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Erin Burnett Outfront
House Votes To Halt Iran War In Major Loss For Trump; Top Political Forecasters Shift Key Iowa Races Towards Dems; California's Race For Governor Too Early To Call. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired June 03, 2026 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:20]
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next:
Breaking news, a slap down. House Republicans voting with Democrats, blocking President Trump from ordering new strikes on Iran. It's a stunning rebuke, and Trump also seems to suggest that his $1.8 billion defense fund may not be dead after all.
Also breaking, new numbers expected this hour in California, the race for mayor and governor -- guess what? -- still too close to call.
And Trump's pick for Iowa governor loses as forecasters say the Senate race is moving in the Democrats' direction. The former Paralympian who's helping turn Iowa blue, hoping to turn Iowa blue, is our guest.
Let's go OUTFRONT.
(MUSIC)
BURNETT: And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.
And OUTFRONT tonight, the breaking news. A remarkable slapdown. The House tonight just voting to order Trump to withdraw American forces from Iran or get approval from Congress to continue the now 96-day war. We're in month four.
Republicans voting with Democrats. There were four of them crossing lines.
It's a vote that the House Speaker Mike Johnson didn't want. I guess he could have -- saw how it was going. Two weeks ago, he pulled the vote because he didn't have the votes to stop it.
But the reality of it is here is that many Republicans have not been shy. They want an end to the war. They don't like it. They're worried about rising gas prices, and they're worried that their party is not following through with what they were told was an America First agenda, and they think it's going to hurt them in the midterms.
They want guardrails, and they're actually acting on it. And this rhetoric is part of the reason.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I had to do a little stopover in Iran, and we had to knock the hell out of them.
PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: We negotiate with bombs.
TRUMP: We just keep bombing our little hearts out.
HEGSETH: Death and destruction from the sky all day long.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Well, that's been the rhetoric, right? And a lot of Americans have been incredibly uncomfortable with that. I mean, the post from Trump on Easter, a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. Maybe that was the beginning of the end for some Republicans.
But it's just one of many things they're angry about. That vote tonight's significant. Could talk about them being angry before, but behind closed doors when the actual vote came, they backed their guy.
Not tonight. But they're angry about rising prices. They're angry about the billion dollars Trump wants for his ballroom. They're not happy about Trump's latest decision to tap a guy from the mortgage business with zero intel experience to be the crucial director of national intelligence. And we're going to have much more on that in a moment.
They're also, though, extremely frustrated about his $1.8 billion defense fund for his allies, so much so that they stood up on that and they got it killed.
And they thought that it was dead. They thought that they had gotten that one to go away. But today, Trump says it could be back in this disturbing exchange with our Kaitlan Collins.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Mr. President, can you explain why you decided to drop the anti-weaponization fund?
TRUMP: So I love it. I think it's so important. People were, this is a victim right here, but not only a victim, he was also a student of it.
What happened to great people, great American people, the way they were victimized, the way they were savage, you're not even going to believe. Some of you will believe it, like CNN will believe it because they knew what was going on. They're crooked as hell.
CNN is a very corrupt organization, but with a corrupt reporter standing right there, never smiles, she never smiles. She's young, beautiful woman never smiles. I never see a smile off her face.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Just to clarify on what you were asked earlier, is the $1.8 billion DOJ fund dead, or is it on hold?
TRUMP: It's -- I'd have to ask the lawyers. I don't know. I know one thing, the weaponization -- are you talking about the weaponization fund?
COLLINS: Yeah, what's your decision?
TRUMP: The weaponization fund, as far as I'm concerned, was a beautiful thing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: A beautiful thing. Well, that beautiful thing almost derailed his entire domestic agenda because Republicans did not think it was beautiful. They called it. In fact, these are Republican quotes, utterly stupid, morally wrong, a slush fund, and they vowed to, quote, "kill it".
And they thought that they had, but now you just heard that exchange. It's unsure if the fund is dead, despite what Trump's acting attorney general said under oath.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TODD BLANCHE, ACTING ATTORNEY GENERAL: We are not moving forward with the fund.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not moving forward ever.
BLANCHE: Correct.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Maybe that's news to the president, right? Not moving forward ever. He was definitive there, but the president now says it's a beautiful thing and he loves it. He's got to see what the lawyers say.
So in the midst of all of that, right, and that derogatory exchange, the combative nature of that press conference, I did want to point out something, which is that even with all of that happening, and even with the blow that Trump took from Congress today, from his own Republican Party on the Iran war, Trump did have something he really did want to talk about today, and it was this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[19:05:03]
TRUMP: Well, these are -- they just had this done. You're getting a first glimpse.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: A first glimpse. So what is he talking about? Let me just show you. It's a poster of the reflecting pool. And you
can see on a nice big fancy poster board comparing it to skyscrapers, the Empire State Building, One World Trade, and what was known as the Sears Tower in Chicago. That is what he wanted to present today.
Kristen Holmes is OUTFRONT live outside the White House.
And Kristen, I know you're learning new information tonight about how some inside Trump world are viewing this rebuke from the House tonight. We're Trump failed on the Iran war in terms of what he wanted from his own party.
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Erin, I mean, when I'm talking to these various White House officials and Trump allies, there is a huge amount of concern that this is just the beginning, the beginning of the pushback from the Republican Party.
