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Erin Burnett Outfront
Trump Claims Iran Deal (Again); Trump's New DNI Pick; The UFC Extravaganza. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired June 11, 2026 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:25]
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next:
Breaking news, Trump claims he has a deal. Did anyone tell Iran?
Plus, Trump fails to get an unqualified DNI pick in the seat. But who is his new choice tonight?
And the UFC extravaganza. Are storm clouds, literally, already gathering?
Let's go OUTFRONT.
(MUSIC)
BURNETT: And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett on this Thursday.
And OUTFRONT tonight, the breaking news, Trump claims there's a deal. Iran says not so fast. President Trump in the span of about seven hours careening today from threatening Iran with a land invasion to saying it's all resolved.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We just made a great settlement of the war with Iran, and we're going to be subject to finalization of documents, which should get done over the next few days. We'll probably have a signing maybe in Europe, and it's a great thing. I won't be able to be there, but J.D. will be there, Vice President, and some of the people. Steve Witkoff did a great job. Jared.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: I wanted to play that out so you could hear all three names, Vance, Witkoff, and Jared. Remember back in April, Trump claimed that that very same trio, Vance, Witkoff, and Kushner, were on their way back to Islamabad for peace talks? He told the New York Post, in fact, this is the quote, "They're heading over now. They'll be there tonight." They were not on their way that night, and they have not been there since.
But this is the 39th time, at least, that Trump has said a deal is close. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: They're begging to make a deal.
I think they want to make a deal very badly.
Iran is dying to make a deal.
They want to make a deal so badly.
We're close to a very good deal.
We're in the final throes of what will be a very, very good deal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: So how solid is this alleged deal?
Well, here's Trump again today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: You said this was just a concept of that agreement. So is this just essentially setting the stage for deeper talks on nuclear?
TRUMP: It's a very strong memorandum of understanding.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: So, a translation, basically something like a deal to talk about a possible deal. So, that's one part of this.
Then there's the big question of who is the deal with?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Has the Supreme Leader approved this deal, sir?
TRUMP: I understand the answer is yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson tonight, though, said that reports of a finalized agreement were merely speculation, saying Tehran has not made a final decision on a deal.
And then the Iranians added, "U.S. actions are affecting the diplomatic process. The Americans kept changing their positions."
Now, you can never trust what you're hearing out of Tehran. But there is a problem here. I mean, if you look at Trump's wild swings today alone, this morning he posted on social media, and I quote, "The United States will be hitting Iran, all caps, very hard tonight." He said that this morning. He said then that we will be taking Kharg Island. Okay, so that's all was said today. And then, right, there was a deal
and it's all over. He took it all back. The wild swings from blowing his civilization off the map to a deal 39 times have, to put it bluntly, hurt Trump's credibility in a major way.
Just listen to the reporting and commentating on Fox News.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN ROBERTS, FOX NEWS HOST: That's nine weeks of we're close to a deal. I mean, at some point you've got to acknowledge it's not happening.
JESSE WATTERS, FOX NEWS HOST: And he keeps saying we're very close. We're days away. And I don't know what that means. We've heard that for a very long time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: But if Trump is not listening to Fox News, he is listening to the markets. And the impact of the Strait of Hormuz closure is becoming simply too big for Trump to avoid. Energy executives warning the White House that key oil reserves are running dangerously low and that high gas prices are not going away.
And financial markets top analyst Jim Cramer said this today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIM CRAMER, HOST OF CNBC'S "MAD MONEY" AND "SQUAWK ON THE STREET": He's a highly emotional man that's running a military. He is the opposite of General Marshall.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: General Marshall, of course, won the war and the peace that followed in World War II. And by the way, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Kristen Holmes is OUTFRONT at the White House to begin our coverage.
And Kristen, what is the latest you're learning there?
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Erin, we still don't know if this is going to get across the finish line. President Trump was very clear in that meeting in the Oval Office when he was talking to reporters that it's not a done deal. Even though he's stopped these strikes, he said he was stepping down because it was imminent. He also said that it was in pretty final shape.
He also talked a lot about this idea of the conceptual version of this.
[19:05:02]
He was asked specifically about enriched uranium, which I will remind you, has been a sticking point for both sides throughout this entire negotiation. And he said conceptually they have agreed to something. Now, I do think we need to continue to stress that this is not a peace deal. This is a memorandum of understanding. This is the seeds that a peace deal could hopefully grow from. We are still in the initial steps. And again, we still do not know if this is going to get across the finish line. Now, interestingly, President Trump has had a number of phone calls with of other nations, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The reason why that is so fascinating is that we were learning that Netanyahu was taken aback by President Trump's announcement on social media that this agreement had been approved to. He was actually in a meeting about Iran and security in Iran and had no idea about any kind of impending agreement with Iran, but now he has spoken to President Trump.
