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Sexting Scandal Complicates Dem Hopes of Winning Senate; YouTubers Dominate Box Office with Indie Horror Hits. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired June 01, 2026 - 06:00   ET

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

[06:00:12]

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: Today in the group chat, the sexting scandal that could threaten Democrats' chances of winning back the Senate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMY GERTNER, WIFE OF GRAHAM PLATNER, MAINE DEMOCRATIC SENATE CANDIDATE: Graham and I have a great marriage. Being married is hard.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: President Trump demands more from the peace deal his own negotiators reached. How long can he afford to let talks with Iran drag out?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Slowly but surely, we're getting, I think, what we want. And if we don't get what we want, we're going to end it a different way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: A new hope for two people still missing in a flooded cave. Could a knocking noise be a sign that someone is still alive?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. MIKIE SHERRILL (D-NJ): Masked individuals attacked the barrier, taking aggressive, dangerous actions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: The New Jersey governor imposes a curfew after clashes continue outside an ICE detention facility.

And two YouTubers having a big weekend at the box office. Is Hollywood losing its grip on the industry?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Creators are the new stars and studios. And I hate to say it, but he's absolutely correct.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GERTNER: I find it really shameful that there's a group of media outlets and people who are willing to spread gossip.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: The wife of Maine's presumptive Democratic Senate candidate, Graham Platner, speaking out as another controversy hits the campaign.

Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish, and here's where we start. Sexting. A sexting scandal from a key candidate just ahead of the midterms.

Now, over the weekend, "The New York Times" and "The Wall Street Journal" were the first to report on sexually explicit messages a newly-married Platner sent to several women a few years ago.

And the messages were disclosed by Platner's wife, Amy Gertner, to a former campaign staffer as a potential liability last year.

Now, in a statement to CNN, Gertner said, "I trusted this person with the most private chapter of our lives. I'm deeply hurt by her betrayal and the invasion of our privacy."

Now, Senate Democrats are on damage control, as the party counts on flipping Maine as a key towards taking control of the Senate in November.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): He's certainly admitted that he has made mistakes, but I think this is going to be a pretty clear contrast in Maine between somebody who has spent his life protecting us, versus somebody who seems to be protecting Donald Trump's corruption.

SEN. CORY BOOKER (D-NJ): Yes, I have concerns. That guy has questions to answer. And that's what campaigns are for.

If we do not get the votes necessary to take care of the House and the Senate, we will continue to have an out-of-control president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Joining me now in the group chat, Sara Fischer, CNN senior media analyst and senior media reporter at Axios; Francesca Chambers, White House correspondent for "USA Today"; and V. Spehar, digital journalist and creator of "Under the Desk News."

All right, so two things are interesting about this, beyond the obvious. One is that she said -- and I want to read this -- that they disclosed it to somebody who was in the campaign. Right? Because usually you get asked, is anything else going to come out? In fact, Manu Raju once asked Platner this question directly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Are there other skeletons from your past that still may emerge in this race?

GRAHAM PLATNER (D), MAINE SENATE CANDIDATE: No. My life is not very complicated. And there -- no, there is not anything else coming. That's why they led with what they had.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: V., I want to start with you. Is this a naivete of a newish candidate to the political scene? Is this someone being betrayed? How do you see it?

V. SPEHAR, DIGITAL JOURNALIST, CREATOR, "UNDER THE DESK NEWS": Well, I think the wife described it well when she called it gossip. It's gossip, not a scandal. Right?

It came from her telling one of the campaign staffers, Hey, Graham sent these messages. We dealt with it as a couple. It didn't come from a woman saying that she felt attacked by him. We're not in a Swalwell situation.

So, I think while it's distasteful and, of course, not something that I would hope for in my Senate candidate, I don't think it is going to take him out in any way.

CORNISH: But I hear a distinction you're making there about Swalwell versus this. And I think that's important, because Democrats staked out some ground saying, yes, Trump may be bad in a variety of ways.

And the way we're going to sort of improve upon that is by having candidates who are sort of morally infallible, which has proved to be very difficult a standard, frankly, based on what we're seeing.

[06:05:11]

SARA FISCHER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA ANALYST: Yes. Everybody in power, I think, is falling to this problem.

I think in the Grant Platner situation, one of the challenges that he faces is that Susan Collins, for the -- her controversy has always just been to what extent she's willing to side with Trump. She's not a person that has a lot of personal controversy.

So, he's up against an incumbent who's run relatively clean races for many, many years, which, by comparison, makes him look juvenile. It makes him look like more of a rookie. It makes him look less postured and professional.

And even when you see him, you know, this is a guy, an oyster farmer.

CORNISH: Yes.

