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Erin Burnett Outfront

Trump Threatens To "Blow Up" U.S. Ally Over Control Of Strait; DOJ Launches Criminal Probe Into Trump Accuser E. Jean Carroll; Trump's Arch Facing Pushback From Veterans And Lawmakers. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired May 27, 2026 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:24]

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next:

Blow them up. President Trump threatening to blow them up, those are his words, and he's not talking about Iran. He actually is talking about a key U.S. ally. Fox News was shocked by it today.

Plus, breaking news, a CNN exclusive breaking this hour. The Justice Department has just launched a new criminal investigation into E. Jean Carroll.

You know the name. She accused Trump of sexual assault. Now his DOJ is investigating her.

And arch nemesis. Two Vietnam vets suing to stop the 250-foot arch that's going up near Arlington National Cemetery that Trump said is for him. They're our guests. Let's go OUTFRONT.

(MUSIC)

BURNETT: And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.

And OUTFRONT tonight, the breaking news, blow them up. President Trump tonight threatening to attack a key U.S. ally, using those three words as a threat against a totally new country on his target list, the country is Oman.

So here's what Trump said to Oman, that U.S. ally along the Strait of Hormuz.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We'll watch over it. But nobody's going to control it. That's part of the negotiation that we have. They would like to control it. Nobody's going to control it. It's international waters, and Oman will behave just like everybody else or we'll have to blow them up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: That's the president of the United States, the most powerful man in the country in the world, saying that. Now Oman is the country that mediates many American negotiations in

the Middle East, hostage negotiations, transfers, war and peace, central in the Iran negotiations. And it's a military ally. One of the major Omani ports is used by the U.S. navy, and Trump is now threatening to, quote, "blow it up".

That comment surprised even Fox News.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN ROBERTS, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: President Trump became the first American president that I know of to ever threaten to take military action against Oman, saying that they have to behave like everyone else or were going to blow them up. Not quite sure what that was all about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: He seems stunned, appropriately so.

The thing is, though, Oman now joins a long list of countries Trump has threatened to blow up as President Trump has now talked about attacking or seizing one out of 13 countries on the planet, according to analysis by our own Aaron Blake. This is just a small sample.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Ruling out U.S. troops on the ground.

TRUMP: No, I don't rule out that. I don't rule out anything. We just have to take care of Venezuela.

China is running the Panama Canal. That was not given to China. We're going to take it back or something very powerful is going to happen. One way or the other, we're going to have Greenland. Colombia is very sick, too.

REPORTER: So there will be an operation by the U.S. and --

TRUMP: It sounds good to me.

I do like the oh, Canada, right? It's a beautiful thing. I think we're going to have to keep it for the 51st state.

Cuba is a mess. It's a failing country. And they're going to be next

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: And they're going to be next. And then, of course, there was the threat that stunned the whole world on Easter Sunday against the people of Iran in April, when Trump posted, quote, "a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again." And now Trump is increasingly casting about for any kind of an off ramp for the war, which now is entering its fourth month. A war he says is being prolonged because Tehran is trying to drag it out until the U.S. midterms. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: They thought they were going to outwait me. You know, we'll outwait him. He's got the midterms. I don't care about the midterms.

(END VIDOE CLIP)

BURNETT: Alayna Treene is OUTFRONT, live outside the White House to begin our coverage.

And, Alayna, look, Trump missed his sons wedding because he said the lot was going on. And then he said there was a deal with Iran. That was a few days ago. And now, there doesn't appear to be a deal. And he's threatening to blow up a whole another country along the Strait of Hormuz, the American ally, Oman.

I mean, what's going on here?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. I mean, this is just another example of a lot of the whiplash, Erin, we have seen in the comments of the president has made. Just four days ago, I'd remind you that he argued that this memorandum of understanding that they were working on was largely negotiated today, saying that he's not satisfied with where things stand.

But I do want to go and focus on those comments about Iran, because just such an extraordinary threat that the president issued today against a close partner of the United States, they have a strong military alliance, and also Oman has really stepped up in a crucial way as a mediator in these talks between Washington and Tehran throughout this entire negotiating process. So I think a lot of people were kind of stunned by what he said today.

I will say I did talk to some people as well in the administration who said essentially they thought at first maybe he misspoke, that perhaps he was referring to Iran.

[19:05:07]

But then you saw the State Department actually come out at the conclusion of the cabinet meeting and amplify that comment, that remark about Iran from the president.

