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Fragile Ceasefire Tested As Israel, Iran Trade Missile Strike; Trump Insists Deal Is Close, Says Iran And Israel Want Ceasefire; Maine Dem Primary Tests Platner Support After New Allegations; Platner Faces Questions Over Treatment Of Women, Nazi Symbol Tattoo; California Still Counting Votes 6 Days After Primary. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired June 08, 2026 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

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DANA BASH, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: A teetering truce enters dangerous territory. I'm Dana Bash. Let's go behind the headlines at Inside Politics.

The fragile ceasefire in Iran is under severe stress today after Israel and Iran traded missile fire overnight, the first direct attacks in two months. Early this morning, Israel accepted President Trump's demand to halt strikes on Iran. Iran says it suspended its operations in Israel but threatened to resume strikes if Israel continues its strikes on southern Lebanon. That may be a nonstarter for Israel.

So, where do things go from here? Well, President Trump claims both sides want an immediate ceasefire, and that final negotiations on peace are proceeding now. Now, we have heard that several times from the White House.

Let's go straight to Tel Aviv. CNN's Jeremy Diamond is there. Jeremy, I know Prime Minister Netanyahu just spoke about these strikes, didn't rule out resuming them, but what specifically did he say, and how does it feel on the ground in Israel right now?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, that's right, Dana. The Israeli prime minister didn't make a ton of news, frankly, but what he did confirm was that Israel wasn't planning to attack Iran further unless Iran attacks Israel once again. And that is very much a scenario that we could be entering very soon, and that's because of this new red line that Iran has issued.

As Iran also agreed to stop its attacks on Israel following these calls from President Trump for both sides to stop shooting at each other. Iran also said this, that any Israeli attacks against Iran, but also against southern Lebanon, would result in further Iranian strikes against Israel. And in fact, they vowed that those strikes would be even more ferocious this time around. That is a very new red line.

Prior to that, it had been that if Israel attacked Beirut, Iran would fire missiles on Israel. That's exactly what happened last night. And so, these threats from Iran tend not to be idle threats, they should be taken seriously. And that is where these two sides are at cross purposes, because my sources in Israel have been telling me that Israel very much intends to keep up its attacks against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, that it is not going to shy away from that.

And also, the Israeli defense minister saying that Israel won't shy away from striking Hezbollah in the Lebanese capital of Beirut, should Hezbollah fire against Israeli civilians in northern Israel. And that was the scenario that led to Israel striking Beirut yesterday, Iran firing these missiles, Israel striking Iran. And so, you can see how this loop might potentially be repeated once again.

The only x factor really in all of this has been what we saw from President Trump last night, and that was President Trump's call to the Israeli prime minister to tell him not to retaliate against Iran. Netanyahu ultimately ended up retaliating nonetheless, but in a relatively limited fashion, and now he is saying that he's halted these attacks against Iran.

So, ultimately, it really comes down to President Trump in many ways. How badly he wants this deal with Iran? How much he believes that it can actually come about. He's already shown in the past that he's not going to let Israeli attacks in Lebanon, you know, get in the way of a potential deal with Iran if he believes it's at hand.

BASH: Yeah. And to be frank, you know, as well as I that deal is also coming down to what President Trump can give up, is willing to give up, if anything, at this point where Iran clearly feels like it is in the cat bird seat. Thank you so much, Jeremy. Appreciate that reporting there from Israel.

I'm joined by a terrific group of reporters. Starting with Kristen Holmes at the White House. Kristen, let's talk about the president's mindset here, trying to prove he has control over the situation. Talk about what you're hearing about where his mind is and what he is kind of how he's playing this out last night and going ahead with today.

[12:05:00]

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly, I think it's been frustrating, but right now the White House and President Trump feel like it's back on track, that they're in the right place after what we saw last night and into today. And one of the things you have to keep in mind here is that President Trump has flexed his power in having some kind of control over Benjamin Netanyahu when he goes to the negotiating table, when he's talking to Iran, his ability to get Israel to stop.

