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Erin Burnett Outfront
Trump Fuels False Election Claims As Spencer Pratt Falls To Third Place; Hours Away: Polls Open As Platner Scandals Are Put To The Test; Trump To Knicks Game. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired June 08, 2026 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:21]
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next:
Breaking news, the L.A. mayor's race could be called as early as this hour. Will Spencer Pratt make the cut? Trump insisting if Pratt doesn't advance, the election is rigged. That conspiracy theory, it doesn't just not add up. It's actually just not smart.
Plus, Graham Platner facing a crucial election tomorrow after a series of controversies that have raised doubts about his chances of flipping a Senate seat. Hear what voters are saying tonight about the allegations.
Plus, new pictures out of New York. There is unprecedented security for an NBA game as President Trump is set to arrive for game three of the NBA Finals.
Let's go OUTFRONT.
(MUSIC)
BURNETT: And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.
And OUTFRONT tonight, we begin with breaking news. We do have new vote numbers coming out right now from California. And there could be enough to officially make a call about who is advancing in the mayor's race. So we're standing by for that. I could come at any moment here.
As of now, this is the way the numbers look. A battle for second place between Republican reality show star Spencer Pratt and progressive Councilwoman Nithya Raymond. One of them will advance to take on incumbent Karen Bass. She's already qualified to advance.
So Karen Bass is going to move on. It's between the next two, and then that's going to be the playoff for who's going to be mayor of L.A.
Now, Pratt had been leading for second place until this weekend. Now, as more votes came in, his lead has vanished, and he now trails Raman by roughly 3,000 votes.
And it's that shift that President Trump cannot, will not accept, posting today, "Not possible for Spencer Pratt to have lost the L.A. runoffs after the big lead he had, Third World Nation, rigged elections," he continues. That follows his explosive interview on NBC in which he claimed completely without any facts, and it's counterfactual, but he says that the California election is rigged.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's happening again right now in California.
KRISTEN WELKER, NBC NEWS ANCHOR: You've never presented evidence that the 2020 election was rigged.
TRUMP: It's happening right now in California. Right now, it's looking -- look at what's happening in California.
WELKER: Where's the evidence to that?
TRUMP: It's four days in California.
WELKER: The Republicans are doing well in California.
TRUMP: It's -- no, they're not there. They're dropping fast because it's a rigged election.
Let me tell you, it's four days and they aren't even close to coming up --
WELKER: That's how they count the votes in California.
TRUMP: You know why they're doing that? Because they're cheating on the election.
WELKER: There's -- what -- do you have evidence to support that?
TRUMP: All I have to do is look. All I have to do is look.
WELKER: That's not evidence.
TRUMP: Listen -- and I listen to people, and let's see what happens.
WELKER: But sir, that's not evidence.
TRUMP: Do you think it's appropriate?
WELKER: That's how they count the votes in California.
TRUMP: Do you think it's appropriate that they have an election, and five days later, they're nowhere close to picking anyone?
WELKER: State and local officials acknowledge they are slow. They're urging --
TRUMP: No, they're crooked. They're crooked.
WELKER: They're urging the votes to be counted quickly. That's how they vote in California.
TRUMP: They're crooked, just like you're crooked. Your press is crooked. And "Meet the Press" is crooked.
WELKER: To be fair, I'm not crooked, but let's --
TRUMP: Really? Well, you play right into their hands.
WELKER: Let's continue.
TRUMP: You're either crooked or you're stupid. You play right into their hands with this crap. Your elections are crooked, and you're crooked, and "Meet the Press" is crooked, and so is ABC and CBS and CNN.
WELKER: But, Mr. President --
TRUMP: You're one-sided crooked network, so let's call it quits because I've had enough. Thank you, darling. Have a good time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: It's just unsettling and disturbing on every level. It's no way to behave, but the president of the United States ended the interview because he says the elections are rigged, but he has absolutely no evidence to show that they are rigged in any way.
I mean, Kristen Welker kept referring to the law in California as she should have. I mean, by law in California, the south goes, if you mail your ballot on Election Day, it gets received. You get seven days to count it. And then if there's a problem with signature verification, you have another 10 days to fix it.
Now look, the process stinks. The current governor of California, Gavin Newsom, has said that, right? It should change. They should count faster.
But the counting slow is the law. It's the way it goes there. It's the process. It's not fraud.
And it's not just Trump fueling the rumors that something's amiss, although certainly he is permissioning those cockroaches to come out. Spencer Pratt, for example, posted, "A net swing of more than 43,000 votes since Tuesday. 43,000, huh? Where have I seen that number before? Probably nothing," with a shrug emoji.
And then he posted what appears to be an article claiming there are 43,000 homeless people in LA.
Now, maybe he's making a joke, but Elon Musk wasn't. He wrote yes to a comment that reads, "So we're expected to believe that in California, out of three candidates, the third-place candidate who conceded her campaign because she was mathematically eliminated from the runoff suddenly received tens of thousands of votes from mail-in votes, which all came in after?"
Okay, just to be clear here, there was never eliminated from the runoff, suddenly received tens of thousands of votes from mail-in votes, which all came in after? OK, just to be clear here, there was never a concession, so there's all kinds of factual issues with that one.
[19:05:00]
But Elon Musk reposts it.
House Speaker Mike Johnson also gave oxygen to the claims.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: I think California is playing around with this.
MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: But what evidence is there to prove that there was this rigged?
