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Erin Burnett Outfront
Trump Signs Agreement Iran Is Calling "A Record Of America's Failure"; Georgia Republicans Drop Plans To Redraw Maps Amid Protests; CNN Gets Inside Look At $850 Million Obama Presidential Center. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired June 17, 2026 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:23]
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next:
Breaking new, Iran emboldened after Trump officially signs the agreement. One Republican senator tonight calling it the greatest foreign policy blunder in decades.
Plus, Republicans lose their nerve on a major redistricting plan. Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock, who was protesting the plan tonight, is our guest. What happened there?
And we'll take you inside the Obama Presidential Library. What made the president tear up just before the grand opening?
Let's go OUTFRONT.
(MUSIC)
BURNETT: And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.
And OUTFRONT tonight, we begin with breaking news, Iran emboldened. Moments after Trump officially signed the 14-point agreement with Iran, Iran's chief negotiator called the deal a, quote, "record of America's failure". Iran also defiant about its missile capabilities, not being negotiable and declaring victory for leaving the, quote, "nuclear issue to a later stage".
Now that's Iran right now dancing on the table. But the truth is, the agreement appears to have a lot for Iran to celebrate. If you take a step back and look at it and very little for the U.S.
Point number four of the 14 point, it's a brief memo, but point number four, let me read you this one. The United States of America further undertakes to remove its forces from the proximity of the Islamic Republic of Iran within 30 days after the final deal. Okay, what does that actually mean?
Because the U.S. didn't put ground troops in Iran, right? I mean, what does it mean, proximity of Iran? There are nearly two dozen American military sites across the Middle East that are right around Iran. Is this a deal to limit or retreat from the Middle East, from America? I mean, what's going on here? When pressed for details, Trump said he hadn't even thought about when
the U.S. military will leave the Gulf, as if it was a thing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Good question. We haven't thought of it. We really -- probably a while. It's a good place to stay. I would say a little while, see how it all goes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: I mean, it's really confusing to even understand what he's talking about. No one's ever talked about removing or downsizing or anything with U.S. bases in the Middle East. There's a pretty stunning question out there.
Let's go to point number eight, which reads, quote, "The Islamic Republic of Iran reaffirms that it shall not procure or develop nuclear weapons." The most important word in there is reaffirms, because Iran is categorically not going to say that this is new, because Iran has repeatedly, for decades, said that they are not pursuing a nuclear weapon. They've said it again and again and again.
The president OF Iran, Pezeshkian, told it to me in a room of reporters in October. Every single time you met with them, they said it. Here's the president of Iran speaking at the U.N. last year.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MASOUD PEZESHKIAN, IRANIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): I hereby declare once more before this assembly that Iran has never sought and will never seek to build a nuclear bomb.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: So Iran has said that again and again. Now, as to whether that actually is what they were doing, well, that's the whole point of the issue. But the fact that they're saying it is not new.
And point number six, which is getting some of the most outrage for some MAGA loyalists tonight, is this, and I'll read it. "The United States of America undertakes with regional partners to develop a definitive, mutually agreed plan with at least $300 billion for the reconstruction and economic development of the Islamic Republic of Iran."
Okay, this is stunning. First thing I did when I saw this was just to look up how big is the Iranian economy. According to the IMF, the entire GDP, the entire size, the entire Iranian economy last year was $371 billion. So the United States is agreeing that Iran is going to get reconstruction money that is almost equivalent to its entire economy.
Let's put it another way, doubling the size of Iran's economy. Trump claims the money won't be from the U.S., but money is money, and that isn't the point. The U.S. is arranging for Iran to double its economy. That is money. That means a lot to Iran. That is everything to Iran.
And it means Trump is going against his own commitment that he vowed unequivocally on April 17th when he said, quote, "No money will exchange hands in any way, shape, or form." Well, that is not the deal that he signed. And it is worth pointing out, for years, Trump hammered Obama's 2015 deal with Iran on this very exact point.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: They gave billions and billions of dollars to Iran.
This should have been done by Obama. He went the other way. He was giving him cash.
This deal funneled tens of billions of dollars to Iran that would have funded all of the chaos and the bloodshed and the terror in the region and all throughout the world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[19:05:00]
BURNETT: Now, I mean, I guess if you're counting, how much money did Iran get from that deal, it's estimated that it was about $50 billion in the 2015 deal.
So again, that's dwarfed by Trump. His number's six times that. But the Obama administration at the time defended the $50 billion very specifically by saying they weren't giving money to Iran, but it was Iran's own assets that had been frozen in foreign banks under sanctions, and nobody was handing Iran money. It was just unfreezing their own money.
