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Madison Square Garden Officials Angry at NYC Over Security; Unlicensed Pilot Flew Airliners for 17 Years; Trump Vows More Strikes on Iran Today, but Says Peace Deal is Close; Lawmakers Question Bill Gates Over Epstein Ties; Annual Inflation Jumps to Its Highest in More Than Three Years; DOJ Says Lawsuit to Halt White House UFC Fight Brought Too Late. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired June 10, 2026 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN ANCHOR & CORRESPONDENT: -- If you had asked me at the start of the playoffs, which -- what my preferred finals would have been, it would have been the Hawks and the Spurs.

But you know what? I'll take the Knicks. I live in New York City. I interviewed Victor Wembanyama on draft night. I'm trying to see some good basketball and honestly, I have not been disappointed. I can't wait for more tonight.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Spike Lee has brainwashed Omar Jimenez, number one. Number two, I think he might be frightened by some of the folks outside Madison Square Garden.

(LAUGH)

SANCHEZ: We've seen the clips Omar, people getting jumped out there.

JIMENEZ: Yeah, you never know.

SANCHEZ: Be careful, my friend.

(LAUGH)

JIMENEZ: Yeah, which is a really serious thing. It's a really serious thing.

SANCHEZ: It is. It is.

JIMENEZ: And a lot of people have -- like Spike and others, have not condoned that and that's some of what we hope not to see, no matter what happens in the game.

SANCHEZ: Important disclaimer. Go Spurs. Omar Jimenez, thank you so much.

A new hour of "CNN News Central" starts right now.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Threatening Tehran. President Trump vowing to hit Iran again today, blaming the slow progress in negotiations. He says all Iran needs to do to end the war is, quote, "start signing a paper."

On the ballot and under a microscope, controversial Democrat, Graham Platner wins his primary in the Maine Senate race and now comes the hard part, winning the election, as Republicans target him.

And the planes were real, but the pilot wasn't licensed. How a man who didn't have the correct qualifications managed to fly tens of thousands of passengers for a major airliner. We're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to "CNN News Central."

SANCHEZ: We start this hour with Breaking News. President Trump saying that the U.S. is about to strike Iran again. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: We hit them hard yesterday and we're going to hit them again hard today, in case you had missed it, in case you don't turn on your television set. And we'll see what happens with the deal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: In the past 12 hours, the U.S. and Iran have exchanged fire after Iran took down a U.S. Apache helicopter. Earlier, President Trump suggesting he was quote -- he has, quote, "The right to keep hitting Iran hard." He also said that a peace deal is still imminent.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: All they have to do is have to start signing a paper. It's fully negotiated. We have a fully negotiated, but they're tapping and tapping and I said, all right, let's give him a couple of more days. They're tapping, because it's a meaningful paper.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: We're joined now by CNN Global Affairs Analyst, Brett McGurk. Brett, great to see you as always. So when President Trump says that Iran is going to pay the price and then in the next breath almost says that a deal is imminent, how does Tehran read that I?

BRETT MCGURK, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Think as I've been looking at this, Boris, a deal is not -- I don't think a deal is imminent. I've been watching very closely. Based on my experience of negotiating with the Iranians, they don't seem to be ready to do a deal at least on the terms of President Trump has been talking about. And in the last week in the Gulf and in the Strait of Hormuz, you've had repeated incidents of Iran attacking ships, attacking Kuwait, Bahrain, and then of course this very serious incident against our Apache helicopter. We're so fortunate that the pilot and the airmen are safe, which looks like it could have been a deliberate attack.

I mean that that tells you where the decision makers in Iran, the Revolutionary Guard, where they are. They are not in deal-making mode. Perhaps Abbas Araghchi, the President Pezeshkian, they might be in a different place, but the people holding power in Tehran, as I see it, they are not ready for a deal and they're preparing for renewed conflict.

