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CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip
CNN Projects Graham Platner Will Win Maine Dem Nominee; Becerra, Hilton Advance To General Election For California Governor; MAGA Uses Masculinity Attacks As An Issue In Midterms; United States Launches Retaliatory Strikes On Iran As President Trump Teases A Possible Deal. Aired 10-11p ET
Aired June 09, 2026 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[22:00:00]
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN HOST (voice over): Tonight, the results are in. We learn the fates of a Trump ally, a Trump snub, and a Democrat whose past is giving the party trouble.
Plus, the bro test. MAGA tries to make masculinity an issue in the midterms.
SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): I mean, this guy, if a stiff breeze came by, it would blow him over like a feather.
PHILLIP: Also, as Donald Trump has said an Iran deal is imminent at least 38 times, one Republican compares him to a cartoon.
REP. CARLOS GIMENEZ (R-FL): We're Charlie Brown and Iran is Lucy, and every time we go kick the ball, it's been taken away.
PHILLIP: And rain on the birthday party. Fewer Americans see the U.S. as exceptional, and only a quarter say the nation stands above others.
Live at the table, Adam Mockler, Caroline Sunshine, Sabrina Singh, T.W. Arrighi, and L.Z. Granderson.
Americans with different perspectives aren't talking to each other, but here, they do.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIP (on camera): Good evening. I'm Abby Phillip in New York.
We're following breaking news tonight on a number of key primary races across the country, with control of Congress at stake. One of the most consequential contests is unfolding in the state of Maine, where Democrat Graham Platner just clinched the state's nomination for the United States Senate. That's despite a slew of scandals that he has faced in the months leading up to tonight's vote.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GRAHAM PLATNER (D), MAINE SENATE CANDIDATE: And any of those who feel let down or disappointed or disillusioned, it is my job to earn your trust, faith, and support. And I will spend every day of this campaign, and if I have the privilege, every day in the United States Senate doing exactly that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: Platner will face longtime GOP senator Susan Collins in a crucial matchup, and Democrats will almost certainly need to win it if the party hopes to flip the chamber in the fall.
We're also keeping an eye on South Carolina, where Republican senator Lindsey Graham just punched his ticket for November without a runoff. And in the state's GOP primary for governor, Congresswoman Nancy Mace is admitting defeat in a race that has tested the power of President Trump's influence and his endorsement. Instead, Trump-backed Lieutenant Governor Pam Evette, and she will advance to the runoff later this month, along with Attorney General Alan Wilson.
But let's start with Maine and the Graham Platner of it all. He gave a pretty defiant speech tonight. He attacked Susan Collins, but basically he was arguing this is a redemption narrative, right? He quoted a hymn, I was once lost, and now I'm found, though he admitted that he's not very religious. Nevertheless, we've heard this from many a politician before. Is it enough?
SABRINA SINGH, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: I think it remains to be seen if it's enough. And what I'm curious on to see is what do the vote totals look like? I mean, what -- how much did Janet Mills pull from Graham Platner? Because that's going to be really a big indicator of how much he's going to have to win when it comes to Maine voters.
At the end of the day, I mean, I think Graham Platner is a very flawed candidate. I think if I were a Mainer today, I would have probably cast my vote for Janet Mills. I think every moment that we talk about Graham Platner and his scandals, or whatever it is, we're losing time talking about the issues that matter to voters, which is, as we know, affordability and gas prices.
And I think we're taking away from candidates who are putting competitive seats in play, like in Iowa, Ohio, even in Texas in the Senate race, which I'm sure we'll talk about. But I think Graham Platner is going to have a wave to overcome. And I don't know if there's more coming out, but if there is, you know, he's going to have to brace for that.
PHILLIP: There probably is more coming out, don't you think, Adam?
ADAM MOCKLER, COMMENTATOR, MEIDASTOUCH NETWORK: There could be. But we are now witnessing the post-cancelation, post-purity style of politics that the Republican Party has ushered in. I'm not going to sit here and defend things Graham Platner did in his past. Not even Graham Platner defends these things that he did in his past.
But we have watched for a decade as Republicans have repeatedly lowered the threshold, lowered the standards for their candidates, and now Democrats are going to keep holding our candidates to an infinitely higher standard while we have Ken Paxton in Texas, while we have Donald Trump sitting in the Oval Office right now. And I guess it remains to be seen.
But I also want to reframe --
PHILLIP: Is it a high standard or is it a low standard?
MOCKLER: Listen, in an --
PHILLIP: Because I'm not sure that, I'm not sure that he's being held to a higher standard than anybody else.
MOCKLER: Well -- but the Republican Party is absolutely holding him to a higher standard than they hold their own candidates. I mean, Donald Trump had a sit-down dinner with Nick Fuentes, and the very same people who were silent about that are now clutching their pearls about this admittedly weird tattoo that Graham Platner has apologized for.
[22:05:06]
PHILLIP: And it's a Nazi tattoo, Adam.
MOCKLER: Yes. I'm not --
PHILLIP: Acknowledge that.
MOCKLER: Oh, yes.
PHILLIP: It's not weird. It's a Nazi tattoo.
MOCKLER: It's awful, yes.