When you look at that vote, you see four Republicans voting with Democrats. Can you imagine a time six months ago when you would see four Republicans siding with Democrats? No, you can't because you see the frustration that is mounting within the Republican Party and they're getting more and more pushback.
The other thing to keep in mind here is when we've been talking to the Trump administration, to various officials, they always believed that if, in fact, Democrats were going to win in November, everything would be grinded to a halt. So they were going to try to squeeze in as much legislation as they possibly could before January, before that new Congress is sworn in.
But now you're starting to see pushback on all of these various things, all part of Trump's agenda from his own party. And that's where the real concern is. Can they even govern now when he controls both the House and the Senate?
And as you noted, this isn't happening in a vacuum. It's not just about Iran, although I will tell you from the sources I talked to, they are so angry about this war. They are so angry that it is not over.
Even people who supported him voted for him, who still stand by him publicly, have told me they can't believe this is still happening. They feel like it was a self-inflicted wound.
But as I said, it's not a vacuum. We also saw what happened with that $1.8 billion million fund, the weaponization Fund, this idea that Republicans were livid about this, pushing back. Again, not something you would have seen six or eight months ago.
BURNETT: Yeah.
HOLMES: So that's the really big question for these Republicans, particularly within the administration and the White House. Is this just the beginning? Are we going to be able to get anything done that we need to get done before potential change in the House and Senate in January? BURNETT: All right, Kristen, thank you very much.
And everyone's here with me.
I mean, Van, I guess context is everything, as Kristen says, six to eight months ago, you wouldn't have had a rebuke like this. Maybe not even six to eight weeks ago. But maybe it started with Epstein --
VAN JONES, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah.
BURNETT: And Republicans forcing his hand. Then there's the $1.8 billion fund. Then there was the ballroom, right? And now -- and now, the war. And Mike Johnson could not get that over the finish line for the president.
JONES: Look, Hakeem Jeffries deserves some credit here. He wouldn't let it go. He held his caucus together. Fourth time is the charm. They just kept coming back and kept coming back because the American people don't like this war and they don't like this president running over literally every norm, every law and getting away with it.
So this war was a bridge too far. I think the slush fund is a bridge too far. I think the billion dollars for -- that we were supposed to get this free ballroom, now he wants a billion dollars --
BURNETT: Right, from taxpayers.
JONES: From taxpayers for the security for this ballroom is another bridge too far.
You go through enough bridges too far and pretty soon you're too far and your party starts to break apart from you. That's beginning to happen. But I'd give Hakeem Jeffries some credit for holding his caucus together and enforcing this issue.
BURNETT: Right, which is important, wouldn't have done it otherwise. But is the GOP starting to fall apart when it comes to Trump?
RINA SHAH, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: I think so. And it's because the G cubed -- gas, groceries, geopolitics. To me, it's the war that's done it completely. Trump promised no more wars, no more endless wars. And there's an entire swath of the Republican Party that is keeping mom and just saying we could take it all, the ballroom even, a slush fund, J6.
I mean, I hate to say people were fine with J6, but people have moved on. Of course, many of us on our side who believe in democracy have not moved on. But when you start to talk democracy, you lose people, especially Republican voters.
So you have to talk hard costs. The hard costs of this conflict have been tremendous. And what we saw on Monday, the reports out of that call with Netanyahu, have been really shocking to members of Congress who are Republicans, because that's Trump saying directly, you've screwed me. You've screwed me by trying to do this in southern Lebanon. You've screwed me by trying to do what you want. So it kind of looks like Bibi's in control and Trump doesn't like it
anymore. And so he's losing control now. He's trying to save face. He's trying to do what he wants.
I think everything we're seeing this week is related to Trump's anger at Netanyahu.
BURNETT: Do you agree? Is that the optics that we're -- that we're seeing here?
PAUL RIECKHOFF, HOST OF THE INDEPENDENT AMERICANS PODCAST: I think the war has been the breaking point, better late than never. This is really, really an important crossroads, I think, for America in a new phase of what could be a new forever war, because it's bigger than Iran.
But this has been amazing in that it's unified America against Trump, Republican for America in a new phase of what could be a new forever war, because it's bigger than Iran.
[19:10:05]
But this has been amazing in that it's unified America against Trump.
Republicans, Democrats, everybody in between, especially independents, are deeply opposed to the Iran war. It's unauthorized, it's unwise, and it's deeply unpopular.
And I think the politicians are actually behind the country on this. I think you still see some folks kind of moderating and checking the wind. The country does not want this war, does not want more regime change war, and does not want forever war.
The problem is that Trump has been all gas and no brakes, and nothing has stopped him until now because he's also talking about Cuba and the country doesn't want more war in Cuba or Greenland or Mexico or anywhere else.
So, better late than never. But Congress is finally showing a spine and maybe exercising their single most important power, which is to caution the president and hold back the president when he sends young men and women to die.
BURNETT: Yeah, and they could, I mean, obviously, as you say, but these things all adding up.
Okay, then on top of it, and this, you know, it's just amidst all of this, he's putting in Bill Pulte in a national security role, which is pretty, so this would be the acting director of national intelligence.