Now, also, I think what is essential to understanding about all of this is it comes as well as we know that a lot of these different Middle Eastern countries, a lot of the United States allies in the region -- the only reason really people in the administration believe that they are far along on this framework deal than they have been throughout this entire ceasefire, is because of countries like Oman, like Saudi Arabia, like the UAE, who have really stepped up in the last week or so to become far more involved in these talks.

So just an extraordinary threat, again, that we heard from the president today, Erin.

BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Alayna, at the White House. And OUTFRONT now, Robert Kagan, top foreign policy expert and author of a series of articles in "The Atlantic" right now arguing that Trump's endgame in Iran amounts to surrender.

Robert, I want to ask you about Oman. But literally, as Alayna was just wrapping up, we got a report out of the Iranian state media, out of Fars. Okay. They're reporting along the Strait of Hormuz, a series of three explosions near Bandar Abbas. So, that is obviously right off on the Iranian side of the strait.

So, this is days after there was supposedly a deal. Then there were U.S. -- they say defensive strikes. Today, Trump threatens Oman.

But is there any strategy here if you now are -- you know, again, it's Iranian state media, but reporting these explosions?

ROBERT KAGAN, CONTRIBUTING WRITER, THE ATLANTIC: Well, I mean, all of this is, an effort to distract from the fact that we've already basically lost this war. And I don't -- I don't know what these strikes are about, obviously, but the previous set of strikes, which the Pentagon described as entirely self-defense, were clearly a response to an Iranian provocation. And this may well be, too.

But it's important to understand what -- what even this means because if the Iranians are emboldened to take actions which the United States feels the need to respond to in this way in a purely self-defense way, as they say you know, who's afraid of not having a deal? Who's afraid of the war starting up again?

Clearly, the Iranians are not because they don't believe that whatever, collection of strikes, limited strikes the administration may take in this situation, it's not going to change anything on the ground, and it's not going to force Iran to give up what they -- what they are demanding right now in terms of terms of a settlement.

BURNETT: Right, on the nuclear issue, and now, the strait, which the strait, of course, had never been on the table until the war itself.

So the issue with Oman, okay, the president today threatening to blow up Oman, key U.S. ally, as we laid out, right? Blow them up. Did that sudden threat out of nowhere surprise you at all?

KAGAN: Yeah. It's shocking. I mean, I suppose we are not shocked by anything Donald Trump says these days, but this one is pretty shocking.

As you've pointed out, Oman is a long time ally of the United States. I think we have a friendship agreement with Oman going back to 1833, if I'm correct. And what signal does this send to the other Gulf States that are that regard themselves or have regarded themselves as U.S. allies? So if you -- if you step out of line with the United States and the United States threatens to blow you up, I think this is all part of what were seeing right now, which is the Gulf States, which were reliant on the United States, have now decided the United States is not trustworthy.

And what they're going to start doing is what Oman is doing is cut a deal with Iran. They're all going to cut deals with Iran.

BURNETT: Okay. So on that, the Gulf States, Trump said tonight that the gulf countries owe it to us. Those are his words, quote, owe it to us, end quote, to sign on to the Abraham Accords, which at their core, of course, are about normalizing the Muslim Gulf Arab states relations with Israel.

You think that that demand is extraordinary. How come?

KAGAN: Well, I mean, the fact is this war has destroyed the Abraham accords. You know, the idea that after what's happened where basically Iran has won, Israel is on the losing side. Israel has shown, by the way, reckless disregard for the interests of its supposed allies in the Gulf. And they concede that.

And so, that -- what is happening right now is that is that the Gulf States are abandoning the United States and looking for other supporters.

BURNETT: So when we look at the -- you heard the threat against Oman, right? And then I played some of the ones against. And again, I won't even list them all here off the top of my head. But Greenland, Canada, Mexico, Colombia, Cuba, one in 13 countries in the world, according to Aaron Blake's analysis, have been threatened to -- Trump has threatened to either attack, seize or take over.

Does this have consequence?

[19:10:00]

KAGAN: Of course it does. I mean, right now, look at what the United States is doing. On the one hand, the United States is withdrawing its security guarantees to its allies. We are pulling our forces out of Europe, and we are abandoning NATO and made it very clear were not going to defend them. We've also made it pretty clear that we are, you know, maybe not going to be supporting Taiwan the way we used to and in general are not as opposed to China as we were alleged to be before. And that means that our Asian allies now can't rely on us.

