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Interview with Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ): Trump Says Iran Deal Could Come in Two or Three Days; Platner Faces Maine Primary Voters Amid Mounting Scandals; The Epstein Case and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche; Trump Booed by New York Crowd at Madison Square Garden. Aired 9:30-10a ET
Aired June 09, 2026 - 09:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:30:00]
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: ... Yes, well, the Iranians are still saying that right now the negotiations are difficult, although they do acknowledge that things have been moving forward and that there are still messages that are being passed back and forth. I think one of the things that we shouldn't underestimate, I think the fact that the U.S. sort of managed to pull the two sides back, Iran and Israel, from that fighting that was going back and forth. I think that is something that did create a degree of momentum that you do feel on the ground here in Tehran as well. There seems to be a little more optimism than there was before.
Nevertheless, the Iranians are saying that there are still some very important sticking points, specifically the frozen assets, around $24 billion, that they say that they want back. Of course, in the Trump administration, they haven't really heard what they want to do about that. But President Trump, of course, in the past has attacked the Obama administration for allegedly or for giving frozen assets back to the Iranians. So that's one of the things that the Iranians say is key, is a trust-building measure that they need to see from the Trump administration for a Memorandum of Understanding to go forward here.
ERICA HILL, CNN HOST: All right, Fred, appreciate it. Thank you -- John.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: It's just so great to have Fred there and to get this unique perspective and ask him questions on the streets of Tehran with cars driving right behind him.
With us now, Congressman Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, a Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. Congressman, great to see you this morning.
We just got a report from Inside Tehran, which really is interesting to hear. President Trump said again, two to three days away from a comprehensive agreement with Iran.
By our count, CNN's count, 37 times over the last 78 days. He says it's a few days away, a week away, just around the corner, 37 times, and to count, it hasn't happened yet. And this is in the last 78 days. I wonder what the impact is of saying something is just about to happen and then not have it happen. What impact has it had?
REP. JOSH GOTTHEIMER (D-NJ), INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: Well, I mean, to your point, it's the boy who cried wolf, right? I mean, I don't think anyone takes seriously now when they hear that we're on the verge of a breakthrough. You know, we've been there time and again.
And part of the great frustration of this truce, which obviously started on April 8th, is that it's been going on for weeks. It appears that senior level American officials have not been part of conversations in recent days. So it's, you know, where are we?
Who knows? And which issues are on the table, which ones are going to get resolved? None of us know.
And that's part of, obviously, not just the frustration here in the halls of Congress, but in the country where they've seen their gas, the price of gas continue to go up over the weeks, right? You're talking about over $4 nationally now, and that's a huge impact on people. And the big issues that we've started this conflict, which I believe we've -- it was completely right to go after Iran.
We should crush Iran. They're an enemy of the United States of America. But the big issues that were on the table, the nuclear question, the ballistic missile question, the drone issue, and of course the terrorist financing issue, not a lot of conversation about any of those.
And the discussion, as was just reported, is about the Straits of Hormuz, which wasn't on the table when we started this conflict.
BERMAN: Congressman, you're a little bit famous this morning. I was just reading in Politico this big profile of you. The headline there, how Josh Gottheimer is plotting his next act in politics -- good picture, by the way.
It also says that you plan to be a bulk work. You plan to be a bulk work against the party's leftward impulses. So what leftward impulses there exactly?
GOTTHEIMER: Well, what I said is that I just don't think socialists are part of the Democratic Party, and I don't believe they are. And we've seen a huge, obviously a huge surge from this far left wing that I think is not where the country is. And I think it's really important that we speak out when we see some of these issues that are a challenge.
Obviously, we see one of the races today in Maine, Graham Platner, as a great case in point of a major concern for our party.
BERMAN: So you've spoken out against Graham Platner. You've been pretty unambiguous about your concerns about him, assuming he wins the primary today -- and he's expected to in Maine. Would you suggest to friends in Maine that they should vote for Susan Collins? GOTTHEIMER: No, what I would suggest is that Graham Platner get off if he wins today, which I assume he will because there's no one actively campaigning against him, that he get off the ballot and let another Democrat step in, that the main Democratic Party put somebody else in. I mean, if this were in Jersey and you had a candidate who abused women, obviously has a Nazi tattoo that now it's clear that he knew was a Nazi tattoo, not to mention many of his other lies and his comments and extremist comments, pro Hamas, a terrorist organization, other things of that nature. He should get off the ballot.