I will say we are getting good signs from mediators who say that they think that there's been a breakthrough. They are cautiously optimistic, although we have heard that before, Erin.
BURNETT: Yes, we have. All right, Kristen, thank you very much.
And everyone's here with me.
Seth, can I just start with what you know, what you're hearing? Obviously, there's a deal and there's a deal, right? There's-there's conceptual memorandums of understanding, and those are very different than an actual deal that ends the war, opens up the Strait of Hormuz, deals with Iran as a nuclear power, and all of the other things.
SETH JONES, PRESIDENT, DEFENSE & SECURITY DEPARTMENT, CENTER FOR STRATEGIC & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: And at this point, Erin, there is no credible evidence that we have a deal, and even if there was a deal, it is still unclear if that deal would stick. So the-the administration looks like it is de-prioritized, eliminating the Iranian missile program and drone program, they backed off on that, as well as support to proxies. And what they're focusing on right now is the enriched uranium, Kristen mentioned that, and then also opening up the strait.
But, I mean, the reality is the strait is not open. There have been, according to U.S. Central Command, something like 120 ships that have passed through since May. Maybe up to 200. There were 120 per day before this war began.
So the reality is the strait isn't open. There is no deal. And Iran, even after a deal, could conduct strikes at any time after that.
BURNETT: Yeah, I mean, you know, Colonel Leighton, it's even on Fox News, Mark Levin, he's obviously been a very big supporter of Trump, is questioning it.
He posted on social media this in the aftermath of Trump saying this conceptual situation. If all those -- these governments have agreed on this deal, it's amazing how all these governments signed up so fast while we were announcing we'd be bombing ASAP. Since it's done, can we see it? And what's in the deal? Can we see it?
CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yeah.
BURNETT: I mean, you know, it's interesting where this criticism is now coming from, where people are calling it out, saying, well, look, sometimes, you know, the word is means is.
LEIGHTON: Yeah, well, that's the case. The word does mean is. And the key thing is this. This isn't the Battleship Missouri at the end of World War II, where everybody knew what was happening. The surrender documents were prepared very carefully. The ceremony was quite well- choreographed. None of that is happening.
And so this isn't, whatever is happening now, this memorandum of understanding or whatever it is, is not at the same level as any type of peace agreement that we've had in the past. And that's going to be a problem because when you look at the types of things that are going on, both militarily as well as economically and certainly diplomatically, you're going to find that this is something that may not last, and that's a real danger. And the fact that, you know, Fox News and others are calling this out, that is a significant sign that I think what we're seeing here is an effort by the administration to reach some kind of an agreement, probably for political purposes, but the military reality on the ground is something that, you know, will basically be there forever, unless we have some kind of an agreement.
BURNETT: Right, which I want to get to you in a moment, Seth, on the military situation on the ground.
But, Farnaz, I want to ask you first. When the president of the United States posts, "The United States will be hitting Iran very hard tonight," threatening to take Kharg Island, which brings us back to the earliest days of the war when all of the -- they were considering a massive ground invasion of that island. That was this morning.
And then all of a sudden, he calls it off, everything's fine, there's a deal, we're all done here. What are you hearing inside Iran about the wild swings that come from Trump?
FARNAZ FASSIHI, NYT REPORTER, HAS COVERED IRAN FOR 30+ YEARS: Well, Erin, in Iran, everybody is perplexed and confused as to what exactly is going on. Is there at night? Some Iranians I spoke to in Tehran said we go to bed at night thinking, hearing explosions and hearing about American attacks. We wake up and the U.S. is talking about an imminent peace deal. You know, within the same hour, there's talks about taking over our oil infrastructure and damaging our power plants.
[19:10:05]
So I think that sort of the chaos messaging that we've seen has really caused -- is causing a lot of anxiety for ordinary Iranians. They feel kind of paralyzed. in the state of limbo, not knowing if they're going to be at war or if they're going to be at peace. And I think for the Iranian government, sources that I was able to reach today said, look, there's been a lot of frantic diplomacy going on. A delegation from Qatar and a delegation from Pakistan were in Tehran
this week trying to mediate and bring Washington and Tehran closer to a deal. But there were some very serious sticking points remaining and no diplomatic breakthrough on the issue of Iran's frozen funds being released in the memorandum of understanding, and also whether Iran is going to say anything about giving up the stockpile of enriched uranium.
BURNETT: That's pretty incredible -- I'm not laughing because it's funny, Seth. I'm just saying, from what she's saying, yeah, there's a deal, except for nothing to do with the highly enriched uranium. And I mean, the same sticking points --
JONES: Parts of the deal.
BURNETT: Right, I just, you know, here we are again. Okay, Seth, on that front, I want to ask you something about Iran's situation, because you had done and had all of this reporting prior to when "The New York Times" saw a CIA assessment about what Iran's military still had. So we were talking yesterday about how many times Trump has said that the Iranian military has destroyed, the overall military. He said it many times.
