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Woman Who Dated Graham Platner Says He Raped Her in 2021; Trump Arrives in Turkey for High-Stakes NATO Summit; USA World Cup Dreams Dashed in 4-1 Loss to Belgium. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired July 07, 2026 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: We're standing by in Maine. What is Graham Plattner going to do? The Democrat running for Senate there says he's reflecting on the best path forward now after denying a new allegation of raping a woman he dated.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Also breaking just moments ago, President Trump touching down in Turkey for a high-stakes NATO summit. Tensions high, Trump, rising anger with Europe over the Iran war, Russia's new deadly attacks in Ukraine, and the NATO alliance itself up for discussion.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, cleanup on aisle everywhere. Look at this. A supermarket roof just caves in right on customers. The relentless rain that made it all happen.

I'm John Berman with Kate Bolduan and Sara Sidner. This is CNN News Central.

BOLDUAN: So, right now, the future of the balance of power in the Senate is up in the air in Maine. And more important than of any balance of power, a man is facing a very serious allegation. Democratic Candidate Graham Platner is now deciding whether he will stay in or drop out of the race for Senate after a woman came forward accusing him of rape, an allegation Platner denies.

This is the latest accusation, though, and it is apparently the breaking point for several key Democrats, many now pulling their support after what has become a string of allegations over unsettling behavior. Jenny Racicot, she tells CNN's Jake Tapper that she first met Graham Platner in 2019 on a dating app, and said that they began seeing each other off and on for two years.

And then she details a night five years ago, when she says that Platner came to her house after she explicitly told him not to, and also initiated a non-consensual sexual encounter after she explicitly told him no.

A warning, the following account of hers is graphic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JENNY RACICOT, GRAHAM PLATNER ACCUSER: So, he had kind of, like, jumped on top of me and indicated that he had intentions that were sexual in nature.

And I remember just at first being like, hey, I'm not into this. Like, don't, I'm not in the mood. Like, don't, whatever. And it got to the point where I was like, okay, I feel like I've said this enough times. Like he's not listening to me or he's not hearing me, and I looked at him and I remember this very specific look in his eyes. And I could smell alcohol, and I was like this is different.

I remember specifically him like grabbing at my chest, and I like hit his hand and I said, don't touch me. And I remember that during the altercation specifically.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: And then he kept going?

RACICOT: Yes, and it was this weird mix of, like, coming in and out of, I don't think consciousness is the word, but, like, coming to and kind of falling back into that drunken I-don't-know-what-I'm-doing state. And, yes, and he just -- he would apologize in those moments and then go back to doing what he was doing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Again, Graham Platner rejects these claims. He released a video responding on social media. Here's part of that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRAHAM PLATNER (D), MAINE SENATE CANDIDATE: I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious, and false allegations against me. Any accusation of non-consensual behavior is categorically false.

Regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting but mindful of the political reality it will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.

154,058 Mainers, the most in primary history, voted to reject a broken politics beholden to Washington and the donor class. They voted for hope, for change.

Throughout it all, you never turned your back on me, and I will not turn my back on you now. Every one of you deserves to see that vision come to fruition and see Susan Collins defeated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: And still in the face of that, calls from Democrats for Platner to drop out of the race are growing louder by the proverbial hour. Last night, Senator Elizabeth Warren dropped her endorsement, saying there is no tolerance -- there can be no tolerance for sexual assault allegations of.

[07:05:03]

Senate minority leader, the top Democrat in the Senate, and the top Democrat who's in charge of trying to get more Democrats elected to the Senate, Kirsten Gillibrand, they released a statement of their own saying this, quote, Graham Platner needs to immediately withdraw as a Democratic nominee for Senate and allow Maine Democrats the opportunity to choose a new candidate who can defeat Susan Collins. The DSCC will not invest in the Maine Senate race if Platner remains on the ballot. So now, we are standing by to see what will Graham Platner do, and what will Democrats say today. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. Thank you so much, Kate.

Breaking right now, President Trump has just touched down in Turkey for a critical NATO summit, and we're expecting to hear from him this morning as he meets with Turkish President Erdogan. It comes at a tense moment for the NATO alliance. For years, Donald Trump has criticized NATO allies over defense spending, and more recently, he slammed European countries for not doing more to help him during the war with Iran. We're told that he even floated cutting U.S. troops in Europe by one-third over the spring, and on top of all this, the president heads into this summit while Russia's war on Ukraine is still raging.

On the eve of this meeting, Russia's strikes killed at least 27 people in and around the capital Kyiv. President Trump is expected to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday.

CNN's Kevin Liptak is live in Ankara, Turkey, for us. What are we expecting to see? Because the lead-up to this gives some consternation to NATO allies for the words that Donald Trump has been using against NATO allies.

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: A whole lot of consternation, a whole lot of anxiety. And, you know, the sentiment that you get from officials who are here in Ankara ahead of this summit, American officials, European officials, is that this is going to be an enormously consequential gathering. Secretary of State Marco Rubio even said that this might be the most important NATO summit in the alliance's history, and that's all because of President Trump.