JONES: Yeah.
BURNETT: It's really important job. Trump can pick who he wants for it. So he picks this guy, Bill Pulte. And Bill Pulte doesn't know anything about this topic, okay? And you don't even need to look at his resume to know that, although that does show that, right? But you could ask the Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who does know a
lot about that and had a big background in foreign affairs, obviously as a senator. And in fact, he was asked about it today. And here's the exchange on Capitol Hill.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. BILL KEATING (D-MA): Have you ever specifically in the context of the intelligence community, heard the name Bill Pulte.
MARCO RUBIO, SECRETARY OF STATE: In the context of intelligence?
KEATING: That's what I said.
RUBIO: No.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JONES: Hey, look, he's honest. Look, he's honest. Look -- this guy --
BURNETT: I mean, he did not try to like play the role that Trump wanted there. I mean --
JONES: But I mean, at a certain point, it's just beyond ridiculous. I mean, the guy is a housing guy who's only -- the only thing he's doing in the spy game is he's using his housing position to spy on the president's opponents and bring on their mortgages.
So, no, he doesn't know anything about this. And you got to give Marco Rubio credit. You cannot polish that one up until -- it's a cow patty. You cannot polish that up and tell somebody it's a Hershey's kiss. It ain't.
SHAH: Well, remember --
(CROSSTALK)
BURNETT: You know, I really like that analogy because I'm seeing the image of a cow patty, a little swirl at the top. I grew up on a farm. I know the shape of a cow patty.
Go ahead, Rina.
SHAH: I was just going to say, remember that Trump is the same person who put Dr. Ben Carson, a doctor, in charge of housing, okay, in the last administration. But then also he put Tulsi Gabbard in front of -- in this position and her ties with Assad and Putin and her sympathizing with them. I thought that was a more dangerous pick.
Now, Pulte is a name known to me because he was part of a whole grouping of people that were just sycophants. They were just political people that wanted to follow the leader. Nothing related to politics.
BURNETT: Everybody he's gone after from Letitia James to Adam Schiff has been, you know, enemies of the president. There was something else that was said today in the Scott Bessent was
also on Capitol Hill. There were a lot of hearings. And he was asked about reporting that "Politico" had that a few months ago that he had almost got in a fistfight with Pulte.
Now, by the way, I know this may sound crazy, but Bessent does talk about getting in fistfights with people. And in fact, he has. So this was not a crazy question. I'll play it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. THOM TILLIS (R-NC): Did you actually tell Pulte you were going to punch him in the face?
SCOTT BESSENT, TREASURY SECRETARY: No, sir. I actually said I was going to kick his ass.
TILLIS: Good. OK, good. I share the emotion.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Tillis is a Republican senator.
RIECKHOFF: There are so many wannabe tough guys in Washington. They have an octagon outside the White House now. So if they want to go fight, they can go out and go.
BURNETT: Well, and apparently it is not coming down.
RIECKHOFF: Let's raise some money for charity and have a fight that people might actually want to watch.
But there's something deep here. I think Rubio is calculating. Rubio sees where this is going. Rubio sees himself potentially as the heir apparent or the Republican nominee in the future. And there's a broader context here, which is Americans feel less safe, right?
We've got an Ebola outbreak in Africa, Putin slamming into Ukraine. Now you've got Iran hitting Kuwait. We've got the World Cup coming here with no shortage of national security threats. And they just put forward a guy to run the DNI who has no experience.
Putin loves this. It is a great day for Putin, a great day for our enemies. And Americans are feeling the human cost. They know that they don't want American sons and daughters. They feel the financial costs in terms of gas prices.
But they also don't feel safer. And I think that's really going to come home to roost this summer when the World Cup and these huge gatherings of crowds are around and you're depending on Kash Patel and this guy to keep you safe.
JONES: That's just so sad. I'm sorry.
(LAUGHTER)
RIECKHOFF: It's worse than sad. I mean --
SHAH: I got --
BURNETT: Van, when he gone to a commercial.
SHAH: More than anything, I'm worried about this guy selling our secrets.
[19:15:00]
I'm really worried about that. I think he's the type. I just feel.
BURNETT: You're talking about Bill Pulte.
SHAH: Bill Pulte.
JONES: Because he gets, this guy is such an important role. He's a traffic cop. He gets all the intelligence from all of our allies and all of our internal agencies. He's sitting there with all the intelligence.
And apparently he has no intelligence because why would he even take a job like this if he's not qualified? If something happens to America on his watch, you know, heaven forbid.
RIECKHOFF: And this is always the risk.
BURNETT: Right, the person with any sense of --
JONES: Well, I thought --
RIECKHOFF: And it's always been the risk of the government having tons of personal information on Americans. This has always been the worst case scenario.
BURNETT: All right, thank you all very much.
And next, the breaking news, we are getting more results from California's high-stakes election because, you know, they can take a wild account. Right now, there's thousands of ballots we understand being processed. So live pictures of what's happening there, latest results.
And we're going to speak to Republican Steve Hilton. He is leading the pack in the California governor's race. Even now, as these more results are coming in, he's back with us.