PHILLIP: So, I mean, look, Democrats now are -- I hear what you're saying, and I know we've had conversations with you, Caroline, about similar things, but, basically, Democrats are saying that we're going to go lower. They go low, we go just as low.
MOCKLER: I think the Democrats are trying to reframe this away from Graham Platner's personality and towards a race between Graham Platner versus Susan Collins.
Susan Collins is somebody who rubber stance stamps all of Donald Trump's worst impulses, from stripping healthcare away from tens of millions of Americans that will lead to death. We talked about the affordability issues, we talked about ICE even. I mean, Susan Collins rubber-stamped Kristi Noem, which led to the death of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.
So, I'm not going to sit here and judge Mainers who want to push away, push against the status quo. It's not my place to judge. If Graham Platner can earn their trust, then he earns their trust.
CAROLINE SUNSHINE, DEPUTY COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, TRUMP'S 2024 CAMPAIGN: But I think what's missing in the analysis here is that Graham Platner just won a Democrat primary by running on the best aspects of President Trump's 2024 campaign platform.
If you look at Graham Platner's platform, he ran on no foreign intervention in the Middle East, no new wars. He ran on D.C. has been working for the elites and it has stopped working for the working class, which is very similar to President Trump's original drain the swamp message. He ran on bringing back U.S. manufacturing, working class issues. He's an anti-establishment working class candidate.
(CROSSTALKS)
PHILLIP: But she is making a important point.
SUNSHINE: Yes, he ran on that, and that's what he won.
PHILLIP: This is a version of the type of politics, a type of populism on the left that Trump ran. At least he ran on it on the right. I'm not sure we could argue he governed quite that way, but he ran on it.
L.Z. GRANDERSON, HOST, THE L.Z. GRANDERSON SHOW: I think this is -- my gut tells me this is a by-product of the wrapping of the messenger as much as it is the message itself. He looks like a dude. Let's just say what it is. He's got the scruff, he's got the edge, at a moment in which Democrats were --
SINGH: I actually would say that I don't think it's that.
GRANDERSON: Allow me to finish, though. Allow me to finish. Because it's actually the Democrats who did this whole autopsy on what it is to be masculine, right?
(CROSSTALKS)
GRANDERSON: Allow me to finish. It's the Democrats that did this whole analysis about what it means to be masculine. They didn't do that because there wasn't a problem there. They didn't do that because there wasn't something that was happening on the right that they couldn't tap into.
When I look at Graham Platner, the first thing I think of, he looks like a dude, and he looks like someone who looks very different than many of the men who lead the Democratic Party, and I think that is an appealing aspect that Democrats need to talk about.
PHILLIP: And maybe the flaws are part of that package.
T.W. ARRIGHI, VICE PRESIDENT, PUSH DIGITAL GROUP: No. You are correct, L.Z., with that part. He looks like a dude. And when he first entered the race and he said, I'm a oyster farmer, I said, uh-oh, we got problems. It turns out he's not an oyster farmer. It turns out that he's not a low class guy.
(CROSSTALKS)
ARRIGHI: He's got about 20. He isn't what he says he is.
Now, this isn't a reframing about turning this to Susan Collins. Susan Collins is the Republican every Democrat wishes every Republican was.
MOCKLER: No.
ARRIGHI: She convicted Donald Trump.
MOCKLER: No.
ARRIGHI: Yes. She worked with Joe Biden on a bunch of stuff. She is as bipartisan as they come.
MOCKLER: No, she's not. She rubber stamps everything. Susan Collins is the definition --
ARRIGHI: That's garbage. And, by the way, come November, just like six years ago, just like we were seeing garbage polls about Lindsey Graham in South Carolina, we saw garbage polls about Susan Collins in Maine. Come November, she's going to wipe the floor with him.
SINGH: Well, here's an interesting poll for you.
ARRIGHI: Susan Collins in Maine, Mainers don't want to be put in a moral quandary --
SINGH: Can I just say something to Caroline's point though?
(CROSSTALKS)
SUNSHINE: Yes. But when they learn about his scandals -- just to be clear, when voters learn about Graham Platten's scandals, oh, you're going to like this. Trust me. Just you wait. You're going to love me saying this. When voters learn about Graham Platner's scandals, he beats Susan Collins. He goes up in the polls 48 to 43. Republicans, I'm telling you --
(CROSSTALKS)
SINGH: When you were talking about that platform that he's talking about, I think that it's not President Trump's -- I mean, President Trump ran on affordability, and they lost --
SUNSHINE: No new wars --
SINGH: And -- right. And all of that has completely changed right now with President Trump.
And I think to the point of Graham Platner, he's not only someone that doesn't look like the establishment, but you look at the contrast between him and Janet Mills, someone who is the sitting governor of Maine, and people want change. I mean, people are seeing what Donald Trump came in on and was elected on, and they're not getting the results that they voted for, and they look at someone like Graham Platner, who I'm not defending, but I'm saying is offering something different.
SUNSHINE: Well, he's offering Trump's 2024 original platform, which is the winning one. Everybody should stick to that if they want to win elections.
MOCKLER: Well, it's the winning one because Donald Trump flipped on it.
SINGH: Great. Then more Dems are going to win if that's the case.