You know, he has threatened to try and annex Greenland, which is the property of a NATO ally. He has castigated the NATO allies for not spending more on defense, and he has been furious at their refusals to participate in the war in Iran. And it has gotten to the point where he's even talking about privately with advisers withdrawing as much as a third of American troops from Europe.

Now, at the time that he mused about this in the spring, and that's according to people who are familiar with his remarks, you did see the U.S. cancel planned deployments of troops in Europe. You see the Pentagon also announced a six-month review of American force posture, which an American official says could very well result in a significant drawdown of American forces here.

And that is causing just so much anxiety among European officials who wonder, one, what the gaps they will need to fill in their own capabilities to ensure that the continent is secured going forward, but, two, just how much they can rely on the United States for their own protection.

You know, President Trump has made no secret that he essentially views NATO as a protection racket, that he thinks that the U.S. is bankrolling the European security. In a lot of ways this cajoling has been successful. Remember at last year's NATO summit in the Netherlands, he got all of the allies to commit to spending 5 percent of their GDP on defense, although getting them to that point has been a slow process.

You've seen the NATO chief, Mark Rutte, really trying to cultivate Trump to show him that the United States is the essential member of this alliance. But despite all of that, it took some convincing to get President Trump to commit to coming to this summit at all. You know, he essentially had to be told that it would be an affront to the Turkish President Erdogan if he didn't show up, and that is essentially why he is here in Ankara today.

We will see him get off the plane, and he will be shaking hands with Erdogan before the two of them meet one-on-one later today. Sara?

SIDNER: A lot at stake here. Kevin Liptak, thank you so much. And, again, we're just watching the door of Air Force One, waiting for the president to descend. John?

BERMAN: All right. Erika Kirk face to face with a man prosecutors say shot and killed her husband.

New reporting inside the Patriot Front, the masked white nationalist group marching in Washington, D.C.

And then lion versus man, a slow motion standoff, how it all ended and which one walked away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:10:00]

BERMAN: So, that didn't go well. Maybe the worst game I've ever seen the U.S. Men's team play ever. They are out of the World Cup, crushed by Belgium, all following the controversy over President Trump's involvement in the reversing of the suspension of a star U.S. player. It didn't help, it might even have fueled Belgium.

After the win, a cheeky Twitter post from the Belgian team. They wrote, overturn this. Yikes.

Let's get right to CNN's Andy Scholes. Andy, they stunk. We stunk.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yes.

BERMAN: Every player stunk.

SCHOLES: It seemed, John, all night we just never had a chance in this game. I mean, it really was depressing.

[07:15:00]

After we had been playing so well in this World Cup, I mean, we could've had ten Folarin Baloguns on the field last night and it really wouldn't have mattered. I mean, the U.S. just completely outclassed by Belgium.

Seattle before the game, though, it was rocking for this match. The U.S. was 7-0 all-time in this stadium coming in, but Belgium just taking it to the U.S. from the start. Charles De Ketelaere taps it in there on the cross. That gave Belgium the lead. The one moment of joy for the U.S. in this game was Malik Tillman once again scoring on a free kick. But that joy was short-lived, Ketelaere scoring again less than two minutes later.

And then Christian Pulisic, he had another rough game. He turned the ball over 11 times in the first half, and then he hurt himself kicking one of the Belgium players. He had to leave the game. Then maybe the most embarrassing moment of this World Cup, Matt Freese, he came way out to get this ball, but then he doesn't clear it immediately. It got stolen. Tim Ream stumbles, doesn't stop the shot. That made it 3-1. Might as well have been 10-1 at this point.

The U.S., only two shots on goal all night long, Belgium, they added one more goal towards the end, made it 4-1. The U.S. World Cup dreams come to an end in the round of 16.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TYLER ADAMS, USA MIDFIELDER: You start to think about what you could've done better. But that's the environment of elite performance. If no one ever lost, then there probably wouldn't be any progress. And that's for the best players in the world. You go through it. You put yourself in those situations to try and break through. At this moment, yes, it sucks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: Now, there was lots of heated debate ahead of the match about Balogun's red card ban being suspended and him getting the ability to play. President Trump said he made a call to FIFA about that red card, but FIFA said it made an independent decision.

After the loss, Coach Mauricio Pochettino was asked if all the noise heading into the match affected the team.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAURICIO POHCETTINO, USA HEAD COACH: I think we were not good enough. It wasn't our day. We didn't perform in the way that we're supposed to perform or show our quality. But I think all that was happening around -- was around, but I think it's, it wasn't a situation that affect us on the group.

(END VIDEO CLIP) SCHOLES: All right. So, Belgium now moves on to face Spain. They beat Portugal after Mikel Merino scored in the 91st minute. The loss meant this was the end for Cristiano Ronaldo at the World Cup. And in today's What A Shot, brought to you by HBO Max, we see Ronaldo leaving a World Cup pitch for the very last time, and in tears. He never was able to make it to a final. 2006 semifinals was Ronaldo's best ever finish at a World Cup. So, another tough year for the Ronaldo crowd that thinks he's better than Messi, better all-time, John.