JOHNSON: I don't -- some of these efforts are so diabolical and so far upstream it is impossible to prove, but I think everybody knows instinctively something is wrong here and that's a concern.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Just keep in mind that Elon Musk, you know, reposted that to -- to his 240 million followers on X. OK, that's amplification of something that's false.
Now Trump wants to prove that something is wrong in California, as the speaker said. So his appointed U.S. attorney in L.A. claims that his office has opened multiple election fraud investigations. And while he did knock down one conspiracy theory over the weekend, others do continue to spread.
Now, keep in mind, this is somebody who has backed some of Trump's culture wars, push for voter ID in California, which is something, of course, that has a lot of bipartisan support at this point. But now he's doing Trump's bidding when it comes to these allegations of election fraud, which we must repeat is a total conspiracy theory backed by no facts.
But perhaps the biggest problem with the conspiracy theory is that the assumption that a Raman victory is good for Karen Bass is utterly wrong. And anyone with any knowledge of the situation knows that. Harry Enten pointed out that according to the most recent poll on the L.A. mayor's race, Karen Bass would crush Spencer Pratt in the runoff by 18 points. When you put Bass up against Raman, Raman's ahead by four points.
So the idea that Karen Bass is rigging the election to help Raymond does not make any sense because if she was rigging the election, it would be to help Spencer Pratt. And Trump knows this, which is why setting lighter fluid on the fears of election fraud in the L.A. mayor's race is about more than California. It's about the midterms and justifying Trump's push for taking over voting in multiple states.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: These people were brought to our country to vote, and they vote illegally. And the -- you know, amazing that the Republicans aren't tougher on it. The Republicans should say, "We want to take over. We should take over the voting in at least many, 15 places."
(END AUDIO CLIP)
BURNETT: Elex Michaelson is OUTFRONT live in Los Angeles.
And, Elex, we do have new numbers coming this hour and I know there's a possibility really of a call at any time here formally, but it's just numbers coming in right now. What can you tell us?
ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we got about 150,000 ballots left to count it. At least that's the estimate. We don't know how many of those have been counted today. Sometime in the next hour, there's going to be a big release of data that happens 7:00 and 8:00 Eastern, 4:00 and 5:00 Pacific Time. That's where we're going to hopefully have some more clarity.
At that point, there may be a call from CNN. Let's bring up the vote totals right now. This was as of yesterday's update. And yesterday, Nithya Raman passed Spencer Pratt for second place. Remember the top two advance, on Election day, Nithya Raman was 40,000 votes down. Last night she was 3,000 votes up.
We'll see what happens to that margin today. Spencer Pratt really needs to get into her margin today and make up some ground or else it's very possible that some news organizations may start calling this race for Nithya Rahman.
Let's show you what Spencer Pratt put out today. He posted on X basically, "Let's have some patience." Right now, he's down by less than 1 percent and he pointed out on X, quote, "Folks, we're dealing with a fraction of percentage point difference. There's still hundreds of thousands of votes outstanding. L.A. officials have given us the next three weeks to count. Let's get er done" is what he said.
Now, on Friday, I spoke on "THE STORY IS" with the LA County Registrar who's in charge of running this whole operation. He told me that yes, there's a lot of votes to count. And yes, there's a few weeks to go through some of the technical process, but the mass majority of votes should be counted in the next day or two.
So we're getting really close to the finale of this, where we're going to be able to make a call, Erin.
BURNETT: All right, Elex, thank you very much.
And as Elex said, it should be sometime here in the next 50 minutes at that big vote dump comes, and we will see if that enables us to make a call. Obviously, we'll see if Spencer Pratt really can dig into that margin.
Everyone's here with me now.
So, S.E., you know, Trump is going to the mat on this in an incredibly raw and emotional and uncomfortable way, I guess, to use a polite word, to describe that very impolite situation. Is there a method to that madness?
S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, yeah. So Trump's already conditioned an environment for this to be true to his base, right? He started a long time ago. He was saying that 2016 was going to be rigged before he won it. And he says that every election cycle.
He doesn't happen to care about the midterms right now. But he knows Republicans do. And so this is an easy, low-hanging fruit for him.
[09:10:02]
He knows California's a messy vote-counting process, and it is. They should fix it. It is awful.
BURNETT: Yeah.
CUPP: But he also knows it's not fraudulent. And contrary to what Mike Johnson says, it is not impossible to prove voter fraud. We prove it all the time. It's super rare, but we've had it as recently in 2023 in the Bridgeport mayoral race. There was election fraud that was proven.
You can go back. There's -- there's fraud. It happens. It's very rare. It's very limited where it's found it is prosecuted.
It is very possible to prove it. They cannot prove it here because there hasn't been any and that attorney that you put up, that MAGA attorney Bill Essayli who has done all of Trump's bidding. He has prosecuted activists, protesters, immigrants, all for Trump. Not very well, but he's done it.
He came up and said, "It's just not true that all the ballot dumps had no votes for Spencer. Every candidate has had votes come in."
So even though he has said that's just not true, this is just a feature of the voting process, it has not quelled any of this these conspiracy theories. And Trump knows it won't.
BURNETT: These are live pictures here of the vote council. We'll see if we're going to get something out of that in just a few moments. It could enable us to really know what happened here, Jamal.
But you look at people, Speaker Johnson is a speaker of US House of Representatives, okay? And it's irresponsible to be acting as if there's fraud in this. When you're in a position like that, you know it not to be true.