[22:10:01]
SUNSHINE: We're talking about affordability. We're going to win on that.
MOCKLER: We talked about the swamp. The contrast that we need to make is between Susan Collins and Graham Platner. Janet Mills is done.
So, Susan Collins is a definition of a swamp creature. She promised she would run for two terms. She's now running for her sixth term after her net worth has increased by 2,000 percent --
ARRIGHI: What did Mark Warner say about that? What did half the Democrats in the Senate say about that?
MOCKLER: She is running for -- she is the definition of the swamp. The Senate currently has a 12 percent approval rating. So, if Mainers want to gain trust in Graham Platner, scandals or not --
ARRIGHI: So, will you oppose Mark Warner when he runs for re-election in two years?
MOCKLER: I'm talking about Susan Collins versus Graham Platner.
I also am not going to take this pearl clutching from Republicans who have zero to say about Donald Trump having dinner with Nick Fuentes. Have you condemned that?
ARRIGHI: Yes.
MOCKLER: Have you condemned that? I looked through your Twitter.
ARRIGHI: Yes, Nick Fuentes --
MOCKLER: I didn't see it. Have you condemned Donald Trump for having dinner with Nick Fuentes?
ARRIGHI: I would not be having dinner with Nick Fuentes.
SUNSHINE: Well, you're falling into the same trap --
ARRIGHI: But this is beyond the point, dude. I am the most -- I am awfully critical of Donald Trump.
MOCKLER: You have standards down here, and we match you, and you say, what the hell? You have standards down here and we match you. Trump had dinner with a Nazi --
ARRIGHI: So, Nazi tattoo is good, so that's okay now because Donald Trump was sitting with him. MOCKLER: No, you set the standard.
(CROSSTALKS)
GRANDERSON: No one's defending the Nazi tattoo.
ARRIGHI: Well, I know but where is the standard? Why does what --
MOCKLER: The standard is what you set when Donald Trump had dinner with Nick Fuentes.
SUNCHINE: You guys are missing the point, which is that the voters don't care.
(CROSSTALKS)
PHILLIP: I want to -- there's some other news that happened tonight. Tonight in California, Steve Hilton earned his way onto the ballot for the general election, a Republican, and this is happening at the same time that there's all this talk about rigged elections in California by Republicans with no evidence whatsoever.
So, I mean, how do you explain this phenomenon, a Republican now in the runoff?
SUNSHINE: Because every single Democrat in that primary was asked a question on the debate stage, and I call it the Kamala Harris test, which they all failed, which is they were all asked the question, Gavin Newsom, how has he handled homelessness in the state? What grade would you give him? And they all go, well, I think I'd give him an A. Well, I think I'd give him a B. Which if you ask anybody in the state of California, homelessness has become an international embarrassment to that state.
I mean, when I go overseas and people hear I'm from California, they go, you guys have a lot of homelessness there, right? I'm like, Oh my God, I'm in Asia and you've heard of this. I don't understand.
So, a Republican was able to make it in because there's a lot of disaffected voters in California that feel the state has been in decline for the last decade. And he ran moderate enough that he got in.
PHILLIP: Totally. No voter fraud, though, right?
GRANDERSON: The voter fraud was never really a real thing. I think what we're witnessing in California is a frustration with the homelessness, though, you know, being shot --
SUNSHINE: It's abysmal. It's embarrassing. It's inhumane.
GRANDERSON: Well, yes, it's all over the country, honestly, not just California.
SUNSHINE: But in California, largest state, highest homeless population. I'm from L.A. (CROSSTALKS)
GRANDERSON: Listen, I lived in L.A. Yes. I worked for the L.A. Times. I lived downtown. I lived around the corner from where the homelessness at the epicenter. So, I know it very well. I don't need a lecture about it. But what I will say is I've also has experienced it in Chicago. I've experienced it in a small town like Kalamazoo, Michigan. I've experienced it all over New York. I've experienced it in Phoenix. It's everywhere.
So, until we get the attitude that homelessness is an epidemic all over the country and not California's problem, we're not going to solve it.
Now, when it comes to Mr. Hilton, I think the thing that makes him intriguing is the fact that he doesn't just talk about solving the problem. Because he has this business background, there's a belief that he'll know how to actually solve the problem and not just talk about solving the problem. I think that's what the outcome of the primary shows. His business background helped him out.
SINGH: I think no matter what happens, like even though he has emerged as, you know, the person that is going to face Xavier Becerra in November, California has not voted for a Republican in 20 years, I mean, since Arnold Schwarzenegger. I think Californians are going to rally around Becerra. It was a very tough primary for Democrats, and I think you're going to see that in November we will be saying Governor Becerra.
PHILLIP: But it's interesting because, I mean, this is the, perhaps one of the ripest moments for a Republican or a center-right candidate to run in California. And it strikes me that Hilton, he's in the runoff and probably helped by an incredibly fractured Democratic field.
But Spencer Pratt in L.A., maybe the biggest problem is that they have latched themselves to Donald Trump, who is, despite all the flaws of California, a very toxic figure in the state.
