for severe storms today. You can see this includes places like Cheyenne, Denver, Wichita, down through Oklahoma City and Dallas. This is where we're talking about potential for damaging winds, large hail that could be bigger than golf ball size, as well as some isolated tornadoes.

We also can't rule out the additional storms that are here, kind of focused across portions of the mid-Atlantic. That will continue through the afternoon hours. And you can see here, it's this elongated front that's really triggering a lot of the storms.

Now, into the northeast, the heaviest rain for Boston and the cape has finally exited back out over the water. Just some lighter showers expected for the remainder of the morning. Same thing for places like Philadelphia and New York. Down to the south, this is where we have a lot of those flash flood warnings in the ArkLaTex region. And that's because this area has just had a tremendous amount of rain over the last week. So, that ground is saturated. It's not going to take much additional rainfall to really trigger some additional flooding concerns.

Then we move further north and west. Here you can see the northern plains. All of those orange boxes indicate severe thunderstorm warnings. So, you already have some severe storms ongoing this morning. That will only continue as we go through the rest of the day, essentially from North Dakota, all the way down through Texas.

Now, we look at the storms. The ones out west in particular, they're really going to peak later on this evening and into the overnight hours. So, make sure you have a way to get those emergency alerts when you go to bed.

[09:35:01]

BOLDUAN: Absolutely.

Allison, thank you so much for all of that.

Sara.

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

Up ahead, Prime Day here. A behind the scenes look at the technology and the robotics that is powering this sales event.

And senior citizens make their summertime splash. The living facility that's providing slip and slides. They're not just for children. Look at this. Love it.

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JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Big primaries today in states across the country. Of course, one of the things we look for in the midterm elections is for signs of what might happen two years later in the presidential elections.

[09:40:01]

And one of the things we've been watching all this primary season, which contenders might emerge that will play in the 2028 presidential race. No person perhaps bigger in that discussion than Josh Shapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania.

With us now, CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten.

Let's talk about the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and let's talk about the incumbent governor, Josh Shapiro. How's he doing there?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Josh Shapiro is doing absolutely fantastically in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. In fact, he may have a historic win on his hand here. OK, Josh Shapiro's lead in Pennsylvania gubernatorial polls. In

February he was up 20 points. You think that's good. How about he's now up 22 points in a poll that has just come out. And if this 22- point lead holds for the actual election, it would be the biggest win for any gubernatorial candidate in Pennsylvania in the entire 21st century. So, Josh Shapiro is hoping he can take this and catapult himself into a 2028 run.

BERMAN: And we should point out, needless to say, Pennsylvania is a purple state. Pennsylvania is a state that Donald Trump has won.

ENTEN: Yes.

BERMAN: Pennsylvania is a state where Republicans do win there. So, that's a big victory for a Democrat there.

How is the president doing in Pennsylvania?

ENTEN: You know, one of the reasons why Josh Shapiro is doing so well in Pennsylvania right now is that President Trump is most certainly not doing well. He's doing poorly. In fact, take a look at this. Say that Trump's doing a poor job. Pennsylvania voters here again, in February it was 51 percent. Now the poor job, which is the worst of the worst categories out of the four that are provided by Franklin Marshall, look at this, a record high 58 percent of Pennsylvania voters say that Donald Trump is doing a poor job in office. And that, of course, is helping Josh Shapiro potentially win a historic win in a purple state. But it may also help Democrats down ballot as well.

BERMAN: Some of the very few swing districts in the country are in Pennsylvania. So, what's the polling on the congressional races there?

ENTEN: Yes. OK. You know what? I like to say it, as Pennsylvania goes, often goes the nation, at least over the last few election cycles, right? And you can see it here. If that is, in fact, the case, well, then Democrats may be in for a very good night come election night 2026, because take a look at the U.S. House polling in Pennsylvania for 2026 on the generic congressional ballot. The Democratic lead is expanding. It was five points back in October. Look at where it stands now, 12-point advantage.

