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Erin Burnett Outfront
Trump: Pulte's Status As Acting Intel Boss Gives Him "More Power"; New Protests In Albania Over Ivanka Trump & Kushner's Resort Plans; CNN Projects Dem Xavier Becerra Will Advance In California Governor's Race. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired June 05, 2026 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:26]
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next:
Breaking news, unshackling America's spy chief. President Trump claiming that's what he's doing by making Bill Pulte the temporary director of national intelligence to crucial position, access to everything.
The person going to get the job doesn't even have a security clearance. Trump is glad with that. He's got a list.
Plus, turning on the Trumps. The outrage is growing over Ivanka Trump's plans to build a billion dollar luxury resort on a secluded island.
And the mysterious disappearance of an American college student. He vanished when he was on a family trip to Japan. His mother joins us with the latest on the search.
Let's go OUTFRONT.
(MUSIC)
BURNETT: And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.
OUTFRONT tonight, Trump says the truth. The reason that he tapped Bill Pulte, his disciple, with zero experience to be the top spy chief of the United States. Trump telling "The Wall Street Journal" that he is tasking Pulte with firing national security experts who served in multiple other administrations and says that he's putting Pulte on the job on a temporary basis because going around Congress to get his acolyte with zero experience in the role gives him power. Trump said it.
He said, quote, "You're less shackled. It sort of gives you more power, for a somewhat limited period of time." Now, he mentions limited period of time because when you're a temporary in this job, you get to do it for 210 days. Well, that's a hell of a long time when you're thinking about the things you have access to in that job.
And Pulte is tapped to do it without having a security clearance. That is a prerequisite for the job. It is a crucial thing for any important job in intelligence in the United States government, never mind the top job that has access to everything.
In fact, sources tell CNN there is no evidence Pulte had even the lowest form of security clearance before he was named acting DNI. And he's never been vetted to see if he's potentially compromised. What things could be out there about him that he would be embarrassed about? Well, those things matter.
And as our Ryan Goodman tells us, as DNI, Pulte would get access to vast troves of information. Americans' emails, texts, phone calls, and that's just the tip of the iceberg.
But Trump thinks Pulte is perfect for this job.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Why do you want Bill Pulte to come to the office of the director of national intelligence? How long is he going to be in there?
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Depends on how long it takes to get somebody approved. He'll do a very good job. He'll watch it closely, but Bill Pulte is very good.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Bill Pulte is very good at doing what Trump wants him to do. He has been doing Trump's bidding as the nation's top housing official. He went after Adam Schiff, Letitia James, Lisa Cook, others, all on mortgage fraud, supposedly, although the definition he used isn't the definition of mortgage fraud.
But his lack of experience and preparation for the job is part of the reason why Republicans on Capitol Hill are firmly opposed to Pulte being DNI.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. BRIAN FITZPATRICK (R-PA): The guy's got no national security experience. I've had zero interaction with him, and that's a concern.
SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R-TX): I see no evidence of any qualifications for that job.
SEN. THOM TILLIS (R-NC): I don't know of any national security experience he has.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: No national security experience. But Trump tells "The Wall Street Journal" that one of Pulte's first orders of business will be firing people who do have national security experience, people who are career members of the intelligence community. And that's not all.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: He's a very smart guy, and he may find out some things about the rigged elections, et cetera, et cetera.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Well, of course, the elections weren't rigged. And Trump has actually now been claiming that the election in California is rigged.
And tonight, we are seeing the impact of those claims in Los Angeles. Trump's DOJ today sending a prosecutor to observe the ballots being processed in L.A. And the top U.S. attorney there says his office has, quote, "multiple election fraud investigations underway". Now, we'll see. Look into it.
But there is no evidence that the slow pace of the count from Tuesday's primary is any sign of fraud, because by law in California, if you mail it on Election Day, whenever it arrives, it gets to be counted. And then if there's a problem, you get another 10 days.
It's a terrible process. But it is the process. It is not fraud.
Kristen Holmes is OUTFRONT live outside the White House to begin our coverage tonight.
Kristen, what is the latest you're learning about the thinking on Pulte's role at DNI? Because the president did come out and say the quiet part out loud to "The Wall Street Journal" today.
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, and Erin, there is deep concern in the intelligence community.
[19:05:01]
I'm talking to these intelligence officials, people who work with intelligence officials who say that President Trump is out here essentially saying they want Pulte to gut the intelligence community. But Pulte has absolutely no knowledge about intelligence. And as you mentioned, he didn't even have a security clearance when he was tapped for this role.
