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Republican Resistant; US Politics; War With Iran. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired June 05, 2026 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:33]

LYNDA KINKADE, CNN ACHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the United States and all around the world. I'm Lynda Kinkade.

Just ahead, you are looking at a live feed from the US Senate floor. Right now, an extended marathon and rapid fire votes on amendments known as the vote-a-rama is underway. We'll break down what's at stake and what the voting patterns may signal about divisions within the Republican Party.

The President is drawing a clear red line outlining the scenario that could trigger a turn to combat operations with Iran. We'll bring you the latest details and a report from the Gulf on where diplomatic efforts stamped. Plus, what we're learning about the American college student who went missing on a family vacation in Japan.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from Atlanta, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Lynda Kinkade.

KINKADE: We start in Washington where the US Senate continues its marathon voting session ahead of the final passage of the $70 billion immigration bill. The Republican bill has been stalled for weeks because of divisions in the party over President Trump's so-called anti-weaponization fund. The $1.8 billion fund to compensate people who claim they were wrongfully targeted by government actions.

But critics say it would serve as a slush fund for Trump allies. There have been multiple failed efforts to shut down the fund as part of the marathon vote-a-rama. The broader immigration package remains subject to amendments as a small group of Republicans continue to withhold support unless key provisions are changed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why is this so important to get this, get the, to target the weaponization fund here when the President -- because the president has kept this option open?

SEN. THOM TILLIS (R-NC): Well, even the AG has said that it's done. So I don't know why we just don't codify it. And it takes that argument away from the Democrats. That's a win-win in my opinion.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible) that the President didn't think that this weaponization fund had been put to bed. I mean, does Todd Blanche --

TILLIS: You know what, either the right hand and the left hand need to figure out what the hell they're doing because I heard a guy who just got put forth as AG say it's dead. and if it's dead, we should be able to codify that, be done with it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KINKADE: Senator Thom Tillis there talking about Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who green lit the fund in the first place. President Trump is planning to nominate Blanche to take over the role permanently.

During his confirmation process, Todd Blanche will likely have to answer questions over his involvement of the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files following testimony from his former boss. CNN's Paula Reid reports.

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: In this transcript, former Attorney General Pam Bondi makes it clear that she delegated all things Epstein to her number two, then Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. She told the committee that as the head of a large department with broad responsibilities, "I did not lead every aspect of this effort nor conduct a document review myself. I delegated that oversight over the process to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche."

She makes it clear that Blanche supervised the entire process of carrying out their requirements under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. She also said that when it comes to that controversial Ghislaine Maxwell interview, she said Blanche is the one who initiated that, and because he believed that there was someone still living in prison who had potential information about other co-conspirators and crimes.

Now, she was not at all critical of Blanche. In fact, she praised him, calling him one of the most highly ethical individuals I know, saying that he is an incredible acting attorney general and that this investigation was a herculean task done with very little error. But now that Blanche faces a high stakes confirmation hearing to be attorney general, this is something that he is going to have to answer to.

Now, sources have previously told me once he was tapped to be the acting attorney general that one of the only problems they saw with Blanche was that he didn't get this administration passed the "original sin" of how they have handled Epstein because he was so involved. So now not only will he face questions about that controversial weaponization fund that had his name on it, he will also be answering questions about his handling of the Epstein files. And Democrats can even read directly from this transcript.

Paula Reid, CNN, Washington.

[04:05:00]

KINKADE: Well, President Trump says another one of his cabinet appointments won't be around for the long haul. He said he doesn't plan to nominate Bill Pulte to serve as the permanent director of National Intelligence, describing his role in the position as short term.

Now, critics, including some Republican lawmakers, question Pulte's lack of national security credentials. The President argues he himself didn't have a lot of experience in national security before taking office, and says he's done quite a really great job with it.

For more, I'd like to welcome Natasha Lindstaedt, who is a Professor of Government at the University of Essex. She joins us from Colchester, England. Good to have you with us.

NATASHA LINDSTAEDT, PROFESSOR OF GOVERNMENT, UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX: Thanks for having me.

KINKADE: So, Natasha, I want to start with the proposed $1.8 billion fund addressing alleged political weaponization of government power. It appears to be effectively dead. So why hasn't President Trump fully ruled it out?

LINDSTAEDT: Well, he doesn't want to fully rule it out. He doesn't want to admit that this is some sort of loss for him. And we're seeing that there's just a lot of discord within the Republican Party about this. I mean, Republican Senator Ted Cruz was saying on his podcast that it was one of the most contentious meetings that he's ever been to with Republicans. Really upset with Todd Blanche, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, because there's really no win for Republicans on this.