So, so that's on the one hand. And on the other hand, we're looking like an aggressive imperialist power that can't wait to invade another country. So what is the world to make of that?

What it sees is what you could call a rogue superpower. We've got enormous strength, but we are not using that strength in the service of a world order. We're not using that strength in the interest of stability. We're using that strength in the interest of grabbing land, grabbing, oil, grabbing money. It's really quite a shameful, situation for the United States to be in.

BURNETT: Robert, one final question here. Trump has repeatedly refused to refer to this -- to the war with Iran as a war. You know, sort of remembering the special operation days, right, when you could have been kicked out of the country or been put in prison in Russia for calling the war in Ukraine a war, right? It was a special operation. Trump is similarly refusing to call this a war. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I don't call it a war. I call it a conflict. The country is doing really well, and that's despite a military operation. I don't call it a war.

They want to deflect from all of the tremendous success that we're having in this military operation. I won't use the word war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Right. I mean, special operation doesn't use the word war. He calls it a military operation, doesn't use the word war. The word echo obviously with Putin's handling of the Ukraine war is pretty incredible.

Do the American people buy Trump's rhetoric?

KAGAN: Well, the polls suggest not. The polls suggest that they think it's a war and that they think it's a mistake. By the way, Donald Trump sometimes also calls it a war. He says, we're winning the war.

BURNETT: Yeah.

KAGAN: You know, but what this is all about, obviously, is what Donald Trump wants right now more than anything, is for the American people to forget that he ever started this whole thing. He is -- the reason he's agreeing to whatever else is true. He's agreeing to a 60- day ceasefire to continue talking, that's -- he might as well agree to a six month ceasefire.

It's clear that that is an effort to walk away and hope the American people forget. He's going to change the subject, maybe with an invasion of Cuba or something else. And he wants Americans to forget that this ever happened. And the problem is, it's such a major strategic defeat that I don't think Americans are going to be able to forget about it the way Donald Trump wants them to.

BURNETT: Robert Kagan, thank you very much. I always appreciate talking to you.

And let's just take a look here at some live pictures of the White House south lawn tonight, because things look pretty different there. There's a massive octagonal UFC cage fight that is being built right now for Trump's birthday. So it's going to be a couple of weeks of construction here for the big event.

Plus, a top Republican group relentlessly attacked Ken Paxton, calling him crook -- crooked, sorry. That is, until he won last nights Texas Senate runoff. And now, they're trying to scrub it all. Say they didn't say it. Now, they're behind him. But guess what? You can't hide from KFILE. And he's OUTFRONT.

And breaking news, CNN learning exclusively that the Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation into E. Jean Carroll, the woman who accused Trump of sexual assault. Philip Bump, Karen Finney, Gretchen Carlson are all up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:18:00]

BURNETT: Exclusive and breaking news right now, the Justice Department, CNN is learning, has launched a new criminal investigation into one of Trump's enemies, E. Jean Carroll. Now, E. Jean Carroll was the former magazine columnist who accused President Donald Trump of sexual assault. I ended up being that he was liable for sexual abuse. The source is telling CNN that the investigation now is focused on whether Carroll committed perjury during her two civil lawsuits against the president.

Paula Reid is breaking this story, and she's OUTFRONT.

And, Paula, what else are you learning about this? I mean, there was obviously a verdict here.

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And here, Erin, this is the latest move by the Justice Department to take action against one of President Trump's long standing foes. Our sources tell us that this investigation is focused on a 2022 deposition that Carroll gave, where she said that she had not received any outside funding. Now her later -- her lawyers later told the judge that she had, in fact received funding for legal fees and expenses from billionaire Reid Hoffman, the judge overseeing this case, ultimately said there were no issues with her credibility and blocked Trump lawyers from asking about this at trial.

Now, Carroll currently has multiple legal battles with Trump, currently pending, including one before the Supreme Court. Notably, Erin, the Supreme Court has deferred 12 times on a decision whether they want to take up that case. Now, over at the Justice Department, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, I am told, has recused from this case because he worked on one of the appeals related to the Carroll case. Now, I'm told he has not attended any meetings or been in any discussions about this investigation.

The case is currently being handled out of the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago. Now, tonight, the Justice department issued a statement saying, quote, we can confirm that no U.S. attorneys office has declined to investigate any case relating to the subject matter of CNN's inquiry. We will not comment beyond that.

Now, Carroll's team declined to comment -- Erin.