And breaking news, Democrats believe that they are putting Iowa back on the map after four-time Paralympian Josh Turek's victory last night, and he will be OUTFRONT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:20:16]
BURNETT: Breaking news, Iowa shifting in the Democratic direction. Two of the nation's top political forecasters are moving key races in Iowa closer to the Democrats. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report and Larry Sabato's crystal ball shifting their ratings of the state's U.S. Senate race from likely Republican to lean Republican after four- time Paralympian Josh Turek won the Democratic nomination for Senate there.
And it comes as President Trump faced a loss in Iowa on the Republican side. The candidate that he endorsed for governor lost his primary. So, Sabato's crystal ball is also moving that governor's race to a toss up after last night's election.
Obviously, when it comes to the Senate, it has been decades since there has been a Democratic senator from Iowa.
So OUTFRONT now, the now. Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate for Iowa, State Representative Josh Turek.
And, Representative Turek, I appreciate your time.
So Iowa has not elected a Democrat to the Senate in 18 years, right? So it has been a long time, but I just laid out those forecasters. So you've got more than one saying that your victory does increase Democratic chances to win.
Why do you think that is?
JOSH TUREK, DEMOCRATIC NOMINEE FOR U.S. SENATE IN IOWA: Well, first, thanks for having me. I would say it's because Iowans are hurting and they're hurting in a unique way. The state that is dead last for economic growth, 48th for personal income growth, one of two states already in an economic decline. We've closed 250 more healthcare clinics than we've opened, dead last for nearly every single healthcare metric. We lead the nation in cancer rates, and our rural communities have been decimated because of bad federal policy, because of the tariffs, Iowans are hurting.
And then we have a unique situation where first time since 1968, open governor's race along with an open Senate race. Two open congressional races.
And then you've got someone like Ashley Henson that has just made. Vote after vote after vote to hurt Iowans. Voted for the Big, Beautiful Bill, 110,000 Iowans lose their health care. Voted against the ACA subsidies, 119,000 Iowans seeing their health care premiums double triple four times voted in favor of the tariffs that have decimated our rural communities. And again today, voted against the War Powers Act.
Iowans in play for these reasons.
BURNETT: And those are -- I mean, you lay out all very significant points. Just looking at obviously the most recent frame of reference we have, right, which was Donald Trump in the presidential election. He won Iowa in a landslide. I mean, it was a 13.2 percentage point margin. I mean, that's the biggest, I believe. And obviously, you know your stats, Josh, but the widest margin for any candidate since all the way back to 1972.
Do you think that has really shifted? Because I mean, to turn something that big around, I mean, that's a titanic move. Is that what you're seeing?
TUREK: Yeah, I would tell you that -- first and foremost, to level set, I mean, I believe that this isn't a red state. This is a common sense state that's masqueraded more red than what it is. We're a state that for 30 years, we elected Senator Harkin, a state that twice voted for Obama, three times for Trump. We have more Obama-Trump counties than any other state in the Union.
That Trump's last midterm, and I think that there's significantly more energy and desire for change now, we won three of the four congressional races. And in 2022, the last midterm, we were only 1.5 percent away from having three of our six statewide officials being Democrats. This is a common sense state.
And then you've got great candidates like myself with proven results of being able to win over independents and moderate Republicans.
But Iowans are hurting in a very, very unique way. I think the tariffs have hurt us when we're out in rural communities and with farmers. We've moved into a farmageddon. We lead the nation in farm foreclosures, and the word that we hear the most is betrayal.
And the Trump signs, the Trump flags are coming down, and Iowans are ready for change, and they're ready for a common-sense prairie populist like myself that is going to go out there and fight for the people, not just for the billionaires and the large corporations.
BURNETT: It's interesting when you describe yourself as a common- sense populist, and I say this in the context of the establishment in Washington, the Democratic establishment, is obviously different. Now, you've got different wings of your party, but your opponent, obviously Ashley Hinson, the current Republican congresswoman, she, I think last night in her victory speech, made it pretty clear that she is going to take this Democrat on Democrat issue straight to you.
Here she is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ASHLEY HINSON (R-IA): He would mean more taxes, fewer jobs, higher prices, less certainty. He puts illegals before Americans, before Iowans. He wants to be in the U.S. Senate that badly. He ought to pack up and move to New York City with his friends Chuck Schumer and AOC because Turek does not share our values.
[19:25:00]
He embraces their values.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Schumer embraced you in the race. Obviously he didn't formally endorse you, but it is clear, right? The strategy there is to tie you to Schumer, the establishment, to AOC and the progressive left flank of your party.
Will you fight that or are you okay being linked to either of them?
TUREK: You know, the way I define myself is a common sense prairie populist, just like Senator Harkin and I think that the way forward in a state like Iowa is to be focused on kitchen table issues, on affordability -- on affordability and corruption.
This campaign is laser focused on a livable wage, affordable housing, health care is a human right, addressing our cancer crisis, water quality crisis, supporting our public schools, doing something to address the corruption in D.C. That means campaign finance reform, banning members of Congress from owning and trading stocks because you've got people like Ashley Hinson that have become ten times more wealthy in their time in D.C.
She's just been a rubber stamp for the Trump administration, and she's just looked out for the billionaires and the large corporations, the donors and the lobbyists, and this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity we have here in Iowa to once again have a populist that is actually going to be looking out for the people of Iowa.
