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Voters Prepare For Competitive Primary Election On Tuesday; Polls Show Extremely Tight Race For Los Angeles Mayor; Candidates Make Final Push Before Iowa Democratic Senate Primary. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired June 02, 2026 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, good morning, everybody. It's great to have you with me. I'm Polo Sandoval live in New York. And this is what's coming your way here on CNN Newsroom.

A Republican surging in the race to be California's next governor as voters head to the polls in just a matter of hours. And the deadly aftermath after Russia launches a massive wave of drone and missile strikes across various Ukrainian cities. Peace talks reportedly back on track after Iran threatened to pull out. Exactly what led to this walk back of a live report from the region.

Plus, the fate of a lost World War II submarine is confirmed exactly 82 years after its disappearance. The final resting place of the USS Herring on the way.

ANNOUNCER: Live from New York, this is CNN Newsroom with Polo Sandoval.

SANDOVAL: All right, everybody, let's begin in California, which will be holding its gubernatorial primary later today. And it could be anyone's race. And the field, it's crowded. A poll by the Public Policy Institute of California finding that Democrat Javier Becerra is in the lead with less than 25 percent. On the Republican side, an endorsement from President Trump appearing to be lifting Steve Hilton within striking distance of some of his Democratic opponents.

And the top two candidates, they will be advancing to the general election later this year regardless of their party. Los Angeles also facing a highly contested mayoral race with a whopping 14 candidates on that ballot. Polls right now, they are showing current Mayor Karen Bass is one of three frontrunners, along with city council member Nithya Raman and former reality show Spencer Pratt, former reality show star, I should say. The vote is nonpartisan, but Bass is currently facing competition from Raman to her left and Pratt on her right.

And we're also going to be closely watching elections in Iowa. Two candidates are currently facing off in the Democratic primary, each hoping for a chance to replace retiring Republican Senator Joni Ernst. CNN's Jeff Zeleny with a preview of that race.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF U.S. NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: June is a very busy month of primaries beginning here in Iowa, where a key Democratic Senate primary will be taking place on Tuesday, as well as a race for governor and competitive House races as well.

Now, as Democrats try and work through this uphill challenge of trying to win control of the Senate and Republicans try and defend their Senate majority, Iowa is one of the states where people are paying very close attention to and a primary playing out on the Democratic side is going to be very interesting as the votes are counted on Tuesday evening. A state representative, Josh Turek, who's a two-time gold medal winning Paralympian in men's wheelchair basketball, is running against a state senator here named Zach Wahls. Now, there are not many ideological differences, but this race largely has been driven by the power of the biography and electability which Josh Turek says, says belongs to him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSH TUREK, U.S. DEMOCRATIC SENATE CANDIDATE: I think that I have a unique ability, proven ability to reach out and connect with independents and moderate Republicans that I think that my opponent would struggle to do. And that is what it is going to take to be able to win a state like Iowa.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: And Turek's opponent, Zach Wahls, disagrees with that assessment. He says he is the most electable candidate. Now, whoever happens to win the Democratic primary, it is still an uphill battle. Iowa has not elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate to since 2008.

That was Tom Harkin, of course, who served for about 30 years in the U.S. senate. He is endorsed Josh Turek. So as all the math is falling together about the possibility of Democrats winning control of the Senate, Iowa is one of those places that they are building their hopes upon. We shall see if that happens.

But again, June, a very busy month for primaries next week is Maine. Jeff Zeleny, CNN.

SANDOVAL: And we're going to get you some live analysis on some of these races in just a moment. And as Washington watches, some of these races are currently mixed signals from the Trump administration over the future of the President's $1.8 billion so called anti weaponization fund. It was meant to compensate people who claim that they have been wrongly targeted by past administrations, which would include the January 6th rioters.

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Well, the fund was also created in part to settle President Trump's massive lawsuit against the IRS. On Monday, the Justice Department said it disagrees strongly with the federal court's decision to temporarily pause that fund, but added that it will be abiding by that decision. CNN's Manu Raju with the latest from Capitol Hill.