It is not true. And you had said up to 70 percent of the missiles were still there. CIA assessment backed that up. But that was weeks ago. So if anything, that number would have gone up, possibly. Who knows? But where are we right now with Iran's military capabilities?
JONES: Well, I mean, there's no question right now that Iran's capabilities are degraded. They didn't start off with a lot of conventional capabilities. They didn't really have much of a navy. What they had is sunk.
They have -- their defense industrial base has been hit pretty hard. But the reality is, if you're trying to impact and coerce these negotiations and to strike ships or aircraft, helicopters going through the Strait of Hormuz, the Iranians still have massive capabilities to do that. They've got their anti-ship cruise missiles. They've got drones. They can strike targets still throughout the Gulf. They can hit U.S. bases, including Bahrain within the last 24 hours, U.S. base in Bahrain.
So the reality is, and this goes back to the discussions about the deal, the Iranians, if they are unhappy after a deal, they will have the capabilities to conduct strike at any time that they want.
BURNETT: So, Colonel Leighton, that's a stunning thing to say too, right? That's a shift in the balance of power. The most obvious one is that the Strait of Hormuz is still closed, and it wasn't closed before the war. Iran had never closed it, right?
So that's the most fundamental shift of power we can all see. What Jim Cramer said today, though, when he sitting there on the market floor on CNBC, Trump watches CNBC, Trump cares about the markets. Trump listens to Jim Cramer. Jim Cramer called Trump a highly emotional man running the military. What's the significance of a statement like that? And I guess when you
think about that, a highly emotional man running the military, maybe that's a definition of fact, but how dangerous is such a statement?
LEIGHTON: It could be quite dangerous, and it's interesting that Jim Cramer juxtaposed Trump with General Marshall, and General Marshall was known for his very cool demeanor and his ability to basically get through things very quickly, very efficiently, and very calmly. Even though he might have been seething inside, he never let that show, and that's very different from President Trump's behavior and, quite frankly, everybody else's behavior on the civilian side of the chain of command.
So that becomes a real issue, because in the military you want people who have in essence a calm understanding of what's going on. You also want them to provide calm advice to the civilian leadership, and you want that civilian leadership to also be calm in response to what the military is telling them. There might be some frightening facts out there, But you have to, in essence, lead our country through those frightening facts.
And that's something that I think Cramer was pointing out to you.
BURNETT: Right, right, right, the bombastic threats of annihilation, you know, then the swings to everything is fine, right? Both are disturbing in their own way.
Farnaz, Trump says that he believed the Supreme Leader signed off on the deal. I played that clip a little bit earlier, I believe, when he was answering a question today.
But Iran -- then he also said this. Let me play it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I really believe it's a regime change because I find these people to be much more rational than the people that are no longer with us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Farnaz, you've done incredible reporting on the new Supreme Leader, who's around him, who's talking to him, who's calling the shots. So when you hear the president of the United States say that he believes that what we're looking at in Iran is regime change, which, of course, was one of the initial goals of the war, and that these people are more rational than those who are no longer with us, what do you say?
[19:15:10]
FASSIHI: I think that if you ask the Iranian citizens who are living under the Islamic Republic's rule and oppression, who are waking up to news of executions of young protesters every day, who our lives and purchasing powers are deteriorating because they were living under the rules of erratic hardline generals, there certainly isn't regime change. I mean, regime change usually refers to a wholesale change of power structure in a country, the way that the U.S. changed the regime of Saddam Hussein per se, or the Taliban post-9/11, or Syria's Bashar Assad. Like, that's regime change, right?
But to sort of just have the son succeed the father as the supreme leader and have another round of generals take over running the military. That's just a changing of guards and personnel. It's not called regime change.
BURNETT: Yeah, interesting as you say, changing -- changing of the guard and personnel. Thank you all very much. I appreciate you.
And next, breaking news just in from "The Wall Street Journal". They are reporting that Trump and his allies are pushing a resolution aimed at voiding his first term impeachments. We have much more on that breaking story from "The Journal" ahead.
And the White House giving a preview of Trump's UFC fights on the South Lawn. Trump promising they'll feature the roughest people as Todd Blanche dodges questions about a federal ruling that could halt the whole thing before Saturday.
And the president nominating U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton for the DNI job. The same Jay Clayton who stoked Trump's baseless claims of election fraud in California.
S.E. Cupp, Sean Patrick Maloney, getting ready to weigh in next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:21:27]
BURNETT: Breaking news, President Trump nominating U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton to be director of national intelligence after bipartisan outrage on Capitol Hill forced his hand to name someone other than loyalist and mortgage chief Bill Pulte to serve in that role. Clayton is the current U.S. attorney for the influential Southern District of New York. It's a big job. He's the person Trump tapped to lead a federal investigation into Jeffrey Epstein's ties to prominent Democrats.