Well, that obviously is thrown into question when you have a situation where President Trump is calling Benjamin Netanyahu, telling him not to retaliate, and then, of course, we are seeing some retaliation. So, he needs to be able to say that he can control Israel's actions once he is back at the negotiating table. But all of this, of course, is throwing everything at least off kilter, the idea that they feel like they are continually getting closer and closer to some kind of diplomatic resolution, some kind of deal with Iran, only to have it yanked out from underneath them.

We are still hearing from White House officials, from administration officials, who say that they are somewhat optimistic that they think they are running, or at least heading in the right direction. But you have said this, we heard Jeremy say it, this is not the first, second, or third time that we have heard this kind of portrayal of the current situation, only to have it fall through.

So, right now it all stands the same. It was even before this, which is President Trump is looking for any kind of diplomatic off-ramp here. That is what he wants. He doesn't want to be continuing with this war. He wants to move on from it, but whether or not, they're actually moving in the right direction and that's what we just don't know right now.

BASH: And it all speaks, Jim Sciutto, to the question of how much control the president of the United States even has anymore over all of this. He started something along with Israel, and he clearly has been wanting to get out of it, really -- almost since it started and he hasn't been able to.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR & CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: There is a perception, Dana, in the region that the president wants an agreement more than the other parties do and that's a problem from a leverage perspective. For one, Israel does not believe that its goals from this war have been accomplished. Remember, early on, I've been told this repeatedly, Israel wanted to handle in some way Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium, hasn't been handled yet, and without that, they don't consider the war's goals accomplished.

They also clearly have continuing goals in Lebanon, in terms of striking, weakening Hezbollah, which is, of course, upsetting the president's plans to make progress with Iran. And then, from Iran's perspective, Iran is demonstrating -- for all the president's pronouncements that Iran is desperate for a deal, that well, actually it's willing to continue to threaten shipping traffic through the Strait. One, it's willing to continue to fire missiles at Israel, which it knows Israel is going to retaliate for.

So, when I speak to my Israeli contacts, not just today, but over recent weeks, this is a concern that's been building that President Trump wants out of this war and will make a bad deal, a bad deal from -- certainly from Israel's perspective, and that -- listen, as the negotiations continue to stumble along without real concrete progress, it's understandable why America's allies in the region have that perception.

BASH: Yeah, absolutely. And Shane here, with me in the studio, just to kind of pick up on that. The president is not shy about saying he wants this thing over. He is declaring it over, even though we saw over the last 24, 48 hours, over it just sort of depends on your definition of that. But politically he clearly wants it over, and anybody who was watching this for two seconds sees that.

Listen to what he told Kristen Welker about not just this particular war, but also more broadly about the idea that many people who voted for Donald Trump had the assumption that he would not start wars.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KRISTEN WELKER, NBC NEWS, MODERATOR: Did you break that promise to the American people?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: No, no. I had to stop a country, very powerful, very dangerous country, from having a nuclear weapon, because they used it. I didn't promise anything. I don't like these endless wars. This is not an endless war. Under Trump, we will have no more wars, no more disruptions, that we will have prosperity and peace for all. I'm not going to start war. I'm going to stop wars.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHANE GOLDMACHER, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, THE NEW YORK TIMES: I mean, you can hear him using that word, endless, right? He is defining this as not an endless war, but right now is a war without an end, right? You know, when you talk about -- he's trying to manifest what's happening, he's saying it's a ceasefire. Well, there's still missiles going. He's trying to say a peace deal is near. Well, there isn't a peace deal yet. And this is an issue that is fracturing the Republican coalition.

[12:10:00]

Republicans don't all agree with President Trump on this issue. They may be standing behind him politically in all these primaries that he's involved in but there's a real division in the party and he needs that to be healed within his party. And then for the Independents and Democrats, he needs the gas prices that this war has caused to go up not to stay high. When I talk to Republican strategists involved in the midterms, this is the issue they are most concerned about, this dragging on and the impact economically on Americans hurting them and them taking it on Republicans as well.