[09:35:00]
In Jersey, we'd throw him off the ballot or bury him under the Meadowlands. I mean, I don't understand how somebody like this is going to represent our party. And I think the best action would be for him to leave and get somebody else who's qualified onto the ballot.
BERMAN: To be clear, he denies that he knew what the tattoo was in the Washington Post -- sorry, in the New York Times profile, a woman says that he did know. I want to leave that aside.
But my question again, if he doesn't get off the ballot, if he doesn't in next November, the choice is Graham Platner or Susan Collins. What would you tell your friends in Maine to do?
GOTTHEIMER: I don't think that's going to be the choice. So I'm not going to do that hypothetical. I think that he's going to get off the ballot soon.
I mean, you saw today reporting from his ex-political director saying that he lied about all this stuff and the concerns that she had. I mean, the issues are just going to keep piling up. And the New York Times piece was just one of the first piece of many issues that I think will continue to come out about him.
I mean, hopefully today you'll see Janet Mills, even though she is the governor, left the race. Her name is still on the ballot. We'll see how well she does.
And I think that's going to be a sign of the frustration. And also, if you're a woman and looking at what, how can you accept somebody who abused women? That's going to affect us in other parts of the country and campaigns and I think really be an issue for the party.
BERMAN: He denies he was physically violent. Congressman, I do want to change subjects. You, of course, are from New Jersey, home to Dylan Harper, you know, star guard of the San Antonio Spurs, the pride of Rutgers University and Don Bosco.
But yet you are a Knicks fan still. And my question to you.
GOTTHEIMER: Man. We all went. We had him last night. I mean, that was just we were right there. You know, we're going to take it right back.
BERMAN: How responsible do you think President Trump is for the Knicks losing last night? GOTTHEIMER: I mean, clearly that did not help. I mean, he brought in some bad mojo into the into the garden last night and, you know, pissed off a lot of people, you know, but don't worry. We got we're going -- we got we had to give a little something.
We'll take it back in the next one. And the Knicks have just looked unbelievable after winning 13 in a row. You know, sometimes you got to give the other side a little something just to stay in the game.
BERMAN: All right, Congressman Josh Gottheimer apparently suggesting it was some kind of charity last night by the Knicks. Thank you for being with us today. Appreciate it.
GOTTHEIMER: Good to see you. Thanks for having me.
BERMAN: All right. Shifting gears. A suspect shoots a police car -- shoots into a police car during a chase.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shots fired! Shots fired!
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BERMAN: Dozens of schools close indefinitely after a series of bear sightings.
[09:40:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: All right, President Trump made it official, he has nominated Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to be full-time Attorney General. It will require confirmation from the Senate. Of course, there could be some complications with this nomination.
It was Blanche who oversaw, especially according to former Attorney General Pam Bondi, if you listen to her, he oversaw everything in terms of the release of the Epstein files. So how will this all play out? With us now, CNN Chief Data Analyst, Harry Enten. Good to see you.
HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Nice to see you, Johnny B.
BERMAN: So how have things been going for Todd Blanche of late? How have things changed since word of his nomination came out?
ENTEN: Yes, you know, we can take a look at Google searches and see that interest in Todd Blanche, not surprisingly, is way up, up 233 percent on Monday versus the prior Monday. But I want you to take a look here at the red, the footnote, I tried to make it a little bit bigger for you. Top Associated Searches, Attorney General, Trump and Epstein.
That to me is so important because the Epstein case has really kind of fallen off the radar a little bit. And it's been such a bad case in terms of politicalness or political sort of attitudes for Donald Trump. And now all of a sudden, with Blanche being nominated, hello, what is back in the news again?
It is the Epstein case, something that Donald Trump, I don't think, wants to be back in the news.