MANUR RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The Trump administration's $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund has completely stalled President Trump's agenda on Capitol Hill. Right before the Memorial Day recess, Senate Republicans revolted news of this fund, particularly over the idea that perhaps January 6th convicts, including ones who were convicted of assaulting law enforcement, that they could have access to the taxpayer money. They led to a very heated closed door meeting with the acting attorney General, Todd Blanche, and Republican senators.

Senators said they couldn't move forward with a separate plan, a plan dealing with tens of billions of dollars in funding, Donald Trump's immigration priorities, his immigration enforcement priorities. They said that couldn't go forward because this would be open to a very extensive amendment process and there would be a push by Democrats and a lot of Republicans to rein in that fund. And it was too complicated. They wanted more information and they wanted the administration to drop it all together before moving ahead with that plan.

Well, then fast forward to now where senators are just returning into town and they are learning about this new Justice Department statement in the aftermath of a court decision setting back their efforts to move ahead with that anti-weaponization fund. That Justice Department statement saying it would abide by the court order.

Is that enough, though, to get Republicans on board? A lot of them still have serious questions about how this plan will move ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JONI ERNST, U.S. SENATE REPUBLICAN: And I think the acting attorney general did a good job coming and visiting with us the week before we left. But there's a lot more that our leadership will want to work out with the White House. And we hope we can get it worked out because reconciliation is really important.

We need to be focusing on CBP. We need to focus on ice. We need to make sure they're funded.

RAJU: Should they drop the fund altogether?

ERNST: That will be up to the administration.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAJU: But I am told from top Republicans that they want a lot more. In fact, that they want this fund completely dropped and to be abundantly clear from the administration that they will not move ahead whatsoever and that this plan to provide this money for people claiming they've been victimized by the Justice Department, they want it dropped altogether and they want it to be abundantly clear from the White House before moving to proceed.

So that's going to be the big question for Republican leaders. Will they get more from the White House? If they don't get more from the White House, will they decide to move ahead on this proposal and try to dare Republican senators in voting down one of the last big agenda items before the midterms? All huge questions at this moment is a lot of Republicans still are concerned about this plan and are aghast at the decision by the administration to put this out, particularly as they were contemplating a complex agenda item that they wanted to send to the president's desk a couple weeks ago. Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.

SANDOVAL: Natasha Linstaedt is a professor of government at the University of Essex. She is with us from Colchester, England. Natasha, it's always great to see you.

NATASHA LINDSTAEDT, PROFESSOR OF GOVERNMENT, UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX: Nice to see you, too.

SANDOVAL: Let's pick up where Manu left off in talking about President Trump's plans to drop this controversial $1.8 billion so called anti we fund. What do you make of President Trump's apparent retreat and do you think that he may plan to revisit this and maybe implement this later?

LINDSTAEDT: So it's really rare. Whenever Trump decides to give in. We see that this really hasn't happened at all during his second term. It happened a little bit more in the first term when he backed down a bit on building that border wall. So it's a sign that he doesn't have complete control over the Republican, though it seems like it's almost complete control.

But I think the issue is that this isn't very popular. These weaponization funds, the ballroom, the war in Iran, all these things are not popular. And while he says he doesn't really care, he's even said it himself, what the American public thinks about the economy. These are things that they're going to have to deal with and that he wants to support those that he feels have been wrongly, has wrongly faced justice. This isn't really popular because what Americans really care about is cost of living.

And so that's why he's receiving a little bit of pushback from Republicans. I mean, very, very rarely does this happen. But there's just been a bit of pushback from Republicans on this because they're worried about what's going to happen to them in November if the main accomplishments have nothing to do with addressing the cost-of-living crisis.

SANDOVAL: Yes, when this was, when this fund was announced, I mean, many Republicans couldn't run away from it fast enough. Let's get back to California where voters will be deciding which two candidates will later run for governor. What are the chances that we may see a two Democrat race in California come November. And how do you think that the Democratic Party at the national level may strategize if we do see two Democrats on the ballot?

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So this race has just been completely topsy turvy all over the place. There was a certain point after Swalwell had to drop out a Democrat that it could have been two Republicans. It could have been Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco. They were ahead because there were so many other Democrats in the field that were kind of going against one another.

