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Voting Begins in New York: Will Mamdani's Candidates Win?; New Images Show Trump's Name Taken Off Kennedy Center; New Boss at Fed's First Priority: Fight Inflation. Aired 6-6:30a ET
Aired June 23, 2026 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BRAD SMITH, CNN ANCHOR: And imagine opening your door and finding two million reasons to stay inside. That is exactly what happened in Texas after a truck carrying millions of bees crashed.
[06:00:12]
Video from Queen Bee Supply shows the chaos workers faced to capture the swarm. The company says that professional and backyard beekeepers stepped in to help.
That does it for CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS. I'm Brad Smith. We're buzzing away. But CNN THIS MORNING with Audie Cornish starts right now.
AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: Today in the group chat, it's primary day in New York. Can more Democratic socialists ride Mayor Mamdani's wave?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR ZOHRAN MAMDANI (D), NEW YORK CITY: When does the race for 2028 begin? It starts now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Anticipation builds to today's Supreme Court decisions. Will justices go against the president in cases that could help define his power?
And so-called deep-state firings have started at a top U.S. intelligence agency. What else could the president's hand-picked temporary director do?
And Tucker Carlson says he's out. Will he take MAGA with him?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TUCKER CARLSON, PODCASTER: I would not support the Republican Party. There's no chance I would support the Republican Party.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAMDANI: Now, people often ask me what I think of the state of the Democratic Party. This slate here today is our answer. The Democratic Party must change.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Zohran Mamdani putting his power to the test. Can his team of Democratic socialists win big in New York?
Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish, and right now polls are open in New York. And the influence of New York City's mayor, tested just six months into his tenure.
He's backed candidates in three House races. Two are going up against Democratic incumbents, and they are hoping to ride the wave of Democratic socialists, who have been winning big races across the country.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRAD LANDER (D), CANDIDATE, NY-10: I'm a longtime progressive, a Working Families Party member. But yes, if by "Democratic socialist," do you mean do I want Medicare for all? Do I want to make sure that folks can organize unions? Do I want to make sure we're getting to universal childcare and investing a lot more in housing everyone can afford? Yes.
DARIALIZA AVILA CHEVALIER (D), CANDIDATE, NY-13: I am someone who has felt deeply abandoned by the establishment politics that far too often see my community as merely a statistic.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: All right, so today in the group chat, Tamara Keith, senior political correspondent at NPR; Chuck Rocha, Democratic strategist and former senior adviser to Bernie Sanders's presidential campaigns; and Ashley Davis, former White House official under President George W. Bush.
Love seeing you guys. Thank you so much for being here.
CHUCK ROCHA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Of course.
CORNISH: So, Tamara, I want to start with you, because Mamdani story is a story that I think a lot of these folks would like to emulate. They're not handpicked by the party, yet somehow, they rise via the -- you know, the Internet and the power of their ideas. And he is trying to have, like, tailwinds. So, do we know if he does?
TAMARA KEITH, SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, NPR: I think we will know very soon whether he does. He -- certainly, some of these candidates look to be polling pretty well in their races.
I don't know that we can extrapolate about the national Democratic Party from what happens in New York City.
CORNISH: No, I mean, Democratic socialists.
KEITH: Right. CORNISH: Which, city by city, I mean, even here in D.C. --
KEITH: Yes.
CORNISH: -- we've been talking about that.
I was noticing in -- was that Lander who we just played earlier?
KEITH: Yes.
CORNISH: Notice how the first thing out of his mouth in that answer is, "If by Democratic socialist, you mean." And I hear this over and over again, people trying to define it for themselves, even as actual Democratic socialists are out there defining it pretty loudly.
ROCHA: I would go a step further and say that it's already seen.
In political world, you don't beat incumbents. You don't go against the machine. In city politics, New York City. To your point, Audie, in Washington, D.C., just last week, when three Democratic socialists overcame the odds in like --
CORNISH: Seattle.
ROCHA: All the way around.
CORNISH: Yes.