Elon Musk, maybe he doesn't care, he's a citizen, but he has 240 million followers. And what he put out there wasn't just a conspiracy theory. There were also things in that particular retweet which were untrue.
JAMAL SIMMONS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah, that is what they call disinformation, right? And we spend a lot of time and money. We've had people in the government try to stop that when it comes from other countries.
Now we have somebody who's a very major figure in our own country who's participating in it, and he should stop it. He needs to be more responsible.
Speaker Johnson's more troubling because I think when the framers put together our system of government, they expected to have independent houses of Congress, Congress, the Senate, the judiciary, that would all act in their own interests. They did not expect that they would all act in concert with the president of the United States. And that's getting us into trouble.
So it makes it even more important that Democrats win the House in the next election because somebody has to put a check on the administration, even if you believe a lot of what Trump wants to do is the right thing. Somebody's got to keep them honest. And right now, there's nobody doing that.
BURNETT: I mean, the motive -- this is the thing, as Harriet and the polls just show, don't add up. If Karen Bass were rigging the election, okay, she wouldn't -- she'd be trying to help Spencer Pratt. Okay? She just wants to sail into an easy victory. So just look on the very face of it, this does not add up.
ANDREW YANG, INDEPENDENT, FORMER DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know what does add up? Dem voters prefer mail-in balloting. to conservative voters. You see it consistently. It's one reason why I think Trump four years ago or six years ago now was railing against mail-in votes, saying mail-in votes are all rigged and it's all a conspiracy.
You would expect Raman to do better with the mail in vote. You would expect the left-leaning candidate to bet to do better with the votes that are coming in. And so this is - this shouldn't be a surprise to anyone, but unfortunately, it's fueling conspiracy theories for folks who I think actually do know better. But it's easier to claim that something is false or rigged than to raise your hand and be like, hey guys, you know, like this one didn't go our way. That's not really in their M.O.
BURNETT: Right. Well, of course, they could always encourage more Republicans to vote on mail in, which sort of the last minute in the last presidential election, there was a push to do that, right? And Trump himself, we know, votes mail-in.
S.E., just on this whole exchange, though, with Kristen Welker, who is a class act, you know, graceful person, she's sitting there, and this plays out -- I just want to play again because there's something visceral in his emotion that I think is unsettling to anyone watching it. I want to play it and then play a little bit more when he gets up to leave.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Your elections are crooked, and you're crooked. And "Meet the Press" is crooked. And so is ABC and CBS and CNN. WELKER: But, Mr. President --
TRUMP: Your one-sided, crooked networks. Let's call it quits, because I've had enough. Thank you, darling. Have a good time.
WELKER: Mr. President, let's please -- I traveled all the way to Wisconsin. I traveled all -- I know. I traveled all the way to Wisconsin.
TRUMP: On and off in the rain. And I've given you enough time. You ought to straighten out your press, because you know what? A country can never be great with a dishonest press.
WELKER: We traveled -- listen, we traveled all the way to Wisconsin for this interview.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Okay. S.E., he knows that in that moment, okay, he either wanted that to go out that way or he truly lost control of his anger and frustration. And later, when he was talking to voters, you know, at some sort of a panel, he said, because it was raining, I got a little bit angry at them.
[19:15:06]
CUPP: I don't think he intended this. I think he got angry. It's not often. He talks about election fraud all the time, rigged elections.
It's not often he's sitting across from someone in sort of a captive environment where someone says, "Prove it. You've not proved this. You've sent Republicans out on witch hunts in all 50 states. 63 federal courts have thrown out allegations of voter fraud. You have not proven it.
What does he say to that? He can't prove it. So he's got to go to the greatest hits of the press is corrupt. He doesn't want press, he wants propaganda. And when he's sitting across from someone who's not going to do the propaganda, he thinks this country is going to hell. We don't have a good press that's going to say what I want them to say.
Obviously, Kristen knows better than that, but I think she handled herself incredibly well, given that situation.
BURNETT: She did. It is unsettling, though, when you see someone in the position he's in, Jamal, to lose their self-control and their composure in the way that he did.
SIMMONS: It is. You know, the president of the United States is supposed to be someone whose judgment that we trust to make the decisions on behalf of ourselves, our families, our nation. And here's somebody who does not seem to be in complete possession of his faculties.
It is not lost upon me, though, that Kristen Welker is a woman of color who sitting across from him. And he did not feel, it seems, any imperative to treat her with a level of respect at that moment that an interviewer would demand on a major television network, on a major show.
And so I think this plays into -- Donald Trump knew he was on camera. This plays into the argument they're making generally about the respect they have for people who are not white and male in America.
BURNETT: Andrew, can we take one step back on the whole situation here, which is that if there's one thing that can be taken away from all of this, it's that anything that can be done to increase the public's confidence in elections is a good thing -- which brings me to Gavin Newsom, the current term limited governor of California, who sent a letter to election officials last May saying we must acknowledge that the longer the voting count takes, the more misinformation, disinformation spreads.
We need to do something about this. And the goal in California, I get it. The goal is that everybody gets to vote and independents get to say that's a good thing. The outcome of a process that takes weeks to count is not a good thing. So are they going to do anything about it or just say because the person saying it's rigged is full of it, we can just, be really stubborn and not fix a problem?
CUPP: Yes.
YANG: I was --
BURNETT: I mean --
YANG: I was in Iowa in 2020 when they had a lot of trouble counting the votes. And I think there is going to be a movement to change, particularly because Gavin is the sitting governor and Gavin's calling it a problem, which it is.
