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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Sources Say, Platner Could Exit Maine Senate Race as Soon as Today; Trump Orders New Strikes in Iran After Calling Ceasefire Over; Trump and Zelenskyy Hold Bilateral Meeting at NATO Summit. Sources: Platner Could Exit Maine Senate Race As Soon As Today; From Heartbreak To Hollywood, "Celebrity Sex Pass" Out July 10. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired July 08, 2026 - 18:00   ET

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

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper.

We are following two breaking stories tonight. One, the United States military launching new strikes on Iran, which Central Command says are meant to, quote, further degrade Iran's ability to threaten freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.

[18:00:09]

Earlier today, President Trump warned these strikes were likely coming after declaring the ceasefire between the two countries over. We're going to go live to the White House and inside Iran in moments.

But, two, we're going to start with another breaking story. Sources tell CNN the Democrat, Graham Platner, is now working with his campaign strategists to exit the race for Maine Senate. The political outsider's grassroots movement imploded this week after a woman he had dated, Jenny Racicot, came forward, telling me on camera that in 2021, Platner had come over to her house uninvited, intoxicated, and raped her. Platner denies the allegation.

After the tidal wave of officials calling on Platner to end his bid, Maine's Democrats are scrambling for a way to replace their candidate, and time is ticking.

CNN's Arlette Saenz is on the ground in Portland Maine. Arlette, what is the latest?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, Democratic Senate Candidate Graham Platner is expected to join a staff campaign call a bit later tonight, sources familiar with the matter told us. And that is really capping off a day of conversations that are expected to pave the way for his eventual withdrawal from this U.S. Senate race.

Platner has spent time huddling with a small team of advisers as they try to chart his exit path out of this race. We expect that an announcement about his decision at some point would be released via video. That could come later tonight, but there's always the possibility that this could shift.

But it all comes as the party has already been engaged in a very difficult scramble to try to determine how they would select the next nominee if Platner were to exit this race. We have seen this very messy fight playing out between the Maine Democratic Party, which has called for him to exit, and Platner's campaign over this potential nominating process.

It's really spilled into public view over the last 24 hours. A bit earlier today, Platner's campaign manager sent a text message to supporters saying that the Maine Democratic Party had tried to cut out his team and his supporters from being involved in this nominating process, making decisions about how it should proceed, and he urged their supporters to offer feedback to the Maine Democratic Party for how they think this process should play out.

The Maine Democratic Party, though, pushed back, and they've called a lot of the Platner's team's moves a distraction and said that they're focused on trying to come up with an open, transparent process to nominate a replacement, and they believe that Platner's supporters do have a role in selecting who would replace him.

But earlier today, I did have some time to speak with voters here in Maine, and they did share some anxiety about what this replacement process would look like so late in the game. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAENZ: Do you think Democrats have enough time to find a replacement?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hope so. I don't know. You know, we'll see. I mean, it's kind of coming down to the wire, and these things don't happen overnight.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I would be very disappointed if the Democratic Party chose someone who was not as aligned and as progressive as Graham Platner, and I think that a lot of Mainers would feel the same way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAENZ: Now, Platner has until Monday to drop out of this race, five days, and give Democrats the opportunity to find a nominee to replace him. The Democratic Party here in Maine would then have about until July 27th to pick their next Senate candidate. The party committees had been meeting throughout the day, also determining, trying to figure out what the next path forward would be.

But we've already seen a number of Maine Democrats jockeying, saying that they're ready to enter this race once if Platner steps aside. But all eyes will be on Platner this evening to see whether he makes any announcement about the path forward for his campaign. Jake?

TAPPER: All right. Arlette Saenz in Portland, Maine, thank you so much.

Let's bring in Maine Democratic Congresswoman Chellie Pingree. Congresswoman, thanks so much for joining us.

Give us a sense of the position that Graham Platner has put the Maine Democratic Party in here.

REP. CHELLIE PINGREE (D-ME): Well, obviously all eyes are on Maine. They have been for a while because this is such a critically important Senate race, and the attention is on this race because people care deeply about getting a Democratic majority back in the Senate. But the state party has never really gone through a process like this before. It's one thing to replace a state legislator who drops out, but an entire statewide campaign is complicated and it's caused a lot of turmoil.

I guess no surprise when you have something of this magnitude happening, but the state party trying to figure out what should be the process, the Platner campaign wanting to have an influence on it, and to a certain extent I understand their point of view too. They feel like they created a movement and we have a lot of people who are really anxious to see change.