And he's also someone who, days ago, was pushing Trump's baseless claims about voter fraud in California elections, where mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day are eligible to be counted if they arrive up to a week later.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAY CLAYTON, U.S. ATTORNEY: On the integrity side, we're doing an absolutely terrible job, and the American people are right to question it.
BECKY QUICK, CNBC ANCHOR: You can argue whether the law makes sense, but that doesn't sound like a fraudulent situation.
CLAYTON: No, it's a great -- there's a great phrase: Opportunity for fraud.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OUTFRONT now, Devlin Barrett. He is a "New York Times" reporter covering the Justice Department and the FBI, and the author of the new book "The Department of Revenge: How Trump Took Control of American Justice."
Also with us tonight, Sean Patrick Maloney, former Democratic congressman and ambassador under Biden; and S.E. Cupp, host of "Off the Cupp", and former Republican strategist.
OK, thanks to all.
Devlin, let me just start with you, because you've done a lot of reporting on all the people involved here. And you reported today that California, quote, appears to an early testing ground for Trump and the DOJ to push voter fraud claims with no evidence. And we just heard that clip there from Clayton. How does he fit in with this?
DEVLIN BARRETT, NEW YORK TIMES REPORTER COVERING DOJ AND FBI: So I think that clip you played of Jay Clayton talking about his concerns about -- about voting was very important because he's echoing things that Trump has said. I think you can think of that as a sort of soft audition for the job he has just been nominated for because the president feels very strongly that he wants his DNI to pursue voter fraud claims.
And, you know, he did that with his last DNI, and now he seems poised to do it again with this one. I know plenty of law enforcement intelligence officials that feel like that's a stretch for what the DNI is normally supposed to be doing, but that's what Trump wants them to do, and I think Jay Clayton is signaling he's willing to do that.
BURNETT: So you write specifically about Clayton in your book and how at the time Trump named him to lead an investigation into Jeffrey Epstein's ties to Democrats, right, just to Democrats late last year. And in it, you write, "In December, about a month after taking the Trump assignment, Clayton golfed with the president in Florida, according to people familiar with the matter."
What more do you know about their relationship?
BARRETT: Well, they're very close, and the president likes and trusts Jay Clayton. Jay Clayton's background is he's really a Wall Street lawyer, essentially, a corporate lawyer.
BURNETT: Yeah.
BARRETT: He's not really an intelligence guy, per se. But the president likes him and the president golfs with him fairly often. And he's come back from the first administration. Jay Clayton served in the first administration as well.
And I think what Trump sees in Jay Clayton is a guy he trusts and a guy he believes will speak out for him and back him up. BURNETT: Speak out for him and back him up, S.E., and when it comes to the issue that you heard Clayton talking about just there with Becky Quick, and she made a great point, right, which is just because you don't like the rules there doesn't mean there's fraud.
S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Right.
BURNETT: Back in April, okay, so this is -- he's been saying this for a while. It wasn't just now, but this election fraud question, here he is back in April.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLAYTON: We have great uncertainty in this country about election integrity. And the reason is because we don't have a good audit trail for many of our elections.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[19:25:07]
BURNETT: I think Georgia Republicans would beg to differ, right? Many others would beg to differ. We do have audit trails.
CUPP: We do. And actually, you know, contrary to what he's saying, contrary to what Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has said, election fraud is very easy to prove, and we've proven it before. It's exceedingly rare. It generally happens in local elections, not at the federal level, but it does happen. And we've proven it.
Where you can't prove it is where it doesn't exist. And it, thus far, has not existed in the California mayoral race. It didn't exist in 2020. It didn't -- I mean -- but I think the important thing, as, um, Devlin said, is that Clayton has signaled that he's willing to do what Trump wants him to do.
And we know from the Bill Pulte pick, Trump's not interested in anyone with intelligence experience going to DNI. That's not the point.
BURNETT: Right.
CUPP: So I don't think we should be looking at Clayton as someone who is right for that job either. He's right for some job. But it's not the job that that post is expecting.
BURNETT: And given what he said about elections now more than once, right, that he has put the air in that balloon, Sean, what I'm curious about is -- you served on House Intelligence, right? So you've seen this.
Yesterday, John Sipher, who wrote that op-ed saying Bill Pulte was a danger to America as DNI. He talked about what DNI could do for elections. And it basically was take classified information and weaponize it and take it out of context and-and breathe life into very bad conspiracy theories.
What does that really mean in terms of the damage that can be done on elections in that role?
SEAN PATRICK MALONEY (D), FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE: Well, what it means is that Jay Clayton has a decision to make, which is whether he's going to follow his oath, do his job, or try to keep the president happy. And that is the dilemma every one of these senior officials face.
I mean, what S.E. said is exactly right about the absence of voter fraud. But, of course, the other screaming issue here is, what the heck does the director of national intelligence have to do with who's voting in the Los Angeles mayor's race, or whatever Trump is upset about in any given day.