[19:20:02]

BURNETT: All right. Paula, thank you very much.

And Ryan Goodman joins me now.

So, Ryan, you know, obviously, E. Jean Carroll is E. Jean Carroll. She has a specific place in terms of the president's personal views of her. So what does that mean for this investigation? Does it have any staying power or any legitimacy, as you see it?

RYAN GOODMAN, FORMER SPECIAL COUNSEL AT DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE: Not on the face of it. This does look like one of those instances in which its the old saying of bring me the person and I'll show you the crime, or I'll try to find the case against them.

And, this is not usual for the Justice Department to go back into an old civil case from years ago and pick out one statement in a deposition that even the federal judge in that case said was not directly material to the ultimate conclusion in the case, and one in which her own lawyers said that she didn't recall at the time. She was asked the question and that she had no direct contact with the nonprofit that provided those funds.

So there's all sorts of complications as to why the Justice Department would never think of that as something that's a live case. And the fact that its her in particular, has all of the hallmarks of some of these other cases in which they've basically gone after Trump's detractors as the person, not because they thought that there was this, like, major federal crime that had been committed.

BURNETT: Right. And when you have a verdict in a court of law, and then you have that involved a now sitting president, and now its his Department of Justice looking into whether someone perjured themselves in a case where there's already a verdict. I mean, I would I guess I'm -- is this an unprecedented sort of a situation?

GOODMAN: It's unprecedented before January 2025. But she is now one of several who are going to raise the claim of a motion to dismiss to throw the entire case out for vindictive or selective prosecution. She will be able to list all of the times that President Trump has gone after her personally, and has tried to say that he would lower the hammer on her. There's a very strong case of this.

That's why I think even the discussion as to what the strength of the case against her might be is going to end up being premature. There's a very high likelihood she would win on that.

And when I say that that is such a rare thing, it is very rare for those kinds of cases to emerge a vindictive and selective prosecution. And just in the last few days, a federal district court threw out the case against Abrego Garcia, saying that it was based on selective and vindictive prosecution by this Justice Department.

BURNETT: All right, Ryan Goodman, thank you very much. And everyone is here with me.

All right. So let me just start with you, because Ryan mentioned the past comments Trump has made about E. Jean Carroll, right? The personally pejorative comments that he has made here are just some of them to remind people, because we haven't heard about E. Jean Carroll a little while. Let's just remind everyone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: She's not my type. And that's 100 percent true. She's not my type.

This is another scam. It's a political witch hunt.

And I swear to you, I have no idea who the hell -- she's a whack job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: So how he feels here, obviously, you know, we know, but it is still pretty incredible that we're going to go back where there's already been a court involved. And now, I guess, reinvestigate somebody that he doesn't like.

PHILIP BUMP, SENIOR DATA EDITOR & COLUMNIST, HEARST: I mean, you say it's incredible, but we all know it's perfectly credible, right? I mean, Ryan's point since January of last year, like there is no reason. And I think this is the important factor here. You know, Ryan raised a point about the dubiousness of the actual case here and whether or not it'll be thrown out for vindictive prosecution.

We are at the point now there is no reason to assume there's a case here, right? We treat this like its a real case because it's the Department of Justice. No, Blanche has recused himself, but sure. I mean, you know, like in the same way that Donald Trump had nothing to do with it, right?

But there's no reason for us to assume the Justice Department is acting in good faith. And that's an entirely new category of existence in the United States.

BURNETT: Well, I mean, look, we're in the United States. There's hundreds of millions of people here. And yet the people that we keep hearing about, all of a sudden the DOJ is spending its time investigating E. Jean Carroll in her case, with Donald Trump.

GRETCHEN CARLSON, FORMER FOX NEWS HOST: Yeah. So on a personal level, because of me coming forward almost ten years ago now against Fox News for sexual harassment, I mean, this is very personal to me that the president of the United States would be coming after somebody who had the courage to come forward and say that something bad happened to them.

As a nation, I think that every American should be just really pissed off tonight, because what the hell is the Department of Justice doing? What are they actually doing for the citizens of the United States of America? We are wasting time on cases that, according to legal experts, are not credible, all to fulfill the mission of one man called the president of the United States, who's on a retribution tour.

I'm sorry. I'm angry about this. I'm angry about this, not really about the sexual nature of the alleged crime. But as an American, like, what are we doing? What are our tax dollars paying for with this Department of Justice? Are there a plethora of other cases out there that they should be looking into? [19:25:00]

BURNETT: Yeah, we find out about E. Jean Carroll. Now we know about Jay Powell and Loretta. We know about so many of those that were political targets or personal targets that were, you know, for political reasons.

