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CNN's The Arena with Kasie Hunt
Key Primaries Underway, Including Maine Senate; Trump: U.S. Must "Respond" To Iran Shooting Down Army Helicopter; Fans Give Trump Harsh Reception At Madison Square Garden. Aired 4-5p ET
Aired June 09, 2026 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[16:00:00]
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: THE ARENA WITH KASIE HUNT starts in just a few seconds. Thanks for being with us this afternoon.
(MUSIC)
KASIE HUNT, CNN HOST: Hi, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. Welcome to THE ARENA. It's great to have you with us on this Tuesday.
Right now, voters are voting. Voting underway in a number of key primary races across the country. Ballots are being cast that will shape the general election that, of course, set to eventually decide control of Congress.
The biggest test today is unfolding in Maine as Democrats decide just how much they're willing to overlook Graham Platner's scandals and whether they still believe he's their best chance at ousting longtime Republican Senator Susan Collins.
As that happens, many Republicans falling in line behind President Donald Trump and his allegation, which was leveled without evidence, that at least some of America's elections are rigged, today pointing to California, which allows ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted, and it results in an infamously slow process.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. STEVE SCALISE (R-LA), MAJORITY LEADER: They just keep finding ballots and finding ballots until the election results change. That -- look, whether you can prove fraud or not, it does undermine voter integrity in the vote.
REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: 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.
SEN. JOHN THUNE (R-SD), MAJORITY LEADER: It's incompetence, if nothing else. And whether or not there was actual rigging is something that had to be proven. But clearly, this is a system in California that doesn't work and doesn't inspire confidence and trust in voters.
(END VIDEO CLIP) HUNT: Those Republican leaders not going so far as to repeat the president's claim that the elections are rigged, but a couple of them certainly left space for the possibility.
Still, at least one California Democrat agrees that the process itself is a problem. Congressman Ro Khanna posted this today, quote, "We need to figure out in California how we can get the vote counted faster and results tabulated so that it does not drag on. Right now, the system is eroding trust and spawning conspiracy theories," end quote.
But it's worth noting there is a key distinction here. It is one thing to say that elections should be run more efficiently to generate more voter trust in the process. It is another thing entirely to claim that inefficiency is evidence of a crime, especially when the president never can seem to produce any evidence that he says is out there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's four days, and they aren't even close to coming up with it. You know why they're doing that? Because they're cheating on the election.
KRISTEN WELKER, NBC NEWS ANCHOR: There's -- what -- do you have evidence to support that?
TRUMP: All I have to do is look.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: All right, let's get off the sidelines, head into THE ARENA.
My panel is here. CNN legal analyst, former federal prosecutor Elliot Williams; CNN special correspondent Jamie Gangel; former DNC communications director Mo Elleithee; and CNN senior political commentator Scott Jennings.
We're also joined by CNN senior political and global affairs commentator Rahm Emanuel.
Welcome to all of you. Thank you so much for being here.
Rahm, let me start with you. Does Ro Khanna have a point here? I mean, I guess this is just a built-in bias when you're a political reporter who would like to know the results of the election, but I feel like many Americans are like this. I mean, why does it take them so long?
I understand that the rules are what they are. The ballots can be received up to X number of days afterward. But do you think it's a problem for trust in our elections?
RAHM EMANUEL, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL AND GLOBAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: Yes. That's straightforward. I mean, it should be a much more efficient piece of this. I mean, I suppose you could say jokingly you're not sure which is going to get completed first, counting the elections or building the high-speed rail. It doesn't add it -- doesn't add any trust, and especially when you
have a president now, look, if the Republicans had won and gotten into the runoff, do you think they'd be saying this? Not a chance. So, you know, just don't -- I mean, this is way too much time on this.
To me, the bigger thing is, if you look at California, you look at what's happening in South Carolina today, you look at Maine, what is the turnout? High energy among Democrats, independents are breaking two to one for Democrats, and Republicans have modest turnout. That's all you got to know about November, and that's what's important. This is a sideshow.
HUNT: Do you see a distinction between what you just outlined? Because, you know, across the country, right, the president, as is the case in midterm elections, there are referendums on the sitting president almost always. In California, you had essentially one-party rule, and you had some questions about the success of that.
Do you think we can learn anything from what happened in California about the future, or are today's tests better?
EMANUEL: Look, I mean, if you want to look about the future, I think you have to look not just to California, you have to look across the country that have been holding primaries.
