Return to Transcripts main page

The Lead with Jake Tapper

White House Optimistic About Potential Agreement With Iran; America's Largest Energy Hub Is Running Out Of Oil; Rep. Sam Liccardo (D-CA), Is Interviewed About SpaceX Soars In $2T Market Debut, Making Musk First Trillionaire; Immigration Agents Detain Two People On School Grounds; Community Remembers The 49 Lives Lost 10 Years Ago. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired June 12, 2026 - 17:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KASIE HUNT, CNN HOST: All right. Thanks very much to my panel. Have a wonderful weekend. Thanks to you at home for watching as well. Have a wonderful weekend.

You can watch much more of The Arena tomorrow. The Arena Saturday airs at noon and again at 4:00 p.m. right here on CNN. Be sure to join us. You can also join me Sunday morning right here on CNN at 9:00 a.m. for State of The Union. And in the meantime, Phil Mattingly is standing by for The Lead.

Hi, Phil.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kasie. Thanks so much. You have a great weekend. We'll, of course, look for more next weekend in "The Arena."

HUNT: Thanks, Phil.

[17:00:44]

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: So there's a possible agreement to start possible talks. The Lead starts right now.

According to a senior administration official, the Trump administration is feeling good about its dealings with Iran. So what's holding up the next stage? We're talking with someone well sourced in the negotiations. Plus, Elon Musk, not only the world's richest man, now he's the world's first trillionaire with a T richer than almost every country in the world. How his Space X debut on Wall Street is rocketing his wealth.

And breaking news, the request that has crews standing by waiting to see if they must take President Trump's name off the Kennedy Center or keep it there.

Welcome to The Lead. I'm Phil Mattingly in for Jake Tapper.

We start with our World Lead. The U.S. and Iran inching closer to a potential agreement that would only start peace negotiations. Sources tell CNN a signing ceremony for a memo of understanding possible as early as Sunday in Switzerland. According to the Trump administration, this framework includes reopening the Strait of Hormuz, lifting the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports, dismantling Iran's nuclear program, which would include the U.S. taking and destroying Iran's enriched material. And if Iran complies, then and only then will it start to see financial relief.

Billions of Iran's funds, of course, are currently frozen. So is this moment any different from the nearly 40 other times when President Trump claimed deal with Iran was imminent? Well, one positive clue is actually coming from the Iranians. Today, the Iranian foreign minister said on Twitter a memo of understanding has, quote, "never been closer."

We want to get straight to CNN Political and Global Affairs Analyst Barak Ravid. And Barak, do we think at this point in time this is a deal that not only is going to have a signing ceremony, but will actually be accepted by all the parties involved here?

BARAK RAVID, CNN POLITICAL & GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, first about the ceremony, the Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi just, I think, 20 minutes ago said on Iranian state T.V. that this deal might be signed remotely. It might be the Zoom Accords between the U.S. and Iran, which was an interesting development because Vice President Vance was getting ready to go possibly to Geneva. Two U.S. Air Force planes were also -- were already making their way with some of the equipment of the advanced team of the vice president. And what the Iranian foreign minister said, that this deal might be signed remotely is definitely a new development.

And it seems from what I hear from both several sources in the countries that are mediating and in the Trump administration, nobody says that this is done deal, but all of them say that this is somewhere between 85 to 95 percent done. This doesn't mean that the deal will actually be signed. We've been in that point many times before. But I think that this time it looks different, especially because, you know, we can see how the Iranians are presenting this. They already celebrating this as a victory to their domestic audience.

And actually the Iranian domestic marketing of this deal is what caused the mini crisis today that led President Trump to demand both in public and in private from the Iranians to issue a clarification for several reports on Iranian state media. And this is what led to Araghchi's tweet earlier today saying that the deal has never been closer. And when I spoke to President Trump earlier today, he said that this post by Araghchi was very positive and it helped avoiding a crisis when the parties are really close to a deal.

MATTINGLY: Yes, I was going to say when I saw that I thought, all right, this is different. Like there is a clear effort here. I thought that, you talked to the President about that. That is the difference between me and you in terms of our reporting here. I want to ask in terms of what is at risk of unraveling, should the U.S. and Iran truly get to this 60-day period for technical negotiations?