But we've seen that Javier Becerra has emerged as a frontrunner now. He's very traditional sort of politician. He wouldn't really be that different from Gavin Newsom, possibly a little bit more progressive. But we've also seen Tom Steyer, who spent over 200 million on this campaign, come up a little bit in the polls.

There's some polls that even have him ahead of Steve Hilton. And he's running more as sort of like a populist progressive. And so, it's a possibility that these two could end up on top.

Steve Hilton has Fox News. He has that sort of he's a Fox News person. So he has that sort of the public is aware of him, that they know who he is and so forth. And he's trying to strike or explain the differences between him and between Becerra and Steyer and that it's time for California to have change and so forth. But California is largely a Democratic state.

It leans Democratic in almost every single way. So, it's really unlikely that a Republican is going to win this one. But what I think is likely to happen is you're going to see Becerra pull away with it because there is the experience that he has and the fact that he's probably better able to grab the voters that are more in the middle because he's running more as a centrist.

SANDOVAL: Yes, you answered what was going to be my next question because Hilton is within striking distance how you would see it play out. If you do see a Democrat and a Republican on the ballot, mainly a Becerra-Hilton ballot. I'm wondering if we could maybe get your thoughts before we wrap up on Iowa. This obviously is going to be another race that you'll be watching close.

I'm curious what your assessment is of that. For the first time in a decade, Iowa Democrats are competing for a Senate seat that was that Joni Ernst decided not to run for again.

LINDSTAEDT: Right. I mean, Iowa is a really interesting state. And Even in the 2024 presidential election, there was some polling that turned out to be really wrong that a Democrat would have a chance, that Kamala Harris would have a chance to even win Iowa there against Trump. But I don't see it going Democrats way.

I think this is really largely a Republican state and the winner is going to end up being a Republican come in November. You have more of the motivated voters that come out to the primaries. It's the same situation in California. It's really highly motivated voters that come out. You only have about 20 percent turnout. That tends to push the primary results a little bit more to the extreme. And I don't really see a critical mass of people coming out to vote that might be necessary then for the Democrats to win in Iowa.

And so while they may make a good push there, that's not one of the states I see them being able to have a chance to win.

SANDOVAL: We'll all be watching very closely in the hours ahead or potentially days or weeks ahead, depending on how fast we get those returns. Natasha Linstaedt, as always, really appreciate your analysis.

LINDSTAEDT: Thanks for having me.

SANDOVAL: Thank you. Ukrainian officials now say that at least 13 people have been killed in a large-scale attack by Russia in the cities of Kyiv and Dnipro. And we're told that more than 100 people have been wounded. Ukraine's military says that Russia used more than 650 drones as well as dozens of missiles, including hypersonics.

A ballistic missile threat had been issued for that region earlier. Multiple buildings were hit, including a clinic, a school and several cars that caught fire. And officials are saying that people have been trapped under the rubble of a residential building. Clare Sebastian is following all the developments out of London.

Clare, this was a massive strike. What do we -- what else are we learning about that and the efforts to rescue some of the people?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Good morning, Polo. This was a very large-scale attack targeting different regions, but in particular the capital, Kyiv, Dnipro, another major city, Kharkivs, Zaporizhzhia. So widespread happening we're hearing in three waves throughout the night and including critically a number of different types of missiles and drones.

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We do often get a high number of drones in the hundreds in these big Russian attacks. But 73 missiles overall is a very high number and it included a large number of ballistic missiles, many of which did get through. According to preliminary air force numbers, Ukraine's air defense is 22 ballistic missiles evaded air defenses. And this is critical for Ukraine.

We continue to hear calls from President Zelensky and other officials that they are running critically short of interceptors, including Patriot interceptors supplied by the U.S. paid for now by NATO members to deal with this. And Zelensky again this morning calling for Europe to come up with its own anti-ballistic missile systems to help Ukraine. There were also eight, what are called Zircon anti-ship missiles that were used, we believe, on Kyiv also did not get stopped by air defenses. These are powerful cruise missiles that generally used to target ships, but in this case, obviously on land.