Just yesterday was the first time that the administration reached out to begin the vetting process on Bill Pulte. So what you're looking at here, and this is what my sources are saying as well, they feel as though President Trump wants Pulte in this role, not as the head of the intelligence -- the chief of intelligence for the United States of America, but instead as somewhat of a loyal, rabid project manager who is going to go in and gut out the agency.
And that is where the real concern is. What does it mean and how, if you have none of this experience, do you know who is important and critical to national security, to the intelligence community? And part of what this job is, is spanning across multiple administrations, is spending that time gathering intelligence across multiple administrations so that you are the most well-versed person in a certain subject.
That would mean that Bill Pulte would be going in and taking people who maybe were even appointed by President Trump but then stayed through the next administration, through the Biden administration. So there is a lot of concern there that, one, he doesn't know what he's doing. Two, he's going to come in and just try to clean house and really disrupt the national security of the country.
BURNETT: Kristen, thank you very much.
And everyone's here with me on this Friday.
Okay, Max, can I just start with you? Because you've had security clearance, you've gone through the vetting process.
That process was started on Thursday for Pulte, but he gets the job because Trump's going to appoint him temporary. By doing that, Congress doesn't approve, so he's in. So he gets access to things.
How much does that worry you, that someone -- I mean, access to everything. I mean, I said Americans text, emails, phone calls.
MAX ROSE (D), FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE: Sure.
BURNETT: That's a lot, but it is the tip of the iceberg.
ROSE: And it's actually kind of crazy that he's starting without that vetting being completed, because just to put it into perspective, his office is a secure area. Like, I'm not even sure he's allowed to be sitting at his desk.
BURNETT: At his own desk, right.
ROSE: At his own desk. It goes that far. People are not allowed to carry their cell phones when they enter his general office area. And by that, I mean where his chief of staff sits, where his advisors sit, and all the rest, an entire complex that is considered a secure facility, and they are letting him initiate this job.
The entire aspect of the job, highly sensitive, well before they understand who he's worked with in the past, who he's had business engagements in the past, who he's borrowed money from, who he's done business with, all these things.
BURNETT: Yeah, where he could be compromised when you're giving him access to everything. I mean, it's really stunning to give access, Christina, to everything.
CHRISTINA GREER, POLITICAL PODCASTER: Well, we're -- we're going to see a man who doesn't even know what he doesn't know. This is someone who has a job because granddaddy built a very successful company. Pulte owns a few --
BURNETT: Pulte Homes is one of the largest homebuilders in the country.
GREER: Great. Congratulations to your grandfather, right? Successful capitalism. He owns -- Pulte himself owns some rental properties and things like that. He wasn't even qualified for the job that he had. So the fact that
he's going to be a national security director puts not just, as Max knows very well, our Foreign Service folks in jeopardy, our military in jeopardy, those of us at home in jeopardy. He has no idea what he's running.
And what we've seen with this administration is that they want it to operate on a skeleton crew so that they have the money for all these other pet projects, you know, pools and ballrooms and pergolas or whatever they are interested in.
BURNETT: Pergolas?
(LAUGHTER)
BURNETT: Doug?
DOUG HEYE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Don't give him any ideas.
GREER: No, I know. I mean, right now.
BURNETT: We're going to add one. Doug --
GREER: I was thinking of the arch.
HEYE: Gondolas.
BURNETT: Arch, yes.
GREER: I know she was thinking of the arch. It was like, think of the arch.
BURNETT: Doug, but you've been talking to people, key U.S. allies. Okay? There's a lot of problems already in the relationship with trust.
HEYE: Yeah, and folks on the Hill. But if you talk to people who worked in the Five Eyes area, they were very concerned about Pulte --
BURNETT: Five Eyes meaning U.K., Australia, America's closest allies, yeah.
HEYE: And who share intelligence together. And one of the concerns with Tulsi Gabbard was, well, they're just not going to share things with Tulsi because they don't trust her.
No, I talked to somebody in the U.K. earlier this week and they said this is even more the case now. And if you talk to Republicans on the Hill, anyone who doesn't put on the Trump is always right about everything hat, they'll privately tell you, some are starting to say it publicly, they have very real concerns about what they don't know and what could come next and the effects of that.
BURNETT: Well, we're seeing in so many spheres of American life, people who don't know what they don't know, the destruction that they can cause, right, to organizations, and now including the intelligence agency of the United States.
So today, not today, this week, Marco Rubio was asked about it. Now, Marco Rubio walks a fascinating line. And I think everybody struggles to understand, you know, what he does and when and what.