But, you know, we just find out about E. Jean Carroll tonight. And it does beg the question, how many more?

KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, look, it's pretty clear the president has his own enemies list, and theyre clearly just kind of going through the list. And, you know, to some degree, it feels like every once in a while these pop up as a way to almost appease him. And that's part of what's so disgusting about it. I mean, you know, you're so right to be angry.

And I would imagine a lot of Americans, this is why theyre sick of him. They're sick of hearing about him. They're sick of talking about him. I think people have been reminded, like they were during the first term when, you know, people would say, oh, I wish I could just wake up and not have to think about him in the morning.

But this is how he stays in the zeitgeist, right? Because this is all about appeasing him. This is all about, you know, keeping him happy. And the way to keep him happy is to go after his enemies. I do think, though, you know, coming in a midterm election year when people have other concerns that are top of mind, how in the world does the president and the DOJ have this much time to do this? But they can't lower costs.

BURNETT: Now, he hasn't been successful when it comes to the DOJ, right? I mean, they lose the U.S. attorneys on technical issues. Cases get thrown out by grand jury after they haven't been successful, by and large. But when it comes to people, Trump has gone after politically. He has been extremely successful. Take last night, okay?

Cornyn won a couple weeks ago, but not by enough to get the whole thing. So now we have a redo and the guy gets crushed. I mean, its like, is this the same guy that was there? I mean, right, and that's because Trump stepped in at the last second. So when it comes to his political enemies, he's batting 100.

BUMP: Right. And that's because he has control of the Republican base, right. The problem he has, of course, is that he only has control of the Republican base. He doesn't have control over grand juries across the United States. He has loose control over the department of justice. He's getting more under control. But he has very, very strong control over Republican voters.

And so what he has done is repeatedly, Thomas Massie, Paxton, he has repeatedly said, here's what I want you to do. And Republican voters do that thing, even if it positions the party badly for November, which I think it's generally --

CARLSON: It does, but it's a short term victory. BUMP: Oh, 100 percent.

CARLSON: It's such a short term victory. And by the way, I would bring in I agree that he's won all of these retribution battles. However, only 7 percent of the voters turned out in Texas last night to vote, 7 percent of registered voters.

So, now, you factor in the midterms to Philip's point, like that small little fraction of people who are listening to what Trump is saying, how does that reflect later on in a bigger general election? I mean, I don't think -- he today said he didn't care about how the midterms turn out.

FINNEY: Which clearly that's not true. I mean, he has already also said he's very concerned about the fact that if there is a Democratic Congress, they will come after him. Right? He was saying that early on.

So it's hard to believe that he really doesn't care. That being said, I think he cares about loyalty to himself in these primaries over. And he's willing to take those victories over a victory in the fall. And to some degree, you know, Democrats will be a foil, another foil for him. Should we take control of both chambers of Congress? And I suspect he relishes that thought to some degree.

BURNETT: And what do you think, Philip, is going on inside the Justice Department? Obviously, the people who are willing to pursue cases like this are willing to do the bidding of whatever they think the wish list of the president is. But a lot of people who weren't have left.

BUMP: Yeah. That's right. So much so, in fact, that the Justice Department is actively trying to recruit people to come to the Justice Department, which is not how it used to be, as I understand it. It used to be this was the plum assignment. If you could get a role at the justice department, you were a top tier lawyer.

Now theyre like, hey, well give you a signing bonus because so many people have left because they don't like what they're seeing. And everyone is seeing what's happening. To the point I was making earlier, everyone knows the Justice Department is becoming an arm of the Trump White House, becoming under the thumb of Donald Trump, as opposed to being an agency which is dedicated to fighting for the American people. It's fighting for the president.

FINNEY: You know, it's worth mentioning, though, at this point, if you're at a certain point in your career, going to the DOJ used to be the plum, and then from there you could write your own ticket, but you really have to -- I've heard this from lawyers.

You really have to ask yourself, is this what I want in sort of the middle of my resume? This is under the Trump DOJ. How is that going to scar me going forward? And will I have the same viability coming out of a Trump DOJ as I would have during a different term?

BURNETT: All right. Thank you all very much. And next, Trump wants to build the largest arch in the world tonight

though two veterans are trying to stop it. And they'll tell you why.