[17:05:12] You have covered talks on these issues across multiple administrations at this point. This is fraught to say the least. What is kind of your sense of how things will work going forward?

RAVID: So the Iranian nuclear program -- I mean, let's say, OK, let's say that there is a deal, OK, now they'll sign the memorandum of understanding. This is only the first step of, I don't know, thousand steps until you get to the real deal, which is a deal on dismantling parts or limiting parts of the Iranian nuclear program. The 2015 nuclear deal took 18 months to negotiate. So I find it hard to believe that 60 days are enough in order to address all the different issues, both Iran's highly enriched uranium stockpile, Iran's enrichment program, Iran's nuclear facilities, the return of IEA inspections to Iran, the verification and monitoring. There are a lot of issues here.

This is not something you can do in two months, in my humble opinion. So I think that as the MoU stipulates, if the -- if both parties agree to continue the negotiation for another period of time after the 60 days, they can definitely extend this deal.

MATTINGLY: I was struck in talking to administration officials by confidence bordering on, I think, dismissiveness of Israel's concerns about this and whether or not they will be on board with an MoU if they reach the signing point. What are you hearing from your sources on that?

RAVID: You know, this is not how Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wanted this war to end. When he went hand in hand with President Trump to this war, Netanyahu's goal, stated goal, was regime change in Iran. And what he got now is that this war is ending with more or less the same regime, maybe different people, but the same system, and with a deal between the U.S. and Iran. This is not -- this is not what Netanyahu planned.

And yesterday, when President Trump put out his statement saying that the deal might be close, Netanyahu was caught off guard. He learned about this from one of his aides entering his office with a piece of paper saying that President Trump just tweeted this. And when he spoke to President Trump later that evening, President Trump told him, according to U.S. officials, look, this is the deal. I think it's a good deal and this war has to end. And Netanyahu, from what I heard from my sources, sort of conceded.

He didn't really argue. He just told Trump, well, I trust you that you'll stick to your commitments about what Iran needs to do regarding its nuclear program. But I think that for Netanyahu, this is not good news at all, especially, by the way, that in less than four months he has an election. And domestically, this definitely doesn't look like a win.

MATTINGLY: Barak Ravid, always grateful for your reporting, for your time. Thanks so much, my friend.

RAVID: Thank you.

MATTINGLY: Now to breaking news in our Law and Justice Lead. You're looking live at the Kennedy Center here in Washington, D.C. where crews have scaffolding up to remove President Trump's name from the building. CNN's Betsy Klein is there.

Betsy, work there is at a standstill because of a last ditch legal effort by the Kennedy Center board. What's happening right now?

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, Phil, it's some combination of legal drama as well as severe thunderstorms that is slowing this process down. But there have been so many twists and turns in this legal battle. In short, back on May 29, a federal judge ruled blocking the center from temporarily closing for renovation. That judge also ruled that the Kennedy Center's board violated the law when it added President Trump's name without congressional approval. He gave officials 14 days to remove the exterior signage as well as marketing materials, references to Trump on the website, as well as e- mail signatures, among other things.

That deadline is 11:59 p.m. tonight. Then this afternoon, after the board of trustees voted to appeal that decision, the judge denied their request to pause that deadline. Then the Kennedy Center escalating its effort to avoid compliance. They are now asking the USDC Circuit Court of Appeals to freeze this ruling. Department of Justice lawyers are asking to have a ruling by 7:00 p.m. tonight.

[17:10:00]

So very tight timeline there.

If this happens, if the judge declines to freeze that, this would mark the first time that one of President Trump's efforts to place his mark on Washington, D.C. has been undone, Phil.

MATTINGLY: You know, Betsy, the good news is this show goes till 7:00 p.m., which means I feel like we're going to have you back here soon, weather permitting, of course.

I appreciate you, my friend. Betsy Klein from the Kennedy Center. Thanks so much.

KLEIN: We'll be back.

MATTINGLY: Well, federal courts also weighed in today on President Trump's UFC fight coming up on Sunday and on the anti weaponization fund. We will get to those. Plus the oil storage problem that has oil executives freaked out about your gasoline prices. See why for yourself from the Oklahoma town known as the pipeline crossroads of the world."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MATTINGLY: We're back with the Money Lead. And gas prices down for 22 straight days. AAA shows the national average now at $4.11 a gallon, down two cents from yesterday. But oil executives worry prices could quickly reverse course. And here's a major reason why.