I mean, that's a national trend right now, that people want change, they want to make sure that the parties are shaken up.

[18:05:04]

They hate what's going on in Washington. And so it's all sort of converging. Our state's becoming a little bit of a metaphor for this, and we're just trying to make sure we put the pieces back together as fast as we can, get a new candidate appointed, and get moving forward on this campaign.

TAPPER: I believe that you have a general policy of not endorsing in primaries, so you didn't endorse Platner. But beyond the horrible rape allegations from Jenny Racicot on Monday, Platner has weathered plenty of scandals in this short campaign, allegations of being violent with another ex-girlfriend, Lyndsey Fifield, in The New York Times in early June before the primary. She spoke to me in more detail yesterday.

He calls Fifield's claims false and politically motivated. What's your take on the allegations that you're hearing from Jenny Racicot and Lyndsey Fifield?

PINGREE: Well, I think like so many Democrats, so many women, I feel you've got to listen to women in these cases. We cannot be the Democratic Party that says we care about releasing the Epstein files, that we're concerned about the president's past behavior and so many others if we're not going to listen to the women who talk about Democratic candidates as well.

You've seen people across the board say, this was a bridge too far. It maybe took until this point, and maybe there are people who think we should have made this decision earlier, but, virtually, everybody and the advocacy organizations, the unions, you know, the senators themselves who are endorsing Graham Platner have all said, it's time for him to move on.

And I think for most people, we just want to pick up the pieces and move forward. It's a wonderful state. And I think a lot of people were deeply conflicted about this idea that Graham Platner was somebody who talked about progressive politics, who was talking about the gap between the rich or the poor, the real challenges going on in Washington right now, and they felt moved by that.

And I think many people were conflicted by saying, yes, I don't like what's going on in his background, but was it because of PTSD? I mean, there were all kinds of excuses made. My feeling is now is just the time to move on and people have been very clear about that.

TAPPER: Last night, the executive director of Maine's Democratic Party posted this video. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEVON MURPHY-ANDERSON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, MAINE DEMOCRATIC PARTY: The Maine Democratic Party has been working around the clock to develop a process to replace our U.S. Senate nominee that is open, inclusive, transparent, and fair.

Unfortunately, Graham Platner's team has repeatedly reached out to us in an attempt to put their thumb on the scale of what this process looks like.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: I mean, that almost sounds like a hostage situation, Graham Platner refusing to leave unless he gets what he wants. What's your reaction?

PINGREE: Well, I think you're just seeing this manifestation of, you know, the party trying to work as fast as it could. That's the executive director. The chair of our party was actually on the West Coast on a hiking trip, had to drive back in his car, is back here today, and I know there are meeting's going on throughout the day, and you have the Platner campaign who felt like, hey, we got a huge percentage of the vote, and we are dedicated to getting a progressive candidate in here, and what is our mechanism to do it?

I mean, many people feel like now that he's dropped out or is planning to drop out, and because of the allegations against him, he doesn't have a bit of leverage to do this. But the fact is, he needs to drop out by the 13th or we can't move forward with the process.

So, while it all looks very messy, welcome to politics. I do believe this will all get straightened out in the next day or two. And, you know, I'm hoping that today as the party is trying to work through some sort of a plan we can -- I mean, I say we, although I'm not even part of that because I'm not a super delegate or necessarily part of it. But I hope that as a state, Democrats can say, okay, we've got a process that includes as many people as possible that you can work with in the short period of time that we've got.

We unfortunately can't hold a brand new primary.

TAPPER: Right.

PINGREE: We can't take the time for every candidate to campaign the state of Maine. And I think there are a lot of people who want to line up and do this. And I want us to get a progressive candidate. I want to match the message. But we also -- you know, we can't put our thumb on the scales and say, you know, this is the guy who should be the guy who replaces the guy. It doesn't work that way.

And to make it the most democratic thing possible, the party has to have an inclusive process that, you know, maybe goes from our county committees or all the ways that we could possibly do it, and gets as many people who can take a vote on this as possible. But I know there's a lot of people who want to be the challenger to Senator Collins. That's just the way it's going to be.

TAPPER: Congresswoman Chellie Pingree, Democrat from Maine, thanks so much for your time today.

PINGREE: Sure. Thanks for having me.

