Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Polls on Trump; Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA) is Interviewed about California Primaries; FEMA Crisis as Hurricane Season Begins; Trump Floats MAGA Rally Instead of Concert; Meteor Boom Startles New England. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired June 01, 2026 - 08:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:30:48]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: President Trump announcing now he is backing down from his fight to renovate and take over the Kennedy Center and says he will now turn control over to Congress. It comes after a federal judge stepped in and blocked the president's moves there, including now ordering that Trump's name be removed from the building. And this is just one example of the president's push to leave his name and image and likeness on many aspects of Washington and beyond.

Now, just last week, you'll remember, the Treasury Department announced the possibility of a $250 bill being introduced with the president's face on it. How does all of this branding, if you will, sit with the American people?

CNN's Harry Enten running the numbers on this for us and joining us right now.

How are people feeling about the Trump name, the image, the all?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN ANCHOR: You know, I'm just going to quote Michael Jordan here. Stop it. Just stop it. The American people are saying to the president of the United States. You could see right here. Kate's laughing off there on the side.

I mean, just look at this, naming government buildings after Trump, acceptable right now, as he is president of the United States of America. Just nine percent, just nine percent. Literally, you can put it on your two hands. When you can put something on your two hands, you know it's a very small section of the public.

My little footnote on here, includes just 17 percent of Republicans. Fifty percent say not acceptable at all. The clear plurality here. And then you get this additional 21 percent who say, you know what, it's OK to put President Trump's names on government buildings, but only after he leaves office.

But the bottom line is this, greatly unpopular, President Trump or the government, putting his name on government buildings. I think the American people are standing up and applauding the fact that Trump is leaving this aside because the American people, simply put, are not with it.

BOLDUAN: OK. Perspective is impossible these days.

ENTEN: Yes.

BOLDUAN: But offer me some perspective, please.

ENTEN: You know, I try and complete the impossible. Mission impossible. A great television show. A great film. I like both of them. And I like attempting mission impossible.

OK, Americans who believe it's OK right now to name government buildings for Trump. Just nine percent. To put that into some perspective, 10 percent of American's believe that the earth is flat, and 12 percent of American's think that the moon landing was faked, which, of course, it was not and, of course, the earth is actually round. So, fewer Americans think it's acceptable right now to put President Trump's name on government buildings than believe two conspiracy theories, either the earth is flat or the moon landing was fake. And when you're lower than that, you know that you're doing something quite, quite unpopular, which, again, I'm going to pull out another quote, Siskel and Ebert, two thumbs up the American people are giving right now to the idea that President Trump is just going to walk away from this Kennedy Center fight.

BOLDUAN: How does this fit in kind of the broader, larger context of President Trump and his name and all of the focus?

ENTEN: Yes, OK. President Trump got elected to a second term to deal with inflation. Of course, right now, what we're talking about is President Trump getting record low ratings on inflation, not just for himself, but for any president. And it just goes back to this. Trump on issues facing most Americans, focused enough, just 29 percent, just one in three Americans say that President Trump is focused enough on the issues facing most Americans. The clear majority, the supermajority, more than two and three, 68 percent say, no, he's not focused enough. And that is why his approval rating has been falling in the 30s in multiple polls because he's focused on the wrong issues. He's focused on putting his name on the government buildings. They're talking about, what was that, that $250 commemorative bill that were talking about right there.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

ENTEN: Dude. Again, just to quote Michael Jordan, stop it, stop it. Focus on inflation, focus on the economy, and then maybe your approval ratings will actually get above 40 percent.

BOLDUAN: Harry Enten --

ENTEN: Kate Bolduan.

BOLDUAN: Good to see you.

ENTEN: Nice to see you.

BOLDUAN: John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: That was a great job, Kate. Thank you very much.

With us now is Congressman John Garamendi of California. He is on the House Armed Services Committee.

Congressman, great to see you this morning.

You want to weigh in quickly on what Harry was just talking about there, the president, his penchant to put his name on government buildings, maybe not so much longer on the Kennedy Center.

REP. JOHN GARAMENDI (D-CA): Well, this really speaks to his character. It speaks to his -- the kind of person he is. It's all about himself. It always has been from the very beginning. This is not about the American people. It's not about the nature of our economy.