And look, South Carolina would not be a state that I would normally turn to, but one thing caught my eye. Democrats already have had surpassed all of 2022's turnout, 2022. They have a competitive governor's race on the Republican side, a competitive Senate race on the Republican side and they're only at 35 percent.
Now, again, it's a bright red, strong red state. So turnout is what I'm interested to look to the future and say, okay, what is happening? And what's happening is you have very energized Democrats because they're angry at what the president's doing and angry that he's getting away with it, and Republicans who feel betrayed, and so the turnout for them in their primaries tells you there's no energy for November.
That's really what's relevant when you look at all of them together.
HUNT: Well, and, Scott Jennings, I mean, when you look at that, I mean, one of the things, one of the impacts that the president or other Republicans sowing distrust in the process could generate is people turning their backs on the system entirely. How does this help?
SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, look, the process is sowing distrust in the process. I agree with Rahm. I agree with Ro Khanna. When you take this long to count the ballots, of course, people are going to have questions about it.
Plus, the whole system out there, I mean, there's a reason that ballot harvesting, for instance, is illegal in a great many states. You've got millions of ballots that are mailed out to people who didn't ask for them. You have no voter ID. You have these ballot harvesters showing up. You know, you don't know them. They show up at your house, helping
people fill out their ballots and turning them in. I mean, I'm not -- I don't know of any evidence that the election is rigged.
HUNT: States control of elections.
JENNINGS: I understand and I'm criticized if --
HUNT: Everybody gets a ballot.
JENNINGS: Does that make it okay?
HUNT: No, I'm just saying that --
JENNINGS: Or you impose this on everybody else?
HUNT: I'm just saying states get to decide, which has been the Republican position for many years.
JENNINGS: Yeah, and I'm telling you that California ought to decide to do something different because what's happening in that election right now is causing people to question -- again, I'm not seeing any evidence of fraud, but what I have seen evidence of is a system that if you wanted to commit some fraud, this is exactly what you would do, put millions of ballots on the streets, no voter ID, ballot harvesting.
This system is designed to cause people to have questions about it. Again, that's different than saying I have evidence of fraud, but you can see why people would have a question.
MO ELLEITHEE, FORMER DNC COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: I mean, I'd love to see some things change in California as well. But, I mean, let's be honest, this president has been calling fraud in a number of states for the past decade, even in elections he's won, because it helps make his case, right? I mean, the president has built most of his political career on sowing distrust in elections. And this is just the latest step in it.
Republicans had no problem with the California system in 2022 -- in 2024, in the last elections, when it took just as long to count all these ballots, and a number of Republican House members were elected. You didn't hear Speaker Johnson, you didn't hear Leader Thune jump up and down and say, look how broken this system is. They were just fine with the outcome then.
So let's find the things that need to get fixed, fix them so that the president has fewer things to point at when he starts sowing distrust in these elections.
HUNT: And I will say, Jamie Gangel, too, I mean, if you listen carefully to what John Thune said, he actually sounded a little different than some of those other Republican leaders. I mean, he said incompetence is one thing. If there's fraud, if it's rigged, you have to have evidence. JAMIE GANGEL, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. And there is no evidence here. I do think it's important for those of us on Earth one to remember, California has the largest population. These are millions of voters. They do a lot of mail-in ballot. By the way, today, if your ballot arrives in California, it will still be counted on June 9th, as long as it was postmarked.
But to go back to what Mo said, you know, slow does not mean fraud. Slow does not mean rigged. The only time President Trump starts throwing this around is when he's not winning.
JENNINGS: But you would agree that when ballots somehow are in other people's hands that aren't the voters, it's inherently less secure than when you go vote and put it in the box, yes?
GANGEL: I will also say that in Florida, they do a lot of mail-in ballots, and the president won there, and a lot of Republicans won there, and there were similar issues there. He never objected to that.
HUNT: Yeah, Florida, in fact, cleaned up --
JENNINGS: Well, he's objected to mail-in balloting. I mean, he's always said he believes -
(CROSSTALK)
HUNT: Yeah, (INAUDIBLE) of people who -- because Republicans used to vote by mail more frequently pre-Trump than they do now.
(CROSSTALK)
HUNT: Yeah, Rahm, jump in.
EMANUEL: Yeah, look, I mean, we all know what this is a smokescreen. I think what if you were to be concerned, fast forward to November and you have, let's say, nine Democrats win by a plus nine on the House side, three of those races, it always happens, are going to be less than 200, some states have automatic recount, others don't.
[16:10:14]
The fraud element and the screaming about fraud will then happen. And that's when you have a general election. This is all a setup, not for today, not because they think they're going to do anything about California, to start to carpet bomb the area to get ready for a November and post-November messing with the results that come in.