America's energy hub is running dangerously low on oil. CNN's Ed Lavandera went there to Cushing, Oklahoma, a small town that calls itself the pipeline crossroads of the world.

[17:15:13]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A drive around Cushing, Oklahoma, with Farrel Kleckner is like stepping into a time machine.

FARREL KLECKNER, CUSHING, OKLAHOMA, NATIVE: That rock building there is probably the oldest building in Cushing.

LAVANDERA: So over time, you've kind of become the Cushing unofficial historian or the official historian? Where are we at?

KLECKNER: The unofficial historian.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Cotton king here until 1912, when some wildcatter struck oil.

KLECKNER: Cushing really took a boom in the '20s.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): In the oil business. Cushing is now one of the most important places in the world you've probably never heard of. It's a dot on the map between Oklahoma City and Tulsa where a vast network of underground pipelines feed into one of the world's largest privately owned storage hubs for crude oil.

KLECKNER: We'll go for two miles out here. Out of nothing but tanks.

LAVANDERA: But this is what Cushing is known for today.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): As far as the eye can see, dozens of massive storage tanks dot the landscape. Oil industry analysts closely monitor how much crude oil is in these tanks. And right now, alarm bells are ringing. Usually, the Cushing tanks can hold about 75 million barrels of oil. The levels now have dropped to below 22 million.

LAVANDERA: Because of the Iran war and the closing of the Strait of Hormuz, that's one of the reasons why storage levels here in Cushing have dropped to such critical levels as the U.S. is supplying more oil to other parts of the world. And analysts say that if these tanks are not replenished fast enough, that could mean in the weeks ahead, we're paying more for gas at the pump.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): When these tanks reach the 20 million mark, it's like scraping the bottom of the barrel. The crude oil becomes an unusable sludge. From above, you can see how low the ceilings of these tanks have dipped. They're designed to float up and down with the oil levels inside.

LAVANDERA: So for 114 years, there has been pump jack here.

STEVE CROWDER, PRESIDENT, LITTLE RIVER ENERGY COMPANY: Continuous production.

LAVANDERA: Yes.

CROWDER: Yes.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): The Cushing oil age was born on this spot.

LAVANDERA: And now it's making five barrels a day.

CROWDER: Five barrels a day.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Side of the first well drilled here. Steve Crowder runs it now, along with almost a hundred others.

LAVANDERA: Given how low the capacity levels are at Cushing --

CROWDER: Right.

LAVANDERA: -- is -- does that create concern about what's coming down the pike?

CROWDER: Well, it should create a lot of concern with a lot of people.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): In the last 20 years, any time oil inventories at Cushing have reached levels this low, it's triggered historically high oil prices. Energy executives at companies like Exxon and Chevron are warning that the United States is less than a month away from seeing gas prices shoot up as long as the Iran war drags on.

LAVANDERA: Does that mean the worst is yet to come in your view?

CROWDER: Yes, I'm an optimist or I wouldn't be in this business. But I'm afraid that it could be some difficult times coming. If the conflict is resolved, the strait is open, shipping resumes, we'll dodge a bullet and we'll avoid some real problems. And --

LAVANDERA: But if this continues?

CROWDER: If it drags on, it could be really tough, real tough.

LAVANDERA: Yes.

CROWDER: Real tough.

LAVANDERA: What happens here really matters?

LEE DENNEY, FORMER MEMBER, OKLAHOMA STATE HOUSE: It does.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Along an old downtown street in Cushing, we met with Lee Denney, a former state representative who was born here and has seen the booms and busts in Cushing oil. She predicts oil producers will replenish inventories soon and that will prevent a painful spike in gas prices.

DENNEY: They're going to keep producing as fast as they can because that's when they make money.

LAVANDERA: Right. DENNEY: And so I'm optimistic that they'll fill up.

LAVANDERA: But it's $5 a gallon gasoline or more than that on the horizon?

DENNEY: Boy, I hope not. I hope not because that's not comfortable for the consumer.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Ed Lavandera, CNN, Cushing, Oklahoma.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY: Ed Lavandera, thanks so much.