And there are a number of key swing districts in that state. Districts that Democrats are hoping to win in order to take back the U.S. House of Representatives. And as Johnny B. was saying, there was no mid- decade redistricting this decade in Pennsylvania.

You see this large spread. You see how different it was from the 2024 result, when Trump carried Pennsylvania, you say, oh my goodness gracious, this could be a gold mine for Democrats.

BERMAN: So, all this, what you would think would be good news for Josh Shapiro and Democrats in Pennsylvania, what are the prediction markets saying his chances are in the presidential race?

ENTEN: Yes, now we're going to take a little bit of a twist and a turn, perhaps unexpectedly, right? Josh Shapiro is hoping that results like this, right, Democrats, if this holds, that Democrats, you know, gain House seats. Hey, I brought Democrats along with me. Hey, look, I got a historic win potentially in a purple state. That will catapult me up for 2028.

But look at this. The chance that Josh Shapiro is the 2028 Democratic nominee according to Kalshi prediction markets, it was 13 percent. He was in that top class. You go back to the beginning of last year. But now it's down to just a five percent chance.

I think the question is, after election day 2026, if the polling right now holds, will these numbers start to climb back upwards and see if Democrats want a winner? Because at this point, if the polling is to be believed, Josh Shapiro is not only going to be a winner, he's going to be a historic winner. And more than that, he's going to help deliver a House majority nationwide for Democrats as well if this generic ballot polling holds.

BERMAN: We will wait and see. Some time to go.

Harry Enten, thank you very much for that.

ENTEN: Thank you, my friend.

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

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[09:48:33]

BERMAN: A 500,000 square foot warehouse on fire in Los Angeles today now for a sixth day. Frozen food is said to be complicating matters. Fifty-foot-high metal racks filled with 85 million pounds of frozen food to be exact have been blocking the firefighting efforts. The company that operates the warehouse says the fire started last Wednesday while contractors were testing rooftop solar panels.

Olivia Rodrigo announced she is launching an all women music festival inspired by the Lilith Fair that toured last in 2010. Sarah McLaughlin, who was behind the original Lilith Fair, will be there this time as well, along with Chappell Roan, Doechii, Katseye and Stevie Nicks. Rodrigo's festival is called The Daisy Chain Fields Festival. And all the proceeds will go to charities supporting women and girls. The show is set for August 29th in Irvine, California.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Also happening right now, Amazon's Prime Day is underway, running through Friday. Prime Days I guess we'll call it. Amazon shoppers are always looking for this opportunity to grab some deals online. It also comes as Amazon, the world's largest e-commerce and cloud infrastructure company, is opening its doors to its research and development lab in Boston, where the company says that it's designing and manufacturing robots. You see some there. That includes Amazon next generation robot called Proteus and its robotic arm named Sparrow. [09:50:05]

Key examples of the investments Amazon's making to be at the cutting edge of robotics, its goal, as well as artificial intelligence.

Joining us right now is Scott Dresser, vice president of Amazon Robotics, and Sandy Gordon, vice president of Amazon Employee Experience.

Thanks for being here, you guys.

Let's start with what consumers are looking for today, which is where and what categories are the biggest deals they can be looking for. What do you think?

SANDY GORDON, VICE PRESIDENT, AMAZON EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE: Kate, we've got everything available to our customers. Everything from electronics, to groceries. In about 35 categories, there are over 300 million products for whatever might -- the consumer may want to purchase. Things that they're getting any normal day, they can get them today with some extra deals.

BOLDUAN: And running through Friday as well.

And, Scott, let's talk about these new warehouse robots. We're showing our viewers some of the examples that you guys have provided of what you've been coming up with. How important are robots to Amazon's future, and what does that future look like?

SCOTT DRESSER, VICE PRESIDENT, AMAZON ROBOTICS: Yes. So, you saw, I think, some examples of Proteus and Sparrow, which are the robots that we've been working on here at the development labs, but they're also very important for our Prime Day operations today, these busiest days of the year. The Proteus, Sparrow, they're out there today working alongside and with our employees to make sure that they can deliver for our customers and really focused on making sure that our customers get the products that they want, the orders that they need and the time that they want it. And the robots are instrumental in making sure that we're running at the speed that we want to, and we're delivering high quality to our -- to our customers that have come to expect that.