So this was a wide array of missiles used in this attack. As I said, Kyiv was a major target. We're hearing now about four deaths, over 60 injuries, saying 38 people in hospital. There was apparently, according to Kyiv authorities, what's called a double tap attack on a residential building where there's one strike, then rescuers move in and there's another strike, which of course makes the rescuers themselves vulnerable.

Dnipro, where we're seeing a fairly high death toll, nine people killed. Search is still continuing in the rubble of a four-story apartment building there. On the Russian side, they are quite clearly presenting this as

revenge. We have to be clear that in a war being waged by Russia, that these claims of revenge have a significant credibility gap. But that is how they are presenting this. They're saying this is revenge for a Ukrainian attack on Russian occupied Luhansk several weeks ago. And this is part of their crimes. And this was trailed by Putin in an evening meeting that he held on Monday about those recent attacks.

And he said the Kyiv leadership, and I quote, "has decided to open a new chapter in its series of crimes to add a new dimension to the conflict as a whole." It's their choice, I think, very carefully chosen words. And obviously in the context we've seen Russia warn foreign officials to leave the capital, Kyiv, in recent weeks.

The Ukrainian authorities are saying, look, they're losing initiative on the battlefield. This is an act of desperation. But I think the warning this morning in particular from Ukraine is that while Ukraine has these gaps in its ballistic, in particular air defenses, this is a loophole that the Russian side is going to continue to try and exploit. Polo.

SANDOVAL: Clare Sebastian with a live reporter on London. Thanks, Clare.

And I want to take you to the Middle east now where Israel appears to be backing off threats to strike Hezbollah targets in Beirut, Lebanon. And that follows what sources describe as a very heated phone call between U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Iranian media is reporting on Monday the Tehran was suspending negotiations with Washington over those Israeli strikes, but that now a regional source is saying that those talks are back on track.

President Trump telling ABC News that a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and extend the cease fire with Iran is reachable over the next week. Already 94 days of paralysis there in the Strait of Hormuz. CNN's Paula Hancocks live at this hour from Abu Dhabi with the latest on negotiations.

And also the broader context, Paula, about the sort of Lebanon element in all of this.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, Polo, we're hearing positive words from the U.S. President. But to put that into context, we have been hearing that throughout, saying at this point now to ABC News that this cease fire, the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz is reachable within the next week. What we have heard from Tehran, despite the fact on Monday they had said that they were suspending negotiations now is that we understand from Iranian media that they're working out a final draft proposal. So it would suggest as though all sides have pulled back from the brink at this point.

Now, as you mentioned, that Lebanon, of course, was the key to this. We had heard from the Israeli prime minister and the defense minister in a joint statement that there was going to be continued and increased strikes on the capital, on Beirut, the southern Dahi neighborhood, which is considered to be a Hezbollah stronghold. And we have been seeing increasing incursions into southern Lebanon, going further into Lebanese territory by the Israeli military as well.

So there was this heated exchange, we understand, between the U.S. President and Israeli prime minister in a phone call on Monday, the White House saying it, or at least I should say two people familiar with that call saying it was he with the U.S. President trying to pull the Israeli prime minister back from his actions in Lebanon, seeing that it was going to derail the ceasefire and the deal, the memorandum of understanding that he wanted to sign between the U.S. and Iran.

[04:20:00]

Now Axios is reporting further, saying that it was expletive Laden, saying that at one point the U.S. President called the Israeli prime minister expletive crazy, saying that he would be in prison if it weren't for him. So certainly, what we're seeing at this point is the Israeli leadership is no longer talking about strikes on Beirut, the capital. But Netanyahu has said that they will carry out continued strikes on southern Lebanon, quote, "as planned."

And the White House not commenting on the acrimonious tone of this phone call at this point. But what it appears to show is that all sides have, have pulled back slightly. We understand as well that there are still ambassadorial talks between Israel and Lebanon expected to happen today to talk about a cease fire or to talk about some kind of deal on that front. We haven't specifically heard from Tehran as to where they believe these talks are at this point. Polo.

SANDOVAL: All right, CNN's Paula Hancocks, do let us know if we hear on that front.

More protests outside of a migrant detention center in New Jersey. Now one of the demonstrators is facing federal charges on that in a moment.