I want to bring in now Tom Kloza. He's the chief energy advisor at Gulf Oil.

And Tom, I love that piece for so many different reasons, but one of them is I feel like I've written -- spoken so much about Cushing and never physically like seen the whole process there. And the reason why I've written -- talk so much about it is because I've been hearing for weeks now from oil executives or people tied to the industry, this is the thing you need to watch for as the U.S. continues to play like the linchpin role in the global triage effort tied to Strait of Hormuz. What's your degree of concern right now?

TOM KLOZA, CHIEF ENERGY ADVISER, GULF OIL: You know, my degree of concern for Cushing isn't all that great. I am concerned about inventories, not just in the U.S. and in strategic inventories, but around the world. Cushing isn't as important as it was a few years ago and, you know, they actually have storage available for almost 100 million barrels. But a lot of the crude oil that used to flow to Cushing, you know, we used to say all roads lead there now goes directly to the Gulf Coast to -- for export in some cases.

[17:20:11]

I'm more worried about strategic inventories which some people think will be strained if we go below 300 million barrels. And right now, based on the sales of the SPR, we're going to touch around 240 million barrels sometimes in August or September.

MATTINGLY: Yes. The weekly numbers have been extraordinary to see over the course of the last month, six weeks. I want to ask you, President Trump has talked a few times that -- about the idea the U.S. has been removing oil from Iran. I want to play a bit of that, take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You know, we've been taking out millions of barrels of oil. Nobody knows it. You know who doesn't know about it? Iran until right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: I don't -- I'm interested if you know what he's referring to. And if so, where it's coming from, where it's going at this point?

KLOZA: Well, the energy secretary said today that about 7 million barrels a day are exiting the Strait of Hormuz. That's about three or 4 million barrels a day higher than a lot of the banks estimate. So, you know, I've always said that oil statistics are not measured with precision instruments and particularly when the president's involved. So we'll have to see. I mean, he's going to get a birthday present this weekend in that most people are going to be able to buy gasoline for less than $4.

But you know, what happens in July and August really looms large before the midterms.

MATTINGLY: Yes, it's a really great point. A UFC fight and gasoline prices, that's -- these are two good things for an 80th birthday, I suppose.

Tom Kloza, always appreciate your time and expertise, my friend. Thanks so much.

KLOZA: Thanks, Phil.

MATTINGLY: Well, up ahead inside air traffic control in the U.S., a system well overdue for an upgrade.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Pen and paper.

AMEE PATEL, FAA: Pen and paper.

MUNTEAN: Old school.

PATEL: Old school.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: See the multi-billion dollar overhaul to help keep you safer in the skies.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:26:28]

MATTINGLY: In our National Lead, the reliance on pen and paper to track flights across the U.S. every day. Now that decades old system under the scrutiny of aviation officials is getting an update. CNN's Pete Muntean reports on the Trump administration's multi-billion dollar aviation overhaul.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Eastern 392, Runway 32 left.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The airlines have changed and so have the hairstyles, but the technology, not so much. Paper is still the backbone of America's busiest control towers.

MUNTEAN: Pen and paper.

AMEE PATEL, FAA: Pen and paper.

MUNTEAN: Old school.

PATEL: Old school.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): Known as flight strips, these small printouts detail critical information for air traffic controllers, including the flight number, departure airport route and destination. They are physically passed from controller to controller and updated by hand.

PATEL: He has to physically get up and pass it to the local controller. The local controller then validates, gives all the verification, and then talks to the pilot and then gives them clearance to take off.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): Amee Patel is leading the FAA's transition from paper strips to digital, the latest target of the Trump administration's multi-billion dollar air traffic control overhaul.

PATEL It's just old. We've been doing it for so many years and there's a better way of doing it. They're not heads up. We want to maximize their heads up time so they're more efficient.

MUNTEAN: At least two of these strips are printed for each of the 55,000 flights in U.S. airspace each day. The digital replacement for these are at 17 different air traffic control facilities. And the goal is to grow that number five fold by 2028.

PATEL: We've got all of our flights ready and queued up. Once she's confirmed, she's going to press it to go over to ground control.

MUNTEAN: OK, so now it's over here.

