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CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip
Right Now, Trump's Name Being Removed From Kennedy Center; Judge Orders Trump Admin To Stop Censorship At National Parks; Conflicting Accounts Emerge Of Potential Agreement With Iran, U.S.; Elon Musk Becomes The First Trillionaire In U.S. History After SpaceX Went Public For The First Time; Hunter Biden Defends Graham Platner Amid His Scandals As Liberals Back Biden's Attacks On Republicans. Aired 10-11p ET
Aired June 12, 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 fate of the Iran war depends on who you ask. Conflicting versions emerge of a potential agreement to keep talking, but leaves out nuclear specifics.
Plus, Elon Musk becomes the world's first trillionaire. Is this a reason to celebrate or be horrified?
Also --
HUNTER BIDEN, JOE BIDEN'S SON: I always say to people, like show me your phone. Give me access to your iCloud.
PHILLIP: -- Hunter Biden defends Graham Platner despite the scandals, and becomes a liberal symbol for punching back.
And what goes up must come down, at least when Donald Trump tries skirting the law with name games.
Live from the Food Network, Scott Jennings, Bakari Sellers, Cari Champion, and Arthur Aidala for a special summer Friday edition of NewsNight.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIP (on camera): Happy Friday everyone. I'm Abby Phillip for a special edition of NewsNight. This summer, we are taking the show on some field trips, spending our Fridays right back here at the Food Network's Test Kitchen in New York, our sister company. We have a fabulous chef serving the friends of our show, and she's got a special treat for us at the end of the night.
But, first, of course, some breaking news tonight. President Trump's name is coming down from the Kennedy Center building. A judge has rejected the center's last-minute request to freeze a previous judge's ruling while the court proceedings play out. The court didn't elaborate on that decision, and they have until midnight tonight to restore the original name.
Now, you'll remember back in December, a Trump-approved board of trustees voted to change the name in order to honor him.
CNN Washington Correspondent Sunlen Serfaty is on the scene. Sunlen, what is happening? Is there still a crowd out there waiting for this to happen?
SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Abby, it's a rather extraordinary scene outside the Kennedy Center at 10:00 P.M. on a Friday evening. What this moment is really emblematic of the political divide, frankly, that exists in Washington right now.
As you can see behind me, you have a crew of about 13 people. They are bar by bar constructing this large scaffolding, and they're going to build this so that they can reach the words, Donald Trump, to remove his name from the Kennedy Center.
And then just off screen here, at the angle you can't see fully, but there are hundreds of people here in D.C. who have come out to witness this moment.
Now, with every foot that they build this scaffolding, we've heard chants of, take it down, take it down. Clearly, many of the people out here coming today to witness in support of that name coming down. And there was a last-ditch effort on the part of the Kennedy Center today in the courts to try to get the name to remain on the building, but that was denied by a federal judge, reinforcing that President Trump's Kennedy Center needed to take the name off the wall. And there you see people cheering as the workers are climbing up the scaffolding, again, adding to it.
So, again, the federal judge making sure that the Kennedy Center would take down this name by midnight tonight. So, now, it really is a race against the clock. And notably, Abby, as you know, Washington, just a wild moment that this late on a Friday night, this many people are out here, this name on the side of this building has been symbolic for so much. President Trump's reach in Washington, his attempt at making a stamp and remake cultural institutions like the Kennedy Center. So, we'll be here watching. Certainly a significant moment. Abby?
PHILLIP: Wow, what a sign of the times, Sunlen. We'll be keeping an eye on that scene tonight as we see what happens to those letters, just about two hours left before they have to comply with this ruling.
But back here in New York, it is pretty extraordinary. I had to chuckle because I was reading the court filing by DOJ as they tried to convince the court to allow them to keep the name up. And they changed the bylaws of the Kennedy Center to basically say that any money that they received while that name was up there was contingent on Donald Trump's name being on the Kennedy Center, which is a living memorial to the former president.
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And the court filing says, the reason for this clause is that people and companies who have given or will be giving millions of dollars to the center were only willing to do so with the name Trump on the building. Many did it because they loved the concept of two great presidents, one Republican, one Democrat, working together as one, in many ways, a bipartisan relationship, exclamation point.
Not sure if Donald Trump has started working in the Justice Department, but, yes, I mean, it's almost comical if it didn't actually happen.
ARTHUR AIDALA, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: So, can I -- I'm going to just be a lawyer for a second. The reason why this is a great moment in history, what's going on, that his name is coming down, is that the judiciary has no real power to make sure people do what they say. So, right now, President Trump can say no, nothing's coming down, and the judge has nothing -- there's no -- the judge doesn't have an army. The judge doesn't have any power to do anything.
So, this is our government actually working, that when the judiciary uses the power of a pen, nothing more than the power of a pen, saying, no, you can't do this, and everyone is following the judge's order, that's a great American moment, that the government is working. The three branches of government are working the way they're supposed to.
BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I actually agree with him, but I also think that when you look at your --
AIDALA: It's okay. You're allowed to. You said it like, holy cow, I actually agree with you. You're allowed to agree with me.
SELLERS: It's 10:06. I just got started.
(CROSSTALKS)
SELLERS: Yes, I agree with you. You're right 3 or 4 percent of the time.
PHILLIP: There we go.
SELLERS: So, what I was -- you're not going to agree with this part. What I was going to say is I believe this is just indicative of what the Trump presidency will be. You have an individual who has what most people would agree to have a heavy dose of psychopathy that is rooted in some sense of self that is not necessarily rooted in anything. So, he wants his name on buildings. He wants his picture on dollar bills. He wants those type of things.
And when Donald Trump is gone, I do believe that many of the things that he deems to be accomplishments, those superficial things, without changing the lives for the better of the American people, will come down and will be erased.
And so this is going to be the first, although this is something that individuals can see not just with their mind's eye, but they can literally see with their eyes that name coming down. I think that there's going to be a lot of scrubbing from the history books of Donald Trump's name, the things that Donald Trump has done, and the things that won't be expunged are things like impeachment.
PHILLIP: You know what? I think it's a important point that this for liberals is sort of like a celebratory moment, but I think it is emblematic of one of the big problems with this Trump second term. He is expending a huge amount of energy self-aggrandizing in the office. He was elected to lower prices, make people's lives better.
Instead he's calling into meetings, according to CNN's reporting, that according to a source it was like an episode of Veep, he's calling into meetings at the Kennedy Center to talk to them about this issue, to attack the judge's wife who was a former attorney for Joe Biden at one point. Then the board says, oh, maybe they'll make a resolution to honor Trump that would recognize his major contributions.
What is all of this about? I mean, is the entire government supposed to be working to make this one man feel good about himself?
SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, are we upset that the president of the United States took an interest in the Kennedy Center, took an interest in a building that needs to be --
PHILLIP: A lot of people are upset about that, yes.
JENNINGS: But why? Why would they be upset about it? Now, I'll answer my own question. Because they've never been able to stand the fact that Donald Trump won the White House the first time, and especially the second time --
PHILLIP: I have an alternative explanation.
JENNINGS: -- and they don't want him to be able to exercise any power, large or small.
PHILLIP: How about Congress established the Kennedy Center as a memorial for John F. Kennedy, and that it is illegal for him to slap his name on it. That is why people are upset about it.
CARI CHAMPION, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: That's all. That's simple.
JENNINGS: Look, here's the deal. He took an interest in this.
PHILLIP: And what about the law, Scott?
JENNINGS: And what about it? He took an interest in it.
CHAMPION: What about it?
JENNINGS: Who cares? Let me tell you what I see.
AIDALA: We're abiding by the law.
JENNINGS: Well, here's what I see.
AIDALA: We're abiding by the law.
JENNINGS: Here's what I see. Hold on. You can't get the government on the phone after 3:00 on a Friday, yet we can build scaffolding to scrape a name off the side of a building? And --
PHILLIP: They build scaffolding to put his name on the side of the building.
JENNINGS: I mean, honestly, this is what the government can do? And what is it the Democrats do for fun on a Friday night? These haters stand out on the street screeching about a name? Unbelievable.
CHAMPION: To your point about it is against the law, I want to give a shout-out to Representative Joyce Beatty.
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I think that she actually tells the story that when she was on a -- she's a member of the board, and there was a meeting and she wasn't there and she called in virtually, and she -- this was not on the agenda to change the name or add Donald Trump's name to the Kennedy Center, and she tried to speak up against it. When she found out about it, she said she was shocked. They muted her. They wouldn't allow her to talk. She then actually filed the lawsuit to stop this. And on May 29th, we now find out that when the judge said, you know what? You're right. Take it down.
And I just want to give her a shout-out for one particular reason. When they tried to shut her down, she said, It wasn't about me. It was about arts, and it's bigger than this, and it wasn't fair. And she was the only one that had enough cojones to say -- chutzpah --
SELLERS: Testicular fortitude.
CHAMPION: Testicular fortitude, thank you, friends, to say, you know what? It's not right, and someone should do something about it.
She said Donald Trump was on the meeting when she was actually trying to object, and he was trying to intimidate her with looks, and she still went ahead. So, shout-out to her for saying, something is wrong. Let's do something about it, and it should do something for all of us Americans who feel like we're not happy with what's going on.
AIDALA: Us New Yorkers are not surprised that Donald Trump is putting his name on everything. I mean, it's just like -- it's laughable for us. I mean, his name is everywhere. I've gone to a Trump Grill and, Abby, I've never seen this before. I ordered a hamburger, and on the bun, God bless him --
CHAMPION: It was a Trump burger?
AIDALA: And on the bun, they take a, they char it with his profile. Like so I'm eating President Trump.
CHAMPION: Not even the lame face.