BASH: Yeah, absolutely. All right. Thank you so much for your reporting. Thank you to Jim and Kristen as well. I really appreciate you being here. Still ahead, former reality star Spencer Pratt dreamed of a political spinoff, but the latest Los Angeles returns suggest voters aren't greening light green lighting that pilot. And tomorrow is election day in the state of Maine. What message will Democratic voters send about how they view Graham Platner's candidacy following a string of revelations about his past behavior?

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[12:15:00]

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GRAHAM PLATNER (D), MAINE SENATE CANDIDATE: I think a lot of folks at the national level misunderstand 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. This is a race about the future of politics in Maine. This is a race about building power the old-fashioned way, from the ground up.

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BASH: Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner was back on the campaign trail last night after a week of cascading scandals. Tomorrow is Maine's Democratic primary. Up until a few days ago, this was going to be a nonevent. Platner's insurgent campaign already pushed the incumbent Governor Janet Mills out of the race for Senate. Now it's going to be a test of whether Platner's base of support is withstanding these new allegations about his past relationships with women.

My panel is here now. Gloria?

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think it's interesting considering the reception that Platner got at that town hall yesterday. People were cheering. I would say it was a warm reception. And what was most interesting to me about the town hall was what people were asking about, and I think --

BASH: They're not asking.

PAZMINO: -- exactly. They were not asking about the scandals that have been surfacing in the last few days, they were asking him what he wants to do with the U.S. Supreme Court. What committees does he want to serve in, what does he think of a federal wealth tax. That's what voters in Maine were asking about.

And I think when we see that, it kind of helps support the point that he's been making, right, that this is not what voters are worried about. But I think we'll have to see tomorrow whether or not these scandals -- there are certainly voters in Maine who are looking at this, and they're not pleased, they're not happy that they feel like maybe this is their only choice.

BASH: Right. I mean, these are people, a self-selecting crowd, who are obviously very interested in him, not necessarily decided, but want to know a lot of things about the issues, which is understandable. Friday night, there was another Graham Platner event in Bar Harbor, or Bahaba, as they say up there. And Ro Khanna was -- who's a big supporter of Graham Platner, he was there as well.

I want you to listen to what Platner said, followed by what Ro Khanna said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PLATNER: Now as every single piece of that past and journey gets dug up, litigated, and weaponized, you have my back.

REP. RO KHANNA (D-CA): Now, no one should make excuses for his past relationships, some of which were toxic and volatile, and no one on our side should attack the women who came forward. You know why? Because Democrats believe in respecting the equality and the dignity of women, and we always will.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Abby, one of the questions that I'm looking at is how they square those two arguments. Platner saying, my past is being weaponized politically, and you know, unsaid there is what is being weaponized, in addition to the Nazi tattoo, which he, you know, covered up and claims that he didn't know was a Nazi tattoo. The Reddit posts about women, but more recently women coming out and making allegations of unsettling behavior. And then Ro Khanna at the same event, effectively saying we support women, we believe women. And how do you reconcile those two notions?

ABBY LIVINGSTON, CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT, PUCK: I think it's hard to and I think the Democratic Party, the National Party, is having a hard time doing that. This is the only thing they're tweeting about, and it's often breaking down along gender lines. But the underlying anxiety about this is not just about that this race may determine the Senate majority. It is absolutely necessary for Democrats to win, but it's also laying the foundation for the 2028 Democratic primary.

And if someone like -- if Graham Platner wins this race, I think you're going to see people coming out of the woodwork to run for president who may be inexperienced and may have baggage. But if he loses this race, I think you're going to get a big giant, I told you so from the Democratic establishment

[12:20:00]

BASH: Right. But I think that what you just hit on is really important, and Shane, this is another part of the conversation going on among Democrats, which is -- I don't know if it's purity tests or how you want to define it. But is it -- do we need to be -- so one of my colleagues used the word prissy in how we vet our candidates at a time when Donald Trump had a message and a sensibility that appealed to the same kind of voters that Graham Platner is going for and clearly does not have a clean past, and should we not be so clear about what we need from our voters.