ARRIGHI: Well, what you see with Steve Hilton right now, especially separating from Donald Trump on voter fraud allegations, he's trying to pivot even more to the center. All politics is local, especially in a statewide election. And in California, regardless of where you are on the political spectrum, whether it's homelessness or a number of other issues, we've heard Democrats on this network tonight just talk about the litany of problems California has.
People are upset with the people in power. And especially when you're running for governor, it should be state focused, state focused, state focused, local, local, local. If Steve Hilton can keep pivoting that way, hopefully he can grow that vote share. It's going to be really hard.
Spencer Pratt, a lot of people who did vote for him who weren't traditional Republicans said it was because he had creative ideas for homelessness, for fire prevention, for rebuilding, et cetera. [22:15:06]
But it wasn't enough, because it's L.A.
SUNSHINE: But the election, this California election wasn't an indictment of President Trump's political brand. It was an indictment of Gavin Newsom's political brand because he has run the state. He's the incumbent governor. If people felt that the state was going in the right direction, that he had done a great job, Steve Hilton wouldn't have made it into the top two.
GRANDERSON: Well, that's a different conversation.
SUNSHINE: So, for a guy who went for run in 2028, FYI, your political brand is a lot more toxic than you think.
GRANDERSON: You started the argument saying one specific issue was about homelessness, which I agree with. I think his conversation about homelessness is a big question mark. But I think, overall, there's a lot of joy about --
SUNSHINE: Well, even Barack Obama said that Gavin Newsom's done a terrible job --
GRANDERSON: I think there's a lot of -- yes, and I've already conceded the homelessness point to you. But also I do know that California has one of the highest economies on the planet.
SUNSHINE: And highest cost of living.
GRANDERSON: And so in order to have one of the highest economies on the planet, you can't be a complete F up. So, I think Gavin Newsom deserves some credit about what he's been doing during his tenure as well.
SUNSHINE: And I think the top two would look different if that were true.
PHILLIP: Next for us, the bro factor. MAGA tries to use masculinity as an issue in the midterms, including in this new A.I.-generated ad that puts a Democratic candidate in a dress.
Plus, more breaking news tonight, the U.S. has launched retaliatory strikes against Iran after it downed a helicopter. This comes as Republicans compare Trump to Charlie Brown in this war.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:20:00]
PHILLIP: Tonight, with the midterms approaching, Republicans are targeting Texas Senate hopeful James Talarico, a Democrat, with a barrage of attacks on his masculinity. A new A.I.-generated political ad from an outside Republican group purporting to show Talarico wearing a dress is only the latest in a slew of personal insults intended to portray him as weak. Watch this. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Boys in white dresses with blue satin sashes, girls dosed with hormones till they grow mustaches, changing the gender of all your offspring. These are a few of my favorite things.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: In many cases, the attacks are homophobic, transphobic, and rely on easily disproven cases. Others are based on parts of Talarico's own comments.
But the truth doesn't appear to be the point of any of this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CRUZ: I got to say, if you were making a list of 1,000 adjectives to describe this guy, masculine would not be one of them. I mean, this guy, if a stiff breeze came by, it would blow him over like a feather.
STEPHEN MILLER, WHITE HOUSE DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF FOR POLICY: To nominate their first transgender Senate candidate, who's clearly transitioning into a female. You know, when Talarico goes in for a blood test when he gets a physical, blood doesn't come out. Instead, soy milk comes out.
JESSE WATTERS, FOX NEWS HOST: Did you know that he looks prepubescent? These are the notes you took? Did you know that he looks like the guy that leaves an apple on the teacher's desk? He's also 37 and not married.
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: The candidate that believes in six genders, and he takes hits at Jesus Christ, and he was wearing a mask six months ago.
And he's a vegan. He's a vegan in Texas.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: So, L.Z., you were just talking about the problems that Democrats have with masculinity and how they're portrayed. I mean, do you think that that's why Republicans are going down this route, and will it work?
GRANDERSON: Well, absolutely this is why they're going down this path. It's just the messengers. I just can't -- it's just -- Ted Cruz talking about masculinity? I mean, I'm gay, right? If you talk smack about my husband, you probably got some issues with me, and I'm not going to be easy about it. He rode over it pretty easy, you know, politically speaking, and I'm just like --
PHILLIP: When Trump attacked his wife.
GRANDERSON: When Trump attacked his wife and he attacked his family and attacked his character and there he is, still right there. And so I'm looking at him, and it's like my definition of masculinity has a lot to do with what's on the inside, integrity, things like honesty, civic duty, a sense of something greater than yourself, a provider, not leaving your dog behind as you do that.
So, you know, when I think about masculinity, I think, you know, try not to cheat on your wife, and if you do, you apologize, and not cheat on her the second, and if you do, apologize or not. You know, so those are the things that I consider masculine as a gay person. But as I said, I'm gay, so maybe I don't know. Maybe masculine means something else.
PHILLIP: Any of the straight guys at the table --
MOCKLER: Well, look I agree. My definition of masculinity definitely precludes people who shill for somebody that offended their wife, as you said. It definitely precludes people who dipped out of their own state in order to avoid a natural disaster. It definitely precludes people who cheat on their wife with a porn star or cheat on their wife overall, like Ken Paxton.