FISCHER: He tries to bring that to the light. But the problem is, what point is it too far? At what point do people look at you and say, there's too many scandals? You don't look the part. Are you really fit to govern?

CORNISH: Let me show you the most recent polling that we have. Actually, I'm not going to show this poll, because I think we've got something wrong here. But it had Platner up 51 percent. Susan Collins at 42 percent. And this is from the University of New Hampshire poll. This is for Maine, of course.

I want to ask you again the same question, which is Trump has bad things in his past, right? There's lots of marriages and ladies and affairs and things like that.

At the same time, it feels like Platner's whole sell is, I'm a flawed guy. So, why wouldn't that work for Democrats?

FRANCESCA CHAMBERS, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, "USA TODAY": So, I think there's two things at play here.

No. 1, I think voters have shown that they're more concerned, I think, as some of the Democrats are arguing right now, about what's going on in your everyday life. How does what you're doing affect me directly? Does this affect me directly? It doesn't. OK.

Perhaps I'm more willing to give a pass for that because we're seeing the same thing play out potentially in the Texas Senate -- Senate race here, where you've seen James Talarico has been, you know, hitting back at Ken Paxton and saying he's, you know, had all these scandals.

CORNISH: Right.

CHAMBERS: He's had these allegations. Um.

CORNISH: And it's not apples to apples, but you had --

CHAMBERS: It's not. It's not.

CORNISH: -- Paxton's wife coming out and saying that she was divorcing him on biblical grounds. Yes.

CHAMBERS: It's not apples to apples, but in the larger political argument right now, both Republicans and Democrats have these candidates right now that they're having to defend in races where it would have otherwise been one that they might have been able to, you know, get closer or pick up these -- in both Texas and in Maine.

And I think to, Sara, to your point that you're raising here, about Susan Collins, she has been someone who has been willing to go against Donald Trump. I mean, she has not voted with him 100 percent of the time.

And when J.D. Vance came to Maine, she didn't even go to the rally --

CORNISH: Yes.

CHAMBERS: -- because she was trying to put some distance between herself and them.

CORNISH: I think -- I think, yes, I think what I'm wrestling with is the idea that around the sort of post #MeToo movement and the idea of treatment of women, there are things that Democrats chucked candidates for, for less. You know what I mean?

Like, and there was a real reckoning about that, and frustration with that, and backlash to that. I don't -- have they arrived at the answer?

I mean, I think we know a Swalwell-level situation, where people come out and say they felt abused or harmed is a red line, but there's a whole other world gray area that the #MeToo movement introduced that Democrats haven't reckoned with.

SPEHAR: I don't think Platner is in a #MeToo situation with the information that we have so far. He texted some women. It seems like it was consensual. The wife knows about it. She's fine with it, or they've dealt with it in their marriage.

CORNISH: Yes. But do you remember what I'm saying? Like, for a while, sex could be disqualifying. Like, there was a window there where --

SPEHAR: Totally. Yes, I remember the Anthony Weiner times and all that. There's always been these things.

But I think at the point we're in, in America right now, where gas in Rochester is $5.19 a gallon, people are, like, So he texted some women, and his wife and him are dealing with it.

CORNISH: Yes. So, that litmus test is not what it was.

FISCHER: During the #MeToo movement, it also came the mean too movement, where we --

CORNISH: Right.

FISCHER: -- really judged people on their moral character. And I think we--

CORNISH: These are, like, the bad bosses. These are people who are abusive.

FISCHER: These are people whose actions don't -- Yes, but it really was a bigger picture thing. It's like their actions don't match their words. And that became a big thing during the #MeToo era.

I think that's where Democrats have pulled back, because there's a sense of desperation in order to just win races, to push back on Donald Trump.

CHAMBERS: And I want to -- and I want to add on that really quickly, because I was just looking at the polling from the 2024 election, because you're talking about the Donald Trump standard.

Voters rated Kamala Harris as someone that they saw as more trustworthy, as having a better moral character than Donald Trump.

But when you got to things about better and decisive leader, that was where he consistently was beating her.

CORNISH: Yes. CHAMBERS: And then he won the presidential election.

And I think Democrats are -- are reading the room to a certain extent. Again, looking at this Texas race, too. And that's what they're arriving at.

CORNISH: All right, you guys, stay with me. We've got more to talk about.

And one of the things is California, because that's the state to watch this week. Is their primary a test of progressives' power?

[06:10:05]

Plus, Iran and the U.S. are trading fire even as negotiations continue. Can the president push for tougher terms?

And then in New Jersey, police and protesters are clashing again outside of that immigration facility.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're better than ripping apart families.

