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Trump Says Iran Deal Could Come In "Two Or Three Days"; Rep. Greg Stanton (D-AZ) On Maine Senate Primary; Nation's Largest School District Embraces Phone Ban. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired June 09, 2026 - 07:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:30:15]

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: This morning oil prices are falling after President Trump said a deal with Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz could come in two or three days. Gas prices also falling overnight, down 13 cents actually since last week. But they're still high, as I'm sure I don't need to tell you -- still more than $1.00 higher since the start of the war with Iran.

There are also new concerns though when it comes to America's stockpile of emergency oil. It is shrinking and it's shrinking quickly -- actually closing in on levels that were set under former President Joe Biden.

CNN's Matt Egan is here with me now with more on this. So just how low and how concerning?

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well look, Erica, you were talking about the situation with the war really continues to erode America's pile of emergency oil. So the Strategic Petroleum Reserve down by another eight million barrels last week. A total of 66 million have been released from the SPR since the war started.

And you might recall that four years ago, then-candidate Trump -- he really blasted President Biden for aggressively draining the SPR ahead of the midterm elections in 2022. Of course, that was because of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Flash forward four years later. Now Trump officials are draining the SPR at an even faster pace ahead of these midterms because of another war -- the war with Iran.

And so the SPR is now down to the lowest levels since July of 2023. And at some point, this week at the current pace the SPR is likely to drop below those Biden era levels, right, leaving the SPR with the least amount of oil since the early 1980s back when it was just starting to get filled in the first place. And also when the U.S. economy was much smaller and consumed a lot less energy.

And look, the goal here is to cushion the blow --

HILL: Um-hum. EGAN: -- from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and to some extent it has been helpful, right? I mean, look at oil prices you mentioned this morning going down. Both WTI and Brent well off their wartime levels, well below $100 a barrel despite the fact that this energy crisis has been going on for more than 100 days now.

And look, this has helped keep a lid on gas prices as well. The national average $4.16 a gallon. As you noted, that's sharply higher than before the war, but this is a six-week low and well below the wartime peak of last month, which was a little over $4.50 a gallon.

But Erica, we do have to remember this is not a bottomless pit of energy, right?

HILL: Yeah.

EGAN: You cannot -- this is not sustainable. You can't just release eight million barrels every single week. Eventually you're going to run out of oil.

HILL: Um-hum.

EGAN: Also, you've got to replace that oil going forward and that is something that's just going to increase demand even after this crisis is over.

HILL: Yeah. So far from out of the woods when it comes to this but really important to note that, and especially just how low it is in this moment.

Matt, appreciate it. Thank you.

EGAN: Thanks, Erica.

HILL: John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. With us now is CNN senior military analyst, retired Admiral James Stavridis. Admiral, great to see you.

And we got word overnight that a U.S. Apache helicopter went down somewhere in the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Oman. We don't know the exact location, nor do we know the cause of what brought his helicopter down. We do know the two people inside, the pilots and the passengers -- everyone is doing OK. This is what the Apache looks like.

When you hear that what are the range of possibilities for what might have happened?

ADM. JAMES STAVRIDIS (RET.), CNN SENIOR MILITARY ANALYST, PARTNER, THE CARLYLE GROUP, FORMER NATO SUPREME ALLIED COMMANDER (via Webex by Cisco): It could be mechanical, of course. Secondly, it could be enemy action. The Iranians could have gotten in some kind of a drone in close to it. Thirdly, it could be pilot error. Those are the three key ones that you think about. I think just stepping back John we ought to kind of reflect on the fact that we've now had 50,000-60,000 U.S. service men and women forward deployed for months and months. And, you know, we were just talking about draining the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. We are draining military readiness by keeping all these people on station for this length of time.

Now, this is the Department of Defense, a highly capable organization, but not inexhaustible. So it's a good wakeup when something like this happens how perilous this is for our troops and how this could, without question, become longer and longer if we don't get to a deal.

BERMAN: Well, it already has become longer and longer. And I think that's such an important point that you're making here --

STAVRIDIS: Yes.