But, man, tough one for the U.S., John. I agree with you, man. That was just a rough, rough night, and not a fun one to watch.

BERMAN: No, not one bit. It's a good thing I'm half Norwegian though, Andy, because now I have another team to root for.

Andy Scholes, thank you very much for that. Kate, I leave you with that.

BOLDUAN: Really?

BERMAN: Skol.

BOLDUAN: Break out the drum. Here we go. I love you, J.B.

Police arrest a graffiti artist after scaling a tower and painting a giant cartoon bird. How the stunt ended with -- this is like a Mad Libs, guys. How the stunt ended with a demand for a peanut butter sandwich and lower taxes.

And real life space balls or not? Maybe. The mysterious large metal balls that washed up on a beach, and why they may be connected to a rocket ship.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:20:00]

SIDNER: All right. Happening today, the man accused of shooting conservative activist Charlie Kirk is due back in a Utah courtroom as a judge weighs whether there is enough evidence for the case to move on to trial. On Monday, prosecutors began laying out their case against Tyler Robinson, who is accused of killing Kirk last September at Utah Valley University.

For the first time in court, Kirk's widow, Erika, came face-to-face with Robinson, and today prosecutors are expected to play a videotaped statement from Robinson's former roommate.

CNN's Jean Casarez watching all this unfold. What are you expecting, and what did you see happen yesterday?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, first of all, the roommate, pivotal witness for the prosecution, because there were texts between them. Actually, Tyler Robinson calls the roommate, my love, but when, after in the aftermath, the roommate gave all the texts to law enforcement, which are very incriminating. Yesterday, packed courtroom, Erica Kirk was in that courtroom, the widow of Charlie Kirk. His parents were in the courtroom. Tyler Robinson's parents were in the courtroom, opposite sides, of course. But then Donald Trump Jr. walks in. And there were no public statements. Nothing was ever said publicly. He silently was there in the front row with the family, the Kirk family.

But when the proceedings started, and Erika Kirk knew she was not going to stay in that courtroom when anything was mentioned, the judge started and the first witness was called. Christopher Bagley, he was the officer from the Utah Valley University. He was in an elevated position when the event started at 12:00 noon. He witnessed the shot, and the moment he was about to just describe the shot, Erika just jumped up, and she just walked out, and she didn't want to hear it.

He went on to say that after the shot that he looked at all the buildings at the university, and he saw one building that had a flat roof, and he thought, that's got to be the vantage point. And this is a university. There're so many buildings all over. He actually went to that building, climbed up, jumped over the railing, and it was a gravel roof on that building.

[07:25:04]

Listen to his testimony of what he saw once he got up on that gravel roof.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Officer, upon seeing this disturbance in the gravel, you've described what it looked like to you.

OFFICER CHRIS BAGLEY, UTAH VALLEY UNIVERSITY POLICE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Someone lying down in a prone position, correct?

BAGLEY: Yes. At that moment, I realized, because it was direct line of sight, plus the disturbance in the gravel, or I could see somebody had laid down in a prone position or a sniper position, and asked dispatch to get on the v -- to -- then I realized that we probably didn't have our shooter in custody.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: They had arrested someone right off -- right -- very close in time, and they realized this is not the person. And so he documented with photographs the gravel. He said he could see an arm, two arms that were there, indentations in the gravel, and then the state forensics photographer came later that night and took some more pictures.

Then it came to the point there were so many videos, because it was a whole crowd with the shooting. So, they started to have -- need to play the videos of the actual shot. And they were so graphic, the judge did not allow the courtroom to see them, but the judge alone watched the videos. And the first one was that shot. We believe it was a close-up. And I want you to watch the judge, because he had trouble watching this video as the fact finder in this preliminary hearing. He just flinches. You can see him flinch right there when he watches it. His eyes sort of moved. And the courtroom was in silence. Erika Kirk, of course, up and left before that was even played in the courtroom.

But today, this is set to continue all week. You know, there are seven charges here, and the defense objected to everything. I mean, they're at the top of their game too, objecting to everything foundational, deprives them of a right trial unfair, unconstitutional hearsay. So, they have -- they're building their record. But they will ask for this entire case to be dismissed, all seven counts. That's their job in this.

SIDNER: Wow, there's so much unfolding there. And to have Erika Kirk there reliving this, but leaving when she just doesn't want to see the horror of it all, it is hard to imagine being that family.

Jean Casarez, thank you so much for your reporting. We will be streaming the hearing gavel-to-gavel on CNN All Access and the CNN app if you would like to watch as this pretrial hearing goes forward. That starts at 11:00. John?

BERMAN: All right. We are awaiting news from Maine amid speculation that Graham Platner could end his Senate campaign as soon as this morning. There are new allegations of sexual assault.

And then the roof caved in right on top of them, the absolutely terrifying moments inside a supermarket.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:30:00]