SANCHEZ: You argued in your latest analysis for cnn.com that the U.S. has three options to either endure, concede or fight.

MCGURK: Yeah.

SANCHEZ: Which do you see is the most likely and the least damaging for U.S. influence globally?

MCGURK: Yeah. Here's what I see Iran doing and I'll get to the options. Because I -- what Iran does to collapse the power equation, which we're the far more powerful country, they focus on possession, taking something that we want. That's why they've used hostages for so many years. And now, this is like the ultimate hostage negotiation because they have the Strait of Hormuz. They have it; they know we want it; and they'll set the price; and then they'll sit.

That's what I think -- that's their negotiating tactic. That's what I see them doing. So what are the options for the U.S.? We can concede to their demands. Their demands are massive upfront relief of funds, about $24 billion. That's one. And to concede to Iran's sovereign control of the Strait of Hormuz. They want us to kind of recognize that. And unless you can fudge that, there's not going to be a path.

The second option is you just sit. That means that we keep our blockade, economic pressure compounds inside Iran, but also the global macroeconomic pressure compounds. So that's kind of the default option. The third option of fight is, you know, CENTCOM could do an operation to try to seize control of the Strait. Now, what's happening behind the scenes and the president alluded to it today, is that ships are at night, they're turning off their transponders and kind of hugging the coast and U.S. military assets are protecting those ships.

[14:05:00]

That's what I think that Apache helicopter was doing and Iran is trying to target those ships. That's kind of the nightly activity in the Strait. So that's kind of where things sit now. I think the best option is probably option B, just sit, keep the pressure on, try to continue with the diplomacy. But I don't see a near-term path to a deal, and a deal in which we did pay that money upfront. And if we were to ever accede to the principle that Iran controls this space, I think that is just setting conditions for an even worse possible conflict down the road. It's a very difficult predicament, Boris, and maybe we should have thought about this might be where we would end up.

But we are where we are now, and I think you've got to sit, keep the pressure on, but be ready because Iran's going to challenge us, and then you've got to hit back.

SANCHEZ: When you talk about potentially unfreezing assets, some of the reporting indicated that the U.S. was contemplating having Gulf allies unfreeze Iranian assets that they are holding on to. That way, President Trump can make the case that any agreement would be unlike the JCPOA because the U.S. isn't sending money to Iran, which he's been critical of in the past. Does that give you any indication of why the Qataris are now headed to Tehran to negotiate as opposed to the Pakistanis, who more recently have been leading these negotiations?

MCGURK: I think there's a lot of talk about the frozen assets. We actually did a hostage deal in September 2023, Boris, about five Americans came out, and we moved some funds from South Korea to Qatar, available for humanitarian trade. And then October 7th came, and as that attack was underway, Supreme Leader Khamenei actually put out a statement praising the attacks.

We refroze those funds, and that's part of the funds still under dispute. So Qatar is in talks about is there a way for Iran to grant access to these funds without the U.S. having to basically concede the point. Again, very doubtful you're going to be able to get there.

And if you do that, and you don't have really stringent nuclear demands, which is Phase II of this process. Right now, it's open the Strait -- you'll never get a nuclear deal because you've basically given away a lot of the leverage, plus Iran will be trading its oil again. So it's a tough equation. I don't envy anyone trying to work on this, whether it's our diplomats, whether it's Qatar, whether it's Pakistan.

And everybody in the Gulf right now is kind of watching to see where things go. It's a very fluid situation. But I think the likely outcome here, we're in the first month of what's likely to be a pretty hot summer.

SANCHEZ: So quickly before we go, if President Trump goes that route and decides to endure and play this out, do you think he should continue suggesting that a deal is imminent? Because we have the graphic, and we put it up multiple times, I believe since April 17th or thereabouts, is when he started saying the deal's already done. Iran has agreed to X, Y, and Z.