AIDALA: But you know what? I'm with Scott, too, like you got to have a very little going on in your life on a Friday night that you're standing in front of the thing whistling. I mean, go watch Abby Phillip on CNN. Do something productive with your time. PHILLIP: I mean, you can argue that that's the case, but these are also American citizens. Maybe they care about the law.
CHAMPION: Yes.
PHILLIP: Maybe they care about --
AIDALA: The law is being followed, Abby. My point is the law is being followed.
PHILLIP: Maybe they care about what the judge said is the plain text of the law, quote, the Kennedy Center's organic statute makes it crystal clear that the center is to be named for President Kennedy. If Congress gave the center its name, only Congress can change it.
SELLERS: Can we also acknowledge that for -- since its inception, the Kennedy Center has been a place where the arts have flourished.
CHAMPION: Yes.
SELLERS: It has not been a place of partisan politics.
CHAMPION: At all. It has nothing to do with it.
SELLERS: Nobody ever said, We're going to go to the Kennedy Center because John F. Kennedy was a great Democrat. No one ever says that. They go to celebrate the arts. They go to --
AIDALA: They're going to show Melania, the movie, at the Kennedy Center. That's where it previews.
PHILLIP: Well, you know, speaking of that, Cari, you know, the Park Service has also been in the crosshairs of this administration. And just tonight, a judge ruled that they have to reinstall signs and exhibits at the national parks about topics like slavery and climate change. These are exhibits that had been removed, like, for example, in the National Historic Park in Philadelphia that had an exhibit about slavery, at Fort Sumter in South Carolina that had an exhibit about climate change, at the Acadia National Park that had an exhibit about indigenous people. So, they're going to have to put it back according to this judge, at least for now.
CHAMPION: What we're seeing in real time, which is good for me, is that you can no longer create your own narrative. This administration has a history of doing that and erasure. And so right now people are saying, and I don't know, of course, they're going to push back and they will appeal. I'll leave it to the attorneys to talk about it, but I like the idea of someone saying, you can't create your own history in real time.
And when it talks up -- when we talk about the Kennedy Center, I have said this on this show before, him putting his name on that living memorial is like someone else putting their name on someone else's tombstone. It is -- outside of it being illegal, it's such a level of disrespect, and it shows that would he want anyone to do that to him? Imagine the Donald Trump Center and someone comes on and another president --
AIDALA: The Arthur Aidala-Donald Trump Center.
CHAMPION: Correct.
AIDALA: There we go.
CHAMPION: That's great.
JENNINGS: (INAUDIBLE) there.
AIDALA: I like the sound of that.
JENNINGS: Who can forget, by the way, at the great Battle of Fort Sumter when they were all arguing about the future of climate change, and they were just -- couldn't come to an agreement over climate change. And the cannonballs started firing. I mean, what a joke, climate change at the Battle of Fort Sumter?
SELLERS: The crazy part about the Battle of Fort Sumter off the coast of Charleston, South Carolina, is what people do remember are that some of the first slaves did come in. And so while you're having this conversation, and I understand the angst about climate change, but when you have plaques about indigenous people, you do recognize Christopher Columbus didn't discover this place, right? You do understand that America, as great as she is, has her warts, and we have to celebrate her warts and her successes. That is what makes this country great.
And so --
JENNINGS: I wouldn't memorialize Christopher Columbus.
PHILLIP: That's the last word.
AIDALA: Yes, I was going to say, yes, we can talk about that off-air.
PHILLIP: We'll keep an eye on this as we go along tonight.
But next, the U.S. and Iran are pushing different accounts of a potential agreement to keep talking, as one conservative host calls Trump a clown for his handling of all of this.
Plus, Elon Musk becomes the world's first trillionaire.
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Is that something to celebrate or to condemn? We'll debate next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIP: Tonight, the White House is signaling positive developments in its talk with Iran. It's not a deal to end the war. Instead, it's an agreement to just keep talking about potentially reaching a deal. But as for the details of this so-called memorandum of understanding, it depends on who you ask. A senior administration official tells CNN that Iran has agreed to reopening the Strait of Hormuz and to end funding terrorist groups.
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The official also says that Iran's money won't be released until they comply, and that they agreed to destroy or remove nuclear material and end its nuclear program all together.
But those terms conflict with what we're hearing from Tehran. Iran's foreign minister says that any nuclear talks will only happen after the memorandum of understanding is agreed to, and state media claims that the agreement includes war reparations and the immediate release of billions in frozen assets.
Vice President J.D. Vance called that fake news, insisting that there's no funding or cash that's going to be released to the Iranians by just signing the agreement. However, Iran's foreign minister does say that the memorandum has never been closer.
So, where are we? You would be just justified in feeling deeply confused at this point, and also maybe even ambivalent because I do think that this kind of will they or won't they thing is really starting to just make the public numb about what's happening here in Iran.
