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Trump Vows More Strikes on Iran Today, But Says Peace Deal is Close; Lawmakers Question Bill Gates Over Epstein Ties; Senate Dems Offer Mixed Reactions to Platner's Primary Win; Annual Inflation Jumps to its Highest in Three Years 3-3:30p ET

Aired June 10, 2026 - 15:00   ET

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

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: ... is undisclosed. Remember, he was making a pretty penny for this work, earned about $2.9 million Canadian during this period of time. That's about $2 million U.S. He's facing a total of seven different charges. In Canada, a fraud charge like this can carry about 10 years of prison time. We've tried to reach out to Wall's attorney. Unsuccessful there so far. He has a court appearance later this month. That'll be his first court appearance. Enterprising reporters should probably go there to write a screenplay out of this because it sounds like "Catch Me If You Can," although the big difference there is that Frank Abagnale Jr. was unlicensed and moonlighting as a pilot, but not actually flying the plane.

In this case ...

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Yes.

MUNTEAN: ... this guy, Geoffrey Wall, was licensed, had some military experience, and was flying the plane, just didn't have that last key license.

SANCHEZ: We'll see if Leo DiCaprio plays him in the movie. Pete Muntean, thank you so much. A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Vowing more attacks, President Trump says the U.S. will hit Iran again today and warns that Tehran will, quote, "pay the price for slow walking a peace deal."

And the worst may be yet to come. Inflation up to the highest level in three years, and economists warn Americans could see even higher prices in the future.

And Bill Gates facing tough questions about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. How the billionaire says the late convicted sex offender tried to use information about his infidelities to get close to him.

We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

We have breaking news. President Trump says the U.S. will be launching more strikes inside of Iran today as Tehran is now condemning the latest attacks. In a new post on social media, Iran's president calls President Trump's threat to target power and water sites in the region, quote, "not a display of strength," but rather a sign of helplessness.

Notably, the president of Iran did not say anything about the peace deal that President Trump says has been fully negotiated. CNN's Kristen Holmes is live for us at the White House. Kristen, what's the latest there?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Perhaps the reason why he is saying this isn't coming from a place of strength is because we've heard these kind of threats before from President Trump and that's really what's unclear at this moment. Is this just President Trump ramping up his rhetoric because he is angry that there is no deal, that he's frustrated, he's trying to get Iran to come to the negotiating table or is he in fact considering ramping up military action in Iran, something that he has been not even just hesitant, but unwilling to do for the past two months.

And when he's sitting in the Oval Office today, he was asked a series of questions about Iran and indicated that it was time for a more aggressive stance. Take a listen to just part of what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: But we hit him hard yesterday and we're going to hit him again hard today in case you miss it, in case you don't turn on your television set. And we'll see what happens with the deal. We were -- we're really close to a deal, but they keep tapping us along. They keep playing us for suckers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: You can hear that he's frustrated there. I mean, just a reminder, it was two days ago that he said that a deal could be on the precipice within two or three days. It certainly sounds as though they are no longer on that square talking about being tapped along by Iran. And President Trump also said at one point that they were considering hitting civilian targets.

Now, this isn't the first time that he has said this. As I noted before, in the last several months, he has gone all the way up to the line, but never crossed it. In fact, as you will remember, that April 7th, when he was talking about a whole civilization will die tonight and then launched into the ceasefire.

So, right now, what is unclear, what we're watching closely for is that President Trump has ramped up his rhetoric. He has said there are going to be more strikes, although we have not seen those since he has said that. The question is, does he just try or is he just trying to get Iran back to the table by threatening them? Or have we entered into yet again another phase of this war?

KEILAR: All right. Kristen Holmes, live for us at the White House. Boris. SANCHEZ: Meantime, over on Capitol Hill, Bill Gates is speaking behind

closed doors, giving voluntary testimony about his ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. In his opening remarks, Gates told the House Oversight Committee that he had no knowledge of Epstein's crimes.

He described his interactions with Epstein as limited, which he says ended altogether in December of 2014. Gates also said that meeting with Epstein was a grave error in judgment, but denied ever visiting Epstein's island, ranch or home in Florida. Gates was referenced hundreds of times in the Justice Department's Epstein files that were released earlier this year. He has not been accused of any criminal wrongdoing related to Epstein.

[15:05:00]

We're joined now by Arick Fudali. He's an attorney representing 11 of Epstein's accusers.

Arick, thanks so much for being with us.

What have you made of Gates' testimony so far, the details that are emerging?

ARICK FUDALI, ATTORNEY REPRESENTING 11 EPSTEIN ACCUSERS: Well, what's interesting is when Bill Gates acknowledges he first met Jeffrey Epstein in around 2011. And what's important about that is that it's after 2008. And in 2008, while I have plenty say about the miscarriage of justice, you know, brought on by Alex Acosta and the sweetheart deal. What did happen in 2008 is Jeffrey Epstein became a publicly registered sex offender.