So having this drag out this way, do the American people stop buying that? How do you think his rhetoric impacts that

MCGURK: I think there's a risk of a credibility gap. And no president wants to have a credibility gap with the American people, or frankly, with a counterparty like Iran, an adversarial party, or our friends and allies.

You want to kind of try to tell it straight. And continuing to say a deal's around the corner, and then it's obviously not, you start to have a credibility gap. So I actually thought what the president said today, just saying, hey, there's a deal on the table. Iran's not answering. And it looks like we might be back in a military confrontation. If that's the honest assessment, I think it's best to be honest about it with the American people and with partners around the world.

SANCHEZ: Brett McGurk, thanks so much for the analysis. Appreciate it. Brianna?

KEILAR: Right now, one of the most high-profile names to appear in the Epstein files is being questioned about his ties to the late child sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein. Bill Gates testifying voluntarily on the Hill behind closed doors to the House Oversight Committee. The co- founder of Microsoft and longtime philanthropist was referenced hundreds of times in the Epstein files released by DOJ earlier this year. Gates has not been accused of any wrongdoing, but lawmakers want answers about his ties with Epstein.

CNN's MJ Lee is here with us now to talk about this. What are lawmakers learning?

MJ LEE, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL ENTERPRISE CORRESPONDENT: Well, we know that this interview with the House Oversight Committee has been going on for about four hours. And in his opening remarks, Bill Gates told lawmakers he never saw, he was never aware of Epstein's crimes, and that he himself, Gates, never victimized anyone.

He gave a little bit of a background on how they got introduced back in 2011. He said that their interactions, for the most part, were pretty limited, and that all of that came to an end in December of 2014. This is something else that Gates told lawmakers.

He said, I learned Epstein had become aware of sensitive information about my personal life including the fact that I had been unfaithful in my marriage. Epstein was working to use information about my infidelities in addition to many lies that he layered on top to pressure me to re-engage with him.

Now, Brianna, we also know that Gates is being asked by lawmakers about some of these more salacious and unverified claims in the Epstein files.

[14:10:00]

They're in the form of emails that Epstein appears to have written to himself. There are references, as you know, to sexually transmitted diseases, procuring antibiotics to secretly give to his ex-wife, Melinda. And our sources are telling us that Gates is pushing back on these allegations.

And I want you to listen to what the top Democrat on the committee, Robert Garcia, just told reporters about this habit that Epstein appears to have had about writing emails to himself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ROBERT GARCIA, (D-CA) RANKING MEMBER, HOUSE OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE: I think what we can say right now is that Mr. Gates does believe that Mr. Epstein would write emails that were oftentimes untrue. I think he spoke to that in some of the questioning that he denies, obviously, some of those claims. And that he felt that Mr. Epstein would write emails to himself and just say things that were not true.

(END VIDEO CLIP) LEE: This has obviously been a really embarrassing ordeal for Bill Gates. I'm told by a source that his lawyer jumped in at one point and said, he's not going to answer questions about affairs that are not directly related to the Epstein saga. Epstein also, I think, is aware that his reputation has taken a hit. He said, quote, "Meeting with Epstein was a grave error in judgment." And he also said he's now being more careful about the kinds of people that he associates with.

KEILAR: Yeah, because he knew him or was somewhat associated with him from 2011 to 2014, which was after he was actually a registered sex offender and had negotiated that controversial plea deal. MJ, thank you so much. Really interesting stuff from the Hill today.

Still to come, another sharp rise in prices as inflation hits its highest level in three years, where you're paying more. Plus, the White House trying to keep this weekend's UFC fight on the South Lawn, despite a lawsuit to stop it.