And Iowans are excited for that. Everywhere that we're going all across the state, I can tell you, urban areas, rural areas, I'm seeing hope in people's eyes because they see something different in me.
BURNETT: All right. Well, Josh Turek, I appreciate your time very much. Josh, of course, is now the Democratic nominee for Senate from the state of Iowa. And thank you very much.
Hope anyone who hasn't seen Jeff Zeleny's profile of Josh that aired on the show the other night, we'll do that. We're going to repost it because it was excellent.
All right, thank you so much, Josh.
I want to go straight to Dave Wasserman now because he's the senior editor and elections analyst at "The Cook Political Report", one of the country's top election forecasters.
So interesting when you hear Josh Turek talk there, right? He's now the Democratic nominee for Iowa Senate, but careful to say how he described himself, right? That he describes himself as a common sense populist, right? It's not about wanting to be a Democrat.
But because of his victory, you have moved that race from a likely R, right, a state that hasn't elected a Democrat to Senate in 18 years, to lean R. How much momentum do you think Josh Turek has?
DAVID WASSERMAN, SENIOR EDITOR & ELECTION ANALYST, THE COOK POLITICAL REPORTER: Erin, Iowa's probably the single most important state of 2026, because not only is there a toss-up gubernatorial race between Rob Sand and Zach Lahn, who upset, by the way, Trump's pick, Randy Feenstra in the Republican primary, not only is the Senate race at the fulcrum of control of that chamber, but it's also got three House races that could determine how deep Democrats' gains in that lower chamber go and whether they're able to take it back.
Look, Republicans are hemorrhaging among two groups. We've seen President Trump's approval tank among not only Hispanic voters but also working class white voters. President Trump won about 64 percent of white voters without a college degree in 2024. According to our tracker, he's now underwater with that group at only 48 percent approval. And they're the single largest group of voters in Iowa.
When you add on top of that, he's cratering among independent voters, he won 48 percent of independent voters who make up a larger share of Iowa's electorate than in most states. And now his approval rating is at 26 percent.
And the unique ways in which Iowa's economy has been hit by higher input costs for fuel and fertilizers for farmers and tariffs --
(CROSSTALK)
BURNETT: Right.
Yeah. I know. It was interesting he was talking about some of that when it came to the tariffs and also health care, all of that.
A couple of other races I want to ask you about, Dave.
So, California governor's race, I don't know why they can't count out there, but they take a long time to count. So they're doing it.
But Republican Steve Hilton is in the top spot right now. More than half of the vote is in, 55 percent. But historically, the later votes counted tend to lean Democratic. Now that's historically, so we'll see. But you can see the margins here and you know history.
Obviously, you've had this race a solid D since January 2025. But are you surprised at Hilton's performance? I mean, I know there was a lot of talk that he could be in the top three, but if he really ends up at the top.
Well, this race seems like it's effectively over, Erin, because it is highly likely that Steve Hilton and Xavier Becerra are going to advance to this top two primary. There's no way that a Trump-endorsed Republican is going to win the general election. So the real victor here is Becerra.
BURNETT: Is Becerra.
All right, now, Maine, next week's elections in the Maine Senate race. The Maine Senate race is obviously national headlines now, and more and more keeps coming out about Graham Platner, who is running against Susan Collins, reported sexually explicit texts that he sent to other women, that his wife is the one who flagged the campaign, and obviously there was more before that. The Nazi tattoo, he's talked about, for example.
Where do you see this one going?
WASSERMAN: Well, it's going to take some time to sort out the fallout from these latest revelations, because Platner's message up until recently was that his indiscretions, his Reddit ramblings were a thing of the past and that he was a changed man who had moved on and learned from his past behavior.
[19:30:09]
These texts are very recent. And so it calls into question his trustworthiness. And I think the two key variables in the Senate are going to be how Maine voters are -- how -- the extent to which they're willing to overlook Platner's flaws to send a message to Donald Trump, and the extent to which Texas Republicans and independents are willing to overlook Ken Paxton's flaws to keep that seat in the Republican column.
Fundamentally, the Senate math is that Democrats not only have to sweep the purple states of Maine, North Carolina, Georgia, and Michigan, and Maine just got more complicated, but they also have to win at least two of the four reach states, these double-digit states of Iowa, Alaska, Ohio, and Texas.
Democrats have gotten good news in the past few weeks. They got the candidates they wanted out of Iowa and Texas. They got the Republican they wanted in Texas, and they have strong candidates in Sherrod Brown and Mary Peltola.
However, it's still going to be difficult for them to fend off the Republican onslaught trying to tie these Democratic nominees to cultural liberalism, and that's why I still put Democrats' odds in the Senate at somewhere between 35 and 40 percent.
BURNETT: All right. Well, thank you very much. Love talking to you and love seeing your analysis.
So, Dave, thank you very much.
And next, we have breaking news. These are live pictures out of L.A. That is where they are counting and counting and counting, counting. That does not look like there's a lot of counting going on. Hopefully it's just a bathroom break.
We've got the new numbers, though, because new ballots have come in. Our race for governor is still hanging in the balance. But Republican Steve Hilton is now in the lead. He is our guest.