[08:35:01]

It's about Trump. It's about himself. This man is focused on his own personal future, his ego. It is unbelievable and it is extraordinarily damaging to the world and certainly to our economy and to our people.

BERMAN: You are in California, I can see, where it is primary day tomorrow. Have you voted?

GARAMENDI: Yes, I have. Patty and I vote by mail, as we have for many, many years, as has the president. So, yes, actually, tomorrow I was supposed to be back in Washington. So, it will be an early morning flight.

Fascinating morning here in California. Sunrise and moonset at exactly the same time. It was beautiful. Thank you for getting me up.

BERMAN: (INAUDIBLE). Yes, our pleasure. I know it's early there. We appreciate you.

Care to share, if you voted already, who you cast your ballot for in the hotly contested, you know, primary to be governor?

GARAMENDI: Well, we're really blessed with two very, very good contenders at the top. We'll see. They'll have a different personality. They have a different approach. But the issues of California will push both of them into the same solutions. That is, they're going to have to work with the legislature. The economy of California is generally strong. There's certainly issues of many, many kinds. And we have to make sure that the strength of this economy is spread to all of the people in the state of California and beyond.

We're going to -- we're going to be blessed with two very good Democrats going forward. And, of course, there's this Republican out there who is really, he wants to be governor? Come on.

BERMAN: Well, which two Democrats are you talking about? There's 61 names on the ballot here. And then the top two move forward. Are you talking about Xavier Becerra and Tom Steyer?

GARAMENDI: Yes, they're the two -- they're -- they are the top two by polling and they're almost certain to be one or the other is going to be the winner.

It's interesting, if you have $3,000 in your pocket, you can put your name on the ballot and then you can tell your great grandchildren, hey, I ran for governor in California. Yes, 51 different people found enough money to get their name on the ballot. But it's -- well, welcome to California in all its glory.

BERMAN: Welcome to -- we have the sunrise and the moon set at the same time out there, so it's well worth it.

Congressman, this is a Senate issue and it's all the way on the other side of the country in Maine, but it is key for Democrats chances if they want to take back the Senate. I'm talking about the Senate race in Maine, where Graham Platner, who is leading in all the polls there, basically all but certain to be the Democratic nominee. "The New York Times" and "Wall Street Journal" reported the existence of these sexually explicit text messages that he sent to several women the reports say after he was married. There was the twist that it was actually his wife who turned it over to his campaign more than a year ago and then they were released. But how concerned are you about his electability and his suitability to be a U.S. senator?

GARAMENDI: Well, he certainly has many good attributes. He has a great background. He comes to this issue with a strength both of personality and determination, as well as his -- as well as his history. But like most everybody, there are stumbles along the way, and there are some things that he regrets having done. And I'm sure the public will hear about them.

But if you're looking for somebody that is really without a blemish, you might start at the Vatican. But you're not going to find, in politics, somebody that has no blemishes if they've been around a while. And this fellow's been around a while. He was in the military. There are issues out there. I think he'll overcome them with his strength of his issues and his personality.

BERMAN: I want to ask you, you're on the Armed Services Committee. Obviously, we're still waiting to figure out what is happening with negotiations between the United States and Iran for some kind of a more permanent ceasefire. The president put out a statement overnight and basically criticizing Democrats and various seemingly unpatriotic Republicans who have been questioning the status of the negotiations. Those were his exact words there. He says, "just sit back and relax. It will all work out well in the end. It always does."

What's your view of where things stand right now and how much you trust his negotiating capabilities?

GARAMENDI: Well, this is not a real estate deal. This is a very, very significant, international issue that has embroiled the United States, embroiled all of our allies and friends in the Middle East, has Russia and China embroiled in it. Come on, Mr. President, this is not a real estate deal. You're not building a Trump hotel someplace or a casino, which, by the way, did go bankrupt.

But the reality here is that the president made a choice to get into a war with Iran.

[08:40:02]

There was no preparation for it, at least to the American public, and certainly he didn't ask Congress, as required by the Constitution. And here we are.