BERMAN: -- because this is the risk of an extended deployment -- maybe indefinite deployment -- one or the other.

And one thing I want to point out is the president says overnight that this whole thing could come to an end in the next two or three days. There could be a permanent deal in the next two to three days. He has said some version of that -- CNN has counted -- I'm going to write this --

[07:35:05]

STAVRIDIS: Yeah.

BERMAN: -- 37 times in the last 78 days. So 37 times over the last 78 days. It's either been a few days away, a week away, or just around the corner.

You get the sense that this could possibly just linger, and what happens if it does, Admiral?

STAVRIDIS: Then we are right back to potentially years of keeping forces forward deployed at scale. And I think the country doesn't want that at any level because of the 20 years of the forever wars that my generation and more importantly the younger generation -- the millennials, particularly -- carried immense burdens on the front lines of.

So I think President Trump feels the pressure to get to the table --

BERMAN: Um-hum.

STAVRIDIS: -- and that, John, brings us to Iran and Israel feel that same level of pressure.

BERMAN: Yeah.

STAVRIDIS: And I think at the moment the Iranians are leaning backwards.

BERMAN: That's my question. I mean, how can the Iranians handle sort of an indefinite status quo?

STAVRIDIS: Uh, they also feel a clock ticking. There are really two clocks running here, one over President Trump who is the central decisionmaker, but the second clock is running over the Iranians because of the damage to their economy. It's a tale of two blockades. The one we focus on is the blockade of strait. The entire Iranian coastline, 1,000 miles, is similarly blockaded at the moment inflicting significant damage over time on the Iranians.

Final though, John. I'll tell you what I'm also watching that we don't talk about enough is not the Strait of Hormuz; it's the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. The Houthis are still in business down there on the bottom lefthand corner of the Arabian Peninsula -- the Western Front if you will -- exactly where you focused it. They launched a couple of missiles over the last few days just to remind us they could shut down another very important waterway.

So President Trump has a complex game of chess he's playing here.

BERMAN: Admiral James Stavridis, it's great to see you this morning. Thank you so much -- Erica.

HILL: It is, of course, Election Day in America. Polls opening across Maine this morning for that closely-watched Senate primary race with controversial Democratic frontrunner Graham Platner on the ballot.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDRA BRADEN, MAINE DEMOCRAT: I don't like it, but if he votes the way I want him to and he can defeat Susan Collins, yeah -- go for it.

BETH DINDAS, MAINE DEMOCRAT: No. The truth is the Nazi tattoo should have been enough.

CHERYL CAMERON, MAINE DEMOCRAT: If he wife can deal with that who am I to argue?

SUSAN GORMAN, MAINE DEMOCRAT: The problems that are facing Maine and this country are too serious for us focus on this purity politics kind of stuff.

JAN ANDERSON, MAINE DEMOCRAT: We're definitely voting for him.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.

ANDERSON: Honestly, I would vote for a doorknob over Susan Collins.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Democrats were, of course, hopeful they could flip that seat -- one the Republican Susan Collins has held now for 29 years.

Amid new allegations though about Platner from former girlfriends describing volatile and toxic relationships, including allegations of heavy drinking and infidelity -- one even accusing Platner of physical intimidation -- allegations he has denied -- the hope of flipping that seat may be fading.

Joining me now to discuss, Democratic Congressman from Arizona, Greg Stanton. He sits on the Foreign Affairs and Transportation Infrastructure committees. Congressman, it's good to have you with us this morning.

There is so much focus --

REP. GREG STANTON (D-AZ): Good morning.

HILL: -- on -- good morning -- on Maine. Are you concerned that this could ultimately increase support for Susan Collins?

STANTON: Well, Susan Collins has proven to be a tough out. She's won -- or she's been in the Senate for 30 years and won her elections. It's a critical race for Democrats to win as we are trying to win both the House and the Senate. Winning a primary is one element of a -- of a campaign.

Platner is going to win the primary today. The next step, of course, is to winning over Independents and moderate Republicans, and that's a much tougher thing to do. So he's got a lot of work to do after winning today's primary.