TAPPER: The other big breaking story tonight, of course, the U.S. launching new strikes against Iran after President Trump declared the ceasefire over. We're going to go live on the ground inside Iran, and to the White House next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:10:00]

TAPPER: Breaking news in our World Lead, explosions heard in Iranian port cities tonight as President Trump orders a new punishing round of strikes. Right now, Trump is on his way back from the NATO conference in neighboring Turkey.

He posted the video we're watching just moments ago. Did not include details of where or when they occurred. As a U.S. official tells CNN's Pamela Brown, who's aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, that the ceasefire with Iran has, quote, at least temporarily ceased.

CNN's Fred Pleitgen is in Iran for us. CNN's Kaitlan Collins is at the White House. CNN operates in Iran only with the permission of the government, but maintains full editorial control of our reports.

So, Fred, despite Trump saying that the war is not really back on fully, it does seem like things are escalating quite a bit in Iran.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I would definitely say so. And I think one of the things that we can see tonight, Jake, is that the strikes that we're seeing here are even more broad than the strikes that we saw last night.

If we look at some of the places, and we've been monitoring Iranian state T.V. that apparently have been hit in the past couple of hours, they range all the way from the northern part of the Persian Gulf near the town of Bushehr, which of course has a nuclear power plant, but also some military facilities, to the area around the Persian Gulf.

Bandar Abbas, of course, one of those places that frequently gets hit. There's a Revolutionary Guard military naval port in that town, and then an island also in the western fringes of the Strait of Hormuz.

[18:15:06]

But then also all the way, for instance, to the port town of Chabahar, which is near the border with Pakistan. So, it certainly seems these are a broad range of strikes.

And one of the things that the Iranians have said in the past is that there is going to be massive retaliation if the United States strikes targets inside Iran. It's something that we've heard throughout the day from the Iranians. Of course, one of the places or some of the places that they've been targeting when the U.S. has hit areas in Iran have been American military installations in, for instance, Bahrain and Kuwait, generally in the Gulf area. And the Iranians have said that that is something that could happen again.

One of the places that they've been focusing on, because it was mentioned by President Trump today at the NATO summit, is the Kharg Island, which is so important for Iranian oil exports. And they've been warning the United States that should the U.S. invade that island, which is something, of course, the president has been talking about, that that would be a bloody endeavor for the United States, and the Iranians say they certainly are ready for that. Jake?

TAPPER: Kaitlan, the Dow just had its worst day in a month. Trump doesn't think this will be a long conflict, whatever that means to him, but still this can't bode well for the economy and the midterms for his party in just a few short months.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Which is probably why you heard the president say earlier that he doesn't think this signals an all-out return to war, Jake, similar to what we saw in the beginning days of this conflict, back when the president was predicting it was only going to last about four to six weeks.

And, of course, now here we are with, you know, it's only been about three weeks since the president signed that memorandum of understanding with Iran. There was a lot of fanfare here at the White House. Officials were touting it as this big success and big step forward with the Iranian government, that the president was praising three weeks ago, the last time he was meeting with world leaders. Now, this time, as he was sitting side by side with those leaders in Turkey, he was calling the new Iranian leadership scum, and saying that they're sick people who essentially cannot be trusted here.

But, Jake, obviously domestic politics is looming in the background of all of this. We are now four months out from the midterms here, and, of course, Republicans here in Washington, and whose names are on the ballot this fall, are keenly aware of oil prices and what this is doing to the oil market, even as the president was bragging about it earlier.

And, Jake, you know, the president was asked during this press conference before he left Turkey about how he could call this war a success given what has happened here and how muddled all of this has become, and the objectives, obviously, that he laid out there not achieved. And he said, Jake, that because the nuclear material is still underneath so much rubble from those strikes that happened last summer, that he did achieve his goal of not allowing Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon.

But, obviously, Jake, that would undercut what the president said after this war started, when he said there was an imminent threat from Iran, it was a nuclear threat, and that is why this had to happen in the first place. So, still a lot of questions about what's going to happen.

He has been sharing videos of these strikes and posting on Truth Social that what's happening right now in Iran is in retribution, he said, in response for what Iran did firing on those ships in the Strait of Hormuz. And the question here, Jake, going forward, is if they continue to hit Iran over this and how Iran itself responds, as clearly this conflict is far from over.

TAPPER: Fred, if we look at Iran's past responses to U.S. strikes, how do you think the regime is likely to respond to this latest round of strikes?

PLEITGEN: Well, it certainly could be a very forceful response coming from the Iranians. It's definitely something that they have said that they are going to do. But I think also in this case, Jake, we have to look at the context of all of this as well.