That is not that job. It is actually a serious job to coordinate the intelligence of all the different agencies created after 9/11. And the last thing you need the DNI to do is what Tulsi Gabbard ended up doing, which is, you know, roaming around some warehouse in Georgia looking at ballots, which has nothing to do with that job. And it is only to feed the president's fevered conspiracy theories about what's going on in elections. But it's dangerous when you take the national security apparatus and you weaponize it for domestic political reasons.
BURNETT: Right, which is I know what John Sipher was also saying he was deeply concerned about.
Devlin, in this context, when we talk about the importance of what Trump wants with the election, right, when he talked about Bill Pulte, he explicitly said he's going to be looking in the rigged elections as DNI, right? And Tulsi Gabbard was down in that warehouse in Georgia, right? Trump views this as core to the DNI job.
Now that you've heard what Jay Clayton has to say about this, I'm curious what you make of the fact that Democrats are very clearly getting behind Clayton. Senator Mark Warner is the top Democrat on intelligence, he said, "I have great respect for Jay Clayton today."
Jim Himes is the top Democrat on House intel. He was on this show last night. He said, "I've known and respected Jay Clayton for decades. His intelligence, temperament, and deep commitment to public service will make him a terrific DNI."
What do you make, Devlin, of this very strong Democratic support?
BARRETT: Look, I think -- I think it's very simple for a lot of these lawmakers, which is that Jay Clayton is to them a far better option than Bill Pulte. Bill Pulte has, I think most Democrats would argue, horribly misused his position to try to gin up criminal cases that should not be brought against the president's perceived enemies.
I think Jake Clayton is a serious person who has done serious things in his life, perhaps not in the intelligence space. And there's certainly reasons to wonder why is the New York U.S. attorney opining on California election law. That is not a great indicator for someone who's about to take a job that the president wants to sic onto the election systems of this country. But I think, compared to Bill Pulte, I think a lot of Democrats would
breathe a sigh of relief.
BURNETT: Yeah.
MALONEY: And there's one other reason, which is that there's a critical intelligence authority called Section 702, and we're in the middle of a war, and they don't have the votes to reauthorize it. And without that, we can't do important surveillance work on our foreign adversaries. And Pulte was in the way.
So I think those Democrats see this, because they're both intelligence committee ranking members, they see this as a critical step in corralling the votes to keep the country safe by reauthorizing that authority. But of course, they're playing political triage because they don't know whether this just ends up being, you know, the lesser of two evils.
BURNETT: Which I guess is how American voters feel pretty much every time they go to the polls. So that's what they say.
CUPP: Yeah.
BURNETT: S.E., okay, "Wall Street Journal" just had this new story coming out, and I was just looking at it here. I got it. Printed and I haven't had a chance to read it all.
CUPP: Yeah.
BURNETT: Okay, here we are: "Trump and allies working on a plan to expunge impeachments."
[19:30:01]
That's the headline. So, basically a resolution avoid the two impeachments from his first term.
Now, it's symbolic, right? It's symbolic if it happens, it's not like it suddenly goes away, but that they would do that.
What's your reaction to that, that they could possibly have the votes to do that symbolically?
CUPP: I'll let Sean handle the logistics of that and whether that's going to happen, but I'll just speak to sort of the politics of it. This is what Trump cares about. I have been saying this for months.
He doesn't give a crap about the midterms. He doesn't care about the health of the Republican. He doesn't care about the majority.
BURNETT: He said that.
CUPP: He doesn't care at all. It's obvious. He cares about this.
He cares about putting his face on the money, his name on the buildings, his legacy. And if that means pretending he wasn't impeached twice, I guess that will satisfy him in his old age. But this is not what Americans care about.
MALONEY: It's a shiny object, but what Democrats would do well to remember is that it costs 100 bucks to fill up the pickup truck at the gas station, that healthcare and housing and gas and groceries are killing people.
And that is what matters to people, and we need to talk about that. And this is -- S.E.'s right. This is what the president's doing, but he's doing it while you're getting -- while you're getting killed out there in your wallet and trying to make ends meet as a working family.
And so I think Democrats should not take the bait on all of this stuff. It's also meaningless. It's a meaningless vote in the House of Representatives. The historical record is clear why he was impeached. Both were justified and important, and they ran their course.
BURNETT: But it's interesting that this is how he's taking the time.
CUPP: But he doesn't --
BURNETT: He's being briefed on this. He's taking the time. The time is going into this.
CUPP: But he's not thinking ahead, because if he really wants to pursue this, all the reasons he was impeached get dredged up again, and we're all talking about it around a midterm election, like, what are you thinking?
BURNETT: All right, I guess we'll leave it there.
CUPP: Nobody can answer. Don't know.
(LAUGHTER)
BURNETT: Alright, thank you all very much. I appreciate it, both of you. Devlin, thank you.