But now, after all of Trump's criticism of Obama and the way that Trump, you heard, talked about that money, he's now using the exact same talking point, the exact same one, as Trump's agreement with Iran could unfreeze more than $100 billion in frozen assets, double the amount that the Iranians got under Obama. Double.
Here's Trump today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We have taken their money. It's not our money. It's their money. And we froze it. At a certain point in time, I guess we're going to have to give it back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Can we just pause for a second and remember him talking about the pallets of cash and all of those things and mocking that very same argument, and now here we are? It is stunning.
And even Republicans and Trump's allies are angry and not buying the spin. Top conservative radio host Erick Erickson posting, "This is an American surrender." And Republican Senator Bill Cassidy posting, "This is the worst foreign policy blunder in decades."
He, along with others, also was saying this on camera.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BILL CASSIDY (R-LA): It's going to leave Iran stronger. That's going to leave our allies weak, and it may commit U.S. taxpayer dollars.
BRIAN KILMEADE, FOX NEWS HOST: I'm just wondering if the people that negotiated this have informed the president about what's in the page and a half he's going to read publicly on Friday.
GEN. JACK KEANE (RET.): We're a long way from accomplishing the objectives that the president wants to accomplish here with the Iranians.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Kristen Holmes is OUTFRONT, live at the White House.
And Kristen, I mean, we can go through this, and every single one of those points, it is really stunning to think about, okay? The kind of brazen ability to go ahead with things that were deemed anathema not long ago. But there now seems to be confusion about who signed the agreement and when, which almost sounds like real obfuscation about what's going on. What are you learning?
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I mean, I can't tell if it's obfuscation of what's going on or just general confusion, which is not necessarily a good way to start this deal. Now, President Trump just told reporters seconds ago as he was leaving a dinner that he did, in fact, sign this. I was told by a U.S. official he signed a hard copy of this deal that afterwards they sent a picture of his signature on the agreement to the Iranians.
Now we are being told that the Iranian president has signed this, although it seems as though he has signed this digital which, of course, begs the question as to what is different about this than what happened on Sunday.
I do think that we need to clarify here that we've been given kind of the runaround by U.S. officials, because originally we were told that both President Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance signed the MOU digitally on Sunday.
BURNETT: Right.
HOLMES: Now we are being told something completely different, which is that, yes, Vice President J.D. Vance did sign it digitally, as did the speaker in Iran, Ghalibaf, but that President Trump was just a witness to it. Now he has signed it, and the president of Iran has signed it as well.
The other question, and this is probably the most important part of all of this, is does this mean that that 60-day negotiating period has begun? Because that would also mean that the U.S. will have to remove the naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, that Iran is going to be removing the mines, that they're going to be unlocking some of these frozen assets, and these waivers for oil and other things are going to immediately go into effect.
But I still cannot get an answer. Now, according to Iran, that 60-day period has kicked off.
The other part of this is what is J.D. Vance doing in Switzerland on Friday if everybody's already signed the document?
Now, I was told by a White House official that he was still going, that they were still going to be a signing ceremony. But now we're hearing from the Iranians again, this Iranian spokesperson saying that what's happening in Switzerland is not a signing ceremony, but that there are going to be more negotiations.
So we followed back on that as well, trying to get to the bottom of, in particular, what has been kicked off and when.
BURNETT: I mean, it's incredible, all of it.
All right, Kristen, thank you very much.
Democratic Senator Chris Murphy is with me now. He sits on the Foreign Relations Committee. So he'll be aware of maybe some of the answers to what Kristen said, although it sounds like it's a giant pit of confusion right now.
Your colleague, Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, said this is the worst foreign policy blunder in decades. I mean, do you agree with him?
SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): Well, he's right in that this entire war is the worst foreign policy blunder of the last 20 years. And this deal is just evidence of that.
[19:10:02]
I mean, this is an insane deal. And while there might be confusion over when it was signed or executed, there's not a lot of confusion about what the deal is.
BURNETT: Yeah.
MURPHY: It's a multi-billion dollar payoff to Iran in exchange for nothing, right? Iran says, as you pointed out, they're not going to get a nuclear weapon. They made that concession.
They're reopening the strait. It was open before the war. They're agreeing to sit down to nuclear talks. They were willing to sit down to nuclear talks before the war began.
So, the agreement is basically just, we lift oil sanctions and Iran does nothing. That's it. That's a humiliation. Now, I'm somebody that wants this war to end basically on any terms.
But this is just proof positive that the war got America nothing. Iran won, Trump surrendered, and that's essentially what this deal represents.
