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Polls Open in Maine as Senate Primary Draws National Attention; Longtime Epstein Assistant Testifies Before Oversight Committee; Ticket Prices Surge as Knicks and Spurs Set for Game 4 Tomorrow; Trump Says Iran Deal Could Come in Two or Three Days. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired June 09, 2026 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

BRYAN CRANSTON, ACTOR: Oh, I did do it. My bad. I didn't realize that I did poison the kid until I read it. So --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But it's interesting that you wouldn't have changed how you did that scene, right?

CRANSTON: No, because he has to be believable.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, be believable.

CRANSTON: But maybe, maybe I really thought that it was Gus Spring that did it. But it wasn't.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Amazing revelations all these years later, you can stream the full episode on the CNN app.

A brand new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts now.

ERICA HILL, CNN HOST: Today's the day voters in Maine weighing in on Democrat Graham Platner in a crucial Senate primary there amid a string of controversies for the candidate. But what would his victory in the primary actually mean for Democrats chances to take back the Senate come November?

And very soon on Capitol Hill, major testimony from a former executive assistant for Jeffrey Epstein. What the House Oversight Committee is hoping to learn ahead of Bill Gates testimony tomorrow.

And the Knicks on notice, the Spurs snapping New York's 13 game winning streak as President Trump watches from the stands. Welcome to the world famous arena by a chorus of boos.

I'm Erica Hill with John Berman. Sara and Kate are out today. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

BERMAN: All right, happening now. It is primary day in Maine. But the real question is what happens tomorrow. Democrat Graham Platner, he is expected to win the nomination to face Republican incumbent Susan Collins. He's faced all kinds of controversies over the last few weeks. A tattoo with Nazi symbolism.

In just the last few days, multiple former girlfriends have come forward to describe volatile and toxic relationships. Some of those allegations he disputes. And this morning, he's waking up to an op-ed in the Washington Post from his former political director who left his campaign saying, quote, "I know firsthand why Graham Platner shouldn't be a U.S. senator." The same staffer is the one who confirmed to CNN that Platner's wife told her he'd been sexting multiple women outside their marriage. Again, though, the results of today's elections pretty well set. The question is, what happens next and what will these voters in Maine do next?

Arlette Saenz is in Portland this morning. What are you hearing, Arlette?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, Democratic candidate Graham Platner is hoping that he can consolidate the Democratic support in this primary. But the real test is set to come in November as he prepares to likely face off against Republican Senator Susan Collins.

And we've spent the morning speaking to voters here outside a polling location in Portland. And many of the Democratic voters we spoke with said that they are sticking with Platner despite these controversies because they are keeping their on that November fight.

Take a listen to two of the voters we spoke with earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REBECCA HOBBS, MAINE VOTER: I think it's unfortunate, but there's no doubt for me that we need to beat Susan Collins and get her out of the Senate.

SAENZ: Do any of the allegations make you uneasy at all?

HOBBS: I just want to beat Susan Collins and get her out of the Senate.

ERIN EVANS, MAINE VOTER: I think if anybody has things in their past and I think he's changed and I think he's a real person and I'm proud of him for standing tall and dealing with it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAENZ: Now, Democrats need to pick up four seats in order to win back control of the Senate, and national Democrats had long viewed Maine as being one of their top prizes in the Senate map. But there are many Democrats who are concerned that these controversies around Platner could complicate their ability to beat Senator Susan Collins in November.

Collins is currently in her fifth term. She has remained popular with a portion of this state. And so Platner will have a lot of work to do in the coming months to try to overcome these controversies if he wants to successfully challenge Collins in November.

Now we are in Portland, Maine, where it's a coastal town that is a bit more liberal, but there are other areas of Maine that are more conservative. So there is a general electorate that is vastly different than what is showing up in the primary today. One big factor in the November contest likely will be women voters. They made up 59 percent of the electorate here back in 2020 when Senator Susan Collins won re-election.

So Platner will have a lot of work to do with that constituency going forward in this matchup that Democrats hope they can flip come November.

BERMAN: Arlette Saenz in lovely Portland, Maine, this morning. Hope you're enjoying your time there. It's a great place -- Erica.

HILL: Joining me now, CNN political analyst Ron Brownstein of Bloomberg and Zolan Kanno-Youngs of The New York Times. Gentlemen, nice to see you both this morning.

As we look at where things stand and we look at Maine.

[09:05:00]

Zolan, you know the party that for the better part of 10 years has really tried to have the moral high ground here, talking about Donald Trump and all the reasons they don't believe that he is fit for office. Now sort of saying, hey, don't look over here in Maine. Does that work in 2026?

ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: It's such a great question. I mean, this race in Maine has almost become sort of a litmus test for whether this kind of personal baggage, these kinds of controversies and arguments about sort of the moral authority still carry weight with voters. Now, as my colleagues have done reporting to get the reactions to -- voters' reactions to these stories and reports about Graham Platner, some voters would argue that actually there is still a case for moral authority here.

And then they point to the morality of trying to beat Donald Trump, right? And sort of what they would describe as the threat that Trump's poses to their way of living. That being said, the Democratic Party has a challenge here.

You look at a race like the one Talarico is running in Texas right now, and that is a campaign that very much is based on that sort of moral authority that we're talking about here. And then on this in Maine, you essentially have elected officials saying that Graham Platner has moved on and hoping that voters move on too. That could be even more difficult when you look at a general election rather than the primary, a general election where Platner is going to need some independent voters.

HILL: It is a fascinating juxtaposition when you put up the Talarico and the potential Platner race of it all.

You know, Ron, I was struck by you have a piece out just this morning in Bloomberg talking about the fact that there is actually still an alternative here. There is if Platner decided to drop out, they could actually replace him on the ballot.

They have to do that fairly quickly within the next six weeks or so. But it could be done. And you lay out some potential viable candidates.

It doesn't look like he's going anywhere. But you know, if he did, how much could that potentially change things?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, look, I mean, let's level set. There are 19 states that voted three times against Donald Trump and all of his presidential races. Susan Collins is the last Republican senator left among those 38 senators.

And the reason she survived in 2020 is because she won more voters who disapprove of Trump than any other Republican Senate incumbent or challenger during Trump's first term anywhere. And that in particular, she's had a kind of superpower, her ability to hold older white women who disapprove of Trump. You know, Trump and Collins are both weaker today than they were in 2026 -- so it is in 2020.

So it is possible that any Democrat can win. But there's no doubt that in early polling, there's a lot to cause deja vu for Democrats.

Seeing in the University of Massachusetts poll that came out last week, Platner is only winning 74 percent of voters who disapprove of Trump, very similar to what Sara Gideon got when she lost in 2020. So the point, you know, there's no question that Platner is making this much more difficult and risky for Democrats than it might be otherwise. Today in the governor primary in Maine, Democrats have five strong candidates, including three that are broadly popular on the left.

After today, at least two and maybe all three of them are going to be looking for something to do. They will offer Maine progressives who dislike Janet Mills -- that's one of the reasons they've aligned so hard behind Platner -- they will offer Maine progressives alternatives who share much the same agenda without the personal baggage.

And while Platner doesn't want to go anywhere, more revelations or negative story or even just negative polls, I think, could increase pressure on him and his supporters to think again before this deadline comes on July 13th for the party to move in another direction.

HILL: You talk about, you know, potentially forthcoming polls. A lot of those polls and a lot of the polling that is going to be focused on is going to involve independents. As you were saying, independents are going to really be the focus here once we move out of the primary.

Given what Ron also laid out for specifically when it comes to older white women in Maine, how much of an uphill battle could this be for Democrats? KANNO-YOUNGS: 100 percent. I mean, this is the difference between a primary and a general election, right? You're not just going to be able to rely on that sort of passionate base of voters that has been pointing to Graham Plattner being an outsider who's talking about affordability and other issues that resonate with them.

You're also going to need those independent voters. And my colleagues have found that there have been particularly women in Maine that have looked at these recent reports and are disturbed, you know, and argued that Donald Trump in his past also made them uncomfortable. But now they're looking at Graham Platner and these reports, too.

[09:10:00]

You know, I think back to the when I was on the campaign trail and during the presidential election as well. And you would often hear from voters who would say, look, I'm presented with essentially two -- I'm trying to get the trying to decide which is the worst choice rather than finding a candidate that actually checks all the boxes for me.

And it looks like that right now you have the Democrats that are facing this same issue as well as they present these choices to voters.

HILL: Ron, coming out of these primaries. Right. As we move into these final few months now, where is your focus?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, look, I mean, there are a couple of things. I mean, you know, first, if we're thinking about Maine, you know, Platner's national supporters, Democrats in the kind of Sanders, Warren orbit, they seem more focused on beating Chuck Schumer in the primary than on beating Susan Collins in the general election. I mean, they really want to make the point that the way for Democrats to win is to run these kind of very anti-corporate populist outsiders.