SELLERS: I mean, shout-out to J.D. Vance. I mean, for the past four to six weeks, I don't even think we knew he existed. I mean, J.D. Vance has been somebody in the administration who's been buried, and they trot him out here to tout the war in Iran and to refute the reports that we're all seeing.
I mean, there are reports today that the UAE just gave Iran $3 billion of a promised $10 billion.
JENNINGS: UAE said that's not true.
PHILLIP: Actually -- okay, all right. Well, Erick Erickson and many others have stated the simple fact that Barack Obama -- to reduce their stockpile by 98 percent in the JCPOA, Barack Obama and the Obama administration gave Iran $1.7 billion. We're now talking about war reparations that are the tens of billions of dollars. We're now talking about our allies in the Middle East giving Iran funds in the tens of billions of dollars.
And we were at a point where Donald Trump said there would be no money that is going to exchange hands, and we're going to destroy their nuclear program, and then he used the big word that it's been obliterated. I mean, it's been lie after lie after lie after lie.
PHILLIP: So, let me just make one point, which is that we don't know actually what is in this deal. But I think one thing that, you know, Scott would probably agree, because this is what the administration is trying to tell people to combat some of this narrative, is that they are going to release something. They just are saying that there has to be movement by the Iranians to get rid of their nuclear stockpile or what have you.
But here's the point that I want to make, is that Iran is way closer to a nuclear weapon today than they were ten years ago. And so the ask from them is going to have to be way more significant than it was for the nuclear deal that Trump pulled out of in order for them to release the funds. And the amount of funds, I think that Bakari is pointing out, is likely to be much more money than it was under the JCPOA.
JENNINGS: So, first of all, on the UAE piece, UAE said that is absolutely not true. Number two, you've had the United States government, the Iranian foreign minister, and the Pakistani prime minister, all three saying the same thing today, which is there's going to be a huge amount of misinformation put out there by people who want to tank this, and you shouldn't believe it. And we need to take all of them at their word.
The fact that you have all three of those governments, U.S., Iran, and Pakistan, all saying, don't believe misinformation, we're working this out, and they've all three said, we're closer to getting this done than we've ever been, that is a hopeful vibe.
Now, what does the Iranian state T.V. have to say to the Iranian people? That may be one thing, but all I know is the vibes on this today feel a little different because of the players that have come to public and said --
PHILLIP: Here's the thing about vibes, is that it only gets you so far. I just asked you about what the administration is saying. They're saying this is a kind of a pay-to-play situation. We will give them money if they do what we tell them to do. So, that is -- you have to acknowledge that they have put that on the table. Nobody's making up that they're going to give the Iranians money.
JENNINGS: So, here's what I was told today by senior administration officials, and it's what they've been saying for weeks. Any sanctions relief only comes if Iran has a demonstrable performance, meaning they have to meet the objectives of the nuclear material being destroyed. But you can't give them money up front, and they won't give them money up front.
PHILLIP: I get that.
JENNINGS: But they might release the sanctions if they show good faith.
PHILLIP: But let me read what Erick Erickson said on his blog. He said, the president the other day said Iran was playing us. The only one being played is President Trump. A state of war exists between Iran and its neighbors. The ceasefire is a farce. The president has turned into a clown. Trump chose to engage Iran. It dealt a serious blow. But instead of dealing a knockout blow, the president ordered Israel to pull its punches. We have now harmed our relations with our Middle East allies who depend on us for protection.
The situation is now more unstable than before the war began, and it's all because of a single person who swears he'll get a deal any day now.
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The president should be embarrassed. Instead, he'll be mad at everyone except the man in the mirror.
SELLERS: Michael Jackson.
CHAMPION: Yes.
AIDALA: Michael Jackson.
CHAMPION: Yes.
AIDALA: Look, I look at things at what we know, because what Scott said is true. There's a lot of misinformation. If bombs stop being dropped for the next two months, if people stop being killed for the next two months, if the straits are open and my gasoline goes from $5.50 back down to a normal $4.50, right now, for the position that we're in, that's a win.
We know that no one is better at spinning a negative into a positive than Donald Trump, and he will figure out a way to make chicken salad out of chicken poop, no matter what the outcome is here, and he will make it -- he'll make it a victory. He'll have a victory parade.
PHILLIP: I don't know.
AIDALA: He'll have a ticker tape parade.
PHILLIP: I think this is one of those few times when the metric, the deliverable, is crystal clear. Everybody knows what it is. They -- first of all, this memorandum of understanding is going to kick the nuclear issue down the road into the 60-day period.
The deliverable has to be the retrieval of the nuclear material and an end to their nuclear program. If he doesn't get that, there's no vibes that's going to cure the situation for him.
CHAMPION: Vibes don't matter here, and I think that we're talking about this at a very high level, and I'll just talk about it just from a human level. People at home don't believe it. This war of choice was supposed to be over for a couple of weeks. I remember when we wake up in the morning, we find out -- I hope everything's okay. We wake up in the morning, we find out we're at war, oh, it'll be a few weeks. It'll be over in a few weeks.