This is why the president says, he says it, "Oh, I don't care about midterms," because he knows what's coming. Referendum is coming, the American people are going to issue a judgment, and it ain't going to be pretty.
And it's going to be one of those things where he's going to try to throw the whole thing that happens because the speaker by the Constitution has a lot of control. That's what's really going on.
There's a second act to this play, and it's not the play itself that we should be focusing on, but the second act here.
HUNT: And, Elliot Williams --
GANGEL: The first act is what I meant.
HUNT: Yeah, yeah.
To that point, I've actually talked to some Democrats who are discussing whether to put legal strategies in place ahead of this, Republicans as well, I mean, the administration and others.
ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Right, you know, I think -- because the challenges are coming. I just think the mere fact that California and other states could handle their elections more efficiently does not mean that the election is rigged. Rigging literally, and I would even go further and say the thing that has done more to harm elections in the United States is the president's own rhetoric. When he talks about a term like rigged, which means that votes are being tampered with or manipulated to guarantee a specific outcome, he's really making an allegation that there just is not the United States.
And so, yeah, every state could do more to tamp down the specter of fraud that hasn't even materialized yet. But it's just not the same thing. I'm sorry.
HUNT: Yeah, well, and to Moe's point, and we showed this to you yesterday, so if you're a regular viewer of THE ARENA, I'll apologize to you for the repeat, but I do think it is worth underscoring that this idea that Donald Trump has said that elections are rigged is not new for him. We went back 10 years. Watch the tape.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: And I'm afraid the election's going to be rigged. I have to be honest.
They even want to try to rig the election at the polling booth. The only way we're going to lose this election is if the election is rigged.
This year, they rigged an election. They rigged it like they've never rigged an election before.
The election was rigged and stolen.
The election was rigged. That election was rigged.
The radical left Democrats rigged the presidential election in 2020.
By the way, that election was totally rigged.
I don't know. If you have a rigged vote out there, that's the problem. The votes are rigged.
(END VIDEO CLIP) HUNT: So, Rahm Emanuel, I guess my question there -- looking at that, the one that stood out to me is right in the middle, January 6, 2021, where words result in action, right? When you say this is a precursor to something else, what are you looking for in terms of potential action in the wake of all of these words from Republicans about the elections potentially being rigged?
EMANUEL: Well, first thing, you know, where -- Kasie, where these races happened is a secretary of state, a Democrat, a Republican, how's it counted there. What I worry about most is on January 6th, going back to 2020, the protests were out on the streets, on the steps. This time they're going to do it inside the hall, and it's going to be led by the congressional Republicans because the speaker of the House has control about calling and seating new members.
And so what I'm saying now -- look, I happen to think the president, as that tape shows, This is a narrative the president uses all the time, heads I win, tails you lose. But he is setting the groundwork for a total disruption in this midterm because the verdict that's going to be issued, all the data is overwhelming. It's going to be like every other midterm when one party controls both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, and he is going to try to delegitimize it -- not only delegitimize it, but actually stop the verdict from being issued that the American people are going to do. And so that's what concerns me.
Now, we got to go run our races, not spend time, but not spend time you know, we all know this ain't rigged, California's inefficient. Inefficiency doesn't mean it's rigged or corrupt.
They have a job and responsibility to fix it up, like every state does, and they do between elections. But kind of the length here of how long this tail is is not helpful for a case of the American people want to be done with politics. They don't want it to extend into reruns.
HUNT: Yeah. Before I let you go, Rahm, I want to congratulate you on your excellent seats last night at the game.
But I do have a question about your sock choice.
EMANUEL: Yeah.
HUNT: No, go ahead.
EMANUEL: Yeah. There was no socks so don't worry about.
HUNT: That's what I mean.
[16:15:00]
What is that about? Like with sneakers? Like this is like I'm don't told this is about the socks here. This is the video. But --
EMANUEL: OK, well, they're the same. Let me say this. They're the same socks. Number two, I'll just say this. I just came off a bike trip in New
Hampshire. And you know, I had a shared a bunk bed with my brother Ari for 17 years. It comes with benefits. So I got good seats and I'm OK with that. I liked that. I enjoyed it.
You know what it's like to have Ari as a -- you know what it's like to have Ari as a bunk bed roommate for 17 years? Okay.
HUNT: I'm sure he owes you some perks. Yeah, exactly.
JENNINGS: That's the man of the people section in Madison Square Garden.
EMANUEL: Yeah, exactly.