You know, the problem is sometimes that you don't really know that much about them and they have learned a lot that is discomforting to voters about Platner and then maybe more out there, you know, you know, and it goes to this this question. I mean, there is no doubt that there is a there is momentum developing behind Democrats. Trump's approval rating is at a level that almost always, in fact, always has guaranteed very bad midterms for his party.

The problem Democrats have is that even as the wave is building, the Republicans have elevated their seawall through the gerrymandering in the House and the fact that if they can't win Maine to recapture the Senate, they're going to have to win at least three states that Trump won by double digits in 2024. That is a tall order in any election, no matter how big a wave is developing. So it really is kind of an irresistible force meeting in a movable object.

The irresistible force is the rising disapproval of Trump, his loss of support among many of the groups that moved to him in '24, and the movable object is a playing field whose geography still favors the GOP. HILL: Ron Brownstein, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, it's great to see both this morning. Thank you -- John.

BERMAN: Right this morning on Capitol Hill, longtime executive assistant to Jeffrey Epstein will testify to the House Oversight Committee in their probe. Tomorrow, Microsoft founder Bill Gates will speak to them. Earlier, I spoke with Congressman Stephen Lynch, a member of that committee, about where the investigation stands.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. STEPHEN LYNCH (D-MA), SENIOR MEMBER, OVERSIGHT AND GOVERNMENT REFORM COMMITTEE: I still feel like we're at the tip of the iceberg here. I don't believe the Department of Justice gave us the most productive documents in the first batch. Remember, they had excluded anything that referred to President Trump in the first batch.

And then we went back with the subpoena and they gave us some. But I'm still -- I just don't trust the Justice Department that they've given us all the documents that we need.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: CNN's Annie Grayer live on Capitol Hill this morning. A couple of big days in these questionings.

ANNIE GRAYER, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: This investigation is really picking up steam, starting with today, where Epstein's longtime assistant, Leslie Groff, is going to be testifying behind closed doors, where she's going to be questioned by both Democrats and Republican lawmakers. We expect that to go for most of the day. And Groff worked for Epstein for nearly 20 years.

She was his conduit to the outside world. She made all of his appointments. She booked his travel.

And women told the FBI that she is who they would call to schedule their massages with Epstein, which is where we know Epstein conducted a lot of his crimes. Groff was labeled as a potential co-conspirator for with Epstein back in 2008. But she's never been charged with any crime.

And she said that she never saw anything illegal. In fact, she told the FBI in 2021, she thought that the massages that Epstein received were just part of his everyday routine. She didn't think anything much of it.

But today, lawmakers are going to get the chance to ask Groff exactly what she knew when. Women have alleged that Groff maybe knew of Epstein's crimes that she maintains that she has known nothing. So we are expecting this interview to go for many hours today.

It's going to be happening behind closed doors, but we will get a transcript at some point. And Groff is just the latest person in Epstein's orbit to come in from this committee. As you mentioned, Bill Gates, we're expecting tomorrow. But previously, the committee has heard from Epstein's lawyer, Epstein's accountant, another one of Epstein's assistants who has alleged misconduct by Epstein and other men. So the list continues to grow. This committee is continuing to plow forward.

Of course, the committee heard from former Attorney General Pam Bondi recently, who really shifted the blame onto Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. So there are a lot of balls in the air here, John, that the committee is pursuing.

But today's interview is a big get. Groff is coming in voluntarily, but she has a lot that she could share that the committee is hoping to learn.

[09:15:00]

BERMAN: And a rare force on Capitol Hill monitoring these days of questions behind closed doors. Keep us posted. Thank you very much -- Erica.

HILL: A breaking overnight, an Apache helicopter goes down near the Strait of Hormuz. The new details this morning about the dramatic hours-long search for survivors.

Also ahead, we are going to talk a little basketball for you. The Knicks historic playoff winning streak coming to an end. They fell to the Spurs in game three of the NBA finals. But still plenty to talk about, including the sky high ticket prices. They are not any cheaper when it comes to game four.

And a dancing robot wearing a blue clown wig kicks a child directly in the stomach. If you're wondering what the heck is going on here, so are we.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: The Knicks had won 13 straight playoff games until last night. The president went and they lost.

[09:20:00]

Now, I don't think he's going to game four. If you want to go to game four, hope you have a lot of money. CNN's Matt Egan is here.

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: John, yes, it's going to cost just a fortune, even if you just want to get into the building. So the cheapest seats on TickPick for game four here in New York, $6,000. So yes, $6,000 for nosebleed seats at Madison Square Garden.

And believe it or not, even though that is extremely high, that is down dramatically from 24 hours ago, because before the Knicks lost last night, the cheapest seats for game four were about $10,000.