PATEL: Now you'll see over here they can make any changes and edits. They now send it to local control.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): Paper is great for taking notes, but not for tracking your plane in the sky. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy calls this just the start toward building a brand new air traffic control system by the end of 2028. Congress has already given the White House $12 billion, and Duffy wants another 10 billion for software upgrades. The Trump administration says crews have already upgraded half of all aging copper communication lines linked to last year's radar blackouts in Newark.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our scopes just went black again.

SEAN DUFFY, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: Look at how fast we're building. Look at the technology that we're using, the way we rethought how we build. Give some faith, give us some money, and don't make us wait.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): Though the cash may not convert, controllers convinced the old ways are still the best. Dave Riley was a controller for 32 years.

DAVE RILEY, RETIRED AIR TRATFFIC CONTROLLER: I would definitely be very skeptical and would want to make sure that it does all the things that we can do with paper strips and have the reliability that a paper strip and a pen would have.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MUNTEAN (on camera): The FAA has promised to replace paper strips for more than a decade now, but the transition has not been seamless. At Reagan National Airport just outside Washington, D.C., implementing the new system caused flight delays as controllers got up to speed. The head of the controllers union tells me that's not unexpected, but he insists it will be worth it since this will make flying safer in the long run. Phil.

MATTINGLY: Pete Muntean, that's a great piece.

MUNTEAN: Thanks.

MATTINGLY: Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

[17:29:47]

Well, Elon Musk now the world's first trillionaire. How long it could take to spend his kind of money and what a member of Congress has to say about this one man's level of concentrated wealth. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MATTINGLY: In our Money Lead, an historic liftoff for SpaceX today. The Elon Musk founded rocket and A.I. company blasted records in its stock market debut. SpaceX opened at a $150 a share, climbed as high as a $176 during trading and settled at just under $161. It's the largest IPO to date. The blockbuster debut made Elon Musk the world's first trillionaire just to put that into some perspective here. If you were to spend $1 million every hour, every day, it would still take more than a century to spend it all. May we all have that problem?

[17:34:56]

Let's discuss now with Democratic Congressman Sam Liccardo of California. Congressman, I really appreciate your time. I want to start with something. I've been thinking about throughout the course of the day as you see the trillionaire moniker become a real live thing, the blockbuster IPO and yet, I spent a lot of time covering the economy and you have 70 plus percent of people in polls saying affordability is the biggest issue that they're dealing with right now. Do you view what we saw today as a success story, a warning sign or something else?

REP. SAM LICCARDO (D-CA), FINANCIAL SERVICES COMMITTEE: Well, Phil, good to be with you. You're right, the stock market has become increasingly unmoored from what's really happening in the economy for tens of millions American families right now. And so look, this is a good news bad news story. It's good news anytime there's an IPO. We want more retail. Investors to be able to benefit from the growth of the innovation economy, but we know that Benefit is extraordinarily narrow.

And while it may make news that there's one trillionaire now in America, the reality is that according to Urban Institute about half Americans cannot afford basic necessities and the cost of those necessities is growing faster than their incomes.

MATTINGLY: One of the other things that I've been thinking about a lot today is the concentration of wealth and power particularly in a company that is a linchpin for national security for space travel. Does that raise any concerns for policymakers and is there anything that could be done if there are concerns there?

LICCARDO: Well, certainly there are concerns and I'd say even more than space travel. It's what the space travel leads to and what I'm pointing to is Starlink, the ability to control communications and data globally. This is a really the great value of this company, a company that actually lost $5 billion last year and another $4 billion in the first quarter this year. The reason why investors are excited about this company is overwhelmingly because of the network of satellites that are up in space today and will continue to be that control communications, telecommunications.

And there is an important story to be told. We've got billions of dollars of federal money to help support families that struggle that need to be connected that are underserved right now. Starlink is bidding for that funding in various ways and they're seeking exemptions with regard to service quality in various ways. And this is a company simply that the federal government taxpayers shouldn't be subsidizing.

MATTINGLY: Do you have any concerns about the individual who was able to spend $200 plus million in 2024 for Republican candidates now having a trillion dollars to do, if he decides to stay in power and get back into politics, I guess at this point, as a democratic member just as a member of congress in general. Do you have any concerns about that?