And next, Trump facing angry voters over high gas prices issued an executive order to drill off California's coast and California is tonight responding.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This only benefits. The executives in the oil industry who are friends with the Trump administration and it puts everybody else in harm's way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: A special report ahead.
And Trump quick to tout the upcoming UFC fights at the White House happening on his birthday this weekend. So, do Americans want this event? Harry Enten here to tell us a whole bunch of things we don't know.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:37:18]
BURNETT: Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche repeatedly dodging questions about whether Trump's UFC fights on the White House lawn on Sunday, which is Trump's birthday, are in jeopardy due to a lawsuit seeking to shut the fights down.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: On the UFC fight --
TODD BLANCHE, ACTING ATTORNEY GENERAL: I'm not going to talk about the UFC fight. We're just here to talk about this.
REPORTER: Will you abide by the judge's order if he does order that it be blocked?
BLANCHE: I'm not going to talk about the UFC fight.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Blanche's refusal to talk about the UFC fight came after the White House invited reporters to get an up-and-close look at the eight-sided cage called the Octagon that's going to be home to the fights. This is on the same day that UFC's head, Dana White, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio signed a deal. Not the Iran deal, it's a different sort of deal, but they're going to use the UFC for diplomacy.
And Sunlen Serfaty is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Octagon built chairs in place and fight bell ready to be rung. The South lawn of the White House now transformed into a massive UFC fighting arena.
TRUMP: This will be the greatest show on Earth.
SERFATY (voice-over): The live televised event coinciding with Trump's 80th birthday on Sunday has drawn an unprecedented effort to make it happen, just steps away from the People's House.
Court documents submitted as part of a lawsuit attempting to delay the event, revealing eye popping details how the logistics, size, scope and price tag have all swelled, including the help of now seven federal agencies. A cost of more than $60 million paid for by the UFC, including the grandiose over 100-foot arched lighting grid dubbed "The Claw", a substantial volume of perishable food and 494 port-a-potties brought in for the crowd.
Hundreds of staff and more than 700 subcontractors and roughly 4,000 people coming to the lawn with more than 125,000 guests overall, much larger than the president originally predicted. TRUMP: We're going to have a UFC fight. Think of this on the grounds of the White House. We have a lot of land.
SERFATY (voice-over): UFC front man Dana White --
TRUMP: The great Dana White, he's building a literally a stadium, a 5,000-seat arena right outside the front door of the White House.
SERFATY (voice-over): -- has been a close ally and friend to President Trump for over 25 years.
DANA WHITE, UFC PRESIDEN AND CEO: This guy has been a really good friend to me. And that's the bottom line. Donald Trump and I, who happens to be the president of the United States, is one of my very good friends.
SERFATY (voice-over): Appearing at the last three GOP conventions to help Trump target young male voters.
WHITE: My fellow Americans, it is my honor to introduce the 45th and soon to be 47th president of the United States, Donald J. Trump.
[19:40:02]
SERFATY (voice-over): White getting a high profile and laudatory audience today with Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
MARCO RUBIO, SECRETARY OF STATE: President Kennedy announced that we were going to put a man on the moon and return him safely to the earth. No one thought that was possible and we did it. We are a nation founded on doing what no one else dared to do and at some level that's what this whole company what UFC has been.
SERFATY (voice-over): Amid scrutiny of his unprecedented access to some of the nation's most sacred landmarks.
REP. JIM MCGOVERN (D-MA): Let's get back to work to actually helping hard working people in this country.
SERFATY (voice-over): And the UFC's private game.
SEN. ALEX PADILLA (D-CA): There's no pushback by the Republican majority. They have nothing to say about a UFC ring being built on the lawn of the White House? Really.
SERFATY (voice-over): After a series of hostile greetings at sporting events, including the NBA Finals in New York this week, it may be the one sport left where President Trump receives a welcome audience.
JOE ROGAN, HOST, "THE JOE ROGAN EXPERIENCE": We should stick to the UFC.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And that's --
ROGAN: They're going to boo him everywhere else.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SERFATY: And tomorrow will really be the kickoff of all of this. There will be a face off on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, also a press conference by the UFC on Saturday. That will be the ceremonial way in and then the main event on Sunday, the big fight. There will also be concerts, a flyover, Clydesdale horses, and a finale with fireworks, certainly massive and complex undertaking on the part of the UFC and the White House -- Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Sunlen, thank you very much.
And Harry Enten's here to tell us something we don't know. I mean, Marco Rubio said something I don't know, which is that the -- what they're doing with the UFC is akin to putting a man on the moon.
HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Yes. Yes.
BURNETT: I wasn't aware of that. I was. Yeah, that was an interesting.
ENTEN: We're all learning new things together. Erin Burnett.
BURNETT: Yeah.
ENTEN: Yeah.
BURNETT: You can't lose the power to be stunned. OK?