(LAUGHTER)
HUNT: All I know is everyone cooler and younger than me says --
EMANUEL: How about that intensity of that photo?
HUNT: I mean, it captures you well, sir. I will say that. Anyone who's met you knows.
EMANUEL: It was a great physical game. And Kasie, I'm okay that you're jealous and I love you very much. I like that game.
HUNT: All I know is that the sock choice is apparently uncool, according to my much cooler colleagues who are younger than me.
But anyway, Rahm Emanuel, thank you. Always appreciated.
EMANUEL: That's okay. They didn't have to come to the game. All right.
HUNT: The rest of our panel's going to stick around.
Coming up next year in THE ARENA, we're going to talk to a Democrat who's called one aspect of Graham Platner's past, quote, personally disqualifying. Congressman Jake Auchincloss will be here with us live. We're going to talk about that.
As well as the breaking news out of the Middle East, Iran shooting down a U.S. Army helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz just hours after the president again suggested a deal to end the war was imminent.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We're in the final throes of what will be a very, very good deal that will not allow in any way, shape, or form nuclear weapons, et cetera, and the strait will open up right away. It'll open up immediately upon signing, which could be in two or three days.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:21:13]
HUNT: All right, we're back now with breaking news.
Two U.S. officials tell CNN that an Iranian drone has shot down a U.S. Apache helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz. One of those officials saying it's still unclear whether the helicopter was intentionally targeted. The Pentagon says the two pilots are safe after being rescued.
President Trump today vowing retaliation, posting online, quote, "The United States must, of necessity, respond to this attack," end quote.
This incident just the latest complication in what has already been a very shaky ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran.
CNN global affairs analyst Brett McGurk joins our panel to help us break it all down.
So, Brett, when the president says out loud that we have to respond, is there any way to back away from that at this point? What does that mean in the context of what we've been seeing unfold here?
BRETT MCGURK, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: No, I think we do have to respond. I just got back from the Middle East, actually. In the last week, put aside the Iran-Israel exchange, Kasie. We had Iran hit a tanker up by Kuwait. They launched missiles and drones at Bahrain. They hit the Kuwait International Airport. They launched four drones that we shot down to hit commercial ships. We responded to that.
This is happening every day in the Gulf. And two months ago today, we were supposed to start a ceasefire in which all shipping would open in the Gulf. So we're in a no-deal, no-ceasefire status quo.
And this appears to be a Shahed drone. That could have been a Shahed kamikaze drone trying to target a ship. Could have been a surveillance drone. We don't know exactly what happened here, but I suspect there will be a response.
But this is going to be the kind of new normal. I just think this is where we are.
HUNT: Jamie, do you agree?
GANGEL: Yes. Look, I'm going to channel Brett here. It takes two to make a deal. Welcome to negotiating with the Iranians.
I mean, even when they are seriously negotiating, they are known to drag out talks. You're the expert, come up with last-minute demands. Are they suffering? Yes.
But it appears they are playing for time, and that means higher gas prices, higher consumer prices. And for President Trump, who has been looking for an off-ramp, it's not easy to find one.
HUNT: Indeed. And a couple things here that we have seen repeatedly from the president, just to underscore Jamie's point. When we talk about whether there is a deal or not with Iran, you can go back months to hear the president say the same thing he was saying basically days ago. Let's watch that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We have points -- major points of agreement.
I think we're going to end it.
They want to make a deal so badly.
I do see a deal in Iran.
I think it's close to over here. I mean, I view it as very close to over.
It's looking very good that we're going to make a deal with Iran, and it's going to be a good deal.
This process should go very quickly. We're going to end that war very quickly. They want to make a deal so badly.
We're in the final throes of what will be a very, very good deal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: So, Scott Jennings, you speak frequently with the White House. What is the difference between March and May at this point? Because the president's been saying the same thing for months.
JENNINGS: Well, I think in the last couple of weeks, senior administration officials have expressed optimism that they might actually be on the brink of it. But they'll also tell you in the same breath, it may not happen. And it takes days and days and days to go back and forth with the Iranians. So it just takes longer than getting on a Zoom and hashing this out.
My problem is that I want -- I think the president's move here was righteous. I think going after the Iranians was correct. But the idea that we're going to have a peace deal with people who chant "Death to America", I think we got to stop looking at it that way. We're going to end up with a deal, but it's going to be a military and an economic subduing deal, and it's going to be in conjunction with our partners.
[16:25:00]
HUNT: Well, the president doesn't really call it a peace deal. He just says it's a deal.