So, that means Bill Gates' entire relationship with Jeffrey Epstein occurred during the time and after Jeffrey Epstein was a publicly registered sex offender, publicly available knowledge. So, either Bill Gates did not do any research into the person he was about to do business with or associate with, or he just chose to ignore and associate with him as well.

The other thing that's interesting about that is the people who surrounded themselves with Jeffrey Epstein, who surrounded Jeffrey Epstein, were working with him closely, perhaps had friendships with him. Bill Gates was certainly privy to those people because he was around Jeffrey Epstein after 2008. So, I'm very interested to see some of the names that he's disclosed about who was closely tied to the registered sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein.

SANCHEZ: Gates, again, says his interactions with Epstein ended altogether in December of 2014. Do you have any clients? Have they shared with you any recollections of Gates being in Epstein's orbit?

FUDALI: No, not -- -- no recollections of Bill Gates being in Jeffrey Epstein's orbit. And they certainly, you know, have -- there are a lot of powerful people in Jeffrey Epstein's orbit all the time. He also would keep photographs of himself on his desk as a means of intimidating his victims by showing, you know, here's this -- here's me, you know, here's me with this leader. Here's me with this, you know, billionaire.

So, he certainly surrounded himself a lot of powerful people like Bill Gates and there are certainly plenty of Bill Gates types in Jeffrey Epstein's orbit.

SANCHEZ: Yes. Gates said in his opening remarks that Epstein was using personal information, including details about infidelity to try and get closer to him. Based on what you've heard from your clients, how big a pattern was this? Because one thing we've heard over and over about Epstein, including in unverified reports, is that he sought to get blackmailed from people. I imagine that your clients heard similar.

FUDALI: Oh, absolutely. So, that's -- it's a really interesting point you bring up because Jeffrey Epstein, and I say this in the most, you know, non-complementary way was a master manipulator. But what people are surprised to hear about is it wasn't just a master manipulating his victims. He also was a very good manipulator of those around him. Those, you know, his -- what you would call his equals, his associates, people with, you know, as much power, money and -- or perhaps even with more power, money than him.

So, he was very keen at finding people's weaknesses, finding ways to control people, whether it was his victims that he'd control with money or intimidation or fear or blackmail or power, or it was his associates that he would use blackmail, other manipulation tactics. So that's not surprising at all for me to hear. That was really a part of Jeffrey Epstein's playbook, not just with his victims, but with the many people he associated with himself. That's why he kept such enormous power. And I believe why he kept such a powerful circle of friends.

SANCHEZ: Arick, I want to get your thoughts on some new reporting for an upcoming book by New York Times, Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan. They have reported that last July, Vice President J.D. Vance suggested during a meeting at the White House about how to approach President Trump's name being in the Epstein files that Tucker Carlson do a sit- down interview with Ghislaine Maxwell. He believed that it -- it would help the President. And also in the reporting, it indicates that now Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche volunteered to do that interview. And as we know, that is what eventually happened. What do you make of all those details?

FUDALI: Very unsurprising. I mean, everything this administration or this Department of Justice has done as it relates to these Epstein files has appeared to be to protect Donald Trump and to protect Donald Trump's motivations or his agenda. I mean, that has been clear from the very start.

Remember, we didn't even need a law to release these Epstein files. Trump could have just released them. The DOJ could have just released them. But of course, they required Congress to get a law and all this. And then, Trump signed it at midnight or whatever happened there.

Every single thing we've seen has been related to or reveals to any reasonable person watching as a cover up, starting with the -- the fact that one of my clients was listed 500 times in the Epstein files, even though her name was supposed to be redacted. Compare that to the fact that all of Jeffrey Epstein's associates and alleged facilitators are meticulously redacted. No names appear of the potential facilitators. This entire thing has been a massive cover up.

So, to hear -- you know, sort of what it was -- been obvious to all of us that behind the scenes, Vance, Trump, Todd Blanche are all having meetings as to how to continue to protect Trump and make Trump look good for all this is, you know, the least surprising thing I've heard all week.

[15:10:04]

SANCHEZ: And last question, the chairman of the Oversight Committee, James Comer, has said that he plans to ask Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who we should know President Trump has asked or has nominated to permanently fill the position to testify in July. What questions would you have for Todd Blanche?

FUDALI: Wow, a lot of questions. Well, the first thing before we get to questions is this can't be behind closed doors and it needs to be an under oath actual testimony deposition, not like with Pam Bondi where it's just a behind closed doors, non-under oath interview. It has to be under oath and the people of the United States should be able to watch.