BERMAN: That's really interesting. So it was one of the top Associated Searches --
ENTEN: Yes.
BERMAN: Trump and Epstein when people were looking for Todd Blanche. There are going to be confirmation hearings where senators, Republicans and Democrats can ask questions about Jeffrey Epstein. You know, what's it going to be like to have that back in the news?
How excited should the president be to have Epstein back in the news?
ENTEN: It is a political nightmare for Jeffrey Epstein and the Epstein files to be back in the news for Donald Trump. I mean, just take a look here. OK, Trump's net approving immigration, foreign policy, trade, tariffs, the economy, the Epstein case.
Look what's at the bottom of your screen. Look, he's in red, negative red on all of them. Immigration, foreign policy, trade, tariffs, the economy and the Epstein case.
But the Epstein case takes the cake here. Minus 42 points. He's 42 points underwater on the Epstein case.
Donald Trump wants basically anything else to be in the news, perhaps outside of inflation, to be in the news when it comes to him and his popularity because of the Epstein case. While he's underwater and everything, he's really far underwater. He's down there with the Titanic when it comes to the Epstein case and his net approval rating.
BERMAN: It will be back in the news during those confirmation hearings, I can guarantee it. What's the president's approval on the Epstein case in general right now?
ENTEN: Yes. I mean, just take a look here. You get the rare trifecta of below 60 percent approval of Trump on Epstein, just 58 percent of Republicans.
And of course, if Blanche's nomination is going to go down, it will be requiring some GOP votes. Seventeen percent of independents way down there. And then just six percent of Democrats.
Bottom line is approval on the Epstein case for Donald Trump is even low among Republicans.
BERMAN: That's pretty low.
ENTEN: Yes.
BERMAN: That's pretty low among Republicans. [09:45:00]
ENTEN: A lot of Republican senators might be looking at say, hey, you know what? Maybe I can vote against Blanche.
BERMAN: OK, so when people are looking at all of this, you know, what are the prediction markets saying right now about his chances of being confirmed?
ENTEN: Yes, you see this 58 percent among Republicans, perhaps not so surprising chance that top Blanche is Trump's next attorney general. Look, it's a majority, but it's just 69 percent. That is not particularly high, given that you get that Republican majority in the Senate.
This is not a sure thing by any means.
BERMAN: All right, we will watch. We will watch the hearings. We will see how he performs under questions from the senators.
Harry Enten, thank you so much for being with us.
ENTEN: Thank you, my friend.
BERMAN: A lot of news. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ERICA HILL, CNN HOST: Check out this new video we got in of a trooper dodging bullets while chasing a suspect.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shots fired! Shots fired!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HILL: Yes, how about that? So, officially, the trooper had been responding to the scene of a homicide, where the suspect then drove off, leading officers on a chase. At one point, the suspect lost control of the vehicle after firing, crashed into a ditch. Officials then found the suspect dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. The officer is OK.
And a meteorologist in Arkansas earning some praise for this critical tornado forecast amid a studio fire. Take a look.
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NOAH SIMMONS, METEOROLOGIST, KFSM: So, we just had a fire in the studio, but we got two tornado warnings, so we got to keep tracking this and covering this live. As this lifts its way northward through Sebastian County, the fire is out, so I am safe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HILL: So, that's Noah Simmons there. You heard him say the fire is out. I'm safe.
He said that a studio light had caused the fire. Quick thinking producer grabbed a fire extinguisher, did manage to put it out. He did say, perhaps not surprisingly, as you saw there, it was a little tough to breathe.
But he felt in that moment he really had to make this split second decision to keep viewers safe from the tornado threat. And as you saw, of course, he did opt there to stay on the air -- John.
BERMAN: All right. The New York Knicks, they'd won 13 straight playoff games until President Trump went. They lost to the Spurs last night, and Donald Trump became the first sitting president ever to attend a finals game and the first to see them lose in the last 14 games.
Tons of security, a hard time getting in, and when they showed him on the big screen, this is how fans reacted.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(CROWD BOOING)
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BERMAN: I don't know. There was noise there. The president's takeaway, he called it mostly cheers.