On the other hand, are Democrats holding themselves to a standard that they want to hold themselves to, because they want to be different than the way they see Republicans are handling themselves in the Trump era.

GOLDMACHER: I think the challenge of Graham Platner's candidacy for Democrats this year is that they're talking about Graham Platner at all, right? Donald Trump is unpopular. This is a state that Donald Trump lost. It is the only state on the Senate map that Donald Trump lost. Democrats -- the whole idea was, can you put up somebody who's inoffensive and have voters vote out Susan Collins because this is ultimately a blue state in what is likely to be a blue year. That's the challenge on one side.

The flip of it is the big criticism the Democratic Party has been, it doesn't stand for anything, right? Why doesn't the Democratic Party go out and take a stand on issues? And Graham Platner has done that and he's excited people. He became one of the strongest fundraisers in the party last year. He drove out the two-term incumbent governor out of the primary before this election day because people were embracing him.

And so, on the one hand, you have a potential for a movement candidate not unlike Trump that excited people. On the other hand, maybe just being a generic Democrat would be good enough in this state in this year, and Democrats are afraid that this is a guy who could lose a winnable race.

BASH: Well, on that note, let me just point out something that our friend Ron Brownstein wrote about. He wrote about Platner's electability, saying his weaknesses overlap so precisely with Collins' strength, and talking about how Platner needs to win Collins' voters to win Maine.

Just look at some polling that kind of helps tell that story. If you look at likely voters in the Maine Senate race, women who disapprove of Trump, 70 percent, 54 percent though, are supporting Platner. So, there's a gulf there, seniors, 66 percent of voters -- likely voters in Maine say they disapprove of Trump, but only 50 percent say that they support Platner.

LIVINGSTON: I think that's why we're going to see so much advertising coming at Graham Platner from the Republican side in the fall. This is going to be like a nuclear bomb, and Republicans are going to do everything they can to convince some of these older women voters, who are going to be so determinative to vote for Susan Collins. And I think this is starting to echo a lot with 2010 in reverse, where Republicans had this big wave, but they struggled to win some easy senate seats.

BASH: And it's interesting. We're going to go to break, but I'm hearing from Democrats in Maine just that, that so far, despite Graham Platner saying that his past is being weaponized. The Republicans haven't even started going after him, and a lot of what's happened has been a little bit more organic, and they're just kind of holding their breath to see if and when anything else comes out and it's going to be ugly. Speaking of ugly, California is still counting ballots. Can Republicans make it to November in two marquee matchups for governor and L.A. mayor? We'll discuss after a break.

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[12:25:00]

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BASH: California primary ballots postmarked by election day last Tuesday have until tomorrow to arrive and still be counted. That is California law. As more ballots are counted, key races have predictably shifted since election day towards Democrats, who tend to vote by mail more than Republicans.

Democrat Xavier Becerra secured a spot in the November general election. Republican Steve Hilton is holding on to second place, yet Tom Steyer is still within striking distance of winning that second spot on the November ballot. Now let's look at the L.A. mayor's race, which technically is nonpartisan. Spencer Pratt, who certainly identifies as a Republican, has fallen out of the top two. If the current results hold, incumbent Democrat Karen Bass would face a challenger from the left in city councilwoman Nithya Raman.

My panel is here. Now, Abby, as we look at this and kind of see how things move in California, particularly, let's drill down on the mayor's race. What are you looking for? What are your sources saying about how the count is going, and more importantly, what to look for going forward in November?

LIVINGSTON: Well, most political junkies know that California, to use a term from the state, is a bummer when it comes to counting votes. It just takes forever. We've had the House hang in peril for weeks because of California's voting, and so I think that's a source of enormous frustration.

But I think many folks are just bracing for the onslaught of attacks of not necessarily in good faith that somehow this is corrupt and that the metrics change when as each dump comes in. And so, I think it's just part of an ongoing drumbeat that the political system is going to have to withstand as they question the validity of these elections.

BASH: Yeah. And I think we're past bracing, we're in it, we're getting the attacks and it's not just from sort of trolls online