And the first question should be is, why are these names redacted? I'd like them to go through. There's one that always comes to mind where there's an email exchange where someone, a redacted name is saying something to Epstein along the lines of, I really liked that young girl or something along those lines. I want them to show these names to Todd Blanch and say, why is this one redacted? Why is this one redacted? How on earth did you miss the client -- Arick Fudali's client that was -- that was disclosed 538 times? What went into this? Why did you interview Ghislaine Maxwell? Why didn't you push back on Ghislaine Maxwell when she denied things that have already been verifiably true?

I mean, I could go on and on. I don't know how much time we have here today. I could go on and on with all the questions that need to be asked of Todd Blanche. But the first and foremost is that this can't be a behind closed doors interview. It has to be a public under oath testimony.

SANCHEZ: Arick Fudali, always appreciate you joining us.

FUDALI: Thanks a lot.

SANCHEZ: Still to come, Graham Platner pulling off a decisive primary victory. Now looking to unseat Republican Senator Susan Collins come November. So, can Democratic lawmakers look past the scandals and support him?

Plus, we're getting a better picture of the economic shock being caused by the war with Iran. Inflation hitting a three-year high. We'll zero in on exactly what is getting more expensive. And later, a bipartisan tradition like no other. How lawmakers from

both sides of the aisle are preparing for tonight's congressional baseball game. That and much more coming your way next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:16:14]

SANCHEZ: Today, Senate Democrats are expressing mixed reactions after Graham Platner accrues to victory in his Maine primary despite being mired in personal controversies in recent weeks. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TAMMY DUCKWORTH (D-IL): We hold folks at the higher standards here in the Democratic Party, and I have not supported him nor given money to him. He has to account for his own actions.

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA): Graham Platner has taken responsibility. For his past, he's indicated he is not proud of who he was, and he has asked the people of Maine to judge him based on the work he has done since then.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Platner will advance now to face Republican Senator Susan Collins in November, who's seeking her sixth term. And we're joined now by Marc Short, former chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence. I wonder what you think of where this is headed at this point.

MARC SHORT, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF TO VP MIKE PENCE: Well, look, I think this is going to be a huge challenge for Democrats. I don't think this is just an issue for Maine. I don't think it's just an issue, frankly, about the balance of power in the Senate. I think this is going to be an issue for Democrats, and I think it exposes a lot of hypocrisies.

As you listen to Elizabeth Warren's answer, I think it's hard for Democrats to say that when -- over the last few years. I saw Platner in his acceptance speech last night talking about we have to defeat Susan Collins because of her vote in Kavanaugh.

So, you're basically saying that we need -- we need to interfere because of the Kavanaugh vote, because we stand with women when he's had plenty of accusations about his violence against women. You have all sorts of accusations about his app, which he's -- has been described as a predator's paradise for attracting -- you know, predators who's attracting sexual on young kids. It's basically -- he has so many challenges.

And when you see that the left -- far-left has described Republicans and MAGA in recent years as allegations of racists, and he has now Nazi tattoos, it exposes enormous hypocrisy on the Democrat side.

SANCHEZ: Yet, he still stands pretty good odds against Collins, in part because of Maine's political dynamic. It's sort of more purple than I think most people imagine New England to be. Further, he's anti-establishment. I mean, you could say that he won this primary because he doesn't have a political background. And on top of that, I think you could argue that Collins, at least in -- in the last time she ran, sort of squeaked by because of how voters felt about her in Maine. So, he has a good chance of winning, doesn't he?

SHORT: Look, New England is -- is -- is more Democrat today, there's no doubt about that. And there's no doubt there's an energy for anti- establishment. That's been the case in America for 10 plus years. We've had a lot of changed elections. I've learned though not to bet against Susan Collins, and I wouldn't bet against her here.

KEILAR: What about on military affairs? For instance, he is a combat veteran, and he said that he would approach the Iran war differently than Collins. He pointed to his military service, and he vowed to push back against so-called military adventurism that has brought us the last 30 years, of which, you know, Collins, obviously, she's going for her sixth term here. Is there any part of a very important middle ground, Republicans, maybe even some people who might have voted for President Trump, who might say, yes, I'm not -- I'm not for these wars that stretch on.

SHORT: Maybe, I think you -- you know, and I think even President Trump said in answer to a Q&A the other day, somebody was observing that his economic policies look more and more like Bernie Sanders. And he commented how he has a lot of Bernie Sanders voters. So, maybe there's that anti-establishment you're pointing to. But I also think -- I mean, I think you thank him for his service, but he's a guy who's criticized American hero, Chris Kyle, very, very openly. And so, I'm not sure that that's really going to win over a lot of veterans when he's attacking heroes like that.