And John King is standing by, going to go county by county to tell us what he's looking for as they count those votes in the Golden State.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:36:21]
BURNETT: Breaking news, two major races in California, too close to call right now. This is L.A. County live pictures. It looks like an Amazon
distribution facility. It is not. It is a poll counting, vote counting.
Thousands of outstanding ballots going through there. It's a pretty incredible operation. Takes way too long to do it, but it's impressive to look at it.
Xavier Becerra, a Democrat, and Steve Hilton, a Republican, are leading this hour. And we're going to speak with Hilton in just a moment. He has called the slow voting system in California insane.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEVE HILTON (R), CANDIDATE FOR CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR: By the end of last night, it was something, I don't know, around 50 percent counted, was nearly a whole day later, it was about 55 percent. Like, what have they been doing? What is going on? It is an absolute humiliation, an abject failure.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Meanwhile, the L.A. mayor's race, Karen Bass advancing to the November runoff. Spencer Pratt, who is a registered Republican and obviously had a lot of attention, is still in the running.
I want to go straight to Elex Michaelson at the L.A. County Registrar's Office where those votes are being counted.
And, Elex, I mean, behind it does. It looks like a massive warehouse facility. It's impressive, but it is taking an awful long time. And I don't see any people behind me right now, actually.
So what are you learning?
ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: These folks behind me just took a break. They say that they're staffed here 24/7.
We've just got some new numbers in the mayor's race. Let's bring that up on the screen. We got one update a day. We just got this update. It showed that Bass, today's ballots, 31.2 percent, Raman, 20.8 percent, Pratt is -- Raman at 31.2 percent, Bass at 38 percent, Pratt at 20 percent, about 3,000 pickup for Raman.
The good news for Spencer Pratt is Karen Bass is still doing well. Raman needs to do exceptionally well. And we did not see a massive pickup for her, which is good news for Pratt in that race as he tries to hold off her.
Let's talk about the governor's race right now. We are seeing the top two being Hilton and Becerra. Tom Steyer needs a massive number to make up the gap. We did not see a big gain for Tom Steyer in L.A. County, which is the biggest county of all, which is not good news for Tom Steyer.
It's increasingly looking likely like it is going to be Becerra and Hilton come November.
So why does it take so long to count all the ballots in California?
BURNETT: Yeah.
MICHAELSON: Well, it's the law. It takes -- they -- every single voter is mailed a ballot. They can return it up until the day of the election. As long as it's postmarked by Election Day, it has up to seven days to get to a processing center.
So we don't even know how many ballots are going to come in because there's still six more days to get the ballots. Then it goes through signature verification. There's a problem with signature verification. Then people have 10 days to come here and cure their ballot.
So this whole process takes about three weeks. Californians say it gives you more options, gets people involved in the process more, but critics say takes way too long -- Erin.
BURNETT: Yeah, and then we got to hear words like ballot curing and I start to get a little sick and have, you know, PTSD and yeah.
All right. Thank you very much, Elex Michaelson.
And I want to go to John King, who probably let me just let him recover from hearing about ballot curing. His magic wall is on the road tonight.
And John, okay. You've been watching the California race, obviously, you know, at the micro level since last night. But, you know, Elex was just going through some new results this hour. It's just overall Spencer Pratt still in second, but that the ballots that were coming in continue to look good for him because of how many Rahman needed to gain.
[19:40:03]
So where does the governor's race stand? Where do you think it's going?
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Lesson number one, Erin, if it's going to take a week, don't sit in the studio waiting. Get out on the road and cover some other races while you do it.
But let's show you the race in California. The mini magic is on the road with us. Elex just mentioned we did get a modest number of votes in California. And if you're Xavier Becerra in L.A. County, the largest county by far in the state, about 25 percent of the state's vote comes out of L.A. County. Xavier Becerra remains ahead in L.A. County.
So that if you're in that campaign, you think we're on track to make the final, right, to be one of the final two candidates. That's not official yet, but you think in the largest county we're running ahead, that does bode well for us. If you're Steve Hilton, this also bodes well for you, as Elex just
said. He's running second right now in L.A. County. We're up to about 62 percent in L.A. County. So we have several more days of this to go.
And you can do the math. Is there a big surprise? The Steyer surge late.
So, in the Steyer campaign, they'll say wait and count. And we absolutely should wait and count.
But if you look at the state's largest county right now, it looks like a Becerra-Hilton in the end. Again, you come out the statewide at the moment. And if you're Mr. Hilton in a very blue state, you're current in the lead with 28 percent if you round up there.
What else are we waiting for? We're told it's possible. We'll get a modest some votes, a modest number of votes out of Orange County tonight. That's a Republican County. Steve Hilton is running ahead there. The question would be does he lead as more votes come in. That would bode very well for him.
And who comes in second among the Democrats? You see Steyer running a distant third in Orange County. He would have to reverse that. Even in the Republican counties, he has to reverse his current state of play.
We're also told possibly tonight some votes in Riverside County. That's where Chad Bianco, he's the Riverside County Sheriff. He's the other Republican running. He's leading there. Hilton's running third.
But again, there's nothing in those numbers. Even if they stayed the same coming in, they're going to alter the fundamental dynamic we see right now statewide, which is if you're looking today, your eyes to tell you this is going to be Hilton-Becerra in November.