I think you hit the nail on the head. It's honesty. It's civic duty. It's the ability to be genuine and to care about those around you. Masculinity isn't sending endless dollars overseas while refusing to take care of the people that voted for you. That's to Ted Cruz and to Donald Trump.
And one more thing, these A.I. ads need to be banned. I think that like A.I. is the best thing to happen to the Republican Party because they now can create fake information to substantiate the fake information that they spew. Trump sends --
SUNSHINE: They're hilarious and they're very effective with voters.
SINGH: Well, I think you're onto something on the A.I. ads, like I think these types of ads in particular, Republicans have to be really careful because they will backfire, and Democrats can do the same thing to Republicans.
[22:25:01]
And I think there has to be some type of regulation when it comes to something like this. I mean, that is clearly false and, you know, a propaganda, but --
PHILLIP: But here's the thing, it's not hard to tell that it's A.I.- generated.
MOCKLER: Well, I tell that to my like old great-grandpa or whatever.
PHILLIP: I mean, it's obviously --
(CROSSTALKS)
SINGH: You know that, but like is it obvious to the average person? PHILLIP: But I just say I agree that I just don't know how effective they are. Because the idea -- you know, we were told that Spencer Pratt was going to win the L.A. mayor's race off a couple of A.I. videos, and that turned out to not be true.
MOCKLER: I was going to say Democrats don't have to create the A.I. videos because we can just say, Look at Ken Paxton who cheated on his wife.
SUNSHINE: But you know what's great about those ads is it puts political consultants on both sides of the aisle out of business. The amount of money that political consultants who are establishment and horrible at their jobs in this country make off of making basic T.V. political ads when the average American can now just go be far more creative and make something off of A.I. is phenomenal, and anybody saying otherwise is just not cut out for the future.
MOCKLER: Is there a threshold for the likeness that you can use of somebody? Can you just -- completely distort them?
SUNSHINE: There's no -- it's Wild West right now, but those are great ads, no. But here's the bigger --
PHILLIP: I don't know. I have a feeling political consultants are not going out of business anytime soon. I do want to just make a -- just a bigger point, that, you know, this idea of attacking people's masculinity, this is also part of the Trump era. I mean, he's been, since 2016, doing this with his political opponents, including many Republicans. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: So, when little Marco spews his crap about the size of my hands, which are big, the size of my hands.
So, I looked at him, I said, Marco. No, I just wanted to set -- look at that. Those hands can hit a golf ball 285 yards. Little Marco.
See, Mini Mike just got out and he's going to, you know, try and save face by putting some money into Biden's campaign.
Mini Mike.
Little Ben Sasse.
Little pencil neck Adam Schiff.
He is not a long ball hitter.
A lot of people like him a lot, and he's against Tampon Tim.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: It's actually a little bit related to what we were talking about in the last segment, which is so much of the political culture right now is an offshoot of Trump. It's an offshoot of what he created in this political atmosphere. And it's not about issues anymore, it's about these kinds of smears of people, T.W.
ARRIGHI: Yes. And, look, Donald Trump has been in the public eye for 40 years building a brand for himself before he even ran for president. He became famous for, you're fired. He became famous for quotes in tabloids, in the New York Post about his dating life. He was crass. He was brash. He was vulgar. He was a billionaire. He flew high, and people knew him as that. He is a one of one that cannot be replicated. And when other people try to be the same as him, they fail. Oh, yes, not for nothing.
Even if you hate Donald Trump, he's still funny, and his comedic timing is really good. Is he mean sometimes? Yes. Does he say horrible things sometimes? Of course, but he still is funny, and that's why people are drawn to him.
James Talarico, is he Rambo? Of course not. Did the Democrats lose a lot of ground with a lot of young men across the country in the last election? Yes. They alienated the Bar Stool gang. They alienated all sorts of different segments of the male audience because, as Rahm Emanuel said, they were woke and weak.
But I think it's bigger than masculinity, and I agree with a lot of what you said about what masculinity is, and I agree with you on that, L.Z. But I would go beyond it. It's normalcy and it's authenticity. People want normal --
SUNSHINE: Neither of which Talarico has.
ARRIGHI: People -- yes, true.
SINGH: I disagree with that.
ARRIGHI: But hold on. But hold on. But at least in Texas, he is not probably what you would call the average male voter.
SUNSHINE: Not just Texas.
ARRIGHI: But -- oh, be that what it may. The problem is there's not enough normalcy in our politics. There's not enough people who people are like, I like this guy. He seems normal to me. He likes the same things I like. We could sit down, talk, have a few beers, and have a few laughs. But why aren't there more normal people in politics? Because what normal person with functioning brain cells would want to enter this political climate, it's really hard.
SINGH: I actually think Talarico is reaching across. I mean, that's why he was able to be successful in that Senate primary is he -- because he was able to reach Republicans and independents, or just across voters.
But hold on just a sec. I think that if Republicans choose to make this race about masculinity and don't focus on the issues that matter, like your energy prices, your gas prices, your grocery prices. I think Talarico and someone like Gina Hinojosa have a real path to victory, not just in Texas, but other candidates in Iowa or Ohio or wherever in this country, because we're actually talking about the issues that matter, and people want someone to deliver for them. And Democrats are running on those issues.