The promises are -- people are over the promises. They're looking at their grocery -- they're looking at their grocery list, this new thing called groceries. They're looking at gas, and they don't see an end, and I don't see an end. And if we can't give them something sturdy, something to hold onto, these people are -- the American people are going to really revolt in a way, and it's going to fail for Donald Trump.
Now, everyone talking about whether or not he can get past this, whether or not he can turn this into chicken salad, I don't think he can. I think you talk -- we are above the fold here, guys.
AIDALA: Well, it's early yet. It's early yet.
CHAMPION: But people are fed up.
AIDALA: We got some work to be done.
CHAMPION: Yes, but a lot of work to be done.
AIDALA: Both sides are saying this is the closest we've ever been. So, let's be positive and optimistic --
PHILLIP: And that may well be the case, but, obviously, details matter so much.
AIDALA: Of course.
PHILLIP: And, look, I mean, there was a deal before. There was a deal before that got them away from having nuclear weapons, but Republicans still thought it wasn't good enough. And I think that Trump is on the verge of losing even some in his own base if the deal is not sufficiently strong.
JENNINGS: I think the one piece of this that concerns me the most is the IRGC in Iran. I think there are political elements in Iran. Clearly, they want to make a deal. But, you know, we have been attacking them. The IRGC, as constituted today, well, if it's still constituted that way next week or in six weeks, they are still going to be a problem.
So, I still think whatever we sign and whatever we do, we have to keep an eye on this, and we have to allow the Gulf allies, and we have to allow Israel to perhaps continue on that, because the IRGC is never, in my opinion, going to conform.
PHILLIP: All right. Next for us, Elon Musk becomes the world's first trillionaire as many Americans struggle to get by. Is this achievement worth celebrating or condemning? We'll debate that.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIP: Tonight, call it a million millions or a thousand billions. Today, Elon Musk broke history becoming the world's first trillionaire as his company, SpaceX, went public. SpaceX celebrated a record IPO trading today with shares gaining 19 percent, lifting the company's market value to over $2 trillion.
Now, Musk could also be compensated up to $7.5 trillion if SpaceX hits certain milestones, but the full payout depends on the company establishing a colony on Mars with one million permanent inhabitants. No big deal. To illustrate what Musk could do and buy with all of that money, here's Jimmy Kimmel. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIMMY KIMMEL, "JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE" HOST: If you tried to count out loud to a trillion, you would be counting until the year 33,736. A trillion dollars is $10 billion hundred dollar bills. If you stack them up, the pile would be almost 700 miles high, as tall as 123 Mount Everest.
With that kind of money, Elon could buy every NFL team, all of them, and he'd still have $773 billion left, which he could use to buy all 30 Major League Baseball teams, every NBA team, every Wendy's, every Target store, the Beatles' entire music catalog. He could buy Nike, Macy's, and every Hyundai Elantra ever produced. And would still have $260 billion, $50 million left over.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: Here's my confession. A trillion dollars is not a real amount of money, it's just a projection.
BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I mean, of course it is, you peasant.
PHILLIP: It's not real.
SELLERS: Once you get to a trillion--
PHILLIP: We can't hold a trillion in our hands, okay?
SELLERS: I would try.
PHILLIP: Is it a moral failure, Cari, for somebody to call themselves a trillionaire in this day and age?
CARI CHAMPION, CNN CONTRIBUTOR AND HOST, "NAKED SPORTS" AND "FLAGRANT AND FUNNY": Here's the irony. I was listening to a podcast Elon was on not too long ago, and he said pretty soon, with the advent of robots, there will be no manual labor. Money's going to be useless.
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We won't even need money because they're going to take over and it'll be cheap labor. It'll be a cashless currency. We don't need it in this society.
And here he is, right here, the very first trillionaire. So I was looking like, I wonder what he would do with a trillion dollars, very much like what Jimmy Kimmel was just doing. In my mind, what could you solve? What kind of problems could you solve in our world? So just humor me for just a few moments.
If you spent a million dollars every single day, it would take you more than 2700 years to spend a trillion dollars. What you could effectively do with a trillion dollars is get rid of global poverty. You could end world hunger, you could cure major diseases like malaria, and you could completely transition the global energy sector to renewables. The fact that he has this type of money only tells me that his power
will be more prevalent and that I could not -- I cannot guarantee someone like this man would use his power for good.
SELLERS: Well, you've already seen it. I think the great irony in what you just said is that this is the same person who took a hatchet to USAID. And the end result of what we're seeing is that there are thousands of women and children who have died because of the cuts.
America has become weaker because we've receded from the world order when it comes to our soft power. Something that George W. Bush talked a great deal about. Elon Musk is a white supremacist who believes in things like the --
ARTHUR AIDALA, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Oh, boy.
SELLERS: I wasn't even finished a sentence.
SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You may need a lawyer when this is over.
SELLERS: Can I finish the next sentence? Who believes in things like the Great Replacement Theory.
JENNINGS: Honestly.
CHAMPION: What's wrong with what he said? It makes sense to me.
SELLERS: Wait a minute. Does Elon Musk not believe in the Great Replacement Theory? Is it not a racist theory that's been debunked?
AIDALA: I just don't. I just think you-- considering we have about 12 defamation cases in my office right now. Before you start throwing things around like someone's a white supremacist. Now the senator from the Democratic senator who's got the SWAT sticker on his chest.
PHILLIP: What does that word mean to you?
AIDALA: Then I would win that case.
PHILLIP: Hold on. Actually, hold on. Let me just-- first of all, I want us to stay on topic. I mean, Arthur, I would say there are people-- you just brought up Graham Platner, people who come on this show and call them a straight-up Nazi. So that has happened.
AIDALA: But there's evidence of that.
PHILLIP: Well, Bakari is arguing that he has evidence of racial bias. I don't want to litigate that.
SELLERS: If somebody believes in the Great Replacement Theory-- If somebody believes--
AIDALA: I just don't want to litigate that.
SELLERS: If somebody believes in the Great Replacement Theory, I believe I have every ground to stand on. But what I'm not going to do is allow someone just because they're a trillionaire.
And this is the problem we have in this country because somebody has a billion dollars or somebody has a trillion dollars, people all of a sudden are afraid to speak their truth. That is not going to silence me.
AIDALA: Who said that?
PHILLIP: Scott Jennings, you've been shaking your head. You've been shaking your head since Cari started talking.
JENNINGS: I've been all day long. I've been listening to liberals count and spend Elon's money for him.
This envy, jealousy, hatred of success. Why is it immoral? Why is it wrong for somebody in our system = our capitalist system, in the greatest nation on earth, to go out and build a company -- build companies, build technologies, go into space, aim to go put a colony on Mars, give internet to half the world. All the things he's doing.
Why is any of this wrong or bad? Why would we want to discourage entrepreneurship? Why would we want to discourage anybody building anything? That is the nature of it.
SELLERS: What if I told you that was the wrong frame?
PHILLIP: Elon Musk has also, I mean he's getting super rich, but a lot of other people are getting rich too at SpaceX.
JENNINGS: Yes.
PHILLIP: People who are still paid.
SELLERS: That's the wrong frame. And I think Scott Jennings is wrong and let me tell you why.
Because there are liberals -- the liberals that you are lambasting right now, no one is saying, and I'm not saying, I can't say no one, but I'm not saying that I'm mad at him for being innovative enough to create an IPO that creates wealth for him or many others. What I am saying however, is that there has to be some nature of altruism.
Being an American, right, I mean, reading the Statue of Liberty, like there is a certain level of give me your poor, give me your burden.
AIDALA: Do you have evidence that Elon Musk is not altruistic? I mean, I don't know. I mean, Michael Bloomberg, our former mayor, he's giving money to every charity, every event.
PHILLIP: I do think that when you compare Elon Musk's charitable giving to other uber wealthy people, whether it's Bloomberg, Gates, you know, Lorraine Powell Jobs, you name it, Warren Buffet, he's not high on the list. And he's now the wealthiest person on this planet.
But Bakari was alluding to this and so was Kerry. Ro Khanna says, you got to tax him. Tax him at five percent. In one year you could fund free public college and trade school, $10 a day childcare, special needs education nationwide.
[22:40:05]
Bernie Sanders says--
JENNINGS: How much does Ro Khanna want?
PHILLIP: Bernie Sanders says, this is an argument that rich people, you don't have to be a trillionaire, but people who are making a lot of money should be subject to more social security tax because right now they only pay it on less than $200,000 of income.
So there are some proposals on the table for how, you know, there are going to be a lot of people making buckets of money in this A.I. world. And there are going to be a lot of people put out of work.
There are proposals on the table to how to make that work for society a little bit better.
CHAMPION: And I don't think what you were saying, Bakari, was wrong. Look--
AIDALA: I never think what he's saying is wrong.
SELLERS: Who? Her? Yes, she does.
AIDALA: She never disagrees with me all the time.
JENNINGS: How much is someone allowed to have?
CHAMPION: Okay, first of all, no one's jealous. I want to point that out. I'm not jealous-- well, not me. Sure, fine. I'm just saying that I know that he's not going to -- I'm going to say, to your point, he has used his money for good, for advances. You're right. There are many wonderful things that he has done for society that we now look at and say, guess what, I can now do that.
And you're right, giving internet to people who didn't have internet, amazing, wonderful, good for you. But what I am saying is that I also know that he doesn't believe that he should do the things that we were just pointing out, such as changing what we need to change in this society.
AIDALA: Is he mandated to agree with you?