El Nino is coming faster than expected, perhaps even more intense. The World Meteorological Organization now says that the event, it's likely to come before September. Those details are on the way.

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SANDOVAL: A protester is facing federal charges related to his involvement in protest is outside of an immigration detention center in Newark, New Jersey. According to the U.S. attorney's office, a 27- year-old Brooklyn man allegedly threatened to assault and murder an ICE officer as well as that officer's family. According to the complaint, the same ICE officer had hit Nicholas Matthews scalpel twice in the leg with a baton during a physical altercation.

On Monday, we saw crowds gather again protesting what they describe as inhumane conditions inside the facility. A Department of Homeland Security, which oversees operations at the facility, has denied any allegations. Newark's mayor has imposed a 9:00 p.m. curfew around the building in hopes of trying to defuse the situation. But on the first night, there were several protesters that refused to disperse, leading to several arrests.

The United Nations Weather agency is now forecasting an 80 percent chance of an El Nino event happening this summer. The World Meteorological Organization says that the events could possibly develop between this month and August.

El Nino is driven by warm waters, warm ocean waters in the tropical Pacific. It typically increases temperatures and rainfall around the world, leading to an increased risk of extreme weather. And the event typically happens every two to seven years. The most recent one that started in May 2023 and didn't end until March 2024.

All right, let's discuss now. I'm joined by Andrew Hazeltson. He's associate scientist at the University of Miami Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies. Thank you so much for taking the time to join us.

ANDREW HAZELTON, ASSOCIATE SCIENTIST AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI CIMAS: Thank you for having me.

SANDOVAL: Andy, a climate expert told me a couple of weeks ago that there was one of there was one of the few silver linings to El Nino event is that it tends to suppress tropical storm development in the Atlantic. Curious if you could explain for our viewers why that would be. And also, what are climate models telling you about this year's Atlantic hurricane season?

HAZELTON: Sure. Yes, that's correct. The strong El Ninos like the ones developing in the Pacific, the ones in the Pacific right now do tend to suppress the Atlantic for a couple of reasons. Because what happens in El Nino is you get warmer water over the Pacific along the equator, so you get more thunderstorms there, you get more rising air convection, thunderstorms.

And so that leads to sinking air across the Atlantic and also upper- level wind shear, basically upper level, strong upper-level winds that tear thunderstorms apart. So, when you get an El Nino like this, you tend to get more storms across the Central Pacific, eastern Pacific, but fewer across the Atlantic. And that's what climate models seem to be showing. Most of the ones you look -- look at have a strong El Nino, have a lot of convection, a lot of rainfall across the Pacific.

We could even see some, some threats to Hawaii this year. But you look across the Atlantic and a lot rainfalls below normal, which tends to mean less opportunities for hurricanes to develop. Just a lot drier and less favorable overall across the Atlantic. But of course, you can still get something to sneak through at some point.

SANDOVAL: Yes. And I think it is also important, I'm sure, to, to remind viewers that it really takes one devastating storm to affect residents that may live, especially along the coastline. Is that correct?

HAZELTON: That's correct. And just because you maybe have a lower risk this year doesn't mean that it's guaranteed that there won't be anything. We've had very quiet years like 1992, which wasn't El Nino, but it was still a very quiet year. And we had a Hurricane Andrew or 1965, which was a strong El Nino.

We had Hurricane Betsy also hit South Florida and New Orleans. 1991 Was a strong El Nino. We had Hurricane Bob which hit New England, was a major hurricane and hit New England. And so there tend to be fewer storms overall during this kind of El Ninos, but you can still get that one big storm sometimes.

And it's just kind of hard to say when or where it might be. So still just best to be prepared as you would any other season.

SANDOVAL: So we talked about the Atlantic, talked about some potential storm formation in the Pacific. When could we see El Nino develop and how long could it last, potentially maybe even in to next year?

HAZELTON: Yes, I think we already see if you look at the sea surface temperature anomalies, the departures from average across the Pacific, we're already basically getting into El Nino territory. The way it's defined is usually based on like a three-month average, so maybe a little bit before it's officially declared, but I think we're already seeing it.

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