SUNSHINE: The Democratic Party got it so wrong in Texas. You guys had a hilarious black woman, and for the party that lectures everybody about racism, you guys pushed her aside so you could have a soy boy white guy who was created in a lab and looks like what political consultants think a regular white person looks like --
[22:30:00]
SINGH: No one pushed her aside.
[22:30:01]
By the way, he thinks there's six genders.
CAROLINE SUNSHINE, DEPUTY COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, TRUMP'S 2024 CAMPAIGN: He thinks there's six genders? How many genders do you think there are? How many genders are there?
I just want to know what the DNC autopsy report that I've never seen says. How many genders are there?
Oh, she should have been your pick. She was authentic, she had charisma, and she would have beaten whoever the Republicans put up. But we got it right, and you guys got it wrong.
How did you get it right when someone's been indicted by their housing?
PHILLIP: One at a time, please.
L.Z. GRANDERSON, OP-ED COLUMNIST, "LOS ANGELES TIMES", AND HOST, "L.Z. GRANDERSON SHOW": This is what I would say to you in regards to Texas. Based upon my reporting, based upon having lived there, I think the reasons why Talarico will have a difficult time has nothing to do with the perception of masculinity, though I think it plays in the east side of the state.
I don't think that's it. Not in a state that elected an openly gay person in Houston, an openly gay person currently in San Antonio and Austin has more gay people than any other state or any other major city outside of Chicago, L.A., and, of course, New York.
So in terms of identity and trying to pick on someone for being queer, I don't know how that's going to play. I think the issues with Democrats in Texas has been for the last two decades for two reasons.
One, the conversation about green energy and clean energy and how that impacts the oil industry because a lot of people of color get good jobs working in the oil industry, and that's one of the reasons why they tend to vote Republican. And also, two, the immigration conversation.
Democrats do not handle that well because they tend to quote Washington, D.C., as opposed to talk like they live in Texas. If you talk like you live in the southwest, you have a better shot in the southwest.
But when I look at Talarico's website, I still see D.C. I think those are the reasons why you'll have a tough time. It has nothing to do with them being masculine or not masculine.
PHILLIP: We're going to leave it there.
Next for us, breaking news tonight, new strikes in Iran. As the U.S. retaliates for the downed Apache helicopter, it comes as a Republican compares Trump to Charlie Brown in this war. That's next.
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[22:35:00]
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PHILLIP: Breaking tonight, the U.S. military has launched a new wave of retaliatory strikes against Iran after Iran downed a U.S. Apache helicopter. In response, Iran says that it's launched missiles and drones against American targets. President Trump earlier posting that both pilots were safe and uninjured before warning of the pending retaliation.
This new attack comes after Trump is again insisting that a deal is right around the corner. In fact, by CNN's Aaron Blake's count, Trump has claimed that a deal was imminent or Iran was desperate to cut one at least 38 times since the start of this war. Here's just a small sample.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: We have 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, yes. 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, that 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 good deal that will not allow in any way, shape, or form nuclear weapons, etc. and that it straight will open up right away. It'll open up immediately upon signing, which could be in two or three days.
(END VIDEO CLIP) PHILLIP: But some lawmakers in his own party are growing tired of all of this spin and they're questioning whether Iran has the upper hand here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. CARLOS GIMENEZ (R-FL): Look, I'm starting to feel like we're Charlie Brown and Iran is Lucy and every time we go kick the ball, it's been taken away. You know, we're close to a deal, we're two days from a deal, we're three days from a deal and it's not happening.
And right now they think they're playing us. I happen to agree with them, I think they are playing us and I think that we need to take a little bit more direct action.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: T.W., I mean, is he wrong about that? Because it seems that the only person who's really talking about a deal is Trump and he seems desperate for one and the Iranians are not that interested.
T.W. ARRIGHI, VICE PRESIDENT, PUSH DIGITAL GROUP: Yes, I don't think I've seen the Ayatollah on camera since the bombing. So yes, the only person on T.V. is Trump talking about it.
First of all, I'm thrilled that the Apache helicopter pilots are safe. I am happy that we are talking about peace and not talking every day about men and women in harm's way and boots on the ground. But I think Gimenez has a point.
Iran is not to be trusted, they are the largest state sponsor of terrorism in the world, they have the blood of hundreds if not thousands of Americans on their hand, they are a net evil to the world. And I'm glad that President Trump is talking about getting America a deal where they no longer can have access to a nuclear weapon.
According to reporting we've heard today, it really is about the timeline of what that taking down of all their nuclear arsenal looks like. I hope that is the case. We don't have a lot of information to go through.
SUNSHINE: Last year, the White House said we obliterated what was left of the nuclear program that didn't exist to begin with. And anybody that said otherwise was fake news. And that's still on the White House's website as of today.
ARRIGHI: There are other places that we're supposed to know about. Unfortunately, we can't do that. Because that is still underground, it could be recovered.
SINGH: The only way to get the enriched uranium is to put boots on the ground. And so what is being negotiated right now is not even a deal of a nuclear framework. It's a deal to get a deal.