JENNINGS: I know, but I think -- I think people are thinking of this like traditionally like, oh, we had a war, and then all of a sudden we have some kind of a deal, and everybody is happy.
No one -- they're not going to be happy with us. They're never going to be happy with us. And we have to internalize that. I mean, look, we're supposedly negotiating now, and they shot down an
Apache helicopter, which, by the way, the president says we have to respond. You can't go back on that now. You have to respond now. It would be a mistake to go back on a presidential statement like that.
HUNT: So to this point, we actually have some new sound in from Mark Warner, who's the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, talking about this incident. Let's watch that, and then Mo will talk about it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MARK WARNER (D-VA): I know the president has said this, but we've checked. I'm not sure that we actually have proof yet that it was the Iranians. So let's get the proof first. I'd like to hear that from DOD, number one.
Number two, the President has literally said over the last few weeks that the war with Iran is over more than 30 times. And that's just not true, of us rescuing pilots, with the missile strikes between Iran and Israel, with the bombing in southern Lebanon.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: So, Mo, you've got the president saying the Iranians did it, Mark Warner saying we're not sure yet that the Iranians did it. I noticed Kristen Holmes, one of our top White House reporters in our group chat noting that one possibility here is that this was an accident, right, and in terms of a response, that may demand something different than an intentional strike.
ELLEITHEE: Yeah, I think it's interesting that, at least the last I checked, the Iranians hadn't taken credit for this yet, which they have been quick to do so far throughout this conflict. But look, I think Senator Warner's second point, and it goes to what we were just talking about before the clip, is right. This is a president who has been promising us forever that, you know, for two months, more than 30 times, that this thing is over, that it's -- and I take both Brett and Scott's points as right, this may be the new normal.
And if it is the new normal, it doesn't look like military or economic subjugation, right? And if the American people have said, you know, they want this thing to end so that they can start feeling the relief from the pressures that this war has caused on them. And so today is just another example of -- maybe it was accidental. Maybe it was intentional. Maybe it was the Iranians. Maybe it was a proxy.
But what it shows is that this thing is not close to being over. And the Iranians have shown us time and time again that they feel like they've got nothing but time.
HUNT: Brett, generally speaking -- when I say generally speaking, I mean, Donald Trump has rewritten a lot of our rules, including many around war fighting and international diplomacy. But as a general matter, how has the United States in the past differentiated between an adversary making a deliberate strike on one of our assets and an adversary making an accidental strike? Because obviously, in the fog of war, all kinds of things can go wrong.
MCGURK: Unfortunately, with Iran, we deal with this all the time across administrations because they're shooting at us and we have to then respond and try to contain that escalation ladder to try to keep it controlled. This is a common equation.
But look, it's a Shahed drone, from what I understand. Iran has been targeting commercial shipping. What's been happening -- Chris Wright said something interesting today, Kasie. He said, actually, there's been a significant increase in shipping through the strait because ships are turning their responders off, kind of hugging the coast, and we're help protecting those ships because it's an international passageway. Iran is targeting those ships.
So I suspect that's what probably happened here, and that Apache helicopter, rightly so, is engaged in a mission to protect international shipping, as it should be doing. But that's kind of, again, new normal. That's where we are.
So, yeah, well, intentional or not, we're fortunate those pilots and those airmen were saved. This could be much worse. And we have to respond. I very much agree with Scott.
HUNT: All right, fair enough. Brett McGurk, thank you very much. Appreciate your expertise.
Coming up next here, President Trump's assessment on someone else who might want to make the jump from television to the White House, the quite personal jab he's making at Stephen A. Smith and the ESPN host's new response.
But first, Democratic Congressman Jake Auchincloss is here live as his party grapples But they're all but certain Senate nominee in Maine and how to handle the scandals surrounding Graham Platner.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): When you look at politics in general, there are no saints in the United States Senate. People can argue about this aspect of grab or another, but to my mind right now, we need allies in the United States Senate who have the guts to take on the big money that is dominating this country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:34:43]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REBECCA HOBBS, MAINE VOTER: I think it's unfortunate, but there's no doubt for me that we need to beat Susan Collins and get her out of the Senate.
ERIN EVANS, MAINE VOTER: I think he's the right person to unseat Susan Collins, and he represents Mainers, and we need a change in the Senate.
MARY SUE EMHISER, MAINE VOTER: My whole goal is only to beat Susan Collins. With my nose pinched, I'll vote for Graham Platner.
JAN ANDERSON, MAINE VOTER: Honestly, I would vote for a doorknob over Susan Collins.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Voters in Maine weighing in on one of the most closely watched races in the country today. We're just hours away from polls closing in Maine and getting the results of Graham Platner's first electoral test.