BERMAN: You know why that is? Because they thought the Knicks could win the series in game four. EGAN: Absolutely. There was a chance that if the Knicks won last night, then game four could have been their first title since 1973. No longer, right?

This series will now go at least five games. But even though prices are down dramatically here in New York, they're still triple the price of the cheapest seats in San Antonio. So for game five in Texas on TickPick, the cheapest seats are about $1,800.

This gap between the New York prices and the Texas prices, it's so great that you could be a New York fan who flies to Texas, right? You can get a round trip ticket, you can get two nights in a hotel, and you could buy not one, but two seats to game five. And John, you'd still come out about $1,000 ahead versus the cost of just one ticket here in New York.

And I talked to some fans from New York last week who did just that, right? They went to game two. I suspect there's going to be a lot of Knicks fans in game five.

Knicks fans are going to be very well represented. Now we don't know if the series is going to go to a game six, but if it does, as you would imagine, ticket prices here in New York for game six, they are astronomical. So the cheapest seats, I just looked a few moments ago, on TickPick are almost $12,000 for game seats. That's the cheapest seats.

On the other end of the spectrum, let's say you want to sit near Celebrity Row, near courtside for game six. There are a pair of seats that are going for $220,000 each on SeatGeek. That is the listed price. Yes, half a million dollars almost for two tickets to Madison Square Garden. It's absolutely stunning.

And remember, this is not on Celebrity Row. So you wouldn't necessarily be sitting next to Larry David or Ben Stiller, but you'd probably be pretty close. But I mean, for that kind of money, you could get a house in a lot of housing markets in America.

And that's what the asking price is for Knick's tickets. That's crazy.

BERMAN: You make it a whiff of Timothee Chalamet, but not actually right next to him.

EGAN: Right, right.

BERMAN: I will note, you brought up the games in San Antonio. That breaks a rule apparently here at CNN. We're talking about a game being played somewhere else besides New York City, but we'll let it slide.

EGAN: Unwritten rule, unwritten rule.

BERMAN: I think I saw an e-mail on it. Matty, thank you very much for that update.

All right, this morning, dramatic new details of this hours long search for crew members on a U.S. helicopter that went down near the Strait of Hormuz, including a reported investigation. If the Iranians were responsible for shooting it down.

Then a police officer avoids a round of bullets while chasing down a suspect on the highway.

[09:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HILL: This morning, U.S. officials are looking into whether Iranian fire may have played a role in downing a U.S. Apache helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz. According to Axios, there was a dramatic hours long search before the crew was actually found. U.S. Central Command now confirming this morning two pilots were pulled out of the water after the Apache went down, while according to CENTCOM, they were patrolling regional waters.

Now, meantime, the ceasefire in uncertain territory once again, Israel launching new strikes in Lebanon this morning. And this, of course, just comes on the heels of Israel and Iran pulling back from direct fire.

CNN's Fred Pleitgen is in Tehran for us this hour. And just a reminder, CNN operates in Iran only with the permission of the government but of course does maintain full editorial control of all reporting. Fred, what more are you hearing this morning?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Erica. Well, certainly that incident that happened in the Strait of Hormuz is also very much news here in Iran today. And one of the things that we have to keep in mind is that the Iranians for a very long time have been saying that the current situation in the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf, but then also in the Sea of Oman is very dangerous.

And they say that the U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz is essentially a ceasefire violation that is ongoing. And you hear that from a lot of Iranian officials, including the top negotiator who continues to say that the Iranians do not obviously recognize this blockade and at some point, are going to act against it. So it's certainly something that's coming to that Memorandum of Understanding between the U.S. and Iran to try and end this conflict, that little more difficult.

At the same time, the Iranians are also saying as far as the Strait of Hormuz is concerned, it is definitely not going to go back to what it was before. They say that there will be a possibility to transit the Strait of Hormuz, but that the Iranians are going to in the future levy some sort of fees, although they are coming away, it seems, from the idea of making that a sort of toll route in that waterway. They say there might be some administrative fees, some environmental fees, but certainly not using the word tolls anymore.

But at the same time, that situation in that area where that chopper crashed, certainly right now is still one of those focal points that at this point in time seems to be one of the big sticking points between the U.S. and Iran. HILL: Yes, absolutely. Fred, as we wait to see if the two sides can in fact come together to some sort of agreement, we had President Trump again saying overnight that it could be in a matter of days. Is that the same narrative that is being put out there in Iran?

PLEITGEN: Yes, well, the Iranians are still saying that right now the negotiations are difficult, although they do acknowledge.