[22:40:07] It's to open the Strait of Hormuz to start allowing some of those tankers to come out. And all of this, while this is happening, and we were talking about this earlier, this is a very active war zone.
I think what's getting lost here is the fact that Iran used a $20,000 drone to shoot down a multimillion-dollar aircraft shows that not only do they have control over the Strait, but they retain very strong capabilities, not just in the Strait, but I think across the country.
And so I think to Abby's point earlier of, like, are we closer to a deal, it's like I think there's hope that we're always closer to a deal. But to have that come to fruition, I mean, the JCPOA took 18 months to get there.
PHILLIP: I mean, Americans would not be faulted for thinking they're being strung along here.
SINGH: Right.
PHILLIP: J.D. Vance was asked about this by CBS. Here's his response.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT COSTA, CBS NEWS CHIEF WASHINGTON ANALYST: You say very close. How soon? Could the deal happen before the midterm elections?
J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Oh, absolutely. No, I think we're going to know a lot before the midterm elections. Look, I think the deal could happen in the next week, but the deal could also happen months from now.
COSTA: Are the Iranians stringing President Trump along, in your view?
VANCE: No, I don't think so. Again, I think their system takes a long time to reach consensus. I always hear people ask me, do you trust the Iranians?
And what the President has said is, I don't trust anybody. What I do trust is my own ability to negotiate. I trust our administration's ability to negotiate, and I trust the enforcement provisions that we're going to get in place.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: Could be next week, could be months from now. I mean, it seems like they don't really have any idea how long this is going to take, in part because they have underestimated the timeline from the very beginning.
ADAM MOCKLER, COMMENTATOR, MEIDASTOUCH NETWORK, AND PODCAST HOST, "THE ADAM MOCKLER SHOW": Yes, Trump is definitely in over his head. This four to six week timeline is now over 100 days, and we've had all of the costs of this with none of the benefits.
We've got zero political concessions on the nuclear question, on IRGC, on the regime change question. We have made no progress on that while spending over $100 billion. Americans are struggling with high gas prices, with the economy, and yet we are being lied to on T.V. by people who are saying this war is almost over.
Every time we go to war with a country that starts with IRA, it ends up in a disaster where we make very little progress. We hit a grinding counterinsurgency, and now Iran seems to be waging asymmetric warfare in the form of the Strait of Hormuz.
Donald Trump was promised that this would go like Venezuela, where if you chop off the head, the rest of the body falls in line. It did not work like that. The IRGC is different.
SINGH: Well, that didn't happen in Venezuela either.
MOCKLER: Well, he was pitched that it would work.
SINGH: I mean, Delcy is still a continuation of the Maduro apparatus.
MOCKLER: The regime didn't change in Venezuela, but at least he was able to get out of it cleanly after Maduro was captured. In this case, it's very different.
SINGH: It was a strategic, targeted operation, versus this was a -- I mean, he was sold on the idea that he would be able to topple the regime very quickly and that the people of Iran would rally around the United States and they would take back their government, as he said on February 28th when he gave that press conference.
And the reality is that Iran's playbook is to run down the clock, is to continue to string this out. It is in their interest.
PHILLIP: All right, let's hit pause here. We'll take a quick break and come back on the other side, and you can respond, T.W. We'll be right back.
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[22:45:00]
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PHILLIP: Just over 100 days of this war with Iran, and the American people oppose it. And Caroline, you're a MAGA Republican, but you oppose it, too, which I think might surprise a lot of people.
A Reuters poll just found 56 percent of Republicans say that the war is worth it. That's low, considering that Trump has 80 percent, 85 percent support among Republicans. What does that tell you?
SUNSHINE: Well, it tells me what I've known from the polling from the very beginning, which was they said, oh, all of MAGA supports this, and then there were polls that broke down and said non-MAGA.
Well, let me explain what non-MAGA is. It used to be in the Republican Party you had two wings. You had the MAGA wing and then the non-MAGA wing, which was like the establishment Republicans that Trump had overtaken.
So these were the neocons. These were people who were very supportive of the actions that the Trump administration is taking right now.
Non-MAGA now means people who have left MAGA -- who have left the MAGA movement, because they don't feel like this war is fulfilling the promise that the President said at his second inaugural address, which is that we will not just be judged by the battles that we win and the wars that we end, but also perhaps by the wars that we never start.
So I, too, am glad that our pilots are safe. I have a lot of questions about our KC-135s that went down for the first time in American combat. I have a lot of questions about our F-15 pilots who went down over Iran, who we've still never met.
We've had the astronauts at the White House. We've never heard from our F-15 pilots. It's time for us to go home, we don't need to wait for a deal.
The President can have a huge political rebound by just leaving. And, by the way, it's also affecting not just how the Republican Party views President Trump, but how our country is viewed on the world stage.
I was just in Istanbul, Turkey, which is a NATO ally that shares a border with Iran, and I just asked people, because I'm an American and I haven't talked to people abroad about how they view our country, and I said, does this war make you respect America more or less as a global force for good?
[22:50:03]
And every single person I talked to sincerely said no. They said, you've killed 165 schoolchildren. This isn't bringing us closer to peace, this doesn't help us view America in a better light.
And so it's time to go. It's time to come home.
PHILLIP: T.W.?