All right. So Trump and his allies are saying how great it is to have the UFC at the White House, right? And you just heard silent laying out the big pomp and circumstance that's going to come with this. That's what they say. How do Americans see it?
ENTEN: Yeah, they don't see it in any such way. You talk about putting a man on the moon -- putting a man on the moon, quite popular. The appropriateness for this fight, UFC fight at the White House, I mean, what are we talking about in terms of the American public?
We are talking less than 20 percent of Americans say that, in fact, this event -- look at the 16 percent say these U.S. White House fights are appropriate. And just 31 percent of Republicans say they're appropriate.
Donald Trump's approval rating with Republicans is north of 80 percent in the average of polls, so we're talking about 50 points lower among Republicans, even Republicans are quite --
BURNETT: This is basically as bad as it gets.
ENTEN: This is about as bad as it gets. It's the exact opposite of putting a man on the moon.
BURNETT: Okay, so you heard Joe Rogan say Trump should go to the UFC. He'll get cheered there. That's what he -- you know, don't go to other sporting events. He was, I guess, referring to the Madison Square Garden situation, which was this, at the NBA Finals. (VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)
BURNETT: Somehow in the background there, there was anthem playing. Okay, so that was the New York Knicks. That was in Madison Square Garden in the center of Midtown, Manhattan. I guess you would expect that sort of a reception.
But how does the UFC fan base view Trump compared to other professional sports?
ENTEN: Yeah, he's going home and he's going to, you know, hosting a UFC fight, especially on the White House lawn, because what are we talking about? We're talking about UFC fans leaning significantly more Republican than the nation as a whole. They lean Republican over Democratic by, get this, 14 points MMA, for example, the UFC.
Compare that to the NBA, which obviously Donald Trump was booed at. Those fans are 28 points more likely to be Democrat than Republican. And if Trump decides to attend some World Cup matches, well, that might not be too friendly a territory either, because they're leaning Democratic by about 12 points.
BURNETT: Dana White has said he does not like having UFC fights outside, okay, which obviously is the whole point of Trump's name, but Dana White does not like that idea ever, okay? Here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WHITE: There's two things I hate. I hate stadiums and I hate even worse than the stadium is fighting outside. There's just so many different variables you have to deal with, you know, the weather and, you know, the worst obviously being rain and lightning.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: He was talking there to Steve Inskeep.
All right, tell me something I don't know.
ENTEN: I'll tell you two things, you know, Erin Burnett. I got this shirt, my mother got me this shirt 20, over 20 years ago. It's actually a Donald J. Trump collection shirt. My mother got it for me long before he was in politics.
And 20 years --
BURNETT: Oh, it's still there.
ENTEN: It's still -- it still works. It still works. And 20 years ago, I went to weather camp. So I'll give you the weather forecast for Sunday.
It could be quite an interesting phenomenon indeed, because it's going to be really hot. The heat index forecast to be 88 degrees and the rain chance 50 percent hot and humid for a UFC fight. Not exactly --
BURNETT: Does not necessarily even mean it's just rain. It means it's lightning. I'm going back here to Dana White.
ENTEN: Yeah.
BURNETT: The weather and the worst being rain and lightning.
ENTEN: It could be quite the thing, thunder and UFC fighting. Not a good combination.
[19:45:00]
BURNETT: Hmm.
All right. Thank you very much, Harry.
ENTEN: Thank you.
BURNETT: And next, Goldman Sachs facing major questions tonight about why its top lawyer, Kathleen Rundler, will remain with the bank. Remember, there was all the reporting. She was gone because of her ties to Jeffrey Epstein. Ties reported by CNN's KFILE. So she's still there?
And Trump under pressure over high gas prices, and he's looking to California, to California for help. We'll tell you what's going down there. Elex Michaelson with a special report.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: Tonight, Trump versus California. President Trump wants to pump huge amounts of oil out of California, and he is invoking emergency powers to do it. California now suing to stop it.
And Elex Michelson is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We arrived by helicopter --
CHRIS WRIGHT, ENERGY SECRETARY: We're excited to get after it.
MICHAELSON (voice-over): -- for a firsthand look at Sable Offshore Core Oil platform located off the coast of Santa Barbara, California.
[19:50:03]
This pipeline, Santa Ynez, is once again actively producing thousands of barrels of oil due to an executive order issued by the Trump administration in March. State of California now suing the administration to shut it down.
CHRIS WRIGHT, ENERGY SECRETARY: President Trump is for energy addition and energy dominance. Gavin Newsom is for energy subtraction and energy submission.
MICHAELSON (voice-over): We speak exclusively with US Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum atop the Harmony Oil platform, at a moment when so many Americans are worried about higher gas prices.
DOUG BURGUM, INTERIOR SECRETARY: Seventy-two million cars could fill up their tank off the production coming from these platforms that are right here.