LICCARDO: Well, regardless of who he's given money to, there's -- it's clear that just about everybody in America agrees that we need to get money out of politics, except for a few justices on the Supreme Court decided it's just fine and there's somehow a first amendment protection for it. So we need a constitutional amendment in order to undo not just Citizens United but in fact decisions from decades before Buckley vs. Valeo and others that somehow or another protected this kind of outrageous amount of campaign spending.

We know it has incredibly harmful effects to our democracy. Clearly, Elon Musk's impact and influence is outsized for any individual or company. And we need reform. So there are two bills now in Congress to start this march toward amending the Constitution. This is going to be a very long journey. I know, but we've got to start now.

MATTINGLY: The thing that I really wanted to ask you about was A.I. and kind of the role of policymakers on the federal level and I guess on the state level as well. You had a recent "Washington Post" op-ed. You made clear we can't regulate A.I., which is something that anybody who comes from your part of California, who has watched lawmakers, no offense to you personally, try and get their heads around how to regulate tech, understands exactly what you're saying there. What does kind of the referee or government role here look like in your mind, policy wise?

LICCARDO: Yes. What I think is a better approach is one that really takes advantage of the primordial instincts of these hyperscaling companies. This is an incredibly intensely competitive industry, and what they fear the most is having 50 different states trying to regulate them in 50 different ways. And it seems to me that if we are able to set a threshold for a safe harbor from all that, different kinds of regulation that may be contradictory and conflicting for those companies that set the best practices for safety, and we know how at least to identify the categories of risk that we need to mitigate.

And there's an agency called Casey that's been hard at work at this for several years. If we can set that threshold, we can establish a race to the top and force them to compete against themselves on safety and thereby really make the technology safer for all of us, rather than pretending that a regulator is going to be able to figure it out.

[17:40:16]

MATTINGLY: Yes, it is a fascinating, also slightly terrifying policy discussion at this point in time. I know you're going to be in the middle of it for months and years to come. Congressman Sam Liccardo, appreciate your time, sir. Thanks so much.

LICCARDO: Hey, great to be with you, Phil.

MATTINGLY: We'll talk more about Elon Musk and what his trillionaire status could actually buy. Plus, why Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner says President Trump calling him a thug and a pig might be the nicest thing anybody's ever said about him. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:45:06]

MATTINGLY: In our Politics Lead, growing backlash to this video taken outside of Baltimore Elementary School. Those are immigration agents detaining two people in the school's parking lot. Agents pulled a man and woman from an SUV in full view of the young children. Now, ICE officials say the school wasn't a target for the operation. Rather, they say the suspect resisted arrest and tried to run. This is the latest incident from the Trump administration's immigration crackdown that sparked community outrage.

I want to talk about this now with the panel. Melik, just to start with you, a DHS spokesperson telling CNN, "To be clear, ICE does not target schools, but we will not allow criminals to hide in our nation's schools and put the safety of children at risk." I think what's so striking about this was it seemed like the administration had gone to great lengths not to do things that would draw public attention like this in the most egregious kind of interior enforcement kind of ways since Minnesota. What's your read on it?

MELIK ABDUL, GOP STRATEGIST: I think that you're seeing a totally different type of enforcement under Homan than it was with Kristi Noem, which is why he eventually pulls some of those ICE agents out of Minnesota. Here when you go and look at the local reporting on this, apparently this guy, there was a previous incident with this guy back in April, but then it's also at the local news outlet was reporting that they actually contacted, ICE contacted the governor's office. So they were actually did this in concert with the federal government. It is something different than what we saw initially in Minnesota.

But I think it's an important thing and that's the distinction that people are missing about this particular case. It wasn't just random. They were searching for this guy and this particular guy, from what I understand from the reporting, had apparently dragged an officer, I think a couple of weeks ago or something. So that's why they were actually looking for him. So totally different this time.

KATE BEDINGFIELD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, the problem for the administration, though quite obviously similar to the problem that they had in Minneapolis. The video shows these people being pulled aggressively from the car at a school. This clarifying statement put out by DHS says we aren't targeting schools, but so it's kind of a don't believe you're lying eyes sort of situation. And, well, Melik's description and clarification is important, 99.9 percent of people who see this video aren't going to hear an accompanying clarification.

So you know, to see visual evidence again of the kind of interior enforcement that has turned public opinion on Trump's immigration policies, it's a problem for the administration.