One of the things that we have to keep in mind, and one of the things that we've been observing here on the ground, is that this memorandum of understanding, the ceasefire between the United States and Iran, is not uncontroversial here in Iran either.

There are, of course, people who are telling us they want sanctions relief. They want a ceasefire between the United States and Iran. But there's also people who are highly critical of the negotiations in the first place, who feel that Iran should have continued the battle against the United States, especially if you speak at some of the hardliners here on the ground in Iran.

And the other context in all of this is that the Iranians are at this point in time, of course, going through the funeral ceremonies for Iran's late supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. And in just a couple of hours, one of the main events or the main event of that is going to happen in the eastern city of Mashhad, where the ayatollah's body is going to be brought to its final resting place in the Imam Reza Shrine.

And so for the Iranians, it's a big deal that the United States is hitting them now, and that certainly could also factor into whether or not they have a stronger response against the U.S. in light of the fact that these strikes are taking place at this specific period of time. Jake?

TAPPER: All right. CNN's Fred Pleitgen in Iran and Kaitlan Collins at the White House, thanks to both of you. Also in our World Lead, it has been more than four months since a 168 children and 14 teachers were killed in a missile strike that hit a school in Iran on February 28th.

[18:20:05]

Those numbers of the victims according to Iranian state media. This also marks more than four months that we've been waiting for answers about what went so horribly wrong. Now, we are finally getting some clues, not because the Pentagon has suddenly decided to be transparent, oh no, but because of exclusive new CNN reporting showing that senior U.S. military commanders bypassed warnings about intelligence on potential targets in Iran being severely out of date, including that school where all those kids were killed.

CNN's Zach Cohen broke the story. He's here now. So, Zach, what does your reporting suggest? How did this happen?

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yes. Jake, every source I talked to for this story mentioned that in the lead up to the war with Iran military officials and intelligence analysts were under immense pressure from senior Pentagon leaders to rapidly provide a list of targets inside of Iran.

That set off a scramble inside the Pentagon to update this database, this Pentagon database of potential targets that in some cases hadn't been updated in over ten years. And so during this process, I'm told that it started with what were considered the upper tier targets, the things most likely to be hit, and the ones that posed the most likely threat to U.S. forces once combat operations began.

These were largely mobile sites, missile launch capabilities, things of that nature. But in that process, they were not able to update all the thousands of entries in this database, and those sites were also added though to the target list anyway, and the decision to bypass those warnings, one source said, was made for, quote, expediency purposes, because the timeline was so condensed in terms of accomplishing what they were being asked to accomplish, not being able to complete the vetting process on all these targets, commanders were faced with the decision, do you go and act on these sites where the intelligence is in some cases ten years old, or do you move on to the next one?

And so, ultimately, that happened in the case of this school, that ultimately ended up being a school. The entry inside the database showed it being an IRGC naval base. But, ultimately, along the way, there were signs that it had evolved and changed, and a school was clearly visible in satellite imagery and other open source intelligence that the Pentagon also has access to.

But those changes were not documented in the database itself, and analysts never had a chance to go back and re-vet that particular entry, and, ultimately, a commander decided to carry out the strike anyway, and that is ultimately how we ended up with 150-plus dead children. TAPPER: And your reporting also includes this quote from a source about this rushed decision-making process that cost so many innocent lives. Quote, a lot of former hedge fund people and made-for-T.V. personalities were in the mix, but leadership at CENTCOM did not push back either. I'm not sure who the hedge fund person is that they're talking about, but made-for-T.V. personality, I presume is a reference to the secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth.

Is this just part of the culture now, even the uniformed individuals, even the flag officers at CENTCOM just go along with whatever Hegseth and Trump want?

COHEN: It's certainly the culture that Hegseth is trying to instill in the Pentagon. It's something that we've seen him really almost publicly declare in that meeting, in that gathering.

TAPPER: Why he keeps firing all these great generals and admirals.

COHEN: Exactly, because he wants conformity. He wants the generals to essentially do and reflect the things that he wants from them.

But at the end of the day, there are still a lot of people inside the Pentagon who are really just career professionals that are trying to serve their country and do their jobs to the best of their ability. And that includes people, a good example of this case, includes people who are still part of that civilian risk mitigation team Hegseth cut that program by 90 percent before the war started.

The remaining staffers that were dedicated to CENTCOM were really trying to go through this list of targets along with the intelligence analysts, assess the risk to civilians potentially, but they were understaffed, and they weren't able to review this file and hundreds of other ones, I'm told, before the strike was carried out.