CHAMPION: No, he's not mandated to agree with me, but there should be some checks and balances in this society. People should not be allowed to have a trillion dollars. You know what a human needs that much money?
Do you think that these ultra wealthy people, I'm not talking about people with 10, 15, 20, even a hundred million dollars. I'm talking about people who are approaching a trillion dollars. Do you think that there's more that they should be doing to give back to the societies that helped them get rich? Elon Musk and SpaceX benefited from tens of millions of dollars in
government contracts and deals that allowed them to become the company that they are today. Should they be doing, Bakari, can I -- Scott, do you think that they should be doing more?
JENNINGS: I think it's up to them. I think that many of them, and Arthur mentioned one, they do a lot.
But it's not for me or you or any of us here to tell someone else what to do with what they earned and what they don't.
PHILLIP: Governments do that every single day. It's called taxes.
JENNINGS: Yes, I know. And the rich people in this country pay the vast majority of taxes. And I hear people today saying, oh, it's time that we tax the rich. Folks, I got news for you. We already taxed the rich. They pay the vast majority.
And I think Elon Musk is the single largest taxpayer in America, and he'll be even bigger now. But is it for us to sit around and say, there's a limit on what you can build, there's a limit on what you can earn, and it's now my job to tell you what to do with your money? Hell no.
PHILLIP: Let's leave it there.
AIDALA: Scott, real quick, what if there's a tax that you have to pay to get it to a charity? Not to the government. You get to pick what charity. After you make over $100 million, five percent you got to give to a charity.
JENNINGS: You will not redistribute my wealth to other private interests. That's my money. I'm not going to redistribute yours, don't redistribute mine.
PHILLIP: All right. Next for us, Hunter Biden is defending Graham Platner, and the no-holds-barred style is getting some praise from liberals. What's behind all of this? We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:45:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIP: Tonight, Graham Platner has a new ally. As the Maine Democrat navigates scandal after scandal in his bid for the U.S. Senate, Hunter Biden, the son of former President Joe Biden, is now coming to his defense.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HUNTER BIDEN, SON OF FORMER PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: I have not heard anything in any way that would say to me that he is an abusive, misogynistic, or anti-Semitic, or racist person. And I have heard this from Graham Platner, though, that he thinks we should all have free health care. I have heard this from Graham Platner, also, that he thinks that we have to radically change our politics.
I have heard this from Graham Platner, that working people are (expletive). And if that's the standard by which we are going to judge people, particularly people in elected office, then I don't think we're going to have many people in elected office.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: Not sure this is the endorsement that Graham Platner was looking for, Scott.
JENNINGS: Yes, degenerates are having a moment tonight. I see Platner, Hunter Biden, and Gavin Newsom all on the same screen. I mean, honestly, as far as character references go for Graham Platner, Hunter Biden is the literal last person you would pick.
But if Hunter Biden hasn't been paying attention to the things that Graham Platner has said, done, the things he's had tattooed on his body, and the things that his girlfriends have said about him, that's on Hunter Biden because he seems woefully misinformed.
AIDALA: Having represented many people who are being accused by their scorned lovers, I put that in one column, but Abby, as I said on your show, I think three or four times now, the whole tattoo thing, I can't get over someone having an anti-Semitic symbol tattooed to their body, and he got caught lying.
He got by his girlfriend, saying, oh, I didn't know what it was until someone told me what it was his girlfriend was like, no, that is not true, he knew what it was right away.
[22:50:02]
So I'm sorry, Hunter Biden, you may not have heard him say anything anti-Semitic, but he did something much more powerful than saying something. He permanently tattooed something on his body, and I, personally, a New Yorker surrounded by my Jewish brothers and sisters, I can't get over that.
SELLERS: I think that Donald Trump, in particular, has taken our body politic to the depths of hell in terms of character, et cetera, and I find it to be a place where most of us, I think all four or five of us, would agree we don't want to be.
I don't want my choice to be Graham Platner, I don't. But when people go to the ballot in November, they have a choice between someone who is articulating these views of women's rights, et cetera, versus someone who voted with Donald Trump 97 percent of the time.
I will tell Graham Platner this, this is something my dad used to tell me all the time, is like, you know, if I'm in a fight with a bear, you know, help the bear, pour honey on me. Like, you do not want Hunter Biden coming to your rescue if you're Graham Platner. That is one person that you don't necessarily want to be vouching for.
PHILLIP: Can we just spend one second on the Hunter Biden of it all? I mean, he got on social media, and I've been seeing a lot of liberals just, you know, applauding virtually the things that he's been saying.
Some of the tweets, I know this may sound petty, but I can't stand it when people put Photoshop, when people Photoshop a meth pipe in my mouth. A crack pipe doesn't have that little bowl at the end.
This is why we can't trust A.I. Please make the appropriate edit. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
SELLERS: He's right now.
CHAMPION: Wait, no, but--
PHILLIP: He also, he also, that photo that you're seeing there, he also says he's not part of the elite class because this was filmed in a Motel 8 off of the I-95. Super 8.