[16:35:02]
Democrats across the country have been divided over his candidacy after a series of scandals, including the most recent report in "The New York Times" over some of his past relationships with women.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): When it comes to the substance of this reporting, obviously, there's a lot in that behavior that's really challenging. It's hard to stomach, you know, in some of it. But -- but at the end of the day, I think that this is a choice. If the choice on the ballot is between that and a senator who's voted to take health care away from millions of Americans, that's the situation that we have to weigh.
I don't think that it's to hand wave away any of this. I think it's, you know, again, for voters. And frankly, I don't think the people of Maine are particularly concerned about what people in Washington are fretting about.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: All right. Joining us now in THE ARENA, Democratic congressman from Massachusetts, Jake Auchincloss.
Congressman, thank you so much for being here. Really appreciate it.
It was on this program a few weeks ago that you made news by criticizing Platner, especially around the tattoo of a Nazi symbol that he had removed, but that our reporting showed he was aware was such a symbol, even though he had insisted he didn't know that.
I think my question to you is a bigger picture one as we look at this race, because I know you've gotten considerable blowback from inside your own party in the wake of the remarks that you made, because, of course, control of the Senate could hinge very well on this Senate race in Maine.
Are we at the point where both parties have been forced to say by either a candidate like the Republican president Donald Trump or by a base of voters that's so angry at him that they'll accept a flaw or a series of flaws that are unlike those that they would have previously accepted? I mean have our rules just totally changed in terms of what's appropriate from our political candidates?
REP. JAKE AUCHINCLOSS (D-MA): Hi, Kasie. I don't think Democrats win by accepting a degraded state of affairs. I think we win by elevating and governing from a redefined and more decent center. And as you said a few weeks ago, I was clearing candid about where I stand on Graham Platner.
Actually, I've been clearing Candid since October of 2025, where I stand. My focus is on supporting those candidates throughout the country whose character, whose platform, I think, elevates and advances the Democratic Party and helps us win back the Senate, people like Josh Turek in Iowa, people like James Talarico in Texas, Roy Cooper in North Carolina. There's so many people to be excited about. That's where my energy is at.
HUNT: Brett Stevens put it this way in "The New York Times", sort of conservative columnist that leans right there.
If Platner can pass muster among Democratic primary voters, then the differences between him and Donald Trump are mainly of degree, not of kind. You may still agree with Platner's politics, and if you're in Maine, you may still think he's a better choice than Collins. What you can no longer do, at least not with any intellectual integrity, is to use moral litmus tests to try to disqualify political figures from the opposing party.
Do you think he's right?
AUCHINCLOSS: Well, I think Donald Trump is N of one. I don't think that he admits of comparison. The kind of corruption, the kind of self-aggrandizement, the -- real degradation of the rule of law and a constitutional order is unique in American history. And I think Democrats need to be on the attack against Donald Trump, his character and his policies.
And the way forward for Democrats is going to be from a patriotic center where we adopt a muscular posture against corruption, where we work on delivering a new American dream, where we are the party of public safety. These are issues that Donald Trump has tried to claim for the MAGA faction of the Republican Party. I think voters increasingly see through his gaslighting, and that is the opportunity in '26 and '28. But Democrats can't just campaign on it. We have to deliver on it.
HUNT: Fair. Obviously, of course, you referenced that you -- since October of 2025 have had the position you've had. And of course, it is around that revelation that we learned about the nature of the tattoo. The more recent ones have regarded sexting and women and other questions. But I want to circle back to the original thing that made you say what you said and broaden out the question a little bit.
Because there has been some reporting -- "Axios", I think, in particular highlighted this -- concerns among Democrats that Jewish voters feel less comfortable in the party than they used to. And I'm interested this concerns among Democrats that Jewish voters feel less comfortable in the party than they used to.
And I'm interested to know if you agree with that.
[16:40:00]
Do you think that Jewish voters feel less comfortable in the Democratic Party now?
AUCHINCLOSS: I think Jewish voters are increasingly alarmed by extremism that manifests in extremist factions of both parties, candidly. You've got the Nick Fuentes and the Tucker Carlsons and the Republican Party, and you've got individuals in the Democratic Party. And the commonality between those two factions has been where they mushroom, and that is on the social media platforms.