[19:10:00]
But on the issue of Bill Pulte, he made it clear where he stands when he was testifying on Capitol Hill and the issue came up. Here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPJ)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 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?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's what I said.
RUBIO: No.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: He didn't even wait for the question. Okay, there wasn't any attempt at sort of, I'm going to try to be nice to appease the boss there.
ROSE: Yeah. Good on -- first of all, good on him. But in many ways, Secretary Rubio is a litmus test for which way the tides are turning. This was a guy that 10 years ago was making fun of Donald Trump and then turned in to his fully owned subsidiary.
And I think what Marco Rubio is highlighting here is, one, there's actually not majority Senate support for his confirmation. So he is not the last DNI that this administration will see. But secondly, this is a --
BURNETT: But he could get 210 unfettered dates.
ROSE: Undeniably.
BURNETT: Yeah.
ROSE: Undeniably. I'm not sure it would be even that long if he won't get confirmation. But what will be accomplished in those 210 days or even in 60 days is he will be a national embarrassment.
Every time he comes to the mic and is asked a question with any degree of complexity about national security or intelligence matters, he will be unable to answer it. And Marco Rubio clearly understands that.
BURNETT: He clearly does.
And then the other thing Trump said, right, he said that he wants him to get rid of a whole bunch of people who have experience. He said that he said it gives him more power. He was honest about that. And then he was also honest about -- he wants Bill Pulte, in the role of DNI, to get all kinds of information about the rigged election.
GREER: Right, and we know that the president is obsessed with rigged elections. Don't forget, in 2016, he said the election was rigged when he thought that he was going to lose to Hillary Clinton. So we've always seen this with Donald Trump. We've seen him also specifically go after Black female candidates and Black female electeds and public servants. That's been a special pet cause of his.
And Bill Pulte, you know, sort of went in line when he was in housing, going after Tish James.
BURNETT: Yeah.
GREER: So, it's no surprise that Karen Bass, who's an African-American female, mayor of Los Angeles, is part of this umbrella with the president. And then I think the president really does like having a skeleton crew so that he does have more power. The fewer people that are part of the bureaucracy, the fewer people who have institutional memory, the fewer people who can stand up and say this is a bridge too far and we actually don't want to do your bidding, that actually creates roadblocks for the president.
So if you get rid of all those people, you're just stuck with a small number of sycophants that actually do your bidding.
BURNETT: Doug, also, we're in a situation with a war that is still going on, right? That was supposed to last a few days and it's still going on. A war that U.S. intelligence had assessed that Iran was not. They're not getting a nuclear weapon, right? And then Trump listened to others, and he went ahead with this.
But it makes the point to Americans about what's at stake. If you remove the people in there who will even tell you those truths, even if you're going to ignore them, if you're not even hearing them anymore, the significance literally is war and peace.
HEYE: Sure, and that's not just Iran. That's obviously Lebanon now, potentially Syria. Obviously, we haven't talked about Ukraine on this show in a while, but that's a very real concern of what Russia and China are trying to do and to -- if you want to make the case that there are reforms that should be made in the intelligence community and at the agency, fine.
He's not -- but he's not making those cases. And what he's doing is clearly not using a scalpel. He's using a meat cleaver or, as we saw in DOGE, a chainsaw. And that could have very real problems. Ultimately, we know if anything goes wrong, we know where the blame is going to be pointed. And that's the real risk for Donald Trump. And sometimes, a lot of the time, he sort of loses sight of that.
BURNETT: All right, thank you all very much.
And next, the breaking news, massive protests erupting over Ivanka Trump's plans to build a billion dollar luxury resort. Also breaking, Iran just firing several of its killer drones. The U.S.
military saying it's taken some of them out, as the war continues. We're going to take you live on the ground to Tehran tonight.
And U.S. astronauts forced to seek shelter after new cracks and leaks were discovered on the International Space Station. Former astronaut who dealt with this when he was in space is our guest. And you're going to want to hear why he is worried that this crew could be in real danger.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:18:56]
BURNETT: Breaking news, new mass protests against a luxury resort tied to Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner. I mean, look at that. Those are protests against one of the Trump family's big projects. It marks the sixth straight day that people in Albania have taken to the streets, protests that are growing and have seen heated clashes with police, all because Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner have plans to turn a wildlife reserve area on a lagoon, and it was a former communist era military base, that is now a wildlife reserve.
And they're going to -- the plans are to turn it into a massive resort. Ivanka Trump just days ago talked about it. She brought it up, talking on a podcast about how she says she discovered the area.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
IVANKA TRUMP, DAUGHTER OF PRESIDENT TRUMP: We were on a friend's boat and we stopped for a swim. Effectively, that's how we found it.