HILL: Are you confident he's the right person for that job?

STANTON: Well, that's up to Maine voters. They're going to make the decision today. It looks like he is going to be the Democratic nominee. And he's got a lot of work to do to win over those Independent and moderate Republicans. That's how we win races.

I know there's a lot of attention on these primaries and obviously it's important that candidates do well in the primary, but we want to support the candidates that can win general elections because that's how we win majorities and push back against Trump and restore checks and balances to our government.

HILL: I know you've said, and rightfully so, this is a decision that's up to the voters in Maine. But when you talk about a candidate that can win, right, beyond the primary -- that can win come November -- is this the right type of candidate for your party?

STANTON: Well look, I'm not going to get involved in the decision of the Maine voters. They're going to have to make that choice.

[07:40:00]

I'm a House guy. I am spending so much of my time fighting to win the toughest seats around the country. I'm the chair of what's called the New Dem Action Fund. We support candidates that can win in Trump districts, and we need candidates that can really appeal across the aisle and win over Independent voters as well. That's how you win general elections. That's how you win majorities. And my focus is on really winning the House and getting the majority in the House of Representatives. HILL: When we talk elections, there's been a real focus, of course, this week on California and just getting those new numbers overnight, especially when we look at the L.A. mayor's race which has the president crying foul because mail-in ballots are being counted as they're coming in.

The speaker was asked about claims of fraud in California. I just want to play his response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The president keeps saying that there's election fraud in the California mayoral race. What evidence is there to prove that?

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: You tell me, Manu. They are counting votes weeks after the election. We have entire nations with huge populations, like India, that can count their votes in 24 to 48 hours.

RAJU: So you're saying it's rigged, like the president?

JOHNSON: I'm not saying it's rigged. I'm saying it stinks to high heaven, and everybody knows that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: He says, "It stinks to high heaven, and everybody knows that."

Look, in Arizona more than -- I believe it's 75 percent vote-by-mail. I know you recently joined an effort to enshrine vote-by-mail in your state's constitution. But when we see the consistent messaging here are you concerned at all that Democrats have lost the messaging war on voting?

STANTON: Just the opposite. The president is back with the big lie over and over and over again. President Trump is complaining about elections and challenging the efficacy of elections. I mean, the sky is blue. Here we go again. In Arizona, voters are sick and tired of the big lie.

And it's really shameful that Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House, is participating again in suggesting a big lie in these campaigns.

Those election workers in California are working very hard. In California they've decided to allow people to vote by mail and postmarked up until Election Day. And so it takes time to count those ballots. They want to make sure they get it accurate. And that's what I think is happening there.

And it just so sad and pathetic for the president to keep up this big lie. And so I don't think he's winning on messaging. I think just the opposite.

Arizonans and Americans are tired of him denigrating elections officials and election workers around the country. We are blessed to have a great election system around the country, especially in my home state of Arizona. And the big lie has just got to go.

HILL: Let's talk Iran if we could before I let you go. So in the wake of Iran's strikes of Israel on Sunday, President Trump told the Financial Times that Prime Minister Netanyahu doesn't call the shots. He said that Israel will have to accept whatever the U.S. and Iran agree to. And then Israel's ambassador to Washington told CNN that Israel and the U.S. still have some differences here they need to work out on how to end the war with Iran.

Do you see a way to end this war if the U.S. and Israel are not on the same page?

STANTON: Well, yes. The president has to act in America's best interest. We've got to do what's right for the American people.

And, of course, getting in this war in the first place was not the right decision for the American people. First up, we have no idea what the objective is. We have no idea what the strategy is.

Obviously, gas prices are going through the roof and that's hurting the American economy. It's hurting Americans' pocketbooks as prices are going up. We need an agenda that's going to lower costs.

And it's hurting our allies because as oil costs rise around the world that's hurting the economies of our allies as well.

So the president should not have gotten this war in the first place. We were clear about that. Now that we're in this war he's going to have to actually make -- reach an agreement in which there's actual give and take.

The problem with the way President Trump negotiates is that he just thinks everyone is going to roll over and do whatever he wants. That's not how an actual negotiation works. You have to give and take.