BOLDUAN: And, of course, well, customers will appreciate that. The question is also, what does this kind of robotic autonomous future mean for Amazon employees? Because as we know, Sandy, Amazon is pushing ahead with layoffs that had been announced. The CEO also saying that A.I. would shrink the workforce. Tens of thousands of layoffs have been announced since late last year.

I've seen that you made the case that the robots are working with the humans to get the job done, but aren't they also in the process of replacing those very same humans?

GORDON: You know, we've been -- and we've been in the space of robotics for quite some time, almost a decade. And in that time we've actually created hundreds of thousands of jobs for our -- for our team members and also new job categories, new families for -- categories that they can work in. So, our investment is not only in technology, it is also in our people. And what we are doing is ensuring that our people have the skills to advance with the technology and work alongside of that technology.

So, just very recently, Kate, we announced 2.5 and -- a commitment of $2.5 billion in upskilling. And that upskilling includes a billion of that -- those dollars going towards our career choice program, where our -- all Amazonians have the opportunity to have prepaid tuition. So, that's everything from GEDs, all the way through college, undergraduate degrees. We also have paid apprenticeship programs so that our team members can continue to advance their understanding of robotics and technology alongside the advancement of this technology.

And then if I can, just one other thing. That $2.5 billion commitment also includes our focus on upskilling more than 50 million people. That's outside of Amazon's walls, but also includes those who are in the communities in which we live and serve.

And so our part here around robotics is generally around creating the space for our people to exist and continue to advance along with the technology that we are advancing.

BOLDUAN: Yes. And that relationship between technology advancement and, you know, the human worker is something that is impacting every industry, to say the very least.

Scott, we've talked -- I don't know if you're a watcher of the show, Scott, but we have talked a lot on this show about the advancement in robots, specifically dancing robots. We've talked about it many times on the show. And there's a company -- Unitree is a Chinese company. Its dancing robots actually recently stole the show on "America's Got Talent," which I bring that up because those robots started about $5,000 in price. I don't need a dancing robot in my home, but I do know that many people could use one that assists in household tasks, like doing the dishes, like cleaning the house. And the Unitree CEO has said that we're actually going to get there in the next few years, and that the price of robots is going to drop by half every 18 months.

Does that seem like a reasonable claim to you? And if so, can Amazon match that?

DRESSER: Well, I think those are -- those are interesting claims. And I love dancing robots as well too. But we're really focused here on making sure that the robots we have at our fulfillment operations are working alongside and helping our associates.

[09:55:03]

I do think some of the claims on the technology side, we see that here as well too. If you look at our robots, we've been doing this for 15 years now. Our robots are much, much more capable than they were 15 years ago, even compared to two years ago. They cost a lot less. They're more capable. They're more (INAUDIBLE) and they help our employees do their jobs safely. So, I would agree that the acceleration, mainly as a result of things like physical A.I., have definitely improved the capabilities of our robots. But that's helping us improve the experience of our employees and delivering on behalf of our customers, something we do see speeding up here over time for sure.

BOLDUAN: It is pretty remarkable to see how the technology is advancing so fast, and we're all just getting used to what that means in our daily lives.

Thank you both for coming on. A fascinating look at what Amazon Prime Day means as well as what this whole new world means for Amazon and Amazon employees.

Thanks for your time.

I brought up dancing robots just for you, J.B.

BERMAN: Well, I do -- I mean, if they can dance, who knows what else they can do.

BOLDUAN: Well, exactly.

BERMAN: I mean, really it's representative. It's a metaphor for something. I don't know what, but for something.

SIDNER: Are you learning to dance alongside them? That's the best thing.

BERMAN: just like a robot. My robots are dancing so much better than they used to.

Thank you all for joining us. This has been CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

BOLDUAN: "THE SITUATION ROOM" is up next.

SIDNER: Up next.

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