ARRIGHI: I support the idea of preventing Iran, the greatest global sponsor of terrorism, from getting a nuclear weapon. I think our men and women in uniform have performed valiantly, and they did a tremendous job in the early days of this campaign in Iran.
I don't believe the commander-in-chief, any commander-in-chief, Democrat or Republican, has the luxury of looking at political polls before they do something to defend our country. We've seen that over the decades, wars weren't popular. They became popular when we were successful, they're privy to intelligence that we aren't.
And, Sabrina, to your point that you brought up earlier, when you brought up earlier, when you said that a cheap drone shooting down an expensive plane, I understand that that is a massive problem and unsustainable in the long term, but I think it misses the bigger point, too, that our military has a lot of capacity as well. And we're also inflicting a lot of economic pain on Iran. So I want to
see it end quickly, obviously, but I think the goal of making sure they don't get a nuclear weapon and we can--
PHILLIP: The polls are downstream from Trump's decision-making, which I think is really what people are questioning. It's not that Trump should be reacting to the polls, but I think people are upset that he seemingly walked into a war without understanding the consequences, not just for the United States, but for the whole globe, for the region, for our strategic interests in the region.
SINGH: I think it was-- I mean, this was a war that he walked into because it was a war of choice. I mean, he made this decision. He did not lay out the case to the American public, and he could have.
I mean, he could have, before he went to war on February 28th, he could have used the State of the Union to explain to the people why we need to do this, why we need to do it right now, and the imminent, quote, imminent threat that Iran posed to the American public.
And to your point, last year, around this time, you know, we were talking about how Operation Midnight Hammer obliterated Iran's nuclear program. So if we obliterated Iran's nuclear program, why are we going to war with Iran?
And now we are -- I mean, we have been talking about how long this war has dragged out for. How many more hundreds of days are we going to be sitting here? I mean, J.D. Vance says it's going to wrap up any day to maybe a few months from now.
I mean, I think we can all agree we've blown past the timeline that this administration set for itself.
ARRIGHI: I want to just make one more point on that. You are totally right.
This should have been sold a lot better. There should have been a larger lead-up to it. I completely am with you.
But I also don't think J.D. Vance is wrong with the last bit of what he said. He said it takes a long time to get the communications going. Why? Because we took out their first and second string.
SUNSHINE: We replaced one ayatollah with a younger version who is a religious monotheist.
ARRIGHI: And we don't know where he is. So the question is, none of us at this table are aware of who the decision-makers are, who the people in the White House are.
PHILLIP: These are just strategic decisions. You could call them decisions.
ARRIGHI: I agree.
PHILLIP: You could call them mistakes that were made in this conflict. It has not worked out well for us that we decided to take out all the people that we thought we could talk to. That hasn't worked out well.
ARRIGHI: Well, we'll see how it ends.
GRANDERSON: That's the reason why a President's temperament is so important. You know, in the first term, it was very obvious that a lot of the moves that he was making early on was about Obama and doing things that were anti-Obama, and the deal with Iran was one of those things.
And I'm not quite sure if he had a proper vetting of all the ramifications when he decided to rip up the deal, but he knew it had Obama's name on it, and that was good enough. I think we're seeing the fact that he tends to make decisions based upon how he's feeling in the moment, which is fine when you're campaigning, which might even be fine when you're endorsing someone for a primary and you're not thinking about the general election.
But it's not fine when it comes to war. And the fact that he's so flimsy with it, and the fact that he talks about eradicating a 2500- year-old civilization, I mean, it's irresponsible. And so the temperament of a President, you know, for the next time you go around, yes, we want someone who's strong.
Yes, you want someone who's going to fight for the American people and all the good things. But the temperament matters in these moments.
ARRIGHI: I agree. I actually fully agree with that. And I hope, actually, that the deal that comes out of this, at the end of it, does not look like the Obama deal, but a lot better.
PHILLIP: All right. Next for us, the panel's going to give us their nightcaps, comeback edition. We'll be right back.
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[22:55:00]
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PHILLIP: It's been nearly four years since Serena Williams competed in a professional tennis match, and today the 44-year-old Williams makes her return in a doubles match in London, and she won. So, for tonight's news nightcap, which legend do you think wouldn't miss a beat if they returned?
Caroline, you're first.
SUNSHINE: My queen, Celine Dion, who my heart will always go on and on and on for.
MOCKLER: I want to see former President Barack Obama run for a third non-consecutive term. We're going to see the Obama-Kennedy Center. We're going to see Obama's faces on the buildings, and it's going to be amazing.
[23:00:05] GRANDERSON: I'm a sports fan. I want to see Aaron Donald come out of retirement, play alongside Miles Garrett for the L.A. Rams.
SINGH: I want to see the Spice Girls come back. They were my favorite girl group, but they're still the best one, so I want to see the Spice Girls come back.
GRANDERSON: Is that what you really want?
SINGH: That's what I really want.
ARRIGHI: Thomas Edward Patrick Brady, Jr., I want to see him come back and lead the 2028 Olympic flag football team for America, added to his six rings.
PHILLIP: All right, everybody, thank you very much. Thanks for watching "NewsNight." "Laura Coates Live" starts right now.