TAPPER: Horrifying. Zach Cohen, thank you so much.

Another major topic as President Trump was at NATO meetings today, a possible boost for Ukraine's military as it attempts to overwhelm Russian forces with rockets and drones. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:25:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Would you go to Moscow?

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: It's difficult. There are a lot of Ukrainian drones there. It's dangerous for me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: In our world lead, President Trump sitting down today with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the NATO Summit in Turkey. In a win for Kyiv, Trump signaled that the U.S. would give Ukraine the green light to produce Patriot missiles, the only air defense system capable of stopping Russian ballistic missiles.

Meanwhile, Zelenskyy said Putin's terms for a peace deal may be shifting as the Russian president faces growing pressure at home over the war.

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh has that report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Ukraine is hitting Russia hard where it all began, occupied Crimea.

Taken first in 2014, it is a peninsula, and that makes it very vulnerable to being cut off. There are two ways in or out. First is the Kerch Bridge, which Ukraine has been hitting for years, and it's now beset by queues of thousands of anxious Russians trying to get out.

Second is the land bridge through occupied Ukraine. Many saw this as a big strategic gain from Russia's invasion in 2022, a way to cheaply and permanently connect Russia to this tourist Mecca, the jewel of the Soviet past.

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE).

WALSH: Ukraine's 2023 counteroffensive tried to break through here, but failed, hitting huge Russian defenses. Now, they're flying over them, new mid-range Ukrainian drone capability, striking the road along the land bridge and Crimea's air defenses, leaving it vulnerable, and then the actual bridges to Crimea and the Russian trains and the roads.

[18:30:09]

Now, they're hitting ordinary infrastructure, refineries, power stations, meaning power cuts in the cities.

Queues at gas stations thick black smoke on the skyline, so yet more Russians are leaving.

Zelenskyy recently claimed that Russia has had to prioritize air defenses in Crimea and around Moscow as well. Putin has recently accepted economic challenges and indeed gas shortages as Ukraine's drone strikes increasingly cause chaos in ordinary Russian life.

So, what's the goal here? Make Crimea hard to live in, a place without tourists, gas, power, affordable food, and the land bridge to it, already itself a tough place to live in, seems less worth the cost.

And this is the wider point for Kyiv, seize on the growing questions inside Russia as to what the war is even for. If Crimea is effectively uninhabitable and the only gains they can claim are tiny bits of land, usually rubble in the Donbas, turn Crimea from a jewel in Putin's crown to leverage for Ukraine, perhaps in any future peace talks or even into a damaging thorn in Putin's side as he tries to navigate growing dissent about his war of choice.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER: And our thanks to Nick Paton Walsh for that report.

A deadly encounter with ICE agents, this time not Minnesota, in Texas. And now questions about what happened as new bystander video emerges. We're live in Texas with the details next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:35:00]

TAPPER: In our National Lead, new details about a deadly ICE operation Tuesday, this one in Houston. The agency announced that an ICE officer fatally shot a Mexican national after, they say, the man refused to follow commands during a traffic stop, and, they claim, tried to ram a law enforcement vehicle. The deadly shooting comes nearly six months after the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.

Joining us now to discuss, CNN's Ed Lavandera in Texas and Priscilla Alvarez here in studio with me. And, Ed, we have ICE's account of what happened. What do we know so far about the shooting?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the family of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and as well as Latino civil rights activists say they do not believe ICE's version of events, given that history that you mentioned there in Minneapolis earlier this year. There is no clear video that has emerged so far that shows the entire episode of what unfolded just before 7:00 A.M. yesterday morning, where ICE officials say that there were ICE agents involved in a targeted operation going after Salgado as well as three other men that were in this white van.

The family of Salgado says they do not believe that their father would have intentionally tried to go after an ICE agent. They said that they were being followed by two unmarked cars, that he had a van full of construction equipment that he used and depended on for his livelihood, that perhaps he thought that he was being targeted or was going to be a victim of some sort of robbery. That's what the family says. ICE agents say that the man weaponized the vehicle and went after an ICE agent and that's why they fired shots.

There has been one video, Jake, that has emerged that showed just the aftermath of it that shows the man on the ground with ICE agents around him next to that white van in Houston.

TAPPER: And what is Mr. Araujo's family saying, Ed?