This is incredibly unpopular as is the 1 billion for the ballroom, as is the war in Iran. And Republicans are seeing the November midterms and they're not really sure what they're going to have to speak for to their constituents about what they've been able to do.

So we've seen there has definitely been pushback. They delayed that $70 billion immigration bill, but at the end they are not voting to codify it. There was pushback at least overnight on Chuck Schumer's bill to try to have some kind of leg legal framework in place to prevent Trump from ever having some kind of slush fund.

But I think what you're seeing is there are cracks in the Republican Party, but you still have Donald Trump having a pretty significant hold over most Republicans.

KINKADE: Former Attorney General Pam Bondi, who says that Acting Attorney General Top Blanche was largely responsible for the release of the Epstein files. Democrats, of course, are demanding more testimony and redactions over the withheld material. How much legal and political pressure does he face?

LINDSTAEDT: Well, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is not particularly popular. He's definitely not popular with Democrats who basically see him as Trump's personal lawyer, that there really isn't any distinction there. And that was he -- that was what he was doing previously before Trump was elected. And that he's basically just an attack dog for Trump, that he's trying to protect Trump from the law rather than uphold the rule of law for all American citizens. So he has a lot of pushback of from the Democrats, but also from Republicans as well, who just don't think that he's managing the Epstein files. Didn't manage Epstein files particularly well, didn't manage this whole weaponization fund very well.

And there is even some bipartisan criticism about the re-indictment of James Comey. And on the Democrat side, they don't like the fact that he's leading the charge against E. Jean Carroll, who had a civil lawsuit against Trump. So there's a lot of questions about his suitability for the role. He just seems incredibly aggressive and willing to do whatever it takes to defend Trump, and that was something that Pam Bondi apparently wasn't able to do.

So I think you're going to see pushback on both sides. But at the end of the day, we've seen Trump been able to get his nominations through.

KINKADE: And I want to turn to the governor races. Georgia and Pennsylvania seen as the key national bellwethers heading towards 2028. What stood out from the primary results in those states and what's your read into what we're seeing happening in California?

LINDSTAEDT: So focus a little bit first on Georgia. There's some good news for the Democrats in the terms of the turnout. They had more turnout for their primaries than the Republicans had for their specific primaries. So from the Democrat side, that means there's a little bit more enthusiasm and that might be really important because these are really, really closely contested races.

Georgia has really become swing state. And at least for the senator position, that's one of the ones that Republicans thought they could pick up. And there might be a little bit more of a challenge there for them to do so.

In terms of the California governor race, I mean, this has really been topsy-turvy all over the place. I think it's a bit of a warning sign here for the Democrats because there clearly is a lot of angst because there is so much support for Steve Hilton now. All the votes haven't been counted yet. There typically is very low turnout for primaries. It tends to bring out the more enthusiastic, maybe more extreme voters.

But there's a little bit of warning sign that all isn't well and that a lot of Californians are really fed up with the cost of living crisis.

[04:10:02]

KINKADE: Yes, exactly. That's playing a major role there. Professor Natasha Lindstaedt, as always, thanks for joining us.

LINDSTAEDT: Thanks for having me.

KINKADE: Well, I want to turn to the war with Iran where US President Donald Trump says he would restart combat operations if Iran killed any American troops. The President also says he would be opened, even honored, to meet with Iran's new supreme leader if there's an agreement to end the war.

Mr. Trump says the ayatollah is probably a professional and has a very good reputation in some circles. CNN's Paula Hancocks is following the developments from Abu Dhabi.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: If we look back over the last week, there has been a lot said by the Trump administration, by the US President, but anything concrete is really missing. There hasn't appeared to be much movement at all when it comes to moving closer to this memorandum of understanding that the have been working on.

Now, we heard from the US President last weekend. He said that he believed there could be an agreement this week. We heard on Thursday the president saying he believes it could be this weekend. But we have been hearing this optimism in these suggested timelines for weeks now and nothing concrete has come of it.

You look at what we're hearing from the Iranian side as well, the foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, saying that there is no formal negotiation ongoing. But there are messages that are being passed back and forth between the US and Iran through a mediator, but has said that there has been no significant progress.

We did hear though, as you say, from the US President on Thursday. Let's listen to what he said when he was asked specifically about where those talks are.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, UNITED STATES PRESIDENT: You're going to find out what the deal is. But the main parts of the deal is, they can't have a nuclear weapon. The strait will open immediately. You know it's going to open immediately. I think we're doing very well, but we're going to see if we're going to win one way or the other.