BURNETT: Well, it's also, when you look at these numbers, I mean, it is pretty stunning. Obviously, I was pointing out how Trump had criticized Obama for unfreezing $50 billion of Iranian assets, but Trump's about to do that with $100 billion, plus this $300 billion fund. Not only did he say no money was going to change hands in any way, shape, or form, but it's $400 billion, which is actually more, it is bigger than the entire Iranian economy.
I mean, to imagine your economy at plus $30 billion, that in and of itself is stunning.
MURPHY: It is. I mean, I just take all of that with a grain of salt. I mean, if you remember when he signed an agreement with Japan, he claimed that there was a deal for Japan to spend hundreds of billions of dollars in the United States. That was never true. I'm not sure that this $300 billion will ever completely come to fruition, in part because these nuclear negotiations are going to go nowhere because Trump has given up all the leverage that he would need to get Iran to make concessions, chiefly, the oil sanctions.
The reason that Obama got a deal is because he had the oil sanctions to release as part of that agreement. By Trump giving up the oil sanctions, there's really no agreement that's going to come. Iran, at the end of this, will still have the nuclear program, their missiles, their drones. All that will have happened is a pretty big payout from the United States to Iran, and a broad humiliation of our country.
BURNETT: So, you know, Trump says that the agreement doesn't need any enforcement terms, 'cause he can just resume bombing if things don't go well. So, you know, basically sign a deal, but your signature doesn't mean anything, because if you don't like what the other side does, you can bomb them. Does that deterrent work?
MURPHY: Look, clearly bombing them got us nowhere. Bombing them is what closed the straits. Bombing them didn't eliminate their missile program. So, yes, I mean, we imagine a scenario in which Iran doesn't live up to the deal.
And basically, the only thing they are committing to do here is to reopen the strait. So they close the strait again two weeks from now. Trump starts bombing again. We're right back in the position we were. Bombing did not convince Iran to reopen the strait in the first place.
So his enforcement logic really doesn't make any sense.
BURNETT: Yeah, and then maybe that's why even oil prices, when you look months and months out, even a year out, are way higher, the projection now, than it was before the war, because Iran now does de facto control the strait, right? That's a permanent surcharge on oil prices. MURPHY: And also, Iran is only committing to reopen the strait for 60 days without tolling. What this agreement says is that Iran will not toll the strait for 60 days, and after that, Iran and Oman will come up with a plan, apparently, to put permanent tolls on the strait.
BURNETT: That's incredible to think about. That's incredible to think about. There's one other thing I have to ask you, though, Senator, and that is that today, Trump, amidst everything else, he said he thanked the Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Putin for their role in the war.
Okay, he thanked them. I want to play how he did it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I want to thank China, President Xi. I was with him. And he stayed neutral, totally neutral, and I appreciate it, and I want to thank Vladimir Putin. He was very neutral. They could have made it much more difficult for us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: There's been extensive reporting that shows that to be false. We've seen reporting about China, but you know Russia. There was a lot of intelligence they provided about the locations and movements of American troops, the locations of American troops to Iran ships, aircraft. China was shipping, tried to ship Iran weapons. They bought Iranian oil.
So what do you make of the fact that the president says they stayed neutral and thanks them?
MURPHY: Yeah, I don't know that he's lying. I think that he just sleeps through meetings. He spends his entire day sketching out the outlines of his ballroom or coming up with new ways to enrich himself off his cryptocurrency or inside deals --
BURNETT: Do you think he really doesn't know those facts?
MURPHY: I think he probably doesn't know those facts. Listen, the president literally doesn't spend any part of his day working on things that are important to the American people. He literally sits working on his ball. I think he probably doesn't know those facts.
Listen, the president literally doesn't spend any part of his day working on things that are important to the American people. He literally sits working on his ballroom and his corruption schemes, and then he sleeps in between. So it could be true that the president doesn't know that Putin was giving Iran intelligence on where U.S. assets were in the region.
He doesn't know that China was literally shipping the components of missiles to Iran during this war. Yeah, he lies about a lot of stuff, but it is also true that this guy is just not working on national security every day. He probably doesn't know 90 percent of the things that have been happening in the Middle East over the course of this disastrous hundred days war.
BURNETT: All right, thank you very much, Senator. I appreciate your time.
And I'm going to go to Dasha Burns now. She's OUTFRONT at the White House. She's the bureau chief for "Politico". And Karim Sadjadpour, Iran expert and senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
I appreciate both of you.
Dasha, can I start with you? I know you've been talking to sources, and we just have heard that Iran's chief negotiator in the deal has just said, quote, "The memorandum of understanding is a record of America's failure."
From what you're hearing as all this is playing out, is Trump genuinely satisfied with this agreement?