We swam to the islands. We went on a hike barefoot all the way up to the top and we were just captivated and it stayed with us ever since.
For me, this is -- it feels more like a challenge than anything else, the culmination of all of my experience in real estate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[19:20:09]
BURNETT: So protesters also want more transparency about the involvement of the investment firm linked to Kushner. A firm at "The Washington Post", citing an SEC filing, says obtained $2 billion in funding from Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund.
Albania's government is defending the project, saying that, well, it's going to help Albania get a high-end tourist destination.
And the prime minister -- there was an incredible interview. Hope you'll watch the whole thing. But he was extremely defiant in a really great interview with our Isa Soares. He sounded a lot like Donald Trump himself. He tried to insist that everything that's been reported about this, including the protests themselves, don't exist.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
EDI RAMA, PRIME MINISTER OF ALBANIA: This is fake. Fake pictures.
It's fake news. Sensational.
Fake news. There is not such a thing like a Trump family island.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Well, a spokesperson for the project says to OUTFRONT that we're excited about the opportunity to create a world-class destination and make it one of the largest private investments in the region's history.
And of course, this is far from the first controversial business deal involving a member of the Trump family while Trump is president. In fact, it's just the tip of a very giant iceberg.
And it all comes as Donald Trump net worth on the 2026 Forbes billionaires list hit its highest point ever, $6.5 billion. Being president is paying big time.
And "Forbes" senior editor Dan Alexander is OUTFRONT.
And, Dan, so it's just amazing. We live in a world where you're looking at something with your own eyes and someone's telling you it's fake and not happening. But based on your reporting at "Forbes", how much could Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner stand to gain from this project?
DAN ALEXANDER, SENIOR EDITOR, FORBES: It's very difficult to know. And largely that's because although Jared is doing high level diplomacy all over the world, he still hasn't filed a financial disclosure report, which would tell us about the structure of his underlying investments.
But if you just do some rough math, I mean, this is reportedly a $1.4 billion project. Let's say that it doubles its money. In a typical structure, a private equity firm would get about 20 percent of the profits. That gets you to maybe $280 million.
Now, I want to emphasize that that's all super theoretical, not just because we don't know --
BURNETT: Yeah.
ALEXANDER: -- how well this project's going to do, but also because the structure of Jared Kushner's holdings is extremely murky.
BURNETT: Right, which in and of itself, just to point out, is a major issue, given the role that he has in national security and other things that is unprecedented. You've covered the Trump family, obviously, for years, Dan. You and I have talked back in the first administration, and I know even before that you were talking about Donald Trump.
And I know that you think Ivanka and Jared could actually lean into the opposition to this project. Explain what you mean.
ALEXANDER: Well, look, controversy affects every project that the Trumps are involved with. And what you've seen over the years is that there are some places where that's a negative, like in the United States. They lost a lot of their product licensing deals. They tried to do these upscale hotels in the first term that never really panned out.
But overseas, there are some markets where it's apparently been a good thing, controversy, notoriety, fame, it all sort of draws in big money. You see that principally in the Middle East and in Asia. The question is whether that carries over also to Southeastern Europe, where the Trumps are now doing a lot of business.
But you can certainly make an argument that it does, and there's no question that a lot more people know about this island and this planned resort because of all of the controversy.
BURNETT: That's for sure. Now, she also, during that podcast, where it was sort of a very romantic description of climbing to the top of that island, she made a sales pitch for it. Here she is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
I. TRUMP: It's an unbelievable, beautiful 1,400-hectare private island in the middle of the Mediterranean. We developed the opportunity to help realize its potential and transform it in this beautiful peninsula with a lagoon on one side, the ocean on the other, beautiful white sand beaches.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: I mean, Dan, we've heard a lot. You've done a lot of incredible reporting about how the Trump family has profited from Trump's presidency. And we hear a lot about Don Jr. and Eric and crypto. We hear about some of those investments, but we, frankly, have not heard as much recently about Ivanka.
But you say she and her husband, Jared, are actually doing even better, are worth even more than her brothers?
ALEXANDER: As a couple, certainly. We estimate that Jared and Ivanka together worth roughly $1.1 billion. Now, in 2018, we estimated that they were worth about $375 million. That's been a big increase over the last handful of years.
And one significant part of that, in 2018, we estimated that they were worth about $375 million. That's been a big increase over the last handful of years. And one significant part of that is that Jared, shortly after leaving office in 2021, founds this investment firm, raises a ton of capital from the Middle East, and invests in projects like this island that we're looking at in Albania.