Traditionally, anti-Semitism has been a feature of failed societies, whether it's the ancient Middle East or whether it's 19th century Europe when societies have pathologies that go unaddressed they tend to manifest as anti-Semitism and scapegoating of Jews and social media is a failed society. Our online discussion has become so toxic that now it is starting to crystallize as anti-Semitic memes that go viral and that to me is really the core underlying factor here. It's going to pop up in both parties with different you know hideous manifestations.
But at the core of it, it is that on social media, whether it's TikTok or Meta or otherwise, anti-Semitism is viral.
HUNT: Do you think that the Democratic Party's base will accept a nominee that supports Israel as strongly as let's set up the last Democratic president as Joe Biden did? Or is that going to become unacceptable to the party's base voters?
AUCHINCLOSS: I think if the Democratic Party spends more time talking about Israel going into '28 than talking about America, we are going to be very poorly positioned for the general election. American voters want to hear about a new American dream, about an excellent education by 18, about homeownership by 30, a dignified retirement by 65.
Of course, we have to deal with foreign policy issues, but I think we have to deal with what foreign policy looks like in '28 and 2030, not what it looked like in 2020. And it's going to look very different because of the absolute catastrophe that this president is leaving the next president in the Middle East. We're going to have to regionalize energy, infrastructure, defense ties throughout the Abraham Accords. We're going to have to think about how Ukraine's drone and counter- drone capabilities can help support our allies, Israel and otherwise, our Gulf State allies, in the Middle East.
We're going to have to think about an Indo-Pacific posture that unravels increasing Chinese belligerence now that we've stepped back from supporting the Philippines and South Korea and Japan.
So the next president has to worry about the challenges in front of them, not about fights within the party from 2020. HUNT: Fair enough. Speaking of the Middle East and Iran, the president has said publicly now that the United States has to respond to the shooting down of an Apache helicopter. Thankfully, both pilots were safely rescued.
But do you think that the U.S. is obligated to respond now that the president said that?
AUCHINCLOSS: First of all, the most important thing is that those pilots are safe and recovered. And the most important thing is that Congress take back the steering wheel of foreign policy from this out- of-control commander-in-chief because Marco Rubio comes to Congress and tries to claim that the war is over.
I want him to go meet with those two pilots and tell them that this war is over. This war is hot, and it's going to cost American lives unless and until Republicans in Congress find the backbone to give voice to their own voters who did not sign up for a third forever war in the Middle East.
HUNT: All right, Congressman Jake Auchincloss, thank you very much, of course, for your prior service to our country and for your time today. I appreciate it.
AUCHINCLOSS: You're welcome.
HUNT: All right, ahead here in THE ARENA, the off-court match-up getting headlines today. All the reaction to Donald Trump's visit to Madison Square Garden.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You never, as a politician, do this. You do not go to an NBA Finals game when there's a winning streak, because if they lose, everyone will blame you. All of New York will blame you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You called that yesterday.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I called it yesterday. Like whether it's true or not, listen, it wasn't defined (ph) --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is true. It is true.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was not defined (ph). But the vibe shift is real.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:48:23]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHEN A. SMITH, CO-HOST, "FIRST TAKE": The New York Knicks lost. And obviously, I'm blaming him. Why am I blaming him, ladies and gentlemen? It's very, very simple. Because the president disrupted our mojo.
WHOOPI GOLDBERG, CO-HOST, "THE VIEW": They were not playing great ball. That was on us. This guy, I have to just reiterate the fact that this man does not have that kind of power. We have to remind people he doesn't have the power.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: In case you hadn't heard, the Knicks lost game three of the NBA Finals, snapped their 13-game winning streak with the president of the United States, Donald Trump, in attendance. Fans quick to say Trump messed with the mojo, and New York, being New York, they let him know how they felt.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(NATIONAL ANTHEM)
(BOOS)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Not quite the warmest of receptions.
This was the president's response.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: It was certainly amazing. It was -- it was, I think, mostly cheers. It was loud, and it was very enthusiastic.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: All right, joining our panel now in THE ARENA, CNN contributor and sports broadcaster, Cari Champion.
Cari, I'm so glad to have you here with the panel. You heard, you know, Whoopi Goldberg, Stephen A. both weigh in about last night. Who's right?
CARI CHAMPION, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I think they both -- well, I think they both are right. Let me just say this. There is mojo, vibes, a very real thing.
Normally during the finals, the atmosphere is really electric and from my understanding everyone inside of that arena felt like it was electric but subdued.
[16:50:09]
And I think that was because if we're going to be honest, people had to wait so long to get in and the TSA like checkpoints and the idea of being free just wasn't there. They knew that there was a situation that was happening and they all had to act or behave accordingly.