And then later, an Air Canada pilot is accused of flying nearly 1,000 flights for almost two decades without a license. We have that and much more coming up on "CNN News Central."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:16:18]

SANCHEZ: Now, more than a hundred days since the war with Iran began, inflation is at its highest since 2023. Government data shows that annual inflation surpassed the four percent mark, hitting 4.2 percent over May of last year. But President Trump said today, once the war is over, inflation will drop like a rock.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you concerned, Mr. President, about the latest inflation number which came out this morning? Could that be a --

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: No, I love it. The numbers were great. You know what I really love? I love the inflation. You know why? Because as soon as this war is over, you know I can say it now, something you didn't know. You know we've been taking out millions of barrels of oil. Nobody knows it.

You know who doesn't know about it? Iran until right now. We took out the other night 22 ships late at night with no lights because they don't have any radar because we blasted the crap out of it. We took out, that's why oil is $85 a barrel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Let's talk about the economy with Henrietta Treyz, the Director of Economic Policy at Veda Partners. Henrietta, thanks so much for being with us. How do you read this inflation report in the context of what President Trump was saying, saying that he loves these numbers?

HENRIETTA TREYZ, DIRECTOR OF ECONOMIC POLICY, VEDA PARTNERS: It's great to be with you, Boris. There's not a 4.2 percent inflation print. The best I can say is that inflation everywhere else didn't also rise more than expected. That is not good news. We're on Day 104 of the war, if I'm not mistaken, and we've spent $100 billion. And a lot of that is being borne by regular Americans. It's a $460 hit to your own gasoline usage, $750 a year, and that's just for gas.

This doesn't include the groceries that are more expensive, the surcharges on all your Amazon shipments, the additional eight percent cost of just shipping mail around the country. This is a massive blow, and 4.2 percent inflation means that inflation is moving faster than our wages are keeping up. That's the problem for the president with this war.

SANCHEZ: Obviously, higher inflation driven primarily by rising energy costs as opposed to completely spreading around the economy. What does it tell you that it's so focused on the cost of energy right now?

TREYZ: Well, I think the main issue is that, obviously, this is because of the president's decision to engage in a war with Iran. The more pressing issue is that this makes it impossible for the Federal Reserve to reduce interest rates. When you have a gas price hike, that's not just broad inflation elsewhere. That's a very specific cause, and the Fed can't do anything about that. So there's no help coming our way.

As we saw from Republican lawmakers earlier this week, there's no chance of a third reconciliation bill. So things like a gas tax holiday that could maybe relieve pressure at the pump are not coming. There's really just bad news as far as the eye can see.

And my concern with the president's talking point about prices dropping like a rock is that, number one, we're on Week 14 or something of a war that was supposed to take two or three weeks. And number two, how deep is the rock going to fall? You know, if we drop from $4.56 a gallon to $4.25 a gallon, I don't feel any better. That's not anywhere close to the $2.81 we had at the beginning of this year.

So it's really a question of when we're going to bring the Strait back open and how far prices will drop. And I think it's months, if not years, away from getting back to anything in the $2 range.

SANCHEZ: Yeah. Overall, food prices and grocery prices did not rise as fast as they did in April. Are you expecting that to continue to be the case, or are we going to eventually see an increase, given the impact that the war is having on access to fertilizer?

[14:20:00]

TREYZ: Yeah, the access to fertilizer is huge. I mean fertilizer costs account for about half of whatever it is you're buying. So, you know, tomatoes, lettuce, carrots, all that stuff is grown, 50 percent of the cost is from your fertilizer and the Street is closed. These shippers are not going through it anywhere near the 103 ships a day we used to be getting. If we're getting 20 ships through, that is a very, very small portion. That's not going to relieve costs for the agriculture community.

And I would say that the White House knows this and on June 8th, they dropped some of the tariffs that they charged to the agriculture industry on steel and aluminum and copper that go into big earth movers or backhoes and farming equipment because they know that these prices are going to stick with the ag space for months to come. The food and beverage industry doesn't expect food Inflation to peak until the first quarter of 2027. So we've got a long way to go there.

SANCHEZ: So this obviously, the first inflation report since Kevin Warsh took over as the new Fed Chair, how do you anticipate the Fed is going to react to a report like this?