(END VIDE CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:15:02]

CORNISH: OK. It's now 15 minutes past the hour. This is your morning roundup.

Overnight, more clashes between police and protesters in Newark, New Jersey, despite a newly-imposed nightly curfew. You've got demonstrators still outside the immigration detention center, Delaney Hall.

Now, some arrests have been made. And the protests began after reports surfaced of inhumane conditions inside that detention center, including a hunger strike by detainees.

The Department of Homeland Security still denying those allegations.

And I'm going to warn you ahead of this next video. Some viewers are going to find it disturbing.

In North Carolina, police officer is fired after home security footage showed him throwing a woman to the ground and repeatedly punching her during an arrest on Friday.

It's unclear what happened in the moments before the start of the video -- before the video started, but the North Carolina state Bureau of Investigations is now reviewing the incident.

And rescuers in Laos investigating a possible knocking sound deep inside the flooded cave, where two men are believed to still be trapped. Rescuers stressed that they need to investigate further before saying for sure that those knocks are from the stranded men.

And the sounds came as rescuers rappelled down this newly discovered vertical shaft that may lead to a chamber where the men could be.

Now, five men have already been rescued from that cave.

Coming up on CNN THIS MORNING, after artists drop out of America's 250th celebration, President Trump says he might just have to take the stage himself.

But first, YouTubers are no longer just competing with Hollywood. They're starting to beat it at its own game.

And speaking of Hollywood, good morning to one of the Tinsel Towns of the South: Miami, Florida.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:21:04]

CORNISH: Shout-out to Miami, because earlier, I showed St. Louis, and this beach deserves to be seen. Happy sunrise to you.

I want to turn to something else, which is this kind of quiet revolution at the box office, driven by the generation that supposedly only watches the screen in the palm of their hands.

Now, the two biggest movies in the country right now are "Obsession" and "Backrooms." Both were made by 20-something directors who learned their craft on YouTube.

These low-budget horror films managed to push franchise movies like "Star Wars" out of the top spots in the box office. They're drawing Gen Z audiences into theaters in numbers that Hollywood hasn't seen in years.

Experienced filmmaker and actor Mark Duplass, who stars in "Backrooms," says the YouTube-to-Hollywood pipeline is growing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK DUPLASS, ACTOR: But we've got an example of creators woodshedding things. Putting them online, building an audience. And now the people with the purse strings are going to notice probably a little bit sooner, because they see what they can do at the box office, you know, in the form of these two films that are overperforming.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Group chat is back. We've got the right folks to talk about this.

Let me show you this box office from over the weekend. As we mentioned, "Backrooms" and "Obsession," two horror films that started out as YouTube phenomena. But I want to show you the number third film, "The Mandalorian and Grogu," which I think, by definition, helps us understand, meaning I.P. fatigue.

FISCHER: A lot of I.P. fatigue. You've seen, in the past five years, Audie, action-adventure films have skyrocketed at the box office, because Hollywood studios know that there's a known return, even if the margin isn't huge.

Because remember, these movies cost a ton to produce.

CORNISH: Yes.

FISCHER: There's a good understanding of what the return on investment is going to be. It also helps to fuel their entire sort of ecosystem of --

CORNISH: Right. The whole tent pole model.

FISCHER: -- fandom, right? Because, yes, you've got to have people showing up in theme parks. You've got to sell goods. Those baby Yodas don't sell themselves, Audie.

CORNISH: I thought they did. That was the whole point.

FISCHER: Not if they're not back in theaters.

CORNISH: The other thing I was thinking about, though, is studio consolidation. At this point, it might actually be easier to make your film on YouTube first and get some interest for distribution.

Looking just ten years ago, you know, 20th Century going under Disney, DreamWorks under Universal, MGM to Amazon, of course pending W.B. to Paramount.

And I didn't even have room to fit all the boutique studios that used to exist, whether it was your Merchant Ivories, or your Miramaxes, or all these things that -- there were just more places to bring your stuff. I can see why any filmmaker would just make it on their own.

SPEHAR: I mean, I think we're seeing the rise of DIY, and do it at home, and do it yourself across the board. And it's because the cost of things is so incredibly expensive, to attend any kind of live event or any kind of entertainment.

So, if you're going to go and spend those dollars, you want to support somebody that maybe you can follow and see extra content from them online for free.

CORNISH: Yes. But also, you're my insurgent. SPEHAR: I know.

CORNISH: You're my back room, right? Like you're doing --

SPEHAR: That's very true. Yes.

CORNISH: I think you said there's like YouTube conference going on right now.

SPEHAR: There is. So, this is -- this is really cool. This is our White House correspondents' week, trending up here in D.C.

CORNISH: OK.