But he's going to have to act in what is America's best interest. That has to be his singular goal.

HILL: In the wake of the back-and-forth on Sunday between Iran and Israel, Iran once again was warning that they could next focus on the Strait of Bab al-Mandab which, of course, we're talking about -- we were just talking about this with Admiral Stavridis who was talking about this with John. We're talking about the Red Sea here, access to the Suez Canal, and the Houthis in Yemen who are right there on that strait.

How concerned are you about that threat that this could be the next chokehold in terms of this war -- yet another vital maritime waterway?

STANTON: Well, we can't allow that to occur. Again, before this war, the Strait of Hormuz was open. This war was -- this was of choice by Trump was such a bad decision. All of the things that Iran has done, including the close of -- closure of the Strait of Hormuz, including firing missiles at the Gulf States in that region, President Trump acted like all of this was unforeseeable. The intelligence community said just the opposite. It was completely and totally foreseeable. We've got to reach a conclusion on this war. We have to reach an agreement to open up the Strait of Hormuz. And we cannot let other vital straits be closed as well. The world economy is dependent on the openness of the seaways.

[07:45:05]

HILL: Congressman Greg Stanton, appreciate your time this morning. Thank you -- John.

BERMAN: All right. This morning Denver Public Schools have become the latest school district in the nation to ban cell phone use during school hours. The school board voted unanimously overnight.

A majority of states have now implemented cell phone bans in schools, including New York, just ending its first school year with a ban in place.

CNN's Clare Duffy reports from a middle school in Brooklyn.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So as usual, when I call you name, just go put your phone away.

CLARE DUFFY, CNN BUSINESS TECH REPORTER: What was your first reaction when you heard that this phone ban policy would be going into place this year?

STUDENT 1: I was kind of expecting it.

STUDENT 2: The phone ban was kind of inevitable.

STUDENT 3: I wasn't really bothered by the rule.

DUFFY (voiceover): The students at Philippa Schuyler Middle School in Brooklyn aren't the only ones who had to get used to a phone ban this school year. It's a trend that's gaining steam around the country. But for these students in the nation's largest school district the policy is getting an A+.

RYAN DUONG, 8TH GRADE STUDENT, PHILIPPA SCHUYLER MIDDLE SCHOOL: The phone ban has made us a lot more socializing because normally the phone would actually provide a distraction. But now when students are bored, they have no option but to talk to each other.

JAEL RICCIO, 8TH GRADE STUDENT, PHILIPPA SCHUYLER MIDDLE SCHOOL: A lot of students were still a little skeptical about, like, putting their phones in the lockbox, but it definitely provides a better learning experience.

DUFFY: Do you feel like that you have made better friends this year?

JULIA PORTER, 8TH GRADE STUDENT, PHILIPPA SCHUYLER MIDDLE SCHOOL: I would say in (INAUDIBLE) class, like, everybody is just like family and it's just like we got so close we don't even need our phones to socialize with each other.

JANICE BRUCE, PRINCIPAL, PHILIPPA SCHUYLER MIDDLE SCHOOL: I've been in the system long enough to know there was a time when that was never a problem --

DUFFY: Right.

BRUCE: -- right?

DUFFY (voiceover): The law, signed by Governor Kathy Hochul last spring, requires schools to store smartphones and other internet- enabled personal devices from bell-to-bell. And longtime educators say they're seeing an impact in the classroom and in the lunchroom.

What happens in the cafeteria is kids are sitting together. When you have a cell phone you are a single-user, you are on your own, and the only thing that matters is what's in front of you in your hands. When you now have just humans sitting directly --

DUFFY: Do you see this having an impact on academics as well?

BRUCE: Oh, for sure. I can tell you from last year to this year -- to this past year, my ELA scores went up, and my literacy scores are up. So literacy has to do with reading, writing, listening, speaking. Taking away the phones allows you to do all those things.

DIANA COLLADO, 8TH GRADE ENGLISH TEACHER, PHILIPPA SCHUYLER MIDDLE SCHOOL: They're speaking to each other. The few minutes before class begins, prior to the cell phone ban, they would be on their phones until we said OK, now we're going to start teaching. Now we're ready to learn.