I mean, if you look at 2026, what are we like now? Now, now it's a gratification. Tell me what's going on. Let me stream it. So what I got to wait for a week to see who won like that --
BURNETT: I mean, you can stick an A.I. and they can tell you're going to have a heart attack in five years.
YANG: Exactly.
BURNETT: If California can't -- I saw that today. I didn't fact check it. I saw some --
YANG: So they should change the rules and make it so that you know you have to get your vote in in a way that can be counted quickly.
CUPP: This happens in big states. It happens in New York as well.
BURNETT: Yeah.
CUPP: Florida has figured this out. You can figure it out.
YANG: Yes, it's figure-out-able. CUPP: It is. It's figure-out-able. I just think Democrats, especially
in California-- and this mayoral race is no exception -- have gotten very used to defending the status quo. And they love to do that.
Karen Bass is defending the status quo. LA is great. Don't touch it. I've heard Nithya Rahman do the same. I think Gavin Newsom is going to -- because Republican overreach, when they crap on liberal cities, Democrats get very defensive and have to say nothing's wrong here.
And so I don't know that they're going to try to fix it, but they should. It's a bad law.
SIMMONS: The facts are interesting. They're not necessarily relevant. The president is going to do what he wants to do. This is a setup for what they're planning for the fall. Godspeed to all of us to keep the country and democracy together.
BURNETT: All right, thank you all very much. And next, we're continuing to stand by for those results that we anticipate coming any moment from California.
We've been talking a lot about Spencer Pratt in the mayoral race, but what about on the governor's side? Republican Steve Hilton is still in second place, allowing him to advance. Can he hold it? He's our guest.
Plus, Judgment Day. Voters about to decide if embattled Graham Platner will take on Susan Collins in November. Are new allegations turning off voters?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Definitely voting for him. Honestly, I would vote for a doorknob over Susan Collins.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: And an update to a story we've been following. The American student who vanished without a trace while on vacation with his family in Japan tragically was found dead, and authorities are releasing new information about what happened.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:24:21]
BURNETT: Breaking news, Chuck Schumer going silent about Graham Platner, the Senate minority leader ignoring multiple questions from CNN about the embattled Democratic Senate candidate, including whether he believes Maine Democrats should stand behind Platner amid his growing list of scandals.
It comes as voters are just hours away from heading to the polls for Platner's primary, which is a crucial race. It literally could decide whether Democrats or Republicans control the Senate. Everything's on the line.
Arlette Saenz is OUTFRONT in Portland, Maine, tonight.
And, Arlette, what are you hearing about the impact of this? I mean, this is the first day we're really going to see voters you know, cast their votes, see whether Platner's scandals are impacting the situation. What are you learning?
[19:25:01]
ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Erin, there really have been a lot of mixed views here in Maine. Last night, Graham Platner held the final town hall before the primary and not one voter there asked him about these controversies. Many Democratic primary voters that we spoke with said that they didn't like these controversies, but that they were willing to look past them because their main focus is trying to defeat Senator Susan Collins in November.
But the real test for Platner is set to come in November when there will be a broader general electorate and this race could very well boil down to how women voters are feeling.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GRAHAM PLATNER (D), MAINE SENATE CANDIDATE: The reason they keep getting everything wrong is they think this is a race about me. But it isn't. This is a race about us.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Graham Platner --
SAENZ (voice-over): In his final town hall before Maine's Senate primary, Democratic candidate Graham Platner faced a friendly crowd willing to look past his recent scandals. Whether that will be the case in November remains to be seen, and there's one group of voters who could be the deciding factor.
CHERYL CAMERON, MAINE DEMOCRAT: I wish I had brought a sign saying, "Church ladies for Graham".
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah.
SAENZ (voice-over): Female voters made-up 59 percent of the electorate in 2020, and they were far more likely to back Senator Susan than they were to support President Donald Trump at the top of the GOP ticket that year.
In this year's Senate race, a poll conducted before the recent revelations came to light showed Platner leading Collins among women by double digits in a hypothetical match-up.
JAN ANDERSON, MAINE DEMOCRAT: We're definitely voting for him.
SAENZ: OK.
ANDERSON: I -- honestly, I would vote for a doorknob over Susan Collins.
SAENZ (voice-over): But Republicans are hoping Platner's latest controversies, including a "New York Times" report last week detailing allegations of unsettling behavior with past girlfriends and in one case physically threatening behavior or an accusation that he knew a tattoo he got while serving in the military was a Nazi symbol won't sit well with voters.
PLATNER: Anything alleging physicality, anything alleging that I knew what my tattoo was, these are the statements of someone who's politically motivated.
SAENZ (voice-over): Democratic primary voter Renee Barthelman is among those feeling Platner's past is problematic.
RENEE BARTHELMAN, MAINE VOTER: The more and more and the closer and closer we get to tomorrow, the less and less comfortable I've been.
SAENZ: And so what do you think you'll do in November? If it's Platner versus Collins.
BARTHELMAN: Collins. I'm not happy with everything Collins says. I'm not happy with the way she votes in Congress lots of times. So she isn't my first choice. But of the two, I would rather see her there.
SAENZ (voice-over): But many Maine women who spoke to CNN said they remain on board with Platner despite the controversies.
CAMERON: He's not a perfect guy, but I agree with his politics, and apparent -- if his wife can deal with that, who am I to argue?