ROCHA: but that's much different than every other battleground district in America. There's about 34 battleground districts, and none of those are in the heart of any city where Democratic socialists -- And that's what the party is worried about.
The Democratic socialist message of being for the people, by the people. Working class. Pull yourself up. That's all good. But in these marginal seats, they'll say everybody's a Democratic socialist. All Ashley's friends will be running ads tomorrow on this.
CORNISH: I know. You're trying to divorce it here. I want to play for you. This is Attorney General Tish James.
ROCHA: -- with it. I ain't divorcing nothing.
CORNISH: No, no, hold on one second, because this is going to be the difficult thing as a consultant.
ROCHA: Right.
CORNISH: How do you do this when there are people who are successfully running --
ROCHA: Right.
CORNISH: -- behind this flag? So basically, race was -- Vox was calling this race a splitting of Mamdani's coalition: that it pitted progressives against Democratic socialists. [06:05:02]
And then Letitia James was asked about this split. She's the former [SIC] attorney general. Here's what she had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LETITIA JAMES, ATTORNEY GENERAL OF NEW YORK: What we are witnessing here at this moment is the tension. Dr. King talked about creative tension being a catalyst for social -- for social justice.
And clearly, given D.S. -- DSA and quote, unquote "progressive Democrats," we are moving forward, and we are broadening the tent of the Democratic Party.
We are moving forward, broadening the tent, focusing on women, people of color, immigrants, working people in the labor movement. And that's why -- that's what you are witnessing now, given the split between a mayor who I've supported and who is a friend of mine, who I respect.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: And I should say current attorney general.
ASHLEY DAVIS, FORMER WHITE HOUSE OFFICIAL UNDER PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Yes.
CORNISH: But I wanted to ask you how you hear her describing this split, which I think Bush-era Republicans may be familiar with. Right? When the party starts to pull away from you.
DAVIS: Well, right. I mean, I think this whole movement is two things. One, it's the Tea Party of the Republicans back in the day, or maybe even MAGA in some way.
But also, I think it's really anti-establishment, which most people in the country, whether you are Republicans or Democrats, are 100 percent running against the status quo, because no one's happy with it.
But what's really going to show me for the mayor, because I think that these -- he has a really good chance of winning these three races today. At least two of them.
But can they win in a general? And I think that's the question.
CORNISH: Yes.
DAVIS: I think we'll see. Some will, some won't.
CORNISH: Let me just play one last thing. This is the mayor. Mayor Zohran Mamdani. He was just speaking from the mayor's office on Monday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAMDANI: I was quoting Gramsci, who said that the old world is dying and the new world struggles to be born. Now is the time of monsters.
I used the term to describe all those who are preventing the birth of a new world. Not solely AIPAC, but frankly, super PACs at large who are spending millions of dollars in deceptive and misleading ads that are blanketing airwaves.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: I wanted to add this one last thing. We're going to talk about it more in the program.
But this conversation around AIPAC and how it is dividing the Democratic Party and, to some extent, even Republicans. I remember Tom Massie's loss in Kentucky. He vehemently criticized AIPAC after.
KEITH: Yes. And AIPAC has, in the last several years, become a real boogeyman in races. This obviously has a lot to do with politics involving Israel and Israel's shift --
CORNISH: And exacerbated by October 7th and all that has followed since.
KEITH: Absolutely. And everything that has followed.
CORNISH: Yes.
KEITH: And it has created a political rift, both in the Democratic Party and in the Republican Party. And this backlash, you know, against Israel, which is a change.
CORNISH: Yes. And that thread runs through Tucker Carlson's exit, as --
KEITH: It runs all the way from Tucker Carlson to Zohran Mamdani.
CORNISH: Exactly. So, we're going to talk more about that on the program today. We've got a lot to handle.
I do want to bring up one other thing, coming up on CNN THIS MORNING. There's actually a new clue in the Nancy Guthrie case. What it could say about her disappearance.
Plus, what's behind the tarp outside the Kennedy Center? New images showing what we now know is not there.