CHAMPION: So listen, he, okay, so Scott says we can't get over all these degenerates, right? And then you say you can't get over the Nazi tattoo and he got caught lying.
Listen, 100 percent agree, but here is my question. Like, what is the statute, maybe you can tell me, attorney, what's the statute of limitations of when you've paid your penance? Like, when can you come back into society?
PHILLIP: Are you talking about Hunter or Graham Platner?
CHAMPION: Yes, both.
SELLERS: Well, I actually, I do believe that, because--
PHILLIP: Graham Platner took the tattoo off a few months ago.
CHAMPION: But here's my, but here's my point. Like, and you talked about that you gave the analogy of the bear and, okay, so all I'm saying is this.
To your point about Donald Trump, what he has done is lowered the bar. It's literally hell right now. We're on the floor right now when we decide, when you call someone a liar.
You can't get over someone being a liar, you can't get over someone being cheating or denigrating women or treating women poorly. I just, in my mind, and I said this on your show before, I don't agree at all with Platner, nor do I agree with Biden.
But I want to know how we determine morally who we decide is right and who we decide is wrong. So if you're coming to, okay, listen, the end of the story is this. You can't decide. You can't. It's not true.
PHILLIP: Next for us, we've got our nightcaps coming on, Game Time Snack Edition. Speaking of food, though, we're going to find out what Chef Ginevra has been cooking up for us over there. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:55:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIP: We're back, and the Food Network's executive chef, Ginevra Iverson, is here with some spectacular plates. Trust me, I just tasted it. It is so good. Chef, tell us what you've got for us.
GINEVRA IVERSON, EXECUTIVE CHEF, FOOD NETWORK: So we just developed this recipe. It's a spatchcock grilled chicken, Peruvian style. It's marinated and then served with this super herby, delicious green sauce.
PHILLIP: Can you say that word again? Spatchcock.
IVERSON: Spatchcock.
PHILLIP: You've got to inform the people.
IVERSON: You take out the backbone and then you open it up and you butterfly it. So when you grill it, it grills really evenly and quickly.
SELLERS: Press it. Press it. Yes.
AIDALA: So delicious.
PHILLIP: Some global cuisine for the World Cup that is here in New York. You can scan that Q.R. code on the screen for this grilled, spatchcocked, Peruvian chicken with-- is it aji?
IVERSON: Yes, aji. Marilla.
PHILLIP: Aji verde sauce. It's so good. And all this food talk is heading into a sports-filled weekend. We've got the World Cup, the NBA Finals tomorrow. Go Knicks. The Stanley Cup Finals, plus the UFC fight at the White House. So for tonight's Snooze Night Cap, what is your favorite game-time snack? Chef?
IVERSON: I mean, it's not very exciting, but it's always a hot dog. I eat like one or two a year, but I also watch one or two snooze games every year.
AIDALA: On bread, right.
CHAMPION: Mine is definitely nachos, like with all the fixings. Like a little bit of green onion, a little bit of jalapeno, ground beef. Ground beef specifically because it's different when you have chicken. So it's my favorite.
PHILLIP: Totally. I would agree with that.
AIDALA: Cari, I was surprised you didn't say the same thing I said. I like to have lupini beans. Do you know what they are?
CHAMPION: I wouldn't have said that. No, I have no idea. AIDALA: So they're a little Italian bean. They come in water, and it's
salt water. And they're very tasty and you have to take the shell off and it pops in your mouth and it's actually kind of healthy. There's like a lot of fiber.
CHAMPION: That's no fun.
AIDALA: No, it makes you thirsty so you drink more beer.
PHILLIP: It's very trendy these days, these lupini beans.
AIDALA: Is it?
PHILLIP: Yes, it's Whole Foods. All right.
SELLERS: I think mine is probably the most wholesome. Whenever I have a sports game, I need tequila. A little reposado just to get through it. The ups and downs. You miss a shot, you take a shot. You make a shot, you take a shot.
PHILLIP: I love it. I would put a limit on the number of times tequila can be your nightcap.
JENNINGS: I'd be drunk all the time.
PHILLIP: All right, Scott. Scott, take us home.
[23:00:07]
SELLERS: You know us well. God, I hate Kentucky fans.
JENNINGS: So, very specific, very specific, back home, AAA Louisville Bats baseball. My family has season tickets and there's a lady there named Elizabeth Cazzito. She's a legend in Louisville.
She makes cookies and she wears this basket on her head filled with cookies. And when we take the boys to the game, we always get Cazzito cookies. She's a legend. We love you. We'll be getting your cookies next week.
PHILLIP: All right, everybody. Thank you very much for being here at the Food Network Test Kitchen. All I have to say is happy birthday, Daddy. We love you. Happy birthday.
And thank you very much for watching "NewsNight." See you tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. for our Saturday morning show. "Laura Coates Live" starts right now.