I've used the word before, he's gotten himself into a quagmire. If I'm -- I believe just yesterday both Iran and the United States were trading shots at each other. So, do we have a ceasefire? Well, sort of. But there's some negotiations here.

And just step back for a moment. Before all of this started, the Strait of Hormuz was open. Commerce was moving back and forth. The oil, 20 percent, was moving out and there was no conflict. And there was negotiations underway at the top level of the American government to deal with the nuclear enriched uranium.

Trump started a war. Now, what is he negotiating for? Well, he's negotiating right now for a ceasefire. A 60-day ceasefire. The Strait of Hormuz, will it be open? Well, maybe yes, maybe no. But the reality is, what has happened is, Iran has gained control of the Strait of Hormuz. And they have to Trump -- to use Trump's words, they have the cards in their hand. And the enriched uranium is still in the hands of the Iranians. And negotiations may or may not succeed in extracting that.

So, what did we gain by all of this? Nothing. In fact, we're in a worse position now than when Trump started this war. So, how are we going to get out of it in good stead? I hope so.

BERMAN: Congressman --

GARAMENDI: Let's see if he has good negotiating skills. This is the time to use them.

BERMAN: Congressman John Garamendi from California, we appreciate you getting up very early out there to speak with us. Thank you.

Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, thank you, John.

We have a CNN exclusive. A stunning look inside a year of dysfunction at FEMA as hurricane season starts today. New reporting reveals billions in disaster funding, stalled. A major staffing exodus and internal power struggles that left critical payments delayed across the United States. Lawmakers from both parties are sounding the alarm, and officials are racing to rebuild an agency that insiders warn is weakened at a critical time.

Let's go to CNN's Gabe Cohen for this exclusive reporting. He has more on this for us this morning. What did you learn, Gabe?

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And, Sara, as you lay it out there, it really is a remarkable story what's happened the past 14 months at FEMA. If you remember, back to the first days of the administration, Trump had called for FEMA to be eliminated while he was in North Carolina visiting those communities that were hit hard by Hurricane Helene. He had blasted Biden's FEMA for their hurricane response and spread a lot of falsehoods about the agency. Finally, he said, maybe it should just go away. And at that point, then Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and her de facto chief of staff, Corey Lewandowski, really made it their mission to rip FEMA apart. And they were pretty successful. They drove out the vast majority of the senior leadership, about maybe 20 percent of the workforce. They instilled this culture of fear. Leaders were getting polygraphed. And at the same time, they were installing all of these political appointees. If you read my story, it's a very interesting cast of characters who ground FEMA to a near halt. They had to approve basically everything.

And meanwhile, some of them were at odds with each other, and they were refusing to sit in meetings together. They were undercutting each other at every turn. And things were so dysfunctional that sources told me at various points FEMA's electricity bills, phone, internet, email services, all of them were at risk of going down because the bills just had not been paid as they were hunting for waste, fraud and abuse, and they weren't signing off on some of these contracts to be paid off. And there were other instances where secure government sites that house dangerous materials, like live viruses, anthrax, ricin, they came within hours of losing security coverage because, again, DHS had not signed off on a contract. It was about to expire. Trained guards were threatening to walk off, and we had staff begging DHS leadership, according to sources, to get that done and get it signed.

Ultimately, though, Sara, as all that's happening, what really did Secretary Noem and Corey Lewandowski in, according to the people I've spoken with, was the backlog of funding, that more than $15 billion in disaster aid and grants that they held up as lawmakers, even prominent Republicans, we're publicly going after them and saying, how could you hold up money, especially for the communities that supported the president?

So now, after Noem was fired, the administration playing this cleanup. Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who took her job, as undone, a bunch of these cuts and policies. The talk of eliminating the agency has quieted. But there -- a lot of damage has been done. According to one official, Sara, they told me "it could take a decade to fix what" this administration "broke" over the past 14 months. "And if we have a major disaster this year, we are screwed."

And, obviously, that is not what you want to hear on the first day of hurricane season.

[08:45:05]

SIDNER: Certainly, and when you think about it, it's gross for those who have suffered through things like the floods in Texas and are waiting to try and get FEMA relief. It is a horrible thing to have to sit there and wonder if you're going to get the help that you expect from your government when you pay taxes.