BURNETT: Absolutely incredible. All, obviously, relationships that were made and secured while his father-in-law was president then and now. Thank you very much, Dan.
And next, a major scare on the International Space Station. American astronauts at one point ordered to seek shelter. The threat is not over.
Plus, we have some breaking news developing right now. The U.S. military is saying that it just took out several Iranian killer drones.
Our Fred Pleitgen is on the ground in Iran. He just spoke to the supreme leader's advisor. An important interview, and Fred is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:30:36]
BURNETT: Breaking news, Iran firing warning shots near the Strait of Hormuz tonight as U.S. Central Command announces that forces shot down four Iranian one-way attack drones that were launched towards the Strait of Hormuz, adding that the drones posed an immediate threat. It comes as a senior military advisor to Iran's supreme leader is speaking to our Fred Pleitgen inside Iran. I will note that CNN operates in Iran with permission of the government but does maintain full editorial control.
Fred Pleitgen is OUTFRONT. He is back in Tehran.
And I want to ask you about this rare and incredibly important interview that you have with the supreme leader's advisor. Fred, I got to start first, though, with this breaking news, these attack drones that the U.S. is calling them. Iran talking about warning shots.
What do you understand is happening?
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, well, Erin, it certainly seems like though it was another major incident there in the Strait of Hormuz. What we're gleaning right now from Iranian state media, but also from the US, it appears to have happened right at the sort of most narrow point of the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. is saying that some of those strikes that it conducted against radar sites, it says, from the Iranians happened, for instance, against Larak Island, which is really almost the most narrow point of the Strait of Hormuz.
Again, the U.S. Central Command saying that the Iranians launched several drones, those drones posed a threat. The U.S. then hit some ground stations.
With the Iranians from state media and state-affiliated media, one of the things that we heard is that there were apparently anti-aircraft fire and then also some explosions that could be heard in that area, also, of course, indicating that another major incident there could be underway.
Now the Iranians state media saying that it could possibly have been warning shots, also related maybe to U.S. repositioning of ships in the Sea of Oman, which of course is south of the Strait of Hormuz. But it's one of things that we've been seeing over the past couple of days, that volatile situation with the U.S. and Iran sort of trading shots in the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, which, of course, makes for an extremely dangerous situation, Erin.
BURNETT: And, Fred, in a moment like this, you had an opportunity to speak to the supreme leader's advisor, an opportunity that, frankly, no one has and no one in the U.S. government seems to have at this moment. So what did he tell you?
PLEITGEN: Well, first of all, one of the things that he pointed out is he said, at least from the Iranian perspective, that right now the talks certainly are at a very difficult stage. He talked about them being stalled, being deadlocked.
The Iranians saying that they want $24 billion in frozen assets unfrozen, saying, look, this is Iran's money. This is not the US's money.
One of the things that really stood out to me is I asked the advisor to the Supreme Leader what it would take for all this to move forward. And he basically said that the ball right now is in President Trump's court. Here's what he told me.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PLEITGEN: The Trump administration says that Iran is going very slow to reach a memorandum of understanding. Is Iran deliberately making this process slow?
MOHSEN REZAEI, SENIOR MILITARY ADVISER TO IRAN'S SUPREME LEADER (through translator): The ball is in Mr. Trump's court. He has brought the negotiations to a deadlock. First, he does not observe the rules of negotiations, which means that there should be transparency in negotiations.
He speaks ambiguously, and in his memoirs, he wrote that whoever we speak with, we should keep them in a state of ambiguity. Well, ambiguity may have results in relation to other countries, but in relation to Iran, ambiguity will have the opposite effect. Therefore, the problem with the negotiations is Mr. Trump himself.
PLEITGEN: So the frozen assets are the big problem right now?
REZAEI (through translator): This is a sign of trust building. If Trump takes the negotiations seriously, $24 billion is not much to America.
If he wants to reach an agreement with Iran, this $24 billion is a test of trust that Iran wants to have with Trump. This is a test that America must pass, and the path will be opened.
PLEITGEN: Do you believe then right now that the chance is bigger that there will be an agreement or that the chance is bigger that it will be back to war? REZAEI (through translator): It depends on America. It is better for America to negotiate. The cost of negotiating with us is much less than fighting with us for America. If they enter into war, America will enter into a dark corridor. They will have to fight both in the Strait of Hormuz and in the Persian Gulf, so the possibility of war is low.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[19:35:04]
PLEITGEN: That was Mohsen Rezaei, the main military advisor to Iran's supreme leader, speaking to me earlier today, Erin.