MATTINGLY: Yes, because it had been a while. We should note, Governor Wes Moore also with an interesting statement saying, like, look, we're happy to work with federal officials, but doing it at a school was the problem in this case. I want to do a hard pivot to Elon Musk. I don't know if you've heard his money today. He's the world's first trillionaire. It's like Kate Bedingfield.

BEDINGFIELD: He's actually the world's second. He's the world's second trillionaire.

MATTINGLY: Second trillionaire behind Kate Bedingfield, secretly. Last night, Jimmy Kimmel listed just some of the things he could buy with all that money. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY KIMMEL, HOST, " JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE": With that kind of money, Elon could buy every NFL team, all of them, and he'd still have $773 billion left, which he could use to buy all 30 Major League Baseball, every NBA team, every Wendy's, every Target store, The Beatles entire music catalog. He could buy Nike, Macy's, and every Hyundai Elantra ever produced, and would still have 260 billion, $50 million left over. (END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: I'm tired of people being like, you can't spend. I would try. I would try to spend all that money. But I want to ask you the same thing I just asked the congressman last block. Like, as a Democrat, you saw what Elon Musk did in 2024, like, 270 million. That was huge and essential for Republicans. Does that concern you?

BEDINGFIELD: Well, he -- let's be clear. I mean, he was already rich to begin with. He was already able to plow an enormous amount of money into Republican candidates and Republican causes. You know, but in fact, there was some public backlash against that. I mean, remember, he inserted himself into the Wisconsin Supreme Court race quite publicly and lost and was rejected. So, you know, when all of the anger, not all of it, but when a lot of the anger in our politics is directed at the very wealthiest, at billionaires, for somebody as controversial as Elon Musk to now be the world's first trillionaire, and for his buying power to be, you know, laid out in the way that Jimmy Kimmel did, I actually think that winds up generating more political backlash than anything else. And he already had a lot of money. He already had a lot of money that he was putting in political causes, so.

MATTINGLY: All right. I mean, to be fair, I don't think you're going to have a lot of lawmakers be like, no, sir.

BEDINGFIELD: Yes, right.

ABDUL: Oh, of course not.

BEDINGFIELD: I have no doubt, but.

ABDUL: Everyone billionaires I think that the conservatives, at this point, we probably just will have our own trillionaire. But I'm fine with that. If I could be a trillionaire, I don't -- I would believe in shaming people for money. That's kind of like a Democrat thing. Conservatives, Republicans, we don't shame you for having money.

MATTINGLY: Yes. And if it's a political problem, you just be like, I'm going to start a C4. And we'll just -- we don't got to tell anybody. OK.

[17:50:02]

ABDUL: You got to still -- if I win, if I get money like that, you can't leave your job if I give you money, though, you got to still be working at CNN because it's --

MATTINGLY: Wait, you're paying me now?

ABDUL: Yes. I'll give you some of it. I'll spread the love around.

MATTINGLY: Hell, yes. OK. Maine Democratic Senate candidate, Graham Platner, out with a video today responding to President Trump calling him a thug and the worst person to run for office. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRAHAM PLATNER (D), MAINE SENATE CANDIDATE: That might be the nicest thing anybody's ever said about me. And the reason he's doing it is that he's scared. He knows. He knows that we're coming after him to make sure that the Epstein class, that Donald Trump and all of his depraved billionaire friends who think that they can get away with disgusting acts think that because of their money and their power in their wealth and their influence that they're above the law, they're about to find out that they're not. And it's got them terrified, and they should be.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: I'll let you both take a swing at this. Melik, it's been an interesting week, weeks, months for Graham Platner. What's your take on the video?

ABDUL: Well, I mean, he's doing what he has to do. I think Republicans are really happy that we're going to be running against a Nazi who actually, if you go back and look at some of his Reddit posts, kind of blamed women for their own rape. So this is who he's running against. He can have all of this conversation about Donald Trump. And we've seen, much like in the Virginia race with, I think that was Jay Jones. Democrats have no problem. They will throw principles out the door in order to win. Now, they could say that Republicans do that, too, but they criticize Republicans.

BEDINGFIELD: Yes. Ever so slightly.