Gabe Cohen, great reporting from you and the team. Really do appreciate it.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Ahead for us, an earth-shaking boom rocks portions of the East Coast. And what we are now learning about what caused it all.

And ponies on the lam. Troopers forced to wrangle the escaped ponies. Oh, they're really cute. Great hair. All caught on camera.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:50:11]

BERMAN: This morning, a North Carolina police officer has been fired after a video showed him wrestling a black woman to the ground and repeatedly punching her. It's tough to watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is for a warrant.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't have a warrant. I don't -- I don't have a warrant.

(CROSS TALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let go! Let go! Let go!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got it. I got it. I got it. I got her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So, one officer did tell the other, let go, trying to stop him. It's unclear what happened in the moments just before, but the woman was later heard asking for mental health care, saying she is off her medication. And the video sparked protests in Shelby, North Carolina. The police chief says the officer was fired after an administrative investigation.

All right, this morning, new fallout after several artists backed out of concerts celebrating the nation's 250th anniversary because some of them worried it was all too political. Even after that, President Trump now floating the idea of hosting a political rally instead. He wrote, "we should have a giant Make America Great Again Rally for 250, instead of having overpriced singers who nobody wants to hear, whose music is boring and yet who do nothing but complain. Cancel it," he said.

CNN chief media analyst Brian Stelter is with us now.

I feel like there might be more going on here than is on the surface of that message from the president.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: (AUDIO GAP) I agree with that. Yes. This is a very strange story. And I think we haven't heard the last of it.

But it all starts with the organization that is trying to put together these events for America's 250th birthday. There are two kind of competing organizations. There was one set up by Congress the better part of a decade ago with a long term vision, a long term plan, and it was all supposed to be non-partisan. Then there was also, more recently, a Trump-aligned organization set up that was trying to put on other events, like the UFC match at the White House later this month. And now this Great American State Fair with marquee performers on stage at a concert.

So, you have these two organizations, one that really wants to be non- partisan and just celebrate America, and another that wants to be, let's say, more Trumpy in flavor and have much more, bigger spectacles happening that Trump can attend. You have these two different organizations.

And the artists who signed up for this concert, they say they were misled about the political associations of that new Trump aligned group. So, there was maybe some miscommunication. Definitely a lot of confusion.

And as these artists, like Martina McBride and others have pulled out and said, hey, they want to celebrate America, of course, but they don't want to offend anybody. They don't want to tick off any fans. And they don't want to be part of a political event. So, the president has reacted by saying he'll do it himself. This is, of course, typical, quintessential Trump saying he will host his own event and hold a rally.

But what I think is really telling are that we're hearing some voices, some MAGA media voices, some usually pro-Trump commentators who are calling -- crying foul about this. Who are saying, this doesn't seem right.

Matt Walsh, for example, the podcaster, who's been increasingly critical of Trump in recent months, but he is a conservative podcaster. He wrote on X, he said, you know, he said, America's birthday should not be about Trump. He isn't the star, the country is. He wrote, "Trump just talking about himself for 90 minutes" at a rally would be "ridiculous and sad."

So, those are some of the reactions that we've heard from folks as these artists have pulled out, saying they don't want to be a part of a political event.

Now, it is, you know, not the end of the month yet. Maybe there's time for other performers, other artists to be lined up. I'm curious to see what event this will actually be when it actually takes place because, in theory, this could be a unifying and celebratory event. But as with so many things right now about American politics, we've seen it instead become quite divisive. And, of course, President Trump, who was going to be celebrating all these events, he is now criticizing and ridiculing these artists, saying they're boring and saying no one wants to hear from them anyway.

BERMAN: Yes. And look, the other thing, Brian, thank you very much, is that, you know, when it's 250, you see it a long time coming. You kind of have a while to plan for it because the date's been known for a while. And to have it all go haywire at the last minute, not a good look.

Thank you very much.

Sara.

SIDNER: Not at all. Thank you so much, John.

All right. Now to the streets of Paris. Chaos erupting there. Fireworks, red flares, debris all over the city of lights after PSG won the Champions League Saturday night. Shops were looted, cars set on fire and one group even tried to storm a Paris police station.