MICHAELSON (voice-over): On the helicopter ride to the platform, we see miles of deep Blue Ocean. But back in 2015, this same waterway was coated black after that pipeline, operated by a different company at the time, ruptured, spilling an estimated 120,000 gallons of crude oil. All oil production stopped here for more than a decade.
ALEX KATZ, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE CENTER: This is going to be a fight.
MICHAELSON (voice-over): Alex Katz is executive director of the Environmental Defense Center, which is suing to stop Sable.
MICHAELSON: Why do you oppose Sable?
KATZ: The problem with the pipeline is that it doesn't have an effective way of preventing corrosion.
MICHAELSON (voice-over): After President Donald Trump and Israel launched military action against Iran and the Strait of Hormuz shut down, gas prices spiked.
The Trump administration ordered Sable's pipeline to start producing again by invoking the Defense Production Act, a law that gives the president emergency powers to influence domestic industries to help national defense.
MICHAELSON: Sable says as soon as the Defense Production Act was invoked, they were ready to go.
MICHAELSON (voice-over): Sable is ramping up to produce 50,000 barrels of oil per day, according to the Department of Energy. small offset compared to the over 15 million barrels of oil per day lost for the global market in the straits since the war in Iran began.
MICHAELSON: Critics say you started a war that was unnecessary in Iran and now you're able to give handouts to oil companies because of that. What do you say to that?
WRIGHT: The war in Iran is critical. This is how you end Iran's nuclear weapons program. And of course, this is not a handout.
MICHAELSON: Sable's going to make a lot of money off of this opening, no?
WRIGHT: The federal government's going to make a lot of money off this. Sable might make a lot of money on this. They spent two-thirds of billions of dollars to buy this option to maybe make some money.
MICHAELSON (voice-over): Back on land, Katz is skeptical. KATZ: This only benefits the executives in the oil industry who are friends with the Trump administration, and it puts everybody else in.
JIM FLORES, CEO, SABLE OFFSHORE CORP.: We're not the enemy. We're the solution.
MICHAELSON (voice-over): Jim Flores is Sable CEO. He tells me much of the oil from this pipeline is being used to fuel jets at Los Angeles International Airport. He says ensuring the pipeline safety is his top priority.
FLORES: All production offshore, offshore California can be safe. It can be diligent. It needs to be regulated.
KATZ: As long as we have offshore drilling, we're going to have spills in the ocean.
MICHAELSON (voice-over): The Trump administration is currently considering a five-year plan to expand oil drilling off the California coast for the first time in decades.
WRIGHT: President Trump on drill baby drill means energy abundance. It means more energy.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: So, Elex, what's going on with the lawsuit then?
MICHAELSON: So the lawsuit is still going. But Sable is not letting that stopping them from pumping. They're still pumping despite all of that. And meanwhile, gas prices are coming down in California from their peak at over $6 a gallon. They're now at $5.81 a gallon. But Erin, that's still the highest gas prices of any state in the country.
BURNETT: Yeah, which is just absolutely stunning number that you shared there, Elex. Okay, thank you very much.
And next, Goldman Sachs said in February that its top lawyer was out, was going to resign over her ties to Jeffrey Epstein. But now there are reports that lawyer Kathy Ruemmler will stay working for the bank? How come?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:58:31]
BURNETT: New tonight, top Democrats demanding to know why Goldman Sachs is reportedly keeping its top lawyer employed despite her vows to resign over her ties to Jeffrey Epstein. Kathy Ruemmler was President Obama's former White House counsel. And she said in February she would resign from her role at Goldman Sachs as the top lawyer there on June 30th.
But "The Financial Times" and Bloomberg are both reporting that the CEO of Goldman, David Solomon, asked her to stay on as an advisor. Our KFILE has reported extensively on Ruemmler's messages in the Epstein files sent in the years after she left the White House in 2014 and before she joined Goldman. Messages that show Ruemmler accepted expensive gifts from Epstein and appeared to advise him on legal matters after he pleaded guilty in 2008 to prostitution charges and registered as a sex offender.
In one 2015 e-mail to Epstein, Ruemmler wrote, quote, "Friendships goes two ways, getting you some peace with respect to all of this legal expletive is important to me." 2015.
Epstein also referred to Ruemmler as, quote, "my great defender," end quote. Ruemmler was paid $25 million last year at Goldman and is set to get another $80 million in stock options. She said she never formally represented Epstein, wasn't compensated by him and had no knowledge of any ongoing criminal conduct on his part.
Goldman Sachs has maintained that her relationship with Epstein was professional in nature. Goldman and Ruemmler did not respond to CNN for comment tonight.
Thank you so much for joining us. Check us out on X @OutFrontCNN, and you can also follow us as well on Instagram and TikTok. Our handles there are @ErinBurnettOutFront. You'll see our extras, key moments you've missed from the show, and you can also e-mail anything to outfront@cnn.com.
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