And we're remembering the man with the golden ears who launched the careers of icons, including Whitney Houston and Bruce Springsteen. Legendary music producer Clive Davis has died at the age of 94. Here he is in 2024, talking about his legacy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLIVE DAVIS, MUSIC PRODUCER: I discovered or nurtured an unusual array of the most gifted artists of all time and that they felt safe.
(END VIDEO CLIP) (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:13:23]
CORNISH: It is now 12 minutes past the hour. This is your morning roundup.
Law enforcement sources telling CNN a note connected to the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie claims that she died, and that note was sent to media outlets back in February.
We're told the kidnappers wrote it -- wrote that she died shortly after she was taken and that they did not mean to kill her.
Now, this note followed one prior which demanded ransom. Investigators believe these notes are legitimate.
And a major ruling on voting and privacy. The Trump administration blocked from using Social Security and immigration data to scrub voter rolls.
A federal judge says the system relied on inaccurate information and risks wrongly removing eligible voters.
Now, this ruling halted a key part of the president -- of the president's election overhaul plan.
And we're getting a new look at what's behind the tarp at the Kennedy Center. These images, obtained by CNN, show President Trump's name is no longer on the building.
Workers began removing Trump's name from an exterior wall ten days ago, complying with a judge's ruling that the institution could only be named for John F. Kennedy as a living memorial to the late president.
Ashley, I feel like you have some goss here. You're involved with the National Symphony?
DAVIS: Yes, absolutely. And I think it's really important, because the Kennedy Center -- also, the judge said the Kennedy Center will remain open for now, as well. And we'll see what happens there.
CORNISH: Instead of shutting down for a big Trump-induced renovation.
DAVIS: Exactly. But the NSO is in to stay. And they are either going to do it with the symphony or some other way, if there's not going to be a budget to support them.
But 100 percent, these musicians have stayed with the NSO from the beginning, and they --
[06:15:07]
CORNISH: None of them quit during --
DAVIS: None of them quit.
CORNISH: -- this big upheaval.
DAVIS: And we have a season to announce as soon as we can, and --
ROCHA: What's the NSO?
DAVIS: National Symphony Orchestra.
ROCHA: That's why I don't know what the NSO is.
CORNISH: OK.
CORNISH: I'm going to take you to a concert. I'm going to take you to a concert.
CORNISH: Shout-out to the National Symphony orchestra. Glad you guys stuck with it. Looking forward to the new season.
I want to talk about this after the break. Does a quieter Fed equal a louder market? How Kevin Warsh's gamble might impact your money.
Plus, the light at the end of the tunnel is here for Americans exposed on that hantavirus-stricken cruise ship.
In the meantime, a live look in Houston. The World Cup play will continue there with a match featuring Portugal versus Uzbekistan.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:20:07]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KEVIN WARSH, FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN: I don't share the view that was expressed a few generations ago that Federal Reserve chairmen show up at a podium like this and say, you've got to choose, and you're going to have to decide whether you're willing to tolerate higher inflation to put more people at work.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Newly sworn-in Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh, leaving interest rates steady for now. But concerning economic data, since the start of the war with Iran could mean he'll have to change his mind.
So let me give you an example. Inflation rose half a percent from April to May. That means it's now around 4.2 percent. Consumer confidence dipping among Americans.
So, joining me now Courtenay Brown. She's the senior economics reporter at Axios. Welcome back. Thanks so much.
So, I'm starting with the inflation, just to give people a sense, because that's always the boogeyman. Is inflation high? Is inflation low? And this is where monetary policy comes into play. What is our sense, now that Warsh is in the job, of how he thinks
about these things?
COURTENAY BROWN, SENIOR ECONOMICS REPORTER, AXIOS: Do you want to hear something crazy?
CORNISH: Yes.
BROWN: We --
CORNISH: About Fed policy, Courtenay. Yes.
BROWN: -- no clue.
CORNISH: Why?
BROWN: Because he is not so -- Warsh's big audition was last week. First Fed policy meeting. We get the closely parsed policy statement. It is 130 words, more than a third of the length in the Powell era, just months before.
He wants to say less. He wants to guide markets less.