We can't go there officially yet. We have a lot more votes to count. Math can change sometimes. But the challenge for Steyer is, as we get more votes tonight and then more votes tomorrow, does he re -- is he starting to narrow that gap? Is he getting closer to second, if you will? Is he closing in on somebody?
If this time tomorrow night the answer is still no, the inevitable starts to kick in.
BURNETT: Okay, so now you talk about how you're out and on the road and people can look at your locator and that is Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where there's a lot going on behind you, including a pot flower. What are the crucial wastes that you're watching there?
KING: So we are here in Pennsylvania. This is the house primary. I want to come up, see if I can get you a little color in here. It'd be better if I get some color for you. Sorry, it's a little difficult to operate this on the road here. But there we go.
BURNETT: Let me see it.
KING: This is the Republican primaries that we had a little while back here in Pennsylvania.
So we are here. We are in Bucks County. That's the first congressional district. Brian Fitzpatrick is the Republican incumbent.
Democrats have three districts here. There's 105 mile stretch from the southernmost point of Bucks County to the northernmost point of Wayne County. That's the New York state border.
There are three districts. There's the first district here where we are in Bucks County. That's New Jersey. Tomorrow, we will be over here in the seventh congressional district. Going to move up to there, that's Allentown, Bethlehem, and Easton blue collar.
Then we're going to move up here to the 8th district, right up again. You see the New York border up in the northern part, but that also has Scranton there, some blue collar. These three districts, Democrats believe they can flip three seats.
Now, right now, the math says flip three seats and you get there. They need more than that because of redistricting. But this is a absolutely critical battleground for the Democratic map. Can these Republican incumbents hold on in this environment, which right now is obviously very pro-Democrat, very anti-Trump?
BURNETT: All right, John King, thank you very much in Bucks County.
And next, I'm going to speak to Steve Hilton, the Republican currently leading in the California gubernatorial race as those new numbers are coming in. So does he think that lead will hold?
Plus, a CNN investigation on Waymo revealing that robotaxis are putting pedestrians, passengers, and other drivers in potential danger.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:47:34]
BURNETT: Breaking news, President Trump putting himself in the middle of the California governor's race tonight, heaping praise on the Republican he endorsed, saying, quote, "Congratulations to Steve Hilton on coming in first last night in the California vote for governor. I know Steve. He is a hard-driving winner, and he will turn California around quickly, and the federal government will be there with him to help."
The Democrat, who appears also likely to advance, all too happy to have Trump at the center of the race.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
XAVIER BECERRA (D), CANDIDATE FOR CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR: Donald Trump is doubling down on decline and counting on people being too fearful, distracted, or gullible to fight back. As governor, I will never back down from the threats of small cowards in big offices. I sued Trump more than 120 times before, and I won, and I won, and I won. (END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: And Steve Hilton is now OUTFRONT.
And as I said, Steve, you are currently in the lead. So 55 percent of the vote is currently in for your race. And our John King was going through the rules in California. Why this -- why this whole process by law takes a long time.
But so, you're currently in the top spot. In the past, later votes that were counted tended to lean to Democrats. Do you think that your early lead could vanish? And if so, are you still at this point, or are you confident that you're going to be in that top two necessary to advance no matter what?
HILTON: Yeah, you're right, Erin. There used to be this phenomenon known as the red mirage, looking good for Republicans on election night, and then it slowly disappears.
I think that the scale of our lead not so much over Xavier Becerra, who's in the second position. What really counts is the gap between myself and the person in third place, Tom Steyer, because of course, it would be nice for me to finish first after all the votes are counted, but what really counts is just being in the top two, so we can advance to the general election and make the case for change.
It really seems very implausible now for Tom Steyer and Xavier Becerra both to overtake me. So we're pretty confident that I will be in the top two and able to argue for change in November.
BURNETT: So, look, Trump's praise of you today was obviously glowing. You and I talked the other day, and you're happy to have that support, I know. You see yourself as wanting to work with the president.
Chad Bianco, though, is another Republican candidate for governor.
[19:50:01]
So, we've been looking at his numbers. He's obviously at the bottom. It obviously -- seems impossible at this point that he would be a contender. But he said this yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHAD BIANCO (R), CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR CANDIDATE: There is no world imaginable where Steve Hilton wins in the November election, not only because he's a Fox News host, but because he's endorsed by the president. How does that work in California? It doesn't work.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Dave Wasserman, I know you've been so busy, you probably didn't hear this, but he was on the block before going about various states. He's obviously with "The Cook Political Report".
HILTON: Uh-huh. BURNETT: And he said, and I quote, Steve, this race seems like it is effectively over. There is no way a Trump-endorsed Republican is going to win the general election. So the victor here is Becerra.
What do you say to Dave Wasserman, who's obviously his job is handicapping these things, and Chad Bianco, who's a Republican like you who ran against you?
HILTON: I think they're very different categories. I think that's -- that is -- let's start with Dave Wasserman. Of course, that's the conventional wisdom. I totally understand that. And that's how it has been in California.
So it's not surprising that someone who doesn't actually live here would say that. But if you do live here, if you experience what's going on in California, then I think you'll pick up a real sense of more than frustration, even rage, against what's been happening here.