We're going to win on paper or we're going to win military. One way or the other, it's going to be militarily or on paper.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANCOCKS: So what we understand from officials that this memorandum of understanding contains is an opening, a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. It appears, though, that the details of how the nuclear program in Iran would be restricted going forward would be left for another date, a later date. And we understand that the US President has sent back some requests that he wants stronger language.

We understand from US officials when it comes to the reopening of the strait and also stronger language when it comes to compromises that will be made when it comes to the nuclear program. But when it comes to seeing exactly where these talks are, how close potentially we are to any kind of memorandum of agreement between the US and Iran, there is nothing concrete that we can point to at this point. KINKADE: Thanks to Paula Hancocks there. While the US House of Representatives has rejected a democratic resolution limiting President Trump's war powers in Lebanon. Even the party's leadership opposed the measure, saying no US servicemembers are involved in combat operations or hostilities in the country.

Well, Hezbollah has rejected a cease fire agreement between Lebanon and Israel. The leader of that militant group calls the deal an imaginary ceasefire that requires Hezbollah to stop fighting while Israel continues its aggression.

The US has announced new economic sanctions targeting top Cuban officials, including the president. The sanctions also target some of President Miguel Diaz-Canel's family members, along with his son and grandson of former President Raul Castro. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Trump administration is going after those who sustain the regime's malicious campaign to destabilize US national security. The move is part of the ongoing US pressure campaign against the Cuban government.

Russia's president is set to speak at an annual economic event in his home city. But making the case that Russia's economy is in good shape will be an uphill battle. We'll explain. And later, a new report raises allegations about the behavior of the main Democratic Senate candidate, Graham Platner, towards women. How he's responding to the claims, next.

[04:14:33]

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KINKADE: US lawmakers are giving the green light for more aid for Ukraine. They passed a bill Thursday night authorizing $8 billion in new arms sales and 500 percent tariffs on import from Russia. Earlier, Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, called on his Russian counterpart to meet face to face, and negotiate an end to the war.

In response, Vladimir Putin questioned Mr. Zelenskyy's legitimacy as president. Some experts say it would be politically risky for Mr. Putin to meet with the Ukrainian leader.

In the coming hours, the Russian president will take center stage at his showcase economic forum in St. Petersburg. He's set to make what the Kremlin calls a grand speech at the event, which is often referred to as Putin's Davos. Our Nada Bashir is monitoring the developments from London and joins us now live. Good to see you. Nada.

So just what is Mr. Putin trying to achieve with this year's St. Petersburg Economic Forum, and how will he square the claims of stability given we've seen these reports about falling investment?

NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there certainly are many questions around stability, not only, of course, focused on the economy, but on the state of Russia's war in Ukraine, as well with stagnating gains on the ground in Ukraine. And as you mentioned, Lynda, we have seen the tide shifting once again when it comes to the international community. We've seen the United States stepping up its aid to Ukraine, European allies, of course, reinforcing their support for Ukraine's war effort.

Now, of course, this economic forum, which was dubbed Putin's Davos, of course, is really taking place against the backdrop of a ramping up of Ukrainian attacks on Russia. In fact, just at the opening of this economic forum, we did see a stepping up of Ukrainian drone attacks targeting St. Petersburg some 10 miles away from the venue where this conference is set to take place.

[04:20:13]

And of course, as we expect the Russian president to make his keener address today, this is a very different event from perhaps what it was initially years ago designed for. This is an event now where we are seeing Russia deepening its ties with countries of the global south, from Gulf nations to China.

These are expected to be some of the key guests in attendance as we continue to see Western nations distancing themselves further from Moscow. And of course now, in addition to questions around the economy, Russia of course facing very intense difficulties with the economy, including inflation and rising prices.

We are of course expecting to hear from Putin address the political situation, certainly Russia's continued war effort in Ukraine. And of course, as you mentioned, we did hear from the Ukrainian president yesterday calling on the Russian president to bring an end to the war, but also calling for face to face talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Now, we have heard from Russian state media citing the Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov saying that the Russian president will be briefed on this open letter issued by the Ukrainian president later today. So it reads to be seen whether we see Vladimir Putin addressing this openly, perhaps at today's keynote address.

The Kremlin spokesperson has reiterated once again that they expect to see if indeed there were face to face talks, the Ukrainian president traveling to Moscow. But of course, Zelenskyy and Ukrainian officials have repeatedly said this would be a non-starter.