SUSAN GORMAN, MAINE DEMOCRAT: The problems that are facing Maine in this country are too serious for us to focus on this purity politics.
SAENZ (voice-over): Platner is favored to win Tuesday's Democratic primary, but Maine's Governor Janet Mills remains on the ballot despite suspending her campaign.
Mary Sue Emhiser is among those Democrats voting for Mills anyway.
SAENZ: Why do you say it?
MARY SUE EMHISER, MAINE DEMOCRAT: The only person running against Susan Collins, I will support him because my whole goal is only to beat Susan Collins. With my nose pinched, I'll vote for Graham Platner.
SHARON PORTELANCE, MAINE DEMOCRAT: The comments that have been made about women, the relationships that -- I mean, it just keeps sort of coming in that as a woman, it's a little tiring. I was really concerned.
SAENZ: And so do you think that you would vote for him in the primary on Tuesday?
PORTELANCE: Chances are I will.
(END VIDEOTAPE) SAENZ: Now, Maine is a critical component of Democrat strategy to try to regain control of the Senate in November. Democrats need to pick up four Republican held seats in order to win back that majority. So there's lots of questions about whether Platner will be able to overcome some of these controversies and try to keep this state in play as Democrats try to make their quest to regain control in November -- Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Arlette, thank you very much.
And yeah, obviously that seat, you know, it's crucial for them. Next, unprecedented security for the NBA game here in New York. Ten city blocks shut down right in the heart of midtown Manhattan as we await for President Trump to arrive at any moment. It's all because he's coming.
Plus, Trump warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to call off his planned strikes or else he could find himself on his own. So what does this really say about that relationship? And is that actually what happened? Fareed Zakaria is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:33:59]
BURNETT: Breaking news, you're looking at live pictures outside Madison Square Garden. President Trump's motorcade is moments from arriving and he's coming to attend game three of the NBA Finals and the security is massive, unprecedented for an NBA game and it's all outside Madison Square Garden at this hour anywhere near it in Midtown Manhattan. You see it.
And the New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is also attending the game. By the way, they've got very different types of seats I believe.
Secret Service and the NYPD locking down 10 city blocks around the arena in preparation for Trump's visit.
Omar Jimenez is OUTFRONT outside Madison Square Garden.
Omar, it is a bizarre combination of gridlock, lines everywhere, and then almost this dead zone where they had anticipated bars and parties, and now nobody's even allowed to go.
OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, you know, it was a lot of changes made, especially on the security front for President Trump's expected arrival, which we do expect to be at any moment, at least going past us. beyond Madison Square Garden behind me here what we've seen for hours really is that fans were told to get here hours beforehand to expect enhanced security screenings.
[19:35:05]
We were talking to a few of them in line who did exactly just that and said while they were a little disappointed that they had to come so early, they were trying not to let it dampen their team spirit to try and cheer on the Knicks and go further in this NBA final series.
But I also just want to show you a little bit of the security presence. So we have NYPD officers who are lining the streets here. This is the street where essentially we're awaiting the president to come by at this point. They have closed it off to vehicle traffic as you might expect, but also pedestrian traffic as well, except for this direction where we've seen law enforcement come down at various points, especially over the last 30 minutes or so.
Across the street from where we are, we're kind of behind these guardrails. You can see sort of the last remnants, at least at this entrance of Knicks fans going inside. Over the last 30 minutes or so, they were essentially spilling out towards the guardrails where police were trying to keep them on that side of the street.
And then you talk about the added, the huge security presence over the course of blocks in New York City. It coincides with a few things. One, this is an NBA finals, a very much hyped one, especially in New York City.
Also, the streets were closing, essentially going into rush hour in one of the busiest parts of New York City. So there was a logistics issue there. And then we are also on top of and around one of the main Amtrak transit points as we see a collection of motorcycles coming in here now.
We've seen various motorcades of different points coming through. This is a collection of NYPD officers that have been coming through. We see some lights coming down this street as another set of motorcades is coming through.
Again, this is the area where we do expect the president to pass through as he begins to make his entrance. And I do see what I believe to be The Beast there with the American flags on either side of the front end of the vehicle there. You see, this is what all of the security precautions were for here.
They have the multiple vehicles so that you don't always know exactly which one, but you see, this one vehicle going through and then the president in that second vehicle waving to people out here on the streets, some cheering as well. We'll see what the reception is inside.
But the blocks of security, the extra hours that fans were told to get here beforehand was for this reason that you saw here as the president just passed by as part of this motorcade waiting -- waving to the people on the other sides of this barricade. And then now he heads into the arena for what will surely another spectacle at this game three of the NBA Finals, an intersection of a whole lot of things, Erin, as we make our way to tip off.
BURNETT: Yeah, absolutely. Spectacle indeed.
All right, Omar, thank you very much.
Just, you know, obviously, President Trump remember being a New Yorker coming down that street. He gets to come down the wrong way and cruise around the corner there.
I'm here with Fareed Zakaria, host of "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS".
Fareed, it is an incredible moment, though, when you think about it, that the president of the United States chose to do this. Yes, it's incredibly disruptive to those who are there, but to come to this game and to be there in that moment of spectacle, when you also have the Democratic socialist mayor of New York, who's going to be in the audience, with a ticket he bought with his own money for a fraction of what anybody is paying to go to that now, sitting in a nosebleed seat, the juxtaposition and just the positioning of the president at this moment in this setting is significant.
FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN HOST, "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS": Well, Erin, remember, Trump is the populist and Mamdani is the elitist, according to the narrative. And yet, this is how Trump goes, and Mamdani is going to take, you know, a seat in the bleachers.
BURNETT: Sitting with his friends.
ZAKARIA: Standing room only.
BURNETT: Standing room only.
ZAKARIA: I'll tell you, the NYPD does an amazing job. I had to navigate the streets right around there to go to a friend's book party and they do an amazing job. It wasn't that difficult. The traffic wasn't that bad. You know, they've really kept the security perimeter pretty tight.
But remember, Donald Trump has been to more live sporting events than any president in my memory. I wouldn't be surprised. I'm going to put this out. I haven't calculated, but he's probably been to more live sporting events in the last five presidents put together.
He loves the attention. He loves the spectacle. I mean, he is essentially --
BURNETT: Even in what may not be a very friendly room.
ZAKARIA: Right, because at the end of the day, if they're writing about him, if they're, you know, that's what he cares about. He wants, you know, the images, it's almost like he's still a reality television star and to him all publicity is still good publicity.
BURNETT: Right, spell his name right is sort of that was the attitude and obviously he's got the UFC fight this weekend there's and then there's going to be another game on Wednesday with this which there was a question mark about his attendance.
The context, of course, is a perilous moment for the world, for the country, in many different avenues, but one of them, of course, is the war.
ZAKARIA: Right, we are at war.
[19:40:00]
BURNETT: Right, this is a wartime president, okay? And he's doing this.
He told "Axios's" Barak Ravid about his call with Benjamin Netanyahu when there was fire again for the first time since March -- since the ceasefire, I'm sorry, between Israel and Iran yesterday. And Ravid says that Trump tells him, I said, "Bibi, you better be careful, or you will be on your own very soon."
I'm just curious, Fareed, because obviously Trump has seen the precipitous and shocking and unprecedented drop in the approval rating of Israel and the United States, and certainly of the prime minister of Israel. So he knows that it's a political winner to take on Bibi, Prime Minister Netanyahu right now.
What's the reality of their relationship? Does that quote reflect it or not?
ZAKARIA: I don't think so. I think Trump was letting off steam. I think partly he reads the polls just like all of us. And he's frustrated because the war is not going the way either he or Prime Minister Netanyahu expected it to go.
BURNETT: Yeah.
ZAKARIA: I mean, the real story there or the way to read it is, Trump is furious that the war is going badly. It is not in any way fulfilling the political goals that he thought he was going to achieve. Bibi Netanyahu sold him a bill of goods that turned out to be phony.
And so, there is some frustration with Netanyahu, but I think it's mostly just frustration that they were going to -- remember, the whole idea was they were going to cause regime change in Iran. The people of Iran were going to have a chance to finally be rid of this 47-year dictatorship.
President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu, in the -- months after the June, last June's attacks, they were like, Hamas has been destroyed. Hezbollah has been destroyed. The Iranians have been crippled.
And yet, look at the world we're in. The Iranians are in a pretty strong position in the Gulf. Hezbollah remains in Lebanon. In fact, Bibi Netanyahu's war against it may have actually given it some support. And Hamas is still in Gaza.
BURNETT: And Iran, according to what we hear every once in a while from the Trump administration, their navy is shutting things down, even though it's been at the bottom of the sea several times, right.
ZAKARIA: I mean, the fundamental lesson here is there is only so much you can achieve with military power. If -- you know, if you look at the situation within Gaza, you have to have a political alternative. Palestinian leadership, you are willing to trust and that is legitimate to the Palestinians. In Hezbollah, you have to work with the Lebanese government and find a way with the Shia community to find somebody to -- and with Iran, you actually have to have a plan that involves Iranians on the ground who are willing to do something about their -- just bombing and hoping has turned out not to be a strategy.
BURNETT: Yeah, bombing and hoping, and to summarize it so well.
Thank you so much, Fareed.
And next, we did just get more results from California's election. So these numbers that we'd anticipated coming, we're starting to see some numbers coming in. Can Republican Steve Hilton hold on to the number two spot in the race for governor to advance to November? He's next.
Plus, police with new details about the American college student who was found dead while on vacation with his family in Japan.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:47:29]
BURNETT: Breaking news, new numbers are coming in for the California governor primary. Seventy-six percent of the vote is now in. Xavier Becerra is still in the lead and still waiting to find out who he will face one-on-one in the general election. Not able to make that call yet. Republican Steve Hilton remains in second place. Tom Steyer is about three and a half percentage points behind him.
Becerra is now slamming President Trump for claiming, with no evidence, that California is cheating Republican candidates, posting, quote, "California isn't the problem. Trump's hatred of our democracy is. In California, we count every vote, not just the ones Donald Trump likes."
Steve Hilton is OUTFRONT.
As I said, Steve, we're just getting these latest numbers, and the latest numbers show that you are in second, obviously number one. And number two, advance to November, just to remind anybody who isn't following this as closely.
So President Trump has posted, Steve, quote, "Not possible for Spencer Pratt to have lost the L.A. runoffs after the big lead he had. Third World Nation rigged elections. Now they'll be working on great guy Steve Hilton."
So he's saying there's a conspiracy to rig the vote against you right now. What do you say to that?