Plus, KFILE has a new report tonight. And wait until you see what KFILE has uncovered this time.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:34:13]

BURNETT: You're looking at live pictures of the White House south lawn. Crews are right now working on a massive octagonal-shaped cage for the UFC fight that's scheduled at the White House for Trump's 80th birthday in June.

Here's a rendering from the UFC of what it will look like when it is done, and Trump says the event is part of celebrations. Also for America's 250th birthday this year.

Now, Trump is also citing Americas 250th for his triumphal arch, which will be the tallest in the world, he says, and is facing a lawsuit by a group of Vietnam veterans, arguing that it obstructs the symbolic view from Arlington National Cemetery to the Lincoln Memorial. The lawsuit also argues that the arch must be approved by Congress.

And Shaun Byrnes and Jon Gundersen are two of the Vietnam vets who brought that lawsuit. They are OUTFRONT tonight.

Shaun, you know, you shared photos with us from the Vietnam War, and you're on the far right here, standing by one of the jets that you flew and you served this country and you were -- you were in a war. You had friends who died as a veteran, what is your gut reaction when you hear and then you see the renderings of what Trump is doing with the arch

SHAUN BYRNES, VIETNAM WAR VETERTAN SUING TRUMP ADMINISTRATION: Frankly, Erin, it's good to be here. And thank you for having me.

But to answer your question, I'm appalled. I lost a number of close friends and three shipmates in and around Vietnam. And I'm just appalled at this massive vanity project going up on ground that is some of the most sacred ground to Americans without following procedures and the law in building. And I just find it's appalling.

BURNETT: So, Jon, Trump says that the arch will be the largest in the world. That's what he says.

And when we show it here, it is going to, when it's done, according to the renderings, be 50 feet taller than the arch of triumph in Pyongyang. It will be 90 feet taller than the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. And obviously, it dwarfs the White House and the Lincoln Memorial, as we can see that. It will remake Washington, D.C.

So, Jon, what statement do you think this makes to the world?

JON GUNDERSEN, VIETNAM WAR VETERTAN SUING TRUMP ADMINISTRATION: Yeah, as Sean says, it's a vainglorious comment. It does not serve veterans. When you think about this arch, which as you mentioned, Erin, is bigger than -- it's also much bigger than the statue of liberty.

And if you've ever been in Arlington National Cemetery and the tomb of the unknown soldier, you have this sweeping, iconic view of Washington. You see the Lincoln Memorial, you see the Washington monument, the Vietnam Memorial, Korean, World War Two. This arch would block that view, which is sacred.

And the Arlington National Cemetery, that was made after World War -- after the Civil War, as a sign of unity. What this does is its not cleared by Congress. It is not vetted by veterans. It is disgraceful for veterans, and it doesn't go through the normal process.

All these other ones, the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, passed by Congress, bipartisan support vetted by veterans. This is not. It's the wrong arch in the wrong place. It's a bad idea.

BURNETT: Shaun, you have thought about death and where you want to be buried. And I know, you know, it's something that you could be buried at Arlington Cemetery as a veteran and when you're -- when your time comes and its something that you thought about and perhaps you thought you wanted to do. But I know that this is making you reconsider that.

BYRNES: Is that to me, Erin?

BURNETT: Yes. Yes to you, Shaun.

BYRNES: The answer -- the answer is a firm yes

BURNETT: How come?

BYRNES: I think -- I think -- I think this massive arch, which I understand from an interview, the president did some weeks ago and was reported in the major -- the mainstream papers when he was asked what the arch was intended for was, he said, and I quote, "me," unquote. That was enough to make me say this is something I would reconsider.

BURNETT: Jon, let me play that, that moment that Shaun's referring to when Trump was asked what the arch is for, right? Because I mentioned that, you know, he said it's part of America's 250th. But he was asked in this interview by CBS what it was really for. And he did say, me, let me play it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: What is this, Mr. President?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you all. You come this way. Thank you.

REPORTER: For who?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thanks, guys. Take a look. Thank you.

REPORTER: Yes. Yeah. No, I know where it is, but who's it for?

TRUMP: Me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: So the reporter says, yeah, I know where it is, but who is it for? Jon, he replies, me. So what's your just emotional response to that?

GUNDERSEN: Yeah, you're referring to me. I think Shaun and I have the same one as that. You know, when we served in Vietnam, it was a very controversial war.

And we came back. We weren't honored, we weren't greeted. That's fine. We did our duty.