[08:55:03]

French police detained almost 800 people Saturday night. France's interior ministry says 57 officers were hurt but suffered only minor injuries. Chaos on the streets of Paris this morning. You've got to take a look at these celebrations. But, look, they won. They're happy. I hate to see them lose.

All right, now to China. It's offering an early look at the future of embodied A.I. and how the cutting-edge technology can help improve life in the real world. This year's World Intelligence Expo opened on Saturday and showcased a robot boxing match. OK, a quadruped that can walk through fires, we saw that there, even a robot that can perform difficult precision tasks like threading a needle or help fill up your glass. I don't know that we need help with that, but anyway. Embodied A.I.'s artificial intelligence integrated into a physical or simulated body.

OK, forget high speed chases. This one had horse power. Four runaway ponies made a break for it in Ohio. And it was all caught on body camera. Look at that sweetie. He just wanted to go get a snack. Troopers were able to wrangle the ponies with a little help from locals.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just eat some grass. Relax, guys. Oh, there's your ride. Who called the Uber? Is it the pony Uber, huh?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Pony express. Pony Uber. It all works. They were able to catch all the ponies, load them back into the owner's trailer and everything turned out well. Well, you never know what's waiting for you around the corner.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: That is like the sweetest interaction with this trooper.

SIDNER: The cutest.

BOLDUAN: He's like, hey, just --

SIDNER: He's like, hey, buddy.

BOLDUAN: Just, you know, just munch on that grass, guys.

SIDNER: Get on in here.

BOLDUAN: Who called the -- I love that.

And on to this. Thanks, Sara.

A mysterious boom rattling windows, shocking people from Delaware all the way to Montreal this weekend.

NASA now confirms that the world was not coming to an end. It was actually a sonic boom from a meteor entering the earth's atmosphere. Estimated to be almost three feet wide. Officials say the fireball that was seen as the -- that was seen was happening as the space rock burst through the atmosphere and then broke apart about 40 miles from the earth's surface. Much to the relief of thousands and thousands of people who saw it, heard it and felt it Saturday afternoon.

Joining me right now is Adam Frank. He's a professor of astrophysics at the University of Rochester.

It's great to see you again. Thanks for being here.

I just want to read from the NASA statement kind of on the retelling of this. The world was not coming to an end, it says. I -- that's Kate. That's Kate's retelling of it, not NASA. Here's the NASA statement. "The meteor appears to have fragmented at an altitude of 40 miles over northeast Massachusetts and southeast New Hampshire. The energy released at breakup is estimated to be equivalent to about 300 tons of TNT."

Adam, how does a space rock make so much noise?

ADAM FRANK, PROFESSOR OF ASTROPHYSICS, UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER: Yes, exploding rocks from space. How cool is that?

The thing is coming, as it said, at 75,000 miles an hour. You know, your average plane ride is 500 miles an hour. So, this thing is coming in so fast that it -- the friction with the atmosphere heats the whole thing up until basically it blows up. And so you get, you know, something that's 300 tons of TNT exploding in the air and it blows this amazing shockwave, which then propagates for hundreds of miles. So, you know, it's pretty cool.

BOLDUAN: And we're going to continue, obviously, putting this throughout the segment of just explosions happening continuously for us to work through.

Is it surprising to you that this was a solo meteor, not part of, I don't know, a meteor shower or a piece of debris?

FRANK: No, actually, these are really common. What I think is the coolest thing about this is it gets people to see that space is not something out there that we're disconnected from. Every ten days or so we're getting something this large plunging into the atmosphere. Most of the time it's over the ocean, so nobody hears from it. But not only do you have rocks this size hitting us every ten days, but actually every day there's dust, interplanetary dust billions of years old that is actually floating down.

So, when you go to your car and you wipe along the, you know, the dirty surface of your car, some of that stuff is literally, you know, ancient, primordial building blocks of the planet. So, really, we're not disconnected from space. There's a constant inflow of material from space, as well as us now leaving it in rockets.

BOLDUAN: That's exactly right. It's going both ways now.

[09:00:00]

One of the -- I'll -- just to your point, I'll leave everyone with what one scientist -- as one scientist put it, "meteors are time capsules that carry information."