CARLA HOYTE, 7TH GRADE ENGLISH TEACHER, PHILIPPA SCHUYLER MIDDLE SCHOOL: You get to see the interaction and how it's changed over the years.

DUFFY (voiceover): The ban was initially met with some opposition, largely from parents who argued that being able to keep in touch with their children at school was a matter of safety.

HOYTE: There's still anxiety there from the parents. They still want to be able to get in contact with their child throughout the day. It's always that "what if" scenario.

DUFFY (voiceover): To address those concerns, the law requires schools to provide a way for parents to get in touch with students in case of emergency.

MARK RAMPERSANT, CHIEF OF SAFETY AND PREVENTION PARTNERSHIPS, NYC DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION: For every one of our schools there's a designated number where you can get a direct person, a live person in the event of an actual emergency.

DUFFY (voiceover): Other concerns included how schools would keep kids off their phones. A report published by the National Bureau of Economic Research in

April found schools that used Yondr pouches to restrict phones did cut down on screentime, but schools initially saw disciplinary incidents rise and reports of student well-being fall, although those trends reversed in later years. They also found little evidence that the restrictions benefited test scores.

Philippa Schuyler switched their approach this year.

DUONG: With the Yondr pouches, there were only three stations across the entire school where you could unlock it. So when it was actually time to go, the places were so crowded.

DUFFY (voiceover): New York is one of 35 states that now ban or limit cell phones in classrooms, a trend many students at Philippa Schuyler support.

LESLY QUITUISACA IZA, 7TH GRADER, PHILIPPA SCHUYLER MIDDLES SCHOOL: I believe we can collaborate better without phones.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I believe that more students are more engaged in learning and classroom discussions and better grades. Like, I used to get like the 80s. Now I get like 90s.

PORTER: You do gain more friendships and build better bonds with, like, your friends and the people around you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DUFFY: And Clare Duffy is with us now.

I have to say, full disclosure, I've got a couple of 19-year-olds a year out of high school. What shocked me was how many kids support this. They all -- not all -- most want this. They don't want to be on the cell phones all the time in school. This is actually something easy to convince them about.

What advice did these administrators have for other schools who haven't adopted this yet?

DUFFY: Yeah. Many of them said look, just do it. This is worth doing. And it was pretty incredible to be at this school and see these kids playing Jinga, playing cards at lunch instead of being on their phones.

Many of the kids, as you -- as you point out, also said that this was a policy that they support. And they actually encourage administrators and education leaders to talk to kids about why this is so important. The skills that they can build by interacting with each other instead of being on their phones. So bringing kids into the conversation about why this policy is really important.

[07:50:00]

BERMAN: And again, it's not just about test scores. That's only one part of it. It's about kids actually interacting with each other. Being social. Learning how to be social.

How much discipline was required to get this done?

DUFFY: So right off the bat when they started this policy, they did say that there were kids who tried to skirt the rules and tried to hang onto their phones throughout the day.

But they said that really reduced throughout the year and that in many cases the kids were helping them to enforce this rule. They said look, if I'm going to put my phone away in that box and I see my classmate with theirs out, I'm going to say what are you doing? You should put your phone away. This is what we're all -- we've all agreed to do. And so in many cases it was the kids that were helping them to enforce this rule.

BERMAN: One thing I'll point out. If kids see their parents putting their phones down it's easier for them to do it too.

Clare Duffy, great to see you. Thank you so much -- Erica.

HILL: Wise words from John Berman.

BERMAN: You like that?

HILL: But also, it's not really -- is it really about the test scores or is it really about how we're interacting with people? John Berman, you're just the best.

More to come here. Drivers getting a free show when a tanker full of fireworks explodes on the side of the road.

Plus, how's this for a headline? A robot wearing a clown wig kicks a child in the stomach. I bet you want to know how that kid is doing now, huh? You'll have to stick around.