Of course, we did speak more about the Strait of Hormuz as well. And he said, look, the Strait of Hormuz is Iranian territorial water and Omani territorial water, for the Iranians are saying they will retain control over the Strait of Hormuz. However, they seem to be backing away from the idea of charging tolls for tankers, for instance, and other ships to go through there. They say, though, that there will be or there could be administrative and environmental fees.
So certainly the Iranians not backing away from saying that is their territorial water and they are going to retain control over it, Erin.
BURNETT: All right, toll or environmental fee.
All right, Fred Pleitgen, thank you very much. Obviously, fascinating what that supreme leader advisor said when he said the problem with the negotiations is Mr. Trump himself.
And more breaking news, cracks and leaks on the International Space Station tonight, forcing astronauts to seek shelter in the Dragon capsule, the small capsule that astronauts use to come and go from Earth. NASA taking the extreme precaution as Russian astronauts were conducting repairs on their side of the space station, raising the risk, NASA felt, of a deadly rupture.
OUTFRONT now, retired NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy. He went up to the International Space Station three times, served alongside astronaut Jessica Meir. She is up there right now. So was -- went through all of that today.
So, Chris, when you hear what happened to Jessica, NASA has done this, that they took this extreme precaution, as they call it, to shelter on the Dragon spacecraft. How serious is that?
CHRIS CASSIDY, FORMER NASA ASTRONAUT AND NAVY SEAL: Well, good evening, Erin. And those kind of situations don't happen very often in a six-month mission for an individual crew. It's pretty rare. We -- there's three big things, toxic atmosphere, depressurization, or a fire. And this is one of those items.
For Mission Control to call up and say, hey, we want you to stop all activity and move down to your emergency escape vehicle, it means that they see a really high perceived risk. So -- but the challenge that we have right now is I think the Russian side, the management in Moscow, sees a different perceived risk than the risk is assessed in Houston. So that's where you're kind of seeing this difference in postures, if you will, but still a big deal.
BURNETT: I mean, yeah, obviously, cosmonauts, we understand, according to NASA via Reuters, is that they were going to use a saw to reach an area that they believe that -- there are cracks. I mean, we know there's issues with the ISS, which is a big and serious issue, but they were going to use a saw to access a crack leaking air. And that NASA disagreed with this method.
Obviously, the use of the word saw when we're talking about the ISS, I think makes anybody watching kind of makes their hair stand up. Maybe the way that we see the word -- isn't the way that the word actually applies on the ISS, but what could be the concerns about using a saw?
CASSIDY: Well, Erin, while -- I was, my last mission in 2020, this same leaking module first identified itself and it's been a pesky little problem, not little problem, it's been a problem for the last six years. So I don't know the exact specific spot, but there's a lot of hull penetrations, there's a lot of welds, there's a lot of metal in this area and so probably what they're trying to do is get access to the to the specific location so they can apply some sort of fix to it.
But breaking out a saw, breaking out a torch, breaking out something that God that could possibly cause more damage is sort of a big deal and a knuckle ringer certainly for safety folks
BURNETT: And you're worried about where all this could lead.
CASSIDY: Well, really, the end of the space station is coming. I think this kind of accelerates that conversation. How do we deal with this problem with respect to what's left of the life of the space station? Look, I think the space station in general is in fine shape. It's a machine that's doing really well.
But structural mechanical issues can happen, and this location is where the Russian cargo ships have been docking for 20-plus years. So there's a lot of metal stress and fatigue in the area, and I think that's what we're seeing.
BURNETT: All right, thank you very much. I appreciate your time tonight, Chris.
And next, the breaking news. The search expanding tonight. It's now Saturday morning in Tokyo for the missing American student who vanished without a trace while on vacation with his family in Japan. His mother speaks out next.
Plus, Hunter Biden -- have you seen Hunter Biden online? It's really something else, and it's really odd, and you've got to see it, and we have a special report.
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BURNETT: Breaking news, the family expanding the search this hour for an Alabama college student who's vanished without a trace. He was on a family vacation with his mother, his father, his brother in Japan. James Weston Higginbotham disappeared 8 days ago. He was last seen in the Kyoto area of Japan on May 29th and the family believes that he could be in the mountains nearby.
Local hiker familiar with the terrain describing the area as deceptively dangerous, with steep trails, dense forest, and several fatalities reported every year. There are also recent warnings of bear sightings in the area.