STEVE HILTON (R), CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR CANDIDATE: Well, I think the most important point, Erin, is that we're feeling as confident as we ever have been that I'm going to make the top two. Tom Steyer is just not getting the numbers he needs to catch up with us, and there's a diminishing amount of vote out there for him to make up that ground. And that's the really important point. It means that in November, Californians will be able to choose change,
change from 16 years that have given us these terrible results, the highest cost of living in the country, all those things we've talked about many times. That's the substantive point that matters here, that in November, there'll be a real choice. Do we want more of the same with Xavier Becerra, more of the same cost and incompetence and corruption, or do we want to go in a new direction, to lower costs, lower taxes, and put California back on track?
BURNETT: So, I don't know if you saw this, because it just happened, but Congressman Kevin Kiley, he's an independent, but he was until very recently a Republican, as you know, California. He says that the pace of the counting is unacceptable. And I think a lot of very reasonable people agree with that. Come on, California. It's great independence, and everybody gets to vote in these primaries, but it shouldn't take so long to count.
Okay, but then, when it comes to these issues, the president is out there saying that that means there's fraud and a conspiracy, Congressman Kiley says no, that there's no evidence of fraud. I wanted to play for you what he just said, Steve.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LAURA COATES, CNN HOST: Is there any evidence you are aware of that there is any fraud in the counting of the election in California?
[19:50:04]
REP. KEVIN KILEY (I-CA): No, I don't think that's particularly a helpful way to characterize it, because the slow counting of ballots, I think, is a problem. So I think California does need to get its act together, but that's --
COATES: Separately. There's no fraud that you're aware of?
KILEY: I haven't, no. I mean, I have heard, you know, not at least in relation to counting the votes late.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: So I just -- in terms of where you stand, are you worried that there's fraud right now or are you just, hey, frustrated that the count is slow, but that you believe the process is fair?
HILTON: Yeah, so look, there's so many things wrong with the system. I've been saying all along that we take it very seriously because we don't want to let people down, and we've been very vigilant on it. We're keeping an eye on it. We've got teams standing by, lawyers standing by, and actually, it's the same answer that actually I've been giving for a few days now.
We've seen nothing that would give us cause to intervene in that way. But more importantly than that, Bill Essayli, the U.S. attorney, who's actually got the full weight, we're just a campaign, he's got the full weight of the Justice Department, and he's there and he's taking a look at it. And I trust that if there is anything that needs to be investigated, that he will make sure it happens.
But I think the real point is that this whole system needs to be improved. At the end of last week, I actually offered Gavin Newsom, a suggestion for how we could speed things up, because one of the reasons it's so slow is that it's done county by county. There just aren't enough people in the offices doing the counting.
One reason for that is because you've got a lot of complexity, because there's a lot of signature verification. One way around that, we can actually vote for in November in California, voter ID. That would remove the need for all the signature verification.
That would really speed things up, so there's a lot of sensible things we could do to avoid this kind of fiasco. And that's really what it is. It's making California look like a laughingstock around the world. None of us want that.
So I'm looking for positive, practical changes we can make to the system to speed it up, but also to prevent the opportunity for people to look at what's going on and say, look, there's got to be something fishy.
BURNETT: Yeah, but also I think important is you're saying that you're looking for it if it's there and you have not seen anything untoward happening and it's really important for people to do that.
HILTON: That's right.
BURNETT: Steve Hilton, I appreciate your time and thank you very much.
I also want to share a heartbreaking update with those of you who have been watching in recent days. We were talking about the 20-year-old Auburn University student who vanished. He was on vacation with his family in Kyoto, Japan. We've been talking to his mother. They were hoping for a miracle in finding him and having him be okay.
It ended in a terrible tragedy. He was found dead. He was found by a volunteer search and rescue team in Kyoto's Yamashina area, Weston Higginbotham, and they believe he might have gone hiking there. They do say no foul play is suspected. They have not released a cause of death.
But Weston's mother, Nancy, was here OUTFRONT the day before he was found and hoping then to find her son, and she told me this about him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NANCY HIGGINBOTHAM, MOTHER OF MISSING AMERICAN FOUND DEAD IN JAPAN: He's always curious about the world, about religions, about just about really everything. He's just a cool kid. He's just amazing. I miss him so much. He's an amazing child.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: And that was before, of course, the tragedy. She paid tribute to her son when the family heard the news saying, "Our family is heartbroken to share that Weston was found deceased. The grief we feel is impossible to put into words. Our prayers are with Weston's mother, his family, his brother, as they mourn the unimaginable loss that they are suffering.
We do have some breaking news now, and we're going to go to Elex Michaelson in Los Angeles with the latest there with those numbers.
Elex, what are you finding out?
MICHAELSON: We just got new numbers in the L.A. mayor's race and they are good numbers for City Council member Nithya Rahman as she tries to defeat Spencer Pratt and move on to the next round.
Let's put the numbers up on the screen. She is now leading him by about 22,000 votes. Just yesterday, she was leading him by 3,000 votes. Remember, on election day, she was trailing him by 40,000 votes.
So her margin is increasing in a big way with every single dump of new ballots. This is good news for her and makes her closer to a potential projection that Nithya Raman will face off Karen Bass in the fall.
So again, Nithya Raman with a very big day with the new ballots, Erin.
BURNETT: Very big. And I know you had talked about, Alex, that there were, you know, 100 or so thousand votes still out. So getting an amount this big is obviously mathematically significant. We'll see where we are in terms of determining what this means for who advances.