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[07:55:08]

BERMAN: All right, new video in this morning. Two people are dead after a private jet crashed while attempting to land in the Dominican Republic. Officials say the pilot and co-pilot, both U.S. nationals, died. No one else was on board.

East of Chattanooga the highway looked like the Fourth of July when a trailer full of fireworks caught fire.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(Fireworks going off in trailer).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: You see this guy's face? I have no -- I think I was supposed to talk. No one's telling me. I think that guy -- I have no idea who that is or -- but you can tell how excited he is watching the fireworks.

The interstate was shut down. Luckily, no one there was hurt.

All right. In Beaumont, Texas a most unwelcomed visited inside a horse stable, an 8-foot-long alligator. An employee was able to lasso it, and you can see it there. They took it into an empty stall where professionals then safely removed the reptile. One of those pros called in and said that heavy rains and the mating season prompted the alligators to "look for love in all the wrong places." A horse? OK, we'll leave that on the side.

HILL: Or a pony ride. Maybe a pony ride.

BERMAN: This morning the astronaut wears Prada -- and not just Prada, Prada underwear. The Italian luxury fashion house and space infrastructure developer Axiom Space have unveiled an inner layer astronaut cooling garment with ventilation tubes needed knitted right into the fabric. So sort of like sweatproof underwear, right?

This is for NASA's Artemis IV crew, which is scheduled to land on the moon in 2028. Of course, whether it happens in '28 is a different story. But this clothing -- ooh, swanky -- might be tested on the International Space Station first.

All right. This morning assault and battery by a dancing robot. That's just awful. I mean, every time we see it it's just awful, and it's not even funny. This is at a Chinese theme park performing some kind of dance routine. And the robot, for whatever reason, kicked a kid right in the stomach. The child luckily was OK, and we are told that this amusement park did pause the dancing robot performances. It seems like a good idea -- Erica.

HILL: Yeah, I would support that decision.

This morning the Senate is gearing up for a contentious confirmation fight after President Trump formally nominated his former personal attorney Todd Blanche to serve as attorney general. Blanche, of course, became acting AG after Pam Bondi was fired. He faces an uncertain path to the nomination.

Complicating the vote here in the Senate, his role in handling the Epstein files and also in the attempt to create that controversial $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund that would have benefited Trump's allies.

Joining me now, former federal prosecutor Alyse Adamson. Alyse, good to have you with us.

So this next hurdle here will be Senate confirmation. One would imagine the line of questioning will focus heavily on the independence of this role and whether Todd Blanche can be an independent attorney general.

What do you expect to hear in terms of answers?

ALYSE ADAMSON, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR, HOST, "AT-LYSE YOU HEARD IT HERE" PODCAST (via Webex by Cisco): Yeah, that's right, Erica. I mean, this is very interesting. This nomination is significant because it puts that independence question front and center.

Remember, Todd Blanche was serving as President Trump's personal attorney as recently as 2024 during that hush money trial. So I think we can expect a lot of the questioning, at least from the Democratic side, to be about whether or not Blanche is able to serve as an independent chief law enforcement officer -- one at DOJ independently -- or if he will still feel loyalty to his former client, which is President Donald Trump.

HILL: A bipartisan area of concern that we have seen, of course, in Washington is the handling of the Epstein investigation and ultimately the files. So former AG Pam Bondi is telling the House Oversight committee that it was Blanche who was actually in charge of that investigation. That he supervised the entire process in terms of filling the requirements of the Epstein files Transparency Act.

In terms of that I would imagine that will also be a real line of questioning. But it also says something potentially about the authority that he had already been given inside the department.

ADAMSON: That's right. So Todd Blanche was the second in command of the attorney general -- or of the Department of Justice. He was the deputy assistant attorney general, which is an extremely high and significant role. And you're right. It is a bipartisan issue.

Nobody was pleased with how the Epstein files were rolled out late last year. We had redaction issues. There were questions about what, if any, documents were potentially withheld and on what grounds.

So I think we can expect to see some grilling along those lines because there are some answers that the public is still demanding, and Congress is still demanding, and that Pam Bondi, in her testimony, did not satisfy.