HILL: There were multiple videos. Some of them, you heard a lot of boos. That one, you didn't hear a lot of boos. We weren't there because we can't afford those tickets.
BERMAN: We were not there.
HILL: And John's not going to go anyway.
BERMAN: And Timothee Chalamet hasn't called me yet to tell me what he heard, but I'm waiting for that call.
With us now, CNN contributor and sports broadcaster, Cari Champion. Can I ask you a basketball question first? You know, from purely basketball standpoint, it seemed like the Spurs finally figured it out a little bit last night because the Knicks had been sort of, I think, dominating play, managing it a little bit last night.
Then the Spurs got in the paint and they may have figured it out.
CARI CHAMPION, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, the Spurs are a really young team, right? And so what they did last night, I think, against the Knicks was really something special and people didn't talk about it because of all the hoopla surrounding the game. I think Wemby found what he needed, which was his controlled of emotion.
He's an emotional guy and he's really their heartbeat. He controlled his emotion and he led that team last night.
HILL: It also, I mean, to have this happen in game three, at home, at MSG, with so much being made of this. I mean, can you put -- Cari, put that into perspective for us too? What does that do to this win for the Spurs?
CHAMPION: Well, you know, for most people and myself included, I'm a bit jaded when I've covered so many finals. I thought it would be a sweep. I felt like you're coming back to Mecca, as MSG is known.
It's hard when you have home court advantage to actually come in and steal home court advantage, which is what the Knicks were able to do in San Antonio. And you have Jalen Brunson and the seasoned team, they've been in positions like this before. So I honestly thought that they would sweep.
So for them to be able to come into New York while the sitting president is there watching, while there is so much fanfare around there, while New York fans are unlike any other, waiting outside of their hotel room, booing them, following the bus, booing them, you know, it was really a spectacle. But they settled and concentrated in a way in which we have to take our hats off to them.
Because I'll tell you what, I would not want to go up against a New York Knicks fan. And they did it over and over again while they were here for that game.
HILL: Wise words.
BERMAN: It is a tough place to play. There's just no question about that. All right.
The president was there. What impact do you think it had? Maybe not on the game, but on the overall feel of being there for the fans, the people that matter here?
CHAMPION: Yes, no, John, he was a cooler. And that means it was somebody who ruined the vibe, vibe check. It was not right.
You shut down all of the watch parties outside, right? There's an energy, there is something electric to New York. And if you haven't been outside and checked it out, you haven't been outside because you can feel it.
[09:55:00]
And so all of these fans who, in some cases, who waited their entire lifetime to see the Knicks back in the finals, right? The last time that they won an actual chip was 1973. So to be a part of this historic moment is really special for this city. Imagine the vendors and business owners who spent all this time thinking they were going to sell their merch. And shut down all of Midtown, and no one can walk through unless you have a ticket or plans to go to Penn Station, etc. He really cooled the vibe.
And I think it was evident people were anxious. They didn't know if they could come to New York. They didn't know where I mean -- Midtown near MSG, where should they actually hang out? Where should they watch the game, the fans that the standing room only fans for $1,000. These tickets were outrageous. And when he came, he just zapped the momentum.
HILL: I mean, I will say to your point about the momentum in the city, and Spike Lee noting this with our friend, Omar, and then they don't create with a great interview with Spike Lee, the number one fan -- sorry, Timothy Chalamet. But talking about how this is really -- this is a an awesome moment here in New York City. And it is.
BERMAN: Everywhere.
HILL: I mean, it's blue and orange everywhere. Every day on the subway, I see it. And it is like, it is a great vibe. And you don't want to kill that vibe.
BERMAN: It is a very good vibe, very exciting time for New Yorkers to be sure. Cari Champion, it's great to see you. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Erica Hill --
HILL: Oh, it's a pleasure, John Berman.
BERMAN: -- for being here. Saving us.
HILL: Oh, really?
BERMAN: Yes.
HILL: Can you call the bosses and tell them that?
BERMAN: I was going down. I was going down. Thank you so much for being here. This has been CNN NEWS CENTRAL. "THE SITUATION ROOM" up next.