ABDUL: Yes, they criticize Republicans for that. So I am -- we are absolutely fine with Mr. Nazi and the guy who kind of fantasizes, fetishizes about rape. And we are absolutely fine about that.

BEDINGFIELD: I will say the more Donald Trump attacks Graham Platner, the better. I think it is probably for Platner because Platner needs to win Biden-Collins voters from 2020. He needs to bring some of those people who split their ticket, voted for Biden in 2020 over. And so the more Trump makes this about Trump and not Graham Platner, probably the better for Graham Platner.

ABDUL: Now, that's working in the D.C. race, too.

MATTINGLY: We were talking about that during the break. We'll leave it there for now. I think we have a lot of time to talk about Graham Platner in the months ahead. Appreciate you guys both. Have a great weekend. Thanks so much.

Well, a live look now at Orlando. Right now a memorial marking 10 years since The Pulse Nightclub massacre. Hear from a doctor who treated victims and how that day changed his own life.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:56:38]

MATTINGLY: Breaking news, new details about a deadly standoff today in Midland, Texas. Authorities say a man wanted for trying to kill an officer Wednesday fired at passing cars as police closed in on him. One person was killed, 10 others are injured. Police say the gunman killed himself.

Well, now a live look in Orlando, Florida, a church memorial marking 10 years since the deadly mass shooting at The Pulse Nightclub, 49 people were killed, more than 50 wounded. CNN's Randi Kaye talked with a surgeon who helped save many lives that night, but says his life changed forever.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DR. CHADWICK SMITH, TRAUMA SURGEON, ORLANDO REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER: I'm calling them at 2 o'clock in the morning. I was like, this is not a prank. This is not a drill.

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Trauma surgeon, Chadwick Smith, still remembers waking up his fellow surgeons as dozens of shooting victims from The Pulse Nightclub arrived at his hospital. The club was just blocks from Orlando's Regional Medical Center. Minutes before 2:00 a.m. on June 12th, 2016, shots were fired inside Pulse.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People running, glasses are getting dropped. And then, you know, people are passing me like I'm getting covered in blood from other people.

KAYE (voice-over): A man armed with a semiautomatic assault rifle and handgun took aim at hundreds of people on the dance floor.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I went to the bathroom. When I come out, I see the guy boom, boom and shooting like crazy.

KAYE (voice-over): Ten years later, Dr. Smith is still moved by what he witnessed, 44 shooting victims from the club, some dead, others close to dying.

SMITH: Nine patients total lost their lives that were brought to our hospital and really were on death's door when they arrived. But torso injuries and extremity injuries, gunshot wounds to the head.

KAYE (voice-over): Complicating matters, at 3:25 a.m. he recalls, an alert was activated from inside the hospital. A Code Silver.

SMITH: A Code Silver in our hospital is active shooter on the premises. You're sitting there trying to deal with all of these ill and injured people, and then you realize there may be a threat to your own life. We barricaded the doors and nobody stopped.

KAYE (voice-over): The alert was canceled about an hour later. While Dr. Smith and his team worked to save lives, families looking for loved ones gathered outside the nightclub.

CHRISTINE LEINONEN, SON KILLED DURING PULSE SHOOTING: We texted him, called him, and he has. He's not answering the phone. And you hope he's not one of the dead people that are left at the club. KAYE (voice-over): The shooter locked himself in the bathroom with victims, turning an active shooter situation into a hostage standoff. About three hours after the first shots were fired, police at the club used explosives and an armored vehicle to break through the bathroom wall.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That was a breach. That was a breach.

SHERIFF JOHN MINA, ORLANDO POLICE CHIEF IN 2016: And our SWAT officers exchanged gunfire with the suspect. The suspect is dead.

KAYE (voice-over): By the time it was over, 49 people were dead and nearly 60 wounded, leaving a community shaken, including this doctor all these years later.

SMITH: For a few years, I didn't go to sporting events. I didn't go to concerts. I like to know where the exits are and sit in the back of a movie theater.

KAYE (voice-over): Randi Kaye, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[17:59:58]

MATTINGLY: Welcome to The Lead. I'm Phil Mattingly in for Jake Tapper. This hour, we are approaching the next deadline in the legal battle over the Kennedy Center and whether President Trump's name has to be removed from the building.