DASHA BURNS, POLITICO WHITE HOUSE BUREAU CHIEF & HOST OF "THE CONVERSATION": Look, Erin, there's a lot that Senator Chris Murphy, a Democratic senator, just said to you that Republicans have been privately saying to me over the course of the last 24 hours about this deal. There is a ton of concern, I guess, exactly on the points that you all just laid out.
However, Republicans, those same folks, are also telling me that this needed to happen, this needed to come to an end, because it has been so taxing on the American economy. And you heard the president today hint at that in his press briefing, saying that he doesn't think that Americans had the stomach for this, saying that he didn't want to create an international depression and that he didn't want to be Herbert Hoover.
And I think over the course of the last few months, you have seen that domestic pressure grow and grow and grow as we get closer to the midterms.
So those very same Republicans that are not happy with how this turned out, most of them, first of all, didn't want the president to go into on in the first place, but are also breathing a very uncomfortable sigh of relief that at the very least they think and they hope that while it's not the deal that they wanted, that this is coming to a close and maybe Americans will at least feel some relief at the gas pump and it won't be a total disaster for them in the midterms.
BURNETT: Which is incredible. I mean, Karim, just to think about, to get to a point where, you know, some of these points we were going through about U.S. troops and this implication that they're going to be removed from being, you know, proximity to Iran, which could imply all bases in the Middle East. I mean, it is a stunning moment we're in. What do you see here?
KARIM SADJADPOUR, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, it is a shocking moment. That document looks like it reads like it could have been unilaterally written by the government of Iran. You know, four months ago when President Trump launched this war, he laid out these conditions of destroying their nuclear program, their missiles, their regional proxies, potentially unseating the regime.
And what a dramatic turnaround. This document doesn't resolve any of those issues. And not only that, it's essentially ceding the Strait of Hormuz to Iran. It's saying over 60 days we can have a conversation about Iran regaining administrative control.
And so, this is a massive strategic defeat for the United States. I'd just say two additional caveats, Erin. One is that this is a pause in the war. And I think that the Iranians perhaps don't take for granted that on two occasions in the past when they've been negotiating with Trump, he resumed attacks on them. So I'm not convinced that this is necessarily the end of the story either.
BURNETT: Dasha, who is Trump listening to most when it comes to Iran?
BURNS: Well, look, we know this about Trump, those of us who have been following him, that he likes to do a poll every once in a while of the people close to him. And from the beginning, he's had maximalists in his camp, and he's had the folks that have wanted a diplomatic pathway out of this.
And you've had folks like Steve Witkoff, like Jared Kushner, and like Vice President J.D. Vance that through this entire period have been pushing for diplomacy, and you have seen the president every time the more hawkish people in his circles have told me he's going to resume a bigger-scale military campaign, he's actually pulled back from the brink of that and instead pushed for a deal. And so that is the camp that has won out here.
Karim, you know, when you talk about the incredible strategic failure that you see, what has this done to America's stature more broadly around the world?
SADJADPOUR: Well, I think on a couple important issues, it's done enormous damage to our stature. Number one is that our partners in the region and throughout the world, America's allies, we'd led them to economic ruin over the last four months. And now in this document, it says we're essentially going to be pulling out of the Middle East.
[19:20:02]
So our allies, both in the Middle East and globally, I think, are really thinking twice about their partnership with us, and our adversaries are also thinking twice about American results.
Finally, you know, there was a time when America was the country that was the beacon for all freedom fighters around the world. And what President Trump did over the last four months is essentially threw the Iranian people under the bus. He kept encouraging them to rise up. He said, help is on the way. Perhaps tens of thousands of Iranians were massacred.
And over the last couple of days, he said, I don't care about change in Iran. This new regime is fine. They have a respected supreme leader.
And so, you know, it's really soiled public opinion among Iranians about, certainly, President Trump.
BURNETT: Thank you both very much, Karim and Dasha.
And next, Georgia Republicans in the surprise last-minute move today announcing that they will not redraw congressional maps to help their party. What happened?
And another Democratic socialist appears poised to lead another major U.S. city as Trump threatens to take over that city. So why is Democratic socialism on the rise in the U.S.? Harry Enten is here to tell us things we don't know.
And Trump throwing J.D. Vance under the bus. Is he going to really be the guy who takes the fall on Iran? Alyssa Farah Griffin, Max Rose are here next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:26:00]
BURNETT: Tonight, President Trump saying he likes the idea of blaming Vice President Vance if the Iran agreement falls apart, as Vance has been on a PR blitz to try to sell this agreement.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: If it works out, great, you'll look like a genius for sending him, and if it doesn't work out, it's the vice president's fault.