Now, Weston was last seen wearing these clothes, including this Save the Bees t-shirt. Searchers fear that he would have had little access to food in the mountains, making every hour of this search increasingly critical.
OUTFRONT now, searchers fear that he would have had little access to food in the mountains, making every hour of this search increasingly critical.
OUTFRONT now from Kyoto, Japan, James Weston Higginbotham's mother, Nancy.
And Nancy, I'm very grateful to be talking to you. I know we are all praying that you are going to get good news and very, very soon. I know it's obviously early morning and the search is starting up again. Where are you searching now?
NANCY HIGGINBOTHAM, MOTHER OF AMERICAN MISSING IN JAPAN: Well, we are continuing to search at the Yamashina Woods, and yesterday, the police department came and they circled off the area that they have already done an extensive search. So now my husband came up with a game plan last night of where we're going to search today.
You know, the hikers that are less experienced are going to stay on this side of the mountain, but we've already sent over many, many over to Shiga (ph), which is a more. It needs somebody who has more experience in hiking, so we have several -- several people out there right now looking for him.
BURNETT: And, Nancy, it's obviously just unimaginable to think of being on a vacation as you were with your boys and something like this happening. What do you think happened?
HIGGINBOTHAM: We had a little argument. So after lunch, we reconvened in the hotel and decided that, you know, we all probably needed a little bit of space. So Weston, we went by -- my son, my husband and I went to a temple and Weston chilled out in the hotel room for a little bit and then he walked by the river and went to a couple stores and then he took the train and that's when, you know, unfortunately, he turned off his locations.
So the police were able to track through CCT video that he stopped at the Yamashina station, which does track with his personality because, you know, as if anyone, anyone who knows Weston knows that he just loves to go outside and go for a walk at a trail or go for a small hike no matter what time of day. That's just fun to him. That's what he does. That's what our whole family does.
The amount of miles that we have hiked is incredible. So you know, that's my best guess. I mean, I know Weston, I know he's in those woods and I know he's alive.
BURNETT: When you last saw him, he was wearing, I understand, Nancy, a t-shirt, corduroy pants, Adidas sneakers. He had a little bag with him. You know, obviously it didn't, who knows if there was, could have been anything else in there.
I mean, does that, in terms of people looking for him, I know that you said there have been some sort of pictures of him going out, people looking for him. Have there been any response from people in the area who might have possibly seen him?
HIGGINBOTHAM: In the Yamashina area, no, but the station beforehand, I had a lot of people say, hey, he stopped by the station. And then they then tracked him. But that was before.
So, you know, we'd get these leads and I would get excited. I'm like, okay, maybe he's in this set of woods or, but no, it all leads to the Yamashina. You know, they have a CCT video of him going east or I guess it's northeast. Sorry, my husband keeps up with the facts. I've been keeping up with other sections of this disaster.
But he headed east and it just all points toward the mountains due to his character. I mean, that's just his character to go do that.
BURNETT: Have -- is there any way or has the phone company, anybody told you there's anything more they can do to try to track, even though that tracker was turned off, if that phone is possibly on him, if there are other ways to locate him? I would imagine Japanese authorities have been answering some of these questions for you, but are you getting answers on all of that?
HIGGINBOTHAM: We've been dealing with the FBI with that mostly. And so, you know, it just seems -- I just can't understand why they can't track it. I know he had an eSIM card. I know they said that the AT&T towers don't ping here. So that's a question we call the FBI agent more than we probably should I'm sure at this point he's frustrated with telling us the same thing but every time we do call they like I feel like they research a little bit more a little bit more but they have told us no there's no way.
BURNETT: Tell us a little bit more about him.
HIGGINBOTHAM: Weston is a Auburn student. He's studying sustainability engineering.
[19:50:01]
He -- his passion is just protecting the environment and you know, it's -- it's been a passion of his for his whole life but definitely for the past year or two. He turned vegan about a year ago now and you know he's just he's his goal in life is to travel. It's -- you know, not necessarily to accumulate a whole bunch of wealth. It's just to travel and go to all of these amazing mountains and places where he can embed himself in different cultures.
And he's just -- he's just a neat kid. I mean, you know, most kids are on their phones all the time. Weston, you know what he carried in his back pocket. This trip was a book -- you know, on in his back pocket was a book about different kinds of butterflies and as you know.
We're waiting for the tofu restaurant to get us in. He's reading a book about Malcolm X. That's Weston. He's always educating himself. He's always curious about the world, about religions, about really everything.
He's just a cool kid. He's just amazing. I miss him so much. He's an amazing child.