SANCHEZ: So, President Trump was asked about this race, and he's backing Susan Collins, saying she's not my best friend at all, but she is a sane person.

[15:20:03]

I want to ask you broadly about President Trump's endorsement, because also, in South Carolina this week, we saw Congresswoman Nancy Mace placing fifth in the Republican gubernatorial primary. The Trump- endorsed candidate wound up getting a majority of the vote, advancing to the final ballot in November.

So, I mean, obviously within Republican circles, the President still holds major sway, but could that ultimately hinder some of these Republicans come November?

SHORT: Sure, I mean, there's no doubt he has enormous sway inside our party right now. He's continuing to have a terrific track record in primaries. I'm not so sure how South Carolina's going to play out. Like, I think he wanted to defeat Nancy Mace because of the upswing finals. He wanted to defeat Ralph Northam because he endorsed Nikki Haley. But I'm not so sure his candidate actually wins this runoff. I think Wilson probably will end up being the favored candidate there. But I think more broadly, you're right. As his numbers are in the 30s

at this point, it could be a double-edged sword that helps you get to a primary, but could be, you know, an albatross when you're in a general election.

KEILAR: Marc, great to have you to go through this.

SHORT: Thanks, guys. Good to see you.

KEILAR: Lots of different races to dissect here, so we appreciate it. Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Yes. Thanks so much.

Ahead, high oil prices pushing inflation to its highest level in three years. We're going to break down some new data after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:25:36]

KEILAR: Economists are describing the latest inflation report as, quote, "hot and sticky." It shows inflation at its highest in three years at 4.2 percent. And analysts say rising energy prices due to the war with Iran are spreading further into the economy, and some experts expect those higher prices to stick around through at least the fall. Today, the President said this about the new inflation numbers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: When the war is over ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

TRUMP: ... it's coming down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know you (INAUDIBLE) ...

TRUMP: It's going to come down like a rock. And again, we're taking out millions, which I'm just announcing today for the first time, but we've been taking out millions of barrels of oil -- millions of barrels. Every night we took out oil. But now I'm going to tell you because they just figured it out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: We have CNN Business Senior Reporter David Goldman digging through the data here, and I think one of the areas of note here is that you have wages not keeping up with this inflation, so people are having to tap into their savings, David, to make ends meet.

DAVID GOLDMAN, CNN BUSINESS SENIOR REPORTER: Yes, it's not great, right? I mean, any time that you're over 4 percent, that's going to be really hard for your wages to keep up. I mean, look at the numbers that we had this month, 0.5 percent just in the last month alone, and 4.2 percent inflation over the last year. That's the highest in three years. So, what does the President have to say about this? He said, I love the inflation. It's great.

Well, okay, I'm going to let my politics, you know, friends deal with what the potential fallout of that is going to be. But let's just take this seriously for a second. Is there anything to love about this inflation report? Well, okay, let's take a look at why these prices are so much higher, and most of it is gas, 7 percent since April. We all have experienced this at the pump, right? I mean, we're -- we're definitely paying a lot more for gas. That has contributed 60 percent of the total increase over the last month.

Now, there is a way to read that as a good thing because gas prices have come down for 20 straight days. Oil is down 15 percent since May. These are May numbers. Okay, maybe we're going to look at something a little bit better the next month. That's one positive thing that you can maybe get out of this. Another thing that we can take a look at is grocery prices. Now, there are certainly some that are a lot higher. Lettuce, tomatoes are up 30 percent over the past month.

But overall, you're not paying that much more at the grocery store. If you're going out to eat, it's going to hurt you a little bit more, 3.5 percent. But certainly food, which is something that you cannot avoid buying, that's a little bit easier to swallow, so to speak. So, what does this mean, Brianna? I know you were asking, what does this mean for the Fed, right?

Well, there is a 68 percent chance right now in the market that we are going to get a rate hike. That is not what President Trump hired Kevin Warsh to do. He wanted him to lower rates. So, this means that because inflation is hot and sticky, as you described it as, we are going to have maybe higher mortgage rates, higher credit card rates, higher auto loans because of all of this. Back to you.

KEILAR: I did want to know what it meant for the Fed. But yes, hot and sticky.

GOLDMAN: Well, that's why I added this.

KEILAR: I think we should just call it -- yes, we should just call it gross, right? This is not -- this isn't yuck. This is kind of yuck, right? It's kind of yucky -- kind of yucky. All right, David Goldman ...

GOLDMAN: That's the perfect word.

KEILAR: Yes, perfect. It's real -- it's highly analytical and qualitative. David Goldman, thank you so much.

Ahead, President Trump warning that Iran will, quote, pay the price for taking too long to negotiate. As he says, strikes will resume today. We're going to have the very latest on the war.

[15:29:55]

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