So we believe in veterans. We believe in having something that commemorates veterans.

[19:40:00]

For example, look at the Vietnam Memorial, which was very controversial the way it was built. And what it is therefore is not the general on horseback is not a cause which was very controversial. If for the common soldier, each name is there and I have comrades there listed, and there are individuals, they're all equal in the in the eyes of their faith, of their country, then you have three veterans of what we call grunts, common soldiers, and you have a woman's one.

So this is the type of thoughtful process we need -- veterans input, congressional input, and the input of those who are most affected by it. Not because some president of the United States wants some glory thing for himself. I want in the future kids to come, generations to come, to admire anything like we have in Washington. This is not the right thing.

BURNETT: All right. Thank you both very much. I appreciate your time. And obviously, as we know, you have -- you have this lawsuit and we will see what will happen. Thank you both very much for taking the time to talk to me tonight.

And now the race is on to find the remaining two people who are still missing. They became trapped in a cave that just suddenly flooded. Five others miraculously found alive, although still inside.

And our KFILE uncovering posts from a top Republican group, posts that attacked Ken Paxton calling him crooked. Then they were quickly deleted after Paxton won, a quick scrubbing. But you cannot scrub from KFILE, who is next with that report.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:46:18]

BURNETT: Breaking news, Trump's big Texas win may be pushing Democrats a step closer to victory. Now, this is according to one of the top election forecasters in the country, "The Cook Political Report" says the Texas senate race has now tilted towards the Democrats. Yes, ruby red Texas. They are shifting that race from likely Republican to just leaning Republican, which is thanks to Trump's backing of Ken Paxton, the Republican primary over incumbent Senator John Cornyn, which then resulted in Paxton's overwhelming victory.

It comes as our KFILE is uncovering more breaking news. Republicans rapidly deleting their brutal attacks against their fellow Republican, Ken Paxton, because they really did not like him. But then suddenly, he had this crushing win and then deleted tweets, deleted press releases, even deleted attack ads like this one from Senate Republicans' powerful campaign fund raising operation, the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Silly Ken Paxton says he's fighting the woke left. But guess what? He's actually helping them. He gave almost $1 million in grants to groups pushing gender affirming programs for kids as young as seven. Kids like me. The groups even trained my teachers to affirm gender transitions in school.

AD NARRATOR: All paid for by you, the Texas taxpayers.

AD NARRATOR: Ken Paxton didn't stop the woke left. He opened the door and let them in. Texas deserves leaders who protect our kids, not fund the woke left.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: For months, the NRSC portrayed Paxton as crooked Ken, accusing him of corruption, warning that he was a threat to President Trump's agenda. But now those attacks suddenly vanishing, the party is uniting behind Paxton in that Texas Senate race.

And KFILE's Andrew Kaczynski is OUTFRONT.

So, you know, you find there was there was a lot of it where that came from. They were ads. There was tweets. There was posts. There were press releases. What else have you found?

ANDREW KACZYNSKI, CNN KFILE SENIOR EDITOR: Right. It's been a bit of a delete-a-palooza for our friends over at the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Now, Erin, the harshest attacks on Ken Paxton so far in this race have not come from Democrats. They have come from Republicans themselves, who were spending tens of millions of dollars trying to rescue John Cornyn in this primary.

And now, after Paxton's landslide victory, many of these attacks are suddenly disappearing from the Internet and pretty darn quickly. Now, a CNN KFILE review done by us found that the National Republican Senatorial Committee, that is the official campaign arm, as you mentioned, of the GOP, deleted at least two dozen press releases, digital statements attacking Paxton, including posts that labeled him crooked Ken, criticized his treatment of his then wife during their divorce and accused him of giving favorable treatment to an alleged child sex trafficker. That is a very harsh claim.

In comments and posts dating from the past year, the NRSC often referred to Paxton as crooked. They said his corruption would threaten Republicans and most importantly, they said it would undermine President Trump's agenda.

Now, the NRSC also deleted at least eight tweets from X about Paxton since 2025, including two posts that said he was, quote, "asleep at the wheel." Google's ad transparency archive also shows anti-Paxton's ads were removed, one deleted that has since gone viral is this one.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AD NARRATOR: This is the sound of Texas and this is how it sounds under Ken Paxton.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shots fired, shots fired

AD NARRATOR: So which Texas do you want to hear?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: With friends like those.

[19:50:01]

So what is the NRSC saying now?