BURNETT: Well, I hope that you are going to get wonderful news today. I know we are all hoping that everyone who is now following and hoping with your family.
And Nancy, I'm grateful that you took just a couple minutes to talk about him, and we hope that you are going to be, these next hours could be the most important ones. Thank you so much.
HIGGINBOTHAM: Thank you. Bye-bye.
BURNETT: Yes, we are praying for a return of Weston.
Next, Hunter Biden is taking over social media in an incredible way. It's a social media spree -- defending his dad, blasting his critics. Wait until you see it.
We also have breaking news coming in right now from California. We're going to take a brief break and we'll be back.
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BURNETT: Breaking news, we have a major update in the race for California governor, breaking right now. Elex Michaelson joins me live from Los Angeles.
So, Elex, what's happening?
ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Erin, CNN can now project that Xavier Becerra will advance into one of the top two positions onto the general election. The former HHS secretary, former attorney general, former congressman was way, way behind in the polls months ago and is now taking the lead in the governor's race as of today. And CNN now confident that he will make the top two.
We still do not know who he will face off against in the general election. Steve Hilton, the Republican or Tom Steyer, the Democrat billionaire who continues to get more votes as more votes are tabulated.
Another big info when it comes to the LA mayor's race, Nithya Rahman, the progressive city councilmember who is trailing Spencer Pratt for the top two position in that race, made a big ground today, made-up 12,000 votes. She trails Pratt now by 20,000 votes. Two days ago, she trailed him by 40,000 votes. So things seem to be trending in her direction.
The question is, will she get over the top in the next few days? But a lot of momentum for Nithya Raman and not Spencer Pratt right now. Karen Bass moving on in that race -- Erin.
HUNT: All right, Elex Michaelson, thank you very much for the call in the California governor's race.
As tonight, Hunter Biden is taking over X. If you live over on X like I do, you've seen it. President Biden's son, he's out there nonstop defending his dad. There's like these witty, quick comebacks, blasting critics, blunt, explicit, funny. It's something to watch.
And Tom Foreman is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HUNTER BIDEN, SON OF FORMER PRESIDENT BIDEN: I was a degenerate crack addict. I mean, I've heard you call me a crackhead many times, and the truth of the matter is, I was a crackhead.
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Whether talking to conservative firebrand Candace Owens about addiction or scorching critics on the role of immigrants.
H. BIDEN: How do you think your hotel room gets cleaned? How do you think you have food on your (EXPLETIVE DELETED) table?
FOREMAN (voice-over): At 56, Hunter Biden, son of former President Joe Biden, is dramatically stepping up his trolling of the MAGAverse, which has long made him a whipping boy.
Among his viral exchanges, resurrecting old Republican claims that he cashed in on his dad's power, Hunter posted, I averaged about $225,000 per year in income. Then, noting the billions analysts say President Donald Trump's family is pocketing, Biden asked conservatives, where is all your outrage now?
And in another, he wrote, "Do I look like I'm part of the elite oligarch class? This was taken at a Super 8 motel off I-95, by the way."
He has posted that Iran is the war that nobody wanted. He's ripped that jet Qatar gave to Trump, and he's torn into efforts by the Trump family to shut down IRS audits of their businesses.
And he's let fly with savage comebacks. When an online critic said that bag of cocaine found in the White House in 2023 must have been his, Hunter wrote, "It most definitely was not. I would never have forgotten my drugs."
JOE BIDEN, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: Everything we have to do with -- look --
FOREMAN (voice-over): He's previously been frank about that disastrous debate that eventually ushered his dad out of the race in 2024.
H. BIDEN: He's 81 years old. He's tired as shit. They gave him Ambien to be able to sleep. He gets up on the stage, and he looks like he's a deer in the headlights.
FOREMAN (voice-over): But now when Hunter is accused of having a checkered past, he flings it right back at Trump. I'm 28 felonies, six bankruptcies, and an Epstein bromance short of his checkered past.
Amid all the attention, Trump posted what appears to be an A.I. image of Hunter Biden sketching and drew a bleak picture about the son of Joe Biden ever seeking office.
TRUMP: Well, you would think that, you know, past has something to do with winning an election, and I would say past is not the greatest.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOREMAN: But here is the thing, Erin, just like Donald Trump, what Hunter Biden is doing is turning his sometimes notorious behavior into notoriety, which has real currency in the world of politics these days, or as the kids say, that's cash money -- Erin.
BURNETT: Tom Foreman, thank you very much. It is really something to see.
And thanks so much for joining all of us on this Friday.
"AC360" begins now.