You've got 56 percent of Californians now saying that the state is moving in the wrong direction, real frustration with the fact that we pay the highest taxes in the country and get some of the worst results.
And so I think that actually this year could be different. There's another really important thing to bear in mind, which is that there's a ballot initiative that's going to be on the ballot in November for voter ID. And that's a very popular initiative right across the board, Republicans and Democrats and independents. And I think that's going to help drive turnout in a way that's helpful to us.
So I think looking at basically the record of the Democrats after 16 years in power, and the fact that we got the highest gas prices, highest cost of living on everything, highest poverty rate, highest unemployment rate, the crime, the homelessness, all these things. And you've got a candidate in Xavier Becerra, if it's him, who's explicitly saying that he doesn't think that there's anything that's been done he disagrees with and isn't offering any kind of change. I think that we will have a shot at winning.
I don't think it's going to be easy, but we're going to work very hard because we can't let California continue down this path of decline.
As for Chad Bianco, look, it's tough to lose an election. And I think that in the moment when that happens, people say things that reflect their state of mind. But I think on reflection, we'll be able to work together. And that's very much my hope that Chad and I and everyone who wants change, even perhaps some of the Democrat candidates who lost, like Matt Mahan, the mayor of San Jose, we can work together to make things better for Californians.
BURNETT: All right. Steve Hilton, thank you very much. I appreciate speaking to you again.
And next, a CNN investigation uncovering Waymo robotaxis are running into problems. We'll show you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:55:58]
BURNETT: Tonight, running red lights, narrowly avoiding hitting pedestrians, a new CNN investigation on the self-driving robotaxi company Waymo revealing dangerous safety problems as it is trying to expand.
Kyung Lah is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) is that Waymo doing?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, (EXPLETIVE DELETED) the Waymo's on the track.
KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These are all Waymo robotaxis, and you may have seen one of these videos on social media.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That definitely ran a red light. Oh my God.
LAH (voice-over): As Waymo aggressively expands to new and more complicated cities, our CNN analysis of public records, including calls for service, police reports, and city council meetings, finds hundreds of incidents where Waymos are confused in everyday moments, putting pedestrians, passengers, and others on the road in potentially dangerous situations.
If you don't know what a Waymo is, this is it.
LAH: There's no driver behind this wheel. It is a high-tech car equipped with cameras and sensors, and that's because Waymos are entirely self-driving.
You order a ride with your phone in some cities, even through the Uber or Lyft app, and it takes you without any driver to where you need to go.
LAH (voice-over): On its website, Waymo says its robotaxis had driven more than 170 million miles through the end of last year. And it says peer-reviewed data shows that Waymos are better than humans at avoiding crashes that result in injuries.
The company shared this video with us of several close calls. Waymo showing off the ability to swerve last second and dodge people, possibly better than a human driver could.
This is all pretty new tech, learning in real time. But we found it's creating a whole new set of safety problems.
The incidents are just a snapshot of the concerns because federal and state rules don't require Waymo to fully track near misses and other safety issues.
Waymo tells CNN it safely completes more than half a million rides every week. And those smooth, uneventful rides, they don't go viral.
But here's some key themes we did see in records.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Connected to rider support.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi, the car is going the wrong way. It's going on the wrong side of the road.
LAH (voice-over): Over and over again, we came across reports of Waymo's breaking basic traffic and safety laws, like in this video from Austin, Texas, where Waymo appeared to cross double yellow lines and drove on the wrong side of the road.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, (EXPLETIVE DELETED), the Waymo's on the track. What an idiot. Here comes a train.
LAH (voice-over): Or even going completely off the road. This is in Phoenix. The Waymo drove onto the light rail tracks with a passenger still inside. Light rail workers responded, and the passenger got out okay.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, get out, get out, get out.
LAH: There's any number of reasons for what might be happening in moments like this when Waymos appear stuck. The company says when their cars face an uncertain situation, they'll pick the safest option, including coming to a stop.
Another possible explanation, Waymo says that at any point in time, they have 70 remote human assistance operators working. Half of them are based in the Philippines, and Waymo doesn't require that they have a U.S. driver's license. When a Waymo faces an ambiguous situation, it may send a request to those operators who can give it a suggested maneuver, but the car can still decide to accept or reject the advice.
LAH (voice-over): Another problem we kept seeing, how Waymos respond to ambulances, police cars, and fire trucks, failing to stop or even blocking the route entirely.
First responders are even having to move the Waymos themselves during an emergency.
MARY ELLEN CARROLL, SAN FRANCISCO DEPARTMENT OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: They're becoming a default assistance, roadside assistance for these vehicles, which we do not think is tenable.
LAH (voice-over): Waymo told us in the last month they've reduced the number of Waymo-initiated emergency calls by over 50 percent. No technology is perfect, Waymo says in a statement to CNN.
But unlike humans, the number of Waymo-initiated emergency calls by over 50 percent. No technology is perfect, Waymo says in a statement to CNN. But unlike humans, Waymo takes community feedback and applies those safety learnings to our entire fleet. That has led to a 13 times reduction in serious injury crashes compared to human drivers.
Kyung Lah, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: Thanks to Kyung, and thanks to all of you for being with us.
"AC360" starts now.