Just a moment ago, though, Alex, I was talking to Steve Hilton, who is currently number two in the race for governor. Very significant that he was loud and clear and repeated that he has seen no evidence of anything untoward or any kind of fraud, despite what we have heard from some national Republicans, including the president, who have made those allegations about both the governor's race and the mayor's race that you are talking about right now.
[19:55:16]
MICHAELSON: Yeah, and I had on the head of the US Attorney's Office for this region, Bill Essayli, with us on "THE STORY IS" last week. And I asked him because he's the one who's supposedly leading the investigation into that. Does he have evidence of widespread voter fraud? And he did not say that he does.
So even though President Trump is talking about this, President Trump has not provided evidence of that. Neither has anybody working for him. Neither have the top Republicans in this state, although if you're Steve Hilton right now, it looks pretty good. You wouldn't want to say there's fraud because the chances are you're going to be the one to advance.
Plus, for Republicans that say there's fraud, that makes it harder to get Republicans to come out and vote in the fall. So they want to encourage trust in the system so their voters come out.
BURNETT: All right. Elex, thank you very much.
And I do just want as Alex was speaking here, we are now able to project that Karen Bass will be advancing and also Nithya Rahman will be advancing in the race for L.A. mayor, so going into that runoff in November. That eliminates Spencer Pratt, he is not going to be advancing in November. It will be Karen Bass and Nithya Rahman running against each other in the race for L.A. mayor in November. So we are making that projection here at CNN right now.
And more breaking news, live pictures inside of Madison Square Garden ahead of game three of the NBA Finals. Unprecedented security right now, as President Trump's attending the game, he arrived just moments ago. We saw him pull up.
So what does this mean?
Shimon Prokupecz is OUTFRONT inside Madison Square Garden.
And, Shimon, what is it like inside?
SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: It's electric. It's exciting. I can't even explain what is going on inside this building at the moment. At this moment, people are just waiting to celebrate and be here.
We have not yet seen the president. We know he's in the building. We have eyes on the suite that he's going to be sitting in. But certainly the security has slowed down. Take a look at some of what people were experiencing today.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We need this win, please, go Knicks!
PROKUPECZ: You're hoping for a sweep?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to sweep.
PROKUPECZ: For New York City and Knicks fans, this is a moment that they've been waiting for, for years. There's so much celebration around. Even the MTA here painted the subway stop orange and blue.
And as you can see, people come here. They gather here with their families and friends to take photos.
MAUREEN PORTER, KNICKS FAN: We're happy. We're New Yorkers. Are you kidding me? The Knicks are in the playoffs.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let's go Knicks!
PORTER: Yeah, baby.
PROKUPECZ (voice-over): Tonight's game is going to look a little different with a security perimeter stretching several city blocks. and two avenues around Madison Square Garden.
There are Secret Service and NYPD lining the streets.
MATT MCCOOL, U.S. SECRET SERVICE: Madison Square Garden is going to be the safest it's been for an NBA basketball game, I think, probably ever.
PROKUPECZ: These large, black, unscalable fences are now all around Madison Square Garden, the Secret Service running security here as they await the president's arrival for tonight's game.
TRUMP: Well, I've been a Knick fan for a long time.
PROKUPECZ (voice-over): Trump used to cheer in Knick's famous courtside celebrity row, but it's the first time a sitting president will attend an NBA Finals game and fans have mixed feelings.
PROKUPECZ: Are you kind of upset by the way they're the security and the inability to be here tonight?
TEDDY, KNICKS FAN: Yes, very upset. I'm not going to do anything political today. I feel that we waited a long time for this and we don't deserve to have this going on right now.
AARON J CHRISTOPHER, KNICKS FAN: It makes people more excited that he's -- that he's coming because he's the president, right?
SERGIO BROOKLYN, KNICKS FAN: I'm not here to focus on politics. I'm here to focus on the Knicks. Trump, he's a New Yorker. Every New Yorker, everywhere in every other state or country has the right to be a New Yorker and come support their team.
CROWD: Let's go Knicks! Let's go Knicks!
PROKUPECZ: I'm standing in the area that would normally host that watch party. But tonight, that's not happening. The NYPD canceling it. This entire area will be shut down.
TONY HUSKEY, KNICKS FAN: So it's been going on like bananas lately. And then all of a sudden, now everybody can't come around to watch parties out here.
TIM FALCO, KNICKS FAN: I'm not too into the politics stuff, but, you know, I was looking forward to some parties out here after the game, so it's unfortunate that they're not going on.
BROOKLYN: And honestly, the whole city's a watch party, so you could watch it anywhere.
PROKUPECZ (voice-over): Most Knick fans, though, are staying focused on winning their first championship in 53 years.
MARTIN, KNICKS FAN: It's been since 1973, so it's been adult ages for the past 50-plus years. So it's time that we come back to this bright light, sunshine of New York City and get this championship.
KARL-ANTHONY TOWNS, KNICKS CENTER: And our fan base is really excited. To be able to lace the shoes up, be able to put the jersey on and be able to see our fans, see finals basketball after all this time is going to be really, really special.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PROKUPECZ: And all I can say, Erin, is let's go Knicks. I'm ready. The crowd is ready. This place is going to be jam-packed any minute, and we're about 30 minutes away from tip-off, but it's a really exciting time here.
BURNETT: I guess this is one of those ones that's totally legit as a reporter to say where you stand. Go Knicks, right?
PROKUPECZ: Yeah, look at my nails. Come on, let's go.
BURNETT: All right, Shimon, thank you.
And it's time now for "AC360".