TRUMP: I like that idea, sure. This way, if it works out, I'm going to take the credit. If it doesn't work out, I'm blaming J.D. You better be careful, J.D.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Max Rose and Alyssa Farah Griffin are here.
And, Alyssa, obviously, he's joking, but he was still making a clear point.
ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I mean, he's half joking. Listen, there's a long history of presidents giving their VP's very unenviable tasks. I mean, Mike Pence oversaw the COVID pandemic.
BURNETT: Didn't Kamala Harris get the border?
GRIFFIN: Yes, she got the border.
BURNETT: Yeah.
GRIFFIN: This is this long standing tradition, but there's a little bit of truth here. I mean, Lindsey Graham came out and panned this MOU once it was starting. The details were starting to leak and he called J.D. Vance the architect of it.
And I think to folks the White House, that is an opportunity to create distance from what I think is going to be panned as one of the worst foreign policy agreements in decades, decided and negotiated by Trump and his negotiators. So this is a good way that he can give himself some distance and blame it on the vice president.
BURNETT: Okay, Brian Kilmeade at Fox has been critical of the deal itself, but he said something on this point that I think is important. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KILMEADE: The vice president was here, did a wonderful job on every outlet, including "The View", but this is his deal. It's not the president's deal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Okay, so he's saying it too. But I mean, Max, just to be clear, if you're the president of the United States and you choose to go to war in Iran and you choose to end that war, it's your deal.
MAX ROSE (D), FORMER U.S. CONGRESSMAN: The only thing --
BURNETT: I mean, the buck stops here is sort of the most basic.
ROSE: The only thing more unpopular than the deal was the war itself. And they both are incredibly unpopular. Donald Trump has always been a shark, right? An immoral one, but a shark nonetheless. And he obviously wants to get as far away from this deal as humanly possible, but it doesn't matter what he's trying to do, it won't work.
Not only is Donald Trump going to own this deal, going to own the disaster, the geopolitical disaster they created, the entire Republican Party.
BURNETT: Excuse me.
ROSE: Bless you.
BURNETT: I couldn't catch it.
GRIFFIN: Well, and keep in mind, too, J.D. Vance was reportedly not in favor of going to war with Iran. He's much more dovish than Donald Trump is, I'd say. Rubio and Hegseth are more in this hawkish camp. So he's somebody who was openly or reportedly critical of even going in, in the first place.
So, now, it's kind of remarkable that he's going to be the one who owns this deal on the other side. But Donald Trump got himself into this situation. You're coming up to summer travel. Gas prices are through the roof. You're months ahead of the midterms, and this war is deeply unpopular.
He doesn't have a lot of leverage. He needs an off-ramp. And you never want to be negotiating with fierce negotiators like the Iranian regime, and they know that there are political realities that you were up against.
I mean, he needs a deal, and I think at this point, he's willing to take a bad one just to end it.
BURNETT: It's funny, usually people don't talk at the gas station. But lately, over the past few months, anytime I've been at a gas station, people have been talking. But the frustration, right, about the war and the gas price, one thing sort of has united people is that frustration.
So Trump extended his trip in France, okay, after President Macron invited him to dinner tonight at Versailles. Now, who's going to blame him for that? You get to go to dinner at Versailles, which is an incredible place to go. But Trump has brought it up a couple times in a very specific way. Let me play it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I sort of like that. Palace has a lot of gold. I want to check it out. It's a beautiful palace.
And Versailles is not a gold leaf. Versailles is the real deal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROSE: So, look, to my Republican friends, I think it's a fantastic idea for this president to continue to compliment France. I think it's great politics for American leaders to say they want to be more like France, and Donald Trump should keep on doing it.
[19:30:05]
This is insane, what he's doing. This is utterly insane. And I think, though, it speaks to... to paint a larger narrative here of how just utterly disassociated Donald Trump has become or is from our politics and where the voters are. They don't want to think about gold leaf votes right now.
BURNETT: No.
ROSE: They're thinking and talking about the skyrocketing gas prices that you just mentioned earlier.
BURNETT: I mean, Alyssa, it says point number four of the deal, okay? United States of America further undertakes to remove its forces from the proximity of the Islamic Republic of Iran within 30 days. So we're talking about who knows what that really means, but possibly removing U.S. troops. That's what's going on from the region while Trump is fired up and psyched to talk about the gold in Versailles.
GRIFFIN: I mean, it's unbelievable. Speaking of disassociating, Marco Rubio looked like he was disassociating behind him when he answered that question. I mean, the tone deafness when the American people are struggling, inflation's up, wages are down, gas prices are up, as we said, this war is unpopular and he wants to be in a gilded palace. Whether the one he creates for himself at the White House or going to Versailles with Macron, this is where Donald Trump's head is.