LAVANDERA: Oh, well, they -- like I mentioned, they do not believe this version of events. They're calling for a full and independent investigation by local authorities. But the Houston D.A. says that all of the information, all of the evidence at this point is being controlled by federal agents. The Houston mayor has kind of cast out on their ability to be able to do a full investigation as well. But these activists and the family are calling for anyone who has video of what transpired there just before 7:00 A.M. yesterday where the shooting took place, to come forward with that video to help better explain how all of this unfolded.

TAPPER: Priscilla, what more are we learning about the broader immigration enforcement crackdown here?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, people are not seeing the videos as often as they did before, like last year, of these aggressive immigration enforcement actions, and they may not be seeing it in their communities as much as they did before, but the reality, Jake, is that there actually is stepped up immigration enforcement happening across the country right now.

In fact, there are around 2,000 arrests that are happening a day. That's up from earlier this year when they were around 1,000, and that is intentional by this administration. They are trying to sustain that number because the reality is that they are trying to up the number of immigration arrests and deportations as they head into the end of this fiscal year.

Now, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement said that this was a targeted operation. The reason that people may or are not seeing the flashiness of last year is because there is more of that, which is to say, they know who they're going after, like in traffic stops, what happened here and they are arresting those individuals and bringing them into custody. Of course, in this case, unfortunately, it did end in a death.

And the reason that there are questions about what happened here is because there's a track record of the administration giving an account that sometimes is not backed up by the video evidence or by the agents themselves. In fact, in Minneapolis, our viewers are well aware of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. But in another case, a former federal agent is now charged with multiple accounts of assault and falsely reporting a crime over an incident where a Venezuelan man, they said, had assaulted the officers when that didn't actually happen.

So, that is the reason why there is so much -- so many questions and concerns about these incidents when they happen because of where it's been. So, we'll see what other answers we get. Of course, this is the Department of Homeland Security under Secretary Mullin, and he's tried to run things differently. So, we'll see what happens in the hours to come.

TAPPER: Priscilla Alvarez, Ed Lavandera, thanks so much.

Maine Democrats are rushing to come up with a plan to replace Graham Platner should he drop out of the U.S. Senate race there. What sources are telling CNN now about who Platner is encouraging to run if and when he quits, that's next.

[18:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) TAPPER: In our Politics Lead, Maine Democrats accusing scandal-ridden Senate Nominee Graham Platner's team of putting their thumb on the scale in deciding who might replace him as the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate race. Take a listen to the executive director of the Maine Democratic Party.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MURPHY-ANDERSON: We have repeatedly reiterated to Graham Platner's team that they have no role in determining our next Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate nor in determining what this process looks like. We have also reiterated that Graham Platner must drop out of this race so that Democrats in Maine can focus on defeating Susan Collins this November.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Platner's spiraling campaign and the mounting calls from his fellow Democrats for him to quit comes in the wake of a rape allegation, which he denies.

My panel joins me now. Maria Cardona, I assume you've been watching CNN and seen the interviews that we've been running this week from Jenny Racicot, who accused him of rape, and also Lyndsey Fifield, who accused him of other violent and troubling actions.

Some of the names floating around to replace Platner, if he drops out, includes, I mean, you can tell me if you've heard any of these people, former Maine State Senator Troy Jackson, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, founder of Maine beer company Dan Kleban, former Maine CDC Director Nirav Shah, Maine State House member Valli Geiger.

Sources tell CNN, Platner's encouraging Geiger to run if he steps aside. No disrespect, but I've never heard of most of these people. That's okay, I'm in D.C. and -- but my guess is a lot of Maine people have not heard of most of them. I'm sure they've heard of the secretary of state.

But beyond that, what do you think? What should they do?

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, that is one of the reasons why Graham needs to step down now, because the longer he waits, the more difficult it is going to be for whoever ends up being the nominee to make their case to the people of Maine. And if Graham Platner's true to his word when he said that his true north was to beat Susan Collins to do the best for Maine, then he needs to get out now. The more that he waits, the more difficult it is going to be for the Maine Democratic Party, who is legally the only entity who can put together a process that is fair and transparent to make sure that everyone's voices are heard for whoever the next nominee is.

It's going to make it that much more difficult because time is of the essence. We have a week, I guess he's got until Friday to or next Monday until next Monday to drop out. But the process should start now. TAPPER: Yeah.

CARDONA: So again, if he really is in this for the voters of Maine, then he needs to drop out now. If not, then maybe he was always in this for himself.