SPEHAR: Shout out, trending up. So, you've got all of your favorite news and political content creators here in D.C., doing what you guys usually do during the White House Correspondents.

CORNISH: Yes. Without the overhead.

SPEHAR: Without the overhead.

CORNISH: And panicked bosses.

SPEHAR: All the same drama, though. I assure you.

CORNISH: Oh, really?

SPEHAR: Oh, yes. That's the fun part about being in person.

But the thing that I think folks are looking for, and with these movies like "Obsession" and "Backroom" [SIC], is this return to genuine creativity and fun and risk taking.

And also, horror does very well when we feel bad about ourselves. When -- this -- the superhero movies --

CORNISH: Right, which even Hollywood is doing well with, right?

SPEHAR: Yes.

CORNISH: "Sinners" being the big thing at the box office.

SPEHAR: Comedy and horror do really well, because they give you the release that you don't feel like you're getting in real life.

CORNISH: Yes.

SPEHAR: Things are really hard right now for Americans, so they go to the horror movie. They have an experience. It closes the door. They go home.

CORNISH: Right. Or they see a little bit already. They get interested. "Iron Lung" from YouTube creator Markiplier grossed 50 million worldwide.

[06:25:03]

And then there's one upcoming, "The Amazing Digital Circus," which has presale of 9 million. There are some indie films that would kill to have presale.

FISCHER: Yes. So, the fan bases for these types of YouTube-driven films are massive online, and I think they've been underestimated for a long time by traditional Hollywood studios.

CORNISH: Well, they didn't know how to reach them.

FISCHER: They didn't know how to reach them. And they also overestimated the fan bases of established stars.

Those established stars oftentimes might have these huge, huge, huge followings on Instagram, but that does not translate into loyal followings on platforms, especially, like YouTube --

CORNISH: Yes.

FISCHER: -- where people are spending hours trying to watch every episode --

CORNISH: And while you're talking, I'm going to show the -- 86 percent of the tickets sold for "Backrooms," people under the age of 35.

FISCHER: Huge. This is the highest-spending demographic for media and entertainment right now, and Hollywood needs to tap into that.

Another thing that we've noticed is, along with the boom of action and adventures, we've done an analysis before at Axios. Massive boom in the rise of rated G and PG.

And so, I think a lot of people feel that box office --

CORNISH: Which I salute you. We need it.

FISCHER: Yes.

CORNISH: We're trying.

FISCHER: I think people think the box office has become this, like, family-friendly kind of Disney World type of experience.

CORNISH: Yes.

FISCHER: And I think this -- this is a pushback from younger people. A lot of times they don't have kids. They want entertainment experiences that actually feel fun and engaging for them.

CORNISH: A bit older. Yes.

FISCHER: For young adults, not just sort of, like, cartoons.

SPEHAR: You have to see the YouTube-made movie to make more YouTube content about the YouTube-made movie. You've got to be included. Because there's a whole other industry that goes and sees "Obsession"

and then makes all these videos about it.

CORNISH: Yes, yes.

SPEHAR: So, that drives it.

CHAMBERS: Sara, I have a question for you. So, you said there's been, like, this rise in G and PG-type movies.

Is it because Hollywood thinks that the only way -- or one of the best ways to make money is to get families in there who are bringing in their children? And you're saying this is showing that there's another way?

FISCHER: Yes, a lot of the franchises just so happen to be catered to kids. That's a huge part of it, especially animated stuff is so big. You saw "Lilo and Stitch" go really big recently.

CORNISH: Yes.

FISCHER: And so, that's part of it.

I want to just do one big-picture thought here, though. Even though this past weekend, "Star Wars" did come in third, when you look at the numbers on the margins, you can't say that "Star Wars" totally, totally tanked.

I mean, they --

CORNISH: No. We're not saying it failed. We're just -- yes.

FISCHER: These did very well. And so, it would be a mistake to say that these types of films are going to completely outpace all of the big Hollywood blockbusters that we've seen. Actually, we don't think that's going to be the case.

CORNISH: Yes.

FISCHER: And we still have a bunch of these big action-adventure films coming out later this summer.

These are exceptions to the rule, but they're notable exceptions, because they force Hollywood to pay attention to a trend that they've long sort of been trying to.

CORNISH: OK, we're going to leave it there, because there's a lot more questions, including when you look at the streaming distribution models, how long they're in it for the long haul in terms of this kind of creation.

So, anyway, straight ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, we're going to talk about the Supreme Court because it is back on the bench. And we're waiting decisions on some of the biggest cases of the term.

Plus, there's new strikes. There's also new demands. You've got the president toughening his terms for a peace deal with Iran.

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[06:30:00]