And I cannot underscore enough, this deal, if it doesn't fall apart before Friday, this will be hung around Republicans next. This is something that if Obama came out with this deal, we would have done everything to stop it 10 years ago. It is significantly worse than the JCPOA.
BURNETT: Well, yeah, and even things like unfreezing assets --
(CROSSTALK)
GRIFFIN: Every measure --
BURNETT: The amount of assets.
GRIFFIN: Inspection of assets.
ROSE: It's America surrendering before our very eyes. This is a weak president. This is a deal that gives money away to our enemies and their proxies and also reinforces the message to all of our allies in the region that when you partner with us, whether it's with an American base or otherwise, you are weaker, not stronger.
You're 100 percent right. Republicans would have criticized this uniformly if it was a Democrat.
BURNETT: All right, thank you all very much.
And next, Senator Raphael Warnock is our guest. Why he is calling out the House Speaker, Mike Johnson, over a prayer.
And will three of the nation's largest cities be run by Democratic Socialists? This is an incredible development happening, and Harry Enten has all of the numbers and is going to tell us something we don't know.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:36:38]
BURNETT: Breaking news in a sudden and surprising move, Georgia Republicans announcing they will not redraw Georgia's voting maps. This is a stunning development because that redistricting would have favored Republicans. It would have diminished minority districts. It's something President Trump, of course, very much wanted, but now they're not going ahead with it.
Some Republicans were concerned, apparently, that the move could backfire and help motivate and energize Democratic voters in a swing state that has one of the most competitive Senate races in the country, right? And the Senate obviously is statewide, so maybe that trumped the whole idea of the districts.
I mean, just the prospect of the new maps drew passionate protesters today at the state capitol, including my next guest, Democratic senator and Reverend Raphael Warnock. He is, of course, senator from the state of Georgia, who delivered this stark warning to Republicans about the plan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. RAPHAEL WARNOCK (D-GA): This is Georgia. We know our history. You all are barking up the wrong tree. And now you're trying to rob Georgians of their voice and of their vote. Come November, we intend to hold you accountable.
(CHEERING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Senator Warnock is OUTFRONT now. He is also the author of the brand new book, "The Crooked Places Made Straight: Reflections on the Moral Meaning of America".
Now, Senator, I just want to start, you obviously were -- you're back in Washington after being in Atlanta today. So Republicans backing off this redistricting plan, which is a stunning move and surprising to a lot of people, Do you really believe it's going to stick?
WARNOCK: Well, great to be with you.
Listen, first of all, they shouldn't have been thinking about this in the first place. If you're asking me, do I trust the Republicans, that they're going to give up an opportunity to increase their power? No.
But we saw today what happens when the people stand up. They got deeply concerned. They are afraid, and they should be. We've seen this kind of thing in Georgia time and time again, these kinds of shenanigans.
What the Supreme Court did a few weeks ago did a lot of damage to our election system in our country. They poured fuel on the gerrymandering fire. Gerrymandering really is turning the democracy upside down so that rather than the people picking their representatives, politicians are busy picking their voters.
And we're seeing this happen all across the South. Black voters are at the center of the conversation right now because of that particular decision, but they're really coming after our coalition. They're coming after this new emerging American electorate. It is racially diverse. It is multi-generational.
And it is the coalition that elected me and Jon Ossoff to the Senate in one fell swoop. And we intend to hold them accountable come November.
The president is doing a good job working for himself and other billionaires. He's doing a lousy job working for the American people.
BURNETT: So, you know, the redistricting issue across the country is one of the reasons the odds for Democrats have changed in November's midterms, as you're well aware, Senator. So, CNN's official prediction market partner is Kalshi, and Kalshi currently gives Democrats a 76 percent chance to regain the House.
[19:40:00]
Now, obviously, that's still an overwhelming number, but it's down 10 percentage points from April, and the Senate is much dicier, and it may come down to your state, right? Whether your fellow Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff is reelected in Georgia, right? It all could come down to Georgia, and the odds now favor Republicans to keep control of the Senate.
Two months ago, Kalshi's odds favored, Democrats. Is there still time for your party to regain that lost momentum in the context of the redistricting that is happening in other states?
WARNOCK: Well, I mean, this is the problem with the whole thing. The most powerful words ever spoken in a democracy are, the people have spoken. You know, the great thing about this country is each side gets to make its argument about its vision for the country. We lay it at the feet of the people, and they decide.
But here we are in the midst of an election, and the politicians, through this attempt to gerrymander and jimmy-rig, if you will, the outcome of the elections, they're still talking.