TREYZ: It's a tough first meeting, a tough first thing to deal with right out of the gate. I see no path to an interest rate cut, as I mentioned at the outset. When we have an energy spike and a price spike that's specifically tied to one commodity, that is not pertaining to the economy overall, so the Federal Reserve's toolbox to address the state of the economy and boost consumers is really unhelpful. Reducing interest rates would not be a valuable tool for them to use right now.

So the market which is otherwise being rather complacent about the duration of the war, about taking the president at his word if it's going to end soon or not, there's really an understanding that the Fed can't reduce interest rates. So Kevin Warsh is going to come in and the expectation is that there's more likely to be a hike than there is a cut.

SANCHEZ: Henrietta Treyz, thank you so much for joining us. Always appreciate your time.

TREYZ: Thanks for having me.

SANCHEZ: O course. A lawsuit claims that it is unlawful, President Trump says it is too late to complain. Ahead, the battle to stop the upcoming UFC fight on the White House lawn.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:26:01]

KEILAR: The big UFC fight at the White House is just days away and the Trump administration says a lawsuit trying to stop it from happening came too late.

SANCHEZ: Yeah, Justice Department lawyers are urging a federal judge to reject this suit claiming that ending the event now would upend months of detailed planning and also unfairly burden those involved. Let's get more from CNN's Tom Foreman. Tom?

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, this is basically the claim here. If you look at this huge structure out here, they're saying, look, a lot of work went into putting this thing up and a lot of planning has gone into this. A lot of people are expecting this to work.

By the way, a fun fact, this great big structure out there in this White House has always said America first, that is from Belgium. It is not from here. That's where that structure came from.

In any event, they've built this whole big thing, but what the lawsuit has said, the key claims of the lawsuit have been that this is a violation of the rules, that you're putting this big structure on federal property. It's a private event on public property, even though they said it's a big celebration.

They're saying, look, this is Donald Trump's birthday. It's on his birthday. Yes, it's on Flag Day, but because it is so closely wrapped up with the people around the stage being members of the military, members of the White House, VIPs, they're saying it's basically a private party on public property.

The White House, of course, says none of that's true. It is very late and look at how much is coming up. The lead up to the fight, they have all these giant events going on, including a concert by Zac Brown. They have a meet-and-greet with a lot of the athletes involved. They have a ceremonial weigh-in. That's a whole big deal. It's going to go from Friday till Sunday, all of this. The fighting actually on Sunday.

And then beyond that, they have, I think 90,000 people will be on the White House grounds to watch this. A little confusing, that number, because only about 4,000 will actually be up around the stage. Everyone else is going to be on the south, you know, on the ellipse down there, which is, if you're not from here, a park basically south of the White House. Still on the White House grounds, but they'll just be watching a big screen. So it's not like 90,000 people are gathered in a stadium.

KEILAR: It's outside the fence, right?

FOREMAN: It's outside the fence, exactly, outside the fence. In any event, the chief complaint here is just that this is kind of a money- making venture, even though UFC is paying $ 60 million for all of this. And it probably doesn't help that the UFC and the Trump folks have put out these commemorative coins for people to buy if they want to remember this big event here.

This is a private venture. This isn't money to raise for, you know, disabled service members or anything else. This is just a, we're selling these things and you can buy them. That's another thing that I'm sure has rankled many of the critics. And I would like to point out that at a time of, you know, high inflation and a war with Iran and everything else, the most expensive one of these coins, if you converted it, you could fill your gas tank now a little over 200 times. That's not going to sit well with some people.

Some will love it, some will want it, others will not like it at all.

SANCHEZ: $12,000 for one of those coins?

FOREMAN: That's a lot for a coin. Yeah.

SANCHEZ: Tom Foreman, thank you so much for that reporting.

So, hand over voting lists or risk losing postal service delivery for mail-in ballots. After the break, the election ultimatum President Trump --