KACZYNSKI: So they did decline to comment further to us, but they pointed CNN to a statement they put out after Paxton's win. The statement said a state president, Donald Trump, won by nearly 14 points isn't going to elect James Talarico, a radical leftist who thinks god is non-binary and that Texas should be a welcome mat for illegals. He is the most dangerous flank of the far left. Texas isn't swapping brisket for open borders.

So quite the reversal there from the NRSC and it will be interesting to see how this plays out. They spent a lot of money, like almost $100 million. All of these groups trying to prop up John Cornyn, as you saw there, he lost by a lot.

BURNETT: A hundred million dollars.

KACZYNSKI: Yeah. So we'll see how this goes.

BURNETT: On a primary where John Cornyn could have just won it and waltzed right back into his job in the general.

KACZYNSKI: And maybe if they had not -- I mean, if they had spent less money, maybe he still would have done just as bad. So, a lot of money.

BURNETT: Yeah, incredible though. The money that's been going into races that ordinarily wouldn't have had -- KACZYNSKI: The most expensive races all over the country, it's crazy.

BURNETT: Yeah, Thomas Massie as well for that, for Congress, that was a record.

All right. KFILE, thank you.

And next, rescuers scrambling tonight to find the remaining two people trapped in that cave that flooded out. Now five others were found alive. They're still trying to get them out, though, after a week, a week underground.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:56:04]

BURNETT: Breaking news, rescuers scrambling to locate two people who are still missing in the flooded cave in Laos after five others were miraculously found alive just a few hours ago. And it was a miracle there. They're still stuck, though, there in that underground cavern. So they've located some of them. Five of the seven, but they still are still stuck.

The group was seven total. They've been trapped for more than a week.

Will Ripley is OUTFRONT with more on the dangerous rescue. And now, the incredibly difficult extraction which is coming.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is the moment rescuers found five villagers alive, trapped for a week in a flooded cave in central Laos.

The men say they're not sick, just weak, exhausted and desperately hungry.

Officials say they entered the cave a week ago searching for gold. Heavy rain and flash flooding sealed the exit behind them. Seven days later, their first taste of fresh water and soon food and first aid. But the danger is far from over.

Some of the same elite cave divers who helped rescue a soccer team in Thailand in 2018 are back working on this rescue, including Finnish diver Mikko Paasi. He's helping lead the search and rescue operation, crawling through claustrophobic caverns full of muddy water. He says getting the survivors out alive will be extremely difficult and extremely dangerous.

MIKKO PAASI, DIVER: It's extremely small, tight complex of tunnels. The tight spots in this mine are so tight that you need to exhale to wiggle through.

RIPLEY (voice-over): Some tunnels are just 23 inches wide, forcing divers to crawl sideways flat on their stomachs.

They leave the cave covered in mud, exhausted from searching around the clock, all during monsoon season.

In this mountainous jungle region near Long Tieng, once home to a secret CIA base during the Vietnam War, flash floods can happen in minutes.

Teams are pumping fresh air underground, working to drain the rising water and even establishing an Internet signal deep inside the cave -- using radar technology to scan narrow underground passages.

Rescuers in Laos are hoping for another survival story, like that Thai soccer team about eight years ago. They spent more than two weeks underground and all made it out alive.

But conditions this time may be even more treacherous -- rising water, tight tunnels and zero visibility, putting rescuers and survivors in danger.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BURNETT: That is really hard to watch. Well, just those images and you just barely part of your head and just those spaces you're describing. I mean, with those conditions and you talk about the flood water still there could rise again. Obviously, you're already on a running clock. It's been days. I mean, how much longer can the five known survivors remain underground?

RIPLEY: Well, we know that that Thai soccer team survived for 18 days underground, but they were in a very stable environment. What rescuers still don't know, Erin, is exactly how stable the conditions are deeper inside this particular cave system, because unlike the Thai cave rescue in 2018, this is an old hand-dug mining tunnel. So, even small changes in rainfall could quickly raise the water level again. It is monsoon season, and there are also concerns about these unstable passages. There's contaminated air that's also a risk factor, and even the possibility of collapse.

BURNETT: It's all just -- it's just terrifying. And again, those images in that piece. Unbelievable.

All right. Will Ripley, thank you very much. As we all hope, hope for a real miracle to find them and to have them imagine them not getting out, just too, too horrible to contemplate.

Thanks so much to all of you for joining us.

"AC360" begins right now.