And yes, I do think we have a path to a majority in the House and in the Senate, and when we get into power, we're going to do something about this. I have a bill that would ban partisan gerrymandering. I think we ought to get rid of it. And I think the whole country would be better off if we had more competitive congressional districts in our country, where either a Democrat or a Republican could win, and those who want to be elected have to make their case before the American people.
BURNETT: Yeah, yeah. It is frustrating, I think, for so many in the middle, right, when it tends to be districts that are so safe that you end up with the final choice for everybody to make from one extreme or the other.
You write in your book about something about Speaker Mike Johnson. And in that context, I just want to say, Senator, you've been the pastor of the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta since 2005, a long time. It is the spiritual home of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
And in your book, you write about House Speaker Mike Johnson because he says he prayed before helping President Trump pass what they call the Big, Beautiful Bill.
And you write in your book, quote, "It is Robin Hood in reverse. It robs the poor and gives to the wealthy. It's socialism for the rich. In all sincerity, I must ask my Christian brother, what was he praying about? What kind of God would approve of that?"
Have you ever had a chance to talk to Speaker Johnson about this? Or what do you make in your role as a pastor of the speaker talking about praying ahead of a bill?
WARNOCK: Well, you know, I witnessed this in real time as they were getting ready to pass the one big ugly bill, as I call it, because it's a massive transfer of wealth from the bottom to the top.
And as I watched my colleagues there gathering in prayer, who are supposed to be representing the people, And then they go out and vote for this bill that, you know, crushes the poor, cuts a trillion dollars out of Medicaid, causing rural hospitals to struggle like they're struggling now, kicks 15 million people off of their healthcare, doubles the premiums for another 22 million in their actions that they would take later. I thought of the passage from the Book of Isaiah, where God says through the prophet, I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity. Although you pray many prayers, he says, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood. Cease to do evil. Seek justice. Rescue the oppressed.
My faith centers the most marginalized members of the human family, and I don't understand how you pray for your neighbor, and then prey on your neighbor with policies that literally crush the poor. I think it's a conversation we ought to have, which is why I wrote this book, which is based on the Book of Isaiah, challenging all of us to have these conversations.
But ultimately, I do lean into hope. I believe in the promise of this country, and there are those who are trying to divide us and distract us. This is the people's moment. It's a moral moment. And we need folks to stand up like they stood up in Georgia today. And those craving politicians who were trying to redraw the lines were shaking in their boots. And at least for now, we're able to hold them at bay and live to fight for another day.
BURNETT: All right, well, of course, your book, "The Crooked Places Made Straight: Reflections on the Moral Meaning of America." So much in here, and I think it's fascinating, as you say, it's based off of your feelings about Isaiah, but -- and as part of it, you also tackle some of those issues in the context of American politics with redistricting as well.
So thank you very much, Senator Warnock. I appreciate your time tonight.
WARNOCK: Great to be with you. Keep the faith.
[19:45:00]
BURNETT: And next, Trump threatening to take over the nation's capital if a Democratic Socialist wins. And that win is looking very likely tonight. Harry Enten's going to tell us something we don't know.
And we'll give you a preview of the Obama Presidential Library before the grand opening tomorrow.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDNT: Listen and hear the president's remarks. Yes, we can. We all remember that anthem of his candidacy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: New tonight, a Democratic socialist on the verge of leading another one of America's big cities, this time Trump's own backyard. Janeese Lewis George, currently with a significant lead to become the next mayor of Washington, D.C., which would put her on a potential collision course with the president, of course. It was less than a year ago that another Democratic socialist, Zohran Mamdani, became mayor of New York City.
And Harry Enten is OUTFRONT to tell us something we don't know.
Okay, Harry.
[19:50:00]
HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Yes, Erin.
BURNETT: Now, I know that there is some confusion as to what a Democratic socialist really is.
ENTEN: Yes.
BURNETT: But I guess just on the base of it, who is more popular, Democrats or Democratic socialists?
ENTEN: Well, among Democrats themselves, the Democratic Socialists of America have a higher net favoring than the Democratic Party does, at least those who are members of Congress.
I mean, just take a look here. Dem Socialists of America, plus 17 points, Democrats in Congress, plus four points. No wonder that Dem Socialists are getting nominated across the political map in different primaries because simply put, they're more popular than the Democrats currently in charge.
BURNETT: Okay, I'm just thinking back to when I was sitting here and Zohran Mamdani was sitting there when he was running and I asked him about capitalism.
ENTEN: Yes.
BURNETT: And he had no problem saying that he had real issues with it. Okay, he wasn't afraid to say it. By the way, he ended up winning. It didn't hurt him.