What we know is that he said that inflation -- or the Fed will accomplish price stability. A wonky way of saying they will get inflation back to 2 percent. As you said, so far from 2 percent right now.
CORNISH: Yes. Can I -- let's look at the chart. She was making fun of me trying to read my own charts here for business.
BROWN: I like your charts.
CORNISH: Consumer price index.
BROWN: Yes.
CORNISH: OK. What are we looking at in this chart right now?
BROWN: So, what we've seen is inflation shooting right up since the war.
CORNISH: Oh, see, I did the same thing guys. That's confidence. Give me consumer price.
BROWN: But that's an important story, too.
CORNISH: Oh, it is? Why?
BROWN: The stories are connected.
CORNISH: OK, go.
BROWN: Because inflation is shooting up, consumers feel really crappy about the economy right now. We all know this. Not a new story. It is a -- it is partially because of inflation, but it's also because
of price levels. Prices have just been really high and have not come down.
So, I think what the Fed has to grapple with here is how do you bring inflation down without wrecking the economy? Financial markets have decided that the Fed will probably raise interest rates this year. That's crazy.
CORNISH: "Wall Street Journal" saying Fed could raise -- could raise it three times this year.
BROWN: Yes.
CORNISH: Pointing to --
BROWN: Everyone on Wall Street --
CORNISH: -- reporting from the forecast from Bank of America.
BROWN: Everyone on Wall Street is revising their expectations for rate hikes this year. When just a few months ago, they were expecting rate cuts.
But we don't actually know. Kevin Warsh didn't say that. He doesn't want to guide markets in the way that traditional Fed chairman have. He wants to go back to the Greenspan era, the late Alan Greenspan, who died yesterday.
CORNISH: Let's take a beat on that.
BROWN: Yes.
CORNISH: Because there's some familiar language here. When the -- the late Alan Greenspan, who died this week, when he took over the Fed from Paul Volcker, you had Gulf wars fueling spikes in prices, right? So, something going on in the Middle East.
You had high inflation, and you had real worries about that and prices. So, some of this feels a bit familiar for us in this moment under Trump's term.
What did Greenspan do that's part of his legacy, why people still think of him with -- with such reverence?
BROWN: The celebrity Fed chairman of our era, really.
There's one more parallel to this moment that's quite spooky. Alan Greenspan, during his term, he presided -- or he led the Fed over a period where there was huge technological change, the Internet boom of the '90s.
CORNISH: Oh, yes. And its bubble.
BROWN: Yes. Sound like A.I. a little bit right now?
CORNISH: Right.
BROWN: Maybe. So, I think Alan Greenspan is having such a moment right now. It is so interesting to me that he died at the -- at the moment where his legacy is kind of front and center --
CORNISH: Yes.
BROWN: -- among Trump economic officials. You hear them shouting out Alan Greenspan because of what he did.
He -- he believed that, then the Internet boom was going to usher in this huge era of productivity. And it would not be inflationary.
And we've heard the White House explicitly say that they think the Fed can do the very same thing in this moment: keep interest rates low, not cut off this economic boom that we're having.
CORNISH: Right.
BROWN: But the problem is exactly what you say. We have this inflation issue. It's really hard for the Fed not to raise interest rates in the face of inflation that is soaring now, but was already sticky before the war. So, they have a problem.
[06:25:03]
CORNISH: One other thing I want to read from Alan Greenspan, because I think it's relevant here.
In 1994, he said, "We will be at price stability when households and businesses need not factor expectations of changes in the average level of prices into their decisions."
I'm going to translate and say he cared about our prices, about how households were able to afford their economy.
BROWN: He did. He did.
CORNISH: Courtenay, thank you so much. Love having you. I'm going to come up with more excuses to cover Fed policy just to soak in your enthusiasm.
Next on CNN THIS MORNING, we're going to talk about the issues from transgender athletes to birthright citizenship before the Supreme Court. We could get some opinions later today, before its summer recess.
Plus, mass firings underway at the nation's top intel office. And lawmakers warn of serious risks with each lost job.
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[06:30:00]