TAPPER: I'm getting deja vu. I feel like we've been here before with a Democrat refusing to read the writing on the wall and refusing to drop out.

Shermichael, Susan Collins, eminently beatable this year. She might need to change her campaign strategy if there's going to be, if she's not running against Platner, but this is a state that Kamala Harris won in 2024. Collins, despite coming across as a moderate, she's repeatedly voted in favor of things that Trump wanted and is not popular with voters right now. She's more popular than Graham Platner, but she's not popular with voters right now. They don't support the Iran war in Maine, they're worried about affordability in Maine.

How is Collins going to answer voters' concerns about this, presuming that she's running against somebody with less baggage than Mr. Platner?

SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah, sure. Look, we've been here before, and I think the party, and I would argue that maybe even the White House is willing to allow the senator to have a degree of separation where necessary on some of these issues that you just mentioned, affordability, the crisis in the Middle East from the president in order to keep that seat. I mean, this is of paramount importance to the NRSC and the Republican majority in the Senate, and it's of paramount importance to the president and his political team who wants to see his agenda continue beyond this midterm in November.

That said, I can assure you that we are doing our due diligence on each of the candidates. We assume that it might be Troy Jackson was one of the names and faces you mentioned. A lot of the talk on the ground is that he'll likely potentially be the person to replace Platner. He's been endorsed by Bernie Sanders in the past.

He appears to have the more traditional structural operations necessary to pick up where Platner has left off. But I think the problem here, though, is, and Maria did a great job talking about the execution, the structural inabilities that Platner has now created for his party by staying in so long.

But one cannot deny that he was able to galvanize a part of the Democratic base that I'm not certain Troy Jackson will be able to galvanize, one, and two, you want Platner's endorsement, and I can assure you that if he does get Platner's endorsement, we will hit him heavy and hard on the fact that he has an endorsement from someone who's been accused of sexual assault and rape.

So, this is a quagmire for Democrats, even if they find someone who seems a bit more tamed.

CARDONA: I don't know if they would want Platner's endorsement, but that aside, I think what you're going to see and it might be Troy Jackson. It might be some of the others. This is one of the things that the Democratic Party is trying to figure out, and most likely I've talked to some folks who are close to the process who want to announce something and that something will most likely be a statewide caucus where the 16 counties of Maine will be able to get voters together to be able to vote on whoever puts their name out there on the ballot.

But I think, to your point, Susan Collins is still imminently beatable. And I think if we come up with a candidate who is able to project the same kind of progressive agenda, the same kind of issues that the voters are clamoring for, then I believe that that person will be able to run a campaign and beat Susan Collins.

SINGLETON: See, Maria is talking about the message and the moment. And I agree with you that Democrats have done a fairly good job executing that depending upon the candidate. Now, Platner did a great job of being a strong messenger, again, to galvanize and mobilize support in Maine among Democrats, the likes of which they haven't seen in a very long time if you study the state politics there.

The question is, even if you replace him, will that alternative person be good enough at being the messenger talking about the moment with the power should be.

[18:50:06]

TAPPER: Yeah.

SINGLETON: And that's a real vulnerability strategically -- you and I both know this, that Democrats will have to wrestle with, which I would argue gives an advantage to Senator Collins and Republicans.

TAPPER: Yeah, he is, I mean, he is, to give him his due, charismatic. Absolutely. And he has absolutely tapped into something when it comes to the progressive fervor in Maine.

His background is, it's more than problematic. It's more than problematic. He has been credibly accused of rape.

Why did Democrats miss so many red flags?

CARDONA: That is a great question. And I think that's one of the things that the Democratic Party and candidates and campaigns are going to be looking at for a long time. And they're going to come back to say, we need our vetting processes to be so much better, to be focused on the history, to be focused on what this person has done, to be doing oppo research on yourself, to even do a background check.

I mean, all of these things -- to me, it's political malpractice that that was not done on a Platner.

TAPPER: Thanks to both of you.

Breaking news, dramatic pictures from Pikesville, Maryland, just north of Baltimore, where a bus crashed into a building. The Baltimore County Fire Department confirmed at least 28 patients because of that crash. One critical injury. Someone's still trapped. We're going to monitor this and bring you updates as we get them.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:56:38]

TAPPER: What happens when your fiance actually uses his celebrity hall pass? That's the premise of a new Hollywood comedy that sends a betrayed bride-to-be on a full adventure to track down her own celebrity crush. Here's a little look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But no story is crazier than the story of Gail Daughtry and the celebrity's sex pass.