You remove the energy of the city in terms of taking away the watch parties or that are outside of the garden. What are you going to get? You're going to get people who are a little more conservative, a little more held back. The president heard how they felt.
Now is he the reason? No, I do believe there's somebody who's a seven- foot monster by the name of Wimby who decided that he wanted to make sure that the party didn't stop for the San Antonio Spurs.
HUNT: That is -- yes, that is a fair -- that is a fair enough point.
Let's watch a little bit more of what the president had to say about Stephen A. Smith, who, of course, sports broadcaster with potential political aspirations -- unclear. Here's what Trump said and then we're going to play what Stephen said at some length. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I think he's a nice guy. But you need a certain aptitude to run for president. You need a high IQ. I'm not sure that Stephen has that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: So that's what the president said. I think it's worth noting that the president has leveled this high IQ insult -- okay, most of the people he levels at it have the same thing in common. And, you know, I think everyone here on the panel knows exactly what that is.
Here's what Stephen A. Smith said back to the president today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SMITH: You want to talk about I.Q.? I could say I put my I.Q. up against yours any day of the week. We can go a myriad of ways with all of this, but I'm not going to let you off the hook because none of that is important. I do appreciate the fact that you called me a nice guy because you don't tell anybody. But I actually am a very nice guy. Until you tug at me a little bit.
And then after that, I got to show my other side. And my other side came out last night when I recognized that businesses that are accustomed to being patronized were compromised by you because you showed up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Cari, what's going on here?
CHAMPION: You know, here's what's interesting about Stephen A. I think it was very... Playful right his response was playful. He did the podium He has the flag in the back because he is also representing ESPN And so he wanted to make sure that he did it in a way that was fair.
And he also suggested that on his personal platform that he would actually address the president. I don't think that he is going to address the president with the name the normal fever that he has in terms of how he comes at people when he's upset. I think what the president said was out of bounds and we know why he
said it, right? But what Stephen A did was speak from the heart of New York Knick fans like he's talking as a diehard fan and why he was upset -- why he was upset.
But the reality is, is that it didn't even deserve a response. I see why he gave it a response and they both are very similar in the sense that they are very much about the show. Stephen A. actually probably was happy that the president mentioned him so that he could return that same type of jab.
They both love that kind of energy we've seen that and they're really -- I would say -- in a lot of ways more similar than they are not. You know what I mean?
HUNT: Performance is a skill. Let's not forget that.
What do you guys -- what does this side of the table think? Is Stephen A. running for president? Is that what we saw this morning?
JENNINGS: He's standing in front of a giant American flag on his sports show. I mean, he clearly has ambitions. And you know, look, I wouldn't discount this. It's not been that long ago that one major political party went totally outside of the political system and found somebody with their own audience from the world of entertainment.
HUNT: I'm not discounting it.
JENNINGS: And so, for people who are like, oh, my gosh, a sports -- I mean, I'm just saying, we're in a little bit of a wild environment right now. The Democrats are having an identity crisis. It wouldn't be shocking to me to see someone, I don't know if it'll be him, from the outside swoop in on this thing.
ELLEITHEE: It's almost guaranteed that someone from the outside is going to swoop in, whether it's Stephen A. Smith or not.
JENNINGS: Really?
ELLEITHEE: Who will run? Absolutely.
JENNINGS: No, no.
ELLEITHEE: I think you're going to see all sorts of different people running this next time.
Look, going back to sort of the situation itself, the game, I hate that the president was there, because I hate when any president goes to a sporting event that I'm at. The number of people who were disrupted, right?
And this is what I think Stephen A. Smith was getting at there at the end is that a lot of businesses, a lot of people who had to disrupt their lives because of all of the hoopla around a presidential visit -- people go to sports games because they want to watch the game. They don't want all the other atmospheres. [16:55:00]
WILLIAMS: Knicks in five.
HUNT: It's also fair --
WILLIAMS: Knicks in five.
HUNT: It's also worth noting, as we wrap up here, the president on his way out said, "The game was fantastic. Well played by both teams. We all had a lot of fun. Well played by both teams."
It reminded some people of Elmo, who said Elmo has -- both teams have fun. Elmo got a lot of S-H-I-T for that on the internet. Okay?
Cari Champion, thank you. I'm so honored to have you in THE ARENA. I hope you come back.
All right, we'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HUNT: All right, thanks very much to my panel for being here. Really appreciate all of you.
Thanks to those of you at home for watching as well, but don't go anywhere. Jake Tapper is standing by for "THE LEAD".
Hi, Jake.