How do Democrats today view socialism compared to capitalism?
ENTEN: There's a reason why it didn't hurt him, and that is simply because this is one of the biggest political changes I've seen during my lifetime. Match up socialism, capitalism among Democrats.
You go back 16 years ago, 2010, capitalism and socialism right there, favorable rating, 51 percent, 50 percent. Look at it now. Socialism clearly in the lead among Democrats, 66 percent of them view socialism favorably, just 42 percent view capitalism favorably. No wonder I'm had no problem blasting it.
BURNETT: Which is fascinating because when you look at races coming up in New York, you've got a big one up in the Bronx, and you've got Zohran Mamdani endorsing a Democratic socialist. Hakeem Jeffries, not going with the more traditional incumbent. So there are two big races involving Democratic socialists coming up in New York that Mamdani's endorsed. Tell us something we don't know.
ENTEN: I'll tell you something you don't know. And that is that the Democratic socialists are likely to win one of those races. The one down in Brooklyn going to beat the Bronx, the Brooklyn borough president.
You take a look there. Look at that. An 81 percent chance to win in Brooklyn and in northern Manhattan at this point of 52 percent to knock off an incumbent, Espaillat. Unbelievable.
BURNETT: Yes, Espaillat, long time incumbent with all of the incumbents endorsing him.
ENTEN: Yeah.
BURNETT: All right. Thank you, Henry. And next, President Obama emotional as his presidential library is about to open in Chicago.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:56:16]
BURNETT: The Obama Presidential Library opening its doors tomorrow. The former president and first lady, Michelle Obama, thanking people involved ahead of the opening. Michelle Obama surprising her husband by wearing a skirt featuring a portrait of her mother, Marian Robinson.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHELLE OBAMA, FORMER FIRST LADY: She was so proud of her son-in-law and the man that he is and has been to our family.
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: I am a little shaken up by this because I love my mother-in-law.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Jeff Zeleny is OUTFRONT with a sneak preview of the Obama Center.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: When you walk inside the Obama Presidential Center, the first thing you see is toward a more perfect union. A bit of a history lesson with a message from the president saying America has always been a work in progress. You stop and listen and hear the president's remarks, yes, we can. We all remember that anthem of his candidacy that led him to the White House.
We often think of Barack Obama as a two-term president, but so much happened before he got to the White House. When you walk past these signs, I'm really taken back to how he got there.
It was not a foregone conclusion that he would win that primary campaign back in 2008, but he did win Iowa, fired up, ready to go, a key slogan of his, and he went on to a very bruising campaign with Hillary Clinton.
M. OBAMA: All of us driven by the simple that the world as it is just won't do.
ZELENY: This is not just about Barack Obama. It's about Michelle Obama as well. And this speech of hers during the Democratic National Convention in 2008 really was one of the first times where the country was seeing not just one Obama, but two Obamas.
And look, Joe Biden picked as the senator from Delaware to add experience to the ticket. Of course, we had no idea at that point what history would have in store.
B. OBAMA: For action, bold and switch.
ZELENY: So now that he's reached the White House, clearly what was waiting for him was the economy. But the reality is, going through the first term, it wasn't clear that he would win reelection because of the economy.
Obamacare, of course. This nearly cost him his reelection. There's no doubt about it. It was viewed as a huge liability for his party. He lost control of Congress because of this.
Obviously, being commander-in-chief was one of the weightiest responsibilities of his presidency. I'm struck by how, basically, that is summed up just in, like, one panel here. The challenges here from ending the war in Iraq, expanding the war in Afghanistan, the war in Syria, the drone program, those are some of the most controversial pieces of his legacy still to this day.
Here is the replica Oval Office. When you walk inside here, it's reminiscent of most every presidential library and museum. Everyone has them, right down to the -- a replica, a resolute desk.
Of course, Donald Trump is not mentioned at all in this presidential center, but when you look around this room, perhaps this is the most striking example of how very different things are.
TRUMP: You see the new and improved Oval Office. ZELENY: And on the eighth floor is the Sky Room. It has sweeping views of the South and West Sides of Chicago, as well as Lake Michigan. But even more than that, these giant letters that are etched in stone are from a particular speech, the one he delivered on the 50th anniversary of the March on Selma.
B. OBAMA: Oh, what a -- what a glorious task we are given to continually try to improve this great nation of ours.
ZELENY: The architect said, seeing these letters is like looking into his mind as he's writing the speech. This is one part of his legacy, but finally, this Obama Presidential Center is opening nearly 10 years after he left office.
Jeff Zeleny, CNN, Chicago.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: Thanks to Jeff, and thanks to you for being with us.
"AC360" starts now.