ZOEY DEUTCH, ACTRESS, "GAIL DAUGHTRY AND THE CELEBRITY SEX PASS": Tom?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gail, I was just about to text you. This was my one free pass, remember?

DEUTCH: Do you really think that we should do this?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tom gave you a free pass, too.

DEUTCH: That's true.

(MUSIC)

DEUTCH: Celebrity free pass thing with my fiance but he took it literally so now I need to have sex with Jon Hamm.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: This outrageous Journey is packed with celebrity cameos unexpected twists lots of laughs.

And joining us now to talk about "Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass" which is the name of the title is the star Zoey Deutch, and the director and co-writer and also actor in the film David Wain.

Congratulations. It is incredibly stupid and amazing.

DEUTCH: So stupid.

TAPPER: And so stupid, but in the best possible way.

So, your character's journey starts with heartbreak and then spirals into complete chaos. When you got this script, what made you say yes?

DEUTCH: Well, I said, hey, this is an entire movie about -- the entire premise is just going to L.A. to find Jon Hamm to have sex with him. And I said, I got to make this. I got to be a part of this.

TAPPER: I'm in.

DEUTCH: I got to do it.

TAPPER: Whether or not it's a movie.

DEUTCH: No, obviously, I really am a big fan of David's and his work. And I think he has a singular vision. And I think those are the best directors to work with, people who create their own worlds and universes and are very specific. And David is very specific. So, I was super thrilled and excited to get to work with him.

TAPPER: So probably before you were born, definitely before you were born, I was watching David on the stage. On MTV, is that what it was?

DAVID WAIN, DIRECTOR, "GAIL DAUGHTRY AND THE CELEBRITY SEX PASS": Yeah.

TAPPER: An ensemble comedy troupe.

WAIN: It was a sketch comedy show in the mid-90s on MTV.

TAPPER: So, I have to say, you know I've seen all your films, all of them.

WAIN: Yeah, you proved it.

TAPPER: I proved it last time I saw you, and I named them all. And I have to say, I think you really come alive when it is an ensemble, when it is a big group of people. Do you prefer that?

WAIN: I have always gravitated, maybe just because I was from such a large ensemble, and my favorite movies are like "Do the Right Thing" or "Nashville", those movies with huge casts, and you juggle them all. And the challenge of unifying that into some sort of world and premise has always been exciting to me.

TAPPER: There was a time in the movie that I'm looking at this group surrounding you. The kid from CIA and John Slattery as himself and Ken Marino as a paparazzo. And it's just like, what a ridiculous group of people.

DEUTCH: I even -- and what a ridiculous premise I even say the line. He wrote such a great line in the movie where I say that. I'm like, "Who came up with this insane, ridiculous, just utterly impossible premise?" And no one ever gets that that's what that is.

But yeah, that's just the brilliance of Mr. Wain.

WAIN: I think what we have a lot of fun doing, Ken Marino and I wrote this, is creating these absurdist, insane somewhat pointless situations, but then grounding them with incredible actors and then a lot of attention to detail to make it feel like it's real or serious in some way.

DEUTCH: So much attention to detail. He is --

TAPPER: And the cameos.

DEUTCH: Yeah.

WAIN: Yeah.

DEUTCH: But that's a testament, again, to how beloved him and Marino are. Like, they've collected this incredible group of artists and comedians and actors who will just drop anything to work with them for like one hour.

TAPPER: I don't want to list them because --

WAIN: They're mostly surprises.

TAPPER: The surprises are so fun.

WAIN: Yeah.

DEUTCH: How come you didn't do the movie?

TAPPER: I wasn't asked.

DEUTCH: Well --

WAIN: We called and it did not -- and you didn't answer.

TAPPER: That's not, that did not happen.

DEUTCH: Boys, hash it out.

TAPPER: I will say, for those, so for Paul Rudd is the Nina to your Hirschfeld. Like, he is in everything you do and people -- and I'm not saying with the part is, but --

DEUTCH: He's in there somewhere.

TAPPER: Ruddheads will not be disappointed.

And, Zoey, you're so great in it.

DEUTCH: Thank you so much.

TAPPER: Congratulations.

DEUTCH: Thank you.

TAPPER: Zoey Deutch and David Wain.

WAIN: July 10th.

TAPPER: You can follow the show on X and Instagram @TheLeadCNN. If you ever miss an episode of THE LEAD, you can watch the show on the CNN app.

"ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT" starts right now. Thanks for watching.