But again, there is that pressure ramping up on Russia, on the Russian president as we continue to see Ukrainian attacks being stepped up, but also continuing to see Ukrainian attacks targeting key infrastructure, including energy infrastructure and military infrastructure in Russia.

KINKADE: All right. Nada Bashir for us in London, thanks so much. We are going to stay on this story. I want to welcome Vladimir Milov, a former Russian Deputy Energy Minister who's now in the opposition. He's speaking from Vilnius, Lithuania. Thanks so much for joining us.

VLADIMIR MILOV, RUSSIAN OPPOSITION OFFICIAL: Hello. Great to be with you. KINKADE: So President Zelenskyy has called for direct talks with President Putin. Do you see any genuine appetite in the Kremlin for a negotiated settlement? And if so, politically speaking, what would Putin need to justify entering serious negotiations?

MILOV: Not yet, because Putin is a stubborn guy, we all know that. And in his recent speeches, and I'm sure this is the remarks that he's going to be delivering at the St. Petersburg forum today. He's trying to portray the fantasy world where Russia is winning as strong as ever. But also, as we can see from the discussions at the St. Petersburg forum, and from the recent statistics, you mentioned the collapse in fixed investment, minus 14% year on year in the first quarter. That's just fresh stats that came out this week.

The pressure is mounting. It's more and more difficult for Putin to maintain this poker face. And he's short of man at the battlefield. His military industries are experiencing a lot of difficulties despite all this Oreshnik bravado and so on.

Economy is faltering, population is unhappy. Russia is stalling at the battlefield. So you see that this pressure is mounting. I take Zelenskyy's letter as one of the early calls for Putin to reconsider and look at the reality, what is really happening. But it might take some time before he backs off.

KINKADE: So how do you think Putin's message will land at this economic forum, especially given the recent drone attacks in St. Petersburg and Moscow?

MILOV: Russian government and Putin personally are getting more and more out of touch with the everyday reality. And this has been -- you probably heard that recently in some of the remarks by even loyal members of Putin's ruling elite. Just one of the headlines that one of the Russian newspapers ran yesterday inside Russia, calling this forum of banalities on the background of investment collapse.

That was the headline basically illustrating that what the officials, the picture that the officials are trying to present of a strong winning Russia is so out of touch with what is really happening that I think Petersburg Forum will be one more reason for people to think that something is really wrong with Putin and the direction that the country is going.

KINKADE: And it's not just that headline you point out. We've heard from Russian business leaders reportedly signaling fatigue for this war. I'm wondering what the general mood is among the Russian population after more than four years of war, and if you can tell us more about the latest data that you mentioned.

[04:25:05]

MILOV: Deadlocked, I would say deadlocked because Putin had sophisticated his totalitarian grip on power. He's terrorizing not only ordinary population, but he's terrorizing the elites. I used to work in the Russian government and I'm talking to some of them and they say, listen, they are arresting guys like us more frequently than guys like you.

If you open Russian news, you see every day like deputy governor, deputy minister or mayor of a big city arrested and so on. So against this atmosphere of terror, it's really hard to react politically, which is why for some time, a lot will really depend on Putin's stubbornness while he still has some resources to fight.

But these resources are being depleted by the day. So the moment when he will agree to the negotiations is visible. It's inside. It's maybe not yet close but Zelenskyy addresses him directly for a reason. He understands that Russia is getting more and more exhausted.

KINKADE: So there's no doubt again, we'll probably hear President Putin say that Russia's economy has adapted successfully to the sanctions. As a former deputy energy minister, how do you assess the impact of sanctions on Russia's energy sector?

MILOV: Impact of sanctions was strong and devastating. We are down from like over 4 percent GDP growth in the past years to negative. Russia is nearly officially in the recession. We had GDP falling in the first quarter.

You know what they most boasting about at the St. Petersburg forum? That after four months they say we back into positive territory, but because the GDP after four months grew by 0.2 percent, 0.2 percent on the background of all this windfall from the expensive oil, grain, aluminium because of the war in the Middle East, 0.2 percent.

This is now perceived as a light at the end of the tunnel. So that gives you a shot about how bad the situation in the economy really is.

KINKADE: Fascinating perspective. Vladimir Milov, we appreciate your time today. Thanks so much.

MILOV: Thank you. It was a pleasure.

KINKADE: We are several days into the vote count in America's most populous state. The results could still be days or even weeks away. But President Trump is accusing California of election fraud.

Plus, we will take you inside the new Obama presidential center in Chicago set to open later this month.

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